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.