A successful forum in New York discussed the tasks ahead for the working class and oppressed

By JOHN KIRKLAND 

On Saturday, Oct. 12, a forum, organized jointly by the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) and Workers’ Voice (WV), took place. More than 50 people gathered in the FSP’s Freedom Hall in New York’s Harlem district to hear speakers on the topic, “Build a Labor Party: A Voice for Workers and the Oppressed.”

The idea for a joint forum emerged from discussions between the FSP and WV on the topic of the labor party, in which both organizations agreed that they had a convergence of perspectives on the stakes of the 2024 election and the need for an independent political instrument for the working class and the oppressed.

The speakers included Elias Holtz, a member of the Writers Guild of America East and of the Freedom Socialist Party National Committee; Hutch, a long-time trade-union militant, a Teamster active in Labor for Palestine, and a member of Workers’ Voice; and Sultana Hossein, recording secretary for the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) / IBT Local 1, and a member of the National Mobilization for Reproductive Justice. A fourth scheduled speaker was unable to attend.

All three speakers gave lively answers to a series of questions developed by forum organizers. Following the presentations, the live stream was stopped to allow in-person audience members, watch parties in Seattle and the Bay Area, as well as Zoom participants to engage in discussions of the labor party question.

The audience in New York asked a series of important questions on the practicalities and potential pitfalls of the fight for working-class political independence: How do we address arguments to vote for the “lesser-evil?” How do we deal with the uneven political consciousness of workers, and especially backward thinking among co-workers? How do we deal with the labor bureaucracy and their subordination to the Democrats? Other audience members raised the idea of revolutionary socialist election campaigns as a vehicle for spreading the revolutionary program.

Need for a social transformation 

During the forum, the panelists weighed in on the possible role a labor party could play in U.S. and world politics.

Workers’ Voice member Hutch said, “When I think of a labor party, I first think of a rebuilt fighting labor movement, where the unions have been politicized. They’re mobilizing their members for not just the economic struggles on the job day to day but also for the larger political struggles around access to health care, abortion rights, the struggle for immigrant rights, solidarity for the freedom of Palestine. … I don’t think that we can build a labor party rooted in just a handful of workers in their workplaces shouting for a labor party. It’s going to be a big social transformation that happens in the course of struggle in the course of big strikes … led by the rank and file.”

Sultana Hossein of the ALU continued, “When I think about a labor party, I think about us, every single person in this room right now, working-class people, who are organizing our communities. We are organizing around different struggles every single day, but we don’t actually have a political vehicle to push the things that we need as working-class people.”

FSP member Elais Holtz said, “A labor party is really harnessing the power of the working class and the power of the unions which we’ve seen the power of the unions over the past couple of years to advocate for their members and win demands. I think there’s a stark contrast to the ability to win in a strike struggle as compared to trying to pass legislation through the Democratic Party.”

Hutch discussed the potential effect of a labor party. “If you talk about a labor party,” he said, “It’s kind of opening up the idea of class independence. It’s opening up the idea that there’s alternatives we can fight for.” He continued, “It means every one of us in here going back into our workplaces, into our communities and having discussions, starting labor party clubs in your unions, and building that consciousness up in your unions. This will help revive the labor movement and at the same time build a political vehicle for us to advance our causes.”

Elais Holtz stated that in four more years, “We know we won’t be where we are [now]. We’ll be with a bigger right wing, we’ll be with more flooding, more climate change, more crisis, more attacks from the bosses. I’m sure a lot of people in this room agree, but I am losing my mind at how much the Democrats enable the far right. They let them get up there and say whatever they want, and they [Democrats] move to the right on immigration.”

Sultana Hossein pointed out that a labor party could “help us organize around so many different issues and movements. Just like in our unions, we’re not just organizing for material changes to our working conditions, better pay, safer working conditions, benefits … but seeing our unions as a vehicle for social justice in our communities as well. The things that actually affect workers on a day-to-day basis are not just in the workplace.”

She continued, “The same political parties that attack our unions are also attacking our reproductive rights, and I see a labor party as being a way to fight for us. In the Mobilization for Reproductive Justice, for example, a lot of the work we do is trying to get the AFL-CIO to convene an actual convention where we’re able to talk about the ways we together can fight for reproductive justice in our unions.

“Labor also plays a really critical role in the struggle for Palestinian liberation. As workers, we have a distinct power to actually shut down production and do what it takes to make those in power, the ruling class, actually listen to us … The labor party is a vehicle for us to be able  to organize to wield that power.”

Harnessing the power of the unions

In the months prior to the forum, both organizations published articles highlighting the fight for a labor party.

In the article “Build A Labor Party!,” the FSP argued that “a labor party could leverage the power of unions to demand an end to the occupation of Palestine, advance reproductive rights, defend immigrants and people of color from racist attacks, defeat anti-trans legislation, and mobilize to urgently deal with the climate crisis. It could lead union drives and help unions coordinate their campaigns for better wages and benefits. And it could be a powerful force to bring workers together in a united front to oppose the growing far right.

“In contrast to the corrupt parties of the bosses, a labor party could be led by members and able to hold candidates accountable to the platform. The timing is right. More people than ever are fed up with the Democratic and Republican parties, while unions have never been more popular.

“And why not! Organized labor has the power to push things forward, as shown by successes won during the 2023 strike wave. That power is desperately needed to answer the multiple crises of our moment.”

In August, Workers’ Voice member Ernie Gotta wrote, “Yes, we need a labor party! A response to Hamilton Nolan.” In this article, Gotta debunked the fantasy that the Democratic Party is an arena of struggle for working-class people and organizations: “The reason we need a labor party that is independent of the capitalists is the same reason we don’t let our bosses participate in our union meetings. Think about how absurd it would be if your boss had the same voting and speaking rights in your union meeting as you do. In the Democratic Party, it is far more serious because the capitalists have the money and the power in a very uneven coalition.”

Gotta continued, “A political party—whether Democrat, Republican, Green, or Labor—has a class character. The Democratic Party is an old formation that at one time was represented by presidential figures and slaveholders like Andrew Jackson. The Democrats masterfully shifted from being the leading defenders of chattel slavery to today acting as the leading proponents of wage slavery. They went from implementing Jim Crow laws to overseeing the New Jim Crow, mass incarceration, and the school-to-prison pipeline.”

Why a labor party and not a “third” party?

As Marxists, we believe in the central role of the working class in the struggle against capitalist exploitation and for socialism. At the same time, consistent Marxists join every fight against oppression. The struggles of the oppressed are inextricably linked to the struggles of the working class. One of the major tasks of the working class is achieving our independence from the capitalist parties who serve the interests of the ruling rich above all else.

The organized labor movement has some 14 million members in the U.S. A party based in a significant section of the unions and drawing into its ranks unorganized workers and women, Black and Latino/a organizations, and LGBTQI+ people would decisively shift every social and economic struggle—from police brutality protests to strikes—in favor of the working class.

In every election cycle, the energy and money of our unions is placed in service of a party that falls short of following through on its promises made to workers. Worse yet, the Democrats stabbed rail workers in the back by stopping a potential rail strike. It’s clear that the Democrats could not win elections without the unions’ get-out-the-vote efforts. Imagine how decisively the balance of class forces could shift because of the efforts of an independent labor party!

This successful forum is just the first step in a longer process of fighting for class independence. Comrades in Workers’ Voice and the Freedom Socialist Party have no illusions that we alone can win that fight. The fight for working-class political independence will require the unified activity of all forces on the left and in the unions who want to end the political subordination of our class to the bosses’ parties. Such a united front effort can win this fight.

Of course, building the new party will not be easy. It will also require a parallel fight to build a class-struggle leadership in the unions. Moreover, there is no guarantee that an independent labor party would have a revolutionary program. Most likely, militant workers would have to fight within the party for a consistent class-struggle and anti-capitalist program.

A working-class political party would stand in contrast to multi-class “progressive,” “green,” or “left” parties. The electoral platforms of these parties tend to compromise with ruling-class norms, advocating measures that would only go part of the way toward solving the basic problems faced by workers and the oppressed. Moreover, they often fail to engage with the day-to-day struggles of working people.

In comparison, a labor party would engage the power of the unions, and the many workers who do not yet have a union, in defense of workers’ rights and the oppressed. Imagine for a moment a party that fights for the rights of the Palestinian people instead of funding genocide. Imagine a party that will fight for affordable housing, national health care, and a real living wage for all workers!

A labor party, a fighting voice for workers and the oppressed, can and must be built. Such a party, one that struggles every day and not just on election day, offers the hope of a real alternative to the far right, the capitalist crisis, and the treachery of the Democrats. Let’s take the next step together! We have a world to win!

Readers can view a video of the forum HERE.

Photo: Panelists from left to right: Elais Holtz, Sultana Hossein, and Hutch.

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