The Labor Party Sets Its Electoral Strategy.

• Author: Hawkins, Howie

The Labor Party held its second national convention at the downtown Pittsburgh convention center on November 13-15, 1998. 1440 people attended, including 1207 delegates carrying 1922 votes. The convention was about the same size as the founding convention in Cleveland in June 1996, but there were far fewer observers checking it out. In Cleveland, I ran into many Greens. In Pittsburgh, the only other Green I saw was Ralph Nader.

The voting delegations were heavily skewed toward the affiliated local, regional, and international unions. Of the 1922 votes allocated, the 36 community-based chapters had only 142 of the votes. Most of the delegates were graying white men. Only about 20% were women and 5% were people of color.

The Labor Party has about 10,000 individual members and affiliations from national and local unions representing about 1 million workers. The biggest affiliated unions include the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers; United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers; California Nurses Association; International Longshore and Warehouse Union; American Federation of Government Employees; United Mine Workers of America; Farm Labor Organizing Committee; and Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees.

But the Labor Party has not grown much in the last two years. Most of the affiliated unions have not pushed the Labor Party internally. The chapters have been stagnant. The Labor Party's national petition campaign for a 28th Amendment to the US Constitution to establish the right to a job at a living wage has not become the public crusade and Labor Party outreach and recruiting vehicle it was hoped to be. The three-person national staff feels overworked and overwhelmed.

Nevertheless, the Labor Party must be seen as an important ally to the Greens in building an independent progressive political movement in the US. Though it has not had explosive growth, it has been able enlist more unions than any attempt to build a labor party in the US since the Farmer-Labor Party movement in the 1920's and 1930's.

In Cleveland in 1996, the big question had been the adoption of a structure and a 16-point program, "A Call for Economic Justice." The program's demands include: the right to a job at a living wage, labor law reforms to guarantee workers' rights to organize, universal health care, a guaranteed adequate income, public campaign financing, a revitalized public sector, progressive taxation, a 32-hour work week with four weeks paid vacation, and income support for workers displaced by environmental protection measures.

In Pittsburgh this year, the big question was the Labor Party's electoral strategy. Many...