Labor party

“ The Labor Party To-day.—The Independent Labor Party has been throughout its history avowedly socialistic. It has sought and obtained the adherence of thousands of laboring men, some of whom are, and some of whom are not, socialists. But its character is too radical to attract the mass of trade-union members and alongside it there has grown up a larger and broader organization known simply as the Labor Party. ”

“ Unquestionably there will be a Labor party in the next canvass. We are sorry it is denominated the Labor party, because it should be something more than a Labor party, and because this is a direct challenge to capital, and it will very probably result in arraying these two interests in an antagonism which will be but a repetition of the slavery antagonism. No party built upon a specific idea, looking in a single direction, can ever attain to even the promise of permanency ”

“ We call ourselves the labor party because the vital interest and the strength of numbers of the working class alone have the power to establish the order aimed at by socialism. And mark well, under working people we do not understand merely the hand workers, but every one who does not live on the labor of another. ”

“ In fact, the sole attack on the union labor administration by its enemies is that it is a political effort to protect the job, to-wit, the property of the union men, to the detriment of the property of other proprietors, the merchant, the manufacturer and the small capitalist. In England, where the unionists went into politics on their own account under the name of the Independent Labor Party, the essential unity of the union man with the petite-bourgeoisie has been shown in the fact that the Independent Labor Party has become little more than an appendage of the Liberal Party. ”

“ Our young Labor Party is now on the way towards becoming a great political party, and its next task, as it has itself recognized, is the work of consolidation in a national Party. With its growth and the simultaneous increase in political influence, the need of that enlightenment which is now naturally wanting, will become more urgent in order that the Labor Party may press with full intelligence towards the attainment of its main object, the political and economic emancipation of the Laboring Class. ”

“ A great economy of effort is assured by having a platform and organization practically identical for the Federal, State and municipal elections, and for general propaganda work, and consequently being able to utilize the same bodies—the local political labor leagues—and the same workers for what seems to them social righteousness, whether in national, State, or municipal concerns. The Labor party was born of trades-unionism, and its whole administration has been based on trades union methods. ”

“ The working class under the Labor Party is in essentially the same condition that it has been in under all the other administrations, nor is there the slightest prospect that its condition will be changed. ”

“ Business men have confidence in our Party. They know that we will do the right thing by them, and when in the next campaign the wicked orators of the opposition arise and say that the Labor Party is a party of disturbers and revolutionists, we can point to these facts and overwhelm them. ”

“ The ultimate purposes of the Labor party which are to obtain control of legislation, may be productive of much good, or may be made the most fruitful cause of national disaster. We have all the time endeavored to show that the real interests of both capital and labor lie in the direction of complete unity ”

“ But the activity of this labor party is the most powerful means to awaken and to further class consciousness in the masses of labor, also. It knows only objects and tasks which have to do with the whole proletariat; the trade narrowness, the jealousies of single and separate organizations, find no place in it." [270]
It is easy to see how an equally strong case might be made out for the educative, unifying, and revolutionary effect of an aggressive labor union movement without any political features. ”

“ Thus far labor has sought to elect to office in this country men more or less friendly to labor in the older political parties. The Conference for Progressive Political Action, formed in February, 1922, as a result of a call of the machinists, railroad brotherhoods, etc., may later develop a powerful national Labor Party. ”

“ The Socialist Labor party believes that the political is the reflection of the economic. With this belief in mind it aided in launching the I. W. W., and protected it from the onslaughts of reaction.... The Socialist Labor party has not, however, had the courage of its convictions, ... [because] having aided in founding and protecting the economic organization that is to reflect the true political party of labor, [it] refuses to vacate the field to its untrammeled and logical development. ”

“ The fully developed labor-unionist uses both his economic and political power in the interest of his class. He understands that the struggle between labor and capital is a class struggle; that the working class are in a great majority, but divided, some in trades-unions and some out of them, some in one political party and some in another; that because they are divided they are helpless and must submit to being robbed of what their labor produces, and treated with contempt; that they must unite their class in the trades-union on the one hand and in the Socialist party on the other hand ”

“ Not for all the vote of the American Federation of Labor and its labor-dividing and corruption breeding craft-unions should we compromise one jot of our revolutionary principles; and if we do we shall be visited with the contempt we deserve by all real Socialists, who will scorn to remain in a party professing to be a revolutionary party of the working class while employing the crooked and disreputable methods of ward-heeling politicians to attain their ends. ”

“ Should it come to pass that the two great American political parties oppose labor legislation as they now favor it, it would be the imperative duty of unionists to form a third party to secure some measure of reform. ”

“ Although the labor vote is largely "undeliverable," still where the parties are more or less evenly matched in strength, that portion of the labor vote which is politically conscious of its economic interests may swing the election to whichever side it turns. Under certain conditions [108] labor has been known even to attain through such indirection in excess of what it might have won had it come to share in power as a labor party. ”

“ The Labor party is very large numerically, though its membership is to a great extent quiescent and apathic, consisting of men and women who have joined the Trade Unions because their workmates are Trade Unionists and to share the friendly benefits. But we recognize that the great size of the Labor Party is also due to the fact that it is the creation of a school of thought beyond which the majority of the British working class has not yet emerged, though great changes are at work in the minds of the people, which will presently alter this state of affairs. ”

“ To the outsider these conclusions may appear novel, but labor in America learned these lessons through a long experience, which began when the first workingmen's parties were attempted in 1828-1832. The limited potentialities of labor legislation together with the apparent hopelessness of labor party politics compelled the American labor movement to develop a sort of non-partisan political action with limited objectives thoroughly characteristic of American conditions. ”

“ The labor movement has gone into politics. The most overt form of this policy is the formation of a labor party like the one so successful in England. Less direct but still effective is the method used by American unions of supporting the party which seems most likely to serve labor’s interests. Peasants’ leagues and farmers’ groups had been formed to take direct political action, but none achieved such spectacular success as these labor groups. Unlike the peasants, the laborers had to a large extent provided their own leadership. ”

“ A new attempt to induce the unions to enter upon independent political action was made recently by the Labor Party of the United States, subsequently amalgamated with other groups to form the Farmer-Labor Party. ”

“ The rise of the national labor party and its demands shows this very strongly. Ever since 1829 the workingman had been in politics in some of the states, and had secured many reforms. But no national labor congress was held till 1865, after which like congresses were held each year till 1870, when a national convention was called to form a "National Labor-Reform Party." ”

“ If, as the Socialist candidate for president, I were seeking office and the spoils of office I would be a traitor to the Socialist party and a disgrace to the working class.
To be sure we want all the votes we can get and all that are coming to us but only as a means of developing the political power of the working class in the struggle for industrial freedom, and not that we may revel in the spoils of office.
Political Power.
The workers have never yet developed or made use of their political power. ”

“ There will a party arise having these objects in view, and it need not be predicted that such a party, once organized, will begin a new era in the history of governments, for sufficient comprehension of what the future will be exists to make this a foregone conclusion. The Labor Party should make itself that party. ”

“ Moreover, should labor discontent attain depth, it may be safely assumed that either one or the other of the old parties or a faction therein will seek to divert its driving force into its own particular party channel. Should the labor party still persist, the old party politicians, whose bailiwick it will have particularly invaded, will take care to encourage, by means not always ethical but nearly always effective, strife in its ranks. ”

“ In this program, the trades-union and the Socialist party, the economic and political wings of the labor movement, should not only not be in conflict, but act together in perfect harmony in every struggle whether it be on the one field or the other, in the strike or at the ballot box. ”

“ Wage laborers reproduce the state, commodity production and the division of labor in the very act of reproducing themselves. —'Workers' Council power' exists therefore in our country in the sense that the Party leaders govern the country in the name of the Workers' Councils.
It is not enough merely to destroy the institutions of monopoly capitalism. ”

“ Your economic organization can never become a political machine, but your economic organization must recognize and proclaim the necessity for a united political party. You ought to pass a resolution recognizing the class struggle, declaring your opposition to the capitalist system of private ownership of the means of production, and urging upon the working class the necessity for working class political action. ”

“ Trades-unions, coöperative societies, industrial congresses, and lastly, that herculean infant, the Labor Reform Party, are extending themselves all over the countries we have just named, and particularly over the United States. They are daily gaining strength and influence. Politicians are thinking how to obtain the favor of this party, at the least cost to their popularity among other partisans. ”

“ Within a few decades after the political movement began, many States had passed lien laws, had taken active measures to establish efficient free schools, had abolished imprisonment for debt, had legislative inquiry into factory conditions, and had recognized the ten-hour day. These had been the leading demands of organized labor, and they had been brought home to the public conscience, in part at least, by the influence of the workingmen’s votes.
It was not until after the Civil War that labor achieved sufficient national homogeneity to attempt seriously the formation of a national party. ”

“ The Socialist Party has never understood these cardinal facts. Its working principle, real enough even though unexpressed, has always been a presumption that it could secure its membership and backing from the citizenry generally. It has not realized that all labor parties must have as their foundation not only the masses, but the masses organized in the trade unions. ”

“ The workingmen of our country, too, are waking up to the game that is being played on them. A workingman's party, the Socialist party, is in the field. This party is run by workingmen. It is not like the old parties. It is honest and open about what it wants. You know right where it stands.
We want to get higher wages and lower hours. We want to give all the help we can to the labor unions. We want government pensions for old and worn-out workers. We want the government to pay sick and accident insurance to workingmen. ”

“ The high-water mark of this brand of revolutionism was reached in the State of Washington, when these [Pg 295] revolutionary elements in the Socialist Party withdrew to form a new workingmen's party, the chief novelty of which was a plank dividing the organization into "an active list and an assistant list, only wage workers being admitted to the active list." The wage workers were defined as the class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live. ”

“ In reality, American labor parties are spared this sort of trouble by trials of an anterior order residing in the nature of American politics.
The American political party system antedates the formation of modern economic classes, especially the class alignment of labor and capital. Each of the old parties represents, at least in theory, the entire American community regardless of class. Party differences are considered differences of opinion or of judgment on matters of public policy, not differences of class interest. ”