United Front Draft Points of Unity

Editorial Board

Please send your comments on this draft to foraworkersparty@gmail.com

The current situation is intolerable for working-class people. Living standards are being driven down to nothing, with sky-high costs of groceries, healthcare, and rent. Bosses refuse to pay decent wages, while landlords and big business squeeze us dry. War and genocide are the status quo. Attacks on black people, immigrants, trans people, and other oppressed groups are escalating, as the bosses try to divide the working class. An economic bubble is threatening to pop, ruining workers, small business, and the poor, while capitalists and banks get bailed out again.

The capitalist system is bankrupt — economically, politically, and morally. It offers workers nothing but misery.

There is no shortage of support for the things that would improve workers’ lives: free public healthcare, free universal childcare, free mass transit, affordable public housing, rent control, and good union jobs.

But both major parties, Republican and Democrat, are loyal to the U.S. war machine and the profits of the capitalist class. Eugene Debs’ words from over 100 years ago still stand: “There is no longer even the pretense of difference between the so-called Republican and Democratic parties. They are substantially one in what they stand for. They are opposed to each other on no question of principle but purely in a contest for the spoils of office. They, or rather it, stands for capitalism, for the exploitation of the workers, and for wage-slavery.”

The two major parties are more hated than ever. But as long as the working class fails to build a party of its own, we will be stuck in this two-party trap. The left is splintered and paralyzed. It is shackled by two massive chains: on the one hand, the opportunism that keeps our movement chained to the Democratic Party; on the other, the rampant sectarianism that divides the socialist movement into 1,000 tiny sects, which act like competing small businesses instead of building a unified movement.

United Front for a Workers’ Party aims to break out of this trap. Below are our points of unity.

An Immediate Break with the Democratic Party

The greatest enemy of the workers’ movement today is the Democratic Party. 

The Democratic and Republican parties are the world’s two most powerful capitalist parties. Both of them carry out the interests of the U.S. imperialism and the capitalist class. They are both enemies of the working class.

But the greatest enemy is the one which has its claws in our movement. The Democratic Party dominates the institutions of the working class. In 2024, labor unions spent $1.8 billion on political activity. More than $50 million was given directly to Democratic Party politicians. The rest of it is spent on lobbying and Get Out the Vote efforts, mostly in support of Democrats. The leadership of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) runs candidates almost exclusively in the Democratic Party and has viciously opposed independent campaigns.

The Democratic Party holds our hands behind our back, while our enemies take turns punching us. But in order to fight our second enemy, workers need to break ties with the first.

We stand for an immediate break from the Democratic Party, and complete independence of the working class. We do not support Democratic Party campaigns or any effort to direct workers’ energy back into the “safe” confines of the Democratic Party. We oppose every effort within socialist or workers’ organizations to give money or time to Democratic Party campaigns. In elections, we only support candidates who openly state their independence and call for an independent working-class party.

For an Independent Labor Movement

Workers have enormous power. Even today, with the numerical strength of unions near an all-time low (only 10 percent of workers are unionized, and less than 6 percent in the private sector), unions can pose a serious threat to the capitalist class.

Recent strikes or near-strikes by autoworkers, UPS workers, railroad workers, nurses, teachers, and other government workers show the massive potential. But the labor movement is being held back by two major obstacles: labor’s ties to the Democratic Party and the subordination of union workers to the labor bureaucracy.

In 2022 and 2023, workers missed a historic opportunity. The Democratic Party crushed the railroad strike, with the complicity of the “progressives” and the union leadership; Sean O’Brien and the Teamsters leadership abandoned the UPS strike, with the support of the “reformers” in Teamsters for a Democratic Union; and Shawn Fain of the UAW slammed the brakes on an all-out strike by workers at the “Big Three” automakers General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.

Together, these three strikes could have sparked a massive resurgence in the labor movement, including serious organizing drives at Amazon, FedEx, and the non-union automakers. Instead, they became footnotes in the history of the U.S. labor movement.

We stand for a full break between labor and the Democratic Party. Not another penny from the labor movement to Democratic Party politicians. Unions should run independent, working-class candidates who pledge to support strikes and organizing drives, and fight to repeal every anti-union law.

We stand for rank-and-file control of the unions. We need a fight against the labor bureaucracy, which is tied by a thousand threads to the Democratic Party and the bosses. Union leaders should take home only the average wage of a union member. Union members should have full democratic rights in their union, including the right to read the full language of a contract before voting on it. During a strike, when a tentative agreement is reached, workers have the right to discuss the details and vote on the picket line, before ending the strike. We need to build rank-and-file committees of militant workers to enforce existing contracts, lead strike preparation, discuss tactics and strategy, and fight for leadership of the union.

Unity Between Workers and All Oppressed People

The capitalists are waging a renewed offensive on black people, transgender people, immigrants, and other oppressed people. In a reversal of the liberal #Resistance during Trump’s first term, the latest Republican offensive has faced virtually no opposition from the Democrats. The Democratic Party blames trans people and immigrants for their failures, instead of their own failure to improve conditions for the working class. Kamala Harris ran her presidential campaign pledging to crack down on immigration and to simply “follow the law” on trans rights.

The bosses thrive by pitting workers against each other on the basis of race, gender, language, nationality, and religion. This “divide and conquer” strategy is as old as class society itself.

Every attack on oppressed people is an attack on all workers. We stand against the assault on black people, trans people, immigrants, women, indigenous people, and all oppressed nations. We stand against police brutality, deportations, anti-trans legislation, attacks on voting rights, and attacks on bodily autonomy like the renewed attacks on abortion rights. We need to fight against the enactment of these laws and prevent their enforcement through mass disobedience and strike action. We need mass solidarity with those facing legal action for defending oppressed people, including all those targeted for defending immigrants and the Palestinian liberation struggle.

We stand by the revolutionary slogan: “An injury to one is an injury to all.”

Against U.S. Imperialism

The United States remains the most dominant economic, political, and military force on earth. Since the end of World War II, the U.S. ruling class has re-built the world in its own image, overthrowing democratic governments and waging wars of aggression from Korea and Vietnam to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. The United States today operates 861 military bases in 95 countries. Its closest competitors are the UK (118 bases in 38 countries) and Turkey (131 bases in 9 countries) — both U.S. allies.

But the U.S. ruling class is increasingly threatened, both by its own internal crises and contradictions, and by the economic and political rise of China. This has caused the U.S. to lash out in an effort to preserve its power — expanding the borders of NATO, demanding the rearmament of allies like Japan and Germany, attacking enemies like Iran and Venezuela, and conducting a genocide against the Palestinians.

The U.S. is now spending over $1 trillion a year on war and genocide. The costs of this American Empire come at the expense of healthcare, education, housing, childcare, and the other basic needs of American workers. U.S. imperialism creates divisions among the workers of the world, pitting nationalities against each other. It has left an 80-year trail of death and destruction for the international working class.

We stand for the defeat of U.S. imperialism and the defense of any oppressed nation fighting against it, including Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela. We oppose the petty imperialism of other countries’ ruling classes and stand for the self-determination and liberation of every oppressed nation, including Palestinians. 

We stand for the closure of all American military bases outside U.S. borders, including the base in Guantanamo. We need a labor movement willing to take strike action to stop the flow of U.S. weapons, both to Israel and to the U.S. war machine itself. We need to direct the $1.5 trillion military budget towards the improvement of life for American workers and the poor, and the rebuilding of nations destroyed by U.S.-led wars. 

The U.S. capitalist class will never allow this. We need to build an anti-imperialist party in the heart of the U.S. empire.

Against Sectarianism & Opportunism — For a United Front

The left is a mess. The “divide and conquer” approach of the bosses is made easier by the failure of the socialist movement, which is overrun with sectarian divisions and opportunistic capitulations to the Democratic Party and the union bureaucracy.

The DSA is now the largest socialist organization in U.S. history, with more than 120,000 members. More than 250 DSA members hold elected office around the country, including two members of Congress (soon to be six or more) and the mayor of the nation’s largest city, NYC. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DSA’s most prominent member, has become a consistent tool of U.S. capitalism and imperialism. She helped break a railroad strike, voted against cutting U.S. military aid to Israel, and regularly carries water for the genocidal, pro-capitalist leaders of the Democratic Party.

Zohran Mamdani is following in AOC’s footsteps. One of his first acts as Mayor was to re-appoint Zionist police chief Jessica Tisch. He endorsed Hakeem Jeffries, backtracked his support for Palestine, and worked to water down the “No More 24” bill to keep it from outlawing inhumane 24-hour shifts for homecare workers. He helped governor Kathy Hochul break the strikes of nurses and railroad workers. Rather than fight against these betrayals, DSA has mostly gone along with them.

On the other side, the left is divided. There are more than three dozen Marxist organizations with a national or semi-national presence in the U.S. All but a handful have fewer than 500 members. This does not count the dozens of socialist organizations and reading groups with a presence in just one or two cities.

For the most part, these organizations live separate lives. They recruit only by the “ones and twos.” They aim to build their own sphere of influence among a section of the working class, students, or the radical middle class. Most of them engage in no serious struggle. When they do, they mostly do it alone, without seriously coordinating with the rest of the left.

We reject opportunism and sectarianism in the socialist movement. We need a United Front of workers and the left. We need to openly debate our disagreements, while uniting around common campaigns. We draw a red line against any support for the Democrats and all capitalist parties, but invite all workers and socialists who agree with this program into our ranks. We stand for open debate, the rights of factions, and democratically-elected leadership. All leaders should be subject to immediate recall by the membership of the organization and take home only the average workers’ wage. We stand for unity in struggle, against the bosses and the capitalist parties.

A Campaigning Organization

Unity will not be achieved by simply declaring it. Principled and lasting unity is built through struggle.

Class struggle is a powerful tool for breaking through divisions in the working class. Workers become capable of breaking through racism, sexism, xenophobia, transphobia, and personal conflicts by engaging in class struggle together.

We need to build an organization of active class struggle — a campaigning organization. We stand for the active support of picket lines, campaigns in defense of workers and oppressed groups, opposition to U.S. imperialism, participation in elections as independent socialists, and offensive campaigns for the improvement of wages, healthcare, housing, childcare, and all other needs of workers and the poor.

We support every class-struggle campaign led by socialists, unions, and working people. We seek to offer material support to every struggle that advances the interests of the working class. We also fight to expose and replace the misleaders in unions and socialist organizations who try to hold workers back, or to drag us back into the clutches of the Democratic Party or the capitalist class.

Build a Workers’ Party

The Democratic and Republican parties are both enemies of the working class. Workers will never build power by attaching ourselves to any capitalist party. We need a party of our own.

We stand for the political independence of the working class. We support every step towards an independent socialist party. We support independent socialist election campaigns as a step in this direction. We call for united front campaigns between the DSA and the non-DSA left. We need militant organization in the unions to break the labor movement away from the Democratic Party and lay the basis for a new workers’ party. We need a new kind of party, which not only runs election campaigns, but organizes strikes, unionization campaigns, renters’ struggles, and mass movements to build the power and organization of the working class.

Revolutionary Leadership

The capitalist system is rotten and historically obsolete. Its rottenness has led to horror after horror, including the genocide in Gaza. The nightmare of capitalism will only get worse as the crisis gets deeper.

We fight for every improvement of workers’ lives under capitalism. But our victories are under constant attack. The greatest victories are those which change the balance of class forces and weaken the capitalists’ grip on power.

To succeed, workers need revolutionary leadership. We need a leadership that understands that workers are at war with capitalism itself. We need leaders that aim to overthrow capitalism, not manage or accommodate it, and who have confidence in the revolutionary potential of the working class. We need to replace capitalism with a system of workers’ democracy and workers’ control. We need a socialist society.

The capitalist class will not simply give up. They will not allow workers to vote their way to socialism, or allow a peaceful transfer of power. The capitalists, landlords, and imperialists will fight to preserve their system, as they are doing in Iran, Venezuela, and Gaza, and with their attacks on workers and the left in the U.S.

We need a revolutionary movement of workers and oppressed people worldwide, with revolutionary leadership and international organization. Workers cannot rely on the leaders handed down to us by the capitalist class and the existing institutions. Workers need to develop our own leaders through struggle, hold those leaders accountable, and learn from our mistakes.

It is only through this process of independent organization and concrete revolutionary struggle that the working class can advance. As Karl Marx said nearly 200 years ago, “In the struggle….[the working class] becomes united, and constitutes itself as a class for itself.”

If you agree, apply today to become a member of United Front for a Workers’ Party.