This article discusses the development of socialist ideas in the early Philippine labor movement through the work of Hermenegildo Cruz, a labor leader who propagated socialist ideas through the Balangay ng mga Tipografo, its newspaper Balagtas, and the workers’ school he cofounded with Lope K. Santos. I conclude that the development of Cruz’s socialism reflected the organized Filipino workers’ budding class consciousness and at the same time led to the compartmentalization of the labor struggle