DOCSLIB.ORG

Reproductive Justice • Mass Incarceration • Women and Poverty

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Reproductive Justice • Mass Incarceration • Women and Poverty Reproductive Justice • Mass Incarceration • Women and Poverty the magazine of the Democratic Socialists of America Vol. XLIII, No. 3, Winter 2015 www.dsausa.org From the National Director Seize the Day! By Maria Svart n recent issues of Democratic Left I talked about And get others involved. The only way to get some- the importance of building one to say “yes” to becoming a member is if you ask Isolidarity, of acknowledging them to join. and building on our differences in Three: Learn from fellow members, and from mutual support. I also discussed other movements. Reach out to DSAers to fi nd out the importance of walking with how they have accomplished exciting things and do vision, always keeping our social- the same with organizations in your own commu- ist ideals fi xed in our sights and nity. How did the new Austin DSA chapter double strategy. its membership in just two years? How did the eight But neither really matters if new DSA organizing committees get up and running we don’t dramatically grow our movement! so fast? How have NYC, Philly, and Chicago DSA In that regard, Bernie Sanders has given us a gift. managed weekly Bernie tabling? How did the fi ve His campaign is hitting two birds with one stone: new YDS campus chapters self-organize this fall? explaining that democratic socialism is not the to- How are Latinos for Bernie and African Americans talitarian nightmare that the capitalists claim and for Bernie spreading the word? How can we learn empowering ordinary people to take the fi rst step to expand our own organization from the lessons toward collective action. You and I know that move- Bernie learned about reaching new demographic ment work can be tiring, discouraging, and frustrat- groups through forthright solidarity? Listen to each ing. But it can also be exhilarating and transforma- others’ stories, and don’t be afraid to tell your own. tive. Can we get a signifi cant number of these newly We’re building this future together. active Bernie supporters to become long distance Will you ask a Bernie supporter you know to join runners for democratic socialism? !Sí, se puede! DSA? Will you start attending meetings organized Here’s what we have to do to truly make this a by your local DSA or YDS chapter (if you don’t al- movement rather than a moment. ready)? Will you help organize a chapter if there One: Be proud of who we are, what we believe, isn’t one in your community? Will you do your part and what we are doing. You are a member of an or- to expand our infrastructure so that we can maxi- ganization fi ghting for the liberation of all people, mize our effectiveness between now and the prima- for the right of each of us to a dignifi ed and healthy ries, and beyond? life, and for the expansion of democracy into all ar- If not now, when? If not you, who? eas of life. Join Bernie in scoffi ng at the red-baiters and heed his call to build a mass grassroots move- ment of politically aware and empowered people. Two: Understand that this organization won’t grow by itself. We’re in an all-hands-on-deck mo- ment, and, for once, we’re on the offense. Now is not the time to snuggle up in front of the TV or computer or abstain from action because our vol- unteer-run organization isn’t perfect. Get involved. Contents Building a Political Revolution .............................................3 All Out for Bernie .................................................................. 5 Talkin’ Bernie and Socialism ................................................ 8 Welfare Rights, Wrongs, and Attacks on Women ............ 9 Mass Incarceration: Is Change Gonna Come? ............ 11 Creating a Culture of Reproductive Justice ...................12 Socialist for President: Debs and Sanders ...................... 13 Elections in Popular Culture .............................................. 14 Bernie Comics .................................................................... 15 Nadia James, Dustin Guastella, Adam Goldman, and Phillip Logan tabling for Philadelphia DSA at First Friday Cover art by Frank Reynoso this summer. Photo: Elizabeth Henderson. page 2 • Democratic Left • Winter 2015 Building a Political Revolution The Sanders Campaign and the Future of the Left By Joseph M. Schwartz enator Bernie Sanders’s campaign for the funding for worker cooperatives. His proposal to Democratic presidential nomination offers create a Post Offi ce banking system would provide Sthe biggest opportunity for growth that U.S. low-cost fi nancial services to people who are now socialists have had in de- exploited by check-cashing ser- cades. In a few months he has vices and pay-day lenders. transformed the Democratic We may not be Denmark, as Party primary into a debate Hillary Clinton famously said, about the causes of rampant but Sanders would like the rich- inequality and possible solu- est country in the world to do tions. But the political revolu- better than the small countries tion he talks about can only of northern Europe. Today, the happen if activists in the United States spends 30% of its Sanders campaign broaden gross domestic product on public its social base among voters of expenditure and over a quarter color and the non-college edu- of that is wasted on mass in- cated and build local multi- carceration and militarism. In racial progressive coalitions. contrast, northern European Stronger DSA locals must governments channel 45-55% of play a central role in such co- their GDP through the state and alitions if they are to offer a spend only 2% of their GDP on coherent alternative to corpo- defense. rate domination. Why the difference? Most of These state and local for- northern Europe has publicly mations should link social- funded universal child care, movement activism to elec- truly universal health care, and toral politics and develop a more generous public pensions diverse array of viable Sand- that replace 60% of average in- ers-type candidates in their come. Social Security, our equiv- communities. If they do that, Frank Reynoso alent program, replaces a paltry the Left can both challenge pro-corporate Demo- 40%. How do these countries pay for programs that crats and change the game in the 25 states where benefi t all their residents? They can do it because Republicans rule all three branches of government. affl uent taxpayers see the value of these relatively Sanders hesitated to run for fear of being a mar- high quality social goods and are willing to pay for ginal candidate. But hundreds of thousands have them. joined his campaign, disgusted by the bipartisan Could the United States afford these goods? corporate control of our politics. Who would have Certainly, but only if the 1% and corporate America thought that the fi rst Democratic presidential de- pay their fair share. In 1962, corporate taxes con- bate would focus on whether democratic socialism stituted more than 25% of federal revenues. Today, is a superior system to capitalism? corporate taxes account for 8% of federal revenues. Sanders’s program includes both the social demo- If the country just went back to the pre-Reagan and cratic reforms of progressive income and corporate pre-George W. Bush tax levels on the top 5% of in- taxation and the more radical “non-reformist” re- come earners, federal spending could immediately forms that shift control over capital from corpora- expand by $250 billion or more than 7%. tions to social ownership. The former would be used However, not even one of Sanders’s platform to fund such public goods as free universal child planks could pass a center-right Congress with- care, free public higher education, and a national out massive protests. Politicians, even left-lean- health care system. The latter includes a public in- ing ones, are opportunists; they want to be re- frastructure bank to invest one trillion dollars over elected. The social movements of the 1930s and ten years to create three million jobs and federal 1960s not only scared elites into supporting pro- Democratic Left • Winter 2015 • page 3 gressive reforms but also increased the number women and children. of left-leaning representatives. To build local “rainbow coalitions” that last be- Building an effective protest movement will not yond the Sanders campaign, DSAers need to priori- be easy. Racism and coded appeals to it have long tize linking struggles for racial justice to the Sand- divided people who should be natural allies. Many ers effort. Struggles for immigrant rights, for equi- swing white voters favor an expansion of universal table public education, for a $15 minimum wage, public goods but are skeptical about tax reform. and against mass incarceration and police brutality Despite ample evidence to the contrary, many still are the civil rights struggles of our time. If a multi- believe that too much social welfare spending goes racial Left is to emerge from the campaign, we need to the “undeserving” poor. Widespread economic new forms of grassroots coalitions that can put anxiety fuels the rival populisms of Left and Right, street heat on government offi cials while building hence the popularity of Donald Trump and Ben the independent electoral capacity of the Left, labor, Carson. and communities of color. The last time the Left had Outrage against inequality and declining liv- such an opportunity was with Jesse Jackson’s 1988 ing standards, particularly among young, heav- presidential nomination run. We failed to build a ily indebted, and underemployed recent college national rainbow coalition after that campaign; we graduates, fueled Occupy. It also provides Sanders cannot afford to fail again. with a strong base among millennials. They have As Hillary supporters ramp up the anti-socialist a somewhat more favorable view of socialism than rhetoric (“Bernie’s unelectable because he’s a social- of capitalism, probably because they vaguely asso- ist”) DSA activists have to demonstrate that demo- ciate northern European social democracy with a cratic socialism can be a viable and effective force more egalitarian and socially mobile society than in U.S.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A S R F 2007 ASA PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS Frances Fox Piven Can
    3285 ASR 1/7/08 10:32 AM Page 1 A Washington, DC 20005-4701 Washington, Suite 700 NW, Avenue York 1307 New (ISSN 0003-1224) American Sociological Review MERICAN S Sociology of Education OCIOLOGICAL A Journal of the American Sociological Association Edited by Barbara Schneider Michigan State University Quarterly, ISSN 0038-0407 R EVIEW SociologyofEducationpublishes papers advancing sociological knowledge about education in its various forms. Among the many issues considered in the journal are the nature and determinants of educational expansion; the relationship VOLUME 73 • NUMBER 1 • FEBRUARY 2008 between education and social mobility in contemporary OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION society; and the implications of diverse ways of organizing schools and schooling for teaching, learning, and human 2007 ASA PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS development. The journal invites papers that draw on a wide range of methodological approaches that can contribute to a Frances Fox Piven F EBRUARY Can Power from Below Change the World? sociological understanding of these and other educational phenomena. Print subscriptions to ASA journals include online access to the current year’s issues MARGINALIZATION IN GLOBAL CONTEXT at no additional charge through Ingenta,the leading provider of online publishing 2008 V Eileen M. Otis services to academic and professional publishers. Labor and Gender Organization in China Christopher A. Bail 2008 Subscription Rates Symbolic Boundaries in 21 European Countries ASA Members $40 • Student Members $25 • Institutions (print/online) $185, (online only) $170 (Add $20 for subscriptions outside the U.S. or Canada) RELIGION IN SOCIAL LIFE Individual subscribers are required to be ASA members. To join ASA and subscribe at discounted member rates, see www.asanet.org D.
    [Show full text]
  • Frances Fox Piven Transcript Author: Sophia Ebernardt Video: 19536
    Interviewee: Frances Fox Piven Transcript author: Sophia Ebernardt Video: 19536 [DH] [Inaudible] you met Howard as he went to BU, did you know him before? [FFP] No I had seen him speak at Columbia University, he came and spoke once,uh, during the - - or shortly after the building takeovers in 1968, so I had seen him speak and I knew who he was, but I didn't get to know him till I went to BU, and getting to know him was great, uh, I was very happy when I went to BU, because they seemed to be such lively people around. I had come from the Columbia University school [of] social work where there were not so many lively people, so, it was great, and I got to know him and I got to know Roz and all -- we would have supper together fairly often, and we were always planning things and doing things together. [00:01:00.957] Howard, Mary Levin and I are -- wrote an answer to Silber, this is shortly after I got there, it was published in, uh, BU News, I think, and, it was an answer to Silber's public statements that he wanted to make BU into and [aliet?] university, and we said "we don't want this to be an aliet university, uh, we want this to be a university in which ordinary people, uh, to which ordinary people come, come in large numbers, and, we don't necessarily want to glorify the academic traditions that are glorofied at places like Harvard or MIT, we wanna be critical and spirited," and, so, we three collaborated on that, uh, on that answer to Silber and that was really a few months after I got there and I think you can find that in the files, it must be there.
    [Show full text]
  • "A Road to Peace and Freedom": the International Workers Order and The
    “ A ROAD TO PEACE AND FREEDOM ” Robert M. Zecker “ A ROAD TO PEACE AND FREEDOM ” The International Workers Order and the Struggle for Economic Justice and Civil Rights, 1930–1954 TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia • Rome • Tokyo TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2018 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education All rights reserved Published 2018 All reasonable attempts were made to locate the copyright holders for the materials published in this book. If you believe you may be one of them, please contact Temple University Press, and the publisher will include appropriate acknowledgment in subsequent editions of the book. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Zecker, Robert, 1962- author. Title: A road to peace and freedom : the International Workers Order and the struggle for economic justice and civil rights, 1930-1954 / Robert M. Zecker. Description: Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2018. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017035619| ISBN 9781439915158 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781439915165 (paper : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: International Workers Order. | International labor activities—History—20th century. | Labor unions—United States—History—20th century. | Working class—Societies, etc.—History—20th century. | Working class—United States—Societies, etc.—History—20th century. | Labor movement—United States—History—20th century. | Civil rights and socialism—United States—History—20th century. Classification: LCC HD6475.A2
    [Show full text]
  • BERNICE A. PESCOSOLIDO: Welcome to Our Plenary Session, Speaking to Publics: Limits and Possibilities
    BERNICE A. PESCOSOLIDO: Welcome to our plenary session, Speaking to Publics: Limits and Possibilities. This is a companion session plenary from the point of view of the program committee to the earlier plenary on Speaking to Powers. Although it's quite clear that these two communities are not mutually exclusive. My name is Bernice Pescosolido and I will simply introduce the speakers briefly. They are so notable that I think the time is much better spent hearing them than hearing about them. But first, it's my pleasure to introduce ASA's recipient of the first Annual Decade of Behavior Research Award. Among the questions that have been raised or that will be raised in this session today are; what publics can sociologist address? What ways are we addressing them? Why should we bother to address them? ASA works to ensure that sociologists are recognized for their scholarly efforts that have important policy implications. One such sociologist is David R. Williams whom ASA nominated to receive the inaugural Decade of Behavior Research Award. In 2004, the Decade of Behavior National Advisory Committee named David Williams as one of two recipients of this prestigious recognition for research in health. We are delighted that ASA's nominee has been honored by the Decade of Behavior. Let me give you a little background about this. The Decade of Behavior which in case you are not aware of it is 2000 to 2010 is a multidisciplinary initiative of about 60 endorsing organizations including the ASA that are committed to focusing the talents, energy, and creativity of the behavioral and social sciences on meeting many of society's most significant challenges.
    [Show full text]
  • The Anti-Poverty Soldier Page 1 the Nation, and Billmoyers.Com
    THE ANTI-POVERTY SOLDIER By Clarence Hightower, Ph.D. The fight against poverty requires more It chronicles the journey of both his own life and that of than resources and goodwill: another young man who was born the same year, grew It necessitates a fundamental understanding of up in the same impoverished Baltimore neighborhood the causes of poverty and sound policies under remarkably similar conditions, and shares the July 13, 2017 | Vol. 4 No. 28 same name. Today, “the other” Wes Moore is serving a life sentence in a Maryland maximum security prison, Today, the lines are blurring between the middle class, while the author of the book went on to become a the working poor, and those unable to find work. The Rhodes Scholar, a decorated combat veteran, and a housing crisis, the lengthy recession, wage stagnation White House Fellow. and a “recovery” in which the well-paying jobs that evaporated have been replaced by low-wage, contingent The author Wes Moore notes that “The chilling truth is jobs, have led to more Americans slipping down the that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that rungs of the economic ladder. my story could have been his.” Through several twists – Randi Weingarten of fate, and as Moore admits, to some degree luck, he was able to escape the realities that helped land his We can choose either to perpetuate “blame the victim” namesake behind bars. Yet again, Moore realizes that anti-poor policies of the past or to fight for the massive his fate is an exception rather than the rule.
    [Show full text]
  • No Shortcuts: the Case for Organizing
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2015 No Shortcuts: The Case for Organizing Jane Frances McAlevey Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1043 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] i No Shortcuts: The Case for Organizing by Jane F. McAlevey A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 ii COPYRIGHT © 2015 JANE F. MCALEVEY All Rights Reserved iii APPROVAL PAGE, NO SHORTCUTS: THE CASE FOR ORGANIZING This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Sociology to satisfy the dissertation requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Approved by: Date Chair of Examining Committee ______________________ _________________________________________ Frances Fox Piven, Professor Date Executive Officer, Sociology ______________________ __________________________________________ Philip Kasinitz, Professor Supervisory Committee Members James Jasper, Professor William Kornblum, Professor Dan Clawson, Professor, UMASS Amherst THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv ABSTRACT Abstract No Shortcuts: The Case for Organizing By Jane McAlevey Advisor: Frances Fox Piven This dissertation will explore how ordinary workers in the new economy create and sustain power from below. In workplace and community movements, individuals acting collectively have been shown to win victories using a variety of different approaches.
    [Show full text]
  • The Welfare State
    The Welfare State: Where Do We Go From Here? by Michael Walzer, Frances Fox Piven, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Joseph Schwartz, Margaret Weir will have to await further developments. They, out of their unique historic expe­ rience, have something to teach us, as EDITORIAL we have something to teach them. It seems that the socialization ofourecon­ omy and society has turned out to be a Democracy First, Economic Relations Later far more complex and drawn-out proc­ ess than many of us had hoped. But to brothers and sisters in Eastern Europe paraphrase Churchill's remark about A 11 across Eastern Europe, from about whether it is really capitalism democracy: democratic socialism is the the Baltic to the Bosphorus, the buzz they want. That's something they are worst possible goal, except when you words are now "democracy," "plural­ goingtohaveto find out for themselves. consider the alternatives. ism," "market economy." Other words They understand the evils from which -- Gordon Haskell enter the political discourse, but their they flee far better than the ones which use seems to depend more on how many await them. Life has taught them to DEMOCRATIC LEFT disbelieve anything they are told by their months have passed sinoo the great thaw Founding Editor ending the Stalinist ice age has reached rulers and to believe almost anything Michael Harrington (1928-1989) the particular country in question. As told them by those rulers' opponents Managing Editor time passes, "communism wilh a hu­ and enemies. They know that there is Sherri Levine man face" tends to give way to "social­ unemployment, poverty, crime, and Editorial Committtt ism," and that in turn to "social democ­ homelessness in the West, and that the Joanne Barkan racy" or just plain "democracy." rich and powerful dominate the media Neil McLaughlin The semantic changes express a real and the politics dependent on them.
    [Show full text]
  • FRANCES FOX PIVEN Abbreviated Curriculum Vita Distinguished
    FRANCES FOX PIVEN Abbreviated Curriculum Vita Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology Graduate School and University Center The City University of New York 365 Fifth Avenue New York City, New York 10016 (2l2) 817-8674 EDUCATION Ph.D. University of Chicago, l962 (Social Science) M.A. University of Chicago, 1956 (City Planning) B.A. University of Chicago, l953 EMPLOYMENT 2010 – present Consortia Faculty, Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies, School of Professional Studies, City University of New York 1988 – present Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York 1982 – 1988 Professor of Political Science, Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York 1975 – 1976 Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College, City University of New York (on leave from Boston University) 1972 – 1982 Professor of Political Science, Boston University 1968 – 1972 Associate Professor, Columbia University School of Social Work 1966 – 1968 Assistant Professor, Columbia University School of Social Work 1962 – 1966 Study Director, Research Center, Columbia University School of Social Work, Mobilization for Youth Project 1958 – 1960 Research Fellow, Metropolitan Region Program, Department of Public Law and Government, Columbia University Visiting Scholar and Professorships 2014 ICAN Visiting Scholar/Maxwell Cummings Distinguished Lectureship, McGill University, Montreal, Canada 2012 Visiting Distinguished Lectureship,
    [Show full text]
  • ZIONISM by Bernard to Defend Against Aggressors, to Promote Foreign Trade, and to Administerthe Still Unfinished Taskofrescuingtensofthousandsin Avishai
    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.
    [Show full text]
  • I'm Ruth Milkman from the ASA Presidency, I'm Happy to Welcome You All Here This Evening to What I Think Is Going to Be a Very Exciting Discussion
    >> I'm Ruth Milkman from the ASA Presidency, I'm happy to welcome you all here this evening to what I think is going to be a very exciting discussion. [Applause] This is a conversation about social movements in the post-Occupy Wall Street era, that is in the last five years since 2001, and we have three wonderful speakers who are going to share their insights on that topic. Our first speaker I think is familiar to most people here in the conference but I'm going to introduce her anyway, and it's Frances Fox Piven. [Applause] Frances, as you may remember, is a former ASA President and, lucky me, she is also my colleague at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she's a Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology. She has taught at many other places including Columbia University and Boston University and various places around the world over the years. Fran is probably still best known for two classic works that she co- authored with the late Richard Cloward, "Regulating the Poor," first published back in 1972 but still widely read, and five years later in 1977 she and Cloward published, "Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How they Fail," which is also very widely read today, I actually just used it in a course recently. A bit later with, also with Cloward, she wrote a book that you probably have read or heard of called, "Why Americans Don't Vote," followed later by another one called, "Why Americans Still Don't Vote." [Laughter] More recently she published a book in 2006 called, "Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America." And that book, like the ASA Presidential Address she delivered at this conference around that same time, in 2007 I think it was, argues that disruptive actions undertaken by ordinary people are the key to social change, perhaps she'll say more about this tonight, I'm not sure what her plan is.
    [Show full text]
  • The Disinformation Age
    Steven Livingston W. LanceW. Bennett EDITED BY EDITED BY Downloaded from terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/1F4751119C7C4693E514C249E0F0F997THE DISINFORMATION AGE https://www.cambridge.org/core Politics, and Technology, Disruptive Communication in the United States the United in https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms . IP address: 170.106.202.126 . , on 27 Sep 2021 at 12:34:36 , subject to the Cambridge Core Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.126, on 27 Sep 2021 at 12:34:36, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/1F4751119C7C4693E514C249E0F0F997 The Disinformation Age The intentional spread of falsehoods – and attendant attacks on minorities, press freedoms, and the rule of law – challenge the basic norms and values upon which institutional legitimacy and political stability depend. How did we get here? The Disinformation Age assembles a remarkable group of historians, political scientists, and communication scholars to examine the historical and political origins of the post-fact information era, focusing on the United States but with lessons for other democracies. Bennett and Livingston frame the book by examining decades-long efforts by political and business interests to undermine authoritative institutions, including parties, elections, public agencies, science, independent journalism, and civil society groups. The other distinguished scholars explore the historical origins and workings of disinformation, along with policy challenges and the role of the legacy press in improving public communication. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core. W. Lance Bennett is Professor of Political Science and Ruddick C.
    [Show full text]
  • Europe Against Austerity National Political Committee Statement – Page 2
    M the magazine of the Democratic Socialists of America DEMOCRATIC EFT www.dsausa.org Vol. XL, No. 1 Summer 2012 Europe Against Austerity National Political Committee Statement – page 2 No More Apologies: 2012 Socialist- Elections: Feminism and Tragic the Struggle for Dilemmas, Reproductive Left Possiblities Freedom By Joseph M. Schwartz by Amber Frost Page 4 Page 11 From Port Huron to T-Day: As Student Zuccotti Park: Debt Hits 50 Years of $1 Trillion, Participatory YDS Swings Democracy Into Action By Dick Flacks by Andrew Porter Page 6 Page 13 Make That Leap By Chris Maisano n the last issue of Democratic Left, Norman Birnbaum, everywhere and show the world the distinguished academic with a keen eye for Euro- that the exit from the crisis is on pean affairs, looked into the future and saw what he the Left. called an “asocial Europe” staring back at him. The On this side of the Atlantic, Itone of the article is deeply pessimistic. He concluded, “the the contest between President socialist and social democratic compromise with capitalism Obama and Mitt Romney offers no longer works: the new capitalism renounces welfare.” no prospect for a similar radi- The last few years have given us all the evidence we need cal breakthrough in the electoral to recognize the veracity of Birnbaum’s claim. Since the finan- arena. But as DSA Vice-Chair cial collapse of 2007-2008 and the grinding recession it left Joseph Schwartz argues in his in its wake, European political and financial elites have taken comment on the election, an advantage of the turmoil to impose a savage austerity pro- Obama victory would likely re- Chris Maisano gram on the peoples of the most financially distressed coun- sult in a more favorable political tries in the European Union – Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, terrain for the further growth and development of the social and above all, Greece, where a book of “starvation recipes” movements we need to change American politics.
    [Show full text]