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Dan La Botz

Daniel H. La Botz (born August 9, 1945) is an American labor union activist, academic, journalist, and author. He was a co-founder of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) and has written extensively on worker rights in the United States and Mexico. He is a member of the socialist organization Solidarity, which describes itself as "a democratic, revolutionary socialist, feminist, anti-racist organization,"^[1] which comes out of the Trotskyist tradition. La Botz ran in 2010 for a seat in the United States Senate for the Socialist Party. He is also a member of the Brooklyn branch of the Democratic Socialists of America and a co-editor of the socialist journal New Politics.

La Botz was born in Chicago, Illinois but grew up outside San Diego, California.^[2] He attended Southwestern College and the University of California, San Diego.^[3] When he was in college, he opposed the American involvement in the Vietnam War and supported the United Farm Workers.^{[citation needed]} He is a leader of the socialist organization Solidarity,^[4][5] which describes itself as "a democratic, revolutionary socialist, feminist, anti-racist organization"^[6] and which comes out of the Trotskyist tradition. In the 1970s, La Botz worked various jobs in Chicago before working as a truck driver.^[2] Within the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), he was a co-founder of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU),^[5] a reform caucus partially maintained by members of Solidarity. TDU began in 1975 when a small group of freight Teamsters, some from the International Socialists (IS) group in Berkeley, CA met in Chicago, Illinois and founded Teamsters for a Decent Contract (TDC). The IS later merged with other organizations from Trotskyist traditions to form Solidarity.

La Botz subsequently worked as a community and union organizer and later a journalist.^[2] La Botz worked in the 1980s as a journalist in Chicago and Mexico City and as an author on topics of workers' struggles and unions in the United States and Mexico. He earned a PhD in American history at the University of Cincinnati in 1998. He later became assistant professor of history and Latin American studies at the Miami University,^[7] the University of Cincinnati and the Northern Kentucky University.^[2] La Botz is an editor of Mexican Labor News and Analysis (MLNA).^[5][8][9] In May 2010, La Botz was working as a Spanish teacher at Waldorf elementary school in Cincinnati.^[2]

On February 19, 2010, La Botz announced that he was running for the United States Senate in Ohio on the Ohio Socialist Party ballot.^[10] He subsequently gathered 1,200 signatures to gain ballot access.^[11] La Botz was the only Ohio candidate running on the ticket of the Socialist Party USA.^[2]

In the United States Senate election in Ohio, 2010, SPOH candidate La Botz received 25 thousand votes (0.68%); the Republican winner Rob Portman received 2.125 million votes (57.25%) and the Democratic candidate Lee Fisher received 1.448 million votes (39.00%).^[12]

• The Crisis of Mexican Labor. University of Texas: Praeger Publishers. 1988. p. 206. ISBN 0-275-92600-1.
• Rank and File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union. University of Michigan: Verso Books. 1990. p. 336. ISBN 0-86091-505-0.
• Edward L. Doheny: Petroleum, Power and Politics in the U.S. and Mexico. Praeger Publishers. 1991. p. 202. ISBN 0-275-93599-X.
• A Troublemakers' Handbook: How to Fight Back Where You Work and Win!. Labor Notes. 1991. p. 262. ISBN 0-914093-04-5.
• Mask of Democracy: Labor Suppression in Mexico Today. South End Press. 1992. p. 223. ISBN 0-89608-437-X.
• Democracy in Mexico: Peasant Rebellion and Political Reform. South End Press. 1995. p. 274. ISBN 0-89608-507-4.
• Made in Indonesia: Indonesian Workers Since Suharto. South End Press. 2001. p. 395. ISBN 0-89608-642-9.
• Cesar Chavez and La Causa. Pearson Longman. 2006. p. 210. ISBN 0-321-18764-4.
• What Went Wrong? The Nicaraguan Revolution--A Marxist Analysis. Brill. 2016. p. 407. ISBN 978-9004291300.

• La Botz, Dan; Clement, Chris; Luce, Stephanie; Post, Charlie (2000). Beating back the corporate attack: Socialism and the struggle for social justice. A Solidarity pamphlet. Detroit MI: Solidarity.
• La Botz, Dan (1997). The fight at UPS: The Teamsters victory and the "new labor movement". A Solidarity pamphlet. Detroit MI: Solidarity.
• La Botz, Dan (May 17, 2009). Obama, the crisis, and the movements. Working paper. Detroit MI: Solidarity.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Dan La Botz.

• Interview with Dan La Botz by JK Fowler for The Mantle on March 19, 2011