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Resolution Adopted by
The Labor Party's
First Constitutional Convention

Labor Party
Style of Work

WHEREAS, the Labor Party intends to build a powerful political party by and for working people, capable of winning power and governing; and

WHEREAS, the only method open to us is to move beyond "politics as usual," bringing millions of ordinary people into the fight for a new political agenda and that organizing — disciplined, nitty-gritty, face-to-face organizing — is the Labor Party style of work; and

WHEREAS, the Labor Party is an organizing Party, a mass membership organization with a constituency in large part alienated from the political process and uninvolved in unions or any other organizations. Consequently, our organizing must bring people into activity; it must be personal and face to face, allowing time to talk over the situation as the Party sees it, and offering easily convenient ways for people to participate in its activities.

WHEREAS, in an organizing Party, recruitment is accepted as a personal obligation by each individual member — each one organizes one. If each of us recruits just one new member a year, Party membership will double annually. We must demand of ourselves that an annual doubling of our membership is the minimum acceptable increase, in addition to recruiting which results from campaigns, work inside unions, and other mass recruitment programs; and

WHEREAS, the Labor Party has registered impressive gains in affiliating local and regional unions, even though it is unusual for unions to affiliate to a political party and to encourage their members to join and pay dues to any political party, Labor Party membership as high as 35% has been registered in those Local Unions where an individual officer, often a Chief Steward, makes it his/her business to recruit in an aggressive and organized way. A few local unions are now signing their Party members onto check-off authorizations to institutionalize their relationship to the Party.

Our experiences show that where there is a union officer acting as the Party organizer, membership can be recruited and people brought into Party activities. Our pressing need is to work with Local Unions to train such organizers. The New Jersey Labor Party’s 3-day local union training, planned jointly by the Party and the unions, drew attendance from a wide range of affiliated unions, and established uniform recruiting methods within the unions. Additionally, several of the affiliated National and International Unions now offer us tested methods to increase Party recruitment; and

WHEREAS, recruitment is essential in building a party that is rooted in every community of our nation and we need to develop a thorough review of our past efforts and establish a vigorous strategy for recruitment on all levels of the party;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Labor Party takes these steps:

1. Each one recruits one, right now. At a minimum we double the Party membership by January 31, 1999. Further, during the final two months of each calendar year the existing membership is doubled through the personal recruiting of one new member by each existing member;

2. More non-electoral and electoral campaigns which lend themselves to Party-building and face-to-face organizing. Our campaigns must include clearly defined short and intermediate-range goals to focus the work of local unions and party units. While we should use a variety of tactics, organizing methods and time frames, all Labor Party campaigns must have in common an emphasis on organizing new members;

3. Increase its outreach to unions through:

1. making the New Jersey LP union committee training a regular part of its work, encouraging affiliated unions to sponsor their own trainings and reach out beyond union staff and officers to develop LP union activists who can conduct LP campaigns and recruitment drives inside their unions.

2. sending organizing kits to and arranging personal follow-up with newly affiliated unions.

3. redoubling LP efforts to secure staff assistance from International Union and work with affiliated International Unions to help them reach their membership goal.

4. increasing the use of the "Corporate Power and the American Dream" workshop by union educational departments, state Parties and chapters in conjunction with local unions and allied organizations.

4. Actively seek involvement and affiliation of worker-supportive organizations, such as tenants organizations, welfare rights organizations and community organizations into chapters and local organizing committees and further assist these organizations in their struggles as an organizing and recruitment tool.