Prior to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) putting their support behind the Democratic Party, laborers often supported the Socialist Party. An early 20th-century political party that empowered the working class to seek a better representation of their interests. Inspired by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and immigrant socialist Finns, the Socialist Party of Montana was a popular political party in the state’s mining boomtowns. By 1911, the Socialist Party in Butte held the city government with Lewis Duncan as the mayor. The Socialist Hall was constructed…
