PUBLISHED BY THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA September/October 1995 Volume XXIII Number 5 $1.50 Now or Never Labor Day 1995 Inside Democratic Left Editorial: Ron Dellurns on economic Ron Aronson: 3 insecurity and the rise of the right 2 5 Socialism Without Apologies Perestroika on Sixteenth Street: Daraka Larimore-Hall: 4 Harold Meyerson on the AFL-CIO 3O A Letter from Zagreb Joel Shufro on Republican attacks on workplace safety 10 38 DSAction Power Across Borders: 14 Ginny Coughlin on the past and 0n the Left future of international organizing 40 by Harry Fleischman Jos~ Zu~kerbe~g on independent 19 umons m Mexico 42 Dear Margie The Left Bookshelf: Jo-Ann Mort Present Progressive 24 reviews Lia Matera' s Designer Crimes 4 3 by Alan Charney cover photo· David Bacon/Impact Vuuab DE~10CRATIC LEFT Final Notice: National Director Alan Charney }vfo11agi11g Editor The 1995 DSA National tonvention David Glenn Editorial Committee November 10 - 12 •Washington, D.C. Joanne Barkan, Dorothee Benz, Everyone is welcome--but in order to make this year's Com·en­ Suzanne Crowell, Jeff Gold, Sherri Le\'ine, tion as inexpensive as possible, we've had to set an early deadline Steve Max, Maxine Phillips for registration. So ifyou're interested in attending, contact DSA f qzmding Editor Program Coordinator Michele Rossi immediatery at 2121727- Michael Harrington 8610 or [email protected]. (1928-1989) !P111DlTt1tlc Left (ISSNOl6400~07) is publish<'d If you'd like to submit resolutions to be considered at the bimonUlly at 180VarldcStsttt. New York. NY 10014. Sccond-da.M pcx'.age pid at :>:cw York. Convention, the deadline for getting them to the national office NY (Publication~o.0-0J.9(• _. Subsrriptions: is October 26. $8 regular. $1 S instllUUonal. Posl!ru<5~ r: Send address ch:mgt:'> to lSOV.o.ridtSlrect, New York. NY 10014. Der-~ U:ft ls publish<'d by tl1c For more detailed information about the Convention, see the Democratic Sod~.s cf Amcnca, 180 Varick. notices in the May/June and July/August issue· of Democratic Left. Str~l. New York. ~'YI H. (212) 727-8610. Signed article! aprm t1" ~'of the authbrs and ""t ne«-<~n!f th:::: tftlie nv-m:atiQTI. 2 Democratic Left EDITORIAL The Rise of the Right and tµe Future of Justice BY RON DELLUMS he Republican "revolution" of ity and a strong public commitment State of the Union address; that ev­ T 1994 has brought forth some of to the values of freedom, responsibil­ ery American has "the right to a use­ the weakest political arguments and ity. and democracy in our families, ful and remunerative job in the indus­ cruelest policy proposals that our na­ communities, and workplaces can we tries or shops or farms or mines of thl' tion has seen in this century. build the kind of society we want our nation." But even though I work to op­ children to inherit. This doesn't mean The Act would instruct the Presi­ pose the conservative agenda with all huge government bureaucracies and dent to take whatever steps necessary of my energy. in a certain way I feel mountains of regulation. It means to: refreshed by what has happened in simple policies that favor democrati­ • reduce the unemployment rate for the last year. Ironically. the sea change cally-managed firms over undemo­ U.S. adults to 3 percent or less within in Congress has focused the left's at­ cratic ones, and freedom over three years; tention and allowed us to concentrate authoritarianism. Many of t h e • guarantee U.S. workers' rights to on the big questions. After all, the changes we need don't involve gov­ organize and bargain collectivrly. and Republicans, in their misguided way. ernment at all; they require social to give appropriate diplomatic and are asking some very big questions. As trade-policy support to democratic their "Contract With America" puts trade unions in the rest of the world; it: How can we build a government To build a society that • and guarantee adequate health and a society based on "accountabil­ care service.s and workplace safety for ity. responsibility. and opportunity"? embodies true all. Tens of millions of anxious responsibility, accountability, These reforms would involvl' an middle class Americans answered this array of public and private works pro­ question by voting Republican last and opportunity, we must grams to rebuild our schools and hos­ year, and thus promoted the interests turn to the values and pitals and a reduction of the st:mdard of such famously accountable and re­ policy proposals of the work week to 35 hours. They would sponsible institutions as the tobacco be financed in part through the in­ industry and the defense lobby. But democratic left. creased revenues generated in a full­ the conservative agenda will only in­ employment economy. crease the economic anxiety of the Does this legislation have any middle class: it will make it easier for movements of the left that can em­ cnance of passing in the current po­ employers to mistre~t workers and to body and promote the values of de­ litical climate? Probably not. But eco­ ship jobs overseas, easier for states to mocracy and tolerance. nomic justice and full employment are deny unemployment assistance, easier real possibilities, and we have a duty for people to fall through the cracks ut our country's most urgent cri­ to raise them. We must raise them in of our health care system. B is is the mammoth, and growing, the halls of Congress as well as in To build a society that embodies gap between the fates of the rich and schools, workplaces, and communities true responsibility. accountability. and the fates of the poor. throughout the nation. rm opportunity. we must turn to the val­ This is why I have proposed the ues and policy proposals of the demo­ Living Wage/Jobs for All Act. This bill Ron Dellums, a Vice Chair ofDSA, is the cratic left. is grounded in the principles declared ra11lcing Democratic member of tire I louse Only with broad economic equal- by Franklin D. Roosevelt in his 1944 Armed Services Committee. September/Octolur 1995 3 Perestroika on Sixteenth Street Can a revitalized AFL-CIO point the way for the left? BY HAROLD MEYERSON ican liberalism is sinking fast. paralysis are missing a revolution that's breaking nocrats with national aspirations, out under their noses. Afent or future-Bill Clinton, Bill Bra­ Still, after the Brezhnev-like torpor of dley, Bob Kerrey, Al Gore-are triangulating labor's recent decades, the critics can be at least like crazy to distance themselves from tradi­ partially forgiven for looking anywhere else for tional liberals. Congressional Democrats are change. This was, after all, the movement unable to keep many in their ranks from voting headed by Lane Kirkland, who, when asked as with the Gingrichites, and some from convert­ recently as February to articulate any new union ing altogether. And at the base, liberalism's core perspectives, had referred the questioner to constituencies-anti-racist, feminist, and envi­ Samuel Gompers' catechism on "more virtue ronmentalist organizations-seem unable ei­ and less vice" and defended government's role ther to rethink positions and strategies or mobi­ by citing the Rural Electrification lize their troops. If a liberal perestroika is in Administration's 1930s replacement of the order, it is nowhere to be seen. kerosene lamp. And just last year, the AFL­ That, at least, is the conventional wisdom. It CIO's own pollsters had reported back from is largely right save in one huge particular: the focus groups that the word most commonly used linchpin of American liberalism, the labor move­ to describe American labor was "dinosaur. n ment, has embarked upon the most thorough­ Now, the dinosaur has stirred. Since late going change of directions in nearly fifty years. spring, the movement has: Labor's perestroika has already led to the first ouster of a national federation president in a • Forced Kirkland's resignation as AFL-CIO century, a merger wave that may rationalize the president. Until this year, the presidency was a entire movement, a more diverse leadership, and position to which incumbents clung until liter­ a long overdue re-emphasis on organizing. ally or effectively dead. In the I 09 years since Whether the change will continue apace, Samuel Gompers founded the AFL in 1886, the whether it will be up to the challenge of a AFL and the AFL-CIO had had only five presi­ capitalism gone global, is by no means clear. dents-four, if you discount Peter McGuire, What is strikingly dear is that all the pundits who served a year in the middle of Gompers' bemoaning or deriding American liberalism's forty-year reign. By way of contrast, during that 4 Democratic Left ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Perestroika on Sixteenth Street time there have been 21 presidents of the United States-and nine popes. + Witnessed the announced m erger of its three foremost indus­ trial unions-the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Machinists, and the United Steelworkers-as well as the merger of the Interna­ tional Ladies Garment Workers (ILGWU) and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers (ACTWU) to form UNITE: the Union ofNeedletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees. As far back as t he 1940s, legendary UAW leader W alter Reuther had been pushing for a consolidation of the metal trades unions; now, union­ ists are at long last contemplating the reduction of the eighty or so national unions with crazy-quilt jurisdictions into a movement of fifteen or twenty powerful internationals. Moreover, new UAW president Steve Yokich has proposed establishing a North American Metal dated organizing drives; that it devote both In March, Justice Workers Federation to enable U.S., Canadian, more resources and more thought lo political for Janitors (SEIU and Mexican workers to bargain more effec­ mobilization, by itself and in greater coalition Local 82) tively with transnational corporations.