In 1989, members of Socialist Alternative in AFSCME created the Campaign for a Labor Party (CLP).

[1] The Labor Party was officially formed in 1996 by the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers International Union, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, United Mine Workers, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, American Federation of Government Employees, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, California Nurses Association, Farm Labor Organizing Committee and hundreds of other local labor unions.

Smaller locals and left union activists on the other had pushed for a clean break with the Democratic Party.

[3] It has run several third-party candidates, in contrast to the national Labor Party.

[4] In 2001 the Labor Party endorsed labor-sponsored independent candidates in San Francisco and Ohio local elections.