PUBLISHED BY THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA
Nov.-Dec. 1984 VOL. XII, No. 6 $1.50 m
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\ 'Lonely Landslide' Jim Chapin, Michael Harrington and Chris Riddiough on the Elections------• 3 Culture Clashes Stanley Aronowitz on Political Documentaries ------8 SOCIALIST FORUM SJ
Statement of Q.,nenh1p, M1nagcmcnt ind Cm:ul&tion (ICI al AuguSI 12, 1970: Sccuon 3685. T1llc39, United SU.I<> Code) I Tolle C1f publication: Dcmocrauc Left 2. Dale of fili'lg DcocmbeT 21. 1984 3. Frcqucn
DEMOCRATIC LEFT 2 Nov.-D K. 1984 ELECTION COMMENTARY Facing the Future: FOur More Years of What?
by Michael Harrington
irst the good news: the 1984 elections were not as bad as 11 CA~\ ~t they seem on the surface. -rut. ~m~C\.\ ,.. , . . · Then the bad news: if the democratic left makes an un- \1'~ t>t.UC\OUS ! criticalF reading of this fact it can blow the very real opportunities that exist for it during the next two to four years. The presidential election showed the attraction of a charismatic President Feel good whose vacuous non-message was given the appearance of truth by the peculiar state of the economy in 1984. Uthe vote had been taken under the conditions of November 1982, when Ronald Reagan was less popular than Jimmy Carter at the comparable point in his tenn, it would certainly have been close and quite likely would have led to the election of the Democratic candidate. Between Oc tober 1981 and January 1983, i.e.. in the period of the worst recession since the Great Depression, Reagan fell from a 61 percent approval rate to a 54 percent disapproval rate with the American people. Political analyst ous alternative program, he would not have in the ABC News/Washington Post poll. Seymour Martin Lipset, summarizing some won. Reagan was immunized from losing by The surge of the economy in 1983 and of the data, said: "Support for increased the economy and any issue-based attack on 1984 was not a result of Reagan's brilliant spending for domestic programs moved up him was bound to fail. But that does not mean planning. The contrast with Richard Nixon in steadily between February 1981 and August that we should simply count issues out and 1972 is instructive. In August 1971, Nixon 1983, from 49 to 67 percent for the poor, fatalistically endorse what Mondale did. For embarked on a game plan designed to create from 43 to 75 percent for education, and from a good part of the time, the Democratic cam optimum economic conditions for his re 49 to 66 percent for health. But the percent paign focused almost exclusively on the election. He imposed wage and price con ages favoring an increase in military expendi question of the deficit and the necessity of trols, announced himself a "Keynesian" and tures fell off from 72 to 33." Even more raising taJCes. That was designed to show proceeded to spend a great deal of public shocking, this difference between the presi that Reagan is a hypocrite, a fact established money to get the economy moving, per dent's program and the priorities of the peo beyond doubt by the White House within a suaded his friend Arthur Burns at the Fed ple who elected him goes back at least to day or two of the election when it began to eral Reserve to increase the money supply, Franklin Roosevelt. Americans, it has been acknowledge that the rosy picture of the and soon. documented, tend to be "ideologically con economy painted by the president was a That was the last time that conscious servative" and "operationally liberal." fraud, i.e., that the deficit is going to be weU Keynesian politics worked: September and Indeed, that distinction between ideol over $200 billion, not $170 billion. October of 1972 were the two best months, ogy and operation might have been one fac But a taJC increase is hardly a standard to in economic terms, of the Nixon Presidency tor in Reagan's failure to shift the ideological which the masses will repair and can be easily and they helped an unpopular man win a high makeup of the House. The electorate in subjected to demagogic attack, as it was. At er percentage of the vote than Ronald Rea dulged its philosophic principles by giving the same time, Mondale refused the request gan in 1984. Reagan, as readers of DEMO him a landslide, and it backed up its practical, of a delegation of black leaders to come out CRATIC LEFT know, blundered into the 1983- operational instincts by maintaining a mod with a jobs program, thus reinforcing the 4 recovery by following an unconscious Key erate Democratic majority in the House. For feeling that he actually didn't have much nesianism and dealing with inflation by the this reason it can be argued that party realign more to offer than the late, and quite un massive immiseration of working people, the ment did not take place in 1984. lamented, Carter administration. Was this poor and minorities. If I am right on this count, then even if also one of the reasons why voter turnout That unexpected success did not, how Mondale had taken all of the advice DEMO increased only marginally? It is too early to ever, make the president's program popular CRATIC LEFT gave him and had run on a seri- say that with any confidence-the polls show-
DEMOCRATIC LEFT 3 Nov.-DEc. 1984 ing that the presidential contest was not even an aberration explained by an accidental re ing his budget cuts. What will the Democrats a horse race did not help; neither did televi covery and the charisma of President Feel do? Will they increase taxes and cut social sion's irresponsible projecting of the results good? And the democratic left should simply spending while unemployment is, assuminR a while the polls were still open-but it seems engage in its usual endeavors? That is dan modest recession, at 9 percent? a good guess that it at least played a role. gerous nonsense. The neoliberals-such as Senator Brad· If it did. it might help explain the partial ley and Representative Gephardt-\\ill disappointment of the trade union campaign. Any New Ideas? probably dominate the programmatic news in The polls show that union members voted for In the winter of 1982, when most Dem the months to come as attention focuses on Mondale by 57 percent, union households by ocrats assumed that they could run against their attempts at tax reform. But will a "flat 53 percent. Blue-collar voters, organized and Herbert Hoover in 1984, I pointed out in tax" simplification which is specifically de unorganized, favored Reagan by 53 percent, these pages that a recovery would come and signed not to try to make the system more which would suggest that labor's efforts that the political situation could be radically just be an adequate response to the situation made a difference, that blue-collar people different in 1984. If I may be immodest, I was imagined in the last paragraph? Will the neo with a union card were for Mondale more right. And I argued at that time that the liberal proposals for reduced government in than their nonunion brothers and sisters. Democrats would have to do some serious order to enhance investments in high tech That statistic has to be qualified, for at least rethinking if they wanted to win in 1984. and education be relevant under such cir part of the union vote for Mondale coincided They didn't do it. And I argue now that. if the cumstances? I doubt it. with that huge outpouring of black support progressive wing of the Democratic party The Democratic party-or rather, its for him (90 percent in the New York Tim£S/ does not come up with an analysis of the progressive wing- is going to have to think CBS survey). If Mondale had campaigned on crisis and some new departures for solving in the coming period. There is, I am afraid, working class issues more-as he did in the it, it could lose a historic opportunity to re no alternative to that difficult experience. It last days of the election when those who align our politics to the left, to create a new is conceivable that the election of 1984 will changed their minds tended toward him- ' period in our national life. turn out to have been the last gasp of a there might have been a greater mobilization Let me put the proposition negatively. conservative era that ends when the Ameri and, if not a victory, then less of a defeat. The Democrats win control of the Senate in can people rudely discover that they were 1986 and mcrease their majority in the sold a snake-oil recovery by the Great Pitch If the unions were disappointed in reach House. There is a $300 billion deficit as a man. ff that happens-and it is not guaran ing their goal of 65 percent labor support for result of declinittg federal income and in teed, but it certainly is possible-where is Mondale, they improved their score as creased federal outlays in a recession which the new New Deal or Fair Deal or New against 1980 and showed that they remain an is either just ending or still in progress. An Frontier or Great Society? Where is there a absolutely central component in the Demo unpopular president retains his ability to ob unifying theme of social justice, antimilitar cratic coalition. So did blacks and women. fuscate the issues and sends a socially vi ism and internationalism that rises above the Thus, any suggestion that a renewed Demo cious, militarist package over to Capitol Hill. constituency agendas? cratic party can be built by downplaying insisting that it will cure the ills which the We socialists will help answer these those constituencies is a royal road to politi Democratic Congress has created by refus- questions. e cal suicide. Indeed, I suggest that all the numbers that different strategists are now using to back up their tactical choices will be trans formed within the next two years when the CLASSlflED next recession takes place. The business press is, of course, filled with arguments NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER? about when and how the downturn will come. Read DSA LABOR MEMO Information: Brandt Commission Research. Box Publication for DSA activists 2619. North Canton. OH 44720. Most analysts, The Wall Street jqurnal re Published bi-monthly ported in late November, are convinced that PROGRESSlVE PERJODrCALS DIRECTORY a full scale recession is not in the cards for Sent $ lO to DSA Labor Memo DC/Maryland DSA now available' Good for publicity. networking, 1985, which, given the flawed predictions of subscnpuon details on 400 l)('nockals on labor, think 1346 Connecticut Avenue "most analysts," is reason to that the Room810A peace. international. culture, politics. etc. $4 from crisis is at hand. Washington. D.C. 20036 Box L· 120574. Nashville 37212. But there is no need to engage in flights CONSIDER A BEQUEST TO DSA when \'ou of speculative fancy. No one knows when the DISPLAY YOUR DISGUST' "Reaganomik" pho· make out your w1U. F" or more mformauon. write to recession will come, how deep and how long to·an print by Socialist artist. Color 11x14. Pine DSA. Suite 801. 853 Broadway, NYC 10003. it will last, and how the recovery will take framed. $19.95 postpaid. Jim Finch. P.O. Box place. There is no doubt in my mind that it 176, Salamanca. NY 14779. REFLECTIONS ON THE LEGACY. a 40-page will come, almost certainly within the next booklet on Martin Luther 1
DEMOCRATIC LEFT 4 Nov.• DEC. 1984 Forming a New Majority by Christine l_l . Riddiough
ovember 6, 1984-Ronald polls showed that more than 80 percent of At the same time that Reagan capital Reagan has won lus "four the black community supported the Pemo ized on his popularity and the GOP on anti more years. " Despite all the , cratic ticket. as did dose to 80 percent of feminist and anti-black feelings among white efforts of labor. feminists, feminists. males. the Mondale campaign proved incap black activists. gay and les- ln terms of the lesbian and i;:ay vote, able of using its strengths among these bianN activists and many others, Ronald Rea there are no exit polls to look at, but more groups to offset Reagan. Mondale's highly gan's personal popularity overrode consid informal surveys by the gay press and gay vaunted political organization turned out not eration of issues for the majority of American organizations suggest that between 60 and to be able to fie ld much of a grassroots cam voters. We now must look ahead to four 70 percent of gay voters supported Mondale, paign and his political directors seemed to be more years-what will they mean to us as with more than 80 percent of lesbians in that stuck around 1968-not recognizing the socialists in the United States? category. Although openly gay candidates changes in the political scene in the last de To understand the task ahead of us we for office in Massachusetts. Minnesota, and cade and a half. Enthusiastic volunteers often have to look at the election results. Who California were re-elected, the level of sexist found little interest in their offers of help. really won? Does the election portend a re and homophobic rhetoric seemed to increase Efforts to win the South by appointing Bert alignment of American politics and the Dem in this campaign. ln the Texas and North Lance as head of the Democratic National ocratic party? What were the problems with Carolina Senate races, particularly vitriolic Committee were typical of the sloppy way in the Mondale campaign and what do they sug anti-gay ads were run in papers and anti-gay which Mondale played constituency politics. gest about future electoral efforts? statements were made by the winning Re The next four years present us with two Reagan won because of his own popu publican candidates. challenges: to fight back against the Reagan/ larity and because he was able to maintain his The anti-gay tactics used by the right right-wing agenda and to move the Demo nice guy image in the face of his and the wing were part and parcel of an apparent cratic party and the left into the eighties GOP's disastrous economic and social poli anti-feminist backlash. The char!.(es that politically. Reagan is already claiming a man cies. Time after time in the debates and in his Mondale was a "wunp" while Reagan has date for his social and economic program, but campaign speeches, Reagan was able to make made "America stand tall again" have strik there some hope that Congress will be able up stories, twist the truth, even lie outright ing anti-feminist and anti-woman connota to forestall some of the more outrageous and get away with it. Because times are tions. In the vice presidential debate, a re aspects of the program. Only days after the relatively good, compared with two years porter asked Geraldine Ferraro if the Rus election the administration is already talking ago, people wanted to believe that everY sians would take advantage of her because about "tax simplification" (read increases) thing was okay. she's a woman. One was left repeatedly with and rising federal deficits. As the fallacies of While Reagan was riding a landslide ac the impression that the Ferraro candidacy Reagan's campaiRfl promises become clear ross the country, it was clearly not a mandate and the candidacies of other women repre er, there will be some potential for organiz for conservative GOP policies. The Republi sented a real threat to male politicians around ing an active opposition to the administra cans lost two Senate seats, including that of the country. tion. And in 1986, with 22 Republican Sena- Family Protection Act author Roger Jepson in Iowa. They made only modest gains in the House of Representatives. These victories can give us some hope that more moderate voices in the Congress will be able to block some of the right-wing agenda for the next four years. Voter Blocs Voting patterns were predictable. To take one factor, the gender gap was there at all levels: Reagan got 8 percent fewer votes from women than he did from men and in the state and local races the gender gap was even wider. In several races. including Carl Levin's Senate race in Michigan and Made· line Kunin's gubernatorial race in Vermont, the gender gap was the key to success. The groups that apparently voted most strongly for the Mondale/Ferraro ticket were blacks, feminists, and gay men and lesbians. Exit
DEMOCRATIC LEFT 5 Nov.-OEC. 1984 tors up for re-election, there is every possibil women, gays and others outside, looking in Reagan's ratings, and had no lasting effects. ity that the Democrats could recapture con at a new white male party leadership. The American voter, even in the rightwing trol of both Houses of Congress. Instead of accepting this, the Demo era, is not a fire-breathing rightwinger but a Clearly, however, more cogent ideas cratic party needs not simply to throw out non-ideological pragmatist. for future economic development need to be constituency politics but rather to look at the The 1984 election was almost an exact presented to the American public. The dem new alignments of constituencies. Phyllis analogue of the Republican victories of 1956 ocratic left also has to fight actively for main Shlafty has said that the gender gap is really a and 1972, also "lonely landslides" for an in tenance of civil rights and for a pro-feminist male drift to the GOP. The reality is that cumbent Republican president unaccompa and pro-gay agenda in the coming years. white males are a minority in the U.S. and nied by any substantial gains in other political Much the same is true within the Demo that a Democratic party based in the black, bodies. Why then, has there been so much cratic party. Old-line moderate and conserv Hispanic, and Asian communities with strong talk of the importance of the 1984 election? ative Democrats will want to move away support among women, gays and lesbians In most ways, the election was utterly unim from the 1984 platform's support for wo and progressive white males would in fact be portant: if it had been cancelled, nothing men's and gay rights, arguing that this is a majority party. The Democratic party can about the politics of 1985 would have been in what cost Mondale the election. More dan not be anti-constituency if it is to survive. It any way different from what in fact they will gerous to the interests of socialists, femi must recognize new constituencies. That be. Republican realignment? Reagan was the nists and other progressives is the potential kind of political realignment would actually first president in 20th century history to win realignment of the party toward the politics move the party to the left other than the election with fewer than 190 of his own party of Gary Hart and his neoliberal cohorts. Hart center and provide more opportunities for in the House. Lower-level realignment? The and the other neoliberals reject constituency DSA and other socialists to play a signifi Republicans are weaker m the House, the politics as a relic of the past. They view cant role. • governorships, and the legislatures than constituencies as special interest that the they were in 1956 or 1972, and nobody party should not cater to. They are thus Christine Riddiough is director oflesbian rights claims that those were realignment years. much less likely to be responsive to the con for the NatUmal Organization for Women and cerns of any organized group, leaving blacks, a vice chair ofDSA. Real Death ofN ew Deal But the 1984 election was important psychologically because it seems to have fi nally cracked the perceptual barrier about the existing Republican presidential majority Two Parties At Loss (which has existed since 1968). It may be that the rotting corpse of New Deal Democ For New Directions racy, continually dug up ever since its real death in 1946, has finally been laid to rest. Belief in the remaining New Deal coali tion (even though in fact the electoral base of by Jim Chapin the New Deal coalition was an all-white southern electorate which has not been here are two lies being told neither on personality (the last two landslide united in support of the Democrats since about the 1984 election: the re-election winners were those winning per 1944) somehow lingered on. Among Demo Democratic lie and the Re sonalities Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nix crats, the bitter splits of the Vietnam War era publican lie. The Democratic on) nor on ideology. Reagan ran for re-elec between labor and liberals fostered the idea lie is that the election results tion as Dwight Eisenhower-not as a fire that bringing together labor and liberals forT president were only a result of pers()Tl(J/· breathing rightwinger, but on performance. might do the trick. For example, Michael ity: Reagan's charm and confidence contrast The country was enjoying an economic revi Harrington wrote in Fragments ofthe Century ed to Mondale's dullness, while the congres val, it was at peace, and there was no split in (1973), "1968 proved that labor cannot win sional elections and the issue polls confirmed the ruling party. Under these conditions, in alone; 1972 showed that the New Politics that the majority of the voters did not accept cumbents get re-elected. The failure of the cannot win alone; and 1976 might prove that Rea~an's ideology. The Republican lie is that election to reflect either personality or ideol together they can carry the nation." Actually the ideology is exactly what they voted for, ogy is best shown in the popularity ratings 1976 proved that neither was necessary and that the congressional results were "acci enjoyed by Reagan since 1981. In 1983, even to win the Democratic party, and when dental," a result of Democratic redistribution when the unemployment rate was peaking, in 1984 Mondale won the support of labor and in 1981 and of the power of incumbency. his personality and ideology failed to prevent of the NOW, ADA. etc., he came in with a Both theories have obvious flaws: the him from trailing Democrats. Throughout his result exactly the average of Humphrey's , Democratic theory overlooks that Mondale's term, his popularity has closely correlated and McGovern's. performance, so far from being an exception, with the unemployment rate (inversely!). It is worth remembering that the New was typical of that of Democrats since 1968 The difference between the American voter, Deal coalition was built on the exclusion of -he did only two percent worse than the and. for example, the English voter, is best blacks from southern politics, and that as the Democratic average in the previous four shown in the different ratings given to Rea Democratic party was forced to grapple with presidential elections. The Republican the gan and British Prime Minister Margaret this issue, its southern support melted away. ory fails to explain why the Democrats Thatcher. Thatcher was able to compensate The movement of blacks into northern cities gained Republican seats in the Senate (as for for economic failure by her success at "wog eventually broke the Democratic coalition incumbency, what about all those Democrats bashing" in the Falklands-British imperial there, too (the studies of Warren Miller and who lost in 1980?). ism remains deep in the British electorate others show that the break in the Democratic In fact. the 1984 election was decided but Grenada, on the other hand, was a blip on coalition came in the summer of 1965, with
D EMOCRATIC LEFT 6 Nov.-D EC.1984 the black riots in northern cities). Since then paign, neither of which actually had much ideological demands of the swing southern the Wallace constituency has been a key ele relation to it; the Humphrey and McGovern vote are too RCeat for the party to pay and ment of national politics. and it was only by campaigns were the last to use New Deal still hold the rest of its base. Democrats can recapturing halfof it that Carter won in 1976. rhetoric. In fact, Mondale's deficit-focused wm at the state level there. iust as Rockefel Most of the so-called "social issues" of campaign was closer to Robert Taft than to ler Republicans once could win much of the the 1960s-70s were code words for the race FDR. Northeast. but they can't carry most of these issue (welfare, busing, crime, etc.) and they The smartest thinkers in both parties states for president. The West. particularly all cost the Democrats support. But the Re now think their own parties are in trouble. California (which has gone Democratic only publican party has been unable to institution Conservative Kevin Phillips argues that the in 1964 of the last nine presidential elec alize its newly-won.national support because cultural issues on the agenda (abortion. tions), is where the Democrats can go with of the limitations of its own class and ethnic prayer, etc.) are lifestyle issues that cut out sacrificing their identity as a liberal party. base, and because of the growing power of against the Republicans (the Democrats The next four years are a very impor the other swing constituency in modem have already paid the price for their stands) tant time. For the first time since the 1850s. American politics, sometimes called in short and that the 20-year Republican era that be- both maior parties are up for grabs. The hand "yuppies." Just as 1968 and later elec psychological gains in accepting that this is a tions showed what losing the Wallace vote country which has been dominated by con could mean to the Democrats, so 1964 servatives since 1968 could be very great. • showed what losing the yuppies could mean Democrats. and the left in general. must to the Republicans. Nixon's 1968 victory in begin to abatidon a self-conception as forces volved winning back part of this group, and ~ of defense and to think of themselves once Reagan's 1980 victory was helped by Ander LABOR more as a change-oriented force. This was a son's 7 percent of the vote. State-by-state FOR self-conception frankly absent from the Mon correlations show that Wallace's vote resem dale campaign, which might have been the bles nothing so much as Bryan's Democratic most past-oriented campaign irT recent party, and that Anderson's represents Ted American history. dy Roosevelt's Republican party. The Democrats face a difficult task: All this is another way of saying that the \ROOSEVELT democratic socialists at least face an accus incoherence of the American party structure '- FOR tomed one. It is the same task that faced us in the last few decades has been largely a LABOR in 1925 or 1955, at the same points in the result of the 180-degree shift in the bases of 30-year political cycle. Indeed. we are in support of the two parties, a strain under somewhat better shape now than then. Now gone by no other national party system in the left will begin to develop those issues that history. Increasingly but very slowly the lo will be central to the 1990s. I expect activity cal party systems have trended the same to grow: the protests against the South Afn way: in this election, for example, the Re can regime are just the beginninR The virtue publicans made their biggest local gains in gan in 1968 is now drawing to a close without in accepting that the past is J.?One is that we North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, while having resulted in lower-level realignment. can now begin to shape the future. • the Democrats gained the governorship and He sees 1984 as an election like 1928 or the state senate in Vermont. 1964- the "Indian summer" of an old sys Jim Chapin is a historian, Democratic party The most interesting part of this elec tem rather than the beginning of a new system. activist and member of the National Interim tion, aside from the ''dog that didn't bark in Many Democrats have argued that the Committee. the night" (i.e., the failure for there to be party's problem is one of ilkok>g; (too far left) much of a shift in any of the results) was the or of constituency (poor, blacks, labor. gays, change in the state-by-state presidential re etc.) and that it can be solved simply by PLEDGES sults for the Democrats. Since Mondale re "appealing to the center" or to the middle Socialists like to plan and it makes 1t ceived exactly the same overall percentage class. or whatever. But in fact I would argue easier for us to plan if we know how much as Carter in 1980 (41 percent). these shifts that it is neither. Remember that the Amen money we'll have each month. You can are important. Mondale's biggest gain was in can voters are not ideological (not in the help us by making a monthly pledge. Your North Dakota, his biggest loss in Georgia sense that their parties are ideological oppo pledge of $5, $10, $25 or $50 a month (the last not too surprising!). More gener sites: both parties reflect liberal capitalist provides a steady source of income that ally, he gained over Carter in the Farm Belt values, as does the society as a whole) but helps keep us out of the cash flow crunch. and the West. and lost in the South. Another that they look for what they consider to be "quiet dog" in the election returns was eco "practical" government. The Democrats are nomic: there was little correlation between now quite poverty-stricken as a party of pres state-by-state' economies and the presiden Ukntial government. Their problem is not __Yes, I want to help DSA plan. I will tial results as compared to sectional impacts. simply one of electoral strategy (which pledge per month. (We'll Depression-ridden Alabama or Oregon did should not be overlooked, of course!) but one send reminders.) not better Mondale's performances in sur of what to DEMOCRATIC LEFT 7 N ov.-D EC. 1984 A SPECIAL REPORT POLITICS AND FILM by Stanley Aronowitz n the mid-sixties, an east coast notably Rosie the Riveter (implicitly) and See based film collective called Newsreel ing Red and The Good Fight (explicitly) ex documented some of the activities of amine the legacy of the American Commu the New Left: the earnest but large nist party and its achievements, especially in ly unsuccessful organizing activities the 1930s. I want to look at each type sepa and it conveys hope rather than being mired inI major northern cities by SOS, the bur rately and use one example from each, be in the bitterness that steelworkers feel for geoning antiwar movement, and the black cause, even though they are made by people their permanently deferred dreams. workers' revolt of the later years of the dec of similar political and technical backgrounds, But, like other efforts of this genre, ade. Most collective members were not pro they have not only a different focus, but a Business of America submits to the net fessional filmmakers; some were writers, somewhat different intention. works' TV documentary aesthetic: it 1s others activists learning while making films. The news documentaries include such couched m the news program format of com Newsreel's philosophy was anti-art; nor were films as Harlan County, The Willmar 8, mercial versions; the filmmakers take on the the films desigiied for commercial audiences, which dealt with a strike by eight women persona of reporters rather than partisans, but had instead a more specialized aim: to bank employees, The Last Pullman Car, and the voiceover narrative remains objective assist particular organizing projects and so the recently released Business of America. and the film lets the people speak for them cial movements. None of the films were The commercial equivalents would be The selves. In short, the topical documentary made for posterity. These movies were China Syndr DEMOCRATIC LEFT 8 Nov.-DEC.1984 ties, these films aim at action. ln order to Reichert and Jim Klein, who also did Union and-file activists, the "Jimmie Higginses" of present their messages as accessibly as pos Maids, have chosen to present the Commu· the Communist movement-and several sible, they often have to sacrifice innovations nist experience in the thirties, forties and heavies, among them Dorothy Healey, for in fonn. fifties in the heroic/sentimental mode. Of mer Southern California Party Chair; How· The second category, the historical Icourse, the filmmakers take care to mention ard Johnson. a Harlemite and education di documentary, is far more controversial. the failures of the CP-its subservience to rector of the party in the forties; and Bill Reds is the only commercial equivalent that Moscow, its lack of internal democracy Bailey, a longshoreman and a leading party comes to mind. Here fihrunakers confront which, among other thiQgs, resulted in griev· industrial activist. The interview technique the same funding problems as with the topi ous errors of political judgment and confusion helps to "humanize" the party. Subjects are cal group but with.even fewer resources. met in their homes or at work. We see them Although socially oriented liberal foundations GEITING THE MOST as ordinary folk. with all the regular pr9blems will join public funding agencies to finance ' OUT OF A FILM that any of us suffer. At the end, we are left some topical films, when it comes to labor with a warm and uplifting feeling for these and radical history, the funders run scared. As noted in the accompanying arti Communists as people. The personalism Those who sought backing for a ti1m to mark cle, many DSA chapters have used Seeing which is perhaps the characteristic feature of the Nonnan 11lomas centennial, for instance. Red this year both for fundraising and the Hollywood biography is worked to the were initially encouraged by the National En political education. Some chapters run hilt here. These are images of devoted peo dowment for the Humanities under a Carter ongning film St'rics as part of their social ple, who are, m some cases, still in the party appointee, but found a frigid reception under ist schools. Every chapter will at some or have left without bitterness or regret for Reagan's influence. The makers of Seeing time or other show a political film, and the Itheir past activities. Unlike the conventional Red drew some of the funds to complete the success of the event will hinge almost as ex-Communist genre that begins with Arthur • film from old leftists, raising money at private much on the thought and preparation that Koestler's Darkness at Noon and ends with parties. Second, although this genre includes go into it as it will on the quality of the the ignominy of Harvey Matusow's double films on wobblies, socialists, and anarchists, film. Lights that won't dim, projectors turnaround (party member/agent for the the most widely reviewed have dealt with that don't work, publicity that didn't get FBI, repentent confessant), Seeing Red pre Communists. The project of taking the Com out in time-all are common and guaran· Isents tales of resistance and political honor munist party seriously as part of the left's teed to frustrate the organizers and in as well as self-criticism. What is remarkable progressive legacy suffers its many detrac furiate the filmmaker who wants his or about this film is its statement that Com tors from both sides of the spectrum. Many her work to be seen and discussed. Some munists had a genuine radical past, that they on the non-Communist left and some who companies have produced discussion I made mistakes, but equally made a contribu were part of the non-CP communist move guides to accompany their films. An ex tion to the growth of the labor movement anc! ments consider the party anathema. un· cellent guide to using films is In Focus: A other popular organizations and, most impor worthy even of histoncal pr.use. Gui.de to Usin~ Films, which is available tant of all, kept the faith in the dismal Mc Films such as Rosw /Ju> Ri1·eter, With from Media Network for $10.45. Media Carthy years of the 1950s. Babies and Banners, and Uni DEMOCRATIC LEFT 9 Nov.-OEC.1984 I Seeing Red in a Local by Anne McCormick ately the DC/MD local has following, and a champagne reception. A • sponsored a number of cultur sympathetic liquor store owner helped us al and educational events in plan the reception; he and a local coop do Washington. Thus, we saw the nated refreshments. chance to sponsor the D. C. Given our limited time and energy, we premiereL of Seeing Red this fall as an op decided to forgo putting a lot of effort into portunity to be associated with a high-quality getting "big name" sponsors, but to concen film on a left topic; discuss this segment of trate on doing real outreach in the local com left history and its implications for our work munity, among activists in the black, labor, today; do outreach to unaffiliated leftists. and progressive communities, the Gray Pan blacks, senior citizens, and others who were thers, "radical academics," and left artists. A a natural audience for the film; and raise mailing of 2000 was combined with poster money and have a good time. We succeeded ing, and ticket-selling by DSA members and at least in part in all of the above. friends to their own contacts. ln the middle of First, the local had to decide that it an election year, we were able to focus on would sponsor this event. This was an ongo making this cultural event a priority. ing debate for the better part of a year. It Doing media work was a pleasure with brought out some of DSA's unresolved is such a strong product. Dorothy Healey, who sues, with some members arguing strongly lives in the District, was interviewed by sev that the Communists' contributions to Amer eral publications. Howard "Stretch" John ican and left history should be brought to son, arriving in the city the morning after his light. analyzed and judged on their own mer return from Spain, generated great live radio its and others arguing that the CP was a as he remembered not only his past as a San Francisco's 1600 seat Castro divisive if not destructive force on the U.S. Communist, but the black cultural and intel Theatre. left. and that a democratic socialist organiza lectual life in Harlem in the 30s. (He per CP was less committed to American work tion should not sanction the film in any way. formed with Lena Home at the Cotton Club.) ers and black people than to the Soviet Union In the end, we came to agree that having a There were last-minute crises, but and, at the height of its influence and mem possible "hit"-and the attention, discussion when the night itself arrived, we were ex bership, was always uncomrad~ly and often and fundraising it would entail-were strong cited by the warm, comradely crowd of 450. arrogant to others on the left, particularly the arguments. We agreed to keep communica It was a multi-generational event: some Socialists and the Trotskyists. tions channels open and were pleased that members brought family members who had The film appeals much more to a young some of the opponents supported the collec been active in the struggles of the 30s. and er generation, for it is a film of the New Left; tive effort by selling tickets and bringing for many of these people it seemed it was the its anti-anti-Communism is only the precon friends. first time they had discussed these times in a dition for its narrative. More pertinent, it is We began in earnest eight weeks before public forum. Even though it was the hottest an example of the widespread belief among the premiere, dividing the work into media, night of the month (and the air conditioning sixties radicals that the party provides a re outreach and general logistics. Our first task broke down), people stayed for a 45-minute cent and heroic past worth preserving. It is was to find a place that would seat 300-500 discussion with Julia Reichert, Healey, and also a commentary, by its silences, of an people. have a large screen and good sound Johnson and had to be forced to leave. equally shared belief that the Socialist party system, space for a reception, and be near We did not make as much money as we was all but dead after 1936 when a substantial public transportation. This was particularly wished-perhaps we could have charged part of its membership, particularly its lead difficult when we were turned down by the more, and offered reduced rates to seniors, ing trade unionists, deserted the party for U. S. government for one of its popularly students, and the unemployed-but we did the New Deal. In.contrast, the CP's early used facilities after we had sent out some clear $1200 for our efforts. However, we recognition that the New Deal was America's publicity. (Despite having given preliminary would gladly do this sort of thing again-be version of social democracy enabled it to gain approval, the bureaucrats said it was a "polit cause sharing works of art that honestly de a bigger audience because 1t presented itself ical" event. We're still contesting the ruling.) pict our collective experiences as leftists as the left wing of the Democratic party and In the end. we found a restored theater in gives us the kind of enrichment and perspec the labor movement, in effect, the "left wing Takoma Park. a residential area known for its tive we need-and is the ideal antidote to of the possible," to emulate a more recent grassroots political tradition and progressive mid-80s burnout. • phrase. local government. It is precisely because this is an exer After a great deal of debate, we decided Anne McCormick is chair of the Cultural/ cise in combatting historical amnesia and an to charge $10 for the film, the discussion Educational Committee ofthe DC/MD local. attempt to reclaim America's radical past for DEMOCRATIC LEFT 10 Nov.-DEC. 1984 this generation that little of the CP's dark ous aesthetic problem. In good American vailing film aesthetic. side appears in Seeing Red. Beyond celebra Hollywood style, they focus on individuals Both types of documentaries are suit tion, the filmmakers share with their col who. in their lives, preswnably embodied the able for the classroom because they remind leagues a relentless passion for nostalgia and party at its best. However, the CP's was a viewers of the style, length and cultural out an equally strong fear that a critical, unsenti collective history; its policies were part of an look of network products even though their mental treatment of their subject would con international movement as well as an adapta politics is at the opposite pole. In addition, sign their work to obscurity. They know bet tion of that movement's line to American they have been helpful to the left, both for ter than we how dangerous it is to appear too conditions. This collective political context is education and public acceptance. Seeing Red "negative" in this pseudo-euphoric period of difficult to portray exclusively in terms of the has sold out at benefit performances, many American nationalism. rank-and-file and secondary leaders who ap of them for DSA in such cities as Boston, San But the generatly positive representa pear in this film. The film would have had to Francisco, and Chicago. It and the others like tion of the CP's past is not merely a practical explore politics as well as personalities, it can be valuable educational experiences as maneuver. It also reflects the deep ambiva would have had to give space to the party's well as entertaining. But this is not the stuff lence of the sixties political generation re critics, historians, and some of its more pro of which radical visions are made, not the garding the Communists. After all the New foundly disillusioned cadre. All of this would imagaination that created the radical feminist Left attained its political majority in the proc have produced a different film, perhaps less movement, the sit-down strikes, the univer ess of separating itself from the anti-Commu commercially viable and even less entertain sity occupations of the sixties or the counter nism of the fifties, even its left version. To ing. For it remains true that biography is culture. The new political documentaries are represent the CP, which was a small mass America's genuine literary genre, whether in · extensions of the liberal imagination for which party in the late thirties and during the war, People magazine, the documentary novel, or tolerance and not resistance/opposition are as little else but a shameful chapter in left the man:i autobiographies of the great and the key sentiments. This is the limit beyond history was to admit the bankruptcy of the the bizarre. which political culture cannot seem to go in whole left. and even more agonizing, to lend these times when America verges on becom credence to the Cold War drift of the non Perhaps it is too early to expect more in ing a Christian theocracy, and tolerance itself Communist left after the Moscow trials and the age of Reagan. Maybe it will take the is under attack. The new political documen the Nazi-Soviet Pact in the late 1930s. banality of a corporate liberal presidency to tary illustrates the adage that dissent in I certainly want to fault Seeing Red for restore an alternative sensibility along with America flourishes in the best of times, and its refusal to confront its own ambivalence, the alternative subjects for political docu· conformity in these dark days. • for glorifying this past without making a criti mentary. Seeing Red has been nominated for cal comment. But to do justice to the critical an Academy Award, and the Academy is Stanley Aronowitz's laU5t book is Working side the filmmakers would have faced a seri- noted for its careful assessment of the pre- Class Hero. But with Reagan's re-election tensions Racism in the South will rise. The positive move Ronald Reagan, Jesse Helms and their ments of tradition and transition will be set Continuedfrompage 15 rightwing moral majoritarian friends preach back. Unity and progress can never be that America is "doomed" because "commu achieved on the foundations of anticommu themselves locally. Reagan used It to protect nist union leaders" are trying to organize nism and racism. We have been through himself nationally. textile mills: or "communist black militants" these periods before. And like then, the This is not to say that all white people in are lobbying for a Martin Luther King, Jr. South could lose again. the South are racists. In fact, just the oppo holiday; or "communist peace-niks" are leaf But we are makers of our own destiny. site is true. The South has moved signifi leting for a nuclear freeze. It is nowhere written that Democratic lead cantly forward in race relation (further for The real concerns of joblessness, edu ers must follow the tactics of Republicans ward than many northern cities). Whenever I cation, equal rights and farming supports are while promoting symbols of American had the opportunity to work with white washed over by the rhetoric of states rights, growth and pride. We need not foster inflam workers to organize them into black-white stop big government and Mondale liberals, matory myths and further strain social rela coalitions for common economic goals. ra· and free enterprise virtues of more God and tions to say we love America and will defend · cism quickly disappeared. more money. our freedoms. But political leaders who see their base Reagan has won. but is America back? Within the cultures of sports, the mili threatened by such unity whip up racial fears Is it going back to pre-civil rights days? Is the tary and religion are also found the values of to keep black and white divided and thereby South rising again, as Ronald Reagan said teamwork, support, tolerance and a moral powerless. It is no wonder that 8 out of 10 during a campaign swing through Macon, foundation that strives for peaceful co-exis white men in Mississippi and Alabama voted Georgia? No way! The "Old South" is rapidly tence. There are several paths for us to for Ronald Reagan while unemployment in dying. Periodically it shows a spurt of de travel to our destiny. We can choose which those states still stands at 10 percent. Rea cayed life such as a KKK rally and cross one to take. We should not choose the path of gan's attacks on the Civil Rights Commis burning or Jesse Helms's neanderthal appeal division and fear. • sion, affirmative action and his support of to the fears of confused individuals, but es segregated religious colleges reaped him sentially the "Old South" is finished. Integra Bernard Demczuk, a former professional foot plenty of southern votes. tion is firmly rooted; black political leadership ball player, union and civil rights activist, is a The same results can be found in the continues to gain; intellectual and social con national political organizer for the American tactic of exploiting anticommunist rhetoric. sciousness for the "New South" among Federation of Government Emplqyees. AFL· Almost everyone in the South ran wlutes and blacks is accelerating; and most CJO. He recently worked throughout the against the specters of the Soviet Union, important, blacks will never go back. Neither South for 18 months on behalfof his union and Cuba and Nicaragua. they, nor history and culture will let them. the Democratic ticket. DEMOCRATIC LEFT 11 Nov.-D EC. 1984 Illinois swept to re-election... Youth organizer A DSA luncheon was held in Chicago Jeremy Karpatkin visited Wesleyan, Tufts for a delegation from the Swedish Social and MIT to try to establish youth section Democratic party. The delegation also met chapters. . . Chilean Socialists Anselmo by HARRY FLEISCHMAN with Mayor Harold Washington... DSA Sule, vice president of the Socialist lnter backed the successful race of Paul Simon to national, and Hugo Miranda, spoke at the win the Senate seat of Charles Percy ... Harvard Law School Nov. 29 ... Who Rules Maynard Krueger, who ran for vice presi Boston?, the expose on Boston's power dent with Norman Thomas in 1940, spoke structure published in June by Boston IDS, NATIONAL ROUNDUP at the Roosevelt University Thomas cen has sold out its first edition of 1, 500 copies, tennial symposium Oct 31. and 1. 500 more are being reprinted. Alaska Iowa Michigan DSAer Niilo Koponen was re-elected Iowa City DSA met Nov. 26 to plan an Ann Arbor DSA is supporting the or to the Alaska State House from Fairbanks Iowa Labor History Workshop in the spring ganizing drive of the American Federation with strong community and union support. and to hear Gregory Zieren on "The Uses of State, County and Municipal Employees He will be co-chair of the Health, Education of History in Revolutionary Nicaragua." to organize the University of Michigan cler and Social Services Committee in the legis DSA hailed the victories of Tom Harkin to ical workers. Kathy Callahan, president of lature. the Senate and David Osterberg to the Iowa an AFSCME local in Detroit and chair of House. Detroit DSA's Labor Commission. spoke California at the Midugan Union last month ... Detroit DSAer Claire Kaplan received an Kentucky DSA met Nov. 15 to analyze the 1984 elec award from the Los Angeles Commission Central Kentucky DSA met in Lexing tions and plan for the future. . . The local on Assaults Against Women as Volunteer of ton Dec. 8 with speakers from religious, backed the Detroit Nicaragua Medical Re the Year for her work as a trainer and lob black and political groups discussing "Shap lief Fund. which is taking a planeload of byist. . . Duane Campbell, Sacramento ing the Agenda for 1988"... DSAers Joe medical supplies, toys and clothing to Nica DSA chair, spoke at the Sacramento Peace Bella and Betsy Neale went to Nicaragua as ragua in December. Center's annual dinner on "Stopping Rea part of the Kentucky Witness for Peace gan in Central America" ... San Francisco delegation. New jersey OSA heard Steve Judd, Maryknoll priest More than 700 attended the weekend and liberation theologian and Sister Laeticia Maine conference on "Socialism in America" at Bordes, peace activist, on how the relig DSAer Harlan Baker has been re Princeton University, to mark the centen ious and secular left might better under elected as a state representative from nial of the birth ofNorman Thomas. Speak stand and support each other... Local Portland. He was named an Outstanding ers included Mike Harrington, Irving members joined the restaurant workers Young Man of America by the U.S. Jaycees. Howe, Maurice lsserman, Harry Fleisch Local 2 picket lines ... In Berkeley the Citi man, H.L. Mitchell, Millie Jeffrey, Ben zens Action slate was victorious, giving the Maryland Mclaurin, Frances Fox Piven and many Left a 7 to 1 majority on the City Council, Baltimore DSA joined with over 1. 000 others. Historians Gary Gerstle, Peter including DSAer Nancy Skinner; in Santa others in a rally for a citywide gay rights Mandler and Sean Wilentz organized the Monica. the three candidates of the rent bill ... The local secured 1.600 signatures conference. ers' rights coalition won the three top coun on nuclear freeze petitions ... It also testi cil spots; and DSAer Ron Dellums was re fied on the feminization of poverty before elected to Congress. the Baltimore City Women's Commission, and called for a pay equity study of city jobs. IN MEMORIAM Connecticut Robert Hoffman, a founding mem DSAers from New York and New Jer Massachusetts ber of Albany DSA, died suddenly of a sey joined Yale strikers for rallies and pick Four out of five DSPAC-endorsed heart attack Nov. 7. A history professor et lines in November and December. state legislative candidates won election. In Worcester, John Houston beat Senate at SUNY Albany, Hoffman was active in Majority Leader Daniel Foley in a race that the fight for peace ind civil rights. His DC/MD stunned the political establishment. In books include More Than a Trial: TM As news reports of protests at the Somerville, Alderman Sal Albano beat the Struggle Over Captain Dreyfus and Rev South African embassy mounted so did the odds by winning a write-in/sticker cam olutionary justice: The Social and Politi number of DSAers arrested in them, in paign against Rep. Vinnie Piro for the Som cal '!Mory of P.]. Proudhon. Contribu cluding Ron Dellums, D. C. Council Mem erville-Medford senate seat. DSA mem tions may be sent to the Robert L. Hoff ber Hilda Mason, former director of CORE bers Rep. Tom Gallagher of Allston man Memorial Fund for Peace, Depart James Fanner. and D. C. Central Labor Brighton and Sen. George Bachrach of ment of History, SUNY Albany, NY Council President Josh Williams. Cambridge. Watertown and Arlington, also 12222. DEMOCRATIC LEFT 12 Nov.-DEC.1984 RESOURCES New fork Uni DEMOCRATIC LEFT 13 Nov.-OEC. 1984 REVIEWS by Maurice Isserman Salvatore. In the meantime, University of Illinois marketing strate gists have heeded the warning offered in this space several issues w and noteworthy: Joanne Barkan's Visions back about the folly of charging $25 for Nick Salvatore's Eugene V. of Emancipation, The Italian Workers' Debs, Citizen and Socialist, and have brought out a $9. 95 Movement Since 1945 (Praeger, $24.95 hard paperback edition. If you only have time and inclination to read one cover) provides a sober analysis of developments in book on the history of American socialism, this is the one to choose. the Italian labor movement since the end of the Sec- Finally, I was happy to see that one of the best-humored, most ondN World War. Italian workers vote Communist or Socialist; in no humane and insightful novels written about the American left has just other western capitalist nation in recent decades have workers been reissued, Clancy Sigal's Going Away (Carroll & Graf, $9.95 come so close to fulfilling Marx's vision of a revolutionary pro paperback). First published in 1962, it is the chronicle of a cross letariat. So it comes as somewhat of a shock to hear one of the union country trip by its protagonist in the fall of 1956, a moment of militants that Barkan interviewed complain: considerable uncertainty, disillusionment and reassessment for those who had been in or close to the Communist movement. Workers don't have confidence in their own class... I Going Away is a collective portrait of a generation on the left. And used to mythologize the Italian working class and it is a critique of the heedless way in which the left had squandered its how politicized they were. Part of the working class own human resources. For Sigal's protagonist, being a radical is a is like that, but part is also very different. They help the bosses or even stop others from struggling. They way of life as well as a set of political beliefs. As he muses mid-way go around saying that if you go out on strike, you'll through the novel: be worse off. What's it like in America these days?.. .ls it possible to have a small circle of friends, friends of grace and Political stalemate, the technological transformation of the work purpose, not incestuously, but on a basis of mutual place, growing unemployment and generational disaffection have all respect, work and a kind of informal dignity, in the taken their toll on the strength and spirit of the Italian labor move Umted States?... lt just struck me that this is what ment. Misery loves company. and while it's not exactly reassuring, really makes me happy, to have that circle offriends. it is interesting to learn that problems we think of as unique to the I've grown sufficiently old, now, to know that it is a American labor movement are shared by others. very hard thing to achieve and we find it mainly Sohnya Sayres, Anders Stephanson, Stanley Aronowitz, and through luck. But there are times, it seems to me, in Fredric Jameson have edited a volume of essays unambiguously any country, any nation, when circumstances are titled The 60s Without Apology (University of Mirmesota Press, such that it is easier or harder. On the Left, in 1956, it $12. 95 paperback). "Trashing the 60s," the editors declare in their is bard. introduction, "has become a strategic feature of the current struggle On the left, in 1984, it remains hard, but as we dig in for the long for hegemony." I'm a little worried by the way they go on to lump haul, Sigal's "circle of friends" sounds like a pretty good principle for together diverse critics of aspects of the 60s into one indistinguish internal organization. e able reactionary lump. Fortunately, most of the contributors avoid Maurice Isserman teaches American history at Smith College. the counter-temptation to "celebrate the 60s." One of the shrewd est assessments in this volume is made by historian James Gilbert: Thinking back on the 1960s, I see this period as one of enormous energy and change, of a movement in civil rights that altered American history as much as anything ever has done. But I also see it as a pro foundly anti-political decade, nothing, in its prem In Memory of ises or effects, like the 1930s during the heyday of the old left. And, I am forced to wonder what might have happened-what still might happen-if the moral energy of the 1960s were ever joined to the political shrewdness of the 1930s. NORMAN THOMAS Not so new but still noteworthy: A revised edition ofjohn H.M. Laslett's and Seymour Martin Lipset's Failure of a Dream? Essays in the H,istory of American Socialism (University of California Press, $10. 95 paperback) has just been published. The new edition retains the classic essays of the 1974 edition (by Som NEW HAMPSHIRE DSA bart, Hartz, and Bell, among others), and has added useful essays on the Socialist party's relations with blacks, women and immigrants. The edition is still about ten years behind the times in reflecting the state of scholarship on the Socialist party-one hopes that the 1994 version will catch up with the work done by Mari Jo Buhle and Nick DEMOCRATIC LEFT 14 Nov.-OEC. 1984 THE LAST WORD Divide and Conquer in the South by Bernard Demczuk winning were in full swing long before Rea because he will stop the communists and gan's election in 1980: sports, particularly Castro. A middle-aged man, about 45, a n covering the 1984 presidential football and stock car racing; military life; and blue-collar worker, said Ronald Reagan be election, political analysts have con fundamentalist religion, especially the Moral cause if Mondale gets elected. he will let that Majority. sistently missed the two most im "n...... Jesse Jackson run America." j portant reasons for Ronald Reagan's Ronald Reagan, the tough leader, the How can the introduction of school popularity in the South: anticommu- strong anticommunist, the macho president prayer in central Georgia help poor farmers nismI and racism. For Republicans, these two who chops wood, rides horses and takes a being devastated by drought, a 25% income issues served as effective thematic tactics in bullet in the chest. then makes a joke about reduction and possible foreclosure? How will it, has been ridini-'( this wave of American convincing young men that stopping the an age-old political strategy called "di\ide 1 and conquer.'' What is tragic about this strat nationalism for more than four years. Sandinistas at the Macon County Line will egy is that the South will suffer long-term provide meaningful education and work for injustices despite the short-term \ictories it them? How will inflaming racial hatred achieved on November 6. against Jesse Jackson and inciting voters Elevating anticommunism and racism to against Walter Mondale because he and top shelf analytical status is not to say that Jesse work together help a white unemploy the so-called "economic recovery" is not an ed iron-welder find a job? important reason for Reagan's popularity in The answer is, of course, it won't. But the South. It is to say that culture, today. has it did help Reagan get re-elected because people who would normally vote for Mondale as much if not more political benefits than economics. In other words, invading and on his issues and programs voted for Reagan conquering Grenada, a leftist and black coun in the name of anticommunism and racism. try, in a cultural climate where football. stock pn October 28, 1984, Michael Barone car racing and television beer commercials ~Tote an editorial in the Outlook Section of are dominant in everyone's thinking, has the WashingtQn Post entitled "A Party with In Dixie, there is a genuine belief that more s;mbolic and subsequent political im out a Solid Base." He stated: "Race is no the South is rising again and that "America is pact than does a recovery that has not yet longer the issue that keeps white southern back." The question is, however, rising to been felt in mo<=t southern states. ers voting Republican in presidential con what and going back to where? I spent over a tests. Economics does: southern whites are A dynamic culttrral trend, which I will year in the South working toward election increasingly affluent. upwardly mobile ... " call American nationalism, has been sweep day in the interest of my union and the Demo Nothing could be further from the truth. ing the country for years. This trend, built on cratic ticket. From San Antonio, Texas to Most whites in the South are not af racism and anticommurusm, benefited Ronald Winston-Salem, North Carolina and every fluent. They are just getting by and still reel Reagan's re-election more than his "economic where in between this beautiful land called ing from the recession of 1981-1982. In addi recovery." The South, more than any other Dixie, I spoke to, organized and lived with its tion. they are anxious about what the future region in America. save the San Diego area, people. holds because their experience is one of has led the way for American nationalism. Wherever I went to organize, I conduct boom and bust economic cycles. Further The recent surge of American national ed street surveys in local communities. Most more, white southern political bosses-con ism began, essentially. on April 30, 1975 of what I saw and learned in the past year can servative Democrats, that is-see the in with the fall of Saigon and the defeat of U.S. be summed up in the following interviews. creased numbers of black registered voters troops in Vietnam. In a society such as 6urs At a small shopping center outside of as a threat to their economic and political that has always prided itself "'ith being #1 Lovejoy, Georgia, l surveyed people enter power bases. and winninl<'(. our collective humiliation in ing a drugstore. Taking off my partisan but Consequently, white conservative po Vietnam would not last very long. As the tons. I asked voters who they were voting litical leaders use racism in a time of econom most active sports culture in the world. we for and why. ic instability to tum white against black in knew there would always be another game A poor, elderly black couple said they order to save the hides of conservative politi on the schedule, another opportunity to re were voting for Ronald Reagan because he cal leaders. The rhetoric sounds like this: deem ourselves. supports school prayer. Another farming "Blacks are taking white workers' jobs be More than anywhere else in the United couple. white and also seemingly poor and cause of affirmative action." The result is not States. it was in the South where this reac nearly illiterate, said they were voting for simply attacks on affirmative action pro tion against not winning and not being #1 Ronald Reagan because he was against abor- grams; it is attacks on blacks in general. was felt most intensely. There, three cultur . tion. Next a young man, about 25, good-look Sadly, Democrats used the tactics to protect al phenomena that aggressively promote ing and strong, said he would vote for Reagan Conh'nued on page 11 DEMOCRATIC LEFT 15 Nov.-DEC. 1984 Change the USA! ? ? ? Join the DSA! • • • Members of the Democratic Socialists of America work in every day to-day struggle for social justice. We bring a strategy for building alliances WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? among till the movements for social change. And we bring a vision of a society that can satisfy the demands for dignity and justice-a socialist A conference on directions society. Join the people working to bring together all the movements for social change ... and to bring together day-to-day battles and long-term for the student left strategies and visions. Join DSA. SPEAKERS 0 Send me more infonnation about democratic socialism. Barbara Ehrenreich 0 Enclosed find my dues CO $50 sustaining; O $30 regular; D $15 limited National Co-Chair, DSA; Author, Hearts of Men income. Dues include $8 for DEMOCRATIC LEFT.) Michael Harrington 0 I would like to subscribe to DEMOCRATIC LEFT: 0 $15 sustainin~ 0 $8 regular. National Co-Chair, DSA; Author, New American Poverty 0 ' I would like to subscribe to the discussion bulletin, SocialistF01'UM, $10. Ruth Messinger New York City Council Member Send to: Democratic Socialists of America, 853 Broadway, Suite 801, Ne\\ York. N.Y. 10003. Tel: (212)260-3270. 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