Inside: Harold Meyerson on the Elections PUBLISHED BY THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA
July/August 1992 Volume XX Number 4
Sa"e Our The Citiesr • Urban Crisis: A Socialist Agenda
Jim Chapin e Clarence Lusane . Richard A. Cloward & Frances Fox Piven Maxine Phillips e Maurice lsserman Komozi Woodard INSIDE DEMOCRATIC LEFT Cleaning Up the Reagan-Bush Disaster Why Americans Hate Cities by J rected against the political process what our politics needs is -- less poli EDITORIAL itself, dismissing such petty consid- tics. And at times, Perotism comes erat1ons as ideology. Ominously, a close to throwing out the baby of goodchunkofPerotsupportersseem democracy with the bathwater of POLITICS & happily signed on to their own dis- politics. empowerment: U1e demand among But precisely because we are PEROTISM the Perotistas, for instance, to have democratic socialists, we are com some say in the development of mitted to a political -- not a market- BY HAROLD MEYERSON Perot's program has not been model of society. We believe that sounded people must organize themselves 1F EVER A YEAR HAD ALL THE Ultimately, the danger of and their society to subject economic preconditions for progressive politi Perotism b that the rage against poli- as well as political decisions to popu cal change, 1992 1s that year. This 1s hcs could spill over into a subversion lar control. The Perot movement not the first election to follow the end of of democracy. Perot seems to be ad- only fails to foster a movement in that the Cold War -- the first in which the vocating a plebiscitary presidency, direction, but by vesting so much billions of dollars we have spent and while he may not have enough power in its leader, it could imperil annually on our arms budget could ideology to qualify as a fascist, he the very incomplete democracy we be redirected towards our glaring emerges from all accounts of his ca- currently have. ml soc1a I needs. Thts is also the first elec reer at least as a very rich thug. Harold Meyerson, a DSA Vice Chair, is tion to take place in post-prosperity Moreover, there's little in the editor of the LA Weekly. America -- the first election since 1948 Perot revolt, save the yearning from ------. in which a majority of Americans do which it springs, that would really not take prosperity as a given. address the corruptions and discon DEMOCRATIC LEFT And it seems the American nectiom of American politics. Noth people want government to have a ing about Perot suggests that he Founding Edilor Michael Harrington (1928-1989) role again. But the Democrats (and would foster the kind of cross-racial Bush) are in danger of being pushed coalition of working- and middle Mn11ng111g Editor aside by a new revolt, a rage against class and poor that the nation needs; Michael Lighty politics. The rise of Ross Perot repre nothing about it remedies the funda ProJ11ct1on sents a revolt of the politically de mental problem that the bottom 80 Ginny Coughlin aligned. By enlisting volunteers to percent of American society, largely Editorial Committee collect signatures, the Perot revolt deunion1zed and without access to Joanne Barkan, Dorothee Benz, brilliantly exploits people's desire to nearly non-existent political parties, Howard Croft, Mitch Horowitz, re-involve themselves in a political lacks rudimentary political organiza Sherr Levine, Neil McLaughlin, process, something that is all but tion; nothing about it addresses the Maxine Phil!ips in impossible the capital-intensive corruptions that market forces and Interns campaigns (consisting largely of fun wealth have wrought on our politics. Shealeen Meaney, Robert Marinovk draising and advertising) that Re Rather than tackle the demobiliza- o.mocnuc IAl1 (ISSN 016403207) 11 pubhshed NJ< bme< • y•u at publican and Democratic candidates tion and excessive influence of 1s0u1chs.. •soo.Nv.NY 10038 s..bomp<10N:S8roau11r: s1 s u11lftudonal Poo1mu1tr: Stnd 1ddr... chln&tt to 15 Outth St. I characteristically wage. All of Perot's wealth that have subverted Ameri- 500.NY.NYIOOJe Dtmoc:raacLol1lafl\bll•MdbythoOomocnac Sodalloll cl Am 2 DEMOCRATIC LUT Cleaning Up the Reagan-Bush Disaster BY KOMOZI WoODARD or the Black community the savage urban policy which have turned the inner city beating of Rodney King was the mod into a wasteland. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's ern version of the classic American notorious policy memo to President Richard F slave whipping. However, African Nixon in 1968, advising that the best way to American people are clearly not in the mood to deal with Black problems is "benign neglect," "turn the other cheek." They are increasingly says a great deal about the contemporary politi inclined to, as Malcolm X once put it, "take a cal consensus of Washington Democrats and life for a lifo, and a head for a head." In this Republicans. However, as the smoke clears in explosive situation, even rumors of such at L.A., it is brutally obvious that the negligence of tacks may be sufficient to set off another wave investment in the inner city has not been benign of urban uprisings. Once again the Black ghetto but malignant. has turned into a powder keg with an ex Consider just a few indications of the cata tremely short fuse. strophic impact of this urban policy of "benign Clearly, the roots of this crisis go much neglect." Since the fires of the urban revolts of deeper than the persecution of Rodney King; the 1960s were quenched by Black mayors and this predicament has its sources in basic shifts police chiefs, the Black ghettos have suffered in in corporate investment strategy and federal each budget cut. But this policy is very short I U/ y I A l/Gl/ST 1992 3 sighted. While shifting the burden of crisis after by the federal government since World War II, crisis onto the backs of the poor may have has been devastating for African American allowed for a degree of peace in the suburbs, it social structures. has turned the inner city into a fierce battle The contrast between the phenomenal in ground. Tragically, for the generation coming vestments in the nation's suburbs and the ex of age behind these ghetto walls, warfare is all traordinary neglect of the inner cities is omi nous. One example will suffice. Jonathan Kozol details these savage inequalities in his latest study of public schools; for instance, he found will these rebellions signal the that the money spent per student in suburban Bronxville, New York was about $15,000 annu beginning of another ally, while only $5,000 was spent on students in New York City. Typically there are no working Black political awakening? bathrooms in inner city public schools; and no textbooks for class. And yes, these youth do get the message! Tragically, many public schools that they have ever known. Even before the Los have been transformed into large-scale deten Angeles uprising, the level of self-destruction tion centers, the training grounds to prepare in these post-industrial ghettos was shocking. Black men to go lo prison, where they will do The message that Uncle Sam has been sending some real time. to the inner city is that there is no way out; the appalling homicide rate, rivaled by the propor tion of Black youth committing suicide, was perhaps the cruelest indication that young African Americans have heard the persuasive he schools are symptomatic voice of America. of a more general retreat he problems run deeply in the Black commu from the Second Recon nity; African American working people have T struction, the nation's com- been critically wounded, and the social conse mitment to racial equality. It is too early to say quences have been catastrophic. The Black what impact the Los Angeles uprisings will working class was one of the least appreciated have on this situation. Do these revolts mean strengths of the post-World War II industrial the beginning of destructive ethnic struggles in ghetto. That Black working class had articu the inner city? Or will these rebellions signal lated a whole network of institutions and the beginning of another Black political awak mechanisms for both development and control ening? Would that Black awakening influence in the urban Black community. However, broader insurgency? We do not have the power much of that is no longer in place. The accumu of prophecy. But this much we know from his lated impact of the massive plant closings has tory; in the ashes of the urban revolts of the effectively undermined the social strength of 1960s, a new wave of radical Black organiza working people in these inner city neighbor tions arose: the Black Panthers after the 1965 hoods. As far as they are concerned, once they Watts Rebell ion and the League of Revolution had some influence over their children, but ary Black Workers in the wake of the 1967 now things are out of control. Let's face it: after Detroit Rebellion. being tossed aside by industrial capitalism, it is If a similar situation were to arise, what extremely difficult for unemployed and under role would the Left play? Increasingly, those employed parents to make a convincing case awakening to political consciousness will be for the virtues of hard work. watching to see if we will shoulder our political In fact, this social group had been battered responsibilities. Dlack youth are looking for a by urban redevelopment and increasing social way out: the most conscious youth are search poverty, even before the disintegrating impact ing for answers. Thus, this period is full of great ofdeindustrialization. The Black working class challenges; I think that we can meet those chal has been severely wounded by deind us trializa lenges if we put ourselves to the effort. But tion in the workplace and by divestment in the whatever we do, we dare not disappoint these neighborhood: housinSt transportation sys young people. tems, shopping centers, libraries, and schools. Thus, the corporate strategy to shift invest Komozi Woodard, a DSA member, is a professor at ments from the city to the suburbs, supported Sarah Lawrence College. 4 DEMOCRATIC LEFT The M~fh of Dependenc~ Why Welfare Works and Workfare Fails BY RICHARD A. CLOWARD AND FRANCES Fox PIVEN elfare, or Aid to Families with Dependent Children, reaches about five million families and W absorbs a tiny percentage of fed eral and state budgets. It has nevertheless been the subject of enormous publicity during the past year. Indeed, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, with his penchant for the grandiose, recently explained to the New York Tunes that "welfare dependency" is "the defining issue of post f industrial society." Identifying solutions to r dependency has thus become high politics. f Presidential candidates, governors and legisla I - t tors, together with left and right com men ta tors :::::::---- !l --~~ and policy experts, vie to wm public attention .• for their welfare "reform" proposals. The proposals are remarkably sunilar. All emphasize that poor women must be coerced to break the habit of dependency on the state. Most solutions rely on market coercion, and a few rely on a combination of both market and state coercion. Charles Murray would simply It is exasperating that liberals can be so Without abolish income supports, forcing poor mothers oblivious to the politics of the real world. What rellable, to expose themselves to the curative discipline they refuse to recognize is that their high affordable of the labor market. Lawrence Mead 1s less minded proposals for reform simply legitimate childcare, optimistic about the ability of the poor to re represswn There is no reason to believe in the working outside the spond to market sanctions, and calls instead for current political climate that minimum wages home can be an "authoritative work policy" that would will be jacked up, or that sweeping health care very difficult. include systematic monitoring by government, and day care measures will be enacted. The along with rewards and sanctions to force the costs of such measures would far exceed wel poor to behave in socially-approved ways. fare savmgs. What is happening instead -- just Liberal policy analysts -- such as David as in past episodes of "reform" -- is that poor Ellwood -- also find the idea of coerced work women are being forced into the labor market appealing, albeit only if coupled with higher without any lasting protections. minimum wages, and with programs for edu Under these conditions, workfare pro cation and training, health care, and child care. grams fail, as they always have in the past. Few 1he availability of welfare benefits would thus poor women can command anything except be temporary, at least for the able-bodied, last the lowest wages, a problem that is worsening ing only long enough to prepare poor women rather than improving. Women who cannot for the labor market. f ULY/AUGUST 1992 5 earn enough to feed and house their children ground in provincial and national politics. But end up back on welfare, highly publicized sto when the sort of "post industrial" restructur ries of individual successes notwithstanding. ing that requires wage cuts and insecure job Moreover, low-wage employers do not offer tenure is undertaken, an expansive social pol health benefits, or they require employees to icy is a serious impediment. The experience of shoulder much of the costs. And there is the the past decade and a half in the U.S. demon problem of affordable day care. Without mas strates that relationship as dramatically as any sive public subsidies, workfare is nothing but a period in the history of market economies. The revolving door. political implication is clear: the Left ought to These being the hard political facts, it support generous welfare provisions as part of would seem the better public policy to shore up the overall fight against the massive down supports for women who are struggling to care ward restructuring of wages and working for children under the jungle-like conditions of conditions that is underway in the U.S. urban poverty. The chairwoman of the New As things stand, American welfare policy York City Housing Authority, Sally Hernan is facilitating the decline of wages and working dez-Pinero, recently commented on the 75,000 conditions. The falling purchasing power of women living in the projects and raising chil benefits --down 40 percent during the past two dren alone. "Anyone with even a nodding decades -- makes correspondingly lower acquaintance with these women knows them wages more acceptable to workers. In a num for what they are, the sanity of the poor com ber of states, General Assistance for the able munity, resourceful survivors of abandon bodied has simply been eliminated. And as the ment, slander and brutality.... In many poor rhetoric of reform swells, the stigmatizing of communities, they are the onJy signatures on recipients intensifies. A host of new humiliat the social contract, the glue that keeps our ing sanctions are being introduced by the communities from spinning out of control." No states, whether slashing or terminating family sane observer would say that these women grants if a mother is tardy or absent from a contribute more to society when they are co workfare assignment, or if a child is truant erced into jobs flipping burgers. from school, as well as denying coverage to In the furor over welfare reform, the his babies born to a welfare mother. Taken to toric relationship between welfare policy and gether, these "reforms" make any work at any the power of poor people in the labor market is wage seem preferable to the dole. also being ignored. Harsh welfare policies If the assault on welfare has contributed to weaken the bargaining power of poor people worsening poverty among women and chil by forcing them to accept whatever terms low dren, to plummeting wage levels and deterio wage employers offer. Generous welfare poli rating work conditions, and to enfeebled un cies strengthen them by providing an alterna ions, why are there so few voices raised in tive to the market. The availability of non defense of welfare? Why isn't the Left in an market sources of income -- whether called uproar? The reason, we think, is that the Left welfare, social assistance, or unemployment has been confused by the rhetoric about "wel assistance -- makes it possible for people to fare dependency." Welfare does not generate resist wage cuts or re-employment at lower dependency. To be sure, the low grants and wages and worse conditions. It also makes humiliating procedures of the existing welfare them less fearful of the argument that unions system demoralize people. But income security threaten capital stability and reinvestment. does the reverse. It generates a measure of Jn countries where social policies have not independence by providing poor women and been cut, working conditions and working children with income that is not conditional on class power have not declined nearly to the low-wage employment and the greed of low extent as in the United States. Canada provides wage employers, and that is not conditional on a good comparison, because it is in many ways the whims of male breadwinners either. Of similar to the U.S. But Canada has not slashed even larger significance, the alternative of gen its social assistance programs. To the contrary, erous welfare allowances puts ~ floor under Canada raised payment levels during the wages, and thus gives low-wage workers a 1980s. Partly as a result, Canadian poverty measure of independence in dealing with em rates are about half those of the United States, ployers, too. rm wage levels are substantially higher -- a severe recession notwithstanding -- and about 40 per DSA members Richard A Cloward and Frances Fox cent of the workforce is unionized. In addition, Piven are the authors of several books, including a working class party is actually gaining Why Americans Don't Vote. 6 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Liberating Schools A Democratic Socialist Perspective on Education Reform Students help each other learn at Project Prep, an alternative middle school In the Bronx. BY MAXINE PHILLIPS as the United States giwn up on including child day care centers and adult public sclHx1ls? It sure looks like it. nursing homes -- doesn't give us much reason We've all read the indictments of to hope that it will do better in this arena. the system and seen the slash-and burnH budget battles, but perhaps the most tell ing cultural sign occurred this spring, when the Wliat Works? president of Yale University announced that he Ironically, education is one field in which would resih'll to help set up a system of for there is a large body of knowledge about what profit schools to compete for federal vouchers. works and where there are proven track rec "The great experiment in democracy has ords. The problem is defining the word failed," the headlines might have rei1d. "Now ''works." The parent whose child is now in a we'll show you how privilte enterprise can do Christian academy, away from the godless it." public schools, is pleased that the school works Sorry. I don't buy it. U.S. business gave up to inculcate moral values. The parent whose on the United States a long lime ago. Now will child has learned to read m the strict parochial it "outsource" our teachers, using computers school is glad U1at 1t works. The parents whose broadcasting from Taiwan, or subject our children get into elite colleges from elite public communities to school closings in its search for schools are pleased that those schools work. cheaper labor? Knowing what the market has But, what do we, as democratic socialists, mean done for every other sphere of our lives -- by schools that work? /Ul.Y/AUGUH 1992 7 Work for what? To train a workforce that ing, reading? How and wheredoeswhatweare needs increasingly specialized skills? To as learning "fit in"? Could things have been oth similate and acculturate large numbers of erwise? Who cares, what difference does it immigrants? To keep young people off the make? streets? Class size would be small, with a range of Dare we ask that schools be laboratories for ages (K-1, 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, etc.) so that children a democratic civic culture, m1111 civil societies? could be comfortable in some areas and In such societies young people and their men stretched in others. There would be lots of tors would forge their own institutions, work "frills," the things we remember long after ing through the conflicts of clC1ss, race, gender, we've forgotten the numberof presidents of the and nationality that are writ large in the world. United States. That means music, art, drama, They would develop the empathy, the moral sports, areas where children can find a voice in concern, the skills necessC1ry to build a truly even if they are mute giving a book review in "kinder, gentler" nC1tion. (As anyone who hCls front of the class. The classroom would be user argued with a two-year-old knows, children friendly -- no more desks bolted in place, no have no problem grasping ideals of fairness more terrorization through corporal punish· ment, no more leaking roofs from decaying infrastructure, no more harassment and hu f throwing money at a school miliation by teachers or fellow students. 1he student body would be composed of young I doesn't work, why do people from many races and all classes. For years elites have sent their children to schools people 1.vith money spend with some of these characteristics. Hundreds of alternative public schools are struggling to it to buy the best education? achieve more of this vision. For instance, my seven-year-old daughter goes to the Central Park East School founded and justice. They've learned early on that by DSA member Deborah Meier. Starting with power goes with size and physical strength, a small alternative public school in East Har· and they fight that notion for as long as they lem, she has midwifed a cluster of three ele can.) mentary schools and one high school, whose What would a school look like that works first graduating class of almost all black and to foster tolerance, justice, democrattc partici Latino low-income youngsters went off to col· pation, while at the same time teaching the lege last year. Although the Central Park East skills necessary for life in a complex world? Schools have gained national recognition, they Well, it sure wouldn't be neat, tidy, and calm. are not alone. Other schools in New York have But it would be exc1t111g. been modeled after them, and numerous First, it would be small, about two hundred schools throughout the country have formu· to three hundred pupils. Teachers and students lated their own visions. would know eC1ch other and the parents and guC1rdians. This sense of community is perhaps the most important aspect of a school. If we're Teaching Democracy all in it together, then we're gomg to give it How can these schools be successful and everything we've got. how can more be encouraged? Study after 1l1e school would be run democratically, study shows that the key ingredients are size, with equal voice given to parents, teachers, leadership, and money. Only in a small school administrators, and, in the higher grades, stu can the sense of community truly be fostered. dents. (Oscar Wilde was right about how many Yes, there are large schools that work, and that meetings this would mean, but at least child is because they have huge doses of the other care would be provided.) ft would provide two ingredients. But if we want to foster a excellent teaching for all children, not just those democratic culture in the school, the laboratory identified as "gifted and talented." The em must be on a manageable scale. phasis in the curriculum would be on critical Leadership makes all the difference in mo thinking. Reformer Ted Sizer writes of the tivating teachers and inspiring parents and stu· "habits of mind:" How do we know what we dents. Given the leadership vacuum in the know? What evidence do we think is good country at large, it's not surprising to find one enough? What viewpoint are we hearing, see- in education. What is surprising is how many 8 Du1oe RA11c Lrrr inspiring and committed administrators and that those living in the most affluent areas will teachers there actually are. And there could be have public schools that serve as de facto prep more. The Coalition of Essential Schools; the schools. Center for Collaborative Education in New Where should democratic socialists put York, begun with seed money from Meier's our efforts? We can run for the local school MacArthur grant; and the Rethinking Schools boards, we can publicize examples of schools project in Milwaukee are among those working that work well, we can get involved in our to give assistance and forums to activists. teachers' unions, we can become active in our children's schools, we can lobby for school funding reform. It's not easy. School politics Tlie Clinclter are as cut-throat as a Senate race. Whether it's Then comes the clincher. Money. If a good building contracts or your children's job pros private school costs about $5,000 to $10,000 a pects at stake, tempers Aare. year and the teachers are paid almost nothing The stakes are high. A lot of national politi but have the advantages of smaller classes, cians want to ride the education issue into supportive administrations, and children who office. The U.S. president actually did, thereby have been creamed off from the general popu becoming an oxymoron. We have to make sure lation, how can the public schools get by on that they don't ignore or maim the issue once less, as the proposed federal voucher system elected. would mandate? How can anyone make a Have we given up on our great democratic profit on these vouchers? Education activist experiment? Some have. But in communities Jonathan Kozol notes that we "allocate" money throughout the country there are those who for the Pentagon and "throw money at any haven't. Let's give them some help. Im thing that has to do with human pain." If "throwing money" at a sd1ool doesn't work, Maxine Phillips is the ma11agi11g editor a/Dissent. then why do people with money spend it to buy She knew tllil t her da ugfzter' s school was "working" the best education? Our current system of tl1e day she was asked, "Mommy, why is there a school funding is based on property taxes, an national holiday for Columbus when Ile cut off the inherently unequal approach that guarantees hands of tile Indians?" RES 0 URCES for educating and organizing There is a wealth of information about schools Journals and newsletters for classroom teadlel'I that work and why the current so-called federal initia· include the following: tives won't. For a brief overview of the latter question, Democracy a11d Education, published quarterly by see the interview with Deborah Meier on "Bush and the Institute for Democracy and Education (see the Schools" in the Summer 1991 bsue of Dissent. above). For the mo!>t recent hardcover look at programs Hands On, published quarterly by the Foxfire that approach the ideals outlines above, read DSA Teacher Outreach (see above). member George Wood's book Schools That Work: Rethinking Schools, 1001 E. Keefe Ave., Milwiu America's Most ln11ovntive Public Educatio11 Programs, kee, W l 53212 Dutton, 1992. Wood lists the following organizations: Fairtest Examiner, pubJisheJ by the National Cen · The Institute for Democracy in Education, ter for Fair and Open Testing, Box 1212, Harvard McCracken Hall, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701; Square Station, Cambridge, MA 02238 614-593-4531 · The Coalition of Essential Schools (for secon dary schools), Box 1938, Brown Univer!>ity, Provi July 30 • August 2, 1992 dence, RI 02912; 401-863-3384 The National Coalition of Education Activists ·The Foxfire Teacher Outreach, c Io Hilton Smith, will hold a national conference on "Breaking Baniers: Rabun Gap, GA 30568; 404-746-5318 Schools and Social Justice In Our Communities," in · The Center for Collaborative Education, 1573 Milwaukee. Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10029; 212-860-8935 For information write: National CoaJitionofEdu Educators for Social Responsibility, 23 Garden cation Activists, PO Box 405, Rosendale, NY 1247.2; or Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; 617-492-1764 call 914-658-8115. /ULY/AUGUST 1992 g DSA Vice Chair Bogdan Den Haute, Indiana. Indiana DSA needs itch visited Los Angeles DSA in to raise about $600 for a bronze May. The local is organizing a plaque of Harrington and to cover health care tour to Canada for costs. DSAers are encouraged to health care organizers. A commit contribute. Checks made payable to tee is working to develop a critical Indiana DSA should be sent to: response to the rebuilding process Indiana DSA, P.O. Box 1631, Indi in South-Central L.A. anapolis, IN 46206-1631. Include by Harry Fleischman name, address, and phone number DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA with contribution. The local is also organizing for national health care. CALIFORNIA DCIMD/NoVA DSA was San Diego DSA participated one of the leading members of the KENTUCKY in a voter registration drive as a coalition that secured passage of a member of the San Diego Organiz domestic partnership bill in the Central Kentucky DSA is ing Project (SDOP), a coalition of District of Columbia. They are now helping to organize a women's cof churches and political organiza working to secure approval of the fehouse and is working on national tions that came together as a result bill by the U.S. Congress. The local health care. of the years of deterioration due to has been sponsoring monthly labor neglect by the elected officials in commission meetings. NEW JERSEY "America's Finest City." A plat form was developed which laid out GEORGIA Members of Central Jersey the issues plaguing the community. DSA are organizing a new local in Mayoral candidates for San Diego Atlanta DSA, having re northern New Jer::;ey and are help were invited to a community cently restarted their local, is now ing a fledgling youth section Lhap speakout, where over 700 people producing a monthly newsletter ter at Drew University. gathered and by night's end, the and sponsoring regular meetings. candidates promised to adopt the They are organizing around na NEW MEXICO SDOP platform. tional health care. San Francisco DSA hosted a Albuquerque DSA, a bud successful new members meeting, ILLINOIS ding local which just started this and is sponsoring a Mission/Vision year, has met in January, March, discussion group. Activists there Chicago DSA members are April, and Mciy with about twelve are coordinating the DSA Media working on the Carol Moseley members at each meeting. They System Reform Task Force. Braun campaign for U.S. Senate. have discussed issues around the East Bay DSA is working in The local held a successful annual local and national political situ coalition to defeat Governor Pete dinner that honored DSA members ations. Wilson's welfare initiative. Sue Purrington and Quentin Peninsula/Stanford DSA is Young. The keynote speaker was NEW YORK participating in a socialist discus Jose LaLuz, mt>mber of the DSA sion group. They sponsored a visit National Political Committee. The N assua DSA held a Saturday by independent presidential candi emcee was Michael Lighty, DSA seminar in May entitled A '"Con date Ron Daniels. National Director. The local's tained' DeprP~s . on?" Dr. Sean Ger Valley DSA co-sponsored health care task force is continuing vasi, economist, writer, and former the Coalition for Jobs and Health to build support for an Illinois uni professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, Care Rally and March in April. versal health care bill. lectured on the recession and dis Local activists have been doing cussed measures that would genu voter registration at the Panorama INDIANA inely transform the ~merican econ City social welfare office. omy. Sacramento DSA is working Indiana DSA has received Ithaca OSA has been concen with the local health care coalition approval from the Debs Founda trating on local issues of immediate and Jobs With Justice to pressure tion to pursue an enshrinement for conLern. They h.n, e been working the state legislature to pass state Michael Harrington at the Eugene on a campaign to write letters to wide single-payer health care. V. Debs Home/Museum in Terre local media and politicians, focus- 10 DEMOCRATIC LEIT National Board Meets ing especially on tax equity, and rental housing. In addition they or To Plan Local Electoral Activity ganized a campaign of union sup port, particularly support of the he 1992 National Board meeting in Washington, DC, was kicked off UAW in its contract negotiations by a public outreach event with Barbara Ehrenreich, DSA Honor with Cornell University. On July 4, T ary Chair; Hilda Mason, member of the Council of the District of they held a successful fundraising Columbia and DSA Vice Chair; Dorothy Healey, DSA Vice Chair; and Jo dinner. Ann Mort, member of the DSA National Political Committee. Panelists New York City DSA held its discussed the current state of politics in the U.S., the presidential cam· third annual Progressive Policy paign, labor's role in the campaign, and prospects for a third party. Conference. The NYC DSA Health The Board opened with a plenary on the state of DSA organizing, with Care Task Force participated in a staff and local reports. The general sense of those reports was that successful effort to get the New organzing activity is growing at the local level. York State Assembly to pass a Later, participants attended training and organizing workshops on single-payer health care bill. The topics including local electoral activity, the urban crisis and multiracial or local honored DSA member and ganizing, health care organizing, and building a DSA local. President of the Amalgamated Commission meetings filled the rest of Saturday, with meetings of the Clothing and Textile Workers Un following commissions: African American, Anti-Racism, Feminist, Labor, ion (ACTWU) Jack Sheinkman at its annual bash. OHIO Columbus DSA'ers helped Bob Fitrakis, chair of the Columbus local, win his Democratic primary for U.S. Congress. The local also helped to organize a demonstration in response to the Rodney King verdict. PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia DSA spon sored an outreach event with DSA Albert Rojas, delegate from Sacramento, speaks at tire Board. member and economist Jay Mandie. The local's feminist issues Latino, and Lesbian/Gay /Bisexual. The Feminist Commission discussed group continues to meet. DSA ac a retreat planned for January 1993 and ways to increase membership. The tivists are organizing for single African American, Anti-Racism, and Latino Commissions developed payer health care with a Philadel plans for a speaking tour by prominent DSA members of color. The com phia health care coalition. The local missions hope to use this tour to reach out to communities of color. is working on the re-election cam On Sunday morning, participants discussed electoral organizing paign of DSA member and State strategies and tactics with Bob Fitrakis, DSA member and candidate for Representative Babette Josephs. U.S. Congress; Mary Jo Kilroy, DSA member and Columbus school board Pittsburgh DSA has joined a member; Paul Pinsky, representative of the New Party; and Howard Croft, women's coalition for reproductive member of the DSA National Political Committee. rights and has been doing labor The Board also voted on resolutions to refer to the National Political solidarity work. Committee. Those included the following recommendations: to endorse the 1993 march on Washington for lesbian and gay civil rights; to endorse a Latino Commission delegation to Mexico to observe elections there; to VIRGINIA establish a committee to liaison with independent party activity; and to set DSA members in Charlot up a computer bulletin board for local organizers. tesville are organizing a local there. There was also plenty of socialist socializing, including a picnic, DSA'er Richard Rorty spoke at volleyball, and a softball game. The board was held at the northwest their first meeting. campus of Gallaudet University, July 12 -14. }UI )'/,-\UG U~ T 1992 11 DSAction--- [9ethinking Columbus mrganizing +Rethinking Columbus: Teaching About tile SOOth Anniversary of Colum +U.S. Representative Pat Schroeder (D-CO) bus' Arrival in the Americas. 96 pages; ages high school to adult; Send introduced a bill in Congress in May that will $4.00 + $2.00 postage to Rethinking Schools, 1001 East Keefe A venue, prohibit discrimination by the armed forces Milwaukee WI 53212. For information about bulk orders at a dis on the basis of sexual orientation (HR 5208, count, call (414)964-9646. the Military Freedom Act of 1992). Urge your + Conquest a11d Capitalism: 1492-1992, by Steve Brouwer. Send $10.00 representative to co-sponsor HR 5208. Call + $2.00 postage to Big Picture Books, P.O. Box 909, Carlisle PA 17013. the House switchboard at 202-225-3121. Call (717)249-2763 for more information. + Was your shirt made by Guatemalan women earning $2 a day? The worst human rights violator in the hemisphere, Guate California DSA Statewide Meeting mala, 1s now home to 250 factories producing clothing for brand-name U.S. companies in "California: We Will Fight Back" cluding Levi's and the Gap. Now there is a August 2, 1992 9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. union drive at two factories owned by the Stanford University Women's Center Firehouse Building Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH), a co11tact Dua11e Campbell 916-372-9072 or Mike Pincus 415-695-9532 U.S. company. Workers say PVH has re sponded to the union effort with firings, demotions, bribery, and threats to close the factory. Help the PVH workers by writing, (1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, C)esources NY 10104) phoning (212-468-7100) or faxing (212-468-7398) PVH a message: urge Larry S. + The following new items are available from the DSA National Office, 15 Dutch Street, #500, New York, NY 10038. Phillips, CEO, to recognize and negotiate with the union. To join the PVH Campaign Call for information about bulk discounts, 212-962-0390. -- Organize! For Progressive Electoral Action, a new DSA write: U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project, 333 S. Ashland, Chicago, IL 60607. newsletter, produced by the Electoral Action Task Force and edited by James Chapin. The inaugural issue includes articles on the Perot phenomenon, DSA'ers running for office, and a profile of Oregon State Senator and DSA member, Beverly Summer Youth Stein. Organize! is a must-read for all socialist electoral organ izers. Please send $.SO for postage for one, or order 50 for Conference $5.00, 100 for $10.00. Use it to table and distribute. -- DSA T-shirts, sizes Land XL, $10.00 + $2.00 postage August 6 - 9, 1992 -- Tl1e Activist, magazine of the DSA Youth Section, special Bowling Green State University issue on the environment, send $1.00 for postage. -- Reproductive Freedom Lobby Kit, prepared by the Femi Bowling Green, Ohio nist Commission. Contains lobbying hints, talking points, Registration begins at 6 p.m. on Thursday. and legislation updates. Comprehensive and essential. $5 The fee is a sliding scale from $40 - 80 -- The latest issue of Our Struggle/Nuestra Lucha, newsletter based on your financial situation. of the African American, Latino, and Anti-Racism Commis sions. Single issue: free. Bulk copies: 100 for $10. This year's summer conference i.} more activist -- Progressive Platform/Rodney King Resolution literature oriented than ever. It is designed to prepare you piece, essential for urban crisis organizing. Single copy: free. for an academic year of action. We will have Bulk copies: 100 for $10. workshops on direct action organizing and -- Democratic Vlstas, a statement for the democratic left advice on sustaining a DSA chapter and coali signed by Irving Howe, Susan Sontag, Cornet West, Ed tion building. For more information please call Asner, and Frances Fox Piven, among many others. $1 Tom Ellett at 212-962-0390. 12 DEMOCRATIC Lffl DSA'ers Run For' Office BY ROBERT MARINOVIC wo DSA loc<1l organizers mainder of the district. will run for office in U10ugh this is the November: Bob Fitrakis, first time Fitrak.is has run T chair of Columbus DSA, for office, he is no will run for for U.S. Congress in the .strangt>r to the process. 12th District iii Ohio; and Rachel Among others, he man Dewey, member of the Los Ange aged the 1990Tom Emey les DSA executive committee, will for Congress campaign run for California State Senate. in Ohio on ~ budget of Congressionttl can1lidate Bob fitraki$. Fitrakis is running a campaign $16,000 and won 41 percent of the Dewey is running a campaign largely influenced by the DSA pro vote against a twenty-four-year in· that attempts to educate people gressive platform. An outspoken, cumbent. about progressive positions-on is- grassroots radical, Fitrakis con· When asked if Fitrakis was sue.s such as education, healthcare ducted an aggressive primary handered by running openly as a and reproductive freedom. campaign concentrating on critical democratic socialist, he explained "People in my district think that issues of economic renewal and that people liked the message, and only tax cuts hurt people. I want to social reform which the district weren't turned away by the mes- show them that cuts in service hurt and the nation as a whole must senger being a socialist. ''If people people as well," she said. ··1 also_ face. Fitrakis's experience as a pro ask, J tell them 'Yeah, l'm a social- want to show them that govem- fessor of Political Science at Co 1st."' He said the public appears to ment can have a positive impact on lumbus State Community College be responding favorably to his their day-to-day lives." has kept him at the forefront of message of social reform. Dewey's district includes ur- issues such as industrial policy, the ln Novt>mber, Fitrakis will face ban and suburban areas in L.A., environment, criminal justice, re~ the Republican incumbent, John Pasadena, Burbank, and Glendale. productive rights, welfare policy, Kasich. He vows to rw1 "the most As a long-time DSA and and peace issues. He also co-hosts progressive campaign ever inCen- Democratic Party activist, Dewey a public access cable television pro tral Ohio." says she is excited about the opporw gram called the "Fitralds/ Erney Dewey ran unopposed in the tunitytorunforoffice. "Afteryears Report." Democratic primary and faces a of stuffing envelopes anq leaflet His district includes rural and long shot in the general. She hopes, ting, it's intert:-sting to actually help suburban areas that are heavily however, that anti-incumbent fe. shape the Democratic Party's populated by whites and urban ver and the broad-based success of agenda and influence policy deci~ areas lhat are primarily African women candidates will help her. sions." American. Fitrakis received over "I hope Barbara Do.xer and 80 percent of his primary votes Diarme Feinstein have long coat Robert Mari11ovic, a student at from the inner city community and tails!" she said, referring to candi Hamilton College, is a summer intern had a respectable turnout in lhe re- dates for U.S. Senate in California. at DSA. /ULY/ AUGUST 1992 13 Why Americans Hate Cities BY JAMES B. CHAPIN he relative hostility of most Ameri image of an outback in \\"hich almost no Austra cans to cities is an inheritance from lians actually live. the political culture of Great Britain. ln the United States, cities have been seen T Most continental European socie as the havens of the rich and poor -- both of ties, and those settled by continental Europe whose existence seem to endanger the self ans, like to live in cities. Indeed, in cities as reliant individualist center of the American varied as Paris and Rio de Janeiro, the rich live culture. Thomas Jefferson was only the first of inside the central cities while the poor cluster a long line of American writers and politicians outside. But, as early as the seventeenth cen who followed the Dritish in decrying the root tury, Britons who made their money in urban less mobs and the gilded rich of the great cjties. business spent it on rural estates. By the nine Oy the 19th century, self-reliant individual teenth century, the first suburbs were spring ism was assigned a geographical location -- the ing up outside London to satisfy the desires of Western frontier. In fact, the greatest growth in the new English bourgeoisie for a rural life the U.S. durmg the 1800s was 111 urban areas style. And, British-settled Australia, although (that was true even in the West), but this it is one of the most urban countries io the growth found few lyrical writers to praise it. ln world, is dominated psycholog1cally by the the twentieth century, lacking a frontier, the •, ~ l l 2 LL 14 DEMOCRATIC LEFT small towns (and now by extension the sub Meanwhile, the dispersed and fragmented urbs) have come to seem thP bastions of the American governmental system has allowed middling classE:s. Given a choice, white middle whole classes to escape paying their fair share class Americans (indeed, almost all Ameri by shrugging off general social responsibilities cans) migrated into suburbs, areas which and geographically isolating "problem" areas. seemed to coIPl-iine city incomes and rural That can be true at the state level, as "low-tax" ambiance. Connecticut and New Hampshire residents The turnover in urban population was of avoid paying for the support of Boston and ten Jinked to factors of ethnicity and class, as New York -- cities which provide upper-in older populations fled from arriving popula come jobs for many of the residents cf sur tions with different mores and lower class rounding states. Within states, the incredible status. But it was also linked to desires for a disparities in school funding and local ameni better lifestyle. Samuel Lubell wrote of the ties uncovered by Jonathan Kozol are wide "tenement trail" that took immigrants from the spread. Lower East Side of New York to the Grand The rhetoric of"community" has become a Conco1...rse in the Bronx, and eventually to cover for class motives. Most people in a mod Queens or further into the suburbs of Westch em suburb don't know much about theirneigh ester and Long Island, and finally, into Florida bors across the fence, except that they are of the or California. ln recent years, selective migra same race and class. Governments -- national tion (and discrimination in housing in the sub and state -- have engaged in large-scale social urbs) has helped to resegregate Amenca. support of programs that subsidize the auto In the past, the departing people have been mobile economy and move the population out replaced by new populations seeking new eco of central cities, while at the same time fail to nomic opportunities. In recent years these reward cities for their very real economic ad opportunities have been declining. Both race vantages, such as energy efficiency. The major and class motives have led corporation execu burden of dealing with poor people and with tives (whether native or foreign) to place their both younger and older parts of the population factories in small town and rural areas with has been shifted to the local level. white non unionized work forces. Corporations The unwillingness of Amencans to settle have moved their headquarters to the suburbs important questions through public means has (one study showed that the best predictor of a fostered the development of "edge cities" and new location was the residence of the corpora "the mall." In recent years the triumph of con tion president!) servative economics has multiplied the num- f ULY/A UCUST 1992 15 bers of the poor and the homeless, while the these central cities have values and policy pref triumph of ACLU-style liberal individualism erences distinct from those of the rest of the has restricted the ability uf government to country... their feeling of isolation may not be control behavior in public space. As a result, entirely illusory." · public space increasingly becomes abandoned Many, probably most, Americans do not to bureaucrats and criminals. Tilt~ mall reintro accept that the prosperity of their country duces controlled "public" space (controlled depends upon the prosperity of its cities. Noth because it is private). ing in their own life experiences demonstrates Political analyst William Schneider has tliat. Any majoritarian coalition to solve urban suggested that the 1992 presidential election problems cannot simply assert the importance will be the first to be dominated by suburban of cities, it must be prepared to demonstrate it. voters. He argues that while urban areas want The U.S. i ~ missing out on a great deal by broad based taxes and narrowly targeted ex neglecting its cities. Cities remain a crucial penditures, the suburbs want narrowly based location for national identification. The Jessica taxes spent broadly. He goes on to suggest that Mitford expression about Oakland, " there's no the cities today are in tl1l same political posi there there," would be true of an America tion as rural areas were a century ago, and just made up only of "slurbs." Cities are psycho as unlikely to see their policy preforences car logically important; that's why most nations ried into law. treat their great cities as treasures, not as In a recent multi-author study, Cha11gi11g dumping grounds. New York City Politics, tl1e four autl1ors point Many Americans choose to blame the out that attitudes on basic ideological ques problems of the vast inequalities of American tions vary according to residence. life on the cities in which these inequalities are "A national candidate who had chost:!n to most clearly visible. Out it doesn't serve the make the role of government in ensuring jobs interest even of a capitalist society to allow the and a good standard of livmg a central issue in collapse of infrastructure, the impaired raising the 1988 campaign, and who stressed that of children, and the continued localization of government has a primary rt:!sponsibility for social and economic issues that leads to a ca these matters, would (if votes hinged solely on cophony of geographic interests set against this issue) have thus gained two votes for each each other. And, as rising crime, pollution, and vote lost in New York City in 1988. At the same tax burdens in the suburbs demonstrate, there time, that candidate, nationwide, would have is no real escC1pe from the larger world into a lost 1.8 votes for each vote gained. suburban utop1tl. "To place these data in proper political perspective, note that the top eleven central fames Cllapiu, a DSA Vice Chair, is chairman ofthe cities contain approximatdy 8.6 percent of the board of World H1111ger Year, and editor ofthe DSA voting age population of the United States. If newsletter, Organize! 16 DEMOCRATIC L£FT Opposing the War On Drugs While Rescuing Our Communities and Curing Drug Abuse BY CLARENCE LUSANE he dreams of thousands of African Americans are rapidly going up in smoke. The twisted curls of smoke T emanating from pipes filled with crack, heroin, PCP, ice, and other deadly sub stances symbolize the blurred nightmares that are strangling community after community. While Blacks and other people of color in the United States comprise less than 15 percent of all drug users, the damage and havoc caused by substance abuse and by the destructive impact of the federal government's drug war is felt much more deeply in those communities. An FBI study notes the fact that while Blacks represent only 12 percent of all illegal drug users, Blacks are 41 percent of all those arrested on cocaine and heroin charges. From the jungles of Bolivia to the high plains of Laos, from the dingy and rank base ments of the inner cities and rural U.S. to the executive suites of the largest U.S. corpora tions, from the White House and beyond, the end illegal and deadly drug trafficking and drug crisis has linked tens of millions across the abuse. The real danger is th11t it will m11sk the globe. brutal social realities that must be addressed if suffering and destruction cau~ed by the drug crisis is to stop. Masking Brotality The government, in engaging its drug war The national and international illegal drug at home and abroad, has aimed its weapons crisis is both rooted in and the expression of overwhelmingly at people of color. Despite the deeply troubled economic, political, and social fact the whites are the majority of users and relations. As this crisis of race, class, and global traffickers, Blacks, Latinos, and third world politics unfolds, the battle against illegal drugs people are suffering the worst excesses of a has taken on a character not unlike the religious program that violates civil rights, human crusades of medieval Europe. rights, and national sovereignty. Tile U.S. government's "war on drugs," at At the same time, there is an urgent need to best1 obscures all of these relationships and, at address the harm caused by the explosion of worst, perpetuates them. The potential long drug trafficking and abuse, pMticu larly m com term harm of the drug war is not that it won't munities of color. The drug crisis and its under- ] un/. \ ur.u~ r 1992 17 lying causes are very real indeed. As the Na campaigns against third world liberation tional Urban League wrote in The State ofBlack movements continue to be the real reasons for America 1989, "Substance abuse is the single U.S. intervention abroad. This is perhaps no major leilding social, economic, and health where as clear as in the Persian Gulf conflict. problem confronting the African-American What Iraq did to Kuwait in 1990 with tanks and community." guns, the U .S is doing to the rest of the world The economic and political policies of the with dollars, computers, and mass media U.S., particularly during Ronald Reagan's (along with tanks and guns). presidency, fettered the opportunities for ad In this milieu of economic destruction, vancement for millions around the world and public corruption, ideological dogmatism, in the U.S. Reagan was determined to halt the international aggression, and shameless dis development of progressive governments in crimination, it's easy to see why social disinte Nicaragua and Grenada with anti-communist, gration is escalating. Concern for values of pro-militarist foreign policy initiatives. His community that only a few years ago would progrnm was funded by the shift of federal have prevented or limited the invasion of dollars from sorely needed social programs to drugs into many Black, Latino and poor neigh the military budget, and perhap!t more disas borhoods has been increasingly replaced by trous, by massive unprecedented deficit survival-driven individualism and material spending. ism. Rather than initiate a desperately needed "Marshall Plan" to eliminate poverty, the Bush ·covering Up Collusion administration has continued to escalate the The U.S. government uses the drug war to U.S. war on"drugs." Dush' s declaration of ~ar obscure the collusion of U.S. intelligence agen on users and dealers threatens their civil liber cies with major international trafficking net ties and has had virtuillly no impact on the works. In the past, anti-communist foreign pol roots of the drug problem, either internation icy aims hilve served as justification to the CIA ally or domestically. Mass waves of police ac tions against street sales into inner city commu nities have moved drug markets indoors. Drug sales and use 111 the suites and board rooms of as the CIA America's large and small corporations have remained effectively untouched. The decline in escalated the casual use has been matched by a larger and H more intractable addiction population dispro drug crisis by assisting portionately located in communities of color. drug traffickers? A Community Deteriorates "How did we get into Uiis situation?" the Black community commonly asks itself. As the hurricane-like force of the drug epidemic and and other agencies to knowingly allow traffick the abuses of the drug war ravage the Black ers to import illegal drugs into the U.S. One community, they signal a more acute and critica l question that has been conspicuously deadly social crisis: the poverty-driven margi avoided by the Bush administration and the nalization and elimination of the Black poor. media monopolies is: " Has the CIA escalated The battle over drug policy, despite ad the drug crisis in the U.S. by assisting the efforts ministration denials, is being waged on a ter of known drug traffickers?" rain fraught with rncial conflict. The dispropor The end of the Cold Was has meant a shift tionate impact of the drug crisis on people of in foreign policy rhetoric. The new interna color has raised old questions about just how tional enemy of humankind has been trans much progress has been achieved by Blacks formed from a communist to a drug dealer I and other people of color in the U.S. terrorist or "narco-terrorist." Although new Meanwhile, in spite of the best efforts and enemy images are being created, the ends have most militant rhetoric of today's Black leader remained the same. Opening up and protecting ship, the deterioration of the Black community markets for U.S. corporations and waging low continues at breakneck speed. By every index intens1ty / high-death military and political available, Black America is crashing. The Black 18 DrMOCRAJJC Lrn community is suffering record rates of homi ing centers, intensive short-term incarceration, cide, infant mortality, school dropout, AIDS and residential prohibition. Incarcerating infection, hunger, and homelessness. More young teenagers with hardened career crimi than anything, the econom> of the Black com nals is unjustified and serves only to furU1er munity is in a shambles Even the briefest alienate those who can be saved from a life as glimpse of poverty in the U.S., \\h1ch dispro repeat offenders. portionately impacts the Black community, is thoroughly heartbreaking. • Establish new approaches to policing and Jaw enforcement. The Community-Oriented Policing System (COPS) approach emphasizes The Real-Life Impact police cooperation and partnership with com The Black infant mortality rate is twice that munity groups and is focused on prevention of whites, and, at the other end, Black life rather than reaction to crime. expectancy is falling. Between the cradle and the grave, thing!> do not get much better. Black unemployment contmues to be twice that of whites, and a white high ~chool dropout will .. B y every index have a better chance of finding work than a Black college graduate. available, Although t\',•o-thirds of America's poor are white, four out of every nine Blacks are living in Black America poverty. Poverty rates for the African Ameri can community are the highest in the nation at about 31.6 percent. Half of the Black children is crashing. born in America are born poor. More than 56 percent of families headed by single Black women are in deep poverty. For Latina women •Recognize drug abuse as a health crisis simi in the same situation, the figure is 59 percent. lar to that of smoking or drunk driving. These statistics have been depressingly consistent for more than a decade. The real-life • Provide accessible, quality treatment that impact of these numbers has meant a life of incorporates the sensitivities and respect that denial of basic material and social needs for are the foundation for Black addicts coming to millions, along with the intense rejection and grips with the source of their problem: low self stifling alienation that accompanies poverty. esteem that leads to destructive, compulsive At this level of deprivation, as one study points and addictive behavior. out, "serious family needs -- such as food, clothing, medicine, early learning assistance, • Institute National Clean Needle exchange and housing -- are not being met." programs, which many other nations have in stituted with great success. W1to Sltall Solve tlze Dn1g Crisis? •Launch a massive nationwide literacy pro • The have-nots of the third world must be gram. given the resources to go (and grow) in new directions. Egalitarian economic development, In the long run, economic development, social opportunity and political reform must be social equality and the elimination of poverty created in the third world. are the "magic bullets" to end drug trafficking and abuse in poor communities and communi •The CIA's role in narcotics trafficking must ties of color. Im be exposed. Since its creation more th /ULY/Aucu s1 1992 19 REVIEW Poor Visibility BY MAURICE lSSERMAN THE VISIBLE POOR: HOMELESSNESS IN cies that have brought us this brave new world THE UNITED STA TES. by Joel Blau of shantyvilles and shelters. I doubt his book Oxford University Press, 1992, 235 pp., $22.95. will have the impact of The Other America - it certainly won't get as sympathetic a reading in onsider what a different world it the White House - but that is the fault of the was when Michael Harrington times we live in and the men who rule over us, published The Otl1er America thirty not of Blau's abilities as social analyst. C years ago. Americans, including Virtually nothing can be said about home President John F Kennedy, were appalled to lessness without generating controversy. Esti read that forty to fifty million of their fellow mates of the homeless population range from citizens were living in poverty. Harrington's the few hundred thousand cited by govern eloquent description of the suffering of the ment agencies and conservative analysts to the poor helped spark a federal "war on poverty" millions claimed by homeless advocacy which -- for all of its shortcomings -- measura groups. Definitions and semantics account for bly improved the lives of millions of Ameri much of the disparity; are the homeless only cans. those who can be found and counted by census The poor 111 those long-gone days were, in enumerators in shelters and on street comers? Harrington's words, "invisible." No more. Or do they include the episodically housed, the According toa New York Times poll cited an Joel precariously housed, the doubled-up, battered Blau's new book The Visible Poor Homelessness women hiding out from abusive partners, run in the United States, 54 percent of Americans na away children, and others who fear the shelters tionwide (68 percent of urban Americans} see and avoid the authorities? One thing is clear: homeless people in the course of a day's rou the old stereotype of a homeless population tine. More appalling still, a New York Tunes poll consisting of aging, white, male, Skid-Row taken in January 1992 revt!aled that 55 percent alcoholics is obsolete. The homeless population of respondents eighteen to twenty-nine years today is considerably younger, and includes a old agreed with the statement "most people much higher proportion of minorities, women have gotten so used to seeing the homeless that and children. they don't feel upset by them." Dy contrast, Where did the new homeless population only 30 percent of those sixty-five or older come from? Blau systematically reviews the agreed. In other words, young adults who explanations offered by researchers, politicians came of age in the 1980s were far more li kely to and pundits, from the deinstitutionalization of accept the existence of homelessness as a nor mental patients in the 1960s to the gentrifica mal part of the social landscape -- perhaps tion of urban neighborhoods in the 1970s to the regrettable, distasteful, unsightly, but inevi evisceration of federal spending on social wel table -- than those who reached adulthood in fare in the 1980s. The study of homelessness, it the years of the New Deal or its immediate hardly needs saying, is not an ~bstract science. aftermath. Causes imply culpability. President Reagan Joel Blau, a professor of social work at the suggested in 1986, in that casually misinformed State University of New York at Stony Brook, style which voters for some reason found so has w ritten a thoughtful study of homelessness endearing: "What we have found in this coun that serves as powerful indictment of the poli- try, and we're more aware of it now, is one 20 DEMOCRATIC LEFT ( 1n::11 ~·porting 11.t-- lh R1..'\\~mls. 16 Pul itl.l'n\. J mzmm II problem that we've had, even in the best of people in the United States have, noth times, and this is the people who are sleeping ing exacerbates them faster than the lack on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, of money, food, and housing. you might say, by choice." The sub-text ("Hey! While not totally discounting mental ill Don't blame me! And don't ask for money!") i::. ness, sub::.tance abuse, and similar explana not difficult to decipher. tions for homelessness, Blau emphasizes a Blau comes to a different conclusion. number ofother factors that combined to create Imagine, he asks in his introductil)n: the crisis of homelessness in the 1980s, includ the United States today with l11iusing ing deindu,trialization (which, as William Ju costs and income d1stnbution un lius Wilson and others have argued, has had a changed, but without drugs, mental ill particularly severe economic impact on urban ness, or "bad decisions" -- the per::.onal minority communities); the contraction of so factors often cited as the true causes of cial welfare (includingcutbacks in spending for homelessness. Does homelessness de AFDC, Social Security, food stamps, and un cline under these circumstances? Yes, employment insurance); declining investment but not by much . Now imagine an at public hou,ing (by the end of the Reagan other set of circumstances. This time, administration only 25,000 units were added instead of eliminating the drugs, the annually, at a time when the waiting list for mental illness, and the "bad decisions," public hliusing in New York City alone had make sure that there are comprehensive grown to nearly 200,000); and the replacement social services, a generou::. supply of af of private urban low income housing stock, fordable housing, and nu one earns le:;s such as Single-Room-Occupancy hotels, with than $25,000 a year A miraculous devel luxury condominiums, cooperatives, and of opment occurs. Not only doe:; homeless fice buildings (a transformation often encour ness decline sharply, but the s f UI.Y/AUGUST E'92 21 temptation among the public to "blame the front to the value of neighborliness, egalitarian victim" is growing stronger every year. "Vis ism, and common decency that most Ameri ible poverty disrupts the ordinary rhythms of cans espouse, and some actually believe in. public life," Blau notes. Advocacy groups like the National Coalition It undermines the rules governing the for the Homeless, social service organizations use of public space ... lf one encounter like the Community Service Society, and the with a homeless person is awkward, the direct action-oriented Community for Creative cumulative effect of many such encoun Non-Violence have all done admirable work in ters is discordant. Some people are gen helping dramatize and demystify the issue of erous and do not mind occasional re homelessness. Democratic socialists have their quests for money. Too many requests, own contribution to make. As Blau concludes though, soon exhaust their charity. Los in The Visible Poor: ing their capacity to engage in single charitable acts, they are increasingly People need housing, and they cannot inclined to see homelessness as a disfig get it. They need day care, and it is not urement of the landscape, and begging accessible. they need a universally avail as a personal assault. After a while, pub able health program, and while some lic opinion sours, and demands intensify partial reforms may be enacted, no such to get the homeless off the street. federal program ism sight. Resourceful The backlash against homelessness repre organizing could link these needs and sents a potent threat to the future of progres forge a coalition powerful enough to re sive movements and politicians. The defeat of define the terms under which business San Francisco's incumbent mayor Art Agnos operates. The Progressive Era, the New last year apparently hinged on the perception Deal, the Great Society; it has happened that he was reluctant to crack down on an before, and in the next generation, it will encampment of homeless people in front of happen again. City Hall. Challengers to liberal incumbents in New York City and elsewhere no doubt took TJ1e Visible Poor is a book written m the note. tradition of Tl1e Other America. It deserves our But homelessness, properly understood, is attention. Im the Left's issue, not the Right's. The "visible poor" are the visible price we have paid as a Maurice lsserman leaches hbtory at Hamilton nation for the nostrums and illusions of the past College. He is writing a /Jio~'7a11Jiy of Michael dozen years. Reagan's Morning in America has Harrington, and is co-author with Rick Fantasill of in many communities come to bear a close The Encyclopedia of Homelessness (Facts on resemblance to Evening in Calcutta. The exis File, forthcoming.) tence of homeles:mess is, or should be, an af- Democratic Socialists of America Join us! Members of the Democratic Socialists of America work in immediate struggles for 1ust1ce - as we build a movemt!nt for long-term social change. We bring to our work a strategy for build mg alliances among social movements and cl vision of a more just and equitable society. tJ Send me more information .1bout DSA. 0 Enclosed are my dues! Cl $50 sustainer 0 $35 regular ADURESS~~~~~--~--~~---~~ Cl $15 low-income/student Cm/STATE/Z1P ______Cl Enclosed is $8 for a subscription to Democratic Left PHONE~------Cl Enclosed is a contribution (Jf $ __ UNION/Sc.Hoot/ORCANJZATION ______to help DSA's activism. .MJJJce drecks payable to OSA, and return to DSA: 15 D11tcl1 St., #500, NY, NY 10038 (212) 962.()390 22 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Religion & Socialism LEITERS to the EDITOR To the editor: I wish to commend you for the focus on "Religion and Socialism" in the January /February, 1992 issue. Democratic Left welcomes letter~ tlzat democratic parties is the clearest The statements by various religious respond to articles or idetl5 we publish. demonstration of the absurdity of socialists indicate that religion can The editors re~erve the nght to edit let characterizing the communist dicta play a strong role with regard to ters. We particular/ ar1;TTtcl1llt letters of torships as socialist or Marxist. socialist ideals. fewer than 250 words Due to the volume Socialist parties are dedicated to Many people profess to be reli of letters we recewe, ~ amnot publish expanding the political democracy gious today. We must make them nor respo11d to e.adr of the present order to include eco aware of the sharp contradictions nomic, cultural and social democ between religious values and the racy, and to eliminate every form of realities of capitalism. We must Tnte Socialism discrimination and inequality. So stress that, in the words of a 1934 To the editor: viet communism, on the other hand, pronouncement of the Rabbinical In the report on DSA's reception has deliberately destroyed every Assembly of America, " ... an indi at the March For Women's Lives, democratic institution. vidualistic, profit-inspired economy there is a reference to "Soviet and As Democratic Left often provides [is] in direct conflict with the ideals of Ea:stern European :.ocialism" (May/ an appropriate antidote to "conven religion ... We hold that only a coop June 1992). Democratic Left :seems to tional wisdom," it should in this case erative economy, only one which has h /ULY/AUGUST 1992 23 Jimmy Higgins Reports JOB OFFERINGS RADICAL, DUDE If you' re looking for work and aren't The artists who draw the popular "Simpsons" TV having any luck, maybe you're looking show have been denied tens of thousands of dollars in in the wrong place. Forget about those over-time pay by Klasky-Csupo, a subcontractor of the attractive management positions or show's producers, Gracie Films. The animators have those well-paying manufacturing jobs. begun an organizing campaign to which Gary Csupo, They're a thing of the past. Today, the partial owner of the firm, has resonded: ' 'I'll lay them real work is to be found in low-end off and take the work to Hungary." "lsn't it ironic that service. For each new computer-pro the TV show that plays to working class values is gramming job created in 1991, eleven illegally depriving its own workers of wages and the were formed for clerks, eight for food-service workers right to organize," says Steve Huelett of the cartoonists' and six for janitors, says demographer Harold union. Angry fans can write to James Brooks at Gracie Hodgkinson at the Institute for Educational Leadership. Films and David Robinson at Fox TV, both at 10201 W. Three cheers for capitalism. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90035. MORE JOB OFFERINGS GAY RIGHTS IN RUSSIA It seems that women are still underrepresented; this In Russia, gay rights are still unrealized. Still consid time not in Congress, but in the boardroom. By research ered a crime under Article 121, homosexuality has group Catalyst's count, only 519 of the top l,000 em meant encarceration and persecution in prison in the ployers have female directors. Among industrial com form of beatings and gang rapes. But gay rights activists panies, only 44 percent have women on their boards. are hopeful and are campaigning for public tolerance. .Some 133 "progressive" companies have more than They are encouraged by the Yeltsin administration, one woman director. Mutual of America and US West which has unveiled a draft criminal code that would each have five. abolish Article 121. De-mocratic Left + Labor Day Issue 1992 + 'Ihe Labor Day issue of Den~ocratic Left will once again be dedicated to coverage of the American and international labor struggle. Our annual Labor Day ad campaign is the principle fundraiser for Democratic Left. It provides an excellent opportunity for you to join with trade unions, progressive organizations, and DSA members to show your support for DSA and Democratic Left. We welcome advertisements and personal greetings from individuals, DSA locals, organizations and progressive busineses. We must receive ad copy by August 20, 1992. Make checks payable to DSA, or pay by credit card. 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