Democratic Workers Party

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For the Egyptian political party, see Workers Democratic Party.
Democratic Workers Party
Founded1974 (1974)
DissolvedAugust 1987 (August 1987)
Elections

The Democratic Workers Party was a United States

charismatic leader.[1] She estimated that the Democratic Workers Party at one point had 125-150 full-time members and 300-1,000 members with various degrees of affiliation.[2]

Marlene Dixon

Marlene Dixon had earned a

anti-communists.[1]
: 203 

In November 1968, while a professor at the University of Chicago, Dixon participated in a political demonstration, and two months later when her contract renewal came up, the university's sociology department voted unanimously not to rehire her. The

Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From The Women's Liberation Movement, edited by Robin Morgan.[5]

While serving at McGill University she once again built up a following among students, and began organizing meetings with them. Relations between her and the staff of McGill University had begun falling in the early 1970s, and by 1974 she had decided to stop teaching.

Maoist sympathies, also a proponent of gay liberation and anti-racism.[citation needed
]

Foundation

In the summer of 1974, Dixon (now in the

Self-criticism was also widely practiced to abusive extremes along with other measures to an extent condemned by critics and ex-members as destroying any chances of internal debate.[1]: 146  The position of General Secretary was formed by 1976 with Dixon as the first and only holder of the title. The name of the party was originally the Workers Party for Proletarian Socialism, then changed to the Workers Party until eventually becoming the Democratic Workers Party by 1984.[1]
: 158 

The DWP had a core membership of 100-125 people. Max Elbaum categorizes it as part of the New Communist movement.[9]

Influence

Throughout the 1970s,

personality cult began to develop around Dixon as she was promoted as a great theoretical figure within the Communist movement.[1]: 160  "Comrade Marlene and the Party are inseparable; [and] her contribution is the Party itself, is the unity all of us join together to build upon. The Party is now the material expression of that unity, of that theoretical world view. That world view is the world view of the Party, its central leadership and all of its members. And there will be no other world view ... This was the unity that founded the Party, this was the unity that safeguarded the Party through purge and two-line struggle, and this is the unity we will protect and defend at all costs. There will be no other unity."[11]

The party developed its own print shop (first called Greenleaf Press, then Synthex Press), which grew into a full-service printing and publishing operation that serviced mainstream clients such as banks, catalog companies, and publishers throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The press produced numerous materials for the Party: books, journals, newspapers, pamphlets, fliers, bulletins, direct mail solicitations and buttons among other things. The Party developed its own newspaper; the Rebel Worker (later known as Plain Speaking) along with theoretical journals such as Our Socialism.

Frankfurt International Book Fair, and engaged in fairly large direct-mail campaigns, sending out catalogs and fliers to solicit orders and garner publicity.[1]
: 197–8 

Several front organizations (such as the Worker-Patient Organization, the Peace and Justice Organization and U.S. Out of Central America) were organized by the DWP. These groups sponsored various political activities and campaigns "including the quite popular Tax the Corporations initiatives, Propositions P, V, and M, the latter of which succeeded in 1980 but was never implemented. Proposition P, on the November 1979 San Francisco ballot, received 48 percent of the vote. Proposition V, in June 1980, brought in 41 percent, even after much negative publicity about the DWP in the local press. And Proposition M, in November 1980, passed with 55 percent of the vote but was later declared illegal."

Sandinista-led Nicaragua, and lobbied Congress on various issues related to U.S. intervention policies.[1]
: 199 

The party developed a reputation among some of the Left as a

sectarian party practicing entryism[12] and the physical intimidation of rival Communist parties.[13]

Downfall

As the 1970s drew to a close, Dixon felt that the party was becoming too

reformist and had lost its revolutionary ambitions. Once a strong critic of the petite bourgeoisie class and purging many members of the party over their alleged "petite-bourgeois" activities and ways of thinking, she had begun to see the United States working class as increasingly unable to bring about crucial change and instead began supporting progressive elements of the petite bourgeoisie. This alienated many who had struggled against alleged "PB" (petite-bourgeois) influence within the party and saw this as an about-face. The party also began focusing on foreign affairs while moving away from Maoism (though in the process gravitating towards Maoist-inspired third-worldism and adherence to labor aristocracy)[14] in favor of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact states, Bulgaria in particular, while stressing the importance of the Soviet Union and the belief that the development of the world socialist movement was impossible without the existence of the USSR.[15] Dixon began traveling to Western Europe, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria with the eventual goal of receiving an invitation from the Soviet Union.[1]
: 203 

At the same time, Dixon distanced herself from

Marxism-Leninism and declared that it had been a failure in the United States. She soon went further, suggesting an end to the party's adherence to Marxism (while keeping Marx's influence) and getting rid of the party's Communist image (while retaining democratic centralism). A proposed name for a newly structured party was the Alliance Against American Militarism.[1]: 204  By this time the party had about 110 members and its front groups had become either defunct or moribund.[16]

In the fall of 1985 Dixon began supporting the idea of leaving the party and setting up a think tank in Washington, D.C.[17] Many in the party at this point became increasingly irate at Dixon's behavior, citing her alcoholism and paranoia making her increasingly erratic and too unstable to speak to.[1]: 204  She encouraged her lieutenants to launch a "Quality of Life" campaign within the party so that party members could assess their own lives.[1]: 217  Lieutenants took this at face value and in late October members of the party began talking to each other on various party issues and their own lives regardless of party rules and regulations, this being made possible by Dixon's absence from the country while on a trip to Eastern Europe. The party's lieutenants called together various members and began speaking out against aspects of the party while discussing its "real nature."[1]: 204  Party sessions continued for some few weeks more, until the night before Dixon was scheduled to return. On that night party members convened and unanimously voted to expel the General Secretary (Dixon) from the party, and then to dissolve it. A vote by mail was held in April 1986 amid heated discussions on the future of the party and a majority voted to confirm the party's dissolution and to liquidate its assets, to be shared among former cadres (which was achieved in August 1987).[1]: 206 

One of the party's former members, Janja Lalich, went on to become a professor of sociology and a leading expert on cults.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Janja A. Lalich (2004). Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
  2. ^ Lalich, Janja. The Social Movements Reader: Cases and Concepts (3rd ed.). p. 126.
  3. ^ a b Sinhababu, Supriya (2 December 2008). "The sit-in: 40 years later". The Chicago Maroon.
  4. ^ Malcolm G. Scully, "New Demonstrations Hit U. S. and Canadian Campuses; Several States Weigh Measures to Control Disruptions," Chronicle of Higher Education, February 24, 1969, 1. Cited in Lalich, 292.
  5. OCLC 96157
    .
  6. Black Rose Books
    , 1976).
  7. ^ "Revolution in the Air". 10 August 2002.
  8. ^ Democratic Workers Party, The History of the Democratic Workers Party (San Francisco: OS Publications, 1984), C25. Cited in Lalich, 292.
  9. ^ Elbaum, Max. Revolution in the Air. Verso, 2002
  10. ^ Workers Party, The Founding of the Workers Party (San Francisco: Synthesis Publications, 1979). Cited in Lalich, 294.
  11. ^ Marlene Dixon, "On Leadership," C55. Cited in Lalich, 295.
  12. ^ John Trinkl, "USOCA: An Asset or a Liability?" Guardian, May 16, 1984, 2, 19. Cited in Lalich, 297.
  13. ^ Max Elbaum, "On the DWP's Demise: What Leninism Is and Is Not," Frontline, August 3, 1987, 2, 15. Cited in Lalich, 297.
  14. ^ Lalich, 209. "The U.S. working class is not revolutionary; therefore, the DWP must support struggles in the underdeveloped world where the revolutionary classes are found... Having reaped the benefits of being situated in the 'imperialist heartland,' the U.S. working class is profoundly disinterested in change and is not going to get involved in leftist activity, certainly not Marxist-Leninist parties. Therefore, the DWP must change from being a Marxist-Leninist party and transform into something new while retaining the cadre, the discipline, and the democratic-centralist core."
  15. ^ Lalich, 209. "The world socialist movement cannot hope to survive without the USSR as a socialist power; therefore, the DWP must support the USSR and other socialist states."
  16. ^ Marlene Dixon, "Facing Reality," January 15, 1984, 1–2. Cited in Lalich, 297.
  17. ^ Lalich, 216. "She talked crassly with her trusted leadership circle about leaving behind the rank-and-file militants and going with a handful of cadres (the ones with money and the ones she considered intellectuals) to start anew in Washington, D. C. She envisioned setting up a leftist think tank, near the country's policy makers."

External links

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