Organizer's REPORT
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Since the Labor Party's Founding Convention last June, our organizing efforts have concentrated on affiliating hundreds of unions and community organizations to the Labor Party and on laying the groundwork for recruiting individual members in these organizations. In addition, two new organizing objectives are underway. One involves community outreach through the 28th Constitutional Amendment Campaign (see the update on pages 5 and 6). The other is institutionalizing recruiting within unions. Organizing among labor groups is a two-level process: The first step is to affiliate the appropriate labor body (local, district, region, etc). The second step is to recruit the individual rank-and-file members within these groups. In the past few months, using the tried-and-true organizing technique of one-on-one visits, a number of important new groups have endorsed and affiliated with the Labor Party.
NEW AFFILIATES
Dave Campbell, Secretary-Treasurer of OCAW Local 1-675, arranged a meeting in April with myself and Randy Cammack, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 63 in Covina, California, which represents 18,000 workers. As a result, Local 63 has decided to affiliate with the Labor Party and to hold a "Corporate Power and the American Dream" workshop with the local's stewards sometime in late August. Moving north to Oakland, California, Chuck Mack, President of Teamsters Local 70 and of Joint Council 7, informed us that the local has endorsed the Labor Party and its program. Further discussions will entail affiliation of the local.
Adolph Reed, Jr., organizing in between his teaching responsibilities, reports steady progress in the Chicago area. The Midwest Regional Joint Board of UNITE affiliated in May, and so did each of the districts of the Joint Board (Eastern, Northern and Central). Noel Beasley, the manager of the Midwest Regional Joint Board, is now concentrating on local affiliations, on recruiting 1000 members, and on selecting locations for launching the 28th Amendment Campaign.
We've also made some headway in the South. Organizer Bob Kasen has arranged meetings with locals of the Teamsters union in Atlanta and with the 5th District of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE's largest district). At AFGE District 5's recent legislative conference, national Vice President Ken Blaylock asked me to speak to a resolution calling for AFGE to affiliate with the Labor Party. The resolution -- which will be submitted to AFGE's national convention in Anaheim, California, in August -- was adopted unanimously.
RECRUITING WITHIN UNIONS
The second level of organizing -- recruitment of individual members on the local union level -- needs to be institutionalized by establishing a Labor Party committee within each local union. Such committees--operating on the same basis as other standing committees such as COPE, community services, organizing--will be responsible for addressing membership meetings, supplying LP materials, and collecting dues. Step-by-step materials spelling out how a Labor Party committee should function on a local union level are now available in a kit for the cost of $5 each.
One of the most successful examples of recruiting rank-and-file union members into the Labor Party is in the Arctic Circle. In Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, oil workers -- members of OCAW Local 1-369 and employees of British Petroleum -- sometimes work in sub-zero temperatures. But that hasn't chilled their understanding of the need for a Labor Party. Some 65 percent of the 250 members have joined and have authorized a deduction from their paychecks for a continuing contribution to the Labor Party. Glenn Trimmer, Unit Chairman of this group, has been the catalyst for recruitment.
The Labor Party's message resonates with the average rank-and-file member of the union. And when they learn about the Party's program and objectives, they are prepared to join. The Labor Party message speaks to the OCAW members working on the North Slope in Alaska, and it will speak to workers everywhere else too. --Tony Mazzocchi
June 9-13Organizing Week on the First Anniversary of the Labor PartyJune 16Interim National Council Meeting in Washington, D.C.June 20-21Detroit Newspaper Workers March and RallyAugustTrain the Trainers in Chicago
For the past year and a half, the Labor Party has been slowly expanding its presence on
the internet thanks to the efforts of David Walters, Labor Party Press Internet
Coordinator and Golden Gate Chapter member. The internet now offers many people access to
the Labor Party's library of documents, list of endorsing unions, and Labor Party policy
positions, as well as access to much of what appears in the Labor Party Press.
We started out with a simple e-mail address. Then, about a year ago we established
our web site (which you are viewing now!).
Some state organizations and chapters of the Labor Party have their own web sites
and e-mail addresses, which can be linked onto from the national LP web site. The Labor
Party web site also provides links to endorsing international unions, the AFL-CIO, and
Labornet, our internet service provider -- the only such provider in the U.S. that is
unionized.
Saturday, June 21 Detroit, Michigan. After the march and rally in
solidarity with Detroit Newspaper Workers, hear them and their spouses speak on why they
joined the Labor Party!
The Detroit Metro Chapter invites you to join us at an Open House in the Back Room
of the Anchor Bar (450 West Fort Street in downtown Detroit) after the march and rally. We
will gather from about 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., depending on when the march and rally end. Come
and meet Detroit newspaper workers and W.I.L.D. women (Women Involved in a Labor Dispute)
who've joined the Labor Party and other Labor Party members, get the latest Labor Party
literature, a good hamburger and a beer!
For further information:810-948-1010 x288
The second Train the Trainers workshop was held in Newark on May 16-18.
Carmen Martino 
Barbara Walden
Photos by ©Rita Iskar
State Charter Criteria Committee Meets in New York
At its January meeting, the Interim National Council established a committee to make recommendations on criteria to be used in issuing state Labor Party charters. The committee -- consisting of Ed Bruno, Howard Botwinick, Mark Dudzic, Carl Rosen, Sean Sweeney and Barbara Walden -- met on April 25 and will make its recommendations to the Interim National Council in June.We're one and organizing!
One year ago, June 6-9, 1997 in Cleveland, Ohio, a raucous 1367 working people, elected delegates, founded the Labor Party. In those few days, they established the Labor Party's Constitution, its program, and set it on its way.
In the year since, the Labor Party has grown into a real national organization with growing support from unions and individuals. Now that we have a program, we've begun to organize around it -- the 28th Amendment Campaign for a job at a living wage is our first coordinated effort.
From June 9-13, 1997, the Labor Party will mark its first anniversary by doing more of what's important to us: organizing. It's Five Days of Fairness, Five Days for our Future.
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