Article on the Labor Party in the new Labor Notes

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Thu Sep 3 07:06:14 PDT 1998



>Anyway, are there any other Labor Party members here? Anyone planning
>on going to the convention in November?

Yes on one and no on two.

I agree it would be foolish for an LP chapter to decline an endorsement to a pro-labor Democrat. Using resources to support such a candidate's campaign -- real fusion -- is a separate question.

In my view, there ought to be some explicit quid pro quo for material support which helps build the LP. At a minimum, the candidate ought to provide full access for openly LP organizers to his or her own organizing events; and he or she should acknowledge LP support openly.

There's local fusion and national fusion. The local variety, if the object is a candidate, rather than a party organization, seems less problematic than national.

In the latter, the identity of the third party is joined with the second, posing a real danger (as seems to have been the case with the Peoples Party at the turn of the century) of the third party losing its identity altogether.

I was on the LP list for a while but found that, with some exceptions, there is not enough real dialogue, or give and take. Most people seem to have their minds made up on everything, whether or not they know anything on the topic. Rarely would you see anything resembling the phrase, "maybe you're right and I'm not."

MBS Local 70, IFPTE



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