Farmer-Labor Party

Farmer-Labor Party, political party in the United States, established to represent the interests of workers and farmers. It was founded in Chicago in 1920, principally by a merger of the National Labor party, which had been organized in 1919 by the Chicago Federation of Labor and other local unions of the American Federation of Labor, with the membership of the Committee of Forty-Eight. (The latter was the continuing body of the Progressive party of 1912.) Associations of farmers were also represented at the founding convention of the Farmer-Labor party.

In essence the party was an expression, by large numbers of workers and farmers, of the discontent that accompanied the depression of 1919-1920 and of their dissatisfaction with the policies of the Democratic and Republican parties. The 1920 manifesto included demands for democratic management of natural resources and of publicly owned utilities, an increasing share for labour in the management of industry, and elimination of discriminatory practices against blacks.

In the national election of 1920, the party polled 265,411 votes; its greatest electoral strength was in the states of Washington, Illinois, and South Dakota. It also polled votes in New York, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and other states. In spite of a decline in strength after the election, the party continued for a time to be a force in the movement for a third political party. The Farmer-Labor party participated as an affiliate in the Conference for Progressive Political Action, organized by leaders of the railway unions in 1922. The party later broke with the conference, calling it a political “scab”, or renegade.

In 1923 the party's national convention was dominated by delegates who were members or sympathizers of the Workers' party, the legal political representative of the underground Communist party. When they were compelled to withdraw from the convention, the Communists organized a rival party, calling it the Federated Farmer-Labor party. Several state branches of the original party seceded to join the new party.

In 1924 the Farmer-Labor party supported Robert M. La Follette for the US presidency. The following year the party went out of existence.

The Minnesota Farmer-Labor party, however, survived the demise of the national party. The state organization had been established in 1920 by a loose merger of Socialist party organizations in the cities and the National Non-partisan League. In 1922 and 1923 the Minnesota party succeeded in electing both senators of the state, and from 1931 to 1939 the governors of the state were the elected nominees of the party. In 1944 the Minnesota Farmer-Labor party merged with the national Democratic party, and, thereafter, as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, supported Democratic party candidates.