I’m okay with basic math, economic, and civics tests administered prior to voting. And I think that government employees should surrender their voting rights while employed by the government. Conflict of interest. Maybe anyone who receives a government check should be denied.
Know your commies. (part two)…. SOCIALIST PARTY USA – The SPUSA are true democratic socialists — advocating left-wing electoral change versus militant revolutionary change. Many of the SP members could easily be members Eugene Debs for Presidentof the left-wing faction of the Democratic Party. Unlike most of the other political parties on this page with “Socialist” in their names, the SP has always been staunchly anti-communist. The original Socialist Party USA was founded by labor union leader, ex-Democratic elected official and pacifist Eugene V. Debs in 1900, the SP was once a mighty national third party. Debs himself was the SP nominee for president five times between 1900 and 1920. Debs received over 900,000 votes (6%) in 1912 — the SP’s best showing ever. Former minister and journalist Norman Thomas was the SP Presidential nominee 6 times between 1928 and 1948 — his best showing being 883,000 votes (2.2%) in 1932. The SP also elected congressmen, mayors and other officials throughout the 20th Century (largely during the 1910s through 1950s). The party withered and splintered so much that, by the last 1972, it barely existed. The Democratic Socialists of American and the Social Democrats USA — both linked above — are the other splinter groups from the original Debs/Thomas SP entity. Activists from the old SP reconstituted the party in 1976 and began to again field SPUSA national tickets for the first time in over two decades. SPUSA activist Mimi Soltysik was the party’s presidential nominee in 2016 (22nd place – 2,683 votes). In 2020, SPUSA co-nominated Green Party presidential nominee Howie Hawkins. The party’s youth wing — the Young People’s Socialist League — has been in existence since the early 1900s. Other SPUSA sites: Socialist National Committee / VoteSocialist.org (campaigns/candidates) and The Socialist.
SOCIALIST ACTION – Socialist Action is a Trotskyist political party of “revolutionary socialists” originally founded in 1983 by expelled members of the Socialist Workers Party. While the SA shares the SWP’s pro-Cuba views, the SA still tries to retain its Trotskyist ideological roots (versus the SWP, which has drifted away from Trotskyism towards a Soviet authoritarian communist ideology). The SA states that they “oppose the Democrats and Republicans, all capitalist political parties, and all capitalist governments and their representatives everywhere … [and] Stalinist and neo-Stalinist regimes from the ex-Soviet Union to China.” This communist party has fielded some local political candidates in the San Francisco Bay area over the years, and ran its first congressional candidate in 2010 (in Connecticut). The party fielded SA National Secretary Jeff Mackler as the 2016 and 2020 presidential nominee, but he was just a write-in hopeful both times. Other official sites: Youth for Socialist Action and VoteSocialistAction.
Socialist Alternative PartySOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE PARTY – Socialist Alternative, founded in 1986 and originally named the Labor Militant, split from the Labor Party in the 1990s in order to pursue a more radical leftist and anti-globalization party. The party is the US member of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), an international association of Trotskyist political paries from nearly 50 nations. SocAlt is not as radical as some Marxist parties, as they espouse democratic socialism and have formed alliances of convenience with non-socialists for political advantage. for example, the party has endorsed the Green Party’s presidential nominees in multiple years, most recently in 2020. The party wants to build a socialist mass workers movement, and is critical of the Leninist-Stalinist historical dictatorships as a perversion of true Marxism. The party supports a $15 national minimum wage, universal free health care, a guaranteed $500/week minimum income for all, public ownership of major banks, forcing bankrupt companies into public ownership, free college education, and slashing the military budget. In a major upset in 2013, Kshama Sawant became the first party member to win an election when she won a seat on the Seattle City Council — and was reelected in 2015 and 2019. The SocAlt candidates for Minneapolis city council have also been competitive, making the runoffs but not yet winning. The party currently has chapters in a dozen states.
Socialist Democrats USASOCIAL DEMOCRATS, USA – The SD-USA to date has only fielded candidates for local office. The SD-USA is a small group more ideologically centrist, staunchly anti-communist leftists who were more directly aligned with the Democratic Party in the 1970s-1980s than the more traditionally leftist Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). In fact, the views of the SPUSA in 1972 caused the DSA (then named the DSOC) to splinter away in a ideological rift. The SD-USA refused to support George McGovern for President that year because of his opposition to the Vietnam War — versus the DSOC, which supported McGovern and an immediate end to the war. SD-USA also disputes the claims of DSA and SPUSA to be the true heirs to the legacy of Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas, claiming instead that the SD-USA “is the only legitimate successor” to the party of Debs and Thomas. However, by 2010, SD-USA eventually ceded all rights to the name “Socialist Party USA” to the SPUSA. The Socialist International stripped SD-USA of full member status in 2007, deeming SD-USA to be a defunct organization. The SD-USA began a reorganizing process in 2009, with a new leadership team. SD-USA held a nation convention in 2012 and is currently focused on rebuilding the group. As of 2021, chapters currently exist in CA, KS, MA, NY and PA.
SOCIALIST EQUALITY PARTY – The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) was originally named the Workers League (WL). The WL was founded in 1966 as a Trotskyist communist group closely associated with the electoral campaigns of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). The goal of these Trotskyist groups was a build a working-class labor party in the US affiliated with the International Committee of the Fourth International (the global Trotskyist umbrella network). They believe that “the egalitarian and internationalist legacy of the Russian Revolution” could have succeeded, but was “betrayed by Stalinism” and its progeny. When the SWP drifted away from Trotskyism in the early 1980s, the WL broke with the SWP and began fielding its own candidates. The WL fielded its first Presidential ticket in 1984. The WL later renamed itself as the Socialist Equality Party in 1994. The Michigan-based SEP regularly fields Congressional and local candidates, mainly in Michigan and Ohio. The SEP is very realistic about its candidates, acknowledging a campaign is an opportunity to “present a socialist alternative to the demagogy and lies of the establishment parties and the mass media.” SEP activist Joseph Kishore was the party’s nominee in 2020 (30th place – 351 votes). The SEP’s news site — the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) — is updated daily with articles, analysis, history, etc., written with a hardcore internationalist, Trotskyist perspective.
Socialist Workers Party – 1980SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY – Originally a pro-Trotsky faction within the Communist Party, the SWP was formed in 1938 after the Communist Party — acting on orders from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin — expelled the American Trotskyites. The SWP was for many years the leading voice of Trotskyism in the USA. Since the 1980s, the SWP rapidly shifted away from Trotskyism and embraced the brand of authoritarian communist politics espoused by the old Soviet Union and former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (the SWP site described communist Cuba “a shining example for all workers”). During that ideological shift, the SWP expelled their Trotskyist faction in 1983 (which lead to the founding of the rival Socialist Action party). The SWP has run candidates for President in every election since 1948 — plus many federal, state and local candidates nationwide. The SWP’s best electoral showing was in 1976, when presidential nominee Peter Camejo captured 90,000 votes (note: Camejo was expelled from the the SWP in 1980 for embracing democratic socialism). Communist political organizer Alyson Kennedy was the SWP’s candidate in 2016, and again in 2020 (11th place – 6,791 votes). An interesting quirk is that the SWP requires all members to be “proletarians” by having them take factory jobs in order to advocate for a worker-based communist class struggle. The party’s weekly newspaper The Militant, which was launched in 1928 and pre-dates the SWP, is the party’s only online presence. The SWP also owns a book publishing house: Pathfinder Press.
US Pacifist PartyUNITED STATES PACIFIST PARTY – This tiny political party fielded party founder Bradford Lyttle as a write-in candidate for President in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2012 and 2020 (and ran a US Senate candidate in Colorado in 1998). In 2008, for the first time, Lyttle achieved ballot status in one state (110 votes), a feat he again matched in 2016 (382 votes). The USPP opposes military actions in all circumstances and wants to transform the US military into “a non-violent defense and humanitarian service corps.” The USPP platform advocates generally left-wing political stances and slashing the military budget to “zero.”Unity Party
WORKERS WORLD PARTY – The WWP was formed in 1959 by a pro-Chinese communist faction that split from the Socialist Workers Party. Although the WWP theoretically supports worker revolutions, the WWP supported the Soviet actions that crushed worker uprisings in Hungary in the 1950s, Griswold–Holmes (WWP) 1980Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and Poland in the early 1980s. The WWP was largely an issue-oriented revolutionary party until they fielded their first candidate for president in 1980. The militant WWP believes that “capitalist democracy produces nothing but hot air” and that “the power of the workers and the oppressed is in the streets, not in Washington.” FBI Director Louis Freeh attacked the WWP in his May 2001 remarks before a US Senate committee: “Anarchists and extremist socialist groups — many of which, such as the Workers World Party — have an international presence and, at times, also represent a potential threat in the United States” of rioting and street violence. The more revoltionary wing of the WWP broke away in 2006 to form the Party of Socialism & Liberation (PSL). After the WWP-PSL split, the WWP failed to field a Presidential ticket in 2008 and 2012. In 2016, the party nominated longtime party activist Monica Moorhead for President (18th place – 4,250 votes). Moorhead was previously the WWP presidential nominee in 1996 and 2000. The WWP failed to field any presidential ticket in 2020. Official news site: Workers World.
WORKING CLASS PARTY – The WCP was founded in 2016 as a socialist, anti-capitalist, anti-racist party which asserts “working people need our own party, a party of our whole class, built around the conviction that the working class and the employing class have nothing in common.” The party looks at the late socialist Eugene Debs as a hero of their movement, although they seem to express a more radical view that disdains elections. “The working class cannot solve its problems through elections, not in a society where the capitalist class controls all the levels of power. Elections were not the end goal of these candidates, only the beginning,” they explain. The WCP wants to have militant unions to fight both “the bosses” and capitalism, and have the WCP act as the political entity to carry on the fight in the electoral venue. The WCP has active chapters and routinely fields congressional and state candidates in Michigan and Maryland.
WORKING FAMILIES PARTY – The WFP, founded in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions, was for many years a one-state party which operated only in New York. During 2006-08, the WFP expanded by launching new chapters in a few other states. By 2008, the WFP obtained ballot access and nominated congressional candidates in New York, Connecticut and Oregon. The WFP essentially operates as a “fusion” party which co-nominates candidates of established parties. This fusion move allows WFP candidates — who are almost exclusively Democrats — to appear on a second ballot line in the same election. Fusion “gives voters a way to ‘vote their values’ without spoiling an election,” explain the WFP’s website. The WFP exists to advance a pro-labor union political agenda focused almost entirely on liberal economic and employment issues. The WFP to date has endorsed candidates in the Democratic presidential contests: Bernie Sanders for President in 2016, and endorsed Elizabeth Warren in 2020. No WFP presidential nominee fielded to date.
Democratic SocialistsDEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA – The DSA is the official US full member party of the Socialist International (which includes UK’s Labour Party, the French Parti Socialiste and nearly 140 other political parties around the globe). Unlike most other members of the Socialist International, the DSA never fields candidates for office on its own ballot line. The DSA explains their mission as follows: “building progressive movements for social change while establishing an openly socialist presence in American communities and politics.” Thus, the DSA is less like a traditional US political party and much more like a political education and grassroots activism organization. Working within the Democratic Party primaries starting around 2010, the DSA fields and endorses Democratic Socialist candidates against more mainstream Democratic incumbents. In 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) became the first DSA members elected to congress. DSA, Social Democrats USA and the Socialist Party USA each claim to be the one true heir to the ideological legacy of Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas (and DSA disputes the Socialist Party-USA’s claim to the title arguing it is a modern-era creation that simply appropriated the older name of the defunct party of Debs/Thomas). The DSA — then named the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) — split from the SD-USA in 1972 in a rift over the Vietnam War (SDUSA supported the war and opposed McGovern for President; DSOC supported McGovern and opposed the war). Official DSA affiliates include: Young Democratic Socialists, Socialist Forum, Democratic Left (publication) and Religious Socialism.
PROGRESSIVE LABOR PARTY – The PLP Progressive Labor Partyis a New York-based, militant, Stalinist-style communist party dedicated to bringing about a world-wide, armed, communist revolution. The party was formed in 1961 by members of the CPUSA who felt the Soviet Union had betrayed communism and become revisionist and state capitalist. Founders also felt the CPUSA had adopted unforgivable reformist positions such as “peaceful coexistence” with the US, turning to electoral politics, and hiding communist views behind a veneer of reform-oriented front groups. In the 1960s, the PLP heavily infiltrated the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) group. Today, the PLP still abhors democracy, elections, freedom of nearly any sort, capitalism and religion — and praises dictator Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union as their role model. Because they denounce all elections as “frauds,” the PLP vows to never field any candidates for public office (for these guys, its either armed victory or nothing at all). Lots and lots of online ideological articles written in the typical dogmatic communist style … with titles like “The Hoax of the 1932-33 Ukraine Fasmine,” “Fascism Grows In The Auto Industry,” “The Road to Revolution.” Articles in English, Spanish, Russian, German, etc.
REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST PARTY USA – The Revoltuionary Communist PartyRCP is based upon the teachings of the late Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong — a form of rigid communism derivative of Leninist-Stalinist Marxism. The party strongly denounces capitalism and advocates a “Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Programme” as “a battle plan for destroying the old and creating the new [and] is a kind of road map for how to win the revolution.” Even the RCP’s logo is consistent with the proletarian revolutionary theme (i.e., note the red flag flying from a rifle bayonet). The RCP clearly advocates change through revolution (and various popular front groups), not elections — so don’t look for any RCP candidates on the ballot. The RCP’s most visible activity is running several branches of a store called Revolution Books. RCP Chairman Bob Avakian and his writings also receive extensive coverage on the party’s official site, as he has been the party leader since 1979.
WORKERS PARTY, USA – The WP-USA is a hardcore Marxist-Leninist political party founded in 1992 by the late Michael Thorburn. The party was established to “bring the working class out as an independent class force.” The WP-USA shares much of the CPUSA’s ideology. While the WP-USA has yet to field any candidates, the Chicago-based party publishes a bi-weekly newspaper named The Worker and a quarterly theoretical journal named — not surprisingly — The Worker Magazine. The WP-USA site features an extensive on-line archive of dogmatic screeds largely denouncing “monopoly capitalists,” Western imperialism, the USA, etc. — and praising the working class and “revolutionary politics.” Thorburn’s Anti-Imperialist News Service (“assisting the people’s struggles against war and militarism”) is also affiliated with the WP-USA.
I’m okay with basic math, economic, and civics tests administered prior to voting. And I think that government employees should surrender their voting rights while employed by the government. Conflict of interest. Maybe anyone who receives a government check should be denied.
Which government? Federal, State or local?
Embrace the healing power of ‘and’.
So no cops?
Just asking.
For some rather unsavory friends.
Know your commies. (part two)…. SOCIALIST PARTY USA – The SPUSA are true democratic socialists — advocating left-wing electoral change versus militant revolutionary change. Many of the SP members could easily be members Eugene Debs for Presidentof the left-wing faction of the Democratic Party. Unlike most of the other political parties on this page with “Socialist” in their names, the SP has always been staunchly anti-communist. The original Socialist Party USA was founded by labor union leader, ex-Democratic elected official and pacifist Eugene V. Debs in 1900, the SP was once a mighty national third party. Debs himself was the SP nominee for president five times between 1900 and 1920. Debs received over 900,000 votes (6%) in 1912 — the SP’s best showing ever. Former minister and journalist Norman Thomas was the SP Presidential nominee 6 times between 1928 and 1948 — his best showing being 883,000 votes (2.2%) in 1932. The SP also elected congressmen, mayors and other officials throughout the 20th Century (largely during the 1910s through 1950s). The party withered and splintered so much that, by the last 1972, it barely existed. The Democratic Socialists of American and the Social Democrats USA — both linked above — are the other splinter groups from the original Debs/Thomas SP entity. Activists from the old SP reconstituted the party in 1976 and began to again field SPUSA national tickets for the first time in over two decades. SPUSA activist Mimi Soltysik was the party’s presidential nominee in 2016 (22nd place – 2,683 votes). In 2020, SPUSA co-nominated Green Party presidential nominee Howie Hawkins. The party’s youth wing — the Young People’s Socialist League — has been in existence since the early 1900s. Other SPUSA sites: Socialist National Committee / VoteSocialist.org (campaigns/candidates) and The Socialist.
SOCIALIST ACTION – Socialist Action is a Trotskyist political party of “revolutionary socialists” originally founded in 1983 by expelled members of the Socialist Workers Party. While the SA shares the SWP’s pro-Cuba views, the SA still tries to retain its Trotskyist ideological roots (versus the SWP, which has drifted away from Trotskyism towards a Soviet authoritarian communist ideology). The SA states that they “oppose the Democrats and Republicans, all capitalist political parties, and all capitalist governments and their representatives everywhere … [and] Stalinist and neo-Stalinist regimes from the ex-Soviet Union to China.” This communist party has fielded some local political candidates in the San Francisco Bay area over the years, and ran its first congressional candidate in 2010 (in Connecticut). The party fielded SA National Secretary Jeff Mackler as the 2016 and 2020 presidential nominee, but he was just a write-in hopeful both times. Other official sites: Youth for Socialist Action and VoteSocialistAction.
Socialist Alternative PartySOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE PARTY – Socialist Alternative, founded in 1986 and originally named the Labor Militant, split from the Labor Party in the 1990s in order to pursue a more radical leftist and anti-globalization party. The party is the US member of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), an international association of Trotskyist political paries from nearly 50 nations. SocAlt is not as radical as some Marxist parties, as they espouse democratic socialism and have formed alliances of convenience with non-socialists for political advantage. for example, the party has endorsed the Green Party’s presidential nominees in multiple years, most recently in 2020. The party wants to build a socialist mass workers movement, and is critical of the Leninist-Stalinist historical dictatorships as a perversion of true Marxism. The party supports a $15 national minimum wage, universal free health care, a guaranteed $500/week minimum income for all, public ownership of major banks, forcing bankrupt companies into public ownership, free college education, and slashing the military budget. In a major upset in 2013, Kshama Sawant became the first party member to win an election when she won a seat on the Seattle City Council — and was reelected in 2015 and 2019. The SocAlt candidates for Minneapolis city council have also been competitive, making the runoffs but not yet winning. The party currently has chapters in a dozen states.
Socialist Democrats USASOCIAL DEMOCRATS, USA – The SD-USA to date has only fielded candidates for local office. The SD-USA is a small group more ideologically centrist, staunchly anti-communist leftists who were more directly aligned with the Democratic Party in the 1970s-1980s than the more traditionally leftist Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). In fact, the views of the SPUSA in 1972 caused the DSA (then named the DSOC) to splinter away in a ideological rift. The SD-USA refused to support George McGovern for President that year because of his opposition to the Vietnam War — versus the DSOC, which supported McGovern and an immediate end to the war. SD-USA also disputes the claims of DSA and SPUSA to be the true heirs to the legacy of Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas, claiming instead that the SD-USA “is the only legitimate successor” to the party of Debs and Thomas. However, by 2010, SD-USA eventually ceded all rights to the name “Socialist Party USA” to the SPUSA. The Socialist International stripped SD-USA of full member status in 2007, deeming SD-USA to be a defunct organization. The SD-USA began a reorganizing process in 2009, with a new leadership team. SD-USA held a nation convention in 2012 and is currently focused on rebuilding the group. As of 2021, chapters currently exist in CA, KS, MA, NY and PA.
SOCIALIST EQUALITY PARTY – The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) was originally named the Workers League (WL). The WL was founded in 1966 as a Trotskyist communist group closely associated with the electoral campaigns of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). The goal of these Trotskyist groups was a build a working-class labor party in the US affiliated with the International Committee of the Fourth International (the global Trotskyist umbrella network). They believe that “the egalitarian and internationalist legacy of the Russian Revolution” could have succeeded, but was “betrayed by Stalinism” and its progeny. When the SWP drifted away from Trotskyism in the early 1980s, the WL broke with the SWP and began fielding its own candidates. The WL fielded its first Presidential ticket in 1984. The WL later renamed itself as the Socialist Equality Party in 1994. The Michigan-based SEP regularly fields Congressional and local candidates, mainly in Michigan and Ohio. The SEP is very realistic about its candidates, acknowledging a campaign is an opportunity to “present a socialist alternative to the demagogy and lies of the establishment parties and the mass media.” SEP activist Joseph Kishore was the party’s nominee in 2020 (30th place – 351 votes). The SEP’s news site — the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) — is updated daily with articles, analysis, history, etc., written with a hardcore internationalist, Trotskyist perspective.
Socialist Workers Party – 1980SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY – Originally a pro-Trotsky faction within the Communist Party, the SWP was formed in 1938 after the Communist Party — acting on orders from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin — expelled the American Trotskyites. The SWP was for many years the leading voice of Trotskyism in the USA. Since the 1980s, the SWP rapidly shifted away from Trotskyism and embraced the brand of authoritarian communist politics espoused by the old Soviet Union and former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (the SWP site described communist Cuba “a shining example for all workers”). During that ideological shift, the SWP expelled their Trotskyist faction in 1983 (which lead to the founding of the rival Socialist Action party). The SWP has run candidates for President in every election since 1948 — plus many federal, state and local candidates nationwide. The SWP’s best electoral showing was in 1976, when presidential nominee Peter Camejo captured 90,000 votes (note: Camejo was expelled from the the SWP in 1980 for embracing democratic socialism). Communist political organizer Alyson Kennedy was the SWP’s candidate in 2016, and again in 2020 (11th place – 6,791 votes). An interesting quirk is that the SWP requires all members to be “proletarians” by having them take factory jobs in order to advocate for a worker-based communist class struggle. The party’s weekly newspaper The Militant, which was launched in 1928 and pre-dates the SWP, is the party’s only online presence. The SWP also owns a book publishing house: Pathfinder Press.
US Pacifist PartyUNITED STATES PACIFIST PARTY – This tiny political party fielded party founder Bradford Lyttle as a write-in candidate for President in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2012 and 2020 (and ran a US Senate candidate in Colorado in 1998). In 2008, for the first time, Lyttle achieved ballot status in one state (110 votes), a feat he again matched in 2016 (382 votes). The USPP opposes military actions in all circumstances and wants to transform the US military into “a non-violent defense and humanitarian service corps.” The USPP platform advocates generally left-wing political stances and slashing the military budget to “zero.”Unity Party
WORKERS WORLD PARTY – The WWP was formed in 1959 by a pro-Chinese communist faction that split from the Socialist Workers Party. Although the WWP theoretically supports worker revolutions, the WWP supported the Soviet actions that crushed worker uprisings in Hungary in the 1950s, Griswold–Holmes (WWP) 1980Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and Poland in the early 1980s. The WWP was largely an issue-oriented revolutionary party until they fielded their first candidate for president in 1980. The militant WWP believes that “capitalist democracy produces nothing but hot air” and that “the power of the workers and the oppressed is in the streets, not in Washington.” FBI Director Louis Freeh attacked the WWP in his May 2001 remarks before a US Senate committee: “Anarchists and extremist socialist groups — many of which, such as the Workers World Party — have an international presence and, at times, also represent a potential threat in the United States” of rioting and street violence. The more revoltionary wing of the WWP broke away in 2006 to form the Party of Socialism & Liberation (PSL). After the WWP-PSL split, the WWP failed to field a Presidential ticket in 2008 and 2012. In 2016, the party nominated longtime party activist Monica Moorhead for President (18th place – 4,250 votes). Moorhead was previously the WWP presidential nominee in 1996 and 2000. The WWP failed to field any presidential ticket in 2020. Official news site: Workers World.
WORKING CLASS PARTY – The WCP was founded in 2016 as a socialist, anti-capitalist, anti-racist party which asserts “working people need our own party, a party of our whole class, built around the conviction that the working class and the employing class have nothing in common.” The party looks at the late socialist Eugene Debs as a hero of their movement, although they seem to express a more radical view that disdains elections. “The working class cannot solve its problems through elections, not in a society where the capitalist class controls all the levels of power. Elections were not the end goal of these candidates, only the beginning,” they explain. The WCP wants to have militant unions to fight both “the bosses” and capitalism, and have the WCP act as the political entity to carry on the fight in the electoral venue. The WCP has active chapters and routinely fields congressional and state candidates in Michigan and Maryland.
WORKING FAMILIES PARTY – The WFP, founded in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions, was for many years a one-state party which operated only in New York. During 2006-08, the WFP expanded by launching new chapters in a few other states. By 2008, the WFP obtained ballot access and nominated congressional candidates in New York, Connecticut and Oregon. The WFP essentially operates as a “fusion” party which co-nominates candidates of established parties. This fusion move allows WFP candidates — who are almost exclusively Democrats — to appear on a second ballot line in the same election. Fusion “gives voters a way to ‘vote their values’ without spoiling an election,” explain the WFP’s website. The WFP exists to advance a pro-labor union political agenda focused almost entirely on liberal economic and employment issues. The WFP to date has endorsed candidates in the Democratic presidential contests: Bernie Sanders for President in 2016, and endorsed Elizabeth Warren in 2020. No WFP presidential nominee fielded to date.
Democratic SocialistsDEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA – The DSA is the official US full member party of the Socialist International (which includes UK’s Labour Party, the French Parti Socialiste and nearly 140 other political parties around the globe). Unlike most other members of the Socialist International, the DSA never fields candidates for office on its own ballot line. The DSA explains their mission as follows: “building progressive movements for social change while establishing an openly socialist presence in American communities and politics.” Thus, the DSA is less like a traditional US political party and much more like a political education and grassroots activism organization. Working within the Democratic Party primaries starting around 2010, the DSA fields and endorses Democratic Socialist candidates against more mainstream Democratic incumbents. In 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) became the first DSA members elected to congress. DSA, Social Democrats USA and the Socialist Party USA each claim to be the one true heir to the ideological legacy of Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas (and DSA disputes the Socialist Party-USA’s claim to the title arguing it is a modern-era creation that simply appropriated the older name of the defunct party of Debs/Thomas). The DSA — then named the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) — split from the SD-USA in 1972 in a rift over the Vietnam War (SDUSA supported the war and opposed McGovern for President; DSOC supported McGovern and opposed the war). Official DSA affiliates include: Young Democratic Socialists, Socialist Forum, Democratic Left (publication) and Religious Socialism.
PROGRESSIVE LABOR PARTY – The PLP Progressive Labor Partyis a New York-based, militant, Stalinist-style communist party dedicated to bringing about a world-wide, armed, communist revolution. The party was formed in 1961 by members of the CPUSA who felt the Soviet Union had betrayed communism and become revisionist and state capitalist. Founders also felt the CPUSA had adopted unforgivable reformist positions such as “peaceful coexistence” with the US, turning to electoral politics, and hiding communist views behind a veneer of reform-oriented front groups. In the 1960s, the PLP heavily infiltrated the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) group. Today, the PLP still abhors democracy, elections, freedom of nearly any sort, capitalism and religion — and praises dictator Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union as their role model. Because they denounce all elections as “frauds,” the PLP vows to never field any candidates for public office (for these guys, its either armed victory or nothing at all). Lots and lots of online ideological articles written in the typical dogmatic communist style … with titles like “The Hoax of the 1932-33 Ukraine Fasmine,” “Fascism Grows In The Auto Industry,” “The Road to Revolution.” Articles in English, Spanish, Russian, German, etc.
REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST PARTY USA – The Revoltuionary Communist PartyRCP is based upon the teachings of the late Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong — a form of rigid communism derivative of Leninist-Stalinist Marxism. The party strongly denounces capitalism and advocates a “Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Programme” as “a battle plan for destroying the old and creating the new [and] is a kind of road map for how to win the revolution.” Even the RCP’s logo is consistent with the proletarian revolutionary theme (i.e., note the red flag flying from a rifle bayonet). The RCP clearly advocates change through revolution (and various popular front groups), not elections — so don’t look for any RCP candidates on the ballot. The RCP’s most visible activity is running several branches of a store called Revolution Books. RCP Chairman Bob Avakian and his writings also receive extensive coverage on the party’s official site, as he has been the party leader since 1979.
WORKERS PARTY, USA – The WP-USA is a hardcore Marxist-Leninist political party founded in 1992 by the late Michael Thorburn. The party was established to “bring the working class out as an independent class force.” The WP-USA shares much of the CPUSA’s ideology. While the WP-USA has yet to field any candidates, the Chicago-based party publishes a bi-weekly newspaper named The Worker and a quarterly theoretical journal named — not surprisingly — The Worker Magazine. The WP-USA site features an extensive on-line archive of dogmatic screeds largely denouncing “monopoly capitalists,” Western imperialism, the USA, etc. — and praising the working class and “revolutionary politics.” Thorburn’s Anti-Imperialist News Service (“assisting the people’s struggles against war and militarism”) is also affiliated with the WP-USA.
We seem to have a lot of home grown commies.
Our major universities couldn’t operate without um. Ditto for our major city governments.