1- history of ripon, from ripon On May 27, 1844, the first settlers of the Ripon area reached their destination. They were members of the Wisconsin Phalanx - nineteen men and one boy - who were led by young Warren Chase. Inspired by Charles Fourier's principles of social philosophy, the Phalanx set out from Kenosha to establish a community which was to be an experiment in what we today would call Socialism.

They named this community "Ceresco" after the Roman goddess of the harvest, and located it in a valley nestled between two hills. Before long, this was the home of more than 200 idealists. The members constructed several commonly-owned dwellings called long houses, one of which still stands on its original site. For five years the Fourierites prospered to an extent greater than those in most utopian socialist experiments.


2- history of republican party, by the republican party

The Republican Party was born in the early 1850's by anti-slavery activists and individuals who believed that government should grant western lands to settlers free of charge. The first informal meeting of the party took place in Ripon, Wisconsin.

hmmmmmmm...


3- historical links as outlined in the wisconsin madison (local news editorial)


Republicans of this day would prefer not to be reminded of the fact that their party was founded by a bunch of socialists with links to Karl Marx and a determination to advance the most revolutionary ideas of their time.

But the historical record is actually quite clear.

In the winter of 1843, a series of lectures at the Franklin Lyceum in Southport (now Kenosha) inspired several dozen men and women to adopt the views of Charles Fourier, a visionary French socialist thinker who sought to restructure society into cooperative agricultural communities called "phalanxes".

The Fourierites pooled their meager resources and purchased land on the edge of what is now Ripon. Their Wisconsin Phalanx, known as Ceresco, turned into an enormous success, eventually growing in population to a peak of 180. By the early 1850s, the utopian agricultural community had been incorporated into Ripon -- making the town a hotbed of radical ideas, particularly regarding the issue of slavery.

On March 20, 1854, a Fourierite socialist named Alvan Bovay had grown so angered with the failure of the existing political parties to demand the immediate freeing of all slaves that he called a meeting at Ripon's Little White Schoolhouse to form a new party. Most of those present were Fourierites, and they chose the name "Republican" because it was, in Bovay's words, "suggestive of equality."

The new party adopted a platform that pledged it to seek equality not just for slaves, but for all workers. Its slogan was "Free soil, free speech, free men," and one of its first pledges was to invalidate mortgages held by big banks in order to prevent foreclosure actions against small farmers.

The Republicans sought as well to promote women's rights, defend immigrants, advance trade union organizing, limit the amount of land that any individual could own and forbid corporate monopolies. The intent of the new party, its founders said, was nothing less than to join "the old battle -- not yet over -- between the rights of the toiling many and the special privileges of the aristocratic few."

One of the first Wisconsinites attracted to their banner was Carl Schurz, a leader of the radical German revolution of 1848 -- which also had been influenced by Fourier's ideas, as well as those of Karl Marx.

Marx became a writer for Horace Greeley's Republican newspaper, the New York Tribune, which also featured writing by Bovay and Schurz. By 1854, Schurz had settled in Watertown and soon became a leader of Wisconsin's burgeoning German community.




and oneida, another fourier-inspired christian-spiritual crack with some element of sexual reform

The main teaching which received the most criticism was that of "Complex Marriage." In Complex Marriage, every man was married to every woman and vice versa. This practice was to stay only within the community and had to stay within two main guidelines. The first was that before the man and woman could cohabit, they had to obtain each other's consent through a third person or persons. Secondly, no two people could have exclusive attachment with each other because it would be selfish and idolatrous. Any two people found in any such situation would be separated and not allowed to see each other for a certain length of time.