This series focuses on Socialist Party branches and committees. The Party operated heavily by committee and this series contains documents from the numerous committees created within the Socialist Party at all levels. Branches were located all over the United States at the state and local level. They were typically arranged in a hierarchical style where local city, county or area branches would report to the larger state branch. At each level there were governing committees and also subject committees.

Some of the central national governing committees were the National Committee (NC), the National Action Committee (NAC) and the National Executive Committee (NEC). There were coordinating state and local governing committees as well. For example, in Wisconsin there was a State Executive Committee (SEC) and a State Executive Board (SEB). The types of records included for these committees are mainly meeting minutes but also correspondence, reports and some other miscellaneous documents.

This collection includes some records from roughly nineteen state branches but the records are primarily from the Wisconsin State Party and Milwaukee area branches. Branch folder headings are assigned more geographically because of varied names changes at the national level. In the larger populated Milwaukee area, local branches were coordinated by the Milwaukee County Central Committee (MCCC) but branches were additionally organized even further by individual cities in Milwaukee County, common ethnic or language backgrounds as well as by City of Milwaukee voting wards. These smaller locals all reported to the MCCC. The MCCC also helped coordinate in many areas in southeastern Wisconsin even outside of Milwaukee County.

There were also committees assigned to subject areas for research, discussion or investigation to advise the Party on. These committees existed at national, state and local levels. The most common committees revolved around issues such as workers’ rights and labor unions. These committees would come and go and names would fluctuate over the years. The materials in these folders contain minutes, agendas, fliers for events they sponsored, writings or notes.