Local chapters and organizing committees are trying to do that with varying degrees of success around the country. At this point, however, direct union affiliation to the LP is limited to about 10% of the labor movement, mostly from smaller international unions, some regional bodies, central labor councils, and scattered local unions. Individual dues-paying membership is somewhere around 10,000 members. Activist membership probably in the low hundreds.
The state of the LP reflects the current level of class struggle. If the LP ever manages to get major international unions to join, then we are in a whole new ballgame. That kind of shift would also imply major gains in consciousness by the working class as a whole.
-Andy English
-----Original Message----- From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Tuesday, March 28, 2000 3:07 PM Subject: Re: what to do
>>
>Hey, the stuff Andy English posted sounds pretty good. Now, when is the
>Labor Party going to get on with the program? How does it propose to put
>"national legislation to train and deputize workers to be on the job
>inspectors in each and every workplace" into practice? By electral means?
>Industrial actions? Getting a social movement going?
>
>Anyhow, unions should focus on objectives of this sort -- worker safety,
>democracy on the job, preserving & expanding social programs, etc. --
>instead of getting all hot & bothered by China's entry into the WTO,
>wasting time, money, & resources.
>
>Yoshie
>
>