181 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
181 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
from Libertarian Labor Review #16
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Winter 1994, page 1
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Editorial
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A Labor Party: What For?
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With the Democrats' recent passage of the North American Free
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Trade Agreement, the political impotence of the AFL-CIO's reliance
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on that party to defend its interests was as clear as it has ever
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been. The AFL-CIO mounted its largest lobbying effort in decades,
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doing everything short of a general strike to persuade Congress to
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vote NAFTA down. For their efforts, Clinton denounced unions'
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efforts to "bully" the Congressman they bought and paid for into
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voting their way. And top Democrats did not hesitate to voice their
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contempt for the business unions, assuring reporters that the AFL-
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CIO and its affiliates would continue to support the Democrats
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because they had no other alternative.
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This debacle seems likely to give new impetus to ongoing
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efforts to form a labor party. Even before the NAFTA vote, the most
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prominent of these groupings, Labor Party Advocates (which is
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heavily supported by leaders of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic
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Workers and the United Electrical Workers) announced plans for a
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founding convention. Although LPA initially said it would only
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organize a Labor Party when it had secured the support of 100,000
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unionists, it appears to have plateaued at less than 5,000 members.
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Thus, the founding convention appears to be a last-ditch,
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desperation effort to get their party off the ground.
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Yet there does appear to be growing support for labor party
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efforts (and indeed for third parties in general--as evidenced ny
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the National Organization for Women's efforts in this direction,
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among others), sparked by widespread and growing disillusionment
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with the Democrats. As UE secretary-treasurer Amy Newell put it,
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"Every month that goes by under the Clinton Administration is
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additional fuel for our fire..."
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As Sam Dolgoff notes (in The American Labor Movement: A New
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Beginning), agitation for a labor party is almost as old as the
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labor movement itself and has on a few occasions come close to
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capturing the official support of the American Federation of Labor.
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State-wide efforts in Minnesota and New York in the 1930s had
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substantial success before they were absorbed into the Democratic
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party. Yet labor party enthusiasts might do well to examine the
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record of labor parties around the world before embarking upon this
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well-trod path.
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In Belgium, our fellow workers recently found it necessary to
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take to the streets in a general strike to protest plans by the
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coalition Socialist-Social Christian government (each closely liked
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to the two largest labor federations) to enact a "social pact" to
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hold down wages and slash social spending. A similar pact was
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recently pushed through by Spain's socialists.
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In Canada, the labor-backed New Democratic Party lost nearly
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all its seats in the recent national elections, apparently because
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of widespread disgust with its role in enforcing capitalist
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austerity in the provinces under NDP rule. In Ontario local unions
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refused to allow the provincial NDP government to participate in
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Labor Day celebrations. The NDP won provincial elections in 1990 on
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a platform of labor law reform, pay equity, progressive tax reform
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and public auto insurance. But when corporations threatened to use
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its economic power in a sort of general strike by capital, the
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government quickly threw in the towel. The "labor" government
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abandoned public auto insurance, abandoned most of its labor law
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reform package, and gutted social service spending. Ontario workers
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understandably concluded that they could get these sort of anti-
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worker policies from any capitalist government, and so did not vote
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for the "socialist" NDP in the federal elections.
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These are not isolated examples. Every labor and socialist
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party in the world which workers have voted into office has ended
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up betraying them. This is because labor parties are incapable of
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addressing the real cause of anti-labor governments. As Dolgoff
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wrote,
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A capitalist democracy is a competitive society where
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predatory pressure groups struggle for wealth and
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prestige and jockey for power. Because such a society
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lacks inner cohesion, it cannot discipline itself. It
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needs an organism which will appease the pressure groups
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by satisfying some of their demands and prevent conflicts
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between them from upsetting the stability of the system.
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The government plays this role and in the process... the
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bureaucratic government apparatus becomes a class in
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itself with interests of its own....
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Labor parties are no more immune to the diseases inherent
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in the parliamentary system than are other political
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parties. If the new Labor Party legislators are elected
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they will have to "play the game" according to the
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established rules and customs. If they are honest they
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will soon become cynical and corrupted... Most of them,
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however, will find their new environment to their taste
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because they have already learned to connive when they
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were operating as big wheels in their own union
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organizations... A course in the school of labor fakery
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prepares the graduates for participation in municipal,
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state and national government....
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Tactics must flow from principles. The tactic of
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parliamentary action is not compatible with the principle
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of class struggle. Class struggle in the economic field
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is not compatible with class-collaboration on the
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political field. This truth has been amply demonstrated
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throughout the history of the labor movement in every
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land. Parliamentary action serves only to reinforce the
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institutions responsible for social injustice--the
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exploitative economic system and the State.
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The strength of the labor movement lies in its economic
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power. Labor produces all wealth and provides all the
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services. Only the workers can change the social system
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fundamentally. To do this, workers do not need a labor
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party, since by their economic power they are in a
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position to achieve the Social Revolution... As long as
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the means of production are in the hands of the few, and
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the many are robbed of the fruits of their labor, any
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participation in the political skulduggery which has as
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its sole purpose the maintenance of this system amounts
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to both tacit and direct support of the system itself.
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Rather than diverting workers' resources and energies into
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forming yet another political party, sincere working-class
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activists would do far better to build genuine, class-conscious
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unions and to work with their fellow workers to build a new society
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through direct action in their communities and at the point of
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production. Labor parties can play no part in this struggle.
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Notes:
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1. "Paying for health," Left Business Observer #57, Feb. 16 1993,
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pp. 2-7. Figures vary widely for the numbers uninsured and
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underinsured; David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler (The
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National Health Program Book, Common Courage Press, 1994, pp. 24-5)
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estimate that about 37 million Americans are uninsured at any one
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time, and that 1 in 4 (63.3 million) were uninsured for at least
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one month in a 28-month period from 1986-88.
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2. Thomas Bodenheimer, "Health Care Reform in the 1990s and
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Beyond," Socialist Review 1993(1), pp. 18-20.
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3. David Rosenbaum, "Economic Outlaw: American Health Care," The
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New York Times, Oct. 26 1993, pp. 1, D22.
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4. Himmilstein & Woolhandler, The National Health Program Book, p.
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89.
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5. Himmelstein & Woolhandler, The National Health Program Book.
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6. Himmelstein & Woolhandler, p. 183.
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7. Robert Pear, "Congress is Given Clinton Proposal for Health
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Care," The New York Times, Oct. 28 1993, pp. 1, A24-A25.
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8. Judith Ebenstein, "Big Brother, Manager" (Letter), The New York
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Times, Nov. 16 1993, p. A26.
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9. "Cost Control," Left Business Observer #58, April 26, 1993, p.
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8.
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10. Himmelstein & Woolhandler, p. 188.
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11. "Placebo" (Editorial), The Progressive, November 1993, p. 9.
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12. "The Clinton health plan: A union Q&A," On Campus, November
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1993, p. 4.
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13. See my "Peter Kropotkin's Anarchist Communism," Libertarian
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Labor Review 12, Winter 1992, pp. 19-24.
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14. G.P. Maximoff, Program of Anarcho-Syndicalism, p. 32;
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originally published in Russian in 1927. English translation by Ada
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Siegel included in Maximoff's Constructive Anarchism (Maximoff
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Memorial Publishing Committee, 1952). Reprinted 1985 by Monty
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Miller Press, Sydney, Australia.
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15. Alexander Berkman, ABC of Anarchism, London: Freedom Press,
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1977 (Excerpt from 1929 edition of What is Communist Anarchism),
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pp. 72-3.
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16. in Sam Dolgoff, ed., The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self-
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Management in the Spanish Revolution, New York: Free Life Editions,
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1974, pp. 99-101.
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17. Dolgoff, The Anarchist Collectives, pp. 119, 133-34.
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18. "National Health Plan Now!@!" Black and Red #5, July/August
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1993, p. 1. The article criticizes the emerging Clinton plan and
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quotes several advocates of a single-payer system, but offers no
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details of what sort of national play they advocate.
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