MIAMI BEACH, Fla.--The AFL-CIO executive council has just voted to spend $43 million on political activities geared to the 2000 election. The purpose seems obvious: to help Democrats win control of Congress and keep the White House. But labor actually has a much bigger goal. As Andy Stern of the Communications Workers of America put it, ''We're trying to create an independent political army.''

In 1984, Walter Mondale ran for President as labor's favorite son. Labor's support turned out to be as much a burden as a blessing. He was quickly tarred as the candidate of the special interests, the symbol of the ''old'' Democratic Party's ties to liberal interest groups.

The New Democrats tried to orient the Democrats more toward affluent suburban voters. Why pay a lot of attention to organized labor, they reasoned, when it had shrunk to just one out of every seven workers? ''The rise of Gary Hart, of the New Democrats, of the Democratic Leadership Council, of a perspective on trade that was profoundly distinct and at times threatening to organized labor, caused some real rifts,'' observed Harold Meyerson, labor intellectual and political editor of the L.A. Weekly.

Clinton's election in 1992 seemed to assure the New Democrats' dominance. Then came the shock of '94, and after that, the experience of trying to live under a Republican Congress showed labor how much it needs the Democratic Party to survive. And the 1998 election showed Democrats how much they need the labor movement to survive. ''I did learn something in '98,'' House Democratic leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo., acknowledged. ''I did not think labor's effort was going to work. I was worried that they were not really going to be able to motivate and educate and inform their members to the extent they did. I was wrong.''

AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney pointed to labor's campaign against Proposition 226 on the June 1998 California primary ballot as a turning point. Prop 226 ''was an attempt to take away the workers' voice in politics,'' he said. ''We mobilized 25,000 rank-and-file workers, and the results were very successful. We kept the momentum going and encouraged them to be active in their communities and in their work sites. They elected Gray Davis Governor of California.'' Sure enough, Davis was the only Governor who showed up in Miami Beach to pay his respects.

The message of 1998? It's time for labor to renew its marriage vows with the Democrats. But that's not exactly what the AFL-CIO did. This time, labor insists it wants more independence. ''When people are wrong on issues like trade and Social Security, we have to say that,'' Stern said. ''We can't be an independent voice and then wink or blink when someone in a party happens to stand wrong on those issues.''

The new AFL-CIO initiative goes beyond endorsing candidates and advising union members how to vote. That's why labor is making the commitment so early in the election cycle. In fact, none of the money will go to candidates or parties. It will be spent entirely on political education--issue advocacy, voter registration, and candidate recruiting.

''We're trying to build something that goes beyond election day,'' Jo-Ann Mort, communications director of the garment workers union, explained. ''That means we build an independent power that candidates will hear and understand--and not take advantage of us once they're elected. . . . That's a true divergence from the way the labor movement used to do politics.''

Labor's goal is to set the agenda, not just for the Democratic Party but also for the Republican Congress. Look at the success it's had already--winning an increase in the minimum wage, blocking President Clinton's request for fast-track trade-negotiating authority. Sure, labor's smaller. But so is the electorate. ''As the number of voters shrinks, our efforts have a disproportionate impact, as we saw in 1998,'' Stern said. Moreover, under Clinton, the Democratic Party is smaller, too. ''With Clinton leaving in another two years, we've found a Democratic Party that's closer to the labor movement than it was before he came in,'' Mort said. ''That may be one of his legacies. It's ironic.''

Labor has learned it has to fight its own wars. So it's building its own political army. What's labor's model? The Christian Coalition. Which is also ironic, because the Christian Coalition originally modeled itself after organized labor. As Meyerson put it: ''They're the only two groups with large numbers of people they can get active around Election Day. . . . The labor activists do the union halls and the work sites. The Christian Right does the churches on the Sunday before the election.''

But there's one big difference. ''Our issue agenda is very similar to that of the public at large, with priorities like education, Social Security, Medicare, and health care,'' Sweeney said. Meyerson drew out the contrast: ''Labor is pushing issues that have broader public support than a lot of those of the Christian Right. . . . At the moment, Christian Right issues are tearing the Republican Party apart. In a way, by pursuing its own agenda, labor is helping the Democratic Party politically.''

Labor wants to match the Christian army of the Right with a labor army of the Left. The cry has gone out from Miami Beach: ''Onward, union soldiers, marching as to war!''

William Schneider is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.