May-June, 1990 Vol. XVID, No. 3 $1.SO T ~ The Peace Dividend: Let's Give Peace a Chance by Ronald V. Dellums
..... look fttvfew by Mautlca luerman and Manning •rable of the left since the Second World War. But Thatcher's poll tax debacle should suggest to us, as to the Labour party, EDITORIAL that calls for local autonomy can't al ways be dismissed as expressions of reaction; that "empowerment" means Thatcher's Tax: Lessons for the Left giving people power to dissent, even from "truth." How to rebalance the History may record that Margaret which George Bush's pollster advisers polity -- weighing local empowerment Thatcher's decade of power in Britain would give public opinion, popular frus against national policy in an increas was brought to an abrupt end by the tration has mounted to the point of ex ingly globalized economy -- may be the single issue of the poll tax; if so, there plosion. Of course, the looting of shops toughest task for the next left. will be a lot ofjustice in that record. For and th~ throwing ofs tones is mostly the - Peter Mandler the poll tax -- the flat-rate per capita tax work of politically-marginal anarchists currently being introduced to replace and pseudo-revolutionaries. But more property taxes as the basis of local gov typical voters are willing to stand by DEMOCRATIC LEFT ernment funding -- rei:resents a lot more and watch with a little sympathy, even Founding Editor than a simple assault on the progres join into actions which in other circum Michael Harrington (1928-1989) sive principle in taxation. It stands for stances they would have condemned. Managing Editor Sherri Levine Thatcher's whole philosophy and style There are lessons here, for Labour, Editorial Committee of government. Of course, the poll tax and for us. If Labour returns to power Joanne Barkan is a designedly regressive tax: a single at the next election, which must come Neil McLaughlin person living in a forty-room mansion before June 1992, it will not only have Maxine Phillipe will pay only half as much in absolute to come up with an alternative to the Jan Rosenberg terms as a couple living in a low-income poll tax, but it will also have to enunci Mitch Horowitz public housing project. But equally im ate an alternative style ofgovernment . DEMOCRATIC LEFT (ISSN 0164- portant is the fact that the poll tax has Both tasks will be difficult. It will not 3207) is published six times a year at been imposed rapidly and against over suffice to restore the old property taxes: 15 Dutch St., Suite 500, New York, whelmingpublicopposition by the brute though attractive as one of the few mEBnS NY 10038. Second Class postage paid force of the conservative Parliamen of assessing not only income but capi at New York, NY. Subscription $8 regular; $15 institutional. Postmas- tary majority, a majority gained on a tal, property taxes were easier to levy in ter: Send address changes to 15 Dutch mere 42 percent of the popular vote in days when home-ownership was less Street, Suite 500, New York, NY 10008. the 1987 election. Worse, the tax was widely diffused in Britain than it is DEMOCRATIC LEFT is published I\ imposed first in a kind of punitive trial now. Other systems of progressive by the Democratic Socialists ofAmer- run on Scotland, where the Conserva taxation -- local income tax, for instance ica, 15 Dutch Street, #500, New York, tives pulled only 24 percent in the last -- aren't much more popular, as Ameri NY 10038, (212) 962-0390. election. Finally,alongwith the poll tax cans know too well. Labour has not, as Signed articles express the opinons of have come drastic limits on the tradi yet, committed itself to an alternative, the authors and not necessarily those tional freedoms of British cities and shrewdly but evasively aware that the of the organization. counties to engage in the kind of wealth concrete horror of the poll tax makes redistribution and other forms of social vagueness look good. But it will be even ARTICLES Let's Give Peace a Chance policy that state governments in our harder for socialist parties in the post by Ronald Dellums...... 3 take federal system can still for grant.eel. Reagantrhatcher era to learn the other The Mexicanization of Europe? Not only what local government spends lessons. Parties of the left employed by Steue Max...... 5 on, but how much it spends, is now almost equally overbearing, over-cen Struggle in South Africa being manipulated directly from the tralized methods in building up the by the New York Committee Against center. Even Labour-controlled cities welfare state that Thatcherite ruthless Apartheid...... 10 which delivered overwhelming electoral ness then dismantled. In thinking about Youth Section Conference rebuffs to the Tories at their last elec how to rebuild and relegitimate a genu by Ginny Coughlin ...... 11 tions are essentially now being governed inely "kinder, gentler" society, both Sixties Sell-Out a Myth by their worst political enemies. American and British socialists need to by Maurice Isserman ...... 12 It is this concentration and cen examine carefully these centralist tra The Impasse of Racial Politics tralization of power, as much as the ditions. Democracy needs to be rein by Manning Marahle...... 14 DEPARTMENTS principles of progressive taxation, that stated as a value, a means as well as an Editorial...... 2 triggered the riots and disorders we end. That will entail a real devolution DSAction ...... 7 saw on our televisions in early April. of authority to localities and communi On The Left...... 8 Denied Parliamentary means of expres ties, even those controlled by our po Reviews ...... 12 sion, denied the fruits of their votes in litical antagonists. "States' rights" has, Janie Higgins...... 16 local elections, denied even the voice for good reasons, not been a slogan
DEMOCRATIC LEFT 2 MAY· )UNE 1990 Let's Give Peace a Chance by Ronald ·v. Dellums
On December 5, 1980, at the invita tion of my friend, Michael Harrington, I addressed the Eurosocialism confer ence here in Washington. Speaking to an audience that included five former or future progressive heads of Euro pean governments, I said: "There is little doubt that the 1980 election should be viewed as a watershed event in American political history. However, the 1980 election may also be the dawn of a totally new era in this country's social and economic history .... " Six weeks later and six days before Mr. Reagan's inauguration I challenged the fundamental precepts of Reagan An Army's tank plant in Michigan that is scheduled tf> close in June, 1992. ism, saying: "How are you going to balance the budget, cut t.axes, expand the Constitution, international law, and ken out and risen up against tyrants the military budget at such an incred Congressional mandates in the conduct around the world, in the process trans ible rate ($300billion per year by 1985), ofcovert wars in Nicaragua and Angola forming the global political landscape. and still save the cities of this country, demonstrated its determination to rule Citizens of conscience can only applaud save the human potential of our young without law -- or in spite of it. the triumph of democratic and human people and our senior citizens who need rights ideals throughout Eastern Eu an opportunity for expanded lives and Arms :Escalation rope, most ofwhich were achieved with opportunities? How are you going to do The most adverse impact of Re out violence. The hope is that this will it? You cannot do it in the manner he aganism was occasioned by its massive be replicated in other countries such as proposes." escalation of the arms race, both nu South Africa, El Salvador, and China. The political, social, and economic clear and conventional. With the con It is in this context that our govern history ofthe past decade is, in many re structive exception of the INF Treaty, ment -- both Administration and Con spects, the unfolding and unraveling of his administration witnessed an exac gress--must begin a thorough reassess Reaganism and Reaganomics at home erbation of Cold War tensions, the fray ment of what ought to constitute a le and abroad. For Reagan and the Reaga ing of the NATO alliance, coupled with gitimate, long-range national security nauts it was "morning in America" - vicious military interventions, in the policy. The Cold War is over; as a conse but it soon became "mourning in Amer internal affairs of Third World nations. quence the United States and the So ica" for the vast majority of America's During the decade of the 1980s the viet Union now face a moral imperative poor and middle classes. Reagan administration and its surro to conclude substantive reductions in The Reaganaut evisceration ofedu gate successor spent almost three tril nuclear and conventional forces, so that cation, housing, and human needs pro lion dollars on the arms race, including the superpowers can reallocate scarce grams made a mockery of this nation's arms sales and transfers to client states, resources that will work to improve the constitutional commitment "to promote especially those in the Middle East and quality oflife for all the planet's people. the general welfare." Its dedicated effort the Third World. This massive military Our forthcoming national security to undermine already existing laws and spending spree was subsidized at the budgets ought to reflect these realities, Supreme Court decisions upholding equal expense of American t.axpayers, cur starting in FY 1991. An integral part of opportunity for all, regardless of race, rent and future, through the tripling of this reallocation of resources should gender, or age was a deliberate effort to our national debt. include the economic conversion pro deny application of the Bill of Rights to However, during the past year the gram that I have championed for the all our citizens. Its willful defiance of peoples ofoppressed nations have spo- past decade in the Congressional Black
DEMOCRATIC LEFT 3 MAY-JUNE 1990 is entitled to a job as a basic human Iclean -ups at weapons productions plants right. Second, once Congress makes a and military bases slated for closing or CLASSIFIED decision adveraely affecting a local econ reduced activity. MEET OTHER LEFT SINGLES through omy, it has a moral obligation to ease This legislative initiative for eco the Concerned Singles Newsletter. All areas the economic, social, and psychic dislo nomic conversion is part ofour ongoing and ages. Box 555D, Stockbridge, MA cation caused, in this instance, by sig commitment to the belief that full po 01262 for a free sample. nificant reductions in spending and litical democracy in this country cannot personnel levels in the Pentagon budget. be achieved until we promote, struggle COMMUNIT'i JOBS, socially responsible Local communities and their resident for, and achieve full economic democ job opportunities. Subscribe to the only taxpayers ought not to be economically racy. This fundamental transforma nationwide listing covering organizing, punished because of the closing down of tion in our national economic thinking disarmament, labor, environment, and m DEMOCRATIC LEFT 4 MAY-JUNE 1990 by Steve Max . (Steve Max made the following remarks when he received an award from the NY DSA local on March 21, 1990.) Many life long~. now 00.ftled by the current orgy of free market self § congratulation, can no longer see be 0 yond next week and think that the world 0 has now settled down to a century of Leipzig, East German, where West German products are prevalent. free market capitalism. What lies beyond next week is, as in Eastern Europe, with efficient auto to Third World levels. Pitted against usual, clearly laid out in the business mated plants based on cheap l.alx>r. Some that policy are those who use political sectionofTheNew York Times. Under of that new production will be sold in and trade union action to defend the the headline, "High Technology In Plants the East, but much is already earmarked quality of life of working people. Equally Abroad," Tiie Times eicplains that trans for Western Europe where it will pull as important, we must try to reshape national corporations including Gen down Western wages, just as Mexican U.S. foreign policy so that Third World eral Motors, Chrysler, Ford, and Gen production pulls down American wages. living standards can rise toward ours, eral Electric are rapidly expanding their The hope of Eastern Europeans is which is our only long term defense. foreign operations, but creating fewer that they will enjoy a German, or Ameri In this global economy it matters and fewer new jobs. The secret is heavy can, or even Italian living standard, not where the countries of Eastern Europe investment in high techndogy, high au~ that they remain in low wage econo enter the scene. It matters how many mation plants, with Mexico being a case mies. But that is where many will end come in as part of the West and how in point. In Mexico, G. M. workers have up if they take instruction from the many come in as part of the Third World. achieved U. S. quality and production West. Already in the countries with Whether what develops in Eastern levels at three dollars an hour. This, high Western held debt such as Hun Europe is Third World low wage pro says The Times "is helping to erode the gary and Polaoo, the Internatxmal Mone duction for Western markets, or Euro old idea that the big industrial powers tary Fund is insisting on its Central pean high wage production that the have a corner on state-of-the-art pro America "solution" and issuing orders people themselves can afford to pur duction because their technicians and for the people to consume as little as chase is a political issue inside and out workers have the necessary skills." possible, in order to export as much as side of Eastern Europe -- the outcome General Electric leads in using t.ech possible -- to the West. of which depends on the sureess of demo nology to cut labor. G.E. has expanded We have only seen the first round in cratic socialism and trade unions. Any prcxluction in Japan, South Korea, Spain, Eastern Europe. The free market pro one who thinks the 90s marks the end Mexico, and Hungary, while cutting ten gram of the transnational corporations ofideology, or the end of history, or the thousand foreign worke-s off the pay will not long remain unchallenged. Many end of class struggle, or the end of roll. In the same edition, The Times political philosophies will contend for democratic socialism is either nuts, or reports a new General Motors deal to power, some of them not so pleasant, they don't read The New York Times. build its third East European auto plant. but among them are and will be forms Democratic socialism is needed today So far G .M. has operations in East Ger of democratic socialism and militant as it has never been needed before be many, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. trade unionism. What happens in East cause we are the people who know that Here's the question: Are we to be ern Europe is part of a larger global the economy can operate on shared values lieve that G.M. and the transnational contest. As we enter a world of interna and not the blind laws of the market. companies now expanding in Eastern tional markets and production, the ten Said the Book of Proverbs, ''Where there Europe will build plants of lower qual dency is for competition from the low is no vision the people perish." Demo ity than those in Mexico and will install wage areas to pull down the living stan cratic socialism brings vision and hope less efficient equipment, so that they dard of the high wage areas. The U.S. for justice in our time. e can pay more people to do higher cost Chamber of Commerce and the Busi work? Not likely. It seems that what ness Round Table have been outspoken Steve Max, a DSA vice chair, is the they have in mind is to recreate Mexico on the need for American wages to sink training director for Midwest Academy. DEMOCRATIC LEFT 5 MAY-JUNE 1990 Books and Lit.erature Available through the DSA Office Books DSAPrice #3 The Common Good: Stalemate or Recon $1.50_ Socialism: Past and Future, by Michael struction by Gar Alperovitz. Harrington. Argues that democratic social #4 Gentrification, Strategic Initiatives, and the Left by Robert Beauregard. $1.50_' ism is the only alternative for 21st century. $19.00_ Remaking Love: The Feminization ofSex, by Barbara Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Hess, & Glo Publications/Products ria Jacobs. Published at $15.95. $12.00_ The Long-Distance Runner, by Michael Democratic Left, DSA's bimonthly periodi Harrington. An autobiography that spans cal. $8.00/one year subscription. Most cur the past two decades. Published at $19.95 $17.00_ rent and back isaues available in quantity. $.50_ Fear ofFalling: The Inner life of the Middle Laber Voice, the Publication of the DSA Labor Clase, by Barbara Ehrenreich. $19.00_ Commission. Most recent issue available. $.50_ The New American Poverty, by Michael Religious Socialism, the publication of tho Harrington. Paperback. $7.00_ DSA Religion and Socialism Com.milllion. One Why Americans Don't Vote by Frances Fox year subscription. $5.00_ Piven and Rfohard Cloward. Paperback. $9.00_ Not Far Enough, the newsletter of the DSA TheMeanSeason:TheAttackon the Welfare Feminist Commission. One year subscription State by Fred Block, Richard Cloward, Bar included with annual Commission dues. $10.00_ bara Ehrenreich, and Frances Fox Piven. Nuestra Lucha/Our Struggle, the newsletter Paperback. $7.00_ of the DSA Latino, Anti-Racism, and Afro AMargin of Hope: An Intellectual Autobiog American Commissions. $.50_ raphy by Irving Howe. Paperback. $7.00_ The Activist, DSA Youth Section newsletter. $.50_ Socialism and America by Irving Howe. DebB, DSA buttons. Two styles: plain fist-and·rose the Thirties, & American execptionalism. $5.00_ and fist-and-rose held by black and white The American Evasion of Philoeopby: AG. clasped bands. $1 each. $1.00_ nealogy of Pragmatism by Cornel West. Deb&Postcard, depictingthe life and legacy of Paperback. $18.00_ Eugene Debs. $ .50 each or 12 for $5. $ .50_ The Next Left: The History of a Future by Solidarity bu.mpersticker $1.00 Michael Harrington. Paperback. $8.00_ Socialist Forum, DSA's discussion bulletin. $1.50 The Socialist Debate by Bogdan Denitch $20.00_ Video: New American Po"Yerty by Michael The End of the Cold War: European Unity, $10.00_ Harrington. 60 minutes. $25.00_ Socia1ism, and the Shift in Global Power by Video: Towards a New Socialism by Michael Bogdan Denitch Harrington. 60 minutes. $25.00_ Pamphlets Fist-and-Roee Tee-Shirts. Sm., med., lg., & extra-lg. in tan, white & silver. 100% cotton. $10.00_ A Socialist Perspective on the Politics of TOTAL $ ___ Povertyby Michael Harrington, with contri butions by Barbara Ehrenreich, William Julius Free Literature Wilson, and Mark Levinson. Special bulk rate: $.20/copy for orders of 20 or more. $1.00_ We are Democratic Socialists with a V1Sion of Democratic Promise: Ideas for Turning the Future. America in a Progressive Direction. Articles Where We Stand, a position statement of by Robert Kuttner, Michael Harrington, & DSA William Julius Wilson, among others . $.60_ What SociaHsm Is.. .And Is Not. Socialist-Feminst Reader. 200 pages. $12.00_ Socialism Informs the Best of Our Politics, Toward A Socialist Theory d Racism by Comel a pamphlet written by Michael Harrington. West. $1.60_ A Better World in Birth, the statement of Eastern Europe and Democratic Socialism the DSA Youth Section. After the Cold War $.50_ For A More Livable World, the brochure Toward a Da:occratic S DEMOCRATIC LEFT 6 MAY-JUNE 1990 DSACTION Fujimori, won 29 percent. The ruling "The Ecological Argument for Social INTERNATIONAL left-of-center party, APRA, won only 16 ism." To order your copy send $1.00to percent for its candidate, Luis Alva Chicago DSA, 1608 N. Milwaukee, 4th • Following a propaganda blitzkrieg by Castro, but has intimated that it would Floor, Chicago, IL 60647. For a sub West Germany's Christian Democratic support Fujimori in the run-off. scription, send $8.00 to the same ad government, East Germany voted heav dress. ily for the three-party conservative Alli- RESOURCF.s ance for Germany. The Christian Demo- UPCOMING crats received 44 percent of the vote, J • Two new books are now available and the Social Democrats only 22 per- through the DSA office: The Socialist • Beyond Communism and Capi cent. Nevertheless, the Social Demo- Debate and The End of the Cold War: talism.: The Democratic Socialist era ts have agreed to join in a grand EuJ:oiean Unity, Scrialism, and the Shift Alternative, DSA's fourth annual coalition government. Three weeks aft.er in Global Power. Both books are by educational and leadership retreat, thecountry'sfirstfreeelections.Lothar DSA Vice Chair Bogdan Denitch. The will take place June 29 - July 1 at de Maiziere, the next Prime Minister, End of the Cold War, available through Oakwood Friends School in announced an aooord by which his three- the DSA office for $10.00 plus postage Poughkeepsie, NY. Irving Howe, party conservative alliance would get and handling, charts the unique oppor Frances Fox Piven, Joseph fourteen ministries in a twenty-four- tunities and potential pitfalls that ac Schwartz, Joanne Barkan, and member Cabinet. The Social Demo- company the increased economic and Jerry Watts will be among some of crats would get seven ministries, in- political integration of the European the speakers. Panels on such top eluding the Foreign Ministry, Finance, community. The Socialist Debate, ics as: the collapse ofcommunism, Trade, and Labor, and the centrist Lib- available for $20.00 plus postage and limits and possibilities for social erals three. Interestingly, de Maiziere, handling, looks at the nature and his democracy, and strategies for the reports the Dallas Morning News, is a tory of socialism in the twentieth cen left. Registration, which includes "committed socialist" and "last No- tury, assessing the possibilities for so room, meals, and materials, is only vember, after be was named the new cialism in the future. $110. Call the DSAofficeat (212) head of his party," be was "still advo- *"HomeCareandHomeCare Workers 962-0390 for more information. eating support of strong socialist prin- in Five Countries -- Britain, Sweden, ciples," saying, "Socialism is a beauti- Norway, Denmark, and Canada," a • The DSA Mid-Atlantic Retreat will ful vision. We simply haven't tried it paper by Sumner Rosen, is available take place June 1-3 at the Claggett yet." from the Center for Labor-Management Retreat Center, Maryland. The cost is * The Austrian Socialist Government Policy Studies, 120 West 44tb Street, $87 for the weekend. For information, was returned to power for the fourth New York, NY 10036 (212) 391-0410. call Bobbe Robbins at (703) 742-9450. consecutive time in a narrow victory. •The Spring issue of &ligiozu SociaJ, • Building DSA'e Agenda in the Heart •The conservative Greek New Democ- ism, the newsletter of the Religion and land: A Conference on Organizing for racy Party won 150 of the 300 seats in Socialism CommEsion, is off the presses. the 90e will take place Saturday, May 5 Parliament in the recent election and Featured articles include: "DSA Dele in Chicago, IL. All midwest DSAers are picked up support from a right-wing gate Challenges International League encouraged to attend. For more infor independent to give the conservative ofReligiousSocialists," and "Change in mation, call Chicago DSA at (312) 752- party a one-seat majority. The Pan World Situation Requires Change in 3562. Hellenic Socialist Movement of former Socialist Thinking.• To subscribe send • The annual DSA Youth Section Sum Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou $7.50 for a regular subscription and mer Conference will take place August won 123 seats, and nineteen went to an $15.00 for a sustaining subscription to 16-19, 1990atAlleghenycollege,Mead alliance of leftists and communists. the Institute for Democratic Socialism, ville, Pennsylvania. The summer con •In Peru, the favorite to win the presi- P.O. Box 80, Camp Hill, PA 17001. ference is a time for skills-building, elect dency, Mario Vargas Llosa, a novelist, • TIU! EcoSocialist Reuiew, the news ing new leademhip, and setting the Youth who proposed a free-market "shock" letter of the new DSA Environmental Section's political direction for the for Peru's economy, won only 31 per- Commission, has a focus on Earth Day. coming year. Conference registration cent of the vote, while a centrist new- The issue includes articles on: "Envi is $80. For more information, contact comer of Japanese descent, Alberto ronmentalists Should be Socialists" and Dinah Leventhal at the DSA office. DEMOCRATIC LEFT 7 MAY-JUNE 1990 women's ieeuee a plank in the local's Massachus Its electoral policy platform. The Boston School for Demo cratic Socialism is holding four Illinois oourses this Spring: "Introduction Arthur Loevy, eecretary to Democratic Socialism;" "Hou. treaeurer of the Amalgamated inginAmerica: AProgreesivePer Clothing and Textile Workers spective;" "The Transformation Union, will be honored at Chicago ofEastern Europe and the Soviet DSA youth organizer Dinah D&\.'s 32nd Annual DelB-Tho~ Union;" and "An Eoonomic C.Ourae Leventhal spoke last month at n:;A Harrington Dinner May 4 at the for the 90s." James Braude and local meetings in San Francisco, Midland Hotel. Featured speaker Deborah Weinstein spoke to Bos East Bay, Sacramento, and San will be Cecil Roberts, vice presi ton DSA's March forum on the Diego. She also spoke at campus dent of the United Mine Workers, Massachusetts fiscal crisis. Daniel meetings at Santa Cruz Univer who will talk on "Victory Over Singer, Nation oorrespondent, and sity, Mills College in Oakland, San Pittston: Lessons and Strategies Peter Mathern, Czechloslovakian Diego State, and San Francisco for Labor and the Progressive student leader, addressed several State. She received an enthusias Movement in the 90s." "Crum forums in Boston as part of the tic response with the DSA exhibit bling Walls - Shifting Blocs" was DSA Eastern Europe tour. at the national Campus Outreach discussed by DSANational Politi Opportunity League annual con cal Committee member Bogdan ferenceattended by 3,000 student Denitch on January 25 in Chi DSA Organizational Direc leaders.... The California DSA cago. The Chicago DSA PAC tor Patrick Lacefield spoke to DSA Statewide Network is planning a endorsed four candidates in the groups in Columbia and St Louis. Spring Retreat April 28-29 with 1990 Democratic primary election, discussions on "Toward a Demo two of whom won: Miguel del New Ji rs cratic SociaHsm." ...San Diego DSA Valle won reelection as the Demo Central New Jersey DSA or showed the Michael Harrington cratic candidate to the State Sen ganized a one-day conference on videotape, "Socialism: Past and ate from the 4th Senate District the environment in anticipation Future," on March 23 .... Los An and David Orr won the Demo of Earth Day. Memben from lo geles DSAheld a birthday party in cratic nomination for County cal environmental organizations, March for DSA eminenu gnu Clerk.... The University of Chicago the labor movement, DSA, and Harold Meyerson as he turned DSA chapter sponsored a talk on other oommunity groups attended. forty ... .LA DSA organized a fo national health care by Dr. The local also sponsored a visit by rum on "Socialism at the C1'088- Christine Cassell, head ofinternal Czech student union leader, Peter roada -- Crisis in Eastern Europe: medicine at the University Hospi Mathern. Rhon Baiman, chair of What does it mean for the U.S. tals and is president of Physicians the local, gave a lecture on "So Left?,'' with Irwin Silber, co-edi for Social Ree~nsibility. J. Hughes cialism, Liberalism, and Ethical tor of Frontline newspaper, and of Chicago University DSA spoke Humanism." Cornel West, a member of DSA's on "Socialist Democracy and Eu National Political Committee. ropean Integration," at the New Ne "Abortion for Survival,'' a vide World Resource Center. Na<398u DSA Saturday Semi otape on the struggle around re nars heard Hofstra University eoo productive rights, was shown by K nomics professor R. Guttman dis the LA local in March .... California Central Kentucky and the CU9!1 "The Social Security Tax Grab DSAers participated in the March Uni'Yel'Bity of Kentucky DSA heard and other Tax Inequities" march 24 marches in San Francisco and Lisa Smith-Peters, a member of 31; Trudy Goldberg. director, Adel Los Angeles to oommemorat.e Arch the American delegation of elec phi University Center for Social bishop Romero, assassinated in El tion observers, speak last month Policy, on "It's Time for a 'New Salvador ten years ago. in Lexington on "The Nicaraguan Deal"' on April 28; and will hear Elections -- What Happened?" Marty Melkonian, economics pro D llmbUJ Central Kentucky DSA also heard fessor at •Hofstra, May 19 on The Washington, DC/NOVN Jim Embry speak on "America's "Economic Reconversion of L.I. MD local held a pre-Earth Day en Future: An African-American Military Plants: Reversing our vironmental symposium. The Perspective." ... They are also Shrinking&onomy." DSAerCarol Feminist branch continues to meet making plans for their annual O'Cleireacain has been appointed to strategize around making Spring retreat. CommissionerofFinance for New DEMOCRATIC LEFT 8 MAY-JUNE 1990 York City.... New York DSA held a Eighth Socialist Scholars Conference a Success conference March 24 on "Chart by John Mason munist Societies; the Debt Crisis; ing a New Course: Progressive Community-Labor Relations; the Fu Policies for the 90s." Areas in 0 ver 3,000 socialists from around ture of Gorbacbev's Reforms; and the cluded: housing, welfare, the the world gathered to examine the prob Drug Crisis. The Democratic Socialists budget, race, crime, economic lems and prospects for radical politics of America held a successful reception development, health care, and the in a poet-communist world. The eighth during the Conference. Over 300people en·lironment. The Religion and annual Socialist Scholars Conference crowded in to hear Barbara Ehrenreich, Socialism branch discussed the took place April 6-8 at the Borough of Nomonde Ngubo, and DSA National "Inside Scoop on Soup Kitchens." Manhattan Community College under Political Committee member Joseph The New York DSAHousingTask the theme, "Democratic Revolutions and Schwartz talk about DSA. Force is considering ways to be the End of the Cold War." The Confer The Conference was revived in 1983 involved in tenant activism. ence brought academics, students, tmde after a hiatus by the City University of union and community activists together New York branch ofthe Democratic So 0 with representatives of socialist and cialists of America, under the leader Bogdan Denitch, DSA vice democratic movements from Europe and ship of DSA Vice Chair Bogdan Den chair, spoke on Eastern Europe to the Third World for three days. Some of itch. It is cosponsored by an array ofor over 150 people at Oberlin College the featured speakers at this year's ganizations and journals. February 22, sponsored by Ober conference included: Barbara Ehren The Conference took on special sig lin DSA. ... The DSA Youth Section reich, DSA honorary chair; Boris Kar nificance this year when much of the at Dayton University included free gilitsky, the Russian democratic social press has declared that the collapse of condoms in St. Valentine's Day ist and sureessful refonn candidate; Ellen rommunist authoritarianism marks the holiday cards reading "Love Willis, writer for the VUlage Voice; Daniel collapse of socialism as an alternative Safely." The cards also had phone Singer, author of Is Socialism Doonud?; to "free-market" policies throughout numbers for organizations offer Todd Gitlin, professor at the University the world. The gathering of three thou ing information on birth control, of California at Berkeley; Nomonde sand socialists reminded the world that and AIDS. The socialists gave out Ngubo, Representative of the South the end of the Cold War does not mean more than 1,000 condoms at the African Mineworkers Union; and Slav the end of the socialist movements, but Catholic institution. enka Drakulic, Yugoslav author. rather may mark the beginning of its Over one hundred and twenty work recovery world-wide. e Penn8Y shops and panels covered such topics John Mason, a member of the CUNY Patrick Lacefield spoke as: Black politics in America; Repro March 25 at Central Pennsylva ductive Rights; the Future ofSocialism; DSA branch, helped organize the So nia DSA's annual dinner in Har Democratic Movements in Post-Com- cialist Scholars Conference risburg on DSA priorities. Gor don A. Chapman, a former CIA officer and now a DSA member, DSA Sponsors Eastern European Tour spoke on why covert activities are not good intelligence and harm The Democratic Socialists ofAmer Alex Harrington, a member of the our nation's security... .Pittsburgh ica, as part of its on going interna DSA Youth Section and organizer of DSA held a tribute to Michael tional solidarity work, sponsored a the tour, claims that, "Student ac Harrington, which included a view twelve-city tour with Eastern Euro tivists here were inspired by the abil- ing of his video on "The Next Left" pean activists. Peter Mat.hem, Czecho ity of Eastern European student and discussion by several slovakian student leader, Daniel movements and organizations, such speakers.... Reading-Berks DSA is Singer, correspondent with the Ntv as the Czechloslovakian Student Un organizing the fifth annual Mau tion, and Mitja Jager, leader of the ion, to play such a major role in the rer-Stump award dinner. The Slovenian Reform Communists spoke transformation of their societies." award recipients are Maggie Kuhn, at campuses and in communities Thespeakersshared with their audi convener of the Gray Panthers, across the northeast and midwest. ences the state of the political cli and Bogdan Denitch, DSA vice They made stops at such colleges as mate in Eastern Europe and the chair and author of The End ofthe Ithaca College, Bates College, Wash struggle for change, as well as the Cold War.... Philadelphia DSA ington University, Prinoot.on Univer prospects for democratic socialism hosted Nation correspondent sity, Columbia University, Swathmore movements in Eastern Europe and Daniel Singer for several public College, Harvard University, and the the Soviet Union. They stressed the forums, as well as Peter Mathern, University of Massachusetts at importance of maintaining on-going in conjunction with the DSA speak Amherst, addressing students and contact with like-minded activists in ing tour on Easter Europe. community members at each stop. the West. DEMOCRATI C LEFT 9 MAY-JUNE 1990 Struggle in South Africa by The New York Committee DeKlerk did not release all detainees nor the 2,500 political prisoners who Against Apartheid remain in apartheid's jails. He did not stop political trials or end the occupa tion of black townships by government 'I:e release of Nelson Mandela on security forces. February 11 was a day of jubilation These steps, outlined in the ANC's from Cape Town, South Africa, to Harare Declaration, are important Harlem, New York. It marked a hard preconditions for negotiations to begin. won victory for the anti-apartheid The democratic organizations insist that movement and an enormous conces they cannot start negotiations until there sion by the apartheid government. is freedom of political activity. It appears that South Africa's rul The ability to participate without ers have finally recognized that apart threat of repression is crucial to mobi heid cannot be sustained or cosmeti lizing the majority behind a democratic cally reformed. They now comprehend platform for change. It is equally neces that a process of transformation must sary for DeKlerk to demonstrate that begin, based on negotiations with the he can deliver on his promises, control democratic forces. And so South Africa the police and army, and isolate the is moving from a period of defiance fanatical white right-wing. against apartheid to a period defining the terms of power and participation in Why Now? a post-apartheid society. Several questions must now be While the road to negotiations is answered: How much power will the rocky, there are also some powerful white minority give up? Over what will reasons why the process is going for the majority rule? How far will condi ward. The most compelling one is the tions of inequality change? The chasm depth of crisis in South African society, between present-day apartheid and a both politically and economically. South Africa's rulers face an oppo unified, democratic, nonracial South - sition that bas grown organizationally staged a two-day national protest strike. Africa is vast. strong and militant in the past five Nelson Mandela saluted this work years. The State of Emergency did not as he was released in Cape Town, say How Far suppress activism, but instead gener ing, "I extend my greetings to the work President DeKlerk's order to re ated protracted conflict with the re ing class ofour country. Your organized lease Mandela was dramatic. He simul gime at the grassroots level, in stance is the pride of our movement. taneously ended the banning of the workplaces, churches, schools, town You remain the most dependable force African National Congress, the Pan ships, and homelands. in the struggle to end exploitation." Africanist Congress of Amnia, the South The growth of the CongreES of South The government's State of Emer African Communist party, and tbirty African Trade Unions (COSATU) and gency has been enforced at rising costs three other organizations. He limited the labor movement to over one million internationally as well. The worldwide detention under the State ofEmergency members across the country bas been movement behind sanctions has been decrees, released certain political pris particularly decisive. When the United gaining ground, as have citizen cam oners, suspended political executions, Democratic Front was bannoo, COSATU paigns in Europeanc:t the United States and partially lifted censorship. unions stepped forward to help UDF to pressure multinational corporations But DeKlerk did not end the State organize the Mass Democratic Move to disinvest from South Africa. The ofEmergency or renounce coercive gov ment and last year's Defiance Cam impact of sanctions and disinvestment ernment laws. In fact, demonstrations paign. When white South Africans voted has been estimated in billions ofdollars, are still being brutally suppressed and in their elections last September, more butjust as important has been the chill activists still face violence and arrest. than three million black South Africans Continued on page 16. DEMOCRATIC LEFT 10 MAY-JUNE 1990 Youth Section Conference Biggest Ever by Ginny G_oughlin 'Eie fifteenth annual DSAYouth Sec tion winter conference was held at Barnard College in New York City Februnry 16- 19in theshndowofdemo cratic revolutions in Eastern Europe and the release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Nearly three hundred people from all over the country partici pated in the intense throe days of dis cussion, debate, and fun. At the opening plenary on Friday night, Victor Mahsabela, a representa Dinah Leventhal, Youth Soction organizer (left); Friday night opening plenary. tive of the African National Congress, celebrated the release of Nelson Man in Eastern Europe will significantly The Youth Section welcomed at least dela with conference participants. "This change politics in the United States. two new chapters at the conference, is a victory for all of us around the world One of the most intense conference Purdue and Villanova, bringing the total who love freedom, dignity, and peace," debates surrounded the "war on drugs" number of Youth Section chapters to he said. He applauded DSA Youth Sec and socialist alternatives. At the sec- more than forty, with contacts on hun tion activists for their anti-apartheid ond plenary, Jefferson Morley, a writer dreds more. "It was reassuring to meet work, saying that from this victory they for the Nation, introduced a socialist so many DSA activists and it was help should derive confidence in mass struggle version of drug legalization. Morley's ful to see what people are doing at other and renewed energy to continue the concept, which he calls "normalization" campuses," said Monica McDermott, of fight for a free South Africa. of drugs was attacked at a later work- the Villanova chapter. Conference attendees were re shop. Advocates and opponents ofdrug Thirty new members were recruited minded of the successful movements of legalization crowded into the workshop at the conference. "I am attracted to youth around the world. "As young room. Terri Burgess of Cleveland DSA DSA's work in electoral politics and the people, we have seen a lot ofother young argued that the residents of drug-rid- way they use the system to change the people go out into the streets and change den neighborhoods are opposed to le- system," said Mike Coccia, a Green their governments," said Dinah gruimtion. ''The answer must come from peace activist who decided at the con Leventhal, DSAyouth organi7.er, speak thecommunities themselves," she said. ference to join DSA. ing at the opening plenary. That image At the third plenary, Socialist Strat- The closing plenary asked the ques- ofsuccessfulsocialchangegavethecon egy and VlSion for the 1990s, Joseph tion, "Is this the end of history?" The ference a sense of optimism. Schwartz, chair of the Philadelph.ia local, answer, ofcourse, was that it is not. Ac There was also a sense of urgency challenged activists to develop their tivistswerecallcdbyToddGitlin to give ronccming United States politics. Strate capability to defend the socialist vision. a restart to a history that ended in 1914, gies for change, especially the possibil "We have an ideological role to play as the history of democratic socialism. ity of capturing a part of the peace divi democratic sociali::,ts," he incristed, stress- Activists left the conference with a dend, were hotly debated. DSA Honor ing the need to fully understand demo- deeper sense of the life-long commit ary Chair Barbara Ehrenreicb captured cratic theory in order to defend our ment many people have made to demo the urgency activists felt when, refer vision of democracy. cratic socialism. Irving Howe, DSA ring to the Cold War, she said, "The Popular workshop topics included honorary chair, asked people to join the War is over, let the revolution begin." socialist-feminism, Eastern Europe, long and difficult struggle for a better At the second plenary, Bogdan housing policy, gay and lesbian politics, world, saying "there is nothing more Denitch, DSA vice chair, encouraged the U .$ .labor movement, electoral poll- worthy of serious human beings." e conference participants to look at East tics, and the Cold War. In addition to ern Europe as leftists, as activists, and regional caucuses there was a women's Ginny Coughlin is a student at Temple as students, and see "how rapidly real caucus, a people of color caucus, and a University and a member of the Phila- ity changes." He argued that changes gay/lesbian/bisexual caucus. delphia DSA Steering Committee. DEMOCRATIC LEFT 11 MAY-JUNE 1990 REVIEWS Sixties Sell-Out A Myth BEYOND THE BARRICAD:ES: THE SIXTIES GENERA TION GROWS UP by Jack Whalen and Richard F1acb, Temple Uni""1'Bity Presa: 1989. by Maurice Isserman Twenty years ago this May American campuSee were in upheaval. President Nixon's decision to invade Cambodia on April 30, 1970, and the subsequent deaths on May 4 of four Kent State students at the hands of Ohio National Guards men sparked a national student strike of unprecedented proportions. By mid-May protests had taken place at over 700 colleges and universities. 1800 students had been ar rested nationwide. Although ROTC buildings (a symbol of university complicity with the war) were destroyed on a A young man burning his draft card in Central Park in 1967. number of campuses, non-violent protests were more com mon. At the U Diversity ofConnecticut, for example, students doesn't happen?" Jack Whalen and Richard Flacks ask in the occupied the ROTC building and converted it into a day-care preface to Beyond the Barricades. In the United States, they center. On hundreds of campuses students vowed to con suggest, there is a popular presumption that political radical tinue the struggle past the end of the school year through ism and personal immaturity are virtually synonymous: lobbying, voter registration, and electoral mobilization. The (T)he fact that youth ask questions and challenge au President's Commission on Campus Unrest, appointed to thority may be tolerated and even welcomed, but it is investigate the causes and consequenooe of the events ofMay assumed that "radical" protest and "idealistic" com 1970, warned the nation that the national student strike rep mitment are developmental phases that precede adult resented the triumph--perhaps even the permanent institu hood. tionalization -- of Sixties radicalism: So far as the mainstream media and popular memory are Although all this nonviolent political activity indicated concerned, the history of the new left's decline and fall that the moderates had generally prevailed over ex confirms this theory. Sixties radicals are almost universally tremists on the question of tactics, it is clear in retro believed to have: spect that, on the question of ends, it was the radicals "sold out," "gave up," or "settled down." Such images whowerevictorious.Foryears, radicals had been work have become key elements in pervasive cynicism, depo ing to politicize universities, and in May 1970 entire liticization, and privatism. Images of sustained universities were.. .mobilized against the policies of the commitment... rarely enter popular discourse, and the present national administration.... Students did not strike processes by which people struggle to sustain and fulfill against their universities; they succeeded in making their aspirations for autonomous and socially respon their universities strike against national policy. sible lives are rarely studied. In more distant ret1'08pect, it is clear that the spring of Flacks, a sociologist at the University of Santa Barbara 1970, rather than marking "the beginning of the flood" -- in (UCSB), a founder of Students for a Democratic Society the words that novelist John Doe P88808 once used to de (SOS) in the early 1960s, and a current DSA member, and scribe the spring of 1919, another season of radical exulta Whalen, a former UCSB graduate student who is presently a tion and illusion -- marked instead "the beginning of the sociologist at the University of Oregoq, challenge these ebb." Within a few years little that could remotely be consid common assumptions about human nature and about the ered an organized new left existed on most campuses; by the history of the new left. They do so by means of an in-depth end of the 70s some symbols of Sixties rebelliousness, nota case study of the political evolution of a small group ofUCSB bly Yippie leader Jerry !'··"'!n, had made their personal peace radical activists form the spring of 1970 up to the present. If with the capitalist system they once professed to despise. the subjects of Beyond the Barricades are representative of "Where do young revolutionaries go when the revolution the new left cohort as a whole (and similar studies such as DEMOCRATIC LEFT 12 MAY-JUN~ 1990 Doug McAdams' Freedom Summer suggest they might well radical activism survived throughout the 1970s and 1980s, be), then such media darlings as Jeny Rubin should be seen as both a continuation ofand also an alternative to the more as the exception and not the rule in future discussions of the visible national protests and organizations of the 1960s. fate of Sixties activism. Though organizations of the socialist left atrophied, the In the Sixties most of the violence associated with new feminist, gay rights, and environmental movements flour left protests actually consisted of students being beaten by ished. "Even movements focussing on such issues as the police. On the evening of February 15, 1970acrowdofUCSB arms race, U.S. involvement in Central America, and world students turned the tables, charging into a police line in the hunger are rooted in community action and education at the streets of the "atudent ghetto" of Isla VISta. To the astonish local level," the authors write. As Flacks has argued else ment of both sides, the police fell back in disorganized where, that tendency towards locally-based activism can be retreat. Later that night, the Bank of America building in seen as a strength, not a weakness of post-Sixties radicalism. Isla Vista was burned to the ground by unknown arsonists as But Beyond the Barricades also establishes the need for an thousands of students stood by and cheered. A mixture of on-going, nationally organized socialist project. As Whalen causes had drawn students into the street that night -- turf and Flacks note, in the aftermath of the 1960s the lack of a battles with police, resentment over the trail of the Chicago "national organizational framework" left many former new 8, ill-feelings towards the University for the recent firing of leftists feeling adrift, with no available vehicle for expressing a popular professor -- none of which had much to do with the their continuing commitment to radical politics: Bank of America. But the bank's fate was sealed because it [V]eterans of student protest in western Europe were had long been resented as a symbol of Vietnam war profiteer typically able to find such an organizational structure, ing, the less-than-enlightened labor policies of the California either by working within established Left parties... or by agribusiness, and the rapacious reputation of Isla Vista forming new parties, of which the German Greens are landlords. As a student told Flacks (then a junior faculty the most successful example. The sense of drift and member at UCBS) soon after the event, the bank burned fragmentation, of failure and irrelevance that many because "it was the biggest capitalist thing around." poet-sixties activists feel is rooted, not in the with Over a five year period from the late 1970s through the drawal from politics on their part, but in the absence of mid 1980s Whalen and Flacks tracked down, interviewed, national political structures to provide direction, con and repeatedly re-interviewed eighteen former UCSB activ nection, and national visibility for local activism. ists who had been indicted in 1970 either for the burning of Todd Gitlin's The Sixties, James Miller's Democracy is the bank or for an earlier violent protest. They also inter in the Streets, and other recent works focusing on SDS have viewed a control group ofsixteen " nonactivists" -- members given us a complex and nuanced history of America radical of UCSB fraternities, sororities, and the football team, who ism from 1960 through 1969. Beyond the Barricades is the had either been uninvolved with or actively opposed to the first book to offer the same kind of sophisticated treatment radical protests of 1970. Activists and nonactivists made of the post-SDS history of the new left. It is a welcome very different life and political choices in subsequent dec addition to the literature of the movement, with lessons to ades. The activms led less ronventional peramal lives (marrying teach both historians and political activists. • later, for example), chose less lucrative careers (often in the public service field) and remained significantly more radical Maurice Isserman teaches American history at Williams in their political views than their peers in the nonactivist Colkge. His book Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the control group. Of the eighteen activists, Whalen and Flacks American Communist Party, co-authored with DSA uice described five as "persisters" (including one member of cha.ir Dorothy Healey, will be published next month. DSA), "still radical or left-liberal in their political attitudes and still very active politically," three as "disengaged mdicals .. .leftists in their political convictions but no longer... as Change the USA! Join the DSA! active in politics," seven as "left-liberals," and three as Members of the Democratic Socialists of America work in "nonpersisters," the only members of the group who "show every day-to-day struggle for social justice. We bring a strategy for awillingnesstoembraceatleastsomeconservative... views." building alliances among all the movements for social change. And That's the good news. The bad news, not surprisingly, is we bring a vision of a society that can satisfy the demands for that the two decades since the spring of 1970 have not been dignity and justice - a socialist society. Join DSA. easy ones for would-be activists. As the apocalyptic expecta _Send me more information about democratic socialism. tions of 1970 faded, as the organized new left continued the _Encloeed find my dues(_$50 sustaining; _$35 regular; _$15 low income. Dues include DEMOCRATIC LEFT.) trend t.owruds sectarian preoccupations that had begun within _I want to subscribe to DEMOCRATIC LEFT: _$15 SDS several years earlier, as the right rose to power and sustaining; _$8 regular. redefined the political landscape, even the "persisters" in Send to: Democratic Socialists of America, 15 Dutch St., Whalen and Flacks' sample found it hard to find ways of Suite 500, New York, NY 10038. Telephone: 212-962- sustaining active and meaningful political involvement. "Very 0390. little in either the experience or the social theories of the Sixties generation of activists had prepared them for the Name ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- Address ~~------~ stalemates, stagnation, and ambiguities of public life during City/State/li.,______Phone _____ the last fifteen years," the authors write. Despite this, local DEMOCRATIC LEFT 13 MAY-JUNE 1990 REVIEWS Eurocentrism vs. Afrocentrism: The Impasse of Racial Politics by Manning Marable THE AFROCENTRIC IDEAby MolefiAsante,Philadelpbia: ca DEMOCRATIC LEFT 14 MAY-JUNE 1990 Molefi Kete Asante, director of the most important Afri influential thesis of "double consciousness," advanced in his can-American studies department in the United States, lo 1903 book, The Souls ofBlack Folk, stated: cated at Temple University, is today the most articulate "One ever feels twoness -- an American, a Negro; two advocate of "Afrocentrism." An impressive scholar, Asante thoughts, two unreconciled striving; two warring ide has mastered the history of African and black American als in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone social protest and culture. Consequently his critique of west keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the ern discourse and the biased empirical foundations of Euro American Negro is the history of this strife. .. to attain centric scholarship is highly persuasive. His suggestions for self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a addressing th& intellectual and political dilemmas of black better and truer self." scholarship and activism, however, lend themselves to a For Asante, this passage indicates that Du Bois was respond black nationalist orientation which could aggravate the al ing to the issue of "white domination;" the concept ofdouble ienation of black working-class people. consciousness describes how "the African looked at himself In Asante's The Afrocentric Idea, all social and political through someone else's eyes." theories drawn from a Eurocentric context are dismissed as 1 This interpretation is only partially correct. Actually Du irrelevant for people of African descent. "Marxism is not 1 Bois insisted that black Americans were African peoples - helpful in developing Afrocentric consciousness that ex and "American" --committed to full participation within the cludes the historical and cultural perspectives ofAfrica," As institutions of a democratic society. Du Bois explains: "He ante argues. "Because it emerged from the Western con would not Africanize America, for America has too much to sciousness, Marxism is mechanistic in its approach to social teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro understanding and development, and it has often adopted soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that forms of social Darwinism when explaining cultural and Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to social phenomena." Much of what Asante asserts is certainly make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an true. Both European social democracy and Stalinism were American ... " From a Du Boisian analysis, both "Eurocen inclined toward economic determinism, failing to take into trism" and "Afrocentrism" are incomplete paradigms for account the independent and dynamic role of social factors the construction of social theory and political engagement. such as race, gender, and ethnicity in the evolution of social The problems confronting African-Americans are formations. But ifM8l"Xism is taken not as a religion with an enormous, and our allies in the struggle seemingly are few. economistic catechism, but rather as a method of social But we cannot find the analytical tools for the construction analysis recognizing that values, culture, and ideology are of of theoretical and programmatic models for social transfor central importance to the development of both social classes mation by resorting to an approach that separates us from and communities, such criticisms no longer appear valid. constituencies that have also experienced the weight of TIU! Afrocentric Idea argues that "Afrocentrism" -- an oppression. In the American Southwest, Mexican-Ameri identification with the creative culture, values, and rhetoric cans have been the victims of racial discrimination, eco of people of African descent --is the philosophical foundation nomic exploitation, and educational underdevelopment for for all important advances in the struggles of black people. generations. Native Americans know the meaning of politi Looking backward, Asante reconstructs black political his cal genocide; white working class people in the gutted indus tory v.ithin this analytic framework. Examining the aboli trial towns of Flint, Michigan and Youngstown, Ohio recog tionist controversies between the integrationist Frederick nize the realities of hunger, unemployment, and poverty. Douglass and the militant black nationalism of Henry High Oppression may be manifested in a racial discourse, but it is land Garnet, Asante insists that there was a "fundamental fundamentally linked to the inequality of America's class cleavage in the black antislavery movement." Blacks who structure and the domination ofcapital over working people. opposed Garnet's call for insurrection against slavery had Historical evidence indicates that white Americans of all "capitulated to a Eurocentric view of the struggle for black social classes only rarely see beyond racial blinders to recog liberty. Fear of offending white political and social interests nize the human needs that bind them to the demands of grasped the minds" of some black activists "in a political people of color. Asante's search for a philosophy grounded in vise, tightened by the overwhelming cultural and image his own culture is therefore a logical consequence of the context of white Americans." This nationalist/integrationist realities ofEurocentric domination, of the left and right. The dichotomy explains much about black politics, past and challenge for democratic socialists is to create a movement present, but it doesn't explain everything. It assumes that that truly values the unique cultural heritage, values, and class divisions within the African-American community are political traditions of people of color. We must challenge either secondary or nonexistent; it suggests that blacks who racism in every form. When the left demonstrates the capac are critical of racial separatism are simply "Eurocentric." ity for a humanistic and culturally pluralistic politics in the When the bulk of historical evidence doesn't confirm the tradition of Du Bois, it may attract people of color as equal Afrocentric model, Asante then selects details that do sup partners in struggles for democratic change. e port the thesis. For example, he dedicates his book to Du Bois and attempts to project this monumental black socialist in Dr. Manning Marable is Professor of Political Science at the seminationalist terms. Du Bois's famous quote of 1900 is University of Coloradc. He is the author of a biography of praised as prophetic and Afrocentric: "The problem of the W.E.B. Du Bois and is currently completing a political twentieth century is the problem of the color line." Du Bois's biography ofblack nationalist leader Malcolm X 0EMOCRA TI C lm 15 MAY-JUNE 1990 JANIE HIGGINS A mid-March poll by Jeers to Goorge Bush, whose administration snubbed a Time magazine and the Cable News Network seems to show recent visit to Washington by New Zealand Labor prime that a little old-fashioned economic populism could go a long minister David Palmer to punish him for that country's way. Families making $70,000-$150,000 a year pay income policy banning U .S. nuclear ships. I guess it's OK to cozy up tax at a 33 percent rate at present. Family incomes over to the butchers of Tiananmen Square but not allied nations $150,000 pay at only 28 percent. According to the poll 74 whose democracy isn't to our liking, huh? percent of Americans -- and 71 percent of Republicans - A big cheer for New York City Mayor David Dinkins who want to raise the rate for the wealthiest taxpayers. is delivering on a campaign promise by asking the Defense . Cheers to the democratic movement Department to cancel plans for a Staten Island homeport for in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, which forced the King nuclear ships. to reinstate the pluralist democracy he ousted in 1960. The T . "I haven't seen a corporate new prime minister is from the Congress party, a Socialist raider takeover yet where they increased research and devel International affiliate. Cheers also for British actress Glenda opment activities." -- William J . Spencer, executive vice Jackson, who'll stand for Parliament for the Labour party. president of Xerox. conditions for negotiation. ''My return to Soweto fills my heart Continued from page 10. Organizations like the ANC, UDF, with joy. At the same time, I also and COSATU will be developing their return with a deep sense of sad effect on new investment and the isola platforms and working to unify the black ness -- sadness to learn that you tion ofSouth African corporations from majority, reducing ethnic tensions, are still suffering under an inhu global economic developments. addressing the gulfs between urban mane system. The housing short In fact, the South African economy townships and rural homelands, and age, the school crisis, unemploy has fared badly in the political crisis, organizing communities with quite dis ment and the crime rate still faced with serious capital outflows and parate levels of economic sufficiency remain." rising debts. As Alec Erwin, of the Na and political experience. In fact, the days following Man tional Union of Metalworkers of South The immediate issues on the table dela's release saw major demonstra Africa points out, apartheid is growing will be repeal of the legal foundations of tions by teachers seeking equal pay, increasingly unproductive. apartheid: the registration of people by nurses seeking desegregated hospital Apartheid's low wage, forced labor race, the segregation oflivingareas and housing, and township residents seek system used to mean high short-term housing by race, the forced removal of ing lower rents and electrical rates. And profits. But it has also produced a low blacks to artificial "homelands," the in recent months, labor conflicts have skill workforce unable to compete in a migrant labor system, and the security sharpened not lessened, especially in global production system and unable to laws which give unchecked police pow response to the repressive Labor Rela sustain an internal consumer market. ers to the government. tions Act. Events in Eastern Europe have under The fundamental issue will be ma The labor movement will play a key scored fears that South Africa may be jority rule and the key principle of one role in defining labor rights under a left behind as multinational capital pur person, one vote on a common voters new constitution, in building democratic sues more enticing prospects. roll. Whites want to retain special po structures for economic policy-making, The realization that apartheid is litical privileges; some even want to and in proposing alternative approaches economically as well as politically un retain distinct white areas. The auton to human and industrial development. tenable in the modern world has un omy of the homelands is also in ques In the meantime, COSATU is remind doubtedly created pressure for change tion, although recent uprisings in the ing the international community that within the ruling white elites and pre Transkei, Ciskei, and Bophuthatswana the struggle against apartheid is far cipitated DeKlerk's new policies. But if make it clear there are strong forces from over. Like the ANC, the unions they now agree that apartheid has to go, that favor total reunification of the coun have called for increased sanctions pres they do not agree on what should re try under one democratic system. sure until all the people of South Africa place it and how fast. While political rights are the first can elect a constituel'\,t assembly to draft The coming weeks and months will priority, issues of economic democracy a new constitution. e spur organizing on both sides. DeKlerk are also on the table. Apartheid is not will be conoolidating support among busi only a system of white political power, Tlu!New York CommitteeAgainstAparl ness leaders, centrist whites in his but also a system of white economic lu!i.d produces Labor Against Apartheid National party, and liberal whites in privilege. The result was described by For more information about the Coali the Democratic party, in order to meet Nelson Mandela after his release: tion, call (718) 768-1756. DEMOCRATIC LEFT 16 MAY·jUNE 1990