CULTURAL WORKERS & ARTISTS CAUCUS (CWAC)of the Labor Party
June 6-9, 1996Over 1400 labor representatives met in Cleveland, Ohio in the most recent attempt to establish a voice for working people. Ultimately unable to survive as an ongoing organization, the Labor Party, and its predecessor Labor Party Advocates, made a significant contribution to popularizing the idea of independent political action.
One of the most exciting components of the new Labor Party was the Cultural Workers and Artists Caucus (CWAC). This is the original appeal and a report on CWAC that gives a flavor for its activities.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Artist's Appeal for a Labor Party
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
A historic opportunity is opening for artists concerned with the future of art and labor.
On June 6-9, over a thousand working-class leaders and activists will converge on Cleveland, Ohio, for the founding convention of a labor party in the United States. The convention is called by Labor Party Advocates (LPA.) LPA is firmly rooted in the trade-union movement. It has the endorsement and active support of several important international unions and numerous district, state and local labor organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of workers.
Our goal is a party which will challenge the employer's two parties in the streets, in the workplace and at the ballot box.
The formation of a labor party would mark a watershed for the progressive forces of this country. It would provide a vehicle to address the struggles for international solidarity, for women's rights, for the rights of oppressed peoples, immigrant workers and others marginalized or demonized by the capitalist class.
As artists and cultural workers, we have a special responsibility to help illuminate that future. The formation of a labor party would provide an opportunity for the organic linking of the struggles of workers and artists in a way not seen in decades. It would mark an impetus for lively and critical art-making.
We issue this appeal to all painters, writers, poets, designers, architects, musicians, sculptors, film and video makers, actors, critics...to all artists and cultural activists without exception. Join us for a special convening of artists in Cleveland, to help shape a cultural agenda, along with the convention itself. Perhaps we can initiate actions which will inspire new generations of artists to use their art as a weapon for the transformation of society.
In Solidarity,
Mike Alewitz, Labor Art & Mural Project; CAC, IUC, NJ
Rudolf Baranik, Artist, NY, NY
Elise Bryant, Artistic Director, Labor Theatre Project, Ann Arbor, MI
Brett Butler, ‘Grace Under Fire,’ Studio City, CA
Noam Chomsky, MIT, Cambridge, MA
David Craven, Art History Dept, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Thiago DeMello, Composer, Musician, NY, NY
Dagoberto Gilb, Writer, Carpenter, El Paso, TX
J. R. Horne, Actor, President, NY AFTRA, NY, NY
Gary Huck, Cartoonist, UE; Huck-Konopacki Cartoons, Pittsburgh, PA
Tom Juravich, Labor Center, University of MA, Amherst, MA
Charley King, Musician, AFM, CT
Mike Konopacki, Cartoonist, Huck-Konopacki Cartoons, Madison, WI
Lucy Lippard, Author and Critic, Albuquerque, NM
John McCutcheon, Musician, AFM, VA
Betsy Salkind, Nat’l Chair, AFTRA/SAG Comedians Caucus, CA
Pete Seeger, Beacon, NY
May Stevens, Artist, NY, NY
Rachel Weiss, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Ill
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CWAC, CWAC, CWAC...ARTISTS BUILD SUPPORT FOR LABOR PARTY
by Mike Alewitz
Spearheaded by the Cultural Workers and Artists Caucus of the Labor Party (CWAC), activists throughout the country have begun organizing to build and energize the labor party. CWAC was formed at the founding convention of the LP in Cleveland Ohio, in response to a call issued by a broad range of artists and performers. Over the last several months, they have begun to organize and expand.
Building CWAC is an important building block for our new party. “Workers express themselves through their art and culture. If we don’t do the same thing we are doomed to be talking to ourselves,” says Mike Alewitz. Alewitz has just completed a speaking tour of the west coast organized by CWAC, with the support of the Ca. Nurses Association, the SF Labor Council and the Los Angeles chapter of the LP, along with numerous other individuals. The tour went to Seattle, and Olympia Washington, Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles and San Francisco Ca. The meetings attracted dozens of activists who set up CWAC groups all along the coast. Discussions were lively and serious, and a number of activities are already planned.
“Today there is a huge layer of artists and activists, which numbers into the millions, who can be drawn around the LP by cultural events,” explains Lee Ballinger. Ballinger is a prime initiator of CWAC, and a central organizer in the Los Angeles area. He also is an associate editor of Rock and Rap Confidential. “Vast numbers of workers will relate to the LP not by coming to chapter meetings or forums, but by expressing the LP program, as they interpret it through their poetry and music. We need to take the LP program and get it into the hands of as many artists as possible, including celebrity artists, to make it part of a genuine discussion going on throughout society.”
“We have a multi-layered approach to the organizing effort,” adds John Connolly. John is a working actor, a Vice-President of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA,) and a CWAC leader. “On the one hand we want to organize rank and file workers and artists into support for the Labor Party, but we also intend to build support within the entertainment unions themselves.” This is no small task, for the entertainment industry is one of the main export industries of the US economy...a multi-billion dollar industry designed to disarm workers both abroad and at home.
If anyone thinks that the lives of working artists has grown easier over recent years, Betsy Salkind a working stand-up comedienne and chair of the AFTRA-SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Comedians Caucus, will be quick to point out that the entertainment industry grows more mercenary every day. She explained the problem facing comics at a Los Angeles organizing meeting. “Not only has the club scene changed to eliminate acts they must pay for, but in some instances performers have to ‘pay to play’ in search of an elusive recognition which never materializes. The economic conditions facing comics can destroy their lives as well as lower the quality of comedy.”
“The proliferation of comedy on television cable in particular has killed the club scene. And the use of non-0union production companies has made it extremely difficult for comics to make a living, even on television. Very few have health insurance, despite the fact that you see them on TV.”
Other artists joining in the new Los Angeles group included rapper
a leader of the micro-broadcasting movement. Rose explained how he had learned to bring his militant politics to his audience: “When I started I used to get into these long political diatribes, where I’d go on and on for fifteen or twenty minutes. Then I realized that people were tuned out. I had to bring out the politics with the music, in the music, and sometimes over the music.”
In San Francisco two successful meetings were held back to back at the meeting of the SF Labor Council. Included in the audience were Susan Greene and Aaron Noble, who are currently involved with a group of mural painters creating a series of labor murals.
Another muralist, and award-winning scenic painter, in attendance was Irish activist Edain O’Donnell who pointed out, “There are plenty of workers who have no illusions in the elections...we can make a difference in exposing what the bosses want to happen during the elections and throughout the rest of the year.”
“The CWAC can be a poll of attraction for a lot of artists who want to do progressive work,” points out Lincoln Cushing. “Many of the progressive artists groups around the country have collapsed over the last several years. The LP will provide a real link to the working class...one that will be here for a long time.” Lincoln is a leader of the Inkworks printing collective, and a graphic artist from Berkeley, who attended the San Francisco meeting with Doug Minkler, a well-know poster artist.
RESOLUTION ON CULTURAL WORK
Adopted unanimously by the Cultural Workers & Artists Caucus (CWAC) of the Labor Party, May 31, 1996
1. From the Paterson silk-strike pageant to the P-9 mural, labor history is filled with examples of art and culture inspiring and energizing working people's movements. Cultural and spiritual needs play important roles in the struggle for economic justice. A labor party will only succeed in stirring people's hopes and imaginations if it embraces and promotes the arts.
2. The labor movement has traditionally embraced artists of many kinds. From its inception, the labor party will recognize, support and welcome artists of the greatest possible ethnic, cultural and stylistic diversity.
3. The labor party will champion the cause of artists by working for comprehensive arts funding, for arts education in schools and workplaces, and for making culture accessible to working people throughout the country.
4. Many in government and business fear and distrust art, and have attempted to divide artists and intellectuals from the labor movement. We, on the other hand, appreciate all inquiry, research, experimentation and imagination. The labor party will have no interest in dictating artistic styles or subject matter, or in any way interfering with artists' aspirations. The search for truth, and the attempt to awaken public imagination, can only strengthen the working class.
5. The labor party will oppose censorship in all its forms, including censorship of new technologies like the Internet. We reject attempts at censorship whether they arise from government halls, corporate boardrooms, or within the labor movement itself. If we are to win artists to our cause, we must stand--absolutely and without faltering--for total artistic and intellectual freedom.
6. As we approach the 21st century, the struggle for working people's rights must take on a more international quality. As a way to develop more unity--and to share ideas and visions--across national boundaries, the labor party will strongly support international artistic and cultural exchanges.
7. Artists are workers. We support the efforts of artists to organize into unions, to earn decent wages and to fight for safer working conditions. We call for public arts funding to provide jobs for artists and to make culture more publically accessible. We encourage labor unions and all other progressive organizations to respect artists' endeavors, both intellectually and financially.
8. The labor party will encourage musicians, painters, poets, actors, filmmakers and all other artists to participate in strikes and organizing campaigns of working people. Interested artists will be invited to help build the labor party, to play a role in shaping its direction, and to participate in its decision-making processes.
9. The labor party will include art and culture in its campaigns at national and local levels.
10. As an initial organizing effort, we will establish a national network of artists interested in helping to build the labor party. We will attempt to organize meetings to promote and to shape these efforts in major cities throughout the country, as well as in other areas where interest develops. We are particularly interested in involving young workers, artists and activists in these meetings.
11. We recommend that the labor party establish a department of cultural affairs to develop policies and implement this resolution.
12. This resolution should be viewed as a draft to initiate further discussion, which must eventually include as many interested artists and workers as possible.
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