Labor needs to start running its own candidates

[MannyGoldstein]

They need to set up a machine to groom and support candidates that can take America back for working Americans. Labor has the heft and organization to do this.

My hope is that they'll do this within the context of the Democratic Party - after all, it would just be returning our Party to what it's supposed to be.

Waiting until the primaries are over then backing the winner has been a catastrophe. As Trumka said, "I've had a snootful of this shit!".

[Brickbat]

1. I've seen labor candidates at Democratic conventions, and it wasn't pretty.

But I'd like to see more labor candidates make primary runs, and withhold endorsements, if we're talking political maneuvers.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Can you elaborate?

Thanks!

[Brickbat]

4. Sure -- labor candidates, whom I supported, were treated like crap.

The conventions I've been to are full of retirees and people who can afford to take time off and/or travel. It's difficult to get tradespeople, lower-middle-class and middle-class people, and other prime labor supporters to conventions.

In discussions about getting people to run, suggestions of people who were actual union members were routinely greeted with reluctance because of where they might stand on some things -- sometimes they were concerns with genuine grounds (such as a jobs vs. environment thing), sometimes it was almost an unnamed class issue. It became frustrating to me to listen to candidates brag about how their father or grandpappy was in a union, so that gave them some kind of bona fides, but when a union member talked about his or her membership, it was seen as almost a taint, sometimes.

It's hard for me to put my finger on it, or go into huge details without giving away personal information. It was rarely blatant, but the subtlety itself was annoying and alarming, and frustrating. It's one of the main reasons I drifted away from party politics after several years in leadership positions and as a delegate to the state.

[TxVietVet]

18. It's like they look down on them because of their blue collar jobs.

Just look at our television media and how it portrays working folks, especially construction workers. I know how it is. It's only when they want your money, your support or come to their house and do some work for free.

[OHdem10]

24. First, let me say I agree with idea of Labor fielding candidates.

I can be wrong here and this in no way should discourage
anyone from fielding candidates.

After watching what happened immediately following Obama's
inauguration. All DLC Cabinet. Of course they said it was
because these are the people with experience.

I do question how this will go down with the"establishment".
There seems to be a requirement for DLC Pro-Business Candidates.

I simply how they would be treated? Labor ran their own candidate
against Blanche Lincoln, Ark. The Labor Candidate gave her
a real challenge and was an excellent candidate. He came very
close to winning. I am sure the establishment was not too
happy, but we are supposed to be a Democracy.

[Citizen Worker]

38. Think about this Brickbat. Ever since the Labor purge of progressive elements from the ranks we,

Labor, have done a lousy job of keeping the membership informed on anything. But that's where to begin anew.

Union meetings need to once again become forums for educating and mobilizing the membership about issues and that presents problems for the leadership. Labor should train Rank and File members who are willing to enter elective politics.

The late Tony Mazzocchi managed to get the national leadership of several Unions to agree to the establishment of Labor Party Advocates. The primary reason it wasn't simply a Labor Party is that organized Labor is hopelessly wedded to the democratic party. LPA chapters were established around the country but fizzled when it became apparent that leadership would not allow the movement to become a movement.

However, the formation of a Labor Party should not signal the end of Labor's support for those democrats who act like democrats and there quite a few. Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders, Sheldon Whitehouse, Byron Dorgan, who is unfortunately gone from the senate, and many others. In the house there are dozens of good solid democrats who eagerly support Labor and they should continue to receive the support of Labor.

Building a party will take years but there's no time like the present.

[Brickbat]

40. Oh, I totally agree about labor doing its own thing.

I was explaining my experiences with labor within the confines of the Democratic Party. I've been saying labor should do its own thing for years.

[BlueCaliDem]

3. HalleluAMEN! K&R! We need more blue collar candidates backed by our unions

to run for office. I'm tired of the elites running as Democratic candidates, too. We need more Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Browns rather than Dianne Feinsteins and Ben Nelsons. They'd have more credibility, too, especially in these times.

[RKP5637]

16. I like both of those guys, Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Browns. When they speak

they make a lot of sense and they talk with the people, not at them. I would like to see a lot more Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Browns.

We really need a break IMO in the democratic party from the direction we've been on for some years now. It's time for fresh ideas and fresh directions, not rehashing the SOS. This entire country needs a fresh direction and I'm not bashing Obama.

One of the main obstacles, however, is that until the money supply is gotten out of politics, and the bought MSM, everything is going to have a very myopic direction, namely money and greed. And even SCOTUS likes that with Citizens United.

I have no idea how this will happen, but the bribery money has to be gotten out of politics.

[Bluebear]

53. + + +

[Karmadillo]

5. This makes so much sense. What is standing in the way of making it happen?

nt

[BlueCaliDem]

39. The powerbrokers in the Democratic and Republican parties, I'd gather.

Remember Governor Dean? Some say he was railroaded by the DLC.

What happened? How could Dean's insurgent candidacy, which had energized and excited voters in every state, come to such a screeching halt?

The pundits claim Dean's "rage" undid him, that voters took a "second look," etc. etc. Nonsense really. The answer is much simpler. Howard Dean was assassinated in broad daylight. Unlike Kennedy's "grassy knoll," Dean's killers are not hiding -- it was the Democratic Party itself, and more specifically the Democratic Leadership Council, that successfully went after, and sabotaged his candidacy.

http://www.alternet.org/story/17881/?page=entire

[Springer9]

6. And just how does Labor have the "heft"?

In 2010, the union membership rate--the percent of wage and salary workers who were
members of a union--was 11.9 percent, down from 12.3 percent a year earlier, the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers be-
longing to unions declined by 612,000 to 14.7 million. In 1983, the first year for
which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 per-
cent, and there were 17.7 million union workers.

Not to mention that not all union members march in lockstep or are of one party, in 22 states that are closed shop union membership is a condition of employment.

Nice thought but it's a daydream.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

[MannyGoldstein]

7. 14.7 million primary voters are not heft?

Tough audience!

[Springer9]

12. Just being practical

Last Presidential election had about 120 million voters between the 2 parties. Even if every union member was to join your labor party, and they won't(they aren't even all Democrats) you're pizzing in the wind.

[MannyGoldstein]

20. We'll agree to disagree

14.7 million voters is huge - particularly in primaries.

[Brickbat]

8. Who do you think does the pamphleting and phonebanking?

Here's a hint: It's Labor.

[TxVietVet]

21. The unions have the structure and volunteers to get out the vote.

That's how lots of Democrats win. However, I quit supporting the Democratic Party and it's committees that always want my money. I will only support progressive candidates that I believe in. If they happen to be Democrat, so be it. They usually are. Pelosi ended my love affair with the Democrats.

[Springer9]

22. I appreciate what you're saying

But how many members actually show up to do the heavy lifting? The last union I was in had 2250 members and if we had 20-30 show up at the monthly meetings it was considered a crowd, and half of them were filing grievances to get their jobs back after getting fired.

That ain't heft, it's complacency.

[Brickbat]

26. As with any advocacy group, the challenge is not making the same people who show up every time not

be the ones who are taken for granted, and finding new people.

But labor's heft is the reason it's courted so hard during election time. Candidates rely on union money and union infrastructure to get the word out.

[eilen]

54. My dh says not a lot show up for his union meetings

but then, the leadership doesn't really want any input from them anyway. They force votes on contracts without providing proposed contracts ahead of time. They shut down debate. Perhaps it depends on the union but our local IBEW doesn't even invite anyone to show up to support local Democratic candidates. For example, there is a Democrat running in a traditionally Republican town in our county and the campaign and party was marching in that town's 4th of July parade-- not even a whisper from the Hall. National pushes and tries to force policies, wage and worker classifications on Locals Halls. Labor needs to clean their own house before trying to clean the nation's.

[KamaAina]

50. Closed shop is illegal under Taft-Hartley

you must mean union shop, in which a worker joins the union after s/he has been hired. The worker also has the right not to join but must still pay dues.

[Odin2005]

9. Yup. I'm sick of all the latte "liberals" that treat the working class like shit.

[Brickbat]

13. That's what I was getting at in my post.

I've seen it happen. Parties want Labor's endorsement, money, phone banks and doorknockers, but they shiver when Labor puts up a candidate. Hmmmm....

[Odin2005]

17. There is a reason so many working class folks started voting for Pukes.

It's because the "New Democrats" went out of their way to SHIT on the working class at the same time the latte liberal culture warriors denigrated the working class as a bunch of backward uncultured bigots and hicks.

[RKP5637]

33. Given the way unemployment is, maybe this is the right time for the turning point to

have the working class back at the table. How the "New Democrats" have been working it hasn't made any headway. IMO the "New Democrats" missed the target for the party, the working class.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Brickbat]

31. Go to hell.

[Odin2005]

32. You just proved my fucking point.

[pa28]

36. "Stupid brutes"?

After a good nights sleep you might want to consider why it is so easy for the right to turn working Americans against us with religious and cultural wedge issues. Sometimes we hurt ourselves with our own brand of bigotry.

[pa28]

10. I think that's a great idea.

Instead of handing over cash to the Democratic party they could groom their own candidates for nomination. Seems like a more efficient way to direct increasingly limited campaign funds.

[snot]

11. I wish I understood better all that went into the stain on unions' image,

and all the other factors impeding unionization, as well as the furtherance of workers' issues in politics.

[MannyGoldstein]

41. Unions have been demonized by the 1% who own America

When unions were more important, American worker pay went up. When union membership started dropping in the late 1970s, median worker pay started dropping, too.

[unkachuck]

14. K&R....n/t

[jimmyflint]

15. Oh, hell yessssssss!

With an American labor Protectionist agenda that appeals not only to union members, but the non-union and under/unemployed. Fuck the corporate suck ups of both parties. No more NAFTA, free trade, global, we get raped bullshit. You want made in china shit, you got to pay 25% more now.

[TxVietVet]

23. Double "hell yes" !

[amborin]

19. K&R

[defendandprotect]

25. What's taken them so long -- !! Great idea -- tons of dems who aren't pre-bribed and

pre-owned by the corporations -- !!

[Jack Sprat]

27. To be sure. They should. n/t

[provis99]

28. they can't even unionize one fucking Walmart.

How are they supposed to set up something as complex as a political party?

[Brickbat]

30. Heh. I LOL'd.

[MannyGoldstein]

35. They can't unionize Walmart because Walmart owns the politicians

I think the 99% should own the politicians. Then they can organize Walmart.

[JI7]

34. there are many different types of people that are part of Labor

including anti choice religious social conservatives

[FreakinDJ]

37. A Voting Block like AARP

[JNelson6563]

42. lolz

Many Dem candidates are labor candidates.

Having been a good sized cog in the political machine in MI I can tell you that if labor ain't with you, you're going nowhere.

The notion of labor "starting" anything in the political realm is hilarious. They're already a huge part of the machinery!

Julie

[tabbycat31]

43. And sometimes they still vote against their own best interests

Case in point, Steve Sweeney, a union ironworker.

[myrna minx]

44. K&R - In Minnesota, our party is called the DFL: Democratic Farmer-Labor party.

:hi: That's a good start.

[MannyGoldstein]

45. Does it function as a third party

Or as an entity within the Democratic Party? How successful is it?

[myrna minx]

46. It's what the Democratic party is called here ~ we've just included the

"the base" in the party name. :hi: It's the party of Wellstone, HHH. McCarthy and Mondale (and unfortunately Amy Klobuchar.)

[KamaAina]

51. Their repuke party used to be called "Independent Republican"

somewhere along the line, the "Independent" was ditched and replaced by the likes of Pawlenty and :scared: Bachmann.

[Brickbat]

52. They applied the IR label in the mid-70s to separate themselves from Nixon. They dropped it again in

1995.

[Brickbat]

47. The Farmer-Labor party was a strong third party that got its start in Minnesota and had a

respectable national presence for many years. Humphrey was in charge of uniting the Farmer-Labor Party and the Democratic Party in the 1950s. I may not have supported him in those days, had I been around.

[brooklynite]

48. If you can get them elected, more power to you...

...the key is to get them elected in the moderate and conservative parts of the country, not just replace the exiting liberals.

[Zorra]

49. Yeah. ASAP or sooner. nt

[bvar22]

55. We did that in 2010 in the Arkansas Primary.

The White House didn't like it, and threw their entire weight and the money from the DNC and DSCC behind the Anti-LABOR candidate.
They even sent the Old Dog back down to Arkansas to campaign and fund raise for the Anti-LABOR candidate
Blanche (I've always depended on the kindness of Large Corporations) Lincoln.



Who will STAND and FIGHT for THIS American Majority?
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their EXCUSES.