Louis Pio

Louis François Albert Pio ( born December 14, 1841 in Roskilde, † June 27, 1894 in Chicago) was a Danish socialist leader and is considered the founder of the labor movement in Denmark.

Youth

Louis Pio was born in 1841 in Roskilde, the son of French-born immigrant Captain Vilhelm Emil Laurent Pio and Anna Marie Brix. His older brother Jean was a noted educator. After his graduation in 1859 Louis Pio worked as a teacher.

In the German -Danish War of 1864, he participated as an officer. 1870/71 he worked at the Danish post office, where he made a proposal for an improved mailbox. He announced this position in order to devote himself entirely to socialist agitation.

Socialist Movement

Pio was strongly influenced by the Paris Commune and the literary work of Henri Rochefort. In 1871, he gave some pamphlets entitled Socialistiske blade ( Socialist leaves). In the same year he was with his cousin Harald Brix editor of the weekly Socialists (the Socialists ). Although his first article only raw edits German writings were and were hardly adapted to Danish conditions, he laid here the foundation for the socialist movement in Denmark.

In 1871 he founded together with Blix and Paul Geleff the Danish Social Democratic Party under the name of the international Arbejderforening for Danmark ( International Working Men's Association in Denmark ). Already a few months later, she had 9,000 members, including 5,000 in Copenhagen.

At the same Pio tutor was at a chamber mistress Berling and traveled in December 1871 their costs to Geneva to study Catholicism there. There, however, he rejected his desire to become a monk, and established instead connections to Marxist- revolutionary circles. On his way home he met the leaders of the German Socialists know.

After his return in February 1872, he appeared as " Grand Master " of the Danish Department of International, saying of a new edition of the Paris Commune, and a subsequent revolution in Germany. Pio even hoped for a leading position in Denmark.

From 1872, appeared Socialists daily, and Pio polemical attacks against the authorities and the big bourgeoisie intensified. On May 4, 1872 Pio was arrested when he refused to cancel a prohibited labor meeting May 5 to which it previously with the article " Malet he fuldt " ( The cup is full ) had called. The violent clashes between police and workers were known as " Slaget på Fælleden " ( Battle of the commons ). In March 1873 Pio was sentenced to six years in prison, but in the last instance, the sentence was reduced by the Supreme Court to five years in August. 1875 Pio was pardoned because of his threatening health condition.

In the same year he became editor of the newspaper Social - Democrats, the Socialists replaced in 1874. 1876 ​​Pio was elected to the so-called Gimle Congress of the Social Democrats in Frederiksberg unanimously elected Chairman. But soon his autocratic management style was criticized as difficult teamed up to consult with the elected party committees.

In the general election in 1876 Pio was a candidate in the 5th district of Copenhagen, reaching a third of the votes.

During this time, Denmark experienced an economic crisis, unemployment rose, real wages fell, and the labor movement experienced several defeats. The newspaper Social - Democrats lost many readers. Pio into debt. In the spring of 1877 he and Geleff by the police received 10,000 crowns, to immigrate to the United States. The money came, inter alia, from the shipyard Burmeister & Wain. This process was then generally regarded as a combination of threats and bribery to displace Pio of Danish politics. It would take years before the Danish labor movement of this double defeat recovered.

Exile

In the United States failed Pio's attempt to establish a socialist country commune in Kansas. He then worked in Chicago as a lecturer and journalist for various newspapers Scandinavian immigrants, but never long existed. 1886-88 he was given through the mediation of the Democratic Party a job as a tax collector. In his last years he was Country Agent establishing a Danish settlement in Florida. He died in 1894 of typhoid fever.

Publications

  • Sagnet om Holger Danske, 1869
  • Cyprian, 1870
  • Kansas, 1877
  • Fuldstændig Lovbog for Hvermand: Vejledning i nordamerikansk Ret, 1879
530803
de