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Milwaukee is hosting about 50,000 Republicans and former President Donald Trump for the Republican National Convention. But the solidly Democratic city was in years past known for a different shade of political red: socialism.

Across the street from the Fiserv Forum hosting the RNC is Turner Hall, home of the Milwaukee Turners, a German-American athletic group intertwined with socialist values, movements and politicians since 1853. Its now a civil rights and social justice-oriented advocacy organization.

Milwaukee elected socialist politicians including Robert Marion La Follette, a Wisconsin senator and 1924 presidential candidate who was backed by the Socialist Party, and three socialist mayors in the mid-1900s. The Milwaukee County local Socialist Party, the Socialist Party of Wisconsin and the Socialist Party USA headquarters share office space in Milwaukee. And the Democratic Socialists of America have a lively chapter, started in 2016 and playing an active role in electoral politics, Black Lives Matter protests and other movements.

In some ways, the forgotten men and women of America to whom the GOP dedicated its 2024 platform are similar to the working-class voters who in Milwaukee previously embraced socialism, including a brand of Sewer Socialism that cleaned up the city in the early 20th century by fixing sanitary infrastructure as well as offering public benefits.

Milwaukee native and historian John Gurda describes Sewer Socialism as a movement that emphasized practicality, government transparency and public enterprise over ideals and philosophies; Sewer Socialists were willing to be as enterprising as any red-blood capitalist, but for the public good, he said.

Sewer Socialists were practical folks, who were more into infrastructure than revolution, said Marquette University associate professor of history Alison Clark Efford She added that that Sewer Socialism was far from perfect in its infancy Sewer Socialism arguably contributed to Milwaukee becoming a highly segregated city, she said.

In 1910, Emil Seidel was elected Milwaukees first socialist mayor, with Socialists also winning seats on the city council and county board, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society. Two more socialist mayors followed: Daniel Hoan, elected in 1916; and Frank Zeidler, who was first elected in 1948 and served three terms.

Self-defined socialist politicians are some big names of todays Democratic Party such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republicans have decried socialism to attract working-class voters.

Pamela Westphal, co-chair of the Milwaukee chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, said that increasing inflation and inadequate wages are creating an atmosphere similar to that which caused people to embrace socialism in decades past.

Outside Fiserv Forum for the start of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday

The working class are becoming restless and want to see our lawmakers make changes like raising the minimum wage and canceling student debt at the federal level, Westphal said. A lot of folks are turning to socialism due to the reactionary politics of the Republican party and the inaction from the Democratic party.

The Milwaukee area is still a heavily unionized and industrialized city, home to major unionized breweries, factories and power plants.

Teamsters labor union general president Sean OBrien is speaking at the RNC, while the Democratic National Committee has not yet responded to the labor leaders request to speak at the Democratic National Convention. While the labor movement has long been intertwined with Democratic and socialist leaders and parties, the votes of many union members in Wisconsin and beyond may be up for grabs.

Milwaukee Area Labor Council President Pam Fendt said Trumps promises in 2016 to empower workers were taken in good faith, particularly after AFL-CIO national leadership met with Trump to discuss policies. Yet, Trump failed to deliver, Fendt said, and the crowning achievement of his presidency was a tax-cut for the ultra-rich, which cut government revenue and ultimately damaged public infrastructure funding.

Fendt pointed to an analysis by the U.S. Treasury showing union members are 12% more likely to vote than non-union voters.

We dont judge people by an R or a D beside their name, but whether they have concrete plans to empower workers, Fendt said. In our recent history, there have been fewer and fewer Republicans whove exhibited that.

Gurda said people are still today seeking concepts traditionally at the core of the socialism that defined the city a century ago: a sense of mutualism, a sense that were all in this together its all of us, and government works for all of us.

In this age of polarization, shrinking budgets, and antagonistic state legislature, he continued, thats certainly in danger.

Kacie Kress is a graduate student at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University.

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Milwaukee, the city hosting the Republican National Convention, has roots in socialism - Lake Geneva Regional News