Toward a New EDITED BY MICIT/\EL HARRINGTON Beginning March 1982 Vol. X, No. 3 $1 By Michael Harring_ton BTR.OIT SYMBOLIZES WHAT'S wrong with the tightwing Reagan economic program: 20 percent unemployment ; elimination of job training programs ; cuts in education spending; reduction in such vital city services as road re­ pair and police protection; cutbacks in Sten Cagan food stamps and health care at a rime simply by unemployment figures or crime when people arc most in need. statistics. Those are only representations INSIDE Detroit in 1982 is a monument to of the real human cost-the ruined lives, an economic system that puts corporate lost opportunities, broken spirits, and profits before the needs of people. broken homes. When to Coalesce, p. 3 Detroit is a symbol. Its visibility is Coalition poHtics arc becoming ever more one reason it was chosen as the site of important. Steve Max outlines criteria to the founding convention of the Demo­ help local DSAs pick the best electoral cratic Socialists of America (DSA). At ''We can show the American races. the March 20·21 unity convention, DSA will be born out of a merger of the Dem­ peo pie that there's a humane ocratic Socialist Organizing Committee Merging at the Base, p. 5 political alternative.,, The nationals may be merged by the time and the New American Movement. We you get this, but many locals still have are joining forces to present a demo­ to begin the process. Sandra Chclnov cratic socialist alternative-one that is looks at past experiences and offers sug­ positive, progressive, and possible. In a time when the .American people gestions for smoothing the path. arc hoping for direction and an alterna­ Are We Better 011? tive, we arc in Detroit to show that these During his campaign, Ronald Rea­ problems can be solved. They can be Leading from Strength, p. 8 gan asked the American people if we solved when people from all walks of Women's rights are under attack, but the were better off in 1980 than in 1976. We life work together-feminists, minorities, new right wouldn't be so worried if we ask now: Arc we better off today than trade unionists, community activists, pa­ hadn't come so far. Chris Riddiough ex­ we were a year ago? Ocarly, we arc not. rents, and all Americans who truly care amines gains and strategics. The failures of the new right arc about each other and our future. not new. They arc t.hc same failures as Through a democratic socialist coa­ On the Left, p. 15 those of Coolidsc and Hoover, but Rea­ lition we can show the American people gan and his advisers continue to cling to that there is a humane oolitical alterna­ Change the USA, their erroneous ideas of "the way the tive. DSOC and NAM grew from the world works," even when history has re­ dreams of dedicated women and men out­ Join the DSA peatedly proved those ideas wrong. raged by the inequities of this system. (see center fold) These failures can't be measured Now we arc joining those dreams. We come from different traditions. We have different strengths, different weaknesses. But what we have in common-a commit­ ment to justice, equality and changc­ IJID'ERS more than balances those differences. It has not been easy for us to reach To our readers: writers wilJ strengthen DEMOCRATIC this point. Through almost three years With this issue, DEMOCRATIC LEFT LEFT's ability to speak to the broad dem­ of negotiations we have come to know becomes the publication of the organiza­ ocratic left. We look forward to a con­ each other-to debate, argue, respect, and tion formed by the unification of the tinuing and expanded dialogue with our appreciate these differences. Our precon­ Democratic Socialist Organizing Com­ readers, both through the "Letters" col­ ceptions of each group have been chal­ mittee and the New American Move­ umn, contnbutions to the "On the Left" lenged. We go into unification with no ment. Readers who were once NAM and "Jimmy Higgins" columns, and illusions. We know that we are a small members, and subscribed to the NAM through articles. band of activists. W c know that we will publication, Moving On, may be seeing -The Editors not change the world tomorow, or even DEMOCRATIC LEFT for the first time. by the end of the decade. DEMOCRATIC LEFT readers will notice But we know that we will be strong­ new names among our contributors, and ull#rl lo 1h1 1Ji1or must b1 sign1J. we er now than we were before, that by unit­ a wider range of topics. We believe that r1s"'11 1h1 rithl lo 1Ji1 for brevity. ing our dreams, we can help change the this addition of creative and thoughtful Pl1t111 limit /11tn110 /1111han 250 words. nightmare around us. • Michael Harrincton DEMOCRATIC LEFT is published ten times t. year E.Jilor (monthly except July and Au~) by Demo­ Maxine Phillipa cratic Socialists of Amcria, formerly DSOC/ M.tm11ging E.Jitor NAM, 853 Broadway, Suire 1, · ~· York, N.Y. 10003. Telephone: {:? I?) 260-:;r-:- Sub­ scriptions: $15 susuini:lg md WSUlctJU-:..:. $8 regular. Signed ar.x.les ap.."ess the · of the authors. ISS~ 0164-3.:?0- . Second Oass Pcrm.t Pud at.·~ Y ·.Y. 2 0EMOCllATIC LJIPT MAI.CE i 982 Choosing Our Partners By Steve Max HERE IS STILL A GOOD LAUGH with capital formation that massive gov­ City Council member Ruth Messinger. to be gotten from the New ernment handouts are required. If capi­ More often, we are simply trying to elect York Times if you know what talism can create neither products, jobs, Democrats just to strike a blow at the to look for. Recently, I came nor capital, then what good is it and why right. Occasionally they are outstanding across this item. "Yesterday do we continue to have it? .Although this Democrats, but many look good only by the conservatives' frustrations becomes more obvious every day, we are comparison and some are clearly the and feelings of betrayal boiled further than ever from a popular rejec­ lesser evil. This approach makes sense, over into heated exchanges at tion of capitalism. but it is not a strategy. It is not a plan a White House meeting between Mr. to move the situation from A to B. It Reagan and representatives of rightist­ is, nonetheless, the start of a strategy. leaning groups." .Although I enjoy the far In the near future we will have to do right's discomfort, I wish we had their much of what we have been doing, but problems. If one is to complain about a with some important modifications. We president, then a chair in the Oval Office will not find new and amazing solutions is certainly the preferred place from that have been carelessly overlooked. which to do it. The fact is that over the last decade the far right has pulled ahead Center Has Not Held of us in the field where we on the left Our strategic problem is the organi­ once had the lead-that of political strat­ i:ational and ideological collapse of the egy. They learned to narrow and focus political center of the country, which, be­ their efforts on a small number of issues. cause it was housed in the Democratic They learned to use those issues to build party, has brought the party down with grass-roots organiiations and then to it. Both the Democrats and the moderate bring the organL?ations together in elec­ Republicans long ago ran out of answen toral coalitions. to the problems of stagnation, inflation, .As the right grows more proficient unemployment, and the fiscal crisis of in strategy, the left Rounders. Of course, ''Our strategic problem is the local government. It's no wonder that the right has one big advantage. Its so­ organizational and ideological they did. Conventional economic theory cial base is more narrow and homoge­ taught them that the combination of in­ neous. It can build unity around a com­ collapse of the political center of flation and stagnation was impossible and mon program more easily. We, on the that the present economic conditions other hand, are pulled in an ever increas­ the country. .. '' could never occur. With nothing to offer, ing number of directions. the center was swept ,aside by the right­ When in recent history has it been ist advocates of supply-side economics, more frustratin .~ to be a socialist? At no Objective conditions, of course, are which, although crackpot, sounded new time in the last forty years has it been to blame. We tell each other that every and even progressive to many people. so clear that capitalism is floundering. week. While waiting for objective con­ As 1982 brings the downfall of Never mind that it is an evil and perni­ ditions to improve, we devote ourselves supply-side theory, we can expect that cious system : it simply doesn't work. to vanous activities, and indeed there are the Reagan bloc will start to cradc. Many Even in the heyday of the mass move­ more local issues requiring our attention voters will be drawn even further to the ments of the 1960s, the new left believed than we can hope to deal with. Academic right, crying that Reagan sold out the not only that it did work, but that it endeavors and our participation in unions true program. Other voters, drawn away might work forever. That is why there and organiiations of citizens, consumers, from the center, will start to drift back was so much emphasis on the moral qual­ students, tenants, women, or minorities to it, and this process will continue in ity of life, on dropping out and on the lay claim to the better part of our energy.