DSA vs. IMF

SHRUB vs. VEEP I PUIUSIED n 1HE DEMOWDC SOCIAUm OF AMERICA

Structurally Adjust This Elections Statement 2000 Electoral Politics As Tactic

he National Political Committee consciously chose not to endorse any major party presidenual can­ T didates. While understanding that for pragmatic reasons many progressive trade unionists, env1.ronmen­ talists, and African-American and Latino activists have chosen to support Al Gore, DSA's elected representa­ tives believe that Gore, like the now defeated Bill Brad­ ley, represents a centrist. neo-liberal polincs which does not advocate the radical structural reforms - such as progressive taxation, major defense cuts, and real univer­ sal health and child care - necessary to move national politics in a genuinely democratic direction. Gore's strong support for "free trade" fails to intc· grate the need for international solidarity and global regu­ lation of transnational capital required for egalitarian poli­ tics at home and abroad. Nor is it sufficient to talk of getting "soft money" (unlimited contribuuons directly to the political parties) out of politics. Corporate influence over electoral politics can only be curtailed through pub­ A little dim, but he's mtne. lic financing of campaigns and access to free media. It is a sad commentary on the state ofAmerican politics when dyed-in-the-wool conservative John McCain is portrayed toral mternntion takes, whether u be through Demo­ by mass media as a "progressive reformer" of cam· cranc primary races, non-partisan local elections, or third paign law. party efforts. Rather, our electoral work aims at building Some DSAers may support Ralph Nader for presi­ majoritarian coalitions capable of not only electing pub­ dent, if he appears on the ballot in their state. Others lic officials, but capable of holding them accountable after may support our Socialist Party comrade David they arc elected.'' McReynolds. Nader's campaign is likely to appear on more DSA's main task is to build grassroots, multi-racial, state ballots and 1t has the potential to harness the energy progressi\·e coalitions. There is no short-cut to doing so of the protests in Seattle and Washington against the \X'TO other than the hard work of "education, agitation, and and IMF. This time around, DL hopes he runs a serious organizing." .Neither flying the flag of a third party which campaign and does not again dismiss issues of racism lacks a mass social base, or placing uncritical faith in iso­ and sexism as "divisive" or "gonadal" politics. lated progresske Democratic politicians will build a pow­ But in states where the presidential race appears close erful Left. A successful third party would have to com­ next November, it is likely that DSA members with ties mand suffioent strength m mass constituenc1cs that it to mass constituencies will engage in pragmatic lesser­ could split one of the two major parties. evilism and hold their nose and vote for the Democrat. DSA is no more loyal to the Democratic Party - These are all understandable tactical choices. DSA Vice­ which barely exists as a grassroots institution - than are Chair Harold Meyerson's electoral analysis in this issue individuals or social movements which upon occasion concludes with a case for "critical support" of Gore. use its ballot line or vote for its candidates. The peculiar This position is by no means an official DSA "line," but a narurc of the American constitution renders third party perspective held to by many in the organization, but dis­ politics difficult at both the national and state level. Myriad sented from by numerous others. strucruril factors mitigate ag.Unst ,;able third parties, and It is inaccurate to describe DSA as primarily work­ nrious con titutional blockages are exceedingly difficult ing wt thin the "left-wing" of the Democratic Party." The to amend: executive-based federalism makes parliamen­ 1993 DSA convention in fact resolved "that the impera­ tary-style coalition-governments impossible, winner-take tive task for the democratic Left is to build anti-corpo­ all districts, absence of proportional representation, open rate social movements which are capable of winning re­ primaries in which party membership is regulated by states forms which empower people. In so far as such social not parties themseh·es - allowing both Klansmen and movements and coalitions wish to influence state policy Communists to be members of the Democratic Party. they will, at times, intervene in electoral politics. The fun­ damental question for DSA 1s not what form that elec- page 2 • Democratic Left • Spring-Summer 2000 [LETTERS

programs for children! I think there should be hearings on the child-hating Republicans I GEJlAI D I lERALO Combs, KY Letters to DL I just wanted to thank you for the excellent article John Mason wrote in Shrub vs. Veep the last issue of DL on DSA and the Socialist International. Your article left Harold Meyerson me wanting more. What does DSA do next in order to move out of the Gusanos keep me here. margins? \X!ho in the SI can we work Republicans who have threatened with? What kind of resources will public hearings on the seizure of Elian DSA have to invest in order to be Gonzalez need to start worrring taken more seriously? Kinnock's hu­ about this country's children. They are miliating sarcasm can be interpreted Labor and Globalization cutting poor children off welfare and as reacting to the threat to the "Thtrd Joseph M. Schwartz not helping their parents get a job. Way" that "Harrington's ghost" still They are cutting disabled children off represents. Why would someone so Locals Report SSL They are cutting school work pro­ powerful even bother giving such a grams for poor school children. tiny insignificant grouping any atten­ Reppublicans are doing nothing for tion at all? Playing To Win our homeless children. Republicans STl·VE TARZYNSKJ Charity Crouse are trying to pass tougher jail sentences Lo; Angele; for children (even for minor offenses), Socialist Scholars 2000 yet they arc agrunst crime prc\'ention Continued on page 19 Robert Saute Manallfl.( Tidllor: Solveig Wilder Socialist Heretic Editon.1/ Co"'"''"'" Solveig Wilder Paul Buhle, Ch.uity Crouse, Bill Dixon, Jeffrey Gold, Steve Max, Bill Mosley, Maxine Phillips, Gene Prosnitz, Failing Schools Kathy Quinn, Juon Schulman, Joe Schwanz, John Straus Forrest Davis Foundin,~ Edilnr: Michael Harrington DEMOCRATIC (1928-1989) The Other American A Colloquy

Democratic Socialists of America share a vision of a humane international social order based on equitable distribution of resources, meaningful work, a healthy environment, sustainable growth, gender and racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships. Equality, solidarity, and democracy can only be achjeved through international political and social cooperation aimed at ensuring that economic institutions benefit all people. We are dedicated to building truly international social movements - of unionists, environmen­ ta)jsts, feminists, and people of color - which together can elevate global justice over brutalizing global competition.

DSA NATIONAL OFFICE 180 Varick Street Fl 12 New York, NY 10014 212 .7278610 http://www.dsouso.org/dso

Dcal< postag<: paid at New Yotl , NY (Publocauon No 701-960). Suhscnpnons $10 ~lar; S151moruoonal l'o,tmastcro Sc-nJ adJr... changes to lllO Vanek Street, New York, NY 10014 Dr111om111"1..1ft" publi>hcd by the Ocmncriuc Soct.tltm of America, 1!!0 VanckSrrcct, New York, NY 10014 (212) 727-8610. S~iNrdorticlt11xprrssll>J/JON.

Spring- Summer 2000 • DemocraticLeft • page 3 zation which auns to bring socialism into the mainstream ofAmerican politics. We endeavor co do so through a two­ ptonged strategy o~ ~du­ cation and orgaruzmg. Much of our work is cultural and ideological: forums, debates, publi­ cations. But our voice can only be heard if we si­ multaneously play a cen­ tral, activist role within struggles relevant to working people, com­ munities of color, women, gays and lesbi­ ans and other oppressed constituencies. We oper­ ate within progressive coalitions as an open so­ cialist presence and bring to these movements an analysis and strategy A better Congress would be nice. which recogruzes the fun­ damental need to democ­ bor backing and operative social ratize global corporate power. We do Editotial/conti1111edfro111 pa,_~e 2 democratic politics. not see ourselves as a vanguard speak­ Electoral tactics are only a means In the GOP, white libertarian upper­ ing for the masses nor do we. r~man­ for DSA; the building of a power:ful .middle-class suburbanites contend cically believe that a small socialist or­ anti-corporate and ultimately soc~al­ with white working-class fundamen­ ganization can unilaterally transform ist movement is the end. \X'here th.1rd talists for influence in that parry. Vet­ the U.S. electoral map. party or non-partisan ~andidates rep­ erans of the left will remember that DSA strives to be a crucial social­ resent significant social mm·ements the 1968 Peace and Freedom Party ist leaven within a mass movement for DSA locals have and will continue to and the 1980 Citizens Party arose at social justice. In the 2000 electio~s, build such organizations and su~port moments ofgreater left-wing strength most electorally-active. progressive such candidates. DSi\ honored inde­ and did not significantly alter the na­ constituencies will endeavor to elect pendent socialist Congressperson tional dectoral landscape. Nor has, progressives to Congress an~ to the Bernie Sanders of Vermont :n our last unfortunately, the New Party, which stare legislatures. These st.-tte legislarui:es convention banquet, and we hav~ al­ many DSAers work with m states will engage in the post-census redis­ ways raised significant ~ds nanon­ where "fusion" of third party and tricting which will influence electoral ally for his electoral campa.tgns. Ar 1hc major party votes is possible (sud: as polittcs throughout the commg decade. same time, we were pleased to have the DSA co-sponsored Workmg For better or worse, it is unlikely that Democratic Congressperson and Pro­ Families Party in N.Y. State). . presidential politics in the year 2000 gressi,·e Caucus member Bob Filner DSA recognizes that some msur­ wtll structurally transform the land­ of San Diego introduce Sanders at gent politicians representing labor, scape of American polibcs, however the con~ention, and note that Progrcs­ environmentalists, gays and lesbians, important the outcome. . si\•c Caucus member Jan Schakowsky and communities of color, may DSA will continue to be a voice (D-IL) will be honored at o~ annu~l choose to run under Democratic aus­ inside - and outside - the elctoral Debs-Thomas-Harringlon dinner lhis pices, as tn the 1988 Jesse Jackson process, to argue agairtst panaceas of Spring in Chicago. . campaign, or operate as Democrats 'O.xcd' markets, and for a bottom-up DSA is a modest, someumes ef­ like Senator Paul \Vellstone, and the democratic, decentralized and envi­ fective organi.zation, whose memb.ers 59 Democratic members of the Con­ ronmentally sane economy. have greatest influence in commuruty­ gressional Progressive Caucus, o~e­ levcl electoral poli ucs. DS \ ts not an half of whom arc Black and Latino electoral organization, but rather .a and all of whom possess strong la- democratic socialist political orgaru- page 4 • Democratic Left • Spring-Summer 2000 The Veep, The Shrub, and the Left

BY HAROLD MEYERSON

kay, what's a four-letter Perot) will lay claim to most of February's bizarre primary calendar word for "our next presi­ them, and Gore's positions on artificially inflated McCain's stature, 0 dent"? If you said Gore, choice, guns, and the em·ironment and further deflated Bradley's in the you ha,·e about a 50 percent chance - and his ability to claim some process. of being right next November, but credit for the state of the economy The weirdness of February was it's early yet. - may ultimately attract wavering that Republican contests \Vere sched­ Vice- Prcsiden t Al Gore centrists, particularly if Bush at­ uled in several key states that had no emerged from the primary season tempts to personify the cause of corresponding Democratic contests. relatively unscathed, and certainly moral regeneration. Should the elec­ As a result, Democrats, having no with far fewer scathes than GOP tion come down to a test between place else to go, flocked to crucial nominee-to-be George\'(/. Bush. Pre­ Gore's credibility as a steward of the GOP primaries. Republicans consti­ convention national polls are, at press economy and llush's credibility as a tuted only 48 percent of the voters time, inconclusive. As November m1dwif~ of moral rebirth, the Dems in their own Michigan primary, shapes up, the Veep looks strong in should prevail. 1t 's easier to see the where McCain got enough support the Northeast and Pacific Coast Veep as a banker than it is the Guv among independents and Democrats states, while W can claim the South, as a 1111nisLcr, kt alone a prophet. to overcome Bush's two-to-one ad­ the Rocky Mountains, and some of vantage among Republicans. The the Plains states. The swing states that Cross-Over Dems McCain problem come Super Tues­ will determine the election run pretty When historians look back on day, however, was that Democrats much from Jersey City to Kansas the brief, inten:;c primary season of finally had their own Democratic City - the old industrial heartland campaign 2000, they will doubtless primaries to vote in, and only a rela­ states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, note that John McCain prO\·ed him­ tive handful of Dems were willing Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin self a far more compelling challenger to go behind enemy lines when they and t-.lissouri. in his party than Bill Bradley did in could easily vote in their own party. The problem for \\~ was that he his. But they should also note that In Ohio and Missoori - two states ended the primary process well to the right of where he started. His electoral weakness was found chiefly among women and Catholic voters, two constituencies that were less than thrilled with his right-turn during the primary process. That he knows he needs to re-center was clear from his Super Tuesday victory speech, where he not only sought to cloak himself, however improbably, in the raiment of reform, but also rel­ egated his tax cut to the fourth item on his list of things he'd do with the surplus (after shoring up social se­ curity and boosting spending on the military and schools). For his part, Gore began trolling for unmoored McCainites, avowing his support for campaign finance reform, as early as his last debate with Bill Bradley. Neither Gore nor Bush is a natural fit for the McCain malcon­ tents come November. But some­ one (not Pat Buchanan or Ross Shrub: Back to 11'hat center?

Spring-Summer 2000 • DemocraticLeft • page 5 where the Republican primaries were McCain said after Michigan - his the Gore campaigning was sanging open to Democrats - fully 70 per­ attacks on the Christian Right espe­ his health plan in much the same cent and 61 percent of the voters in cially - only increased the determi­ manner that industry lobbies had sa,·­ the GOP contest were Republican, nation of core Republicans to vote aged the Clinton-Gore health plan and Bush carried these states over­ for Bush. On Tuesday, the religious of 1994 (Gore, in essence, became whelmingly. McCain simply couldn't right cast their vote for Boy George his own version of Harry and win anywhere that the Republicans over McCain by margins ranging Louise), Bradley seemed unable to constituted a clear majority of the from three-to-one to eight-to-one. respond. Independent analysts ga­ Republican voters (well, anywhere lore, from the Urban Institute to except New England, where Repub­ Dollar Bill Conrumer Reportr, were on record licans are the ideological equivalents McCain, at least, can comfort preferring Bradley's plan to Gore's of center-left Democrats anywhere himself with the knowledge that he - it would insure far more of the else). himself provoked his obliteration at uninsured than Gore's, . while The reasons for ~fcCain's con­ the hands of his party base. Poor Bill mainstreaming the poor into univer­ siderable appeal to Democrats and Bradley, on the other hand, fared sally-available programs that weren't independents were legion. He was even worse among hard-core means-tested. Bradley cited none of the onetime hawk who made friends Democrats than McCain did with his defenders, though. opting instead - who made a show of making the Republican right, and these simply to accuse the Veep of lying. friends - with onetime doves. rle Democratic cadres were precisely This was surely true, but it was nei­ made war not just on the cultural the voters that Bradley targeted most ther as good a debating uctic or as rightwing of Pat Robertson and of all. From the day he first inti­ effective a way to run for president Jerry Falwell but on the economic mated he was thinking of seeking the as a simple comparison of his plan rightwmg of the lfYa// Street Journal presidency, Bradley said his number­ to Gore's. editorial page. His attacks on \V's tax one concern would be to shine a light I Iowever inexpert his campaign, cuts for favoring the rich (38 per­ on American racism. No presiden­ Bradley deserves credit for resur­ cent goes to the wealthiest one per­ tial candidate had ever before de­ recting the notion chat m an era of cent) were every bit as heretical as cried the racial profiling that is com­ surpluses, the government might just his affront to the Christian Right. In­ mon practice among police, or the want to spend resources on fixing deed, I suspect part of McCain's ap­ disproportionate effect that the war problems. Bradley's challenge forced peal to Democrats was that he con­ on drugs has had on non-white com­ Gore to come up with health and firmed their hitherto unvoiced sus­ munities. No mainstream campaign education programs of his O\Vn - picion that reasonable Republicans, since Robert Kennedy's has ever ex­ relatively modest efforts, but at l~st freed from the confines of party dis­ hibited such a strong preferential a clear alternative to the policy of cipline, didn't really believe all that option for the poor, with its call for returning the surplus to wealthy tax­ stuff they voted for, and didn't even linking increases in the minimum payers, or using it all to pay down want to associate wlth those wage to those in the median wage, the debt. And during the week be­ rightwing movement types who nor­ and for establishing universal health fore the California primary, state leg­ mally surrounded them. Left to their insurance. islators representing heavily Latino own devices, serious Republicans And few mainstream Demo­ and immigrant districts, where the would hang with liberal reporters cratic campaigns have ever fared rate of medical uninsurance ex­ and end up as tribunes for modera­ quite so poorly among the poor and ceeded 50 percent, held hearings to tion. non-white. One Bradley problem shape a state health insurance pro­ In hindsight, the amount of was that Black America rematns gram that looked suspiciously like wishful thinking that went into the fiercely loyal to Bill Clinton, and was Bradley's. Like most Democratic McCain phenomenon - on the part not about to vote for anyone but his pols in California, they had endorsed of both the campaign and its Veep. Bradley lost to Gore among Gore nearly eight months earlier, but Democratic supporters -was stag­ African-American voters by margins when it came to how to address gering. No presidential campaign can of six-and-seven-to-one; in Geor­ their constituents' most glaring prob­ prevail that flatly rejects its party's gia, it was a breathtaking 11-to-one. lems. ther were Bradleyites. core program, let alone that insults Similarly, the poorer the Democratic The Bradley Problem, ultimately, the party's activist cadres. McCain's voter, the more likely he or she was was that he wasn't ftl.Uch of a only chance, coming off his Michi­ to vote for Al Gore; in every single Bradleyite himself. At a typical Bra­ gan upset, would have been to find state, Bradley ran strongest among dley campus rally, Cornel \X'est and some way to appeal more directly voters with incomes in excess of Senator Paul Wellstone would \\'Ork to the Republican base. Problem $100,000. the crowd to a fever pitch. then Bra­ was, the Republican base already had Bradley also proved to be a dley would come on and immedi­ a candidate, and almost everything hugely underwhelming candidate. As ately cool them down. One of the page 6 • Democratic Left • Spring-Summer 2000 lines he used on the stump to ex­ Solis clobbered Martinez by a alliance will be tested, and on occa­ press the sentiment that this new era breathtaking 69 percent-to-31 per­ sion disassembled, in the course of of Surplus politics created a major cent margin. the year. opportunity to remedy social ills was To be sure, the L.A. County Fed The challenge facing labor sup­ Hillel's third question: If not now, is the most adept and battle-tested porters of Al Gore is that there are when? But after covering Bradley union pol1ttcal apparatus of the really two Al Gores. Confronted throughout his campaign, I wonder Sweeney era. Labor was crucially with conflicting positions that divide if the more germane question for helpful on a national level to Gore's New Democrats from Old, the Vice­ the candid:tte isn't Hillel's first: If I nomination, as well. That labor President at times seems unable to am not for mvself, who shall be for could almost by itself put Gore over fuse the elements of both into a dis­ me? • the top in the Iowa caucus was no tinct third way, but rather shuttles surprise. In sparscly-umonized New back and forth between contradic­ Labor Hampshire, however, unions deliv­ tory postures. The split in Gore, ered hundreds of out-of-state vol­ moreover, ts mirrored by a split in Bradley also declined to offer a unteers; about half of Gore's his campaign. Intellectually - as fair-trade alternative for Democrats in general and unionists m particular ground troops were union activists, personified by his policy operatives and his percentage among umon Elaine Kamarck, Bruce Reed and who opposed the .Administration's household voters in the exit polls was William Galston - his campaign is free-trade policies, who doubted New Democrat all the way. Politi­ that NAFTA and Past-Track and 62 percent. Insofar as he dispatched Bill Bradley by a four-point margin, cally - as personified by his cam­ China's admission to the WTO the union support was critical. paign manager, former Congres­ pointed the way to a more just glo­ In essence, New I Iampshire saw sional Black Caucus and Rainbow bal economy. When a plausible fair­ the mobiltzation of the Democrats' Coalition staffer, Donna Brazile - trade candidate is available, labor is two key campaign-worker constitu­ his campaign is inclined toward and beginning to show that it will move even invested in the core Democratic heaven-and earth on that candidate's encies - labor and students - on behalf of Gore and Bradley respec­ constituency groups. behalf. In the only really notable If Democratic congressional primary tlvely. Not surpr1S1ngly, perhaps, the triangulation seems harder for the Veep than for the Pres, it may of this spring, labor provided key spint of Seattle - Teamsters and support to California State Senator Turtles Together At Last - lapped be because Gore is more deeply Hilda Soli!;, a labor-progress1ve who over into the streets of Nashua and rooted than Clinton in both sides of Manchester. As Bradley and Gore the divide. Intellectually a creature of unseated 18-year Democratic con­ gressman Marty Marlinez in the San volunteers walked the same blocks the DLC, Gore is at the same time Gabriel Valier. Martlnez was a cos­ or held placards at the same inter­ politically a creature of the Beltway mically lackl~ster pol who was the sections during the campaign's final Democratic Party-which first and only Democratic member from week, I noticed several instances foremost means labor. California to oppose background where they put aside their candidate Throughout the Clinton presi­ checks on purchasers at gun shows, disagreements to affirm a common dency, Gore has frequently played a but what infuriated labor was his sentiment that when it came to trade center-right role on matters of eco­ decision to give hts support to the each of thetr candidates wa~ nomic policy. As is well-known, he Administration's fast-track trade pro­ godawful. On the one issue most di­ counseled Clinton in 1996 to sign the posal a few years back in return for viding the Democrats in 2000, that Republican bill ending welfare. He White House backing for a freeway of the nature of the globalized was also a deficit hawk right from extension. "Labor has said for half economy, the fundamental dividing the start, in the 1993 policy debate that set the course for the a decade, at least, that center-right line in the Democratic Party, so to speak, 1s horizontal rather than ver­ Administration's fiscal conservatism. politics is not something that the tical. \X.1thin the party's acuvist base, He is now, apparently, a debt-retire­ Democrats should put up with," support for a mtxed global ment hawk as well, telling the Wall L.A. County Labor Federation po­ economy is pervasive. At the level Street Journal 1n a January interview litical director Fabien Nunez told me of the presidential candidates, it was that the federal budget should stay on election night, "but this is one of invisible. in balance even during a recession, a very few instances where we've that "just as a corporation has to cut made that rhetoric into a reality." expenses as revenues fall off... [a Though Utllons almost never back a Triangulate downturn] should be viewed as an challenger to a fair- to middling And yet, electing Al Gore is opportunity to push that change Democratic incumbent like labor's number-one priority for [eliminating middle managers from Marunez, they identified 15,000 Solis 2000, even if defeating China's en­ the government] further before any supporters among their members try into the \XTO 1s number-two. other options are considered." (Th.is within the district. On clecuon day, This means that the Teamster-Turtle

Spring-Summer 2000 • DcmocraticLcft • page 7 trashing of Keynesianism was too was trailing by a 70-to-21 percent in the workplace, and took them much even for John McCain to bear; margin; he helped raise money for around to meetings of the Demo­ told of Gore's comments, he re­ the opposition effort. When L.A. cratic congressional delegation, or to sponded: "One of the options to County Supervisor Gloria Molina, meet with candidates in their own stimulate the economy is to make in­ who is Vice-Chair of the Demo­ states. And wherever Al Gore went vestments, and that may entail defi­ cratic National Committee, was re­ to talk to a union, the rule was, have cit spending.") On macro-econom­ luctant to establish the public author­ him meet with the workers. Let him ics, Gore seems to have moved be­ ity reguired to grant collective bar­ sec what they're going through. yond the fiscal austerity of such DLC gaining rights to L.A.'s 74,000 home In his speeches to unions, Gore paladins as Al From, and not because care workers - a campaign SEIU now routinely brings to the podium there's any notable political pressure had been working on for 12 years the workers he's met, and tells their in the land for debt retirement as the - Gore called Molina at least twice stories. He goes on to say that orga­ north star of public policy. Left to to suggest she might re-think her po­ nizing 1s a basic American right, and his own devices, Gore is becoming sition. (She did.) He leaned on the that as president he'd strengthen it our first Andrew Mellon Democrat. Defense Department to break off - though he gets no more specific Gore was hardly a Lribune for its contract with Avondale Shipyards, than to say that he'd fa,·or tncreas­ labor issues either in the early years the New Orleans facility that refused ing the penalties on employers who of the Clinton White House. With for half-a-decade to negotiate with find it cheaper to ,·iolate the terms Mack McLarty, he was a champion the union its workers had voted in. of the National Labor Relations Act of extending NAFfA to all of Latin Gore even phoned major property­ than to grant their workers a raise. America. Depending on whom you owner associates who owned build­ Gore even goes so far as to discuss talk to, he was either an outright op­ ings where janitors were attempting the right to unionize in speeches de­ ponent or a lukewarm advocate of to win union recognition, and sug­ livered to groups other than unions, the minimum wage hike of 1996 gested he'd help facilitate negotia­ though that is still more the excep­ when it first surfaced m White House tions. The list goes on. tion than the norm. deliberations in 1995. People who worked with Gore And yet-Gore was the unions' Right to Organize in the administration differ on Gore's go-to guy in the White House. In one very significant particu­ about-face on labor issues. "I believe "\Vhenever the Clinton Administra­ lar, though, Gore ·has managed to Gore's conversion on labor gues­ tion got really bad on specific union fuse policy and politics in a distinctly tions is relatively sincere," one former issues," says one former AFL-CIO pro-union way. In what is probably high-ranking administration official official, "you went to Gore. He had the most surprising twist of his ca­ says, "but it's a sincerity born of ne­ a political sense of the need to ac­ reer, Al Gore over the past half-de­ cessity. He was suspicious of labor; commodate labor. He has a better cade has become the nation's fore­ they hated him; but over time they sense of the institutional relationship most champion of workers' right to came to see that they needed each other - an archetypal co-dependent of labor to the Democratic Party organize. than Clinton's ever had." The change here began not with relationship." In the end, unions are counting Gore spent the first six years of Gore but John Sweeney, and his own his vice-presidency assuming that his reinvention of the labor movement. on being able to do business with the Political-not the Intellectual­ most likely primary opponent in Unions' involvement in politics, said Al Gore. "Gore understands poli­ 2000 would be Dick Gephardt, Sweeney from the first day he be­ tics the way many labor leaders do," whose claim on labor's allegiance came federation president, was says one Washington-based political might well have trumped his own. chiefly a means to help organizing consultant who works with a num­ And as he saw labor in the Sweeney drives, to create a better climate for ber of unions and Democratic era was turning itself into the one the movement to reverse the decline elected officials. "Their world is one truly effective operation in Ameri­ of four decades. Elected officials where one performs favors and ex­ can electoral politics, Gore concluded who got labor support would in turn pects favors in return. Gore will in­ that ingratiating himself to the unions be expected to support unions in was a matter of utmost urgency. struggle. The unspoken corollary furiate labor periodically," as he has done on the recent Permanent Nor­ That meant that when a union was that the person who got labor's needed help, in public policy or in support for president would be ex­ mal Relations with China -bill, "and the brave new world of organizing, pected to support unions in struggle Labor knows what those issues ""ill Al Gore, like Tom J oad, would be more than anyone else. be. But unions have a sense that this there. Ile campaigned against And so the federation began to guy will play ball with them." California's Proposition 226, the ini­ bring workers who'd been fired for tiative that would have defunded daring to organize, or harassed by Nader? unions' political programs, when it supervisors, or denied basic rights For those on the left who don't page 8 • Democratic Left • S pring-Summer 2000 envision Gore showing up at their the reporter felt compelled to press paign finance reform proposal is ball games, there looms the gaunt on, "But what about African-Ameri­ that it doesn't include a provision like and angry figure of Ralph Nader - can reparations?" she asked, as if California's Proposition 226, which candidate, again, of the Green Party, Nader had perhaps not heard her. threatened to greatly diminish unions' and this time, pledging to actually But heard her he had, since he nod­ ability to intervene in elections. wage a campaign. Nader's no kid: ded and continued on in exactly the Should Bush win, particularly if the he's 66, his hair flecked with gray, his same vein. In a sense, Nader is al­ Republicans hold on to Congress, face lined, his indignation unabated. most a parody of the stereotype of unions expect - correctly, I believe If he had'any flair for the dramatic, the ultra-univetsalist old leftist who - that the most serious initiatives he'd take on a prophetic air. But subsumes every issue under the ban­ undertaken by the new Administra­ Nader remains the most relentlessly ner of class (and, in Nader's case, tion will be to weaken unions at ev­ undramatic figure on the left. On the the torts system). ery turn. As one former AFL-CIO stump, he speaks of the Democtatic­ Ultimately, however, the key fac­ senior staffer notes of the Republican "duopoly," for public tor for the left in determining its po­ Federation's endorsement of the funding of campaigns, for free me­ sition 1n campaign 2000 is less Veep, "This isn't about what Gore dia access to candidates, for a fair­ Nader's imperfections, and more the can do for us. This is about, 'We're trade rather than a free-trade global strategic importance of keeping W in a world of shit if we lose the economy. Still, he is ever the careful out of the \White House. Gore, White House and don't win back the lawyer sticking to his brief. On his surely, will be better than W on a House.'" initial campaign swing through Los range of economic and social issues; And so it is, for instance, that the Angeles, one reporter from a local though on many of those issues, he labor-enviro alliance of Seattle African-American newspaper asked will be anything but progressive. The won't be nearly as visible at this him about his views on reparations most night-and-day difference be­ summer's Democratic Convention in for African-Americans. Nader didn't tween the two comes on the labor Los Angeles. Unions are the linch­ pause, as another speaker might question. The differences hete are pin of the anti-China/WTO coali­ have, to acknowledge the specific sins magnified because the strategic im­ tion, but they won't be found pick­ of slavery, or the specific plight of portance of unions in American poli­ eting, let alone attempting to shut American blacks today, before dis­ tics has increased almost exponen­ down, Al Gore's Big Show. They see missing the idea as divisive and im­ tially since Joho Sweeney took the their own fortunes so closely linked practicable. Instead, he told her that helm at the AFL-CIO in 1995. It's to Gore's as to make any such ac­ he favored bringing corporations to the unions that have brought the tion preposterous. heel in the courts, publicly funding Democrats back to brink of retak­ For progressives - who over community organizations, making ing Congressional power; and it's the the past half-decade have seen a re­ sure that no one's right to sue was unions that Republican strategists surgent union movement become abrogated. Nothing in !us answer re­ view as GOP Enemy Number-One. the primary advocate for economic ferred in the slightest to any distinctly The reason that Bush most frequently equality, for organizing the poor, for African-American concern as such; gives for opposmg McCain's cam- defending workers throughout the world, and for reviving American liberalism - tl1e thought of a full­ blown governmental assault on la­ We all know that the benefits of the bor should be a sobering one. We run up in the stock market over the don't have to ignore Ralph Nader's last three years have gone mainly to many merits or Al Gore's manifest the very richest Americans. But flaws to conclude that a Gore vic­ some of our members, who are tory is crucial for the continued pros­ sadly not among the very richest pects of progressivism in America. Americans, have benefited from the run up and have shared their gains Harold Mryerson is the Executive with DSA or our tax exempt arm, the Editor of the L.A. Weekly and a DSA Fund. We do accept gifts of Vice-Chair of DSA. Portions of this stocks, bonds, and property. Donat­ article appeared in different form in ing in this way sometimes offers the L.A. Weekly and giver additional tax benefits. If you The American Prospect. would like to make such a special gift, please write directly to DSA's National Director, Horace Small.

Spring-Summer 2000 • DemocraticLeft • page 9 RU Ready 4 R2I

he Republicans coming to the Convention - Moncby,July 31. provide media training for activists in Philadelphia this summer for Many other events, both con­ press release preparation, interview­ their National Convention nected to and outside of the R2K's ing and speaking skills, media produc­ TOuly 31-August 4) are expecting all the Unity 2000 umbrella, arc sure to take tion techniques. In addition, the IMC spotlights to be on them as they place during the week. To get the will engage tn media criticism and "pick" their next presidential con­ news out as these events happen, and advocate for democratic media. Ide­ tender. But if the R2K network has to coordinate information before­ ally, the IMC will continue as a pro­ its way, the Convention won't be the hand, the coalition has formed the In- gressive media hub after the Republi- only Philadelphia can Convention. event in the media One hurdle that or­ limelight. Since last ganizers of all the summer, representa­ marches face is the city tives of various of Pbtladelphia's offer to groups, convened by Republicans first right of the Pennsylvania Con­ refusal over the use of sumer Action Net­ every public space of any work (PCAN), have consequence in Philadel­ been meeting to plan phia. The city's position a progressive response was unacceptable to the to the arrival of the R2K Network. So vari­ Republicans. Known ous organizations, assisted as the R2K Network, hr the Philadelphia the group has been ACLU, took the ctty to elaborating plans to court and ha,·e now take advantage of the reached an accommoda­ media presence sur­ tion "vith the City so that rounding the Conven­ we can demonstrate and t10n to get progres­ dissent in public. sive messages out to The list of endors­ the country. ers for the Unity 2000 Activities already March already includes planned include: many state and interna­ March for Uni­ tional organizations, 10- .. versal Health Care: cluding DSA. The DSA This is betng coordi­ National Steering Com- nated by the Philadcl- Phi/a: Keynote speakers. mittee recently voted to p.hia Ad Hoc Com­ endorse both the Unity mittee to Defend Health Care and will dependent Media Center of Philadel­ 2000 March and the March for Uni­ take place on Saturday, July 29. phia, a non-profit organization that versal Health Care. Unity 2000 Rally and March: Thh will create an actual multi-issue, multi-constituency rally is media center s11ni­ being planned by a still growing coa lar to that in Seattle, For R2K general info and action alerts, send an email to: philly2000-subscribe@listbotcom lition. Labor, environmentalists, ferru with HS comprehen­ nists, LGBTQ groups, anti-racism sive website, a cen­ For discussion of July 30 send an email to: activists and others will be joining in tralized production july30·[email protected] to call for a different direction for the and dtstribution For info about the media center, send an email to: country. It \vill take place on Sunday, operation, daily [email protected] July 30 newspaper (Blind There is also a website at http:l/www.unity2000.com. March for Economic Justice: Spo~, and video fa­ Called by the Kenstngton Welfare cilities. Rights Union, this event will follow The Center \vill Another group is beginning to plan actions around the up on the themes of its ongoing Cam­ facilitate exchange Democratic Convention in Los Angeles in August For further paign for Economtc Human Rights. between activists information about these activities, contact (323) 660-3249 {voice); (323) 292-7405 {fax); or [email protected] It will comcide with the first day of and 1ournalists, and

page 10 • Democratic Left • Spring-Summer 2000 Democratic Left Pnmer IMF and the World Bank

BY KAT HY Q UINN . n November 1999, tens of thou­ of 1\llied countries met in Bretton handful of countries really control the sands of people converged on \X'oods, New 1 Iampshire, to create IMF. I Seattle to protest the undemo­ international institutions that would In practice, the influence of the cratic procedures and decisions of the encourage free trade among nations US and like-minded countries over the World Trade Organization. Anger and arnid the beggar-thy-neighbor IMF has meant that its activities have over the effects of a globalization protectionism of the Great Depres­ been geared towards the interests of process geared towards the interests sion. The It\fF was one of these insti­ Northern-based transnational corpo­ of large transnational corporations, tutions, its major mission being en­ rations. In exchange for assistance, the finally erupted into a major US pro­ forcement of fixed system of cur­ IMF requires developing countries to test. Yet the \X'fO has existed only rency exchange rates based on the gold adopt "structural adjustment policies" since 1995. Another undemocratic standard. This fell by the wayside in (SAPs) that usually include cutting international organization, which was 1970 when the Nixon admi1ustration, government spending; keeping wages founded over SO years ago, has been under pressure from Vietnam-era low; privatization and deregulation; wreaking havoc upon econo1rties balance-of-payments deficits, unilater­ eliminating trade barriers and restric­ around the world for the past two ally abandoned the rLxcd exchange tions on foreign investors; devaluing decades - causing massive unem­ system and declared that the US the currency; and raising interest rates. ployment and impoverishment; con­ would no longer redeem dollars with These measures are supposed to lay tributing to environmental degrada­ gold. Since that time, the 11\.fF's pri­ the basis for sustainable growth. In tion; encouraging the transfer of mary function has been lending fact, they simply encourage produc­ wealth from poor to rich; and exac­ money to developing nations and tion for export instead of internal erbating ethnic and racial conflicts. former Eastern-bloc countries that development and produce favorable 'lbat organization is the International have difficulty meeting their interna­ conditions for foreign investors and Monetary Fund. tional payment obligations. The IMF's lenders Most J\mericans don't know loan authority is supposed to help much about the IMF, despite the fact keep countries who arc in trouble Debt Crisis that the US has been the major player from resorting to trade and invest­ During the 1950s and 60s, when in the organization since its founding. ment restrictions. developing countries were experienc­ This ignorance is partly because the ing extraordinary growth, most na­ workings of the IMI\ like those of Votes tions were not intereste

Spring-S u mmer 20 0 0 • D e m ocr a ti c L eft • p a ge 11 ployment - caused Paul Volcker, the new chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, to put the brakes on the US economy by raising interest rates sharply. By 1981 the US and the rest of the world were 1fl a major re­ cession. Suddenly, most of the developing world found itself with massive debts at interest rates that, in the ab­ sence of inflation, were ex­ tremely high ..\t the same time, the worldwide reces­ sion sent the prices of basic commodities, the major ex­ ports of many developing countries, to bargain base­ ment levels. With their huge debts and decreased in­ comes, developing countries were no longer attractive targets for commercial DS.rlm at April 16 demonstratio11111 lFa.-hi1{gto11, DC lenders. Unable to get fur- ther credit, and unable to make the ta nee four times since 197 6, each aid dependency in the developing world interest payments on their outstand­ package larger than the last. Each time by preferring projects geared towards ing loans, even large economies such the IMF's prescription has been more export tndustries, a policy that only as Brazil and Mexico were threaten­ of the same; each time povcrty has increased the reliance of the develop­ ing to default on their debts. Enter intensified in Mexico. In fact, although ing world on trade relations with the theIME the Zapatista uprising in 1994 has usu­ industrialized countries of the North. In exchange for the adoption by ally been associated with NAFTA, the It was also criticized for funding en­ debtor countries of SAPs, the IMF devastating effects of long-term vironmentally desttucuve pro1ects such promised direct short-term loans and "structural adjustment" were an im­ as huge hydroelectric dams, criticisms also arranged new lines of credit from portant source of the unrest. that continue today. commercial sources. Paced with the Under the leadership of Robert alternative of defaults that would ef­ World Bank McNamara, president from 1968 to fectively cut off essential imports, Another international institution 1981, the Bank shifted policy towards human development and the provi­ many countries entered mto SAP shares the responsibility for the results agreements. The immediate results of these policies: the International sion of baste human needs. This policy proved difficult to sustain, however, were usually widespread unemploy­ Bank for Reconstruction and Devel­ ment and falling living standards. opment, or World Bank. The World since the loans given by the Bank, as Forced cut-offs of government food, Bank was also conceived in 1944 as well as those from the IMF and inter­ national commercial lenders, eventu­ transport and housing brought wide part of the Bretton Woods system, ally came due, and programs provid­ spread unrest. Riots broke out in sev­ and at first focused on aiding in the eral African and Latin American reconstruction of war-torn Europe ing education, health care, etc., did not countries. Countries often ignored - for which it proved to be totally earn the foreign currency necessary to parts of their agreements in the face inadequate. Like the IMF, the World pay back these loans. By the urne of of public uproar. Bank turned its attention pnmarily to the Eighties debt crisis, with But the IMF would have many the developing countries, where it was McNamara out as head of the World other opportunities to put on the pres­ supposed to give longer-term assis­ Bank, and Reagan-Thatcherism at its sure, because SAPs did not work as tance that would help countries reach height, the World Bank joined with advertised. Even countries that the pomtwhcre they would be capable the IMF in enforcing structural adjust­ seemed to be making progress kept of independent economic develop- ment programs as conditions for aid. falling back into trouble and needing ment. The Bank also began to give shorter­ further aid. Mexico, a prime example, From the 1960s on, the World term aid which, like much of the aid has needed large-scale financial assis- Bank was criticized for perpetuating from the IMF, went for interest pay- p age 12 • D emocratic L e f t • Spring -Su m m e r 2000 ments to international commercial of IMF policies were uniformly good backdrop of hardships that crippled banks. And, finally, the Bank again for the capitalist system, it is unlikely the Yugoslavian economy. Warfare focused on projects geared towards that they would be concerned about traceable to the IMF probably goes exports, especially exploitation of moral hazard. I Iowcver, the obvious beyond Yugoslavia: almost all of the natural resources and the use of low­ failure of IMF policies has begun to countries of sub-Saharan Africa, wage workers. threaten the stability of the world many of which are currently involved economy. Feulner summed up the re­ in warfare, have been subjected to the Moral Hazard sults of IMF loans: ministrations of the IMF For a decade, the structural ad­ Of the 89 less-developed countries justment policies of the IMF and the that received IMF loans between 1965 Solutions \Vorld Bank seemed to serve the pur­ and 1995, 48 are no better off eco­ What can be done about the IMF? nomically today than they were be­ poses of Northern elites. According A commission appointed by the US fore receiving I1ff loans. Of these 48 to Jerome Levinson, a former offi­ Congress has recently called for ma­ cial of the Inter-American Develop­ countries, 32 are poorer ... ; and of jor reforms in I.MF policies, includ­ ment Bank, "It has been calculated these 32 countries, 14 have economies ing large-scale debt forgiveness. But between 1984 and 1990 'developing' that arc at least 15 percent smaller than it is questionable whether an institu­ when they received their first IMF countries operating under SAPs trans­ tion structured as undemocratically as ferred $178 billion to Western com­ loans. the IMF can be reformed so that it For those Northern firms en­ mercial banks ...." Low wages were serves the interests of developing welcomed by transnationals, which gaged in exporting to the developing countries instead of the interests of '"·orld, this is a dangerous situation. not only benefited directly by shifting the Northern governments and the As the economies of these countries operations to these countries, but also transnational corporations that have contract, the benefits of IMF loans used the situation to put pressure on so much influence over them. Assis­ go more and more only to the bank­ the working classes of their own tance to developing countries needs countries by the threat of plant relo­ ing and financial sectors, since most to be funneled through democratically cation. At the same time, privatization, of the money goes to make loan pay­ constituted international organizations, ments rather than to pay for exports the removal of trade barriers, and the or at least through responsive inter­ or make other investments. As Feulner elimination of investment restrictions national non-governmental organiza­ opened up an array of commercial put it, "IMF bailouts aid international tions free from corporate interference. opportunities for transnationals. investors, well-heeled domestic busi­ Aid also needs to be in the form of nessmen, and others with connections Nevertheless, since the Mexican grants and not in the form of loans to the ruling party." recovery package of the mid-1990s that, no matter how low the interest the IMF has come under attack from As bad as the results of IMF poli­ rates, dig countries deeper into debt the right. In April 1998, Edwin cies are in terms of human poverty and force them to focus on export Feulner, president of the conservative and misery, the results can be even industries in order to earn the foreign more deadly. There is a great deal of Heritage Foundation, testified unsuc­ currency needed for repayment. Fi­ evidence that the social upheavals cessfully before the US Congress nally, prior loans must be immecliately against an increase in the US's IMF caused by these policies are contrib­ forgiven, as urged by the Jubilee 2000 quota. The right argues that the IMF's uting to, if not setting off, ethnic and movement, so that developing coun­ ever longer-term and ever larger loans racial conflicts. Several analysts, such tries can be relieved of the huge bur­ as economist Criton Zoakos, Cana­ distort the market by creating a den of debt service they now bear. "moral hazard" - that is, an incen­ dian author Michel Chussodovsky, Such a transfer of resources from and Susan \Voodward, have traced the tive for an economic actor to engage North to South is fully warranted in in "imprudent" behavior. The right conflicts in the former Yugoslavia to view of the history of transfers of the structural changes imposed by contends that IMF low-interest loans natural and financial resources in the Western creditors, led by the IMF. t~ countries in danger of default en­ other direction. Only then could these Under this restructuring, which forced courage private lenders to make riskier countries begin to focus on the needs the closing of hundreds of public loans than they would otherwise con­ of their citizens and build healthy eco­ enterprises, currency devaluations and sider. Countries, on the other hand, nomic actors that could become true wage freezes, the standard of living may take out loans more readily, rely­ trade partners instead of subjects of in Yugoslavia fell by 40 percent be­ ing on IMF aid if they have repay­ exploitation. tween 1982 and 1989, while ment problems. Yugoslavia's external debt stayed al­ Conservatives like Feulner cer­ Katlry Quinn is a member ofthe National most the same. In the first six months tainly don't disagree with many IMF Political Committee of DSA and is on of 1990, real wages dropped by 41 prescriptions such as low wages, the executive committee of percent. The ethnic conflicts that de­ privatization and encouragement of Greater Philadelphia DSA. veloped have to be seen against the foreign investment; and, if the effects

Spring-Summer 2000 • DemocraticLeft • page 13 Labor Fights Corporate Globalization Mark Levinson Talks to Joe Schwartz

erhaps more than atry other 1111ion in the United States and }tut after the Spri11gprotests in Washington, D.C, against the P Canada, UNITE (Union of Needletrades, I11d11strial, and IMF and iPorld Bank, and in the midst of the fight against grant­ Textile Emplqyees) is involved in the strny/e against exploitative, ing China permanent normal trade rehlions, DSA National Po­ low-wage production both at home and abroad Th~ have played a litical Committee and DL editorial L"Ommillee member Joseph leading role in building international solidarity among unions inter­ Schwartz sat down with ""fark Levinson, long-time DSAer and national!; and b1tildi11g coalitions between trade 1mionisls, env1ro11· senior economut for UNITE, to discuss the politia and strategy of mentalists, students, women} and indigenous people} groups fighting the emerging international movement for global;iutice. low-wage industrial production around the globe.

DL· Tens of thousands of stl(dent, envi­ tect corporate interests and ignore the ML: We have to realize that in de­ ronmental, and labor activists protested the interests of labor and the environ­ veloping countries there are differ­ policies of the International Monetary Fund ment. This is as true of the WTO as ent political interests, just as there are (IMF) and World Bank in Washington, it is of the World Bank and IMF. in the United States and other mdus­ D.C. How are the policies of these instil1t­ After the WTO Seattle protests, tnal nations. Those leaders were not tions detrimental to the interest.f of both there was an attempt by conserva­ speaking for the interests of work­ people in the developing world and advanced tive commen ta tors to drive a wedge ers m their nations. At the labor rally industrial societies? • between workers in the industrialized in Seattle, worker representatives countries and workers in the devel­ from Mexico, the Caribbean, Malay­ M L: Both the IMF and World Bank oping world. For example, Paul sia, Africa, and China all spoke in demand "structural adjustments" as Krugman, in the l\ew York Times, support of including labor rights in a condition of their loans. These poli­ wrote, "it is a sad irony that the cause the wro and were enthusiastically cies promote privatization, cuts in that has finally awakened the long received. It is hard to find other ex­ corporate taxes, balanced budget dormant 1\mcrican left is that of - amples of this type of intcrnauonal austerity, and gutting of the social yes!- denying opportunity to Third solidarity. But I think it grows Jirectly safety net, cripple econonuc growth, World workers." For anyone who is from the realities of the global hinder economic development, and serious about developing an alterna­ economy, in which working people increase misery and poverty in the tive to the \VfO, this is a serious chal­ in all parts of the world are put into developing world. Labor and oth­ lenge. The danger here is that the two competition with each other in a ers affected by these policies have had major constituencies who are critics race-to· the-bottom. no say in their implementation. of the existing global system - the 'lbe countries losing out from in­ trade union movement of the ad­ crcasmgly bitter competition for a DL Last November, both you and your vanced industrial democracies and share of the global marketplace are union joined overfifty thousand people pro­ the Non-Governmental Organiza­ the developing countries which are testing the current .ftmcture of the World tions and the workers of the South striving to improve living and work­ Trade Organization (WTO). How do you - will be pitted against one another. ing conditions. Thus, the workers m the stmggle against the IVTO, relating If we allow this to happen, it will ·who arc most affected by India's fail­ to the fight to ,.,-eate democratic alterna­ disenfranchise both groups. It is ex­ ure to address child labor m its car­ tives to the IMF and IPor/d Bank? tremely important that critics of the pet sector arc the exporters in Nepal ML: The struggle against the prac­ \VfO in industrial nations build alli­ who are str1vtng to make carpets tices of the IMF and World Bank, ances and find common ground with under good working condittons. on the one hand, and the wro on unions and human rights acuv1sts in Those most affected by the suppres­ the other, arc linked 111 that these in­ the developing countries to make the sion of trade unton rights in stitutions all set the rules for the wro more accountable, transparent, Indonesia's coal mtnes arc the coal economy., For example, the WTO and supportive of worker rights and mtners in India whose strhng trade protects intellectual property rights environmental protections. unions obtain decent wages for them and patent rights, yet ts completely which are then undercut by imports silent on labor rights and environ­ D L flow do you mpond lo "leaders" of of Indonesian coal. The entire de­ mental standards. These international developing countries who in Sea/lie opposed veloping world suffers from China's economic institutions are all involved mc/1aion of worker rights in the IVTO violauon of all the core labor stan­ in setting the rules for the global framework? dards, enabling it to act a::. a magnet economy. Currently these rules pro- for transnational corporations to page 14 • D e mocra tic L e ft • Spring - Summer 2000 to be democratized and fundamen­ ciation, the right to collective bargain­ tally change their response to eco­ ing, the abolition of forced and child nomic crises. Currently, it is the most labor. vulnerable who bare the burden of "adjustment" to current global eco­ DL· S omc might say that the fight for "la­ nomic imbalances. That n1ust bor rights" is too narrow!y Jocu.red on the change. Right now, to rectify trade interests of the alreatfy organized, those cur­ deficits in the deYcloping world, the rent members of trade unions. !11 what way I:tvfl' and World Bank require mas­ are· mch imres in the interest of the vast sive cuts m social welfare expendi­ mqjoriry? ture, exports at all costs, and sertous ML: curtailment of domestic consump­ Labor rights are not the solu­ tion to all of our global economic tion. 111cse "adjustments" all come problems, but are a necessary pre­ at the expense of the most vulner­ conctition to end the brutal race-to­ able in the developing world. A truly the-bottom of the global economy. democratic international economic There is considerable evidence that order woul

Spring-Summer 2000 • Dem ocraticLeft • p age 15 transnational corporate investment in lo prwenl rnch fear; from becoming a real- ment r~ther t~an demanding that China will be protected by WTO 1ry? dev~opmg nauons gut their levels of rules. And, of course, as of now, ML: We've been clear from the be­ public provision, privatize, balance ~here are no labor rights components their budget, and warp their tn the \VfO. ~g that the issue in this campaign ts support of economic globalization ec?nomy towards primarily export­ Puttingprcss~re on China to sup­ which benefits workers or operates ortent~d production to get their pay­ port labo.r rtgh~s ts crucial to support ments tn balance. workers tn Chma, hundreds of mil­ for the benefit of corporations and lions of whom arc terribly exploited narrow elites. I think the trade union movement, with few exceptions un­ DL Beside; being a trade 11mon re;ean·her - and thousands of whom have a~d J/rategist,)'Oll i•e been an open and a,:­ been tmprisoncd for trying to form derstands that we need to diake common cause with workers around ltve democratic ;ocialiJIfor your entire adlllt mdepen~ent unions. This struggle is the world. If we don't do that there life. }011 helped fo11nd the DSOC Yo11th also crucial to the fate of millions of S ectio11 in 19 7 7, and ;erved on the NPC workers around the world who must will never be an alternative to the cor­ porate global agenda. That means from 1981-1993. }011 are a/Jo a11 editor compete with workers in China who ef1?i~scnt. /1 there m1.)'lhing 11mq11e that arc denied the most basic human and that the US trade union movement should support increased market ac­ s~ctalut; - and democrafif socialist par· labor rights. There has been a tremen­ !tu and organizatio11; - bring to the dous amount of spontaneous labor cess for countries that do respect worker rights. ;trnggle for global j11slirt? ~nres~ in. China, in response to the inegalitarian economic reforms. The ML: The socialist movement has al­ Chinese government has zero toler­ DL· A standard criticism of the left is ways stressed the need for demo­ ance for independent trade union or­ that we know_ what we oppou, bJ1t we fail ~atic structural change. We need it to efftr feasible alternatives. Co11/d yo11 10 ~nization o.r activity; even attempt­ the US and also in the global ing to organtze a unton will land one sketch o11t what a demo,ratfr alternative economy. What Mike I Iarrington with a lengthy prison term and put reg11latory mechamlm for governing the in­ taught me was that one had to con­ ?ne's life in danger. The world trad­ lm1ational econonry wo111d look like? nect .the lon.g:run vi!'ion to today's ing system !'imply can't tolerate these ML: First of all, we need a global practical poliucs. \Ve need to under­ stand the type of global institutions kinds of abuses. · t~ading system in which representa­ tives of workers have an influential we want so we can fashion immedi­ 01-· lV'hal does thu mean for the corpo­ seat at the table and in which labor ate reforms that move us in that di­ rection. Even though any given re­ rate global agenda? right~ are as important as property and tnvestment rights. More than form by itself may be insufficient co ML: This is exactly what they want: that, we need to construct new achieve global democracy. A social­ a ~uge labor force with no rights, the democrauc international economic ist analytic framework enables one to extstencc of which will be used to see that structural transformation of undercut labor standards around the regulatory institutions which would fulfill Keynes' original vision for the the wo~ld's economic and political world. Remember, this is a country syst~m is what's at stake, not simply of 1.2 billion people, whose futur~ global economy after \\'orld War II. This might mean a radical reform or beating up on bad corporauons. will significantly influence the fate of reconstitution of such institutions as Furthermore, socialists know workers in the entire developing that what is at stake is the distribu­ th~ !l\fl• and World Bank. Keynes' world. tion of power between corporate We all have an interest in Chinese ortginal v1s10? mvolve

BOSTON CHICAGO .Awards dinner was successful. 1t help finance our activities in support of the ost~n DSJ\'s biggest ongoing hicago OSI\ orgamzed members Farm L"lbor O rganizing Committee project ts the \X'orking Family and friends to participate in the B C (\f-L-CIO) in their boycott of Mt. Agenda, a state-wide coalition effort April IMF-WB demonstrations in Olive Pickle Co. to nuse the minimum wage - which Washington. Chicago is one of the The local continues to build a liv­ passed the State I louse with help from cities around the country where fol­ ing wage coalition, and sponsor an­ low up demonstrations arc scheduled. nual International \X'omen's Day and A weekend of educational activities May Day events. is also bemg developed. With the We have active members, and Open University of the Left, an in­ monthly meeting attendance averages formal collection of organizations twenty people. Our 1\ctivist Commtt• and indi,·iduals with whom Chicago tee is developing a strategic p lan to DSA has developed a close working enact a Lh·ing \V'age ordinance and relationship. identifying other local struggles in Chicago DSA's large annual Debs-Thomas-I larrington Dinner will gather the city's broad left in one place, for the fortieth year in a CO\\; while our new Queer Commission has been quite acth·e in protesting anti-gay violence in Chicago. Some of this in­ \'olvcs picket Imes outside of busi­ nesses that have a record of tolerat­ ing such beha\1or. The local also raised former Boston DSA Chair, State Rep­ money for the campaign agamst the resentati\'l' Jim Marzilli. Boston DSA Knight initiatfrc in California. also organizes \\ith housing project TI1c Uni\•ersity of Chicago Young activists in Somerville, where our mem­ Democratic Socialists have continued bers go door-to-door, and try to gl'l theJ.r work in the Anti-Sweatshop Coa­ out the vote. In addition. local holds lition. The campaign to get the Uni­ monthly talks on different aspects of versity to adopt a responsible moni­ the global economy, including recent toring process for the goods ll sells presentations with Barry Blues tone on should be coming to a head. The YDS ''\Vall Street vs. Main Street~" a discus­ chapter has also been active in the Stu­ sion of genetic engineering and cor­ dent Labor 1\ction Project, and \Vith porate agriculture; and a meeting on financial assistance from Chicago DSA, "Global \Varrning: the Heat Is On." sent several \'an loads of students to These forums are listed in Boston the YDS Fight Back Conference at the DSA's bi-monthly newsletter, Yankee University of Delaware - and from Radical, which has been regularly pub­ there to the .Apnl 16th demonstrations lished now for over thirty years. in DC. \Vtth some hard work, we may Boston DSA held its annual party sec several new YDS chapters in Chi­ and reception for Cay Councilors it cago by this time next year. has endorsed, and a forum with I....1mi/ Contact: Bob Roman members active 111 unions. In June, (robertmroma11@emth/i11k.net). we will be having a fundr;using din­ ner featuring Bob I Jaynes. Prt•:;ident COLUMBUS/CENTRAL OHIO of the state AFL-CIO, with whom 999 was a good year for Demo­ we frequently work. cratic Socialists of Central Ohio. LJJ('(J/ Conlacl: Harri.r Cmman, 1 Our annual Debs-Thomas-I Iarrington (617-35-1-5078).

Sprin g -Summer 2000 • D e m ocratic L eft • p age 17 which OSCO should be present. We 'The local holds regular bi-monthly emerged from these efforts which has hope to initiate two local demonstra­ membership meetings (open to the become a campus DSA chapter. A key tions this year as a follow-up to the public) \\.1th a speaker on an activist part of our work was to focus on energy unleashed m Seattle and Wash­ tssue in which members can then be­ defeating Proposition 21, the anti­ ington. A main priority in 2000 will come involved. Recent speakers have youth "Juvenile Justice Initiative," and be to increase our complement of ac­ included a Green Party candidate for Proposition 22, an initiative banning tivists and develop a new member City Council; an organizer gt·tting out state legal recognition of gay and les­ education program to provide the the vote m poor communities: and City bian marriages. Our local provided the training and skills people need to be­ Council staff opposed to public fund­ Sacramento area core of the "No on come self-confident activits. ing of stadiums for private teams, an Proposition 21" campaign and ma­ Local Contact: George Boas issue in which a number oflocal mem­ jor contributions to the "No on ([email protected]; bers have been heavily im·olved. Proposition 22" campaigns. Informa­ (614) 297-0710). GP-DSA helped organize an anti­ tion on these campaigns is on the web sweatshop rally outside Banana Re­ site www.dsausa.org/anttracism METRO DETROIT public and at the Gap, on the anni­ \Vhen we take on a campaign, we versary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. try to build a DSA recru'itment plan ecroit DSA ts organizing for elec­ The Philadelphia DSi\ banner, into our work. toral work this summer and fall. D wnh fist-and-rose logo, garnered Local Contact: Duane Campbell, We are coordinating efforts with the CNN camera time during coverage Chair (campd22 [email protected]). state Democratic Party to retake the of the April 16th DC demos. state legislature from the Republicans. Philadelphia DSA co-sponsors SAN DIEGO We consider this effort critical not only the Independent Medta Center of because we have a reactionary gover­ Philadelphia, which recently showed an Diego DSA is involved in two nor who wishes to make Michigan a The Battle in Seal/le, featuring rTIS staff S particularly significant coalitions. right-to-work state, dismantle public organizer Daraka Larimore-J lall as lbe DS1\-inspired \VfO Alert Coa­ education, and prevent meaningful the final speaker/ image in the film. lition, a continuation of the MAI healthcare reform, but also because 150 people attended the screening. J\lert, meets regularly and is drawing the next legislature will determine how GP-DSA has also been instru- increasing numbers of people. We re­ l\.fichigan's Congressional districts are . mental in the recent re-election of cently presented the film Showdown in drawn. Philadelphia's two progressive City Sea/tie in area libranes, and sent sev­ Local Contact: David Green Council members; an anti-sweatshop eral people across the continent to the (DS./ [email protected]). resolution, and a death penalty mora­ IMr/ World Bank demonstrations in torium resolution. Washington, DC. GREATER PHILADELPHIA Lem/ Contact: John l log,m, Co­ Since mid-Pebruary, we have been meeting \vith other Left organi­ •Chair (jho.. ~ 111@ /11111.ptnn. edJ1). hiladelphia DSA played host to zations to talk about building a more P DSA's National Political Commit­ ethnically and racially diverse left in the tee, and staged a reception at the SACRAMENTO VALLEY region. This resulted in a speaker tour AFSCME district council with activ­ acramento DSAers rerumedaimrt. Spring-Summer 2000 • DemocraticLeft • page 19 A De111ocratic Left Interview with DSA National Director Horace Small Playing To Win

L tditorit1I comwiltte mtmbtr Charity Crouu, editor rector Horace Small Horace ha.I been on the job tin,-e late June D of S lreelwiu, "\JPC member, and co-chair of DSA i 1999. I le hat brought energy and enthtffiaim to the job, and has Queer Commiuion, recent!y inttrviewed DS •1 national di- inspired many DSAers aro11nd the country.

DL: IV'hat q11alifiesJ'o11 to lead DSA? been for the better part of 20 years Stan Shapiro [of Greater Philadelphia HS: For me social change is not a job, DSA]. Stan would always give me info it's a lifestyle, and I've been doing it on DSA when I was frustrated with since I was 14 when I co-founded general politics, or material on 1\-fike Students Against the War, a Philadel­ Harrington, or gi\·c me some posi­ phia high-school group and one of w tion papers that had been written. I z the biggest high school anti-war or­ came to DSA from a very deep sense w~ ganizations in the nation. My whole w of right and wrong, and Stan Shapiro G< adult life since then has been devoted ... helped educate me. 0 to organizing - issues organizing, ~ community organizing, labor organiz­ DL: UVhat are somt the challenges fac­ ing. I've won campaigns: beat the of ing DSA? NRA with an assault weapons ban in Philadelphia, and I was a leader in the HS: Unfortunately, one of the chal­ campaign for the first mortgage as­ lenges we have as an organization is Horace at Socla/f.st Scholars 2000. sistance bill in this country. I know that we arc racially and 'gcnderedly' what it takes to get people fired up challenged We have not figured out and mobilized. ( know how to bring how LO talk to people that don't look HS: Through the Harrington Institute diverse communities together. I know like us. We have not made the kind we will begin to start training many how to make things happen. of inroads we need to make in black of the Left's activists and grassroots and Latino communities, Asian com­ leaders in various specific technical DL· How did you come to identify as a munities, and gay communities. skill$ that will give people the oppor­ sodalitt? 'll1e challenge for us is to develop tunity to do what Stan Shapiro did clear and specific plans, ideas and pro­ HS: As Organizing Director for the many years ago - mtroduce individu­ grams that appeal to them. We are Philadelphia Unemployment Project als to DSA and its ideas, and show working to create those programs. (PUP) from the late 70's to mid-80's how very open and comfortable Our commissions have been empow­ many of the campaigns we focused DS1\ers are to work with. ered to do things and go out and on always tried to move legislation, publicly develop ideas and programs to make real lasting change. It doesn't D L· IVhat !)pt of leaderthip role can DSA to reach out to these partlcular com­ take long to sit m public meetings with play in rebuilding the left? munities. corporate heads and find out that they I also think that we have not mar­ HS: The Left's been sick and 1f we're have no soul and no compassion for keted ourselves well enough to be able really going to work for justice then working-class people, for poor to talk effectively to mainstream it's incumbent upon us to find out people, when all we're trying to do is America about cooperative econom­ how to make it well. Leadership is fight for decency and simple human ics, about worker ownership and con­ giving people the skills that they need justice. trol. J\mericans will buy into it, poor to stand up for thcmselvc~. We need working people v.ill buy into it if they to be able to lead and influence dis­ DL· IV'hat hookedJ'Oll into DSA? can be reached. J\nother challenge for cussion on issues that affcct 1\meri­ HS: What always appealed to me us is developing the next gcneratton cans. \X'c need to be able to say what about DS1\ was the fact that they of organizers, so that the struggle can our position on rebuilding urban talked about an egalitarian soaety, giv­ continue. We're trying to do that '\\ith America is. We need to be able to ar­ ing people ownership, workers' con­ the t-.1ichael I larrington Institute. ticulate what our position is in rebuild­ trol, and a sense of democracy. I ing the educational system in this coun­ jumped into that like a fish into wa­ DL: If/hat do y o11 envi.rion for the try. We have to be able to start doing ter. One of my dearest friends has Tlarri11gton Institute? more media work, spending more page 20 • Democratic Left • Spring-Summer 2000 time marketing ourselves. puses, and figure out how to get past on the political process. In that sense the class stuff between the working DSA is a long-term investment. But DL · What place do locals have in DSA~ kids and the college kids. I want to DSAers have to get in people's faces, strategic plan? make sure that we hire an organizer go out and table, speak as out-of-the to work with young people who closet democratic socialists. If we're HS: We are not a national organiza­ work in the retail chair store down serious about upping DSA member­ tion unless we take care of our locals. the street, who don't have a college ship levels, we have to recruit new Until they rebuild we can never really degree, who may not have finished blood, and reactivate our large retiree be effecti:ye. I have the sense that we high school, and who hang out in the contingent - while simultaneously still want to be an activist organiza­ malls. addressing the socialist baby boom so tion - that's where our power comes that our 30s/40s DSA age cohort can from and where our members live. DL· Hoiv do we recruit more members into find a way to be active while provid­ We need to help them identify their our organization? ing childcare and juggling work. I problems, help with planning, iden­ hope that we mobilize effective mem­ J tify fundraising needs and provide HS: Recognize that people get in­ bers that can move an agenda forward, them with the leadership they need to volved in organizations for one rea­ who can do things with skill and aren't son and one reason only: self-interest. go forward. afraid to lose and take risks. I meet regionally with heads of There's this fallacy that if our posi­ locals so we can develop strategies tions are correct people are just go­ DL What do you see as DSAs long-term ing to flock in from all over the place. that are relevant to particular locals. goal? We have to be looked upon as able It doesn't happen like that. People partners to local progressive organi­ become members of an organization H S: Comfort the afflicted, afflict the zations looking to create change to either because you provide them with comfortable, play to win! build a network of workable coali­ a service, they think that you organi­ tions. zation can have some ultlmate unpact

DL What ches it take to make coalitions work? HS: For organizations to successfully work in coalition, there has to be some real clarity as to what each organiza­ DSAAN tion is willing to do. You also need to recognize that you're not going to agree on everything and everybody does tlus for whatever particular in­ WANTS stitutional or self-interest they have. There are some people within coali­ tions with absolutely no problem star­ ing down the police, and you'll have YOU! some people who have a lot of prob­ lems with that. So, before coalitions DSA ACTIVISTS NETWORK are formed there have to be some things that are understood ahead of time. We are actively recruiting volunteer mem­ bers to assist the national staff in ongoing DL How ch we engage more youngpeople I in DSA? DSA projects. HS: Reaching out to young people is DSA's highest priority. I think that right We need to utilize your skills - wherever now the youth section, YDS, is being you live in the United States. building on our very early, credible role promoting a global trade/ fair­ ness agenda, and playing a key part in Contact I. Epstein at DSA: the worldwide challenge to corporate [email protected] power. We also have to start organizing young people beyond college cam

Spring-Summer 2000 • D emocrat icL e ft • p a ge 21 S ociahst Scholars Co11fere11ce 2000 Rockin' the Boat ROCKIN' BY ROBERT SAUTE tbeBOAT: bulldlnl coa1wans he eighteenth annual Social- votes, doesn't \vork. tormenewca turv 1s t Scholars Conference The social victories T took place in New York that U.S. labor won before about 1,800 participants in the l 930s came from more than a dozen countries. about by threatening The Conference theme was "Rockin' workplace disruption 2000 the Boat: Building Coalitions for a and the, Democratic New Century," but the haunting coalition. New move- SOCIAllSl specter this year was globalization. ments, Pivc.n said, Meeting right before the Wash­ "can do what conven­ SCHOlARS ington, DC mobilization against the tional movements can International Monetary Fund and never do." \Vhile par­ COHflREllCl World Bank, the weekend panels and ties in our political plenaries focused on resistance to duopoly achieve vot­ tights." global corporate domination. The ing majorities by ap- Julie Eisenhardt stressed the need Union for Radical Political Eco­ pealing to the middle ground and for a "humane globalism," but also nomics, DollarJ e:'.."" Senu, Afonth!J Re­ doing nothing, "protest mo\•ements asked whether coalitions necessarily view, New Polilifal S de nee, New York thrive on conflict. 1n-your-facc poli­ lead to political compromise. "With Student Environmental Action Coa­ tics, like those in Seattle, make so­ our money-soaked political system, lition and community college stu­ cial mo\•emcnts grow and encour­ the old electoral model of social dents all held panels analyzing the age mass defiance - the only way change is increasingly irrelevant." economics and politics of the inte­ that our issues can enter mainstream Recounting her participation in the gration of trade and investment. political discourse and lead to con­ victorious campaign for a living Gone were the sterile debates of cessions." wage at Johns Hopkins, she pointed past years over the whether Joe Sch\vartz spoke of how the out that students now direct their globalism was a new phenomenon new campus activism has an ideol­ anger at corporations and institu­ or ju st another name for 1mperial- ogy of "militant laborism" rather tions - not simply conservative 1sm. than socialism. He stressed that Left poltticians. "We should appreciate CUNY DSA, the primary or­ activism can bring its ideological partial victories," she added and ganizer of the Conference, spon­ outlook to the anti-globalism move­ ad,•ised DSA activist to "keep 'cm sored major sessions that rncluded ment: "\X'e must build a movement guessing." DSA Vice-chair Frances Fox P1ven, allied with labor, but not submerged "The Battle After Seattle: Glo­ DSA NPC member and Temple in it. We must push for the revital­ balization and Its Discontents" fea­ professor Joseph Schwartz, Julie ization and democratization of the tured Medea Benjamin executive di­ Eisenhardt of the Johns Ilopkms public sector as a form of redistri­ rector of Global Exchange, David Student Labor Coalition, speaking bution of life opportunities... We .1\bduhh of the Oilfield Workers to a large audience on the subject need militancy around citizens Trade Union of Trinidad and To- of What Next? Organizing

Strategies and I"actics for a Hu­ w mane G lo balism. Drawing on z ~ her experience as one of the w w lead.mg strategists of the wel­ ...a< 0 fare rights movement, and ana­ lyst of social movements, Fran ~ Piven pointed out that the usual way of organizing, individual by individual, to build enduring in­ stitutions, join in majority coa- litions, an d thereby deliver labor Chorus leads o.D: page 22 • Democra t i c L e ft • Sp ring-Summer 20 00 I bago, Hector Pigueroa of the SEIU, disturbed them was the ecological and Mark Seddon from the execu­ destruction that comes in the wake tive committee of Britain's Labour of neo-liberal policies. Conference Party. Three of the speakers ad­ co-chair Peter Kott found them in­ dressed the challenges and impor­ spiring, "this is what makes the Con­ tance of organizing against a seem­ ference worth doing. .J\ new genera­ ingly invincible international force at tion of political activists is being the local level. Figueroa reminded born, and the Conference gives the audience that immigrants will be them a chance to be heard. It gives a crucial component of any coali­ us the chance to learn from them." tion fighting for a just globalism. Benjamin spoke of channeling grass Opening Plenary Mark Seddon, roots movements for global justice The Friday plenary attracted an U.K. Labour National Executive. into battles that are directed at local audience of hundreds, hearing the institutions and are winnable, such large NYC Labor Chorus (with Mark Seddon, executive committee as the anti-sweatshop campaigns DSA members) sing classic union member of the British Labour Party, being waged at umversities across songs, followed by DSA National was upbeat, noting with surprise that the country, and the pressure cam­ Director Tloracc Small who chaired there "seem to be so many social­ paign against ists in Starbucks to promote the meeting with Robin Kelley, the heart of American capi­ talism, less exploitative trading agreements. NYU historian and cultural critic, so close to \Vall Street but Mark Seddon traced how and Steffi Woolhandler, co-founder so far in spirit." He chided the au­ Thatcherism prepared the way ideo­ of Physicians for a National I Iealth dience for not being more ambi­ logically and politically for the im­ Program, and Harvard Medical tious. "Don't worry about rocking position of neoliberalism. I Iis School professor, on che promise the boar: why not sink it." equally pointed criticisms of "Third of building coalitions around health Conference co-founder and Way" politics emphasized that do­ care. She cited mesuc politics still matter. David the single­ Abdulah eloquently questioned the payer health Itl()lll~ rhetoric of free trade and democ­ care as prob­ Nf) I•IllS()NS racy that the United States has cham­ ably the only pioned in its quest for global con­ issue in poli­ trol. He added a bit of reality when tics where the he recounted that "Trinidad had a Left and the greater degree of internal democ­ .American "TI1e antiprtson message is capital Sserious. but tlu racy thirty years before the United people are in beats are as heavy as the politics" States granted all its citizens the right agreement. -Details Magazine, 9/99 to vote." Tariq Ali. New Fi\·e fresh ,·oices, all tmmigrants, Lift Rei•iew Prison Moratorium Project and Raptivism Records presented their reactions to editor, and are sponsoring a NO MOUE I•RJSONS "raptivist'' globalism in "Students Confront ,·eteran Brit­ Globalization." The issue that most tour, featuring experienced young prison activists ish New Left­ and artists from the Hip Hop CD. The goal of the ist, addressed tour is to raise awareness, train students and youth the impor­ tance of val­ to get involved, and promote our message. Our art­ ues in building ists and activists are available for conferences, work­ coalitions, shops, trainings, spoken-word performances and hip particularly hop shows. cxcoria ting the hypocrisy For more information, contact: that accom­ Kate Rhee or Kevin Pranis panied the PMP c/o DSA holding of 180 Varick Street, 12th Floor E I i a n New York, NY 10014 Gonzalez, lik­ [email protected] ening it lo kid­ Bhafm11i Dcstli: www.nomoreprisons.org Organizi11g immigra11/s a priority. nap p 1 n g.

Spring-Summer 2000 • DcmocraticLeft • page 23 chair Bogdan Dcnitch reminded us The 2000 conference featured poratc globalism: Europe was of why we are socialists: "Despite the New York theatrical premiere heartened by the American people's the demoralization and conserva­ of I loward Z1nn's play Marx in resistance in Seattle. This conference tism that has set in in the social Soho. Brian Jones, an L1\-bascd ac­ represents a piece of that struggle." democratic parties of western Eu­ tor and activist, performed power­ Despite the differences that exist on rope, so distant from their socialist fully as a time-warped Karl rvfarx the Left, reflected in sharp debates foundings that Bernstein and who fi nds himself in the 20th cen­ ("U.S. Intervention is [NJ ever J usti­ Kautsky would be considered far tury Soho of New York instead o f fied"), "the Conference 1s a space leftists in them today, we have to put 19th century London. where debate can go on in a spirit building democratic socialist orga­ The Socialist Scholars Confer­ of cooperation. nizations at the forefront of our ence has always been an open fo­ Next year in New York! agenda. Regardless of how militant rum for ideas on the Left. We have the labor movement might become never excluded those with whom Robert Sauti is a doctoral student in or how powerful single issue cam­ we disagree. In the past, that has too sociology al the City Univmiry of New paigns might be, without a socialist frequently meant wading through a York Graduate Center and is co-author movement that can affect political swamp of sectarian cults. Of course, efThe Part-Time Paradox. power, we will be condemned to the Spartacist League was there. as fighting the same battles over and were the 'any friend of Milosevic i ~ DSA thanks Rob for huyears of over. Political power grants perma­ a friend of ours' groupusclcs, but dedicated work on the SSC, and we nence to our victories." they seemed ever more irrelevant. 111i.rh him well in bu impending nuptials. Bhairavi Desai, a diminutive, Workers World recycled last years twen ty-somethmg organizer of "Truth About Kosovo" panel, re­ Thanks to john Mason, Ian IVilliams New York City taxi drivers, moved ducing the tragic war in the Balkans and Jason Schulman for their assistance all with her tales of the determina­ to a Manichean morality play be­ in preparing thi's article. tion and moxie that immigrant cab­ tween US imperialism and an almost bies bring to their fight for )US tice pristine socialist opposition. Their - face-to face with ugly xenopho­ panel gives support to Marx's apho­ bia, class prejudice, and the nations nsm about history re- most vindictive mayor. peating itself, first as tragedy then as farce. More Culture, Fewer Cults Monthly Review sponsored a well Bright Spots DETROIT DEMOCRATIC attended panel on culture and con The conference SOCIALISTS temporary capitalism with Marshall sported hopeful signs OF AMERICA Berman and Robert McChesney. In for a revitalized Left, your face publishers Soft Skull Press with an appreciable in­ asked "Can There Be a Resurgent crease in young people, Left-Wing Culture?" utopian vi­ the Student Environ­ WTO sions with bite were the topic of a mental .Action Coali­ panel on science fiction and social­ tion. SEi\C is not a so­ ism organized by DSA. Authors cialist group, but they Terry Bisson, Bears Discover Fire, and have organized students Michael Swanwick, Stations of the in a wide range of col­ Tide, joined Rutgers professor H. leges to protest ecologi­ Bruce Franklm and \ustralian cncic cal destruction and have Justine Larballescier Nation UN cor­ advocated for a broad respondent and NY DS \er Ian Wil­ agenda of social justice liams reported that the people at the goals. \X'c were proud panel were excited by the fact that to have them \vith us "Sci fi allows one to try out our anc.I hope to work with ideas. Most socialist utopianism ts them in the future. boring, conflict-free, nothing to Tariq Ali remarked work out. Sci-fi adds back some of that the Socialist Schol­ the clash of ideas, interests, reintro­ ars Conference is a vi­ duces evil. " Next year we hope tal part of the "interna­ there will be other panels on detec tionalization of the cive fiction, movies, maybe sports. struggle of agatnst cor- page 24 • D e m ocra t ic Left • S pring-S um m er 2000 Carlo Rosselli: Socialist Heritic and Antifascist Exile S tanisla_o Pugliese i11 Conversation ivith S olveig Wilder

hroughout mJ:years at an actnist, I have oflen been stmck fo• assauinated in I 938for their work in antifascist movemenlt. Such T the realization that I an1 reinventing the wheel. 'J 'hat realiza­ is the st1iff of heroes, of ''01me, and not ordinary activists likeyou tion became partimlarfy amle at I read Carlo Rosselli: 5 ociali.rt and me. B111 ma'!)' aclivi.rls toda;· will sure!J see themselves in Ro.rselli Heretic andAntifi11ci1t Exik (Harvard Umvmi(y Press, 1999). as he ~~rapples with Marxism, criticizes the ineffoctivenw of the left, Rom/Ii, an Italian 1ocialist inte/lec111al and actfritl d11rin...~ the;•ears and de.rperatefy tlies to develop new theories and movements that had between ll7orld IWar Tand IF'orld lf"tlr I I, devoted his er.tire lift and a real chance ofdefeating the right. I discussed this with a11thor and considerable fortune to the antifascist .rln{ggles against MuISoli11i, DSA member Stanislao Pugliese. Hitler, and Franco. He and his brother, 1'-.7ello, were even/11alfy

DL· 111'0• didyu write a biograpl!J about problem arises because the history Carlo Rosselli? of Italian fascism and anti-fascism is not so well known in the United SP: In 1991 I was a CUNY gradu­ States. In fact, the book is being trans­ ate student in search of a disserta­ lated into llalian but this will require tion topic. Since my field was twen­ some re\·ision because I had an tieth-century Italy, I first thought American reader in mtnd while writ­ about fascism. On reflection, I de­ ing. Or rather I should say I had sev­ cided that while there is still much to eral "ideal" readers in mind. There say about fascism, little \VOrk had was, of course, the person who been done on Italian anti-fascism in regularly reads Democratic Left, The the United States. One group that Nation, Dissent, the Village Voice, stood out as anti-fascists was Carlo and the alternath·e press in general. Rosselli's Justice and Liberty, part of Then there was the "intellectual" pe­ a heterogeneous underground intel­ rusing the pages of the New York lectual movement that included Review of Books, the New York Primo Levi, Cesare Pavese and Times book rc\•iew, and scholarly Leone Gmzburg. Rosselli was a char­ journals, and also general readers in­ ismatic, dynamic, immensely sympa­ tt•rt·sted in historical biography and thetic character with a dramatic life. a "good read." 1\dmittcdly, this isn't I felt that a biography on Rosselli beach reading; one redewer wrote would not only introduce an impor­ that the book is "demandingly Carlo Rosselli tant figure to an American audience, dense." It ts a dramatic human story but that it could help to introduce with tragic overtones, one that might readers to this critical chapter in Ital­ cist organization, ]11slice and Uberry. Can inspire DS1\ youth secuon members, ian history. · you t>.plain briefly and simpfy what this or graduate students, to study the theory· was about? people and ideas of I tali an anti-fas­ DL· The book is wrillen in an acmsible SP: Rosselli had a profound admi­ ctsm. and engagingfashion. At times, however, ra tlon for Marx. I le wrote that you sum to premme some.familiad!J with Marxism had penetrated the con­ DL· Rom/Ii was .frostrated l!J the sectari­ Italian histOT)' and mlt11re. Didyo11 hm·e sciousness of the modern individual anism, divisiveneJJ, rigidi(J~ do~w"atism, de- a pa1ticular audience i11 mind when )'Oii to such an extent that "we are all, in 1m11inr.rm, para!Jsis. and impotence of the wrote this book? a certain sense, Marxists." But Marx­ left. I le 111~~ed 1101 onfy a revision of Marx­ ism for Rosselli failed because it was SP: T his was a major problem: I ism, bJ1t 11 "Iota/ repudiatio11 witho11t pi!J" " a determmistic philosophy and not wanted the book to be as accessible Toward lhi.r end, Rosselli linked the values humanistic (there is no indicatton that as possible, yet it still had to be a rig­ f!fwllectivism and i11dlvid"alim1 into a .ry11- Rosselli had read the 1844 manu­ orous reading of twentieth-century thesis hrndled Liberal S odalism. lJe elabo­ scripts). Socialism, in the end, was a Italian history. There is nothing inher­ rated 011 this penpect1z•e in 111murous ;our­ form of humanism for Rosselli. It ently contradictory about this; tbc nals, and in the post11hte.r of his antifas-

Spring- Summer 200 0 • D emocr aticLeft • p age 2 5 was not the socialization of the did act as catafysts for the development of ness. " Yet, despite this hands-on approach means of production nor the prole­ liberry. "An alliance should therefore be to the struggle against fascism, Rosselli is tariat in power nor simple material forged "between the proletariat and the en­ still regarded by some as an elitist. equality. lightened elements the bourgeoisie. " In For Rosselli, "Socialism, of SP: This is ironic. While the Social­ addition, &sselli believed that fascism ''was grasped in its essential aspect, is the ists were debating amongst them­ progressive not simp!y class reaction but moral crisis, a actualizatic>n of the prin­ selves and the Communists were human cn·sis, and cn"sis of civilization. " ciple of liberty and justice among awaiting word from Moscow on men." Liberals refused to accept that How well do you think this anafysis holds? how to proceed, Rosselli left Paris liberalism could and should evolve SP: Rosselli did not completely re­ immediately upon the outbreak of into socialism; orthodox socialists ject the element of class in his analy­ the Spanish Civil War and went to and Marxists refused to accept the sis of fascism. He recognized that the Barcelona in defense of the Repub­ sacrosanct status of the inclividual. ruling class in Italy- the industrial­ lic. Yet his opponents on the left, es­ Rosselli agreed with traclitional so­ ists, the military, the Catholic Church pecially the Communists, were vi­ cialists and orthodox Marxists that and the bourgeoisie, supported fas­ cious in their criticism. Rosselli was a socialism should be conceived as the cism as a defense of their social and "bourgeois intellectual, " a "dilet­ concrete movement for the emanci­ economic privileges. But even a cur­ tante," even a "dissident fascist." pation of the proletariat. Where he sory study of history would reveal Palnuro Togliatti, leader of the Ital­ differed was in his view that social­ that the "enlightened bourgeoisie" ian Communist Party, was particu­ ism was "liberalism in action" and could be, and sometimes was, a cata­ larly venomous in his criticism. This his belief that socialism "means that lyst for liberty and justice. The very was because he saw Rosselli as a com­ liberty comes into the life of poor leadership of the leftist parties in petitor for the allegiance of the Ital­ people." Some traditional socialists Europe was evidence of this. Except ian working class. Because Rosselli and orthodox Marxists scorned the for the Italian anarchists, led by the rejected a class-based analysis of fas­ civil and political freedoms associ­ worker Errico Malatesta, all the left­ cism, he was open to charges of de­ ated with classic liberalism, but to ist parties were organized and di­ fending his own class interests. He­ Rosselli these were necessary to main­ rected by "bourgeois intellectuals." retically, he wrote that some segments tain socialism's humanistic character. Even Antonio Gramsci came from of the proletariat supported fascism, Without them, socialism degenerates a petit-bourgeois family. In retro­ not out of genuine conviction but into the dictatorship of the party (not spect, I think Rosselli's analysis of from political immaturity and that the the proletariat) and oppression. fascism holds up rather well. Even proletariat alone could not defeat Benedetto Croce, who admired fascism. This was counter to the usual DL· Liberal Socialism was chided l?y mt­ Rosselli yet strongly criticized the glorification of the proletariat on merous theorists as being "bourgeois, " ''an concept of a liberal socialism, even­ Europe's left at the time. oxymoron, " an attempt to "reconcile the tually moved from an analysis of irreconcilable," "hypocritical, " fascism as a "parenthesis" in Italian DL· You say that Rossel/i's books andjour­ "pseudointellectual, " '~·nconsistent, " ''para­ history to an analysis of fascism as a nals never appealed much to workingpeople doxical, " and "hazy. " Was there a'!Y le­ "moral sickness," similar to Rosselli's and that his antifascist organizations had gitimary to thm criticisms? formulation. As we recede from the few workmg class members. On the other SP: And those were the polite criti­ twentieth-century we can see fascism hand, there was an incredible outpouring cisms! Even Rosselli's admirers are as a pathological attempt to deal with of support for Rosselli at his trials, in the reluctant to claim any originality for the myriad problems of modernity. trenches, and at his funeral Canyou clarify his political theories. They are being This analysis does not deny that class how the working people of Itafy regarded too humble, however. No one else interests had a role in the formation Rosselli? and evolution of fascism; it simply at the time was making the same ar­ SP: Justice and Liberty and its later insists that class was one aspect of guments. In the context of his day incarnation, the Action Party, were -with classic nineteen th-century lib­ many that deserve study. criticized as "the party of intellectu­ eralism and socialism seen as bitter als." Although Rosselli and others de­ enemies - his theory of a liberal so­ DL: Rosselli was a man of action. He voted considerable attention to the cialism did indeed seem paradoxical co11stant!J nsked arrest l?J producing and problems of the peasants and pro­ or oxymoronic. Yet it was neither disseminating literat1tre in the streets of letariat, Justice and Libert}r failed to Ita!y. He was imprisoned for years; he es­ pseudointellectual nor inconsistent. transform itself mto a mass party. caped into exile; and, following the invasion This was Rosselli's fault. He insisted DL· &sselli's greatest heresy was that he of Ethiopia, he joined the front lines in the that Justice and Liberty remain a rejected ma'!Y aspects of class anafysu. He war against Franco in Spain. The proph­ "movement" rather than a "party." argued that "not all members the bour­ ets, said Rosselli, ''are no longer disarmed. of Ile reached this conclusion after a geoisie were exploiters" and that "there were And the descendants of the prophets, with brilliant analysis of the nature and segments of the bourgeoisie that could and nfle in hand, have acquired a new conscious- page 26 • Democratic Left • Spring-Summer 2000 evolution of the political party. He that Rosselli felt some guilt over his Nazism; his rhetoric rings like a insisted that all party affiliations be privileged social and economic sta­ prophet in the wilderness. He con­ abandoned in the struggle agamst tus. Perhaps. But I didn't want to put stantly invokes the themes of heresy, fascism but could be re-established Rosselli on the couch. exile, martyrs for the faith, and the after the defeat of the regime. Jus­ Because of space limitations, I sacredness of sacrifice. Justice and tice and Liberty was meant to be an couldn't devote much attention to Liberty became known as the ':Jew­ inclusive movement of all anti-fas­ Rosselli's mother, a truly formidable ish" movement because it did attract cists, from the Liberals on the right woman, or his wife, children, and some well-known Jews. But all of to the SoCialists and even the Com­ brother. Ncllo devoted himself to them, like Rosselli, we.re secular, and munists on the left. Unfortunately historical scholarship, and in his it is important to recognize that the.er many of these theoretical debates fell works on the R.isorgimento (the nine­ Judaism was cultural and ethical on deaf ears and the working people teenth-century movement for Italian under fascist Italy had more imme­ unification) one detects an explicit DL· On one occasion, Rosselli told his diate concerns - like staying alive. condemnation of fascism. If I had mother that he th0ttght the fami/y sho11ld Rosselli understood this, yet Justice the opportunity, I might have writ­ give awqy their wealth and live 'a poor lift and Liberty failed to reach the masses. ten a dual biography. Nello represents based on/y on what we earned. "His mother what in Germany came to be called responded that it wo11ld be better to use the DL: I thought more attention fOt11d have the "inner emigration"; intellectuals fami/y} money to achieve noble goals. Rosselli been paid to Rosselli 's fami/y. erpecial/y his such as Victor Klemperer and oth­ would go on lo use his wealth to fund the brother Nello. I was fascinated by his ers who refused to acquiesce or col­ publication of several jottrna/s, the print­ mother, his t1vo brothers, his wife, who as­ la bota te with barbarism. And al­ ing of ne111.rletters, and the renting efplanes sisted the antifascist .rtmgg/e throughout, though the glory goes to the active lo disseminate information throughout Ita!J, and his three childm1. lP'as it dijfitult to participants such as Carlo, the pas­ and possib/y even to make an assassination get infonnation abottt Ros.re/Ii} personal life? sive resisters desenre to have their attempt on Mussolini. Was his mother vin­ story told as well for their resistance, dicated? SP: John Rosselli, Carlo's eldest son, I now believe, was crucial for what­ graciously granted me se,·eral inter­ SP : I alluded to the possibility that ever success anti-fascism and anti­ views and we still correspond. 1\l­ Rosselli's wealth was the catalyst for Naz1sm may h:we had. though I did ask some questions con­ his anti-fascism. But there were other cerning Rosselli's personal life, these reasons. I lis parucipa tlon in the First DL: downp/'!_y the fact that Rosselli were only to illuminate his personal­ Yo" World War, for example, brought was Jewish, a11d you imp!J that this fact ity and his struggle agamst fascism. him into contact with the Italian was not partimlar!J important in shaping He himself admitted rhar he was a masses - workers, craftsmen and hij· views or his mi.re ef urgenry. The book poor father. There was some indica­ peasants. mentions little about Rossel/i's reaction to tion that he was something of a la­ the anti-Semitism of Mussolini and Hitler. dies' man, bul I did not pursue this. DL: Rosselli reminded me at times of B.ut Rosselli did sqy that mat!} of the "rmi­ The small, personal foibles of an in­ George Orwell, who was also regarded as versal valt1cs ''that he defended actual/y had dividual don't belong in an intellec­ a ''socialist heretit'" and fo11ght against their roots in the "t11essitmism of Israel. " tual biography. Franco j· fascism in Spain. You mention In addition, he .rtro11g!y urged the separa- I gave much thought to the par­ Owe/I on/y fleeting!y in the book. Do you 11011 of ch11rd1 and slate, and he 111a.r quite ticular problems associated '..Vith know if Rosselli and Orwell 111ere familiar critical of the Catho/it' church. It seems lo writing biography, where rhere is a with each other, or if they met while fight­ me that Rossel/i's religious background tendency to engage in easy pop-psy­ ing in Spain? might have been a more sig11ijica11t factor tn chology that I avoid. For example: his life than you ,·on/end. SP: I was hoping to find evidence Why did Rosselli abandon a com­ that the two met 10 Spa.Ul, but I could fortable life and a promising aca­ SP: Rosselli was a secular Jew: His find no proof of any dialogue be­ demic career to join rbe under­ criucism of the Catholic Church was tween the two. I did find two pas­ strong and historically mformed. As ground? I Iis wealth and prrnlege sages - one from Orwell's Hom­ much as he may have recognized de­ might tempt a biographer to suggest age to Catalonia, the other from cent, smcere people in t.he Church, Rosselli's diary from the front - that he saw the instllution of the Chu.rch were almost identical. as corrupt and keeping the Italian people politically immature. 1 do ar­ DL· The book i.r somewhat suspenseful, so gue, howevet, that Judaism played a I don~ want to entire/y give awqy the tir­ role in his ethical and mtellectual mmsta11ces surrounding the assassination o/ world-view. I detect the moral indig­ the Rosselli brothers and the trials that nation of an Ol

Spring-Summer 2000 • Democrati c L eft • page 27 searched the events exlensive!J, was 11'1'!>' do ;·011 think that happened? be the caie with many exchangu I have M1molini dimtfy im•olnd? heard al DSA meetings or read in Demo­ SP: This has to do with the particu­ cratic Left, Socialist Forum and on SP: There is no "smoking gun." Yet lar intellectual and political situation DSANel. Yo11 write that many themes in in such situations we shouldn't be sur­ of post-war Italy. The Christian the book are r-en1iniscent of DSA}founder, prised. Mussolini was no fool, and Democrats and the Communists Michael Harrington. What lmons do you men in power wouldn't leave such came to dominate cultural and po­ think DSAm will learn from reading thiJ evidence behind. It boils down to litical life. Those who saw themselves book? how one conceives of the fascist dic­ in the tradition of"libcral socialism" tatorship: was Mussolini the "totali­ gravitated to smaller parties or were SP: I would like to think that mem­ tarian" leader supremely in com­ independent leftists. In Cold War bers of DSA will recognize many of mand or was his a "weak dictator­ Italy, there was no room for the hu­ their concerns in Rosselli's writings ship" as some social historians have mane socialism of Rosselli; it wasn't and actions. And that, notwithstand­ claimed? I believe that Mussolini may until the 1970s and ing the triumphal cries of "the end have received news that Rosselli was "Eurocommunism," and now with of history" and the final victory of planning on expanding the Spanish the end of the Cold War, that schol­ neo-liberalism, there is a solution that Civil War into Italy with a corre­ ars and politicians have returned to may appear temporarily defeated but sponding assassinauon attempt on this tradition. Ironically, while Rosselli which harbors a great hope - per­ Mussolini himself. This was to be a was almost ignored in the post-war haps the only hope left - for a truly revolutionary, European-wide war period, today everyone - mcludmg humanistic and civilized society. against fascism and nazism. Much of the descendants of the Communists this is speculation, but I think it cor­ - are claiming him as a political and Stanislao G. P11glim iJ Assistant responds with Rosselli's thinking at intellectual ancestor. Profmor of Flistory at Hofstra. He the time. recentfy won the 2000 Ignazio Si/one The Rosselli assassinations arc DL· Yo11 wn·le that Rom/Ii wa1 plagued Prize for his book, on Carlo Rom/Ii. critical to an understanding of the l!J the "critical demon" of "doubt and rela­ true nature of fascism. Alberto tit-iJtn "which pushes "socialists into action Solveig lVilder is DSAs Membership Moravia and Bernardo Bertolucci rather than into passivi!J; indum a respect S ervim Coordinator, and Managing understood this; Moravia's The Con­ for thtir adi1enaries, and dema11dr a co11- Editor of Democratic Left. formist (1951) and Bcrtolucci's film tin110111 reviiion oftheir theoretical positions of the novel (1970) arc based loosely and practical actions. " This a/10 1eems lo on the assassination of Carlo Rosselli. Ironically, because of I Iitlcr, Na­ tional Socialism and the I Iolo­ caust, Mussolini and fascism have "gotten off the hook," so to speak, in the twentieth-century. Everyone readily concedes that Mussolini and fascism were rela­ tively 'mild' compared to the German variant of fascism, but that shouldn't obscure the fact t~at opponents of Italian fas­ cism were arrested (Gramsci), beaten (Piero Gobcttt and Giovanni Amendola), and assas­ sinated (Giacomo Matteotti and the Rosselli brothers).

DL· Between 100,000 a11d 200,000 people attended the Ji111eral of the Rosselli brothers, and they were laid lo rest in the magnijtanl Sala dei D11ecento of the Pa'11zz.o Vecchio. A torch still b11rn1 al theirgmi•mte, and "'"'!)' slrre/1 are named after them in I ta!J·. For many year1, howenr, Rosselli s views receded i1110 obm1ri!J. page 28 • Democratic Left • Spring-Summer 2000 Failing Schools

BY FORREST DAVIS

n mat?y of our major urban cen­ non-union suburbs, Ica,·ing increased the public schools provide an equal ters today, students of color - poverty in inner city neighborhoods. opportunity to the sons and daugh­ I African-Americans, Latinos, "Il1e teachers m poor schools are ters of working people. So we must Asians, Caribbean and Pacific Island­ another factor. Despite dramatic de­ fight for similar inYestment in urban ers, and many more - arc now the mographic shifts, over 78 percent of schools, smaller class sizes, eliminate majority in public schools. This de­ teachers remain white. In addition, dependence on local property ta." fi­ mography coincides with a Reading studies show that the greatest num­ nancing, and the recruitment of a well­ Report Card of the National Center ber of non-credentialed teachers are prepared teaching force that reflects for Educational Statistics which indi­ in our lowest performing schools. \Ve student populations in these schools. cated that over 50 percent of Black also have teachers \i.ith degrees in so­ Affluent suburbanites, in their and Latino children score below cial studies and art teaching math, and semi-private social democracies, are fourth grade reading levels, and 47 m some urban areas, te:iching out of not calling for school vouchers or percent of Black and 46 percent of field approaches 40 percent of the demanding charter schools in their Latino children score below eighth total. And while we would not dream mostly adequately funded districts. grade reading levels. Discrepancies in of allo\\'ing a doctor or nurse to prac We must insist on equal opportu­ math scores are similarly stark. tice without a license, we regularly nity to learn, no compromise. \'

Spring-Summer 2000 • DemocraticLeft • page 29 The Other American The Life of Michael Harrington, Assessed hen Michael Ham·ngton died Labor Dqy DL, and it has been reviewed in in the summer of 1989, ma'!} mt?jorpublications such as The New York W DSA members felt both a po- TI-IE OTHER Times, Chicago Tribune, The New litical and personal pang of km. Echoing Republic and Publisher's Weekly. Gore Vidal al the pas1ing bier of Eleanor DSA threw a book party and R.oosevelt: 'That} that, we're real!J on our A11ERICAN rol(ndtable in New York City for Maurice own now. "Mike was our moll public spokes­ and The Other American. What fallowI ' • l • ., J • t person, as Irving Howe said, ''our voice, " are per1onal and political amumentI of the 'default socialist' in a country, as Maurice MI CHHL HARRINGTON Harrington} lift and work, from DSA Isse17Jlan desm"be.r in his fine new book, that comrade! of different generation!. bare!J had room for one. Bogdan Denitch mruited Michael lo lmmran, a mpected hiitorian of the left the Iocialiit movement. He is a National at Hamilton College, has written Which Side Chair of DSA ()fld a proftuor emenlus at Are You On?: The American Commu­ CUNY; Franm Fox Piven is a distin­ nist Party in the Second World War; If gui!hed ana!Jst of social movements and I Had a Hammer, The Death of the welfare, iI a professor at CUNY, cofounder Old Left and Birth of the New Left; of Human SERVE, and also serves as a and The Civil War of the 1960s (with leader of DSA; Maxine Phillips was the coauthor Michael Kazin), among other writ­ talented DSA staff editor of this publica­ ings. He ha.I also written tracts for DSA, tion for ma'!Y years, is an editor of Dis- where he has been a member far ma'!} years. sent, and member of the editorial commit­ His new biograpfty of Michael Harrington, The Other Ameri­ tee of Religion & Socialism. Joseph M. S chwarlZ; a proftuor of can (PublicAffairs, 2000), ir a wel/-researrhed, well-written work political science at Temple U niversi!J'• was Youth Organizer for of scholarship that has been ma'!}years in the making. Every DSA DSOC/ DSA, and now serves as a krY member of the National member would do well to read it. A complete review will appear in the Political Committee.

MAURICE ISSERMAN: determined activist, as an incisive critic eventually ended up at Dorothy Day's he would also find much in this new Catholic Worker, until he left not only "I decided to write this biogra­ millennium to displease him. the Worker, but the Catholic Church, phy the day I got a call from the DSA Michael I Iarrington is alongside eventually becoming the acknowl­ National Office that Michael Mark McGuire on the St. Louis Walk edged soaalist successor to Eugene Harrington had just died. I'd been of Fame. That is appropriate since he V. Debs and Norman Thomas. kicking myself ever since that writing came of age in that lvfidwestern city, That M.khael Harrington is so this bio didn't occur to me before he and went on from there to become often identified as the "man who dis­ died. People always ask me about the "man who discovered poverty," covered poverty" is partially the re­ '\vhat Mike would think today?" I and the "forl!most socialist of the sult of happenstance. He was asked am uncomfortable speaking for him United States." My book traces those by the then liberal-left magazine Com­ from beyond the grave, but I think trajectories mentary to look into the issue of the that he'd like that John Sweeney gave Mike was not born into poverty poor in the U.S. He wrote this article, me a book blurb. Neither George himself. He was the child of solidly characteristically diligent in his research, Meany nor Lane Kirkland would have bourgeois Irish Catholic Democrats. in the tradition of the Partisan Review done that. Mike would also have been He later said that he only discovered New York intellectuals who prided very happy with the events in Seattle the Great Depression when he read themselves on their abilities to draw last fall, vindication in 3-D of the coa­ about in the serious Catholic schools culture, politics and eco!lomics into litionist politics that he advocated for it in which he excelled. After graduat­ splendid little essays. In Mike's article so many years. He would also be very ing I Ioly Cross College at 19, he went he married the notions that there were happy with the cutting edge of cam­ on from there to Yale Law to please millions of poor Americans out there pus activism around labor solidarity his parents, did well academically in the "Affluent Society," to a concept and standards, anti-sweatshop activ­ there, but followed his ambitions as a that he picked up from radical an­ ity and mternational links. Though poet to the Uruverstty of Chicago, thropologist Oscar Lewis, based on Mike was a congenital optirrust and and then to Greenwich Village. He his study of family life in Mexico. This p a g e 30 • Democratic Left • Spring-Summer 2000 W'lls the "culture of poverty," which of the dominant culture, or the a second act. His first act was as "the was later completely distorted by the middle class. 1 'his, to f Iarrington, was man who discovered poverty," miss­ neo-conscrvauve hard right of the in part because they were beaten ing simultaneous opportunities to play following decades. down by structural economic forces, unifier of the scattered legions of the Harrington's Commentary piece at­ not the thoroughly behaviorist nocions 1960s left. In the 1980s he emerged as tracted more attention than usual to that the right later employed to dis­ a kind of authentic voice of American such journalism, helped by the timing tort this concept and gut the social radicalism. Many people who were not of a 1960 presidential primary in wage in the 1980s. socialists, might not join DSA, would wruch J FK'was pitted against Hubert LBJ w:mted to wage war on pov­ turn out to hear Mike, buy his books Humphrey in West Virginia, where the erty-but cheaply. Daniel Patrick or listen to his NPR radio commen- media was transmitting images of .Moynihan, then at the Labor Depart­ taries-because he was in that great depressed rrurung communi ties. Later, ment as 1\ssistant Secretary, was sup­ American tradition of religious and after JFK's election, CBS broadcast ported by Mike and Paul Jacobs in political dissent. He presented the l larout of Shame, which highlighted ad,·ocating that jobs programs were sharpest, most articulate conscious chal­ the plight of mlgrant workers. Ac this the most effecti\'c means to raise lenge to the values of Reaganism at a time a shrewd editor at Macmillan people up - but they were expen­ time when most Democratic politicians asked Mike to turn his Commmtary· sive. LBJ wanted to limit any "war" were lying down and play1ng dead. pieces into a book. resulting in The on poverty to under a billion dollars. Early on in the Reagan administration, Other America, which got good bur not By contrast, the initial 1935 appropria­ Mike spoke at the University ofMaine. spectacular re\-iews. l'-1.ike was so cer· tion for the \X'P;\ was five billion "Ronald Reagan," he said in that mag­ tain that the book would hardly sell dollars-ten billion in 1964 dollars! neuc, mflccted voice, "is the first presi­ that he had no trouble going to Paris Johnson didn't want to spend money. dent in years who is actually carrying for a year. The administration also sclect1vely out his program, puttmg mto effect the In that year the longest ever J\reu, picked up the 'culture of po,·erty' ar­ policies that he ran on in the campaign. }orktrrev1ew, fifty pages, was written gument that suited its purposes, mak­ That's refreshing." Then there was a about TOA, by Dwight MacDonald. ing the values/aspirations aspect of pause: "It's too bad that the program Reprints of the review sold in the tens the notion the centerpiece of most that he ran on was insane and cruel" of thousands. The rC\iew came to the programs. 1'-fike always said that you That ultimately was Michael attention of Walter Heller, Chair of have to spend moner. and create jobs. I Iarrington's legacy, speaking truth to Kennedy Council of Economic "\d­ In his 1984 book, The .J.'\rew .rlmen'ca11 power when 1t was distinctly unfash­ visors, and eventually landed on JFK's Pover!)•, J Iarrington quite consciously ionable to speak on behalf of the desk. JFK's primary economic strat­ distanced himself from the notion of poor." egy up to that point had been to seek the culture of poYCrty. a tax cut that would benefit the middle One of the nostnims of biogra­ BOGDAN DENITCH: class, but Heller suggested that the phy is that there arc no second acts in "I met a fairly unkempt and hairy 1964 campaign would be helped by American hfe. Michael mtlly did have Michael I Iarrington, clothed as most doing a bit for those that hadn't made it into the affluent :;ociety. But 1963 was the year of Birmingham. the March on \Vasrungton, and a grow­ ing civil rights movement that included a place for the demands of the poor. Upon JFK's assassination, Lyndon Johnson needed to make the martyred Kennedy programs his 0\\11, and he picked up this idea of a war against poverty. So Michael returned from Paris in 1963 to find himself famous. He was summoned to DC to take part in discussions on the war on poverty legislation being drafted by Sargent Shriver's task force. How­ ever, what they borrowed from I farrington ts this notion of the cul­ ture of poverty, that is to say that poor people lived lives with a differ­ ent set of values and norms from that /ssem1an ll'ilh Phillips, /Jenilc/J, Scbu·urtz and moderator Jeff Gold.

Spring-Summer 2000 • DemocraticLeft • page 31 Catholic Workerists at the time in people, and people like that often have l\.fike was the closest we had to a 're­ frocks donated for the poor, on a strong loyalties themselves. Mike's two spectable' public face with oratorical rainy picket line in 1951. After many loyalties were to Norman Thomas, skills, so he got a piece of the credit, political discussions-and drinks­ the grand old man of the Socialist but the honorable activity of social­ Mike joined the Young People's So­ Party, and, unfortunately, Max ists did a great deal of good, should cialist League (YPSL) a short while Schactman. Schactman was a brilliant, make DSAcrs proud of their histori­ later. As Maurice notes in the book, relentless, remorseless factionalist, cal roots, and might well be emulated we did what the mainly Jewish, deeply who started moving right at approxi­ today. marginal left did at the height of mately the tJme when !\.like and I It speaks a lot for Mike, who was McCarthyism Jn those days, we jomed the youth wing of his Indepen­ not a natural organization man tn terms shoved the Waspy-looking (to us, dent Socialist League. So Mike was of administration or temperament, when shaved) Irish-Catholic Mid­ unfortunately trapped in this conser­ the he devoted so much time and en­ westerner right to the top and made vative Schactmanitc trajectory at the ergy to DSA. He would have pre­ him YPSL National Chair. The So­ exact time when opportunities for a ferred to be a writer, perhaps an edi­ cialist Party of the time was delighted, broad left, particularly among stu­ tonal board member of an interest­ particularly since beneath that sweet dents, began to open up. He conse­ ing socialist magazine, spending time Irish face lay a steel hard political quently ended up on the wrong side in Pans writing poetry and being an mind. For the next seven years Mike of a number of issues which were intellectual-which he was. For him and I worked very closely together, emotionally devastating to Mike. In DS.\ was almost an act of religious be as 'good cop' in debates across the the early 60s he even broke for a while witness or devotion. He ended up country, me as 'bad cop'. And we with close friends like Debbie Meier building what, for all its weaknesses, worked very closely with the grow­ over the issue of the Cuban invasion, is the largest of the midgets, the big­ mg Civil Rights movement, through and our call for total, immediate and gest democratic socialist organization our connections with Bayard Rustin, unconditional withdrawal from Viet­ in America since the 1930s. It still is. A. Philip Randolph, and wtth the nam. For l\.fichael, as for all of us full-tim­ Sleeping Car Porter's Union. One of the reasons Mike had a ers, there was no such thing as an un­ Maurice noted that Mike was breakdo\vn in the sixties was that all organized socialist. The whole notion among the few in the top leadership the people he was close to were on of socialist politics is to participate in of the socialist movement who was different sides. The people he stayed real world efforcs to collectively jailed rarely. This was a deliberate close to he really couldn't stand. In change reality. Otherwise you can be choice of the organizations, not l\fike's fact many of them later scattered to a student of socialism, or a con­ choice. Mike wanted to share the fate the pre-Sweeney AFL-CIO bureau­ sumer-not producer-of radical of other activists in the civil rights cracy, and some much later to the politics. Michael preeminently wanted movement, but we decided that Mike Reagan admrnistration. Max to be a producer of radical politics." could accomplish more out raising bail Schactman created some nghH.ving money, spreading publicity or going Bolsheviks, who subsequently tried to FRANCIS FOX PIVEN: to unions. Every once in a while Mike publicly tear down Mike's reputation "I knew l\fike in the last two de­ would be jailed to keep his creden­ after he finally did break with them, cades of his life. Usually I argued with tials up, so we'd tell him to "bring a form DSOC, and then DSA. But by him, m the first instance over the anti­ toothbrush todar. We'll see you in two this time 1t was hard to cut off war movement-which I defended. days after bail is raised." Harrington's access to people; he had But through all those arguments Mike l\:fichael was that rare phenom­ become too well known as the pov­ was also my friend. In debates inside enon of which there arc too few now, erty· finding "Mr. Socialism" of the DSA m which we were sometimes on a full time organizer. Sometimes he U.S. different sides, we would frequently had a job, but not too often. \Ve were If I ha\·e one fault \\.-ith Maurice's talk to each other. a peculiar variety of full times who excellent book, it is the underestima­ Mike wrote TOA at a time when were not paid. Mike's full commit tion-which we may have helped our­ the American economy was on a ment, or Pascal's Gamble, if you will, seh·cs-of the socialist role around postwar roll. Many expected endless was: "\Ve don't know if a democratic Marun Luther King and the civil rights economic growth, creating opportu­ socialist movement can be built in this movement, and in some unions. Be­ nities for everyone; almost every country, but we know that if we don't cause our publicly acknowledged so­ worker expected that their real wage try it won't happen-for sure. If we cia/tj·t presence would have been the mcome would increase every year. But do try, maybe-1ust maybe, there's a kiss of political death, the basis on other structural changes were occur­ little hope." For that hope Mike spent which many civil rights activists were ring in the economy, which Mike often red-baited, our very credible decades pounding the pavements at picked up: the displacement of rural campuses and unton halls. acuvi$m as hard-working, key behind workers from the South, Caribbean l\lichacl 1 larrington had a pecu· the scenes players (with Bayard,) who and later m:Unland Latin America, who liar quality of drawing loyalty in got things clone-is not well known. p age 32 • D emocratic Left • Spring-S u mmer 2 0 00 all came ro the cities in large numbers movements could transform the U.S. in the 60s-the exact places where the .Mike would be in his element if manufacturing economy was slipping he were here today. He would be in a a\\.-ay. Even the Bureau of Labor Sta­ sense liberated by recent political de­ CATHOLIC. SOCIAUST. tis rics was then warning that the U.S. velopments. The dilemma that plagues FATHER. LOVER. was running short of good-paying Michael for a good part of his life jobs necessary to absorb these new \Vas between his fundamental intellec­ HERO. ENEMY. internal or international migrants. tual and political loyalty to the work­ As Maurice wrote, government ing class and its organized e::..-pression AMERICAN. HUMAN. responses attributed ro TOA. which in the unions-he regarded that as a got such a play in the press and in sec­ sort of rock-bound loyalty. He was HARRINGTON. tors of the Kennedy admirustracion, always 111 the middle between new was not a response to the problem insurgencies and old unionists ada­ of poYerty. In fact. the spreading civil mantly opposed to them. Many of ;THE OTHER rights movement was creating terrible the old conflicts in DSA had to do 1 1 polincal problems for a Democratic with that problem. The change in lead­ AMERICAN administrarion - forced to choose ership in the labor movement, and the THE LIFE Of between the allegiance of blacks, of­ willingness of key leaders and some ten newh· enfranchised because of of the international unions to connect MICHAEL HARRINGTO N thCU" ~tion to northem cities, and and even embrace social movement sometimes of an insurgent bent--and politics would have set 1'.fichael free. A new book by their old allies m the white South. Sev­ It's too bad that he isn't with us now. Maurice Jsserman eral of the legislative measures of the He was after all one of the most tal­ Grear Soaery "U.-ere in response to the ented people on the left, a brilliant new black urban voters, who were orator, who could speak and move He cut his teeth in helping to expand the influence of people so much-even in bad politi­ the Socialist Party, insurgents in the civil rights movement:. cal times. He would have been so and was there for all the first as vorers than as demonstrators. happy tn today's politics." major movements-from I believe that there was even an ad- . labor to civil nghts. His vantage to crediting The Other America MAXINE PHILLIPS: book The Other America with inspiring initiatives against po,·­ "I came to this story chronologi­ woke a prosperity-lulled err:y. No Democratic leader of the 60s cally later. Years after Mike left the nation to the ravages of wanted to giYe credit to the black Catholic Worker, he still would return poveny and ushered in a movement. there once a year to deliver a lecture new era of social refonn. Mike recognized that we should on socialism. I went to hear hinl, and his story stop making distinctions berween But has never been noticed that he addressed this little poor and worku1g class people. 'lbe truly told-until now. group of fifteen-many nodding in poor do form a reserve army of la­ ln this bracingly honest their own worlds right off the Bow­ bor, and people on welfare al\\'2}'S biography. noted historian ery-as if he were talking to a room moved back and forth between ir­ Maurice Isserman of 500. I started as a liberal demo­ regular labor markets and public examines the man. his crat, and would never have become assistance-when they could get it. a socialist but for Michael Harrington. times, and his legacy. It is important to appreciate In my seven years on staff, I met l\1ichael Harrington as a work in many people whose lives were progress. He did not make The Other touched by Mike, either because they arguments in the 1980s. He A711erica were actually recrwted to acti,'1sm, or was very keenly aware of the chang­ because he just made them think in a ing nature of the U.S. and world different way. economy, its growing tendencies to­ I rrussed most of the intense fac­ ward polarization. He in fact tried very tion fighting that Maurice chronicles hard to expand on a very laborist vi­ in his book, but saw a bit at its tail sion of how change could come end. I think that Mike learned a lot about in the U.S., taking account of from that excessive factionalism, and new movements of people of color, made a socialist milieu that might not feminists and others. He was certainly have been very congenial to the aver­ open to incorporate new insurgencies age American more comfortable. PU»LICAFFAIRS into his vision of the way in which Mike kept a lot of people in the or- AMember of the hr$•U$ B~lcs Grou

Spring-Summer 2000 • DemocraticLeft • page 33 ganization, and that fact that DSA is over 35, which is a huge issue for worlds. I think that for many a book still going years later is in part a trib­ DSA. If Mike were alive today there like Socialism, or his last book Past and ute to him; we thought it might just would be many more young people Future, did reach more people than last two or three years beyond his in this room nght now. It's our respon­ the academic tomes that many of us death. However, Mike wasn't good sibility to make sure that we don't write. Mike was incredibly good at at grooming successors. Charismatic 'gray' the way that the Socialist Party giving an accessible version of Marx's leaders don't often reproduce them­ of Debs and Thomas did. critique of capitalism. That capitalism sdves in history, they seem to just come One of the real strengths of really was a social system, interdepen­ up through the ranks, though Mike did Maurice Isserman's book, is that dent and cooperative in the way it have the advantage of some Maurice is, first and foremost, a great produced the world, uncooperative mentoring from Norman Thomas. historian of the left. He uncovered in its governance, and often anti-so­ Jim Chapin has said that Maurice's some extraordinary material on St. cial. He would always take Marx's book should have been called Louis in the 40s, Mike's family ori­ German and say "capitalism was a "Pilgrim's Progress," because the big­ gins, and his psychological formation­ social system governed asocially," a gest demon Mike had to fact was which created th.is interesting insider­ system that should be governed despair. He rarely gave in to it, de­ outsider personality. Mike always democratically but wasn't. Mike did spite the rough times for the left in wanted to be mainstream, but also a more to popularize that type ofanaly­ the last few decades. Some people did dissident. Mike was fairly proud, for sis and to resurrect Marx from the call him a progressive Pollyanna, but example, that his favorite singer was dustbin of authoritarianism than any­ a little bit of hopefulness can go a long Sinatra. He was 'conservative' in many body dse. way in organizing. ways, didn't have much of an ear for Maurice's conclusion in his book Even though Mike's language the later sixties feminist movement, or is historically accurate: the conditions paid tribute to his religious back­ the black liberation movements - that would support a socialist move­ ground (while denying it in some though he later tried to embrace them. men t yielding a Debs-Thomas­ ways), and perhaps because religious Maurice's book poses the ques­ Harrington figure have changed. In symbols resonate with me, I felt that tion of why Mike stayed with all those fact, his chapters on the 70s and 80s Mike's Church trairung was a key to right-wing anti-Communist mostly give one pause; if you arc a DSA loy­ his ability to look on the bright side. I Jewish New York needle trades los­ alist you have to consider Maurice's never really felt that he had completely ers-almost through 1973. That trag­ honest challenge to us: Mike's original left the Church. Everything he did was edy of Mike's life, that he didn't leave inclusive strategy in those years was so Catholic, and I'm one of those the ossifying old SP with Bogdan and realignment, building a left social mushy Protestant liberals he playfully Debbie Meier in 1965, and didn't democratic presence a.round the disdained. In fact Mike seemed to be come out earlier against the war and Democratic Party and unions. Ever a pre-Vatican II Catholic, who left a for unilateral withdrawal. At the same since the Democratic Agenda strategy, different Church than the one that time Isserman identifies the out-of­ predicated on a strong liberal trade succeeded it. He never really caught proportion influence of this small union lcft in the Democratic Party, up with the changes. group, in which Bogdan played a key crashed with the Reagan dection, we Michael Harrington did not need role, of anti-authoritarian socialists have been in an organizationally weak the socialist movement. We needed who pre-figured in many ways the position. Of course, as Steve Max and him. He was capable of being famous decentralized, libcratory stands of the others have observed, "we are all now on his own. In some ways we used New Left, including notions of par­ left social democrats," meaning the old to sit in the office and bask in his re­ ticipatory work, humane uses for tech­ faction fights are over and the com­ flected glory. He could have done the nology, and for injecting aspects of mitment to liberty and democracy on same public speaking or broadcast­ the heart in politics. We have to re­ the broad left is not questioned. Add ing and raked in much higher fees than member that the Stalinist left did have to that the people who worked with he got, but he always spoke strategi­ an outsized role when Mike and oth­ or fought with Mike who now staff cally: "Can I get a gig here, so that we ers were foursquare radical democrats high councils of the AFL, like Andy can build a DSOC/DSA local there?" in the fifties. Stern of SEIU, and many others. I regret that he didn't live to become There's a mention in the book that In Mike's last book, Socialism: Past the grand old man of the left, instead Mike was the socialist you took your and Future, written under the cloud of of 'America's oldest young socialist', parents to hear if they were fairly terminal cancer, he addr~ssed the de­ which is probably the way he'll go Middle-American, to show that so­ cline of the labor movement, the down in history." cialists weren't crazy. In this way he greater fragmentation of social move­ was both a popularizer, and I think, ments among various identities, and JOE SCHWARTZ: he also wanted to be an academic. In asked if they could unite around a "Those who have heard Michael America, by and large, there aren't common commitment to radical de­ Harrington speak in public arc now such public intellectuals bridging both mocracy, or what he and we would page 34 • Democratic Left • Spring-Summer 2000 call democratic socialism. Ar the 1985 Mayday/a11tti1'111tdfrom page 36 DSA convention, he said that ·'there is no universal class anymore." in the what we will." way of the labor mo\'ement of the argued for a 30s, or as King and the civil rights "natural" pace movement migh t have embodied of life in tune Now in Paperback! universal aspirations for democracy, \\ith the seasons, social rights and justice. He knew back rather than the Images ofAmerican Radicalism, then that all this would present major long hours and by Paul Buhle and Edmund Sullivan, organizing obstacles into the next (this) miserable condi­ with forward by Howard Fast. century. tions imposed by the capitalists. DSA has trained many younger Over 1500 illustrations, including The catastro­ people to be nonsectarian radical ac­ many DSA favorites - in 462 over­ phe o f the day, tivists, to go out and do the work. sized pages (72 color). Mike used to go to colleges and his a police riot in Chicago against first sentence was that "the revolution "A wonderful-filled catalogue of the anarchists and a is not going to happen in your life­ American Left's visual imagery." - In subsequent mur­ time," and what he meant was that These Times. there was a small, ongoing revolution derous frame­ happening daily below the radar up of their lead­ $39.95 ppd , Christopher Publishing House, screen. This is a hard message to em­ ers for bomb­ 24 Rockland Street, Hanover MA 02339. TEL: ploy if you want to motivate 18 year thro\\ing. could 781-826-7474. olds, who may \\'ant to go to the bar­ not entirely over­ ricades the next morrung. But Mike shadow the ex- tried to inspire and describe the world 1 citement of the moment. \'\'ork- as it is, while ginng people hope that gress gave its blessings to May 1st as ing people had spoken. For many an­ it could change. Many acted on his call Law Day, for a few years encourag­ archisls but not only for them, the day for a life commitment to social jus­ mg high schools to stage imaginary also retained the special significance tice by action." "Communist takeovers" associated of martyrdom, the occasion to with compulsory atheism. This was mourn the great heroes of Haymarket Thanks to Minam Thompiotz of the mirrored by a steady downward drift who had died from the hangman, un­ Q11eenI College Labor Ruo:tra Center, into bureaucratic military displays in repentant m their revolutionary fervor. and to Suzanne Gottlieb far thnr the Soviet Union from Stalinization SC\·eral melancholy trends later set aIIiitance. -Jeff Gold onward, and mirror offenngs in East­ in. The steady drift of the AFL right­ ern Europe and Asia: the veritable ward after 1886 toward exclusionism Law Day over there. (and racism) was symbolized by May Days have been pretty mod­ Miriam Bensman, co-editor Samuel Gompers' zeal for Labor Day est in recent years, here and abroad. of New York Democratic So­ instead of May Day as labor's holi­ Public rallies are attended mostly by cialist and former NYDSA day. Launched mdependently by sev­ aging radicals and interested young­ Chair, recently married eral local central labor federations, sters, private testimonials to good Gerry Santora, an engineer Labor Day, coming at the height of deeds done long before. But May Day who builds housing for the summer heat and holidays, was per­ isn't over by a long shot. Perhaps, in poor in New York City. DSA ceived as less confrontational. At the the face of capital's globalization and wishes them both every height of the Cold \X'ar, the US Con- happiness. the exciting recent progressive re­ sponse, and renewed visions of eco­ soctalism, its celebration th.ts Spring has only JUSt begun. Phyllis M. Llewellyn, 76, died at her home in Alexandria, Vir­ ginia on April 2nd, 2000. She was the last of the five daughters born to Woburn residents Harold and Genevieve Marion. She Paul B11h/e iJ author of Taking Care of is survived by her sons Frank Llewellyn and Stephen Llewellyn, Business (Mo11thb· Review Prm), and Stephen's wife Martha, and two grandchildren, Kenneth and editor of The Encrclopedia of the William of Alexandria. DSA expresses heartfelt condolences to American Left (Garland). He iI a National Political Committee member Frank Llewellyn on the member of the editorial committee. passing of his mother. Frank asks those wishing to express their solidarity with him to make a donation to DSA.

Spring-Summe r 2 000 • Democ r a t i cLeft • page 35 Mayday: A Promise So Hopeful

BY PAUL BUHLE

n 1889, the Paris laureate of England, Congress of the In­ William Morris. The I ternational Socialist garlands of Spring, the movement designated the May Pole, tender feel­ first of May the eight­ ings and tender blos­ hour holiday for workers soms symbolizing fer­ of the world. W'ithtn a tility and rebirth, all few years, May Day be­ took on fresh but not came the ventable symbol so altered meaning in of class contestarion. The the May Day holiday. occasion ·for sometimes Amazingly, it all re­ violent clashes between st.1.Ited in Chicago. marching workers and May, 1886: several police (especially in hundred thousand Rome), it offered social­ American workers of ists and anarchists world­ the Knights of Labor, wide their own holiday. the 1\merican Federa­ They seized it with gusto. tion of Labor, and so­ Elaborate ceremonies cialist and ana.rchis t quickly evolved, with groups all demon­ songs, banners, uniforms, strated for the Eight even moving dioramas Hour Day. It was the symbolizing the hopeful center of a world­ dreams of a socialist wide movement for Spring. shorter working hours. Just about a century Even the song lyrics of ago, B.citish socialist artist the American move­ Walter Crane's May Day ment, "Eight hours for drawings echoed the writ­ work/ eight hours for ings of Crane's favorite sleep/eight hours for writer, socialist, and poet .-onlin11td on page 35

D c n1 o c r a t i c S o c i a I i s t s o f A m e r i c a

0 Yes. J want to join the Democratic Socialist~ ,\!y spcci;il 1111crcst arc· Iincloscd arc my dues (includes a subscnption to 01.abor the Dcmocrn.uc Left) of \Dl>RI~~ 0S5U (sumincr) []$35 (regul:i.r) CRcli~1on 0$15 Qo\\· 111comc/studcnt) [ ~Youth 0 Yes, I want to renew my mcmberslup m DS,\. C \n11.Rac1sm Enclosed arc my renewal dues of I cnunism [J550 (sust;uncr) []S40 (regular) CJ 0$20 (low 111cumc/studenc) f" l ;ay and J .c~bian Rights l~tONI. - 'end to· 0 Enclosed IS an extra cootttbiition of DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF []$50 0$100 0$25 lo help DS:\ in 1ts work 1::.-i.'.i-1.-- AMERICA 1811 Varick Street. 12th noor, New York, NY 0 Please send me more informauon about DSr\ l

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