PUBLISHED BY THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERl<..A
MAR.·APR. 1986 VOL XIV, No. 2 $1.50 T ....412
Zey Aronountz, an;(/ ull Employrnent Socialist Scholan Conference REBELLION, RESISTANCE, REVOLT April 18, 19 & 20, 1986 Boro of Manhattan Commwdty College, CUNY 199 Chambers Street (near Trade Center), New York City The usual suspects and hundreds more••• • Luciana Castellina • Noam Chomsky • Murray Bookchin • Dorothy Healey •Tony Mazzochi • Goren Theroorn • Adamantia Pollis •Ruth Messinger • Stanley Aronowitz • Paul Sweezy • William Kornblum • Joanne Landy • Irving Howe • Paulette Pierce • Bogdan Denitch • Michael Harrington •Frances Fox Piven • Barbara Ehrenreich • Robert Lekachman • Daniel Singer • William Tabb • Barbara Epstein • Cornel West •Erwin Knoll Some of this year's panels are: Democratic: Soc:lalbta of America South End Preaa Race, Class and Gender Aids Organizing Strategies for Change in America Women's Movement Strategy The Generation After: Holoc:auat Survivon ANoclatlon TV The Roots and Causes of Nazism and the Holocaust Israel and the US Left l.aRouche. The Liberty Lobby: A Base for U.S. Fascism Veteraoa of the Abraham Uncoln Brltade Mid-Atlantic: Radical Hlatorlana Ortanizatlona The Popular Front Strategy in Spain at the Time of the Civil War Risking Old Age in America National Wrlten Union The Sears/ EEOC Case Publish (Pay), or Perish: The Sad State of Scholarly Affairs On the History of Cinema Labor Reeearcb ANOClatlon Irish-American Radicals The AFL-CIO Report on the Changing Work History and Future of New York City New York Marxlat School Wrillng the History of American Communism Women Scientists Speak on Women in Science Monthly Review Dialectics Revisited: The Dialectical Biologist Liberation Theology Who is Programming the DNA Programming Socialism and Local Politics Soc:lal Text: Planaen Network Lukacs-Bloch A Socialist Housing Program Reform Caucua, United Unlwralty Pror-lom, SUNY Hungary: The 1956 Revolt Innovative Organizing Strategie$ in Higher Education South Africa and Israel: The Alliance and Its Roots Unions and Higher Education American Agriculture in Collapse: The Economics of Food Insurgent Movements within Unions American Foreign Policy and the Philippines Science and Soc:lety The Crisis of the Budget: Gramm-Rudman Are There General Laws of Socio-Economic Transformations The Cold War and the Holocaust SATURDAY NICHT SPECIAL EVENT THE FUCS IN CONCERT
Spouon/ Partidputa (in formation) Reptrallo• Form CUNY Ph.D. Progrun in Sociology, and Dissent, Nolion, Institute for Democratic Make checks pay~ to ··SocJa1 SchoWs Conftttnce" a1'd mail to Socilliam. Mid-Allin tic Radial HistoriAns Orpaizatjoo, MonJhJy /ktJitul, Social R.L Norman, Jr, CUNY Democratic SociallJla Oub. Rm 901, 33 Wesl 42nd St . New York, N.Y. 10036. lt>lq, SoaaJ Ttxt, Soaa/ist R«iew, Ttios, CUNY Democratic Socialist Faculty Prerepetratloa: __$17 .50 __11 0 O dly) __11 0 (lludrnl/low lllCOIM) Oub, CUNY Democratic Socialist Graduate Student Oub, South F.od Presa, The 1ep1ar ~: __125 00 __11 2 50 (I dly) _ _ 112 SO~lludttllllow income) Fabian Society, The Generation After. Against the Cunmi, TM NNJ Soo'tty. Sarna Pro~Nl Chddc1~ 1v1111b~ dunn1 1he dly on S.11inl1y a1'd Sunday and Socltty, CuipailD for Democ:acy- F.ut and West. Stmiolat. Cintaslt, The 0 I nttd chikkltt for __ chlklml Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, Socialist lt>litics, Dioltclical Alllhropology. New Yott Marxist Schi>ol. Union for Rldial l'olitial Economics, Addrns·~------1 TM />roRmsiot, TM Guardian, Bergin & Ganey Publishers. Ci1y ______S..te _____.._.7i•,p ______,,_,..
l>EMOCllATIClfn 2 MAJt .•fH - 1- FAMILY TIES Of .Parents, Politics, and Progeny
by Maxine Phillips help. "The main reason we can stay active is afford individual babysitters. Former L.A. that grandma lives with us and provides co-ehair Jan Breidenbach, mother of two ill DSA lose not just much love and help with the kids," says year old Jesse, notes that her branch one but two genera D.C. Executive Committee member De schedules its meetings on Sunday morning tions of activists to the borah Goldman, mother of Benjamin, four, for brunch so that families can bring their new "baby boom?" It's and Joshua, one-and-a-half. Debbie's children and the children can get to know no news that the gen mother-in-law, Dorothy Healey, combined each other. Boston tried having potluck Weration in the 30 to 40-year-old age range is grandparenting and serving on DSA's Na dinners on Sunday nights before the regu having babies and becoming less active in tional Executive Committee up until this lar monthly meetings, but since the pro DSA, but when Demo<::raiic Left surveyed year. gram lasted until 10:00 and the children both new and experienced parents to find The Los Angeles local takes up a col needed to be in bed by 8:30, most parents out what the organization could do to help lection at meetings to reimburse parents left after dinner. "Night meetings just don't them stay active, it found that parents are for babysitting expenses, a practice that work,'' emphasizes Julia Johnson, former looking for more than child care during the D.C. local recently adopted. "We chair of the Boston local and soon-to-be meetings. They want their children to be reafued that most of the few kids in our mother of a second child. come involved. The news is that if DSA' local are pre-school age or babies and that Still, before the children are old doesn't appeal to parents and children, it providing child care at meetings wouldn't enough to have a set bedtime, many ac risks losing both generations. help for this age group,'' says Debbie tivists find child care at night meetings Goldman. In Chicago, where there is a helpful. And if the number of children is Parent I Activists? larger number of parents, the local pro small and members are willing to take turns vides child care at meetings, but cannot caring for them, it doesn't have to be paid How do parents manage? "At first nothing changed," remembers Beth Cagan, who has been active in Cleveland since the beginning of the New American Movement (NAM - one ofDSA's predecessor organi zations) and before. "It was 1969 and there was a lot of focus on women and kids in the movement ... But as the kids got older and our jobs more demanding, intense in volvement was difficult. . . . At first we were very conscious of taking turns, being fair. But as time wore on, I'd say I tended to give in more and let Steve be active. It would have been too difficult for both of us to give so much time to politics." Beth's story is echoed today by other DSA women. Although none of the women who answered the questionnaire had dropped out completely, most reported cut ting back on their activism, especially if they have more than one child. Most of the men, too, reported lower levels of activity than in their pre-parenting lives. (Parents of older children recalled living with other adults and children in the early 1970s and thus being able to maintain activity. Group living did not seem to be an option in the 1980s.) Interestingly, respondents who are part-time parents because of divorce are able to stay active because they have blocks of time when they are not responsible for child care. Some lucky parents have extra
DEMOCRATICLEFT 3 MAR.·APR. 1986 child care. Judy Johnson, who served as head ofNAM's Parenting Task Foree in the 1970s, remembers a rule in her local that l whoever brought a child to a meeting would be free of responsibility for the child during I CAN'l" 1'1.AY Now IJ.AVE: lo SPEND SOM~ the meeting time. Other members took QUAJ..ll'Y 'f IME WITH half-hour child care shifts. For the parent, MY HolHER f "it was very freeing and let you concentratE on the meeting." Lf _J.I Locals can also aid parents by involv @o ing them in work they can do at home, such as teaching a course in their living room or performing much-needed maintenance tasks that don't involve phone calls. Former DSA Program Director Holly Graff and husband Tom Simonds, former Chicago DSA staffperson, are now the par ents of Keith, almost three, and nine month-old twins, Tessa and Kevin. Al though Holly and Tom were able to stay active nationally and locally with one child, having three means that their main political "Recruiting" the Kids two-year--0ld Joe, and two-month-old Kath work is now done at home, where they are Veterans of the early years of the ryn Eleanore, suggest playgroups as a way computerizing the Chicago local's mailing women's movement recall debates over for children to meet each other and for par list. They are glad that the local provides what type of child care socialists should ents to "share concerns and maybe engage child care at meetings, but what is most provide. They now note the lack of imagina in some type of activities." Without such important to them at this point is to tion shown at most meetings when it comes support, they don't see how they can stay socialize with others in the local who share to setting up an atmosphere that children active. their parenting concerns. "We want to would like. "I've stopped talcing my daugh When children are little, there are build ties for our children," says Holly. ter to DSA events," says Judith Van Allen, some ways to include them in political activ mother of nine-year-old Adrian, and until ity. Marshall Mayer, campus organizer for her recent marriage, a single parent. "She the Pro-Peace March, told us his son is was always bored." In contrast, at feminist looking forward to going on the march events, the childcare programs attempted across the U.S.A. But as the children grow to integrate children with mural painting, older, they're more interested in doing Di:\~~~~~.,.. evening sing alongs, or child--0riented polit things with their friends. Beth and Steve Democratic Left and M C11J ical education. Cagan's oldest daughter is in an anti ing On. Almost all the parents surveyed feel apartheid group in her high school, but the need for social activities that bring par Beth points out that she has little peer sup 8AUARA EHRfNRBCH ents and children together. Parents ofsmaU port "because we don't have political MICHAEL HARRINGTON children appreciate help with babysitting friends with kids our kids' ages. So they Editors expenses and sensitive scheduling of meet tend to feel like oddballs, charting new ter GUY MOLYNEUX ings, but parents of older children find that, ritory.... "At the same time, they want to Managing Editor as DSA Co-chair Barbara Ehrenreich develop their own views "but sometimes wrote, "there are no DSA events or ac feel squelched by our lmowledge and ideas EDITORIAL COMMITIH tivities that children and teenagers can ... How do they rebel against rebels?" asks Stanley Aronowitz Maxine Phillips plug into directly." When her children were Beth. Joanne Barkan Jan Rosenberg On Long Island, Rosa and Benjamin Gerald Hudson young she could take them to meetings and demonstrations. Now, at ages 13 and 115, Ehrenreich are active in Students Against DEMOCRATIC LEF'T (ISSN 0164-3207) i.#ublished they "see DSA as a drain on my time, with Driving Drunk, which works to help stu six times a year at 15 Dutch St., Suite 500, New no particular benefits or meaning for dents resist peer pressures to drink or use Yor k, NY 10038. Second Class postage paid at them." DSA Political Director Jim Shoch's drugs. They both consider themselves New York, N.Y. Subscription $8 regular; $15 institutional. 14-year-old stepson, Toby, "thinks politics ~ftwing, but, says Barbara, "One of the POSTMASTER: Send address changes to DEM is pretty boring." Michael Harrington's won,'t things now is that they don't know OCRATIC LEFT, 15 Dutch St., Suite 500, New 17-year--0ld son, Alec, is "sympathetic," his other kids who are political." Rosa, age 15, York, NY 10038. l4-year--0ld, Ted ''indifferent." complains about kids who don't take issues DEMOCRATIC LEFT is published by the Demo Aside from a few locals that have seriously and has tried tO meet her own cratic Socialists of America at the above address, brunch meetings to include children, there needs through the debating society. phone (212) 962--0390. Additional office: 3202 is no systematic attempt to bring children Larry Wittner, a founder and until this Adeline, Berkeley CA 94703, (415) 42S-1354. into a social network. According to Peg year the secretary of the Albany, N. Y. lo Microfilm, Wisconsin State Hist-0rical Society, Strobel and Bill Barclay of the Chicago lo cal, Le; plea.o;;ed that his l4-year--0ld daugh 816 State St., Madison W1 53703. Indexed in the Alternative Press Index, P.O. Box 7229, Balti cal, "what would be great is left cultural ter, Julie, is political. Yet he worries that more MD 21218. Signed arl:icks express the opin activities for kids." Peter and Marjorie her activism may fade as she is swept up icms ofthe authors and not ofthe organization. Hickman, parents of four-year-old Karl, more in "teen culture." She doesn't have
DEMOCRATIClEFT 4 MAR.-APR. 1986 political friends at school, although at a Un among teenagers that any activity would itarian camp last summer she loved being "almost have to define itself in opposition to with other young people who shared her adults." His children have eajoyed a family views. camp that he, his wife Willy, and about 40 Indeed, when parents of older children other adults (some of them DSA membrs) talk about a left culture in which their chil and children have participated in every dren can meet others and learn about is summer for almost 20 years. Because peer sues, they talk about camps run by church relations are so important at this age, Paul groups or progressives, but not about DSA believes that the best thing DSA could do activities. In Ebrope, many socialist parties for teenagers would be to sponsor offer events or organizations for children in weekends and camping trips where kids the 8 to 16 age range. The DSA Youth can socialize. Section, however, is limited to those age 16 Judy Johnson questions whether the and over, and in reality is geared to college nitty gritty details of organizing can ever be young people. Thus it is easy for children of made attractive to this age group. "Kids are DSA activists never to be turned on to so disenfranchised and have so little control socialist politics. over their own lives that they can't see activism directly affecting their lives," she "Do Lincoln Logs still believes. When her son Derek was younger, he organired a discussion on chil exist?" dren's rights for the local. Today, at age 20, Steve, Beth, J oanna, and S hauna he's been active in a campaign to save the Cagan (with Harry the dog). For young children, playgroups would planetarium in their home town of Moss be good. As the children grow older, Point, Mississippi. Yet he sees activism as NAM's Parenting Caucus had an in weekend retreats, picnics, games, cultural "a lot of work," says Judy. formal newsletter and met at conventions. events and other group activities could be The need to be able to talk to other But it seems that no DSA local has a par fun and also teach values and organizing parents and to share ideas about socialist ents· group; nor is there a network of par skills. After all, Holly Graff points out, the childbearing is very strong. "DSA nation ents in different cities who communicate skills learned in putting on a rock concert ally needs to have more visible concern for with each other. Parents in each local need are certainly transferable. Barbara Ehren and commitment to the issues that so many to meet and determine what they want the reich suggests that locals get children of of its most active and formerly active mem most. Needs will vary from 10cal to local members together and ask them what they bers are now very concerned with - how depending on the children's ages. If such would like to do. capitalism impacts on children, parents, groups are to be organized, some of the and families," says Andrea Gunderson, initial energy might have to come from mother of 17-month-old Kirstin and once a Transmitting Values nonparents. Given the general exhaustion All the parents interviewed were member of the Chicago local's steering of parents, especially new ones, and unless pleased with their teenagers' values, even committee. "Questions of values and how there is a regular meeting space and ongo if the youngsters were not activists at this you transmit them are burning issues," ing opportunities for interaction, keeping a time. Pittsburgh activist Paul Garver, says Barbara Ehrenreich. "It's ridiculous group going can be difficult. father of 20-year-old Michael, 19-year-old that we don't have space for them. Why not Parents· groups are often highly moti Adrian, and 15-year-old Christopher, be have workshops at conventions? These vated on certain issues. When asked if hav lieves that the need to rebel is so strong needs can't be met in a private way." ing children had changed their political interests, DSA parents cited education, day care, sex-role stereotyping, racism, the environment, and especially nuclear war, as taking on more importance. They are also concerned about the values of the mass culture. "Do Lincoln Logs still exist?" asks NEC member Harold Meyerson, father of four-year-old Miranda, as he decries Gobots, Transformers, and other war toys. Delores Delgado Campbell and Duane Campbell, parents of a six-year-old, try to counterbalance the violence on television and the "blatant U.S. attitude that the strong walk on the weak" but feel "much despair" about the attitudes of the larger society. They are active as co-chairs of the Latino and Anti-Racism Commissions, re spectively, but report that their local has only one active member with children, so that no support network exists among par-
I ents . Richard Healey and Debbie Goldman with Benjie a nd Josh. Gantinued on page 11
DEMOCRATICLEFT 5 MAR.·APR. 1986 ------ROUNDTABLE ...... Full Emi>loyment: Beyond Zero-Sum
Full emplqyment has fnng been the cen t.erpW;e of th£ Left's ecarwmic program. This focus has recently been chalUm,ged by a number of wriiers, both inside and out side DSA. Democratic Left asked Juliet Schor, Stanley Aronowitz, and Fronces Fox Piven to continue and (h
he struggle for full employ ment - long the central tenet of the Left in Western coun tries - has recently come under attack by a group of TDSA members, most notably in the pages of Socialist Review. They have argued that full employment is no longer economically trying to unite. By contrast, a program eating a lack of technological change, not a feasible, that it employs an outmoded which raises employment and output does- surfeit. The automation of the office has work-<>riented ideology, and that it is of just the reverse. been largely completed, yet the so-ealled limited value to women and people of color. "second industrial revolution" has not ma In its place, they propose that our central terialized. Indeed, Wassily Leontief and economic demand should be the expansion Is It Possible? Fay Duchin, who initiated their research of the welfare state. Elsewhere, I have discussed the fac with the view that technological change I am in agreement with the political tors which determine the volume of em was about to lead to widespread unem orientation and objectives ofthe critics. But ployment in an economy, with particular ployment, have just released evidence to I believe that their critique of full employ attention to the issue of technological the twenty-first century indicating that ment is misguided. Ironically, they have change (Socialist Review #81). The conclu technological change will create more jobs joined the ranks ofneo-liberals and conser sions of that analysis were two. First, there than it will destroy. vatives who say that Keynesian economics have always been strong tendencies within What about international competition? is discredited, and that employment for all capitalism to translate productivity growth Can we have full employment and still com is impossible in an era of global competition into increased output and reduced hours. pete in the world market? Ironically, it is and technological change. The evidence Second, the volume of employment is precisely technological change which holds suggests otherwise. primarily a political and not economic the key to international competitiveness, given sensible macroeconomic policy. In a "I believe the politics of redistribution will fail high-growth, high~mployment economy, technical change will be more rapid, en because they will be divisive, not unifying." hancing our competitiveness. The more serious international question is whether or Secondly, their position fails to come to phenomenon. Either through incentives to not we can gain some control over corpora terms with the profound economic impact the private sector or public expenditure it tions' overseas investments. If multina of sustained full employment, particularly self, the state can always create full em tionals continue to relocate-their production for women and people of color. Where is the · ployment, if the political will exists. outside the U.S., not only employment, but evidence that full employment does not Concretely, the view that we will ex also incomes, tax revenues, and living substantially improve the economic status perience widespread unemployment as a standards in general will suffer. Clearly, of these groups? result of technological change flies in the restrictions on capital mobility must be a Finally, the political thrust of their face of the evidence. The U.S. is experienc component of a full employment program. solution - a zero-sum redistribution in a ing a dramatic slowdown in net investment, Lastly there is the question of Keynesian period of economic stagnation - is to divide not an acceleration. Productivity growth macroeconomic policy. Critics of full em precisely those constituencies the Left is continues to be below its earlier trend, indi- ployment have argued that Keynesian
D EMOCRATIClEFT 6 MAR.-APR. 1986 .. measures to stimulate employment and they are underrepresented in the higher movement out of agriculture and domestic growth through taxation, government ex paid, unionized sector of the economy and service into industry is a good example. The penditures, and easy credit are no longer overrepresented in lower-paid, dead-end conditions of work during World War II are effective. While Keynesian theory has cer jobs. In a full or high employment economy, another. tainly fallen onto hard times within aca these categories of jobs do not expand None of this implies that full employ demic circles, the evidence is that it is alive proportionately. Rather, as Arthur Okun ment programs should not directly address and well in the real world. The large deficits has demonstrated, there are shifts to issues of racism and sexism. Indeed, they of the past few years have resulted in eco high-productivity, high-wage industries should and readily can include specific pro- ' nomic expansion and employment growth. and jobs, what he calls ·~ob upgrading." visions for the problems encountered by While the pattern of growth has been dic Manufacturing, transportation, and con women and people of color. Government tated by the particular types of expendi struction increase relative to government, job creation schemes can vigorously im tures (military), it is quite clear that mac agriculture, finance and household produc plement affirmative action or include day roeconomic policy is capable of generating tion. These shifts result in disproportionate care arrangements. They can include pro growth and employment. A look at Europe increases in the employment of women and visions for training. We can effect hours reveals the power of Keynesian policy; people of color in these industries. For reductions and a blurring of the distinction European governments have been practic example, George Perry has estimated that between full- and part-time jobs, which will ing both restrictive budgetary and credit if the unemployment rate fell from 5 to 4%, help us move toward a structure of joint policies, and unemployment has risen women and youths would get most of the parenting. We can put government work steadily. jobs. Work by Michael Reich and Richard ers to work rebuilding innner-city neigh Freeman indicates that declining unem borhoods. Employment and Equality ployment increases the relative status of The critics of full employment have Blacks as well. The Welfare State contended that women and people of color In addition to the direct benefits of At times the debate over full employ have particular economic problems which increased access to primary jobs, there are ment has been posed in tenns of support for will not be solved by full employment, and positive effects in the secondary labor mar employment versus social welfare expendi that full employment is therefore not ap ket. As workers in secondary jobs leave to tures. I think it is fair to say that partici pealing to these groups. It is certainly true take primary jobs, firms with secondary pants of all views ultimately agree that the that full employment is not a complete solu jobs are forced to raise wages to attract either-or dichotomy is a false one. As the tion. But the conclusion that it is therefore workers. Thus the wage differential be success of European social democracy has not important or desirable is a non tween the two types of jobs falls. so clearly shown us, full employment and a sequitur. The proper question, which has The evidence is clear: for both women strong welfare state are complements. My not been satisfactorily addressed by the and people of color, full employment results own work on the welfare state, as well as critics is: What effect does full employment in substantial gains in economic position, that of Piven and Cloward, has stressed the have on the economic status of these both absolutely and with respect to men role of social welfare payments in increas groups? Here I believe the record is quite and whites. This should come as no surprise ing workers' power vis a. vis their employ clear. to those who have examined the history of ers. And at a most elementary level, it is To answer this question it is necessary full employment struggles. The economic clear that the funds to support welfare ex to consider both the direct and indirect ef programs of people of color have always penditures must come from the production fects. The former are obvious. Unemployed centered on full employment, the present of goods and services. workers are able to find jobs, which raises being no exception. And major women's The strategic question is which politics their incomes. In the case of Blacks and organizations, which are only more re - the politics of redistribution or the poli- Latinos, the direct effects are quite signfic cently involved in economic policy, take ant, as a large component of their economic similar positions. discrimination is attributable to Jack of ac Looking back over the long sweep of cess to employment. economic development in this country, the The indirect effects can be divided into importance of a high-employment economy those on absolute and those on relative should be obvious. For it is largely in, status. With respect to the former, full em periods of labor shortage that people of ployment increases the level of goods and color and women have improved their eco services, and historically has raised both nomic status. Northward migration and the the potential and actual standard of living of nearly everyone. Furthermore, it raises the bargaining power and strength of workers, as a group, relative to employers. Not only does the pie grow, but the work ers' relative slice increases as well. This is largely due to the fact that unemployment increases competition among workers, driving down wage rates. To understand the effects on relative positions, one need only consider the seg mentation of our economy. The relatively poorer economic status of women and people of color is largely due to the fact that "I got them all jobs, and now they want salaries!"
l>EMOCllATIClEFT 7 MAR.-APR. 1986 tics of employment - will be most success ------ROUNDTABLE------ful. In my view it will be the latter. In my earlier piece, and the discussion which fol lowed it (J}ocialist Review #81 and 84), I argued that the ideology of post An Empty SIOgan industrialism is utopian. Due to space lim itations, I must refer the reader to those pieces, and merely note here that the poli by Frances Fox Piven saved from the "utopianism" of which they tics of redistribution do not solve what I accuse the post-industrialists because they believe to be the major problem of the Left are convinced that enunciating a full em have been asked to keep my re in this country today - the divisions ployment program is itself a major step . marks brief, and so I can only amongst our constituencies. toward building a majoritarian movement make a few main points about the Indeed, on this ground, I believe the capable of realizing their agenda. Since so full employment debate within politics of redistribution will fail, irrespec much of what is said about the advantages DSA. tive of their intent, because they will be of full employment is familiar and unexcep I First, I want to make clear what this divisive, not unifying. This is particularly tional, I think it is this conviction about debate is not about. There is no dispute true in a period of economic hardship. They building a movement that animates the ar that, all else being equal, working people lead us to play a zero-sum game; that is, gument. they aim to redistribute a given level of are better off when unemployme~t levels resources. By contrast, an employment drop, and for the familiar reasons that based politics provides a strategy for in Schor gives: wage levels rise, and mar "The record offull creasing the well-being of almost everyone, gina.liz.ed groups get access to employment. employment as a at the same time that it raises the relative Moreover, there is no dispute about the movement building goal status of the groups at the bottorq. We are sort of full employment measures advo not limited in our ability to create jobs, but cated by Schor, including restrictions on has been disma.l." we are limited by the income which is gen capital mobility, government employment, erated from a given level of employment. reduced hours, rebuilding the inner cities, The general line of reasoning is famil Full employment therefore provides a basis and so on. iar. If we hit on the right program, a pro for creating the unity that we so desper But these arguments about the advan gram which would benefit large numbers of ately need. e tages of a full employment economy are not people, and then proclaim it loudly, a mass new, and neither is the idea that the Left constituency will appear. In fact, in one Juli.et B. Schor is co-author of The Eco should make the call for full employment way or another, we have been trying to do nomic Report of the People (S01.dh End the centerpiece of its strategy. But the re that for a long time. But this rather Hege Press), and is an assistant rrrofeSS DEMOCRATICl.fFT 8 MAlt.·APR. 1- program has to be capable of translation elderly, the unemployed, students, agency contemplate a society where the brutal dis into very specific demands, which activate employees, AFDC recipients. The pro cipline of wage work is relaxed, and where groups to act against very specific targets. grams themselves are visible local targets, the worth of human endeavor is no longer Mass movements of ordinary people grow readily accessible in tens of thousands of measured exclusively by the market. e by the accumulation of experience and ef communities. Nor is it co?Tect. to think of fort in local struggles in thousands of com this sort of protest as a movement of mar Frances Fox Piven is 'fYr'Ofessor of political munities. The record of full employment as ginals; enormous numbers now rely di sci.ence at th£ CUNY Graduau Center. Her a movement building goal has been dismal rectly on welfare state programs, both as i,atest book, co-autiwred with Richard Clo because it does not provide strategic oppor recipients and as welfare state workers ward, is The New Class War. This article tunities for this kintl of local action. Legisla (who outnumber union members in the reflects work SM is doing in collaboration tive initiatives in Washington attract small United States). Moreover, because the in with Fred Block, Richard Cloward, and bands of reformers, but little else. come security provided by welfare state Barbara E hrenreich. There is another problem with a stratr programs has become critical to the ability egy that makes full employment the focal of workers to defend their wages and work program of the Left. No matter what we ing conditions, there is also the possibility intend by our full employment slogan, the of even broader coaltion building. . CLASSlflED meaning of full employment is likely to be Full employment advocates seem to determined more by the dominant right shrink from this sort of political mobiliza "CAPITALISM IS ORGANIZED CRIME," wing program to reorganire the American tion, and even go so far as to reiterate the "SOLIDARNOSC" buttons, two for $1. Free cat economy in th£ name offull empl An Alternativ~ As I have written elsewhere, I think a Change the USA! Left politics organized around the im mediate defense of welfare state programs, Join the DSA! but including an agenda to reform and ex pand the programs, has large movement Members of the Democratic Socialists of America work in every day-to-day strug building possibilities. Of course, the term gle for social justice. We bring a strategy for building alliances among all the movements "welfare state" has fallen on hard times, for social change. And we bring a vision of a society that can satisfy the demands for dignity and in any case has always been unpopular and justice-a socialist society. Join the people working to bring together all the move in the United States. Nevertheless, opinion ments for social change . . . and to bring together day-to-<.lay battles and long-term polls com1i::;tently show strong and growing strategies and visions. support for the income security and service Join DSA. programs which constitute the welfare 0 Send me more information about democratic socialism. :state, including the most benighted 0 Enclosed find my dues (O $50 sustaining; 0 $35 regular; 0 $15 limited income. Due,; means-tested programs. The business include $8 for DEMOCRATIC LEFT.) mobilization has successfully reduced popu 0 I would like to subscribe to DEMOCRATIC LEFT: 0 $15 sustaining; 0 $8 regular lar economic expectations, but in political O I would like to subscribe to the discussion bulletin, Socialist Forum, $10. arenas, expectations appear to be far less constrained. How else can we explain the Send to: Democratic Socialists of America, 15 Dutch St., Suite 600, New York, NY 10038. inability of the Reagan administration to Tel.: (212) 962-0390. implement most of its program for slashing the welfare state? Name Just as important, because the income support and service programs are organiza Address ______Zip tionally decentralized, defense of the wel City/State fare state is more readily translated into local action by existing local groups - the Phone ------Union, School, Other Affiliation ------ 1>£Mocur1clfn 9 MAL-Ara. 1• ------ROUNDTABLE corps and community development ac tivities were semi-skilled or unskilled. In short, direct job creation has always confronted nearly insurmountable obsta cles from entrenched interests such as craft Crackpot Realism unions, professional associations and ad ministrators. And perhaps these groups are right in suspecting that public service by Swnley Arorurwitz ingly in services as well (the only deterrent · jobs, paying less than union wages, under to massive automation in many service sec mine their hard-won standards (even tors are the low wages offered by employ though racism is surely another motivation onald Reagan is a true ers and accepted by workers). The relation for union opposition to construction jobs legatee of the New Deal. ship between investment and job creation under public aegis). Like Roosevelt he has proposed in Keynes' growth model is that Labor and the Left should abandon adopted a Keynesian eco productivity is held constant, an assump reliance on "full employment" in favor of nomic policy, only instead of tion that no longer may be made. If prod such policies as work-sharing. Reducing Rauthorizing hole digging he has advocated uctivity exceeds economic growth, a net the workweek, workday, and workyear an anns buildup; like the New Deal, he has decrease of jobs may result. Further, if (through longer vacations, sabbaticals and adopted a full employment policy, only by investment takes the primary form of the like) will not prevent joblessness, but it other means in addition to direct govern labor-saving technologies, the stimulating would create jobs. Of course, it would have ment contracts to employers. Reagan has role of government may actually work to be accompanied by severe restrictions on created almost 9 million jobs through grant against full employment. overtime or else the longer workday would ing extensive tax breaks to business, prom The second full employment emphasis be restored through the back door. oting service industries as the solution to is job creation through direct government The shorter workday/week would re mass unemployment among industrial spending. In the late 1960s such programs duce so-ealled "part-time" work because workers. Like the New Deal, Reagan's is also a contract state, a monetarist state and a welfare state. The differences with the old New Deal are substantial, but should not obscure the unity of their purpose: to stabili1.e capitalism through the appearance of full employment, while simultaneously providing direct subsidies to business. Full employment is, of course, not pos sible under capitalism. It violates the prin ciple that a substantial segment of the ~ tive population must wait in reserve lest the system's expansion be thwarted by labor shortages or, alternatively, wages rise and profits ~. Since the end of WWII the progressive wing of market liberalism has advocated full employment policies, mainly in two forms: policies that promote economic growth in the expecta tion that growth will result in increased jobs; and direct government job-creating Key~! . . . l DlMOCRATIClffT 10 MAR.·An. 1- invented to guarantee that the dung is be rekindled. When there i.s a poss~b ili ty of drl!n, the possibility of attracting th<' shoveled. In either case, humans would change, activism no longer seems dull. "In younger generat ion is slim. DSA parents, benefit. South Africa, there's no problem about par \\-ith the help of non parents, mu.st en D f MOCRAT1CL£FT 11 MAR.-APlt. 1986 Council member who was once head of the Kentucky Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com Corne! West, DSA NEC member mittee. and author of Prophesy Deliverance: An Afro-American Revolutionary Chris IUinois tianity, spoke at Central Kentucky DSA DSA Co-chair Michael Harrington in Lexington February 20. . . . A DSA by HARRY FLEISCHMAN will receive the 1986 Norman Thomas contingent marched in the January 19th Eugene V. Debs Award at the May 10 Martin Luther King Birthday March and ·Chicago dinner, which will also mark the Rally, attended by 2,800 people ... COMING EVENTS centennial of the Haymarket Affair. The CKDSA members Kimberly Burris, Flo dinner will commemorate 100 years of Estes, and Norma and Walt Mansfield The Annual Socialist Scholars Con labor organizing and social activism in have been accepted by Witness for Peace ference '"ill be held April 18-20 at the Chicago ... Chicago DSA will focus on the to go to Nicaragua in March as part. of a Boro of M;mhattan Community College, court-ordered special elections in March delegation from the Southeastern United CUNY. Taking the theme, on this one in seven remapped city wards and on the States. hundredth anniversary of Haymarket, of State Senate bid of Miguel Del Valle for "Rebellion, Resistance, Revolt," it will the 5th District. . . . An annual retreat Maryland feature numerous workshops by "the was held by Chicago DSA on February 9 Baltimore DSAer Norman Thomas usual suspects and hundreds more.·· For to plan activities for the coming year ... is planning to run for sheriff in the next more information, wiite to CUNY Demo Many DSAers, including Roberta Lynch, election . . . The December local meeting cratic Socialist Club, Rm. 901, 33 West Steve Cullen, Paul Booth, Nancy Shier, planned proposals for local activity, in 42nd St., New York, N.Y. 10036. Hank Scheff and Bob Lawson, were in cluding efforts to create a student DSA. May 2-4 are the dates for the "New volved in AFSCME's successful contract Directions" conference in Washington, with the City of Chicago, which included Massachusetts D.C. that will bring together rank-and an historic breakthrough on the issue of The Boston Institute for Democratic file Democrats who want to uphold the comparable worth. Socialism held a forum in February with Democrats' oldest traditions by moving in Howard Zinn of Boston University and new directions. For more information, Iowa Theresa Amott of Wellesley College on write to New Direction, 15 Dutch St., The Iowa City AFL-010 and DSA "Resurgence of Radical Activism: Re Suite 500, New York, N.Y. 10038-3705. cosponsored a precaucus meeting to dis naissance or Repression?" ... DSA co cuss ways to make the left presence most sponsored a Candidates' Night February effective at the neighborhood Democratic 26 for those candidates running for Tip NATIONAL ROUNDUP caucuses February 10. The proposals in O'Neill's seat. Among those scheduled to cluded a Bill of Rights for Working People speak were Tom Gallagher, George Bach Califoniia and an Educational Opportunity Act ... rach and Mel King ... A socialist commu Chico DSA presented a video pre DSA and the University of Iowa Democ nity paper, the Sornervil~ Community sentation on "Breaking Ground-Life in rats introduced a resolution at the News, played a major role in defeating the the Ne"' El Salvador" at its December Johnson County Democratic Committee reelection bid of Assessor John Howe, meeting ... The local has formed a study calling for a tuition freei.e at the state who had harassed activists researching group to invl:!:;tigate links between U.S. universities. tax inequities and corrupt assessing prac corporations and South Africa's apartheid tices by punitive tax increases and govemment ... San Diego DSA is defend searches for building code violations. ing academic freedom at San Diego State University, countering plans by Accuracy Michigan in Academia and Young Americans for Newly-elected Detroit DSA officers Freedom to "monitor" lectures by left include Chair Roger Robinson, Treasul'er wing profeR.-;ors and "expose" them for Kathy Callahan, Recording Secretary "inaccuracy." Letters by Chris Senden, Jim Jacobs and Membership Secretary Lily Arvi..<;0 and Robert Wilkins, DSA Marianna Wells ... In January, Tony students, and by Professor Prescott Rothschild showed his slides of the Soviet Nichols, in Tile Daily Aztec, blasted au Union, followed by Ron Aronson who led tho1itarian censorship. a discussion on "Anti-Sovietism in the Left." Georgia State Senator Julian Bond, a DSA New York member, is running for Congress, seeking Albany DSA joined the state confer the Democratic seat now held by Wyche ence of the Coalition Against Apartheid Fowler, who is running for the U.S. Sen and Racism, which called for divestment ate. The mce pits him against, among "But ifI do give, how can l be sure the money by New York State of securities held by others, John Lewis. the Atlanta City u:il/ actually get to you?'' its pension and other funds in companies DEMOCRATICLEFT 12 MAR.·APR. 1986 doing busines$ \\1th South Africa ... A ally known in October when a series of February meeting of progr~ssive group.;; article:- appeared in the Dutch religion YOUTH CONFERENCE in the Capitol District planned participa· and socialism magazine, Tijd & Tn.o.k, one tion in the ~fay 2-4 New Directions Con of which described chairperson Jack Columbia Unh·ersity was the site of ference in Washington. Speakers in Spooner's biography and Christian the 1986 DSA Winter Youth Conference. cluded State Senator Franz Leicht.er, As Sociali."ii perspectives .. . Philadelphia Entitled "Working Together: Moving Be semblyman ,Jim Brennan, and Jo-Ann DSAer Russ Kleinbach has prepared a yond Single-Issue Politics," the gathering Mori, Conference Coordinator ... Ithaca slide show on his recent trip to Nicaragua ran from February 14-16th. Delegations DSA met in .January to discuss "Socialism and the local's Peace Committee has pre came from as far all Minnel>C>ta and North and South Africa" and to elect new of pared a position paper on Nicaragua. Carolina, and for mo:-.t of the 210. tudcnts ficers . . . DSAer Ethel Nichols was Roth are available for meetings through from more than ·10 schools, the conference reelected to the Tompkins County Board the DSA office ... Reading DSA's Fi.n;t seemed to provide an exciting ;;tart to of Representatives ... New York State Annual Maurer-Stump A ward Dinner what should be a very active spring in DSA met in Larchmont in January and was a i;olid succe~ and a fine tribute to student politics. voted to back the SUNY United Univer the honorees: Darlington Hoopes and Major speakers included Jack !lity Profesllions m their long-stalled Mark L. Brown ... In January. the local's negotiations with the state government. Sheinkman, Hon. David Dinkins, )iaggie Sociali...,t Study Group discussed "AM Kuhn, Barbara Ehrenreich, Bogdan De WAY: Cult of Free Enterprise." nitch, and Cornel West. Hulbert Jame-' Ohio and Michael Harrington delivered the Black Swamp DSA met in January to Tuas closing adclre;;.es. Throughout the Houston DSA held three discussions plan for the March 9 March for Women's weekend Youth ~·lion activists planned Lives m Washington, D.C. and DSA ac in January and February on "The their continued work on anti-apartheid tivilil·s on Central America ... Former Socialiht Parties of Mexico," "Mike Har organizing. reproductive right.II, and the rington's Economic Proposals for a New South African resident Vernon Domingo ''University in Society" projet•t, being or Civilization," and "The Pistachios: A spoke to the local at Bowling Green State ganized in conjunction with the United Long-Term Socialist Economic Pro University on events in South Africa ... States Students Association. She1i Lee, NOW national Vice President gram." of Action and Lee Levin, Executive Di rector of the Coalition of Labor Union DSA COMMISSIONS IN MEMORIAM Women, spoke in Toledo to commemorate the l!lth anniverniry of the Roe v. Wade Much of the issue work that is carried Los Angele-' DSA member Dan decision on abortion. on by DSA has its origins in the commilr Schelly rlicd Decemlwr 9, 1935, after a sions that form part of its structure. To long and debilitating illness. He wa.' 6~. Oregon join a commission requires that you be a A lifelong socialist, first.in his nath'e Portland DSA's annual convention DSA member and pay additional dues. Chicago and then in Los Angeles, Dan was held January 26 to elect a new steer Write to the following commissions for wa..;; Los Angeles DSOC'-' fii'bi. member. ing committee and plan the year·s ac more information, membership, or sub He lent the henefit of hk; lmowk' DEMOCRATICLEFT 13 MAR.-APR. 1986 REVIEWS A Gentle Jeremiad by Maurice I sserman SOCIALISM AND AMERICA by Irving Howe. Har court, Brace, Jovanovich, 1985, $17.95, hardcover. udging from one or two reviews I have seen of Irving Howe's Sociali,sm and America in radical publications, some critics seem to regard it a mark of Revolutionary Virtue to be hard on Howe. Personally, I have been rather soft on Irving Howe ever since the time I came acrossJ an old letter of his while doing research in the Max Shachtman archives at New York University. The letter, dated June 1969, was written at the height of the Vietnam War. Howe was responding to an invitation from an ex-radical-soon-to become-conservative-labor-0pparatchik to co-sponsor a confer ence on the New Left Threat to Academic Freedom. Howe de clined: The desperation of the Students is one I try to understand; and I share at least some of its motivations. That the tactics of the New Left segment of the students are appalling I haven't exactly been negligent in saying publicly. But I say that from premises radically different from those of [two soon-to-be times harsh and strident. I told myself that I was one of the few doyens-of-neo-conservatism], and I fear, you - I say it be people who took the New Left seriously enough to keep arguing cause I am against the war, because I fear their tactics are with it. Cold comfort.'' self-defeating (I also give the students - who represent far In his most recent book, Socialism and America Howe has more than the New Left - a lot of credit for getting opposition to the war going ...) fashioned an uncharacteristically gentle jeremiad. His ~urpose, he announces in the preface, is to explore the question "why did A small incident, to be sure, but a telling one. Howe could American socialism thrive at some moments and decline at easily have pleaded the press of other responsibilities - his others?" As aways when he examines the Left, he finds much to be teaching, his writing, the editing ofDissent - as reason enough to critical of. But the tone ofthe book is at once elegiac and, paradoxi decline, and let it go at that. And yet when push came to shove, as cally, optimistic. In part this is because the bulk of the book we used to say in the sixties, Howe chose to reaffirm his opposition concerns a subject, the history of the Socialist Party in t he eras to the war and, carefully distinguishing between motives which he ~f Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas, towards which Howe feels a shared and tactics which he abhorred, defend the students against kind of sad affection. But I also got the feeling, especially in a short the kind of general denunciation promoted by his old political chapter devoted to the history of the Communist Party in the associates. It was a principled gesture, and one that Howe made 1930s, that Howe has come to feel that the old disputes are finally no mention of in his recently published autobiography, A Margin worth burying, and that the Left should be getting on with the of H D EMOCRATICUFT 14 MAa.-APR. 1986 could turn out to be in deep tension with a democratic polity Stalinists than from those political anceston; whose integrity requiring compromise and entailing imperfection. , we admire. Under Deb the Socialist Party "teetered uneasily, ambiva It should be obvious from this paragraph that Howe has not lently, between moral protest and political action." The balancing retreated an inch from his anti-Stalinist convictions; his insistence act came to an end \\ith the Fi~t World War, whE'n the Socialist that genuine socialism can only be built by democratic means and Party cho;:e to denounce American intervention, and paid the upon a democratic basis remains a.-; firm as ever. But the acknowl subsequent price in repression and marginalization, with its lead edgement that there was more to the history of American Com ers imprisoned and it.-; followers dispersed (Howe cites the exam munism than simple obedience to orcieni from Moscow (though, in ple of the Oklahoma SP, ,,;th 12,000 members in 1912. In 1917-18 his view and mine, that remains a crucial part of the story) is the state's SP "organization was demolished, and no signficant rather breath-taking, coming as it does from the co-author ofThe radical movement ever grew up in its place.) Given this history, Communi8t Party, A Critical Hi. DEMOCIATICLEFT 15 MAR.-APR. 1986 It's time we all came together. New Directions Washington, D.C. Convention Center May 2-4, 1986 Speakers include: Gerald McEntee Barbara Ehrenrelch Jesse Jackson Ruth Meulnger U.S. Rep. Ron Dellum• Eleanor Holmes Norton U.S. Rep. Charles Hayes Jeff Faux Michael Harrington Suzanne Gordon Morton Bahr U.S. Rep. Lane Evans Gordon Adams Emma Rothschild* Robert Kuttner Gloria Steinem Frances Fox Piven Julian Bond• Michael Manley Robert Reich Heather Booth Ann Lewis Wiiiiam Wlnplalnger • invited Some leading Democrats think they've found the respond. ticket to success: becoming Republicans. That's why we need New Directions: a national They want to forget the values they used to stand gathering of all those committed to building a new poli for: opportunity, community, tolerance, justice. And they tics. A politics that appeals to hope, not fear; to generos want to forget those Americans who have been most ity rather than avarice. For if politics isn't about choices, loyal to the party: women, working people, senior citi it's about nothing at all. zens, Blacks, Hispanics, farmers, consumers, and the young. But while Democrats are acting like Republicans, people are crying out for real leadership and real alter natives. They see farmers driven off the land, cities crumbling, children going hungry - and they know that prosperity for some is progress for none. They see the Administration turning over our natural resources, our public utilities, and even our schools to the "private sector" - and they know they're being sold down the river. They see attacks on civil rights and the right of working people to organize - and they know it's time to "Whai ihe hell do you mean you're a Beagan liberal?" CONFERENCE: Begins 7 PM Friday, HOUSING: Hotel rooms are being FOR MORE INFORMATION: New May 2nd thru Sunday, May 4th. Wash- held until April 2nd at the Governor's Directions, 15 Dutch St. #500, New ington D.C. Convention Center, 900 House, Rhode Island Ave. at 17th St. York, NY 10038. (212) 962-0390. NinthSt.NW.$35inadvance, $45atthe NW, 1-800-821-4367. $60 single, $65 door ($20/25 low income). double. . ------~------Please mail, with check, to: New Directions, 15 Dutch St #500, New York, NY 10038 YES, I want to join other progressives at the first NEW DIRECTIONS conference. I HAVE ENCLOSED: _ Registration fees at $35 ea. $ ___ Name ______Phone ------ Low-income registration Address ______fees at $20 ea. $ ___ _ Tickets for Saturday luncheon with Gloria Steinem, Ann Lewis, and Morton Bahr at $15 ea. Organization/school/union------(Seating is limited.) $ _ _ _ s ___ 0 I want to apply for free housing for_ Friday,_Saturday . Availability is limited. TOTAL After April 25 please register at the door. 0 I will need childcare for __ children. Ages.______