What we did, we targeted St. John's, which is a really
working class neighborhood. There are a lot of union people in the neighborhood, a lot of
longshore workers. Knock, Knock
LP members take the 28th Amendment Campaign door-to-door
Labor Party members from Boston to L.A. boldly took our 28th Amendment Campaign into the streets in April and May. Their aim: to talk to their neighbors about the need for a Constitutional Amendment to ensure that everyone has a right to a job at a liveable wage -- and to introduce people to the Labor Party.
The Press recently conducted phone interviews with some of these LP activists to find out what happened. Here's what they said:
David Tapley
Since only a couple of us had ever done door-to-door, we were all really nervous before we went out. But by the time we met around the other side of the block, everybody was excited, and it definitely isn't going to be hard to get them to go again.
What we did, we targeted St. John's, which is a really
working class neighborhood. There are a lot of union people in the neighborhood, a lot of
longshore workers.
I was by myself and everyone else was in pairs. I'm kind of thick-skinned. I started out talking about a $10 an hour minimum wage and that kind of got my foot in the door. Some other people wanted to say something like, 'Hey, we're the Labor Party, we're a third party alternative to the Democrats and Republicans...' Well, that doesn't go over as well.
People at first are a little skeptical -- they're skeptical of anybody who's going door-to-door. But then you get talking and... One lady I ran into was a union member, and so I started talking about how there are nine international unions that are supporting the Labor Party and over 300 locals. So she signed right away and gave her number too. Then I go to another place, and there were some kids, like 19-year-old skateboard kids. And we got talking about how many young people, they work at temp jobs... And so I said, 'Hey, you know if you're working at a temp agency, you're already making $10 an hour, it's just that this middleman is getting it.' Then they started saying, 'Yeah, wait a minute, why can't I get the money?' Then when they sign it, I find out that the union lady around the corner was their grandmother. And then the idea of having neighbors meeting neighbors came to mind.
Margaret Guttshall
About 12 of us went out one weekend and five of us the next. We sort of leapfrogged down the block. We were passing each other and making cracks as we went. It was fun, actually.
A lot of people were not home, and of course some people were reluctant to come to the door. But when people did come to the door, they were just universally enthusiastic. Almost every single person we talked to wanted to sign the petition and thought it was a really cool idea.
The neighborhood we were in is mixed -- blacks and whites, and a lot of union people live there. We ran into a postal worker, a Chrysler worker who was on strike... And the interesting thing that happened was that when we started talking about the lack of jobs, people started talking to us about what was going on where they worked -- about downsizing.
No one said it was unrealistic or anything like that -- they just said, 'That's a great idea! We really need that, I wish we had it now.' I had been expecting a more negative response. I'd read over the facts about unemployment and wages to be prepared for somebody who was a really hard sell. But it didn't turn out like that.
The second time out, we went to a neighborhood where a lot of Labor Party people live, so there's easy follow-up there. I really want this thing to feed into recruiting for the Labor Party. And my experience has been that you have to get to know people to be able to recruit them. That's why I'd like to focus on the workplaces of the people in the chapter or on the neighborhoods where they live, because then there's a natural follow-up. Maybe we could even have house parties after we've blanketed the neighborhood.
Mya Shone
We circulated the petition [in an area where] most of the people are white and middle class. But they are working people, even if they don't identify themselves that way. A few people were eager to tell us they were union members or they had been union members, but there weren't union jobs in Santa Barbara.
There's been a living wage campaign locally, and most people, when we approached them, thought we were a living wage campaign. We immediately told them we weren't. And the response was, 'Oh what a great idea -- a job as a right.' People thought it was a terrific notion, and they liked that it was more than a living wage campaign. Only a few people were hostile to the idea.
Some people liked the general idea, but wouldn't sign because they were skeptical about the idea of a Constitutional Amendment. So we played down that part: We basically said that we're trying to change the framework of discussion in the United States -- and everybody loved that line!
Many people said they think Democrats just are not helping us. They liked the idea that we would speak from our perspective, about what are our needs and our wants -- I think that's what really affected people the most.
There were 19 people who said they were interested in finding out more about the Labor Party. We sent those people a flyer for an upcoming LP event, and we'll keep up with them.
Trudy Humphrey
The response we got when we went door-to-door was very, very favorable -- we got a couple hundred signatures. People were very glad to sign it. A lot of people also said they wanted more information about the Labor Party. I think we only had one person who said she thought $10 an hour was high -- she makes $10 an hour, and she's worked 20 years. But everyone else was in low-paying jobs and they were saying, 'This should be.'
I wasn't surprised -- I thought it would go well. But some other people who went out didn't think the response would be so good, and they were very pleased about it. Maybe it's because the area we chose was poorer economically.
I tell you, the people are ready for the Labor Party, they really are. I mean, how many people said to me, 'Oh I'm tired of the Democrats and Republicans -- it's good that you're doing this'? What I told people is, 'We're a party that wants to keep the workers' issues in the forefront. The Labor Party is bringing pressure onto the politicians to address our issues.' And people accept that, because that's something we all have in common, union and non-union.
I'll tell you another thing a lot of people said was, 'I need a union!' And I said, 'Well, here's my number!'
Carl Rosen
We picked one of the most conservative working class areas in the city -- a white, mostly Eastern European neighborhood, the heart of the old Democratic machine. A lot of these people were probably Reagan Democrats. We wanted to see how our message would do there, how an economic issue would resonate.
We had no idea what kind of response we were going to get. But it turned out that about three-quarters of the people we talked to signed the petition. I had hoped we'd get a positive response, but in my heart I didn't think it would be as good as it was.
On the block I did, there was a retired steelworker, and his wife was sitting in the kitchen behind him, saying 'Don't sign that -- you don't know who they are, you could get yourself in trouble.' But he came back all smiles with his signature on the petition, saying 'I was a member of the Steelworkers, and I think everything good in this country came out of the union movement.'
We had some people who didn't sign because they wanted to know more about who we were. And I think these people may turn out to be the ones who will organize the Labor Party. They need to be convinced how this is going to work. But once they are, they'll take it and run with it. We had one woman who had some questions about who we were. But then she said, 'Look, send me some stuff, and if I like what I see, you've got yourself an organizer.' Everybody came back with a story, at least one, of someone who seemed willing to carry the torch for us.
We had a lengthy discussion with one woman on welfare -- a single mother with negative opinions about the current welfare system. But she really picked up on the issue of jobs. She was saying, 'That's what this country should be built on -- people going to work and earning a decent living.' She said, 'I can't make ends meet, and I have to work all kinds of overtime, and it shouldn't be like that -- I should be able to survive on 40 hours a week.' She knew the way to go was for good jobs for everybody.
Debbie Bell
The area we chose was diverse, both economically and ethnically. We were very clear that we wanted to reach working class people. And we found that when we got to sections of the neighborhood where people had slightly higher incomes, they were a little more hesitant.
People were gregarious, when we found them at home. We found that people wanted to talk, to give their ideas of what the state of the economy is. People would often say, 'Oh, it's needed' right off, and then they'd get into talking about their own situation. The idea of a right to a job is a very popular concept with people.
There is some cynicism out there -- some people would say, 'Well, it's a good idea, for whatever it's worth.' And a couple of people had this sort of pull-yourself-up by-your-bootstraps idea -- they'd say 'If you want to work, you can work!' But that was a tiny minority.
A lot of what people would say was centered on kids. They'd say that their children don't have a future. And in this community, a working class community, any kids who are going to college are the first generation to go. And so people would say, 'These kids, unless they get off the street and get an education, they won't have a future.'
D.C. Chavez
We targeted Long Beach City, the Ninth District. We had a really excellent response -- we got 208 signatures.
Here in California, a lot of people are working part-time and at the minimum wage, or close to it. So everybody we talked to was affected in one way or another -- people are out of work, laid off, or working for almost nothing.
Most people just jumped right on it -- they didn't even question who we were. They said, 'Oh sure, I'll sign that.' Some people said, 'How is this going to happen?' and things like that. And what we'd say is, 'Look, what we're trying to do is to change the discussion. Everybody's blaming the immigrants and hiding the fact that the politicians aren't doing their job.' We said we wanted to change the discussion to focus on families and jobs and stuff like that. And everybody was for that because they feel that people are not being represented and it's all about money.
We told people that the two parties were not looking out for us, that they're out for the highest bidder, and that's why we're forming the Labor Party: to represent the workers' interests. Because we don't have a voice -- if we ever had one. We had 24 people who said they were interested in finding out more about the Labor Party, people who were serious about joining or at least getting information. So we're planning to go back out again in June, and we're also talking about doing a letter and some follow-up with those 24 people, maybe do some house calls.
The reaction didn't surprise me -- I've been active in this community for about six years, so I knew what the issues were. When our Labor Party group first met to talk about doing this, people were concerned about what the response would be. And I got up and told them frankly that I felt it would go over big -- I knew it would.
You know, when I was a kid, there was a lot of opportunity. When you were 18, you could just go out and get job. Now it's not like that. I hear people complaining about how their grown kids can't leave the house because they can't make enough money. So it's a big issue -- there just aren't enough good-paying jobs.
I'd say about 90 percent of the people we talked to signed it. Only one person closed the door on us. I figured he was a Republican.
Jeff Booth
We went out in a neighborhood called Somerville, which is attached to Boston. Out of the people we reached, most people signed -- we thought the response was good. Of the refusals, only a few people said why. It seemed like a lot of it was just fear about people going door-to-door. The one clear objection was from a woman who said, 'So you think McDonalds workers should be paid $10 an hour?' And we said, 'Yes, we do.' And that was the end of that conversation!
It did seem to break down along class lines. We noticed that people you might define as 'working people' tended to sign and people were thanking us for doing this, thanking us for coming around. For those people, we actually gave them a copy of the newspaper as well as our leaflet. But the neighborhood we ended up in was more upscale, and people were a little less into it there.
Some of us got into good conversations with people about the issues, and we got phone numbers from some people. So we're thinking about what kind of follow-up we should do with those folks. Between the door-to-door and the tabling work, we think we will get some new members out of it.
I, like everyone else, had a certain amount of fear going into it. But in the end I was pleasantly surprised by the reaction we got. And everyone who went out that day said they would do it again.
Labor Party organizer Ed Bruno calls the response to our door-to-door canvassing during this first campaign period "very encouraging." The response, he believes, is "certainly strong enough for us to risk ratcheting up the campaign one more notch."
The week of June 7-14
marks the Labor Party's first anniversary and Labor Party Organizing Week. The week will kick off a summer of organizing for the 28th Amendment Campaign -- and building party membership. Here is the plan:
June 7-14
Continue to take the Campaign door-to-door, testing out various home visit and canvassing methods and responses in a variety of locations.
By July 4
Select one place -- precinct, neighborhood, town or other political entity -- to concentrate your petitioning work for the next 2-3 months. We want to accomplish 3 goals in the place your local party or union selects:
1. Get 10% of the registered voters to sign the petition.
2. Recruit a core of new members and potential members and then hold a Labor Party meeting in this location for these people at the end of the summer.
3. Win over and involve in the campaign at least two community organizations based in this place.
Report back to the New England office by July 4, in time for the next issue of the Labor Party Press.
July onward
Widen the use of the campaign resolution. The resolution endorsing our campaign has
proven to be an effective entry to union meetings, issue conferences, and community
meetings. We should expand our use of it. Ask a wide range of organizations to pass this
resolution and to then push the campaign
petition through their own
memberships.
LP leaders should call Ed Bruno at 617-531-0901 to talk over their plans and to report results. A mailing to party and union leaders details the information requested on report-backs. Literature can be ordered by calling toll-free
1-888-445-2267.
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