Norman's reply to Peter (below)
The Left, broadly defined, has been proclaimed dead so many times that such
proclamations are for historians a guidepost to historical periods. Let me
present a few relevant examples in chronological order in a lighthearted
but serious way
1.1815--goodby French Revolution, Enlightenment, republicanism-hello Holy
Alliance, and religious and secular Lords with the restoration of the Ancien
Regime that will last forever
2. 1852--Goodbye Revolutions of 1848, Hello Cologne Communist Trial,
Napoleon 3, Fugitive Slave Act, Marx in Exile in London
3. 1877, Goodby Paris Commune, First International, Hello demonizing of
"Communism" through Europe and the U.S. with suppression of railroad
strike(also victory of anti-democratic forces in U.S. South)
4. 1925--Goodbye Progressivism, United Socialist movement everywhere, Hello
Cal Coolidge,mass KKK, Fordism as the wave of the future, alcohol, sex, and
jazz as the road to liberatiofor those who can't stomach Ford, Coolidge,
and Mellon
5. 1955--Goodbye all ideologies of the left, all revolutionary movements aka
"totalitarianism", hello permanent war economy, economic growth and
counterinsurgency as the road to freedom and security
6. 1995, Goodbye Soviet Union, goodbye history as the regulatory state
"whithers away," the deficiit whithers away, the stock market moves upwardn
ever upperward, and all people become "stakeholders"/stockholders) and Boris
Yeltsin is seen a Korbel Champagne commercial
7. 2011--you can fill in whatever you wish: my personal favorite would be
the "tea party" versus the new Red Menace, Warren Buffet
But somehow, slavery and the old colonialism are gone, socialist revolutions
in what became the Soviet Union and China, whatever their limitations, did
change the world, there are trade unions, social legislation, labor
laws, in place which continue to bedevil those who dream of a
capitalist heaven with Milton Friedman the father, Margaret Thatcher the
mother, and Ronald Reagan the Not so Holy Ghost.
And more seriously there are millions and millions of Americans who reject
the present economic and social status quo, either because it is visibly
damaging them and/or they realize that it is both extremely unjust and
unsustainable.
As someone who teaches a course in the history of radicalism in the U.S.
from colonial times to the present, my major theme is that we can understand
radicals"(the left) in terms of their relationship to the mainstream, but
their influence in changing it and its influence upon them. The creation of
Center-Left coalitions, unstable as they are, in period of crisis, has been
the foundation of major changes in U.S. history. This is I think the major
task which confronts the left, broadly defined, today
The Left, broadly defined, has been proclaimed dead so many times that such
proclamations are for historians a guidepost to historical periods. Let me
present a few relevant examples in chronological order in a lighthearted
but serious way
1.1815--goodby French Revolution, Enlightenment, republicanism-hello Holy
Alliance, and religious and secular Lords with the restoration of the Ancien
Regime that will last forever
2. 1852--Goodbye Revolutions of 1848, Hello Cologne Communist Trial,
Napoleon 3, Fugitive Slave Act, Marx in Exile in London
3. 1877, Goodby Paris Commune, First International, Hello demonizing of
"Communism" through Europe and the U.S. with suppression of railroad
strike(also victory of anti-democratic forces in U.S. South)
4. 1925--Goodbye Progressivism, United Socialist movement everywhere, Hello
Cal Coolidge,mass KKK, Fordism as the wave of the future, alcohol, sex, and
jazz as the road to liberatiofor those who can't stomach Ford, Coolidge,
and Mellon
5. 1955--Goodbye all ideologies of the left, all revolutionary movements aka
"totalitarianism", hello permanent war economy, economic growth and
counterinsurgency as the road to freedom and security
6. 1995, Goodbye Soviet Union, goodbye history as the regulatory state
"whithers away," the deficiit whithers away, the stock market moves upwardn
ever upperward, and all people become "stakeholders"/stockholders) and Boris
Yeltsin is seen a Korbel Champagne commercial
7. 2011--you can fill in whatever you wish: my personal favorite would be
the "tea party" versus the new Red Menace, Warren Buffet
But somehow, slavery and the old colonialism are gone, socialist revolutions
in what became the Soviet Union and China, whatever their limitations, did
change the world, there are trade unions, social legislation, labor
laws, in place which continue to bedevil those who dream of a
capitalist heaven with Milton Friedman the father, Margaret Thatcher the
mother, and Ronald Reagan the Not so Holy Ghost.
And more seriously there are millions and millions of Americans who reject
the present economic and social status quo, either because it is visibly
damaging them and/or they realize that it is both extremely unjust and
unsustainable.
As someone who teaches a course in the history of radicalism in the U.S.
from colonial times to the present, my major theme is that we can understand
radicals"(the left) in terms of their relationship to the mainstream, but
their influence in changing it and its influence upon them. The creation of
Center-Left coalitions, unstable as they are, in period of crisis, has been
the foundation of major changes in U.S. history. This is I think the major
task which confronts the left, broadly defined, today
*******************************************************************************************
From Peter -- a friend
*Rose Gudiel, her neighbors, and other supporters are waiting for the LA
County Sheriff deputies to show up at her La Puerte house and try to evict
her after Fannie Mae foreclosed her home. They they intend to lock arms in
front of the doorway, risking arrest, to stop the law enforcement officials
from evicting Gudiel, her brother, and her elderly parents. The 35-year
old
Gudiel, who juggles two jobs, has become the public face of a burgeoning
movement, led by community groups and labor unions, to defend homeowners
from unfair foreclosures and evictions. I describe this movement in my
article, “California Homeowners Mount a Growing Protest Movement Against
Foreclosures,” in today’s Huffington Post, which you can link here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/california-foreclosures-_b_986244.html
*
Another good piece in historian Michael Kazin article in last Sunday’s New
York Times, “Whatever Happened to the American Left?” linked here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/whatever-happened-to-the-american-left.html?pagewanted=1&ref=opinion
.
Kazin offers a longer and fascinating answer to this question in his new
book, *American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation.* *I also recommend
Sally Kohn’s column in the Washington Post, “President Obama Shouldn’t Be
Afraid of a Little Class Warfare,” which you can read here:
**
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/president-obama-shouldnt-be-afraid-of-a-little-class-warfare/2011/09/21/gIQAmsBjqK_story.html?hpid=z2
*** * * *Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor, consumer
advocate, and now a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, came
up with one of the greatest quotes of all time.** **This is worth posting
on your bulletin board for a constant reminder about what’s wrong with
conservatives’ anti-government rhetoric: **
**”There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You
built a factory out there—good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved
your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired
workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of
police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have
to worry that maurauding bands would come and seize everything at your
factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the
rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something
terrific, or a great idea—God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the
underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for
the next kid who comes along.”**
County Sheriff deputies to show up at her La Puerte house and try to evict
her after Fannie Mae foreclosed her home. They they intend to lock arms in
front of the doorway, risking arrest, to stop the law enforcement officials
from evicting Gudiel, her brother, and her elderly parents. The 35-year
old
Gudiel, who juggles two jobs, has become the public face of a burgeoning
movement, led by community groups and labor unions, to defend homeowners
from unfair foreclosures and evictions. I describe this movement in my
article, “California Homeowners Mount a Growing Protest Movement Against
Foreclosures,” in today’s Huffington Post, which you can link here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/california-foreclosures-_b_986244.html
*
Another good piece in historian Michael Kazin article in last Sunday’s New
York Times, “Whatever Happened to the American Left?” linked here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/whatever-happened-to-the-american-left.html?pagewanted=1&ref=opinion
.
Kazin offers a longer and fascinating answer to this question in his new
book, *American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation.* *I also recommend
Sally Kohn’s column in the Washington Post, “President Obama Shouldn’t Be
Afraid of a Little Class Warfare,” which you can read here:
**
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/president-obama-shouldnt-be-afraid-of-a-little-class-warfare/2011/09/21/gIQAmsBjqK_story.html?hpid=z2
*** * * *Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor, consumer
advocate, and now a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, came
up with one of the greatest quotes of all time.** **This is worth posting
on your bulletin board for a constant reminder about what’s wrong with
conservatives’ anti-government rhetoric: **
**”There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You
built a factory out there—good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved
your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired
workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of
police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have
to worry that maurauding bands would come and seize everything at your
factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the
rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something
terrific, or a great idea—God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the
underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for
the next kid who comes along.”**
***
*You can watch her say it on this
video: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20110042-503544.html***
*It’s become a mantra on Capitol Hill and a rallying cry for business lobby
goups: Get rid of the job-killing regulations. In recent days, with nearly
every Republican presidential candidate has repeated this refrain, which
Fox News and the mainstream media repeat like stenographers. Earlier this
month, President Obama also asked the Environmental Protection Agency to back off
more stringent ozone regulations, citing the “importance of reducing
regulatory burdens” during tough economic times. But is the claim that
regulation kills jobs true? A new analysis by ProPublica raises serious
doubts about this – something that the Cry Wolf Project (
http://crywolfproject.org) has been saying for some time. Read the
ProPublica analysis here:
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/whats-the-evidence-that-regulations-kill-jobs
*
Finally, and along similar lines: It is worth remembering that way back in
the 1990s, Los Angeles’ business leaders and its Republican Mayor Richard
Riordan warned against the city adopting a living wage law. They painted
pictures of economic destruction marked by massive job loss that would not
only hurt business but the very workers that the supposedly naive living
wage supporters were trying to help.
Well, guess what? They were Crying Wolf! The Armageddon never came. Indeed,
as LAANE executive director Madeline Janis wrote in an op-ed column last
week in the *Los Angeles Times*, there was a virtual feeding frenzy for
food concession contracts at LAX covered by the living wage - which is now
considerably higher than before. Read her article, “L.A.'s living wage
ordinance isn't a job killer” here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-janis-living-wage-airport-20110921,0,3997663.story
.
And keep this in mind whenever you hear the same kind of dire predictions
by certain business leaders and politicians – including some running for
President, who oppose any efforts to raise standards that protect workers,
consumers, and the environment. They'll cry wolf, but those who know their
history will tune them out.
Peter
video: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20110042-503544.html***
*It’s become a mantra on Capitol Hill and a rallying cry for business lobby
goups: Get rid of the job-killing regulations. In recent days, with nearly
every Republican presidential candidate has repeated this refrain, which
Fox News and the mainstream media repeat like stenographers. Earlier this
month, President Obama also asked the Environmental Protection Agency to back off
more stringent ozone regulations, citing the “importance of reducing
regulatory burdens” during tough economic times. But is the claim that
regulation kills jobs true? A new analysis by ProPublica raises serious
doubts about this – something that the Cry Wolf Project (
http://crywolfproject.org) has been saying for some time. Read the
ProPublica analysis here:
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/whats-the-evidence-that-regulations-kill-jobs
*
Finally, and along similar lines: It is worth remembering that way back in
the 1990s, Los Angeles’ business leaders and its Republican Mayor Richard
Riordan warned against the city adopting a living wage law. They painted
pictures of economic destruction marked by massive job loss that would not
only hurt business but the very workers that the supposedly naive living
wage supporters were trying to help.
Well, guess what? They were Crying Wolf! The Armageddon never came. Indeed,
as LAANE executive director Madeline Janis wrote in an op-ed column last
week in the *Los Angeles Times*, there was a virtual feeding frenzy for
food concession contracts at LAX covered by the living wage - which is now
considerably higher than before. Read her article, “L.A.'s living wage
ordinance isn't a job killer” here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-janis-living-wage-airport-20110921,0,3997663.story
.
And keep this in mind whenever you hear the same kind of dire predictions
by certain business leaders and politicians – including some running for
President, who oppose any efforts to raise standards that protect workers,
consumers, and the environment. They'll cry wolf, but those who know their
history will tune them out.
Peter
