THE WORKING CLASS BUILT THIS COUNTRY: IN 2010 WE MUST MOBILIZE TO TRANSFORM IT
Harry Targ Originally posted on Tuesday, September
7, 2010: Enough remains the same to justify a repost.
From Labor Day to Election Day: 2010
I want to add my voice to the thousands of essayists and bloggers who have been
contemplating the 2010 elections, the media “framing” of Tea Party influence,
the role of progressives in thae elections, and mobilizing for the last 54 days
before the elections.
First, I think elections still matter. Since most people see politics and
elections as equivalent and some of them actively participate in the electoral
process, progressives need to be there as well. In addition, in states and
communities decisions will be made about how federal government money for local
school corporations is to be allocated, about workers compensation for victims
of asbestos related workplace injuries, so-called Right to Work laws, and how
congressional and state legislative districts will be redesigned. At the
national level, policy decisions about such critical issues as jobs, climate
change, education, military spending, and judicial appointments will be
affected by election outcomes.
Second, most of these issues have not been the main narrative. The media have
framed the fall elections around the big losses of Democrats, the rise of the
Tea Party, and how the Obama administration has not fixed eight years of
economic mismanagement and war (let alone thirty years of ill-conceived
policies).
Third the “liberal” media, while more sophisticated and entertaining in its
coverage of election year stories over-emphasize “making fun” of some of the
outlandish Tea Party candidates for public office. And they, and their right-wing
media colleagues at Fox, have made the obscure former governor of Alaska a million-dollar
media star.
In response, Tea Party candidates, and their corporate sponsors, have decided
to do two things: forget about trying to put together logical, coherent plans
for an alternative set of policies and when challenged by enterprising
reporters just walk away. Since the media they tell us is the enemy and most
people are fearful of public speaking, incoherence and evasiveness will
resonate well with a disillusioned public.
Fourth, part of the context for the unstable politics of the fall, 2010, is the
continued economic crisis that grips working people. Unemployment, declining
real wages, indebtedness, crumbling public services remains all too real for
the majority of Americans. In addition, until his exciting Labor Day speech in
Milwaukee, the Obama administration has failed to propose an economic stimulus
program that could bring millions of un- and underemployed workers back to work
and until yesterday, backed off his commitment to a massive program for
creating green jobs. For reasons of political exigency, he has postponed
advocacy for immigration reform, climate change legislation, the Employee Free
Choice Act, and an end to the blockade of Cuba. Perhaps most troubling for the
long run, Obama appointed to positions of power, many of the neoliberal
financiers who were responsible for the current phase of capitalist crisis.
Having said all this, the administration has forestalled return to depression
with a modest economic recovery program, created some public sector jobs,
“saved” the U.S. auto industry, and has secured the passage of an inadequate
health care reform bill but one which may stimulate more movement toward a
single payer system in the future.
A Little History
A high level of distrust of government, low regard for politicians, and
periodic active anger at our public institutions is a characteristic feature of
American history often reflected in voting against political incumbents and
supporting candidates who are most vocal against government programs. For
example, the American National Election Studies (ANES) prepared an index of
Trust in Government made up of several questions reflecting the points just
raised. Looking over time the level of trust in government was at a score of 49
in 1958, 52 in 1964, 27 in 1980, 29 in 1992, 36 in 2000, and declined to 26 by
2008. Only twice in the Johnson years, did the Trust Index reach a score over
60 and six times since 1958 the index score was below 30.
In addition, a constant feature of political life has been active and extremist
politics. For example, the American party of the 1850s, or “Know Nothing
Party,” got its name from members being instructed when asked about the party
to say “I know nothing.” While short-lived they elected several national and
state office holders before the civil war.
Throughout U.S. history so-called “nativist” groups formed and mobilized
against waves of immigrants: Catholics, Germans, the Irish, Chinese, Jews, and
Latinos. Armed Klan organizations terrorized the South and the Midwest in the
1880s and 1920s and 1930s and dominated the political life in many states in
these eras.
Of course, extremist movements, often organized and funded by corporations and
wealthy individuals, scared the American people during the dark days of
anti-Communism in the 1940s and 1950s. Red Channels, a small but well-funded
political organization, published lists of suspected Communists in the
entertainment industry and pressured the new television corporations and
advertisers to purge actors and actresses, with views supportive of labor,
racial integration, and peace, from the airwaves. Their activism paralleled and
reinforced Congressional reactionaries who used investigative committees to
hound individuals and groups.
Alternatively, for all of Labor’s flaws, the history of the American labor
movement has been central to social progress in the United States: from the
demands for an eight hour day, skilled trades controls of the pace of work,
health and safety at the work place, a fair wage, programs of health and
retirement benefits, and, after much internal conflict, support for the
struggles against racism and sexism. There is no question that organized labor,
although weakened and embattled, represents the most powerful force in today’s
society resisting the privatization of social security, deregulation of the
economy and environment, and the total marginalization of working people
everywhere.
A Progressive Campaign Program
So what to do now? History and context suggests that given the importance of
elections, the enormous distrust of government, the existence of media and
corporate capital support for the historic undercurrents of anti-government and
anti-worker political traditions, often coupled with racism and fear of
foreigners, progressives have only one choice for the next two months: work to
elect political candidates from the city council to the Congress of the United
States who support a “working people’s agenda.”
American political history tells us that movements like the Tea Party are not
new. While the concern and anger reflected among those grassroots activists who
participate in rallies and marches is usually sincere and motivated by fears of
strange times and economic crises with no seeming resolution, its leaders offer
no program, no vision, and no coherent agenda. If Tea Party spokespersons and
candidates are queried about their goals, they evade or refuse to respond. Some
of their television heroes draw lines and circles and arrows on blackboards to
illustrate the connections between people living down the street, working in a
union job, teaching at a college, running for office, and the Russian
Revolution of 1917.
No, progressives cannot argue with the Tea Party movement. But, what we must do
is to campaign, not just for individual candidates or just for a party but for
a “working people’s agenda.” That constitutes the only future for the vast
majority of Americans. This agenda must include a fight for full employment. As
the AFL-CIO put it in 2009 action must be taken to extend unemployment
benefits; rebuild America’s schools, roads, and energy systems; expand support
for the maintenance of state and local public services; put all people who want
to work on jobs that need to be done; and regulate banks more effectively so
that they are required to support local projects that create businesses which
will create jobs.
Laura Jackson, a member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) noted
recently: “We definitely need to make sure that the people making the decisions
make jobs their top priority. I’m going to do all I can to make sure that
happens including getting the message out to my family, union members, and
anyone who will listen.”
Therefore, progressives, both in the labor movement and supportive of it must
welcome and support the new AFL-CIO campaign to mobilize voters in 26 states
and 400 races to support candidates who endorse a working peoples’ agenda. This
includes making sure that the “new Obama” proposals reflected in the
President’s speech of September 6, 2010, carrying the message of green jobs and
justice, become part of the agenda of every candidate we support this fall.
Also progressives must spread the word about the historic mobilization October
2 for “One Nation Working Together” organized by the AFL-CIO, the National
Association of Colored People (NAACP), and the National Council of La Raza
(NCLR). Already many peace and justice groups such as United For Peace and
Justice (UFPJ) and the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
(CCDS) have signed on as supporters.
Most importantly, progressives must work in their communities and in solidarity
with workers, people of color, and youth to elect progressive candidates to
public office and to monitor their conduct once they are elected. It must be
made clear to all that the progressive majority is not engaged in politics to
support candidates or parties but to transform America.
Addendum: Progressives must add a peace agenda to their work 2023
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia gives
fuel to the emerging anti-China Cold War rhetoric for politicians of both
parties and the corporate media who suggest that Taiwan will be next,
presumably after a Chinese invasion.
The Ukraine war is an enormous plus for
military/industrial complexes in the US and in Russia as well.
The Ukraine story transforms the global
narrative from the critical discussion of exploitation by the Global North of
the Global South to the Biden narrative of “authoritarians” vs. “democracies.”
For example, see the powerful presentation by V J Prashad of the essential
nature of the North/South struggle. https://youtu.be/Lg9c0jv6wTA
The impacts of the debate on progressive
forces in the US and elsewhere are potentially devastating. In the US, our
discourse is shifting from a progressive agenda including President Biden’s
Build Back Better program for example to stories about the relationships
between Putin and former President Trump and so-called “national security.”
Biden’s State of the Union address reflects his “shift to the center.” Now we
have a cause all Americans can get behind: opposing the Russians. (I am
reminded how the Soviet menace in the 1940s was used to defang CIO
militancy, the drive for free health care, Henry Wallace’s call for US/Soviet
dialogue and, of course, civil rights for all).
The Russian invasion and the incomplete
and war-oriented narrative of the Ukraine crisis dominating the news from such
sources as the Washington Post, the New York Times, National Public Radio, and
CNN/MSNBC constitute a real setback for us. Media news is a commodity.
War and portraits of American exceptionalism are profitable commodities for the
increasingly concentrated corporate media.
For these reasons and more, I endorse the
Code Pink demands that Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine and the United
States and its allies pull back NATO forces from its presence in Eastern
Europe. In addition, diplomatic efforts should ensue to replace NATO with an
organization that can provide security for Europe and the Global South.
The Code Pink frame gives appropriate recognition to both the immorality
of the Russian action and the context, including NATO expansion and the events
in Ukraine since 2014.
So peace activists will continue to debate
root causes of this senseless war and what to do about it. But for now as Cold
Pink and others demand: Stop the War, Withdraw Russian Troops From Ukraine,
Reverse the Extension of NATO. And also as we approach the election season we must
remember that foreign policy is inextricably connected to domestic policy. It
is time to campaign around war, military spending, the spread of nuclear
weapons, grotesque economic sanctions against poor countries, and a media program
of systematic distortions about the world , so-called “cognitive war.”
