Five Borough Report June 2003
The View from Ground Zero:
Resisting the Permanent War Economy,
Reclaiming Our New Deal Heritage
Sumner Rosen
New York City after 9/11 has become a special
place nationally and internationally. It is emblematic of the struggle being
waged across the globe against the imperial military and economic excesses
of the United States. This city was already in economic difficulty, and the
effects of 9/11 intensified those problems. The permanent war declared by
the Bush Administration means there will be little left to meet the needs
of this city, or any of our cities, many of which are also in fiscal
crisis. The greatest resource for our cities, the federal government, has
been taken away. And the failure of the federal government is leading state
and local governments to turn fiscally and economically against their
people.
The right wing wants to put to rest, finally, the heritage of
the New Deal, of government as the institution that protects the vulnerable
and the weak, regulates the excesses of corporations, protects consumers,
and ensures that labor has the right to organize. In fact, government is
the only institution that can provide the basis for a broad-based social
wage and improved quality of life. These were some of the key innovations
that the New Deal put in place and that became consolidated in the 40s and
50s.
What we have seen now is a war that energizes a longstanding
right-wing agenda for remaking the domestic map. The right has failed to
address, much less solve, the fundamental problems, not only of fairness
and justice, but of economic growth and employment as well. Numerous economists
and others have provided answers to these problems, but they don't have the
amplification of the media enjoyed by the right-wing ideologues.
We have the record of concrete ways to solve these problems in
the social democratic nations of Europe, especially Scandinavia, which for
decades have operated a competitive economy whose capitalists were taught
by social democrats to play by new rules, to ensure that there was social
protection, good health care, cradle to grave social security. In New York,
as Joshua Freeman has shown in Working Class New York, labor and its
allies created the equivalent of the social democratic welfare state with
the best schools, excellent health care, and strong infrastructure. This
was a system that made it possible for people to support themselves.
What ended it was the Red Scare that marginalized the progressive
elements of New York labor, along with the deterioration that followed the
fiscal crisis of the 1970s. Today’s labor movement still runs scared, is
fragmented, self-protective, and business-union-like. It has yet to
identify and take possession of its progressive heritage. Recent changes in
the labor movement give some reason for optimism, but the revival of
labor's progressive advocacy role is a slow process.
Towards a Cities-Labor Coalition
What we lack now is a countervailing force to the controlling
corporate forces. Whether we talk about politics in New York, in the
country, or in the world, in the last analysis what matters is the balance
of contending social forces. The ultimate test is whether the people have
organized and applied themselves, and that happens at all levels. And so
the bottom line is giving people the right and the ability to organize.
Emancipation begins with the right to organize, particularly
among workers. I would emphasize labor rights, the right to organize to
protect their interests, and those of all working peoples. In the workplace
is the real heart of serious politics and the struggle for liberation.
Workers struggle every day to win and protect their rights. The successful
economies, in my view, are ones where a vigorous capitalism has been combined
with effective labor organizing. In the post-Cold War era, capitalism is
essentially the global economic order now, in one form or another, but
there are new voices in labor, many people of color, women, and immigrants,
and they offer great hope for the future.
Full employment is not
only the right of every working person, but it is the solution to many of
our most pressing social problems and the basis for empowering the working
class as a whole. The high tech permanent war economy will not generate the
high level and broad range of jobs such as were created in World War II, so those who are in the lower tiers, marginalized
and in part-time work, will not find real work in this economy without new
public programs that ensure jobs at a living wage.
There will always be much work to be done. Think about the
deficiencies in our society: uncovered health care and public health needs;
real homeland security; schools that have to be replaced; children who
should be taught in smaller classrooms by qualified and well-paid teachers;
older people, the chronically ill, and people with severe disabilities who
need companionship and care; all who work in the arts and music. Some of
this is evoked by Mike Wallace, who portrays what the New Deal meant for
New York City and evokes a vision of what could be created by and for the
people of this city.
Preparing to
Create Change
The current dominance of market capitalism is not a law of
nature that can't be changed by human and political action. The Iraq war
evoked a level of organized opposition that is without precedent anywhere
or anytime, but it has not acquired political shape and form. Working
people can take control of their own lives in a serious and comprehensive
way. I have seen enough examples in different parts of the world to know
that it can be done. People need not only the power but the information and
the institutions to decide their own fate. They will then make intelligent
decisions. We are not well-prepared, but E. F. Schumacher said, "You
never know when the winds of change will blow, but when they do, be sure
that your sails are at the ready." Our task today is not only to
resist politically the currently dominant globally-militarized political
economy but to prepare for that change.
June 2003
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