The 2024 US Presidential Election saw the beginning of a split among the ranks of labor away from its long relationship with the Democratic Party. The United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers (UE) renewed their call for a Labor Party in the US, while other major unions have started to show signs of breaking away from their marriage with the Democrats, most notably the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).
The disastrous results for the Democratic Party saw many other unions, including the AFL-CIO, start to publicly acknowledge the problems with the two-party duopoly that plagues American politics. In her post-election statement, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler finally admitted that “it is clear that the economic struggle working-class people are facing is causing real pain and neither party has sufficiently addressed it.” (My emphasis) UAW President Shaun Fein also has made it clear that “both parties share blame for the one-sided class war that corporate America has waged on our union, and on working-class Americans for decades.”
These statements have given mainstream credibility to what we at LUEL have been pushing this entire election cycle; the working class needs a labor-led anti-monopoly coalition that will bring all the progressive elements of the country together to create an independent working-class political party. We, however, understand that such a movement cannot be built overnight, by simply declaring its existence. It will be a long hard struggle, which will take a massive push in rank-and-file organizing not seen in decades. UE said it well in their September statement on the elections:
“The formation of an effective, independent, working-class labor party will be no easy task; it cannot simply be wished into existence. The extreme polarization among working people, our country’s ‘first-past-the-post’ elections, laws that severely hamper third-party candidates, and the influence of big money in politics all buttress the two-party system. Building an effective labor party will require challenging these structural obstacles to democracy.” Many LUEL members have already started reaching out to fellow workers in their workplaces about an independent political option for the working class. We have seen that while many workers agree with the state of our political system, there is a lot of work to do to convince the working masses that it is possible to mount a real fight against the capitalist duopoly. The time is now to join the fight for the labor-led anti-monopoly coalition and independent working-class political party.
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