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Organizing Resolution Adopted
by the Labor Party's
First Constitutional Convention

Change the Party Structure
to Organize Faster and Meet
New Responsibilities

WHEREAS, the Labor Party’s success will be assured only by recruiting a mass membership able to voice its interests through a well-organized party structure, Labor Party units must be established in forms most suitable for organizing: forms that enable us to talk directly to people, recruit members face-to-face, move people into common political activity, and that ensure accountability within the Party. Inside the affiliated unions the Labor Party organization follows the pattern already established by the union: a Labor Party "steward" on every job, a Labor Party committee in every workplace and Local Union. In the community, however, it is up to the Party to create its own organizational forms, testing our effectiveness against our experiences, perfecting our organization as we expand the Party; and

WHEREAS, Party organization must go to where our constituency live and work. Very few people will seek out the Party if it is distant and inconvenient to them. Consequently, the base unit of the Party, its recruiting and organizing edge, is the local organizing committee; and

WHEREAS, a Labor Party organizing committee should be easy to form and administer, accessible and convenient to our constituency, and able to directly talk, recruit and mobilize people face-to-face. This Party places organizing above all else. Consequently, we must provide assistance, resources and voting rights to the organizing edge of the Party; and

WHEREAS, the demands upon the chapters will increase as the number and intensity of its non-electoral campaigns increase and we move toward electoral work. Progress moves us further from the former LPA-style chapter which served well as a gathering point for at-large members, and closer to what will someday become the fully-functioning LP chapter, capable of carrying out non-electoral and electoral campaigns, and varied planning, coordinating and recruiting duties within a defined political territory.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

1. Local Organizing Committees be established, which will be required to have a minimum of 20 good-standing members and a growth plan with timelines submitted to and approved by the State Party where one exists and the National Council. Such Committees will carry out the recruiting programs and campaigns of the National Party, and will be supplied by the National Office with necessary materials and literature. The Party places a high value on this level of organization, and Local Organizing Committees will have voting rights to Labor Party conventions similar to what now exists at this Convention, for chapters.

2. The chapter level of the Party must play an essential and critical role. Chapters must now begin to fulfill the metropolitan and regional coordinating and planning function of the Party and adjust their duties and territorial boundaries to match the various political subdivisions. Chapters will be encouraged to support the developments of Labor Party organizing committees among all sectors of the working population. New chapters will be chartered by the National Council when they have accrued 250 members in good standing.

3. Existing chapters that wish to take on the expanded functions and meet the 250 member criteria of newly chartered chapters may do so. Those which choose to do so must submit a plan for reaching membership goals and fulfilling new functions, to be worked out jointly with the national party (and state party where one exists). The deadline for submission of such a plan is January 15, 1999. No currently existing chapter will be required to submit such a plan; those which do not do so will become local organizing committees.

4. The National Office will provide clear guidelines of operation for each level of party structure, and will especially encourage each member, new and existing, to become an organizer of a Local Organizing Committee in his/her neighborhood. Further, the National Party will provide to the larger Chapters direct staff assistance in planning and carrying out their re-organization.

5. The Labor Party will continue the category of "recognized but unchartered" state party based upon the criteria adopted by the National Council in June 1997, and remains committed to the formation of additional state parties. States interested in forming a recognized state party should follow the by-laws and organizational forms already established by the existing state parties.

6. Once a state achieves fully-chartered status, it assumes autonomy and financial, legal, tax and other responsibilities.