***The Struggle For The Labor Party In The United States- American Socialist Workers Party Leader James P.Cannon-Early Years of the American Communist Movement-The Passaic Strike

Click on the headline to link to a James P. Cannon Internet Archives online copy of Early Years of the American Communist Movement-The Passaic Strike

Markin comment on this series:

Obviously, for a Marxist, the question of working class political power is central to the possibilities for the main thrust of his or her politics- the quest for that socialist revolution that initiates the socialist reconstruction of society. But working class politics, no less than any other kinds of political expressions has to take an organization form, a disciplined organizational form in the end, but organization nevertheless. In that sense every Marxist worth his or her salt, from individual labor militants to leagues, tendencies, and whatever other formations are out there these days on the left, struggles to built a revolutionary labor party, a Bolshevik-style party.

Glaringly, in the United States there is no such party, nor even a politically independent reformist labor party, as exists in Great Britain. And no, the Democratic Party, imperialist commander-in-chief Obama's Democratic Party is not a labor party. Although plenty of people believe it is an adequate substitute, including some avowed socialists. But they are just flat-out wrong. This series is thus predicated on providing information about, analysis of, and acting as a spur to a close look at the history of the labor party question in America by those who have actually attempted to create one, or at to propagandize for one.

As usual, I will start this series with the work of the International Communist League/Spartacist League/U.S. as I have been mining their archival materials of late. I am most familiar with the history of their work on this question, although on this question the Socialist Workers Party's efforts run a close second, especially in their revolutionary period. Lastly, and most importantly, I am comfortable starting with the ICL/SL efforts on the labor party question since after having reviewed in this space in previous series their G.I. work and youth work (Campus Spartacist and the Revolutionary Marxist Caucus Newsletter inside SDS) I noted that throughout their history they have consistently called for the creation of such a party in the various social arenas in which they have worked. Other organizational and independent efforts, most notably by the Socialist Workers Party and the American Communist Party will follow.

In Honor Of The 100th Anniversary Of The Founding of The Communist International-From The Archives- ***Labor's Untold Story- Remember The Heroic Passiac Textile Strike Of 1926

Click on title to link to Albert Weisbord's memoirs of the great Passiac Textile Strike of 1926. Albert Weisbord was the prime organizer (at the start) of this strike. There are many lessons to be learned about the perfidiousness of the labor bureaucracy (and the strange postion of the American Communist Party in leaving Weisbord out to dry) from this strike. About the later politics of Albert and Vera Weisbord see the James P. Cannon Internet Archives for the early 1930s. Ouch!

Every Month Is Labor History Month

This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!

As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.

*Labor’s Told Story-Partially- The Film “Norma Rae”

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Pete Seeger performing our labor anthem, "Solidarity Forever". In honor of Crystal Lee Sutton.


DVD Review

Norma Rae, starring Sally Field, Ron Liebman, directed by Martin Ritt, 1973

On the face of it today a story about an impoverished, hard-nosed widowed woman trying to support several children working in a southern textile mill and who seeks to unionize the plant against one of the major textile companies might rate a documentary or docu-drama treatment but, perhaps not much else. The demographics and the audience would probably not be there for such a commercial endeavor, Sally Field or no Sally Field. That says more about the state of the organized labor movement in this country, the dramatic decline in union membership, the lack of recent successful major union organizing drives, the “globalization” of industry that has de-industrialized America and the attenuation of links between the old trade union movement forged in the class battles of the 1930s and 1940s and their grandchildren, today’s youth.

Back in 1973, however, this film was a hit not only because of the well-done performances by Sally Field, as that down-troddened but spirited woman turned effective union organizer and Ron Liebman, as the northern union organizer called in to advice (?) Norma Rae. 1950s “red scare” black-listed writer Martin Ritt, who directed this film, also deserves kudos for not overburdening the film with unnecessary sentimentality. The times then thus were not out of joint for such an effort. The residue of 1960s radicalism and pro-working class sentiments still hung in the air. Moreover, the times were just becoming ripe for serious films about the trials and tribulations of women, especially working women and their problems, under the sign of the burgeoning women’s movement.

Of courser this particular review is posted here today because, unfortunately, the real-life model for the character of Norma Rae, Crystal Lee Sutton, has just passed away in North Carolina at the age of 68. I will finish up here by quoting a remark that I made in another space about her passing that also reflects on the highlight dramatically tense moment in the film:

“No labor militant, or even just a simple friend of the international labor movement could do anything but cheer at that moment in "Norma Rae", based on the actual experience of Crystal Lee Sutton, when Sally Field silently holds up a handmade sign that said "Union"- and everyone downs tools. Such events are the stuff not just of labor legend, but under the right circumstances revolution. Farewell, Sister.” I need say no more.

Solidarity Forever

Solidarity forever!
Solidarity forever!
Solidarity forever!
For the union makes us strong

When the union's inspiration
through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater
anywhere beneath the sun.
Yet what force on earth is weaker
than the feeble strength of one?
But the union makes us strong.


They have taken untold millions
that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle
not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power;
gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us strong.


In our hands is placed a power
greater than their hoarded gold;
Greater than the might of armies,
magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world
from the ashes of the old
For the Union makes us strong.


This labor anthem was written in 1915 by IWW songwriter and union organizer Ralph Chaplin using the music of Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic. These song lyrics are those sung by Joe Glazer, Educational Director of the United Rubber Workers, from the recording Songs of Work and Freedom, (Washington Records WR460)

*Labor's Told Story-Partially- Crytsal Lee Sutton The Model For The Film "Norma Rae" Has Passed Away

Click on title to link to the "New York Times" obituary for Crystal Lee Sutton, the model for the commerical film about the trials and tribulations of union organizing in the American South, organizing in the long embattled runaway textile industry and being a woman organizer starring Sally Field, "Norma Rae".

Markin comment:

No labor militant, or even just a simple friend of the international labor movement could do anything but cheer at that moment in "Norma Rae", based on the actual experience of Crystal Lee Sutton, when Sally Field silently holds up a handmade sign that said "Union"- and everyone downs tools. Such events are the stuff not just of labor legend, but under the right circumstances revolution. Farewell, Sister.

*An Inside Look At The Great Gastonia Textile Strike Of 1929-From The Pen Of Communist Organizer Vera Weisbord

Click on title to link to article from the Albert and Vera Weisbord Internet Archives by then American Communist Party organizer Vera Weisbord about the heroic Gastonia textile strike of 1929. This, my friends, was the class war at its rawest in the anti-labor America "Jim Crow" South of the late 1920s. As the 1973 "Norma Rae" film about organizing in the late 1960s and today's struggles to organize places like Smithfield in the South testify to things are not that much changed for labor now.