November/December 1992 Volume XX Number 6 The Eco-Socialist Challenge INSIDE DEMOCRATIC LEFT Greens and Socialists Seek Harmonic Building A Broader Environmenta Convergence by J. Hughes . . . 3 Movement by Chris Riddiough ... 15 Turning Our Kids Green West Harlem Environmental Action by Maxine Phillips .. . 6 by Jill Greenberg . . . 19

Willy Brandt Represented the Best of Our They Times, They Are A-Changin' Again? Movement by Bogdan Denitch . . l 0 by Maurice lsserman . .. 22 Socialist International Meets In Berlin .. . 12 Jimmy Higgins Reports ... 24 On the Left by Harry Fleischman . . 9 DSAction . . . 14 CCNe! photo by Ted Soqui/Impact V1SUOIS

The structural problems in the rejected the this hate-filled vision and EDITORIAL U.S. economy that bedeviled Jimmy heeded the call of a candidate who Carter confront Bill C lin ton. In fail­ promised to appeal to what unites, ing to challenge the linuts of conven­ not what divides. CLINTON & US tional economic w isdom, Carter pre­ Then, we organize. pared the way for Reagan. Should BY JACK CLARK Ho pes were raised in this elec­ Bill Clinton heed the counsel of the First, we celebrate. tion. Organizers and radicals live for Democratic w ise men and govern Bill Clinton's election to the Presi­ days like this. Defeat demoralizes; " responsibly," that assemblage of dency brings to an end the Reagan­ victories, even small and limited vic­ hate around Bush will be back in 1996 Bush era. As Kevin Phillips predicted tories, energize the people. A big with a more charismatic leader. two years ago, in Politics victory like this creates many open­ 1lli! Qf Ridl All at once, we must be: enthusi­ and. fQQL the conservative coalition, ings for progressive politics. On astic partisans of Clinton's victory; which elected Richard Nixon in 1968 health care, on jobs, on reproductive organizers in the movements pres­ and has dominated Presidential poli­ freedom, demands barely imaginable suring Clinton to deliver; critics of tics ever since, has come to an end. three months ago become ral1ying the caution the Administration is George Bush earned the humili­ cries now. sure to show; policy experts propos­ What about the deficit? ation heaped upon him by the Ameri­ What ing, to quote a Mike Harrington slo­ about governing responsibly? We can people. Inept in his handling of the gan, to push social progress that ex­ will hear repeatedly from the Demo­ economy, Bush proved singularly and tra mile. cratic wise men (and I do mean men, consistently insensitive to the pain felt As exciting as it is demanding, though perhaps a few women have by tens of millions who continue to that agenda defines what it means to graduated into these ranks by now) suffer falling incomes, insecure jobs, be a serious socialis t in America now. and worse. From beginning to end, he that we all must sacrifice, that the new failed to offer any positive rationale for Democratic administration cannot be his own re-election. He insisted that if irresponsible. DEMOCRATIC LEFr only we would wait long enou~h and So, finally we think and work and Editor slash taxes on the rich, and cut spend­ analyze, attempting to propose solu­ Michael Lighty ing to benefit the lower classes sharply tions that are at once credible and Editorial Committee enough, the miraculous market would radical. We recall that before Reagan Joanne Barkan, Dorothee Benz, provide a bounty for all. nus year, was elected, the outlines of Reagan­ Howard Croft, Mitch Horowitz, with the economy ill, people wanted ism were shaped by "responsible" Sherri Levine, ~eil ~ct.aughlin, more than the same old voodoo. Democrats in Congress and the White Maxine Phillips To compensate for being out of House, heeding these same wise men. Intern touch on pocketbook issues, Bush gath­ Spending on the poor had to be David Glenn ered unto himself and his party a vast slashed; tax benefits had to accrue to Founding Ed{tor assemblage of hate. The Republicans the "productive" members of society; Michael Harrington (1928-1989) left no primitive fear unexploited, no the military had to grow dramati­ Dllnoaatl< Left (1$'1: 016'DJ207) oa J"bliolwd Ila lunll I y ..r II 15 Dulch !it I XO. 1-"Y. ;y 10038 s.bocripl!ON 18 rtgulu; Sl5 reactionary sentiment unaired. We cally; Democrats had to distance inolillllicn&I. Poo=a.-: s..'4 .ddrti• chin&.. to IS Dul

2 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Greens and Socialists Seek Harmonic Convergence

BY J. HUGHES

nvironmentalists have had a rocky re­ On the academic side, the four-year-old lationship with trade unionists and journal Capitalism. Nature & Socialism. edited socialists. Environmental concerns by James O'Connor, has spurred the growth of E often appear elitist and absurd to ac­ a coherent body of eco-socialist analysis and tivists working for full employment and a more prescription, and is now translated into more just society, particularly when they pit owls or than a dozen languages. Some of these insights fish against whole industries. On the other include: hand, trade unionists often seemed hopelessly .:."Environmentalism" often has a middle­ short-sighted to environmentalists when they class flavor and bias: advocating that people defend nuclear power, military spending, or "buy Green" rather than engage in collective the destruction of wilderness areas in the name action, criticizing "consumerism" without at­ of jobs. Fortunately, the global, free-market tention to inequality, advocating "voluntary revolution of the eighties has forced these two simplicity" without attention to "involuntary movements to search for their common simplicity," and paying more attention to the ground. What follows is a short history of this Amazon than to toxics in the workplace. harmonic convergence of the red and green. .;•Ecological hazarcl disproportionately Eco-Socialism & Red-Green Dialogue afflict people of color, workers, and the poor. The poor are disproportionately exposed to There has been a long, and now rapidly ecological hazards, both at work and in their growing, dialogue between democratic social­ communities, but their exposure is less often ists and environmentalists. From this dialogue detected. When they discover ecological haz­ and joint activism has emerged "eco-social­ ards, the poor have less power to stop them. ism." Back in the 70s, the Environmentalists Even if they are fully informed about their for Full Employment began to argue for a exposure to ecological hazards, and organize common agenda between labor and ecologists, to stop them, working-class communities are built around anti-toxics campaigns and often directly dependent on the polluters for worker-retraining funds. In 1980, Barry Com­ their jobs and tax base. Local anti-toxics groups moner's Citizen's Party brought together are also often hampered by a parochial "Not In proto-Greens around a socialist platform. In My Back Yard" ("NIMBY") perspective. the eighties, the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Nonetheless, organizations such as the Citi­ Workers pioneered alliances between unions zens Clearinghouse on Hazardous Wastes, and community environmental groups, lead­ which grew out of the Love Canal disaster, are ing to the founding of their important, two­ networking with thousands of local commu­ year-old eco-socialist journal New Solutions. nity campaigns, and working to infuse them

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 3 with broader perspectives and strategies. reduce and eliminate pollutants. Building alliances between middle-class envi­ .;.Qnly under democratic socialism is the ronmentalist groups and local working-class desire for a high standard of living compatible groups is certainly one of the biggest challenges with ecological protection. As long as workers for eco-socialists. think that they will pay for environmental .;.capitalism is not the root cause of eco­ protection with their jobs and taxes, they will logical destruction, but contributes to it. Popu­ be hostile to "elitist, owl-loving, tree-huggers." lation growth or industrialization are not the Eco-socialists, on the other hand, can combine causes of ecological hazards. The problem is economic and environmental policy in ways not the numbers of people or the numbers of that promote a just and sustainable economy. A tools, but the kind of tools that people use and regressive gasoline tax: may be made palatable how they use them. The science that gives us if you know the income tax is being made even the tools that increase our destructiveness also more progressive. The conflict between "jobs" gives us the ability to study the effects of our and ecology can be resolved by industrial pol­ actions. Ecology is the product of the scientific icy and a strong welfare state. The strong labor revolution, not of pre-industrial mysticism. and social democratic movements in Northern Similarly, most eco-socialists reject the idea Europe have enabled passage of the strongest that capitalism causes environmental destruc­ environmental protections in the world. If the tion. Pre-industrial peoples caused tremen­ main obstacle to the implementation ofecologi­ dous ecological damage from over-hunting cal policy is the institutional powerof the ruling and slash and bum agriculture, and non-capi­ class, it is the institutional power of the work­ talist societies such as Iraq and the Soviet Un­ ing class, mobilized through the socialist and ion have done as much or more damage to the labor movements, which can join with environ­ environment than capitalist countries. Capital­ mentalists to enact just and sustainable poli­ ism is, however, an obstacle to ecological pro­ cies. tection since capitalist elites, like non-capitalist elites, hav~ vested interest in the industrial Globalizing the Eco-Socialist Project status quo, and therefore oppose collective The relative radicalism of the European so­ efforts to solve environmental problems. cialists in environmental policy has often re­ +>The disproportionate influence of corpo­ quired prodding from Green parties, however. rate interests cancels out the influence of envi­ The Green parties began twelve years ago as ronmental organizations. Corporate influence the vehicle of the Baby Boom New Left, reflect­ in the media spreads disinformation about en­ ing the 60s' interest in an anti-institutional vironmental threats, while corporate-funded politics of general liberation and personal au­ think tanks chum out books on "green capital­ thenticity. But almost immediately the Euro­ ism" and critiques of environmental science. Greens confronted the same conflicts between Corporations underwrite environmental efficacy and anarchism that the Social Demo­ groups with "moderate" policies, and corpo­ crats faced back at the tum of the century. The rate elites sit on their boards. Even when citi- Euro-Greens have also all been riven by faction The influence of corporate interests fights between those willing to ally themselves with socialist parties, accept a couple of minis­ cancels out the influence of environ­ terial appointments, and work for a greener mental organizations. shade of pink, and those ideologues who don't want to compromise at all. zens' organizations are strong enough to over­ While Green ideologues may also be suspi­ come the resistance of the corporations and cious of the strengthening of transnational wealthy to pass legislation, the government is governments, environmental activists are in­ often too weak to effectively monitor and en­ creasingly converging with socialists on the force the laws that are passed, restricted both need to transcend national sovereignty. In the by inadequate funding and pro-business juris­ Canada and the U.S., the North American Free prudence. When policies are imposed, they Trade Agreement (NAFfA) has welded to­ simply attempt to restrict pollutants, or enforce gether unions and environmentalists in a coali­ a "right to know" about them, rather than ban tion insisting that enforced transnational them altogether, and redesign ind us try and the worker and environmental protections be part production process. Corporate interests usu­ of any liberalization of trade. At the Rio "Earth ally oppose banning and re-designing, both of Summit" environmental activists strongly which have been the only effective policy to endorsed long-standing socialist proposals to

4 DE:M OCRA TIC LEFT strengthen the United Nations to monitor and without exhausting the eco-system. All eco­ enforce environmental agreements, and em­ socialists agree that thi::; will require a Marshall power it to collect taxes and fines to subsidize its Plan to write off Ulird world debt and transfer work. As with European unification, the corpo­ ecologically sustainable tedmologies to the rate elite would clearly prefer a New World Third World, while adopting these technolo­ Order with more free trade, and less democracy gies in the North. There is still substantial dis­ and environmental protection. The one transna­ agreement among eco-socialists, however, tional institution that George Bush showed en­ over what level of sacrifice is required from the thusiasm for was the Multilateral Trading Or­ workers of the North for this project of global ganization (MTO) proposed to replace the Gen­ equalization and ecological protection. Can eral Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT). the "standard of living" of the North continue The MTO was to be empowered to hold secret to rise slowly as we undergo a qualitative shift tribunals to rule on the permissibility of nations' in expectations about the good life, with "protectionist" environmental or worker safety shorter work-weeks and more efficient tech­ regulations, with no democratic input at all. nologies, while we help the developing coun­ tries catch up? Or do global resources make Next Steps sustainable development more of a zero-sum Although Vice-President-elect Al Gore game, less for us and more for them? If global stops short of advocating strengthened world eco-socialism does require that workers of the government, his proposed "Marshall Plan for North make some ::;acrifice, how do eco-social­ the third world" is dearly informed by the work ists run for office in the North? Addressing of the 80s' Commission on Environment and these questions points toward the possibility Development, headed up by Norway's socialist that in the 90::; we can begin to build (in the Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, and words of Audrey McLaughlin, Leader of Can­ laid out in their book Our Common Future. For ada's NDP) the New World Community that is a long time to come, eco-socialists will be strug­ required for both justice and ecological sus­ gling to understand the concept of "sustainable ~in~ili~ m development" proposed by the Brundtland Commission: a development path for both the ]. Hughes is editor of EcoSocialist Review, tile developing and developed countries, that can joumal of DSA's Environmental Commission, bring the two to the same standard of living and a member of tile National Political Committee.

N av EMBER/DECF MBf R 1992 5 Turning Our Kids Green

BY MAXINE PHILLIPS

e were sitting on the floor in our may have a recyclable lid but a tub that's diffi­ local children's museum. The cult to recycle. Juice boxes, which contain six W crowd of three-and-a-half-year­ layers of paper, plastic, and aluminum foil, are olds had listened to a story about the rain­ expensive to recycle, although some ads forest. Now they were ready to explore the rest claimed that the boxes were as easy to recycle as of the environmental exhibit. One child newspapers. ln a 1991 article covering the same headed for a pile of rubber stamps. A museum territory for adults, Consumer Reports noted volunteer offered to stamp her hand. "What's that when the U.S. Environmental Protection the special word we've been learning about?" Agency put out a consumers' handbook sug­ the aide burbled. The child thought hard: gesting re-using and repairing items instead of "Please?" she ventured. "Well, it's true that's buying new ones, choosing durables over dis­ the magic word," the aide said as she inked the posables, and buying products with the least stamp and applied it to the small hand, "But wasteful packaging, pressure form industries this is a special word, too. It's 'recycle."' with major interests in household and dispos­ ln classrooms, museums, supermarkets, able products (e.g., Procter and Gamble, Scott restaurants, and toy stores, our children are Paper Co., the Sweetheart Cup Co., and the getting messages about environmentalism Foodservice and Packaging Institute) caused stamped on their hearts and minds. And they the pamphlet to be withdrawn. Coors Brewing are sticking. A recent study sponsored by Company announced donations of small grants Environmental Research Associates, which to local water-cleanup projects at the same time keeps corporations up to date on consumer it was being assessed $150,000 in penalties for trends, found that of a thousand parents sur­ violating Colorado's water-pollution laws. veyed, 34 percent said that they shop differ­ Not surprisingly, corporations have de­ ently now because of what they learned from cided that a little money spent in the schools their children; 17 percent have stopped buying goes a long way. Environmentalists in Men­ products they used to buy because their chil­ docino County, California were incensed last dren told them that the product or package is month when Georgia-Pacific Corporation, bad for the environment; and 20 percent buy a which is under attack for alleged rainforest product because their children told them that it destruction and is involved in the timber wars is better for the environment. of the American West, produced a play called Kids' Money, Corporate Priorities "Tree Wishes" to which schoolchildren were bused for large assemblies. The play showed Children are a big market, and if you are how happy the trees were to be cut down to suspicious of all the labels that say recycled, re­ provide books for children. The American Pe­ cyclable, and biodegradable, you have good troleum Institute has contributed money to cre­ reason. Zillions. the Consumers Union publi­ ate a coastal and off-shore oil curriculum for cation for young people, asked, "Earth­ schools in the area. Betty Ball-of the Mendocino Friend ly Products: Can the People Who Bring Environmental Center attributes both efforts to You All That Trash be Nice to Nature?" The the Wise Use Movement. This is a national article pointed out several examples of mis­ coalition of resource extractive industries that leading claims by advertisers. For instance, has formed to fight the environmental move­ many plastic containers labeled recyclable ment.

6 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Michael Williams, organizational director styrofoam packaging and much other waste. of the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous So why the rainforest book? Many rain­ Wastes, which helps more than seven thousand forest activists are trying to raise consumer grass-roots groups connect with each other, awareness that cheap beef is raised on grazing lamented the fact that many environmental land that was once rainforest. Much of this beef groups don't have the resources to make an is bought by fast food chains. They urge chil­ impact in the schools as they would like. On the dren to cut their consumption of fast food other hand, he ticked off the names of large hamburgers. Other groups focus on alterna­ toxic-waste dumpers - Laidlaw, Browning tive uses of rainforest land and development of Ferris Industries,· and Waste Management, Inc., for example -- that have funded school McDonald's continues to buy beef education programs in areas where they have facilities. raised on lands that were once Williams also noted that children are en­ gaged in hundreds of local efforts to stop rain/orests. dumping, decrease wasteful packaging, and otherwise save the planet. And why not? alternative industries. Thus, an organization Comic books, children's magazines, games, called Cultural Survival urges consumers to toys, tapes, all tell them that they can help save "buycott" products that don't despoil the rain­ the Earth. forest, such as BraziJ nuts. Ben and Jerry's The results often surprise adults. markets a confection called Rainforest Crunch. Buzzworm: The Environmental Journal AJU1ough it continues to buy beef raised on ....-·--- ''----"";c;:;;;:._c.:._, checked with five groups that coordinate rain­ lands that were once rainforests, McDonald's Kid.1fbr5AVin'j6Nttl,· forest preservation programs and found that has teamed up with corporate-backed environ- 1:::;:::::::::::::=::::::::=::::::..:~.:::;::::::::::::;::i four of them received the majority of their mental groups to appear to be conscious of NORTHERNORIOLE funding from schoolchildren. Fifty checks rainforest destruction. from elementary schools may not equal one Williams points to the anti-polystyrene foundation grant, but the numbers speak of a campaign as a good example of consumer ac­ lot of enthusiasm. tivism. "It wouldn't have worked to have just "Children are amazingly resourceful" at passed a law forbidding the use of polysty­ raising money, Daniel Katz, executive director rene," he believes. of the Rainforest Alliance told me. "We have Mothers and Others for Pesticide Limits, ,,;.,ii•-" received tens of thousands of dollars from chil­ which as Mothers and Others for a Livable r';;;:;;;:>;;;ii;c.;:::-;:n~~_.; dren all over the country." One group staged a Planet recently spun off from the Natural Re- c:'.::::::~~~~~d Hop-A-Thon, garnering pledges for how long sources Defense Fund, led the fight to remove individuals could hop. Katz recalled that a few the pesticide Alar from apples, providing an- years ago his organization thought that time other close-to-the-bone success story for young was too short to educate children because the apple juice and applesauce guzzlers. rainforests would be gone by the time the chil­ Children are becoming like little thought dren were old enough to do anything. "Then police, wryly observes veteran organizer Steve we realized how much children influence their Max. "They get so much information in school parents." about saving the Earth that you don't dare use Consumer Activism the wrong kind of container or forget to recycle cans." However, Max worries, that at least It was the day that my children got a from what he's seen, there is "never a word on Discover the Rfiln .furrn activity book in their who's to blame." McDonald's Happy Meal that my antennae went up. Evenifyouhaven'tdowned a Happy What About the Workers? Meal recently you're probably aware that There's also rarely any word on labor. As McDonald's has done a lot to refurbish its we wandered through the simulated rainforest image as corporate paper and plastic profli­ in the children's museum that day of the rubber gate. Consumer boycotts to protest polyster­ stamp, I read the text of the children's bestseller ene packaging hurt McDonald's public rela­ on which the exhibit was based Cih!! G!fi!t tions so much that the company worked out an KapQ.kI.ree, by Lynne Cherry). A Ione worker agreement with the Environmental Defense -- an indigenous person in some unnamed Fund by which it is phasing in a program of Latin American country -- sets out into the waste reduction that has meant good-bye to U1e woods to chop trees. He is about to work but is

N OVEJ.iBER/D f.CEMBER 1992 7 tired and falls asleep. In his dream, animals because only we started them. Children today from the rainforest visit him and plead with have a wider range of information available to him to save their environment. He wakes up them and a broader sense of possibilities. and returns home, leaving the trees uncut. When then-twelve-year-old Kory Johnson's Certainly the story wouldn't have been as visu­ mother spearheaded a successful campaign in ally interesting if it had focused on an Anglo Phoenix, Arizona, against a toxic waste incin­ executive of a multinational being visited by erator, Kory started a group called Kids ghosts of rainforests past, present, and future, Against Pollution and now travels the country but I did wonder what that worker was going helping other young people get organized. to tell his hungry family. Our children have the energy and the opti­ A very good manual, EQr Qur Kid£~: mism to change the world. They're getting fio.w.1Q Protect .YQ.ur Child Against Pesticides information from all sides. And all sides can in ~ published by Mothers and Others, take advantage of their openness. Will their contains solid information on pesticides and activism stop at green consumerism or can we twenty-six recommendations for pressuring help them, and ourselves, to make choices and , the EPA to make our fruits and vegetables engage in activities that link us to the global safer. No mention is made of the adults and family? Will we let Corporate America divert children working in and living near those them with talking trees and furry friends? fields. This, despite an ongoing boycott of On vacation, Steve Max pulled into a road­ California table grapes by the United Farm­ side McDonald's. Eight-year-old Kimberly, workers precisely over the issue of pesticides. who had learned the ecological 4 R's at natural There are other groups that work on this, M&O history camp, looked around and announced Outreach Director Betsy Lyden told me. Be­ that she wouldn't eat in a place that used such sides, she argued, if the acceptable pesticide wasteful packaging. "We learned the four R's," level for children is reduced, farmworkers will she said: "Reduce, Re-Use Recycle, REFUSE. have less exposure, too. Daddy, we can refuse!" And so can we all. II Members of my generation grew up think­ ing that only we could prevent forest fires Maxine Phillips is Managing Editor of Dissent. Working to Save Our Environment

The publications and networks listed ~ "The Earth-based Magazine for ORGANIZATIONS, PROJECTS, AND below are a small sam piing of organiza­ Kids," P.O. Box 52, Montgomery, VT CURRICULUM MATERIALS tions working to save our environment. 05470. Some have specific programs for chil­ Adopt-A-Stream Foundation, Box dren; others are useful for adults' self­ Ilk"~ loving care for our kids 5558, Everett, WA 98201. Classrooms education. and our planet," is published by adopt a local stream and learn how to Mothers and Others for a Livable study its ecology. PUBLICATIONS Planet. Keeps readers up-to-date on hazards to children and describes ac­ Earth, Sea, and Sky, Box 40047, Port­ ~ A9iQn ~appears as part of tivities parents can do with their chil­ land, OR 97240, puts out an integrated the Co-op America Quarterly magazine, dren. Newsletter is a benefit of family curriculum on the environment. 2100 M Street NW, Suite 403, Washing­ membership in the Natural Resources ton, DC 20037. Membership in Co-op Defense Council, 40 West 20th Street, Environmental Defense Fund, 257 Park America is $25 per year. New York, NY 10011. Avenue South, New York, NY 10010, has targeted nine critical environmental Everyone's Backyard. published by the issues of the 1990s, from the greenhouse Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous COMPUTER NETWORK effect to clean water. Waste, P.O. Box 6806, Falls Church, VA 22040. The Clearinghouse grew out of ECON ET has a fifty-page printout of The Rainforest Alliance, 270 Lafayette the Love Canal organizing. The newslet­ educational programson the environ­ Street, Suite 512, New.York, NY 10012 ter goes to all who pay the $25 member­ ment. If you can find an environ­ promotes "economically viable and ship fee. mental group that subscribes, you can socially desirable" alternatives to tropi­ access it. If you want to subscribe cal deforestation. It offers six grassroots ~ filmJ2lg ~~.cm~ Tu~ you~lf, write to 18 DeBoom Street, projects that people can support ranging the .r&r!b, Scholastic, Inc., 1991 . 111is is San Francisco, CA 94187. Cost is $15 from saving El Salvador's last rainforest available in many bookstores. It was to join, $10 monthly (includes one free to sea turtles in Nicaragua. originally put out by the Earthworks hour of non-peak time) plus the cost Group, 1400 Shattuck Avenue, #25, of additional time in the network Berkeley, CA 94709.

8 DEMOCRATIC LUT Speaker Dennis Temple, Demo­ 7. Victor Sidel is a past president of cratic candidate for Congress in the the American Public Health Asso­ 13th District, joined a panel of ciation. Ruth Sidel, a sociology health care experts on next steps for professor at Hunter College, wrote health care reform. . .A panel dis­ Women and Children Last: The by Harry fleischman cussion featuring Frederick Pohl, Plight of Poor Women in Affluent DSA member and prize-winning America... New York DSA helped author of many science fiction nov­ Bob Abrams win the Democratic ALASKA els, and Carl Davidson, director of nomination for U.S. Senate and Jim Networking for Democracy, dis­ Brennan's reelection drive for State Alaska DSA, which has over cussed "Electronk Democracy: Assembly... The local has nearly 40 members and active groups in Subversive Technology or Tool of doubled in size in the last few years Juneau and Fairbanks,has started a Control?" September 23. and become more active than ever. state-wide petition drive for a state single-payer health insurance sys­ INDIAN A OHIO tem. The Indiana DSA has received ap­ Bob Fitrakis, co-chair of DSA CALIFORNIA proval from the Debs Foundation of Central Ohio, ran a strong cam­ to place a bronze plaque honoring paign as the Democratic candidate DSA locals throughout the state Michael Harrington at the Eugene for Congress in the 12th District. worked hard to defeat Proposition V. Debs Home/Museum in Terre He pulled in 29 percent of the vote. 166, which would have mandated Haute... Indianapolis DSA held a Fitrakis was supported by NOW, a pay-or-play health care system in teach-in October 18 on "Poverty in NARAL, the state AFL-CJO, the the state. Sacramento DSA helped America," which featured a video Teamsters and Painters, and many to organize a Campus Labor Insti­ presentation of Michael Harring­ other groups. This was just the tute at UC Davis on November 21. ton's "New American Poverty." latest electoral effort by Central San Diego DSA held a forum last KANSAS Ohio DSA. In 1991, DSA member month entitled "Should Progres­ Mary Jo Kilroy was elected to the DSAer James Phillips, Jr. won sives Vote for Clinton?" DSA's Columbus school board. In 1990, the Democratic primary for District next national convention will be DSAer Tom Emey's aggressive Judge in Wichita despite red-bait­ grassroots campaign for U.S. Con­ held in Santa Monica in November ing and race-baiting. Sadly, he 1993. gress, spending only $16,000, net­ narrowly lost the general election. ted 41 percent of the vote against a DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA KENTUCKY 24-year incumbent. Three members of D.C. DSA The Kentucky Socialist Ban­ PENNSYLVANIA were elected as at-large members ner reports that Kentucky's health of the D.C. Democratic State Com­ Pittsburgh DSA was heavily care reform agenda is moving for­ involved in the Lynn Yeakel's cam­ mittee -- Ruth Jordan, Joslyn Wil­ ward, with the governor, State liams and Rick Powell. A fourth paign for U.S. Senate... The Al: Senator Benny Ray Bailey, and the DSAer, Richard Rausch, was de­ Jegheny Socialist reports that the Louisville Courier Journal all press­ feated. The Labor Day National Religion and Socialism ing for quick action. Central Ken­ Commission met in Pittsburgh in Washington Socialist featured ar­ tucky DSA, along with Central ticles on "The Clinton Administra­ late October. An outreach event Kentuckians for Health Security, tion and Labor," which discussed there featured John Cort, author of have held public forums to move labor's hopes (anti-scab legislation) Christian Socialism. and singer­ the debate forward ...O

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 9 Willy Brandt Represented the Best of the Socialist Movement

BY BOGDAN DENITCH Willy Brandt, 1913-1992

n the early thirties, a young German left­ a monstrous genocidal tyranny. There was socialist adopted the underground name of always a tension in the post-war German social­ I Willy Brandt, a name he kept as he worked democratic movement between international­ in the anti-Nazi movement after Hitler had ism and the stress on national roots; Willy come to power. This was the name by which he Brandt symbolized that duality. was to be increasingly well known. Willy Brandt became the vastly popular mayor of Brandt, who died on October 8, 1992, was typi­ West Berlin, who ably organized the city's defi­ cal of the best that the mass socialist movement ance against Soviet attempts to strangle this produced. He was a journalist, party activist, island ofdemocracy within the territory of their and intellectual. Brought up by a single-parent most faithful satellite, East Germany. As a family and of working class origin, he was symbol of West Berlin's resistance, he repre­ educated entirely by the social-democratic sented the opposition of social-democracy to movement. After he was forced to flee a Ger­ the expansion of Communist tyranny. On the many in which the early concentration camps other hand, Brandt was also the author of two were filled with Communists, Socialists, and major and radical departures for German so­ Trade Unionists, he lived in Norway until the cial-democracy. He organized the "grand coa­ Nazi invasion made him move on to Sweden. lition," which brought the Social Democratic Thus his second major political experience was party into a governing partnership with the as a socialist journalist and writer in exile, Christian Democrats and Liberals, thus making making a home in the Scandinavian mass so­ the SPD from that time forward a legitimate cial-democratic movement: he even became a governing party in Germany. He also initiated Norwegian citizen. and developed the policy of constructive en­ These experiences, which had made Willy gagement in Eastern Europe and with the So­ Brandt far less parochial and more cosmopoli­ viet Union known as Ostpolitik. He had the tan than most socialist leaders, were to be used political courage to imagine a day when the against him repeatedly in the politics of post­ cold war would be over and when Eastern war West Germany. He had, after all, returned Europe and the Soviet Union would no longer to a defeated Germany in a foreign uniform as be divided from the rest of Europe by a curtain part of the Norwegian military mission to a which represented a political chasm. divided Berlin. His Christian Democratic op­ The policy of constructive engagement ponents implied that he had been somehow involved great political risks in a West Ger­ unpatriotic to fight against his country from many that saw itself as the most loyal ally of the exile, even when his country had been ruled by United States in the conflict between the two

10 DEMOCRATIC LEFT superpowers. Moreover, in a West Germany beyond its traditional European base by affiliat­ with over twelve million bitter refugees from ing new parties from the South, from Latin Eastern Europe, it took courage to renounce America, Asia, and Africa. With the collapse of any aspirations to change the borders with the world Communist movement, the Interna­ Poland and Czechoslovakia. Brandt not only tiona I remains the only worldwide organiza­ had the necessary courage, he was also capable tion of labor, social-democratic, and reformist of moral grandeur and nobility. He, who of all parties. Brandt and his two old comrades and peopled id not need to do so, kneeled in contri­ close friends, Palme from Sweden and Kreisky tion before the monument to the Warsaw from Austria, were the soul of a revived Inter­ ghetto. That was a gesture made for all of his national. Together, they produced the "Brandt German fellow citizens, who did need to kneel, Commission Report," which focused the atten­ but could not imagine doing so. tion of the world community and the U.N. to Willy Brandt was the first Social-Demo­ the intolerable, growing gap between the in­ cratic Chancellor of the Federal German Repub­ dustrialized North and an ever poorer South. lic, and helped develop his country into an ad­ This remains the highest priority in an increas­ vanced welfare state. He presided over a ingly unequal world. movement that was no longer even reformist, Willy Brandt was a good friend of DSA and in the classic sense that it sought socialism helped it become an affiliate to the Socialist albeit through the parliamentary road of grad­ International. He was a personal friend of ual reforms. Since Bad Godesberg the German Michael Harrington, and remembered Michael SPD had become a party committed to a mixed at a mass meeting DSA organized during the economy and an advanced welfare state; social­ Council of the Socialist International in New ism was no longer a part of the program even as York in October 1990. As he then said of a distant promise. The SPD is, however, the Michael Harrington, "We miss you, Michael, most powerful defender of democracy and and need you now," democratic socialists egalitarianism in Europe, and it has helped throughout the world will say of Willy Brandt. rebuild the Socialist International. He was flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone Brandt spent his last decades as the most and represented the best of our movement. Bl important figure in the international demo­ cratic socialist movement. As its President, he Bogdan Denitch is a Vice-Chair of DSA and Chair led the expansion of the Socialist International of the lntemational Affairs Committee.

Wiiiy Brandt and Michael Harrington at the Soclollst lnter­ notlonol Congress, 1978

/llov£MB£R/[)EC£MBER 1992 11 5192 BERLIN~/

J

In the high-drama setting of the ·--~----­ Pictured (clockwise from upper left): German Reichstag, Socialist Interna­ Pierre Mauroy, President, Socialist tional parties met to elect new leader­ Interntional; Audrey McLaughlin, ship and to confront the challenges of Leader, New Democratic Party of Can­ global economic integration, expand the ada; (tzahk Rabin, Prime Minister of Is­ struggle for peace and continue the rael; Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime demand for freedom throughout the Minister of Norway; Mikhail Gorbachev. world. Reflecting the diversity created during the sixteen year leadership of Left: the DSA delegation: Bogdan DenJ Willy Brandt, this Congress affirmed its itch, Chair; Chris Riddiough, Vice-Presi­ commitment to north-south equality, dent, Socialist International Women; sustainable development, and human Motl Zelmanowicz; Jose La Luz; Michael rights New parties, including the Party Lighty; not pictured: Jo-Ann Mort, Penny of the Democratic Left in Italy, joined the Schantz. International. For a copy of the resolutions passed Photos: Fotograf Werner Weitzel by the Socialist International Congress and by the Socialist International Women Conference, send $10 to DSA, 15 Dutch St., Suite 500, NY, NY 10038.

12 Dr.MOCRATIC LEFT From the Desk of Wiiiy Brandt

Unkel, September 14, 1992

Dear Friends,

Need I say how much I would like to have been with you today? But it was not to be .... and so I must send you my greetings in writing. Need I say how happy and proud I am that you are meeting in Berlin?

Any number of venues in the new democracies in the East would have been worthy meeting places. But why shouldn't I admit it? I was very moved when Felipe Gonzalez suggested Berlin. And why shouldn't I add that I felt that if it was to be Berlin, we should meet in the Reichstag: that place in Germany where war and peace in Europe has so often been at issue. The place where freedom and subjugation have so often been debated. A while ago I asked that the leadership of our International be placed in younger hands. I had been at its head for sixteen years and I felt that this was a long time. But after all, what are sixteen years in light of the centuries of tradition in which we stand? And yet in this short time this city, this country and this whole continent have changed.

In fact, the whole world is not the same world as it was in 1976 when I took up this office in Geneva. To secure peace was not our only aim, but it was our first priority. Peace between two blocs that were armed with nuclear weapons and which we thought were firmly entrenched. The peace without freedom could not be attained. Today, only one and a half decades later, we are no longer concerned about securing that peace: we are concerned about restoring peace at all in many places in this extensively liberated and yet so disturbed world.

The parties that have gathered t ogether in our community are committed to their countries and their countries have a comrnittment to the world - to their part and to the whole. The fact that we have expanded beyond Europe and have become a truly world-wide and thus also divers e community, affords me - us - special satisfaction. However, the number of members we have and the number of those wishing to become members, are not values in themselves, but an obligation.

Whe.·ever people are caused great suffering it concerns us all. Don't forget: if inJustice is permitted to continue for long, this is opening the door to future injustices. Strengthening the United Nations has been one of our old and familar goals. Now that progress is beginning to be made and the UN is gaining influence, if not power, it is worth making a great effort. Let us help t<1 provide the United Nations with the means it needs to exert influence. Even after the start of the new era in 1989 and 1990 the world could not be only' 'good''. However, now as at no other time in the past, a multitude of possibilities (both good and bad) are open to us. Nothing happens on its own - and few things last forever. So remember your strength and that all times call for their own answers. We must keep abreast of them if we are to achieve good.

I would like to thank everyone who has helped. I hope that your deliberations will be fruitful . May my successor be blessed with the strength and good fortune he deserves.

WILLY BRANDT PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIALIST INTERNhTIONAL

N o v£A1BER/DE.CEMBER 1992 13 DSAction---

C!Jrgan izi ng [ilesults Socialist Feminists to Meet in D.C. Columbus DSAer Bob Fitrakis took 29 percent of Join DSA members and friends at the first socialist feminist the vote in his U.S. House race. His openly social­ ist campaign energized and brought together conference to be held in recent years. Discussion will include formulation of a new agenda facing the last decade of the progressives from throughout Central Ohio. DSA century with new women in office and the incoming Clinton activist Rachel Dewey achieved exciting things in Administration. The program will include panels on "Beyond a losing effort for a California state senate seat. the Year of the Women: Implications for a Feminist Agenda," She took 45 percent of the vote, while the incum­ "Sex vs. Sexuality: Drafting the Agenda," "Breaking Bread: bent won with 49; she spent $12,000 to the incum­ bent's $200,000. DSAer Beverly Stein, Oregon Can We be Part of a Multi-Racial Women's Movement," and "Multi-Generational Perspectives on Socialist Feminism." State Legislator in Portland, was re-elected Workshops will address leadership development skills and strongly. Cleveland DSAer Terri Burgess man­ strategies for setting a socialist feminist agenda. For more aged a hugely successful re-election bid by Ohio information, contact the DSA Feminist Commission at (202) state representative C.J. Prentiss, who won by 829-6155 or send your registration fee with name and address to 26,500 votes to 4100. the commission at 5123 Fifth Street NW, Washington DC 20011- 4040. Registration is $25 before January 1. li]esources Our First Hundred Days: DSA Sends Priority .;.Your Money or Your Health, by Neil Rolde. A Messages to President-elect Clinton penetrating look at America's Health Care Crisis, DSA members across the country are responding to a "priority and a persuasive case for comprehensive reform, message campaign" directed toward President-elect Bill Clinton articulated with clarity and compassion by a sea­ and the Democratic leadership in the U.S. House and Senate. The soned state legislator. Available from Paragon messages demand action to solve the health care crisis by adopt­ House, 90 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011; ing the single-payer system, to build affordable housing phone: 212-620-2831. ($23.95 cloth). through a jobs program, to address the urban crisis through +How to Resolve the Health Care Cri ;is, by the community development banks, and to guarantee reproductive editors of Consumer Reports. This comprehen­ rights by enacting the Freedom of Choice Act. This effort will be sive guide to the debate over health care reform followed by a national postcard campaign urging Clinton's sup­ provides data and analysis to support demands port for universal coverage, cost control, and comprehensive for universal coverage, quality care and cost benefits through a single-payer health system. Thus begins the control through a single-payer system. Available hard part: building a movement to demand our kind of change. though the DSA office for $5: 212-962-0390. West Coast Socialist Scholars Conference Calls for Papers With the 1992 Los Angeles uprising reflecting the pervasive disintegration of society after 12 years of reactionary government, and with the recent election of "new" Democrat Bill Clinton, it is imperative (once again) that the socialist movement respond with intellect and action. Please send proposals for papers or panel discussions concerning the revelance of a socialist perspective to emerging new majorities and to the vital issues of class, race, gender and ecology by January 15, 1993. Mail your proposals to: Socialist Community School, L.A. DSA,P.0. Box77027-161,Pasadena,CA 91117-6921,orcontactKatieSheldonat310-451-8934 for more information.

14 DEMOCRATIC LEFT Building a Broader Environmental Movement

BYC HRISTINE R. RIDDIOUGH

he current wave of environmentalist hand, are concerned with the ways in which en­ activism contains an important but vironmental degradation affects their commu­ T little-noticed division. The major na­ nities and families. Different perspectives and tional environmentalist organizations, on the priorities are reflected in the constituencies of one hand, and local "grassroots" groups on the the organizations and in the issues they ad­ other, tend to have quite different goals, consi- dress. For many national organizations, the tuencies and interests. These differences often core constituencies are middle class, well-edu­ reflect questions of race, class, and gender, and cated, and white. The leaders of these organi­ it is important for progressive activists to un­ zations are men. These are people for whom derstand them. making "sacrifices" to protect the environment Many of the national environmental or­ (putting a cover on their water heater or buying ganizations embrace a perspective that values $20 energy efficient light bulbs) is not much of nature for itself and for its use to human beings. a sacrifice at all. Their priorities tend to include These groups have often grown out of affluent concern over decreasing biodiversity, global communities that have the leisure and the re­ warming, protection of the Arctic Wildlife sources to visit natural parks, to hunt and fish, Refuge and saving ancient forests. The African and to enjoy the natural beauty of the world. American Environmentalist Association have Protecting wilderness and nature, from this shown that the failure of the national groups to perspective, is a spiritual necessity, an antidote involve people of color in their organizations is to modem living. an important reason why the issues of concern National and grassroots environmental to people of color are not on the agenda of these organizations have developed different priori­ groups. ties based on a scientific understanding of the In contrast, grassroots environmental interrelationship and interdependence among groups tend to be more diverse in their mem­ parts of the natural world. National groups berships and leaderships. Many local activists with this perspective warn of the imminent are women and people of color. These groups doom of the planet because of our exploitation tend to focus more on hazardous waste sites of nature and skyrocketing human population. and the impact they might have on their neigh­ Grassroots environmental groups, on the other borhoods, air pollution and what it does to

N OVE:MBER/D ECEMBER 1992 15 their kids in the schoolyard, and the occupa­ Carbon taxes would be imposed on energy tional impacts of pollutants. Primarily in grass­ based on the carbon content of the fuel. Coal roots groups, people of color and feminists and oil would be subject to high taxes, while have in recent years challenged the national en­ wind energy would have very little tax placed vironmental movement to look beyond the on it. Ultimately this tax, though imposed on issues of parks, recreation, and wildlife to a the utility or oil company, would be passed perspective that links environmental issues along to the consumer. Like sales taxes, carbon with a range of social and economic justice taxes are regressive--low income people would questions. In making this challenge, these new pay a larger proportion of their income in taxes constituencies have also begun to raise issues than upper income people. Although tax cred­ and promote analysis that we as democratic its for lower income families might offset the socialists must consider in developing our regressivity, there are no guarantees that these agenda. and similar proposals would be locked in with the carbon tax. For low income people, the cure Energy, Environment and proposed by the national environmental Social Justice groups might wen be worse than the illness. Among the policies proposed by many Investing in energy efficiency programs is national environmental groups to move the a more attractive partial solution to the prob­ U.S. away from its reliance on fossil fuels--and lems of U.S. reliance on fossil fuel. The most thus reduce the threat of global warming--are exciting program of this kind is that of Osage, carbon taxes and energy efficiency programs. Iowa, where the municipal utility has provided Each of these programs might encourage the free to customers, a range of programs to en­ use of alternatives to these fuels, but each of courage energy efficiency. In proposing indi­ them, if considered in isolation from social vidualistic solutions as a way to increase en­ justice concerns, would have potentially dev­ ergy efficiency, many environmental groups astating impacts on some communities. Real put the goal out of reach for low income people. solutions to the problem of fossil fuel reliance They ignore one of the strengths of the Osage and global warming wou Id enhance the quality program: The utility is municipally owned and of life for many in these communities. its energy efficiency services are provided to customers as part of its overall mission. So far, national environmental organiza­ tions have only begun to address this intersec­ tion of issues. Much more can and must be done. In the case of energy, alternatives to the carbon tax must be found or else those taxes must be made progressive. They must be linked to programs that make energy efficiency measures, mass transit and job retraining an integral and accessible solution for all people.

Ecofeminism, Women and the Environment Just as people of color are challenging the environmental movement to address social justice issues, so too are a new generation of ecofeminists. This ecofeminism addresses the relationship of women to nature as it has devel­ oped historically, the relationship of women to power, and the connections between them. The issues that national environmental groups address often ignore concerns of women, while the solutions proposed may j conflict with women's rights. For example, population programs have historically been l run by men, and have concentrated on provid­ :> l ing birth control to women in developing coun­ tries. For many in the population movement,

16 DEMOCRATIC Lin limiting population size is primarily about limiting women's fertility, but for women the decision to have children is complex, involving not only reproductive choices, but poverty, education and health. Studies have shown that the single strongest correlating factor in family size is the educational status of women--the more access women have to education, the fewer children they are likely to have. Yet few of the population programs have begun to deal with the poverty and oppression that limit women's opportunities. Until women make the policies and run the programs, they cannot be successful, because they won't address the real issues that affect women's lives. Closely related to the population question is that of resource depletion. In making deci- _ sions about these issues, the focus of most · · international agencies focus on men. Yet, in Africa, women are responsible for producing 70 percent of the continent's food; in Peru, 86 percent; and in the world as a whole, women produce about half the food. Most agricultural advisors, however, are men, and most of the people they advise are also men. Women re­ ceive less than 1 percent of UN aid. In policy­ making positions in the United Nations and in by Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem individual nation states, women have little Brundtland, linked environmental protection voice. At the UN "Earth Summit" in Rio in to economic analysis and showed the connec­ June, very few nations were represented by tion between poverty and environmental deg­ women. Eco-feminist organizations such as the radation. Its concept of development is broader Women's Environment and Development than simple economic growth; it includes edu­ Organization have begun to put these ques­ cational attainment, nutritional status, and tions on the agenda. They have shown that access to liberty. Its emphasis on sustainability unless women's role in the economy of third connects its perspectives to those of ecologists world and industrialized countries is acknowl­ who are concerned about the connection be­ edged, until women are empowered in devel­ tween humans and other living creatures. It opment and environment programs, change recognized that human beings are a part of the cannot happen. world and not simply the masters of it; our development as human beings depends on a Eco-Socialist-Feminism: Sustainable careful marshalling of tl1e world's resources. Development for the Future The next step in this effort is to link the Democratic sociaJists can learn from the principles of sustainable development with environmental movement among people of eco-feminist perspectives on women, nature, color and from ecofeminists. An eco-socialist­ and empowerment. UnJess sustainable devel­ feminist policy based on the work of those opment policies are developed and imple­ movements would recognize that environ­ mented by those whom they affect, the policies mental protection without environmental jus­ will fail. By speaking out on these issues, DSA tice simply reinforces our society's class, race, can begin to promote a new agenda for pro­ and gender inequalities. It would acknowledge gressive environmentalists. El that policies at the local and the international level have to be made and carried out by the people affected or those policies will fail. The sustainable development policies put Christine Riddiough is Chair of the DSA Feminist forward by the Brundtland Commission are a Commission, a member of the National Political first step in that direction. That commission, Committee, and a Vice-President of Socialist Inter­ established by the United Nations and chaired national Women.

Nov£MB£R/D£C£MB£R 1992 17 DSA Commissions

• African American • Labor Commission Commission Gene Vanderport, convenor Cornet West, chair Box300A RR4 Shakoor Aljuwani, convenor Danville IL 61832 Lynne Mosely, convenor (212) 962-0390 newsletter: Our Struggle/Nuestra Lucha • Latino Commission P.O. Box 162394 Tomasa Gonzalez, co-chair Sacramento CA 95816 Jose Laluz, co-chair subscription: $15/year Duane Campbell, secretary P.O. Box 162394 Sacramento CA 95816 newsletter: Our Struggle/Nuestra Lucha • Anti-Racism Commission membership: $15/year Duane Campbell, chair (includes subscription) P.O. Box 162394 Sacramento CA 95816 • Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual newsletter: Our Struggle/Nuestra Lucha Commission membership: $15/year (includes subscription) R.J. Hinde, co-chair Claire Kaplan, co-chair c/o Chicago DSA • Environmental 1608 N. Milwaukee, 4th floor Chicago IL 60607 Commission (312)752-3562 Mark Schaeffer, convenor membership: $15/year J. Hughes, newsletter editor newsletter: Socialism and Sexuality c/o Chicago DSA subscription: $8/year 1608 N. Milwaukee, 4th floor Chicago IL 60607 (312)752-3562 • Religion & Socialism newsletter: EcoSocialist Review Commission subscription: $8/year Rev. Judith Deutsch, co-chair • Feminist Commission Andrew Hammer, co-chair Jack Spooner, newsletter editor Christine R. Riddiough, chair P.O. Box 80 • Lisa Foley, vice chair Camp Hill PA 17001 5123 Fifth Street, NW membership: $12/year Washington DC 20011 (includes newsletter) newsletter: Not Far Enough newsletter: Religious Socialism subscription: $ 1O/year subscription: $7.50/year

18 D EMOCRATIC LEFT West Harlem Environmental Action Fighting for Justice

BY JILL GREENBERG

he environmental concerns of people of color living in urban America are much closer to home than those of T traditic:lal environmental organiza­ tions in the U.S. Within their communities, African-Americans, Latino-Americans, Asian­ Americans and other people of color are over­ burdened by environmental hazards, lead pol­ lution, and deteriorating open space from sewage treatment plants, landfills, illegal dump sites and factories belching tons of toxics into the air. Yet, according to a recent Commis­ sion for Racial Justice (CRJ) report, a pre,·alent public perception exists that people of color are uninterested in the environment and are not active in addressing these issues. As a result, they are generally excluded from participating in the decision-making process where their immediate environment is concerned. So activ­ ists from Harlem to Los Angeles, and West Dallas to the South Bronx and Detroit are mental policy-making and the enforcement of empowering racial and ethnic communities by regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting fighting back with skills gained during years of of people of color communities for toxic waste labor, civil rights and self-determination facilities, the official sanctioning of the life­ battles--using political action, education and threatening presence of poisons and poll utan ts litigation. in our communities, and the history of exclud­ In a recent book, Dr. Robert D. Dullard, a ing people of color from leadership in the envi­ professor of sociology at the University of Cali­ ronmental movement." fornia, Riverside, describes the environmental Clear-cut evidence of environmental ra­ equity movement, which addresses issues like cism has been documented. For example, ac­ toxics and workplace hazards that dispropor­ cording to the U.S. General Accounting Office, tionately impact lower income communities in eight Southern states, African-Americans and communities of color, as an extension of made up the majority of the community in the social justice movement. Institutionalized three of the four communities where commer­ discrimination in government practices, zon­ cial landfills were located and at least 26 per­ ing and land-use policies, along with economi­ cent of the population in each community had cally regressive environmental policies is seen income below the poverty level. The United as leading to distributional inequities in the Church of Christ's Commission on Racial Jus­ siting of facilities. This is environmental ra­ tice's landmark study, "Toxic Wastes and Race cism. In a recent issue of E Magazine (May I in the United States," concluded that three out June 1992), Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Jr., CRJ's ex­ of every five Latino- and African-Americans ecutive director, described environmental ra­ were living in communities with uncontrolled cism as "racial discrimination in environ- toxic waste sites.

NovCMBER/Dr.ccMBLR 1992 19 Predictably, there is a disturbing correla­ organizing demonstrations to get media atten­ tion between environmental abuses and respi­ tion. Plus they have had several well-deserved ratory health problems in communities of color successes when fighting city hall. Community and low-income communities. This trend opposition to the sewage plant has resulted in a doesn't appear to be abating. Last year asthma $.50 million commitment from New York City was the fifth leading cause of death in Harlem, to correct design flaws. The local environ­ the second most common cause of hospitaliza­ mental protection agency, under state man­ tion for adults in Harlem, and the leading cause date, will soon begin an extensive plant-based of childhood hospital admissions in New York and community-based air quality monitoring City. program to determine the extent and type of air pollutants affecting West Harlem residents. Focus on New York City In June of this year WHE Act, the Natural Historically, Harlem has had some of the Resources Defense Council, community or­ highest levels of air pollution in Manhattan ganizations and individuals joined together to because multiple sources are concentrated in a file a lawsuitinStateSupremeCourttofightthe densely populated residential area. Odors sewage odors and the plant's overcapacity abound from a notorious ten-block-long mu­ problems, attempt to force NYC to comply nicipal sewage treatment plant with serious with its commitment to repair the treatment design flaws, a garbage transfer station, a ma­ plant, and guarantee their right to breathe clean jor arterial highway, and a crematorium that air. Shepard stressed that a legal commitment was recently shut down for non-compliance was needed and "the only way to get it is with city air pollution ordinances. In fact, out through the courts." The community's anger of six city bus garages in New York, five are over the severe odor problem is exacerbated by located in Harlem and on a daily basis spew out the fact that a huge commercial and residential noxious diesel fumes. Compounding the situ­ development planned for the upper West Side ation is excessive noise pollution from nearby of Manhattan by the developer, Donald highway and commuter rail traffic, and no Trump, is scheduled to hook up to this plant, access to an adjacent scenic riverside park. which is now operating at overcapacity. The West Harlem Environmental Action (WHE New York City Planning Commission unani­ Act) was founded in the mid-1980s in response mously approved the plan for development to the problems surrounding the malodorous (the papers called it a "love-fest") and took sewage treatment plant on the Hudson River in City environmental officials' word that the Harlem. Twenty years ago the project for treatment facility in Harlem could easily ac­ additional sewage treatment capacity on Man­ commodate the flow from this mammoth site. hattan's West Side was originally slated to be So, while West Harlem struggles to build constructed further south along the Hudson affordable housing, luxury developments a River near the 79th Street Boat Basin and adja­ few miles to the south threaten Harlem's eco­ cent to a predominantly white, middle-class nomic renewal and dump even more sewage neighborhood. However, organized commu­ into a severely-taxed plant. nity opposition ultimately led to a different po­ litical decision. . .to push the site upriver to Looking Towards the Future West Harlem. According to Peggy Shepard, a In September 1991 a series of hearings was co-founder of WHE Act and a Democratic dis­ convened by the New York State Assembly to trict leader in Harlem (her recent run for NY explore the effects of environmental policies, State Assembly was enthusiastically endorsed practices and conditions on low-income com­ by the NY DSA local and many of us actively munities and communities of color across New participated in her campaign from the only York State. During the hearings, community reform club in Harlem), this is a textbook case activists, who have lived their lives as victims of environmental racism. Despite the $1.3 bil­ of environmental degradation and benign ne­ lion spent to build the plant, which began oper­ glect, identified poor planning and lax enforce­ ating six years ago, this major capital project ment as directly contributing to the severe provided almost no jobs to the Harlem or deterioration in their communities. Northem Manhattan communities. At the conclusion of the hearings, the State Shepard and another co-founder, activist Assembly issued a series of recommendations Vernice Miller, have been instrumental in edu­ to be acted upon. These included: 1) establish cating Harlem residents in the on-going a Task Force on Environmental Equity, 2) add struggle, lobbying government agencies, and a survey of the socioeconomic character and

20 DEMOCRATIC LEFT the current envrronmental burden of the host •provide residents of an area that contains community to the State's siting and permitting the site of a proposed facility with a substantive process, 3) research on health and safety im­ role in the earliest stages of the planning proc­ pacts of environmenta I burdens in communities ess. of color should become a priority of state and Meanwhile at the federal level, EPA must local agencies, 4) national environmental or­ assess the distributional effects of the environ­ ganizations and State government should pro­ mental policy making process, calculate hu­ vide training grants within communities of man health impacts posed by all types of envi­ color to establish activist environmental action ronmental hazards, and appoint experts in en­ groups, and 5) an environmental education vironmental equity at decision-making levels curriculum must be developed to encourage within the agency. This is a first step. adolescents of color to consider careers in envi­ Environmental danger has always been an ronmental service. unequal opportunity employer. Workers, The following legislative initiatives have women, people of color, and the poor have long been proposed by Sam Sue, a staff attorney of been dis proportionately exposed to hazardous the Charter Rights Project of the New York substances and various forms of pollution. Lawyers for the Public Interest " to redress the These ecological inequities are part of a more overconcentrationofhazardous waste facilities general pattern of inequity in income and po­ in minority and low-income communities:" litical power that market economies generate. •halt any more future sitings of hazardous a facilities in oversaturated communities. An overall Saturation Index is needed; • consider alternative sites in non-satu­ fill F. Greenberg, a DSA member and environ­ rated, more well-to-do communities; otherwise mental health scientist, is a doctoral student in equitable distribution .,.,ill never be achieved; public health at Columbia University.

Resources for Organizing and Education

Local and Regional Groups National Groups Books and Reports

West Harlem Environmental Action Citizen's Clearinghouse for Hazard­ Dumpiogin~~~and (WHE Act) ous Waste Environmental Quality. Robert D. 529West145Street, #lE P.O. Box 926 Bullard, Westvlew Press, 1990. New York, NY 10031 Arlington, VA 22216 Peggy Shepard/Vernice Miller Lois Gibbs (202) 276-2020 ~ ~ Air: N.e.w Strate.gies (212) 234-5096 fur~ Organizing and AdiQn. United Church ofChrist Commission Eric Mann with the WATCHDOG Labor /Community Strategy Center for Racial Justice Organizing Committee, A LaborI 14540 Haynes Street 475 Riverside Drive, Room 1950 Community Strategy Center Book, Van Nuys, CA 91411 New York, NY 10115 Los Angeles, 1991. Eric Mann (818) 781-4800 Charles Lee, Director of Research (212) 870-2077 Wk Wastes a:rui ~ in .the SouthWest Organizing Project United~: A National Bep.Qrt (SWOP) El Puente Toxic Avengers Q!l .tbf BaQaI and Socio-Economic 1114 Seventh Street, NW 211 South 4th Street Characteristics Qf Cornmunitie& Albuquerque, NM 87102 Brooklyn, NY 11211 l::'l.i.th Hazardous Wa.ili:. ~. Richard Moore (505) 247-88.32 Louis-Garden Acosta/Jose Morales United Churc;h of Christ Commis~ (718) 387-0404 sioo for Racial Justice, 1987. People for Community Recovery 13116 S. Ellis Ave. Citizens for a Better Environment Proceedings of the Michigan Con­ Chicago, IL 60627 942 Market Street, Suite 505 ference on Race and the Incidence Cheryl Johnson (312) 468-1645 San Francisco, CA 94102 of Environemental Hazards. Michael E. Belliveau (415) 788-0690 Bryant, B. and P. Mohai, eds., Westview Press, 1992

Nm'EMR£R/DrcrnB£R 1992 21 The Times, They Are A-Changin' Again?

BY MAURICE lSSERMAN

hen John F. Kennedy was on poverty." (Other circumstances, more elected president in November under his control but beyond the scope of this 1960, he brought to a close essay, carried Kennedy ever deeper into the W nearly a decade of conservative Vietnam war, an adventure that would taint Republican rule in Washington, D.C. Exuding the legacy of both the Kennedy and the Johnson "vigor" while avoiding specifics, the youthful presidencies.) Kennedy had run on the promise of "getting The Republican defeat in 1960 enlarged the America moving again." In his inaugural ad­ political space available for movements for dress in January 1961, he declared that "the peace and social justice. The Kennedy style - torch" ofleadership had been passed to a "new brash, can-do, optimistic -- much more than the generation." Kennedy substance, helped legitimize a ques­ In November 1992, Bill Clinton was swept tioning of the old assumptions and prejudices into the White House running on equally vague of American politics. Forces unleashed by Ken­ promises of "change." Clinton's campaign nedy's election had their own impact on his quite consciously harkened back to the themes presidency. By 1963, the Freedom Rides, the and issues of the Kennedy years, particularly in publication ofThe Other America, the Birming­ its use of old television footage showing Clin­ ham protests and the March on Washington ton as a boy shaking hands with Kennedy on remade John Kennedy into a different and sig­ the White House lawn. All of which raises nificantly better leader than he had been when some interesting questions about politics in the he took the oath of office in 1961. 1990s. Is this the return of Camelot? Can we What about Bill Clinton's presidency? expect a new wave of social idealism similar to Clinton, like Kennedy, enters the White House the one that swept up the baby boom genera­ as a cautious politician, not a crusader with a tion of the 1960s? Have Americans been bold agenda for social change. Despite the granted another chance to refashion new fron­ domestic emphasis of his campaign ("jobs, tiers and a great society, this time armed with jobs, jobs"), his proposals for reversing the the knowledge of past mistakes and tragedies? decline of American manufacturing and stem­ The last thing John Kennedy had in mind ming the social hemorrhage in the cities are when he took office in 1961 was presiding over distinctly underwhelming. His ties with the theera of political, social and cultural upheaval Democratic Leadership Conference, his criti­ that followed. But circumstances not of Ken­ cisms of federal welfare programs, and his nedy's making and beyond his control got the coolness toward unions and other traditional country "moving again" in ways he had not Democratic constituencies suggest an admini­ intended, and ultimately swept his administra­ stration that, left to its own devices, is unlikely tion leftward toward an alliance with the civil to have much interest in shaking up the status rights movement, and a declaration of a "war quo. Moreover, Clinton (unlike Kennedy) in-

22 DEMOCRATIC LEFT herits a country in seriou:, economic trouble. only looks "liberal" in comparison with the No rising tide is likely to lift aJJ boats, including twelve years that followed, the Democratic the poor and people of color, in this economy. Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), one The legacy of the Reagan-Bush deficit will hang of DSA's predecessor organizations, was able around the new pre:,ident's neck (as it was, in to triple its membership, and play an important part, designed to), discouraging any new and role in influencing the debate within the Demo­ expensive social experiments. Both inclination cratic party. and circumstance will push Clinton toward Just because the prospects for the Left as a policies of managing austerity rather than whole are likely to improve in the next few building the New Jerusalem. years doesn't guarantee that any particular And yet. ..Bill Clinton "is no John Ken­ group, including the one that publishes this nedy" - which is to Clinton's credit. Clinton's newsletter, will automatically be the benefici­ formative political experiences were in the late ary. The last dozen years have taken their toll 1960s. He was stirred by the example of the on the energy, commitment, and political civil rights movement, and active in the anti­ imagination of all of us. We may not be able to war movement. He gained his first practical rise to the occasion. Old habits of thought, old poIi ti ca I experience in the McGovern campaign quarrels, old disappointments, could keep of 1972. He resisted what must have been tre­ DSAsidelined in the new era. Writing just after mendous pressures to repudiate or explain the 1960 election, a young socialist named away his opposition to the Vietnam war. De­ Michael Harrington argued: "We do not see spite the self-serving nonsense propagated by any inevitable, pre-ordained march to social­ the Bush campaign, Bill Clinton is by no means ism. We do see in this America of 1960 that a "Sixties radical" wolf in sheep's clothing. But there are people and movements whose practi­ unlike Kennedy, and for that matter unlike any cal concerns take them in the direction of, if not other American president in the twentieth yet to the consciousness of, democratic social­ century, Clinton knows what it means to stand ism." The practical concerns of millions of outside the halls of power armed with nothing Americans in the 1990s -- health care, jobs, more than a picket sign and a social conscience. housing, the environment, child care, educa­ He's been the victim of red-baiting and Sixties­ tion, safe and decent neighborhoods -- are bashing. Those are salutary experiences for a beyond the power of that great panacea of the president of the United States to have had. moment, the " free market," to contend with. What does all this mean for the prospects of At the start of the Clinton presidency, there is the American left, particularly for democratic the potential, if no guarantee, that the Left can socialists? Historically the fortunes of the Left again play a significant role in American politi­ have been tied to those of liberal Democrats, in cal life. ID the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the 1960s. When they do well, we do well; when Maurice Issennan, a newly elected member of the they fall from power, we get it in the neck. Even Boston DSA executive committee, is writing a biog­ under Jimmy Carter's presidency, an era which raphy of Michael Harrington. APOLOGY CLASSIFIEDS MEET OTHER LEFT SINGLES through The DllMOCRATIC LEFT Editorial ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AMERICAN Concerned Singles Newsletter. Men and Committee regrets the publication women who care about peace, social jus­ of a greeting ad from the "youth LEFf, now in PAPERBACK, 970pp, dozens of entries on and/or by DSA'ers tice, and racial equality. National and in­ section stodgy social democratic ternational membership. All ages. Since caucus" in the September / October .$29.95 from University of Illinois Press. Ask your bookstore to stock it! 1984. Free Sample: Box 555-D, Stockbr- issue. We apologize for its inappro­ idge, MA 01262.____ _ piate reference to Rosa Luxemburg, Hardcover from Garland Press. and we are sorry for any offense the ACTMSTSwanted toorgani:1e low in­ COMMUNITY JOBS, socially responsible ad may have caused. The ad's ill­ come neighborhoods nationwide. Fight job opportunities Subscribe to the only advised humor derived from a for housing, health, education. Contact nationwide listing covering organizing, long-standing, absurd charge by ACORN, 522 8th St. SE, Washington, disarmament, labor, environment, and Trotskyite organizations that DSA oc 20003 (202) 547-9292. more. $3.50/ sample. $12/6 issues. Box "killed" Rosa Luxemburg. In fact, D51516PSt., NW, Washington, DC 2cxn>. Rosa Luxemburg is a hero of the Classified adrxrlising ra~ nrt S2 per line, DEA TH ROW INMATE 15 yrs needs socialist movement and ~me DSA SSQ per rolunm inch. Payment in adrnna. friends, Ron Spivey, Box 3877G4104, members have named children in There is a 20% disrount if ad(s) ru11 two or more times. Wt resnve the rig/it to reject ads. her honor. Jackson, GA 30233

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 23 Jimmy Higgins Reports fo Sen·ors Costs Sh.fted o Workers DSAer Earl Bourdon, president of the Johnson and Higgins Employee Benefit Services, New Hampshire Association for the a consulting firm, reports that health providers are Elderly, successfully fought for a court shifting costs to smaller employers as large firms settlement that sets aside $1.6 million have employed aggressive cost-containment strate­ to provide subsidies enabling lower­ gies. In 1991 thecostoftraditionalmedical plans rose income elderly to live in an attractive an average 17.3 percent, but the average increase was senior housing facility, called Web­ only 9.6 percent for firms with more than 1,000 ster-at-Rye. The housing facility, a employees. This is a handy reminder of 1) the un­ non-profit philanthropic corporation, was established scrupulousness of heaJth providers, and 2) the prin­ strictly to serve the elderly poor, but until Bourdon's ciple that costs will be shifted. not contained, unless suit its management had been charging high rents and we're all under a single plan. refusing to admit state Medicaid recipients. . Lending ac1sm T v The Boston Federal Reserve released a major As you plan your next vacation or business travel, study documenting racial discrimination in mort­ keep the Michigan Injured Workers in mind! The gage lending. The study examined records in much MIW, breaking new ground in progressive fund raising, greater detail than any previous study, and con­ has launched its own travel agency. They can find cluded that even when loan applicants are identical competitive rates for travelers anywhere in the U.S. -­ in every economic respect, including credit history, and 5 percent of the gross will go to support families of people of color are still roughly 60 percent more injured Michigan workers. Give them a try: contact the likely to be rejected than white applicants. Federal MIW, c/o Avia Travel, 3379 Fort Street, Wyandotte, MI regulatory agencies have a dismal record of enforc­ 48192. Phone 313 282-4667 or 800 487-2838. ing the Community Reinvestment Act, the 1977 law designed to combat such bias. Here's hoping that "George Bush has the experience, this new Fed report will knock some sense into the and with me, the future." -- Dan Quayle regulators' heads. . . International. Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO

Georse J. Kourplu lnumalional PruideN Tom Duey continuing the bonds General S«ntary-TretuMnr GENERAL VICE of friendship, trust and PRESIDENTS Roe Spencer understanding with DoJJ.as, TX Joba Pcterpaa.I Wa.shingtoft, DC DSA and Democratic Justin Ostro Oaklond, CA George P.ouUn Left for dignity, justice SkunfonJ, er Merle E. Pryor, Jr. and equality for all Du PlaiMs, JL Val Bouqeoia 0naMO, °"1alio, C4llMldo Americans. Don Whartoa Cleveland, OH Larry Dowains Wa.shingtOll, DC Ed Home Wa.shington, DC