Progressive Labor Party (United States)
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The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is an
The PLP publishes a fortnightly newspaper, Challenge.
History
Establishment
The PLP began as an organized faction called the Progressive Labor Movement in January 1962.
The organization remained amorphous in its first months, publishing Progressive Labor—initially a monthly newsletter—and engaging in small-scale discussions. An organizational conference was called by the editors of Progressive Labor to be held in New York City in July 1962.
1960s
Although it disdains
The PLP remained of modest size throughout the decade. It did not publicize its membership, but federal income tax returns filed in 1967 and 1968 provide a reasonable proxy. The PLP formally existed as a publishing partnership listing Milt Rosen and the party's 1965 candidate for New York State Senate, Bill Epton, as partners.[7] These returns showed income and expenditures of about $66,000 in 1967 and about $88,600 in 1968, with the partners claiming no income from the ostensible business relationship.[7]
During the 1960s, the PLP followed the international political line of the Chinese Communist Party and was described by commentators as "Maoist".[2] The organization carved out a niche in the anti-Vietnam War movement, with its Worker Student Alliance faction acting as rivals to the Revolutionary Youth Movement faction within Students for a Democratic Society, a part of which (RYM 1) later evolved into the Weather Underground.[8]
The PLP made extensive use of
1970s
The PLP ended its previous political line supporting the
During the 1970s, the PLP began to shape its activity around racism in the United States, forming a mass organization called the Committee Against Racism (CAR).[11] A CAR convention held in New York City in July 1976 drew 500 participants.[11] The organization made use of aggressive direct action tactics against its perceived opponents, disrupting presentations by the controversial psychologist Arthur Jensen and the physicist William Shockley in the spring of 1976.[11] The CAR were the most vocal of the hostile critics of the sociobiologist E. O. Wilson. The organization picketed in Harvard Square and handed out flyers calling for demonstrations against sociobiology, which in their view was being used to defend individuals and groups responsible for racism, war, and genocide.[12] In 1977, the organization, now renamed the International Committee Against Racism (InCAR), made headlines by disrupting an academic conference by pouring a pitcher of water on Wilson's head while chanting "Wilson, you're all wet".[13]
Structure
According to the constitution adopted at the time of the PLP's formation in 1965, membership was open to anyone at least 17 years old who accepted the program and policies of the party, paid dues and required assessments and subscribed to party publications.[14] Supreme authority within the organization was to be exerted by national conventions, held every two years.[14] The convention was to elect a National Committee to handle matters of governance between conventions.[14] The PLP's primary party unit was the "club", organized either on a shop, territorial, or functional basis.[14] All party members were required to be active members of a club and bound by the principles of democratic centralism, in which decisions of higher bodies were considered binding on participants in lower bodies.[14] During the 1960s, new members were additionally required to undergo three months of ideological training, usually in small group settings in individual houses.[6]
Owing in part to the significant economic and extensive time requirements expected of its members, the PLP has since its inception been a small cadre organization, with an "estimated hard-core membership" of about 350 in 1970, supplemented by numerous sympathizers.[14] Members during the 1960s were predominantly from white, middle-class backgrounds, shunned drug use, and tended "to dress neatly and wear short hair", according to a 1971 House Internal Security Committee staff report.[14]
Publications
During the 1960s and 1970s, the PLP published a magazine called Progressive Labor, which first appeared as a monthly before shifting to quarterly and later bimonthly publication.[15] The press run of Progressive Labor circa 1970 was approximately 10,000.[16] The party also published Challenge, a publication likewise issued at changing intervals over the years.[17] In 1970, the press run of this publication was approximately 75,000, according to the estimates of government investigators, with many of these copies unsold.[16]
Challenge remains in production today as a biweekly, issued under the same covers with its parallel Spanish language counterpart Desafío. The PLP also produces a semiannual theoretical magazine, The Communist.
During 1963 and 1964, the PLP also produced a theoretical magazine called Marxist-Leninist Quarterly.[18] This publication was terminated and merged with Progressive Labor magazine in 1965.[18] A West Coast publication called Spark was also produced from 1965 until early 1968.[18]
See also
Further reading
- Robert Jackson Alexander, Maoism in the Developed World. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.
- Leigh David Benin, A Red Thread In Garment: Progressive Labor And New York City’s Industrial Heartland In The 1960s And 1970s. Ph.D. dissertation. New York University, 1997.
- Leigh David Benin, The New Labor Radicalism and New York City's Garment Industry: Progressive Labor Insurgents During the 1960s. New York: Garland Publishing, 1999.
- House Committee on Internal Security, Progressive Labor Party: Hearings Before the Committee on Internal Security, House of Representatives, Ninety-Second Congress, First Session: April 13, 14, and November 18, 1971 (Including Index). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972.
- Progressive Labor Party, "The History of the Progressive Labor Party – Part One," Progressive Labor, vol. 10, no. 1 (August–September 1975).
- D.S. Sumner and R.S. Butler (Jim Dann and Hari Dillon). The Five Retreats: A History of the Failure of the Progressive Labor Party. Reconstruction Press, 1977.
- Mary-Alice Waters, Maoism in the U.S.: A Critical History of the Progressive Labor Party. New York: Young Socialist Alliance, 1969.
Historic PLP publications
- Bill Epton, The Black Liberation Struggle (Within The Current World Struggle). Speech at Old Westbury College, February 26, 1976. Harlem: Black Liberation Press, 1976.
- Bill Epton, We Accuse: Bill Epton Speaks to the Court. New York: Progressive Labor Party, 1966.
- Harlem Defense Council, Police Terror In Harlem. NY: Harlem Defense Council, n.d. [1964?].
- [Wendy Nakashima], Organize! Use Wendy Nakashima's campaign for assembly (69 a.d.) to fight back!. Progressive Labor Party, New York. [1966].
- Progressive Labor Movement, Road to Revolution: The Outlook of the Progressive Labor Movement. Brooklyn: Progressive Labor Movement, 1964.
- Progressive Labor Party, Notes on Black Liberation. New York: Black Liberation Commission, Progressive Labor Party, 1965.
- Progressive Labor Party, Smash the Bosses' Armed Forces. A Fighting Program for GIs.. Brooklyn, NY: Progressive Labor Party, n.d. [1969?].
- Progressive Labor Party, Revolution Today, USA: A Look at the Progressive Labor Movement and the Progressive Labor Party. New York: Exposition Press, 1970.
References
- ^ a b House Committee on Internal Security, "Staff Study: Progressive Labor Party," in Progressive Labor Party: Hearings Before the Committee on Internal Security, House of Representatives, Ninety-Second Congress, First Session: April 13, 14, and November 18, 1971 (Including Index). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972; pg. 4129.
- ^ a b c Edward J. Bacciocco, Jr., "United States of America," in Richard F. Staar (ed.), Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1972. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1972; pg. 425.
- ^ a b c d e f g Progressive Labor Party, "The History of the Progressive Labor Party – Part One," Progressive Labor, vol. 10, no. 1 (Aug.-Sept. 1975).
- ^ Testimony of Herbert Romerstein in House Committee on Internal Security, Progressive Labor Party: Hearings Before the Committee on Internal Security, House of Representatives, Ninety-Second Congress, First Session: April 13, 14, and November 18, 1971 (Including Index). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972; pg. 4052.
- ^ "Comrade Milt Rosen, 1926-2011 Founding Chairperson of PLP, Great 20th Century Revolutionary". Retrieved 19 September 2014.
- ^ a b c "Staff Report" in Progressive Labor Party: Hearings... pg. 4136.
- ^ a b "Review of PLP Income Tax Returns," in House Internal Security Committee, Progressive Labor Party: Hearings... pg. 4447.
- ^ Dylan Matthews, "The Washington Post picked its top American Communists. Wonkblog begs to differ," Washington Post, Sept. 26, 2013.
- ^ a b "Staff Report" in Progressive Labor Party: Hearings... pg. 4135.
- ^ a b "Progressive Labor Party Line on Communist China," in House Internal Security Committee, Progressive Labor Party: Hearings..." pg. 4431.
- ^ a b c Harvey Klehr, "United States of America," in Richard F. Staar (ed.). Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1977. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1977; pp. 500-501.
- ^ Ullica Segerstråle. Defenders of the Truth: The Battle for Science in the Sociology Debate and Beyond. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000; pp. 21-22.
- ^ Wilson, Edward O. 1995. Naturalist.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Staff Report" in Progressive Labor Party: Hearings... pg. 4131.
- ^ Testimony of Alma Pfaff, in House Committee on Internal Security, Progressive Labor Party: Hearings Before the Committee on Internal Security, House of Representatives, Ninety-Second Congress, First Session: April 13, 14, and November 18, 1971 (Including Index). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972; pg. 4047.
- ^ a b Romerstein in Progressive Labor Party: Hearings... pg. 4055.
- ^ Pfaff in Progressive Labor Party: Hearings... pg. 4048.
- ^ a b c "Staff Report" in Progressive Labor Party: Hearings... pg. 4133.