Three Nostalgias

New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry Vol.8, No. 2 (April 2016) Pp. 62-76 Three Nostalgias Dennis and Alice L. Bartels Introduction uring the 1960s and 1970s, many youth Administration after dissolution of the USSR and in North America, particularly in Canada, the Warsaw Pact. Subsequent Russian resistance to Dexpected social progress: a shorter work week; uni- NATO expansion has revealed another nostalgia – versal, affordable daycare; a guaranteed minimum viz., the longing of NATO hawks and conservative wage; gender equality; etc. Perhaps there are others Western politicians for a return to Cold War levels who share our nostalgia for the hopefulness of that of military spending and confrontation with Russia. era; if so, this raises a question: why were the hopes of This nostalgia, perhaps a holdover from Cold War the 1960s dashed? Why didn’t more social progress habits, is reflected in deployment of NATO forces occur? The answer to this question is linked to wide- to Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, and spread nostalgia for socialism in the former Soviet the Black Sea. The Cold War attitudes seem to still bloc. Large numbers of people in the former Soviet pervade Western mass media. bloc miss guaranteed employment, state-subsidized Triumphalism regarding the ‘end of history’ after food prices, gender equality, personal security, and dissolution of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact was confidence in the future. With the collapse of Soviet accompanied in various parts of the West by relent- socialism, pro-capitalist Western states could aban- less attacks on social safety nets and deregulation don any pretense of social progress that had been of finance capital. This may have resulted in the necessary to demonstrate the superiority of capital- economic collapse of 2008, and in widespread resis- ism over socialism. As John Lanchester writes, the tance to the imposition of policies of ‘austerity.’ These end of the socialist model removed “a powerful impe- consequences were not anticipated by anti-Soviet tus to show that ordinary people’s lives were better Western social democratic parties who may have seen under capitalist democracy” (2010:16). the Soviet bloc as an embarrassing impediment to Despite Western assurances to the former USSR the growth of mass support for social democracy. The that NATO would not expand into Eastern Europe, connections between the three nostalgias mentioned such expansion was spearheaded by the Clinton above is explored here. THREE NOSTALGIAS • 63 Dimensions of Progress in Canada guaranteed annual income, access to affordable child- Medicare care, provision of low-cost post-secondary education, The promise of progress in Canada during the access to affordable housing, prevention of abuse of 1960s and 70s was underpinned by adoption of women and children, particularly ‘Indian’ and ‘Eskimo’ North America��’��s first single-payer medicare sys- women and children. tem. Canadian medicare was pioneered by the In the former USSR, all able-bodied adults, Co-operative Commonwealth Federation govern- including women, were legally required to work ment in Saskatechwan in 1962, despite opposition or study. Educational levels of Soviet women were from the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and among the highest in the world. Women were guar- Surgeons, insurance companies, and various busi- anteed equal pay with men, and had entered many ness groups (Brown and Taylor 2012). The struggle professions – e.g., engineering and medicine – which for medicare in Saskatchewan led to The National had been traditionally almost closed to women in Medical Care Insurance Act which was passed in the North America. Affordable universal daycare and House of Commons on 8 Dec. 1966. The Act pro- widespread availability of low-cost semi-prepared vided that the federal government would pay about foods reduced the ‘double burden’ of childcare and half of the Medicare costs in any province with insur- housework, although the double burden still existed. ance plans that met the criteria of being universal, Contraception – i.e.,�� condoms –�� were widely avail- publicly-administered, portable and comprehensive. able. Abortion was available on demand (Syzmanski The starting date was 1 July 1968. By 1971 all prov- 1984; Mandel 1975). A wide range of educational inces had established plans which met the criteria. and occupational opportunities were available to Health care in the former USSR had been indigenous women in the far north and northeast provided by the state since the 1920s. By the (Bartels and Bartels 1995). 1970s, the USSR had the highest ratio of doctors to population in the world. Preventative health The Pro-Choice Movement and Dr. Henry care measures were undertaken in rural and Morgenthaler urban polyclinics. Doctors made house calls. The The pro-choice movement in Canada centred on cost of most medicines was covered by the state the actions of Dr. Henry Morgenthaler, whose first (Szymanski 1984). abortion clinic was publicly opened in Montréal in 1969. Morgenthaler countered successive attempts The Royal Commission on the Status of Women by federal and provincial governments to pros- The introduction of medicare coincided with explora- ecute him with the “defense of necessity” – i.e., as tion by governments of further progressive measures, a physician, he had a duty to safeguard the life and particularly regarding gender equality. In 1966- health of the women who came to him for abor- 67, the Liberal government of Lester B. Pearson tions. Despite violence and massive publicity by responded to calls from grass roots women��’��s organiza- anti-choice religious institutions and individuals, tions across Canada, including the Voice of Women, successive juries refused to convict Morgenthaler. In the Canadian Federation of University Women, and spite of successive acquittals, Mortenthaler served the Federation des femmes du Québec, to establish ten months in prison, suffering a heart attack while a Royal Commission on the Status of Women. The incarcerated. Morgenthaler��’s�� struggles received sup- RSCSW was composed of seven members, includ- port from women’s groups across Canada. In 1976, ing Florence Bird (Chair), Elsie G. MacGill, Jeanne the Attorney General of Québec announced that Lapointe, and Doris Ogilvie. The RCSW’s report was abortions performed in free-standing clinics were submitted in 1971. Its recommendations touched legal in the province. Eventually, abortion was legal- upon several issues that were widely discussed in ized and supported by medicare plans in almost every the 1960s and 1970s. These included equal pay for province. equal work, access to birth control and abortion, a 64 • D. AND A. L. BARTELS The Canada Pension Plan from the ‘social wage’�� (see below), a minority of pen- Before 1966, income for most seniors was around sioners, particularly those who lived alone, were poor 50% of the average industrial wage despite a uni- by Soviet standards – i.e., with an income around versal Old Age Security (OAS) pension which was 70 rubles per month (Myers 1959; IMF 1991; see first introduced in 1927. Most employment-based below). It should be noted, however, that cafeteria pension plans were not portable, required long meals and staple foods were heavily subsidized by contributory periods, and had inadequate survivor the state, as were housing and energy costs. benefits. In 1983, incomes of less than 70 rubles per month The Pearson government introduced the Canada were not taxed. Incomes of 70 rubles per month were Pension Plan in 1966. The CPP was a compulsory, taxed at 25 kopeks. Incomes above 100 rubles were contributory scheme for waged/salaried workers taxed at 13 percent. Collective farmers, disabled between the ages of 18 and 70. Benefits were based people, and war invalids were not taxed. The income on the amount of contributions. The CPP included tax of individuals with four or more dependents was portability, and provided death, survivor, and dis- reduced by 30 percent. A small tax on bachelors was ability benefits. A sister programme, the Québec aimed at promoting marriage. (Feldbrugge et al Pension Plan (QPP) was also introduced in 1966. 1985:756). In 1967, an income-tested Income Supplement was introduced. It was intended to assist those who had A Guaranteed Annual Income retired before introduction of the CPP. By 1971, In his 1971 book, Agenda, a plan for action, Liberal eligibility for CPP and OAS was lowered to age 65, politician Paul Hellyer wrote that the proposal for a and both were indexed. A spouse’s allowance was guaranteed annual income had achieved a “climate introduced in 1975. Provisions were made to adjust of acceptability in many circles” (149). Proponents the CPP contribution period for parents who left the of a guaranteed annual income argued that it would workforce to raise children. free the lowest strata in society from poverty. Critics The measures described above significantly argued, among other things, that it would remove improved the retirement incomes of many Canadians. incentives to work. In Dauphin, Manitoba, the In the Soviet Union, pensions were introduced federal and provincial governments supported an in 1924 for Red Army veterans. Pension rights were experimental guaranteed annual income

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