Communist League, Supporters, Friends Launch Public Political Organization

By HENRY MILES

DETROIT, Mich., Jan. 1 — After months of discussion, including the convening of an assembly of the whole membership, the Communist League, along with its supporters and friends, have officially launched a public political organization, the Workers Party in America, for the purposes of coordinating and improving the public activity of the communist workers’ movement in the United States.

    The League, since its founding in November 2004, had experimented with various ways to carry out public activity, including establishing public sections of its organization and attempting to work inside other self-described socialist and communist political groups.

    With the formation of the Workers Party, League members will now have a consistent avenue for public activity without the problems.

    Supporters joined with League members in Detroit to officially celebrate the launching of the new party of working people in the U.S.

    The new Chairperson of the Workers Party, Martin Sayles, joined with members in singing labor songs and toasting in the new year, and also officially accepting the handover of the editorial archives of Working People’s Advocate and Workers’ Republic from Robin Wakipajan, representing the League Central Committee.

    “Working people finally have a party of their own,” said Sayles. “And I mean, ‘of their own.’ We are a party organized by workers, led by workers, composed of workers, with workers as theoretical developers and practical organizers. We will express the historic principles and view of our class consistently, and we will carry out our work at all times based on that.”

    “This was a necessary step for us,” said Wakipajan, who was also discussing future steps with the party’s incoming director of strategic operations, Rae Smith. “Forming the Workers Party came at the right time, given everything happening in the U.S. and the world.”

    The next steps now for the Workers Party in America is settling in and getting the final arrangements for its public presence put together, including finalizing the content and design of its website, and preparing new literature and organizing tools for members.

    The basic principles and 10-point basic program of the WPA (reprinted here and here) were drafted by League members in consultation with supporters, and hold the status of “working drafts” until the Party’s First Convention, to be held this coming summer.

    The incoming Central Committee of the party is also finalizing its platform (based on the League’s Platform of Action, with additions and amendments from supporters and friends) and a perspectives document on the development of American capitalism.

    These four documents, along with one about the Workers Party as an organization, will be packaged together in the first issue of Workers’ Republic to be produced by the Party.

    Both League and Party members present at the launching shared optimism in the success of the new organization, and echoed each other’s calls for readers of WPA and working people who have followed the work and activity of the League over the years to join the Party.

    “Anyone from the working class who accepts our program and constitution can join,” said Sayles. “All it takes is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .”