Detroit voted for Mayor on August 4, 2009, using a non-partisan election. D’Artagnan Collier campaigned as the nominee of the Socialist Equality Party, and polled 1.4% of the vote in a six-candidate field.
Although this is a modest percentage, it is the highest percentage that any candidate for Mayor of Detroit, who was sponsored by any socialist party, has received since 1951. Among the parties that have run candidates for Mayor of Detroit since World War II are the Socialist Workers Party (which last ran in 2001), the Workers League (predecessor party to the Socialist Equality Party), and the Revolutionary Workers Party. In 1951 the Socialist Workers Party candidate had received 1.6%.
I don’t think there was a U.S. party with the name “Revolutionary Workers Party”, but maybe this was a local group. There is a Revolutionary Workers League and a Revolutionary Communist Party, but I don’t believe they’ve ever run candidates for political office. There have been several organizations just called the “Workers Party”.
I know this is spotterish, but I’m curious when this “Revolutionary Workers Party” ran.
Scott, I think you’re right about the “Revolutionary Workers Party,” at least in this context. The group called the Revolutionary Workers League was rather active in Detroit, and on an election database site that I looked through (included as a link), there was a “Shanta Driver” who ran for mayor of Detroit in 1989. Based on a document I’ve read about someone’s resignation from the RWL (http://www.regroupment.org/main/page_appendix_3.html), the name Shanta appears fairly prominently, so I my guess is that there is a connection.
As for the Revolutionary Communist Party, Maoist groups generally don’t run candidates for office in the United States. All the groups mentioned in this post were/are Trotskyist.
I don’t know if this info is considered solid enough to warrant changing the OP, but hopefully it will help clear some things up.
And for the average, Cold War indoctrinated American citizen, ‘Socialism’ and or ‘Communism’ is akin to throwing stink bombs into a crowded room. It clears the area real quick.
To me and many outside the fight of words it does not matter except in the area of substance. This is a leading indicator to what understanding is for human dignity, empathy, and the like. Our humanity has grown, but not too much or enough is what I read here. We, either socialist or communist need to work harder at substance and less at fighting words.
Yes, Shanta Driver was the Revolutionary Workers League candidate for Mayor of Detroit in 1989. She got 122 votes, or .06%. That group ran two candidates for the city council, John Riehl and Judy Wright.
Yeah, I got in touch with a former RWL member who explained that to me. Perhaps he sent you a message as well?
No, he didn’t send me a message.