Independent Political Parties Research Articles

The General Zionists and the WIZO party, 1948-51

ABSTRACT In the first elections for the Israeli parliament (January 1949) WIZO ran as a women's party seeking equal rights for women. It won enough votes for a parliamentary seat – highly unusual in that day and age. WIZO was unique in that it started out as an apolitical women's organisation aligned with the mid-stream Zionist consensus and redefined itself as a party fighting for gender equality.This article examines the developments in the General Zionist Party that led WIZO, founded as a women's philanthropic organisation, to run as an independent political party on its own platform on the eve of the establishment of the State of Israel. It will also look at the impact of WIZO party on Israel's center-right - the General Zionists, the Progressive party and Herut - in the context of the Constituent Assembly elections. The establishment of a women's party in 1948-49 was a unique phenomenon with no equal anywhere in the world at the time.

Chicago Unions Building a Left-Labor-Community Coalition, United Working Families, to Restore Working-Class Democracy

Neoliberal political institutions are beholden to the interests of capital and professional classes, leaving working people and communities of color without a voice to shape priorities that benefit their interests. To counteract this elite-dominated political system, the Service Employees International Union Health Care Indiana and Illinois (SEIU-HCII) and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), worked with community organizations to form the United Working Families (UWF) Party of Illinois in 2014. UWF is a model of labor-led working class organizing in the electoral system. UWF brings together a left-labor-community alliance under an independent political party formation to champion a left-wing social democratic platform to empower working class people in their workplaces and communities, and to fight against Black and Brown oppression. UWF has provided leadership trainings for a cadre of working class, people of color and women and has been successful electing their leaders to municipal, county and state level government offices.

“There Is NoNewBlack Panther Party”: The Panther-Like Formations and the Black Power Resurgence of the 1990s

“There Is No<i>New</i>Black Panther Party”: The Panther-Like Formations and the Black Power Resurgence of the 1990s

Mahmoud Darwish: Literature and the Politics of Palestinian Identity

Mahmoud Darwish: Literature and the Politics of Palestinian Identity

Trial by Jury as “Mockery of Justice”: Party Contention, Courtroom Corruption, and the Ironic Judicial Legacy of Antimasonry

Sweeping across the social and political landscape of the northeastern United States during the late 1820s and early 1830s, the Antimasonic Party has earned a modest immortality as the first “third” party in American history. In pamphlets, speeches, sermons, protests, and other venues, Antimasons lambasted the fraternal order of Freemasonry as undemocratic, inegalitarian, and un-Christian, reviling it as a threat to the moral order and civic health of the Early Republic. Because they believed that the fraternal organization largely controlled all levels of government, antebellum Antimasons first created a social movement and then an independent political party. Even before the full emergence of modern mass democratic politics, Antimasons demonstrated the benefits of party organization, open national nominating conventions, and party platforms. Scholars with otherwise different perspectives on the “party period” tend to agree that Antimasonry had an important impact on what became the first true mass party organizations—the Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs—and helped push the political culture in a more egalitarian and populist direction.

Book review: Tommy Sheridan: From Hero to Zero? A Political Biography, by Gregor Gall

Gregor Gall Tommy Sheridan: From Hero to Zero? A Pofitical Biography, Welsh Academic Press: Cardiff, 384 pp: 9781860571190, 25 [pounds sterling] (hbk) Tommy Sheridan was one of the best-known far-left political leaders of modern times, and for a period of about ten years, from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, he was probably one of the most influential. Yet in the space of just a few years he moved from a seat in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood to a cell in the Scottish prison at Barlinnie. Meanwhile, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) that he had helped to create and develop underwent an acrimonious and enormously damaging split from which it has yet to recover. The story of Sheridan's rise and fall is therefore important for all those interested in the creation of a popular left-wing movement that can mobilise large-scale resistance against economic austerity. Because Sheridan is such a contentious figure in Scottish labour politics, any biography will be thoroughly dissected by his friends and enemies alike. Gregor Gall knew Sheridan through working with him in the SSP, and he was therefore able to interview him as well as members of his family and close friends. His book is based partly on these 28 interviews with key informants, often lasting as long as three hours, as well as on SSP documents and publications and a substantial number of newspaper and magazine articles. The events depicted in the book are therefore thoroughly documented and referenced in almost 70 pages of footnotes, within a text of 375 pages. Gall's own view is that the News of the Worm claims about Sheridan's sexual activities were largely accurate; that Sheridan's decision to sue the paper was reckless in the extreme; and that his subsequent conviction for perjury was sound. Nonetheless, he is scrupulous in presenting rival interpretations of key events, not least those from Sheridan himself and his key supporters. The book begins with the development of Sheridan's world view and its central focus on mobilising against injustice, particularly as it affected local people. He joined the Militant Tendency whilst a university student, declaring that he preferred to work with fellow socialists inside the Labour Party rather than standing outside like the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) or the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP). He came to national prominence through his leading role in the Anti-Poll Tax Federation, an organisation that ran a highly successful campaign against a deeply unpopular tax. What Sheridan realised in the course of this campaign was that he was a highly effective and charismatic orator, capable of inspiring tremendous loyalty amongst his growing number of supporters. However the Federation's support for illegal tactics such as non-payment and its control by Militant were more than enough to antagonise the rightward moving leadership of the Labour Party. The expulsions of Militant activists that began in 1982 under Michael Foot's leadership escalated significantly under Neil Kinnock, and Sheridan was one of a growing number of Militant supporters expelled in the late-1980s. The comprehensive assault on Militant called into question its long-standing policy of deep entry into the Labour Party, and paved the way for the 1991 'open turn' into an independent political party, a policy first tried out in Scotland and firmly backed by Sheridan. …

Energy Security: A Paradigm Shift

Since middle of first decade of twenty-first century, security has been among highest priorities in security strategies and policies of developed countries. The potential risks and threats related to security mainly grew out of two circumstances: predicted upcoming production peak of hydrocarbon resources vital for modem economy, and security of their supplies. Two key factors in past years, however, have dramatically changed sector. The first factor is global economic crisis of 2010s, and other is strategic shock from yield of non-conventional hydrocarbon resources. Today, security policy requires a paradigm shift and a new model of factors and conditions for its implementation. This article offers an analysis and assessment of changes demanding a new paradigm of efficient security that is adequate to changed realities of markets and global economic development.The Old Paradigm* 1The concept of security that dominated for almost forty years (following crisis of 1970s) was rooted in relatively plentiful availability of and easy access to fossil fuels, while main threat to global security was considered to be discontinuation of supplies. Thus, old paradigm could be briefly summarized as stable and continuous supplies at affordable prices. The significance of this problem was suggested by common statement of geopolitical strategists, investment bankers, geologists, and physicists on foreseeable depletion of oil and natural gas, and by final countdown that had started in production of hydrocarbon resources at an acceptable energy price.2 This fact, as well as severe competition for resources due to increasing demand and consumption in developed and emerging economies, shaped context of policies.This was a period when major consumers of resources (the U.S., EU, China, and India) were highly dependent on producing countries dominating market from Middle East and Caspian region, Russia, etc. The basic principles of market were nationalism, active role of countries, and domination of producers over consumers.Energy nationalism was major principle that shaped behavior of key participants on market, whether they were producing countries, transit countries, or heavy consumers of resources.3 Energy nationalism created a reality where behavior and decisions of markets and supply of resources ultimately depended not on economic market factors but rather on producers, whereas market turned into an arena of interstate relations. Oil and natural gas were used as geopolitical weapons, while geopolitics and geoeconomics became most essential part of global politics and foreign policy of key players on market.Energy (resource) nationalism is typical of exporting countries rich in hydrocarbon resources. As a rule, they follow scenario of a phenomenon that experts diagnose as the curse,4 or the Dutch disease.5 Its common feature is slow social and economic development of country due to a lack of domestic economic stimuli, and because of local political elites who take advantage of high export revenues to maintain closed political regimes. The main consequences are weak government institutions or authoritarian governments, restriction of civil and political liberties, lack of an independent judicial system and independent political parties, low economic effectiveness, and underdevelopment of economy outside extraction sector.Negative internal economic and socio-political implications of resource curse are main reason for big producers of resources to implement highly accentuated policies of nationalism. …

Sōka Gakkai and Politics in Japan

Sōka Gakkai, the largest of the so-called New Religions (shinshūkyō) in Japan, was founded in the 1930s by the educator Makiguchi Tsunesaburō1 and started its political involvement during the 1950s under its second president Toda Jōsei. Sōka Gakkai was not unique among new religions in being actively involved in politics after the Second World War; several other religious groups supported their candidates or joined political committees. However, Sōka Gakkai was the only religion in postwar Japan to found an independent political party that has established itself as an enduring presence in the Japanese electoral system. Indeed its political involvement culminated in the formation of the Kōmeitō (Clean Government Party), in 1964, renamed Shin Kōmeitō in 1998. This article surveys three issues concerning Sōka Gakkai’s political activities: the involvement of religious groups in political activities in the postwar period, the foundation of Kōmeitō and the group’s interpretation of Nichiren Buddhism regarding the relationship between religion and the state.

SNCC, Black Power, and Independent Political Party Organizing in Alabama, 1964-1966

Previous articleNext article No AccessSNCC, Black Power, and Independent Political Party Organizing in Alabama, 1964-1966Hasan Kwame JeffriesHasan Kwame Jeffries Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of African American History Volume 91, Number 2Spring 2006 A journal of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/JAAHv91n2p171 Views: 195Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright ASALHPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Toivo Asheeke Black Power and Armed Decolonization in Southern Africa: Stokely Carmichael, the African National Congress of South Africa, and the African Liberation Movements, November 1967–December 1973, The Journal of African American History 104, no.33 (Jul 2019): 415–444.https://doi.org/10.1086/704119

Putin's Russia

IN THE MID-1980S, MIKHAIL GORBACHEV saw the imminent disaster about to befall the Soviet Union, brought on in part by the decaying ruling party. He opted to open the country to outside assistance as Russia let go of its 'near abroad.' Eventually, Canada and its Western partners committed themselves politically and financially to assist in the transition that Gorbachev launched. Russia is a Eurasian nuclear power, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, abundantly rich in natural resources. It is useful to be reminded of these simple facts to restore some balance to our appreciation of a country about which attention has focused disproportionately on the travails of its transformation.The international context and the high social costs of reforms in Russia have sharpened the challenges facing Boris Yeltsin's successor, Vladimir Putin, who has made a public commitment to restore the authority of the state and to pursue democratic development. Russia's partners must build on the efforts made so far to ensure that Russia stays the democratic course. Hence, it is important to understand the challenges Putin faces and his inclinations in dealing with them.ERA OF RESTORATIONVladimir Putin has publicly committed himself to the pursuit of democratic development. He is also dedicated to restoring the power of the state. These two major concepts, democracy and 'statism,' are compatible only in a system of governance in which checks on power are in place and balance is assured by an absolute respect for the rule of law. Although neither condition has featured in Russia's history, one of the great achievements of the past ten years is the growing acceptance of these principles, something the West has tended to overlook. Success in achieving both goals will depend on the place that liberal values come to occupy in Russia. (Liberal values are taken here in the most general sense, that is, those that characterize a society that recognizes and allows an individual to make free choices in the pursuit of personal goals compatible with public good.) To my mind, this is the crucial question facing Russia and its partners.L'etat c'est moiThe reconciliation of democracy and statism presupposes that executive, legislative, and judicial powers will be left unhindered to play their institutional role. It also assumes that the executive will accept and allow the emergence of independent political parties, which may oppose those who govern, and that the right to express their views freely to the public will be protected.To allow centuries-old forms of governance to co-exist with the intellectual acceptance of forms of liberal/democratic organization of society that are only partly familiar is a bold proposition. Is Putin the man to accomplish it? Certainly he claims vast authority and responsibility. He declared in the Kremlin on 7 May 2000, the day of his inauguration, that he was 'aware that I have undertaken a huge responsibility and I am aware that the head of state in Russia has always been and will always be responsible for everything, for everything that is happening in the country.'In the wake of the successfully engineered transmission of power in the Kremlin, two different views of Russia's governance are locked in conflict. The imperative of restoring statism as one way to consolidate power in the hands of individuals under the guise of 'reason of state' will be feared by those who have fought for the respect of individual political rights by the state. The cards are on the table.THE VALUES OF VLADIMIR PUTINPutin's political genealogy nominally links him to Boris Yeltsin. His spiritual father, however, is more likely Yuri Andropov, long-time head of the KGB and general-secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1984. The political team in the Kremlin that successfully implemented the Yeltsin succession strategy saw in Putin the embodiment of the two 'deliverables' expected of a new president: to secure the political inheritance of Boris Yeltsin and to signal a new generation in the Kremlin. …

Watch Jesse Run and Tell Me What You See

Because of the overwhelmingly important role the mass media plays in the American political process, the Jesse Jackson campaign for the U.S. presidency signals a landmark in the history of mainstream American politics. However, relative to nonmainstream politics, blacks have since reconstruction made several attempts to run candidates and to form independent political parties, such as the National Liberal Party, the Negro American Politial League, the Afro-American Council, the colored-American Party, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and others (Allen, 1969; Ofari, 1984). Until recently blacks were hesitant to run for office as members of a traditional political party such as the Democratic Party. And in either mainstream or independent politics black candidates were plagued with limited campaign funds and a lack of media support (Cayton and Drake, 1945). The last few decades of the twentieth century have heralded a more assertive political consciousness among blacks. Proof

Political parties and local authority capital investment in English cities, 1966–1971

Abstract Evidence from comparative statistical analyses of local authority outputs suggests that political party control has an independent effect on current expenditures. Evidence for local authority capital investments tends not to support this view, with one researcher recently arguing that this is due to differences in the nature of current and capital expenditure decision-making. By analysing highways and housing investments in 57 English county boroughs, this paper seeks to show that independent political party effects do exist for capital investments. The objective is not simply to provide evidence on the existence of party effects, but also to question the appropriateness of statistical methodologies utilized in most comparative output studies. It is argued that most of these studies have utilized research designs that do not allow for an adequate testing of their theoretical propositions. Even when independent party effects have been identified, analyses have tended to consider only one of the possible ways in which political party control can influence output levels.