The American Labor Party of New York State in the Great Depression

The labor party movement of New York State in the 1930s shows both the climax of the independent labor party movement and the beginning of the integration of organized laborer into the existing political system. Focusing on the American Labor Party of New York State, this paper shows the ways in which the dream of organized labor for an independent labor party has been channeled into the bigger political system. When the labor leaders discussed about the formation of the ALP in the mid-1930s, they did not aim at building a permanent nation-wide working class party. They chose the way partially because they understood the structural obstacles which made almost impossible to build any efficient independent labor party. Still, the progressive labor leaders, mainly affiliated with the CIO, were desperate to preserve the industrial unionism by blocking the conservatives from gaining power. Therefore, they formed the ALP as a means of supporting the New Deal and FDR when the New Deal policy was in peril, being attacked by the anti-New Deal coalition. The critics argued that the ALP was not a valid beginning of the labor party, However, the ALP achieved its limited goals of maintaining workable political environment for organized labor by reelecting Roosevelt and realigning the New York State liberal-lefts when the New Deal was seriously attacked by the conservatives.