BY FRANK FORRESTAL
PITTSBURGH - Some 1,400 delegates to the first
constitutional convention of the Labor Party met here November
13-15. The party was formed two years ago at a national
gathering in Cleveland, Ohio.
More than half of the delegates were from unions, with the overwhelming majority being elected officials from their respective unions, according to a credentials report given at the end of the conference. The largest delegations came from the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW), with 200 people; the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE); the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA); and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE).
There were significant delegations at the convention from the California Nurses Association; Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC); American Federation of Government Employees; the Mailhandlers Union; International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU); and the United Paperworkers International Union. There were also a layer of unionists from the Teamsters, the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE), and the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The convention also attracted a variety of radical trade unionists, socialists, and political activists in the labor movement.
The Labor Party grew out of the Labor Party Advocates, a formation initiated in 1991 at a convention of the OCAW in Denver, Colorado. Labor Party Advocates was associated with longtime OCAW official Anthony Mazzocchi, who is now the national organizer of the Labor Party.
The impetus for the LPA, as with the Labor Party today, came from the declining influence of the labor officialdom in capitalist electoral politics. Its organizers see the formation more as a pressure tactic aimed particularly at the Democratic Party. This does not mark a step toward independent working- class political action.
During the first day of the convention, United Steelworkers of America (USWA) international president George Becker gave the main speech to the delegates, though neither he nor his union are affiliated with the Labor Party.
Chauvinist rhetoric
Becker couched his presentation in radical rhetoric,
referring to the "class struggle," and the "capitalists and
financiers" who are destroying "our great country." Referring
to workers in this country, Becker said "we" are paying the
price for the collapse of the "Asian economies."
"Our jobs are being exported," Becker said, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is "using your tax dollars to bail out these countries."
Becker blamed various trade agreements - NAFTA, GATT, and efforts to establish a Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) as the source of unemployment and other ills facing working people. He bemoaned that "our nation" has lost its "sovereignty." Claiming that he is not a protectionist, Becker said international trade laws have to benefit workers in Russia, South Korea, Brazil, and the United States. The best way to do that is through limiting imports by adopting quotas.
In response to Washington's military threats against Iraq, Becker said, "Here we are on the verge of war with Iraq. Think about the United States without our steel, where we would have to buy our steel from Russia or China.... Think about our missile technology being in the hands of China because their steel is cheaper to produce."
The Steelworkers president did not say anything about the battles USWA members are waging - the Titan Tire strike, the Oregon Steel lockout, the union-busting attack on the locked- out workers at Kaiser Aluminum - to name just a few.
Canadian Auto Worker (CAW) president Basil Hargrove followed Becker and was billed as the keynote speaker. Hargrove said he agreed with "brother Becker's analysis of the world." Hargrove said the problem workers face stem from the "logic of casino capitalism." During the entire convention not one delegate took issue with the pro-imperialist, national chauvinist framework set by Becker and Hargrove.
UMWA president Cecil Roberts spoke in support of Labor Party resolutions on electoral politics and its "campaign to bring the Bill of Rights into the Workplace." He spoke about battles the UMWA waged against the coal bosses from A.T. Massey and Pittston in the 1980s, to the current strike against the Freeman United Coal Mining Co. in southern Illinois. Roberts introduced miners Dennis Braun and Lou Ashby, who are on strike against Freeman. Both received a standing ovation from the delegates.
Roberts called for repealing the Taft-Hartley Act, and passing legislation to end scabbing. The "Bill of Rights" resolution states that the government and employers have turned "democracy exactly backwards, leaving workers little or no political space to wage fights." After two delegates spoke in the discussion, the resolution was passed, with no one else joining the issues.
Debate on `future electoral strategy'
The main resolution debated at the convention was on the
Labor Party's "future electoral strategy" where delegates voted
to "accept the electoral tactic of running candidates for the
first time." In recent elections, all of the major union
officialdoms actively endorsed Democratic candidates, including
the ones represented in large numbers at the convention. (In
addition, 27 Republican candidates for Congress in the recent
elections were endorsed by the unions.)
The Labor Party National Council, the national leadership body, has set very strict guidelines for running candidates. One reason for tight control was expressed by Labor Party staffer Ed Bruno. He stated concern that whoever runs as a Labor Party candidate "is really a Labor Party candidate and not someone from another party."
In response to a question about when the Labor Party would be running candidates, Mazzocchi said, "Don't expect lightening to strike tomorrow."
Much of the focus of the discussion was on the need to build a "credible organizational base," out of which the Labor Party will then run candidates. "Labor Party candidates will be run only where our basic organizational criteria are met," says the resolution. One of the criteria discussed and debated was the proposal from the National Council that new chapters, in order to be chartered, must have 250 members in good standing. This is several times the number previously required. Many delegates argued that this figure is unrealistic. Those chapters that don't meet the new criteria will be relegated to the status of being a local organizing committee, and not a chapter. There was also disagreement expressed by delegates to the National Council's veto power over the selection of Labor Party candidates.
At the convention a "Solidarity Hour" with testimony of striking and locked-out workers was organized. Baldemar Velásquez, President of FLOC, spoke about his union's campaign to win recognition for 7,000 farm workers at the Mt. Olive Pickle Co., in North Carolina. During the convention FLOC held an informational meeting on their organizing drive that was attended by 100 people.
Lou Ashby, vice president of UMWA Local 1969, spoke about the miners strike against Freeman United Coal Mining Co. "Our strike is not over wages, but over the company's denial of decent health care," he said. The miner appealed to the audience for solidarity and financial aid. "Come visit our picket lines in Illinois. We'll feed you while you're there," said Ashby, who is also the Food Pantry Coordinator of the strike.
OCAW president Robert Wages introduced Bobbie Philipps, a locked-out Crown Central Petroleum worker and member of OCAW Local 4-227 in Houston, Texas. "With your continued support of our 34-month fight and our boycott we are confident we will win," Philipps told the delegates. Crown has operated with scabs since 1996. The company has accused the union of sabotage, brought in the FBI, and is seeking $500,000 in damages from the union. Many delegates got literature on the fight at the union's table outside the convention hall.
The convention was also greeted by a representative of the October 6 Union, whose members are involved in a fight to win union certification in a maquiladora industry in Mexico; by a USWA member who spoke about the company lockout of 1,000 steelworkers at Oregon Steel in Pueblo, Colorado; by Balfredo Roca, a member of UNITE and leader of a contract fight at Freeze, a garment maker in Edison, New Jersey; by three leaders of the Detroit newspaper strike; by Robert Erminger of ILWU; and by a representative of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers in Pittsburgh, who spoke about their boycott of Nabisco, which is closing the plant this week. In response to these fighting workers, several unions and individuals donated $17,400, which will be equally split among the groups represented by the nine panelists.
Discussion on Ventura's election
Before and during the convention, the recent election
victory of Reform Party candidate Jesse Ventura to governor in
Minnesota was a big item of discussion. Labor Party member
Michael Moore, a filmmaker and author of Downsize This, spoke
about it in a major address to the convention. "Some of you can
laugh about Ventura, but this was an incredible event
regardless of what you think of the Reform Party and Ross
Perot," said Moore. "This is good news. Ventura won because he
sounded like a real person. He wasn't filled with that leftist
rhetoric.
"There's something appealing about him - many will not agree with everything he stands for - but he did stand up for abortion rights and gay rights," Moore added. Moore's positive spin on Ventura's election victory was echoed by many at the convention. From reviewing what Ventura said in his election campaign, however, it is clear his political program is anti-working class.
Mazzochi described Ventura as "comedic relief" whose election "was validation of the notion that people are alienated." No delegate disagreed with Moore's appraisal of Ventura from the convention floor. "Consumer advocate" Ralph Nader, who spoke on the final day, also viewed Ventura's election positively, and said that it underscored the opportunities the Labor Party has in electoral campaigns.
Labor Party delegates, with no dissenting vote, adopted a protectionist "Fair Trade" resolution. The main programmatic resolution, "A Call for Economic Justice," it says that "we reject narrowly nationalist solutions to trade imbalance that scapegoat our fellow workers in other countries." The trade resolution, however, has an "America first" logic. It reads in part, "No goods should enter this country unless the conditions of labor producing those goods adhere to a basic set of international standards. In addition, no product should be accepted into the country that comes from countries or factories, in which workers do not have the real right to organize or where those who do are intimidated, threatened or coerced."
Two debates broke out on the final day of the convention. In an amendment to the section of the program on "Restore Workers rights to Organize, Bargain and Strike," Labor Party activist Jerry Gordon, made what he said was a "friendly motion" against government intervention in the unions. "We support the democratic right of unions to run their own affairs free from government control." The convention chair responded that the amendment was not accepted. He said that individual unions should decide whether the government should be involved in their affairs. "Let's face it. The mob runs a lot of our unions and we need the government," said one delegate. The vote on the amendment divided the house. A hand vote narrowly defeated the proposed amendment.
A delegate who is a woman proposed an amendment to strengthen the Labor Party's program on "Guarantee Universal Access to Quality Health Care." The current wording includes "unimpeded access to a full range of family planning and reproductive services for men and women, including the right to continue and terminate a pregnancy." She proposed adding, "We support the right to prenatal care services ajd the right to a free, safe, legal abortion."
In arguing against the amendment, the Labor Party chair said, "We need to respect all members and not offend any worker who wants to join the party." The maker of the motion responded, "Not having a clear position in favor of abortion rights makes it difficult to recruit women to the Labor Party, and it puts the Labor Party to the right of the Democrats." Her amendment was defeated.