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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Wojtek:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>By refusing to
run candidates of<BR>their own and promising to support ANY candidate (Democrat
or<BR>Republican) with labor-friendly agenda - the LP did essentially
what<BR>minorities parties do under the PR system - it offered a
coalition<BR>forming. But that coalition forming was at the time when it
actually<BR>could have a desired rather than antithetical effect - before
the<BR>election, by increasing their coalition partner's chance to pass
the<BR>post.</FONT></FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT>
<DIV><BR></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>I appreciate your comments, but don't
understand some of them. The LP banned cross-endorsement and fusion
politics, to the scorn of some activists. (And here I thank Josh
Mason on this list for jogging me on the Working Families Party and New
Party.) Since most LP unionists were registered Democrats (some being
precinct leaders, etc), they worked on union-endorsed campaigns as
unionists, not LPrs. But some of us used this
to get educated on the local electoral process, to support union
campaigns, and recruit some unionists into a new party of
labor that was independent of all other parties. It had to be done in a
cool, unobtrusive, patient way. Some of us paid keen attention to
proportional representation and its offshoot, instant runoff
voting. Some LP activists worked in coalitions of Greens,
Democrats, labor bureaucrats, and even Reform Party reps (aided by the
Center for Voting Democracy) to get IRV passed into law. In New Mexico,
we got an IRV constitutional amendment passed by the state Senate
in 1999, only to be blocked in the House. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Then Nader appeared in 2000 and drew away
some of the better LP activists around the country. Mazzocchi's
keynote at Nader's Green coronation in Denver really pissed off organized labor,
including his own union, and the LP became more and more stereotyped as another
example of third party spoilation of Democrats. But you're right, the
winner-take-all system is a tough, though not impossible, nut to crack.
Some folks assert that the electoral issue caused the LP to decline. It
was a contributing factor, but I think more important were issues of
organizational structure, inept organizing, some prejudice against the
business-union institution by progressives, confusion on tactics and
strategy at the lower levels, and other factors that are not easy to articulate
and measure. Perhaps it can be proverbially summed up as the
lack of resources for a social movement-oriented working class party. Just
wasn't the money to hire staff, rent space, etc that might have allowed the LP
experiment to inch along. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Was glad to read on this list from Jenny Brown of
the Alachua County Labor Party (Florida) that they're about to hire staff to
work on the LP's Just Health Care campaign. A major step. Popular
parts of the LP 16 Points (health care, labor law, and higher education) are
organizing focal points today. Well and good. I reckon this is what
can work today to bring an independent labor party to the attention of
workers in and out of unions. The 1998-type LP is in mild comatose today,
but I wouldn't be surprised that our past and present practices plus the
objective shit comin down will combine later into a revival.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bob</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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