Do Workers And Unions Need To Abandon Democrats For A True Labor Party?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/14149

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By Doug Cunningham

In Minneapolis Thursday a small group of activists met to kick off what they hope will be a national campaign for “a mass party of labor”. John Peterson of the Workers International League is urging workers and their unions to abandon the major parties and form a political party for workers. Not a new idea – but one Peterson hopes can gain some traction.

: “We feel what we need in this country is a different political party. Not a party that caters to big business. Not a party who's main financing comes from the big corporations, but a party that actually represents and responds to the needs of working people, who make up the vast majority of people in the United States of America."

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. And I Need To Avoid Pizza And Chips So I Can Have Six Pack Abs

We all can dream...

[reggie the dog]

8. work out my friend

being in shape helps 31 year old men attract 20 year old lingerie models, is that enough motivation for you???

[mediaman007]

2. I will follow labor.

I understand why the Democrats are giving more attention to corporations. But we do need to find candidates that can speak for the labor movement. But first we need to initiate a new labor movement. Millions of workers are unorganized and uninformed. Unions are not just about salary and working conditions. Someone has to be at state legislatures and at Congress to speak to labor's needs and/or speak to labor's position on various legislation. Right to Work states aren't worried about negotiations. They don't want labor involved in legislation.

[TBF]

3. This country was set up to have two parties -

I doubt third parties will ever have much traction here. Possibly if it were big enough and filed as Independent.

More likely that working class movements could accomplish things - but that is going to have to mean marches/strikes and we need to get started.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. It's An Iroclad Law Of American Politics

With its two party, winner take all system of allocating seats, third parties invariably and ironically hurt the party closest to them in ideology and help the party furthest from them.

What do you think would happen to Republicant chances in 010 if Teabaggers ran viable candidates in every race?

[reggie the dog]

9. I hope they do

then the labor movement could run candidates too and we could have a 4 party system in which at least 2 parties would have to form a coalition to govern

[Historic NY]

11. LQQK at your ballot the next time you vote lots of parties but most just fill space...

and then become tools of the major parties.

[reggie the dog]

16. i know

but the tea party movement i think has the power to break the republicans in half, if the left divided then and had to make a coalition to govern that could be very intersting, i would vote for the labor party but my natural allies in congress, though they would be to my right, would be the Democrats and our common interest would be to assure that labor democrats made up a majority of the house and senate, joint labor democrat pres and vp tickets could be something to look at too, with sharing of senate and house committees etc.

[myrna minx]

5. The Minnesota Democratic Party is called the DFL , which

stands for Democratic Farmer Labor Party. Our Minnesota party has a rather populist history, more so than the national party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Democratic_Farmer_Labor_Party

No comment on what these folks are organizing, or if the DFL is meeting it's own mission, but I just wanted to bring some history to the discussion.

[old mark]

6. I don't think it would work here - look at the labor movement in France,

for example, where there are large organized protests of laborers and sympathizers...here, there is no such passion for labor's causes - the idea of workers sticking together is seen as foreign and "unAmerican"...the politicians really get scared of this idea, too - look at the labot movements here at the turn of the 19th-20th century...they were met by great violence from police and courts, many deportations, jailings, beatings and deaths to the workers...I doubt it would be much different today...police have great powers now.


mark

[Catshrink]

7. In the lead up to the Great Depression

labor unions were labeled "communist." In one of the many parallels between that time and this, unions today are demonized by the RW, especially public worker unions.

[blindpig]

10. Not just labeled...

Many were indeed commies, socialists and anarchists. They were generally considered to be the most effective of organizers, tireless and committed. William Z Foster was notable among these. One of the provisions of the execrable Taft-Hartley Act was to ban Communists from leadership position in unions. Not surprisingly the growth of unions stalled after that...

[old mark]

14. As a former AFSCME steward, many unions have become rather

meek and made it a policy to just go along to prevent "trouble"...the workers come in second to peace between the unions and the employer in way too many cases.
And people who want to push the unions to work harder are in for trouble...


mark

[MineralMan]

12. I doubt that makes a lot of practical sense.

Union members make up about 13-14% of the workforce, according to 2008 statistics. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/29labor.html

Splitting off from the Democratic party would result in little more than marginalizing those union members, I'm afraid. Further, not all union members vote for liberal candidates. That much is very clear. So, the influence would be reduced by whatever percentage voted for Republicans or other non-Democratic candidates.

A more effective strategy would be for rank and file union members to get heavily involved in their local democratic party organization and work to nominate more progressive candidates for local and national office. Since the actual democratic party organization is made up of a tiny fraction of Democratic voters, such an effort could shift party politics to the left.

Splintering off is not a workable strategy. It would only result in more Republican victories.

That is my opinion. You may take if for whatever you think it's worth.

[w4rma]

13. No. Purge every last DLCer from the Democratic Party. (nt)

[Recursion]

15. Why? Gephardt was very pro-union, wasn't he?

He's a founding DLC member.

Not to mention Hillary Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, John Kerry, and Jim Moran.

[TheKentuckian]

17. Because there has been a such thing as talking out of

both sides of your mouth.

You can't be pro-labor and execute policies that scuttle the movement, increase wealth disparity, make deals that empower the corporations at the expense of the people, create fee trade agreements that come at the expense of domestic labor, you can't deregulate and strengthen workers, and you sure as hell can't be breaking unions while pretending to back them.

The DLC/Blue Dog/New Democrat policies are the same neoliberal supply side nonsense as the Republicans have promoted for decades.

Rhetoric does not even begin to offset the pro-globalization, wage killing, money funnel, anti-regulation agenda of the conservatives.

[Recursion]

18. Are you equating "DLC" and "blue dogs"?

Here is the current membership of the DLC (actually the New Democrat Network; technically the DLC is just From, Bayh, Ford, and the Clintons):
http://www.nndb.com/group/269/000093987/

Here is the membership of the Blue Dog coalition:
http://www.house.gov/melancon/BlueDogs/Member%20Page.html

The following names are on both lists:
Ben Chandler
Jane Harman
Mike McIntyre
Loretta Sanchez
Adam Schiff
David Scott
John Tanner

Basically, Jane Harman and 6 people I've never heard of.

The New Democrat Network (which I think is what people on DU mean when they say "DLC") is people like Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton, Max Baucus... but also John Kerry and Al Gore.

The Blue Dog coalition is socially conservative Democrats from the south and west.

Not really much overlap, as I showed above.

[TheKentuckian]

19. I don't care about their roll call but rather their common ideology

They can call themselves the mamas and the papas for all I care.

[Recursion]

20. Yeah, but they don't have much common ideology

What do John Kerry and Max Baucus have in common ideologically?

[Individualist]

21. +1

DLC is the cancer which has destroyed the party.