A Socialist Agenda
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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<omozl Woodard ... 3 by James Chapin ... 18 The Myth of Dependence Opposing the War On Drugs by Richard A. Cloward by Clarence Lusane ... 21 & Frances Fox Piven ... 5 Maurice lsserman reviews Joel Blau's Liberating Schools The Visible Poor: Homelessness by Maxine Phillips ... 7 In the United States ... 20 On the Lett by Horry Fleischman . .. 10 DSAction ... 12 Jimmy Higgins Reports ... 24 DSA'ers Run for Office by Robert Marinovic .. 13 cov0f photo by Andrew Uchtenste1n/lmpoct Visuals 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<ric1. 15 Duich St. 1500, NY, NY IOOJI (212) 962- code words -- consensus, "a govern Ca n democracy, it takes the talk show oms.,.., •'1rdts apm• ,,._ "'"'"'"' <f ,,._ wi- '"' .., ment of the best people" -- are di- world view of the nation's ills: that ...........-..._n1.;. 'Y _'-...;..;.°'-'"'.-«1;.;:.•_· .._•- ________. 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.