PUBLISHED BY THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMUICA CRATIC May-Aug. 1 Vol. XIV, No. 3-4 $1.50 T .411l LETTERS

more important than fighting unemploy­ Kids ment, the idea that unemployment is good because labor is cheaper, unions weaker, Miss Us? profits higher. Yes, it has been a while since Demo­ To the Edirors: No, Stanley, dignity does not "derive cratic Left last graced your mailbox. A fi­ Let me take a moment to express my only from a job." But try telling an unem­ nancial crunch forced us to combine the appreciation for Maxine Phillips' fine article ployed worker that it is easy to hold onto May/June and July/August issues, thus in the recent issue of Democratic Left. She dignitywithoutajob. Go ahead, Stanley, try saving on printing and postage costs. Aa concreti?.ed some very important issues it. You might learn something. partial compensation, we've published 24 which have all-too-Often been overlooked. John C. COTt pages rather than the usual 16. The Thoughtful analyses were well integrated RoxlYury, MA September/October issue will be our an­ with practical insights and constructive nual Labor Day issue, and we expect it to suggestions. be our best yet. We hope you will use the I will encourage the Long Island locals form in this issue to place a greeting ad and and the like to take up the problems raised Ditto show offyour solidarity to the whole world. and the suggestions offered. This was one of the most helpful pieces I have ever read in To the Edilms: D. L. (The debate on economic policy was In the latest issue of Democratic Left, also very helpful in shedding light on alter­ Frances Fox Piven and Stanley Aronowitz thier suburban jtirisdictions are largely native approaches.) argue that full employment is not only not removed from such pressures, concentrat­ David Sprintzen sufficient, but not necessary for advancing ing the costs of welfare on those least able Syosset, NY the socialist cause. But their proposed al­ to pay. And in the worst of times, the re­ ternatives are vulnerable to their own ar­ sults of decentralization are still more criti­ guments against full employment. cal. If international competition limits the Full Employment Aronowitz says that full employment autonomy of national employment policy, is "not possible under capitalism., because it then the economic pressures - regional, To the Ediims: results in labor shortages or rising wages international, and internal - on state and Frances Fox Piven laments that "the which squeeze profits. But then how could a local governments to "fall in line" in terms record of full employment as a movement­ shorter work week, accompanied by a of social policy and expenditures are at lea.st building goal has been dismal." Stanley guaranteed income plan explicitly intended equally irresistible in periods of slow eco­ Aronowitz dismisses full employment as to force employers to substantially raise nomic growth. "cockeyed real.ism" and "deeply conserva­ wages, be possible? If "entrenched inter­ Here again, the conditions for the suc­ tive" (March/April issue). ests" resist direct job-creating strategies, cess ofthe policy "alternative" are not unre­ Piven wants us to build social.ism on a why should they react any more benevo­ lated to the conditions for the success of full foundation of welfare rights, Aronowitz on a lently to work-sharing? employment itself. But recognizing the lim­ shorter workday or work week. Remember It would appear in fact that work­ its ofwhat can be achieved independently of the National Welfare Rights Organization? sharing et. al. presupposes radical changes, growth does not require naive satisfaction Where is it today? And where do you see a and if the (prior) policy ("poSSible" now) . with the benefits of growth per se. A colli­ significant movement behind a shorter work that would produce them is not full em­ sion between pragmatism and utopianism week since the New Deal, 50 years ago? ployment, then it remains to be specified. It may be unavoidable on some issues (e.g. Both Piven and Aronowitz make some is in any case hard to conceive of circum­ cherished left ideas concerning planning, good points, but why trash full employment stances under which work-sharing would markets, competition, money), but I don't en route? They might as well complain that become feasible but full employment itself think that full employment is inherently in the USA the record of social justice as a would not. Nothing compels us to regard one of them. movment-building goal has been dismal So the two as competing objectives - or David Belkin the idea that every man or woman has a would the pursuit of more radical aims (al­ New York, NY right to a decent job at decent pay is hard to tering the work ethic and so on) require sell. Try selling the idea that people should Left opposition to full employment where it get good pay for working less or for not actually existed? working at all. Try buildng a movement on Frances Fox Piven criticizes employ­ that. ment policy because, executed at the fed­ . You want a "deeply conservative" idea? eral level, it is not conducive to popular Don't Miss Out­ There it is: good pay for no work. The idle organizing. But this is not grounds for Place Your Greeting in rich have been pushing it for years. canonizing the fact that US welfare pro­ I must be blind and deaf, but I neither grams are locally organized. In the best of the Labor Day Issue see nor hear the Right pushing the idea of times particular central city governments full employment. I see them pushing the may find themselves with the means to idea that 7% unemployment is full employ­ (somewhat) enrich welfare services in re­ ment, the idea that fighting inflation is much sponse to indigenous campaigns. But weal-

DEMOCRATIC I.EFT 2 MAY·AUG.. 1- AIDS Health Care American Style

by Dennis Altman

an end-of-year Readers' Survey, U.S . News and World Report asked: "Which ofthe followingprob­ ems concern you most?: crime, re­ ession, nuclear war, or AIDS?'" IThis represents a measure of the extent to which fear and loathing around AIDS - to botTow Hunter Thompson's phrase coined for another event - has entered the Amer­ ican consciousness. I use the phrase to underline the fact tha.t the most common discourse about AIDS involves panic, even hysteria, about its transmission, rather than any sign of genuine compassion for those who are actually suffering and dying from the illness. Few illnesses have been so clearly politicized as AIDS. Politics, in the most conventional sense of that word, have August, 1985 AIDS Walkathon in Hollywood. played a central role in the ways in which AIDS has been conceptualized, con­ York City, the epicenter of the disease in have done everything that could reasonably structed, researched, treated, and mys­ this country, are not found among gay men, be done to save lives and to prevent both tified, and there is room for a great deal of and this proportion is increasing. In Cen­ the spread of AIDS and unnecessary panic. discussion on the role of ideology and poli­ tral Africa, Spain, Italy, and Belgium the Even in this age of cutbacks and small gov­ tics in both the social construction of illness majority of AIDS cases are not found ernment, no one has seriously argued that and the control and direction of medical among gay men, and as AIDS becomes a the state does not have a responsibility to research. In this brief space I shall focus on global problem there are decreasing rea­ safeguard the health of its citizens. We the res ponse of governments to the sons to think of it as, in the phrase still used have not yet reached a point when anyone epidemic, and to a lesser extent to the role by some journalists, "the gay plague." of consequence is calling for the abolition of of the press and of certain interest groups in Despite this, politicians and journalists the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the conceptualization of the disease. resist seeing AIDS as a public health crisis. the National Institutes of Health. AIDS was first conceptualized by both The public image of AIDS is linked to white There are many, however, who would scientists and the media as a homosexual male homosexuals, while the reality is in­ slash their budgets, and one of the sadder disease, and for a time was known popu­ creasi:ngly that it is affecting nonwhites and aspects of the AIDS epidemic is that it larly as GRID, or "gay related immune de­ nongays. As New York Assemblymember coincided with a determined attempt by the ficiency." Scientists abandoned this char­ Roger Green pointed out recently: "Of the Reagan administration to cut back on acterization as it became clear that there 77 children who were reported to have domestic spending, including that related was no inherent or necessary connection AIDS in our city in 1985, 68 were black and to health. The failure of this administration between AIDS and homosexuality, but Latino.... Thus an inappropriate response to respond promptly and adequately to the neither the media nor most politicians have to AIDS interconnects with the general de­ emergence of a new epidemic disease has been as quick to do so. line of public health."' (Village Voice, been well documented. It took considerable The most pernicious example of this January 14, 1986.) Congressional pressure for substantial view of AIDS is the use by the media of the On one level "guilt" and "innocence" monies to be made available for AIDS re­ term "innocent victim," which is applied to are irrelevant terms when one speaks of an search, and too often that money has come those other than gay men and drug users epidemic disease. No one has set out to get at the expense of other health progrclms. suffering from AIDS - with the clear sick, nor to infect others. But guilt and I want to look at three interconnected corollary that if you belong to these groups innocence become menaingful conceptl! points of public policy, all of which I think and contract AIDS you are somehow when one examines the response of gDY­ illustrate the failings of governments to guilty. This view persists despite the fact ernrnents, and it is not only reasonable but adequately deal with the challenge of ihat well over a third of the cases in New necessary to ask whether governments AIDS. These are the provision and the

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 3 M.o-AuG•• 1986 financing of health care, the use of the anti­ I stress this because I believe it is es­ prepared to try to use legislation w protect body test, and the provision of preventive sential that the question of AIDS be llllder­ both groups and individuals from discrimi­ education. stood within a larger context; namely, the nation based on the assumption that they failure of the American health care delivery are somehow a risk. Inadequate Insurance system. It is a shame that the AIDS advUnited States, particu­ major area of public policy that I want to which the AIDS epidemic so clearly llllder­ larly minority groups and labor groups, discuss, namely the whole question of pre­ lines the defects of the American health who are committed to a more equitable and ventive education. It's become a cliche to care system. Above all, the linkage of a better system of health care, even if such observe that the only effective way of pre­ health insurance to employment means discussion has ironically moved off the p

DEMOCRATIC l.EfT 4 MAY-AUG.. 1• we have ever had a case of scapegoating the victim, then I think the AIDS epidemic is going to go into the sociology of deviance textbooks for a long time to come. When I was in San Francisco at the very end of 1985, I went down to United CLOSET Nations Plaza, where a group of people are holding a vigil outside the San Francisco offices of the Department of Health and Human Services. Here some people with AIDS-related condition have chained themselves to the railing of that office and say they will not move until the federal government ha.c; met their demands. Without going into the details of their specific demands, some of which I may or may not agree \\'ith; I want to point to the degree of anger, bitterness, fear, and alien­ ation that leads sick people to lie day after day in the winter outside the federal build­ "We don"t discnmilldte' against: homosexu.lfs in thi:s com~ny. A.s a ing because they feel their government has rrutter of fact, we\-e Jlreddy s« up dn office fur you." failed them. (lt'!; also true that they were only doing it in San Francisco because in that city there has been a response not just from the gay community but from the whole city that at least suggests a humane leaders for the 8,000 Americans who have cau!le there is as yet no cure for AIDS, and and a civillied response to this disea.-;e is died from AIDS so far. President Reagan no immediate prospect of a vaccine. They pos..<>ible.) Indeed, one of the saddest things goes on television and sheds tears for one could, however, handle the present crisis about the vigil is that when I came to New child who needs a liver transplant. but only more humanely, more intelligently, and in York, hardly anybody was even aware that the death of a Hollywood star, who was a ways that are more likely to save both lives it was going on. Yet I have no doubt that if personal friend of his, brought any sign of and money than the present patchwork of some third-rate bit player on "Dynasty" or awarenes11 from the White House that a neglect and panic. For a start, the Presi­ "Dallas" were to say that 12 years ago she new and lethal disease existed in the United dent could take seriously the proclamations was kissed by Rock Hudson, it would be on States. of his own Public Health Service that this is every talk show in the United States. It is striking how much has been done a major emergency, and appoint a top level But that people are dying from this for people with AIDS by volunteer groups, task force to advise him on all possible disease, that the government at most levels largely but not entirely in the gay commu­ mean.-; to combat the epidemic. There are is not responding to their needs, that no nity - and how little credit they have been already bills pending in Congress that words of compassion or sympathy are being given by a federal administration that would help relieve some of the extraordi­ heard from the people who claim moral and claims to support volunteerism and com­ nary burdens this disease is placing on cer­ poltical leadership is apparently not seen as munity groups. Indeed, there is a great tain local governments and individuals. a worthy story. I recall feeling mixed need to gently chide some of the AIDS Moreover, a call from the president for exasperation, anger, and sadness at seeing groups for too easily accepting the Rea­ compa.<;..c;ion for those who are dying, and an sick and gaunt men in the San Frclllcisco ganite program that would make individu­ end to the ugly scapegoating of people who winds, in the richest country in the world, als and charity responsible for providing are sick and suffering, would be a major in the country that President Reagan tells the basic support 1:1ervices that everyone psychological boost for those who are most us over and over again is a beacon of free­ who is seriously sick can surely expect to be deeply involved in thi.:; disease. The gover­ dom, forced to take such measures to high­ provided by a civilized government. Too nor of New York State and the mayor of light that the most elementary aspects of often sections of the gay movement itself New York City could commit themselve:; to civilized health care are not being made have failed to focmi on the right targets. a real program of prevention education, available. • When the leading gay newspaper in New rather than to the selective closure of cer­ Dennis Altman is professor ofpolitical sci­ York City can attack a researcher like Dr. tain venues ~ hirh is politically satisfying, e11ce ai La Trobe University ill Australia Mathilde Krim while endon;ing Ed Koch but ha.-> little real benefits for public health. and is the authnr of AIDS in the Mind of for reelection, or when self.proclaimed gay The mc>clia could start analyzing in oome America. A lon,ger version of this article leaders can attack the CDC for procra8- detail the response of governments to this was presentRd ai a January, 1986 confer­ tinating on research without showing any cri«is, instead of playing on the fears and ence entitled"AIDS: Public Policy Dimen­ awareness of the reasons that they have panic of so many people who still believe, ions," sponsored by the Unil.ed Hospital been starved for funds, one can only con­ against all scientific evidence, that AIDS Fund of New York and flu> Health Poli£y clude that some of the gay movement is a..-; can be ca.c;ually tram~mitted. Center of tl1R University of California at supportive of Reaganism as arc those who We need to ask why it has been w San Francisco. The full conference pro­ actually benefit from present government difficult to focus attention on the failure of ceedings are availabl.e from: Unilld Hospi­ policies. government , and so ea.c;y to focus attention tal Fund, 55 Fifth Ave., New York, NY Governments cannot be blamed be- on the people who are themselves sick. 1f 10003.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 5 MAY•AUG .• 1986 New Directions The Left Strikes Back

e are the progressive wing of the DemMichael Harrington welcomed participants to the national New Directions conference, held May 2-4 at the Washington, D.C. Conven­ tion Center. And for the two days that followed, the 1,200 feminists, trade unionists, community organizers, minority activists, seniors, college students, and other activists in attendance proceeded to demonstrate that the democratic Left is not only alive, but vibrant and relevant as well. Sponsored by a coalition of more than 70 progressive leaders and spokespeople, the conference was called around the theme Jesse Jackson and Michael Harrington at opening session. that "One Republican Party is more than enough." Its goal was not to present a ence had been just this breaking down of movements capable of forcing them onto finished progressive agenda but rather, as (often false) distinctions between "doers" the national agenda. the conference title indicated, to suggest and "thinkers." Even a very partial listing That will not be accomplished, every­ some common directwns for programmatic suggests the enormous range: participants one agreed, by pursuing Democratic unity and strategic thinking. Conference or­ included labor leaders (Gerald McEntee at any cost. Sharp criticisms were leveled ganizers and participants both felt that the and Carol O'Cleireacain of A.F.S.C.M.E., at those party leaders who are seeking to conference's success in this regard was ex­ the Steelworkers' Lynn Williams, Morton move it to the right; the message of New traordinary, as substantial common ground Bahr and Jan Pierce of C.W.A., Ken Directions was clear: betray Democratic was discovered. Blaylock of A.F.G.E., and the Machinists' principles and you lose any claim to our It is impossible to describe here the full William Winpisinger); analysts (Robert support. This militance was perhaps best breadth encompassed in 40 sessions involv­ Reich, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Robert articulated by DSA co-chair Barbara ing over 120 speakers. Indeed, participants Kuttner, Frances Fox Piven, Jeff Faux, Ehrenreich: were often heard to complain of impossible Barbara Ehrenreich); elected officials (U.S. "A party that dares to take a side cannot choices between equally compelling work­ Representatives Ted Weiss, Lane Evans, be everyone's party. It will not be the shops. Most sessions dealt with policy, both and Major Owens, Manhattan Borough party for the corporate leaders, the domestic and foreign, covering topics such President David Dinkins, and D.C. City CEOs, the religious totalitarians of the as Economic Conversion, Child Care and Councillor Hilda Mason); and movement right, the generals of America's growing the Family, A Progressive Housing Policy, leaders (Gloria Steinem, Jesse Jackson, The Future of Work, and Crime and Social William Hutton, and Ann Lewis). warrior caste . . . But those people al­ Justice. But there was time for discussing Throughout the conference there was ready have a party. It is the rest of us, the majority of the American people, "How?" as well as "What?", in sessions such open acknowledgement of the real defeats who need a political Party of our own. If as Shifting Political Terrain, The New suffered by the Left over the past six years, we can reclaim that party, which is what Populism, New Frontiers in Organizing, but also an encouraging sense of collective we are here to do, then - without any How to Sell Our Message, and Fighting the self-confidence and determination. The question - our side will have the num­ New Right. proposals advanced were humane and bers, the spirit, and the vision to reclaim The sessions were greatly enriched by democratic, but they were not just that - this nation for its people." the distinct yet complementary perspec­ they were workable and relevant as well. tives offered by a diverse mix of activists What we must do, people felt, is communi­ New Directions was a step forward in and analysts. One of the goals of the confer- cate them more effectively and build that struggle. •

DEMOCRATIC lEfT 6 MAY·Auc.• 1986 Roger Wilkins at session on Defending Civil Rights. Go to your comers, and come out ...

~ Frances Fox Piven speaking on The Role Growth Thru Equity: Eleanor Holmes Norton, Charles Hayes, Robert Kuttner, con­ . of Government. ference organizer Jo-Ann Mort, and Jeff Faux.

Luncheon speakers Ann Lewis, Gloria Steinem, and Morton Bahr discuss coalition William Winpisinger attacks Ronald politics. Reagan's foreign policy.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 7 MAY-AUG •• 1986 ------ROUNDTABLE------Robbing the Poor The Neo-Democrats Are Collling

Editors' Note: To say that tM Democratic support in Republican circles. However, jobs abroad; not the shift from manufacture party is in crisis is of com"Se to engage in the emergence of the Democratic Leader­ to service and the consequent disappear­ extreme understatem.ent. But tM nature of ship Council, led by significant politicians ance of precisely those relatively well-paid that crisis, its sources, and tM solutions like Governor Bruce Babbitt of Arizona and and unionized jobs which were the exit are all su!Yject to debate. In this installment former Governor Charles Robb of Virginia, from poverty for several generations. The ofour "Roundtable" feature, we have asked is a far more disturbing phenomenon. It is welfare system is the problem. Mike Harrington, Frances Fox Piven and an attempt on the part ofleaders with con­ The policy implications of such an Richard Clmoard, and Jim Chapin and siderable clout to pull the whole party to the analysis are as clear as they are offensive. Guy Molyneux to explore tMse questions. ideological right~enter, and their concerns Robb, sounding not unlike the president he. We invil.e responses. are not limited to foreign policy. What that allegedly opposes, argues that "for Democ­ means came through with remarkable clar­ rats, reducing the deficit is more important by Michael Harrington ity in a recent speech on welfare and the than preserving individual programs." poor given by Governor Robb at Hofstra Notice, there is no mention of taking back University. the lavish tax benefits for the welfare rich battle is taking place within "It's time," Robb said "to shift the pri­ contained in the 1981 tax act, or of cutting the Democratic Party, not mary focus from racLcim, the traditional the bloated military budget. And that simply over its historic tradi­ enemy from without, to self-defeating pat­ makes sense: if "behavior'' (the "enemy tions, but over its soul And terns of behavior, the new enemy within.'' within") is the problem, and welfare the the outcome of that battle That counterposition - the problem is de­ cause, then one would gladly seek to bal­ Awill partly detennine whether the Demo­ fined either by "racism" or by "behavior'' - ance the budget by cutting programs which crats are able to take control of the Senate is misleading, for it leaves out the institu­ are harmful in the first place. in 1986, or the White House in 1988. tional racism of the economy which has Hut IS Robb right"! 7'11£ New York In part, the issue is foreign policy. At a been the main cause of the de facto second­ Tim.es report on his speech rightly noted meeting of the Democratic Policy Commis­ class citirenship of American minorities. that one of the first Democrats to talk about sion last month, Penn Kemble, a leader of Robb went on to argue that the welfare this issue was Daniel Patrick Moynihan (in the neo-conservative - and often neo­ system "seems to be subsidizing the spread his famous memo for President Johnson on Reaganite - Committee for a Democratic of self-destructive behavior in our poor the "Negro Family'' in 1965). But the Times Majority, attacked Congressperson communities." Not the di'laBtrous unem­ wrongly tried to link Robb's critique with Stephen Solarz for criticizing the President ployment rate; not the export of American Moynihan's. There is only one small prob- on grounds of "ideological ineptitude~ in dealing with the South African racist gov­ ernment, "puerile name calling" with re­ gard to the Soviet Union, and "ilrjudicious confrontation" in Central America. Solarz was clearly stating the position of the majority of Congressional Demo­ crats on all three counts. Even more to the point, he was right. The Administration's line of"constructive engagement" with the South African minority government effec­ tively amounted to condoning apartheid. The comments about the "evil empire" made it more difficult to carry out essential negotiations with the Soviet Union. And the publicly "covert" attempt to overthrow the government of Nicaragua has betrayed the best of the anti-imperialist insincts of the nation. It might seem strange to attack a con­ gressperson of the opposition party for criticizing the president. But then the Co­ alition for a Democratic Majority is a group with little influence in the Democratic mainstream, even if it has considerable

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 8 MAY•AUG .. 1916 icy, he went from a timid liberalism in 1977 to a timid conservatism in 1979. Ronald Reagan, it will be remembered, came on as a bold, even radical, leader who was willing to overturn the traditional wisdom of the past in applying the nostrum of "supply­ side economics." At the same time, he talked a populist rhetoric about getting government off the back of the rank-and­ file citizen. He was anything but a me-tooer or a centrist in his political appeal. Robb and others of his ilk have a rather simple analysis of this history: "reaction sells." Now, oppportunism of this kind is never attractive, but when it is also self­ - defeating it's hard to see what it has to offer. For the relevant lessons are a) con­ servative Democrats fare poorly in national elections, and b) Americans will reward bold political leadership, not hedging and "It doesn't work that way - you can't just command a mandate from the people." , cowering. It's time for those who would move the Democratic Party to the right to wake up and discover that there already is a Rea­ lem with this: Moynihan's recent book, planation lies in a dangerous misreading of ganite Republican Party, authentic and de­ Family and Natiun, convincingly refutes Ronald Reagan's extraordinary popularity eply committed. Attempting to create just about everything Robb said at Hofstra. which could have terrible electoral conse­ another such party, with nominal Demo­ For instance, Moynihan quotes the quences for the Democrats in the future. crats in charge, is a recipe for defeat. For if very careful analyses of welfare recipients In 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated a the Democratic Party is not ready to which derived from a University of Michi­ man who, in many ways, originated the criticil.e Ronald Reagan and defend its own gan study of five thousand American politics of the Democratic Leadership historic traditions, it will lose - and worse, families over many years. It showed that Cowicil. Jimmy Carter did a number of it will deserve to lose. • about half of the women who receive Aid to good things, particularly in the area of Families with Dependent Children human rights, arms negotiations and the Michael Harrington is national co-chair of (AFDC) are forced to that point by the Middle East. But on issues of economic pol- DSA. death or desertion of the father of their child or children, and that they largely leave AFDC in two years or less by getting a job. Only about 15% of the AFDC Change the USA! mothers, the Michigan analysis argues, are chronicly welfare dependent. Moynihan Join the DSA! quotes the conclusion: " ... the system does not foster dependency,'' it is "a kind of Members of the Democratic Socialists of America work in every day-to-day strug­ insurance . . . providing temporary assis­ gle for social justice. We bring a strategy for building alliances among all the movements tance." for social change. And we bring a vision of a society that can satisfy the demands for dignity Moynihan also follows the lead of the and justice-a socialist society. Join the people working to bring together all the move­ Congressional Research Service and other ments for social change . . . and to b1ing together day-to-day battles and long-term analysts in noting that one of the main strategies and visions. causes of the outrageous increase in the Join DSA. percentage of children who are poor is to be 0 Send me more information about democratic socialism. fowid in the rising inequality of the United 0 Enclosed find my dues (0 $50 sustaining; 0 $35 regular; D $15 limited income. Dues States promoted by the Reagan Adminis­ include $8 for DEMOCRATIC LEFI'.) tration. The "enemy without" named 0 I would like to subscribe to DEMOCRATIC LEIT: 0 $15 sustaining; D $8 regular Ronald Reagan is, it turns out, rather more D I would like to subscribe to the discussion bulletin, Socialist Forum, $10. important than the "enemy within." And Moynihan's position takes on a special Send to: Democratic Socialists of America, 15 Dutch St., Suite 500, New York, NY 10038. weight when it is remembered that he was Tel.: (212) 962--0390. attacked in the Sixties for being too con­ cerned with behavior rather than external Name forces. That is, Robb is promoting a politics well to the right not only of liberalism, but Address of the Democratic center as well. ___ Zip ______City/State ------­ ls this simply an analytical disagree­ ment? I think not. At least part of the ex- Phone ------Union, Schoo~ Other Affiliation ------

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 9 M.u-AuG.• 1• ------ROUNDTABLE------Mobilization, Not Compro111ise

were real achievements, most of which nevertheless survived despite the fierce have come, over time, to win the support of and insistent assault by the Reagan Admin­ by Frances Fox Piven majorities and are likely to endure - con­ istration, not least because the polls show and Richard Cloward flict and reaction notwithstanding. True, that the large majority of Americans have civil rights enforcement is being weakened come to endorse them. by the Reagan Administration, but minor­ It is also important to see that popular e are at a low point in ity political rights have not been rescinded dissatisfaction with some aspects of the electoral politics. The in the South, and mob and state terror have transformations which occurred during the Reagan Administra­ past two decades does not explain our cur­ tion has scored large not been revived as the principal means of rent electoral plight. To be sure, popular majorities, and the poll controlling blacks. Nor are women likely to dataW continue to show that the President be pressed back into traditional roles. discontents provide a rationale, a source of enjoys extraordinary personal popularity, These gains in legal rights and cultural at­ legitimation for the rightwing attempt to somehow remaining impervious to the ill titudes toward women and minorities are roll back the gains that were made. But effects of his policies. major historical achievements. Similarly, there are far more important reasons for These circumstances have disoriented Americans now strongly endorse environ­ the success of the rightwing counterattack. the left. We seem to be adrift and uncertain mental controls won by the ecology move­ One is the unprecedented mobilization ment. They have come to understand that by economic elites, a mobilization compara­ of our role. But there have been similar low points in the past - the 1920s and the industry, left to itself, will poison them for ble to the organization of northern industri­ 1950s, for example. And there has always profit. And the antiwar movement im- alists and southern planters during the clos- been a singular role for the left. To rediscover that role, we must set aside the prevailing view - put forward by many liberals as well as the right - which blames the left itself for the current im­ passe. Presumably the successes of the right are the result of a backlash against the preceding policies of the liberal left. Those policies ostensibly provoked a popular reaction - for example, against the social programs that were won by the militance of black people and women, or more generally a reaction against an atmosphere of liberal permissiveness which is said to have en­ couraged the decay of traditional American values. Of course, this notion of a popular backlash is not entirely without merit. The political changes set in motion during the 1960s did offend many people. Black de­ mands evoked American racism; the de­ planted a current of skepticism in our politi­ ing years of the nineteenth century, when mands of women excited resistance arising cal culture about patriotic nationalism, and insurgent industrial workers and the from deep patriarchal attitudes; the about American imperial ambitions, that Populists were crushed. Second, the con­ liberalization of lifestyles was upsetting. has also had lasting effects. temporary mobilization is taking place in Then there was the resentment of Not least, Americans have come to the context of large-scale shifts in the working-class people over the question of approve of the idea that the state has a American economy which are profoundly who was paying for new domestic pro­ responsibility to ensure the economic alarming to ordinary Americans. Whatever grams, as well as the (often justified) skei:r well-being of its citizens, both through the actual long-term significance of these ticism about whether it was the poor or the macro-economic policies, and through the shifts, they are being skillfully exploited by "povertycrats" who were benefiting more. particular programs designed to protect business propagandists. Economic elites And beyond these specific sore points, those who are most vulnerable to the naked are hammering home the doctrine that in there was and is a backlash because the forces of the market - the poor, the dis­ this new era of the intemationalimtion of articulation ofnew demands and new hopes abled, the dependent young and the old. capital and labor, American workers and by new groups is always bound to be un­ Although the service and entitlement pro­ citizens are inevitably pitted against cheap settling and disturbing. grams that were either expanded or inau­ labor in the Third World, and must either But that said, the far more important gurated in the past two decades suffered accept less or court the disaster of ac­ point is that there was also progress. There cuts, the basic structure of programs has celerating capital flight. Third, and most

DEMOCRATIC LfFT 10 MAY·AUG .• 1986 important, the rightwing counterattack has forces on which the left depends. And the paigns. 'The strategists of a center coalition drawn strength from the apparent short.­ work we do nourishes the political culture do not emphasize enlisting millions of new term improvements in the economy. Rea­ of opposition. It strengthens the always in­ voters from the bottom; indeed, a center gan swept to victory in 1984 on the crest of extinguishable ability of ordinary people to strategy is more likely to succeed if new an economic boom. Nor is that surprising. remain skeptical, to think critically, and, constituencies are kept from entering the It is a virtual law of modern politics that the when the time seems right, to articulate active electorate, because these groups state of the economy determines the out­ their interests and mobilize to advance would press unpopular demands. come of presidential races. them. 'The United States is the only western In this spirit, there is a specific or­ democracy without a system of automatic ganizing effort for which we, the left, registration, and it is not likely that the should take particular responsibility. We left's natural base can be enlisted on a mass "It should not be the mis­ ought to be working to reverse the electoral scale unless reforms are instituted which demobilization of the groups who are our move in the direction of automatic registra­ sion ofthe Left to negotiate natural constituencies, a demobilization tion. 'There were some important innova­ compromises." which is owed more than anything else to tions in the 1982-84 campaigns which made the system of obstacles lmown as personal mass registration easier. Instead of the periodic registration. A good deal of voter traditional door-to-door approach, volun­ registration work took place in the 1982-84 teer registrars stationed themselves in the When combined with the misguided period among the poor and minorities in an crowded waiting rooms of welfare and un­ view that we are in the midst of a popular effort to overcome those obstacles. But the employment offices. Even more important, shift. to the right, these conditions - the right responded by accelerating voter reg­ some state and local public officials were business mobilization, the internationali7.a­ istration among better-off groups and the persuaded to make staff-assisted voter reg­ tion of the economy, and the apparent suc­ contest ended in a class stalemate. Over the istration services available in an array of cess of the Reagan economic interventions longer term, however, the statistics are on government agencies that serve working - help account for the definite inclination our side: of the roughly 60 million who are and poor people. 'These precedents suggest of erstwhile liberals and leftists to retreat, unregistered, 40 million have incomes the feasibility of new strategies for opening to fold up their banners and pack up their below the median. Because obstructive the electoral system to the bottom, particu­ picket signs by throwing in with the neolib­ county-based registration requirements, larly if the relatively small-scale efforts of erals. The emerging strategy is to form a especially the practice of sharply limiting voter registration organizations during coalition of the center on the pragmatic the times and places to register, effectively 1982-84 were enlarged by support from grounds that it might stand a chance of disenfranchise millions of working and poor other groups on the left. halting the consolidation of the right, and people, the current electoral situation is We can bring pressure on northern that neoliberals, whatever their faults, are much worse than it would otherwise be. and western Democratic governors and at least preferable to the right. During the voter registration cam­ mayors (especially those whose personal But striking such compromises is not paign of 1982-84, the Republican National electoral fortunes are likely to be enhanced the job of the left. For one thing, it is fatu­ Committee and the Christian right poured by the support of new voters from the bot­ ous to think that the left's imprimatur millions into their registration drives, while tom) to establish registration services in would much improve the chances of a cen­ the Democratic National Committee spent the agencies under their jurisdictions, as ter coalition coming to power. We are not a nothing, and it does not intend to spend the governors of New York, Ohio, Texas, European social democratic party. For anything to enlarge voting by the poor and Montana and Idaho have already done. And another, and this is the more important minorities in either the 1986 or 1988 cam- we can also urge the executives of volun­ point, it should not be the mission of the left tary community agencies - health centers, to negotiate compromises. daycare centers, planned parenthood It is our mission to strengthen the so­ clinics - to provide registration services at cial forces that both make compromise nec­ their reception desks. By such measures, it essary, and shape t he terms of com­ may well be within our reach to make voter promise. That is what we do when we or­ registration widely accessible, and that ganize opposition to American intervention would be in the long-term interest of the in Central America, or when we support left. organizations of the unemployed, of work­ These kinds of organizing activities lay ing women, and of minorities, or when we the groundwork for the time when more is undertake local community organizing possible. 'The industrial workers movement projects, or lend our support to insurgent did not spring fullblown from the upsurge of unions. It is what we do when we articulate strikes in the 1930s; rank-and-file the aspirations of the poor in America, and organizer/insurgents on the shop floors had it is what we do when we raise our voices to for years been spreading the idea that denounce escalating arms expenditures and workers could strike and win industrial to defend the programs of the welfare state. democracy. 'The civil rights movement di

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 11 MAY·AUG.• 1916 The point is that even in grim times ------ROUNDTABLE egm------organizing efforts keep alive left alterna­ tives and possibilities. The work we do now can help to counter "the doctrine of neces­ sity'' that is being used to bludgeon working people, and to justify dismantling the pro­ Democratic Impasse: tections of the welfare state. And the work we do can also help to overcome the institu­ tional obstacles that still maintain the elec­ Myth and Reality toral demobilization of the lower classes, which has distorted American politics in this century. Frances Fox Piwn and Richard A. Clo­ ward t,each, respectively, at the City Uni­ by Jim Chapin As there is confusion regarding the versity ofNw York Graduate Center and precise nature of the Democrats' crisis, so there are many misunderstandings of its Columbia University. Their m-O(lt recent and Guy Molyneux book is The New Class War. causes. It is oft.en stated that Democratic weakness derives from the change in the distribution of the American population: he Democratic Party is in des­ the rise ofthe conservative South and West Deeper perate shape - or so we hear. at the expense of "traditional Democratic Continued frrnn page 17 Yet, this is a party which at strength" in the Northeast and Middle this very moment holds a West. But this too is legend: the South and arrangement can be worked out without higher percentage of all public West were Democratic bastions, and the prior concessions from Managua to offices than almost any other party in Northeast and Middle West Republican negotiate "internal reconciliation" with the American history. Democratic dominance strongholds, all the way through the 1948 contras, presumably leading to some kind of registration numbers, state legislatures, election! The Roosevelt coalition rested on of power-sharing, new elections, and the governorships, and the House of Repre­ a racially exclusive coalition in the South, end of emergency measures prompted by sentatives is not contested at any serious and once the race issue raised its head in the security threat of the war. In view of level. And Republican dominance of the 1948 there never was a "Solid South" again President Reagan's announced determina­ Senate is largely the result of the "rotten except for Republicans Nixon in 1972 and tion to make the Sandinistas "cry uncle," borough" apportionment of that body: even Reagan in 1984. it's easy to understand why Nicaragua per­ in 1980, the Democrats got more votes for Furthermore, focus on the South ceives the "democratic reforms" demanded Senate than did the Republicans. obscures the Democratic presidential prob­ by Washington as virtual capitulation. The Democrats' problem can be de­ lem. Let's imagine a conservative's night­ Secretary of State George Shultz, en fined quite precisely: holding the presi­ mare of America: the District of Columbia, route to an 0.A.S. meeting in Cartagena, dency. Here their problem is older than is Massachusetts, and New York. This trun­ Colombia where the Ministers of the commonly observed. The only Democrats cated "liberal" version of America would Contadora/Lima Group countries had to win a majority of the Presidential vote in have elected Humphrey in 1968, but still gathered, stated that Washington's sup­ this century were Franklin Roosevelt (four would have elected Nixon in 1972 and Rea­ port for the contras "is indefinite and will times) and Lyndon Johnson (in 1964). Ex­ gan both times. Or let's take the giant state simply continue. I believe that the message cept for the close wins of 1916, 1948, 1960 of California, which has elected liberal is that we are determined to maintain that and 1976, and the Republican split of 1912, Democrats to many state and federal offices support." these would have been the only five Demo­ since 1952. In those eight Presidential elec­ The Secretary of State is nothing ifnot cratic presidential victories since 1896. tions, California went Democratic only in consistent, but this policy will only lead to Even an optimistic reading of this history 1964. Those who say that the Democrats an escalating conflict. The Administration would have to concede a Republican presi­ must have policies conservative enough to is determined to slug it out in Central dential realignment since 1968. satisfy the South haven't bothered to ex­ America, and while it would rather not Of course, saying that the Democrats' plain what about their national policies fails commit troops, the logic of its own rhetoric only problem is the presidency is somewhat to appeal to California! - designating the Sandinistas a "vital akin to saying that the Soviets "only'' had threat" to the nation's security - may yet trouble with Reactor #4 at Chernobyl. The "It is clear that our prob­ entrap it. Certainly Reagan's unwillingness continued centramation of power in the to contemplate anything but a unilaterally­ executive branch, together with a presi­ lem is much bigger than imposed U.S. solution in Central America dent's ability to manipulate the media and class-skewed registration." has doomed the region to many more years control foreign policy, means that, increas­ of bloodshed, and a deepening role for ingly, to control the presidency is to control Washington. American government. Additionally, a In fact, the most significant change in Larry Birns is the Director, and David political generation is coming of age which American politics over the last four decades MacMichael is a Senior Research Fellow has experienced only a failed Democratic has been the steady rise of a national politi­ with the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. presidency and a successful Republican cal system. The state-by-state and Colin Danfly is the managing editor of one; if support for Ronald Reagan is not to section-by-section differences in the presi­ COHA's /Yiweekly publication, the Wash­ become lifetime attachment to the Republi­ dential vote have been declining for years. ington Report on the Hemisphere. can party, something must change soon. In so far as there are local differences, these

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 12 MAv-Auc.. 1986 their pragmatism and effectiveness. "Effi­ ciency" is the central concept here, as the cult of the entrepreneur - already trium­ phant in business - takes over politics as well. While this might prove effective in a campaign for county executive, as a strat­ egy for taking back the White House it leaves more than a little to be desired. Those Democrats who run away from politics oft.en run away from their sup­ porters as well. Many neo-liberals attribute Democratic electoral difficulties to "fringe constituencies" such as women, minorities, and gays. The problem with this approach, beyond the fact that these "fringes" make up a majority of the population, is the dubi­ ous proposition that the way to attract new constituencies to on~·s movement is to begin by attacking those one already has. Conservative Republicans could have begun by defining their "problem" as un­ popular Christian fundamentalists and at­ ROTH CO tacking them, but of course they didn't. ~ Democrats who advance this analysis are so busy disassociating themselves from "We must be nearing Washington." half their own party that they haven't bothered to explain just how their policies differ from those Reagan is already putting into effect, or why anyone of any persuasion generally help the Democrats, which is why Th( should want to elect them to office. As con­ they so monopofu.e local offices and the The problem then is not demographic, servative political analyst Kevin Phillips locally-based House of Representatives. it is political. It is the Democrats' failure to recently suggested in The Village Voice, At the same time, some on the left present coherent national politics that lies this is a prescription for political suicide: have suggested that our problem is primar­ at the heart of their dilemma, and gives "The biggest mistake the Democrats can ily the current shape of the electorate. If many people a sense of pervasive crisis make, short of becoming the party of all the only we registered the unregistered, the about a party which is doing well by so fringe groups, would be to become the argument goes, a progressive majority many statistical indicators. The public sim­ party of all the yuppies with the BMWsand would emerge. This is a convenient ply does not have confidence in the Democ­ the Cuisinarts, because that's another analysis, absolving us of any responsibility rats' ability to direct the country, especially loser. What the Democrats have to be, and to reexamine assumptions and programs, the economy. In part this can be attributed what they've always been in their various but that is precisely why we should be wary to the failure of the only Democratic admin­ incarnations, is the party of blue-collar about adopting it. Having failed to per­ istrations in the last twenty years workers, farmers, minorities, and a large suade the voting public of our ability to (Johnson's and Carter's). But those failures chunk of the middle class." govern, we are advised to look now to non­ have had an even more important indirect That the party needs to reach middle voters - the latest in a long line ofusubsti­ impact: they have made Democrats so class voters cannot be seriously disputed. tute proletariats" for the left - to provide afraid of debate about economic policies But thus far the party's national leadership deliverance. that they have abandoned this field to the has only figured out how to alienate the Unfortunately, all the polling data Republicans. supporters it has. suggests that non-voters would not vote much differently than do current voters; It would be difficult to exaggerate the they are slightly to the left on economic depth of the resulting confusion. Consider Opportunity knocks issues and slightly to the right on social this question: what would the next Demo­ The tragedy here is that this strategic issues. When you remember that Reagan cratic president do? What wills/he do about incompetence may cause the party to miss received nearly 50% of the vote from voters foreign policy and, above all, the economy? important opportunities. It's oft.en mistak­ below the poverty line (and most non­ What would be the top legislative proposals enly a."sumed that the Democrats can only registrants are not poor), it is clear that our of the first 100 days? The painful answer is wait for the economy to falter and then take problem is much bigger than class-skewed that one simply has no idea. power, and that if the economy stays rea­ registration. This is not to say that voter­ Ironically, for many neo-liberals this sonably healthy they will never come to registration should be abandoned: it can be obfuscation is a conscious strategy in re­ power again. In fact, many incumbent ad­ an important tactic, particularly at the local sponse to the political impasse they see. ministrations have fallen from power in rel­ level, in the service ofcampaigns. But polit­ Not having the courage or inclination to atively good times, among them the Demo­ ical leaders and issues generate new voters challenge Republican politics, they seek to crats themselves in 1952 and 1968. Fur­ (as in Chicago with Harold Washington), make competence the focal point. "Success­ thermore, the Republicans' current pro­ not vice-versa - tactics cannot replace ful" Democratic politicians - usually gov­ gram has little relevance to the problems politics. ernors - are highlighted, celebrated for this country faces, and many of its compo-

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 13 MAY-AUG .• 1986 nents are distinctly unpopular. For exam­ politics. Different people will have different but also security, they are future-oriented, ple, key members of the Administration lists, but programs and demands should be they want private morality instead ofpublic now advocate universal urine tests, blood 1) relevant to people's lives, 2) of universal morality. And neither party is currently tests, and polygraph tests - all from concern, and 3) in clear opposition to free prepared to meet these needs. people who believe that a visit from an market ideology: We must put together a bold, far­ OSHA inspector violates civil liberties! To • One of the great scandals ofour time reaching program. It will take debate and quote Phillips again, "Social issues can is that children are the worst-treated age even struggle. These are not an issues on boomerang on the Republicans, but only group in society: education at all levels which every progressive, not to say every because ... they have gone too far. For the takes a back seat to military expansion, Democrat, agrees. But the opportunity last 20 years, the people have been reacting 25% of our children are being raised in pov­ exists to redefine the limits of political dis­ against the Democrats. We are finally, in erty, and while macroeconomic changes course as successfully as the Right did in the late 1980's, coming to a point where the have forced a majority of mothers to work, the late seventies. Surely we can be equally public will react against the Republicans." we continue to treat childcare as a personal as imaginative and radical. • It would be a mistake, however, to concern. This is an area which the Demo­ think that simply opposing unpopular Re­ crats need to make their own, supporting Jim Chapin is an historian, a Democratic publican programs is an adequate strategy. some sort of basic child grant, decreases in party activist, and a niember of DSA's Na­ Democrats have to think about why Rea­ the work week, increased funding for edu­ tional Int.erim Committee.Guy Molyneux gan's presidency has been popular. He has cation, support systems for families in the is DSA's Organizational Director. succeeded not simply because he performs form of day-care and pre-school programs, the ceremonial functions of the presidency and so on. better than any president of this century • As we write, People Express is up except .the two Roosevelts, Eisenhower, for sale, and it seems virtually certain that and Kennedy (although that is important), eventually four or five giant airline com­ May Day but because he has focused only on big panies will survive, with air fares rising to Continued from page 28 themes: America's place in the world, pros­ their old level. The only real accomplish­ perity at home, "big government,'' and so ment of deregulation - aside from the manded a nation of wage-earners who, by on. In contrast, most Democrats have, as widely noted decline in safety - will thus virtue of their dependence on their employ­ was said of Adlai Stevenson, "an instinct for be a bodyblow to unions and a great reduc­ ers, would lose the capacity for indepen­ the capillaries'' - they criticize the details tion in workers' salaries, especially in pre­ dent thinking and responsible political ac­ of the Reagan program while conceding its dominantly female occupations (such as the tion. Only in a society where all the eco­ underlying assumptions. airline attendants). Re-regulation of vital nomic producers achieved independence The party must be prepared to project services - including transportation, com­ through individual ownership of a farm or a clear alternative vision and program, that munication, and banking - is essential for shop, or through cooperative ownership of is, an ideology. This vision must transcend both consumers and workers. a factory, could democracy survive. the division between "us" and "them" which • • Every poll suggests widespread The Knights failed in their attempt to lies at the center of contemporary Ameri­ public support for disarmament and opposi­ abolish wage labor and establish a coopera­ can politics. For the past quarter century tion to foreign intervention, yet many tive commonwealth. But their desire to rad­ Democratic liberalism has been based on an Democrats have decided to follow the Pres­ ically transform society in ways that af­ elitist altruism: "we'' should help "them." ident's lead here. Surely all citizens share firmed rather than denied democratic prin­ With the end of economic growth, many an interest in moving away from a foreign ciples is worthy of commemoration. May Americans were persuaded that they policy that resembles, in Harry Britt's Day rightfully belongs to all those, like the couldn't afford to help "them" any longer. words, an adolescent male puberty ritual. Knights, seeking to build democratic, anti­ As Robert Reich has suggested, this is not • Deindustrialization, a growing serv­ capitalist movements. Democratic so­ a tenable philosophical basis for a lasting ice sector, union busting, and public sector cialists might think of May Day as an oppor­ progressivism. retrenchment are together yielding a tunity to counterpose the Knights' repub­ Instead we need to develop a collective polarized society. Increasingly, we are di­ licanism to Reagan's Republicanism. If politics, which emphasizes our shared vided into two camps: some people clean enough of us approach May Day in that interest in confronting social problems. the homes of, and serve Big Macs to, other manner, perhaps our children will one day Such a sensibility marked Democratic poli­ people who are too busy making money to experience May Day as a celebration of tics prior to 1960, emerging from the real take care of themselves. The poor are not democracy - political, social, economic - experiences of the Depression and World "them" - many of us are just a plant closing rather than as a demonstration of the mili­ War Two. In a suburbanized, fragmented or medical catastrophe away (or, if another tary might of an undemocratic, repressive culture, it became increasingly plausible Supreme Court seat becomes vacant, just regime. • that everyone was on their own (though an unwanted pregnancy away). Our agenda Gary Gerstle uaches American hist-Ory at post-war prosperity of course owed much must include an increased minimum wage, Princeton University and is completing a to highway projects, the G. I. bill, and other labor law reform, more generous and em­ book on unionism and working-dass cul­ public initiatives). We must now persuade a powering welfare systems, and jobs pro­ ture in twentieth-century America. younger generation that the challenges of grams. nuclear weapons, technological transfor­ Caring for our children, decent serv­ mation, changing family structures, and ices, peace, shared prosperity - these are Beat the Christmas Rush! global economic transition also require a ideas the Democrats must advance without Buy DSA literature for family collective response. hedging or embarrassment. The American In the space allowed here we can only people are anti-establishment but not and friends. suggest a few of the themes of such a new anti-government, they want opportunity

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 14 MAY-AUG.• 1986 Getting in Deeper

Editors' Note: 1'he followi.ng article was written before the House of Repre­ .~entatives' capitulation to the President cm ai.d to the contras. The U.S.-backed war against Nicaragua 1ww seems certain to escalate, and the C.l.A. is going to take expert control of the contra fOTCes. BirrnJ, Danby, and MacMiclw.el analyze here the sophisticated media nianipul,ation and the l.ogic ofescalation that led to "G'Ulf ofTon­ kin II." by Larry Birns, Colin Danby, and David MacMichael

late March, U.S. military forces ent into action in Central America. n response to an alleged Sandinista mvasion," U.S. helicopters ferried onduran troop.-; to defend contra Washington will sooner or later topple the U.S. role, as was demonstrated during the campsL on the Nicaraguan frontier. The ac­ Sandinistas and the rewards will go, obvi­ last week in March. There was another tion had more than a whiff of history about ously, to those who showed themselves Vietnam echo: the War Powers Act, one of it: Marines occupied Nicaragua from 1912 most amenable to U.S. direction. the most important pieces of legislative to 1925and 1926to 1933, to"protectAmeri­ Washington is no more inclined than it reaction to the disaster in Southeast Asia, can interests" and fight the rebel general was at the turn of the century to dilute its was unceremoniously brushed aside as Augusto Cesar Sandino. Indeed, the his­ power in the region. The Administration U.S. troops were introduced in a combat tory of Central America has largely been sees as its most serious foe the U.S. opposi­ support capacity in Honduras without shaped by Washington, and President tion, lodged mainly in the liberal wing of the Congressional consultation. Reagan means to go on running the affairs Democratic Party, which is why during the of that unfortunate isthmus. most recent round ofdebate over funding to International Jaw, self-detennination, the Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries - On the Border and non-intervention are fine words, but contras - domestic critics found them­ The confusion and deception surround­ when it comes to Central America the 1927 selves accused of virtual treason, calum­ ing the events in Honduras may have dictum of Undersecretary of State Robert niated with greater ferocity than the San­ obscured the fundamental and dangerous Olds still holds: it is the United States that dinistas themselves. changes in the Central American conflict determines which governments stand and Those Congressional opponents may represented by the Administration's re­ which fall. In El Salvador, Jose Napoleon be of different minds on the morality of spon.<;e. Honduras, which for four years had Duarte serves at the pleasure of the United applying U.S. power abroad, but many pretended that the contra facilities on its States, elevated to a ceremonial presidency were seared by the Vietnam war, and have territory did not exist, was forced by Wash­ by a U.S. ~ngineered ballot. Honduras, been struck from the beginning by disturb­ ington not only to aclmowledge their pres­ too, has a made-in-Washington democracy ing similarities between U.S. policies in ence, but also to use its own forces to pro­ whose President is barely allowed to choose Central America and those in Southeast tect the rebels. And the United States, in what he will eat for breakfast. Guatemala's Asia twenty years ago. Time and again, violation of President Reagan's recent courageous new chief executive also con­ they have been told that the Sandinista pledges, became directly involved, using fronts an entrenched military apparatus, government of Nicaragua will fold ifa little U.S. Army helicopters and crews to trans­ installed by Washington thirty years ago. more pressure is applied to it, if the U.S.­ port Honduran troops to combat wnes. Costa Rica's neutrality and anti-military created contras are furnished with a few On March 23 the Reagan Administra­ traditions have been undermined by the more millions in aid. But as Washington has tion, following a hasty and unpublicized trip crudest kind of U.S .• pressure. And in upped the stakes, Nicaragua has only be­ to Tegucigalpa by Assistant Secretary of Nicaragua, internal detente is rendered dif­ come more defiant. State for Inter-American Affairs Elliott ficult because the opposition believes that The result, inevitably, is a stepped-up Abrams, announced a Nicaraguan invasion

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 15 MAY-AUG.• 1916 of Honduras. Though they must have known it was a routine incursion, Adminis­ tration propag-andists blew the raid up into "the biggest firefight in the history of Cen­ tral America.·• The initial reports on the fighting were greeted with skepticLc;m by many in the media. The Honduran government at first denied any knowledge of an incursion. Con­ tra sources were also unable to coITOborate the first Administration reports. Only later

was a semblance of coordination achieved. No.I f'aU 1'1S After heavy U.S. pressure on Tegucigalpa, DSA focus on DSA 1915 Conv•ntton including threats to withhold future mili­ tary aid, Honduras capitulated, reported that it had been invaded, and asked for U.S. assistance. This came in the form of transfer to the Honduran army, on presi­ Literature Sale dential authority, of $20 million worth of A PATH FOR AMERICA: PROPOSALS FROM THE DEMOCRATIC LEFT military hardware (interestingly enough, of (Dissent Pamphlet 4), by Michael Harrington .50 just the type the contra forces are said to DEMOCRACY AND DICTATORSHIP IN LATIN AMERICA, Voices and opinions of writers from Latin America 2.00 need) and the use of U.S. helicopters to DEMOCRATIC LEFT (Most back issues available in quantity) .50 transport Honduran troops to the area, or EUROSOCIALISM AND AMERICA, edited by nancy Lieber, articles by supposed area, of the fighting. Harrington, Palme, Brandt, Mitterrand. Published at $17.95 2.00 FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON THE FAMILY (Vol. 10 of Women Over the week the welter of detail Organizing) 1.00 coming from Administration sources grew PERSPECTIVES ON LESBIAN & GAY LIBERATION & SOCIALISM .50 ever more uncertain. The invading San­ TAX POLICY AND THE ECONOMY (A debate between Michael Hanington dinistas were said initially to number over and Rep. Jack Kemp) .50 2,000, then 1,600 or 1,500, then only 800. THE BLACK CHURCH AND MARXISM, by James Cone .50 THE NEW AMERICAN POVERTY, by Michael HruTington The Administration said they were in El Orders of 5 copies or more only (Paper, published at $7.95) 5.50 Paraiso department, the Hondurans said THE VAST MAJORITY: A Journey to the World's Poor, by Michael Olancho. A Nicaraguan battalion was said Harrington (Published at $10.95) 1.00 to be trapped and suffering hundreds of THIRD WORLD SOCIALISTS, Issue No. 2 .50 WOMEN OF COLOR (Vol. 11 of Women Organizing) .50 dead and wounded, then it had withdrawn safely. Finally, reporters were shown five corpses, and two prisoners, complete with Free Literature convenient diaries. To confuse matters further, Nicaragua denied categorically (Send stamped, self-addressed envelope.) that it had sent a single soldier into Hon­ .WE ARE THE NEW SOCIALISTS duras - Chief of Staff Joaquin Cuadra de­ WHERE WE STAND: A Position Statement of the Democratic Socialists of America clared that his forces were only counter­ FOR A MORE LIVABLE WORLD (Religion and Socialism brochure) WHICH WAY AMERICA? Political Penipective of the DSA Youth Section attacking contra forces within Nicaragua. FUTURE OF LABOR (Special issue of Denuxratic !Aft) Meanwhile, almost everyone in both We will bill for shipping of bulk orders. countries, including the Honduran presi­ dent, went off for Easter holidays at the beach. Socialist Forum Clearly. something had happened along the Honduran·Nicaraguan border. Read the discussion bulletin of DSA and find out what dem()('ratic i>ocialists around the country are thinking. $1013 issue subscription. Equally clearly, whatever had happened Issue No. 6, Focus on Economic Alternatives & Strategie11 for DSA 3.00 had been manipulated and misrepresented Issue No. 7, Spring 1985, Focus on "Whither DSA?" 3.00 by Abrams and hL

DEMOCRATIC l.EFT 16 MAY· AUG•• 1986 ambassadorial relations. Now the Reagan Administration, in its zeal to get Congressional support for the contra enterprise, has stripped the figleaf from Tegucigalpa. This time, instead of merely denouncing with the usual pro forrna note a territorial violation that Man­ agua could just as routinely deny, the Hon­ durans sent troops to confront Nicaraguan forces. More than that, they have commit­ ted those troops to the defense of the contra camps against Nicaraguan attack. More~>Ver, they have accepted U.S. mili­ tary support in doing so. The Nicaraguans have also crossed, or been pushed, across a divide. Their initial categorical denials of an intrusion were simply the usual boilerplate. But in the face of Washington's hoopla and the Honduran action, with its credibility severly dam­ aged, Managua belatedly came clean. On March 28, President Ortega declared in a televised speech that since Honduras no longer exercised sovereignty over the bor­ der zones from which the contras operate, across the border, they suffered a Nicara­ sional opponents of contra aid, and de­ these would be considered combat rones in guan government raid on one of their major lighted the Administration, which can now which Nicaragua, under international law, camps, and apparently took considerable claim that it is Managua which spurns a could carry out acts to defend itself. At the losses. As a result, Honduran forces have diplomatic solution. same time, however, Nicaragua reiterated been called on to protect them, further On the other hand, Nicaragua does not its appeal to Honduras to accept interna­ demonstrating the contras' weakness. The believe that Honduras and Costa Rica have tional supervision of the border under Con­ new Honduran government of President tadora auspices. the will, let alone the capacity, to control Jose Azcona, already under heavy domestic the contra forces and keep their end of the pressure to get rid of the contras, has been bargain. The current draft treaty requires Expanded U.S. Role hurt by its display of subservience to Wash­ all parties to "deny the use of and dismantle Tqe final ingredient is that the U.S. ington. On the eve of the Nicaraguan incur­ logistical and operational support installa­ Army has finally taken an open and direct sion, two contras murdered Father William tions and facilities in their territories used role. Surely, Honduras has both the surface Arsenault, a Canadian priest in Tegu­ to launch activities against neighboring and air transport capacity (at least 15 cigalpa who had Jong served as head of the governments," and to "disarm and remove UH-lH and UH-IB helicopters) to move a relief organization CARETAS. Bishop from border rones any group or irregular few hundred troops to Eastern El Paraiso Luis Alfonso Santos of Santa Rosa de Co­ force identified as being responsible for ac­ department, and has experien.ce in doing pan, condemning the crime, also criticized tions against a neighboring State." so, having participated in numerous exer­ the Honduran government for tolerating Since Honduras still has not officially cises with U.S. forces over the past four the contra presence. admitted that there are contra camps in its years. Yet Washington decided to use territory, it would presumably not consider helicopters and crews to ferry Honduran itself obligated to disarm and remove the troops into a region in which there was little No Peace irregular forces from the border area. exact lmowledge of the number and loca­ The events of late March heightened Moreover, the U.S.-backed rebels are ac­ tion of Nicaraguan forces. the sense of urgency arowid Contadora. tually stronger than the Honduran military This happened only a week after Pres­ However, the Panama meeting broke up in ground forces, and pacifying the border ident Reagan indignantly denied any intent April 7, with Nicaragua refusing to sign the would be impossible without strong U.S. of using U.S. forces in the Central Ameri­ draft treaty without explicit assurance that cooperation and assistance. The Hondurans can fighting. It was not, it s ould be the United States, a non-signatory power, are not enamored of the contras, but as long stressed, a self-defense action by U.S. would comply. Managua argued that so as the U.S. supports the guerrillas, Hon­ forces that had come under attack. There Jong as Washington backed the contras and duras - heavily dependent on the United was a deliberate ord~r. presumably from refused to renounce use of force in the re­ States for military and economic aid - will the highest levels, for the combat use of gion, Nicaragua would be unable to fulfill accommodate itself to Washington's de­ U.S. troops, in direct violation of a personal the treaty's obligations. sires. pledge by the President of the United This decision may have been tactically The only negotiations the White States to both the Congress and the Ameri­ unwise. Nicaragua could have offered to House will support are over how the can people. sign, thus putting pressure on the Reagan Nicaraguan government should yield The week's events transformed the Administration, as it did in September power to the contras. The catch phrase at contra war. The military weakness of the 1984. By blindly adhering to principle, the the State Department is "comprehensive contras has again been displayed - their Sandinistas have discomfited their friends agreement," meaning no effective security feeble effort at an offensive was hurled back in Contadora, dismayed U.S. Congres- Continued on page 12

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 17 MAY-Aue;.• 1916 Bernstein Award from Boston DSA in Don McQuarrie, and elected Skip Oliver May ... DSA member Duncan Kennedy, as Political Coordinator . . . The local has a Harvard Law School professor, was re­ given top priority to the Stop the Bomb­ cently featured on the cover of the Lifes­ ing in El Salvador campaign . . . Cleve­ tyle section of the BosfQn Plweni:t ... land DSA had a busy spring, bringing The third annual Social Change Confer­ Michael Harrington, Ron Aronson, and ence, sponsored by the Center for Social Cornel West to town. by HARRY FLEISCHMAN Change Practice and Theory at the Heller School, was held in April at Brandeis Oregon University. One of the chief organil.ers Portland DSA discussed "Taking the NATIONAL ROUNDUP was DSA member David Gil.... When LEFT Approach to Crime." Speakers in­ Curtice-Burns, Inc. of Rochester an­ cluded Lewis and Clark law professor nounced that it would sell the Colonial Clayton Morgareidge and Mark Cramer District of Columbia Provisions Co. of Boston to Thome Apple of the Multnomah County Bar Associa­ DSA members from arowid the na­ Valley of Detroit, DSA joined United tion . . . The Red Rose School included tion joined in the massive March for Food and Commercial Workers Local 616 "Current Issues in the Labor Movement," Women's Lives, sponsored by NOW on to save the jobs of 600 workers. Mike with AFL-CIO state president Irv March 9. TV and the press estimated that Schippani of the Massachusetts State Fletcher as a guest speaker; "Indian Is­ a total of 80,000 men and women partici­ Labor Department helped set up negotia­ sues," led by Laura Berg of the Columbia pated. tions between Boston and Thome Apple lntertribal Fish Commission and tribal Valley, and David Scondras led a dra­ leaders from the Northwest; Sevin lllirwis matic fight to get the City Council to vote Hirschbein on "Feminist Theory" and DSAer Carl Shier was appointed by 12 to 1 to take Colonial over by eminent many others . . . DSA feminists spon­ Mayor Harold Washington of Chicago to domain. Unfortunately, the city corpora­ sored a fundraiser for the Women's the city's Board of Ethics ... Marilyn tion counsel, in a controversial decision, Rights Coalition. Nissim-Sabat and Sue Purriungton of the ruled that the takeover would be illegal. National Organization for Women spoke Pennaylvania to the DSA Southside branch on socialism New York Central Pennsylvania DSA showed and feminism . . . The 28th annual New officers of Ithaca DSA are the documentary ftlm, "Eugene Debs & Thomas-Debs dinner, honoring DSA chair, Theresa Alt; secretary, Michael the American Movement" at its April Co-Chair Michael Harrington and Jackie Burckardt; and treasurer, Jeanne Fudala meeting in Harrisburg, which was also Vaughn of the Chicago Teachers Union, ... Ithaca DSA is pushing for a local addressed by DSA political director Jim was a big success . . . More than 40 ordinance on plant closing . . . A Labor Shoch ... DSAer Ed Asner (Lou Grant) DSAers were active in aldermanic run-off Solidarity project of the Long Island Pro­ spoke at Dickinson College in April and elections that finally gave Harold Wash­ gressive Coalition raised $925 for the national DSA oo-ehair Barbara Ehren­ ington a majority. Hormel P-9 strikers ... Nassau DSA is reich was the keynote speaker for working on campaigns by several Demo­ Planned Parenthood in Hanisburg June Kentucky crats for state legislature and Congress 16 ... DSAer Louis Persico appeared on DSA has joined several other groups . . . More than 1500 people attended the Harrisburg Channel 'l:l TV in an inter­ in Louisville and Lexington urging Gov­ Socialist Scholars Conference in New view on the death of Olof Palme and ernor Collins to keep the Kentucky Na­ York City April 18-20. DSA'a dedication to hie principles ... tional Guard from being sent to Central Philadelphia DSA forums included Magali America. The governors of Maine and Ohio Larson on "The Organization of Time as a Massachusetts have already agreed to Black Swamp DSA re-elected chair­ Political Category," Paul Lyons and this for their National Guard units ... A person Wally Smith and co-chairperson David Hunt with a "Report from Indo- Socialist Feminist brunch March 16 dis­ cussed "Women and the Revolutionary Process: Global and Personal Revolu­ tion," and the local organized a sociali.st­ feminist retreat in May.

Maryland Recent meetings of Baltimore DSA heard Jacob Shorter on the "History of the Black Civil Right.a Movement in Bal­ timore," Becky Richards on "Feminist Theok>gy," and Barb Larcom on "Prob­ lems of the Mentally Ill in Maryland" ... Svetomr Stojanovic, a Yugoslav eocialist philoeopher, spoke on "M.arx and the Bol­ shevimtion of Marxism" at the University of Maryland-Baltimore CoWlty.

Massachusetts ROTH CO Boston City Cowicillor David Scon­ ~ dras received the 1986 Debs-Thomas- "Good morning, all you lottery losers ... "

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 11 MAY·AUG.• 1- China." and a meeting on "Korean and American \OOlkers in the International Economy" . . • Many Philadelphia DSAen worked for Bob Edgar's success­ ful campaign for the Democratic nomina­ tion for U.S. Senate .. . DSA and over40 Pittsburgh organizations sponsored a con­ ~~ ference April 4-5 on "Planning for Peace and Prosperity." Speakers included Ann Ma.-kusen, Michael Harrington and Jesse Jadcaon.... A Mid-Atlantic Feminist­ a ~ C''' Socialiat Retreat was held on June 28 . . . _j ~ /j!_ 1&~- Reading-Berks DSA devoted its May meeting tll celebrating Karl Marx's 168th birthday. c~~ ~~ ietoo "What I miss most are the media event.a." 0 Tennessee I ROT HCO ?\ashville DSA h&l started a new comprehensive and arcessible, it will be of also be noted that the U.S. is one of the publication, Political Solutions. The first interest to both students of the field and most consistent practitioners of ter­ issue reported on the panel of four the layperson. Robert Heilbroner writes rorism, both directly and indirectly. Its Nash\ille activists who insisted there that "the Economic Report of the Peop/£ agencies have repeatedly attempted to were no irreconcilable differences be­ is a powerful indictment of, and a persua­ assassinat.e foreign leaders, and it openly tween RO<:ialism and Christianity. sive alternative to, the economics of reac­ arms t.errorist bands in Nicaragua. All Teras tion." Available for $9.00 from South End this attack proves is the the U.S. is willing Houston DSA has had great succe.'l.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 19 MAY-AUG •• 1• REVIEWS

Death of a Dream?

ices, education, and culture. In the early ·years, the party was by Stanley Aronowitz understood by Zionist socialists as the political arm of the move­ ment, and the state constituted, for the most part, a necessary evil THE TRAGEDY OF ZIONISM by Bernard to defend against aggressors, to promote foreign trade, and to administerthe still unfinished taskofrescuingtensofthousandsin Avishai. Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1985, $19.95 Europe and the million Jews still living in Arab lands. In Avi.shal"s narrative, the right led by Begin grew from a ernard Avishai is a Canadian-born writer, cur­ marginal force to become the government power because the rently teaching in the United States. In 1972, he leaders of the labor Zionist movement were unwilling to risk emigrated to Israel but returned to Canada three democracy and a systematic egalitarian struggle, not only for years later. In part, this book is his "elegy to the Arabs but also for the Sephardic Jews streaming into Israel from Zionist tradition." According to A vishai, the Arab lands. In contrast to the earlier vision of economic and social Btragedy of Zionism is that its original commitment to freedom and equality, Israel became a land of privileged strata within the democracy has succumbed to statism, and a new Zionism has working class, even as the gap widened between the working class emerged whose fealty to the old ideals is considerably weaker. and the middle and bourgeois strata. A vishai refutes the parallel Thus The Tragedy of Zionism is written from a democratic between Israel and South Africa by claiming that economic devel­ socialist and Zionist perspective, which makes its argument more opment depended on Jewish labor rather than on a Palestinian persuasive than those which attack Israel from the outside. subproletariat and that Israeli Arabs have actually benefited from Avishai goes a long way toward justifying the history of the scientific and technological innovations introduced by Histad­ Zionism and its insistence that Jews needed a national home to rut in agriculture and industry. Yet, the author acknowledges become not only economically and politically autonomous, but also that Palestinian civil rights have been flagrantly violated within safe from antisemitism. While he clearly explains that the creation both the 1948 boundaries of Israel and the post-1967 occupied of a separate Jewish state was only one form - and not even the territories. preferred one - ofJewish salvation, he finally justifies theJewish state solution on purely contingent grounds: the choice was neces­ The heart of Avishai's argument, however, is not the lack of sary because both the British and Arabs tried to thwart the consideration for the rights of Arabs but rather the exploitation of establishment of a refuge for the 700,000 survivors of the the Sephardim by the Europeans. Middle Eastern Jews, suffering Holocaust after the war. A vishai does not insist, as many left class exploitation and caste oppression, turned to Begin who Zionists did at the time, that only a binationalist state would campaigned on both the "negative~ libertarian program of antibu­ protect Palestinian Arabs' political and social rights. A vishai is a reaucratism and the positive virtues of market capitalism. Begin labor Zionist with no sympathy for leftist critiques of the origins of became the candidate of the oppressed against a labor movement Israel or for Arab leaders who opposed its existence. For this that had become a hierarchy of privilege. reason, it is all the more remarkable that he has provided us with a This is the foundation of Zionism's fall, but it is by no means systematic exposition of the rise and fall of Zionism and a frank the entire content. As A vishai portrays the early ideology of admission that his tradition is, for all practical purposes, dead. laborism, the state was to be subordinated to the movement. For Avishai never blames the "Zionist revisionism" ofMenachim socialists, the primacy of the revolution's institutions (direct de­ Begin and his ideological mentor, Vladimir Jabotinsky, for the mocracy in the workplace, popular militia, and agricultural collec­ cUJTent state of affairs. Revisionism has triumphed, says A vishai, tives) was unquestioned. In contrast, the later Zionists who opted because of the failings oflabor Zionism itself, in particular the drift for cultural nationalism argued for the creation of a strong state of Mapai, the political party led for a generation by David Ben and the subordination of the labor movement to the objectives of Gurion, toward militarism, statism, and undemocratic manage­ the state. They saw themselves as building a western capitalist ment of the economy at a time when the Israeli labor movement democracy, that is, a state with formal political freedom for all held the political and ideological loyalty of the overwhelming Jews but with a traditional bourgeois economic and social base. majority of Jews. A vishai also shows how Ben Gurion fostered the creation of a The great federation of Jewish workers, the Histadrut, was new technocracy. This group lost touch with the libertarian - like European labor movements - a veritable "state within a socialism ofthe previous generation and saw themselves as mana­ state" during this period. It is not only represented workers in gers of the state. A vishai portrays two key figures of this group, t heir struggle with the n~nt Jewish bourgeoisie, it also con­ Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres, '8S also the most important ofthe trolled the commanding heights of the Israeli economy after 1948. new militarists who surrounded Ben Gurion in his final decade as The labor federation was the source of housing, jobs, social serv- Continued on 'fXl.{Je 22

D EMOCRATIC LEFT 20 MAY·AUG •• 1986 REVIEWS

Woody Allen: F amily Man

by Harold Meym·son ith Ha n ah a Her Sisters, Woody Allen returns to the familiar terrain of his most acclaimed films. A irHall and Manhattan. The cttn: is a romantic's ~ew York: the giants of Nll York's cultural past, the Ger­ sh\\.insW and Groucho~ and Ou) er Buildings, still dwarf a squalid present of Trump to\\ ers and TV sitcoms. The subject is the relationships, fleeting and lasur:g. of 'ew Yorkers, and the ongo­ ing search for meaning or an~ acceptable :mbstitute in a godless world. But there are litlbtl" if significant differences between Han­ nah's world and those of its predecessors. This is a warmer movie, more affectionate, in some ways more conventional than Allen's earlier..., ork. In particular, it is a further step in the odyssey ofour greatest comic away from the comic's film. Con.~ider one departure: Woody Allen's char.icteristic obses­ comic - like the majority of American artist..'> - posited the claims sions and shticks have been dL-.tributed among all the major male of the self. The sham of bourgeois propriety Wah their playen-. The :-;culptor played by Max Von Sydow watches a docu­ straightman: Groucho cannot exist without .Marbraret Dumont, ment.an• on Auschwitz ancl delive~ a diatribe on popular culture nor Fields without his harridans. But as the Seventies disustr­ and ~damentalist preachers. 'fhe architect played by Sam ously assimilated the more problematic a.o;pects of the Sixties Waterston offers a tour of Manhattan's early modernist and pre­ counter-culture, lhe mask that comic.-. had parodied or ripped modernL-;t architecture>. A':'. to the executive played by Michael away was no longer there. If the Seventies is the most confused Caine, Allen entrusts not only the romantic confusions he nor­ and undefined decade in twentieth-century American culture, it i." mally re':loerves for~ own character, but even lhe quintessential largely because the counterposition of the self to 8-0<'iety is nearly Allen gag of the interior monologue in which he painstakingly impossible to sustain when society professes allegiance to nothing strategizes how coolly 1md dL-;creetly to approach the woman he is but lhe self. wooing - only to )rap all over her when i;he actually appears. This is the shifting terrain over which Allen's c-aiwr ha:; But comics do not give their own material to other characters, unfolded. He begins, classically, as the outl:ast, the criminal and and Allen ha." never before entrusted aspects of his persona to revolutionary malgre i11i of Take The Money and N.un and Michael Murphy or Tony Roberts or the other actors who com­ Bananas, adrift in a world of idiot.s and conventions whose full prise his floating stock company. In part. thL" arises because silliness it is his duty to expose (when harp music wafts through n Allen's own subplot in Hanm1h scarcely inten:ect.s with the rest of particularly dramatic scene, he opens the closet and finds the the picture until three-quarters of the way through: while the harp). In his next films, he maintains his social ei-1mngcmcnt by other characters l'.fJUpl1• and re-couple, he is embarked on a lonely situating himself in the totalitarian future (Sle.1.per) or the au­ mid-life scramble for Goel. But Ha wwh al:;o L-; shaped by diminish­ thoritarian past (Love and Death). ing tension between the comir and hi.~ soda! world, and Hannah By the time of AnniR Hall and Ma11hattc111, Allen is in the conclude..; with Allen not only back from the void but also, quite same world as the films' other chanu•te"'; he is almost of it, too. movingly, baek in the family Annie Hall has some vestigial a..'licles for the audience only (pro­ ThL-> k; an inve~ion of the cornir's traditional happy ending. ducing Marshall McLuhan, for im;tIDlce) and some f'tenes of re­ From Chaplin and Fields and tlw )larxes, through early Allen, sidual estrangement whenever he travels. In Mn11/wtta 11, there the fade-out saw a stultif;ying family mid society shunned, fled are no side trips, no asides, just a genteel war of each ngam>-t all rn from, occru-ionally smashed. The estrangement between comic which Allen is a player like everyone eL-.e. Ma11/u1ttwi walks un and society is the mw giwn of Ame1ican comedy - and what odd tightrope as a kind of egoistic critique of c•goism, 1·0111hincd makes Allell'h can:er of surpassing interest, not only artistically with an aching nostalgia for a younger, less cynical Ne\\ York. but historically, is that unlike his forebPaI'S he has worked at a The comic as everyone, everyone :tN the comi1•: Zelig em­ time when sociPty, at least a." a comic can apprehend it, has been bodies the first, and in some part Ha1111ah and Hn· Sisters em­ crumbling all around him. bodies the second. Indeed, with Han11ah, Allen tip:; the sr.alt•:; For, against the claim:,; of culture and society, the classic Continued on page 24

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 21 MAY-AUG. • 1916 Send Us a Message

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cratic socialist supporters of Israel should reconsider their per­ Zionism spective on Israel and the Middle Eastern tragedy. For those ofus C ontinWJd from '[Xl{}e fO who unconditionally defend Israers right to exist, there is no longer justification for defending the country as a radically dem<>­ prime minister. The author demonstrates convincingly that cratic or socialist-oriented society. In many respects it has become militarism was not simply an act of will but a response to Arab a settler state, although A vishai is still somewhat blind to this. He intransigence. Indeed, he shows that a considerable portion of remains loyal to the dream of liberty provided by one wing of Labor opposed such policies as annexation, the exodus of Pales­ Zionism to the immigrants: a place where each person could fulfill tinian Arabs, and even the creation of a "greater Israel" when the her or his aspirations and develop capacities to their full potential. Herut, Begin's early political vehicle, proposed them. Yet, despite If Tire Tragedy of Zionism fails, it is because it substitutes Ben Gurion's antipathy to militarism, his conversion to statism, historical narrative for critical explanation. This method prevents according to A vishai, accounts for the rightward shift in Israeli A vishai from addressing the historical objections posed by the society in the 1960s. Jewish socialist movement to Zionism itself - albhough he !mows For many Americans and Canadians, the history of Zionism the arguments. Nevertheless TM Tragedy of Zionism has pre­ is still shrouded in myths and half truths. This book will be an eye pared the ground for such a discussion by providing a meticulous opener for them. There is no other place, to my lmowledge, where history. • left partisans can find a critical picture of the Zionist movement from the inside. Avishai's elegy stops short of a wholesale indict­ SUinley Aronowitz is professor ofsoci.ol-Ogy at tire City University ment of an entire society. Yet, he advances reasons why demo- of New York Grad:uale Cent.er.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 22 MAY·AUG .• 1916 THE LAST WORD

Reclai1riirig a Holiday

by Gmy Gerstle Ieffect. In late 1885 and early 1886, hun- For radicals and trade unionists dreds of thousands of American workers, everywhere, Haymarket became a symbol y memories of .May Day increasingly determined tQ resist their sub­ of the stark inequality and injustice of as a youth in Cincinnatti jugation to capitalist power, poured int-0 a capitalist society. The May, 1886, Chicago are almo::;t as vivid as fled¢ing labor organization, the Knights of events figured prominently in the decision those of baseball's open- Labor. Be¢nning on May 1, 1886, they t-Ook of the founding congrei::s of the Second In­ ing day. No May Day to the ill'eets to demand the universal ternational (Paris, 1889) to make May 1, Mcelebrations occurred in Cincinnati ~ far&" adoption of the eight-hour day. 1890 a demonstration of the solidarity and I knew. TV, however, brought the Soviet Chicago was the center of the move­ power of the international working-class Union's celebration into our home. I menL Workers there had been agitating for movement. May Day has been a celebration :-crutinized NBC and CBS film clips of an eight-hour day for months, and on the of international socialism and (after 1917) troops, tanks, and rockets pa.-;sing through eve of May 1, 50,000 were already on strike. international communism ever since. :Moscow's Red Square. As an ~piring cold 30,000 more swelled their ranks the next ~fay Day remained an important date warrior, I tried to identify change• in day, bringing most Chicago manufacturing on the American political calendar as long Soviet troop strength. tank number- and to a standstill. Fears of violent class conflict as the left remained a viable force in Ameri­ especially rocket technolog): had the gripped the city. No violence occurred on can politics. The Socialist party led Soviets gained a miliU!J1 ad\'antage over I May 1 - a Saturday - or May 2. But on thousands through the streets of Cleveland America and the Free World? If so, what I Monday, May 3, a fight involving hundredi:: on May 1, 1917 to protest American entry should th~ Pentagon do? My ,.mall group of broke out at McCormick Reaper between int-O the First World War. Both Socialists friend.-: debated these questions with the l locked-out unionists and the nonunion and Communists organized May Day utmo:o,t seriou:me,,,, and :staged mock I workers McCormick.hired lo replace them. parades through the early 1930s, but the Soviet-American battles on a carefully- The Chicago police, swollen in number and collapse of the Socialist party after 1936 coru,iructed map that covered my entire heavily-armed, quickly moved in "'ith clubs allowed the American Communist party tQ ba:;ement. A." boys in early 1960s' America, and guns lo restore orNew Left, the up eight anarchists, tried them for murder, one might communicate to present-day Vietnam war and Watergate - before I and sentenced seven to death. On Americans that the values of freedom and could even have contemplated so subver- November 11, 1887, four, including Par­ democracy were the ones that the original sive a notion. sons and Spies, were executed. All the exe- May Day demonstrat-Ors held dearest. The This once subversive notion is now a I cuted advocated armed struggle and vio­ labor organization favored by most workers well-established fact. In 1884, the Federa- ' Jenee as revolutionary methods; but their who participated in the May 1886 demon­ tion of Organized Trades and Labor prosecutors found no evidence that any had strations and strikes, the Knights of Labor, Unions. the forerunner of the A.F.L., actually throwTI the Haymarket bomb. espoused a radical republican ideology pa..,;;sed a resolution stating that wg hours They died for their words, not their deeds. which emphasized the irreconcilability of shall constitute a legal day's work from and A quarter of a million people lined Chicago's capitalist social relations with the practice after May 1, 1886." Though the Federation street.I; during Parsons' funeral procel\Sion of American democracy. Capitalism de- did not intend to i:;timulate a mass in- to express their outrage at this gross mis- surgenry, its re:;olution had preci.-:ely that carriage of jui;tice. Continued on page 1-'

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 23 MAv-Auc.• 1916 JIMMY HIGGINS REPORTS

Thanks, we'd rather work. More than A terrorist and a gentleman. National one-third ofmajor companies now offer unpaid paternity leaves - Public Radio reports that Phyllis Schlafly is raising money to send up from 8. 6% in 1980 - but the benefit is still rarely used, the Wall "care packages" to the Nicaraguan contras, complete with dispos­ St. J

The scene derives its subtle tension from the Allen character's absence from these reconciliations until almost the very end. We Allen have come full circle: the audience wants Allen to be part of this Continued from page 21 family, as intensely as it once wished on W.C. Fields the capacity more toward creating a society than sustaining the oppositional to escape his horrifying family in Ifs a Gift. self. Social estrangement isn't even an option here. As in Manhat­ The emotional-historical biography of much of the generation tan, Allen's character quits his job as a television producer, but that came of age in the Sixties, then, is encapsulated in Allen's there, it was because television was meaningless, here, because work: from a repudiation of social institutions in the name of life is. In Annie Hal.l, dinner with Annie's family was a nightmare authenticity, to confusion within a society that repudiated all leap into Middle America; in Hannah, when Allen turns up at his community in the name of authenticity, to settling for family wife's family's dinner (which is also his ex-wife's family dinner), which, whatever its limitations, is preferable to the Hobbesian cultural tension isn't even an issue. world of godless capitalism. • Indeed, as the closing scene unfolds, all the traditional values Harold Meyerson is a political consult.ant based in Los Angeles, of the comedian's world are inverted. As the plots and subplots serves on the DSA Nati.onal Executive Committee, and i8 one resolve, the importance of family and relationships is affirmed. serWu8 Woody All.en fan. L

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 24 MAv-Auc.. 1916