Showing posts with label american labor party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label american labor party. Show all posts

Sunday, July 28, 2019

In Honor Of The Anniversary Of The Paris Commune-From The Archives-From The Archives Of The Socialist Alternative Press-Articles on the US Labor Party (1997-2002)

Click on the headline to link to the Socialist Alternative (CWI) website.

Markin comment:

I place some material in this space which may be of interest to the radical public that I do not necessarily agree with or support. Off hand, as I have mentioned before, I think it would be easier, infinitely easier, to fight for the socialist revolution straight up than some of the “remedies” provided by the commentators in these entries. But part of that struggle for the socialist revolution is to sort out the “real” stuff from the fluff as we struggle for that more just world that animates our efforts.
*********
Articles on the US Labor Party

1. Q&A on the Labor Party page 2
Justice #1, September 1997

2. Ohio State Labor Party Founding Conference page 3
By Philip Locker
Justice #2, October 1997

3. New York State Labor Party Says “Let’s Run Candidates” page 6
By Sean Sweeney
Justice #4, December 1997-January 1998

4. Pittsburgh Convention of the Labor Party page 9
Justice #13, November 1998

5. Becoming Electoral: The Best Way to Build the Labor Party page 13
By Ramy Khalil
Justice #13, November 1998

6. NY Metro Chapter Elections Marred by Fraud page 15
By Alan Jones
Justice #19, March-April 2000

7. How NOT to Build the Labor Party page 20
By Alan Jones
Justice #20, June-July 2000

8. Why the Labor Party Should Support Nader page 24
By Philip Locker
Justice #21, September-October 2000

9. The Fight for a Workers’ Party Continues page 28
By Ramy Khalil
Justice #30, June-August 2002

Q&A on the Labor Party
Justice #1, September 1997

Q: What is the Labor Party?

A: The Labor Party was formed in June 1996. Backed by ten labor unions and hundreds of endorsing and affiliating 300 other labor bodies, the Party stands for a constitutional right to a job at a living wage (not less than $10 per hr.), free education, universal health care, and an end to bigotry and discrimination.

Q: Do I have to be in a union to be involved in the Labor Party?

A: No. The Labor Party is for all working class people, whether you are in a union or not. The Party is based on the unions because that’s where the workers are presently organized. Also, the unions are part of the AFL-CIO which still gives millions of dollars to the Democratic Party. The Labor Party is trying to get the unions to commit their resources to the Labor Party instead.

Q: Can I vote for the Labor Party?

A: Not yet. The Labor Party is not running any candidates until 1999 at the earliest. The Labor Party’s leaders feel that the Party needs to be much stronger before it can start to run for office. Many Party members, however, feel that running candidates in carefully selected and well-prepared campaigns is a good way of reaching new people and training the troops for actions.

Q: What’s JUSTICE got to do with the Labor Party? Why do we need both?

A: Supporters of JUSTICE helped create the Labor Party and now we are trying to turn it into a real force. We feel that the Labor Party can become a major player in U.S. politics, a party that fights for us and alongside us. We urge our readers to join us in the struggle.

We also feel that the Labor Party should run candidates sooner rather than later.

As socialists, we firmly believe that the things the Labor Party is trying to achieve—such as good-paying jobs for all—will require an economy that is completely different from the capitalist economy we have now. Also, the large banks and major corporations are doing great by this system, and they will fight like hell to keep things going their way. JUSTICE is working with other socialists and activists in the Labor Party who feel that the system can’t just be made worker-friendly by passing a few laws. If elected, the Party will need to replace capitalism with a system based on democratic control of the economy by working people.

Ohio State Labor Party Founding Conference
By Philip Locker, Cleveland LP Chapter, Delegate
Justice #2, October 1997

On Saturday September 20th, 1997 history was made. Delegates representing several unions and community chapters in Cleveland and Toledo founded the Ohio State Labor Party (OSLP). In the relatively short time span of seven hours, we hammered out state by-laws, established an organizing plan, and debated political resolutions.

The impressive team of speakers included John Ryan, Cleveland AFL-CIO Executive Secretary, Baldemar Velasquez, Farm Labor Organizing Committee President, Ed Bruno, Labor Party New England Regional Director, and Bill Burga, Ohio AFL-CIO President. Labor bodies with delegations included the Cleveland AFL-CIO, GCIU locals 15N & 546M, CWA local 4340, Bakers Union Local 19, AFSCME local 3360, FLOC, UE District Council 7 and several more. The two OSLP community chapters, Cleveland and Toledo, also participated. In addition many individuals attended as observers or as at-large delegates, coming from all over the state.

Nearly seventy people attended the Convention. With such a large number of union affiliations there could have been many more. Unfortunately, while many union leaders have officially endorsed the LP, they do not build the LP on the ground, including campaigning among their own members. In contrast, supporters of Justice mobilized 14 people. Incredibly, these were the only young people at the convention.

Lively Debate

The debate centered around two issues. Labor activist Mike Ferner, who several years ago ran a serious campaign for mayor of Toledo against the Democrats and Republicans on a union ticket, submitted a resolution calling for further discussion and debate in the Labor Party about the proper role of corporations in a democracy. Delegates spoke in favor of the resolution, adding that we must examine the complete undemocratic nature of our economy, the incredible economic power concentrated in the hands of a few big businesses to make economic decision that effect millions of working people. The idea was further raised that the LP must begin to ask if this is a systemic product of our economic system, capitalism, and whether this system works in the interest of workers. The issue of an economic alternative to the market was raised. What would be the Labor Party’s response if it took power and capital “went on strike”?

Supporters of Justice advocate the necessity of public ownership of the leading 500 big corporations that dominate the economy and putting them under democratic workers control and management. These points were received in a very friendly tone, and it was agreed to examine the issue further.

The main area of debate concerned the LP’s electoral strategy. Delegates Jerry Gordon and Barbara Walden submitted a resolution stating the LP’s current and future commitment never to endorse or support any candidate of either big business party, Democrat or Republican, which easily passed. More controversial was another resolution, which stated that the OSLP urges the upcoming second national LP convention to adopt a viable electoral strategy around clear political, organizational, and legal criteria, of running independent LP candidates where we have sufficient resources and support, as a critical way to educate workers, publicize the LP program and build the LP. This sparked a fierce debate lasting 45 minutes. Many speakers spoke passionately for and against, with both sides receiving loud applause. All agreed it was the most memorable part of the convention.

The question of electoral strategy only poses the more fundamental question of how do we build the LP? How can the LP become a party of several hundred thousand members? Supporters of the resolution argued that, like the 28th Amendment Campaign, an electoral strategy must be seen as a party-building tool, and not judged on if we gain an immediate victory (either winning the 28th amendment or being elected).

The Need for an Electoral Strategy

Elections are the only platform with a large enough scope to build a party of several hundred thousand members. The current strategy is limited to a narrow field of trade-union activists. This layer now knows of the LP, and many have joined. How do we reach a wider layer? The only way is by standing in elections (in selected areas where we can run a serious campaign). This would open many doors: corporate media would publicize the LP and we could directly debate the candidates of big business and force them to address our program. Elections are a rare time in this country when most people are thinking about politics. Many will not consider us a real party unless we stand in elections. A small victory would be a tremendous encouragement and a concrete example to show to the labor movement.

The pro-electoral resolution was defeated, due to the union block votes (although in the voice vote, the delegates were evenly split). More importantly, the resolution forced this key issue to be discussed and debated. A surprising number of important LP activists voted for the resolution. Baldemar Velasquez, President of FLOC and National Co-chair of the LP supported the resolution. So did Mike Ferner, who originally was against the resolution, but was convinced in the course of the debate.

Many lessons can be learned to help other LP activists prepare for their state conventions. The state conventions should not take place merely to set up formal bodies and structures, but as levers to build the party on the ground. We must organize, mobilize, have public meetings, and bring car loads of activists and regular people to these events. State conventions are an excellent opportunity to start an intensive campaign to win affiliations of new local unions to the LP. They are a great forum for LP members to discuss the critical issues facing the LP.

Altogether, the convention was an excellent step forward. The foundation has been laid in Ohio for the LP to start getting down to the real business of building a mass party.

Supporters of this newspaper will continue to build the Labor Party. Socialists have a critical role to play in this process. We must be the best builders of the Labor Party in practice, and also raise the crucial—and critical—issues facing the Labor Party.

New York State Labor Party Says “Let’s Run Candidates”
By Sean Sweeney, Vice Chair, NY MetroChapter
Justice #4, December 1997-Jaunary 1998

As the early winter rain poured hard in the streets of Schenectady, little could dampen the spirits of the 120 delegates and observers who met in the Holiday Inn to launch the New York State Labor Party. After a lively but friendly debate, the New York gathering overwhelmingly passed resolution calling on the next full convention of the Labor Party, scheduled for Pittsburgh next November, to pursue “a viable electoral strategy” and to establish clear “organizational and political criteria” for running candidates. The Labor Party is presently non-electoral. The Schenectady vote offered a clear sign that this policy could be changed in Pittsburgh.

An Important Breakthrough

“This was an important breakthrough,” said health care worker Margaret Collins, “When I moved the resolution, I knew we would get support. The union delegates were mainly rank and filers. They understand that carefully planned electoral work can build the party and involve more people into our effort.”

Brought before the convention by the LP’s New York Metro Chapter, the pro-electoral resolution had called for an electoral strategy “independent of the parties of big business.” However, an amendment moved by a CWA local – and carried by a large margin – called for LP candidates to simply “be members of the Labor Party and uphold the Party’s program.” The debate revealed that some LP supporters would still like the option of endorsing Democrats or to involve the LP in fusion campaigns. Several delegates spoke against the idea of fusion with “progressive Democrats” a strategy that has shipwrecked the movement for independent working class political action before. “We’ll continue to fight against the fusion illusion,” said Teamster member El Jeer Hawkins from Harlem. “I joined the Labor Party because I want to put my efforts into building an alternative to big business politics. If there are any good Democrats left, they should get out of their rotten party and help us fight for economic and social justice.” Hawkins recently helped set up a LP committee in Harlem as part of the NY Metro Chapter.

Resolution Against Police Brutality

Another important resolution was moved by Larry Adams, President of Mailhandlers Local 300 calling for justice for Abner Louima and an end to police brutality. The resolution outlined the vicious, dehumanizing torture and sexual abuse against Louima, a Haitian immigrant, by the New York police and called for an end to police brutality.

Further, it demanded prosecution of the police personnel involved in or covering up the torture and called for the Labor Party to be involved in protests against police brutality with slogans like “An Injury to one is an Injury to all!”

The launch of the state body on November 7-9th attracted thirty union locals and a bunch of LP membership chapters from across the state. A five person state executive committee was elected, and the body adopted a seven-stage plan to build the LP in New York state. A UNITE official from New York City commented, “We were impressed. This was a first for us. I can see our local becoming much more involved in the future.”

Socialist Ideas Relevant Today

One of the high points of the Schenectady conference was the keynote speech made by Noel Beasley, a leading UNITE trade unionist from the Midwest. Beasley called on the Labor Party to remember the efforts of Eugene Debs, the great socialist leader, on behalf of the working class and explained how his ideas are relevant to the struggles of workers today. The fight to wrest control of government from the established political parties will be difficult, Beasley said. Moreover, “We have to create a culture of struggle where it is assumed we will fight, where it is expected we will fight and, most importantly, that we enjoy the fight.”

Many delegates commented on the open and democratic nature of the convention. In a week when the New York Central Labor Council and most of the City’s unions endorsed the re-election of Republican mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the launch of the New York State Labor Party came just at the right time. The new President of the New York LP, CWA 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes, is an outspoken critic of Giuliani. In a New York Chief Leader article covering the convention, Cheliotes commented, “I am more convinced than ever that this is a serious and viable effort… With the two major parties proving incapable of really representing working people’s needs, the facts are clear: labor needs a political voice, working people demand political representation, and labor activists confront the responsibility that flows from that.”

Beasley called on the Labor Party to remember the efforts of Eugene Debs, the great socialist leader, on behalf of the working class and explained how his ideas are relevant to the struggles of workers today.

Text of the Amended Resolution on Electoral Action

Whereas the founding convention of the National Labor Party decided that the Party would not run candidates for office during the first two years of its existence, and

Whereas the question of running candidates will again be considered by the Labor Party at its second national convention scheduled for October 1998, and

Whereas the founding convention of the NY Labor Party regards carefully planned electoral campaigns to be critical way to educate workers publicize the party program and build the party, and

Whereas the Labor Party has established an Electoral Strategy Committee to explore the electoral options facing the party,

Therefore be it resolved that the (founding_ convention of the NY Labor Party calls on the Electoral Committee to develop a viable electoral strategy for the Labor Party,

Be it further resolved that the Electoral Strategy Committee develop this strategy around clear political, organizational and legal criteria, and

Be it further resolved that this criteria requires that Labor Party candidates to be members of the Labor Party and uphold the Party’s program, and

Be it finally resolved that the NY Labor Party urges the upcoming second National Convention to debate and adopt a viable electoral strategy for the Labor Party.

Pittsburgh Convention of the Labor Party
The Challenge of Building a Political Alternative for Working People
Justice #13, November 1998

The June 1996 launch of the Labor Party in Cleveland was the culmination of years of work and preparation that stretched over the course of a decade. The launching of the party represented a response by a small section of the union movement to the 20-year impasse of the trade union leadership to deal with the offensive of big business on workers’ living standards and democratic rights, the further move of the Democratic Party to the right, the passing of NAFTA, privatization, and anti-union legislation.

It was a personal triumph for Tony Mazzocchi and a small army of trade unionists, rank and file as well as leadership, who resolutely stuck to the task of bringing a Labor Party into existence. The sight of 1400 delegates cheering the adoption of the Party’s Constitution remains an unforgettable experience for all those who took part in that important political event. At the time, we commented: “Working people now have an alternative political party, organized and funded by organized labor and other workers. Even though the party is still small and non-electoral, its formation represents an historic step toward the political independence of the working class.” (September 1996)

But after the joyous birth came the political equivalent of post-natal depression. At times, it seemed as if Cleveland had never happened. Many union officials around the Labor Party resumed their normal business, business that included committing resources to re-electing Democrats and, not infrequently, Republicans. It’s not that the Labor Party was low on the agenda; it seldom got on the agenda at all. As a result of the limited momentum in the unions, quite a number of Labor Party chapters slumped into virtual inactivity, as many activists got back into the regular struggle-to-struggle routine, perhaps wondering when “the Party” was going to happen, and why wasn’t somebody doing something to speed things up a little? In truth, there have been moments when even the most determined among us have wondered if the whole thing was just going nowhere. Over time it has become clear that a convention does not a party make, no magic formulas that meet the challenge of building a mass working class party in this country.

Pushing Forward

But as the second Convention of the Labor Party gets underway in Pittsburgh, it is evident that the spirit of Cleveland lives on. The Labor Party’s First Constitutional Convention has attracted the participation of considerably more unions than showed up for the founding convention, and a greater number of elected delegates, which is cause for optimism. As we go to press, 1,350 delegates have registered, a figure that reflects both the ongoing appeal of the Party and the tenacity and dogged determination of its active supporters. It’s also encouraging that many union locals are coming this time as affiliates to the Party, and not as simple endorsers. This fact alone reflects a growing degree of commitment to the process, although much work needs to be done to bring the Labor Party to the shop stewards and rank and file of these critical locals.

Unions are good at writing checks, and no doubt the Party could not function without this support, but what it needs is more active members.

Commitment to Action

But credit where credit is due. The union locals and internationals that have made it here to Pittsburgh to support the Labor Party are standing up for working class political independence, and their numbers are growing. We urge them not to forget about the Labor Party when the convention is over, but to take bold action. This means setting up organizing committees for the Party, helping local chapters with in-kind support, committing staff on building the Labor Party, and, above all, helping the Party get ready to contest for political office. Finally breaking with the Democrats and the Republicans requires the creation of an alternative option, and no amount of speech-making will make it happen.

The break with the old politics will only occur when there is something to take its place, and the responsibility lies on the shoulders of those who have the resources, the influence, and, hopefully, the trust of the union membership to make this a real priority. Justice applauds the UE, OCAW & BMWE for committing resources and staff to Labor Party work and for affiliating locals and recruiting serious numbers of new members. They have set the pace, and the success of Party depends on others finding what it takes to follow their example. We also salute the active membership in the chapters, for keeping up the fight during the last two years, for doing the mailings, making the phone calls, debating the resolutions, and for investing enormous time and energy into building the Party. With little by way of resources or encouragement, the Labor Party chapters have, in instances like the Detroit newspaper dispute and the boycotting of the scab ship Neptune Jade, led from the front. Last, but not least, we congratulate Tony Mazzocchi, Catherine Isaacs, and the staff at the national office in Washington for their tremendous work in pulling this convention together. We may have our political disagreements, but no one can afford to overlook their contribution to this historic project.

Socialists Have Helped Build the Labor Party

The presence of socialists in the forefront of many Labor Party chapters has provided the Party with much-needed staying power. Even in the unions, many Labor Party activists are rooted firmly in the left. For socialists in the United States, the formation of the Labor Party presents a tremendous opportunity to create the type of working class politics that will draw organized and unorganized working class people into the struggle for a better future. While many workers are at present unfamiliar or perhaps suspicious of democratic socialist ideas, they will see on the basis of their experience, beyond the limited horizon of capitalism’s economic madness to the need for a society where workers and social needs come before profit and private greed. They will seek a society where the working class has democratic control over the economy. And many young people, especially, will only participate in the Labor Party if those with radical ideas are permitted to organize and express themselves openly.

Electoral Strategy

All the signs indicate that the Labor Party at this convention will adopt criteria for running its own candidates. Justice supports the Electoral Committee’s report. However, we are recommending delegates support changing the proposed requirement that asks for a chartered state Labor Party to be in place before we can contest the elections in a given area. Under the Party’s rules, 1000 members are needed for a chartered state party to exist. This figure is too arbitrary and fails to take into account states with small populations. For now, we feel that the criteria should require a “recognized” state Labor Party, not a “chartered” state party. This amendment, while it removes the 1,000 member limit, will not water down the Committee’s report because local electoral efforts will have to generate enough support to run credible campaigns.

A more flexible approach to electoral work will send the right signal to all those activists who are trying to balance Labor Party work with other activities. It will also help us in recruitment efforts, and give an edge to the soon to be launched Just Health Care campaign. But the electoral move will not be a cure-all; it will merely be a signal that all of us need to engage our creativity and resourcefulness to the historic task of getting this Party ready for battle.

The Struggle for Class Politics

The difficulties will be many. We meet here in Pittsburgh at a time when the labor movement continues to decline in size and strength. The leadership of the AFL-CIO seems to be failing in its limited attempt to revitalize the labor movement. And many unions seem more intent than ever to collaborate with the employers and their politicians. It used to be said that the labor movement’s political strategy was based on “rewarding its friends and punishing its enemies;” now it rewards its enemies because it has so few friends. Despite the rhetoric, labor’s political strategy has been reduced to a thousand back-room deals with mainly incumbent politicians from both parties. Federation leader John Sweeney says labor will support any politician, including Republicans, “who will stand up for working families”(!) Will the AFL-CIO support Labor Party candidates who come from the ranks of our movement? Will labor pump the millions it presently gives to big business politicians into the war chest of the Labor Party, a party of working people standing up for themselves? Not without a struggle. This makes it necessary for the Labor Party to continue to campaign inside the union movement and argue against the false and utopian ideas of the AFL-CIO leaders.

The struggle to elect Labor Party candidates, to become a national party visible to the unorganized and all those fighting injustice and exploitation, can not be separated from the struggle to mobilize all of labor behind a program of independent working class politics and to build a movement of resistance to Wall Street and big business.

The outcome of the struggle to build a mass working class party will determine if the working class will be prepared to conduct a successful defense of its living standards in the face of what could be the biggest economic crisis of capitalism in sixty years.

Becoming Electoral
The Best Way to Build the Party
By Ramy Khalil, Ohio Delegate
Justice #13, November 1998

The most burning question confronting delegates to the Labor Party’s second national convention is: What is the most effective way the Labor Party can become a party of 50,000-100,000 members? The strategy of building the Labor Party (LP) so far has focused primarily on getting unions to endorse and affiliate to the Party. LP workplace committees and community chapters have recruited new members by campaigning for the right to a job at a living wage and by organizing solidarity to local struggles. These strategies of building the party are essential, so we must continue these efforts. But how can we reach a wider audience and recruit more activists? The best way is to stand candidates in local elections in selected areas that meet the LP electoral committee’s proposed criteria of having significant amount of support from unions and the community. However, there is one criterion in the current proposal that should be amended. The proposal requires a chartered state party with 1,000 members to exist before candidates can run for office which is unfair to Labor Party activists in states with small populations such as Vermont. Elections are the only arena with a large enough scope to build a party of 50-100,000 members. The LP current strategy is centered almost exclusively on the recruitment of labor organizations. But well-organized electoral campaigns would allow the party to break into the struggles and issues that affect communities and young people as well as trade unionists.

Challenging the big business politicians would open many doors to increase our membership and bring the program and message of the Labor Party to thousands of people. It would start to give us more of a presence in the media. We could directly debate with the corporate and political machine politicians and have much greater success at forcing them to address issues in our platform and above all allow us to be involved in registering new voters to increase political participation. Standing in elections would give us the opportunity to recruit more people during the rare time in this largely apolitical country when most people think and talk about politics. If we select a number of areas and set a realistic goal of winning 15-30% of the vote and campaign to reach that goal, then it will be a tremendous encouragement and a concrete example to show the labor movement. Running candidates would allow the Labor Party to go to union locals and Central Labor Councils to ask for endorsements and support and explain why they need to break with the Democratic Party.

Electoral Strategy: A Party-Building Tool

The main argument against running candidates is that we have to recruit more people before we can take on an electoral system that is dominated by the corporations. This argument assumes that the first time we run candidates, we will fail if we don’t get into office. Realistically, it will be difficult to get a majority of the vote in a local area in one year if so few people have even heard of the Labor Party.

Another argument against running candidates is that the LP will lose all its finances because laws supposedly prohibits unions from donating to a political party that runs candidates. However, at least three first-rate labor lawyers have been consulted on this issue, and they agree that unions can contribute financially to the Labor Party as a whole, but unions cannot support a particular candidate. Polls in 1992 and 1994 showed that majorities as high as 63% of eligible voters would support a new party. More than half of eligible voters did not even bother to vote in the 1996 presidential elections, which was the lowest turn-out since 1921 and preliminary results of the November ’98 midterm elections showed the trend of very low participation continuing as people see no real alternatives. If the Labor Party does not act, candidates like Jesse “the Body” Ventura in Minnesota will move to exploit the anger that is developing against the politicians of big business. An electoral strategy is not a panacea. F or example following the flawed examples of the New Party or the misnamed “Working Families Party” to endorse Democrats through a different party label would be disastrous for the Labor Party as it would identify the Party with the political establishment rather than highlighting the need for independent working class politics and candidates. If the electoral resolution is passed at this Convention, the Labor Party will be taking an important step in the right direction and will open the way for local activists, chapters and unions to begin to put together the necessary forces for a working class political alternative.

Labor Party
NY Metro Chapter Elections Marred by Fraud
By Alan Jones
Justice #19, March-April 2000

The NY Metro chapter of the Labor Party had a hotly contested election for the Executive Committee in November 1999. The Metro Chapter is the largest chapter of the Labor Party with over 1,000 members at present, (there were over 50 delegates at the last convention) and has a record of playing a trailblazing role in terms of initiatives, campaigns, public events and politics in the party writes ALAN JONES.

The election was marred by fraud and a conscious violation of any sense of democratic process by a grouping (called New Directions—no relation to the genuine union opposition group that exists in the Transit Workers Union in New York) hat n the end succeeded in defeating the former majority in the Executive Committee (who ran as the United Action slate) after an intense campaign. Several members of Socialist Alternative and supporters of Justice ran and campaigned for the United Action slate.

Suspicions of fraud were aroused when the night before ballots were to be sent out, (November 12) membership coupons for scores of new members were handed to the Chapter’s Election committee. A large portion of these—77—were the recruits of one individual candidate of New Directions, who had no record of recruiting anyone before becoming a candidate.

A group of United Action supporters visited those new “members” to try to give them election materials only to discover that the “recruits” included children as young as one year old, 7 years old, ten years old, instances of an address where 8 of the new recruits ostensibly lived there but there was only one person actually living there, and people who had no clue about being members of the Labor Party other than they knew or were related to the New Directions candidate.

A report detailing the fraud was produced with the findings and was sent to the National Office, the NY State Labor Party Council and the Election Committee demanding that action be taken against it in December. At the same time, United Action and Justice supporters spread the word of what was happening and the need ot organize the membership of the chapter to fight against it. A United Action Bulletin was produced in the beginning of January and sent to all the members in the chapter detailing the situation and asking members to take action and join the opposition to the fraudulent election.

National Organizer Tony Mazzochi reacted to the report by deferring to the Election Committee, and the NY State Council ordered that the count go ahead along the lines of a union election, with the right to challenge ballots.

Two members of the Election Committee argued sharply that New Directions and the one candidate in particular was deliberately violating all standards of democratic process. They were in the minority as the Election Committee chair demanded “proof” in order to separate the ballots that were challenged on reasonable grounds before the count.

The Election Committee chair, Larry Adams, (President of Mailhandlers Union Local 300) accepted only 8 challenges from the 77 from one New Directions candidate, ignoring the pattern of fraud indicated by the revelation that children and one dead person actually voted in the election, that most of the ballots were mailed the same day and from the same location, etc. The result, in which New Directions candidates elected all 17 of their slate by an average differential of about 60 votes, was indelibly tainted and strongly suggests that they had to resort to these methods in order to steal the election.

Political Differences

While for some of the members in the chapter it appeared as if the dispute was over who was going to get elected and feuding groups of activists, the reality is that there are substantive political differences—mainly relating to the role and the political direction of the Metro Chapter, and the Labor Party as a whole.

These issues were brought up in the United Action caucus Bulletin which explained: “we believe that the issues we will be taking up—complete independence from the Democrats, the need for a Labor Party that runs candidates, and a more determined approach to party building—will only be advanced if members are organized to fight around those issues within the chapter… and against those who have an altogether different agenda—‘fusion’ politics, stunted discussion and sanitized forms of activism.”

This could be seen in the election material published by the two slates during the election. The New Directions literature nowhere mentions anything about running candidates. In one of the flyers, “Five Ways to Alienate the Labor Movement” they complain about discussion in the Chapter to picket the “Central Labor Council because it endorsed Giuliani; Organize a campaign to ‘call on’ DC 37 to rescind its Gore endorsement,” and complained about a flyer which explained to public sector workers that “our unions have rolled over at contract time.” New Direction clearly did not think that speaking about these issues to union members in the chapter and beyond was appropriate. Their approach is determined by an acceptance and compliance with the policies of the existing conservative union leadership in the City.

Despite the absence of any significant union support and the outright hostility of a large section of union officials (who remain firmly embedded in the Democratic Party and even supported the right-wing Republican Mayor Giuliani for mayor because it looked like he was going to win) the Metro Chapter managed to grow and create a political space in New York at a time of retreat, defeats for labor, student and community movement.

This was possible because of the unflinching support, hard work and leadership of a number of socialists, supporters of this newspaper, and other activists who were prepared to campaign for the idea of an independent political party of the working class since before the LP was established and helped promote the idea that led to the creation of Labor Party Advocates—years ago and later the founding of the Labor Party.

Among the achievements of the Metro Chapter was not only the membership growth, but also the organizing of regular political events, organizing support for strikes and international struggles, (including support for Mumia, support for the Liverpool dock workers, campaign and support for the Detroit News workers, the Transit Workers in New York, tenant struggles, support for postal workers, and many more.) Several campaigns and high-profile events were organized including an event on the need for single payer healthcare and more recently and event commemorating labor martyr Karen Silkwood which was attended by 700 people.

Campaigning for an Electoral Strategy

Since the beginning of last year, United Action activists in the chapter moved in the direction of building local groups in Brooklyn, Queens and other areas with a view of preparing the ground for electoral work in the 2001 elections for City Council. In terms of New York politics, the Chapter produced leaflets and material that called on public sector and other workers to reject the bankrupt strategy of the leadership of the Central Labor Council and major unions in the city of support for the Democrats or Republicans and opposed the endorsement without discussion of Al Gore, for president and Hillary Clinton for senator by major unions in the city.

It was in reality this course of action taken by the chapter that New Directions and their backroom supporters are opposed to. As they explained in their various speeches and campaign literature, opposing union officials because of their public stance on issues, may ‘alienate’ them and they will not look favorably toward joining the Labor Party! (Incidental to the kind of union officials New Directions is looking to appeal to was Lou Albano, from AFSCME Local DC 37 who was involved in fraud in his own local when he was challenged by a reform slate a couple of years ago.)

The handful of unions that support the Labor Party in New York (CWA Local 1180, OSA) have been lukewarm in their support. At the last convention, they were at the forefront arguing as campaigning for the Labor Party to adopt a ‘fusion’ plank in order to endorse ‘progressive’ Democrats, presumably the way the Working Families Party is doing with Hillary Clinton for the senate race (after ‘tactically’ endorsing the darling of the real estate industry Peter Vallone for governor last year). This would have been the kiss of death for a party that aims to organize independently and on the basis of a working class program. At the convention, the Metro chapter was in clear opposition to the NY union officials who support the Labor Party, but also continue to be involved in the Democratic Party, the New Party and the Working Families Party (which have now merged in NY). The Chair of the NY State Labor Party Arthur Cheliotes (CWA local 1180) is also very active with the Working Families Party.

The possibility that the Metro chapter would be campaigning to run credible campaigns for the city council represented a serious threat to all those who see the Labor Party as more or less an educational effort, that would be better off keeping a low, non-confrontational and non-electoral profile. Naturally, such a strategy would hardly keep the interest of activists and would tend to lead the party into stagnation at best.

Another key issue that brought the New Directions grouping together was their conscious and well-organized redbaiting campaign against organized socialists and leftists hwo have been in the leadership of the chapter for a long time and have a record of building the party. Having no serious political record of achievements in building the party, New Directions retreated in this time-honored, bankrupt method of political struggle in order to confuse, create suspicion and divert from the issues. In one of their campaign flyers, the New Directions slate argued: “We come together in respect for democratic process, working for an effective multi-tendency chapter that no single organization can dominate or use for its own purposes.” This was a mild rendition of their long-standing orchestrated campaign against supporters of Justice and Socialist Alternative (formerly Labor Militant) in the chapter. But they have no evidence either of domination or “use for its own purposes.” As for New Directions respect for democratic process, their involvement with fraud in this election, says it all.

Responding to the redbaiting, United Action states in its principles: “We stand for the right of individual socialists and socialist groups to be constructively engaged in building the Labor Party. We are absolutely opposed to the redbaiting, back-stabbing and innuendo aimed at other Party members.”

The fact that nominal socialists, including members of Solidarity, lent a left cover to the redbaiting campaign—probably believing that this will serve them to get closer to the good graces of union officials—shows how easily people can lose their way and how easily the lessons of the past can be forgotten. They forget that to this day we are paying the price for the redbaiting campaigns against the left in the unions from decades ago. Furthermore, if these methods can be used against one group, they will be used again when the time is right against another, opening the door for bureaucratization and destruction of democratic debate and political rights in the party.

On a Destructive Course

New Directions and their backers are unlikely to stop their destructive course. In fact they are now bound to go to the offensive to undermine precisely the kind of politics Metro Chapter has campaigned for. Supporters of Justice, the United Action caucus and other activists will continue to fight against the policies and methods of the New Directions caucus. The real struggle will be to find ways to continue the campaigns that the Labor Party ahs launched on healthcare, workers’ rights, and local organizing committees, which can prepare the way for electoral initiatives to be taken in New York.

After failing to intervene on the issue of the fraud, Labor Party national organizer, Tony Mazzocchi, announced the formation of a committee of union officials to investigate the situation in the Metro Chapter in New York. But as a result of Tony Mazzocchi’s inaction, the election result has been allowed to stand. There will be further appeals against the election result in the coming months. However, little confidence can be placed in this committee because there is no rank and file representation, no representation from the United Action slate and some members of the committee are hostile to the previous leadership of the chapter.

The key issue is to clarify the political questions raises, educate end recruit new members who want to see the Labor Party in New York and nationally develop and build a real working class alternative to the parties of the bosses. Furthermore, these struggles inside the Labor Party will continue to occur.

Inevitably there would be conflict over the direction and program of the party between those seeking to pull the party in a conservative direction and against the influence of socialist and radical ideas in the party. Socialists, while welcoming the participation of more unions and new members in the Labor Party, will continue to campaign for a clear program that can take the class struggle forward in the US, and explain the need forr democracy and freedom of expression in the party.

The Labor Party will only be able to grow and attract mass support if it shows that it is not a bureaucratic, top-down organization run in a similar way as the unions which repels many young people and activists.

Justice and Socialist Alternative will continue to support and collaborate with all who want to build the Labor Party in New York and other cities because it represents a genuine step forward for working class people, and will continue to make constructive proposals and recommendations about what is the best course to build a working class political alternative. Members of the Labor Party across the country should be informed about the events in the NY elections and should send letters to the National Office to overturn the fraudulent election result.

Join Justice/Socialist Alternative and campaign to build a strong, democratic and electoral Labor Party!

New York Metro Chapter Suspended by State Executive Committee
How NOT to Build the Labor Party
By Alan Jones
Justice #20, June-July 2000

In May, the New York Labor Party State Executive Committee suspended the New York Metro Chapter of the Labor Party, the largest Labor Party chapter in the country. This action constitutes a serious violation of democratic rights and internal democracy that will affect all local chapters around the country

In response, we have launched a campaign among NY Metro Chapter members and suspended officers to lift the suspension and re-establish the democratic rights of all members. Members of the chapters have asked Labor Party members and all chapters to send letters of protest and resolution against the suspension to the Interim National Council before it meets in July.

The suspension of the 900-member NY Metro Chapter came after a period of intense conflict about the political direction of the party in New York. The struggle came to a head last Fall during a sharply-contested election for chapter Executive Committee.

Members of the United Action Slate, including several members of Socialist Alternative and supporters of Justice newspaper, documented and exposed that infants, children, phantom members and at least one dead person voted for the New Directions slate.

At this time, no investigation has been conducted either by the Election Convention majority or the national office. The formal appeal presented to the State executive in early January has not been considered and there are no plans nor any stated intentions to do so. In January, we made a formal appeal to the State executive, but it has not yet been considered.

In early March, a special Commission met to discuss in the chapter. This report released on March 28, noted that “New Directions supporters… clearly engaged in questionable practices to advance their immediate agenda.” These practices, said the Commission, “shed discredit on the Labor Party and they must be condemned.” New Directions won 17 of the 20 slots in the election.

The fraud factor clearly determined the outcome of this election, but the State Executive Committee and the National Organizer of the Labor Party Tony Mazzocchi did not attempt to protect the rights of the membership on this crucial issue.

The Ny LP State Executive Committee announced in early May that membership meetings would be suspended and elected delegates would be banned from attending the state convention in May.

In response the State Executive announced that it would recognize members of the fraudulently elected Executive Committee of the chapter! The State Executive Committee refused to circulate the Commission’s report and put a gag order on any member who wanted to discuss their actions.

A number of banned delegates elected at the April membership meeting organized a protest outside the State Convention and talked to other delegates about the situation in the chapter. We pointed out that the actions of the State Executive Committee violate article VIII.4 of the NYLP’s own bylaws (Membership Bill of Rights) which states that “Members shall not be restricted in the exercise of their rights to freedom of speech concerning the operation of the NY Labor Party and its related bodies. Active and open discussion of party affairs and the expressions of Members’ views shall be protected within the party.”

Furthermore, the NY State Executive prohibited the attendance of any delegates who are not EC members. At the Metro Chapter meeting on April 7, 60 members of the Chapter elected 14 delegates to the state convention, according to the chapter and state party bylaws

The State Convention

In May, the state convention of the Labor Party attracted approximately 40 people, including guests. By contrast, two years ago over 100 delegates and observers from several chapters and affiliated unions from across the state attended.

The former chair of the NY State Labor Party, Arthur Cheliotes, announced recently his intention to run with the Working Families Party, a pressure group supporting the Democratic Party. Another officer of the State Labor Party, Howard Botwinick, refused to run for re-election or attend the May Convention. There are no functioning organizations (chapters, etc.) of the Labor Party in upstate New York, and the unions that have supported the Labor Party are now drifting towards the Working Families Party.

One of the featured speakers was Reform Party presidential candidate Bob Bowman (who among his other credentials is a rocket scientist who worked on the Star Wars program of Reagan). He stands for single payer health care, and is “pro-labor.” After his stump speech, Brenda Stokely, the new chair of the New York State Labor Party, pronounced that Bowman was a candidate “who all could vote for.’ The suspension of the Labor Party’s largest chapter in the country received barely a mention at the hand-picked Convention, despite the efforts of those who had been suspended to raise their issues. Membership among unions affiliated with the LP has stagnated since the last Convention. Clearly, state leadership is not willing or able to build the Labor Party in New York State. In reality, the NY State Labor Party does not exist. It will have to be rebuilt by the efforts of individuals and activists.

Sharp Contrast

Previously the chapter had risen to over 900 members and started to organize local committees to campaign on health care and workers’ rights. It also kept the membership active through meetings, forums and events.

The United Action Caucus submitted a serious strategy to build the party, which included running local candidates. It also called for an open debate in the labor movement about the presidential elections. United Action Caucus campaigned for the Labor Party to run local candidates for the City Council as a way to build the party as a working class alternative to the Democrats and their appendage, the Working Families Party.

Thus, there exists an impasse in the Labor Party in New York and explains why the attack on the Metro Chapter is taking place. The Metro Chapter is taking place. The Metro chapter’s program of activism threatens the status quo of the labor movement—both inside and outside the Labor Party.

New Directions openly used red-baiting in the campaign for the Executive Committee due mainly to the fact that supporters of United Action are open and honest socialists. These activists should be credited for the chapter’s achievements over the past several years.

Members and officers of the chapter launched a campaign to immediately re-instate the Metro Chapter’s officers and bylaws.

We plan to mail the Commission’s findings to the chapter membership, and will convene a full membership meeting of the Metro Chapter to discuss all proposals pertaining to the chapter and the party for debate and a democratic vote.

Despite the suspension of democratic rights, the State Executive Committee has nto taken away our First Amendment rights. Labor Party members will continue to meet and be active regardless of the status of the chapter and will continue to build the Labor Party and serious working class political alternatives in New York. This can only be done, on the basis of a struggle to reject the false ideas of support for the appendages of the Democrats and to build a strong, democratic Labor Party and prepare the way for independent electoral campaigns for the city council next year.

We are asking you to write letters of protest about the suspension of the democratic rights of the Metro Chapter by the officers of the State Executive Committee to:

Labor Party Interim National Council:
PO Box 53117
Washington, DC 20009

Pleace send copies to

Justice:
3311 Mission Street, Suite 135,
San Francisco, CA 94110

progress@ix.netcom.com

For further information on the Metro Chapter contact:

Margaret Collins, Former Executive Committee Member and banned delegate
(212) 545-1766
e-mail: mcollins123@worldnet.att.net

Sean Sweeney, suspended Chapter Chair, member INC,
(718) 369-2998
e-mail: glomtatt@aol.com

Why the Labor Party Should Support Nader
By Philip Locker, founding LP member
Justice #21, September-October 2000

The campaign of Ralph Nader for president represents an historic break in US politics. It has created a new situation that contains major opportunities for the construction of a mass workers party, but also important dangers, which hinge on the ability of the Labor Party and socialists to effectively intervene in this process.

Ralph Nader, a member of the LP (Labor Party), is running as an independent, and is the only candidate to consistently defend unions, workers and the environment and to attack racism and discrimination. His campaign is capitalizing on the unprecedented disgust with the Democrats and Republicans and is an electoral expression of the newly emerging movement seen in Seattle-Washington-Philadelphia and Los Angeles of workers and young people against corporate domination of society.

Socialist Alternative decided to give critical support to Nader’s campaign in February when it became clear that neither the LP nor the AFL-CIO was willing to put forward a workers alternative in the presidential election. A real workers’ candidate would have been preferable to the campaign of Ralph Nader, a radical middle class populist.

Unfortunately, the LP leadership decided to abstain from this central event in American politics and refused to launch a serious campaign inside the AFL-CIO for the unions to break from the Democrats and run their own candidate. The leaders of the union movement and the Labor Party refused to fill this vacuum to the left of the Democrats and give a fighting expression to the growing anger of workers and youth. Nader and the Greens have stepped up and catapulted themselves onto the political stage.

In light of this new situation, Socialist Alternative calls on the LP to give critical support to Ralph Nader by launching an energetic campaign to intervene in this election, putting forward the LP working class agenda and a call for a mass workers’ party as the only real alternative to the Republicrats. By taking such an approach, the LP could position themselves to capitalize on the anger of rank and file unionists at the Democrats, and deepen this mood. Such an effort would open up a massive debate in the unions, greatly raising the profile of the LP and attracting around it the best union militants.

If the LP had conducted such a campaign earlier this year, it would have been able to pounce on the debates inside the UAW and Teamsters union on whether to endorse Gore or Nader. By throwing its weight into these crucial struggles, the LP could have tipped the debate in the direction of Nader. Instead, the LP stayed out of these crucial battles.

”Rules” and Reality

It does no good to hide our heads in the sand and repeat formulas, “rules,” and speak of “the constitution.” The INC (Interim National Council — the LP leadership structure) was elected precisely for and authorized to take decisions on issues before the Party that are new and pressing.

This is also why it is incorrect to hold conventions of the LP only once every 3.5 years. Standard practice around the world for workers’ parties is to have annual conventions, for the purpose of being able to democratically discuss, debate and act on sudden changes in the situation.

LP activists must not be distracted by technicalities — when rules get in the way of building a mass workers party, we must throw the rules out the window! Besides, as activists have seen in the recent dispute in the NY Metro LP chapter, the LP leadership is willing to look the other way, or even participate in outrageous violations of the LP’s by-laws and constitution, much less the democratic process, if it serves their political agenda.

The Labor Party’s Electoral Strategy Put to the Test

Nader’s campaign has proven that the opportunity to build a party to challenge big business, the Democrats and Republicans, and fight for working people exists. Nader has also demonstrated the invaluable role that elections can play in building a party, recruiting members, strengthening a movement on the ground, popularizing its program and raising its profile. Nader’s campaign has disproved the contention of the LP leadership that you should not run for office unless you have an excellent chance of winning with the backing of the majority of the union movement.

Instead, Nader tossed his hat into the ring, with modest resources, limited union support and a few activists. He wasn’t afraid to start somewhere, and fight to build from there. Since he launched his campaign, he has raised over two million dollars, won the support of millions of workers and young people, and won the endorsement of the California Nurses Association, and the United Electrical Workers (both active in the LP no less!) caused a debate inside the UAW and Teamsters, and could well end up winning more union endorsements (most likely the Farm Labor Organizing Committee), and especially from union locals.

Nader has accomplished this despite his limited program and the middle class approach of the Green Party. The LP, with a working class program and roots in the unions, would have gotten an even better response with a systematic campaign among the rank and file.

As Socialist Alternative (formerly Labor Militant) has consistently warned from the LP’s founding convention, if the party does not begin to step into the electoral arena it will become deadlocked, stagnate and eventually be bypassed by other formations. We fought for the LP to run candidates to actively challenge the two parties as the most effective way, at this stage, of building the LP. Without such an approach, we warned, the LP would remain isolated and cut off from real struggles and remain unknown to the vast majority of rank and file union members and working class communities.

The LP should have set out on a course of systematically running local candidates after its convention in 1996, gaining electoral experience and positioning itself to be the left challenger in the 2000 elections. If this strategy had been adopted, the LP would have been positioned in 2000 to make a qualitative, historic breakthrough. It could have become a nationally known political force, popularized its program and message to tens of millions of workers, rapidly increased its membership, and provoked a massive debate inside the unions, possibly leading to sections of the AFL-CIO breaking from the Democrats and joining the LP.

Instead the LP has been out-maneuvered by a radical, middle class party (the Greens) and a left populist, Ralph Nader. The danger is posed that the Greens may consolidate to their program and party an important layer of voters (including many workers and youth) and the newly emerging movement that began in Seattle. This will hold back for many years the struggle to build a mass working class party based on the trade unions.

It is in order to combat this danger that the LP must forcefully intervene in the Nader campaign, to win the best workers and youth to its program and class orientation.

If all this is true, than why do the LP leaders steadfastly refuse to seriously run candidates? Because the leadership of the major unions affiliated to the LP refuse to break with the Democrats where it hurts (in elections) and the LP leadership is mortified at the idea of provoking the wrath of the AFL-CIO leadership.

We need a fighting, uncompromising leadership that will place the needs of workers and building the LP ahead of all other considerations. Building a mass LP will inevitably cause massive convulsions and fights inside the AFL-CIO. This cannot be avoided. We need a leadership that is clear on this necessity, and has the political will and strategy to face up to this reality.

For a Mass Workers’ Party!

The question of a mass workers’ party has now been concretely placed on the immediate agenda by Nader’s challenge in 2000. If his campaign continues to do well, it will greatly increase the opportunities to break the unions away from the Democratic Party. Millions will be looking for a new “third party.”

The movement will face an important fork in the road: will it stop short as only a single electoral campaign around one individual, or will it go forward? Will it form a new, broad party that provides a vehicle to deepen and extend the emerging mass movement on the ground while continually challenging the Democrats and Republicans in the electoral arena?

Second, what will be the character of this party? A middle class party with a confused program (along the lines of the Green Party), or a working class party?

The resolution of these challenges will be determined by the conscious intervention of those forces that understand the need for a mass workers party.

Socialist Alternative is campaigning for the creation of a new, broad, workers party to emerge from Nader’s campaign.

We call on Ralph Nader, who has enormous authority and prestige, to convene a conference after the elections, of students, unions, community, civil rights, left, and environmentalist organizations to form such a party.

We appeal to the LP, and all LP activists to join us in this effort.

Labor Party’s 3rd National Convention
The Fight for a Workers’ Party Continues
By Ramy Khalil, ATU Local 587, Seattle
Justice #30, June-August 2002

From July 25 to 28 the Labor Party is holding its third national convention in Washington, D.C. However, there is a sharp contrast between the lack of interest in this convention and the excitement of the 1996 founding convention. The founding convention in Cleveland attracted 1,400 delegates from 9 international unions and hundreds of union locals. A number of enthusiastic union activists came hoping that severing ties with the Democrats and building a Labor Party could halt labor's 20 years of defeats.

Since then, only a slice of union officials and activists have even heard of the Labor Party. The LP has not been able to get its Just Health Care campaign off the ground, and chapter membership has dried up. Going into the LP's 2nd national convention in 1998, the party's newspaper was full of interviews and debates between LP activists about how to build the party effectively. This time, there are so few activists left that The LP Press did not run a single article about convention debates - just the invitation to the conference.

LP leaders explain away the LP's stagnation with similar explanations that "experts" use to rationalize low voter turnout - American workers are complacent and content; change won't happen overnight. But many Americans have stopped voting because they see through the lies and broken promises of both the Democrats and Republicans. In fact, polls repeatedly show Americans want a third party. A Gallup/CNN/USA poll on 10/27/00, for example, found that 67% of Americans want a strong third party to run candidates for national office.

What Happened to the Labor Party?

The LP's decline is not due to a lack of interest, but rather the LP leadership's refusal to run candidates. How can people take the Labor Party seriously if it does not run candidates?

While getting candidates elected cannot change society, elections can be an important tool to reach a wider audience and build grassroots movements in the streets. The LP will only be seen as an attractive force if it boldly puts its program out there in elections and leads workers in struggles that bring about real improvements in their lives.

Justice argued since the founding of the LP that if it did not run candidates to fill the political vacuum opening up by the increasing anger at the corporations and their two parties, then other parties would. The Presidential campaign of left populist Ralph Nader did exactly that. Nader's campaign was a major step forward for the emerging movement against corporate globalization, popularizing its basic ideas among millions of people, and uniting different single-issue movements into a common struggle against corporate rule.

When the LP failed to run a Presidential candidate or join the Nader campaign, it missed a huge opportunity to raise its profile and recruit from the crowds of 10-15,000 that Nader drew in many cities. Instead, the Green Party was the only large organized force in the Nader campaign, which lacked the working class base and program of the LP, which could have attracted many more Americans. The LP is also oriented towards the labor movement, which has the institutional resources and the powerful working class base necessary to seriously challenge the twin parties of big business.

The LP has not connected with most living struggles and movements. It has been totally unattractive to the growing anti-corporate youth movement (unlike Nader who won massive support amongst anti-corporate youth and workers in the 2000 elections).

The LP leadership's failure to openly and publicly oppose Bush's war on Afghanistan was a dangerous mistake. The LP should have taken a principled stand by condemning the horrific terrorist attacks of 9/11 but also explaining how Bush's war in no way represents the interests of workers and will only exacerbate terrorism. A fighting workers' party would win support by standing in elections and opposing the two parties' identical agenda of budget cuts, attacks on democratic rights, racism and war.

If the Labor Party is unable to maintain an independent working class position in times of war, then it wouldn't be able to withstand the enormous pressures to compromise with big business if it were to get candidates elected to office. Workers' parties in other countries have ended up carrying out attacks on working people because they lacked a socialist program and an independent class position on all issues. Either a workers' party changes the system, or else the system will change the workers' party.

Another factor in the LP's decline has been its lack of democracy. A key turning point was the shutting down of the New York Metropolitan chapter – the largest, most vibrant chapter in the country with over 1000 members. The LP Interim National Council turned a blind eye when the NY State LP body disbanded the local chapter because Socialist Alternative members had been elected into the leadership of the chapter and were preparing to run local LP candidates.

The LP's Relationship with the AFL-CIO

Many left-wing union officials endorsed or affiliated to the LP on paper. Yet they refused to allow the LP to run candidates because if it did, they knew AFL-CIO President John Sweeney would have declared war on the LP and the union officials who supported it.

A Labor Party would have to seize this opportunity to open up a debate in the labor movement, from the rank-and-file on up, on why the AFL-CIO continues to waste members' dues on the same Democratic party that gave us NAFTA, the WTO, and other attacks on labor. As LP polls have indicated, there is more support for a labor party than the Democrats or Republicans.

Instead, LP leader Tony Mazzocchi's strategy was to avoid this inevitable clash with the AFL-CIO leaders by getting a significant number of labor leaders to endorse the LP before running candidates.

However, history shows that mass workers' parties have only been built through titanic events and class battles, provoking crises and debates within the unions. Well-paid union officials cannot be rationally convinced of the need to break their cozy alliance with the Democrats. On the contrary, the AFL-CIO leadership will fight hard to maintain their links with the Democrats because of their overall support for capitalism.

The key force in building a mass workers' party will be millions of politicized and active workers and youth. Labor leaders have historically only supported independent workers' parties when they absolutely had to, once it became so popular among union members that labor leaders would be voted out if they didn't jump on the bandwagon.

What Next?

The LP's stagnation does not prove that things will never change in America. On the contrary, the formation of the LP (and the movement against corporate globalization, the Nader campaign, the Reform Party, etc.) are signs of the deep cracks in the two-party system. Since the end of the post-war economic boom in 1973, corporations have been attacking the living standards of the working class, setting the stage for social upheaval and the eventual emergence of a mass workers' party.

While the space has been opening up for a workers' party, the experience of the LP demonstrates that it is not enough to just sit back and wait for people to come flocking to the party. A workers' party needs to actively fill the vacuum and harness the growing anger at the two parties. This requires a leadership that bases itself on the needs of the movement and the capacity of workers to struggle, not the boundaries set by the top AFL-CIO officials.

The AFL-CIO should use its powerful resources to run independent candidates across the country in November. With a bold working class program, they would win the support of millions, laying the basis for the formation of a mass workers' party. The LP and union members should argue for this within the AFL-CIO.

The LP Convention delegates should also adopt a strategy of running selected independent candidates in the November Congressional and local races. On this basis, the Labor Party could become a pole of attraction to hundreds of thousands of the most far-sighted workers and youth seeking a political alternative. Otherwise, the LP will continue stagnating, wither away or collapse.

Whatever happens at the LP convention, union, community, anti-globalization, anti-war, LP, Green, and socialist activists should form local coalitions and run independent candidates as the next step in the struggle to build a workers' party.

*************

Comrades:

Our history within the Labor Party featured maybe ten years of intense
activity. I ended up feeling betrayed by the so-called "progressive"
unions, but I know that I was and am naive about union power politics.
We started there as Labor Militant, and we briefly had a Campaign for
a Labor Party--I remember Peter Taaffe coming over for an organizing
event for the CLP--until we stepped aside for Labor Party Advocates,
the predecessor of the Labor Party. We did a lot to organize chapters
until we were told that many of them didn't qualify as chapters (like
our short-lived "chapter" in Lansing). But we had leadership positions
in New York City and Boston and elsewhere.

I attended all three national conferences of the Labor
Party--Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and the shameful final one in
Washington, D.C.--but living in Midwest I also remember an important
early meeting at the Royce Hotel at Detroit Metro Airport and a
meeting on platform in Toledo. Both were well-attended. The Healyites
(now SEP) showed up to denounce us all. Steve Edwards from Chicago
played a role in both those conferences--as did other Chicago
comrades, not in SA now. I also remember Lorraine Dardis, now in
London, leading a workshop in Toledo.

Occupying the streets of Cleveland at our founding meeting left the
impression that the LP would be not only electoral but activist. (I
remember our comrade Martha courageously holding up copies of our
paper when the large and spirited march left the streets and occupied
the Marriott Hotel.) But the Labor Party proved neither electoral nor
activist.

When my health improves, I need to get together with Jeff to find out
more about why the unions screwed us and the working class by shutting
down this hopeful initiative.

Comradely,

Vic

Sunday, July 29, 2012

***From The Pen Of Leon Trotsky-On the Labor Party Question in the United States(1938)

Click on the headline to link to the Leon Trotsky Internet Archives.

Markin comment:

Blame it on Leon Trotsky, Blame it on Lenin. Blame it on the Russian October Revolution of 1917. Or, maybe, just blame it on my reaction to the residue from the bourgeois holiday celebrations. Today I am, in any case, in a mood for “high Trotskyism.” That is always a good way to readjust the political compass, and read some very literate political writing as well. With all due respect to black author James Baldwin and his great work, Another Country, that I have just finished reading Jimmy you have to share the stage today. Okay?
**********
Leon Trotsky-On the Labor Party Question in the United States

Three Discussions in Mexico City with
James P. Cannon, Vincent R. Dunne and Max Shachtman

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discussed: April 23 through July 20, 1938.
Source: Leon Trotsky on the Labor Party in the United States An uncopyrighted pamplet published by Merrit Publisers [New York] in 1969.
Transcription/HTML Markup: Chris Harman and David Walters.
Public Domain: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Trotskism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above..

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discussion on April, 1938

Cannon: The subject today is the labor party in three aspects:

1. our general principled position;

2. the development of Labor’s Non-Partisan League, 10 that is, the CIO political movement in the trade unions, which shows in some respects tendencies to independent political action, toward the constitution of a party; in other places like New York, half such tendencies: labor candidates locally, support of Republican–Fusion and support of Roosevelt nationally; in other parts they endorse all capitalist candidates, mainly through the Democratic Party.

3. The question arises should our comrades in the trade unions we control join the LNPL; what should we do in unions where we have a small minority; should we become the champions of the LNPL or shall we stand aside in a critical attitude? We do not have a final policy. In New Jersey, for example, we are experimenting—we had the unions join the LNPL and there support a motion for the formation of a party. In other parts of the country we haven’t done so. How should we conduct ourselves in a more or less developed labor party as in Minneapolis?

In principle it appears that we should condemn the whole movement and stand aside, but that is not a very fruitful policy. In Minneapolis there is a fully constituted independent organization, the Farmer-Labor Party. It runs its own candidates in the state and nationally it supports Roosevelt.

The Stalinists who have been driven out of the trade unions have penetrated deeply into the Farmer-Labor Association—this constitutes a weapon against us in the unions. The policy there now is the policy of a bloc of the Trotskyist unions with what they call the “real farmer-laborites,” that is, reformists who believe in the FLP and don’t wish the Stalinists to control it. How far can we carry such a bloc—how far can we fight for just organizational control? But if our people stand aside, the Stalinists get control. On the other hand, if we fight really energetically, as we do in the unions, we become champions of the FLP. It is not a simple question—it’s very easy for people to get lost in the reformist policy.

Dunne: First, I would say that the Stalinists, in controlling the apparatus of the FLP, control more than just the apparatus—they make it difficult for us in the unions. By our not participating in this party through our trade union connections, it allows the Stalinists and the more reactionary elements in the FLP to have a weapon against us in the labor movement. We have a definite policy insofar as our work in the trade unions is concerned. Our comrades speaking in favor of the FLP have done so very critically, advising the unions that they can use it only to a certain extent. We have succeeded in keeping our policy clear from the reformists but, as Comrade Cannon says, it’s difficult to say how far we should go in this direction; we cannot take the responsibility for the labor party and yet we would have that responsibility thrust on us by the workers who believe we can as efficiently fight there for their members as we do in the trade unions. Thus far, even the Stalinists’ drive against us has not been able to to shake them yet. The Stalinists, together with a wide section of the progressives, intellectuals, are at one in turning the labor party more and more into a bloc with the Democratic and liberal candidates. Inside the FLP, the Stalinists are trying to keep control by setting up a formal discipline in the FLP, mainly against us. We have fought that, demanding democracy in the labor party, and we have been successful. We haven’t been at all successful in preventing a closer bloc with the Democratic Party. We can’t yet ask the unions to support the SWP as against the FLP.

Cannon: In St. Paul, where the FLP made a deal to support a capitalist candidate for mayor, we put up our own candidate.

Trotsky: Can you explain to me how was it possible that though the Stalinists control an important section of this party they passed a resolution against fascists and communists?

Dunne: That was done in one region. In certain sections we have farmer-laborites who work with us—they were in control of this district as against the Stalinists—we have some comrades there—we tried to shape this resolution in a different way but we were not on the resolutions committee—late at night the resolution was j ammed through.

Trotsky: The resolution can be used also against us. How is the party constructed? It is based not only upon trade unions but also upon other organizations because they are progressives, intellectuals, etc. Do they admit every individual, or only collectively?

Dunne: The FLP is based upon workers’ economic organizations—trade unions, cooperatives, etc., farmers’ cooperative organizations; also upon territorial units—township clubs, etc. It also allows for the affiliation of cultural organizations, sick-and-death-benefit organizations, etc., also through ward clubs. The Stalinists and intellectuals join through these clubs; they have more control than the drivers’ local of 4,000 members. We are fighting against that—we are demanding that the trade unions be given their real representation—we have the support of the trade unions on this.

Trotsky: Can you tell me what are the nuances of opinion among our leading comrades on this question—approximately?

Cannon: There are nuances of opinion not only among the leadership but also in the ranks. Problems arise in the trade unions especially. Amotion is proposed in the unions to join the LNPL. The sentiment, especially in the CIO unions, for this is overwhelming. I think that our policy in New Jersey, that at least in this union we must not oppose joining the LNPL will have to be adopted. There is also a tendency in the party that in this LNPL we shall press for the formation of the labor party. I venture to say that the trade union comrades would be most satisfied if they could have that decision. But they haven’t yet faced the difficulties. The dilemma is that you become the champions of the FLP by having an aggressive policy. We even have one comrade on the State Executive Committee of the FLP in New Jersey. The bureaucrats are putting off the date for formation of the FLP. The policy of Lewis and Hillman [12] is to leave that aside till 1940. If our comrade would make an energetic fight, if he could be sincere in advocating the FLP, he could muster quite an opposition against the bureaucrats. But then the dilemma is that we are championing the creation of an FLP, which we oppose.

In our plenum[13] there will be differences of opinion—there will be a tendency to become energetic fighters for the constitution of a labor party. My opinion is that this is the prevailing sentiment of the party—to join the LNPL and become aggressive fighters for the constitution of a labor party as against the policy of endorsing capitalist candidates; if we can do that without compromising our principled position, that would be best in the sense of gaining influence. We don’t say anything practical to the workers who are ready to take one step forward. The CP now is not championing the labor party; they are a Roosevelt party. The bureaucrats in the trade unions are also blocking the strong movement within the workers for a Labor Party.

Shachtman: I wouldn’t say that the labor-party sentiment is so strong among the workers today. Most of the labor-party sentiment that might have arisen has been canalized toward the channel of Roosevelt. We had a formidable crisis, and yet the only thing that came out of it is the hybrid form of labor party in New York.[14] In any case, if you compare 1930 with 1924, you can say there is barely a labor-party movement now; then there was more real sentiment in the trade unions. I think that if we don’t have a clear idea for the prospects of a labor party, that we will make some big political mistakes. I believe a big change is taking place—a breaking-up of the old parties. The biggest political party, the Democratic Party, which has a support of 90 per cent of the workers and farmers, is going through a split almost before our eyes. In Congress the fight is not between Republicans and Democrats, but between one section of the Democrats and another. There is very good reason to believe that in the 1940 election we will have a new political setup with the old-line Republicans fused with the Democrats of the South; and the other, the New Deal Democrats, Roosevelt-followers plus the CIO, Lewis; that will be powerful enough even to take the bulk of the AFL along. It is precisely this prospect that keeps Lewis and Hillman from championing a labor party—they are looking for the split jn the Democratic Party in which they will be able to play a considerable role. That is why I don’t think there will be a real, serious, substantial progress in the LNPL movement toward an independent labor party.

It is true that our position is rather a difficult one but we have had a considerable amount of experience with labor-party movements—a generalization may be helped by reference to our Minneapolis situation—I don’t think our growth is due to participation in the FLP movement but through our activities in the trade unions. Nevertheless, as we grow, we necessarily must participate in FLP politics, and I can’t say I’m entirely satisfied with the situation there. I can’t say we have proposed any other line of conduct. In effect, in Minneapolis we are in a bloc with so-called honest reformists—who are scoundrels on their own account—who are in a bloc with the Democrats. This bloc is directed almost exclusively against the Stalinists and against a mechanical control the Stalinists have of the FLP. In action we are indistinguishable from the so-called honest reformists. We are distinguished from the Stalinists, but only insofar as we are in a bloc with real reformists who vote for the FLP ticket in the state and for the Democrats nationally.

If we are to follow out such a policy of being against endorsing capitalist candidates in favor of FLP candidates seriously, systematically, effectively, I can’t see how we can avoid becoming the champions of a labor party, of taking the initiative, wherever a labor party does not exist, to form one. Unless all signs prove untrue, these labor parties will be a working appendage of Roosevelt just as was the case in the New York American Labor Party supporting Roosevelt nationally and, on a local scale, supporting Republican-Fusion. Once that’s begun I don’t see clearly how we will avoid the consequences of a policy that was followed in 1924, when we were in the CP, with the added complication that the Stalinist party is in the unions; and while it’s true that they are a Roosevelt party, still, in the unions, they advocate formation of a labor party.

Cannon: Not much. I would say that the Stalinists in the first period of the people’s front[15] had the slogan, “Organize the Labor Party as the American People’s Front,” but now it’s only a ceremonial action. At this point they are even against a premature splitting of the Democratic Party. It is not true that the sentiment now is less than in 1924 for a labor party. Then it had no basis in the unions; it was mostly a farmers’ movement. Now the movement is dominated by the CIO unions. It is not the old Gompers[16] politics. The unions are regimented politically; the sentiment in the ranks for their own party is quite strong. The LNPL is not going out to meet the sentiment of the workers. The policy of Lewis and the bureaucrats is experimental; if the workers will clamor more, they will make concessions to that sentiment. It is a step higher than the Gompers’ policy.

(Stenographer’s note : More argument about the relative strength of labor-party sentiment in 1922-1924 now took place between Comrades Cannon and Dunne on one side and Shachtman on the other.)

Trotsky: This question is very important and very complicated. When for the first time the League[17] considered this question, some seven or eight years ago—whether we should favor a labor party or not, whether we should develop initiative on this score—then the prevailing sentiment was not to do it, and that was absolutely correct. The perspective for development was not clear. I believed that the majority of us hoped that the development of our own organization will [would] be more speedy. On the other hand I believe no one in our ranks foresaw during that period the appearance of the CIO with this rapidity and this power. In our perspective we overestimated the possibility of the development of our party at the expense of the Stalinists on one hand, and on the other hand we don’t [didn’t] see this powerful trade union movement, and the rapid decline of American capitalism. These are two facts which we must reckon with.

I can’t speak from my own observation, but theoretically. The period of 1924 I know only through the experience of our common friend Pepper.[18] He came to me and said that the American proletariat is not a revolutionary class, that the revolutionary class are the farmers and we must turn toward the farmers, not toward the workers. That was the conception of the time. It was a farmers’ movement—the farmers who are inclined by their social nature to look for panaceas: populism, FLFism, in every crisis. Now we have a movement of tremendous importance—the CIO; some 3,000,000 or more are organized in a new, more militant organization. This organization which began with strikes, big strikes, and also involved the AFL partially in these strikes for a raise in wages, this organization at the first step of its activity runs into the biggest crisis in the U.S. The perspective for economic strikes is, for the next period, excluded, given the situation of the growing unemployed ranks, etc. We can look for the possibility that it will put all its weight in the political balance.

The whole objective situation imposed it upon the workers as upon the leaders—upon the leaders in a double sense. On one hand they exploit this tendency for their own authority and on the other they try to break it and not permit it to go ahead of its leaders. The LNPL has this double function. I believe that our policy need not be theoretically revised but it needs to be concretized. In what sense? Are we in favor of the creation of a reformist labor party? No. Are we in favor of a policy which can give to the trade unions the possibility to put its weight upon the balance of the forces? Yes.

It can become a reformist party—it depends upon the development. Here comes in the question of program. I mentioned yesterday and I will underline it today—we must have a program of transitional demands, the most complete of them is a workers’ and farmers’ government. We are for a party, for an independent party of the toiling masses who will take power in the state. We must concretize it—we are for the creation of factory committees, for workers’ control of industry through the factory committees. All these questions are now pending in the air. They speak of technocracy,[19] and put forward the slogan of “production for use.” We oppose this charlatan formula and advance the workers’ control of production through the factory committees.

Lundberg writes a book, [America’s] Sixty Families.[20] The Annalist[21] claims that his figures are false. We say, the factory committees should see the books. This program we must develop parallel with the idea of a labor party in the unions, and workers’ militia. Otherwise it is an abstraction and an abstraction is a weapon in the hands of the opposing class. The criticism of the Minneapolis comrades is that they have not concretized a program. In this fight we must underline that we are for the bloc of workers and farmers, but not such farmers as Roosevelt. (I do not know whether you noted that in the official ticket he gave his profession as farmer.) We are for a bloc only with the exploited farmers, not exploiter farmers—exploited farmers and agricultural workers. We can become the champions of this movement but on the basis of a concrete program of demands. In Minneapolis the first task should be devoted to statistically show that 10,000 workers have no more vote than ten intellectuals, or fifty people organized by the Stalinists. Then we have to introduce five or six demands, very concrete, adapted to the mind of the workers and farmers and inculcated into the brain of every comrade, workers’ factory committees, and then workers’ and farmers’ government. That’s the genuine sense of the movement.

Cannon: Would we propose now that the unions join the LNPL?

Trotsky: Yes, I believe so. Naturally we must make our first step in such a way as to accumulate experience for practical work, not to engage in abstract formulas, but develop a concrete program of action and demands in the sense that this transitional program issues from the conditions of capitalist society today, but immediately leads over the limits of capitalism. It is not the reformist minimum program, which never included workers’ militia, workers’ control of production. These demands are transitory because they lead from the capitalist society to the proletarian revolution, a consequence insofar as they become the demands of the masses as the proletarian government. We can’t stop only with the day-to-day demands of the proletariat. We must give to the most backward workers some concrete slogan that corresponds to their needs and that leads dialectically to the conquest of power.

Shachtman: How would you motivate the slogan for workers’ militia?

Trotsky: By the fascist movement in Europe—all the situation shows that the blocs of the members of liberals, radicals and the workers* bureaucracy is nothing in comparison with the militarized fascist gang; only workers with military experience can oppose the fascist danger. I believe that in America you have enough scabs, gunmen, that you connect the slogan with the local experience; for example by showing the attitude of the police, the state of affairs in Jersey.[22] In this situation immediately say that this gangster-mayor with his gangster policemen should be ousted by the workers’ militia. “We wish here the organization of the CIO, but in violation of the constitution we are forbidden this right to organize. If the federal power cannot control the mayor, then we, the workers, must organize for our protection the workers’ militia and fight for our rights.” Or in clashes between the AFL and the CIO, we can put forward the slogan for a workers’ militia as a necessity to protect our workers’ meetings. Especially as opposed to the Stalinist idea of a popular front, and we can point to the result of this popular front—the fate of Spain and the situation in France. Then you can point to the movement of Germany, to the Nazi camps. We must say: You workers, in this city, will be the first victims of this fascist gang. You must organize, you must be prepared.

Cannon: What name would you call such groups?

Trotsky: You can give it a modest name, workers’ militia.

Cannon: Defense committees.

Trotsky: Yes. It must be discussed with the workers.

Cannon: The name is very important. Workers’ defense committees can be popularized. Workers’ militia is too foreign sounding.

Shachtman: There is not yet in the U. S. the danger of fascism which would bring about the sentiment for such an organization as the workers’ militia. The organization of a workers’ militia presupposes preparation for the seizure of power. This is not yet on the order of the day in the U.S.

Trotsky: Naturally we can conquer power only when we have the majority of the working class, but even in that case the workers’ militia would be a small minority. Even in the October Revolution the militia was a small minority. But the question is how to get this small minority which must be organized and armed with the sympathy of the masses. How can we do it? By preparing the mind of the masses, by propaganda. The crisis, the sharpening of class relations, the creation of a workers’ party, a labor party, signifies immediately, immediately, a terrible sharpening of forces. The reaction will be immediately a fascist movement. That is why we must now connect the idea of the labor party with the consequences—otherwise we will appear only as pacifists with democratic illusions. Then we also have the possibility of spreading the slogans of our transitional program and see the reaction of the masses. We will see what slogans should be selected, what slogans abandoned, but if we give up our slogans before the experience, before seeing the reaction of the masses, then we can never advance.

Dunne; I wanted to ask one question about the slogan of workers’ access to the secrets of industry. It seems to me that needs to be well thought out and carefully applied or it may lead to difficulties which we have already experienced. As a matter of fact one of the ways of reducing the militancy of the workers is for employers—we had one such case—to offer to show us the books and prove that they are standing a loss, whether honestly or not is not the question. We have fought against that, saying it is up to you to organize your business; we demand decent working conditions. I wonder what then would be the effect of our slogan of workers’ access to the secrets of industry.

Trotsky: Yes, the capitalists do [open their books] in two instances: when the situation of the factory is really bad, or if they can deceive the workers. But the question must be put from a more general point of view. In the first place, you have millions of unemployed and the government claims it cannot pay more and the capitalists say that they cannot make more contributions—we want to have access to the bookkeeping of this society. The control of income should be organized through factory committees. Workers will say: We want our own statisticians who are devoted to the working class. If a branch of industry shows that it is really ruined, then we answer: We propose to expropriate you. We will direct better than you. Why have you no profit? Because of the chaotic condition of capitalist society. We say: Commercial secrets are a conspiracy of the exploiters against the exploited, of the producers against the toilers. In the free era, in the era of competition, they claimed they needed secrecy for protection. But now they do not have secrets among themselves but only from society. This transitional demand is also a step for the workers’ control of production as the preparatory plan for the direction of industry. Everything must be controlled by the workers who will be the masters of society tomorrow. But to call for conquest of power—that seems to the American workers illegal, fantastic. But if you say: The capitalists refuse to pay for the unemployed and hide their real profits from the state and from the workers by dishonest bookkeeping, the workers will understand that formula. If we say to the farmer: The bank fools you. They have very big profits. And we propose to you that you create farmers’ committees to look into the bookkeeping of the bank, every farmer will understand that. We will say: The farmer can trust only himself; let him create committees to control agricultural credits—they will understand that. It presupposes a turbulent mood among the farmers; it cannot be accomplished every day. But to introduce this idea into the masses and into our own comrades, that’s absolutely necessary immediately.

Shachtman: I believe it is not correct as you say to put forth the slogan of workers’ control of production nor the other transitional slogan of workers’ militia—the slogan for the examination of the books of the capitalist class is more appropriate for the present period and can be made popular. As for the other two slogans, it is true that they are transitional slogans, but for that end of the road which is close to the preparation for the seizure of power. Transition implies a road either long or short. Each stage of the road requires its own slogans. For today we could use that of examination of the books of the capitalist class, for tomorrow we would use those of workers’ control of production and workers’ militia.

Trotsky: How can we in such a critical situation as now exists in the whole world, in the U.S. measure the stage of development of the workers’ movement? You say, it’s the beginning and not the end. What’s the distance—100, 10, 4, how can you say approximately? In the good old times the social-democrats would say: Now we have only 10,000 workers, later we’11 have 100,000, then a million, and then we’ll get to the power. World development to them was only an accumulation of quantities: 10,000, 100,000, etc., etc. Now we have an absolutely different situation. We are in a period of declining capitalism, of crises that become more turbulent and terrible, and approaching war. During a war the workers learn very quickly. If you say, we’ll wait and see and then propagate, then we’ll be not the vanguard, but the rearguard. If you ask me: Is it possible that the American workers will conquer power in ten years? I will say yes, absolutely possible. The explosion of the CIO shows that the basis of the capitalist society is undermined. Workers’ militia and workers’ control of production are only two sides of the same question. The worker is not a bookkeeper. When he asks for the books, he wants to change the situation, by control and then by direction. Naturally, our advancing slogans depends upon the reaction we meet in the masses. When we see the reaction of the masses, we [will] know what side of the question to emphasize. We will say, Roosevelt will help the unemployed by the war industry; but if we workers ran production, we would find another industry, not one for the dead but for the living. This question can become understandable even for an average worker who never participated in a political movement. We underestimate the revolutionary movement in the working masses. We are a small organization, propagandists, and in such situations are more skeptical than the masses who develop very quickly. At the beginning of 1917 Lenin said that the party is 10 times more revolutionary than its Central Committee, and the masses 100 times more revolutionary than the ranks of the party. There is not in the U.S. a revolutionary situation now. But comrades with very revolutionary ideas in quiet times can become a real brake upon the movement in revolutionary situations—it happens often. A revolutionary party waits so often and so long for a revolution that it gets used to postpone [postponing] it.

Cannon: You see that phenomenon in strikes—they sweep the country and take the revolutionary party by surprise. Do we put forward this transitional program in the trade unions?

Trotsky: Yes, we propagandize this program in the trade unions, propose it as the basic program for the labor party. For us, it is a transitional program; but for them, it is the program. Now it’s a question of workers’ control of production, but you can realize this program only through a workers’ and farmers’ government. We must make this slogan popular.

Cannon: Is this also to be put forward as a transitional program or is this a pseudonym for the dictatorship of the proletariat?

Trotsky: In our mind it leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat. We say to the workers and farmers: You want Lewis as president—well that depends upon his program. Lewis plus Green plus La Follette[23] as representative of the farmers? That, too, depends upon the program. We try to concretize, to make more precise the program, then the workers’ and farmers’ government signifies a government of the proletariat which leads the farmers.

Shachtman: How do you reconcile this with the original statement that we cannot advocate the organization of a reformist labor party? I would like to get clear in my mind what concretely does our comrade do when his trade union is affiliated to the LNPL and he is sent as a delegate to the labor party. There the question comes up of what to do in the elections and it is proposed: “Let us support La Guardia.” [24] Concretely, how does the matter present itself to our comrades?

Trotsky: Here we are in a trade union meeting to discuss the affiliation to the LNPL. I will say in the trade union: First, the unification of the unions on a political plan is a progressive step. There is a danger that it will fall into the It is a question of the relationship of forces. Comrade Dunne says we cannot yet advocate in the unions support for the SWP. Why? Because we are too weak. And we can’t say to the workers: Wait till we become more authoritative, more powerful. We must intervene in the movement as it is… .

Shachtman: If there were no movement for a labor party and we would be opposed to the creation of one, how does that affect the program itself—it would still be our transition program. I don’t understand when you say we can’t advocate a reformist party but we do advocate and become champions of labor-party movements for the purpose of imposing the workers’ will politically.

Trotsky: It would be absurd to say that we advocate a reformist party. We can say to the leaders of the LNPL: “You’re making of this movement a purely opportunistic appendage to the Democrats.” It’s a question of a pedagogical approach. How can we say that we advocate the creation of a reformist party? We say, you cannot impose your will through a reformist party but only through a revolutionary party. The Stalinists and liberals wish to make of this movement a reformist party but we have our program, we make of this a revolutionary…

Cannon: How can you explain a revolutionary labor party? We say: The SWP is the only revolutionary party, has the only revolutionary program. How then can you explain to the workers that also the labor party is a revolutionary party?

Trotsky: I will not say that the labor party is a revolutionary party, but that we will do everything to make it possible. At every meeting I will say: I am a representative of the SWP. I consider it the only revolutionary party. But I am not a sectarian. You are trying now to create a big workers’ party. I will help you but I propose that you consider a program for this party. I make such and such propositions. I begin with this. Under these conditions it would be a big step forward. Why not say openly what is? Without any camouflage, without any diplomacy.

Cannon: Up until now the question has always been put abstractly. The question of the program has never been outlined as you have outlined it. The Lovestoneites have always been for a labor party; but they have no program, it’s combinations from the top. It seems to me that if we have a program and always point to it …

Trotsky: First there is the program, and then the statutes that assure the domination of the trade unions as against the individual liberals, petty bourgeois, etc. Otherwise it can become a labor party by social composition, a capitalist party in policy.

Cannon: It seems to me that in Minneapolis it’s too much an organizational struggle, a struggle for the control of the organization between the Stalinists and us. We have to develop in Minneapolis a program- hands of our enemies. I therefore propose two measures: 1) That we have only workers and farmers as our representatives; that we do not depend on so-called parliamentary friends; 2) That our representatives follow out our program, this program. We then map out concrete plans concerning unemployment, military budget, etc. Then I say, if you propose me as a candidate, you know my program. If you send me as your representative, I will fight for this program in the LNPL, in the labor party. When the LNPL makes a decision to vote for La Guardia, I either resign with protest, or protest and remain: “I can’t vote for La Guardia. I have my mandate.” We get large new possibilities for propaganda.

The dissolution of our organization is absolutely excluded. We make absolutely clear that we have our organization, our press, etc., etc. matic fight against the Stalinists in the FLP, as we yesterday utilized the vote about the Ludlow Amendment.[25]

Shachtman: Now with the imminence of the outbreak of war, the labor party can become a trap. And I still can’t understand how the labor party can be different from a reformist, purely parliamentary party.

Trotsky: You put the question too abstractly; naturally it can crystalize into a reformist party, and one that will exclude us. But we must be part of the movement. We must say to the Stalinists, Love-stoneites, etc.: “We are in favor of a revolutionary party. You are doing everything to make it reformist.” But we always point to our program. And we propose our program of transitional demands. As to the war question and the Ludlow Amendment, we’ll discuss that tomorrow and I will again show the use of our transitional program in that situation.

Discussion in Mexico City, May 31, 1938

Question: In the ranks of our party the question which seems most disputed in relation to accepting the program of transitional demands is that dealing with the labor party in the United States. Some comrades maintain that it is incorrect to advocate the formation of a labor party, holding that there is no evidence to indicate any widespread sentiment for such a party, that if there were such a party in process of formation, or even widespread sentiment, then we would meet it with a program that would give to this movement a revolutionary content—but in view of the lack of such objective factors this part of the thesis is opportunistic. Could you clarify this point further?

Trotsky: I believe that it is necessary to remind ourselves of the most elementary facts from the history of the development of the workers’ movement in general and the trade unions in particular. In this respect we find different types of development of the working class in different countries. Every country has a specific type of development but we classify them in general.

In Austria and in Russia especially, the workers’ movement began as a political movement, as a party movement. That was the first step. The social-democracy in its first stage hoped that the socialist reconstruction of society was near, but it happened that capitalism was strong enough to last for a time. A long period of prosperity passed and the social-democracy was forced to organize trade unions. In such countries as Germany, Austria, and especially in Russia where trade unions were unknown, they were initiated, constructed, and guided by a political party, the social-democracy.

Another type of development is that disclosed in the Latin countries, in France, and especially in Spain. Here the party movement and the trade union movement are almost independent of one another and under different banners, even to a certain degree antagonistic to one another. The party is a parliamentary machine. The trade unions are to a certain degree in France—more in Spain—under the leadership of anarchists.

The third type is provided by Great Britain, the United States, and more or less by the dominions. England is the classic country of trade unions. They began to build trade unions at the end of the eighteenth century, before the French Revolution, and during the so-called industrial revolution. (In the United States, during the rise of the manufacturing system.) In England the working class didn’t have its independent party. The trade unions were the organizations of the working class, in reality the organization of the labor aristocrats, the higher strata. In England there was an aristocratic proletariat, at least in its upper strata, because the British bourgeoisie, enjoying almost monopoly control of the world market, could give a small part of the wealth to the working class and so absorb part of the national income. The trade unions were adequate to abstract that from the bourgeoisie. Only after a hundred years did the trade unions begin to build up a political party. This is absolutely contrary to Germany or Austria. There the party awakened the working class and built up the trade unions. In England the trade unions, after centuries of existence and struggle, were forced to build up a political party.

What were the reasons for this change? It was due to the complete decline of English capitalism which began very sharply. The English party is only a couple of decades old, coming into prominence especially after the World War. What is the reason for this change? It is well known that it was due to the abolishing of England’s monopoly control of the world market. It began in the eighties of the nineteenth century with the competition of Germany and of the United States. The bourgeoisie lost its ability to give the leading strata of the proletariat a privileged position. The trade unions lost the possibility to improve the situation of the workers and they were pushed onto the road of political action because political action is the generalization of economic action. Political action generalizes the needs of the workers and addresses them not to the parts of the bourgeoisie but to the bourgeoisie as a whole organized in the state.

Now in the United States we can say that the characteristic features of English development are presented in even more concentrated form in a shorter period because the whole history of the United States is shorter. Practically, the development of the trade unions in the United States began after the Civil War, but these trade unions were very backward even compared with the trade unions of Great Britain. To a great degree they were mixed trade unions of employers and employees, not fighting, militant trade unions. They were sectional and tiny. They were based on the craft system, not according to industry, and we see that it is only during the last two or three years that the genuine trade unions developed in the United States. This new movement is the CIO.

What is the reason for the appearance of the CIO? It is the decay of American capitalism. In Great Britain the beginning of the decay of the capitalist system forced the existing trade unions to unite into a political party. In the United States the same phenomenon—the beginning of the decline—produced only the industrial trade unions, but these trade unions appeared on the scene only in time to meet the new chapter of the decline of capitalism, or—more correct—we can say that the first crisis of 1929-1933 gave the push and ended in the organization of the CIO. But scarcely organized, the CIO meets the second crisis, 1937-1938, which continues and deepens.

What does this fact signify? That it was a long time in the United States before the organization of trade unions but now that genuine trade unions exist, they must make the same evolution as the English trade unions. That is, on the basis of declining capitalism, they are forced to turn to political action. I believe that this is the most important fact of the whole matter.

The question reads, “There is no evidence to indicate any widespread sentiment for such a party.” You will remember that when we discussed this question with other comrades there were some divergences on this question. I cannot judge whether sentiment for a labor party exists or not because I have no personal observations or impressions, but I do not find it decisive as to what degree the leaders of the trade unions or the rank and file are ready or inclined to build a political party. It is very difficult to establish objective information. We have no machine to take a referendum. We can measure the mood only by action if the slogan is put on the agenda. But what we can say is that the objective situation is absolutely decisive. The trade unions as trade unions can have only a defensive activity, losing members and becoming more and more weak as the crisis deepens, creating more and more unemployed. The treasury becomes poorer and poorer, the tasks, bigger and bigger, while their means, smaller and smaller. It is a fact; we cannot change it. The trade union bureaucracy becomes more and more disoriented, the rank and file more and more dissatisfied and this dissatisfaction becomes greater and greater the higher were their hopes in the CIO, and especially in view of the unprecedented growth of the CIO—in two or three years 4,000,000 fresh people on the field facing objective handicaps which cannot be eliminated by the trade unions. In this situation we must give an answer. If the trade union leaders are not ready for political action, we must ask them to develop a new political orientation. If they refuse we denounce them. That is the objective situation.

I say here what I said about the whole program of transitional demands. The problem is not the mood ofthe masses but the objective situation, and our job is to confront the backward material of the masses with the tasks which are determined by objective facts and not by psychology. The same is absolutely correct for this specific question on the labor party. If the class struggle is not to be crushed, replaced by demoralization, then the movement must find a new channel and this channel is political. That is the fundamental argument in favor of this slogan.

We claim to have Marxism or scientific socialism. What does “scientific socialism” signify in reality. It signifies that the party which represents this social science, departs, as every science, not from subjective wishes, tendencies, or moods but from objective facts, from the material situation of the different classes and their relationships. Only by this method can we establish demands adequate to the objective situation and only after this can we adapt these demands and slogans to the given mentality of the masses. But to begin with this mentality as the fundamental fact would signify not a scientific but a conjunctural, demagogic, or adventuristic policy.

One can ask why we didn’t foresee this development five, six, seven years ago? Why did we declare during the past period that we were not willing to fight for this slogan of the labor party? The explanation is very simple. We were absolutely sure, we Marxists, the initiators of the American movement for the Fourth International, that world capitalism had entered into a period of decline. That is the period when the working class is objectively educated and moves subjectively, preparing for the social revolution. The direction was the same in the United States, but the question of direction is not sufficient. The other question is the speed of its development; and in this respect, in view of the strength of American capitalism, some of us, and myself among them, imagined that the ability of American capitalism to resist against the destructive inner contradictions would be greater and that for a certain period American capitalism might use the decline of European capital to cover a period of prosperity before its own decline. How long a period? Ten to thirty years one could say? Anyway I, personally, didn’t see that this sharp crisis or series of crises would begin in the next period and become deeper and deeper.

That is why eight years ago when I discussed this question with American comrades I was very cautious. I was very cautious in my prognosis. My opinion was that we couldn’t foresee when the American trade unions would come into a period where they would be forced into political action. If this critical period started in ten to fifteen years, then we, the revolutionary organization, could become a great power directly influencing the trade unions and becoming the leading force. That is why it would be absolutely pedantic, abstract, artificial to proclaim the necessity for the labor party in 1930 and this abstract slogan would be a handicap to our own party. That was at the beginning of the preceding crisis. Then, that this period would be followed by a new crisis even more deep with an influence five to ten times more profound because it is a repetition!

Now we must not reckon by our prognosis of yesterday but by the situation of today. American capitalism is very strong but its contradictions are stronger than capitalism itself. The speed of decline came at American speed and this created a new situation for the new trade unions, the CIO even more than the AFL. In this situation it is worse for the CIO than the AFL because the AFL is more capable of resistance due to its aristocratic base. We must change our program because the objective situation is totally different from our former prognosis.

What does this signify? That we are sure the working class, the trade unions, will adhere to the slogan of the labor party? No, we are not sure that the workers will adhere to the slogan of the labor party. When we begin the fight we cannot be sure of being victorious. We can only say that our slogan corresponds to the objective situation and the best elements will understand and the most backward elements who don’t understand will be compromised.

In Minneapolis we cannot say to the trade unions you should adhere to the Socialist Workers Party. It would be a joke even in Minneapolis. Why? Because the decline of capitalism develops ten—a hundred times faster than the speed of our party. It is a new discrepancy. The necessity of a political party for the workers is given by the objective conditions, but our party is too small, with too little authority in order to organize the workers into its own ranks. That is why we must say to the workers, the masses, you must have a party. But we cannot say immediately to these masses, you must join our party.

In a mass meeting 500 would agree on the need for a labor party, only five agree to join our party, which shows that the slogan of a labor party is an agitational slogan. The second slogan is for the more advanced.

Should we use both slogans or one? I say both. The first, independent labor party, prepares the arena for our party. The first slogan prepares and helps the workers to advance and prepares the path for our party. That is the sense of our slogan. We say that we will not be satisfied with this abstract slogan which even today is not so abstract as ten years ago because the objective situation is different. It is not concrete enough. We must show to the workers what this party should be: an independent party, not for Roosevelt or La Follette, a machine for the workers themselves. That is why on the field of election it must have its own candidates. Then we must introduce our transitional slogans, not all at once, but as occasion arises, first one and then the other. That is why I see absolutely no justification for not accepting this slogan. I see only a psychological reason. Our comrades, in fighting against Lovestoneites, wanted our own party and not this abstract party. Now it is disagreeable. Naturally the Stalinists will say we are fascists, etc. But it is not a principled question; it is a tactical question. To Lovestone it will seem that we lose face before the Lovestoneites, but this is nothing. We orient not according to Lovestone but according to the needs of the working class. I believe that even from the point of view of our competition with the Lovestoneites it is a plus and not a minus. In a meeting against a Lovestoneite I would explain what our position was and why we changed. “At that time, you Lovestoneites attacked us. Good. Now in this question, which was so important to you, we have changed our mind. Now, what do you have against the Fourth International?” I am sure we will prepare a split in this manner among the Lovestoneites. In this sense I see no obstacles.

Before finishing—a correction in the formulation of the question: The labor party proposal is not a part of the program of transitional demands but is a special motion.

Question: In a trade union does one advocate a labor party, vote for it?

Trotsky: Why not? In the case of a trade union where the question comes up, I will get up and say that the need for a labor party is absolutely proved by all the events. It is proved that economic action is not enough. We need political action. In a union I will say what counts is the content of the labor party, that is why I reserve something to say about the program, but I will vote for it.

Question:The workers seem absolutely apathetic toward a labor party; their leaders are doing nothing, and the Stalinists are for Roosevelt.

Trotsky: But this is characteristic of a certain period where there is no program. Where they don’t see the new road. It is absolutely necessary to overcome this apathy. It is absolutely necessary to give a new slogan.

Question: Some comrades have even collected figures tending to prove that the labor-party movement is actually declining among the workers.

Trotsky: There is a major line and then minor oscillations, as for example the moods in the CIO. First aggressiveness. Now in the crisis the CIO appears a thousand times more dangerous than before to the capitalists, but the leaders are afraid to break with Roosevelt. The masses wait. They are disoriented, unemployment is increasing. It is possible to prove that the sentiment has decreased since a year ago. Possibly the Stalinist influence adds to this, but this is only a secondary oscillation, and it is very dangerous to base ourselves upon the secondary oscillations since in a short time the major movement becomes more imperative and this objective necessity will find its subjective expression in the heads of the workers, especially if we help them. The party is a historic instrument to help the workers.

Question: Some of the members who came from the Socialist Party complain that at that time they were for a labor party and were convinced in arguing with the Trotskyists that they were wrong. Now they must switch back.

Trotsky: Yes, it is a pedagogical question, but it is a good school for the comrades. Now they can see dialectical development better than before.

Discussion in Mexico City, July 20, 1938

Question: What influence can “prosperity,” an economic rise of American capitalism in the next period, have upon our activity as based on the transitional program?

Trotsky: It is very difficult to answer because it is an equation with many unknown elements, magnitudes. The first question is if a conjunctural improvement is probable in the near future. It is very difficult to answer, especially for a person who does not follow the charts from day to day. As I see from the New York Times, the specialists are very uncertain about the question. In last Sunday’s issue of the New York Times, the business index showed a very confused tendency. During the last week there was a loss, two weeks before a rise, and so on.

If you consider the general picture we see that a new crisis has begun, showing an almost vertical line of decline up until January of this year, then the line becomes hesitant—a zigzag line, but with general declining tendency. But the decline during this year is undoubtedly slower than the decline during the nine months of the preceding year.

If we consider the preceding period beginning with the slump of 1929, we see that the crisis lasted almost 3-1/2 years before the upturn began, with some smaller ups and downs, lasting 4-1/2 years—it was Roosevelt “prosperity.” In this way the last cycle was of 8 years, 3-1/2 years of crisis and 4-1/2 years of relative “prosperity,” 8 years being considered as a normal time for a capitalist cycle.

Now the new crisis began in August 1937, and in nine months has reached the point which was reached in the preceding crisis in 2-1/2 years. It is very difficult to make a prognosis now concerning the time, the point of a new rise. If we consider the new slump from the point of view of its deepness, I repeat, the work of 2-1/2 years is completed by the crisis, yet it has not reached the lowest point of the preceding crisis. If we consider the new crisis from the point of view of time—nine years, or seven, eight years, it would be too early for a new up-movement. That is why I repeat that prognosis is difficult. Is it necessary that the new crisis should reach the same point—the lowest point—as the preceding crisis? It is probable, but it is not absolutely sure. What is characteristic of the new cycle is that “prosperity” did not reach the high point of preceding prosperity, but from that we cannot make in an abstract manner a conclusion about the nadir. What characterizes the Roosevelt prosperity is the fact that it was a movement mainly of the light industries, not of the building trades, the heavy industries. This made this movement develop in a very limited fashion. That is precisely the reason why the breakdown came so catastrophically, because the new cycle did not have a solid basis of heavy industries, especially of the building-trades industries which are characterized by new investments with a long-term perspective and so on.

Now we can theoretically suppose that the new up-movement will include more than building industries—the heavy industries in general—in view of the fact that despite consumption during the last period the machinery was not renewed sufficiently and now the demand for it will be greater than during the last conjuncture. It is possible it can give a greater, a more solid up-movement than the preceding. It is absolutely not contradictory to our general analysis of a sick, declining capitalism causing greater and greater misery.

This theoretical possibility is to a certain degree supported by the military investment in public relief works. It signifies from a large historical point of view that the nation becomes poorer in order to permit better conjunctures today and tomorrow. We can compare such a conjuncture with a tremendous expense to the general organism. It can be considered as possibly a new pre-war conjuncture, but when will it begin? Will the down-movement continue? It is possible—probable. In that sense we will have in the next period not 13 or 14 millions, but 15 millions of unemployed. In this sense all we said about the transitional program will be reinforced in every respect, but we are adopting a hypothesis of a new up-movement in the next few months, in half a year or a year. Such a movement may be inevitable.

To the first question, if such an up-movement can be more favorable to the general perspective before our party, I believe we can answer with a categorical yes, that it would be more favorable for us. There cannot be any reason to believe that American capitalism can of itself in the next period become a sound, healthy capitalism, that it can absorb the 13 millions of unemployed. But the question is, if we formulate it in a very simple and arithmetical form—if in the next year or two years the industries absorb 4 millions of workers from the 13 millions unemployed, that will leave 9 million. Would that be favorable from the point of view of the revolutionary movement? I believe we can answer with a categorical yes.

We have a situation in a country—a very revolutionary situation in a very conservative country—with a subjective backwardness on the part of the mentality of the working class. In such a situation, economic pickups—sharp economic pickups, ups and downs—from a historical point of view have a secondary character but in the immediate sense have a profound effect on the lives of millions of workers. Today they have a very great importance. Such shake-ups are of a very great revolutionary importance. They shake off their conserva-tiveness; they force them to seek an account of what is happening, what is the perspective. And every such shake-up pushes some stratum of the workers onto the revolutionary road.

More concretely, now the American workers are in an impasse—a blind alley. The big movement, the CIO, has no immediate perspective because it is not guided by a revolutionary party and the difficulties of the CIO are very great. From the other side, the revolutionary elements are too weak in order to give to the movement a sharp turn to the political road.

Imagine that during the next period 4 millions of workers enter the industries. It will not soften the social antagonisms—on the contrary. It will sharpen them. If the industries were capable of absorbing the 13 million or 11 million of unemployed, then it would signify for a long period a softening of the class struggle, but it can only absorb a part, and the majority will remain unemployed. Every unemployed person sees that the employed have work. He will look for work and, not finding any, will enter into the unemployed movement. I believe in this period our slogan of the sliding scale can receive very great popularity; that is, that we ask for work for everybody under decent conditions in a popular form: “We must find work for all, under decent conditions with decent salaries.”

The first period of a rise—economic rise—would be very favorable, especially for this slogan. I believe also that the other very important slogan of defense, workers’ militia, etc., would also find favorable soil, a base, because through such a limited and uncertain rise—the capitalists become very anxious to have immediate profits and they look with great hostility on the unions which disturb the possibility of new rise in profits. In such conditions I believe that Hague[26] would be imitated on a large scale.

The question of the labor party before the trade unions. Of course the CIO through a new prosperity would have a new possibility of development. In that sense we can suppose that the improvement of the conjuncture would postpone the question of the labor party. Not that it will lose its whole propagandists importance, but it will lose its acuteness. We can then prepare the progressive elements to accept this idea and be ready when the new crisis approaches, which will not be long in coming.

I believe that this question of Hagueism has a tremendous importance, and that a new prosperity, a new upturn, would give us greater possibilities. A new upturn will signify that the definite crisis, the definite conflicts are postponed for some years in spite of the sharp conflicts during the rise itself. And we have the greatest interest in winning more time because we are weak and the workers are not prepared in the United States. But even a new upturn will give us a very short time—the disproportion between the mentality and the methods of American workers in the social crisis, this disproportion is terrific. However, I have the impression that we must give some concrete examples of success and not limit ourselves only to giving good theoretical advice. If you take the New Jersey situation, it is a tremendous blow not only to social-democracy but to the working class. Hague is just beginning. We also are just beginning, but Hague is a thousand times more powerful… .

Of course the question of the labor party cannot be considered independent from the general development in the next period. If a new prosperity comes for some time and postpones the question of a labor party, then the question will for some time become more or less academic, but we will continue to prepare the party in order not to lose time when the question again becomes acute, but such a tremendous prosperity is not very probable now and if the economic situation remains as now, then the party can change in a short time. The most important fact we must underline is the total difference in America in connection [comparison] with a working class from Europe. In Europe, let us say in Germany before Hitler, in Austria, France now, Great Britain, the question of a party for the workers was looked upon as a necessity; it was a commonplace for the vanguard of the working class and for a large stratum of the masses themselves.

In the United States the situation is absolutely different. In France political agitation consists in the attempts of the CP to win the workers, of the SP to win the workers, and every conscious or semi-conscious worker stands before a choice. Should he adhere to the SP or the CP or Radical SP? For the Radical Socialist Party[27] it is not such a problem, since that is mostly for the foremen, but the workers have to choose between the SP and the CP.

In the United States the situation is that the working class needs a party—its own party. It is the first step in political education. We can say that this first step was due five or ten years ago. Yes, theoretically that is so, but insofar as the workers were more or less satisfied by the trade union machinery, and even lived without this machinery, the propaganda in favor of a working class party was more or less theoretical, abstract and coincided with the propaganda of certain centrist and communist groups and so on.

Now the situation has changed. It is an objective fact in the sense that the new trade unions created by the workers came to an impasse—a blind alley—and the only way for workers already organized in trade unions is to join their forces in order to influence legislation, to influence the class struggle. The working class stands before an alternative. Either the trade unions will be dissolved or they will join for political action. That is the objective situation, not created by us, and in this sense the agitation for a working class party becomes now not an abstract but a totally concrete step in progress for the workers organized in the trade unions in the first instance and for those not organized at all. In the second place it is an absolutely concrete task determined by economic and social conditions.

It would be absurd for us to say that because the new party issues from the political amalgamation of the trade unions it will of necessity be opportunistic. We will not invite the workers to make this same step in the same way as abroad. Of course if we had any real choice between a reformist party or a revolutionary party, we would say this is your address (meaning the revolutionary party). But a party is absolutely necessary. It is the only road for us in this situation. To say that we will fight against opportunism, as of course we will fight today and tomorrow, especially if the working-class party had been organized, by blocking a progressive step which can produce opportunism, is a very reactionary policy, and sectarianism is often reactionary because it opposes the necessary action of the working class…

I believe that the most fighting elements in the trade unions should be our youth, who should not oppose our movement to the labor party but go inside the labor party, even a very opportunist labor party. They must be inside. That is their duty. That our young comrades separate the transitional program from the labor party is understandable because the transitional program is an international question, but for the United States they are connected—both questions—and I believe that some of our young comrades accept the transitional program without good understanding of its meaning, for otherwise the formal separation of it would lose for them all importance.

Notes

12. Lewis and Hillman. John L. Lewis (1880-1969), president of the United Mine Workers from 1920 to I960; principal founder and leader of the CIO from its beginning in 1935 till his resignation in 1 940.

Sidney Hillman (1887-1946), president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. At the time of this conversation, he was the second most important figure in the CIO.

13. Plenum. A plenary (full) session of the National Committee of the Socialist Workers Party. This committee is the SWP’s highest body between conventions.

14. Labor Party in New York. In July 1936, in preparation for the fall presidential elections, the American Labor Party was formed in New York State. Its policy was to nominate on its ticket the principal candidates of the Roosevelt wing of the Democratic Party and of the local Republican-Fusion coalition headed by Mayor La Guardia. The ALP was created, mainly by the leaders of the garment workers’ unions, as a device for channeling to Roosevelt and La Guardia the votes of the socialist-minded garment workers who traditionally refused to vote for a capitalist party.

15. People’s Front or Popular Front. Following the catastrophe in Germany, where its ultraleft line permitted the Nazis to come to power without any fight being put up against them, the Communist International in 1935 zigzagged far to the right and imposed on all its parties throughout the world the line of the People’s Front, i.e., building coalition governments of the workers’ parties and the liberal capitalist parties.

16. Gompers, Samuel (1850-1924). President of the American Federation of Labor from 1886 to 1924, save for a two-year interval in the eighteen-nineties; a conservative, antisocialist, craft unionist; his political policy for the AFL was to endorse neither capitalist party but to support specific candidates in a given election, i.e., “to reward your friends and punish your enemies."

17. League. The Communist League of America, the name of the Trotskyist organization at that time.

18. Pepper, John. Pseudonym in the U.S. for Josef Pogany, a Hungarian who had played an undistinguished role in the short-lived revolutionary government in Hungary in 1919. He came to the U.S. in 1922 in the company of a Comintern delegation and remained. Was put on the CPUSA’s top committee. Formed faction with Ruthenberg; was Lovestone’s mentor. Pepper masterminded the CP’s intervention in the Farmer-Labor Party movement and the flirtation with La Follette’s third party in 1 924. He was recalled to Moscow in 1924.

Since Trotsky had polemicized against Pepper’s line inthe Comintern and since Cannon, Dunne, and Shachtman, who later became Trotskyists, had opposed Pepper’s policies and faction in the American CP, the reference to him as “our common friend” is ironical.

19. Technocracy. A program and movement which achieved a great vogue, particularly in the middle class, in the early years of the depression. It proposed to overcome the depression and bring about full employment by rationalizing the U.S. economy and monetary system under the control of engineers and technical experts-all this without class struggle or revolution. The movement eventually split into a left and right wing, with the latter developing fascist tendencies.

20. America’s Sixty Families, by Ferdinand Lundberg, New York: Vanguard Press, 1937. The book, a sensation when it appeared, documented the existence of an economic dligarchy in the U. S. headed by sixty families of immense wealth. The author brought the work up to date in 1968 under the title, The Rich and the Super-Rich.

21. The Annalist, “a magazine of finance, commerce and economics.” It began in 1913 and ceased publication in 1940.

22. State of affairs in New Jersey. The reference is to the situation in Jersey City where the corrupt administration of Democratic Party Mayor Frank P. Hague used governmental power and police violence, in cooperation with company hired thugs, to prevent the CIO from organizing. Picketing was forbidden, and distributors of union leaflets were jailed or run out of town. To charges that he was denying the unionists their elementary civil rights guaranteed by law, Hague made the celebrated statement: “I am the law."

23. Lewis plus Green plus Follette. For John L. Lewis, see note 1 2.

William Green (1873-1952), president of the American Federation of Labor; a conservative craft unionist.

Robert M. La Follette, Jr. (1895-1953), of the famous Progressive Republican dynasty in Wisconsin; son of the Robert M. La Follette who had run as the Progressive candidate for President in 1924; at the time, the younger Robert La Follette was U.S. Senator. At the end of April 1938, his brother Philip La Follette, then governor of Wisconsin, had issued a call for a new Progressive Party.

24. La Cuardia, Fiorello H. (1882-1947). Republican congressman from New York 1917-33, save for one term in early nineteen-twenties; mayor of New York City 1934-45. See notes 11 and 14.

25. Ludlow Amendment. A proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would require a direct popular referendum by the people for a declaration of war. It took its name from Indiana Representative Louis Ludlow who first introduced the resolution in Congress. He reintroduced it in the House in 1937, and Senator La Follette introduced a similar resolution in the Senate. On January 10,1938, the House voted down the Ludlow resolution. Earlier in the same week, a Gallup public opinion poll showed that 72 percent of the American people favored the bill. The Socialist Workers Party seized upon the Ludlow proposal as fitting in with its program of transitional demands and, utilizing the slogan “Let the people vote on war,” carried on an agitational campaign in favor of such a popular referendum.

26. Hague, Frank P. See note 22. The spring and summer of 1938 (including the interval between this and the previous discussion with Trotsky) had been marked by a series of unsuccessful attempts to hold rallies in Jersey City protesting Mayor Hague’s dictatorship. Attempting to address a rally in Journal Square on May Day eve, Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas had been assaulted, kidnapped, and deported by Jersey City police. Later in May, a similar protest rally, at which two U.S. congressmen were scheduled to speak, was called off at the last minute in the face of Hague’s countermobilization in Journal Square of masses of police, city employees, American legionnaires and company thugs. At the end of the month an attempt to hold a rally, this time at Pershing Field, was smashed by a similar mobilization of Hague forces and the police deportation of speakers including Congressman Jerry O’Connell, the officers of the Hudson County Labor Defense Committee, and the CIO regional director. Finally, a rally scheduled to be addressed by Norman Thomas in Newark, which was outside Hague’s bailiwick and had a liberal city administration, was disrupted by an invasion of Hague’s forces.

27. Radical Socialist Party. The principal capitalist party in France during the period between World Wars I and II. It was neither radical nor socialist, but a liberal capitalist party, roughly comparable to the Democratic Party in the U.S., with, however, the difference that it had an anticlerical tradition and was a stronghold of freemasonry.