New Union Party | |
|---|---|
| Founder | Jeffrey Miller |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Dissolved | 2005 |
| Merger of | LSR New Unionist group |
| Ideology | De Leonism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
The New Union Party was a De Leonist political party based primarily in the U.S. state of Minnesota from 1980 to 2005. Its ideology was primarily based on the ideas of Daniel De Leon. According to De Leonist theory, militant industrial unions are the vehicle of class struggle. Industrial unions serving the interests of the proletariat (working class) will bring about the change needed to establish a socialist system. A strict adherent to pacifism, the NUP denounced political violence as a method of achieving revolution. [1]
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The NUP was, like all similar organizations, based on the ideas on Karl Marx, Frederich Engels, and Daniel De Leon. Rather than insurrection, it was committed to legal, non-violent means of overthrowing capitalism. It opposed state control of the economy and instead sought direct worker control over the means of production. [2]
Many of its members were formerly affiliated with that state's section of Socialist Labor Party of America. [3] The New Unionists was formed after eight members of the Minneapolis SLP resigned in protest, accusing the national SLP leadership of bureaucratic and authoritarian practices. [4] At a Unity Conference in Ypsilanti, Michigan from 22 August through 24 August 1980, the similarly-minded League for Socialist Reconstruction fused with the New Unionist group to create the New Union Party.
Jeffrey Miller of Minneapolis was the editor of the party's newspaper, New Unionist, which was published from 1978 to 2005. Among the paper's columnists was longtime member Tom Dooley, who died in 2017. [5] Miller died in 2019. [6]
The New Union Party, like other De Leonist groups, ran candidates for political office and organized workers outside of electoral campaigns. In the 1980s, Jeffrey Miller was the party's nominee for three elections:
In 1999, delegates from the NUP attended an International Solidarity Conference in San Francisco organized by the local branch of the Industrial Workers of the World and Workers' Solidarity Alliance. It presented on the contributions of Daniel De Leon to socialist theory. [7]
The party's website is archived by the Library of Congress. Party ephemera and its publications are held at Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections. [8]
Farrell Dobbs was an American Trotskyist, trade unionist, politician, and historian.
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The Industrial Union Party (IUP) was a US DeLeonist political party. The party proclaimed itself on 7 July 1933 at 1032 Prospect Avenue, Bronx, Branch headquarters of its predecessor Industrial Union League (IUL). The new IUP immediately announced candidates in the New York City elections: Adolph Silver for Mayor, Irving Oring for Comptroller, and Sam Brandon for President of Alderman.
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The Workers' International Industrial Union (WIIU) was a Revolutionary Industrial Union headquartered in Detroit in 1908 by radical trade unionists closely associated with the Socialist Labor Party of America, headed by Daniel DeLeon. The organization was formed when it broke with the main faction of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) over the question of political action.
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The American left can refer to multiple concepts. It is sometimes used as a shorthand for groups aligned with the Democratic Party. At other times, it refers to groups that have sought egalitarian changes in the economic, political, and cultural institutions of the United States. Various subgroups with a national scope are active. Liberals and progressives believe that equality can be accommodated into existing capitalist structures, but they differ in their criticism of capitalism and on the extent of reform and the welfare state. Anarchists, communists, and socialists with international imperatives are also present within this macro-movement. Many communes and egalitarian communities have existed in the United States as a sub-category of the broader intentional community movement, some of which were based on utopian socialist ideals. The left has been involved in both the Democratic and Republican parties at different times, having originated in the Democratic-Republican Party as opposed to the Federalist Party.
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Lucien Delabarre Sanial was a French-American newspaper editor, economist, and political activist. A pioneer member of the Socialist Labor Party of America, Sanial is best remembered as one of the earliest economic theorists to deal with the Marxian concept of imperialism.
De Leonism, also known as Marxism-De Leonism, is a Marxist tendency developed by Curaçaoan-American trade union organizer and Marxist theoretician Daniel De Leon. De Leon was an early leader of the first American socialist political party, the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP). De Leon introduced the concept of socialist industrial unionism.
The Socialist Labour Party was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1903 as a splinter from the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) by James Connolly, Neil Maclean and SDF members impressed with the politics of the American socialist Daniel De Leon, a Marxist theoretician and leading figure of the Socialist Labor Party of America. After decades of existence as a tiny organisation, the group was finally disbanded in 1980.
The Socialist Labor Party (SLP) is a political party in the United States. It was established in 1876, and was the first socialist party formed in the country.
Daniel De Leon, alternatively spelt Daniel de León, was a Curaçaoan-American socialist newspaper editor, politician, Marxist theoretician, and trade union organizer. He is regarded as the forefather of the idea of revolutionary industrial unionism and was the leading figure in the Socialist Labor Party of America from 1890 until the time of his death. De Leon was a co-founder of the Industrial Workers of the World and much of his ideas and philosophy contributed to the creations of Socialist Labor parties across the world, including: Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.
The history of left-wing politics in the United States consists of a broad range of individuals and groups that have sought fundamental egalitarian changes. Left-wing activists in the United States have been credited with advancing social change on issues such as labor and civil rights as well as providing critiques of capitalism.
