Build Labor Party Advocates!
Support is growing for the building of a Labor Party. The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers, the United Electrical Workers and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees have endorsed Labor Party Advocates (LPA). LPA chapters and recruitment committees have recently gotten off the ground in Boston, Los Angeles and other cities.
Last December, 350 labor party supporters – members of 60 unions and several community groups – attended a Midwest conference in Toledo, Ohio. Lisa Hane, LPA member from Chicago, told the conference that if the movement is taken forward in the next year to establish a labor party, the meeting taking place could be remembered as historic. Other meetings are happening across the country as union activists come together to discuss and plan the building of a working-class party. 120 people attended the first LPA meeting in Boston. In Los Angeles, 150 showed up.
An important development is taking place in the San Francisco Bay Area: There, both the Alameda County and the San Francisco Labor Councils have endorsed LPA, as have the San Francisco Building Trades Council, the Bay Counties District Council of Carpenters, and numerous local unions. This has given LPA an important credibility among union members. However, it only scratches the surface, as far as potential support from union leaders and official union bodies. While in San Francisco the leadership of the regional bodies helped initiate the support without direct pressure from below, this has not been the case in Alameda County (the East Bay), where a persistent campaign from just one or two LPA members within the Central Labor Council is now starting to bear fruit.
The LPA leadership should now mobilize its members for a campaign within the official bodies of organized labor, from the local unions on upto the internationals, to support the idea of a Labor Party and endorse LPA. Support and co-operation from the officials should, of course, be sought out. However, this in no way precludes also openly raising the idea and provoking discussion and debate on it within these bodies.
In addition, there is the question of activities for LPA and its members. There are several issues around which all wings of organized labor are in agreement. For instance, the campaign against NAFTA and for labor law reform. Support the AFL–CIO’s policy for a 35 hour work week. Perhaps most critically, LPA must be involved in strikes and organizing drives. LPA should be mobilized to participate in such campaigns and link them with the question of a Labor Party.
LPA is calling for a founding convention for a Labor Party in late 1995. At this convention, several issues will have to be discussed and debated out in order for a Labor Party to be established and in order for it to solve the problems of U.S. working people. Up to now, LPA has accepted that union officials can both support LPA and support the Democrats. Historically, a wing of the labor leadership in the past has supported the idea of a Labor Party in words while in action they supported the Democrats. Their verbal support for a Labor Party served to put off decisive action on the question. At its founding convention, a Labor Party should issue a clear, unequivocal call on the labor movement and its leaders to once and for all break all its links with both parties of big business.
In addition, there is the question of participating in elections. Even before the convention, there is no real reason why LPA should not participate in running genuine, independent worker candidates even at the present. Once a founding convention is held, there should be an open commitment to running its own candidates and should call on the labor leaders to put all the resources of the labor movement behind them.
Finally, there is the question the program, of what a Labor Party will fight for. In the last analysis, this is the key issue. The question of a shorter work week, of guaranteed jobs and income, of education, health care, etc. – a Labor Party would have to raise concrete demands on these if it is to succeed. But we must not forget that millions of workers would raise one simple question: “How are you going to pay for any advances? Are you just going to raise my taxes?” If we lack a clear answer to this, in the end a Labor Party will not be able to solve the problems. The only really practical solution to this question is to be committed to taking the 500 multinationals, who really control the U.S. economy, and place them under public ownership and to then democratically plan the economy, based on what the people need, not on the profits of a tiny minority.
All this and more will have to be discussed at the founding convention. However,it must be emphasized that the creation of a Labor Party on any program would be a huge step forward. It would break the political monopoly of the bosses’ parties and challenge the greed of big business.
Join LPA! Build for a Labor Party founding convention!
Contact LPA at P.O. Box 35177, Washington, DC 20009-3177 or the chapter nearest you.