All efforts aiming at that great end have hitherto failed from want of solidarity between the manifold divisions of labor in each country, and from the absence of concerted action between the workingmen of all countries.
The emancipation of labor is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society exists, and depending for its solution upon the practical and theoretical concurrence and coöperation of the most advanced countries.
For these reasons the Workingmen’s Party of the United States has been founded. It enters into proper relations and connections with the workingmen of other countries.
Whereas, political liberty without economical freedom is but an empty phrase; therefore, we will, in the first place, direct our efforts to the economical question. We repudiate entirely connection with all political parties of the propertied class without regard to their name. We demand that all the means of labor, land, machinery, railroads, telegraphs, canals, etc., become the common property of the whole people, for the purpose of abolishing the wage-system, and substituting in its place coöperative production with a just distribution of its rewards.
The political action of the party will be confined generally to obtaining legislative acts in the interest of the working class proper. It will not enter into a political campaign before being strong enough to exercise a perceptible influence, and then in the first place locally in the towns or cities, when demands of purely local character may be presented, provided they are not in conflict with the platform and principles of the party. We work for organization of the trades-unions upon a national and international basis, to ameliorate the condition of the working people and seek to spread therein the above principles. The Workingmen’s Party of the United States proposes to introduce the following measures as a means to improve the condition of the working classes:
1. Eight hours’ work for the present as a normal working day, and legal punishment for all violators.
2. Sanitary inspection of all conditions of labor, means of subsistence and dwellings included.
3. Establishment of bureaus of labor statistics in all States as well as by the National Government, the officers of these bureaus to be taken from the ranks of the labor organizations and elected by them.
4. Prohibition of the use of prison labor by private employers.
5. Prohibitory laws against the employment of children under fourteen years of age in industrial establishments.