>Some on this list may have thoughts, references, or experience they
>might share either on or off line. I know that some were close to
>the LP, at least in spirit. The idea of a labor party today - in
>the midst of poor role models abroad, corrupted business
>unionists, scorn for third parties, or whatever other negatives that
>can quite easily be dredged up - may pre-empt some of your creative
>ideas. It's possible your mind may focus on American exceptionalism
>or "it wasn't the right historical time," and things like that.
>Try them out if you wish, and I will be grateful. But I hope you
>also will think of things like union-community cooperation, the rank
>'n file, the grass roots, and long range organizing imperatives.
>Can't say that LBO will win many awards for its "practical" approach
>to political economy (the merits of Canadian coffee don't count).
>But I'm a simple, practical man.
I was involved with the LP in New York City for a few years. The NYC chapter was destroyed by our old friend, sectarianism, as competing bands of Trots tried to take over the party. The chapter was eventually trusteed by the national party and now barely exists, if at all.
Interesting you should note that the party grew from the early 1990s until around 2000 - a period that was roughly the Clinton years. Adolph Reed, one of the LP's principal organizers, once told me that Clinton was the best organizing tool they ever had (which is part of the reason I keep saying that a Dem president is a boost to radical organizing). With Bush, an alternative to the Dems seems less urgent.
But I'm sure you know the other reasons for the LP's problems - hostility from the main unions (the LP couldn't get beyond a core of small unions who endorsed it, though thankfully Big Labor never tried to destroy it), the non-electoral strategy (I think Mazzocchi was right to emphasize organizing first before running candidates, but it's hard to persuade some people to sign up to such a program), and the generally alienated and depoliticized state of the U.S. working class.
Jenny Brown, who's involved with the LP in Florida, might have other things to say.
Doug