Schrödinger's Cat
15th October 2008, 01:33
I've been adamantly studying the New Deal for the past few months now; it's immensely interesting to see debates continue over the subject. I personally think the New Deal was mostly good, especially in addressing some social and labor grievances (private spies, corporal punishment against employees). I was also surprised to find how important communist, socialist, and labor movements were in shaping the society we see today.
For example, most of the unionization that lifted the US population right through the '70s wasn't done by government mandate, but rather government inaction. Thousands of workers joined together in sit-ins, destruction of property, and public protests until whole industries were forced into unionization. The government started to rip itself from the capitalists on a local and state level. You saw Upton Sinclair almost win California governor - until the entire force of capital did a wonderful smear campaign. Huey Long, a very, very pro-welfarist Southerner, was assassinated. Mayors and police agencies around the country didn't respond to calls against worker disruption, and FDR mostly didn't take a stance against them.
This gives me even more hope that a truly libertarian socialist movement can occur if we just organize ourselves better before the next opportunity. I recommend everyone studies up on this subject to get ideas about what worked, and what didn't. The Communist Party was one of the most respectable organizations in the country for its charity work.
Unfortunately, as you see in the Election of '36, the Left either united behind FDR, or united behind different socialist groups. I could only wonder if history would have been different if Eugene Debs was still alive? At the very least FDR could have lost and we would have seen a very anti-union president come to power, further lighting the fire.
For example, most of the unionization that lifted the US population right through the '70s wasn't done by government mandate, but rather government inaction. Thousands of workers joined together in sit-ins, destruction of property, and public protests until whole industries were forced into unionization. The government started to rip itself from the capitalists on a local and state level. You saw Upton Sinclair almost win California governor - until the entire force of capital did a wonderful smear campaign. Huey Long, a very, very pro-welfarist Southerner, was assassinated. Mayors and police agencies around the country didn't respond to calls against worker disruption, and FDR mostly didn't take a stance against them.
This gives me even more hope that a truly libertarian socialist movement can occur if we just organize ourselves better before the next opportunity. I recommend everyone studies up on this subject to get ideas about what worked, and what didn't. The Communist Party was one of the most respectable organizations in the country for its charity work.
Unfortunately, as you see in the Election of '36, the Left either united behind FDR, or united behind different socialist groups. I could only wonder if history would have been different if Eugene Debs was still alive? At the very least FDR could have lost and we would have seen a very anti-union president come to power, further lighting the fire.