Race and Progressive Politics

Table of EDITORIAL Contents Race & Progressive Politics by Judith Stein DEADLINES Page4 Interview: SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 23, 1991. friend becomes the enemy (or the friend of Eleanor Holmes Norton Another deadline for Saddam Hussein's the enemy), and suddenly the hardware is Page5 withdrawal from Kuwait slips by. He jeers in the wrong hands. Meanwhile, some four at another ultimatum and slams another million Israelis want to be armed better Scud into Israel. And now legions of allied than any likely coalition of hostile Arabe Progressive Race Theory tanks roll across Iraqi and Kuwaiti borders, (who number over 100 million in the re by Michael Eric Dyson marking the start of another phase in the gion). Israel's fire power threatens the Page7 Persian Gulf War. No one knows how long individual Arab states, so they clamor for this phase will last, how many more dead weapons parity. And the merchants always lines will be drawn up and ultimatums comply. The Economics Beyond Race spurned, how many tons of napalm will This year's war is eating up large stores by Jim Slttper blaze, how many children of a dozen nation of weaponry, which means the cooks will Page9 states will grieve before the killing stops. soon be shopping for new supplies. Anyone Thismuch, however, we do know: When hoping to prevent the next war knows the Profile: George Bush abandoned a strategy ofsanc arms bazaars must be shut down. Anyone Socialist Singer Anne Feeney tions last fall, he threw away a precious hoping for decent standards ofliving in the by Fred Gustofson opportunity to test a system of collective Third World, sustained democracy in East Page 10 security for the world. There's no way to ern Europe, and social justice in the United prove that tough sanctions, fashioned by States knows that vast resources must be the United Nations and implemented by a redeployed. Time is running out. This is Jimmy Higgins Reports multinational force, would have prevented the real deadline. Page20 war in the Gulf region. There's no guaran tee that a successful strategy of sanctions -- by JOANNE BARKAN would have created a precedent for resolv ing other conflicts without bloodshed. But opportunities to promote world peace don't DEMOCRATIC LEFT come along everyday. It was certainly worth WANTED: Founding Editor a better try. SocIALIST YoUTH ORGANIZER Michael Harrington (1928-1989) Managing Editor We also know this: The most decisive Dinah Leventhal, our current military victory for the United States-led Michael Lighty youth organizer, finishes her term coalition will be worthless in a few years Production unless someone calls off the arms race in in June, 1991, and we are now JaneWelna the Middle East. One Saddam Hussein engaged in a search for her suc Editorial Committee after another will threaten the region as cessor. We need someone who is Joanne Barkan, Sherri Levine, long as it's plagued by lopsided distribu energetic, committed to demo Neil McLaughlin, Maxine Phillips, tions of wealth, lack of democratic tradi cratic socialist politics and to Jan Rosenberg, Mitch Horowitz tions, humiliations (real and perceived), student organizing. and superpower machinations. Arming the Slbe should have organizing ex Democratic Left (ISSN 016403207) Saddams ofthis world constitutes geopoliti perience, excellent public speak is published &ix rimM a year at 15 Dutch Street,Swte500, New York, NY. Subscription cal insanity. ingand writingas well as admin But curtailing weapons trade in the $8 regular; $15 institutional. Postmaater; istrative skills. Our organizer Send addreu changes to 15 Dutch Street, Middle East won't be a snap. The Econo travels all over the country talk Suite 500, New York, NY 10038. mist (Feb. 9, 1991) points out with depress ing to young activists about DEMOCRATIC LEFT.is published by the ing clarity that no less than three arms Democratic Socialists of America, 15 Dutch races poison the region: Iran versus Iraq, democratic w>clalism. Women and street, Suite 500, NY, NY 10038 (2121962- Saudi Arabia versus Iran and Iraq, and people ofcolor are encouraged to 0390. Israel versus all Arabs. The sales patterns apply. Interested candidates have a sickening logic. The United States, should send resume and cover SigMd articl.e4 expre&a the opinioM of the the Soviet Union, and European nations letter to Dinah at the DSA office cuuJwrs and not neceasarily th.o&e of the organuation. arm Arab friends of the moment, hoping to by March 15. neutralize a current enemy's clout. Then a DEMOCRATIC LEFT 2 MARCH-APRIL 1991 ... ,, t:j ,. - .. ... g0 s·b:i r g. f;I. ~ l .., j [ Race Relations: The War at Hoine The GulfWar rages; we work for peace. borhoods are decimated by drug abuse, AIDS, that blacks support black businesses in But when the fighting is over, what kind of and chronic poverty. Their children will stead of Korean shops. Yet, the lack of country will the troops come home to? This not get a useful education in underfunded alternative economic development models, issue of Democratic Left features a special schools with drop-out rates of over fifty such as cooperatives and lending societies section on the experience and theory of race percent. As AIDS treatment overwhelm akin to those of Korean or Chinese immi- and class in the United States with an eye community hospitals, big pharmaceutical grants, undermine that demand. toward reviving the historic progressive companies and the federal health bureauc As socialists, we need to participate in white/black coalition. This coalition can racy ignore the needs of women and chil multicultural coalitions that can address form a foundation for multiracial politics dren with AIDS. The troops will return to the economic and social roots of poverty that challenges racism and economic injus a country whose conservative courts refuse and racism. This movement would demand tice. to enforce civil rights, while the Bush equal opportunity not only through civil The Gulf War gives new urgency to the Administration vetoes legislation intended rights legislation but more fundamentally need for this movement. The "economic to guarantee equal opportunity. through popular participation in the eco draft" (a.k.a. the all-volunteer army) has The unfair burden felt by people of nomic and social decisions that determine created a military disproportionately Afri color as they or their friends and relatives people's lives. This movement would create can-American and Latino. The lack of non serve in the Gulf War reflects a growing an atmosphere of respect for and pride in military economic opportunities reveals how racial polarization between blacks and whites, different cultures. Individuals would re racism and capitalism underdevelop these and between people of all races. Attacks on ceive respect by having the right to speak communities. As socialists, we make the Arab-Americans have intensified as the war truth, to dialogue, and to disagree without connections between anti-war organizing progresses. Anti-Semitism is also on the regard to skin color. We can and must hold and domestic social problems in part by rise. These racial antagonisms are often the society as a whole responsible for the seeing how the effects ofthe war undermine rooted in economic disparities. In New degradation of the lives of poor and work social justice, while the costs of the war York City when some African-American ing~ass people by demanding truly respect defund the welfare state for another gen activists organized a boycott of a grocery ful human relations and fully democratic eration. store over the alleged assault of a Haitian economic development. e Many troops returning to civilian life customer by the Korean owner (smce ac will not be able to find jobs as their neigh- quitted), the protestors came to demand -- by Michael Lighty DEMOCRATIC LEFT 3 MARCH-APRIL 1991 Race and Progressive Politics franchisement and Jim Crow. Yet some of tax credits. He assumed that an expanding by Judith Stein the descendants ofthat agricultural system economy was essential to assure jobs for all remain affected by it. The roots of the workers. Indeed, the growing white-collar contemporary crisis are dual: the expulsion industries, prodded by government agen I n the United States, discussions of race of untrained blacks from the rural South cies, opened up many new jobs for blacks, and politics have been dominated by con and the restructuring of American indus the source of the new black middle class. cerns over symptoms. Demagogues like Al try duringthe 1960sand 1970s. The malign But in key industries for black employ Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan, murders neglect of the Reagan administration to ment - steel, automobiles, meatpacking - ofblacks in white communities like Howard ward problems of blacks worsened the ef jobs continued to disappear. The recession Beach and Bensonhurst, and black crime fects of these underlying trends. and industrial crisis of the 1970s followed have dominated the debate. Behind them is At first, the situation was masked by by the economic policies of the 19SOs, de an a: .tlytic framework, adopted by conser the postwar boom, which offered factory stroyed the prospects for millions of work vatives, liberals, and radicals that accepts jobs to people who had limited formal edu ers. For the many whites and blacks who race as the motor driving politics. The way cation. But rising black unemployment in lacked education the economic realaign American culture has formulated racial the 1950s and early 1960s led President ment beginning in the 1960s was disas questions has become a barrier to resolving Kennedy to ask Labor Secretary Willard trous. them. Wirtz, to analyze the causes of high rates of Some liberals focus on the racial com Race is a useful concept to conserva black joblessness.

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