Tax Debate
EDITED BY · MICHAEL HARRINGTON
May 1979 ~ 02 Vol. VII No. 5 Is Clouded By Michael H arrington INSIDE HERE IS A CLOUD NO LARGER than a California initiative in the sky. It is one of many in Changes in National Staff, p. 4 the gathering storm over bud Although 1t has been denied that the 1ob is get balancing either through reserved for people with the initials JC, it state-wide initiatives or a Con is true that Jack Clark will hand over the reins stitutional amendment. It is of office to Jim Chapin this month. Marjorie Paul Gann's proposal to limit Phyfe made the Democratic Party take notice spending increases by any jurisdiction in with DEMOCRATIC AGENDA . Now she will California to the rise in inflation and pop do similar work for the Machinists. ulation. ''One does not per Fighting the Corporations, p. 5 Gann, of course, is the co-author of suade people to go While corporate powers urge people to eat Proposition 13. In making this move, beyond Franklin Roose cake, Massachusetts Fair Share organizes he is pioneering an approach that is gain velt's New Deal by working class and middle income people ing on the Right and raising issues that around bread and butter issues. Ron Bloom touch upon the national debate on tax pandering to Herbert looks at Fair Share's strategies. policy. Hoover's critique. ,, Socialist Notes, p. 7 That debate has tantalized some seg DSOCers around the country take part ments of the Left, for it holds out the in many fights. theoretical possibility that the federal budget could be balanced by cutting mili SALT II: Needed for Defense, p . 8 tary outlays and increasing the effective Unless those who defend SALT II also show rate of taxation on the rich. that they understand the real threat of Soviet militarism, the arena of debate could move It is, I think, exceedingly foolish for perilously Right, argues Alex Spinrad. the Left to seize upon this very, very theoretical possibility and join a budget Steel Bends Workers, p. 9 limitation movement whose fundamental \Xt'hen German steel workers went on strike premises are reactionary and whose po- this winter, management responded with 1itical victory would plug up that theo lockouts and a public relations blitz against retica l loophole. One does not persuade the strikers. Andrei MarkoYits and Chris people to go beyond Franklin Roosevelt's Allen analyze the issues in the stnke New Deal by pandering to Herbert What's Left to Read, p. 10 Hoover's critique of it. \VI ere the Bolsheviks really bourgeois? Is The Gann and the reactionary tax move N e11 1 Rep11blic turning Right ~ Ron Radosh ment in general make it extremely im covers some strong opinions. portant that the democratic Left be clear about the complex issues involved. To 1959 and 1965, as Walter Heller pointed There is a certain truth to the expen that end, let me focus upon three crucial out recently, the federal government ran diture argument. However, it applies to themes: deficits and inflation; tax cuts sizable deficits and inflation rose at a rate corporations, not to the government. The and productivity; and full employment of little more than 1 percent a year. Be basic flaw of the capitalist economy is and stagflation. tween 1974 and 197 6, Hellernoted, there that unplanned production periodically were enormous deficits-$135 billion in outraces consumption in a market deter Deficits Not Inflation Cause three years-and yet inflation fell. To this mined by the maldistribution of wealth, I ... ould add the fact that in the period itself the precondition and the result of Federal deficits, it is said, by Jerry leading up to the 1974 double digit price the production system. Since the Thirties, Brown as well as by Barry Goldwater, are rise, Richard Nixon was jamming on the the answer to this problun has been for the cause of inflation. Therefore, if you fiscal brakes. The 1973 deficit was rough Washington to create effective demand cut back on spending in Washington, by ly one-third of 1972's figure. sufficient to absorb that output. It has which everyone means social spending, Secondly, if federal deficits in general done so by enormously facilitating pri you will have dealt with a major prob were not the cause of inflation, social vate, and particularly, corporate debt. lem. This argument can be used to favor spending in particular was most certainly Public debt as a percentage of GNP, tax cutting which reduces the resources not responsible. In 1976, Charles Ernest Mandel documents in The Secortd available to the government, or to justify Schultze pointed out that all of the con Slum, has declined by about two thirds outright spending limitations of the type troversial "welfare" expenditures be since 1946 (from 129.4 to 46.0 percent), Gann has urged in California. It is one tween 1965 and 1977 came to an extra while private debt has soared from 73.6 of the most ubiquitous half-truths of 8.5 percent in the 1977 budget-or 1.7 percent of GNP to 152.8. Governor these times. percent of the Gross National Product. Brown's austerity sermons should be ad First, the data do not show a simple The sums involved, said Schultze, are dressed to the board room, not the wel dencit-inflation relationship. Between ''modest." fare office. In addition, as James O'Con-
To the Editor: next sentence I went on to say that it is To the Editor: I like the new magazine and the unclear what "left" means in such a Tim Smart' s article on the gloomy news it contains of merger discussions context, "except a style and rhetoric prospects for health care legislation with the New .American Movement. The which tends to alienate the mainstream of (March 1979) does not go far enough. strength and weaknesses of the two or .American people from socialism and so In addition to support from the ganizations are very symmetrical and cialists." White House, the senator from Massa some sort of systematic working relation Incidentally, the NAM resolution chusetts and labor, as he noted, no sub ship is long overdue. I know it would was opposed for many other reasons: stantial improvement in our system of renew my activist impulses to see a more for example, the relatively small size of health care will occur until and unless unified democratic left emerging. N.AM, and the idea that we should let there is an organized grassroots move Charles Keil "a thousand radical flowers bloom." ment which can elect a progressive Con Buffalo, N.Y. NAM may well play an important role gress and effectively combat the corporate as an autonomous organization, which medical elite, typified by the .American ••• it could not play if it were swallowed Hospital .Association and the .American To the Editor: up by DSOC. Medical .Association. I was dismayed to see that I was .All in all, I do feel that the business Thomas }. Gagliardo quoted out of context in the March issue of the NAM merger is relatively mar Washington, D.C. of DEMOCRATIC LEFT, concerning a pro ginal and distracts us needlessly from posed exploration of a DSOC merger our main DSOC goal: bringing demo with NAM. Supposedly, I opposed the cratic socialism into the mainstream of Letters to the editor muJt be signed. We exploration because "NAM considers .American political and social life. reserve the right to edit for clarity t1nd itself to our left." Your correspondent, Alex Spinrad brevity. Please limit fellers to leu than however, neglected to report that in the Washington, D.C. 3.50 words.
Michael Harrington DEMOCRATIC LEFT is published ten times a year Editor (monthly except July and .August) by the Dem ocratic Socialist Organizing Committee, 853 Maxine Phillips Broadway, Room 617, New York, N.Y. 10003. Managing Editor Telephone: (212) 260·3270. Subscription rates: Sustaining $10 per year; Regular $5 per year; Jim Chapin Limited income $2.50. Signed articles express National Director the opinions of the authors. ISSN 0164-3207. Second Class Permit Paid at New York, N.Y.
2 DEMOCRATIC LEFT May 1979 ture and new production capacity." Not too long after Palme made this comment, the New York Times confirmed it with particulars. The American rich, it said, were "hedging" against in.Bation by buy ing stamps, rare violins, art, ctc. Thus, leaving the basic contradictions of stagflation in place and lowering taxes will not have the impact of increasing productive investment and employment. It will most certainly exacerbate the maJ distribution of wealth. The reason for this is an utterly capitalist truth which capitalists today do not like to think about. People are not going to invest in productivity when every morning's news paper discusses not whether, but when, the next burst of stagflation is going to occur with soaring prices and rises in LNS/cpl unemployment. nor has shown, the government finds it chose to keep the higher figures because self in a "fiscal crisis" because it must that makes them look better on the mar socialize the costs and losses of a private ket! A week later, the London Econ01TliJI Full Employment Crucial challenged the whole notion of a profit sector which retains only benefits. This poses the question of the third "illusion." It cited a Citibank report main theme of this brief analysis: the which "calculates that in manufacture the Greater Profits Not Key relation between full employment and To Inflation Battle rate of return on net worth in 1978 was stagflation. higher than in any year since 19~0." Remember full employment? That was This leads directly to a second theme: These embarrassing facts are all the critical issue before the nation, as that greater profits and more tax deduc· brushed aside by the apologists for big Jimmy Carter saw it, during the 1976 tions for the corporations will result in business. Because of the capital shortage campaign. But now, the concern for full higher productivity which will combat and the profit illusion, they say, the gov employment has been abandoned in order inffation. If the previous argument is ernment must reduce the levies on the to fight inflation. But, if the analysis made corporations. Everyone will benefit be right, that is tantamount to putting out a here of the current tax craziness is right, fire with gasoline. Let us look more close· cause the enhanced productivity and com full employment is a key clement to solv ly at the details. petitiveness which will result will trickle ing the problem of stagflation. down throughout the entire society. These In the mid-Seventies, the notion of Barry Bosworth of the Council on "capital shortage" came to the fore. The arguments did not triumph in their radi Wage and Price Stability is probably the New York Stock Exchange, Treasury cal form in the last session of Congress most interesting, and candid, member of the radicals were rightists such as the late Secretary William Simon, the Chase Carter's economic team. Last July he told Congressman Steiger of Wisconsin and Manhattan Bank and other such vaJue the Joint Economic Committee, "The Congressman Kemp of New York-but frec researchers all argued that there was fundamental reason we arc not getting they did have an enormous impact. The not enough capital to meet projected more investments today is that nobody needs. Therefore, they said, the govern 1978 tax cuts, the Council of Economic ment should, in effect, legislate a higher Advisors said in its 1979 Report, dis return to investors by reducing capital criminated strongly in favor of families gains taxes, increasing depreciation al with less than $10,000 a year or more lowances, and the like. The "free entre than $200,000. preneurs" were asking the Feds to pro But do these $200,000 a year wel vide their "risk" capital and to do so by fare recipients really put that money into holding down public spending. new productive investments? Swedish so Jn recent months, this argument has cial isl leader Olof Palme stated the reality been bolstered by a new corporate thesis in a recent volume in honor of Willy that profits are too low. The sky-high Brandt: "The owners of private capital," yields reported by them are, in this per Palme noted, "show little confidence in spective, an illusion. They do not repre the future anywhere in the world. In sent real gains but inflated dollars and stead of investing in production, the big inventories. Bu1ineu Week admitted in capitalists buy unproductive objects, its March 19 issue that the companies which has led to a raging speculation in could easily correct this illusion by chang real estate:: and luxuries. Investments are ing their accounting practices to reflect rarely made which arc clearly profitable the new circumstances, but willfully and thereby create new jobs for the fu.
May 1979 DEMOCRATIC LEFT 3 believes that the expansion will continue. They know inllation is accelerating, the federal government is restricting, and we are headed for a recession. So they reason, Chapin Named as 'I don't need to build a new plant now.'" If that is true-and I think it is-it rein forces the point just made. Under such circumstances, those tax cuts for "capital formation" will be used for speculation, National Director not productivity, and will create, not combat, inflation. HE NATrONAL EXECUTIVE More to the point, a full employment Committee elected James Cha economy would do more for the entire pin as national director of society- including the private sector DSOC at its March 24 meet than all of those multi-billion dollar car ing, effective May 7. Acting rots we are handing out to the corporate National Director Jack Oark rich. That, obviously, cannot be accom will remain in the National plished without an anti-inflation program Office through mid-June to aid and we have presented measures for that in the transition period. purpose on many occasions in these pages A member of DSOC since its found (sectoral remedies in the areas of food ing convention, Chapin has served on fuel, health and housing; price control; the National Office Committee since for administered price oligopolies; a na 1976 and has written extensively for tionally owned oil and gas corporation ; the NEWSLETTER OF THE DEMOCIV>TIC and so on). But the basic and fundamen LEFT. He holds a Ph.D. in American Photo by Gm 4 DEMOCRATIC LEFT May 1979 Fair Share Builds Where Liberals Rarely Tread By Ron Bloom N 1973, SOME VETERANS OF THE welfare rights movement in Massa chusetts united with local commu nitr activists to form Chelsea Fair Share. Their intention was to build a statewide organization of low and moderate income people around basic "bread-and-butter" issues. Chelsea Fatr Share's first project was an effort to obtam free passage for Chelsea residents over the bridge connecting Chelsea and Boston. When chapters be gan functioning in East Boston and \X'altham, Massachusetts Fair Share was born. Today, Fair Share is a truly state wide organization with 30 chapters, 20.000 family memberships and 100 ~taffers . It has launched and carried out dozens of campaigns on neighborhood, Photo by Richel E1chenbaum city and state issues, in the process mobi Fair Share constituents gather for a convention in Boston. lizing working people on issues ranging from repairing potholes to forcing util 1968 has fallen for most Americans, from the typical liberal approach, and ity and insurance companies to lower causing their frustration to grow. Rapoport was quick to emphasize these proposed rate increases. Fair Share is trying to organize a differences. "Fair Share thinks that the What are democratic leftists to make "counter-offensive" to this strategy. Bos people who are in what used to be called of Fair Share? This short article is an ton staff director Miles Rapoport said the 'silent majority,' who are being attempt to show what Fatr Share is all Fair Share wants to "organize people squeezed, can be united with the people about by discussing its basic political around the very concrete issues of their who are traditional consumers of services an:dysis and strategy as enunciated by its economic well-being. This means ... (poor people) into a majoritarian move staff and members; reporting on three inflation and the increased costs of taxes, ment for change. I think that, at least Fair Share ··campaigns"; and offenng utilities, insurance, etc. Through this we in Massachusetts, the people who would some tentative suggestions about the im hope to teach people, and learn with characterize themselves as liberals have portance of Fair Share and how DSOC them, through their own experience, written off that working class middle should relate to it. that there is a pattern; that the problems income sector as too conservative. lib they are facing are due to specific deci erals seem to think that the best we can Sees Corporate Attack •ions made by corporations and govern do is help poor people survive Proposi ment. We want to show people that it tion 13, Ed King, Jerry Brown and the Fair Share belie,es that since 1968 ts not that government is doing too much, like. I think that is a no-win strategy. business has been on the offensive, but rather that corporations are not pay We must attempt to unite poor and seeking to convince people that social ing their fair share; that it is not workers working people. This means recognizing spending must be cut and that poor and and union contracts that are causing in that the movement for property tax relief working people must accept a lower flation, but specific decisions by Boston is not neo-conservative, rightwing and standJrd of living in the name of business Edison and New England Telephone and anti- government. It is a legitimate striv confidence. And so, this analysis contin others to raise prices." ing of people who are not winning the ues, the absolute standard of living since This strategy differs in many ways fruits of American capitalism, but who May 1979 DEMOCRATIC LEFT 5 are being squeezed, if not as hard as poor helps to build Fair Share. The people in only a few areas. In Otelsea and Dor people, hard enough to give them reason on Coleridge Street now look to Fair chester, where Fair Share had done for great anger." Share as an organization that cares about serious local organizing, fiat rates did Carolyn Lucas, a regional vice their interests. Through activities on fairly well. president of Fair Share, has lived in broader issues, they will become involved Fair Share's 1978 fight for the classi Boston all her life. She was very direct in the state-wide organization. fication amendment, Question 1, was, about the problems facing our society: Because Massachusetts electric rates in many ways, the mirror image of the "Too few people make a lot of money are lower for high volume users, Fair Bat-rates campaign. Classification, which and so many people don't make enough Share's major project in 1976 became a was necessary to prevent the shift of money. The big problem is inflation campaign to force the utilities to charge $265 million in property taxes from everything costing more than people can the same rate to all consumers. This business to homeowners and renters, make. Just trying to make ends meet proposal, known as "flat-rates," was al attracted a broad coalition of municipal is a day-to-day struggle for everyone. most pushed through the legislature, officials, labor, religious, and other com The villains in the inflationary spiral are only to be killed by Senate President munity groups. In addition, Fair Share not welfare, public employees or union Kevin Harrington. Undaunted, Fair built many chapters with strong commu contracts, but profiteering that is being Share collected 80,000 signatures and nity roots through numerous neighbor done at a corporate level." For her, the had the proposal placed on the ballot as hood campaigns. basic solution must be "a more equal a referendum question, Question 7. This defensive struggle, with the economic structure." The business community mobilized strong support of the labor movement, Three campaigns may help to illus an all-out war against Bat rates and resulted in a 2-to-1 victory at the polls. trate the work that Fair Share does: a several other progressive proposals on In the Question 1 campaign, a broad local fight in East Boston, the "flat-rates" the same ballot. They convinced every based coalition was built to resist at least campaign, and the fight for the classi major interest in the state that a "yes" some of the encroachments of corporate fication amendment. vote on Question 7 would turn Massachu power which have so dominated the Coleridge Street in East Boston is setts into an industrial wasteland. Unions political landscape of the '70s. It also quiet and residential, but its location were told that Bat rates would result in showed, without a doubt, that Massa attracts many driver-commuters who use the loss of 30,000 jobs (based on a study chusetts Fair Share had arrived. ~t as a short cut, especially during morn which admitted that "energy costs are ing rush hours. It is also near a beach not considered explicitly in this study"). where teenagers hang around on summer The unions responded by allowing the Mistrusts "Big Government'' evenings, often drinking, then driving. corporations to stuff pay envelopes with The leadership of Fair Share is, by Nick Nyhart, the East Boston organ subtle messages like, "If Question 7 and large, explicitly anti-corporate, with izer for Fair Share, learned of the prob passes, you may lose your job." On a solid understanding of the dominant lem when he was going door-to-door Election Day flat rates went down to role that business plays in .American trying to stir up interest on another defeat by a margin of over 3 to 1. society. The organization's attitude to issue. The problem was spontaneously In the months that followed, Fair ward the government, however, is more mentioned by almost every resident on Share carefully assessed what had hap complex. Its membership has not been the street. Nyhart and a group of resi pened. The campaign, disastrous as it well sel:Ved by the corporate-dominated dents met and decided to ask local officials was, did teach them some very important state, and many seem to share the com for a fence at the end of the street. lessons. First, the "job loss" argument mon mistrust of "big government." A On the morning of the meeting, will always succeed if you do not have major reason for Fair Share's success however, there was "a little pre-emptive the unions strongly on your side. Second, is their membership's belief that the action." As Nyhart described it, "we a broad coalition is absolutely necessary organization can help them gain control stopped traffic and handed drivers a when fighting against a united business of the government. When asked, Art flyer with a little 'Stop Sign' that said, community. Finally, it is not possible to Shepard, president of the Roxbury 'Stop! This is not a thoroughfare.' " At win a referendum campaign without Dorchester-Matapan chapter, said, "The the meetings ~hat evening, 25 people carefully built local organizations. .At government must become a government crowded into a kitchen and informed the time of the Question 7 campaign, of the people, by the people and for the local officials that "tomorrow we will Fair Share was still very small. It had people ... People ought to have more of sit down in front of the traffic if they then 2,000 members and active chapters a feeling that they are part of the gov did not put up the gate." They agreed ernment." to put up a 24-hour gate, except during To their great credit, Fair Share has the beach season when the road would worked hard to cwivince the public be open from 9 to 9, avoiding the morn that Proposition 13 is not the answer, ing rush and late night drinking traffic. ''· .. the 'job loss' argument and that property taxes must be reformed, This episode illustrates three im will always succeed if you not simply reduced. They have strongly portant facets of the Fair Share strategy: opposed spending limitations and cuts (I ) people are best organized on specific don't have the unions in services. local, winnable issues; (2) through a strongly on your side.,, Fair Share has a strong commitment campaign people arc taught a sense of to building coalitions, especially with their own power; ( 3) their victory the labor movement. In fact, there is 6 DEMOCRATIC LEFT May 1979 SOCIAIJSf NarES NE OF THE FIRST MAJOR LOCAL CHALLENGES TO Los Angeles DSOC members were involved in the protests the Carter budget occurred on March 22 in Phila staged at the time of Vice President Mondale's appearance delphia when 3,000 CETA workers from nine at a dinner there and in putting together the "Democrats for AFSCME locals demonstrated to protest new fed Change" ad that appeared in the L.A. Time;. eral guidelines limiting CETA workers to a maxi mum of 18 months on the job. The action was also • • • directed at the cutbacks in funding for CETA, Ithaca DSOC received publicity when it joined with sev which under the Carter budget proposal would eral community and campus feminist coalitions to protest the amount to 167,000 jobs being cut in the coming year. One presence of Playboy recruiters and photographers on campus. hundred thousand were cut in this fiscal year. DSOC members Among the slogans of the demonstration: "Don't sell your in Philadelphia were active in planning and organizing the ass to the ruling class." DSOCers brought socialist analysis demonstration. The protest grew from a conference on jobs to bear, linking Playboy's sexism to corporate power and the in which labor and community groups met to develop action oppression and trivialization of women to the oppression proposals in the areas of runaway plants, CETA, community of men. economic development and military conversion. DSOCers who worked on the march and conference see them, and the on • • • going activities generated by the conference, as ways to trans Eric Lee, the administrative assistant in the National late the DSOC goal of full employment into concrete actions Office, has left to work for the City of New York. In his two around specific jobs at the local level. underpaid and overworked years on staff he improved office procedures and upgraded the graphic designs of many mate • • • rials. We will miss Eric, but are pleased that he will continue Sy Posner, former chair of the State Assembly Labor as a volunteer for the National Office and will remain active Committee, has revived the New York Labor Forum. In in the New York Local as editor of the NeuJJ/etler and a mem Washington, D.C., the labor luncheon series continues its ber of the Executive Commi~ee. string of successful meetings. A recent issue of U.S. New; a"d Tfl" orld Report had an article on young radicals in the • • • labor movement that mentioned the D.C. labor series and Socia/ht Note; will feature items written by Nancy K.le DSOC member Lance Compa . niewski, formerly an editor of Grau Root;. She will focus on local activities that will address the question of how to • • • apply DSOC's general policies and projects to work in the The listing for the Sacramento Valley DSOC that ap locals. Please send questions, ideas, reports of activities (suc peared m the January issue incorrectly listed its location. The cessful or otherwise!) and reactions to the column, as well correct address is 3941 "K" St., Sacramento, Calif. 95816, as your local newsletter, to her at 3308 Baring St., Philadelphia, phone: (916) 455-0925. Pa. 19104. talk within Fair Share of trying to put into an area and acts without regard base has acted to brake that conservative together in three to five years a per for existing neighborhood groups. Fair movement. At the same time, King's manent organization, centered on the Share, it is said, always dominates coa austerity policies are likely to give Fair labor movement and Fair Share, that litions, and usually allows smaller groups Share "many organizing opportunities," would be the focus for progressive acti to play only a subservient role. according to Carolyn Lucas. \"ity in the state. Some union activists are There is bound to be some friction Ed Clark, Director of the Organi eager to work with Fair Share, but when an aggressive group moves into zation for the New England Regional doubts do remain. One progressive labor a new area, and at least part of it results Joint Board of the Amalgamated Cloth leader, while admitting the positive role from probably inevitable conflicts. How ing and Textile Workers Union and a that Fair Share played in the Question ever, there does seem to be insufficient DSOCer, is enthusiastic about Fair Share. 1 Coalition, also pointed out, "Fair Share sensitivity on Fair Share's part to smaller, He observes that, "In order to move needs victories to survive, so every victory less powerful organizations. This is un people, you have to get sufficiently close must be a Fair Share victory." He felt doubtedly a problem, but need not be to them to be able to talk to them. You that many unions are wary of Fair Share, a fatal flaw. have to convince them that you and your and added that he himself would prefer When conservative Democrat Ed ideas can be of direct and immediate ad-hoc issue oriented coalitions to a more King won last fall's gubernatorial elec benefit to them before you can move permanent structure. tion, many observers expected Massa people further to the left." • Fair Share has received its strongest chusetts politics to shift sharply right criticism from community groups. It is ward. Fair Share's strength in the blue Ron Bloom iJ active in the DSOC-Local sometimes alleged that Fair Share comes collar communities King sees as his 80;1011. May 1979 DEMOCRATIC LEFT 7 \ Left Must Go on Offense On Defense in SALT II lAJt month DEMOCRATIC LEFT Rather, in the absence of SALT, pres Even the Italian Communist Party opened a dialogue on the Strategic Arms sures from all strata of society-including has called for the maintenance of a strong Limitation Treaty (SALT 11) in which a staunchly anti-Soviet working class NATO. Such strength would provide a it invited comments from Harry Boyte, will mount for military expenditures to military counterweight to Stalinist inter Patrick Lacefield and Alex Spinrad. erase the strategic gap threatening the vention in the event of a real opening Boyle's and Lacefield's comments ap West's security. for socialist transformation. peared in the April iu11e. Spinrad's are Thus, SALT can and should be A relatively democratic Turkey, printed below. seen as a precondition, not only to the with a significant democratic socialist defeat of American militarism, but to movement, may be on the brink of Irani By Alex Spinrad the curbing of the truly resurgent mili zation. The loss of Turkish strategic lis HILE THE RATIFICATION taristic threat today-that of the Soviet tening posts would deal a significant of SALT will be an im Union. blow to our strategic posture and would portant Congressional is Unless we make the argument for make the job of monitoring compliance sue in the next half year SALT based on present reality, the SALT with SALT (a major issue in the up -not only for the demo treaty may be seen as being supported coming debates) even more difficult. cratic Left, but for our only by those who choose to ignore that very survival - it must reality. The result could be defeat of not become the exclusive the treaty. In such a case, even moderate ''A frightened working class property of those who consistently dis Left criticism might scarcely be brooked. is hardiy a locomotive count the aggressive nature of the Soviet A frightened working class is hardly a of social change.,, Union, and thus argue for unilateral locomotive of social change. disarmament. Indeed, while we reject We must make the argument for Carter's rightist moderation on domestic SALT and strong national defense, not All this is not to say that the fall issues, his insistence that support for acceptance of an enfeebled democratic of the West is at hand. But it must SALT be linked with a strong national world. suggest that the arms race is not merely defense posture deserves commendation. the result of an insurgent militarism in West Responds to Build-ups the U.S. Rather, it is aptly described as Soviet Threat Is Real a spiral in which subtle shifts in power It is exaggerated and simplistic to relationships lead to build-ups on both Most of the American working class suggest that the Soviet Union is about sides. dearly understand the dangers inherent to achieve strategic hegemony, or that It is naive to suggest that for the in the most important development of it is gaining in influence in the world. West to disarm in the absence of a Soviet the coming decade: the decline of Amer However, it is true that where Western agreement to do likewise will signifi ican power and the concomitant rise of colonialism and imperialism have re cantly lessen international tension. Soviet expansion. treated, they have often been replaced While 80 percent of the American by Soviet (or Cuban, or East German) Democratic ForeiAn Policy people support SALT, by almost equal opportunistic adventurism. These ad margins they view the rise of Soviet im vances have often been made in areas Not so long ago, the Left used the perialism as the major danger to world of the world which are vital to the West's slogan of a "democratic foreign policy" peace. strategic interests. to describe its international perspective. This emergent reality is precisely Thus, it is impossible to artificially It is now time to revive that idea. why a SALT treaty is urgently needed. segregate the problems of SALT, dis If democratic socialism is relevant Harry Boyte is correct when he argues armament and Western security. at all to international politics, its unique that the defeat of SALT would be a As one pundit has noted, "All contribution is a fervent belief that poli blow to prospects for peace and thus to power is the illusion of power." The tics can no longer be confined to national economic progress and equality. The perception of a weak West-regardless boundaries. In the age of multinational reasons why, however, do not have to of its basis in fact-may profoundly corporations and transnational markets, do with a Tolkienesque conspiracy by erode the democratic world's strategic even economic policy cannot be made the military to destory democratic gains. positions. without reference to so-called "foreign" 8 DEMOCRATIC LEFT May 1979 policy. We have truly signc May 1979 DEMOCRATIC LEFT 9 By Ronald Radosh Marxist Perspectives 5 (Spring 1979) Vol. 2, no. 1 circumstances, the vanguard won power and made dictatorship $4.50; Cliomar Corporation, 420 West End Avenue, New permanent. A Thermidorian victory, had it taken place, would York City, N.Y. 10024. Subscription: $18.00 per year. have revealed the revolutionary class resisting the vanguard and building a society in its own image. "No vanguard victory N ITS FIFTH NUMBER, THE EDITOR OF Marxist Perspec is possible without radical coercion," Walzer emphasizes, and tives writes, perhaps somewhat prcmaturc:ly, that "Marx he insists upon the superBuous nature of a vanguard. Ther ism as an intellectual force has come of age in the United midor, he concludes, is far from counterrevolution. In reality States." To those who argue that Marxism is an outdated it is "the fulfillment of Marx's vision of counterrevolutionary dogma, as well as a narrow form of economic determin politics." ism, Eugene D. Genovese retorts that Marxism is a This issue also contains an informative and exclusive process, that Marx began the analysis of human history article by Roy Medvedev, in which the noted Soviet dissident as a product of class struggle. "From that starting point evaluates the state of his dissident community in 1977 and on," he puts it, "everything is wide open." 1978. He reaffirms the continued need within the USSR for The journal he edits is designed to establish the intel opposition and dissent, and predicts the slow growth of dissent lectual legitimacy of Marxism. It is carefully non-political in in coming years. the sense that it avoids entering the sectarian squabbles of the organized Marxist Left, and it considers the intellectual work • • • within its pages to be acts of political intervention. Moreover, The New Republic. Available by subscription from P.O. it is unique in that it regularly opens its pages to serious Box 705, Whitinsville, Ma. 01588, $24 per year, $17.00 contrbutions from both conservative and liberal opponents of per year for students. a Marxian perspective, so long as they prove worthy chal lengers to their Marxist critics. 'lOM The New Y ork Times TO ALEXANDER COCK The best example of what its editors hope to accomplish burn in The Village V oice, editor Martin Peretz and in no. 5 is the especially brilliant and provocative essay by The New Republic have come under recent criticism Michael Walzer, "A Theory of Revolution." Offering a theo for having taken a turn to the right. Supposedly TNR retical overview of the relation of class and vanguard in the now displays the Cold War conservatism found regu revolutionary process, Walzer redefines the meaning of Ther larly in the pages of Commentary. So I think it ap midorian reaction, which has usually been explained as a propriate to use this column to state that this grow period of backsliding to the earliest stage of a revolution. ing attack on TNR is unwarranted and inaccurate. Walzer asserts first that vanguards grow when a class is True, there is much in TNR's pages that socialists will dis unaware of its own revolutionary potential ; i.e., "the more agree with. But one comes to appreciate the unexpected in a organized the class, the less powerful the vanguard." A West journal of opinion, and to value having a magazine that con ern proletariat, he writes, will resist vanguard initiatives more tinually challenges one's own preconceptions. TNR's liveli strongly than other groups for Marxist reasons : "Everyday ness comes through when it runs longtime columnist John life tends to produce among workers very high levels of soli Osborne's pro-Carter coverage of Bella Abzug's dismissal, and darity and political sophistication and relatively tight defensive precedes it with an editorial supporting Bella and condemning organizations." Carter. In a recent issue, William Shawcross reports on Cam Thermidor, Walzer writes, is not a period of counter. bodia and Vietnam, and brings us the kind of balanced and revolution. Rather, it marks " the self-assertion of the revolu knowledgeable reporting absent elsewhere. TNR's editors tionary class against the politics of the vanguard." In the case carefully distinguished themselves from unreconstructed Cold of the Bolshevik Revolution, both Kronstadt and the Worker's Warriors when they editorialJy warned that China "wants us Opposition were, in Walzer's terms, "failed Thermidorian to drop all pretense of detente and to join ... in unremitting tendencies," while the Terror represented the politics of the hostility to the Soviet Union," a course which TNR disap vanguard m control, an era of " dictatorial imposition of proves. vanguard ideology." In that revolution, the vanguard played During the past few months, TNR has featured Michael the role taken by the Western bourgeoisie in past times. It Harrington's critique of Kolakowski, Eugene D . Genovese on generated hierarchical structures similar to those existing in slavery, Monthly Review editor Paul M. Sweezy on inBation, bourgeois societies, but with "different ideological justifica as well as Irving Howe's incisive study of the new neo-con tions and disguises." The purpose was self control and labor servatives. All this hardly illustrates a turn towards the right. discipline needed for industrialization. One suspects that some of the criticism derives from opposition W alzer skillfully weaves a case for the preference of to TNR's unabashed defense of Israel- as if such a posture dis Thermidor in the revolutionary process. The power of van qualifies one from being considered part of the Left. • guards, he asserts, is greatest where the mass base of a revo lution is least organized. Thus the dictatorial outcome of Ronald RJUiosh, author and historian, leaches at Queens Bolshevism was determined by the inability of the revolu borough Comm11ni1y College and the Graduate Fac11ltyl tionary class to sustain Thermidorian politics. In that set of CUNY. 10 DEMOCRATIC LBFT May 1979 STEEL STRIKE, from page 9 to exchange longer vacations and slightly Chicago Thomas-Debs Dinner higher wages for some. German unions higher pay checks for the implementation in general, following their Marxist heri of the 35-hour week. The reasons seem The 9th Annual Thomas-Debs Award tage-thus quite different from the busi clear: the latter could potentially threaten Dinner 0£ the DSOC Chicago Local will ness unionism of most American unions the employers' ability to determine im be held Sunday, May 6. It will honor -have always spoken in the name of and portant aspects of the nature of the work Addie Wyatt, Vice-President, Amalga for all German workers. place, thus impairing their control over mated Meat Cutters and Butcher Work The final settl<;ment, however, fell labor. Capital has won this round. But men, AFL-CIO and will feature Irving short of the above-stated goal. It called due to the general desire of most German Howe, editor of Diuent, as the main for a 4 percent yearly wage increase, trade unions to make the 35-hour week speaker. Tickets are $17 .50 per person four to six work-free yet fully paid shifts a major demand of their future indus from the Thomas-Debs Dinner Commit per year for night shift workers, two to trial and political strategy, and the in tee, 53 W. Jackson, Room 804, Chicago, three work-free yet fully paid shifts per creasingly significant German working Ill. 60604. year for workers over fifty, and vacation class' growing militance, it may prove • • • a Pyrrhic victory. • Stratification Chart ''Capital has won this round, Andrei S. Markovits, of the Department A 45H x 35H four-color chart showing but it may prove to be of Government al Wesleyan University, income and socio-professional classifica a Pyrrhic victory.'' and Christopher S. Allen, of the Depart tions of the American population is avail ment of Politics at Brandeis University, able from DSOC. The chart, an excellent wrote this article while in the Federal teaching tool, was developed by Stephen Republic doing research on the German increases reaching six weeks per year by Rose and Dennis Livingston. Order from political economy. 1982. Midway through the strike IG DSOC, $6 postage paid. Metall decided to drop its unilateral claim for a 35-hour week and began to call for the "Einstieg in" (approach to ward) this coveted goal. CAPIThl~QUGfES Reform.ism lnlluences Unions One explanation for this compro ''It is in my opinion as absurd to praise the profit motive-that mise may be seen as part of the other is economic action based on self-interest-as major historical strain within the German Irving Kristol it is to condemn it. The human impulse to labor movement, a reformist social dem Wall Street Journal such action is like the sexual impulse, a nat ocracy. This reformism results in de February 20, 1979 ural fact.'' fensive responses in the conflict with capital as opposed to offensive measures ------· which would attempt to initiate and determine structural changes in the entire framework of industrial relations. More Discover Democratic Left over, there is evidence that the demand for the 35-hour week as an important We've got a new look and a new title, as well as new features and ar political target emanated more from the ticles. Now we're counting on you, our readers, to help us make sure that militant segments of the rank and file Democratic Left is read by everyone who is anyone on the democratic than from the union leadership. The left. Democratic Left is published ten times a year by the Democratic pressures of capital's strategies, which Socialist Organizing Committee. It is available by subscription or by included the lockouts and an intensified membership in the DSOC. If you liked what you read, don't miss our next issue. public relations campaign in the country's media against the strikers, in addition O I want to subscribe. Enclosed find my check or money order. ($10 to IG Metall's rapidly depleting strike for a sustaining subscription; $5 for a regular subscription; $2.50 for a limited income subscription.) funds, further encouraged these reform ist tendencies. In the end, the union was O I'd like to join the DSOC. Enclosed find my dues. ($50 sustaining; $20 regular; $10 limited income. Dues include $5 for Democratic Left.) forced into a balancing act between the Send to: Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, 853 Broadway, strength of capital and its own militant Room 617, New York, N.Y. 10003. Tel.: (212) 260-3270. rank and tile. The latter's displeasure with the settlement received added Name:~------~ weight during the week of January 7-13, 1979, when almost 50 percent of the Addres1s..------~ striking steel workers refused to ratify City/State______ZiP•------the contract. Telephone______~ It is not by chance that capital chose May 1979 DEMOCRATIC LEFT 11 HIGGINS RIS FROM SOS TO KKK-The weird sect known as the U.S. core reactionaries Jn fact, this decade with its high unem Labor Party or National Caucus of Labor Committees has Jong ployment rates and anti-union pre1udices has hit the hard hats annoyed and fascinated leftists and unionists. Who are they hard. Two major legislative efforts to reform labor practices and what are they up to? At least some of the answers emerge and allow industrial picketing rights to building trades crafts in an article by former NCLC member Greg Rose in the March were defeated in 1976 and 1977. Now, the Republicans are 30 National Review. As Rose explains it, the NCT.C, after go resurrecting one of Nixon's weapons against the construction ing on a binge of anti-Left violence in 1973, began making an unions: repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act. Davis-Bacon requires explicit turn to the far Right in 1974. A 1975 NCLC "Secur prevailing wages (read union scale) on all federal construc ity Memorandum" outlined the advantages of approaching tion projects. The conservatives want to gut prevailing wages right-wingers: potential recruitment; fund-raising possibili to weaken the unions and to fight inflation. But in fact, all ties; important alliances to defeat "Rocky's (Nelson Rocke the other costs in constructions (materials, land, interest rates) feller's) fascism with a democratic face, the liberals and social have risen faster than wages. The Building and Construction fascists. We can cooperate with the Right to defeat this common Trades Department of the AFL-CIO campaign against this enemy. Once we have won this battle, eliminating our right rea ~tionary effort is being ably conducted by Vic Kamber, who wing opposition will be comparatively easy." Rose recounts ran the labor law reform task force last year. NCT.C contact and cooperation with the Liberty Lobb)', the NEW PHOBIA ON CAPITOL HILL-It's called "fear Klan, the American Nazis, and the remnants of George Wal of social spending" and it's hitting even the most avow lace's 1968 third party. In part, this joint work has been carried edly liberal legislators. Now Senator Alan Cranston (D on by the NCLC and the U.S. Labor Party directly, m part Calif.) has dropped his Child Care Act of 1979 from the through fronts such as the Fusion Energy Foundation and the list of priorities of the Senate Human Resources Com International Press Service. According to Rose, NCLC leaders mittee. Cranston has championed some form of the leg have had extensive contact with the Iraqi and Soviet govern islation through at least two sessions of Congress and ments, and speculates that the infiltration of the American amassed a powerful record of facts and personal history Right is being carried on at least partly m their interests. that more than proves the need for a national child care program. He pushed the bill to a back burner on the eve IMAGINE A STRIKE where workers are being paid of a mark-up session, blaming the Administration for $3 an hour and wages are not the major issue. That's failing to back the bill. He also attacked the right wing the situation in Laurel, Miss. where members of the for misrepresenting its contents. But, surprisingly, he International Chemical Workers are striking Sanderson took a swipe at the child care advocates who have stood Farms. The workers, who are chicken processors, say by his side in fighting for such legislation, saying their that the company allows them only three trips to the "divisions prevent the kind of national public educa bathroom per week and denies them vacations. Laurel tional effort needed to enact a bill like S-4." Proponents is in a corner of the South the civil rights movement who have struggled long and hard to win passage of such never touched, but this struggle is bringing black and legislation were furious. Among the groups was the Coa white together in the tradition of Martin Luther King. lition of Labor Union Women whose President Joyce Miller noted: "It seems very strange indeed that the HARDHATS HIT BACK-Chic stereotypes of the early '70s advocates of child care who have worked untiringly for pictured construction workers and their union as the hardest its passage are the ones who are blamed for its demise." 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