New Ground 138
September - October, 2011
Contents
Hyatt Strike
Talkin' Socialism
National Convention
End the War
New Ground
138.1 -- 10.03.2011
0. DSA News
For a Common Strategy Out of the
Crisis
1. Politics
Pre-Occupied
The Not So Sweet Truth
Poor Dears!
2. People
3. Democratic Socialism
Joe Hill: the Man Who Never Died
National Coop Month
It's the Police
4. Upcoming Events of Interest
New Ground
138.2 -- 10.18.2011
0. DSA News
Membership Meeting
1. Politics
Occupied All the Time
Know Your Rights
Investing in Chicago's Communities
Living Wage at the Airports
2. Upcoming Events of Interest
Defending
Public Service
by Michael Baker
Under the direction of City Manager
Wally Bobkiewicz, the City of Evanston administration is recommending
the privatization of a wide range of public services. The outsourcing
of such services would likely result in the elimination of dozens
of city jobs. About 45% of the affected jobs are held by Evanston
residents.
The recommendations for outsourcing
were compiled by the city's "Budget Team" which was
instructed to "review and make recommendations" regarding
39 public services. The study, titled "City Services and
Service Change Ideas Evaluation, FY 2012 Budget Process,"
was unveiled by Mr. Bobkiewicz at the August 8th City Council
meeting.
The report lists the services being
considered for subcontracting to private vendors and also the
number of jobs supporting each service. The following extrapolation
shows which services are being considered and the highest potential
number of non-supervisory jobs that could be cut if the services
are privatized: Alley Maintenance (17), City Vehicle Fleet Program
(9), Crossing Guards (49), Forestry Services (17), Parks Maintenance
(18), Recycling (10), Street Light Service (4), and Street Maintenance/Street
Sweeping (9).
In addition, the report recommends the
elimination of Community Health Initiatives but is unclear about
the fate of the Children's Dental Clinic, which has a patient
list of 2,000. There is a growing demand for services at the
clinic, formed in 1967, to provide free or low cost dental care
for children. According to the report, the local
private providers that accept Medicaid would be "unable
to handle the volume in the absence of the dental clinic."
If the City Council follows the privatization
plan implied by the report, the results will be devastating
for city workers. Furthermore, these privatization schemes will
not solve our city's financial woes and will simply create new
problems. Consider the following concerns about the further privatization
of City services:
- Cost Overruns:
In November 2010, Evanston entered into a contract with Groot
Industries to pick up garbage and yard waste. By February, 2011
the company raised its prices by $700,000 for the remainder of
the 5-year contract. Who knows what further increases are in
store up through 2015? A well-documented practice among private
contractors in municipalities is to bid low, force the city into
a long contract, and then increase costs.
- Costs of Monitoring: Beyond actual contract costs, the city incurs
costs associated with bidding, auditing and monitoring private
contractors. Without spending money on proper oversight, other
municipalities have discovered that contractors can get away
with shoddy or incomplete work and massive cost escalation. This
cost is often hidden in the budget to give the impression outsourcing
the service is saving money.
- Loss of Flexibility and Safety: City of Evanston employees, who were recently
commended by the City Council for their dedicated work during
the blizzard of 2011, are cross-trained to do many different
jobs. Employees from several different departments, working as
a team, stepped up to run the snow plows and clear the streets.
That's how they managed to keep the city going -- by going the
extra mile. Services performed by a private company are strictly
defined by the precise terms of the vendor's contract. They cannot
go an extra inch without charging extra dollars. During a weather
or security emergency, we need the flexibility to coordinate
services in-house.
- Loss of Institutional Knowledge: Current City of Evanston employees have decades
of experience among them. They know every twist and turn of the
city's roads, alleys, sewers, parks and traffic lights. They
know the neighborhoods. They know what works and what doesn't
work. Loss of expertise to an outside private contractor is a
steep cost that may not show up on a balance sheet.
- Costs of Layoffs: The city must pay unemployment benefits to
the employees it lays off, and these workers may also qualify
for public welfare programs. Any laid off workers will lose income
and health insurance, and Evanston businesses will lose customers.
Fortunately, the citizens of Evanston
are already voicing their opposition to privatization. The Community Labor Alliance
for Public Services (CLAPS) co-chaired by Chicago DSA's Michael
Baker, has been formed to raise awareness about the risks of
privatization and the devastating impact on our community. At
the August 8th City Council meeting, 1,600 signatures supporting
public services were delivered to the City Council, and during
the public commentary portion of the meeting, several citizens
spoke out against privatization.
Even though many citizens are already
speaking out, more citizens need to make their voices heard.
If you live in Evanston or know someone who does, here's what
people can do:
Two City Council meetings called "Citizen
Budget Input Sessions" are being held on September 17 and
September 22, and another meeting called "Mid-Year Budget
Review" is being held on September 26. It is critical that
as many people as possible attend and speak at these meetings
to give their input. For more information, e-mail Chicago DSA
at chiildsa@chicagodsa.org
.
Socialism's
American Roots
by Michael Aubry
The "S" Word:
A Short History of an American Tradition By John Nichols, Verso, 2011, $19.95
In his now famous 1989 essay, "The
End of History?" Francis Fukuyama suggested that with the
fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communist Russia, history,
as a dynamic process requiring ideological competition, was in
effect "over." He writes, "What we may be witnessing
is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular
period of postwar history, but the end of history as such: that
is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the
universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form
of human government." The long ongoing historical dialectic
between Western liberalism and its economic engine, capitalism,
and Marxism-Leninism had been conclusively terminated by virtue
of a capitalist triumph. Fukayama went on to observe that except
for isolated pockets of socialism "in places like Managua,
Pyongyang, or Cambridge, Massachusetts" (or, I might add,
Chicago) the movement had ceased to be in "in the vanguard
of human history." Absent the countervailing force of socialism,
the world was now free to have a McDonald's and Starbuck's on
every corner, and to be run by the casino economics of hedge
funds and global banks.
Ironically, "history" has
proven Fukayama correct. In the twenty-two years since the publication
of his essay, history has witnessed a vast expansion of capitalism,
particularly in the conversion of Communist behemoth China into
a de facto capitalist state that is currently rushing in juggernaut
fashion toward becoming the biggest economy in the world. Meanwhile,
in the United States, where Western liberalism and capitalism
were built into its very foundation, the concept of socialism
has been relegated to the trash bin of pernicious ideas, and
reduced toa toxic epithet, the "S word."
The obvious question is: Is Fukayama
correct? Is socialism dead globally? And if it is, or is at least
on life-support, can it rise again like a red Phoenix? Secondly,
Fukayama's definition of history concerned the global dialectic,
but what about the local dialectic within the United States?
In other words, has American ideology (liberal-capitalism) always
snuffed out the flame of any challenge, particularly that of
socialism? High school history books and conventional acculturated
wisdom would certainly have us think so. However, critically
acclaimed journalist John Nichols has stepped into the arena
in an attempt to set the record straight concerning the role
of socialism in American history, and to evaluate its current
status. Quite simply, Nichols suggests that socialism is not
merely a footnote in American history, but is nothing less than
an organic tradition that helped breathe life into what America
became. Which is to say, America would not be what it is today
without socialism. He shows how its egalitarian energy was present
from the very beginning in men like Thomas Paine, through the
mutual admiration of Lincoln and Marx, through its union organizing
heyday from 1900 to World War II, through the civil rights movement,
to the present where a congealed political process dominated
by corporate monopolies more than ever needs, not socialism per
se, but the debate that socialism, as well as other perspectives,
nurtures. "One need not embrace socialism ideologically
or practically to recognize that public-policy discussions ought
to entertain a full range of ideas -- from right to left, not
from far right to center right. Historically, America welcomed
that range of ideas, and benefited from the discourse."
In his passionate defense of American-style
socialism Nichols, who pens among other things a political column
for The Nation, writes with an engaging intelligence.
He accomplishes his historical update by means of a loose chronology
(more of a meandering) that is flexible enough to support the
themes that that run through each of the six chapters in the
book. The result is a kind of American Socialism's Greatest Hits.
Nichols' unbridled passion for socialist ideals allows him to
cast a wide net to harvest evidence for a socialist tradition
at the heart of America. Whether you are already among the converted
will likely determine whether you buy into all of his explication.
Nevertheless, Nichols is very persuasive in his historical tracing
of both the socialist spirit and its official manifestations.
In the first chapter, Nichols sets the
stage for his argument that socialism is inherent to the American
spirit by tapping into that most American of Americans, Walt
Whitman. Whitman is Everyman, a small "d" democrat,
and the verses of America's poet appropriately drip with egalitarianism.
Was there ever a more socialist line than the moving third verse
of Whitman's "Song of Myself": "For every atom
belonging to me as good belongs to you"? Here we are also
introduced to the Free Soil Party, the first on a long list of
progressive political parties that have existed throughout America's
history. These political parties pop up throughout the narrative
and serve to bolster Nichols' point that a vibrant political
dialogue, one that allowed challenges to free-market capitalism,
had always been present throughout most of our history.
Nichols is careful to point out that
while Whitman was not officially a socialist, he was a "poet
with room for socialism." That Whitman thus qualifies for
membership is a trope Nichols uses to establish the roots of
American socialism before it became an official entity. He does
the same for the "spiritual father" of American socialism,
Thomas Paine. Nichols devotes the next chapter to Paine, although,
as he does throughout the book, he makes frequent digressions
to comment on and make comparisons to current affairs. While
these side trips are satisfying on one level, ultimately their
sheer quantity is somewhat distracting from the socialist narrative.
He spends a lot of time taking swipes at the current crop of
red-baiters on the right, from Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh to
Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, as well as criticizing Barack
Obama. Admittedly, it is those very people on the right who have
mounted a smear campaign against everything on the left, and
that includes redefining socialism as a pejorative. However,
giving their lightweight propagandist antics so much attention
serves to unintentionally give them a measure of credibility
in terms of their effectiveness. On the other hand, given Nichols'
admiration for Paine, it may very well be Paine's spirit that
drives Nichols' critical fervor aimed at the present.
Nichols quotes Paine at length, borrowing
from his better known works like Common Sense and The
Rights of Man as well as lesser known tracts like Agrarian
Justice. Like Whitman, Paine could turn a phrase that could
make a socialist smile. He said, people should "not be governed
like animals, for the pleasure of their riders." It is in
such a sentiment, echoed in many different ways across Paine's
voluminous writings, that Nichols finds the heart of a socialist
beating in him. Nichols credits Paine with at least conceptualizing
such programs as Social Security, child welfare, public housing,
public works programs, and earned-income tax credits. It was
Paine who insisted that justice needed to be built into any form
of social organization: "It is only by organizing civilization
upon such principles as to act like a system of pulleys, that
the whole weight of misery can be removed."
To this "socialists-at-heart"
club Nichols next adds Abraham Lincoln. This is where parallel
history is so revealing. Karl Marx (1818- 1883) and Abraham Lincoln
(1809 1865) were just a few years apart in age, and each
was engaged in his monumental work at approximately the same
time. The first volume of Das Kapital was published in
1867, just two years after the Civil War ended and Lincoln was
murdered. Nichols sees more than a temporal coincidence here.
Like an archeologist, he carefully brushes away the dust and
debris to reveal the shards of ideological commonality between
the two historical giants. Nichols convincingly illustrates the
revolutionary zeitgeist of the time the -- 1848 uprisings across
Europe, the influx of European revolutionaries into the U.S.,
particularly into Lincoln's home state of Illinois, the journalistic
activism of prominent socialist, Horace Greeley, and his influential
and popular newspaper the Tribune with Marx as a contributor,
the rise of Marx and Engels' International Workingman's Association,
and of course the fermenting civil war in America, a war as much
about economics as slavery. Nichols also points out that one
of the most important products of this revolutionary period was
the emergence of socialism as a legitimate language with which
to interpret politics and social organization.
It's in the last three chapters that
I think Nichols hits his stride and becomes the most effective
in making his case, due in no small part to the fact that he
has much more to work with as he enters a period when socialism
became an official social force in America. There he covers the
heyday of socialism in America, including the long and productive
socialist presence in Milwaukee, the socialist fight for First
Amendment rights, and the role of socialism in the civil rights
movement. It's during this period spanning almost 80 years that
the unions rose to prominence and had their strongest role in
the American workplace.
The chapter on Milwaukee and union ascension
could easily be expanded to book length (I wish it were) and
serve as a powerful illustration of how American style socialism
was and can still be effective. It was Milwaukee (not Chicago)
that was the city "that works." "From the early
1900s to the 1960s Milwaukee was not just a 'hotbed of socialist
activism.' What was then one of the largest and most prosperous
of American cities was actually governed for decades by Socialists."
During that time Socialists held the mayor's office and dozens
of other city and county positions. The secret to their success
was "sewer socialism," a socialism that was completely
absorbed in local concerns as opposed to the lofty ideals of
a more revolutionary global organization. Through orderly, honest
government, and a healthy contempt for graft, Milwaukee socialists
proved "that government could operate honorably and as an
extension of the people, rather than as a burden to them."
During the Socialist tenure Milwaukee was called the "best
governed city in the U.S." and its various departments won
numerous national awards. It was the only major city in the country
that was debt free. The sewer socialist's credo was "efficient,
transparent, frugal, and socially just government," and
that individuals working together could "forge a whole that
was greater than the sum of its parts." This is a timeless
paradigm for any democratic society and is a vivid reminder of
the disjunction between then and now.
This section moves in a whirlwind of
events and characters including long time Milwaukee mayor Frank
Zeidler, who ran for president in 1976 on the Socialist ticket,
and founding member of the Socialist Party and sewer socialist
movement, Victor Berger. Berger launched the socialist newspaper,
the Milwaukee Leader, in 1910 and had the temerity to
oppose America's entry into World War I. He was subsequently
persecuted by the Wilson administration under the Espionage Act.
Nichols masterfully weaves it all together and is able to vividly
illustrate the strength of a Socialist Party rooted in the streets
where real people lived and worked, rooted in the plumbing they
installed and in the bricks they laid, and the trolleys they
rode, in the mom and pop businesses, the cultural centers and
organizations, and in the heavy iron printing presses that gave
voice to their journalistic fight.
Unfortunately, with the rise and success
of socialism came its eventual fall. There is the stinging irony
that a son of Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, would be a major force
that took the winds out of the national social movement during
the Cold War. There was irony too in the Democratic New Deal,
bursting with socialist strategies, "stealing the thunder
of the Socialists at the national level." World War II also
took a toll on the movement, and by 1948 most of the unions were
drifting from socialist and labor parties to the Democratic Party.
Richard Nixon was on the horizon.
But socialism was far from irrelevant
yet. On August 28, 1963 the Washington Mall was packed shoulder
to shoulder with 250,000, mostly African American, people. They
had come by over 2000 buses and 21 special trains to answer the
call for the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom."
The crucial thing to note here is the linkage of two operative
words in the title: jobs and freedom. It's a conspicuous declaration
of the evolving socialist mission in America that was underscored
by Martin Luther King's mentor, Black activist, "the most
dangerous Negro in America," union leader and radical Socialist,
A. Philip Randolph. The 74 year old Randolph took the podium
right before King and declared to the gathered sea of humanity:
"But this civil rights revolution
is not confined to the Negro nor is it confined to civil rights,
for our white collar allies know they cannot be free while we
are not; and we know we have no future in a society in which
six million black and white people are unemployed and millions
more live in poverty."
Nichols taps into Randolph's socialist
energy and how it influenced Martin Luther King, who, although
not an official member of the Socialist Party, recognized that
there would be no racial equality without economic equality.
If we were to graph the popularity and
influence of socialism in America, we would see that its final
spike came during this time period. JFK is in office, and the
last of the influential socialists, Michael Harrington, publishes
his stark expose of poverty in the United States, The Other
America, in 1962. The book, reputedly read by Kennedy, is
the apparent inspiration for the War on Poverty program initiated
by JFK and taken up by Lyndon Johnson as part of an expanded
Great Society package of social programs. Nichols traces Harrington's
evolving thought process regarding the implementation of socialist
ideals in America, a process that led him to make a significant
leap of faith that continues to be debated today. Harrington
came to the conclusion that it was possible to work effectively
within the existing political process, and to forge alliances
with liberals and the Democratic Party. He was convinced that
"liberalism leads to socialism," and by 1970 he left
the old Socialist Party "with its seemingly endless sectarian
squabbles" and looked forward to forging change within a
"new" Democratic Party. Unfortunately for Harrington's
vision, a "New Right" was fermenting at the same time
and by 1980 a socialist's worst nightmare in the name of Ronald
Reagan was installed in the White House. This was followed by
a further repudiation of socialist ideals in a New Right dynasty
of two Bushes, a de facto Republican in Bill Clinton, and a free-market
disciple in Barack Obama. Harrington's new socialism, "Democratic
Socialism," slipped quietly into the shadows, where it remains,
largely unfulfilled.
With this, Nichols brings us back to
the present where he paints a bleak and cold landscape ruled
by plutocrats. It's a land where a cowered liberalism slinks
around with its tail between its legs. A place where a wealthy
and powerful Right has built a potent propaganda machine that
preys on an ignorant, uninformed electorate who are vulnerable
and easily swayed, unable to distinguish indoctrination from
real ideas. Sealing their fate willingly, the masses march unknowingly
into economic slavery, chanting idealistic abstractions, and
singing the praises of their masters. Anyone who is not firmly
in the conservative camp is labeled a "socialist,"
and branded with an "s" representing one who is anti-American,
and by association, a soul mate of draconian despots like Stalin
and Mao, and one who wants to turn a vibrant capitalistic landscape
into a drab European-style prison in which rugged individualism
and freedom are shackled in cold steel chains with links forged
from socialism's "S."
Nichols ends with two observations.
First, the biggest casualty in the withdrawal of socialism from
the marketplace of ideas is debate. Healthy discourse requires
the presence of different informed perspectives. In Fukayama's
terms, history requires a counterpoint to capitalism. Secondly,
Nichols expresses optimism for socialism to re-enter the debate.
In a nation of have and have-nots he seesa frustration with the
economy and unemployment, and an increasingly unfavorable view
of capitalism among the electorate. He also sees hope in a younger
generation that does not carry around the oppressive Cold War
baggage of socialism.
Within Nichols' otherwise persuasive
prose a few qualification might be in order. Nichols has been
accused by some of painting an idealistic, perhaps over simplified
picture of American socialism. I don't think that idealism is
anything to be ashamed of particularly when it descends from
the heights of abstraction to be grounded in practical application.
One might also take issue with Nichols' interpretation of selected
events and quotes, and his occasionally taking them out of context
to support his agenda. In a similar vein, is it a stretch to
appropriate people like Whitman, Paine, Lincoln and King into
the socialist fold? And finally, he does gloss over a factious
situation when he writes as if the Communist Party and socialists
(under various names) were all part of one big happy family.
But, I'll leave a definitive opinion concerning historical accuracy
to those who know history better than I do. Certainly Nichols
has extrapolated from early historical behavior to capture a
spirit that might well have been under the banner of socialism
at a later time.
What Nichols does do effectively is
bare the heart of American socialism -- whether official or not.
Although socialism's official history is short, Nichols shows
that under a variety of manifestations, socialism was percolating
from the earliest times in America. Most importantly, it is his
dead-on-correct observation, echoing Fukyama, that without an
egalitarian movement like socialism, democratic dialogue is simply
not possible when left at the mercy of a single perspective,
in the present case, an unmerciful capitalism. It is for that
reason this book should be read widely, and for that reason I
wish he had threaded that theme more throughout his narrative,
rather than bringing it up mainly near the end.
The title of the book's afterword is,
"But What About Democratic Left Politics?" And "what
about it" is precisely the crossroads that American socialism
stands at today. Socialism has returned to the point just before
Michael Harrington's leap of faith into the system. To be or
not to be part of the system is a strategic calculation that
is yet to be made with any firm resolution. Does socialism merely
shout from the sidelines? Does it go head to head with the existing
political alternatives? Does it work quietly at the grass roots
level? Or does it do all three? Thus, one question that Nichols
leaves largely unanswered - and perhaps it is one for another
book - is whether socialism, by virtue of the fact that
it "has existed," can and "will exist" in
the future. And if so, what will it look like? Nichols makes
a convincing case that it needs to exist and offers a couple
of pages indicating that perhaps "something" is in
the air that may usher in a new era of socialist involvement.
Beyond that, in spite of Nichols' inspiring words, the reader
with socialist sympathies is left looking up at a daunting mountain
to be climbed. Nichols enters a knotty conundrum when first he
says that one need not don the cloak of socialism to appreciate
and support its ideals. Indeed, the core values of socialism
are likely shared by liberals, progressives, and the left in
general. But he quickly stumbles over the problem when he then
says these seemingly interchangeable contemporary labels are
pale euphemisms for what is at heart socialism; and as such they
are timid and cerebral, and the only label that has any meaning,
any teeth, is socialism. So while you don't have to be a socialist,
anything less doesn't seem to get the job done.
Why, then, don't liberal-progressives
embrace the socialist banner? To many on the left the "s"
word seems to still hold a threat of some kind, as if taking
that final small step would rock the boat so much that it would
swamp its occupants. And what about "Democratic Left politics"?
Nichols seems to have little use for a party that has moved so
far to the right. But then the question still remains; do socialists
try to change the Democratic Party from within or work from the
outside as an alternative? Round and round we go. There are many
confusing and vexing aspects to the current state of affairs.
It is no longer 1848, or 1900, or 1960 when a variety of factors
conflated to allow socialism to bloom. In addition, there exists
today from the right a toxic psychological warfare, an entrenched
winner-take-all two party system, and capitalism is enjoying
an unprecedented and unchallenged global domination. And meanwhile
in America, those ironic archenemies, equality and freedom, continue
to bicker with deadly consequences in the "culture wars."
Those alleged twin pillars of the American value system are proving
once again to be less than equals. The freedom pillar dominates
in support of mythological attributes like rugged individualism,
exceptionalism, religion, and of course, capitalism. Egalitarian
equality on the other hand is a literal poor cousin. While it
may be true, as Nichols argues, that socialism is an American
tradition, it's also true that there is another more pervasive
American tradition in which the individual always trumps the
collective.
A recent Alternet article stated
that the CEO of Wal-Mart, Michael Duke, makes his average employee's
yearly salary every hour. That's clearly a problem. So, is socialism
the answer? It's a David and Goliath scenario. Nevertheless,
Nichols and Fukayama are, of course, correct. Fukayama framed
it when he wrote that in a "universal homogenous state,"
where all prior contradictions are resolved and all human needs
satisfied, there is no struggle or conflict over "large"
issues. Thus, all real discourse ceases and there remains only
a strange and unsettling malaise of apathy and acceptance. The
hype from the right claims that all human needs have been met,
but that is an illusion bought and paid for by the ruling plutocracy.
Reality reveals a deep chasm of unresolved conflict -- a pernicious
conflict democracy cannot survive.
An
Open Letter to Michele Bachmann:
Dear Representative Bachmann,
Regarding the U.S. Constitution and
the statement: "the very founders that wrote those documents
worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States."
It is clear the reverse of your assumption
is the truth. Most founders did all they could to impede the
manumission of slavery. Consider the Enumeration Clause of the
U.S. Constitution, first article, second section, paragraph three,
first sentence, (stricken 1865): "Representatives and direct
Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may
be included within this Union, according to their respective
Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number
of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term
of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all
other Persons."
In 1787, the majority of constitutional
convention representatives gave slave owing states extra votes
thanks to the enumerating of human property at a sixty percent
rate for a rigged electorate. Loading the dice of legislation
was the whole idea behind '3/5ths.' What's striking is the term
slave never appeared in the constitution until the lucrative
institution was abolished. As a gentleman's agreement, the term
"Other Persons" was the substitute terminology that
implied "slave." With the order of power entitling
slave states to seize the representation of their human capital,
democratic process was curtailed until 1865. In fact, the final
manumission of Black slaves was made all the more easy by the
voluntary non-participation of the slave-states while in secession.
It took the deaths of 600,000 men in uniform to correct the fault
of their founding fathers and ours.
When Republicans insisted upon reading
the Constitution on the floor, for technical reasons the stricken
parts went unread. This was unfortunate, since the Enumeration
Clause included the bloodiest sentence in the founding document.
Fortunes were made off the peculiar institution, with a legacy
leaving paper trails to many a well established entity and well-heeled
family. Next to the price of the land, the slave was the most
expensive item whose unpaid labor drove the profit. In 1860,
there were about 4 million slaves, who at conservative estimates
would fetch about $1,000 per person, on average for each man,
woman and child. The estimated Gross National Product for 1860
was about 4 billion dollars. You do the math.
A century and a half since secession,
the problems remaining continue to be compounded by the distortion
of the facts on race in America. As the recent Pew survey showed,
it is only a minority of Americans who actually know the Civil
War was fought entirely over slavery. Meanwhile, the majority
of white Americans assume a comfortable illusion that the war
was about States' Rights -- a verbal cop-out that feels good
on the mouth like cotton candy. As with the term "Other
Persons," substitution enables injustice to persist.
We must all be aware that the whitest
part of African-American History was written law. We cannot miss
the paper trail to those responsible. Yet Americans whose ancestors
were at the receiving end of the Whip-Tip of History always recall
more vividly than those whose ancestors were at the Whip-Handle.
Too soft are the voices of conscience of those of the masters'
descent. How long will this history remain undetected?
Truly,
Robert Rudner
Editor's Note: Robert Rudner is cofounder
of the Chicago Greens
, an activist since the 1960s and a writer.
Other
News
compiled by Bob Roman
|
New
Ground #138.1
10.03.2011
Contents
0. DSA News
For a Common Strategy Out of the
Crisis
1. Politics
Pre-Occupied
The Not So Sweet Truth
Poor Dears!
2. People
3. Democratic Socialism
Joe Hill: the Man Who Never Died
National Coop Month
It's the Police
4. Upcoming Events of Interest
DSA News
For a Common Strategy Out of
the Crisis
The fourth annual meeting of
the Presidium and Heads of State and Government from the
Socialist International family took place at the United Nations
Headquarters on Friday 23 September, in conjunction with the
general debate of the United Nations General Assembly. The agenda
for the meeting included discussions on the current impact and
consequences of the global financial crisis, the contribution
of social democracy to combating racism and intolerance and how
to ensure the success of the COP17 Summit in South Africa. READ
MORE.
Politics
Pre-Occupied
Chicago DSA, as an organization,
has not been active in the Chicago
occupation outside the Federal Reserve Bank at Jackson &
LaSalle, though CDSA members have joined in at various times.
The occupation outside the bank is part of a nation-wide
series of ongoing protests that aspire
to emulate Egypt's Tahrir Square demonstrations in effect.
Some of the demonstrations have amounted to no more than a pimple
on the ass of capitalism, but others, particularly New York and
Boston, have shown some virulence, drawing support from unions
and other organizations.
The New York City occupation of Wall
Street has begun attracting attention in a way that reminds one
of the Republic Windows occupation some years ago here in Chicago.
Adbusters claims some
credit for getting the New York project off the ground. And the
Young Democratic Socialists played a large role in the initial
demonstration. A critique based on that experience can be found
at The
Activist; the comments are good, also, except when they're
not. Salon.com has had some good coverage of the New York occupation,
including this
item that includes an interview with DSA member Chris Masiano.
And a somewhat more positive assessment is at Talking
Union. If a lack of focus is a major critique, Occupy New
York is working on a Declaration
of the Occupation of New York City.
In a grand old tradition of lefty insurrections,
the New York occupation has started a newspaper, The Occupy
Wall Street Journal, no less. You can get a copy by contributing
HERE. But it's also wise to keep some of your support
close to home. You can find out how to help Occupy Chicago HERE.
The Not So Sweet Truth
October is National
Coop Month, but we're going to begin by talking about some
of coops' blemishes: coops and unions do not necessarily get
along. This is particularly true of consumer coops and producer
coops. The former institutions are owned by their customers,
and you can see a reasonable if occasional conflict of interest.
The latter are businesses that are owned essentially by other
businesses, most typically farms that may be family owned but
not necessarily. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) had
a particularly tough time persuading the Florida Tomato Growers
Exchange to allow its members to participate in CIW's penny-a-pound
pass through program. They came
around eventually.
Now, on the opposite side of the country,
a battle has been going on between American Crystal Sugar, a
producer coop, and Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and
Grain Millers International Union. On August 1st, American Crystal
Sugar locked out some thirteen hundred union members in several
upper Great Plains states after the workers had rejected, very
nearly unanimously, the coop's final offer. The issues touch
on all the sore points of 21st Century collective "bargaining:"
health care costs, outsourcing, seniority issues. The workers
are still out. American Crystal Sugar has hired scabs. For more
information on the lock-out and how you can help, CLICK
HERE.
Poor Dears!
In the September 30th Washington
Post, DSA Honorary Chair Barbara Ehrenreich writes:
'The latest group to claim victim status
is the rich. Actually the super-rich, whose wealth ordinarily
exempts them from pity. While they are not yet subjected to airport
profiling (except for early boarding and club access), they sense
that the public is turning subtly against them -- otherwise how
could President Obama propose raising their taxes?
'Admirers of the rich, led by pundits
and politicians on the right -- from Laura Ingraham to Larry
Kudlow -- have long derided the victimization claims of African
Americans, women, gays and the unemployed, but now they're raising
their voices to defend the rich against what they see as an ugly
tide of "demonization."
'At a time when poverty is soaring,
unemployment hovers grimly above 9 percent and growing numbers
of Americans suffer from "food insecurity" -- the official
euphemism for hunger -- this concern may seem a tad esoteric.
At a time when executive compensation is reaching dizzying new
levels and the gap between the rich and everyone else is growing
as fast as the federal deficit, it may even seem a little perverse.'
READ
MORE.
People
Oak Park illustrator Estelle
Carol has won the Union
Communication Services' (UCS) "Unions Now More Than
Ever" contest. She will receive a $500 prize for her winning
entry. As part of the contest, UCS also will donate $1,000 to
the workers' advocacy group American
Rights at Work.
The Chicago Area Women's History Council
celebrates 40 years on Sunday, October 16 with an event featuring
Tracy Baim, Heather
Booth, Jackie
Grimshaw, Maria Pasquiera, Jan
Schakowsky, and Rima Lunin-Schultz, moderated by Cheryl Johnson-Odom.
Tickets are $40 at the door. For more information, CLICK
HERE.
Democratic Socialism
Joe Hill: the Man Who Never
Died
In New City, Hugh Iglarsh
begins:
"How does one write a biography
of a figure like radical minstrel Joe Hill? By all rights, he
should have been an invisible man, and in some ways was just
that. Born into the lower reaches of the working class, Hill
was another drop in the torrent of emigration from old world
to new in the early years of the last century, drawn by economic
osmosis to the thinly peopled rawness of the American West. There
he became a human tumbleweed, bounced and jostled from place
to place and job to job, until the hobo jungle and flophouse
became his only home, his fellow laborers his only family."
READ
MORE.
National Coop Month
October is National
Coop Month. One point of the project is to get people to
consider coops, in their various forms, as an alternative to
capitalism. Another is to educate people on the history of the
cooperative movement. For a nice, explanatory bibliography, CLICK
HERE.
It's the Police
The other Haymarket monument
was to the police. After being blown up a few times, they eventually
moved it from the Haymarket to the Chicago Police Department
HQ, if I remember correctly. Chicago documentary film maker Paul
Rettig is making a documentary of the statue's complicated history.
More
Information.
Upcoming Events of Interest
Events listed here are not necessarily
endorsed by Chicago DSA but should be of interest to DSA members,
friends and other lefties. For other events, go to http://www.chicagodsa.org/page9.html.
Tuesday, October 4, 1:15 PM to 2:15
PM
"Wangari Maathai and
the Real Work of Hope"
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum Resident Dining Hall, 800 S. Halsted,
Chicago
Lynette Jackson, associate professor of Gender and Women's Studies
and African American Studies at UIC will discuss the book by
Francis Moore Lappe and Anna Lappe. More
Information.
Wednesday, October 5, 9 AM to Noon
Stable Jobs Stable Airport
Ordinance Rally
Chicago City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St, Chicago
Rally in support of the SJSA ordinance on the occasion of its
introduction. More
Information.
Thursday, October 6, Noon to 2 PM
"County: Life, Death
and Politics at Chicago's Public Hospital"
Barnes & Noble Books, 970 E. 58th St, Chicago
David Ansell discusses his new book. More
Information.
Thursday, October 6, 1 PM to 5 PM
Gateway to Poverty
Chicago Temple, 77 W. Washington, Chicago
National Employment Law Project's Paul Sonn headlines a panel
discussion on the effects of poverty-wage jobs at Chicago's airports.
More Information.
Thursday, October 6, 3 PM to 4 PM
9th Annual Distinguished
Labor Leader Lecture
IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, 565 W. Adams St, Chicago
Richard Trumka speaks. Not only a miner, not only the President
of the AFL-CIO, he's also a lawyer. More
Information.
Friday, October 7, Noon
First Friday Action for Jobs
State of Illinois Building, Randolph & Clark, Chicago
Monthly demonstration and press conference in response to the
Labor Department's monthly job report. More
Information.
Saturday, October 8, Noon
US & NATO Out of Afghanistan
Now
Congress & Michigan, Chicago
Rally, march, and rally against the war. More
Information.
Saturday, October 8, 5 PM
26th Annual Mother Jones
Dinner
University of Illinois @ Springfield Public Affairs Center, Springfield
Speaker: Karen Lewis, President of Chicago Teachers Union; music
by singer-songwriter Tom Irwin. Tickets $25. Call Call Jack Dyer
at 217.691.4185 or Terry Reed at 217.789.6495 for information.
Monday, October 10, 4 PM to 6:30 PM
Take Back Our Future!
John C Kluczynski Federal Building, Dearborn & Jackson, Chicago
Gather @ 4 PM, march at 4:30 PM: The Futures Industry Association
and Mortgage Bankers Association are coming to Chicago. Join
thousands of Chicagoans to send a clear message: We're taking
back our jobs, homes, and education. More
Information.
Thursday, October 13, 8:30 AM to 1:30
PM
"Great at Eight: Investing
in the Whole Child from Birth to Eight"
DePaul University, 150 W. Warrenville Rd, Naperville
Voices for Illinois Children's "Kids Count 2011" symposium.
Reservations
required.
Thursday, October 13, 7 PM to 9 PM
"Inside Job"
DePaul Art Museum, 935 W. Fullerton, Chicago
Screening of the documentary on the global fiscal crisis of 2008.
More
Information.
Friday, October 14, 7:20 PM
Valuing Land Conservation
& Stewardship
DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church, 4 S 535 Old Naperville
Rd, Naperville
Discussion beginning with a showing of "Green Fire"
about the life of Aldo Leopold. More
Information.
Saturday, October 15, 6 PM
Protest Scott Lively
Christian Liberty Academy, 502 W. Euclid Ave, Arlington Heights
Protest Americans For Truth About Homosexuality's honoring of
kill-the-gays bill promoter Scott Lively. More
Information.
Monday, October 24, 9 AM to 5 PM
Reframing Reform: Immigration
as the Solution
DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson Blvd, Chicago
A conference bringing together voices from across the country
in order to inform on the consequences of the failure to reform
the current US immigration system. RSVP
Required by October 10. More
Information.
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New
Ground #138.2
10.18.2011
Contents
0. DSA News
Membership Meeting
1. Politics
Occupied All the Time
Know Your Rights
Investing in Chicago's Communities
Living Wage at the Airports
2. Upcoming Events of Interest
DSA News
Membership Meeting
Chicago DSA will be having a
membership meeting in November. This will be on Saturday at 12:30
PM on the 19th, a week later than our usual 2nd Saturday of the
month. The premier item on the agenda will be a report back on
the DSA National Convention. The meeting will be at the Chicago
DSA office, 1608 N. Milwaukee Room 403. This is at the 3 way
intersection of Milwaukee, North, and Damen avenues on the 4th
floor. It's right near the Damen stop on the CTA Blue Line to
O'Hare. For information, give us a call: 773.384.0327.
Politics
Occupied All the Time
Any additional coverage of the
Occupy Wall Street movement is likely to take on a resemblance
to the tedious repetition of cable news coverage during some
slow-motion event. In fact, why don't we simply refer you to
the horse's mouth: the Occupy
Chicago site for the latest news. However, while there you
should check out the minutes of the October
17 evening General Assembly. If the somewhat naive transcription
is correct, this represents a pretty substantial offer of support
from Chicago's labor movement, a move from politics to protest,
as Bayard Rustin might have put it.
This shouldn't come as a big surprise.
For example, one doesn't usually think for Jonathan Tasini as
wild-eyed radical lefty, but he comes pretty close HERE, and I do believe he expresses the frustration
and anger of a majority of labor activists, staff, and elected
officials, nevermind the rank-and-file, who may be only a few
degrees behind in heat.
Finally, New Ground is read by
almost as many conservatives as it is by lefties. (Chicagodsa.org
is a big tourist stop for the commie-Obama-birther set.) And
some of you right-wingers are a pretty wild-eyed, rum lot, begging
your pardon. (DSA is "not a normal organization" but
a conspiratorial "political mafia," eh?) If you still
don't get what's feeding these protests (Hint: it ain't DSA;
it ain't SEIU; it ain't ACORN.), you can find some answers HERE. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this
here is War & Peace.
Know Your Rights
The Illinois Civil Liberties
Union has advice for those arrested at demonstrations HERE.
Investing in Chicago's Communities
The Chicago
Political Economy Group and Stand Up! Chicago released a new plan entitled
Investing in Chicago Communities; A Jobs Fund for a Future
That Works. The Chicago Community Jobs Plan outlines our
proposal to address Chicago s jobs crisis by creating 40,000
new jobs for the city s unemployed. The jobs plan would not only
provide Chicagoans with living wage, full-time jobs that match
their existing skills and experience, but would serve as an investment
in our communities, making them safer, stronger and more vibrant.
View
the Plan. (PDF)
Living Wage at the Airports
Every now and again, it's time for a new coat of paint. This
applies to Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports as well as to
the house next door. Chicago's approach to this is to put the
airport concessions up for bid. Not only do the concession operators
(similar in function to the operators of shopping centers) offer
to pay more for the concession, they also offer to spend money
rehabbing the space. Sounds like a great win-win idea, yes? Except
for the employees at the stores and restaurants therein, who
will lose their jobs with no guarantee of being rehired, not
to mention rehired with seniority. And for their union that went
through a good deal of work to help them organize and now will
have to start the process, again, from scratch. It doesn't have
to be this way. The workers can be a part of a win-win-win deal,
and to that end a "Stable Jobs, Stable Airports" ordinance
was introduced in the Chicago City Council on October 5. A coalition
of unions and community groups held a rally / press conference
that you can read about HERE. Progress Illinois has a more extensive
account of the issue HERE.
Upcoming Events of Interest
Events listed here are not necessarily
endorsed by Chicago DSA but should be of interest to DSA members,
friends and other lefties. For other events, go to http://www.chicagodsa.org/page9.html.
Wednesday, October 19, 7:30 PM
Stories from Afghanistan
St. Gertrude Church Social Hall, 1401 W Granville, Chicago
Jerica Arendts and Jake Olzen, co-founders of the White Rose
Catholic Worker, and Bob Palmer who recently traveled to Afghanistan
talk about the effects of U.S. policies of war on ordinary Afghan
people. More
Information.
Thursday, October 20, 6 PM to 8 PM
Move the Money
Chicago Temple, 77 W. Washington, Chicago
Join Congressional Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Danny Davis
at a meeting to move the money from paying for endless
wars and giving multi-millionaires huge tax breaks to funding
jobs and human needs. More
Information.
Saturday, October 22, 8 AM to 3 PM
African-American Labor History
National Association of Letter Carriers Hall, 3850 S. Wabash
Ave, Chicago
The Illinois AFL-CIO and the Illinois Labor History Society present
a conference celebrating the historic accomplishments of African-Americans
in the labor struggle. Reservations required. Call Alvis
Martin: 217.492.6815.
Monday, October 24, 7 PM to 9 PM
Educational Forum on HB 311
Moe Joe's, 24033 W. Lockport St, Plainfield
Featuring Ed Cole on single-payer public health insurance in
Illinois. More
Information.
Wednesday, October 26, Noon to 1 PM
Rally to Defend Collective
Bargaining and Retirement Security
Illinois State Capitol Rotunda, Springfield
Rally to defend collective bargaining rights and pensions for
public employees. More
Information.
Wednesday, October 26, 6 PM to 8 PM
Are We Wisconsin?
Jane Addams Hull House Museum, 800 S. Halsted, Chicago
Join local organizers to discuss innovative approaches in the
fight for workers rights in today's challenging economic and
political climate. More
Information.
Friday, October 28, 4 PM to 5:30 PM
Gale Force: a Forum on Gale
Cincotta
DePaul University Loop Campus, Jackson & State Room C100
(lower level), Chicago
A forum on Gale Cincotta, "the Mother of the Community Reinvestment
Act." RSVP
and More Information.
Sunday, October 30, 2 PM
The Economics of Happiness
Oak Park Public Library Veterans Room, 834 Lake St, Oak Park
Oak Park Coalition for Truth & Justice's free film series.
More Information.
Tuesday, November 1, 5 PM
Our Airports, Our Communities
Roosevelt University's Gage Gallery, 18 S. Michigan Ave, Chicago
Public forum on living wages, stable jobs at O'Hare and Midway
airports and their affects on Chicago communities. More
Information.
Friday, November 4, Noon
First Friday Demonstration
for Jobs
State of Illinois Building, Randolph & Clark, Chicago
Rally and press conference in response to the Labor Department's
monthly jobs report. More
Information.
Saturday, November 5, 6 PM to 9 PM
Communism in Weimar Germany
Wicker Park Art Center, 2125 W. North Ave, Chicago
Dr. Norman LaPorte talks about what it was and why it failed.
More Information.
Saturday, November 5, 6:30 PM
Media Democracy Day 2011
Human Thread, 645 W. 18th St, Chicago
How can we use our progressive media networks to deliver information
and stories to our communities and make a difference? More
Information.
Monday, November 7, 10:15 AM
March & Rally Against
Cuts
Federal Plaza, Dearborn & Adams, Chicago
Rally then march at 11 AM against cuts to Social Security, Medicare,
Medicaid, HUD.... More
Information.
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