Dennis E. Batt (1886 - 19xx) was an American political journalist and trade union activist. Best remembered as the first editor of The Communist, the official organ of the Communist Party of America and leading member of the Proletarian Party of America, in later years Batt's political views became increasingly conservative and he ended his life as a mainstream functionary in the union movement.
Dennis Elihu Batt was born May 2, 1886 in Tekonsha, Michigan, the son of a street car conductor.
Batt attended high school in Detroit for two years before enlisting in the U.S. Cavalry, in which he served from 1907 to 1910. Following the end of his military service, Batt became a machinist, working as a tool and die maker for the next decade.
During his time as a machinist, Batt joined the Socialist Party of Michigan, the state affiliate of the Socialist Party of America (SPA). There he came under the influence of John Keracher, an immigrant from Scotland who espoused the doctrine of impossibilism — a belief that ameliorative reforms only stood to bolster the capitalist system and that the socialist movement should limit itself to the education and training of workers for the inevitable overthrow of capitalism. Batt became closely involved with Keracher and his associates in winning control of the Socialist Party of Michigan to these ends.
At its 1919 state convention, the Socialist Party of Michigan passed an amendment to its constitution specifying the expulsion of "any member, Local, or Branch of a Local advocating legislative reforms." This put the constitution of the state in conflict with the constitution of the national Socialist Party and provided a pretext for the more moderate National Executive Committee of the SPA to revoke the charter of the Socialist Party of Michigan at its May 24, 1919, session. An emergency convention was held by the Michigan group, which determined to lend their support to the establishment of a new political organization.