Lehr und Wehr Verein

1870s socialist militia in Chicago

Socialism in the United States
This article is part of a series on
History Utopian socialism Bishop Hill Commune Brook Farm Icarians Jonestown Looking Backward New Harmony Oneida Community Progressive Era 1877 St. Louis general strike 1912 Lawrence textile strike Catholic Worker Movement Green Corn Rebellion Labor unionization Haymarket affair May Day Women's suffrage Repression and persecution American Defense Society American Protective League Communist Party USA and African Americans Communist Party USA in the labor movement 1919–1937 1937–1957 Espionage Act of 1917 First Red Scare John Birch Society McCarthyism Seattle General Strike Smith Act Smith Act trials Anti-war and civil rights movements Black power movement COINTELPRO "I Have a Dream" March on Washington New Left Poor People's Campaign Contemporary 1999 Seattle WTO protests 2007–2008 financial crisis Occupy Wall Street
People Abern Alston Andrews Avrich Balagroon Bellamy (Edward) Bellamy (Francis) Berger Berkman Bookchin Brisbane Brooks Browder Bush Butler Cabet Cannon Cantor Carmichael Chomsky Cockburn Davis (Angela) Davis (Mike) Dean Day Debs Dennis De Leon Dreiser Du Bois Ehrenreich Ervin Fearing Feinberg Ford Foster Gitlow Gilmore Goldman Graeber Greene Guthrie Hall Hammett Hampton Harrington Hay Haywood (Bill) Haywood (Harry) Hawkins Hedges Heywood (Angela) Heywood (Ezra) Hill Hillquit Hoan Hoffman Jameson Keller King Labadie London Lovestone Lum Marcy McReynolds Moore Morello Most Mitchell Newton Noyes Ocasio-Cortez Ochs Parenti Parsons (Albert) Parsons (Lucy) Piker Piven Randolph Ripley Reed Rocha Rocker Roediger Rustin Ruthenberg Sacco Sandburg Sanders Sakai Sawant Seale Seeger Seidel Shachtman Shakur Stone Sweezy Thomas Tlaib Turner West Wolff Wood Zeidler Zerzan Zinn
Active organizations Black Riders Liberation Party Black Socialists in America Communist Party USA Democratic Socialists of America Freedom Road Socialist Organization Freedom Socialist Party Green Mountain Peace and Justice Party Green Party of the United States Industrial Workers of the World Justice Party New Afrikan Black Panther Party Party for Socialism and Liberation Peace and Freedom Party Progressive Labor Party Redneck Revolt Revolutionary Communist Party, USA Socialist Action Socialist Alternative Social Democrats, USA Socialist Equality Party Socialist Party USA Socialist Rifle Association Socialist Workers Party Solidarity Spark Spartacist League Working Families Party Vermont Progressive Party Workers World Party Working Class Party World Socialist Party of the United States
Inactive or defunct organizations American Labor Party American Union of Associationists American Workers Party Black Panther Party Communist League of America Communist League of Struggle Communist Workers' Party Democratic Socialist Federation Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee Freedom Party of New York Human Rights Party Independent Socialist League International Socialists International Socialist Organization International Workingmen's Association Maoist Internationalist Movement Red Guards New American Movement Nonpartisan League Proletarian Party of America Puerto Rican Socialist Party Revolutionary Socialist League Revolutionary Youth Movement Social Democracy of America Social Democratic Federation Social Democratic Party of America Socialist Labor Party of America Socialist Party of America Students for a Democratic Society Weather Underground White Panther Party Workers Party of the United States
Works Appeal to Reason Current Affairs Daily Worker Dissent International Socialist Review Jacobin The Jungle Looking Backward Monopoly Capital Monthly Review The Other America A People's History of the United States Voluntary Socialism Why Socialism? Z
Related topics American Left Anarchism (in the US) Anarcho-communism Anarcho-syndicalism Bill of Rights socialism Democratic socialism Green anarchism Individualist anarchism (in the US) Labor history Labor laws Labor unions Libertarian socialism Market socialism Marxism Marxism–Leninism Maoism Minimum wage Mutualism Post-left anarchy Scientific socialism Social democracy Socialism Trotskyism Utopian socialism
Socialism portal United States portal
v t e

The Lehr und Wehr Verein ("Education and Defense Society") was a socialist military organization founded in 1875, in Chicago, Illinois. The group had been formed to counter the armed private armies of companies in Chicago.^[1]

The Lehr und Wehr Verein (LWV) was registered with the Illinois state authorities on April 19, 1875, with about 30 Bohemian and German members. The LWV trained and drilled in anticipation of an envisaged confrontation between Capital and Labor.

In 1879 the State Legislature passed an act establishing a state militia and obliging all other militias to obtain a license from the Governor. That December, the LWV paraded 40 strong, armed with rifles. They were headed by Herman Presser, a socialist worker armed with a saber. Presser was arrested, as the organization had no license.

Lawyers for the LWV argued that the new law breached the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Presser v. Illinois became a test case which proceeded through the criminal courts, to the Illinois Supreme Court, and to the Supreme Court of the United States. In each court Presser's conviction was upheld. The LWV never again paraded in public.^[2]

References

^ Stimson, Frederic Jesup (1911). Popular Law Making - A Study of the Origin, History, and Present Tendencies. READ BOOKS, 2006. p. 282. ISBN 978-1-4067-1428-9.
^ "The Lehr und Wehr Verein", New York Times, July 20, 1886