Industry Sells

EDITED BY MICHAEL HARRINGTON New Con Game By Michael Harrington M.A.O. - V -LOW Rf t~ Sept. 1980 Vol. VIII No. 7 $1 N THIS L ABOR DAY, 1980, .America's union men and I S.flG women are confronted by a WE.RE ..... # JI ~. ?'i~ llli .-.: INSIDE unique, unprecedented chal­ -~." !f. ·t lenge. .A sophisticated corpor· Women's Work, p. 5 ate elite is pushing for a re­ Why can't a woman get paia like a man? verse New Deal, for radical, Despite laws requiring equal pay for equal structural, and reactionary work, women still make less than men. Gus change. Tyler explores the structural nature of the In the thirties, most of the rich op­ low-wage ghetto. posed their own economic salvation, damning Franklin Roosevelt, who was Trouble in Paradise?, p. 9 rescuing them from the greatest collapse For years we've looked to Sweden as a model capitalism had ever known, as a "traitor" for the road to socialism. Yet labor strife this to his class. Jn the eighties, the upper spring almost brought the country to a halt. strata understand that significant traps­ John Stephens assesses the current labor mood formations are required, and they propose and draws suggestions for American labor. to design them for themselves. If they Lawrence Frank Conversation with Reuther, p. 12 succeed, reform will act to preserve, and Victor Reuther talks about coalition-building, even strengthen, the status quo. That is labor strategy, and hope for change. of great moment in the long run, but it also has to do with the immediate poli­ On the Left, p. 13 tical agenda of the labor movement. For '' These schemes Harry Fleischman reports on the Socialist In- instance, the battle over the nature of assume that American ternational, DSOCers and anti-draft work. structural change · will focus during the management can pro­ Furor over Families, p. 14 next several months on the kind of tax The right has seized family politics as a rally­ cut W ashington should adopt. Will it vide solutions rather ing cause. Kate Ellis cautions the left to weigh further maldistribute wealth and cheat than-as shown by the its response. working people, or will it include pro­ tection for the worst victims of the cur­ case in auto and steel­ Facts and Fears, p. 16 rent crisis, such as jobless auto and steel create problems.,, Will the new immigrants take more jobs away workers? from American workers and drive wages down? In this special report Roger Waldinger Understanding the Problem dissects facts and fictions. Corporate America knows that there is a problem. In June, Felix Rohatyn, in· Democratic Agenda, p. 20 vestment banker and perhaps the most so­ When the Democrats came to New York, phisticated corporate liberal in .America, some discovered that liberalism wasn't dead. wrote, "We can no longer assume that a gradual piecemeal approach will work; definition of the crisis, but aU of them Roosevelt and at times ma.de 1 ~gly the rules of the game have changed to share a common core. Amitai Ea.ioo..i of leftist critique of the Carter v-.=-is:n­ such an extent that a re-examination of the White House staH observed. "In tion, but for all the radical r~ :and the entire structure is needed." Bruineu the period of mass cooswnptioo in :he d.mns for bold innovation, the ..:ei:idus­ Week devoted an entire issue to the "rein­ United States, however, not enoogh wu tria.lization" program of the right is just dustrialization" of America, a word that plowed back into the underlying sectocs, one more exercise in "trickle-down · eco­ surfaces on the Kennedy left, in the such as the infrastructure of the ap'12.l lJODllCS. Anderson center and on the Jack Kemp goods sector, to maint.ain and apdue Similarly, the Carter administra· right. It stated: "Bred during a century of them." Therefore, Etzioni said, there lion s rcindustrialization program. while economic preeminence, based on the ex­ must be "private belt tightening. ' B111i­ scdung to satisfy- corporate interests but ploitation of an internal frontier, Amer­ neu Week was less delicate, writing. appearing to help American workers, is ican attitudes arc not suited to a world " ... unions will come under pressutt to a dismal rehash of doomed proposals. economy that has become increasingly Umit wage gains in the first phase of re. Tbcte must be, Busineu Wtek at· integrated ... where much of U.S. tech­ industrialization." Economic translation: gues, a new "social contract." Unions will nology has migrated abroad and where consumption is bad, investment is good. have to hold down wages as their part of energy independence is rapidly becoming Political translation: unions are bad, cor­ the deal. • Io return, both government a wistful memory." (It should be noted porations are good. and bus.mess will have to present convin­ that technology did not "migrate"; the cing evidence that such a sacrifice will pay multinationals that own it did in their Same Old Trickle Down off in the long run by steering the econ· search for higher profits.) Speakers at the Republican conven­ omy toward higher employment at decent There arc many variations on the tion in Detroit may have quoted Franklin wages. Government and business also

To the Editor: chief repository of faith in the president function with the Georgia legislature, Fred Siegel's review of Vladimir as wonderworker is on the democratic rather than seeking out the most compe· Medem's memoirs in the May DEMO· left." tent possible person for this increasingly CRATIC LEFT neglects to mention one No, Professor Hixon, we do not ex­ difficult job? David C. Williams important aspect of Medem's-and the pect a president to be a "wonderworker." Sumner, Md. Bund's-socialism: their anti-Zionism. We do expect him to be up to the job, The "superb editing" done by trans­ and the present inept and helpless in­ To the Editor lator Samuel Portnoy consists of a cumbent is not I want to tell you how much I ap­ running polemic against Zionism. In The irony of it is tlut President Car­ pr«Wed the June 1980 issue of DEMO­ often lengthy footnotes, Portnoy refers to ter lu.s so reduced public expectations of cunc LEFT I particularly liked the lead the Socialist Zionist program as being White House performance tlut many­ article by Jim Chapin ("Third Party, "replete with radical phraseology" and induding apparently Professor Hixon­ First Choice?" ) . This concise but ana­ treats the Socialist Zionists as utopians think he is doing all he can. Unfortunate­ lytic approach to current realities from a and charlatans. ly, thlS delusion has not spread abroad. democratic socialist perspective is most Should the Bundist contribution be In Europe they hardly conceal their as­ helpful and fills a real void-at least for ignored? Of course not. But the shadow tonishment that the United States cannot, me, and I suspect other DSOC members of the Holocaust hangs over every dis­ with 220 million people, produce more (rather inactive, but very concerned) like cussion of Bundism. History, tragically, competent leaders. "Amateur night in the me. Keep up the good work. Let's have proved the Zionists right. White House" is one of their mildest more of the same. Eric Lee characterizations. Thomas J. Elliott Jackson Heights, N.Y. To take one example. Congress is more Claremont. Calif. difficult to deal with than it was ten To the Editor years ago. Why, then, did the President Leller1 Jo Jhe editor m111t be sip:'1. ~ Professor Hixon, in "Reconsidering put in charge of Congressional liaison reserve the right lo edit 1or n'i:J. Political Reality," (June) says that "the the man who had performed for him this Please limit /e/ter1 lo /eu Iha 1j() ~s.

Michael Harrington DEMOCRATIC LEFT is published tet: ti=ics 11 'fCU Editor (monthly except July and August : Dem­ ocratic Socialist Organizing Corn=-, -H Maxine Phillips Broadway, Suite 801, New Yod; ·x 0003. Managing 'Editor Telephone: (212) 260-3270. • :$10 sustaining and institutional: $< ; :S: }() Jim Chapin limited income. Sisned art ~ :he National D1rerlor opinions of the authors. ISS-' - Second Class Permit Paid a.t • ·C"9' Y

2 Ol!MOCllATIC LllPT Sept. 1980 must make sure that rcindustrialization creates new jobs-particularly for blacks and other minorities-and that adequate provtsions arc included for helping workers in dying industries." Note that business is to get tangible rewards right ''[General Motors Chairman] Murphy predicted that the 1980s away while labor is to get a reduced stand­ would be a 'decade of decisions' in which the 'Me Decade of the ard of living in return for steady work 1970s changes into the 'We Decade,' and Americans finally quit and high pay at some future date. There 'using a little putty here and a quick patch there to get us through is a genuflection in the direction of dying industries, but nothing as specific as the an immediate crisis' and begin to construc­ handouts for the corporations. And fi. Georgetown Magazine tively attack our most serious long-term nally, government and b11sineJI arc de­ May/ June 1980 problems: inflation and energy.'' picted as being in charge of the whole operation; labor must trust their decency. Indeed, B11sineu lVeek warns against eight years! Meanwhile, workers are sup­ future gains" than the Americans. Japan· "lemon socialism," i.e. aid to failing in­ posed to tighten their belts for the com­ ese businessmen, that report continued, dustries. And Etzioni takes a position well mon good. believe ". . . that American firms are too to the right of that corporate publication This same point applies to the tax preoccupied with maximizing short-run by denying that any national economic cut pushed by Jack Kemp and adopted by profits." planning is required. " All it takes," he the Republican convention at the urging More recently, the Office of Tech­ writes, "is to favor two economic sectors, of Ronald Reagan. When I debated nology Assessment (an arm of Con­ infrastructure and capital goods, by broad­ Kemp in 1979, I quoted AFL-CIO esti­ gress), even while pushing for policies stroking economic incentives such as ac­ mates of the distributive effects of his to favor investment, said that " approp­ celerated depreciation, tax incentives to proposal and he did not challenge the priate shifts in the attitudes and policies" encourage savings and investment, more figures. In 1978, the result of such an of the steel industry were needed. Steel, encompassing writeoffs for research and "across the board" (totally nonprogres· that Report said, should reexamine its development and other expenses, as well sive) cut would have been to allocate policy of using capital for diversification as some guarantees and other support for 23.5 percent of the benefits to the richest instead of stcclmaking. In July, the Lon­ those who enhance energy efficiency and 2.1 percent of the people and 17 .2 per­ don Economist noted that steel industry conversion to nonoil energy sources." cent for the bottom 50.3 percent. leaders now talk privately about the Others - Nobel Laureate Vassiley But if such largesse for the rich will " quasi-nationalization" of their sector. Leontiev; Gar Alperovitz and Jeff Faux create full employment, isn't that a small At the same time, they are investing more of the National Center for Economic price to pay for such a critical gain? Un­ and more money in other sectors. Alternatives - have a radically different fortunately, these schemes assume that When Jimmy Carter announced his version of the reindustrialization idea. American management is capable of pro­ plan for aid to the ailing auto industry, As Leontiev put it, "We need a national viding solutions rather than-as shown by Chrysler's Lee Iacocca said, "We're bor­ planning board that would single out the case in auto and steel-creating prob­ rowing a page from the Japanese book." the problem areas, systematically evalu­ lems. Secondly, they assume that manage­ What about the Japanese policy of gov­ ate shifts in the nation's industrial base, ment is interested in solutions. From the ernment-banking cooperation that picks and anticipate the next endangered indus­ record, both propositions are wrong. key industries for massive infusion of tries." Most significantly, Leontiev sees On the first count, B11sineu Week is capital, funding the comers and allowing an active role for government: "If the surprisingly candid. Corporate success in the obsolete enterprises to die? Jn all the government offers help, it should offer the post-war period, it remarked in its talk about the "Japanese book," a few rules." special issue, "grew in tandem with rising factors are overlooked. That system is an But whether in the liberal (BmineJI U.S. population and affluence . .. and elite, undemocratic, top-down decision­ JIV eek) or Adam Smithian (Etzioni) var­ hence [corporations] often needed no making process. Secondly, a point that iant, the bottom line in almost all of the broader business plans than to increase Iacocca might ponder, big firms in that proposals from the center to the right is productive capacity at the right times and country do not normally lay off workers. more subsidy for the corporations. The the right places." It was in this period When, for instance, Mazda faced a crisis Capital Cost Recovery Act-nicknamed that steel allowed foreign competitors to in 1974 because the car only got 11 miles "10·5·3" since it would increase depre­ exploit an American innovation (the oxy­ per gallon in city driving, it did not fire ciation for buildings over ten years, gen furnace) while this country did noth­ anyone, even though it was as hard hit as equipment over five years and autos over ing about it. Corporations, B11sine1s lfeek any American company today. There was three-is a giveaway of mind-boggling commented, are ". . . often more con­ a reduction of 10,000 in the work force, proportions. That change would cost $4 cerned with buying and selling companies accomplished by attrition and bonuses for billion in lost federal revenues in the first than with selling improved products to early retirement. But there was nothing year of its operation and then run at an customers." The Comptroller General ar­ like the massive discharge or layoff of annual rate of $50 billion in five years, gued last year that the Japanese are much almost 300,000 workers which is the way peaking with an $86 billion loss after more ready to "sacrifice current profits to things are done in the "American book."

Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC LEFT 3 we must take. I do not, however, want to conclude with details. Rather, I want to say a word about the relevance of this moment for socialists. .. We have always focused on the ...... __ structural, the long run, the basic rela­ ...... _...... _ tions of power. To the degree that those -...... - -...... -, ...... _. _____ themes are now being placed on tlle :---:-.,..:..~~ ...... _..... 0·-·-·-·- agenda of American society, sometimes ..... __ 0 ·-.. ·-·- .... ~ ...... __ --...,,_-­ ...... _, --··-- ... ..-..... ·--- by conservatives, democratic socialism ...... _...... o::..::--u--...--·- .... . is more relevant than at any time since _.. __ -·--- ... _ the Great Depression. Many ideas that ...... =.i:..-:.~ c::::::::~------.--..... c:-dl._ ...... we pioneered became law at that time. =:=.-:.:" c ::~·=--....-----. ------And that can-must-happen again. But, []:._~...... '"" __ ------...... __ and here socialists must be chastened, :-_-.: :::.::::::: .., -..c triumph of many socialist reforms in the • - -·-·.~:·.::::_-=~ thirties coincided with the decimation of ...... ~ --... socialism as a political movement. At least one reason for that failure-and I speak sadly, self critically-was that we were often ultimatistic. We did not ac­ cept the increments that were possible, denigrating slices of bread in the name of the whole loaf. If we do not make that mistake asain, our potential is enormous The Machinist on this Labor Day 1980. For American society is finally wak­ The much touted "reindustrializa­ to business that are not tied, specifically ing up to the nature of the crisis in which tion" policy is a newly rationalized ver­ and with force of law, to actual job gen­ it lives. And American socialists have a sion of a trickle-down scheme that Wil­ erating investments. The Swedish social­ crucial role to play in the fisht for a rein­ liam Simon, our friends at Chase Man­ ists have for a long time pushed higher dustrialization program that is not a cover investment tax credits than exist in the hattan and other such "neo-populists" for trickle-down economics but a bold have been pushing for almost a decade. United States but the only companies Hiat step toward solvins immediate problems qualify for this aid are those who imme­ It appeals to a sense of crisis that is real through the democratization of corporate and important, not in order to make rad­ diately invest it in approved areas of so­ power in the United States. • ical new departures, but to make old­ cial need. It does not aid reindustrializa­ fashioned reaction palatable. Does this 1 tion to provide tax subsidies to U.S. Steel Michttel Httrrington 1 /aJe11 book ii Dec­ mean that labor in 1980 should dismiss so that it can speculate in chemicals. ade of Decision. all this talk as a fraud? In no way. • There should be democratic plan­ ning. American management, most not­ • • • Combattin~ the Crisis ably in steel and auto but in many other COMING UP It is a gain that impeccably conser­ sectors as well, has enormous responsibil­ Don't miss future issues of DEMOCRATIC vative, even reactionary, people now ity for the current crisis. There is no LEFT. You'll read: agree with the democratic left that the reason to trust it. Secondly, and more im­ crisis of the American economy is severe portantly, we are now moving toward • How unions and the left can counter­ and structural and requires significant decisions which will determine the struc­ act their poor image in the media, by change. Given that new consciousness, the ture of American society for the next gen­ Peter Dreier unions-and the broad democratic left as eration. If reindustrialization is carried • The current state of Eurosocialism a whole-must come up with a pro­ out by business and government, with and what America can learn from it, by gressive program for reindustrialization. labor relying on the basic decency of those Nancy Lieber With no attempt to be exhaustive, let me folks, the authoritarianism of the United outline principles for such a program. States will be substantially increased. We • DSOCers who are elected officials, by Nancy Kleniewski e The provisions for helping work­ should seize this moment to get worker ers hurt by these transitions, as in auto participation on the boards of directors • National defense, by Joe Clark and steel, must be immediate and specific. of every major corporation in America • Mike Rivas and Sasha Futran on the Labor should not agree to any form of and to make these profoundly social de­ Cuban refugees accelerated depreciation for capital if cisions about the location and structure of there is not a "depreciation" program for industry democratic. • Will this flirtation with disaster be the human beings who are the real vic­ There are many, many other propo­ the Democrats' last? by Jim Chapin tims of this crisis. sals we will have to put forth, but these And more . . . notes on sood reading, • There should be no tax subsidies chart the broad direction of the efforts socialist activities, youth organizing

4 DEMOCRATIC LBFT Sept. 1980 Women Tied to Low Pay In Occupational Ghettos One of they key iuues of the eighties for ---- feminists in trade unions and throughout ' the women'I mo11ement is that of equal ~ pay for equal worth. Closing the wage gap between women and men will be a Jong, biller battle, for the cost to Ameri­ can business and go11ernment will be as­ tronomical. In this iu11e Gu.r Tyler ana­ lyzes the issue in term.r of occupational and economic ghetlos. Ldler this fall Ronnie Steinberg Ratner of the Center for Women in Go11ernment will describe legal and organizing strategies proposed Haul Hankin/ LNS/ cpf by labor union women and other.r to con­ front the problem. Eds. more than 85 percent of all women similar work is of little use. The people workers are employed. in the occupational ghettos are doing By Gus Tyler The ghettos can be identified. Here's diu imilar work. This fact has led to the HE AVERAGE EARNINGS OF WO­ the way white women are distributed : move to get "equal pay for jobs of com­ men are 60 percent those of 35.7 percent are in sales (low pay); 16.6 parable worth," to narrow the gap be­ men. That's the way it is now percent are in services outside the homo tween women employed in one kind of and that's the way it has been such as making beds in motels, doing the occupation and men employed in another. for a long time- much too long less glamorous chores in hospitals, dish­ a time. ing out fast foods, cleaning up business Two-Tiered Economy How is this possible in buildings after hours ; 15 .9 percent carry As an ethical concept, the idea of the light of laws that mandate the title of professional and technical, equal pay for jobs of comparable worth is equal pay for equal work, even for "simi­ which means employed as a librarian, incontrovertible. As an economic goal, it lar" work, and that bar discrimination in nurse, or in teaching below the college is desirable. Indeed, precisely for these hiring? You would expect that the gap level (the low end of the professions) ; reasons, I wrote a lengthy essay, The would be narrowing even if not closed. 11 percent are working in factories, gen­ Other Economy, (1978) that was carried Yet if there has been any change at all, erally in labor-intensive (lower paid) in­ as a special issue of The New Leader. women's earnings have slipped slightly as dustries ; 7.4 percent are in clerical posts. The thesis was that our economy has a percentage of male earnings. How That accounts for 86.6 percent of the two tiers. In the upper half are workers come? white female labor force. Black women employed typically in capital-intensive The answer: women are employed are distributed about the same with lower monopolistic industries where wages are in occupational ghettos where wages and percentages in professional and sales and relatively high; in the bottom half are salaries are relatively low. These occupa­ higher in factories and services. workers employed in labor-intensive com­ tional ghettos have expanded more rap­ In some of these lower paying sec­ petitive industries where wages are rela­ idly than the economy as a whole and tors of the economy, the female presence tively low. The gap between wages in the have been the chief employers of the is almost exclusive. Women are 99.2 per­ two tiers is growing. Jn 1947, garment women who have poured into the labor cent of secretaries; 92.9 percent of nurses, wages were 75 percent of wages in drug force since the end of World War 11. dieticians, therapists; 96.6 percent of typ· manufacture; in 1975, garment wages fell Result: even if the women employed ists; 90.7 percent of bookkeepers ; 89.9 to 56 percent of drug wages. Jn 1955, in the integrated (non-ghettoized) sec­ percent of health service workers; 74 toy wages were 64 percent of those in tors of the economy are doing better in percent of personal service workers (at­ steel; by 1975, toys had fallen to 49 per­ relation to the men and even if some tendants, barbers, housekeepers outside cent. Jn reality, the gap is greater than women break into traditionally male oc­ private households, welfare service aids) . noted because in the higher paying sec­ cupations, female gains are offset by the Because women at work are "segre­ tors fringes are added on at much higher heavy influx of women into the predomi­ gated" in these occupational enclaves, the percentages than in the lower paying nantly female low pay sectors, where law calling for equal pay for the same or sectors.

Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC lBPT S What is true of industrial employ­ ment (manufacturing, for instance) is also true of employment in the sert1ice sector. By and large, wages in "service," with its heavy concentration of women, are below those in manufacture. Even within specific occupational groups, "wo­ men tend to be more heavily concentrated in lower paying jobs," notes the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Special Labor Force Report 230, June 1979.) "Men in sales occupations are most likely to be sales representatives" while "women are con­ centrated as sales clerks in retail trades." In human services, women are in the low paying end in food and health services, while men are in the higher paying end as policemen or fire.fighters. The differences in pay Jo not derit1e primarily from any differences in the al­ Jrib11Jes of the workers but from the chdl'­ acter of the occupation. In our two-tiered economy, we have two different levels of rem1meraJion. The lucky worker who N .Y. Times 7/ 27/ 80 can mot1e from the lower lo the higher can d011ble his or her income without capped, isolated. The people with the artificiaJly "ghettoized." (We will give changing a single personal allribule. least choice-pressed by despair-accept some examples of this later.) the poorer paying jobs. The problem that confronts us is The obvious question is whether the In the case of women (as differen· twofold : first, what can be done to intro­ coincidence of low pay and women is due tiated from blacks, immigrants, etc.) , duce a greater measure of pay equity be­ to the fact that the jobs pay poorly be­ there is still another force at work: the tween different sectors of the economy cause they employ women or that they female role in the "outside" labor market employing workers at vastly differing are occupied by women because they pay is largely an extension of her role "in­ wages although the human attributes re­ poorly. The answer can only be found by side" the home: cooking, cleaning, sew­ quired for the job do not imply such examining the interplay between eco­ ing, weaving, nursing, teaching, serving, differentials (for example, the differences nomic and social forces. making beds, tidying up, hosting, read­ in pay between garment workers and auto In an imaginary unisex society con­ ing, even keeping accounts-doing what workers, or the difference in pay between sisting exclusively of clones there still women have always done but doing it in a relatively low paid nurse and a better would be differences in pay because ot the "market" for relatively low pay. paid electrician, both of whom are em­ differences in occupations. The economy Certain jobs become known as work ployed by the City of Denver)? Second, would not be able to accommodate every· for women. Such jobs are stigmatized, so what can be done about differences in pay body at the top (although, by defini­ men will eschew them. This social stereo­ arising from the manipulation of job tion, all would be equally talented and type is internalized by women who look categories by an employer within a given trained) and some would end up at the upon nursing, lower-grade teaching, typ­ plant? (For example, the case of a female bottom. But why women? ing, etc., as posts that are naturally those machine operative who is paid less than Those at the top are generally those to which women gravitate. Such jobs a male sweeper, both of whom work side with the greatest mobility; those at the "belong" to women just as certain other by side in an electronics assembly plant.) bottom are generally those who are so­ jobs "belong" to men. cially most vulnerable. The dynamic that Once this becomes the accepted Legal Remedies applies in ou11pa1ional ghettos is almost order of things, the pattern is exploited The second question-pa) differ­ exactly the same as in neighborhood by some employers to create contrived ences u•i1hin a planl-is subject to a rela­ ghettos. People living in a poor neighbor­ classifications within plants in order to tively strai>thtforward soh.ition. For in­ hood will move out for a better place if take advantage of female vulnerability. stance, the War Labor Boa.rd found that, they have the means ; their spot will be In summary, the basic reason that in a General Electric plant, the company occupied by people who, for the moment, women are paid less is due to their con­ paid women (in one position) one-third can't afford a better place. centrated employment in sectors of the less than men (in another position) al­ The low pay occupational ghettos economy that normally would pay less though the formal job evaluation system suck up people from the lower sectors ot no matter whaJ sex or race was in the slot. rated both jobs as equal. Westinghouse the society: blacks, immigrants, women, Once this pattern is fixed, however, some admitted doing the same, but underpaid youth, undocumented workers, handi- women are paid less because their job is women by only 18 to 20 percent. On the

6 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Sept. 1980 basis of these proven facts, the Board !cm-the inequity of pay between one sec­ But, each of these simple categories is in decided that the companies had discrimi­ tor and another in our two-tiered econ· itself a many factored universe. Does nated against women and ordered correc­ omy-is the big problem and it cannot be skill apply to mental or manual, to speed tive action. resolved by intraplant adjustments be· or accuracy, to ears or eyes, to strength or The International Union of Electri­ tween people equally unskilled or equally style? Does education refer to general cal, Radio and Machine Workers (JUE) trained. education or job related education, to has similarly won adjustments in a series The bigger problem persists because schooling or to on-the-job learning, to the of cases where within a P!ant women do­ it is deeply embedded in the economic­ liberal or mechanical arts, to any institu­ ing unskilled work were consistently be­ not the sexual or racial-configurations of tion of learning regardless of standing, ing paid less than men doing unskilled our society. The "female" and the "ra· etc? Does work experience refer to con· work. Although the JUE has instituted cial" problem-the lower average wages tinuous or interrupted, to employment in proceedings before the Equal Employ­ of both as contrasted with the wages of a given occupation or to general employ­ ment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) white males-is a subset of that more uni­ ment, to experiences that are enriching or (a procedure that can entail much legal versal problem of the two economies. The are purely repetitive? entanglement with the Equal Pay Act, fact that women and minorities are stuck As Bertram Gottlieb, for many years Title VII, and the Bennett Amendment), in the poorer economy turns an economic a professional engineer engaged in job the union has won repeated and signifi­ "discrimination" (if that is the right evaluation and arbitration, explained to cant wage adjustments through "neg<> word) into a sexual and racial discrimin­ the EEOC: "Judgment is involved in tiated settlements," albeit the pending ation as well. every step of job evaluation: in selecting cases before the EEOC may have hastened the factors, in defining the factori, in such agreements. selecting factor degrees, in weighting the The experiences of the IUE reveal ''The cure does not lie in factors, in distributing factor points to much about what can be done and what factor degrees, in the words used to de­ cannot be done by the approach it has redistributing women and scribe jobs which are to be evaluated and employed with some success. minorities into the slots now in developing wage structure." For that First, although the cases involve dis­ reason he rejects the notion that "a single crimination in pay rates, the basic prob­ occupied by men and whites. evaluation plan can be developed that lem is discrimination in job placement. Such a rescramble would merely would be capable of serving as a yard­ Thus, if porters are paid more than ma­ redistribute misery . .. ,,, stick against which all jobs, at all levels, chine operatives, that difference-how· and in all industries, can be compared." ever improper-would not show up as sex Although it is impossible to devise a discrimination if women and men were universal and objective job evaluation assigned indiscriminately to either of the The cure, however, does not lie in system for the total economy, it does not positions. As Win Newman, counsel for redistributing women and minorities into follow that there will be no systems JUE, testified to the EEOC: "Initial as­ the slots now occupied by men and whites forthcoming that allege to be objective. signment discrimination, particularly for -even if such a redistribution were feas· If there is sufficient demand for such a entry level unskilled jobs, is at the heart ible. Such a rescramble would merely re­ "scientific" settlement of pay rates, it is of occupational segregation, wage dis­ distribute misery without in any way less­ certain that the necessary scientists will be crimination and future promotional op­ ening the ratio of misery and inequitable found to concoct the desired formula. portunity." pay in the society. Indeed, that is precisely what has hap­ Second, the scope of the cases han­ pened in many companies and even in­ dled by the JUE method is necessarily Formula Remedy dustries, where industrial engineers were narrow. In his testimony to EEOC, New­ One proposal to cope with the prob­ brought in to define the just wage, a proc­ man defined the boundaries: lem of pay inequity among different sec­ ess that ends with a scientific rationale for "First, the jobs that are compared tors of the economy is to devise an ob· the prevailing pecking order. should be within a single establishment. jective scientific formula to measure the Gottlieb cites the case of a multi­ Second, the jobs should be limited to relative worth of all jobs. Put on com­ company manufacturers assodation in a those for which there are no pre-employ· puter, such a universal calculator could single industry that developed such a ment training or experience requirements print out a just wage for all-regardless plan. The developers noted that the USO· or to those that have similar prior train­ of sex, race, etc. ciation sought "to develop a formal job ing or experience requirements (such as The first problem is to find such a evaluation and classification plan and all jobs requiring a college degree, but formula. At present, there are hundreds manual which would rank bargaining not other education or prior training)." of different "job evaluation" systems in unit jobs in the industry according to The limits set out by Newman, of use. The one thing they all have in com­ skill, effort, responsibility, job conditions necessity, exclude most women in the mon is their s11b;ecti11ity, inherent in any and other related factors in accordance labor force whose lower pay is not an mechanism to measure worth. with sound job evaluation practices. It intraplant phenomenon but pervades a To start with, it is necessary to de­ was further agreed that the wage curve to whole industry (like apparel) or a whole cide what factors shall be used for meas· be applied to the evaluated jobs would be occupation (like sales clerk) or a whole uring. One handy suggestion is to meas­ based upon the weighted average base profession (like nurse) . The first prob· ure by skill, education, work experience. hourly wage rates paid for the various

Sept. 1980 DEKOOATIC LBn 7 jobs. In short, the manufacturers agreed fix that would fix most women workers also be considered-provided that the to de,·elop a sound and accurate industry· in their present fix. :·cash" payment is not used as a substi­ job classification plan which would pre­ Is there a way out of the fix? Yes, tute for programs to build low-income serve the historical pattern of wage rela­ but by no dens ex mathematica. The way housing or to provide medical care for tionships between jobs within the indus­ out is through economic and political ac­ the indigent, etc. try. The basic objective and principle tion along many lines. Subsidies for small businesses de­ adopted and followed was to develop a Unions can do something. If nurses serve consideration in a society that annu­ job evaluation manual which would con­ are not being paid better than porters, ally subsidizes big business to the tune of form to and preserve as nearly as possible then nurses should organize, make their about $100 billion a year. the central tendencies of the existing rate demands on the cities that underpay them, The International Ladies Garment structure." arouse the public, vote, lobby, and raise Workers Union President Sol C. Chaikin (Let us suppose, however, that a hell. Where would the teachers be today has long advocated an "incomes policy" f ttir system could be devised for a given if they had depended on some for­ in the United States, an American version i11d11Jlr_r. not the whole society, a system mula? of the Swedish effort to narrow the gap that would remake ancient molds within But, in many sectors of the economy, between wages in the two economies. an industry. Such a system would not especially in small unit, labor-intensive Should the United States decide-as really change conditions for women em­ manufacture, collective bargaining alone it should and must-to develop alternate ployed in a low-wa,ge sector of the econ­ has its definable limitations. Suppose, for sources of energy, such as solar, wind, omy since the job evaluation system instance, that a union in the apparel in­ tidal, biomass, etc., the impact on female would not change the general level of dustry were to compel-by-strike an hourly earnings would be revolutionary. The wage equal to that of workers in the :J.uto shortages in the building and construc­ industry? (In terms of skill, effort, edu­ tion trades would open the doors wide cation, etc., there is no difference between for women who would be moving into ''The Wtl)' out of this fix is a woman at a sewing machine and a man one of the highest paying sectors of the thro11gh economic and political on an auto assembly line.) The unionized economx_. That movement would create action along many lines. ,, sector of the apparel industry would go relative shortages of female labor in other bankrupt forthwith. Unionized firms pay­ sectors, thereby lifting wages. (It hap­ ing SlO an hour with generous fringe pened in World War II, and should hap­ benefits would have to compete against: pen again if, in the fight for energy inde­ pay in the industry. Low wage sectors, (a) non-union firms paying an average pendence, we engage in the Moral Equi­ whose ability to pay is determined by of $3. )0 an hour with minimal frin~e valent of War.) market forces, such as I described in The benefits; (b) illegal shops employing un­ These suggestions are but a few of 'Other Ero11om;. would continue to pay documented workers at sub-minimum many that ought to be forthcoming. The low wages-with minor ;1djustments with­ wages ; ( c) homework; ( d) garments problem keeps growing. The gap between in the occupation.ii ghetto. For women self-made by men and women for their the upper and nether economies grows employed in this ,ghetto, the fair e'·alua­ own use; ( e) imports from low wage greater. In time of inflation, those in the tion system would mean equity in relation countries. Collective bargaining is thus preferred economy can get wage increases to others in the same lousy industry but limited by the constraints of the market to stay abreast or nearly abreast of the in­ would not mean a change in relation to circumstances. flation rate, while those in the disadvan­ their brothers in the better paying indus­ Hence, it is necessary to go beyond taged economy are lucky if they can get tries.) collective bargaining to socio-political ac­ a live percent annual increase when infla­ Entrapped in such a formula, wo­ tion. tion is running at twice that speed. Inev­ men (and others) in low-paying sectors Higher minimum wages would help itably, a class division sets in within the of the economy would not even be able those in the lowest income categories. working class and what should be a class to use their union's bargaining power to Regulation of imports would help those struggle becomes an intra-class struggle. lift themselves out of the gutter. The women employed in labor intensive fac­ These strategies seek to restructure Formula-being scientific, objective, just tories that have to compete against prod­ the economy and, in so doing, to effectu­ and mechanized-could always be in­ ucts from lands paying 20 cents an hour. ate a greater measure of equity in pay. voked as the "higher law." Wage deter­ Laws restricting runaway plants would This kind of an approach has an addi­ mination would be shifted from collective help women whose employers hold wages tional, though not altogether obvious, bargaining to the computerized decision. down by the threat of plant removal. plus. It calls upon people, mainly work­ The entire process would take place in Reform of the National Labor Rela­ ers, to organize themselves as active par­ some government agency (backed by the tions Act would make it easier for unions ticipants through collective action in courts) where the computer-like any to organize those many small plants, usu­ bringing about social change. That, in computer-would behave in the manner ally labor-intensive, or those many retail itself, is a virtue almost as worthy as the of its programmer (the engineer) who outlets that resist unionization. ultimate purpose of more equitable wages would behave in the manner of his pro­ In cases where wages cannot be and salaries. • grammer (the party or person in power.) raised, government programs can evolve The attempt to set wages by a uni­ a "social wage" for those in low-income G11s TJ!er is a;sista111 president, Inter­ versal formula is to resort to a technical brackets. A negative income tax should national l.Adies Garment Workers Union.

8 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Sept. 1980 Is Labor on the Offense As·Swedish Model Dies? By John Stephens control and increased public ownership, compromise, which set the character for the Social Democrats in that year moder­ Swedish social policy until the seventies, HE WELL-OILED MACHINERY ated their programs, calling for social capital got a commitment to maximal of Swedish economic life broke Keynesian policies and welfare state de­ growth, control of technological advance, down this spring as central velopment. The election victory ushered retention of private ownership and, when negotiations between the em­ in a period of 44 years of Social Demo­ necessary, wage restraint. Labor got high ployers' federation, S.AF, ahd cratic government in which the party built employment and redistribution through the blue collar workers' central up one of the most comprehensive and public sector expansion. organization, LO, failed to massively redistributive welfare states in reach a mutually acceptable existence. Today, well over half of Gross The Strike compromise. The resulting strikes and re­ Domestic Product (GDP) * goes to non­ Seen in this perspective, the causes taliatory lockouts put more than 900,000 military public expenditures, compared of the strike are relatively dear. In the people (virtually the entire private sec­ to less than a quarter in the United States. past, labor could use the threat of legis­ tor) out of work. The reelection of the Social Democrats lation to get the employers to move in To the delight of conservatives in 1936 led the employers to believe negotiations. And labor could expect the across the industrial world, the foreign (correctly) that the Social Democrats government to compensate workers with press hailed the strike as the end of the would be in power for a long time. As a social programs when the international "Swedish Model" of labor peace, pros­ consequence, they initiated negotiations economic situation made wage restraint perity, and cradle-to-grave social welfare. with LO which led to the signing of a necessary. Given the biases of .American news re­ peace agreement in 1938. In the overall With the fall of the Social Demo­ porting on Sweden, progressive .Ameri­ crats in 1976, labor could no longer ex­ can trade unionists, who have long looked •GDP is the equivalent of Gross National pect this support. This emboldened S.AF, Product plus the domestic production of for­ to Sweden as a model, may wonder what and LO reluctantly accepted a meager the spring events in Sweden really mean eign-bastd firms and minus the foreig n pro­ :luction of nationally-b.1std firms. wage settlement in 1977 to preserve labor -and what implications they hold for labor strategy in America. What Is the Swedish Model? Many foreign observers attribute Swedish labor peace and progressive so­ cial legislation to some aspect of Swedish national character-a mythical ability to reach compromise. Others believe it is due to the characteristics of Swedish in­ stitutions : highly centralized bargaining and parliamentary consultation with af­ fected interest groups. In truth, the secret of the Swedish Model lies in the balance of social power: labor peace, a large public sector, and rapid economic growth were the result of a compromise between capital and an economically and politically powerful labor movement. Before the Social Democrats came to power in 1932, Sweden was not noted for its social legislation and it had one of the highest strike rates in the Western world. Sven Svensson, Metallarbetareo Unable to convince the electorate of the Swedish workers took to the streets this spring as labor strife paralyzed the desirability of their policy of workers' country.

Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC LBFT 9 market peace, only to be outraged a {ew ''Imagine the influence of labor hardly been investing them in ways that months later when the bourgeois (as the if the American workforce best benefit the beneficiaries. rightist parties are called) government In Sweden in the sixties, public in­ tut employers' taxes. In the 1980 nego­ were as organized as the British. fluence on the process of capital forma­ tiations, LO's demands were modest, due Its clout in the Democratic tion was further extended by such actions to the international economic situation. party would be enormous .... as the establislunent of a national bank A. few weeks before the strike, LO they would probably drive and more active government control of President Gunnar Nilsson said that work- investment. / ers were only asking for "an unchanged business influence out.'' But the clearest break with past pol­ standard of living ... no demand for a icy came in the early seventies when LO general improvement-only that we will by labor and Social Democratic party initiated a broad program for increased not be hit with further deterioration." leaders would entail a redistribution of worker decision making rights in the LO icalled for an 11 percent increase in wealth and power in the enterprise, not enterprise. This program was subsequent­ wag~, which would approximately equal just income. Instead of a compromise ly backed by the Social Democrats and the inflation rate. with capital, it would involve a progres­ TCO, the central organization of white The SA.F countered with a wage sive expansion of collectively owned cap­ collar workers (which is neutral in party package of 2 percent. With a bourgeois ital and a reduction of privately owned politics) . The essential elements of this government in power, LO could not capital. In short, it would lead to a tran­ program became law in a series of acts count on compensatory legislation to off­ scendence of the compromise that formed passed between 1973 and 1976. This pro­ set a poor settlement. Its only alternative the basis of the old Swedish Model and ~ram was complemented by a proposal was to resort to the strike weapon. the development of a form of democratic for "wage earner funds" from LO in In his May 1 talk before 40,000 socialism in Sweden. 1975 (later revised in a joint Social workers in Stockholm, Nilsson charged Looking back, one can see that the Democrat-LO proposal in 1978) which that "the government and employers go new emphasis is not as sudden as it ini­ represents a much more radical departure arm in arm and threaten the Swedish tially seemed. The first step towards a from past policy. As now amended, the Model of understanding and peaceful break with this policy came with the pen­ proposal calls for the introduction of a agreement on the labor market." Does sion struggle of the late fifties. The labor number of mutual funds owned by the this mean that we can expect a return to movement developed a comprehensive employees and citizens as a collectivity, the Swedish Model if the Social Demo­ supplementary pension that would assure consisting of newly issued shares of stock crats return to power? If by that we mean all Swedish wage earners a pension equal to be financed by a tax on profits and the a return to the compromise between labor to two-thirds of their ten best earning wage bill. These collectively owned funds and capital outlined earlier, the answer is years (with certain upper and lower would giow relative to privately held no. Conditions have changed. limits) adjusted to the cost of living. shares and in a period of 25 to 35 years First, with the public sector amount­ The radical element of the plan, which would take majority control of most en­ ing to 58 percent of GDP, the "redistri­ was passed after several years of intense terprises. bution through public sector expansion" political struggle, was that it provided for This proposal attempts to deal with strategy can go no further. Second, the the development of a large publicly con­ a classic problem of capitalism made even economic crisis in the West does put the trolled pension fund designed to offset more aggravating by the stagflation of the Swedish economy in a situation where a the anticipated drop in personal savings. seventies: employees don't take home in halt to increases in consumption, or per­ Today this pension fund completely dom­ wages and salary the full value of what haps even decreases, are necessary to pro­ inates the Swedish credit and housing they create, and that left over, or surplus vide adequate reinvestment capital. Like markets. Its accumulated assets are worth value, goes to line the pockets of an­ their .American counterparts, Swedish more than the total assets invested in the other. Employees can and do demand workers face demands for rollbacks from Swedish stock exchange. greater wage increases, but are limited by business and conservative forces. For in­ Similarly, the leaders of the large in­ the need for capital formation for invest­ stance, although the strike settlement that dustrial unions in the U.S. called for the ment for growth. called for a 7 percent wage increase was establishment of a national comprehen­ Swedish trade unions have been in hailed as victory by labor leaders, it meant sive pensions plan in the late forties. But, an extremely favorable bargaining posi­ a real wage decrease. owing to their lack of political clout, this tion to get the maximum possible in wage Workers have argued that if they demand was ignored in Washington, and negotiations due to the high degree of are to accept such restraints they must be the leadership was forced to negotiate labor organization (over three-quarters compensated through increased owner­ pension plans for their members em­ of the labor force is orgllnized) and the ship and control of industry. Otherwise, ployer by employer. This has left at least presence, until 1976, of the Social Demo­ the profits made possible by wage re­ half the workforce covered by no plan crats in the government. But they, too, straints would be concentrated in the other than Social Security and has have been hampered by the need for cap­ hands of industrialists and not shared also left the accumulated pension funds ital formation to feed the economy. with the workers who made it possible. (about one-third of the shares on the In the Swedish case, the situation is stock.exchange) largely in the hands of further complicated by the trade unions' Break with the Past bank trust department managers who, ac­ "solidaristic wage policy" which calls for The new Swedish Model envisioned cording to a recent .AFL-CIO report, have equal pay for equal work across the econ-

10 DBMOCR.ATIC LEFT Sept. 1980 omy regardless of the profitability of the trol and may well do so on the question of Comparisons with ~ther countries enterprise. This has resulted in extremely social ownership. confirm that labor movement strength is high profits in the most profitable enter­ What are the plan's chances for pas­ directly associated with the strength of prises and an increasing concentration of sage ? Obviously very slim unless the the political left, which is in turn strongly wealth. Social Democrats return to power. But associated with the size and redistributive the strike may help the Social Democrats. character of the public sector, the level of Meidner Plan LO President Nilsson argued that "it unemployment, and the degree of demo­ To find it solution that would: (1) cost the trade union movement 125 mil­ cratic public control of the economy. preserve and reinforce the solidaristic lion crowns, but at the same time it will (Such comparisons also confirm my inter­ wage policy; (2) equalize the distribu­ lead to the downfall of the bourgeois gov­ pretation of the Swedish strike: the more tion of wealth; ( 3) increase employee ernment in the next ( 1982) election." politically influential a labor movement influence in the enterprise; and ( 4) pro­ is, the lower the strike rate.) Clearly, vide new sources for capital accumula­ Lessons for America new organizing efforts must be central to tion, the LO set up a commission chaired The Swedish experience shows that the long term social and political strategy by economist Rudolf Meidner. As Meid­ a very large public sector need not be a of American labor and the left. ner himself points out, these direct\ves burden on economic growth as American practically locked the commission into conservatives have charged and can even Immediate Directions the solution it proposed. The reinvest­ provide a definite advantage if it includes Given the political constraints just ment that results from workers' wage provisions for capital formation, such as outlined, what can we learn from the restraint would have to be owned by the the Swedish pension fund. It also shows Swedish experience about policy direc­ workers and/or citizens as a collectivity. that the cries heard here and elsewhere tions? I think that the Swedish situation Individual shares would not work because to hold consumption at its present level of the fifties is in some ways more rele­ they could be cashed in to increase con­ or even cut it in order to allow for new vant to our present situation. We have sumption, resulting in no new reinvest­ sources of capital formation need not to work from our strengths and find areas ment. If the new investment was owned mean that wage and salary earners pay where the everyday lives of Americans by the capitalist, no equalization of the cost and reap no benefits. In return make them sympathetic to our policies. wealth would result. And, if the funds for their sacrifice, employees could benefit National health care is one such area. were to increase employee influence in from the capital growth in the form of But under the impact of stagflation, the the enterprise, the employees as a collec­ collective ownership funds, such as the pension issue may be more appropriate to tivity must be granted at least part of LO's proposed wage earner funds, and/ simultaneously push redistribution and the voting rights that come with stock or from increased influence over enter­ increased democratic control of the econ­ ownership. prise decision-making. omy. A national supplementary pension Yet, why did the Swedish labor 'This is all very nice," the American indexed to wage increases or the cost of movement raise the question of workers' reader is likely to say, "but the political living and vested immediately would be control and social ownership in the sev­ climate here is very different." Although very attractive. In fact, public opinion enties but not before? Several factors this is, in part, true, we must ask why, polls shows that a large majority of were at work. and what can be done in the U.S. given Americans consistently support new gov­ • The "redistribution through pub­ the current situation. ernment initiatives in this area, as they lic sector expansion" strategy was be.gin­ The answer to the first questio_n is do in the question of health care. Unlike ning to push toward its limit. The public simple Due to much hi~her levels of health care, the pension issue can also be balked as taxes began to exceed one-half labor organization, the Swedish labor used to address the question of demo­ of GDP and a much larger share of total movement has more resources, more cratic control of the economy by provid­ private consumption. power, and consequently more influence ing for the development of a large • Increased organization, particu­ over public opinion than its American pension fund under the control of public larly of white collar employees. Using the counterpart. For instance, is it surprising and employee representatives. This fund degree of organization as an indicator of that American labor takes a constant beat­ would be an answer to the economy's the power of labor, the relative power of ing in the press when almost none of it need for new sources of investment capi­ labor and capital had shifted in labor's is actually owned by labor-as is a good tal. And, finally, public and union con­ favor. For LO and the Social Democrats, portion in Sweden? trol of these funds as well as more active this meant new channels of information Imagine the influence of labor if the use of present union funds could aid the to more people through personal contacts, American workforce were as organized as long term strategy of increasing organiza­ trade union journals, and the Social the British ( 44 percent organized in tion by steering capital away from anti­ Democratic press (about 20 percent of 1970, which is a bit above average for in· union firms. • total newspaper circulation), which is dustrial democracies, compared to around owned and financed by LO. In a word, 20 percent here) . Its clout in the Demo­ John Stephens iI assistant professor of the opinion makmg power of the move­ cratic party would be enormous. In fact, sociology at Brown University and the ment had changed. it would make the labor party debate a11thor of the recent Humanities Press • The growth of the TCO, which, moot since labor and minorities would be book The Transition from Capitalism to though formally politically neutral, allied so influential in the party that they would Socialism. He iI active in Rhode Island with LO on the question of workers' con- probably drive business influence out. DSOC.

Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC LEFT 11 Reuther on Organizing

ictor Reuther, formerly EJ11ca- who had lobbied against it for years 1ion Director and International joined with labor and brought about the Affairs Director of the United first increases in retirement benefits in A11to Workers Union an'd co­ twenty years. Now, that first establish­ chair of the DSOC National ment of $100 seems a modest victory, but Advisory Committee, ha.s been the principle of it was so important that active in the American labor workers saw where it could lead. movement since the 1930s. We have held their loyalty and con­ This interview, conducted by Mary fo fidence together by moving additional Connelly, Matthew RothIChild and Perry steps forward each time we go to the bar­ Mehrling, first appeared in Agenda, a gaining table. If we had said thirty years democratic soda/isl newsletter p11blished ago. "We want a seat on the board of b)' Harvard-Raddilfe st11dents. It took directors of General Motors," our own place at the time of the DEMOCRATIC workers would have hooted us down. AGENDA conference in IVashington la.st They were not ready to think in those fall and appears here in abridged form. terms. Today, they will accept that. Del Anktn Photographers Q: You expressed the conviction that Q: But how do you educate beyond conditions are ripe for both indus­ ''We have to believe that we are self-interest, even the collective self­ trial unionism and political activism. capable of changing.,, interest that you are mobilizing Unless these are going to be just par­ around, to transmit the social vision allel phenomena, there must be some that is as much a part of socialism as change in the way trade unions de­ that they never were then; you have white the structural changes? fine their political role. How do you collar workers organized on a scale that think this politicization of the trade did not exist then. REUTHER : In the absence of a deep­ unions will come about? rooted left political tradition in our coun­ Q: How do you proceed from the try, the trade unions have an even greater REUTHER : Given that the nature of our small gains that you say are neces­ obligation and responsibility to this coun­ economic problems is such that they can­ sary for any organization to stay in try to do that kind of political educational not be resolved at the bargaining table, power to the large structural goals, work than is true in European countries. it is clear that the workers and their which you say are also possible? In Europe, the trade unions can rely on unions will accept the fact that they must the labor parties and the social democratic be vigorous on the political front. Look REUTHER : Let me cite an example. Some parties and their machinery and their at the difficulty the labor movement had rears ago, we knew we did not have the newspapers to do this kind of education in trying single-handedly to push through political strength in Congress to increase work; we cannot. To educate an elec­ labor reform legislation-trying to go it Social Security benefits. So we went to torate, you have to have a structure, an alone in the political field-and it be­ the auto corporations and said, "Since for organization that has staying power, that comes abundantly clear that we can only many years, you and your lobbyists have has a continuing education program that win in the political field if we are in defeated our efforts to increase Social can identify every new issue-whether at active coal it ion with other forces in the Security through legislation, you will now the local level, including garbage collec­ community. pay out of your own earnings a supple­ tion, or at the highest level, including And that's why the building of the mental amount"; and our first demand enerzy and inflation. You have to be able Pro,gressive Alliance, and the coalition of was that a retired worker would be guar­ to identify these with a continuing poli­ the DEMOCRATIC AGENDA, are so signi­ anteed SIOO a month, with a portion of tical and economic philosophy, with a ficant. We are trying to restructure an that representing Social Security pay­ long-term goal and objecrive, so that the alliance that existed for a short period ments, then some S30 a month. people will identify what you ask them during the birth of the CIO during the Now, Social Security benefits in the to do today as a step towards the more early New Deal period; we now know meantime have gone up, and why? Be­ distant goal. The trade unions have stay­ we cannot put through the kind of legis­ cause the corporations reasoned that if ing power, and the black and Hispanic lation we favor without restructuring they had to pay the difference between organizations have it; out of this coali­ that coalition. Each participant in that Social Security benefits and the specified tion must come the heart of a new poli­ coalition has matured since then: the monthly allowance, it would be in their tical party, a new political movement. blades are much more politically con­ financial interest to increase Social Se­ And if it is not possible for w to take scious; the Hispanics are a force today curity payments. So suddenly employers Continued on page 15 12 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Sept. 1980._.,,. ONTIIELEFf By Harry Fleischman

OOALIST INTERNATIONAL Is ALIVE AND WELL," to prolong the situation. The hostages, however, a.re only one headlined the New York Times after the mission to aspect of the power struggle in Iran today. Irin of three European Socialist leaders, Prime Iran feels that the democratic world doesn't want to Minister Bruno Kreisky of Austria, Swedish ex­ understand what is happening there. For that reason, the So­ Prime Minister Olof Palme, and Spain's Socialist cialist initiative in visiting Iran was a big event that added to leader Felipe Gonzalez. the prestige and moral authority of the Socialist International. The headline is apt, for the Socialist Inter­ national (SI) has gained renewed vitality and influence since the 1976 Vienna Congress when former West • • • German Chancellor Willy Brandt was elected president and DELEGATES CHUCKLED AT A STORY MAKING THE ROUNDS IN the decision was taken to reach out to parties in the Third Oslo about Sweden. Leaders of the three party nonsocialist coa­ World countries. lition government in Sweden, worried by polls showing rising Last June's Oslo Bureau meeting was a case in point. majority support for Olof Palme, former Socialist Prime Min­ Brandt's opening presentation gave a far-ranging review of ister, and his party, contacted Bruno Kreisky. Wouldn't it be the gloomy international situation, focusing on the escalating wonderful, they suggested, if Palme could be elected Secretary arms race, the lack of promising solutions in the Near and General of the United Nations? There his great diplomatic Middle East, and continuing genocide in Kampuchea (Cam­ talents could be most effectively utilized. Kreisky, amused, told bodia). Palme of the gambit. "Nice to know they love me so much," re­ Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica had phoned sponded Palme, "but they'll still have to face me at the polls." Brandt to inform him that the right-wing opposition (the Jamaica Labor Party) was receiving $6 to S7 million from ••• reactionary sources in the U.S. In addition, the International JULY 21 SAW THE FIRST DAY OF DRAFT REGISTRATION FOR Monetary Fund (IMF) has been squeezing Jamaica so hard four million 19- and 20-year-olds and demonstrations in hun­ on loans that its terms represent virtual starvation for the dreds of communities across the country calling for a repeal Jamaican people. of registration and attempting to head off a move toward actual Reiulf Steen, chairman of the Norwegian Labor Party, classification and induction. The largest protest in the nation urged all SI parties with influence on governments to work for was organized by the New York Mobilization Against the immediate food and energy aid for Jamaica. He also indicated Draft and the New York local of DSOC on the upper West that he would accept contributions from member parties to aid Side of Manhattan. Nearly 7,000 people (by police estimates) the forthcoming election campaign of Manley's People's Na­ braved temperatures of up to 102 degrees to hear Rev. Barry tional Party. Lynn of the National Committee Against Registration and the A highlight of the Bureau meeting was a closed session Draft, DSOC Chair Michael Harrington, Yolanda King with Iran's Foreign Minister, Sadet Gotzbadeh, held at his (daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King). U.S. Senatorial can­ request. Although the session was off the record, Gotzbadeh didate Elizabeth Holtzman, City Councilwoman Ruth Messin­ later repeated the gist of his remarks at a press conference. ger and others denounce the move toward a draft and call for He thanked the SI for the initiative of the Socialist leaders' a democratic foreign policy abroad and a full employment trip to Iran, took note of their "frank criticism of what we have economy .at home. The protest was sponsored by a broad range done in relation to the hostages," but added that this "first step of community and peace groups, three area congressional rep­ of understanding" would "help us find initiatives to solve the resentatives, several state senators and assembly members situation." and several unions, including District 1199 Hospital Workers, Gotzbadeh claimed that the USSR and U.S are still inter­ District 65 and Local 259 of the United Auto Workers, and vening in Iran, directly or indirectly The Tudeh (Commu­ District Council 37 of AFSCME. nist) party of Iran is an agent of the Soviet Union, and Iran Initial readings indicate the Carter administration's reg­ helps the Afghans because they fight for freedom, he said. istration program to be a colossal failure. Though Selective Nevertheless, as Kreisky and others pointed out later, Service had predicted a 98 percent compliance, reports indicate there is not yet a permanent and appropriate political structure that the figure is closer to 75-80 percent Meanwhile antidraft in Iran. But there is the beginning of a democratic structure. forces are gearing up for a national week of activities against Even though Khomeini supporters are in power, a considerable the draft October 12-19 and for the expected push for con­ number of his opponents who are pro-democratic have also scription when the new Congress convenes. • been elected. Most socialist leaders concluded that Bani-Sadr and Gotz­ Harr) Fleischman, DSOC national board member, was 011r badeh have only a limited chance of making their opinions delegate at the Oslo SI B11rea11 meeting. Items for this col11mn prevail. They want to free the hostages because they know how sho11ld be sent to him at 853 Broadway, S11ite 801, New York, much damage that problem does to Iran, but the mullahs want N.Y. 10003.

Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC I.EFT 13 Feuds over Families By Kate Ellis AST NOVEMBER, BETIY FRIEDAN proposals that received the most support, which drew close to 3,000 people and in­ stated in the New York Times as well as those that aroused the most con­ cluded under the rubric of "family" every that "the family, which has al­ troversy (abortion, the ERA, sexual pref­ arrangement short of persons living with ways been a bastion of conser­ erence issues) were for altering and a doJt or a cat. vatism, is already being trans- extending, not reducing, the purview of It represents an attempt to reclaim formed by women's equality the welfare state. from the right the appellation "pro-fam­ into a progressive political Demands for such things as the elim­ ily." As such it highlights a serious prob­ force." If the three White House ination of the so-called "marriage tax" lem for the left. To define the family, as Conferences on Families held in June and under which single wage-earners living the Family Day brochure does, as "the July are any indication, this thesis may together pay lower taxes than two-income only institution that even claims it's about have moved beyond the realm of wish­ married couples, for drug abuse programs love," is to substitute a tenacious post­ ful thinking. and tax breaks for home care of the el­ industrial fantasy of what the family is For a while the conference planning derly, or for "a wide variety of child care in its ahistorical essence for a historically process was so embattled that the idea services," or for more flexible work that conditioned description of what the fam­ was all but dropped. The main point of will enable everyone to have "a feeling ily in a given society does, and is expected contention centered on the definition of of usefulness and dignity at wages suffi­ to do. "the family," indicating that this is a cient to support a decent standard of liv­ problem for the center as well as the left. ing" speak to the impact of the current Functions of Families The conference title was changed to the economic crisis on breadwinners. Clearly A general definition of a family as, plural, implying acceptance of many fam­ it is the decline in our national standard say, any two or more people committed ily forms and postponing the issue of a of living, measured in economic rather to each other over time, ignores the fact restrictive definition to the conferences than moral terms, that most people per- that one thing that the family in any themselves. Conservatives in Minneapo­ society must do is reproduce itself. To lis won a narrow victory on a motion de­ do this it must channel the sexuality of fining the family as "two or more persons its members toward certain ends and away related by blood, heterosexual marriage, ''It is the decline in our from others. The historically different or adoption." I would argue that the left national standard of living, treatment of male and female promiscuity should also accept a definition along is part of this channelling. At the center these lines. meastffed in economic rather of the family as reproducer of itself is the The thrust of the right is towards a than moral terms, that most heterosexual couple, which explains why much more restricted application of the peo pie perceive as the real threat the label "intact" is not given to the Patsy word, as was shown when, in the plan­ Fleming model of a mother and her three ning stages, irate Catholics forced the res­ to the survival of the family. ,, kids but only to the Jim Guy Tucker ignation of the original conference co­ model in which both members of the ordinator, Patsy Fleming, a black divor­ couple are living together. ced mother of three. At this point the ceive as the real threat to the survival of Because of its chanelling function, whole idea was shelved until spring 1979, the family as we have known it. the family becomes a distribution point when the demand for a director from an Yet, amid all these progressive pro· for rewards and punishments that vali­ "intact" family was met in the person of posals, the family remains a deeply prob­ date heterosexual coupling. This may be former representative from Arkansas Jim lematic institution both for society and for changing: the right certainly thinks so. Guy Tucker. socialists. It is an issue that has been ex­ Nevertheless, when people become homo­ At the conferences, the rift was be­ ploited successfully by the right and that sexuals or single parents the considerable tween opponents and proponents of state causes widespread debate on the left. rewards that have been marshalled to the intervention, that is, between conserva­ Changing the conference title did cause of the " intact" family are no longer tives and liberals. But since the purpose not answer the question of definition. The theirs. The delegates to the Presidential of the events was to discuss government conference planners decided to speak of Conferences passed resolutions aimed at policy toward the family, delegates who f ami/ies, and this pluralism has a strong mitigating this deprivation. But to deny believed that the state should have noth­ appeal for the left as well. This was evi­ its existence is to organize people around ing to do with the family were at a disad­ dent at an event called Family Day, put an illusion. vantage. Despite complaints and widely on by the Institute for Labor and Mental In addition to its chanelling func­ reported walkouts by conservatives, the Health in Berkeley in September, 1979, tion, the family provides for the helpless,

14 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Sept. 1980 young, and old. But though love is a not always coincide with, or automatically be altered. But with only 18 percent of desirable ingredient in this process, it is take precedence over, those of her mother the workforce currently unionized, and not a dclining one. Elderly people may be and grandmother. with the energy crisis bearing down on loved or resented, may live with a wage­ If we think about these things only home as well as on the workplace, it earning relative or be put in a home by under the heading of "the family" we seems to me that we must begin to expand that person, may willingly or unwillingly will be quickly bafBed. The argument that our notion of intermediate institutions, to provide unpaid child care services. only in that institution is support (the work not only for more of what we arc At the other end of the scale, chil­ kind of love I am talking about) learned losing, but for something new and dif• dren are socialized to "do well" in the and freely given has the problem (over ferent. world in which they live. This process and above a high probability of untruth) Our lack of affiliative institutions has may "take," by the lights of the society of reinforcing the separation of "family" devastating effects. Plant closings scatter or individuals involved, or it may not, and "world" that can only exacerbate workers (who formerly shared a co~on and love may or may not be present. An conflicts that arise from the different union membership) in search of (often unmarried adolescent girl may have a needs and responsibilities of persons re­ nonunion) jobs a long drive from home. child and her parents may disown her or lated by blood, heterosexual marriage, or This leaves them with little in common raise the child for her. It is all part of adoption. on the home front except anxiety ..'-out the same family function, and love may .At a certain level of abstraction, we declining property values ar ' '·~~tility to be ascribed to either act. can say that people do not have funda­ the increased cost of local 50\.• .U servu.:es. To treat the family as an entity that mentally conflicting needs. We all need The decline of schooling leaves teenagers is separable from the concentric circles of to love and be loved, and we can get it in with little to bring them together except society around it is to do just what the the family (with or without a hetero­ violence, sex, and drugs. right is doing. Individual parents do not sexual couple at its center) if the welfare Home then becomes a self-service decide on their own how to respond, for state will only give us more. But along filling station where people with nothing instance, to a pregnant teenager. In addi­ with the development of our particular to do or no one to do it with can watch tion to overall societal proscriptions, they brand of state has come the erosion of TV and avoid being "alone." It is by take into account community standards institutions of affiliation that used to oc­ addressing these problems that we will that vary widely. We need to think about cupy the terrain between state and family. develop a real pro-family program. • how a daughter can get support for what Traditionally the left has concen­ she wants to do, and how her parents can trated on unions as the intermediate insti­ Kate Elli1 teachu at R.t1tger1 Univenit."1 get what they want, too. And we need to tutions through which the balance of and iJ a 1ocia/i1t feminiJI acti11i11 li11ing think about the child, whose needs may power in industrialized societies would in New York. • • • REUTHER, from page 12 over and remold the Democratic party itself into a party that meets our needs, we must permit it to wither on the vine and build a party in its place. But there will only be two parties, I think. What you want is a society that will use the technical and natural csources we have to benefit socic>ty. I would ;1ot visua.ize a society in which there was no private ownership. I do not think it is necessary to develop so all-powerful a state. One should own one's private h1>me. I think many fac­ tories can still be private. y owned. But in every area of manufacturing, I would have a facility that was either coopera­ tively owned or state owned, so that you would know what it costs to produce an item . .And that yardstick could be used to keep the private sector within bounds­ that's what Sweden's doing. They've only nationalized a very small percentage of their economy, but it's enough of it to discipline the private sector and make them socially responsible. We have to be­ "OK now. I hope we can continue the discussion without any more of that lieve that we are capable of charlging. • kind of language!" Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC LEFT U Rf Undocumented Workers: Exploited and Resented

By Roger Waldinger

AST SPRJNG's INFLUX OF CUBAN refugees exempli1ied the com­ plexities and misunderstandings that bedevil immigration policy. While makeshift rescue opera- tions were mounted off the Flor­ ida shore, the Carter admin­ istration vacillated, unsure of the proper reaction to this latest wave. After considerable indecision, Carter bowed to the inevitable, ceasing to restrict the Bow and assisting in the process of resettlement. The aftermath of this epi­ sode has provided little occasion for self. congratulation. Resettlement has been agonizingly slow. Exploitation of refu­ gees at the workplace has already been reported. And most importantly, the eruption of the liberty City ghetto in Miami, sparked in part by resentment at &n Sargent/Austin American Statesman the reception accorded the refugees, sug­ gested to some policymakers and analysts sharply from these myths. Today's immi­ first are those who arrive with legal resi­ that the tolerance level for immigrants is grants are not so poor, and their numbers, dent status. This is granted to immigrants relatively low. relative to total U.S. population, not as who have close family ties (as children, The pessimistic and conventional great as popular opinion would suggest. spouses, and siblings) to American citi­ view is that the U.S. is being flooded by Their arrival, moreover, is not so closely zens or legal alien residents, and to a the world's poor and oppressed. Al­ linked to the deterioration of conditions lesser extent, to immigrants with partic­ though this is merely a refrain from the in the home countries as it is to the de­ ularly valuable skills and talents not avail­ bad old restrictionist past, the anti-imrni­ mand for low-wage labor bred by the U.S. able in the United States. The undocu­ grationist argument has been updated. economy. Doomsayers to the contrary, the mented are immigrants who either evade The modern-day kicker has it that Amer­ employment of immigrants at the bottom inspection when crossing into the country ica's homegrown poor are the ones most of the labor market is unlikely to throw at the borders or enter the country with likely to be hurt. And to close the circle, many Americans out of work, let alone a visa and then remain beyond the Hmits it is argued that economic competition endanger the "social fabric." of their stay. Most of the Mexican undoc­ between immigrants and low-income na­ umented immigrants belong to the first tives will kindle social conflict of a type Who Are the New lmmiArants? category while most of the other Western -to quote the usually sober Business Today's immigrants, as distin· Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere un­ Wt>ek-"that will make the riots in Miami guished from refugees, are conventionally documenteds are, in immigration par­ look like a Boy Scout campfire." treated as two different groups: the legal lance, "overstays." The distinctions be­ Reality, however, departs quite immigrants, and the undocumented. The tween the two groups are not great. Jn.

16 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Sept. 1980 deed, many legal immigrants are former about the Mexican immigrants, though clearly a consequence of, not a prelude to, "illegals," a fact that suggests that the even here the picture is not clear. These their encounter with the new land. dynamics of the two migration currents immigrants are primarily, though not en­ A similar pattern holds true today. may be similar. tirely, from rural areas: although ex­ Much of the Mexican undocumented The major change in the legal im­ farmworkers arc disproportionately rep­ immigration is temporary in nature. Emi­ migration fiow dates to the 1960s. Prior resented, the immigrants come from the gration from Mexico to the U.S., as Uni­ to 1965, legal immigrants were primarily broad middle to rural Mexican society. versity of California political scientist western and northern Europeans. With The poorest, for the most part, are not Wayne Cornelius has argued, can be the abolition. of the national origins sys­ part of the migration stream. Unlike linked to conjunctural swings in the rural tem in 1965, Third World immigrants the legal migrants, these undocumented economy that lead peasants and farm came to predominate. In 1977. the last workers are predominately male; the fe­ workers to seek a reprieve through labor date for which we have statistics, the male proportion, however, is apparently in the U.S. As was the case for the mi­ legal stream was 34 percent Asian and increasing. grants "imported" by the advanced Euro­ 44 percent Latin American and Carib­ pean countries during the 1960s and early bean. Only 15 percent of the 1977 legal Why They Come 1970s, many Mexican undocumented immigrants came from Europe. We tend to look at the phenomenon workers migrate to earn money to buy Compared to the legal immigrants of immigration through a very personal­ land, agricultural implements, a truck, or who came at the turn of the century, to­ ized prism. With the exception of Native some other consumer durable upon return day's immigrants are more heavily white Americans and most blacks, we are the home. To some extent, the term "immi­ collar (more than 30 percent of the legal descendants of "voluntary" immigrants. gration" in the accepted sense is a mis­ immigrants with previous work experi­ What follows from this inheritance is a nomer when applied to the Mexican case. ence held professional or managerial jobs particular set of assumptions: that Amer­ In some Mexican villages, even the acqui­ prior to immigration), far less likely to ica has acted as a land of refuge for those sition of legal immigrant status does not be of rural origins, and predominantly impelled to leave their countries of ori­ lead to a shift of residence. Rather, it female (53 percent of the 1977 immi­ gin ; and that the act of immigration is serves as a pass for "professional mi­ grants were women) . Moreover, the rela­ one and the same with the process of grants" to enter the U.S. for temporary tive size of today's immigrant flow is settlement. These assumptions, however, stays and then return home for the greater dwarfed by that of the past. An average are contradicted by the historical record portion of the year. of 1,100,000 people arrived on these and their implications for contemporary The prevalence and continuity of shores between 1903 and 1913, an influx developments are equally misleading. temporary migration suggests that immi­ that accounted for over 40 percent of the gration is primarily rooted in conditions growth of the labor force during that in the U.S. itself, and only secondarily in period. During the 1970s, legal immigra­ ''Doomsayers to the contrary, the emigrating countries. As Michael tion ranged from a low of 370,000 in the employment of immigrants Piore, an economist at MIT, has argued, 1971 to last year's high in the 700,000 at the bottom of the labor market industrial societies have a tendency to range, with no distinct trend appearing create jobs that can only be filled by until refugee movements in the late sev­ is unlikely to throw m,my searching for new sources of labor supply, enties caused a pronounced upwards tilt. Americans out of work, let alone a quest that historically has led to the Prior to the refugee influx, approximately 1 importation of migrant workers. At the endmzger the 'social f abric. '' 230,000 legal immigrants entered the turn of the century, rapid economic labor force annually. Even with the refu­ growth and the burgeoning of relatively gee addition taken into account, the total Migration during the last great wave unskilled jobs in manufacturing indus­ number of new immigrant workers re­ at the turn of the century does not con­ tries led to massive immigration. mains overshadowed by the size of the form to currently held notions. Apart After World War I curtailed Euro­ active workforce of almost 97 million. from the Jew-who did fit the idealized pean immigration, U.S. employers sou~ht Unfortunately, any statement about image of a group fleeing intolerable poli­ new workers for bottom-level jobs. This undocumented immigrants must be made tical and economic conditions-there was search precipitated the black exodus from with little degree of precision. The ac­ little migration of family units. Obscured the South and provided the catalyst for cepted estimate puts the undocumented today by the haze of time, it was the the Mexican migration northwards that population in the four to six million "bird of passage" phenomenon that im­ has continued to this day. range. It had been thought previously pressed contemporaries. Like the swal­ The current wave is a recapitulation that the overwhelming majority were lows after whom they were named, a si,g­ of earlier mi~rations , induced and influ­ from Mexico. However, a recent Census nificant portion of the turn-of-the-century enced by similar factors. The uneven de­ report argues that at least half of the un­ immigrants passed annually back and velopment of the U.S. economy perpetu­ documented immigrants are non-Mexi­ forth across the Atlantic in response to ates a large number of low-wage jobs can, primarily from the Caribbean and seasonal fluctuations in their trades. Thir­ in traditional manufacturing industries Latin American countries. ty to forty percent of those who left Italy, while multiplying the number of dead­ Of course, not knowing how many the Baltic, and the Balkans returned to end, undesirable jobs in the service sec­ immigrants are here and where most of their homes after a sojourn in the U.S. tor. Huge inequalities of pay-in 1976, them are from greatly complicates the And for many who did establish perma­ for example, eleven million jobs paid at task of describing them. W c know most nent residence, the decision to do so was or near the minimum wage-make many

Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC I.EFT 17 have changed. In the 1960s, black and ployment rates, gains in employment, aJ. Puerto Rican migration northward ta­ ternative job opportunities in manpower pered off; in the 1970s, these currents training programs, and improved public halted or reversed. .As this process has assistance benefits loosened the con­ been played out, employers have sought straints that bound workers to the low­ labor elsewhere: particularly in and wage sector. These developments rever­ around the Caribbean basin. berated in the workplace, leading work­ In the Southwest the story reads ers to resist customary conditions and slightly differently. There, where undocu­ practices and inducing employers to look mented workers have traditionally been for a more tractable labor force. employed in agriculture, economic expan­ The second, related, argument has sion has widened demand. One research to do with the nature of work in the fow­ team studying five towns in northern wage sector. Employment at the bottom Mexico found that agriculture provided of the occupational ladder is compatible employment for 84 percent of those mi­ with the needs and aspirations of tem­ grants who worked in the U.S. prior to porary migrants, who are most interested 1969, but only 45 percent of those who in accumulating savings in order to re­ have sojourned here since then. turn home. The same holds true for the Since the new immigration began it lirst generation, which judges current has obtained a dynamic of its own. The status and earnings in relation to condi­ pull from the U.S. has been powerfully tions they lived under prior to migration reinforced by the contradictions of devel­ and not to the norm in the U.S. These opment in neighboring countries. Rc!ty­ comparative factors, however, exercise ing heavily on capital intensive plans that little sway over the second generation, have accelerated growth without produc­ who opt out of the traditional immigrant ing commensurate gains in employment, jobs of sewing, dishwashing, deaning, many of the countries in the U.S.-bound and the like. The critical point is that immigration stream have displaced tradi­ the faltering of the post-war migration tional jobs without creating domestic al­ waves, as discussed above, and the matu­ ternatives. Severe under- and unemploy­ ration of the second generation, cleared ment have thus combined with disparities the way for the entry of a new low - wa~ in the distribution of income to enlarge labor force. the current headed towards the U.S. If concern over employers substitut­ The immigration current has been ing undocumented workers for otherwise strengthened further as well-established employed natives is misplaced, fear that networks channel information and job­ undocumented migration might coincide finding assistance to new migrants and with a decline of basic working condi­ the existence of immigrant communities tions seems well-founded. Once again the eases the tasks of finding shelter and em­ usual caveat-about the inadequacies of ployment. Finally, the back and forth the data base and conflicting reports­ flow of temporary and permanent immi­ must be injected. But the evidence is com­

Ed,.•in Lc"ck/ l.1bury o( ConJi:reu/Circ• 1906 grants. as well as the sending of remit­ pelling enough to indicate that certain tances, have spread the U.S. model of segments of the low-wage sector are jobs undesirable for native workers with consumption throughout the sending poised for a return to the sweatshop. other sources of income support (public countries, making U.S.-bound migration The most comprehensive picture assistance, training programs, etc.) . It is a part o f the culture. comes from an intensive investigation of in precisely this range that the immi­ low-wage industries conducted by a spe­ grants are placed. One of the most com­ Market Impact cial branch of the California Department prehensive studies available, a survey of The controversy over the impact of of Labor. Of 3,253 workplaces inspected, over 800 apprehended undocumented immigration has focused narrowly on the 59 percent were found to be in violation workers, found that the undocumenteds question of cost. Observers and partisans of basic labor standards. In the garment were relegated to bottom-level jobs in the ask whether the new immigrants, particu­ industry, a major employer of immi­ low-wage sector and that their earnings larly the undocumented, displace Amer­ grants that has largely mllnaged to keep fell below those of U.S. workers em­ ican workers and thereby aggravate the the International Ladies Garment Work­ ployed in comparable jobs. Other sources level of economic distress. ers Union at bay (only 10 percent of the confirm this picture. The preceding analysis strongly sug­ California garment workforce is organ­ On the supply side, there is both gests that the answer to this question is ized) , pa}'ment of sub-minimum wages, continuity and change. In the industrial no. This view first emphasizes the origins homework, and child-labor were particu­ heartland ahd in the N ortheast, the tra­ of the new immigration an

18 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Sept. 1980 1. :t ards Administration, which has intensi­ citizens and legal alien residents, the un­ an amnesty for undocumented immi­ .c fied its dforts to police the labor codes in documenteds are easy prey to employers grants rcs1dmg m the U.S. prior to 1970, I• a series of low-wage industries, has un­ who have little to fear and much to gain a penalty for employers hiring undocu­ '• covered abuses in construction, services, from exploitation. mented workers, and a guestworker pro­ '• light manufacturing, and especially gar­ gram similar to those operated in Europe ments. Labor's Response prior to 1973. .As with other Carter pro­ i How should this reversion to sub­ Since the early seventies, anti-immi­ posals, this one was issued with fanfare, t standard conditions be interpreted? To grant ardor has cooled off, particularly only to die silently in Congress. Since some extent, there has been erosion of within the liberal-left, which has had con­ then, little action has been forthcoming. labor standards throughout American in­ flicts on this issue. The most important What then, are the implications of dustry, a trend which bears no direct factor in this process has been the pres­ the new immigration and the policy de­ relationship to immigration: 1979 set a ence at countless workplaces of the un­ bate for labor and the left? The agenda record for labor standards violations. documenteds themselves. As they have should clearly be shaped by some simple Immigrants are heavily employed in in­ encountered immigrants, a number of demographic facts. Immigration is chang· dustries where competitive pressures are unions-the now-merged Amalgamated ing the complexion of the workforce and severe; in some, such as garments, the in­ Meat Cutters, the Steelworkers, the Gar­ population in vital sectors and regions. In tensification of international competition ment Workers, and the Electrical Work­ California, there are 450,000 legal alien has heightened the labor cost constraints. ers, among others-have attempted to or­ residents of Mexican origin. During the More important, perhaps, has been ganize them, albeit with limited success. first half of the 1970s, the legal alien the shifting character of govemment reg­ resident population of New York City ulation. Historically, the labor standards increased by 30 percent. With consider­ mandate was focused on the low-wage ''Certain segments of the low­ able growth registered smce then, recent sector. In the past twenty years, however, immigrants not yet naturalized now com­ the jurisdiction of government agencies wage sector are poised for a prise a significant proportion of the city's in this field has been widened without return to the sweatshop.,, population. commensurate increase in staffing or In addition to the legal aliens there funding. More critical yet, the policing is a population-of indeterminate size­ of the labor codes has suffered from a Often, Immigration and Naturalization of undocumented immigrants that seek dual barrage: the right's assault on gov­ Service (INS) agents have squashed permanent residency. This 1s a poten­ ernment regulation in general, and the promising organizing campaigns by step­ tially major constituency. Equally impor­ crunch of the fiscal crisis. The imprint of ping in just before a representation elec­ tant, it is a group with particular needs the former can be seen m the enforce­ tion or during the course of a strike. The and aspirations that are currently ne­ ment of health and safety codes. The ILGWU, whose membership is heavily glected and undefended. Occupational Safety and Health Admin­ immigrant and which must organize large Continued political immobility and istration acts withm a narrow cost-benefit numbers of undocumenteds on both East the deterioration of conditions at the bot­ calculus that leads 1t to focus on high haz­ and West Coasts, attempted to directly tom of the labor market make defense of ard industries or serious violations where counter the influence of the INS by filing the alien a priority . .An interim strategy there may be 1mmment danger. In prac­ (an ultimately unsuccessful) suit to halt should focus around strengthened en­ tice this means that there is virtually no factory raids and by pressuring union em­ forcement of labor standards and rejuve­ surveillance of the "low-risk" industries ployers to bar admittance to Immigration nated organizing. where the immigrants congregate. Oear­ agents. The long-term options are far more ly, the passage of such restrictive legisla­ Within the past two years, this expe­ problematic, primarily because the policy tion as the Schweiker amendment will rience in the field has percolated into goals are so unclear. The current debate cripple enforcement in industries where policy. Labor has become more vocal in assumes that a restrictionist solution is the threat to workers' health is grave, but its defense of the alien and more sympa­ the desired outcome. But if the analysis not the most severe. thetic to a liberal readjustment of status developed here is correct, none of the The fiscal crisis has been an equally for the undocumenteds. At a news con­ commonly proposed restrictionist mech­ great hindrance. In New York State, for ference following the February 1980 anisms is likely to slow the current immi­ example, the squeeze on state expendi· .AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting, gration tide so long as the underlving tures has cut personnel in the Division of Lane Kirkland endorsed a "broad and inequities m the occupational structure Labor Standards by almost one-half and sweeping amnesty for those (undocu­ persist. However, by implying that great­ severely restricted the agency's capacity mented immigrants) who are presently er equality will eliminate the utility of a to do more than respond to complaints. in this country." workforce w1llmg to accept jobs that Other public departments with authority Discerning the prospects for this or natives decline, this same argument makes over building and fire conditions, for ex­ any other policy change is particularly the left a friend of the immigrants, but a.mble, have been equaJiy enfeebled. difficult. For much of the last decade, the not a supporter of a greatly opened door. .As pressures on labor costs are inten­ political initiative rested with Congress. • sifymg and state control is diminishing, The Carter administration, however, was Rogtr Waldinger iJ a Fellow at the Joint the number of undocumented workers in at first determined to talce some action Cenler for Urban St11dieJ, MIT-Harvard, the low-wage sector has increased. Bereft and developed a legislative package in its and iJ working on '' 11t1dy of immigrant of the rights and protections enjoyed by first year of office. Its proposals included workers in 1he garment ind11Jtry.

Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC l..BFT 19 DEMOCRATIC AGENDA ORE THAN 500 DELEGATES TO THE DEMOCRATIC view: "Our job only begins at this convention if we're truly National Convention and liberal, labor, and committed to a full employment society." left Democrats gathered at Town Hall in New DEMOCRATIC AGENDA supported minority planks in the York Gty August 12 to mobilize under the platform that called for: banner of DEMOCRATIC AGENDA to fight for a progressive Democratic party platform. "Con­ • the right to a job for all Americans able to work trary to many reports, the old liberalism is still very much alive in the United States, if no • enactment of comprehensive national health inSW'ance longer in the Democratic party," said DSOC National Chair in a single bill specifying the phase-in of benefits Michael Harrington in his opening remarks. "However," he • federal chartering of oil companies and creation of a warned, to be relevant today, that liberalism must become more TVA -style federal energy company and an increased radical and must go beyond FDR in the way that he went commitment to solar energy beyond Herbert Hoover." "We must not fall into the trap of thinking that the • opposition to the MX missile as a misuse of America's enemy is Ronald Reagan," said San Francisco Supervisor and productive capacity, which must be used in a balanced gay activist Harry Britt. "The enemy is poverty, hunger, and way to meet pressing social needs and create jobs economic injustice." Supporters of both President Carter and • women's rights and reproductive freedom. Senator Edward Kennedy spoke in favor of progressive plat­ form planks. "If, as Truman said, the platform is the party's Other speakers at the rally included: Cesar Chavez, contract with the people, then the people should be able to sue United farm Workers head; Ruth Messinger, New York Gty the Democratic party for fraud," charged writer and feminist Coucil member; Deborah Meier, DSOC vice chair; Fran Ben· Gloria Steinem. National Education Association Executive nick, national president, New Democratic Coalition; David Terry Herndon stressed the importance for Democrats of work­ Dinkins, city clerk of New York; and Patrick Lace.field, co­ ing to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. ordinator, Democrats Against the Draft. "We must fight to elect progressives to Congress," said "The enthusiasm of the crowd that turned out in the William Winpisinger, president of the International Associa­ midst of a very hectic and heavily scheduled convention is tion of Machinists. UAW President Douglas Fraser decried gratifying as we prepare for our ongoing work," said DEMO· the insensitivity of policy makers to the horrors of unemploy· CRATIC AGENDA Coordinator Cynthia Ward. "We won't be ment. Warning that none of the ideals in which we believe folding up our tent the day after the election. No matter who will be possible as long as we have to light among ourselves wins, or whom each individual supports, we're together on the for economic survival, Amalgamated Oothing and Textile issues and will continue to light for progressive responses to Workers Union President Murray Finley echoed a long range our social ills." •

National Organizing Conference: NEW JEW· ISH AGENDA, December 24-28, 1980. Build progressive, grass-roots organization which seeks to apply Jewish values to political, social issues in the general and Jewish communities. Write: AGENDA, P.O. Box 320, New York, N.Y. 1002~ . USING lHE FREEDOM OF INFORMA­ TION ACT: A Step by Step Guide, $UO prepaid. For personal files, research. Practical hints, sample l~ers, index. Center for Na­ , tional Security Studies, Dept. F, 122 Mary­ land Ave. NE, Wuh., D.C. 20002. BRING SOCIALISM OUT OF THE CLOSET with attractive 100 percent cotton (union shop) T-SHIRT. Colors: blue, gold, tan, and white, black lettering, outline, red rose. Send Gtttcbcn Donart size, color, address, and $~ . 75 + $.75 han· More than 50 delegates gathered August 13 at the first Democratic Socialist dling charge to T-SHIRTS, New York DSOC, Caucus ever held at a Democratic National Convention. The Caucus, spon­ 12S West 72 St., New York, N.Y. 10023. sored by the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, heard Interna­ DSOC buttons available for $.75 + S.,O han­ tional Association of Machinists President William Winpisinger, New York dling. City Council Member Ruth Messinger, and DSOC National Chair Michael Harrington discuss strategies for democratic socialists in the coming election.

20 DBMOCRA11C LEFT Sept. 1980 I ly

•d

s d

,

a lute... General Vice Presiclenb Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee MikeRJi"t.· Ottawa, Oftt. (' • , .• . Tom Duo, .. ·. Our friends in the ongoing fight for Chicago, 1' justice - in the community, and on the job-for all Sal laccio New York, NY Roe Spencer from tJte union that brings you the best Dallas, TX John Peterpaul INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS Washington, DC Stanley Jensen AND AEROSPACE WORKERS Portland, OR JvstiAIOit~ - . '-· ~ Lotlf .ucb, .M' ~~ .. ~rl6 NM1rti· , · William W. Winpisinger Eugene D. Glover Wadltnlfo(I, OC International President General Secretary-Treasurer Merie E. P,.Ybr, Jr. Cleveland, OH

Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC lBFT 21 The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union Salutes Democratic Left

There is much work to be done in bringing about improvements in the working and living conditions of millions of workers here and around the world. We need compassion and determination. But we can prevail.

MURRAY H. FINLEY JACOB SHEINKMAN President Secretary-Treasurer SOL STETIN SCOTT M. HOYMAN Senior Executive Vice President Executive Vice President

What we have going for us is the truth.

Plus the knowledge that the goals we seek are the proper ones and the road we are on is the right one, long as it may seem. And on these pages we travel in the best company.

DISTRICT COUNCIL 37

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees AFL-CIO

JOSEPH ZURLO VICTOR GOTBAUM President Executive Director

ARTHUR TIBALDI EDWARD J. MAHER Treasurer Associate Director

CHARLES HUGHES LILLIAN ROBERTS Secretary Associate Director

22 DEMOCJlAnc LEFT Sept. 1980 BEST WISHES

UAW SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM (SEMCAP)

Marc Stepp, Chairman Perry Johnson, Director Region 1 Robert Battle Ill, Director Region 1A Ken Morris, Director Region 1B Bard Young, Director Region 1E

DOUGLAS A. FRASER, Prnldent RAYMOND MAJERUS, lecretllry·T,..,,., VICE • PRHIDENTI ITIYt TOKICH • OwtN BIEIEA • DONALD EPHLIN • ODESSA KOMER • MARC tT!PP • MARTIN QIMU • ftOIDT WHITI

Sept. 1980 DIMOC&Anc LIFT 23 Greetings from Greetings from

District 1199 DISTRICT 65 National Union of Hospital

United Automobile Workers and Health Care Employees

RWDSU / AFL-CIO

13 Astor Place New York, N.Y. 10003 Leon J. Davis, President

"MEAN THINGS HAPPENING IN THIS LAND" By tt L. Mitchell

Foreword by Michael Harrington

This book graphically tells of the life and times of H. L. UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA Mitchell and of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union.

"Mean Things Happening in This Land is an extraordinary contribution to the history of the American labor and social movements, as well as to an understanding of indigenous Southern radicalism. It is also a fascinating personal narrative." -Michael Harrington JAMES BALANOFF, DIRECTOR Also recommended by J. K. Galbraith, Ray Marshall and Arthur Schlesinger. For an autographed copy of Mean Things DISTRICT NO. 31 Happening in This Land, send $10.95 to: H. L. Mitchell/ STFU Association, Box 2617, Montgomery, Alabqma 36105.

Name·------·-·--···---··-·------·------

Address.... ------·----· ··------··------

City ------· -----··· .. State. ------Zip _____

24 DEMOCRATIC L EFT Sept. 1980 Fraternal Greetings

FROM

UAW-CAP Councils

of

Regions 9 & 9A

EDWARD F. GRAY TED BARRETT Director, Region 9, UAW Director Region 9A, UAW

Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC LBFT 25 Our challenge is to continue to view our society skeptically and be willing to make the kind of fundamental changes required to provide millions of people a secure and useful job, a healthy environment and, in general, life with dignity.

THE INTERNATIONAL CHEMICAL WORKERS UNION

Frank D. Martino Wm. J. Sparks President Secretary·Treasurer

«Jilleritl Greetings FROM THE FUTURE OF THE MOVEMENT

The DSOC Youth Section now forms the most extensive student and youth network on the American left, with 505 Fifth Avenue campus and community groups in 40 cities. Subscribe to our newsletter, Days of Decision, $4/ 4 issues, or $10 New York, NY 10017 sustaining, from the DSOC National Office.

26 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Sept. 1980 ''Planning'' used to be a dirty word. Now it's the only way out of the mess we're in. Since the end of World War 11, the U.S. economy has experienced five reces­ sions, each of which threw millions of workers out of their jobs; now the cur­ rent Administration is engineering unnecessary unemployment. The chaotic ups and downs of the U.S. economic system point to the need for democratic national planning. The nation's problems are not due to lack of labor, resources, or equipment; rather, they occur because the econ­ omy drifts from crisis to crisis. Hundreds of business firms and government agencies make indepen­ dent and often conflicting decisions. Billions of federal dollars are spent for research without any coherent priorities or sense of direction. Basic industries are allowed to become technologically obsolete and noncompetitive with for­ eign competitors. While unplanned economies inevitably experience cycles, the irrespon­ sible policies of a business-dominated government often make things worse than they need be. Often, we are erroneously told that unemployment is necessary to bring down inflation. The first step in a full employment policy is to move away from this failed strategy of planned recession to combat inflation. The UAW strongly urges the Administration and the Congress to imple­ ment a comprehensive system of democratic national planning. Such a sys­ tem must have, as its primary goal, the attainment of full employment in every part of the American economy. Retrenchment and timidity are not the right prescription. Instead, the government must steer the economy and induce or directly make the invest­ ments and other structural changes that will cure the ills we suffer. -from resolution on Democratic National Planning, 26th UAW Constitutional Convention, June 1-6, 1980. United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America e Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC LBFT 27 CHICAGO Norman Thomas /E. V. Debs Dinner Committee Eurosocialism and America:

Salutes An International Exchange DEMOCRATIC LEFT and WASHINGTON, D.C.-DECEMBER 1980 DSOC 5-7,

for continuing the ideas and ideals of two giants Partial list of speakers: WILLY BRANDT OLOF PALME NYC DSOC FRANCOIS MITTERRAND JOOP DEN UYL Democratic Soci•lilt Club of New York (NOC) SHIRLEY WILLIAMS

125 West 72nd Street TONY BENN New York, N.Y. 10023 IRENE PETRY (212) 787- 1691 WILLIAM WINPISINGER

The U.S. is in the midst of a structural economic crisis. Everyone-left, right, and center-talks about reindus­ trialization. Will it happen through top-down planning or through democratization of decision making? The Institute for Democratic Socialism will bring together Jn Solidarity European socialist and trade union leaders and experts with representatives from progressive American con­ with your commitment stituencies to discuss Eurosocialist theory and practice to building an American and their relevance to the central economic, social, and Socialist Movement political issues facing America in the 1980s. ------For more information. , write to: EUROSOCIALISM AND AMERICA: AN INTERNAT I ONAL EXCHANGE Suite 801 I 853 Broadway I New York, N .Y. 10003 1'tl llft#pmdmt S«io/ist N~ . 1509 N. Milwaukee A~nue. OUcago, D-

ADDRESS : ......

CITY/ STA TE/ ZIP ......

28 DE.MOOlATIC LJ!PT Sept. 1980 A picture worth 250,000

That's how much it cost The Progressive to print this illustration-and an accompanying article about the misuse of secrecy in the Department of Energy's hydrogen bomb program. All of the money went for legal expenses in the magazine's successful battle to overturn Government censorship of the article. For almost three-quarters of a century, The Progressive has been fighting battles-and sometimes paying dearly-to provide its readers with the information and analysis vital to a halls, and grass-roots organizations across the functioning democracy. In nuclear weapons country. policy. In environmental quality. In workplace It should be on your list, too. democracy. In the full realm of American Now you can subscribe at a special politics, arts, and letters. introductory rate of $8. 95 for nine issues-bare Iy No wonder this distinguished monthly political half the newsstand price. And, if you enclose magazine is on the reading list at the White payment with your order, receive a House, the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence complimentary copy of this historic H-bomb Agency, the Federal Bureau of issue, which culminated one of the most notorious Investigation-and in colleges, universities, labor censorship cases in American history. ------Yes, please put me on your list at the special introductory rate of just $8. 95 for 9 monthly issues. Street------D I enclose payment; send me FREE the historic H-Bomb issue the Government tried to suppress. CitY------D Bill me later. I'll skip the free H-Bomb issue. State ______Zip ____

408 West Gorham St. Madison, WI 53703 DDSOC 1

------Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC LEFT 29 GREETINGS

H. Brand ILUNOIS DSOC Betty Lorwin Alice Ostrow sends greetings to Democratic left Laurence E. Prendergast Philip Goldrick Harry & Natalie Fleischman Seymour Kahan Ruth Stark Jone Johnson Greetings from Charles Ash Tiiford E. Dudley INyAreaDSOC Brian J. Resnevic Stanley Rosen R. W. Mitchell John M. Mecartney Ida & Abe Kaufman Bonnie Potter "Unity in the Struggle for Socialism and Democracy" Alex A. Spinrad Henrietta & Bernard Backer Philadelphia DSOC Lottie & Joe Friedman Anne G. Kumer Stephen Max Rik Smith Walter R. Allen J.M. Wallace "Today, the worlcers hove more to lose than their chains; Eliot Macy bvt they still hove a world to win." Leo Edbril Greetings from Tim Sears Ethlyn Christensen Edith Eisenberg Ruth & Dan Jordan Michael Germinal Rivas Carl & Marion Shier Greetings from Jim & Diana Chapin San Diego DSOC Jack Clark Gretchen Donart Box9299 Nancy Shier San Diego, Ca. 92109 Roger Robinson Trudy Robideau Marjorie Phyfe Greg Schirm Nancy Kleniewski Socialist Greetings from Nancy Lieber Harry Boyte NASSAU LOCAL DSOC Jules Bernstein T. A. Riese Edward S. Allen Jim & Betty Young Stewart H. Butten Benjamin C. Sweet DSOC Bob, Patty, Moira & Kevin McMenamin-Groves Bea and Sam Tolmach local Boston Richard Mounts

30 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Sept. 1980 LOCAL 840 FLM JOINT BOARD

1.B.T. UFCW, AFL-CIO

William 0. Robertson, President Henry Foner, President

William Nuchow, Secretary/Treasurer Bernard J. Woolis, Secretory/ Treasurer

.~

"Fraternal Greetings" NABET LOCAL 15 Salutes Democratic Left t,

LOCAL 259 U.A.W. Film and Video Tope Technicians New York, Washington, Atlanta SAM MEYERS, PRESIDENT 1n6 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10019

You've already worked with us. Now, join us. Lets' not kid ourselves. No matter who V.'lDS the elections this November, there will be tough times ahead. The corporations and the Far Right have a plan for a harsher, hungrier, and more militarized America. For progressives to 6ght back effectively, we need a strategy to build our own coalition and a program for an alterna­ tive future for America. The Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee works to unite low and middle income Americans behind a program of full employment, tax justice and wealth redistribution, safe and affordable energy, unproved public serv­ ices, sexual and racial equality, end democrabcelly planned investments in developing new energy sources, rebuilding the cities, and reviving our industries. If you plan to work with us, join us. 0 rd like to join the DSOC. Enclosed find my dues. ( SSO sustaining; $25 regular; $10 limited income. Dues include SS for DEMOCRATIC LEFT.) Send to: Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, 853 Broadway, Suite 801, New York, N.Y. 10003. Tel.: (212) 260-3270. Nam,..______Add res...______

City/Stat.e------&oip.______Phonl'=------Union, School, Other Affiliatio.,.______

Sept. 1980 DEMOCRATIC LEFT 31 HIGGINS

KEMP OR KLAN?-Former quarterback and current Buffalo tive movement reacted to a genuine crisis in liberalism. Member of Congress, Jade Kemp, made a big splash at the The new liberals of the 1970s, like the emerging new July Republican Convention. Clearly the Reagan campaign and liberals of the 1980s, have chosen to emphasize tradi­ much of the GOP are following his lead in talking of economic tional liberal respect for the existing order. Other lib­ growth, the needs of working people, and so forth. Kemp erals have chosen to move left to fulfill liberalism's himself has more than once proclaimed that the Republicans egalitarian promise. Ted Kennedy summed it up in his are now the party of American working people (wonder if speech to the Democratic Convention: ''Programs may he's anticipating application to the Socialist and Labor Inter­ become obsolete, but the ideal of fairness always en­ nationals?). As a more modest step, Kemp might consider dures." persuading his cohorts and himself to improve their abomi­ THE AYATOLLAH AND THE TEAMSTERS-what could nable voting records on every issue of importance to American possibly connect Teheran and the activities of Shi'ite Moslem labor unions. Oean-cut Kemp should be careful of the com­ militants with a local Teamsters' election in Detroit? If you pany his party keeps. On July 30, the Invisible Empire of the see no connection, you haven't been following the machina­ Ku Klux Klan endorsed Rea~ for President while proclaim­ tions of the right-wing U.S. Labor Party closely enough. In a ing that "the Republican platform reads as if it were written crucial election in Local 299, original home base of both the by a KJansman." Reagan only disavowed the endorsement late Jimmy Hoffa and Frank Fitzsimmons, the USLP inter­ when specifically challenged by feminists. vened on behalf of the incumbent leadership against a coali­ THE NEW LIBERALISM is again the journalistic tion of reform-minded Teamsters, led by Pete Karagozian rage. Paul Tsongas, the junior Senator from Massachu­ and Pete Camarata. To defame the Teamster dissidents, the setts, is the latest annointed spokesperson for the creed. so-called Labor Party passed out a leaflet proclaiming "Kho­ New liberals, the mythology goes, are younger than the meini Backs Kargozian-Camarata Slate" and a phony Asso­ tired old New Dealers; they are skeptical of government, ciated Press clip about a TDU (Teamsters for a Democratic though not necessarily of business. According to Tson­ Union) leader's visit to Iran. The contrived "newspaper" gas, they resist flailing at the oil companies and expect story quoted IDU's expression of solidarity with the Iranian unions to shape up on productivity. One can only won­ militants holding the American captives. Then the clincher: der what makes this new liberalism different from tra­ "It's the same philosophy we have in the TDU. What if the ditional conservatism. The last great wave of "new only thing we accomplish is the destruction of the Teamsters liberals" emerged in the early 1970s; they included in Union? This union is so corrupt that if the whole thing their ranks a somewhat older group raising virtually collapsed, it would be a positive gain." According to Labor the same questions. Among their luminaries are Irving Notes (P.O. Box 20001, Detroit, MI 48220), the slanders Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. went too far and were simply dismissed by most Local 299 Like the current younger wave of disillusioned liberals, members. But a disturbing pattern of Teamster leadership these men (and a few women) who led the neoconserva- collaboration with the U.S. Labor Party remains.

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