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, 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 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 ? !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 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 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 with a cratic socialism can be a viable and effective force more egalitarian and socially mobile society than in U.S. politics. Socialism fi ts squarely within the our own. U.S. democratic tradition—from Tom Paine to the The outrage is there among other demographic radical abolitionists and on to Frederick Douglass, groups, and the Sanders campaign must fi nd a way Eugene Debs, , A. Philip Randolph, Ba- to reach them. These groups are non-college-edu- yard Rustin, and Martin Luther King, Jr. We can cated whites, communities of color, and immigrants. build on prior progressive policies by expanding So- The core of Sanders’s national support remains cial Security and instituting Medicare for All. And among Democrats who self-identify as liberal, pro- we can tackle the climate crisis by going beyond gressive, or radical. These voters are primarily col- prior public investments that transformed the U.S. lege-educated and white and work as civil servants, energy industry—the Rural Electrical Cooperatives educators, non-profi t advocates, and in the caregiv- of the 1930s and the Tennessee Valley Authority. ing professions. Hillary Clinton has double Sand- Vibrant socialist organizations have always ers’s support among the 40% of likely Democratic played a key role in building the social movements Party primary voters of color who say they are well- that take on the power of capital. And now is the acquainted with Sanders. Among the 60% of likely time to build DSA. The Sanders campaign shows Democratic voters of color who do not know enough that resistance is possible; but radical transforma- about Sanders to make a judgment, he is barely on tion is the work of a lifetime, not just of a cam- the radar. Voters of color make up more than 35% of paign.  the Democratic primary vote. Bernie still runs far Joseph M. Schwartz is a National Vice-Chair of behind Hillary among self-identifi ed feminists and Democratic Socialists of America and a professor of self-defi ned “moderate” working-class Democrats, at Temple University. His writings particularly those who are not members of unions. on Sanders and socialism have appeared in In To change those numbers, local Sanders groups These Times, Jacobin, and Telesur. Search for his have to reach out to progressive activists of color interview on MSNBC on Sanders and socialism. willing to vouch for Bernie within their communi- ties. They have to work with Labor for Bernie to secure local union support. The Sanders campaign has to accelerate its hiring of organizers who have Books by DSAers deep roots in working-class and black, Latino, and Once a year we publish a list of recent Asian American communities. To its credit, the cam- books by DSAers. If your book has come paign has begun to do this. Finally, we have to be out in the last 12 months, please send us willing not only to criticize Hillary’s fl ip-fl opping the title and publisher by January 1. If we on the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership and the Keystone missed you last year, but the book was published in the past three years, let us pipeline but her strong support of welfare “reform” know: [email protected] policies that have been devastating for low-income page 4 • Democratic Left • Winter 2015 All Out for Bernie By Elizabeth Henderson

rom Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia, to volvement in the local, and he is now chair of the lo- New York City and Washington, D.C., DSA lo- cal’s Sanders work. “My trajectory shows how much Fcals and organizing committees are recruiting of a long-term game recruitment and fostering ac- members, developing leaders, and connecting with tivists in the organization is,” Goldman says. new communities through work on Bernie Sand- In Washington, D.C., We Need Bernie work has ers’s presidential campaign. Conversations with lo- energized members and motivated them to get cal leaders from around the country show that peo- more involved in local work. Coleson Breen, a for- ple are more receptive to talking about socialism as mer co-chair of the local, is hopeful that the newer a result of Sanders’s candidacy. recruits will join DSA, but like Goldman, he takes In New York City, most the long view. of the people local members “I think it’s too early to encounter are “super recep- tell if some of the people that tive,” says Rahel Biru, co- we’re signing up through chair of the New York City Bernie work will stick DSA, especially when they around, but I am hopeful hear about Sanders’s plan that they will,” Breen says. for expanding Social Secu- Breen increased his in- rity and funding free public volvement in the local to higher education. “It is so help plan a We Need Bernie common sense and it ap- rally featuring writer and peals to people,” she says. progressive political activist After spending more Jim Hightower, author and than a decade volunteer- DSA honorary chair Barba- ing for political campaigns, ra Ehrenreich, and retired including Barack Obama’s Communication Workers of 2008 presidential campaign, America president Larry Biru started coming to DSA Cohen, among others, ear- meetings last winter. Since lier this fall. The event had then, Biru says, Sanders’s James Cajuste and Jeevan D’souza, members of the NYC around 100 attendees. run played a big role in her DSA local, participated in a bilingual tabling in East Harlem. Breen thinks that Sand- Photo: Miko Brandini. decision to become a leader ers’s campaign, unlike the in the New York City local. fi nancial crisis in 2008 or , pres- Biru says that routine tabling has allowed the ents DSA with a historic moment to get the word local to develop a presence and connect with new out about democratic socialism. “We’ll never have a members. “They’re looking for a group where they better opportunity to do this work. This is the time can do things, and they’re ready to get to work. They to really step up and get involved,” says Breen. see our DSA Bernie table and they’re like, ‘Yes, I want to do that.’” Working with Others Member recruitment, orientation, and retention, Many locals and organizing committees, includ- though, is a long-term undertaking that happens ing those in Atlanta, Austin, and Knoxville, Ten- one member at a time. Although the Philadelphia nessee, have found that collaborating with other local routinely tables for We Need Bernie, Adam groups on Sanders work has been a successful way Goldman, co-chair of the local, says that the deeper to educate people about Sanders’s candidacy and conversations that convert Sanders supporters into strengthen local membership. dues-paying members are happening at month- Members of the DSA organizing committee in ly Happy Hour events and bi-weekly discussion Knoxville are working as individuals with local pro- groups. gressive groups to get Sanders on the ballot for the Goldman, who joined the local in 2011 after get- presidential primary. Because We Need Bernie is ting his start at Temple University’s YDS chapter, an “uncoordinated independent expenditure” cam- saw We Need Bernie as a chance to increase his in- paign, DSA locals and organizing committees must

Democratic Left • Winter 2015 • page 5 refrain from directly coordinating with the offi cial all the time and you can recruit people,” Fetonte says. campaign, which includes collecting signatures. Through this approach, as well as by encourag- Travis Donoho, one of the coordinators of the ing all attendees at local DSA meetings to join the Knoxville committee, says that the petitions are a organization, Austin has recruited a dozen new great organizing tool. “People who would give us members since the campaign started. twenty seconds or ten seconds if we were handing Coalition work is also central to the Metro At- out a fl yer give us three or fi ve minutes as they sign lanta local’s organizing approach, with local mem- the petition.” bers participating in Georgia for Bernie. Daniel Donoho joined the Hanley, an at-large member of the local’s Executive (NAM) when he was 18 years old and became a Committee, says that although the local wants to member of DSA when NAM merged with the Demo- increase its membership numbers, it sees the value cratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) in of building the broader progressive movement by 1982. Donoho believes that there’s “never been a bet- plugging people into other activist movements such ter time to ask people to join DSA. Bernie is making as Fight for $15 and Black Lives Matter. it okay to talk about democratic socialism. And we “We hope they become DSA members or, at least, haven’t seen that in 40 years.” a member of some organization, like a DSA coali- Austin DSA, which Donoho helped found with tion partner, and then we can continue to build rela- current co-chairs Alice Embree and Danny Fetonte tionships with people in those groups,” Hanley said. before moving to Knoxville, has worked through The local’s ties to Sanders stretch back to his fi rst Texans for Bernie after its members developed rela- Senate run, when members did fundraising work for tionships with a number of local progressive groups his campaign. Atlanta combined efforts with other while organizing an event for Sanders and Jim locals in a bundling campaign to help the DSA PAC Hightower last spring. Sixty members of the Austin raise $60,000 for Sanders. The newly elected sena- local are participating in Texans for Bernie. tor was then the keynote speaker at the local’s fi rst Fetonte says that this level of participation, com- Douglass-Debs awards dinner in 2007. bined with DSA members being open about their Through the local’s organizing work with Geor- membership, makes it possible for DSAers to have gia for Bernie—which includes tabling, participat- plenty of discussions about socialism. ing in marches, fl yering on public transportation, “The key is to just let people know who you are, and creative outreach tactics like banner drops and if you’re open about it like Bernie is, people will and light projections on buildings—Hanley believes ask a lot of questions and you’ll be talking about it that the people they come in contact with are now

Boulder DSAers Dave Anderson (l., holding up one corner of banner), and Jack Hanley (behind Dave’s right shoulder) march on Labor Day with Coloradans for Bernie. Photo: Jim Adams page 6 • Democratic Left • Winter 2015 one step closer to becoming socialist organizers. “I think the seeds have been planted with a lot of people.” New Ground Since Black Lives Matter activists interrupted a Netroots Nation forum featuring Sanders and former Mary- land governor Martin O’Malley this past summer, the senator’s platform on race has been in the spotlight. Ad- ditional critiques from racial justice activists led Sanders to release a ra- cial justice platform addressing many of their concerns. Some DSA locals, recognizing that DSA’s membership is overwhelmingly white, are working to connect their Sanders work with racial justice or- Metro Atlanta DSA members (from left to right) Barbara Joye, Minnie Ruf n, Brandon Payton- Carrillo, Barbara Landay, and Adam Cardo marching to a Bernie fundraiser in Atlanta in ganizing. These locals aim to bring September. Photo: Reid Jenkins. attention to issues of racial justice while simultaneously building a more More than 60% of Chicago’s population is made diverse DSA. up of African Americans, Latinos, and Asians. Tom The Philadelphia local is currently organizing a Broderick, co-chair of the Greater Oak Park branch forum on racial justice and Sanders, and members of the Chicago local, says that bringing Sanders’s of the Washington, D.C., local canvassed for Sand- platform to all of these communities is vital to the ers in the Fort Totten area, a predominantly African success of the campaign. “The Chicago area is a me- American neighborhood in the northeast section of tropolis. We have all kinds of folks around here who the city. may or may not know who Bernie Sanders is, and The New York City local recently started bilin- what we need to do is get them to know who he is,” gual tabling outreach with volunteers who speak Broderick says. both English and Spanish. ‘It’s Up to You and Me’ The Greater Oak Park branch of the Chicago lo- Sanders’s presidential campaign has created an cal is also using its We Need Bernie work to con- unprecedented opportunity for progressives in gen- nect with Latino and African American commu- eral and socialists in particular. Since the senator nities. Members of the group did outreach work from Vermont announced his decision to run last in these communities during socialist candidate spring, DSA’s membership has increased, and eight Jorge Mújica’s campaign for 25th ward alderman new organizing committees have been established. earlier this year. Maria Svart, DSA’s national director, says that Bill Barclay, co-chair of the Chicago local, not- the next phase of DSA’s involvement in Sanders’s ed that when individual members of the Greater “political revolution” is “up to you and me. Do we Oak Park local attended a meeting of Sanders sup- utilize this window of opportunity to turn people porters last spring, they looked around at the most- interested in democratic socialism into members of ly white faces in the room and decided that they DSA? Do we build a democratic socialist movement should prioritize getting the word out about Sand- that refl ects the diversity of the working class and ers to communities of color in Chicago. is truly capable of winning? The capitalists tell us Since then, members of the local have routinely there is no alternative. Let’s prove them wrong.”  distributed fl yers at community events, including farmers’ markets and art festivals, where a signifi - A longer version of this article will also be published on www.dsausa.org/democratic_ cant number of African Americans or Latinos are left. present. Peg Strobel, treasurer of the Chicago local, notes Elizabeth Henderson is a that it’s important for white activists to get used freelance writer, member of the to working in communities of color. “I think people Philadelphia chapter of DSA, and need to get over a sense of discomfort and being one co-chair of the We Need Bernie of the few white people around,” Strobel said. campaign.

Democratic Left • Winter 2015 • page 7 Talkin’ Bernie and Socialism By Dustin Guastella

cene I: You’ve set up your table. The Social- ters. Bernie’s platform has many strong policy posi- ists for Sanders sign can be seen from ten feet tions. We socialists need to bring the analysis that Saway. You’re wearing a DSA T-shirt. The table informs those policies to the foreground. is stocked with fl yers on Bernie’s positions. The sign- What if the person is already a “Sanderista” but up sheet is in front of you. You’re building DSA and didn’t even know that DSA existed? Schedule a Sanders’s campaign. Someone walks up to the table. time to sit down one-on-one and talk about how to Scene II: You’re at a party and somebody notices make this political revolution a reality. First, fi nd your Sanders button or T-shirt. “He seems like a nice out where the person is coming from. Then, explain guy, but what does he stand for?” “I like his ideas, how Bernie’s goals and ours fi t with their desire but I really want a woman president.” “He doesn’t for a more equal and democratic future. Explain have a chance.” that we need a parallel so- Linking Bernie’s campaign cial movement to comple- and our vision of democratic ment Sanders’s electoral socialism requires real con- movement. If he’s elected, versations with thousands of he’s going to need a strong workers, students, and voters, movement behind him. And many of whom have not heard if he’s not elected the need of Bernie, his platform, or his for such a movement is call for political revolution. even greater. Bernie him- So, what do you say after self has repeatedly stressed you say hello? First, listen to the need for increased so- the person’s comments and cial movement activity. His questions, then put the mes- supporters need to know sage and the man together. that it is not enough to vote Link Bernie’s platform for him and go home. to a socialist analysis and a Without a strong socialist long-term vision of a radically organization there can be democratic and egalitarian no strong leftist movement. society. For instance, when When you table and leafl et we talk about Bernie’s com- or wear a button or T-shirt, mitment to tuition-free public always introduce yourself l. to. r. Rick Belliveau, Jason Potter, and Brady Lange higher education, we should of the Portland, Oregon, DSA as a member of DSA and explain why education is a invite enthusiastic Sand- fundamental social right, not a commodity sold to ers supporters to talk with you at greater length the highest bidder in order to get an edge in the or come to your next local meeting. DSA has been global capitalist marketplace. Just as our country fi ghting for many of Bernie’s positions for nearly decided to make elementary and secondary educa- 40 years (way before it was cool!). DSA is training tion available to everyone, not just the wealthy, we and developing the next generation of socialist lead- can do the same for higher education, paid for by a ers, activists, and organizers. If Sanders supporters fi nancial transaction tax. want to continue this work after the campaign is When we mention Bernie’s position on wealth re- over, they should see our organization as their po- distribution, we make it clear that wealth itself is litical home. Democratic socialists should be front created by society as a whole and not by a class of and center of the Sanderista political revolution, capitalists. but we can only make that happen if we organize You bring up easily relatable and popular key po- and speak up about socialism.  sitions: “Bernie is the only candidate pushing for a Dustin Guastella is a member of Philadelphia DSA $15 minimum wage,” “Bernie is the only candidate and co-chair of the DSA We Need Bernie campaign. fi ghting for free healthcare for all,” and “Bernie is You can fi nd DSA resources at www.dsausa.org/ the only candidate pledging to expand the labor weneedbernie_organizing_materials. movement.” And then you explain why that mat- page 8 • Democratic Left • Winter 2015 Welfare Rights, Wrongs, and Attacks on Women Michele Rossi speaks with Frances Fox Piven

ight-wing talk-show host has (AFDC), which had been the main cash assistance called her “one of the nine most dangerous program for poor families with children. It was re- Rpeople in the world.” DSA is proud to call her placed by Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, an honorary chair. Political scientist and sociologist which imposed time restrictions on the length of as- Frances Fox Piven has inspired and angered politi- sistance as well as work requirements. In addition, cal activists for decades. Almost it gave the states a big incentive 50 years ago, the Nation published to restrict aid, because they could an article by her and her colleague use the block grant funds for oth- and husband er purposes. This the states pro- in which they argued that, with ceeded to do. Welfare caseloads Democrats in control of the White plummeted, from about 14 mil- House and Congress, poor people lion people in 1995 to a little over should claim the welfare benefi ts 4 million today. This has meant a to which they were entitled. The doubling of households living in result would swamp the system extreme poverty. Some three mil- and lead to something new, a lion children live in such house- guaranteed annual income, which holds. would end poverty as we knew it. Of course, the effects are also The Cloward-Piven strategy, as felt more widely. AFDC func- it became known, was seen as a We should tioned as a kind of unemployment way for powerless people to take not endorse insurance program for people who advantage of disruptive moments “ were not eligible for UI benefi ts to make more than incremental policies that because they worked irregularly gains. Later, the strategy was ex- or in jobs that were not covered. panded to include massive voter punish the poor. With that safety net gone, many registration drives. Cloward and millions of precarious workers Piven, with George Wiley, helped are much more vulnerable to the found the National Welfare Rights harsh terms of work at the bot- Movement, which, for a few years, tom of the labor market. was the militant voice of heretofore voiceless wel-” Rossi: Hillary Clinton calls herself “a lifelong fare clients. Michele Rossi talks with Piven about fi ghter for women’s issues.” Apparently, she does not the impact of Bill Clinton’s so-called welfare reform see revisiting welfare reform as part of that fi ght. and its enduring impact on the poor. —Ed. And neither do the prominent feminists and many other progressives lining up behind her candidacy Rossi: It has been almost 20 years since then- for the Democratic presidential nomination. Why? president Bill Clinton signed into law the Personal Hillary Clinton has a very mixed record on the Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconcilia- issue of poverty, including the poverty of women tion Act, also known as “welfare reform.” You were a and children. She began as a lawyer with Marian prominent critic of the legislation, maintaining that Wright Edelman’s advocacy group, the Children’s it wrongly focused on the morality of poor women’s Defense fund, and she later popularized the slo- highly constrained personal choices and defl ected gan “It takes a village to raise a child.” But in the attention from crises in the labor market. 1990s, as the right-wing campaign against blacks What consequences has the reform had for the and the poor escalated, she joined with her husband women who were its target? And what has been its in trying to minimize the damage the Republican impact more broadly? assault was causing Democrats by endorsing some Piven: The passage of PRWORA meant the elim- of its principles. Bill Clinton campaigned in 1992 ination of Aid to Families with Dependent Children with the promise to “end welfare as we know it,” and

Democratic Left • Winter 2015 • page 9 when a Republican House put a bill that did just that on his desk before the 1996 election, he signed it, with Hillary’s support. Join Our Legacy Circle The problem is not just Hillary. The main argu- ment for PRWORA was that welfare caused the Our Legacy Circle program lets you make poor to become “dependent.” Better to show tough a  nal gift to ensure that the values we share will receive the support they deserve. love and cut out the checks, because then poor wom- en would shape up, get a job, and begin the climb A bequest of any size will help us meet the out of poverty. This conviction that wage work is al- challenges of 21st-century capitalism. For ways better than welfare is deeply ingrained, and more information about how you can be- it is shared by much of the Left as well as all of the come part of the Legacy Circle, call DSA’s Right. It’s time we reevaluated it, not only because National Director Maria Svart (212) 727-8610 it has confused our support for income assistance or email [email protected]. to the poor but because contemporary labor market conditions make full employment at decent wages less and less likely. Maybe there will come a glori- Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation ous day when investment will mean investment in Publication Title, “DEMOCRATIC LEFT” 2. Publication Number, 701960 ISSN, 1643207 3. Filing Date, 10/07/2015 4. Issue Frequency, quarterly 5. Number of Issues Published Annually, 4 6. Annual a green economy, caregiving jobs, and so on. But in Subscription Price, $10.00 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Offi ce of Publication, 75 MAIDEN LANE, ROOM 702, NEW YORK, NY 10038-4630 8. Contact Person, Ms. MARIA SVART Telephone, the meantime, we should not endorse policies that (212) 727-8610 9. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Offi ce of Publisher, 75 MAIDEN LANE, ROOM 702, NEW YORK, NY 10038-4630, Publisher Maria Svart, DSA punish the poor. 75 Maiden Lane, Room 702, New York, NY 10038-4630, Editor Maria Svart, DSA 75 Maiden Lane, Rossi: How should we understand the energy Room 702, New York, NY 10038-4630, Managing Editor Maria Svart, DSA 75 Maiden Lane, Room 702, New York, NY 10038-4630. 10. Owner, Democratic Socialists of America Inc., 75 Maiden Lane, and enthusiasm coalescing around Bernie Sanders’s Room 702, New York, NY 10038-4630 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgages, Other Security Holders, None 12. Tax Status, Has not changed during preceding 12 months. candidacy? Is this the beginning of a movement? Publication Title, DEMOCRATIC LEFT The Sanders campaign is the continuation of a Issue Date for Circulation Data Below, Fall 2015 movement, not the beginning. It’s hard to be sure Extent and Nature of Circulation Average No. Copies No. of of Single of the exact beginning. Was it the occupation of the Copies Issue Wisconsin state capitol? Or Occupy? Or Ferguson? Each Issue, Published During Nearest Or now Black Lives Matter? All these events are ev- Preceding to Filing idence of the scale and intensity of popular anger at 12 Months Date escalating inequality and the abusive government a.Total Number of Copies (net press run) 7833 8000 policies that inequality makes necessary. And just b.Paid Circulation (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1) Mailed 5843 5751 Outside County Paid Subscriptions State on PS Form 3541 as is bigger than the United States, b.(2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions States on PS 190 183 so is the movement. Occupy drew inspiration from Form 3541 the Arab Spring, UK Uncut from Occupy. And the b.(3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales 00 movements are spilling over into electoral politics, Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS not only with the remarkable Sanders campaign b.(4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through 183 212 here, but with the defeat of the arch-conservative the USPS

Stephen Harper in Canada and the ascendance of c.Total Paid Distribution 6216 6146 Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the Labour Par- d.Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (By Mail and Outside ty in Britain. the Mail) It’s a good time to be a political activist!  d.(1)Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies included 00 in PS Form 3541

Michele Rossi researches and d.(2)Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included in 00 writes about inequality, culture, PS Form 3541 and politics. She is a member of d.(3)Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes 996 1140 Through the USPS (e.g. First-Class Mail) Philadelphia DSA. d.(4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail 150 150 (Carriers or other means)

e.Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution 1146 1290

f.Total Distribution 7362 7436

g.Copies Not Distributed 471 564

h.Total 7833 8000

DSA Convention News i.Percent Paid 84.43 82.65

You can  nd photos and a report of the 16. Publication of Statement of Ownership, Publication of this statement will be printed in the Winter DSA convention at dsausa.org. 2015 edition of this publication. 17. Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager, or Owner, [email protected] (MARIA SVART) Date 10/7/2015. page 10 • Democratic Left • Winter 2015 Mass Incarceration: Is Change Gonna Come? By James Kilgore

ass incarceration is trending. Criminal jus- paign to promote “law and order.” Manufactured tice never even got on the radar during the racialized images of drug dealers, thugs, and gang- M2012 presidential election; now it’s big-time bangers spawned white moral panic. Nancy Reagan news. The president and the pope have ventured be- went on tour with her “Just Say No” message. The hind bars. Politicians from Rand Paul to Cory Book- largely discredited Drug Abuse Resistance Educa- er have sounded off on the need to end the War on tion (DARE) program sent police into middle schools Drugs and de-racialize criminal justice. The Koch and high schools to win the hearts and minds of brothers are on board, too. For those of us who have children. Fear made “soft on crime” the most damn- spent years in prison and many more campaign- ing label any post-Reagan political candidate could ing for an end to mass incarceration, people in high imagine. Can we re-brand “soft on decarceration” places paying attention raises all kinds of possibili- with the same moral authority? I doubt it. ties. Yet even with all this change of heart, it’s hard If we are to return the United States to 1980 in- to keep faith in a change of system. carceration levels, the approximate To begin with, promises around point where all this madness began, criminal justice at the presidential we would have to cut the prison and level don’t have a great track record. jail population by about 80% or 1.7 Remember the closing of Guantana- million people. That would bring mo? Even the recent release of 6,000 the United States to the incarcera- people from federal prisons consti- tion rate of the United Kingdom, tutes a baby step. Plus, about a third the next most punitive state among of them are being transferred not to the established capitalist powers. freedom but to the ICE deportation We can’t arrive back to the future queue. Many more released under by picking the “low-hanging fruit” this quick-fi x initiative will end up in of those with nonviolent drug of- dead-end, impoverished situations. fenses. They are only 16% of those Starry-eyed fi scal conservatives in prison. Thousands of people the system has la- see corrections budgets as soft targets for cutting beled “violent” need a re-think as well. Are Hillary government spending. They just don’t get it. Ending Clinton and Marco Rubio ready for this? Again, I mass incarceration will not save money. The prison- doubt it. Even Bernie Sanders’s latest bill on pris- industrial complex refl ects a national strategy for ons contains nothing that will signifi cantly reduce dealing with poverty, inequality, and racial confl ict. prison populations. We are caging the unemployed, the homeless, and When a politician puts forward a plan to “Free those with mental health and substance abuse is- the Mass Incarcerated 1.7 Million,” then the seri- sues. Meeting the needs of this population requires ous talk has begun. In the meantime, let’s use the not slashing corrections but reallocating resources trendiness of mass incarceration to make whatev- into public housing, employment, and treatment. er changes are possible and keep building a social Decarceration on the cheap means replicating the movement that can pressure for needed tweaks in massive Skid Row of Los Angeles in every city and the legislation as part of a much bigger and more town in the country. We have already segregated diffi cult process of fi ghting for systemic change.  our cities via gentrifi cation. If we empty the prisons without supporting those released, we will create James Kilgore is a writer, what activist Jazz Hayden calls “open air prisons”— activist, and educator based over-policed communities of color devoid of opportu- in Urbana, Illinois. His latest nities for residents. book is Understanding Mass Ultimately, ending mass incarceration requires Incarceration: A People’s Guide more than innovative policy packages and changes to the Key Civil Rights Struggle in legislation. It demands a new mindset. Mass in- of Our Time. Contact him at carceration mushroomed from a vast media cam- [email protected], @waazn1 or www.understandingmassincarceration.com

Democratic Left • Winter 2015 • page 11 Creating a Culture of Reproductive Justice By Jean Peterman

PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights the 35 women I interviewed for research projects, By Katha Pollitt about half were practicing Catholics. Their reli- Picador, paper, 288 pp., 2015 gion was important to them, yet they did not agree with everything their church teaches. Said one, “My Grandma, a fi lm by Paul Weitz, starring Lily Tom- abortion is between me and God.” lin, Julia Cox, Marcia Gay Harding, Judy Greer, La- One of Pollitt’s biggest contributions to the repro- verne Cox, Elizabeth Pena, Sam Elliott, 2015 ductive justice/anti-justice debate is to clarify that it is not a battle between religious people and non- atha Pollitt’s compelling and necessary believers. Most mainline Protestant denominations book PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights, is and Reform and Conservative Judaism support re- Know out in paperback. This is good news in productive justice. a very bleak season for reproductive justice. Pollitt, Catholic women get abortions in the same pro- who writes frequently in the Nation about these is- portion as their numbers in the general population. sues, makes a clear case that the right to abortion George Tiller, the doctor who performed late-term is an economic issue as well as a moral one. Re- abortions in Wichita, Kansas, was murdered by productive control “didn’t just make it possible for an anti-abortionist in the narthex of his Lutheran women to commit to education and work and free church. This controversy is between fundamental- them from shotgun marriages and too many kids. ists and the rest of us. Supporters of abortion should It changed how women saw themselves: as moth- stop being so apologetic, says Pollitt, and claim re- ers by choice.” productive justice as crucial to women’s empower- Studies show that access to contraception and ment at every level. abortion have contributed to the increase in the Director writer Paul Weitz’s latest fi lm does just numbers of women in college and in the professions that. Grandma, starring Lily Tomlin, is an “odd and the number of women who are economically couple” saga of a lesbian grandmother helping her independent. Pollitt contrasts the hypocrisy of our teenage granddaughter (Julia Garner) get the mon- cultural veneration of mothers with the economic ey for an abortion. realities of their lives. Most of the consequences of Both funny and very moving, it serves as a per- being a parent fall on the mother. In two-income fect example of what Pollitt writes about. Contem- heterosexual families, often the woman’s income porary feminism and generational divides are very can kick the family into a higher tax bracket while much a part of this story. Grandma Elle is a 70ish barely or not even covering the cost of child care. lesbian feminist. Her daughter, Judy (Marcia Gay Because the United States does not have paid Harden), is a high-powered lawyer. Granddaugh- parental leave, the woman’s staying at home may ter Sage, unsure about her future, does not want to make economic sense at the time, but means that drift into motherhood. One of Elle’s plans is to sell when she re-enters the workforce she usually does her fi rst edition copies of The Second Sex and The so at a lower wage and a lesser job. The situation of Feminine Mystique to her local feminist bookstore single mothers is bleak indeed. Not only are they but she is offered much less than she expected for demonized, but there are very few social services them. Sage asks if the Feminine Mystique is an X- and income supports to help them raise healthy Men character. children. Read PRO. Invite your friends to see Grandma. As an activist since the mid-seventies and later, a Then organize.  researcher, I have heard abortion stories from many Jean Peterman is a member women. For each woman, the abortion decision was of the National Organization embedded in her own life and was not an abstract for Women and a former moral issue. Their abortion allowed them to accept board member of the Chicago a scholarship to graduate school, leave a bad rela- Abortion Fund. She is retired tionship, care for children they already had, and from the faculty of Chicago basically get their lives back. Several revealed that State University. they had never told anyone about their abortion. Of page 12 • Democratic Left • Winter 2015 Changing the Conversation Socialist for President By Maurice Isserman

t is very probable, especially if you are a than 150,000, the ARU launched a national rail young person, that you have never heard strike in solidarity with workers already on strike “Iof Eugene Victor Debs.” Those are the fi rst against the Illinois-based Pullman Company (which words spoken in a 1979 documentary (you can fi nd manufactured sleeping cars for the railroads). Fed- it on YouTube) about the man who, running on the eral troops were dispatched to break the strike, Socialist Party ticket in 1912, won nearly a mil- widespread violence ensued, and Debs wound up lion votes. Debs’s 6% of the total vote was, at least in prison for defying an injunction. Soon afterward, electorally, the high-water mark for U.S. socialism. he was drawn to the socialist movement, and in the The producer of the half- fi rst years of the 20th cen- hour educational fi lm in- tury became the newly tended to restore Debs to unifi ed Socialist Party’s his rightful place in U.S. most famous and elo- historical memory was quent spokesman, as well one Bernie Sanders of as perennial presidential Burlington, Vermont. At candidate. By 1912, when the time a marginally em- Debs made his fourth run ployed 38-year-old radi- for president, the Party cal organizer, he would had 100,000 members, enjoy his own electoral ten times its member- triumph two years later ship in 1900, and counted by being elected Burling- scores of elected offi cials ton’s mayor. Sanders’s across the country. documentary about Debs Historian Nick Sal- is earnest and informa- vatore’s 1982 biography, tive, and distinctly low- Eugene V. Debs: Citi- budget. He wound up voicing the famous bits from zen and Socialist, remains the best single source Debs’s speeches himself (“I would not lead you into on Debs’s life and legacy. Debs, Salvatore reminds the promised land if I could, because if I led you us, “was not born a Socialist, and he did not reject in, someone else would lead you out”), which can be American values when he became one.” Rather, he entertaining, given the Brooklyn transplant’s still understood, and was able to persuade many oth- very pronounced accent. ers, that the greatest threat to individual autonomy Debs was not from Brooklyn. He was born in and the well-being of families and communities, as Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1855. Although his fam- well as democratic self-rule, was represented by the ily prospered, Debs dropped out of school at age 14 unbridled growth of corporate power. “Debs under- to take a job on the railroad and worked his way stood that a commitment to the class struggle was up to the position of locomotive fi reman, a skilled neither unpatriotic nor irreligious.” On the contrary, occupation. He also worked his way up the ranks Salvatore writes, “such a commitment was the very of his craft union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive fulfi llment of the basic democratic promise of Amer- Firemen, becoming its Grand Secretary. And he ican life.” launched a career in mainstream politics, winning The year 2015 is not 1912. Bernie Sanders is election on the Democratic ticket to become city not Eugene Debs. But from Occupy to Bernie- clerk of Terre Haute, followed by a seat in the state mentum, echoes of the Debsian legislature. message still resonate today.  But in the 1890s, he took a new direction politi- Maurice Isserman teaches cally. Becoming convinced of the need for industrial history at Hamilton College. unionism (which, unlike craft unions, united skilled He is the author of The Other and unskilled workers), he organized the American American: The Life of Michael Railway Union. After enjoying some initial success- Harrington. es, and rapidly expanding its membership to more

Democratic Left • Winter 2015 • page 13 Elections in Popular Culture

rom the fi ctional portrayal of Huey Long in The Manchurian Candi- All the King’s Men to Election with Reese date A still-enthralling FWitherspoon or Bulworth with Warren Beatty cold-war-era melodrama, or The Candidate with Robert Redford, U.S. culture it centers on a plot by has plenty to say about elections. Here are some fa- combined Soviet-Chinese vorites from DSA activists. Secret Service operatives to infl uence the upcoming The Campaign is the funni- presidential selection pro- est satire of our recent elec- cess by “brainwashing” a toral politics I’ve seen out- returning soldier into an side of Saturday Night Live. assassin. From the 1959 Two candidates compete for book by Richard Condon, a congressional seat: a Dem- the fi lm stars Frank Sina- ocrat going for his fi fth term tra, Lawrence Harvey, An- (Will Ferrell) and a Republi- gela Lansbury, and Janet Leigh. Complete with such can naif (Zach Galifi anakis), staples as military police derring-do, Asian conspira- but you soon forget the party tors, a stunning Lansbury (Newsweek in 2007 named affi liations, as both speak in her character one of the ten greatest villains in fi lm), the same patriotic clichés and a national convention at Madison Square Gar- and sling outrageous per- den, the production is masterly, better than its 2004 sonal attacks at each other with not one mention remake featuring Denzel Washington. of any actual policy issue except, briefl y, “jobs.” The —Michael Hirsch evil Moch (!) brothers manipulate both candidates  and—look for it—supply the voting machines. Well acted. —Barbara Joye  To understand U.S. poli- tics you need to watch three television shows: (1) The West Wing to #YDS16 understand the idealis- tic aspirations of D.C.’s YOUNG army of staffers. They SAVE THE DATE imagine they are C.J. DEMOCRATIC Cregg or Sam Seaborn, running between cubicles SOCIALISTS and changing the world; National Conference 2016 (2) House of Cards to un- derstand the Machiavel- lian character of our political leaders. The ruthless Generation Left rise of Kevin Spacey’s character, Frank Underwood, is a refl ection of the career trajectories of Dick Millennials Building the Next Socialist Movement Cheney and Bill Clinton; and (3) the most impor- tant, Veep. U.S. politics is defi ned by its clownish- ness. Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s character is a carbon Presidents’ Day Weekend copy of Joe Biden. February 12-14, 2016 What is truly radical about Bernie Sanders? He New York City is the fi rst candidate to run for president who isn’t a character out of one of these three shows. —Neal Meyer For more information: [email protected]

page 14 • Democratic Left • Winter 2015 Bernie Comics*

*https://berniesanderscomics.wordpress.com/about/. Art and script: Sharon Rudahl; editor: Paul Buhle.

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Except as otherwise noted, political advertisements and other express advocacy in support of a federal candidate for of ce were paid for by Democratic Socialists of America, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 702, New York, NY 10038. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. page 16 • Democratic Left • Winter 2015