The Socialist Labor Party, the original party of socialism in the United States, stopped running candidates for partisan public office after 1981, but has continued to publish its newspaper, The People, on a bimonthly schedule. However, due to a shortage of funds, the paper hasn’t been published since the March-April 2008 issue.
The SLP closed its national office, which had been in San Jose, California, on September 1, and shipped a great deal of archival material to Duke University and also to the Wisconsin State Historical Society. Both institutions have good collections relating to the history of many minor parties.
The SLP hopes to resume publication of The People in 2009.
How about move the SLP stuff to the Dem Natl HQ ???
You finally said something sensible, Demo Rep.
At least the small socialist parties are honest and admit they’re socialists, whereas the Democrats try to hide the excrement in the chocolate ice cream.
Yet one more snarkie nearly meaningless comment of Demo Rep: ‘pointillism with a four inch brush!’
The death of socialism in any form is good news.
Doesn’t the SLP have a perpetual endowment like the Prohibition Party? I thought I read that someplace. If so, did something happen to the funds or is it just that inflation has made them not stretch as far as they used to?
well, looks like the members of the party will have to find a new party.
I’m not a Marxist; but I am acquainted with most third political parties. The SLP has been around a long time and are what I consider the most Americanized-Marxist party of them all. Their newspaper is professional and their propaganda is a lot different because they don’t try to appear too intellectual or talk down to people. In fact, it’s rather sad to see them having problems because of their historical roots.
PTK Says:
January 1st, 2009 at 8:18 am
well, looks like the members of the party will have to find a new party.
Phil Sawyer replies:
Well, the few remaining members of the Socialist Labor Party that live in California are certainly welcome to join the Peace and Freedom Party. The door has always been open to them.
Surely the Obama administration will be able to offer some bailout money.
Elf Ninos Mom (“Last Free Voice”) Is Tamara Johnson from Huntington WV
badda bing badda bang badda boom
allahu akhbar
Along with the Populist party, the Socialist Labor party in 1892 had an Initiative and Referendum resolution in its platform.
It is really easy to be a liberal – socialist – communist with the assets and incomes of OTHER persons — and even to borrow some more — when taxes are not enough.
Current Fed / State / local govt debts = about 13 TRILLION dollars — quite enough to bankrupt Western Civilization.
Will everything really collapse before or after Obama becomes the Spender – in – Chief — with the latest and greatest liberal – socialist – communist spending schemes ???
And creating all those new disabled veterans via that totally unnecessary Trillion Dollar foreign adventure in the middle east?
On the subject of other closings, can anyone tell me the story about Third Party Watch? Are they on vacation or something? They haven’t posted since December 22nd.
Does that mean that we are going to receive even more bourgeois conservative postings (most of them not logical) than we already do. God forbid!
While we are all here, let’s thank Richard [Winger] for being so fair and balanced! I have found both TPW and IPR to be very [alright, some what] biased and not living up to their moniker and or original mission state ment[s]!
Yes, Don, Richard Winger deserves appreciation from all of us – very much so.
Frankly I’m amazed they still had an office – but its VERY good to know that their archives have been preserved.
Echo the plaudits to Richard Winger – does a great job.
The Socialist Labor Party, unlike other left groups and parties, has never supported the Democrats. Hopefully the SLP will find a way out of this mess they’re in; they have really been the only truly Marxist political party in this country for many years. And they did not support Obama.
This is a comment from Ken Ellis, but I am posting it for him because his computer is having technical troubles posting: “What sealed the SLP’s doom was the fundamental dishonesty of the rationale for the party’s Socialist Industrial Unionism program. While attempting to dialogue with some of them about their many indefensible theories, they resort to the same techniques perfected by the late SLP National Secretary Arnold Petersen: they become indignant at the idea that their theories are flawed, they attack the critic, and they change the subject. No appeal to reason can persuade them to examine their theories with any degree of objectivity, so immersed are they in stagnant dogma that they worship. See for yourself at the yahoo group deleonism-list and go back to early 2009 to see how many times important issues were evaded. Lots more damning evidence avails at my web site.
Just two things with regard to Mr. Ellis, a former SLP member who has been carrying this torch around now for more than 30 years:
1st — Mr. Ellis to the contrary notwithstanding, nothing yet has “sealed the SLP’s doom.” We’re still here.
2nd — Whatever “yahoo group deleonism-list” may be, and whoever may be responsible for it, it has nothing to do with the SLP and the SLP cannot be held responsible for whatever is posted there. The SLP has a website (www.slp.org), and when it comes to the World Wide Web and the Internet, that is all the SLP has. Anyone who wants to take Mr. Ellis’s advice to “See for yourself” will have to go there.
“Their newspaper is professional”
this is true. it’s well written and impeccably edited.
I’m coming to this site having been born & raised in the SLP’NYC’ years (mainly during time of Eric Hasas Weekly People Editor & Pres. candidate who skillfully used then-Equal Time Amendment presentations) between 1956 and 1970’s. Having participated in SLP Marxian Study Classes, I became an active SLP member when many ‘sections'(Monmouth Cty, NJ; Philadelphia; St Louis etc) became critical of increasingly antidemocratic, severe and autocratic/cranky behavior/edicts from the National Office and its mainly aging acolytes and inexperienced new members during the Viet Nam War era. The dramatic loss of votes in the ’76 election is a symptom of the terrible loss and disintegration of the SLP as the only clear political voice as well as clear analyst of Marxism and only party committed to presenting a clear and understandable analysis of the entire system of Capitalism and the Materialist Conception of History (Marxist-DeLeonist-extant, see its PDF’s). That disintegration was hastened by the sudden uprooting of its publishing branch and NO Headquarters to California leaving its majority East Coast membership base stranded and nation-wide appeals for discussion and reform of the NO unanswered. The IU model, while suffering from reliance on 19th & 20th C cultural-value mindsets and limitations of technological achievements we now take for granted (instantaneous and mass communication, input/voting, production, etc) it still stands as the basis for a future Socialist society post-capitalism, post-class division, post-profit. Ultimately the SLP ended with a dogmatic, cult-like, fear-driven devotion to the overwhelming power of a National Office and unprepared bureaucrats either ‘too young or too old’ that followed a wrong-headed narrow sectarianism. New groups arose out of the SLP and carried on much of the principles but with more expanded internal and external dialogue. In NJ (PeopleForANewSystem (later Society) PFANS, in Minneapolis-St Paul the New Unionist Party,in St Louis an activist group & publication emerged that encouraged dialogue and commentary, etc). One, PeopleForANewSociety,
continued to design a New Society post-capitalist economic and civic Model based in contemporary technology and 21st C. values (‘grassroots’ Democracy where we live, where we work) presented during Occupy and continuing at various left forums, union halls and colleges & universities. The SLP goes unheralded by academia and media- perhaps showing how dangerous its clarity was to the status quo and elites in both spheres. But, again unheralded and therefore mostly forgotten, what continues is its important impact on the ongoing development of a peaceful, healthy and strong vision of the next society–which can incorporate, utilize and develop to fruition our ongoing humanist project toward cooperative, ecologic, technologic, wholistic, integrated and fully realized democracy.
Just curious… why did it take you ten years to comment?