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The Time Is Now toLay the Foundations

of a New IndependentWorking-Class Party! We are living under a capitalist system in

crisis — a system that only knows how tostem its growing crisis by fueling speculationand war spending, on the one hand, and byslashing workers’ wages and working/livingconditions, on the other.

Working people and all the communitiesof the oppressed are in a dire situation be-cause the bosses have been able to count ontheir twin parties — the Democrats and Re-publicans — to do their bidding overdecades.

To beat back this racist and anti-worker of-fensive by the employers and the politiciansin their pay, we must build democraticallyrun coalitions that bring together the stake-holders in labor and the communities of theoppressed, so that they have a decisive sayin formulating their demands and mappingout a strategy.

Most important, we need to put an end tothe monopoly of political power by the De-mocrats and Republicans. The labor move-ment and the leaders of the Latino and Blackstruggles need to break with their reliance onthe Democratic Party and build their ownmass-based independent working class po-litical party — a Labor-Based Political Partyrooted in the struggles of the unions and allthe oppressed communities.

At a time when close to two-thirds of thevoting-age population favors the formationof a mass-based independent political party(September 2017 Gallup poll), the time isnow to get this effort off the ground.

Next StepsLabor and Community for an Independent

Party (LCIP) was established in September2018 to run independent labor-communitycandidates beginning in 2020 at the local andstate level, as a step in the effort to build anew independent mass Labor-based politicalparty.

The platforms of these independent candi-dates need to be discussed and approved bylabor-community assemblies, and the candi-dates must be answerable to these assembliesand to the coalitions formed for this purpose.This is an essential component of the effortto build working-class power.

The candidates and the coalitions them-selves cannot be limited to electoral politics;they must be fighting for the issues containedin the platforms, projecting these struggles

into the electoral arena. This will help to ce-ment the alliance between labor and the op-pressed communities.

LCIP was also established to make everyeffort to promote the launching of a newcommittee advocating for a Labor-Based Po-litical Party. It will seek to promote this dis-cussion in our unions, through discussiongroups and union resolutions, based on theSeptember 2017 resolutions calling for abreak with “Lesser of Two Evils” politicsadopted by the national convention of theAFL-CIO.

[See LCIP’s Statement of Purpose on thenext page.]

Please join us in building an independent,labor-based political party that serves the in-terests of the working class and all oppressedpeople.

LCIP Statement of PurposeWe — political, trade union, and community activists from different political backgrounds — have

decided to constitute ourselves as Labor and Community for an Independent Party (LCIP) withtwo intertwined objectives:

Our first objective is to promote running independent labor-community candidates beginningin 2020 at a local and state level around a platform that embraces workers’ and communities’pressing demands. The explicit aim is to advance the effort to build a mass working-class partyrooted in unions, youth, and communities of the oppressed. The platforms of these independent can-didates need to be discussed and approved by labor-community assemblies, and the candidates mustbe answerable to these assemblies and to the coalitions formed for this purpose.

Our second objective is to promote widely in the trade union movement a committee that ad-vocates for a Labor-Based Political Party. A resolution adopted by the October 2017 national con-vention of the AFL-CIO affirmed that, “whether the candidates are elected from the Republican orDemocratic Party, the interests of Wall Street have been protected and advanced, while the interestsof labor and working people have generally been set back.” A second convention resolution con-cluded that, “the time has passed when we can passively settle for the lesser of two evils politics.”The committee’s goal will be to promote the discussion inside the labor movement about the need tobreak with the “lesser of two evils politics” and to create a “Labor-Based Political Party” — a refer-ence to the title of a forum organized by key labor officials at the October 2017 AFL-CIO conven-tion. In order to create such a mass working-class party, we will organize to raise awareness in theunions of the need to break with the Democratic Party.

Endorsement Coupon[ ] I support this campaign. [ ] Our organization supports this campaign.

I / We would like to get involved in one or more of these activities:[ ] Help to build a coalition in my city with aim of running independent labor-community

candidates and advancing the effort to build a new mass working-class party.[ ] Ask for a speaker on this issue at my union or community organization.[ ] Ask for support in drafting a resolution on this issue for my union or community organization.

NAMEUNION / ORG & Title (for id. only)CITY STATE TEL EMAIL

To endorse fill out and return to an LCIP organizer or send to <lcip.campaign@gmail.com>.

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Chris Silvera,Secretary-Treasurer,Teamsters Local 808,Long Island City, N.Y.

What we enjoy in the labor movementtoday came because we acted independentlyof the Democrats and the Republicans. Wemobilized our membership, we got out in thestreets not only for our members but for theworking class as a whole.

Today we are in the process of losing every-thing that was gained throughout the hard-fought battles over the years.

There is a global assault on the workingclass, country by country by country. If wedon’t stand with FLOC in their battle forunion rights and collective bargaining forfarmworkers in North Carolina; if we don’tstand with the farmworkers in San Quintin,Mexico; if we don’t stand with the womenstreet cleaners or the Maruti autoworkers inIndia, and the list is long, we’re going to loseit all.

This is not a time to hob-nob with the De-mocrats. It is a time for Teamsters, longshoreworkers, educators, and postal workers to goback to the streets. It is time to go back to ourworkplaces and reconnect with our membersand discuss what it means to have a livingwage, single-payer healthcare, and a pension(as opposed to a 401K).

The union officials have become discon-nected from their members as they rely on theDemocrats. That is why our members are los-ing their pensions and their jobs. That is whythey are taking regressive contracts.

Capitalism – we have to tell it like it is – isonly interested in exploiting labor and makingmega-profits. Today the bosses — with thesupport of Democrats and Republicans — areshifting our jobs to the countries with the low-

est wages: Indonesia, Vietnam, Mexico, youname it.

But jobs are also being shifted from Seattleto South Carolina, as was the case with Boe-ing. The job was worth $30 an hour in Seattle,but workers in South Carolina, out of desper-ation, took the same job for $15 an hour -- andthey felt lucky, even though there’s no bene-fits, or pensions, or job protection.

It’s time to resist. We can turn thingsaround. Free quality public education is pos-sible. It existed before. You just have to taxthe people who control 90% of the wealth.

We can’t allow the cops to keep killingBlack people in our streets. This has to stop.

But it all comes back to this: We have toreconnect with our members and with theclass, and do something different than we’vebeen doing all along – in the workplace, in thestreets, in the political arena.

This is a time for action. We have to get outof those corporate board rooms and take thebattle to the streets. We can get the 1% to paytheir fair share of taxes. We can take back ourschools and preserve our pensions. We havethe power if we are willing to do the work. Wecan change America, and if we change Amer-ica, we can help change the world.[Teamsters 808 is an endorser of Labor and

Community for an Independent Party.]

VOICES FOR LCIP

Unionists and Activists Speak Out forIndependent Working-Class Politics

FLOC has launched a program for work-ing on the issue of independent politics inthe urban area of Toledo, where our office isbased, and also in Eastern North Carolina,where we have an office that administers allour collective-bargaining agreements.

Immigration is the issue that is commonto all. So we decided to do community or-ganizing in an “associate member” program— including an active youth program calledthe FLOC Homies Union.

We decided to organize 100 Latino regis-tered voters in a Committee of 100. Some ofour local elected officials are sympathetic toour issues, but they’re not going to come out

front and push the issues that are importantto us. So we decided that we’d do that our-selves, running folks for positions that areimportant to us.

I’m hopeful that the grassroots group willgrow into a larger one where we can run ourown candidates. Of course, we will tie thisto any national effort to build an independentpolitical party.

LCIP has put forward the perspective oforganizing labor and community assembliesto develop political platforms and start run-ning candidates on a local level to begin lay-ing the foundations for a new independentpolitical party. What we are doing is a firststep toward that effort.

If we have a Committee of 100 registeredvoters committed to this goal, we as Latinoscan go to other unions and organize an as-sembly, to which we can also invite commu-nity groups allied to us, like ourBlack-Brown Unity Coalition. We will havesomething to contribute. We will have a con-fidence-builder for the rest of the peoplewho are there.

[FLOC is an endorser of Labor andCommunity for an Independent Party.]

Baldemar Velasquez, President, Farm LaborOrganizing Committee (FLOC), Toledo, Ohio

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VOICES FOR LCIP

Mike Carano, Laborand political activist,Tallmadge, Ohio

Those demanding change must be prag-matic. First, we must organize and call for anational conference of unions and communityand justice groups — local to national — tohammer out a two-fold program: a strong plat-form that takes on the systemic roots that cre-ated a 45-year decline in wages for workingpeople and, a practical plan to form a newparty whose candidates are embedded in theneeds of the mass of Americans, not the needsof the corporate and financial class. It will betragic once again if we waste our energies onan inside strategy that has time and again bornno fruit. The inside strategy is a dead end.

We should not doubt that the centrist, cor-porate Democrats will do all they can in a re-play of 2016 to keep brother Bernie Sandersfrom the nomination. And though we applaudSanders for single-handedly changing the dis-cussion and narratives in this country as noone has done in decades, the Democratic Partywill not take us where we need to go. For thatreason, we call on all Sanders supporters tojoin us, if not now then after the DNC and themass media have cheated Sanders once again.If we want real, systemic change, then wemust not allow our energy, time, and moneyto once again get siphoned into a party thatwill never serve our needs.

Therefore, our efforts and needed politicalwork must steer us in one direction — a for-mation of a new party of, from, and for theworking people of this nation.

The younger generation is onto the two-party game and has no affinity or affection forthe Democratic Party. And why should they?Their generation has been bludgeoned by theneoliberal two-party system.

The corporate parties gave them the distinc-tion of being the first generation not to farebetter than their parents, not to be able to finddecent jobs with livable wages, to be straddledwith a lifetime of student debt, to be unable tofind affordable housing, and incapable ofplanning a future, if in fact a future is possible

with the cloud of climate catastrophe circlingover their heads.

So we must act. And therefore we call alllike-minded people to join this effort. Andthose who still hope for a Sanders candidacy,if again disappointed, know that we are herewith the one solution, one that will not end indisappointment if we tirelessly exert our ef-forts in the needed work, one that runs candi-dates tied to a platform built around the realneeds of working people. The door is open.Get in.

Millie Phillips,Steering Committeemember, Labor

Fightback Network

It has been my life-long dream to see a suc-cessful political party organized by and repre-senting the U.S. working class.  I believeLCIP's approach addresses three main obsta-cles that, in the past, have prevented success-ful challenges to the twin parties of the bosses:

First, LCIP seeks to build a coalition withboth organized labor, which is the only repre-sentative of working class people based onclass alone, and oppressed and marginalizedcommunities, especially people of color, whobear the brunt of anti-working-class policies.Past efforts failed to center this vital connec-tion.

The ruling class of this country very effec-tively uses racism and xenophobia to preventmany white workers from recognizing thattheir interests depend on supporting otherswho are oppressed and exploited. Thus, anynew party that rightfully focuses on the work-ing class as a whole is doomed to failure if itdoes not address racism and other specificforms of oppression or fails to include work-ing class activists from oppressed communi-ties within its central leadership from the verybeginning. Yet, no matter how grounded in op-pressed communities, a party that fails to rec-ognize and engage the power of organizedlabor is likely to remain limited to supportwithin its specific base.

Second, while LCIP seeks to build a partythat will run working class candidates with arealistic goal of winning, it recognizes that a

labor-community party must be built by en-gaging the issues faced in local communities.LCIP wants to develop candidates willing torun on platforms democratically developed bylabor-community coalitions and willing to beheld accountable to these platforms onceelected. Without accountability, most inde-pendent or third-party office-holders getcoopted. And, no politician, no matter howloyal to working class issues, can win muchwithout well organized, issue-based con-stituents who remain active between elections.

Third, LCIP is practical. Past efforts oftenhave been marginalized by focusing onquixotic presidential or state-wide campaigns.LCIP wants to start locally and build up, rec-ognizing that electoral law and the prohibitivecost of most elections make it virtually impos-sible for working-class independent candi-dates to win any office above the local level.If a new party wins in local elections, then itis in a much better position to gain the volun-teer base and money to run successfully forhigher offices. 

Sandy Eaton,RN, Former chair,Legislative Council,National Nurses

United

The United States has perhaps the most cor-rupt electoral system in the developed world.Our oligarchy rules through a two-party sys-tem which offers the illusion of choice, but theacceptable range of policy choices steadilyshrinks and shifts to the right. Many strugglevaliantly, but largely in vain, within this orbitto win fundamental victories over corporatecontrol of all aspects of the economy. Everyadvance that is won is in constant danger solong as the ultimate power remains in thehands of the capitalist class.

As someone who has spent a lifetime fight-ing for healthcare justice within our hospitals,unions, community groups and reform move-ments, I am frustrated and furious at our slowpace and at the blockade thrown up by indus-try elites and the state apparatus to maintain

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VOICES FOR LCIP

the deadly status quo.In my home state of Massachusetts, for ex-

ample, the Democratic Party has held a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers of itslegislature for as long as anyone can remem-ber. No matter who sits in the corner office,corporate control of our extensive healthcaresystem has been maintained and strengthened.Our single-payer healthcare bill has neverbeen allowed out of committee for a floor de-bate and vote. The same is true of other effortsfor fundamental change.

So many of our unions and community or-ganizations are bound to the DemocraticParty. This 2019-2020 presidential electioncycle provides a good example of candidates’posturing regarding the Medicare for All ques-tion. The Democratic Party and its elite aretied to finance capital, which now controls al-most all aspects of the medical-industrial com-plex and for whom health care provides a richrevenue stream.

Only a militant movement of the workingclass, organized in the workplace and in thecommunity, can lead us out of this morass. Weneed a critical mass of unions and communi-ties, particularly communities of color, tobreak free of the Democratic Party orbit andspeak out with a unified voice. Political inde-pendence leading to the formation of a masspolitical party of the working class will shiftthe balance of power and allow us to win —and hold onto — decent jobs, affordable hous-ing, safe infrastructure and a sustainable envi-ronment. Our unity will grow to the extent weend the attacks on people of color, women,immigrants and LGBTQ folks.

We need a united front against austerity,racism, war and fascism, an independent po-litical movement bringing together thesestreams of struggle into a mighty force. Laborand Community for an Independent Party pro-vides the basis for this unity in action forpeace, prosperity, unity and hope.

Nnamdi Lumumba,Convener,

Ujima People'sProgress Party

Since the launching of our campaign, theUjima People's Progress Party has called forthe building of an alternate electoral option forworking-class people. It has been obvious tous that support for the capitalist duopoly con-trol of the electoral process has underminedthe interests of Black, Brown and working-class people. The support working people giveto imperialist parties and their politics in theform of our votes, donations and political ac-tion to advance capitalist/imperialist interestsonly deepens our own misery.

Black workers, as well as all workers, mustengage in independent political action to fightfor our interests and oppose the actions of im-perialist forces which threaten to take moreand more resources from working and poorpeople. On the state and local level, we havecalled for a political party that is anti-capital-ist, anti-imperialist, anti-racist and fights toempower Black, Brown and working-classpeople. There must be a national voice forthese same calls and using the electoral

process is opportunity to raise the conscious-ness of working-class people.

Politics is more than elections and votingbut, in this era, it has become the most obviousform of political participation for the masses.We understand elections as non-violent strug-gles between elements of the ruling class forcontrol of the State apparatus to implementpolicy to advance their economic interests.

On both the local and national levels, elec-tions rarely offer working people options fortransforming the world, so helping to breakwith active or even passive support to capital-ist, imperialist and white supremacist partieshas been a fundamental key goal of our effortsto build a Black workers-led electoral party.

There is a need to contend with the ideas ofthe ruling class in all political arenas. In addi-tion to the local struggles workers must carryout on the electoral front, we have long sup-ported the call for the national Labor & Com-munity for an Independent Party work. Sucha formation would unite the grassroot strug-gles of working people and put them squarelyon the table for debate against the capitalistparties.

Working-class people need solutions thatare anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist. Theyneed to be organized and mobilized aroundpolicies that oppose imperialism, oppressionand the exploitation of nations for their re-sources or cheap labor.

The ideas from the two ruling class capital-ist parties stunt the vision and unity of work-ing people not only in this country but all overthe world; the very justness of these ideasmust be challenged.

As opposed to the parasitic and paternalisticrelationship that the ruling class parties haveforced upon Black, Brown and other op-pressed peoples, we support a national laborparty that recognizes both the shared and in-dependent struggles of oppressed workers onthe job as well as in their communities.

Donna Dewitt,President Emeritus,South Carolina

AFL-CIOToday, more than ever, workers and fami-

lies need to unite with communities to ad-dress the growing concerns of health care,education, economic and environmentaljustice, worker’s rights, criminal justice re-form, women’s rights, immigrant rights,and the entire list of issues and inequalitieswe are facing in our communities.

Labor and Community for an Independ-ent Party (LCIP) is the perfect opportunity

to bring labor and communities together towork on the issues that are most important.

It was evident in the 2018 elections that

communities came together on issues thatimpacted them and elected candidates thatwere addressing these issues.

South Carolina is the only state with aLabor Party ballot line, and one area wefeel voters would consider voting for a can-didate on is Medicare for All.

No matter what issues of concern arise,we are confident that the money saved withthe implementation of Medicare for Allwould assist in eliminating many of theeconomic issues impacting South Carolina.

LCIP is an opportunity to transcend thecorporate agendas of political parties andfocus efforts and resources to the issues thatwill organize labor and communities into anetwork of activists creating change for in-dependent action.

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VOICES FOR LCIP

[Note: Following are brief excerpts froman interview with Brendon Walker that wasconducted Sept. 28, 2019 by Real News jour-nalist Jacqueline Luqman. Walker is the Out-reach Coordinator of the Ujima People’sProgress Party, based in Baltimore, Md.]

JACQUELINE LUQMAN: Trump’s recentdisparaging comments about Baltimore hasturned the attention of the right wing of Amer-ica’s political apparatus onto the city. Here totalk about the real political options for Blackvoters, is Brandon Walker. What’s your re-sponse to Trump's comments about Balti-more?

BRANDON WALKER: Trump and theright-wingers have taken a political jab toslight the Democratic mis-leadership, as a wayto gather up votes for the Republican Party in2020. They are telling a city with a majorityBlack population, "Hey, we're your friends,leave the Democratic Party and come to theRepublican Party!"

J.L.: When you talk about the Black mis-leadership class, what does that mean in termsof the situation in Baltimore?

B.W.: For the past 150 years the Democratsand Republicans have controlled the mayor'soffice; it's gone back and forth. Seventy-fivepercent of those 150 years saw Black faces inpower, in servitude to white power, to thewhite ruling class. The issues confrontingeveryday folks such as myself, working-classfolks who try to make a living and also takecare of their families, tended to fall on deafears.

J.L.: So what we’re talking about in termsof Black mis-leadership is mostly the Demo-cratic Party. You’re saying that the DemocraticParty doesn’t help Black people. Is that cor-rect?

B.W.: Absolutely. What we have is a polit-ical mis-leadership — from the state house inAnnapolis to Baltimore City down on Holli-day Street — that does not have the politicalwill to defend our interests as Black people.Every time we elect someone from the twomajor parties, we're just electing white su-premacy. He or she may have a different formof Black face, but nothing will be done for theconstituents; only the interests of the whiteruling class will be served.

J.L.: What you're saying is that whetheryou elect a Black Democrat or a white Repub-lican, or a white Democrat or a Black Repub-lican, what you're electing is someone whoserves the ruling class and does not serveworking people at all.

B.W.: Absolutely.J.L.: One last question: Is our only choice

between a Democratic Party that takes advan-tage of the Black vote and a Republican Partythat ignores Black issues? Do your organiza-tions offer another choice to pursue the self-determination of Black voters in this country?

B.W.: There are other choices. You have thePeoples Power Assembly and the Ujima’sPeople’s Progress Party. The idea is to winpower back to the people using local cam-paigns and local elections. The idea is to bringchange locally.

As workers and also as the Black left, webelieve in the right to housing, education,clothing, access to education, and also jobsthat pay a livable wage and transportation andenvironmental justice, against the racism. Weare also opposed to the putrid two-party sys-tem. We no longer have any other choice butto invest in ourselves to move forward. To-gether as a coalition, we can do better.

‘Democrats and Republicans Do Not Represent Black Interests!’

Clarence Thomas,Retired, ILWU Local10 and Co-convenerof the Million Worker

MarchAs an African-American trade unionist, past

secretary-treasurer of the International Long-shore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10,and one of the founders of the Million WorkerMarch (MWM) movement, I am endorsingthe Labor and Community for an IndependentParty (LCIP). This Campaign is a continuationof the MWM’s call for workers in the U.S. to“mobilize in our own name,” independent of

the ruling class-controlled political parties“around an independent agenda for workingpeople acting in their own name.”

All those who believe in a political partythat represents the interests of the workingclass and recognize the right of self-determi-

nation for African Americans and all op-pressed people will understand the importanceof supporting this Campaign.

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VOICES FOR LCIP

Saladin Muhammad,Founder, BWFJ andCo-coordinator,Southern Workers

Assembly

A movement to form a working-class andoppressed peoples’ independent party has tomake the struggle against structural racism amajor part of the working-class political pro-gram and struggle. This means, especially forthe Left, recognizing the Black liberationmovement under the leadership of the Blackworking class and the struggle for AfricanAmerican self-determination as an au-tonomous flank in U.S. and internationalworking-class struggle against capitalism andimperialism.

As has been typical during the deepening ofthe capitalist crisis, structural racism has cre-ated a reactionary white nationalist conscious-ness, a form of national chauvinism amongmany white workers and poor people accord-ing to which Blacks, Latinos, Native Ameri-cas and immigrants from the global South, aretheir main enemy — diverting their attentionfrom their real enemy: the capitalist class.

The labor movement, as the most organizedand resourceful section of the working class,must be won as a major force for building anindependent working-class and oppressedmass political party. With rank-and-filedemocracy and control and a social-move-ment unionism perspective, trade unions arein the best position to help forge unity amonga large percentage of the U.S. multinationalworking-class.

Building Black liberation assembliesFor the Black liberation movement, the per-

spective of uniting the common Black work-ing-class mass-issue struggles into Blackworking-class-led Black liberation movementbattlefronts struggling for mass-based poweris critical for linking the Black Left to theBlack working-class and developing a con-sciousness and base for an independent work-ing-class and oppressed peoples’ masspolitical party.The formation of Black libera-

tion assemblies — promoted by the NationalAssembly for Black Liberation held on May18-20, 2018 in Durham, N.C. — is an organ-izing form to develop unity in action aroundindependent local, state, and national de-mands that begin to bring a national and in-ternational character and support to thestruggles and strategies for local contendingand transformative power.

The Black working class enters the broadalliance of working-class-led forces as part ofa Black liberation movement struggling forself-determination, as a form of dual contend-ing and transformative power against a settler-colonial capitalist and imperialist State.Promoting an understanding of the impor-tance of the struggle against structural racismas an essential part of building a movementand political party for working-class politicalindependence must be a major task of the Leftwithin the labor movement.

Alan Benjamin,Editorial Bd. member,

The Organizer

There is a component of the fight for work-ing-class unity and independent political ac-tion that must be a high priority: the Blackstruggle, which, in the aftermath of the upris-ing in the Black liberation movement sinceFerguson, Mis-souri, has movedto center stage inU.S. politics. Themurder of MichaelBrown in Fergu-son sparked thebeginning of amass upsurgeagainst police vio-lence based on theassertion thatBlack Lives Mat-ter. A new Civil

Rights movement is taking shape.We are at the beginning of a long struggle

that must uproot white supremacy and a sys-tem based on racism. There is a state of emer-gency in Black America, with mass un–employ ment at depression levels, mass incar-ceration and an epidemic of police violence.Many gains of the Civil Rights era have beeneroded or destroyed. Voting rights are underattack, and income inequality affects Blackpeople at a disproportionate percentage. Aus-terity and the assault on public-sector employ-ment have translated into a further setback forliving standards in the Black community.

Because of a history and pattern of discrim-ination in the private sector, Black people are30% more likely to find employment in thepublic sector. Budget cuts during the “GreatRecession” were devastating to an alreadyvulnerable population. The struggle againstpolice brutality and racism is an urgent taskthat cannot be simply reduced to one of classagainst class. The oppressed can’t be expectedto wait until the unions go into motion.

We must support the independent self-orga-nization and activity of the oppressed Blackpeople. We must support their right to self-de-termination. We must understand that whitesupremacy has been and continues to be thecentral source of division within the workingclass in the United States.

To help overcome this obstacle, we mustfight for the unions to champion the rights ofracially and nationally oppressed groups, andwe must support and participate in the au-tonomous movements and organizations ofBlacks and Latinos, as part of an overall strat-egy of building working-class unity. This willrequire breaking with the Democratic Partyand forging a unity of equals with workers ofother nationalities. It will require building anindependent Black Working Class Party,which could be linked to the struggle for alabor-based party rooted in the trade unionsand oppressed communities.

This is an important means today for U.S.workers and their organizations, with their op-pressed allies, to break free of the strangleholdof the capitalist parties.

PresentationThe following Open Letter to the Delegates of the NorthShore (Ohio) AFL-CIO Federation of Labor was signed by19 Cleveland-area unionists and distributed to thedelegates of this Cleveland central labor council. The Labor Fightback Network sent out this Open Letter,written in early 2015, to be used as a model by laboractivists nationwide to get their local unions to open thiscrucial discussion on independent working class politicalaction among their members. — LCIP

OPEN LETTER TO THEDELEGATES OF THE

NORTH SHORE AFL-CIOFEDERATION OF LABOR

In assessing the crushing defeat suffered by labor in theNovember 4, 2014, elections, the need to re-evaluate ourelection strategy is imperative. In our view, labor —together with our community partners — needs to run itsown independent candidates for public office and not relyon any political party to do for us what we must do forourselves.

In a nutshell, here is the problem. We depend onpoliticians in Washington to advance the interests of theworking class majority. But these politicians in turn dependon big donors in order to get elected and re-elected. BigMoney has always been a big factor in U.S. elections butthe Supreme Court’s decisions in the Citizens United andMcCutcheon cases, which removed all barriers to themillionaires and billionaires — like the Koch brothers —giving unlimited sums of money to candidates have made abad situation infinitely worse.

Even the most liberal, labor-friendly politicianssometimes cast votes that are harmful to working people.Here are two examples: In 2014, Congress approved abipartisan farm bill that slashed $8.6 billion for food stampfunding. The liberals in Washington voted for the cuts.Also, in 2013, Congress voted for a bipartisan budget thatdropped unemployment compensation for the long-term

jobless. The liberals also voted for that.It costs a fortune to run for Congress and the politicians

make compromises to get that money from Big Business.But independent labor/community candidates could standup to Wall Street. These independent candidates would beaccountable to their base and vote for us. The oppositionmay have more money, but we have more people, and inthe final analysis that’s what counts.

And don’t forget: each election cycle labor contributeshundreds of millions of dollars to the two major parties’candidates and that is money that could go instead to helpfund candidates from our own ranks.

Today there are no auto workers, no steel workers, nohealth care workers, no building and construction tradesworkers, no transportation workers, etc. in Congress. Justpeople from the business and financial world, a few well-to-do farmers, professionals and a smattering of others.Isn’t there something wrong with that picture? 

We urge labor to take the lead in organizing a massivepolitical and activist coalition that would truly represent theneeds of the working class. It would be a movement basedon the unions and made up of employed and unemployedworkers; African Americans, Latinos, Asians and other

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Rank and File Trade Unionists in ClevelandUrge Central Labor Council to Run

Independent Labor Candidates for Public Office

communities of color; women;seniors; students and youth; workingfarmers; and our allies in theprogressive movements, including theimmigrant rights, peace,environmental and climate changemovements.

This worker-based coalition wouldcontrast with the top down DemocraticParty, which gets 70% of its fundingfrom Wall Street, giant corporationsand the banks, and which is controlledby wealthy special interests. Labor’srecurring support for the DemocraticParty has gotten us no appreciablegains.

In 2008, the election of BarackObama to the presidency, along withDemocratic Party majorities in bothhouses of Congress, gave rise to hopefor many people. However, nolegislation was passed providing for amajor jobs program, infrastructurespending, labor law reform, EmployeeFree Choice Act (card check), a labor-backed single payer universal healthcare system (eliminating the for-profit,parasitic insurance companies),increase in the minimum wage, oraction to ensure a clean and healthyenvironment. And the list goes on.

Instead, relentless pressure iscoming from the administration topass anti-worker trade legislation,which a delegate from theSteelworkers Union at last month’sdelegates meeting called “NAFTA onsteroids.”

The country also experiencedgrowing income inequality over thepast several years and the widespreadcuts in pensions are driving morepeople into poverty.

Polls show 60% of the U.S.population favors the formation of anew, independent political party. Only36% of eligible voters voted in themidterm elections. People are fed upwith the two major parties and soundlyrepudiated the Democratic Party onNovember 4, a party we continue tosupport each election cycle with

funding and boots on the ground. It’stime for a change! It’s time to developan effective alternative!

The lack of a critical voice fromlabor and its allies in the electoralarena has resulted in a monopoly ofpower by the big corporations andtheir political bagmen, with WallStreet popping the champagne corks asa result of the November 4, 2014,elections.

Tough times lie ahead for the labormovement. What is urgently needednow, we believe, is a debatethroughout the movement regardingwhat must be done to gain real clout inthe political and electoral arena. Letthose who advocate sticking with theDemocrats (or turning to the anti-laborRepublican Party) have their say. Butlet advocates of independentlabor/community political action beheard as well.

Therefore, we urge and hope that theNorth Shore AFL-CIO Federation ofLabor will schedule such a debate inthe days ahead. Subjects that webelieve should be discussed include:

1. The need for labor to develop itsown independent electoral strategy;

2. Viewing elections as theculmination of year-round coalitionbuilding and mass activities on majorissues, not as a separate activity;

3. Forming a Labor RepresentationCommittee to train union members(and community leaders) as possiblelabor/community candidates;

4. Developing a strategic plan thatlays the basis for running independentlabor/community candidates, with thegoal being to build a local andstatewide political organization thatcould become an independentpolitical/activist party;

5. Deciding what platform andissues should be paramount for laborand its community allies to bettermotivate and create change for thebetterment and empowerment of theworking class.

[Note: The Open Letter was signedby 19 Cleveland long-time unionactivists in their individual capacities.]• Mark Bailey,* UAW local 1005

• Don Bryant,* Nat’l Assoc. of LetterCarriers Branch 40 (ret.)

• Michael Carano,* Teamsters Local 348(ret.)

• Jim Ciocia,* AFSCME Ohio Council 8staff (ret.)

• John Gallo,* Vice President, AFSCMELocal 3360 (ret.); member ClevelandMusicians Local 4

• Jerry Gordon,* United Food and Com-mercial Workers International staff (ret.),[now deceased]

• Vicky Knight,* Musicians Local 4

• Jean Kosmac,* GCC/IBT Local 546M,Vice President

• Lea Henderson Neider,* NationalNurses United

• Sam Richmond,* American Associationof University Professors — ClevelandState University (ret.)

• Stewart Robinson,* American Associa-tion of University Professors — ClevelandState University (ret.)

• Virginia Robinson,* SteelworkersRetiree

• Vann Seawell,* Workers United Staff(ret.)

• Susan R. Schnur,* AmalgamatedTransit Union Local 268 (ret.)

• Tom Sodders,* Teamsters Local 407(ret.)

• April Stoltz,* Nat’l Assoc. of LetterCarriers Branch 40 (ret.)

• Willis Todd, Jr.,* Nat’l Assoc. of LetterCarriers Branch 40 (ret.)

• Barbara Walden,* Bakery Workers(BCTGM) Local 19 (ret.)

• Mark Weber,* Nat’l Education Assoc.former local officer (ret.)

9

10

Gabriel Torres,Member, California

Federation ofTeachers

The questions of war and peace — thoughthey have such an overwhelming impact onsociety — are not discussed in our unions. Thefundamental problem is that our trade unionmovement is attached at the hip to the Demo-cratic Party.

Trillions of dollars are being spent, with thesupport of Democrats and Republicans, toprop up the American Empire — an empirethat is being challenged the world over, andeven slapped around in some cases, whichonly makes it all the more dangerous forworkers and oppressed peoples. Sanctions aretightened against Cuba, coups are being plot-ted against Venezuela — not to mention all theU.S.-sponsored atrocities in the Middle East,from Yemen and Palestine to Afghanistan andIran. The list is almost endless.

Then there is the war against working peo-ple in this country: It is not possible to fundhuman needs here at home, beginning withquality public education, if you don't makedrastic cuts to the war budget, which makesup about 60% of the yearly budget. But theDemocrats, with only a few exceptions thatcan be counted on one hand, are not opposing

war buildup. They are one of the twin partiesof war, funded by the military-industrial com-plex and beholden to Wall Street.

We need a new independent political partythat will fight for the interests of the workingclass. And the term "workers" has to be in itsname. This is fundamental. There is a con-certed effort to try and convince us that thereis no longer such a thing as the class struggle.There are no longer social classes with funda-mentally contradictory interests. We have allbeen dissolved into the category of "people"— of "citizens" or "civil society."

No. We have to reclaim the mantle of"working class." What we need is a WorkersParty, with unions playing a central role butwith the full involvement and participation ofthe communities of color. This is what willmake the Captains of Capital tremble.

Desiree Rojas,Pres., SacramentoChapter, LCLAA

I support the Labor and Community for anIndependent Party (LCIP) because darkmoney inside both parties has corrupted allgovernmental institutions; the Democrats

have been complicit. Today you see Democ-rats endorsing Republicans and signing ontothe Trump Agenda. The Democrats havemoved further and further to the right. Weneed a Labor Party. We need to begin to laythe foundations of an independent party forworking people as we promote the fight forDemocracy, Truth, and Justice. Capitalism isa system on steroids that is fueling the Indus-trial War Complex and working inside ourcommunities to kill Black and Brown people. We need to fight Capitalism.

Al Rojas,Vice Pres., Sacramento

Chapter, LCLAA

The Democratic Party is a full accomplicein the attacks on immigrant workers and theirfamilies, as it (1) authored and promoted theNAFTA and CAFTA trade agreements, whichdeepened the poverty in Mexico and CentralAmerica, forcing millions to flee their landsand communities, and (2) it promoted the mil-itarization of the U.S. border and the mass de-portation of immigrants from Mexico andCentral America. Only last month, the Demo-cratic Party majority voted to allocate $4.6 bil-lion for 'border security,' including huge sumsgoing to for-profit prisons and detention cen-ters. 

Having a ‘D’ next to your name does notgive you a free pass. Working people are or-ganizing outside the Democratic Party — andthe movement is growing. Change is coming— so that we can elect independent working-class candidates who genuinely representworking people. Building such an independ-ent movement, and such an independent po-litical party, is the task before us.

After 50 years of activism, I feel there is nobetter time to move forward and build a solidindependent labor movement that fights forour rights. There is no better time to build anew independent labor-based political partyin alliance with our Black and Brown commu-nities. Both struggles must go hand in hand.The task is urgent.

VOICES FOR LCIP

11

Mya Shone, Member, EditorialBd., The Organizer

Emma Goldman, the renowned anarchistand feminist, insisted always that birth con-trol had to be viewed in the context of capi-talism. Women would suffer a double yokeof oppression from ruling class social, eco-nomic and political forces until they wincontrol over their reproductive choices. By1915, Margaret Sanger, whom Goldman hadmentored, joined her in building a massmovement for birth control. On the eve ofGoldman’s April 5, 1915 trial for violating

the 1873 Comstock Law, which prohibitedthe distribution of birth control literature,she gave a fiery speech on “The Social As-pects of Birth Control.” Goldman concludedby declaring, “I may be arrested, I may betried and thrown into jail, but I never will besilent. …”Seventy-seven years later, onApril 5, 1992, 700,000 people streamed intoWashington, D.C. to march and rally in sup-port of abortion rights. It was one of thelargest protests in the nation’s capital up to

that time. They mobilizedto send a forceful messageto the U.S. Supreme Court,which was set to considerthe constitutionality of aPennsylvania state lawplacing substantial restric-tions on access to abortion.Many feared that Roe v.Wade itself was underthreat and their concernswere well founded. Whilethe Court did not throw outRoe, it undermined it by re-placing the “fundamental”Roe standard with a far lessprotective “undue burden”criterion of review for eval-uating state restrictions on

abortion.The struggle continues now more than

ever with increasing urgency. There is nosubstitute for women and men mobilizing todemand their rights. These independent massactions, along with our efforts to build alabor- and community-based independentparty, show our determination that reproduc-tive rights are inherent to our well-being andemancipation.

VOICES FOR LCIP

Coral Wheeler,Editorial Bd. member,

The Organizer

While we denounce the Trump administra-tion and work to build the broadest unity todemand the closing of the camps, we have tosee the bigger picture if we are to put an endto this scourge and actually obtain justice forthe millions of migrants forced out of theircommunities in Mexico and Central Americaas a result of policies (U.S.-backed interven-tions, coups, and “free trade” agreements) im-posed by the U.S. government.

The stepped-up attacks against immigrantsactually began in 1996 under DemocraticPresident Bill Clinton, and they intensifiedunder Obama, the “Deporter-in-Chief.”(Obama, in fact, deported more than 3.2 mil-

lion people, increasing the budget for “borderenforcement” by 24%, or $18 billion).

When the Democratic Party leadershipcaved to Trump, voting on June 26, 2019, tosupport the Trump administration’s request foran additional $4.6 billion for “enhanced bor-der security,” labor and immigrant rights ac-tivists across the country could not containtheir anger.

Building politically independent labor-com-munity coalitions that incorporate the fight for

immigrant rights (Papers for All, Abolish ICE,Stop the Deportations, Tear Down the Wall ofShame) among their primary demands andmobilize around them is the place to start.

The union leaders and activists who formedthe Labor and Community for an IndependentParty (LCIP) are promoting these coalitionsas the building blocks of an independent partyof labor and the communities of the op-pressed.

Join the effort!

Colia Lafayette Clark,Civil Rights organizer

Here we stand straight and tall after400 plus years: The cry to organize laboris housed in the history of the African

Descendants’ experience in the U.S.,from sickouts, crop destruction, “no payno work” in the enslavement days to theorganization of tenants farmers in farmsector and organization of steel workersin urban sectors.

The fight for labor rights seems anever-ending struggle — from unioniz-ing chicken workers and farm labor tothe struggle to unionize autoworkers. Werefuse to accept the lie of a “Right toWork” Law, which Dr. King labeled as"the right not to work.” A labor partywith Black Brown and Yellow leader-ship, inclusive of rural workers, is des-perately needed. Now is the right time.Yes, Joe Hill, we will go on and organ-ize. Victory is Ours.

12

By Shamus Cooke,Member, Portland

(OR) DSAA Green New Deal is a fine demand, but ul-

timately the project is hopeless if it’s executedunder a capitalist umbrella. Only a socialistGreen New Deal can deliver a thorough trans-formation of society demanded by the situa-tion, coordinating the vast wealth andtechnology of the country while inviting morenations into the project, since climate changeis as global as capitalism.

The stakes are high. David Wallace-Wells’s“The Uninhabitable Earth” is just one compi-lation of the scientific research showing howclimate change is likely more catastrophicthan previously thought, and happening muchsooner. Capitalism has proved time and againits unwillingness to redirect its energies to-wards human needs; it knows only short-terminvestor profit.

A socialist Green New Deal will require amore democratic State, and a more democraticeconomy where the major polluters, banks,and other large corporations are made publicutilities. Making a Green New Deal-sized eco-nomic pivot requires that the economy be co-ordinated to this goal, a mission impossiblewhen the corporations are privately owned byprofit-seekers, pulled in various directions bythe dictates of the market and shareholders,who use their wealth to push policy makers intheir respective directions.

The working class first needs a politicalparty of its own, as exists in most developedand semi-developed nations in the world. TheDemocratic Party teaches dependence on in-dividual politicians who are themselves de-pendent on big corporations, while a LaborParty can teach the working class to be de-pendent only on itself.

If Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders were to co-lead the creation of a Labor Party, millions ofpeople would flock to their banner — but asof now they’re attracting people to the tatteredand soiled banner of the Democratic Party.

Without learning the lessons from the fail-ure of the New Deal era, socialists will bedoomed to fall into similar traps laid by thesuper-rich to divert energy into the dead ends— in order to prevent a mass movement fromactually threatening their power and wealth.Any movement that doesn’t directly confronttheir power and wealth will be undermined by

it, and eventually destroyed. There is no short-cut around capitalism— and the parties thatprop it up— if the goal is transformativechange.

The Green New Deal can either be used tosmash through corporate interests to usher ina socialist organization of society, or capital-ists will exploit the Green New Deal to pre-vent socialism, clinging to the idea like a liferaft — in the hopes that the result will be a se-ries of modest, market-based reforms thatserve to save capitalism at the expense of theclimate and humanity.

(excerpted from a much longer piecepublished on CounterPunch.org on May 8,2019, reprinted with author’s permission)

Jim Lafferty, Exec.Director Emeritus,Los Angeles National

Lawyers Guild

The debate within the Democratic Party,and among Americans opposing the re-elec-tion of Donald Trump, over whether the partyshould nominate a candidate from the “mod-erate wing” or the “liberal wing” of the party,misses the much more critical debate that allAmericans should be having: Whether theelection of any candidate in the DemocraticParty, since it, like the Republican Party is acapitalist party, offers the slightest hope of ar-resting climate change in time to save hu-mankind from a life of extreme deprivationand barbarism?

In the New York Times Sunday Review,(February 17, 2019), an article titled “Time to

Panic” tells us that, “In October, the UnitedNations Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange released what has become known asits ‘Doomsday’ report — ‘a deafening, pierc-ing smoke alarm going off in the kitchen,’ asone United Nations official describes it.” Andas the Times article goes on to point out, afterseveral decades of reticence on behalf of theworld’s climate scientists, lest they be accusedof panicky over-reaction, “It is O.K. finally, tofreak out. Even reasonable.”

It is my contention that by now it should beclear to all people willing to face the factssquarely, that it’s actually long past time to“freak out,” and that climate change won’t begenuinely and meaningfully addressed so longas we have a capitalist government. It’s toolate for wishful thinking; for hoping againstall of our better judgment that the capitalistclass will finally come to its senses and “dothe right thing.”

Consider: In recent years, despite moreawareness and acceptance by the capitalistclass that climate change is real and has a“human-cause,” and despite more efforts to“go green,” in each of the past several yearsmore, not less, greenhouse gasses were annu-ally released into the atmosphere. In simpleterms, our house — planet Earth — is now onfire. And there is simply no evidence, giventhe very nature of capitalism, that the capitalistform of governance can put out this fire intime to save our planet.

Already millions of people have been lefthomeless as a consequence of climate change.A front-page headline in the August 6 NewYork Times proclaims, “A Quarter of Human-ity Faces Looming Water Crisis,” and the tagline states, “Climate change is making theproblem worse.”

Annual reports from various global climatechange scientists and agencies make it clearthat the problem is accelerating even fasterthan first feared.

Millions of us should be in the streets de-manding an end to capitalist exploitation ofthe earth’s resources and the establishment ofa socialist government fully committed todrastic regulation of what we produce, howmuch we produce, and how it is produced.

We can’t elect our way out of this crisis nextNovember, no matter who wins the presiden-tial and Congressional election.

(excerpted from longer piece published inLA Progressive on August 28, 2019,reprinted with author’s permission)

VOICES FOR LCIP

The Green New Deal and the Need for Independent Politics

13

A Contribution tothe Discussion

By Ralph Schoenman andMya Shone, EditorialBoard, The Organizer

To Fight Back, We Need aLabor Party Based on theUnions and Rooted in the

Communities of theOppressed That Fights For:

• A Massive Jobs-Creation Program –End All U.S. Wars and Occupations!

We need to rebuild our decaying infra-structure, including our roads, bridges, lev-ees, schools, and hospitals. The trillionsspent on the U.S. wars and occupationsaround the world should be used to create afederal jobs-creation program with union-scale wages, benefits and pensions. The tril-lions should be spent on education,healthcare, and housing! Shut down all U.S.military bases overseas! Bring all U.S.troops home now!

• $15 and a Union — with COLA!All workers deserve a living wage that

lifts families out of poverty and provides adecent life. All workers deserve the peace ofmind that comes with a safe job free fromtoxins and dangerous working conditions.

• Tax the Rich, Confiscate AllSpeculative Funds!

Repeal the Trump tax hold-up and give-away to the 1%. Make the rich pay their fairshare to fund socially necessary services andjob-creation. Re-regulate Wall Street, andconfiscate all Wall Street speculative funds!

• Promote Workers’ Right to Unionize,Stop and Reverse All Privatizations!

Stop and reverse all “Right to Work” (forless) laws. Stop the layoffs. “Taft Hartley”and “striker replacement” laws that hurtworkers must be repealed. We need the Em-ployee Free Choice Act (or Card Check) andfull collective-bargaining rights for publicemployees. Stop and reverse all privatizationand deregulation schemes of schools, thepost office, transit and other public services;all are aimed at lowering wages and elimi-nating unions. Return them to public owner-ship.

• Single Payer Healthcare Now!For Single Payer healthcare now; take the

insurance companies and their profits out ofthe healthcare equation. Hands Off Medicaidand Medicare. Strengthen and improve So-cial Security and Medicare!

• Affordable Housing / No Foreclosures!Gentrification is expanding everywhere;

no working class residents should be drivenfrom their homes by banking/ mortgagepredators, real estate speculators or by hardeconomic times!

• Free and Quality Education, StopCharter Schools and Vouchers!

The cost of pre-school and higher educa-tion falls heaviest on working families,denying full opportunity to young workers.Free and quality education should be a basichuman right from kindergarten through Col-lege. The “No Child Left Behind” Act (nowthe Every Student Succeeds Act) stifleslearning, does not prepare students forhigher education, is aimed at privatizingschools, and funnels students to the military.It should be repealed. Stop all funding forCharter Schools. Stop Vouchers!

• A National Energy/Mass TransitSystem!

For the nationalization of oil, gas andother energy companies to end the manipula-tion of energy markets and to combat globalwarming. We need mass transportation sys-tems affordable to the people; retool Detroitto build high-speed trains!

• Civil Rights and Privacy Protection!Ensure Voting Rights for All!

End workplace harassment and discrimi-nation against union activists, unorganized,immigrant and injured workers. Repeal theso-called “Patriot Acts” and other laws thatdestroy our civil liberties. Protect freespeech, press and assembly! Voting rights,especially for Blacks and Latinos, are underattack; protect the right to vote!

• Defend Women’s Rights! End SexualHarassment & Violence, End Anti-LGBTQ Bigotry!

Guarantee access to contraception andabortion for all women. Reverse all restric-tions on abortion rights. Stop the attacks onPlanned Parenthood. Stop all forms of dis-crimination in the workplace and all sexualharassment and violence against women onand off the job. End all anti-LGBTQ bigotry!

• End Police Violence, For CivilianReview Boards with “Teeth”!

We must put a stop to the epidemic of po-lice violence and killings. Killer cops mustbe brought to justice. We need Civilian Re-view Boards with the power to hire and fire.Free Mumia and all political prisoners!

• Repeal All “Free Trade” Agreements!Trade treaties like NAFTA and CAFTA,

backed by the two parties of the bosses, aredesigned to depress wages and oppressworkers in every country. They should be re-pealed and replaced with agreements that re-spect the rights of workers and their unions,along with enforceable and sustainable envi-ronmental protections.

• Papers For All, Not One MoreDeportation!

Stop the ICE raids and deportations! Pa-pers for all undocumented immigrants! Allworkers should have full rights to organizeand join unions. Create a just asylumprocess. Current policies make virtual inden-tured servants of immigrants, serving tolower the wages of all workers. Stop fundingICE! Tear Down the “Wall of Shame!”

VOICES FOR LCIP

14

Jerry Gordon,Founder, Labor

Fightback Network

[Note: The following has been excerptedfrom a statement written by now-departedLabor Fightback Network founder JerryGordon that was adopted in August 2016by the Steering Committee of the LFN.]

As has long been the pattern of labor pol-itics — with a growing number of dis-senters among a number of unions andmillions of rank-and-file workers — “lesserevil” is the controlling consideration in de-termining labor’s strategy.

But “lesser evil” is not working out. TheDemocratic Party is corporate-controlledand remains subservient to the big moneyrollers, not to the working class. Today thatparty stands exposed for the sham that itcontinues to perpetrate as the “party of thepeople.”

It is high time for labor to challenge themonopoly that Big Business exercises inthe electoral arena.

To be sure, this requires the spearheadingof a coalition with its community allies.Labor could be a magnetic force in helpingto unite tens of millions in support of a pro-gram that reflects the needs of workers,communities of color, youth, environmen-talists, and other progressive forces.

For the above reasons, the Labor Fight-back Network urges the formation of inde-pendent labor-community coalitions incities and states around the country basedon a program collectively decided. Suchcoalitions, functioning democratically,could serve as building blocks for a na-tional party, an independent Labor-basedparty, which is indispensable, and in themeanwhile run its own candidates to chal-lenge the status quo. The alternative is de-spair, dissolution, and irrelevance.

Labor’s failure to seize this rare momentwill mean a continuation of the old politicswhich has led to a deepening of multiplecrises: unending imperialist wars, as inAfghanistan; the escalation of gunningdown unarmed people of color on ourstreets by cops out of control; social pro-grams under attack by both parties; massiveunemployment and under-employment;mass incarceration; runaway militaryspending; tens of millions without health-care and millions more severely under-in-sured; the further poisoning of ourenvironment; 50 million people living inpoverty while 2/3 of all corporations pay noincome taxes; unending assaults on abor-tion rights; climate change and more frack-ing.

‘Labor Must Seize the Moment!’

FLOC Endorses LCIP!On November 11, 2018, the executive

board of the Farm Labor OrganizingCommittee (FLOC, AFL-CIO) endorsedthe LCIP campaign. FLOC represents23,000 mostly-Latino farmworkers inthe Midwest and North Carolina. Theunion is presently boycotting e-cigarettemaker VUSE and seeking a collective-bargaining agreement with its parentcompany, British American Tobacco.

LCIP organizers have now gatheredmore than 350 individual endorsements,mostly from local union officers andrank-and-file activists, in support of theLCIP campaign’s two-prong objectives:running independent labor-communitycandidates beginning in 2020 at thelocal level, and promoting the discus-sion in the labor movement about theneed for an independent labor-based po-litical party.

Teamsters Local 808Endorses LCIP!

“Teamsters Local 808 stands in sup-port of the LCIP and its political objec-tives. Building of a Workers Party — atruly independent political party, withindependent resources for the workingclass — will require years to build. Iurge our supporters to stay the courseuntil victory is achieved. The road willbe bumpy, with lots of turns, but wemust not be deterred.”

TOWARD A LABOR-BASED PARTY

15

‘Putting OrganizingMeat on the Bonesof the Two AFL-CIO

Conventions’[Note: The article below by Paul Street

is excerpted from a longer piece publishedon truthdig.org in February 2019. Thename of the coalition in the initial articlewas Labor Community Campaign for anIndependent Party (LCCIP). The namehas since been slightly abridged, for morepopular usage, to Labor and Communityfor an Independent Party (LCIP), which isthe name we are utilizing below to avoidconfusion. — LCIP ]

Labor and Community for an IndependentParty (LCIP) is an effort to put real organiz-ing meat on the bones of two resolutionspassed at the 2017 AFL-CIO Convention.“Whether the candidates are elected from theRepublican or Democratic Party,” the firstresolution stated, “the interests of WallStreet have been protected and advanced,while the interests of labor and working peo-ple have generally been set back.”

The second resolution concluded that “thetime has passed when we can passively settlefor the lesser of two evils politics.”

Moving seriously on that language tomake it more than just noise means connect-ing with working people on the jobs and inthe communities where they live. As LCIPendorser Chris Silvera, the secretary-trea-surer of Teamsters Local 808 in Long IslandCity, N.Y., told me last week, “We need tostart small, where people work and live. Weneed to build up from where we can actuallywin: city council, then maybe mayoral, thengubernatorial.”

Silvera added that “a desperate workingclass” doesn’t have the resources to decidepresidential campaigns, [but] they do havetime and energy for backing local and statecandidates who advocate for working peopleand communities on issues directly relevantto their lives.

Another LCIP advocate is NancyWohlforth, a former member of the AFL-CIO executive board who describes herselfas one of labor’s “notorious third-party ac-tivists.” Wohlforth said she thinks the presi-dential spectacle is out of play forprogressives ... [b]ut on a local level, shesaid, “We can have some movement.”

[Yet another] LCIP sponsor, Donna De-witt, is former chair of the South CarolinaAFL-CIO and current chair of the SouthCarolina Labor Party.

TOWARD A LABOR-BASED PARTY

LCIP OrganizingCommittee Members(Organizations & titles for id. only)

Baldemar Velasquez, President, Farm LaborOrganizing Committee (FLOC); AFL-CIOexecutive council, MacArthur Fellow; Orderof the Aztec Eagle, Mexico’s highest awardfor a noncitizen, Toledo, OH; NancyWohlforth, Secretary-Treasurer Emerita, Of-fice and Professional Employees Union(OPEIU); former chair, Pride at Work; formerAFL-CIO executive council, Washington,DC; Donna Dewitt, Past President, SouthCarolina AFL-CIO; Co-Chair of the SCLabor Party; Steering Committee, LaborFightback Network; Southern Workers As-sembly; former National Council, LaborParty, Orangeburg, SC; Chris Silvera, Sec-retary-Treasurer, Teamsters Local 808; for-mer President, Teamsters National BlackCaucus; Co-Convener, Million WorkerMarch, Long Island City; Alan Benjamin,

OPEIU Local 29 delegate to SF Labor Coun-cil; Past Executive Committee member, SFLabor Council; Editorial Board member, TheOrganizer Newspaper, San Francisco, CA;Don Bryant, Steering Committee, LaborFightback Network; National Association ofLetter Carriers (NALC), retired, Cleveland,OH; Michael Carano, Tallmadge CityCouncil member; Teamsters Local 348, re-tired; Adjunct organizer, Kent Part-Time Fac-ulty Alliance, Tallmadge, OH; LindaCarnes, Secretary Treasurer, South CarolinaLabor Party, SC; Sandy Eaton, Massachu-setts Nurses Union, Quincy, MA; Jim Laf-ferty, Executive Director Emeritus, NationalLawyers Guild, L.A.; Jerry Levinsky,Steering Committee member, Labor Fight-back Network; SEIU 509, Amherst, MA;Mícheál Madden, IATSE Local 16, SanFrancisco, CA; Millie Phillips, EditorialBoard, The Organizer Newspaper; Past Co-chair, Golden Gate Chapter, Labor Party; Re-tired, IBEW Local 1245, Oakland, CA; AlRojas, Co-founder with César Chávez,United Farm Workers of America (UFW);National Coordinator, Driscoll’s BoycottCampaign; Executive Board, SacramentoLabor Council for Latin American Advance-ment (AFL-CIO), Sacramento, CA; Ed-uardo Rosario; President, New York Citychapter, Labor Council for Latin AmericanAdvancement (LCLAA-AFL-CIO), NewYork City, NY; Ralph Schoenman, Member,Socialist Organizer National OrganizingCommittee; Taking Aim, Vallejo, CA; MyaShone, Past vice-chair, Tri-County Chapter(Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Ventura),Labor Party; Member, Socialist OrganizerNational Organizing Committee; TakingAim, Vallejo, CA; Tom Sodders, SteeringCommittee member, Labor Education & ArtsProject; Cleveland, OH; Clarence Thomas,Co-Convener, Million Worker March; PastSecretary Treasurer, ILWU Local 10, Oak-land, CA; Coral Wheeler, Editorial Board,The Organizer newspaper, Los Angeles, CA;Brad Wiedmaier, labor and community ac-tivist, San Francisco, CA.

Nancy Wohlforth, Sec.-Treas.Emerita, OPEIU

16

APWU Pres. Mark Dimondstein’sMessage to Eugene V. DebsCentennial Commemoration

TOWARD A LABOR-BASED PARTY

[Note: Following are major excerpts from amessage sent to the Debs Centennial Com-memoration, held in Cleveland, Ohio, onOctober 5-6, 2018, under the sponsorship ofthe Labor Education and Arts Project.]

Dear Sisters and Brothers:I salute you for having this fitting assembly

100 years after the legendary Debs’ outstand-ing anti-War World I stance and famousspeech – at a current time when bipartisan,endless and unjust wars for regime change linethe pockets of the military industrial complex,and bring unspeakable hardships and horrorsthe world over.

I was asked to speak on the question of “anindependent political party based in thelabor movement,” an issue I have beeninvolved with for many decades, includ-ing in the Labor Party efforts under thecreative leadership of Tony Mazzocchiand the Oil, Chemical and AtomicWorkers Union (OCAW).

Let me share a few of my thoughts onthis subject by quoting comments Iwrote to the APWU membership beforeand after the 2016 election.

In September 2015, I shared the fol-lowing thoughts on the coming presi-dential election and asked members fortheir input:

“Everywhere we turn, and no matterwhich party is in power, CorporateAmerica is having their way at the ex-pense of the rest of us, the 99%. WallStreet dominates the policies of our gov-ernment and the corporate overlords laugh allthe way to the bank...

“In 2008, Democrats won the White House,the Senate and the House of Representatives.The Senate had a filibuster-proof majority. Yetlegislation to raise the minimum wage to a liv-ing wage was not passed. Legislation guaran-teeing paid sick leave was not passed. TheEmployee Free Choice Act, which was prom-ised and which would have helped level theplaying field for workers trying to organizeunions, was not passed. Legislation to end thecongressionally manu- factured pre-fundingcrisis that is strangling the Postal Service wasnot passed...

“During the 2016 election cycle, postal

workers should certainly look to elect and re-elect pro-worker candidates no matter whichparty they are from. The APWU can also pro-mote issue-based ballot initiatives, such as liv-ing-wage provisions that uplift workers, ourfamilies and our communities. But we shouldalso help find a way out of the ‘lesser-of-two-evils’ choices we are continually offered andbuild an independent political movementwhere we are not taken for granted by politi-cians, where elections are not bought and sold,and where our elected representatives are trulyaccountable to the people.”

After the election I had this to say:“[T]his election was truly a revolt against

the status quo, against the elites and against

‘politics as usual.’ While we have many ter-rific friends in Congress and will continue towork to elect worker-friendly candidates, thefundamental politics of both the Democrat andRepublican parties over the last few decadeshave undercut and failed the working class...

“It [the presidential election] did not workout as the two corporate-controlled partiesplanned. They failed to understand that the99%, especially the working class, are fightingmad. We, the workers, have been kicked in thegut by a rigged system. We suffer from down-ward mobility, a loss of manufacturing jobs torotten trade deals, tax structures favoring thewealthy, an infrastructure crumbling aroundus, our water poisoned, an economic ‘recov-

ery’ going to the top 1%, glaring and growingincome inequality, and unaffordable health-care and college education. ...

“We were once again stuck with the ‘lesserof two evils’ choice. There was no independ-ent political party accountable to us, the work-ers.”

I appreciate the opportunity to share thesefew thoughts with your gathering. Our unionhas been struggling with how to fight our wayout of the political quagmire. At our 2016 na-tional convention, attended by 2,000 dele-gates, we passed a resolution “Exploring NewDirections for Labor in Electoral Politics”which stated:

“In addition to the traditional supporting ofelectoral candidates who are friends andallies of postal workers, the APWU willalso pursue a strategy of advancing ourcore issues through referenda, initiativesand propositions at the statewide andlocal level; study the viability of inde-pendent and third party politics; and ex-plore the possibility of creating a newlabor-based political party, or any otherreasonable means of advancing the inter-ests of labor in electoral politics.” TheAPWU presented a similar resolution tothe October 2017 AFL-CIO Constitu-tional Convention, which passed in aslightly watered-down form.

Since this is a Centennial meeting ofthe outstanding labor leader Eugene V.Debs, let me close with two of his manygreat statements.

One apropos to the subject you askedme to speak on: “You have got to unite in thesame labor union and in the same politicalparty and strike and vote together, and thehour you do that, the world is yours.”

The other helps ground any genuine work-ing-class leader with the right orientation tothe members we represent and I hold its sen-timents close at hand in my work as a unionpresident: “When I rise, it will be with theranks, not from the ranks.”

In Union Solidarity,Mark DimondsteinPresidentAmerican Postal Workers Union