This article is about the left-wing party established in New York in 1936. For the DeLeonist political party founded in 1932, see American Labor Party (1932).
The American Labor Party (ALP) was a political party in the United States established in 1936 that was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party of America who had established themselves as the Social Democratic Federation (SDF). The party was intended to parallel the role of the British Labour Party, serving as an umbrella organization to unite New York social democrats of the SDF with trade unionists who would otherwise support candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties.
Back from Detroit, I was immediately confronted with a problem which involved millions of dollars of property controlled by subsidiaries of the Socialist Party. In New York alone there were such institutions as the Jewish Daily Forward, the leading Jewish newspaper in the world with a circulation running into hundreds of thousands and with reserve funds amounting to millions. There was The New Leader, a weekly newspaper published in English; there was the Rand School of Social Science, which, together with Camp Tamiment, had enormous property value, not to speak of their importance as propaganda and educational instruments. Control of the Forward alone also meant probable control of fraternal and labor organizations such as the Workmen's Circle, with its millions of dollars in property and tens of thousands of members throughout the United States.... After Detroit it was obvious that the militant Socialists controlled the Socialist Party. I saw that all they had to do in order to gain control of the valuable property in New York was to revoke the New York State charter and expel all state organizations controlled by the Social Democrats or the Old Guard. Since there was always a minority of militant Socialists in each of these corporate institutions, these properties involving millions of dollars in property value and cash reserves would quickly fall into the hands of the militants.... All during 1935 and the early part of 1936 my office was converted into a meeting place for the various committees and members of the organizations threatened by the militants. Constitutions and bylaws were modified in such a way as to prevent control falling into the hands of Norman Thomas' super-revolutionists. – Louis Waldman, Labor Lawyer.[5]
Antonini was the first state chairman of the party, serving from 1936[7] until 1942.[8][9]James Farley, chair of the New York State Democratic Committee, and Edward J. Flynn, chair of the DNC, did not support the party, but Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Democrats to aid the ALP in collecting enough signatures for party status.[10] During the summer of 1936, the New York state organization of LNPL was transformed into an independent political party in an effort to bolster Roosevelt's electoral chances in the state by gaining him a place on a second candidate ballot line.[11] 274,924 voted for Roosevelt using the ALP's ballot line in the 1936 presidential election, with 238,845 coming from New York City. The largest amount of support came from Jewish areas.[12]
The organization was largely funded by the needle trade unions of the state. The ALP found itself $50,000 in debt at the end of the 1936 campaign, but substantial contributions from labor groups erased the red ink. The ILGWU itself contributed nearly $142,000 to the 1936 campaign,[13] a relatively huge sum for a third party campaign, given that only $26,000 from all sources had been raised and spent by Norman Thomas' Socialist campaign in the previous presidential election.[14] Over 200 unions were affiliated with the ALP by 1937.[15] Party decision-making in the first year was handled by ILGWU executive secretary Fred Umhey, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union's Jacob Potofsky, and Alex Rose of the Milliners'.[13]
The party supported Fiorello La Guardia during the 1937 New York City mayoral election and he received 482,790, 21.6% of the popular vote, on their ballot line. They were the second-largest party in the city and largest in some districts in the Bronx and Brooklyn.[15]
Members of the Communist Party USA started joining the party and Israel Amter, chair of the Communist Party, called for the "building of the American Labor Party".[16] Although its constitution specifically barred Communists from the organization, there was no enforcement for this provision and large numbers flocked to registration as ALP members from the Communist-led United Electrical Workers, Transport Workers, and State, County, and Municipal Workers.[13]Norman Thomas and the Socialists attempted to enter the party in 1937, but faced opposition. Algernon Lee opposed their entrance due to Thomas' pacifism.[17]
Communists in the ALP opposed reelecting Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election and the party's leadership started an attempt to remove them from the party. The party condemned the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Fights broke out at the party's convention on September 14, 1940, where Roosevelt was given the nomination despite an attempted resolution condemning Roosevelt.[18]
Labor activists Victor Alter and Henryk Ehrlich were executed by the Soviets. Anti-communists in the ALP condemned their deaths while communists defended the Soviet Union. This debate was one of the major issues in the party's county committee elections in 1943, and the left-wing gained control over the Bronx affiliate.[20]
Hillman, a member of the left-wing, threatened to have the ACWA become involved in the 1944 state committee elections if the party's leadership voted against a proposal to increase union control over the party. The right-wing rejected it. Adolf A. Berle and Eleanor Roosevelt supported the party's right-wing while Franklin Roosevelt wanted to avoid conflict between the factions. La Guardia proposed a compromise in which the state executive committee would be divided between the factions and no communist would be on the election slate. Hillman accepted the proposal, but Dubinsky rejected it. The left-wing won 620 of the 750 committee seats.[21]
Pinback button issued by the American Labor Party.
The passage of the Wilson Pakula prevented candidates from the ALP from being able to run for the nominations of other parties without the approval of the party's committee. The party lost two state legislators in the 1948 election, but Marcantonio was able to win reelection solely on the American Labor ballot line.[23]
In 1941, American Laborite Joseph V. O'Leary was appointed New York State Comptroller by Governor Herbert H. Lehman both to recognize the ALP's previous and to maintain the party's future support. In 1944 the Congress of Industrial Organization's Greater New York Industrial Union Council, a federation of unions in New York City, formally linked itself to the ALP. The GNYIUC Executive Board "adopted a resolution directing GNYIUC Community Councils, which had been organizing around community issues in neighborhoods throughout the city, to merge into the local ALP clubs," and the "GNYIUC diverted some of its PAC monies directly to the ALP."[24] With this move, the CIO's largest labor federation, consisting of approximately 200 locals and 600,000 members, was formally connected to the ALP. Over the ensuing years, the council would call for local unions to ‘‘Build the American Labor Party, the strongest voice for labor in city and state affairs,’’ and would direct Political Action Stewards in workplaces across the city to ‘‘recruit shop members for active participation in the community activities of the American Labor Party.’’ This support would be instrumental in building the political capacity of the ALP and would ultimately lead to conflicts with the national CIO during the 1948 presidential election.[25]
Flyer for an American Labor Party rally featuring Congressman Vito Marcantonio, 1948.
In 1947, several ALP leaders defected. On October 9, 1947, Charles Rubinstein, president of the United Civic Associations of the Bronx, member of the ALP's State executive committee, and former ALP candidate for the City Council left the ALP for no other party, due to "misguided Communist sympathizers" within the ALP. On the same day, George Salvatore, vice chairman of the ALP's Bronx executive committee and former ALP candidate for District Attorney and Supreme Court Justice, left the ALP for the Democratic Party, citing "we are tending to become apologists for Russia's point of view."[26] The next day, October 10, 1947, Eugene Huber resigned as executive secretary of the ALP's Bayside area to join the Liberal Party of New York State because, Huber said, he had found "affixed a stranglehold by the Communist party upon the ALP which has in consequence become a mere envelope for Communist policies and candidates."[27]
The ALP endorsed Henry A. Wallace's position on the Soviet Union after he was dismissed from President Harry S. Truman's cabinet.[28]Vito Marcantonio supported giving the party's presidential ballot line to Wallace while Jacob Potofsky opposed it and left the party in protest.[29] Wallace previously rejected third-party politics at a speech before the ALP on May 25, 1946, when he stated that "because of the election laws in any states, it would give a reactionary victory by dividing the votes of the progressives".[30] The CIO called for all of its ALP-affiliated unions to disaffiliate and ACWA withdrew its support of the ALP after the party endorsed Wallace for president.[31]Mike Quill, president of the Transport Workers Union of America, broke away from the party stating that "the screwballs and crackpots who will continue to carry on as if the Communist Party and the American Labor Party were the same house with two doors".[32]
In 1948, Tammany Hall formed the United Laborite Party, a paper party, meant to draw votes away from the ALP, but the courts ruled in favor of the ALP and stated that the party violated laws prohibiting similarly named parties.[33]
Marcantonio won a seat again to the United States House of Representatives, representing East Harlem for the ALP, as he had done in 1938, 1940, 1942, 1944, and 1946 (but lost in 1950). Marcantonio had been the target of the New York Wilson Pakula Act in 1947 aimed at restricting candidates from one party running in another party's primary election (electoral fusion). Leo Isacson was elected in early 1948 to fill a vacancy in a Bronx district but lost in the general election in November. The Communist Party USA openly endorsed the Progressive Party; some ALP candidates that year were known or alleged communists, e.g., Lee Pressman. Candidates included (winners bolded):
United States House of Representatives: Marjorie Viemeister (1st District), Richard T. Mayes (2nd District) Herbert A. Shingler (3rd District), Thomas J. McCabe (4th District), Morris Pottish (5th District), Irma Lindheim (6th District), Joseph L. Pfeifer (Democrat + ALP) (8th District), Murray Rosof (9th District), Ada B. Jackson (10th District), Frank Serri (11th District), Vincent J. Longhi (12th District), James Griesi (13th District), Lee Pressman (14th District), Emanuel Celler (Democrat + ALP) (15th District), Frank Cremonesi (16th District), Alvin Udell (17th District), Vito Marcantonio (18th District), Arthur G. Klein Democrat + ALP) (19th District), Annette T. Rubinstein (20th District), Paul O'Dwyer (Democrat ALP) (21st District), Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (Democrat + ALP) (22nd District), Leon Straus (23rd District), Leo Isacson (24th District), Albert E. Kahn (25th District), Nicholas Carnes (26th District), Francis X. Nulty (27th District), Pasquale Barile (28th District), Harold M. Chown (29th District), Robert R. Decormier (Democrat + ALP) (30th District), Andrew Peterson (31st District), Margaret L. Wheeler (32nd District), Rockwell Kent (33rd District), Raymond K. Bull (34th District), Max Meyers (35th District), Sidney H. Greenberg (36th District), John Muschock (37th District), Harold Slingerland (39th District), Helen M. Lopez (41st District), Emmanuel Fried (42nd District), George W. Provost (43rd District), Robert Williams (44th District), and Lewis King (45th District).[34]
New York State Senate: Francis W. Frazier (1st District),[35] Doris Koppelman (2nd District)[36] John S. Fells (3rd District)[37] Gabriel Kopperl (4th District)[36] Donald H. Smith (5th District)[38] Paul Melone (6th District)[39] John Profeta (7th District)[40] Leroy P. Peterson (8th District)[41] Kenneth Sherbell (10th District)[42] Robert Lund (13th District)[43] Helen I. Phillips (15th District)[44] James Malloy (23rd District)[45] Sol Salz (25th District)[46] Charles Hendley (28th District)[47] S. Fels Hecht (31st District)[48] Sidney H. Greenberg (36th District)[49] Max Meyers (35th District)[50] George La Fortune (36th District)[51] Willard Ryker (42nd District)[52] George W. Provost (43rd District)[40] William Murphy (44th District)[53] and Harry Bailey (51st District).[54]
New York State Supreme Court: Hyman N. Glickstein (1st District),[35] Joseph J. Porte (2nd District),[55] Paul L. Ross (1st District),[56] Charles Rothenberg (2nd District),[57] Robert V. Santangelo (1st District),[58] Max Torchin (2nd District)[59] and Abraham Wittman (8th District).[60]
In 1949, Marcantonio was the ALP nominee for mayor of New York City, marking the first time they fielded an independent candidate for the office. Although he received endorsements from former vice president Henry A. Wallace and singer Paul Robeson,[61] Marcantonio came in third place with 14% of the vote.
Demise
The party lost its ballot access after John T. McManus, their 1954 gubernatorial candidate, received less than 50,000 votes. Marcantonio criticized communists for being the reason behind the party's poor performance. He claimed that the party's poor performance was due to their poor performance in the 1953 New York City mayoral election. He claimed that communists sabotaged the mayoral campaign by implying that they approved voting for the Liberal candidate.[62]
Marcantonio lost reelection in the 1950 election. He resigned as chair and left the party in November 1953, due to disputes with Communist leaders who he claimed were no longer interested in third-party politics. The party dissolved in 1956.[63][64]
Flyer promoting the candidacy of Oscar García Rivera for State Assembly in 1937. Garcia Rivera became the first Puerto Rican to be elected to public office in the continental United States.
Langdon W. Post, Chairman of the New York City Housing Authority (1934–37), New York Assemblyman (1929–32), candidate for New York City Councilman (1939)
Adam Clayton Powell Jr., New York City Councilman (1942–43), U.S. Representative (1945–71), first black New York City Councilman and first black U.S. Representative from New York
Mike Quill, New York City Councilman (1938–39, 1944–49)
William F. Brunner, candidate for U.S. Representative (1942), Sheriff of Queens County (1935–36), U.S. Representative (1929–35), New York Assemblyman (1922–28) (elected as a Democrat)
August Claessens, candidate for New York State Senator (1940), New York Assemblyman (1918–1920, 1922)
George Counts, candidate for New York City Councilman (1943)
↑ Dreier, Peter (2011-04-11). "La Follette's Wisconsin Idea". Dissent. University of Pennsylvania Press. Retrieved 2025-04-16. Though he died of a heart attack less than a year after the election, La Follette's success inspired other progressive movements and campaigns around the country, including farmer-labor parties in Minnesota and North Dakota, the Progressive Party in Wisconsin, and the American Labor Party in New York City.
↑ Robert D. Parmet, The Master of Seventh Avenue: David Dubinsky and the American Labor Movement. New York: New York University Press, 2005; pg. 129.
Eimer, Stuart, "The CIO and Third Party Politics in New York: The Rise and Fall of the CIO-ALP, " Political Power and Social Theory," Volume 18, (2007) 133–171 online
Hardman, J.B.S., "The Late-Lamented American Labor Party." Labor and Nation, January–February 1948.
Waltzer, Kenneth, "The Party and the Polling Place: American Communism and an American Labor Party in the 1930s," Radical History Review, no. 23 (1980).
Wolfe, Allan, "The Withering Away of the American Labor Party," Rutgers University Library Journal, 31 (1968).
Theses
Bakunin, Jack, The Role of the Socialists in the Formation of the American Labor Party. Master's thesis. College of the City of New York, 1965.
Carter, Robert Frederick, Pressure From the Left: The American Labor Party, 1936–1954. PhD dissertation. Syracuse University, 1965.
Licht, Walter, An Analysis of a Political Experiment: The American Labor Party (1936–1940), Senior Thesis. Harvard University, 1967.
Sarasohn, Stephen Beisman, The Struggle for Control of the American Labor Party 1936–1948. Master's thesis. Columbia University, 1948.
Stern, Sheila Irene, The American Labor Party, 1936–1944. Master's thesis. University of Chicago, 1964.
Stewart, William James, A Political History of the American Labor Party, 1936–1944. Master's thesis. American University, 1959.
Waltzer, Kenneth, The American Labor Party: Third Party Politics in New Deal-Cold War New York, 1936–1954. PhD dissertation. Harvard University, 1977.
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