Draft:Labor Party (US)

Labor Party
Leader	Vacant
President	Vacant
Chairperson	Vacant
Governing body	National Executive Committee (NEC)[1]
Founded	February 26, 2024
Headquarters	Remote[2]
Youth wing	The Young Radicals[3]
Women's wing	Rosie's Radicals[4]
LGBTQIA+ Wing	The Alphabet Radicals[5]
BIPOC Wing	The Radical Mosaic[6]
Membership (2024)	460
Ideology	Laborism
Political position	Left to Centre Left
Colors	Crimson   Green
Representative Party	Labor Representative Caucus (LRC)
Trade Union Affiliate	Labor Inclusion Organization (LIO)
Senate	0 / 100
House of Representatives	0 / 435
State Governors	0 / 50
State Upper Chambers	0 / 1,973
State Lower Chambers	0 / 5,413
Territorial Governors	0 / 5
Territorial Upper Chambers	0 / 1,973
Territorial Lower Chambers	0 / 5,413
The Labor Flag

The Labor Party in the United States, known as "The Labor Party" or simply shortened to "Labor", is a minor political party in the United States. Formed in the chaos and aftermath of the 2024 US elections which saw the reelection of Donald Trump, the Labor Party

History

The United States Labor Movement has been one of the most prolific and powerful labor movements in history. Forged alongside the The Industrial Revolution the U.S.'s lack of regulation of safety and worker compensation gave rise to a number of organized labor movements.

Over the years there have been numerous attempts to form and coordinate a political party affiliated to the organized labor movement in the United States. A few of the attempts are listed below:

Previous iterations

Socialist Labor Party

The oldest party affiliated with organized labor was also the longest continuously operating one. The Socialist Labor Party was formed in 1876 as the Workingmen's Party, changing its name the following year to Socialist Labor. This party was a Marxist-De Leonist Organization which at its height claimed [ 5,000–6,000 members in 1896. Membership began to decrease after this point and the party never regained its former position. The Socialist Labor Party held its last National Convention in 2007 with 77 members.

Farmer-Labor Party

The Farmer-Labor Party[7] formed in 1918 in Minnesota in response to the mismanagement of the economy by The United States entry into WWI. Wages and agriculture prices had crashed while the price of normal goods soared. This gave farmers and laborers a cause to unite to form a party to represent them. This Party went through a transition period, becoming the Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party in 1936 and eventually merged into the Democratic Party in 1944. To date, the state affiliate of the Democratic Party in the Minnesota is officially titled the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party.

Labor Party of the United States

The Labor Party of the United States[8] was an attempt to form a Labor Party in Chicago. The party formed in 1919 and was affiliated to the Farmer-Labor Party which it merged into a year later in 1920.

American Labor Party

The first Labor Party in America formed from a series of splits from the Socialist Labor Party. Formed in 1932, The American Labor Party was mainly active in New York and fielded candidates in 1933 in New York City's municipal elections. This American Labor Party lasted 3 years before dissolving in 1935 due to conflicts with numerous other labor organizations.

Logo for the American Labor Party (1936–1956)

A second American Labor Party was formed in 1936 by activists from the first American Labor Party and members of the Socialist Party of America. In the Socialist Party of America factions had begun to form between the "Old Guard" representing those who were oriented towards more traditional electoral politics and the "Militant" faction who were more revolutionary. The Old Guard split to form the Social Democratic Federation which then formed the American Labor Party modeled on the British Labour Party and was primarily active in New York.

The American Labor Party was beset by infighting almost from the beginning, with a large contingent of new members coming from the Communist Party USA. The American Labor Party split over the issue of endorsing Franklin Delano Roosevelt for president in 1940 with the Communist faction opposed to his reelection. This marked the beginning of the Party's decline and by 1954 they had lost ballot access in New York when their gubernatorial candidate failed to gain the requisite votes. The party dissolved two years later in 1956.

Current

Logo for the Project Variety Coalition

The modern iteration of the Labor Party began initially as a pan-political movement called the Project Variety Coalition [9]. This campaign was meant to encourage the use of state referendums in order to move the United States in the direction of multi party democracy through a proportional representation election system. It was thought that this would allow for more political parties to partake in the election and governing process. However, this plan was abandoned when it was determined that this would only serve to help the Libertarian Party as no other third party was organized enough to take advantage if such measures were passed. During the 2023 primary season, one of the future founders of the Labor Party sought nomination from the various parties. Going through the process, it became apparent that many of these groups lacked the ability to do more than endorse candidates. Organizing signatures and assistance with the process of getting on the ballot was nonexistent. There was also a matter that many of these groups were committed to a particular ideology and would not support candidates without it.

Logo for the Labor Party

Planning began for a new political party early in 2024, aimed at uniting the various elements of the American Left and organized labor organizations by supporting candidates regardless of individual ideology. The Labor Party traces its founding to February 26, 2024 [10] when the Party's initial proposal was drafted. Activists in the party sent the proposal out to various congressional offices and union leaders, hoping to build momentum. The response they received was limited and lukewarm with an overall message that it was an "interesting idea" but that the various organizations were unable to commit their resources to the project. There was a period of questioning as to whether a project of this nature was feasible, however the group gained a new sense of urgency with the 2024 Primary losses by Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman. These two were members of The Squad, America's preeminent caucus of the American Left, The Squad had steadily grown in membership since it's founding in 2018 and 2024 would mark the first election cycle where The Squad would lose membership. It was determined that without a bona fide political engine there was no way to protect these members. The team regrouped with a different strategy and over the course of 2024 built a series of social accounts all dedicated to the Labor Party. The party purchased domains and organized a network for the engagement of future users with a plan to begin posting in the run up to the 2026 primary season. This changed with the 2024 election of Donald Trump and Republican victory in both houses of congress. Labor finalized its preparation early in November.

On November 25, 2024 [11], the Labor Party went live with it's various social media accounts in a social media blitz attempting to capitalize on the anger and resentment felt by many Americans, fearful of a Donald Trumps return to power. The blitz resulted in an accumulation of nearly 6,000 followers on Tiktok alone as well as over 400 activists joining the party's Discord server. Labor quickly capitalized on this, organizing registrations of its party status in multiple states and arranging meetings with various union locals in an attempt to bring them into Labor's internal structure. The party immediately began planning to field candidates for the 2026 Elections.

References

https://votelabor.org