Editing Bayard Rustin (section)

===Labor movement: Unions and social democracy===
Rustin increasingly worked to strengthen the labor movement, which he saw as the champion of empowerment for the African American community and for economic justice for all Americans. He contributed to the labor movement's two sides, economic and political, through the support of labor unions and social-democratic politics.
He was the founder and became the Director of the [[A. Philip Randolph Institute]], which coordinated the AFL-CIO's work on civil rights and economic justice. He became a regular columnist for the AFL-CIO newspaper.

On the political side of the labor movement, Rustin increased his visibility as a leader of the American movement for [[social democracy]]. In early 1972, he became a national co-chairman of the Socialist Party of America. In December 1972, when the Socialist Party changed its name to [[Social Democrats, USA]] (SDUSA) by a vote of 73–34, Rustin continued to serve as national co-chairman, along with [[Charles S. Zimmerman]].<ref name="NY Times 1972-12-31">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/31/archives/socialist-party-now-the-social-democrats-usa.html |title=Socialist Party Now the Social Democrats, U.S.A.|date=December 31, 1972 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=February 8, 2010}} (limited free access).</ref> In his opening speech to the December 1972 Convention, Co-Chairman Rustin called for SDUSA to organize against the "reactionary policies of the Nixon Administration"; Rustin also criticized the "irresponsibility and élitism of the 'New Politics' liberals".<ref name="NY Times 1972-12-31" /> In later years, Rustin served as the national chairman of SDUSA.

During the 1960s, Rustin was a member<ref>{{cite book|last1=Forman|first1=James|title=The Making of Black Revolutionaries|date=1972|publisher=University of Washington Press|pages=220}}</ref> of the [[League for Industrial Democracy]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Carson|first1=Clayborne|title=In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s|url=https://archive.org/details/instrugglesnccbl00cars_1|url-access=registration|date=1981|publisher=[[Harvard University]] Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/instrugglesnccbl00cars_1/page/29 29]|isbn=9780674447264}}</ref> He would remain a member for years, and became vice president during the 1980s.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/WorkersRightsEastAndWestAComparativeStudyOfTradeUnionAnd|last1=Karatnycky|first1=Adrian|last2=Motyl|first2=Alexander J.|last3=Sturmthal|first3=Adolf|author3-link=Adolf Sturmthal |title=Workers' rights, East and West : a comparative study of trade union and workers' rights in Western democracies and Eastern Europe |date=1980|publisher=Transaction Publishing / [[League for Industrial Democracy]]|pages=150|isbn=9780878558674}}</ref>