Inside: A Socialist Night At the Movies PUBLISHED BY THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA

March/ April 1994 E T -·~·= Volume XXII Number 2 Pressing Forward The Fight for National Health Care

Susan Cowell on This Year's Congressional Battles Theda Skocpol on the History of Health Care Activism Single Payer Across the Nation: Reports from DSA Locals INSIDE DEMOCRATIC LEFT PRESSING FORWARD: DSAction. . .11 THE FIGHT FOR On the Left NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE by Harry Fleischman . .. 12 Next Steps for Single-Payer Activists by Susan Cowell . . .3 A Socialist Night at the Movies compiled by Mike Randleman. .14 Has the Time Finally Arrived?: Lessons from the History of Health Care Activism Forty Years of Dissent by Theda Skocpol. . 6 by Maurice lsserman. . .17 Reports from the Field: Jimmy Higgins Reports. . .24

DSA Locals' Health Care Work. .10 cover photo: Clark Jonesllmpact Visuals As U.S. progressives, our first But NAFI'A cannot be defeated EDITORIAL impulse may be to make common in the United States alone. It must be cause with the Zapatistas through brought dovm in all three nations. CHIAPAS AND prominent displays of international We have the same :.truggle \\ith the support. For some of our members, same objective. • THE NEW such displays are a fine and noble In DSA's draft Political State­ expression of socialist values. For ment, we say that " the sociall5t \•alue INTERNATIONALISM others, there is always some discom­ of international ~olidant} J,) no fort in linking our organization to a longer utopian. but a pres::img neces­ BY ALAN CHARNEY distant armed movement whose po­ sity for any democratic reform:. at litical values are not yet totally clear. Ct is too easy to understand the home and abroad." Chiapas is a Still others may worry: "What do the events in Mexico - the indigenous dramatic manifestation of du::. per­ Zapatistas have to do with the people's uprising in Chiapas and its specti' e, for the event::. in Chia pas struggle for justice in the United suppression by the military - in the have galvanized the soaal m ,,·e­ States anyway?" old way. It is our responsibility to ments in Mexico, giving tremend 1Jus The globalization of capital comprehend this uprising in a wholly impetus to PRO candidate should put this old discord to rest. different manner than we are accus­ Cuauhtemoc Cardena::' presidential Today, there is something called tomed. campaign and gi\•ing the 1exican NAFTA -- a trade agreement among The Zapatista Liberation Army Mexico, the United States, and Can­ co11tim1ed otz ]'111,'?e 23 clearly rose up in response to the ada that, in a fundamental way, manifold injustices suffered by the makes indigenous farm workers in indigenous people Me~­ DEMOCRATIC LEFT of southern Chiapas the same economic citizens ico. In this regard, it is a 1994 maru­ as autoworkers in Detroit. Thiscross­ Natzonal Directer festation of a resistance to oppression border condition was not lost upon Alan Charney stretching across five centuries and the Chiapas insurgents. In full recog­ Mana\oll · E.dltOT encompassing twenty Latin Ameri­ nition of our transnational common­ can nations. David Glenn ality, the Zapatista began their upris­ The Zapatista Army has also Editorial Commi!ttt ing on January l, 1994 -- the first day assumed the mantle of a national lib­ Shakoor Aljuwani. l~nne Barkan, of NAFTA's implementation. eration movement. It harks back to Dorothee Benz, Suz.ume Crowell, An immediate goal of the Zapa­ the Mexican Revolution of 1914 and Mitch Horowitz. Shern 11..e\ine, tistas is the abrogation of NAFT A. Steve Max, Mailile Phillips links its cause with other liberation That is our goal as well. In place of movements that have convulsed the NAFTA we want a fair trade agree­ Founding Editor continent for the last fifty years. In Michael Harrington (192.8-1989) ment based upon a North American their manifesto, the Zapatistas cor­ Social Charter that would level up Dm>ocratlc Ldt (!SS,.,; 016«1320ii,. bitmnthly 11 rectly describe the current Mexican 180Vanck~rett,NY,NY 10014 ~posug.poi

2 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Round Two • What the Single-Payer Movement Must Do During the Coming Months

BY SUSAN COWELL historic opportunity for fundamen­ easier task. All the opponents of reform have to tal health care reform is slipping do is spread doubt and fear. And they have away. Substantially more members enormous resources with which to do st. A of Congress are co-sponsoring leg1s­ Increasingly, the middle class and union lation that would not ensure health care to eve­ members are afraid of losing what they have ryone -- that would, m fact, substantially and are susp1c1ous of government proposals. worsen our health care system -- than there are As a ttentson shifts from the fear of the status quo supporting the single-payer and Clinton bills to the fear of change, many are forgetting that combined. Members of Congress went home the status quo means a continued erosion of over the holiday recess and heard mostly fear benefits, rising cost-sharing, more employer­ from those who have good insurance, from controlled managed care, stagnant wages, in­ small businesses, and from the medical and evitable cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, and a insurance industries. While polls show contin­ lack of real health security for anyone. ued broad backing for universal coverage, poli­ A more serious problem has been disarray ticians are hearing primarily from those with on the left. The forces for health care reform something to lose. Support for real reform has have spent months debating whether the Clin­ eroded to the point that some Republicans, and ton plan is good enough. Energy spent on eve!Jai' few Democrats, feel politically secure armchair critiques, rather than active political declJhng that there is no health care cnsss. mobilization, has helped to create a vacuum in rt is not too late. The loss of momentum is which the opposition has been able to nurture real, but the health care crisis is real as well. Our public fears. job is to mobilize the forces who suffer from the status quo. The administration has been slow in The Next Tasks for the Left getting its campaign in gear, and its own forces But the left also brings strengths to the fight. often seem divided and ill-informed. The sheer Despite differences of tone and nuance within complexity of the Clinton plan adds to the con­ the single-payer camp, there ss substantial unity fusion. Using free-market rhetoric to disguise over strategy, with very few groups seeking to what is in reality a comprehensive social insur­ defeat the Clinton plan outright. At the center ance plan with real cost controls and substantial now are five aspects of the Clinton plan that consumer protection misleads the supporters of must not be compromised away -- universal national health care more than the opponents. coverage by 1998, comprehensive benefits, an Constant reminders of the administration's employer mandate to pay for health care, cost willingness to compromise only demoralizes controls (including premium caps and fee activists further. schedules), and the state single-payer option. Although the opposition is divided, with These are substantially the same elements pro­ fundamental splits within the provider, insur­ moted by the AFL-CIO and other liberal groups. ance, and business constituencies, they have an Moreover, the fight for reform has taken on

MARCH/APIUL 1994 J Ata many fronts. First, some single-payer groups, cial interests can help weaken the credibility of community especially grassroots organizations, are focus­ the opposition. But unless the public under­ health center ing on state initiatives. These activities can play stands that true security lies only in a national operated by an important role, both to pressure Congress to health care system that includes everyone, the the AslCl'I retain the state single-payer option and to pre­ opposition will have an easy job. One of~ Pacific pare for state action if national health care most important things advocates can do is to American passes. However, single payer at the state level make sure that our actions do not inadvertently community In is really only viable in the context of a national help the opposition by feeding fears of govern­ Boston. system that provides federal subsidies, man­ ment regulation and rationing. dates employer contributions, and establishes a Part of this political education process in­ federal floor on benefits. If the state efforts volves exposing the weaknesses of conservabve detract from the pressure on Congress, then bills, such as the Cooper bill. The Cooper bill they are not likely to produce real results. would have little public support if people Second, most national single-payer organi­ understood that it proposes to: 1) tax employers zations are working through the Campaign for who provide good benefits to subsidize vouch­ Health Security to apply single-payer principles ers for workers whose employers do not pro­ to the health debate now taking place in Con· vide any benefits; 2) eliminate Medicaid and gress. Health reform is now in congressional substitute vouchers toward an uncertain bene­ committees, where the Clinton plan may be fit; 3) prohibit states from enacting single-payer systems; and 4) leave an estimated twenty-five million people uninsured. Democrats and Single-payer supporters have a unique moderate Republicans who have co-sponsored role to play in building a bloc in Con­ the Cooper plan and other similar bills must be held accountable. gress that will hold fast to real reform. Squaring Off in Congress turned into something quite different. The Another arena for the next stage of the Campaign's goal is to defend the good parts of struggle is lobbying. Single-payer supporters the Clinton plan and to seek improvements. have a unique role to play in building a bloc in There are three essential tasks for advocates: to Congress that will hold fast to real reform. build mass demand for change, to attack the bad President Clinton has defined the parameters of bills, particularly the "bipartisan" Cooper bill, our lobbying strategy by declaring m his State of and to lobby single-payer co-sponsors and other the Union address that he will veto any reform supporters of reform to build a bloc that will bill that does not include univer.sal coverage. hold fast to the principles of real reform. He has set his bottom line fairly low, but has The toughest task is building mass support delineated it so clearly that he is likely to suffer for health care reform. In the absence of suffi­ political repercussions if he abandons it. Uni· cient financial resources, we must rely on a versal coverage may be a minimaJ bottom line, continuous campaign of education of our own but even it will be unachievable with the kind of constituents and the public. Exposing the spe- market reforms conse~atives are advocating.

4 DEMOCRATIC LEFT There will be few Republican votes for mandatory em­ ployer contributions. This will force Clinton to rely mainly on Democrats, which in tum will make the votes of liberal single-payer support­ ers essential. Congressional liberals, most of them • single-payer supporters, can force Clinton to meet a much higher bottom line. But to date their contri­ bution has been scattershot and sometimes even counter­ productive. The Campaign for Health Security has laid out a program around which single-payer supporters can unite to keep Clinton from moving right. That program offers single-payer support­ ers both a principled bottom line -- those five components \ c. of the Clinton plan that must not be traded away broader opt-out provisions for employers, vol­ A community - and a package of improving amendments. untary alliances, and drastically reduced regu­ acHvlst Hes Despite the conservative tenor of Congress, latory powers. Yet, rather than defend the black ribbons there may also be openings for real improve­ alliances from conservative attack, liberals have at the site of ments, particularly if they don't require a lot largely joined in the attack on alliances as Detroit's more money. A package of amendments being "bureaucracy." They are, but they are just the Lafayette CUnlcon the developed by activists and members of Con­ kind of bureaucracy we need. It is the insurance first gress can provide a rallying point for progres­ industry that is the unnecessary bureaucracy! Cl"lnlversary of sives. Single-payer supporters in Congress Single payer advocates must be prepared to Its closing. need to keep their model of reform alive, but make these kinds of structural arguments. We they also need to be clear and united around understand the principles of a real social insur­ their own demands. ance system and we must bring that under­ So £., many single-payer members of Con­ standing into this debate. gress laCt a clear understanding of the funda­ Congress is an inherently conservative in­ mentals of health reform. A good example is the stitution. President Clinton may someday be bipartisan attack on the "health alliances" that held accountable by the voters for a failure to would be created under the Clinton plan. What produce health care reform, but individual makes the Clinton plan a form of social insur­ members of Congress do not feel that they are at ance is that nearly everyone would be included risk m the same way. Nearly all of them depend in these regional health alliances. The regional on contributions from many of the special inter­ alliances will be created by government (and ests currently benefiting from runaway costs in can be state agencies). They must be large {and the health care system. can include the entire state) and governed by It is up to advocates to change that equation consumers and businesses. The alliances will and hold members of Congress accountable. It have substantial powers to regulate the insur­ will not be easy. But a very real crisis has given ance industry and protect consumers. Of us a chance to forge an al 1iance of poor, working, course, the single-payer option 1s preferable, but and middle class Americans to significantly the Clinton plan creates an alternate system expand the role of government. We cannot lose capable of serving many of the same goals as this chance to advance our agenda. tm single payer. Not surprisingly, conservatives, the insur­ ance industry, doctors, and hospitals have all S11sa11 Cowell is a Vice President ofthe International targeted the regional alliances, demanding l.Adies Gannent Workers Union.

MARCH/APRIL 1994 5 Has the Time Finally Arrived?

Painful Lessons from Past Battles for National Health Care

BY THEDA SKOCPOL ight now, in the early 1990s, the time broad, democratic pohltes. seems ripe for national health care reform. A belief that there are press­ The Lessons of Past Defeats R ing problems about health care access From 1916 through 1920, the American and cost has come together with a sense of Association for Labor Legislation {AALL) cam­ political opportunities to do something about paigned for public "sickne!>S insurance" to those problems. This conjuncture of problems cover American workers and their dependents. and politics has moved the issue of health insur­ The AALL was a small band of reform-minded ance to the top of the national agenda. professionals, mostly univer!>ity professors, The political scientist John Kingdon has labor statisticians, and social workers. Reform­ observed that problems, political opportunities, ers in the Progressive Era argued that :iickness and proposed solutions must come together insurance -- to be funded jointly by contribu­ before a breakthrough in public policy can oc­ tions from business, wage earners, and govern­ cur. Clearly, this sort of alignment of forces is ment tax revenues - would help to prevent happening today around national health care poverty among wage earners. Health Ul.Surance reform -- but it's important to note that King­ would also promote economic and social "effi­ don's description applies to "near misses" as ciency," because it would encourage employ­ well as to successful policy breakthroughs. U.S. ers, employees, and citizens alike to promote history has seen several such near misses for healthful conditions at work and m communi­ health care reform: during the late 1910s and ties. during the 1930s and 1940s, health care advo­ To the experts of the AALL, the case for the cates were hopeful that they could win major U.S. states to enact health insurance was so reforms, but each time their hopes were dashed. obviously rational and the world\•nde course of Will the present period finally bring a major "social progress" so clearly ine\.jtable that they breakthrough, or is health care reform headed were hardly prepared for the spread ofideologi ­ for another near miss? Let us take a small cally impassioned oppo:sition to their legislative historical detour to see what happened in the proposals. Yet there were plenty of potential past to reformers who were absolutely confi­ opponents, among them physioans, private dent that "the time was ripe" for rational and insurance companies, and comrQercial interests progressive health care reforms. Then we will fearful of new taxes. return to the present, and I will argue that the As the United States entered Vforld War I, reformers in the 1990s should pay much more ideologues opposed to health insurance high­ attention than most are doing so far to the lighted the bogey of German statism, using requisites of political communication with opposition to "bureaucracy'' as an effective

6 DEMOCRATIC Lr.FT rallying cry for the various forces potentially ists opposed to paying taxes for private health opposed to health insurance. Health insurance insurance; many of them also became commit­ was labeled "un-American." What is more, the ted to their nascent private systems of health increasingly hysterical claims of the enemies of benefits -- which had been used as bargaining health insurance fell upon the ears of middle­ chips in lieu of higher wages, and which did not class publics that were already skeptical about seem so costly at that phase of history. governmental efficiency and honesty, not to Just as ideological rallying cries against mention wary of new taxes. The cumbersome "German statism" brought together potential operations of tJ.S. governmental inshtutions -­ opponents of workingmen's health insurance which required reformers to move proposals during the late 1910s, the various forces ready to state by state, through two legislative houses, weigh in against Truman's plans for national past a mynad of obstacles -- allowed the oppo­ health insurance were brought together in tlle nents of health insurance plenty of time to build late 1940s by cries of opposition to "commu­ coalitions. By 1920, the AALL-sponsored cam­ nism" and "socialized medicine." The Cold paigns for health insurance had been deflected War was emerging, and witch-hunts were altogether in most states and defeated in launched against actually or allegedly pro­ pitched battles in California and New York. The Communist public officials and labor union progress that had seemed so inevitable a few leaders. Reformers who thought they were years earlier was stopped dead in its tracks. furtllering a logical extension of the New Deal During U1e 1930s and 1940s, efforts to pro­ and Social Secunty suddenly found tllemselves mote public health insurance -- now for middle­ in an 1deologically uncomfortable position -­ class as well as working-class Americans -- were appearing to support sometlling un-American, pursued by various groups of intellectuals and even "subversive." officials located in cind around the various We see, in short, that both in the 1910s and administrations of Presidents Roosevelt and in tlle 1930s and 1940s, experts and reformers Truman. DuringandafterWorld War II reform­ relied upon rational analyses and arguments ers' hopes shifted toward a comprehensive, about how to solve problems of efficiency or national system of health insurance, modeled access. Reformers were confident tllat time was on contributory old-age insurance. It looked as on their side, and tllat public health insurance if these hopes might be realized, particularly (of one sort or another} would "inevitably" be when Harry Truman featured this reform m his enacted in the United States. But each time, not victorious bid for reelection in 1948. only were tllere powerful opponents to health Once again, reformist hopes were shat­ care reform but debates also quickly took a tered. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, all bitterly ideological tum. This tactic was not proposals for public health insurance were expected by the rationally minded experts and strenuously opposed by the formidable Ameri­ led to defeats for proposals tllat might have can Medical Association, as well as by private gained broad citizen support, had they been insurance companies that had developed an more calmly discussed -- or effectively drama­ interest in offering health insurance to the tized -- in the national political process. middle class. During and right after World War II, major industrial employers were encouraged Speaking to the Citizens of America by war-time controls and tax code provisions to Could this painful sequence be repeated start offering health insurance as a "fringe bene­ today? Once again, proponents of universal fit" to workers. Thus, not only were industrial- health care coverage may be becoming overly .1 i> j ~ :i2

7 to fuel fears of reform among the citizenry and bring together a coalition of stakeholders in the health economy as it is presently structured. Meanwhile, very little is being done by advo­ cates of fundamental reform to create their own positive ideological metaphors for wide public dissemination. President Clinton has spoken passionately and effectively about the need for universal coverage, but he has not explained h.o:W his plan would work in ways that ordinary citizens can understand. Proponents of single-payer national health insurance can and should make a series of straightforward arguments to the American people about how to address problems of social access to health care and cost containment. + Equality and universality. First and foremost, it is easy to tell people that under national health insurance each individual will have rights as a citizen, rather than through the place he or she happens to be employed. The appeal of equal rights for all citizens can be .... readily dramatized. Imagine television com­ complacent, assuming that rationality and logic mercials that feature an unemployed father will inevitably triumph. Many experts and taking an injured child to the hospital, pulling politicians are placing their faith in technically out the child's "Americare" card, and getting the help that is needed without any complicated con.p~icated _insider bargaining, overlooking how 1deologtcal and politically charged the forms to fill out. debates about health care reform are likely once + Bureaucracy and simplicity. Proponents again to become. of national health insurance can also tum rheto­ Indeed, the debate is already being taken to ~ic about bureaucracy to their advantage, point­ the citizens of America. During the final year of ing out that the present medical care system has his presidency, President Bush started sound­ a bewildering variety of rules and paperwork ing the fundamental conservative themes to from hundreds of different private insurance shape public opinion. These themes continue to companies. The average American citizen appear regularly in Republican speeches and in knows from experience that the bureaucratic ads run in the media by insurance companies, rules and forms are getting more and more medical groups, and conservative think tanks. complex, as insurance comparues regularly seek Advocates of both " managed competition" to manage and second-guess the care that doc­ and mandates on employers to help pay for tors order. Advocates of managed competition universal health insurance have been accused of cannot easily claim that their approaches would "socialism," as conservatives ask why we help this situation; they might well make it Americans want to move toward governmental worse, especially at first. But supporters of "controls" at a time when the rest of the world national health insurance can make a credible is moving away from them. "Governmental claim to bureaucratic simplification, arguing coercion" is opposed in conservative rhetoric to that sometimes a greater role for government such ideals as consumer freedom and techno­ can actually cut down on rules and regulations. logical innovations to save lives. Conservative + Economic efficiency. This is another goal rhetoric is meant to frighten middle-class that could be furthered by more, rather than Americans -- especially those who still enjoy less, comprehensive reform in national health relatively good benefits through private insur­ insurance. Advertisements -and speeches on behalf of single-payer national health insurance ~ce -- dissuading them from supporting any kind of comprehensive reform. could tell Americans how nice it would be to In short, during the 1990s, just as in the move from job to job without worrying about 1910s and 1940s, the opponents of any sort of the loss or diminution of health benefits for universal health insurance have quickly under­ themselves or their families. And single-payer taken to create ideological metaphors. They aim schemes promise to make the capping of health

8 DEMOCRATIC LEFT care costs easier, because young and old, the enact full health coverage in the United States. middle-class and the poor, will all be in the same Along with members of Congress who hope to system. Uniform prices can be negotiated and hammer out bargains for reform, health care enforced; administrative costs for health insur­ experts who think about solutions for technical ance will be cut back; and medical care provid­ problems need to attend to fundamental proc­ ers will no longer have to deal with uncompen­ esses of democratic communication. They need sated patients dumped by insurers or other to explain to a democratic citizenry where they providers. would like to go and why it is desirable to go there. Addressing the Ideological Dimensions If reformers in the 1990s fail to paint an Today's reform-minded experts need to appealing picture of govemment-sponsored face the fact that, as in the past, U.S. political reform, conservatives will -- later in the 1990s, if battles over health insurance will almost cer­ not immediately in 1994 -- win yet another tainly have ideological as well as technical, and round in the overly protracted struggle to bring emotional as well as rational, dimensions. No affordable and accessible to health care to all matter what happens in the successive elections Americans. To avoid the fate of progressive of the 1990s, it almost certainly will not be health reformers in the past, today's advocates possible to rely on purely inside-the-beltway of universal inclusion and socially managed bargains to enact, defend, and build upon truly health costs will have to talk with the people of progressive changes in the American system of America. Im access to and financing of health care. Any initial changes will have to be well understood Theda Skocpol, professor fJf sociology at Harvard by many Americans, if political support for University, 1s the author of Protecting Soldiers progress over the 1990s is to be sustained. The and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social access and cost problems of the American health Policy in the United States (Belknap Press, 1992), care system will not be solved all at once. a book that l1as received five scfwlarly awards. This The challenge of painting a picture of posi­ essay is adapted from an article that appeared in the tive changes through government remains for Fall 1993 issue of the Journal of Health Politics, all those who hope that the time is finally ripe to Policy and Law.

DSA Health Care Survey Results Six hundred and seventy DSA members responded to the health care survey we mailed out in the fall. This feedback from the membership was crucial to the development of DSA's latest Resolution on Health Care Activism (which was printed in the January/February issue of Democratic Left), and this information also informs the ongoing work of DSA's Health Care Task Force. 1. Based on the overall Clinton health care reform plan, I think 4. The most effective strategy to win congressional passage of DSA should: single-payer legislation is to: Oppose it Support it Critically support it 46% 36% 52% choice a: 47%- Oppose the president's plan and organize grass­ (Total is greater than 100% because many respondents chose roots pressure to get more sponsors of and support on the floor more than one option.) for the American Health Security Act (S. 491/HR 1200) sponsored 2. If single payer supporters oppose the president's plan, then he by Representatives McDermott and Conyers and by Senator Well­ will be forced to further water down his proposal and seek the stone. votes of Republicans and conservative Democrats for piecemeal choice b: 48% - Critically support the president's plan and seek reform. to incorporate single-payer principles and approaches in com­ Agree Disagree No answer mittee hearings and amendments by organizing grassroots pres­ 45% 51% 4% sure that demands single payer. 3. The single-payer movement must develop strategies that pre­ vent a division between those who critically support and those who oppose the Clinton proposal. To become a member of the DSA Health Care Task Force, write Agree Disagree No answer to David Glenn at the national office: 66% 27% 7% 180 Varick Stree~ New York, NY 10014.

M ARCii/A PRIL 1994 9 The Health Care Struggle: Reports from the Field The fight for national health insurance has been carried forward by hundreds of organizations, but it's no exaggeration to say that DSA has played a leading role. DSA activists throughout the country have worked countless hours - stuffing envelopes, organizing meetings, testifying before lawmakers, marching in the streets - to give the single-payer cause the visiOility it has today. Below are three accounts from DSA locals: + Front Range DSA •!• Los Angeles DSA •!• Baltimore DSA Front Range (Colorado) DSA has California DSA members and For over three years, Baltimore made health care one of its main or­ activists are taking to the streets to DSA's Health Care Committee has ganizing issues. Nationally, the fight gather signatures on a state-wide been involved in the fight for single­ for a single-payer health system is the single-payer health care ballot initia­ payer health care on both the state best means we have to relegitimate tive. 1.1 million signatures are and the national level. the role of accountable government, needed by April 22 to qualify for the Its members participated m the uphold social solidarity, and rebuild November 1994 ballot. health care ballot campaign, spon­ our public sphere. The "California Health Security sored DSA's Canadian Health Care Locally, our health care work has Act" would cover all medical care, Tour in Maryland, tabled at commu­ helped build DSA's reputation and preventive and mental care, long nity events and festivals, published presence. Our leadership role in term care, most prescription drugs, health care literature and printed building the local Universal Health and some dental services. Negoti­ bumper stickers. Baltimore DSA cre­ Care Action Network (UHCAN) ated rates, capping hospital and doc­ ated a speakers bureau whose mem­ coalition has earned us the respect of tor fees, and instituting a state health bers made presentations to commu­ the broad progressive community. care budget would provide these ex­ nity associations. DSA members and \'l{e were just invited by union activ­ panded health care services without friends also packed a state-initiated ists, for example, to provide a co­ increasing the current aggregate cost health forum to ensure that the chair for the Colorado Labor Party of health care in California. Eliminat­ single-payer position triumphed. Advocates chapter.) ing health insurance companies and Delegate Paul Pinsky (D-Prince DSA activists played such a deci­ their bureaucratic waste will be key. Georges) has introduced single­ sive role in turning out single-payer The California plan will only be payer legislation for Maryland in the activists to the governor's town meet­ viable if the federal legisation passed last three legislative sessions. Balti­ ings on health care that the governor later this year allows states to set up more DSA's Health Care Committee had to withdraw his "managed com­ single-payer systems. Clinton's plan coordinated phone calls, letter writ­ petition" proposal. Having a pres­ currently does allow this, but he may _ing campaigns, and testimony in ence at the public meetings of elected be tempted to bargain this provision support of the legislation. officials has been the most effective away. In October 1993, Baltimore DSA, strategy so far. This initiative meets the prin­ along with several other organiza­ The spring, we will be supporting ciples of the DSA Resolution on tions, called for the formabon of a the Colorado single-payer bill and Health Care Reform while allowing state-wide single-payer coalition. As participating in UHCAN's petition DSA members to work in coalition a result, the Maryland Universal drive (SP AN) for the Wellstone I with labor unions, health care pro­ Health Care Action Network (MD Conyers/McDermott bills. viders, seniors, people with disabili­ UHCAN) was formed. DSA mem­ We urge all DSA members and ties, and community activists. We bers are extremely involved in locals to get involved in the struggle have an opportunity to build our UHCAN's leaderstl1>. In order to for universal health care. It is the ranks at the same time we are actively financially support the organization, most relevant issue for the furthering committing ourselves to our priority Baltimore DSA held a major fund of our agenda and vision. of the last twenty years: progressive raiser in February with all of the prof­ health care reform. its going to UHCAN . - Harris Gruman and Hunter Pyle --Lynn Shaw -- Richard Bruning

10 DEMOCRATIC LEFT DSAction--- MOVING ON DSA Youth Section Rallies for DSA's national office Democracy in Mexico moved on March 18 to bigger, brighter, and better-located quarters.

Our new address is: 180 Varick Street New York, NY 10014

II phone: 212/727-8610 ~ 5 fax: 212/727-8616 ..> ~ "' ------Letters to Democratic Left

Euthanasia and Socialist Values severe depression that bring many quo was simply out of place in a patients to seek death in the later socialist publication. Dear Editors, stages of illness. It would be more A system without legalized eu­ I am in agreement with the posi­ humane to resist the insurers' influ­ thanasia turns hospitals into medical­ tion taken by Margaret O'Brien Stein­ ence and to try to relieve agony and ized Buchenwalds in which the ter­ fels ("Euthanasia: Prospects and Per­ morbid depression with everything minally ill are denied autonomy in ils," January / February 1994) that life­ in the medical and technical arma­ deciding the mode and timing of an terminating decisions should not be mentarium. To relieve human beings already inevitable death. put into the hands of physicians. of such agonies and depression by Steinfels trots out the tired old The ideological ties between also "relieving" other ill human "slippery slope" argument. She al­ health insurers and the American beings of their lives is not euthanasia leges, without anything but paranoia Medical Association are of long but murder -- mass murder, in fact. for support, that voluntary euthana­ standing. Although there are excep­ In short, the issue of euthanasia in sia leads "inevitably" to class-biased tions, far too many physicians are our time is not a matter of humane executions of poor people and racial influenced by the preference of insur­ treatment. The issue is the presence minorities. But many, many precau­ ers for "cost-effective" solutions to on the scene of an aggressive preda­ tions can (and must) be taken to en­ ilnesses and accidents. Rather than tory entity that dehumanizes termi­ sure that euthanasia is forever en­ stand as Horatios and St. Joans for nation decisions by profiting tirely voluntary. their patients and against the insur­ enormously from them. Forcing someone to endure a tor­ ers, most physicians have behaved tured, prolonged dying process to spinelessly. They do not deserve the David Alman satisfy the values of religions she or public's trust in matters affecting life Highland Park, New Jersey he may very well reject is something I and death. am not prepared to tolerate. Giving physicians the power to terminate life is not, at this time in our Dear Editors, country's social development, an Margaret O'Brien Steinfels's Adolph Rosenfeld answer to the physical agony and "pro-life" apologia for the legal status Edmonds, Washington

MARCH/APRIL 1994 11 End Poverty in California (EPIC) When he married Honorine, his best campaign in 1934. man was Norman Thomas. His fa­ San Diego DSA sponsored a ther, a boxing and wrestling pro­ bus trip to Tijuana in December to moter, was a Socialist candidate for observe the environmental impact of governor of New Hampshire. After maquiladora plants in Mexico and to the ceremony at the Opera House, all meet with labor organizers at the were invited to a buffet at a senior Plasticos BajaCal plant. The local will citizens' housing complex built be­ by Harry Fleischman hold a folk-singing festival April30 to cause of Earl's leadership. It was raise funds for the California single­ renamed the Earl Bourdon Senior payer Health Security Initiative. Center. ALASKA Alaska DSA is being revital­ ized and reorganized on a statewide ILLINOIS NEW YORK basis, with a new emphasis on coali­ The Chicago DSA annual New York City DSA con­ tion work. Among other issues, the Debs-Thomas-Harrington Dinner on ducted an all-day weekend meeting local will be addressing the role of big May 14 will honor Carol Travis of the to analyze the Clinton administra­ oil companies 111 desecrating the envi­ United Auto Workers and Lou Pardo tion's health care plan and to plan its ronment and twisting the politicial of the International Association of activist response. The local has also economy of the state. Alaska has a Machinists. continued its leadership role in the long tradition of left politics; its first statewide labor I community coali­ two delegates to the U.S. Congress tions for single-payer health insur­ were elected by the Miners' Party, a IND IANA ance, lobbying key local members of coalition of the Socialist Party and the The Central Indiana local is Congress to keep them focused on the Western Federation of Miners. Con­ beginning to organize activist McDermott-Wellstone bills and the tact Alaska DSA at its new address: branches in Bloomington and Terre essential principles they embody. P.O. Box 70252, Fairbanks, AK 99707. Haute. Call Brad Lorton at 317 /293- The local picketed an appearance by 2612 for more information. Senator D' Amato (for taking large health insurer PAC money} and has CALIFORNIA been circulating and sending ''We The homes of several Los An­ MASSACHUSETTS Can't Afford to Get Sick" constituent geles DSA activists were seriously Boston DSA held its Fifth An­ post cards to him. damaged in the January earthquake. nual Victor Berger Holiday Party and Jan Pierce, Vice President of the Steve Tarzynski of Santa Monica, Beertasting Fundraiser in December, Communications Workers of Amer­ who chairs DSA's Health Care Task with members drinking fondly to the ica, was the featured speaker and Force, has been featured in the L.A. memory of Victor Berger, brewer, recipient of the Paul Gutierrez Weekly's ongoing post-earthquake newspaperman, and Socialist mem­ Award for "contributions to human series about how race and class have ber of Congress. dignity" when the Long Island Pro­ affected local families' efforts to re­ gressive Coalition celebrated its fif­ build. teenth anniversary March 19 in Hunt­ Los Angeles DSA has been ac­ NEW HAMPSHIRE ington. Pleasant news from Ithaca: tive in a new coalition called the Los More than two hundred people DSAer Ben Nichols was elected to his Angeles Committee for Cross-Border gathered at the Opera House in third term as mayor, and DSA actvist Solidarity. On February 25 this coali­ Claremont, New Hampshire to pay John Efroymson won a seat on the tion sponsored a forum featuring final tribute to the late Earl Bourdon, Ithaca Common Council. striking Mexican workers, U.S. labor who received the 1992 Debs-Thomas­ Rochester DSA has been meet­ activists, and representatives of the Bernstein Award from Boston DSA. ing with community organizations in Baja state Party of the Democratic Earl, in his 73 years, was an organizer support of single-payer health care. Revolution (PRO). for the Steel Workers, a leader of the In late March the local will particpate At its January meeting Valley National Council of Senior Citizens, in series of panel discussions on the DSA showed PBS' The Great Depres­ an outspoken advocate of democratic future of socialism with representa­ sion, featuring a sobering account of socialism, and an adviser to Demo­ tives of the Committees of Corre­ how "the establishment" pulled out cratic presidential candidates trek­ spondence and other organizations. all stops to defeat Upton Sinclair's king through New Hampshire.

12 DEMOCRATIC L EFT DSA Locals and Organizing Committees

Northeast KENT OH 0.C., Eric Hensal, 216-677-9789 134 East Oak Street, Kent OH 44240 ALBANY Local, Mark Schaeffer, 518-463-5611 MAHONING VALLEY OH O.C., Allan Curry, 216-534-9327 399 State Street, Albany NY 12210 117 Caroline Avenue, Hubbard OH 44425 BALTIMORE Local, Laila Atallah, 301-467-9424 MILWAUKEE 0.C.,Tom Sobottlce, 414-367-5893 1443 Gorsuch Av;nue, Baltimore MD 21218 162 Hill Court, Hartland WI 53029 BOSTON Local, Glenn Kulbako, staff, 617-354-5078 ST. LOUIS Local, Dave Rathke, 314-773-0605 11 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138 3323 Magnolia, St. Louis MO 63118 CENTRAL NJ Local, William Volonte, 201-642-0885 TWIN CITIES Local, Dan Frankot, 612-224-8262 PO Box 2029, Princeton NJ 08543 695 Ottawa Avenue, Saint Paul MN 55107 CENTRAL PA Local, Curt Sanders, 717-328-5124 WICHITA 0.C., Jim Phillips, 316-681-1469 115 Loudon Road, Mercersburg PA 17236 2330 North Oliver Street #219, Wichita KS 67220 CONNECTICUT Local, Mike Phelan, 203-397-5412 194 Alden Avenue, New Haven CT 06515 DC/MD/NORTHERN VA Local, Bill Mosley, 202-483-3299 South------­ P.O. Box 33345, Washington DC 20033 ARKANSAS O.C., Jason Murphy, 501-661-0984 ITHACA Local, Kevin Heubusch, 607-256-5341 512 North Oak, Little Rock AR 72205 108 Terrace Place #3, Ithaca NY 14850 AUSTIN Local, Dick Fralin, 512-820-0257 NASSAU COUNTY NY Local, Mark Finkel, 516-538-8246 2409 West Eighth Street, Austin TX 78703 662 Howard Avenue, West Hempstead NY 11552 CENTRAL KENTUCKY Local, Ann Patterson, 606-268-2983 NEW YORK CITY Local, Julia Fitzgerald, 212-962-1079 P.O. Box 1190, Lexington KY 40589 15 Dutch Street #500, New York NY 10038 CHARLOTIESVILLE Local, Claire Kaplan, 804 295-8884 NORTHERN NJ Local, Rhon Baiman, 201-378-7917 Route 1 Box 1250, Troy VA 22974 121 Reynolds Place, South Orange NJ 07079 HOUSTON Local, Elroy Sullivan, 713-667-2726 PHILADELPHIA Local, Lisa Holgash, 215-248-9013 3322 Durhill, Houston TX 77025 125 East Mount Airy Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19119 RICHMOND 0.C., Irene Ries, 804-276-8271 PITTSBURGH Local, Bill Wekselman P.O. Box 501 l, Richmond VA 23220 P.O. Box 5122, Pittsburgh PA 15206 READING-BERKS PA Local, Bob Millar, 215-944-0991 RD4, Box 4482A, Fleetwood PA 19522 'West~------ROCHESTER, John Roberts, 716-442-0751 ALASKA Local, Niilo Koponen, 907-479-9466 (fax) 109 Linden Street, Rochester NY 14620 P.O. Box 70252, Fairbanks AK 99707 SUFFOLK COUNTY NY Local, Hugh Cleland, 516-751-0340 ALBUQUERQUE Local, Gerry Bradley, 505-881-4687 528 Pond Path, Setauket NY 11733 6008 Ponderosa NE, Albuquerque NM 87110 EAST BAY CA Local, Dean Ferguson, 510-763-8054 Midwest ------­ 150 17th Street #404, Oakland CA 94612 ANN ARBOR Local, Eric Ebel, 313-662-4497 EUGENE OR 0.C., Jean Hanna P.O. Box 7211, Ann Arbor MI 48107 2316 #3 Patterson Drive, Eugene, OR 97405 ATHENS OH 0.C., Paul Burke, 614 594-7927 FRONT RANGE CO Local. Harris Gruman, 303-444-9049 4 Pine Place, Athens OH 45701 3075 Broadway #D, Boulder CO 80304 CARBONDALE IL 0.C., E.G. Hughes, 618-549-1409 LOS ANGELES Local, Steve Tarzynski, 310-451-8934 P.O. Box 2201, Carbondale IL 67902 1102 North Brand Blvd. #20, Glendale CA 91202 CENTRAL INDIANA Local, Brad Lorton 317-293-2612 MARIN COUNTY CA Local, Mark Wittenberg, 415-388-6396 6446 Whitehaven Road #1028, Indianapolis, IN 46254 215 Throckmorton Avenue #2, Mill Valley CA 94941 CENTRAL OHIO Local, George Boas, 614-297-0710 PALO ALTO Local. Carolyn Curtis, 415-364-6124 44 Brunson Avenue, Columbus OH 43203 69 Lloyden Drive, Atherton CA 94027 CHICAGO Local, Maggie Shreve, 312-384-0327 SACRAMENTO VALLEY Local, Duane Campbell, 1608 N. Milwaukee Ave.,4th floor, Chicago IL 60647 916-361-9072 CLEVELAND Local. Terri Burgess, 216-476-8560 P.O. Box 162394, Sacramento CA 95816 11316 Dale Avenue, Cleveland OH 44111 SAN DIEGO Local, Virginia Franco, 619-276-6023 DANE COUNTY WI 0.C., Todd Anderson, 608-271-4793 5122 Gardena Avenue, San Diego CA 92110 P.O Box 9038, Madison WI 53715 SAN FRANCISCO Local, Michael Pincus, 415-695-0111 DANVILLE IL 0.C., Brian Mitchell, 217-431-8251 1095 Hampshire, San Francisco CA 94110 208 Brentwood, Tilton IL 61833 SEATILE Local, Craig Satins, 206-784-9695 DETROIT Local, Roger Robinson, 313-822-4639 6221 Greenwood Avenue North, Seattle WA 98103 653 Pemberton, Grosse Pointe Park MI 48230 SONOMA COUNTY CA Local, David Walls, 707-823-7403 IO\\'A CITY Local. Jeff Cox. 319-338-4551 943 Mcfarlane Avenue, Sebastopol CA 95472 112 S. Dodge. Iowa City IA 52242

MARCH/APRIL 1994 13 A Socialist Night at the Oscars Films with Special Meaning for DSA Members

C OMPILED BY MIKE HANDLEMAN

n March 21, "Hollywood" - the United States' most successful global industry - celebrated what it considers its best. But what do we socialists think are the best movies? Democratic Left asked a variety of DSA Leaders about the movies that have "spoken" to them as people of the left- movies tlzat resonate awith their basic values and political ideas. Here are selections from their responses: +Shakoor Aljuwani Marie Antoinette flee Paris in the + Paul Buhle New York City DSA; Manhatt1111 Voter Pt1r tidpa­ middle of the night. A carriage pur­ Providence DSA; editor of Popular Culture in tion Project. sues them, carrying (among others) America. In spite of an incredibly busy Tom Paine, the aging Casanova, a When Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., schedule as a community organizer, a prominent French historian, an Ital­ slandered the Hollywood blacklis­ father, and a grandfather, I still find ian diva, and a lady-in-waiting to the tees as "film hacks," he determinedly time to go to the movies. Whether it's French queen. The result of this obscured some of the best movies of trash or a classic, foreign or domestic, quirky (and, historically, almost an age. Here are only two: From This I'm there, buttered popcorn in hand. plausible) premise is a film about no Day Fonvard (1946), scret!nplay by Malcolm X by Spike Lee has to be less than revolution, democracy, Hugo Butler, from Tom Bell's novel one of my all-time favorite films. class divisions, the making and writ­ All Brides Are Beautiful, about a GI Brother Spike Lee courageously took ing of history, love, desire, aging, and returning to his working-class neigh­ on the daunting task of cinematically art. borhood after the war; and Body and telling the story of the meteoric rise of Soul (1947), written by Abraham Malcolm X from small-time criminal Polonsky, simply the best boxing film to one of the most important leaders + Paul Berman ever made. New York City DSA; Co11tri/1uting Writer, The that the African-American people New Yorker. have produced. Spike was attacked My subversive heart dictates that + Hugh Oeland from all sides (even worse, from the the greatest movie ever made is The Suffolk County DSA; Professor f.mmtus, State left) as he produced a monumental starring Peter Sell­ Uni'Oersity of New York. Mouse That Roared, Of the movies that have meant classic, filming from Harlem to ers in several roles, each more distin­ Mecca. the most to me as a socialist, the one guished than the last. Mouse is a blow most available (on cassette) is Reds, against pomposity, grandiosity, au­ which is as much about the American +Joanne Barkan thority. modernity, sobriety, the mili­ radical movements and Greenwich New York City DSA; E:recutive Editor of Dissent. tary and several other-ities that are as Village as it is about Russia. Harder Nuit de Varennes, directed by Et­ bad as any -ism you can mention. to see but worth hunting for are three tore Scola: Louis XVI of France and

14 DEMOCRATIC LE:FT 16mm films available through uni­ PBS in 1988). Left-wing British Chan­ commodities," they are also fairy versity or union libraries: Union nel Four created the ultimate DSA tales that helped create my childhood M.aids, by DSAer Julia Reichert, Debs, fantasy romp: a labor socialist is longing for a better life. and With Babies and Banners. elected prime minister of England on a radical platform. A riveting plot +Jo-Ann Mort ' + Karen Marie Gibson brings the hopes and fears of our DSA Vice Cllair; Director of Cmnmu11icatio11s, Rochester DSA; Co-chair, DSA Youth Section politics to dramatic Life as the regime Amalg11111ated Clothing nnd Texh1e Workers Ullion. As a socialist, one of my favorite of our dreams wrestles with class I would recommend Faraway, So movies is 1975's Rollerball, starring struggle, IMF austerity, and U.S. Close, by German filmmaker Wim James Caan. The movie is set in the strong-arming. Through intelli­ Wenders. This film, a sequel to Wings future, when all nations have gone gence, wit, and high production val­ of Desire, examines life in unified bankrupt and "even corporate wars ues, British Coup entertains and in­ Berlin through the eyes of angels, two are a thing of the past." The world is spires; every local should see it. of whom have the curse of becoming run by a corporate board and its ex­ human. The film moves like a Rilke ecutives; "rollerball" is the roller­ + Jerry Monaco poem, nol only b.:Lause of the allu­ derby-type ,port created by the cor­ Editorial Assistant, Dissent magazine sion to angels, but in lyrical moments porations t entertain the masses' This is what Fred Astaire and that rt, ut. le literature as much as need for :.pectacle and conflict. Ginger Rogers's movies taught me: anylhing I've seen on screen. Angels Caan's character, a rollerball hero Sophistication, romance, wit, and the and humans alike, Berliners are adrift whose personal popularity threatens playfulness of art are not the monop­ in lheir new identity. One incredible the corporate board, goes into rebel­ oly of the few, but belong to us all. scene shows a newspaper floating lion. Much of the movie is silly, and, They taught me about the existence of down the river, with a headline ex­ as in most mainstream films of style and grace, and gave me a sense claiming the passing of Willy Brandt. "struggle," there is only one indi­ that this was something we should all The main character whispers "Fare­ vidual hero, no movement. But it is participate in. This is essential to my well, Comrade," as the newsprint worthwhile viewing, both in the con­ utopian vision. Though these movies floats by, and one is left wishing for a text of the seventies (I was six years themselves might be defined as "po­ world that included Brandt and his old in 1975) and in light of where we litically regressive" or "fetishized clear vision of where we go next. are going almost twenty years later. ""' +Todd Gitlin East Bay DSA; author of The Murder of Albert Einstein. I don't like judging films strictly by their values and ideas, and when I am moved by a film it's not "as a socialist" or "as a person of the left" but as a whole person; but since you asked, rather than rummage through my list of all-time favorites, I'l1 settle on this year's Schindler's List, which made me feel more deeply human. I say this not because it is the "defini­ tive Holocaust film," whatever that would be, but because it throws open the question of goodness, and beauti­ fully (that is, mysteriously) renders both the glory of a man's choice and the limits of what one man's good­ ness can accomplish.

+ Harris Gruman Fro11t Range DSA; professor, U11iversityofCclorado at Boulder No film did more for me as a democratic socialist than the political thriller A Very British Coup (aired on A scene from John Sayles's Matewan (1987).

MARCH/APRii. 1994 15 +Judith Nedrow watch a woman blazing with that positive films with gay and lesbian D.C.(Maryland/Northem Virginia DSA. interior fore that separates radicals characters out there to begin with.) The Grapes of Wrath: This movie is from all others. In Casablanca, we see as relevant now as when it was made a man who's gone dead inside rea­ + Jack Spooner in that it points out the discrepancies waken from cynicism and reclaim his DSA Commission on Religion and Socialism. in wages and opportunities for humanity. Yes, in both there is a great The film Reds, by Warren Beatty, people. It shows the importance of love story involved. But it is the edgy "spoke" to me evoking a feeling of people organizing to force a redistri­ intersection of love and politics that hope for a revolution of considerable bution of goods and services. It por­ compels our attention and turns these historical significance and promise, trays so well what people had to go into great movies. yet left me distressed because of its through during the Depression, and obvious foreshadowing of the even­ it is especially poignant now when + Chris Riddiough tual and soon-to-be-recognized the situation of homeless people has DSA Via Chair; Union ofConcerned Scientists grand fraud the Russian Revolution grown so bleak. Nonna Rae: This was a terrific perpetrated on humanity and the movie both because it was fun and socialist vision. +Julia Reichert exciting to watch and because it At-1.Arge DSA member, Yellow Springs, Ohio; di­ showed a progressive perspective. I + Steve Tarzynski rector of Union Maids, Seeing Red, and Emma especially liked the fact that this 1.JJs Angeles DSA; physician. and Elvis. movie showed a woman as the pro­ 1900 shows class struggle and Okay, I wanted to name Battle of tagonist/organizer of the union ef­ Algiers, Salt of the Earth, Z, Battle of class war, and how the left can be an fort. The movie also showed unions organic force in society, really com­ Chile, or even Matewan. But truth be in a positive light (something not of­ told, I kept coming back to The Way ing from the grass roots and being ten done in Hollywood). I'm still part of people's lives in a way that I We Were and Casablanca . I know this waiting, however, for the movie that sounds terribly retro. But both cap­ saw with my own relatives in Italy. will show gay and lesbian activists as ture aspects of the radical spirit - the Germinal, based on the book by Emile part of the progressive movement, as Zola, is a film that will soon be re­ emotional side of commitment to activists and organizers (come to radical ideas. In The Way We Were, we leased in this country. It is probably think of it, there just aren't that man one of the best films I've ever seen.

IN M EMORY OF MILTON M . COHEN 1915-1994 Milton M. Cohen, a progressive whose sixty years of activism took him from the shores of Spain to the Chicago local of DSA, died in Oregon on New Year's Day. Cohen was born and raised in Chicago, and was recruited to fight in Spain with the Lincoln Brigades at the age of 23. Cohen's ship was torpedoed as it arrived, and his was the only lifeboat to make it safely to shore. After a year of combat, Cohen returned home to work as an organizer for the Communist Party on the South Side of Chicago, working on anti-segregation campaigns in coalition with the NAACP. Cohen left the Party in the 1960s, and in the early 1970s became a founding member of the New American Movement, which in 1982 merged with the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee to form DSA. In 1982 and 1983 he was a major force in Harold Washington's successful bid to become Chicago's first African­ American mayor. He served as the co-chair of Chicago DSA for several years, and in 1991 he and his wife Sue received the local's Debs-Thomas Award. Cohen touched the lives of many of the DSA activists with whom he worked. Steve Tarzynski, the chair of DSA's Health Care Task Force, vividly recalls a NAM gathering in Wisconsin in the 1970s at which Cohen told stories of his days in Spain. Several young activists there asked whether Cohen's life in the Carter era didn't seem flat and dull after the intensity of the 1930s. He replied, "The 1930s was the time that formed my political identity, just as the 1960s was the period for you. Those memories will always be with me. But life goes on, and you have to move on. You'll be crippled if you linger too much in the past." "Those were some of the wisest words I ever heard," Tarzynski says. "I often think of that evening as I struggle to cope with these grim political times. Maintaining a commitment to radical politics over a lifetime is a great challenge, and Milt was a great inspiration to me."

16 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Thinking in CommQn: I Forty Years

I ---·- . of Dissent ...-- ---1.._. ._...- l!ii~ ~ ~',,..,'1l • I ~~It 40 ,_Of Lu -- ., '~, I'~ "-<>o tt1! t -.r~ BY MAURICE IssERMAN To mark the fortieth anniversary of Dissent, we secret police "would be comfortably estab­ asked historian and DSA member Maurice Issennan lished today in Rome, Paris, and London -- at to reflect on the magazine's history and influence. least.") The editors of Dissent, for the most part hen intellectuals can do veterans of the anti-Stalinist left of the 1930s and nothing else," Dissent 1940s, were not intimidated by the blustering of founder Irving Howe re- McCarthyites or those liberals and former radi­ marked on the occasion of cals who had capitulated to the McCarthyite 'W consensus. Instead they stubbornly continued the' 1oumal's twenty-fifth anniversary in 1979, "they start a magazine." It was among Howe's to insist on the relevance of democratic socialist virtues that he could view his own life's work ideas and values. Still, they found it much easier ..... ith a degree of self-deprecating detachment, to explain in the first issue just what it was their without lapsing into despair, cynicism, or -­ new magazine was not proposing to do than what he regarded as the most sordid of fates -­ whatithoped to accomplish, denying any inten­ the neoconservatism that befell some of his for­ tion of organizing a "political party or group": mer colleagues. Howe proved that a healthy "On the contrary, [Dissent's] existence is based ~nse of irony could secure a radical perspec­ on an awareness that in America today there is tive. "[S]tarting a magazine," he went on, "is no significant socialist movement and that, in all also doing something: at the very least it is likelihood, no such movement will appear in the thinking in common. And thinking in common immediate future." Dissent's early issues were can have unforeseen results." filled with gloomy, trenchant articles analyzing Volume I, Number 1 of Dissent appeared on what had gone wrong with American radical­ a few newsstands forty years ago this spring in ism over the past three decades - a critique that what was certainly an inauspicious season for a did not spare the mistakes of their own sectanan new radical magazine. The Korean War had pastalongwith thoseoftheirCommunistrivals. ended the previous summer after three years of And yet the political will of Dissent's editors futile bloodletting, but peace was not at hand; was not paralyzed by introspection, nostalgia, no one knew if the next flare-up in the Cold War or regret. They were scornful of those who might lead to World War Three. Socialist senti­ sought accommodation with the prevailing ments of any variety, however democratic their conservative climate; the failures of the left did intent or pe

MARCH/APRIL 1994 17 grounds for renewed optimism in the power of more austere categories of traditional Marxist political action as well as political criticism, as it class analysis and political strategy, they celebrated the first stirrings of what would proved in the 1950s and early 1960s remarkably become the insurgent movements of the 1960s. open to new voices and perspectives on the left. Lawrence Reddick, a black historian at Dissent's youngest editor, Michael Walzer, Alabama State College, noted in Dissent in the reported in 1960 (Volume Vil, Numbers 2 and 4) spring of 1956 (Volume III, Number 2) that on the mood he found on sou them black college Montgomery, Alabama had suddenly "become campuses following the sit-ins in the spring of one of the world's most interesting cities." The 1960. Black students, he contended, were rein­ black bus boycotters in that city, led by a young ventingwhat it meant to be a radical in America. preacher named Martin Luther King, Jr., were For too long American intellectuals had viewed providing "a magnificent case study of the cir­ politics through an "apocalyptic haze" in which cumstances under which the philosophy of "every spark of enthusiasm in their hearts and Thoreau and Gandhi can triumph" in their every utopian dream in their heads" was put campaign for an end to segregation on city aside for fear it would somehow open the door buses. In the same issue, Irving Howe ventured to Stalinism or Nazism. "We have been warned the prediction, subsequently borne out, that in that a step outside the realm of conventional "a few decades" the bus boycott would be politics.. .is a step toward totalitarianism." In "looked upon as a political and social innova­ contrast, Walzer believed the civil rights move­ tion of a magnitude approaching the first sit­ ment had validated a politics of "resistance" down strikes of the 1930s." against the threat posed by "mass society, garri­ A year later, in the summer ofl957 (Volume son state, totalitarianism." Anticipating by two IV, Number 3), novelist Norman Mailer bril­ years the analysis that SDS founder Tom Ha­ liantly anticipated the politics of the sixties (and yden would express in the Port Huron State­ the cultural wars thatremaina feature of Ameri­ ment, and by four years the sentiments that Free can politics even today) in "The White Negro: Speech Movement leader Mario Savio would Superficial Reflections on the Hipster." Fusing voice on the steps of Berkeley's Sproul Hall, the insights of the Beat generation writers with Walzer declared, "When consent becomes a energies unleashed by the gathering struggle for platitude and a myth, resistance is the proper black equality, Mailer predicted the onset of a activity of citizens." cultural and political upheaval that would not Dissent's positive attitude toward the New end until it had made "a profound shift into the Left in the early-to-mid-1960s is worth d we11ing psychology, the sexuality, and the moral imagi­ on because recent commentators from both the nation of every White alive ...A time of violence, left and the right have been promoting some new hysteria, confusion and rebellion will then myths on the subject. Alexander Cockburn, be likely to replace the time of conformity." writing in The Nation (September 20, 1993), Not all Dissent's editors were comfortable contended that "Howe and his circle were at all with the implications of Mailer's apocalyptic times utterly marginal, at least m any positive eschatology. But, schooled as they were in the sense, to the important struggles of the 1960s," D J5S£NT DJ_)J[HT

ITA.eu.n r u.n111 fwnn TUlt .URI f"ttl WAllAW •Mrne UIJlOfe ...... Chile; A Way to Socialism? I...____ A_&_~~~~!! w.ufll LAOWIH Zl•nl1•. th• Mer•lot C:rlt••··· •ntl tit• uft aum••••~ -.111111 War Crlme1: Polltlc1 fl Law ...... ,_ ...... ,~ ...... , sc1 ..... llct••• 6 th• "'""'"'"' ...... -­ ...... "'*"- ...... _..., ...... Lukact and Solshenitlyn -­ ..•••• llU.U -- s ...... ••lier. •ntl tll• Stete --- Sub-Language aa Social ladge SPRIN6 1963 OECEMIER '971

18 DEMOCRATIC LE.FT because they offered nothing but destructive criticism of the New Left. Ronald Radosh, writing in Partisan Review (Fall 1993), ap­ plauds Howe for the very thing that Cockburn deplores. Radosh argues that Howe "hit fiercely" at the "anti-Americanism [and] crude Marxism" of the New Left. Radosh then notes, regretfully, that Howe's attitude in recent years seemed to soften; he sought to "reconcile with those very elements of the New Left that had for so many years wanted nothing to do with him." Howe and other editors of Dis­ sent did have many critical things to say about the New Left. But up until mid-1965, the magazine was in fact consistently and warmly suppor­ tive of the Nev·: Left The spring 1965 issue (Volume XII, Number 2) contained two glowing reports on Berkeley's tions, Howe declared, "[The New Left] contains Dissent Free Speech Movement and a report from SOS precious resources of energy and idealism, and founding leaders Todd Gitlin and Paul Potter on recent this energy and idealism ought to be thrust into editor developments in the New Left. the mainstream of American politics." When lrvlng Howe But Dissent's attempt to promote an alliance Howe recruited former New Leftists as editors (1920-1993). of generations on the left was not destined to and writers for Dissent in the 1980s, he was not prosper. Already Irving Howe had tangled in doing so, as Radosh implies, because he was public forums with Tom Hayden over the direc­ suddenly abandoning his democratic values. tion in which the New Left was heading. And Rather, he was marching along the same road then, in the Summer 1965 issue (Volume XII, he'd been on for thirty years and more, reaching Number 3), Howe contributed an essay entitled out to others, even those he'd disagreed with in "New Styles in 'Leftism'" in which he con­ the past, in order to build a left. demned the New Left's hostility to political In recent years, Dissent has been strength­ liberalism and its infatuation with Third World ened by its recruitment of new writers and new revolutionary models. He expressed himself perspectives, while suffering the loss of some of with his usual causticwitand,indoingso, made its stalwarts, most notably Michael Harrington many enemies among younger readers. The in 1989 and Howe himself last spring. It has essay clearly marked a turning point in relations valuable resources at its command, including a between Dissent and the New Left, for Howe loyal community of readers and an honorable pulled no punches. But read carefully, Howe's political tradition. I wish I could say that the essay can also be understood as a critique of his magazine's future is bright and that it will sur­ own generation's failure to reach out and to vive to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary and provide attractive political models for young beyond. But these are, of course, difficult years activists. Since the early 1960s, Howe noted, the for left-wing magazines, as they are for the left ci\·il rights movement had served "as a training as a whole. Dissent's best hope is to retain that school for experienced, gifted, courageous freshness of perspective and openness to new people who have learned how to lead, how to radical currents that its founding generation sacrifice, how to work, but have no place in brought to it in the 1950s. which to enlarge upon their gifts." Howe was infuriated by the tactics and rhetoric of many young activists. But he never Maurice Issennan is the author of If I Had A gave in to the temptation to write them off as Hammer. . .The Death of the Old Left and the enemie::>. In the preface to a collection of essays Birth of the New Left, upon which this essay is from D~ent entitled Beyond the New Left, pub­ partially based. He is currently writing a biography lished in 1970 at the peak of campus confronta- of Michael Harrington.

MARCH/APRIL 1994 19 Books, Videos, Etc. Available FromDSA!

~Readingfor ReoontWorbBy the Clinton Era QimelWest

QOrganizing firSocial,Change:AManua/,fir AetiUsls QNew!Keeping Faith in~l9908 by Camel West by Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max A new colleclion ofessays on phi/.()80phy and race. ConfrmJs the An inccmparable handbook. questions surounding identi.ty politics, Critical Uga.I. Studies, the Seven Locks Pres.s, 1991, 271 pages, soft.cover, $20.00. l.egaci.es ofthe ciuil rights mcuement, and mere. Routledge Pres.s, 1993, hardcover, $20.00. a New! 'lheActivist'sAJmanae '1he Cmcenu?.dati.imw Guide to theLeading AdJ.vcacy' QRace Malters OrganimliaisinAmerica by c.omel West by David Walls The bestselling col/.ection ofessays by DSA Honorary Chair OJrn£L West. Broad, insightful. prophetic thinking. A stunningi,y thorough and useful, directory. Beacon Press, 1993, hardcover, $15.00. Simon and Schust.er, 1993, 432 pages, soft.cover, $18.00. QBn>.aking Bread:lnsurgentBlack Q Reclai.ming Our Future: An Agenda for American Labor IntelJectua/,lifi? by bell hooks and Cornel West by William Winpisinger This provocative and mpti.uating diaJ.ogU£ ~usses issues rang­ A radiad vision for the U.S. l.ahor movement. ing from theolcgy and the left t.o cont.emporory mu.sic, film and Westview Press, 1989, 268 pages, soft.cover, $9.00. fiishion. South End Press, 1991, 271 pages, $14.00. Q '1he Worst Yearso/Our LWeg lrreverentN<*sFromaDecadeefGreed Q The Ethical Dimensions ofMarxist Th-Ought by Barbara Ehrenreich by Corne} West A collection ofshorter pi.eces by DSA Honorary Chair Barbara A searching look at Marxism by one ofAmerica's liueliest Ehrmreich. Serious but fun. thinJiers. Harper-Collins, 275 pages, 1991, soft.cover, $10.00 Monthly Review Press, 1991, $18.00

Q '1he End o(tlu! Cold War: European UniJy, QNew!~ 'IJwughtinPOBtmotkrn '.limes Sociolismand~Shi/t inGloba/,Pa.oer byComelWest by Bogdan Denitch Reflections on the preservation of "rwn-market" ualues. An exallenl, thcughtful. analysis ofrecent histuy. Common Courage Pres.s, 1993, 210 pages, $15.00 Universicy ofMinnesot.a Press, 1900, 12.3 pages, ~ver, $12.00. QNewl~RefkctimgN

Youth/Campus Politics Q *Organizing fur Reproductive Freedom" Published by DSA, 1990, 46 pages. buttons! $1.00 each . special price: $100 Socialism I I Q-Vouth Section Organizing Manual" o Dem.fcracy O ::: · i Published by DSA, 1900, 72 pages, $3.00

20 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Books by DSAHcn

OFear o(Falling: The InnerLife ofthe Middle Class by OSociolism:Past, andFuture Barf.ma Ebreweich by Michael Harringt:on Elirerzreich ~~the middle class and e:mmin£S hew its an.xi­ Jn. his I.a.st book, the late Micha.el Harringt,on., a DSA founder and eti.es shape its political and cu1tural outlook. longtime co-chair, traces two centuries ofsocialist hist.ory. Pantheon Books, 1989, softcover, $11.00 Penguin USA, 1989, soft.cover, $10.00 . Q Soci.alism and America by Irving Howe Q 'lhe Next Left by Michael Harrington Notes on the history ofsocialkm in America from the time of A sti.ll-re/.euant analysi,s and prescripti.on for building a uibront, Eugene Deb; to :JU! present. effecl:i.ue democrotic /.eft. HBJ, 1977. safu:m·er, 218 pages, $7.00 Henry Holt, 1986, hardcover, 194 pages. Special Price, nowjust$'7.00 QAPer the Flood: lVlrid PoliJics andDemocracy in the Wake~ Q "Socialism lnt0rm8 the Best ofOur Poli~ by Bogdan Denitch by Michael Harrington Denitch refkcl.s ai the histoncal implications ofthe demise of Published by DSA, 1988, 4 pages, $1.00 Leninism.. Thoughtful and timely. Wesleyan University Press, 1992, softcover, $17.00 Q'IJreNewAmericanPooerly by Michael Harrington Q 1he MeanSeason: 'IheAIJockon the Welfare Stale by A dUillenging analysis ofpoverty in the cmtert ofnew emnomic Fred Block IUchard A Cloward, Barbara Ehrenreich, and patterns. Frances Fox fu-en Penguin Books, 1984, 270 pages, soft.cover, $9.00. A heaJJhy antidote to neocx:mseruative rhetoric. Pantheon Books, 1987, soft.cover, 205 pages, $9.00 • ORDER FORM. National Health Care Please check offitems you wisli to order. If you are ordering more than one of a particular item, fill in Q "Health Care For a Nation In Need" amount ordered in box. Then, fill out below. by Victor W. Sidel, MD POSTAGE AND HANDUNG Find out more about health care reform and the prospects for For orders $2.00 and under add $.SO national heaJih care in this oompelling booJdeL For orders from $2.01 to $5.00 add $1.00 Published by IDS, 1991, 36 pages, $5.00 For orders from $5.01 to$10.00add $2.00 For orders over$10.00 add $3.00 Q Button: "He.al.th Care For Peo~ Not For Profit!" DSA, $1.00

NOW ON VIDEO! Billy Bragg 0 Pete Seeger 0 Gretchen PRONE.______~ 0 Reed * THE CONCERT FoR Joss, PE.ACE & FREEDOM * TOTALAMOUNrOFORDERS____ _ Produced by IDS. $20.00 0 Paymentenclosed 0 Charge my credit card If paying by Visa or Maeten:ard please fill In credlt card number, New socialistout.etwear! explratioo date, and sign below. 0 VISA OMASTERCARD 0 DSA T-shirts $10.00 Credit Card Number ______M L XL Expiration Date ______0 DSA bicycle caps $6.00 Signature X ------PZ-retv-n this fomi with paymmt ro DSA, one size fits all 180 Varick Strut, NY,NY10014 (212) n7-8610.

MARCH/APRIL 1994 21 The first annual Dissent musical celebration 1994 Socialist a benefit performance Scholars Conference Monday, May 2, 1994, 7 pm The Promenade Theater Borough of Manhattan 2162 Broadway, New York City Community College Over the Rainbow: A Musical For Today 199 Chambers Street New York City based on the lyrics and poems of Yip Harburg April 1,2,3 E.Y. "Yip" Harburg was Broadway's social conscience. He wrote the song lyrics for the classic film The Wizard of Oz and for such legendary Broadway The Chickens Come Home to Roost: shows as Finian's Rainbow (Broadway's only "socialist" musical). The High Price of Neoliberalism All proceeds will benefit Dissent m memon; of its founding editor, Irvmg Howe. Chiapas ·Eastern Europe· Urban America

Ticket prices: Invited speakers include: Barbara Ehrenreich Angel: $250 (include!> a party with the Cil$l afto:r the show, a book by Irving Howe or a Dissent editor and a new book about Yip) Manning Marable Benefactor: $150 (includ~ tht> show, book by Dissent editor and new book about Yip) Stanley Aronowitz Sponsor: $100 (includes the show and a book by a Disse11t editor) Lynn Chancer Supporter: $75 (2 for $125). Bogdan Denitch Limited tickets are available for students with ID at $40 each. Child care will be available for torlet­ Send checks (payable to F.S.I.S.I.) to Dissent at trained children aged 3 and older. 521 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017. For more information, For more information, call 212/595-3084. call 2121642-2826. AMERICAN LABOR YEARBOOK

The most definitive and accessible annual source on labor and economic trends.

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22 DF.MOCRATIC LEFT continued from page two people the confidence that they can •!• Excerpts from a Resolution on Chiapas defeat the one-party dictatorship of Passed by the DSA Natwnal Political Camrmttee, 23 January 1994. the PRI. A PRO victory in August would sureJv mean the renegotiation The PRI (Party of the Institutional of NAFTA, which would accelerate 1. that the Mexican government Revolution) goverrunent of Mexico post-NAFTA opposition in the U.S. respect the human rights and dig­ is a corrupt, undemocratic, authori­ Is there any clearer indicati1--n nity of the non-combatant indige­ tarian regime. It interferes with the that we are living in a new era? We nous people in the area of conflict, organization of free trade unions, have moved beyond the old concep­ uses fraud to control electoral proc­ 2. that the PRI government recog­ tion of international "support" and esses, and abuses the human rights nize the Zapatista Liberation Army have begun to articulate a nev.· inter­ of its citizens, particularly members as a belligerent force under the Ge­ nationalism, in which the struggles of indigenous communities. neva Conventions, against injustice in other nations are directly linked to surular struggles in Student, labor, and environmental 3. that the PRJ permit internation­ our nation. In this sense, the Zapatis­ groups, along with DSA, opposed ally recognized human rights ob­ tas are not only workers and peasants NAFT A. Now we must continue to servers into the areas of conflict, the with whom we share socialist ideals. oppose the destructive implementa­ jails, the hospitals, to report on the They are our next door neighbors. tion of the NAFTA accords. Many allegations of human rights abuses, thousands of U.S. workers, Cana­ Alan Charney is National Director of 4. that the procedures for the Au­ dian workers, and Mexican workers DSA. gust 1994 Presidential elections be will face economic ruin as more cor­ conducted in a free, fair and open porations move their production to manner with the presence of impar­ ANNOUNCEMENTS low-wage areas in pursuit of an ex­ ploitable work force and a non-un­ tial international observers, Democratic Left readers Interested In ion environment. The working 5. and that DSA calls on President people of Mexico, the U.S., and Can­ discussing the Issues of biology and Clinton and Secretary of State Chris­ ada must support each other in their topher to certify that no U.S. aid ethics raised In the January/February common struggle against transna­ Issue, contact: Steve Welner, 549 8 money or equipment is used in the tional corporations and the govern­ violation of human rights of indige­ Street #3, Ashland, OR 97520. ments they dominate. nous people in Chiapas. Be it therefore resolved that the Should these conditions not be met, National Conference of the Bertha Democratic Socialists of America DSA will join with others to support Capen Reynolds Society, joins with indigenous people, the democratic forces in Mexico in an organization of progressive solidarity movements, and Mexican bringing pressure to bear on the PRI workers In social welfare. working people's organizations, government through whatever eco­ along with Bishop Samuel Ruiz, to July 8, 9, 10 In Seattle nomic means make sense, including demand: a possible boycott of tourism in Call for Info: Linda 206/789-5702 Mexico.

CLASSIFIEDS------COMMUNITY JOBS, socially re­ MILITARY SPENDING IS KILLING ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AMERI­ sponsible job opportunities. Sub­ US ALL! For information about redi­ CAN LEFT, now in PAPERBACK, scribe to the only nationwide list­ recting your federal taxes to meet 970 pp., dozens of entries on and/ or ing covering organizing, disarma­ basic human needs, contact the Na­ by DSAers. $29.95 from University ment, labor, environment, and tional War Tax Resistance Coordi­ of Illinois Press. Ask your bookstore more. Call for information:(617) nating Committee, P.O. Box 774, to stock it! 720-5627; or write: ACCESS, 50 Monroe,Ivl.E 04951. 1-800-269-7464. •A SHORT APPREHENSIVE His­ Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108. tory of the World." Humorous, left­ ISh: outrageous. 192 pp., ill. $10.00 Classified advertising rates are $2 per line, DEATH ROW INMATE 15 yrs needs Softcover, $16.00 Hardcover. Post­ $50 per column inch. Payment in advance. friends. RonSpivey, Box3877G4104, 111ere is a 20% discount if 11d(s) run two or age paid. Write to Brainerd Books, Jackson, GA 30233. more times. We reserve lire rigllt to reject ads. P 0 . Box 25153, Lansing, MI 48909.

MARCH/APRIL 1994 23 Jimmy Higgins Reports----.

THE BURGER SOCIETY nies continue to import from Haiti and to benefit from the rock-bottom wages maintained by the authoritarian Leaders of DSA's Commission on Re­ regime there. Softballs, fishing lures, and pajamas ~re ligion and Socialism might want to have a among the items being imported. Write to the White word with Michael Bauman, professor of House (Washington, D.C. 20500) and demand that the theology at Michigan's far-right Hillsdale loophole be closed and that the administration stead­ College. In a lecture on "Morality and the fastly support the democratic forces in Haiti Marketplace," Bauman made an argument that reads like a sophomoric parody of TASTELESS BRITISH PUN right-wing social policy: "Far more than any government program has or OF THE MONTH could, the businesses Ray Kroc and Dave Thomas estab­ You've probably read that Britain's Conservative lished -- McDonald's and Wendy's -- aid the poor as Party has been suffering a wave of sex scandals, includ­ consumers by providing affordable, enjoyable meals .. [and] aid the poor as workers by providing all-impor­ ing a tryst between a Tory MP and his young re~ar~h tant entry-level jobs [that teach] punctuality, deference, assistant, who turned out to be a frequenter of Soc1ahst Workers Party meetings. You may not have heard that and teamwork. .." a Labour MP named Tony Banks thoughtfully proposed CLOSE THE HOLES one day in February that a condom machine be installed in the House of Commons. The National Labor Committee reports that the U.S. "I realize that the installation would come rather too embargo against Haiti, intended to help restore the late for some Tory MPs," he said. 'The more circumspect democratically elected government of President Jean­ among us would welcome the installation. Alterna­ Bertrand Aristide, has been severely compromised by tively, of course, we could seek some advice fr?m loopholes exempting U.S.-owned maquiladora plants Lorena Bobbitt, who has a very direct way of dealing there. The loophole means that over fifty U.S. compa- with members." entocrat1c of Anterica -----Join us! Members of the Democratic Socialists of America work in immediate struggles for justice - as we build a movement for long-term social change. . we bring to our work a strategy for building alliances among social movements and a vision of a more just and equitable society. . . Join DSA and become a card-carrying member of the largest and most exciting democratic socialist organization in the U.S.! ______OSeridme~~i~rmatiooaooutDSA~---N~------

0 Enclosed are my dues! ADDRESS ------:--- (includes subscription to Democratic Left) CITY / STATE/ZIP ______a $50 sustainer Q $35 regular PHONE------a $15 low-income/student UNION/ScHOOL/0RGANIZATION ______Q Enclosed is $8 for a subscription to Democratic Left Q Enclosed is a contribution of$__ MAkt chtcks payablt to DSA, and rttum to DSA: to help DSA's activism. 180 Varick Street, NY, NY 10014. (212) 727-8610