Written by Graeme Anfinson Sunday, 19 June 2011 00:00
Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor Party was the most successful labor party in United States history. Starting in 1918, it was a labor party in the true sense, not just a “pro-labor” party. It was a political federation of labor unions. The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Association, a grouping of associated unions and farmers, provided the organic connection between labor and the party. Before the party merged with the Democrats in 1944, they had elected three governors, four U.S. Senators, and eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Written by John Peterson - CWA 37002 (personal capacity) Monday, 13 June 2011 00:00
John Peterson, de la Campaña por un Partido Laborista de Masas, escribe una carta abierta a Richard Trumka en respuesta a las recientes declaraciones de Trumka relativas a la independencia politica de la AFL-CIO al Partido Demócrata.
The 2010 midterm elections are now less than a week away, and the media is ramping up its coverage of the candidates and the “issues.” And yet, with so much at stake for the working majority of the country, in terms of who decides budget priorities at the federal, state, and local level, the voices of labor are few and far between. Where is labor's voice in the midterm elections?
Headed into November’s elections, workers around the country are short on choices. Practically everywhere, they will be forced to go to the ballot box and choose from one of two bosses’ candidates -- or not vote at all. In South Carolina House District 69, however, it seems workers will finally have the choice of a candidate representing labor.
Ever since we founded of the Workers International League and published the first issue of Socialist Appeal, the need for a mass party of labor has figured prominently in our program and work. The objective need for such a party has been explained in countless editorials and articles. The lack of independent political representation for the US working class is an urgent problem and contradiction, which can only be resolved if the labor movement breaks with the parties of big business and forms a party of, by, and for the working class majority.
Well over a year since Obama came to power, virtually nothing has been done for the labor movement. No Employee Free Choice Act, no universal health care, no universal living wage, no equal rights for immigrant workers, no repealing of anti-labor laws like Taft-Hartley. The mines are as unsafe as ever and workers continue to die for the profits of the shareholders. This all highlights yet again what Socialist Appeal has explained since our founding issue: we need a mass party of labor to fight for and represent the interests of working class majority of this country. As representatives of the bosses the Democrats simply cannot and will not do this.
This letter from Frederick Engels to Florence Kelly Wischnewetsky shows his perspective for the development of a labor party in the United States and the way that the Marxists should orient to such a party. He warns revolutionaries in the U.S. of the dangers of transforming Marxist ideas into a lifeless dogma by taking a sectarian attitude towards such a massive movement of the working class "not of their creation." Even in this brief letter, there are numerous lessons for Marxists today.
