Jim Hamilton papers

Jim Hamilton was a taxi driver in St. Louis, Missouri and a member of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), Local 688. He was also a charter member and first recording secretary of the Public Service Workers in Columbia, Missouri, and in 1972-1973 he participated during the Teacher’s Union Local 420 strike. As a shop steward for Local 688, he implemented changes such as providing written copies of shop meeting minutes to all member taxi drivers, and called for reform within the Labor Health Institute (LHI), which was a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) that benefitted members of Local 688, in addition to helping workers write grievances and negotiate contracts. He was also a delegate to the city-wide shop conference in 1978, where he advocated for improving working conditions for taxi drivers by negotiating with airport administrations. His leadership laid the groundwork for his campaign for Shop Secretary Treasurer of Local 688 in 1981, for which he ran among Bob Matthews, candidate for President, and Jesse Mize and Bufford Logan for Trustees, on a program of maintating union democracy, using militant action against companies by way of strikes and boycotts, fighting race and sex discrimination within the union, and opposing anti-labor laws. He consistently advocated for maintaining democratic leadership within the organization, and in 1981 campaigned to serve as a “delegate for change” at the International Teamsters Convention to attempt to build a rank-and-file movement within the Teamsters to reinstate membership control, freeze due fees, and promote membership control over political action and union politics. He also ran to serve on the Political Education Committee for the Teamsters Local 688 to suggest a separate political party that would advocate for workers rights and collaborate with other organizations including the St. Louis Coalition Against the Draft.

Jim Hamilton advocated for rank-and-file reform within the TDU, which was formed in 1976 by members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). He believed that the TDU should be involved in political affairs and was a proponent of using militant action to effect meaningful change within the union. After the IBT endorsed Ronald Regan in 1980, whose administration many Teamsters believed initiated many pay cuts and contract violations within their union and others, there was a push to instate a group that would challenge political parties within the union bureaucracy. At the TDU Convention in Detroit in 1981, Hamilton was a member of the “TDU’ers for Militant Action” group alongside Jesse Mize and Steve Conn from St. Louis, and Hal Leyshon from New York, which proposed to fight racism and sexism within the union, improve contract negotiations, and keep the government out of internal union affairs. In addition to internal political reform, the group also advocated for the creation of an international worker’s party based on unions. This motion was acknowledged in 1982 in a convention resolution published by the Fighting Teamster newsletter that called for designating the TDU as an organization that should establish a congress of labor along with the AFL-CIO unions, the IBT, and the United Mine Workers, among others. In advance of the 1982 TDU convention, the International Workers Party (Fourth International), Chicago Workers, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) called upon their members to include a discussion about the creation of an international labor party on the convention’s agenda. In that year, Hamilton was the recording secretary for the Teamster Workers for a Fighting Union, which sought to achieve these goals.

Hamilton’s interest in a labor party that incorporated various unions and other workers contributed to his involvement with various radical political organizations, including the Spartacist League, which formed the International Liaison Committee for a Worker’s International (ILC) and also proposed for an independent political party, known as the Freedom Labor Party. Hamilton also traveled to France, Italy, Yugoslavia, and Germany to meet with members of other political organizations, including the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), attended the World Worker’s Conference in Mexico City, and was involved with the Communist International League.