Working people need not wait for these labor "leaders" to initiate this struggle to break free from this two-party trap.
Left wing and progressive working class grassroots and rank-and-file activists must become the initiating leaders of the movement to break free from this two-party trap.
As with any attempt to improve the lives, livelihoods and standard of living of working people, it is the left which is going to have to be the catalyst initiating this new party which simultaneously is building a movement that reflects the idea that we need a labor movement acting responsibly in taking up the problems and needs of the entire working class--- insisting on a government responsible for full employment is the place to start both a political party and a movement.
If we look at the executive council of the AFL-CIO there are maybe four members who might join efforts once WELL underway to create a progressive working class based people's party similar to the socialist New Democratic Party in Canada:
http://www.aflcio.org/About/Leadership/Executive-Council-Members
There is a basis for the left to become a catalyst to launch a working class based people's party working around this:
"There is no way to fund what we must do as a nation without bringing our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. The militarization of our foreign policy has proven to be a costly mistake. It is time to invest at home."
AFL-CIO Executive Council
August 3, 2011
And this:
"The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.
Bob Herbert, Columnist New York Times
We need to be very honest here--- there is no one left wing party in this country that could have led the organizing drives of the industrial unions; there was never any one left wing group which, on its own, could have led the civil rights or anti-Vietnam War movements; why would anyone think that there is any one left wing party or organization today that could lead the struggle to take on Wall Street?
If we pool our little resources and look at where we each have local and regional strengths we form a network capable of running slates of candidates while putting the most important issue on the national agenda:
Full employment based on peace putting people to work solving the problems working people are experiencing.
Maybe we should be thinking of convening some kind of national conference where we can meet face-to-face to kick this kind of thinking around to see if we can't reach some kind of "meeting of the minds?"
This article could be the basis and foundation of a new working class based people's party and a movement for peace, jobs and needed reforms:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26herbert.html?_r=0
Quite frankly, I don't think there is a more revolutionary socialist initiative and activity we could undertake right now.
Yes; we all have our differences but lets agree not to set aside our differences but to air our differences in a very transparent way through roundtable discussions and debates as we let the working class see that we can work together when it really counts around issues and concerns that really matter.
Again, check out the blog on full employment I have created... it is open for any of you to comment:
http://fullemploymentnow.blogspot.com/