Read and be inspired by
“Dreamers with Shovels: How the First New Deal Remade America,”
by Nelson Lichtenstein,
in The American Prospect, the 2019
bonus issue on the Green New Deal
There are lots of stories we tell ourselves during these
holidays. Most ubiquitous of the secular tales is Dickens’ Christmas Carol. I have a hard time with the traditional version.
For one thing, I know how it is going to end--kinda like A Star is Born. I don’t want to put myself through either one again--the
latter because it is so depressing and we know it will be (four versions of that
are enough for me), and the former because I’ve seen it a dozen times, and its
politics are atrocious. At least in the United States, the capitalist
conversion theme has always been a non-starter for 98% of the class. I think it
may be worse today. I know: some very rich people have announced that they
should be taxed more, but they really are a handful. Most of the very rich--and
they are richer than such people have ever been in America--want to be taxed
less and think they deserve to be billionaires.* And, according to Paul Krugman,
they are not satisfied to live like kings. (“Warren Versus the Petty Plutocrats,”
New York Times, 9/30/2019). They
expect to be treated like kings, lionized as job creators and heroes of
prosperity. If Elizabeth Warren is the Democratic nominee, many will vote for
Trump, despite his racist authoritarianism and not just because of the giant
handouts he gave them in the 2017 tax cut--handouts that Warren wants to take
back. They also think that Warren disrespects them. But she does not seem be bothered
about big capital’s hostility. Nor was another progressive politician. Franklin
D. Roosevelt said this about the plutocrats: “They are unanimous in their hate
for me--and I welcome their hatred.”
There are plenty of flaws and bad ideas in every
politician and Roosevelt had them. But he and other liberals interacted in
creative and complex ways with a surging population of poor people and workers,
and the result was a huge reset for power relationships in America. Yes, almost
nothing was done to directly attack gender inequality or racial inequality and
New Deal spending was insufficient to end the depression. But for the mass of
the people there was a huge change: more jobs, more income, more job security, less
repression from employers and from conservative--often Republican--politicians who
had dominated their communities. Blacks in some cities got a disproportionately
high number of positions in the WPA and the PWA, and it was often much better
working for the federal government in the south than for private employers. “Laborite
ethnics”--Roosevelt Democrats--won elections and took over local governments in
many industrial towns. They defended freedom of speech for unionists, dismantled
some Jim Crow traditions, and ran little New Deals that taxed businesses to
pave the streets and build schools. In rural areas, small towns and large cities,
thousands of local and federal government projects massively improved
infrastructure. Not to mention that the New Deal laid the foundations of the American
social-welfare state, including Social Security, the Wagner Act (not much
enforced any more), and the minimum wage (so low now that it helps few people).
Much of the New Deal’s social democratic spirit and mass
involvement carried over into the war period. One striking example: to track
and limit inflation, federal managers not only hired 60,000 employees; they also
enlisted and trained 300,000 volunteer “price checkers.” And inflation was tamed,
despite the greatest federal borrowing and spending spree in U.S. history to
that time.
In his terrific article Nelson Lichtenstein holds up the working-class-New
Deal experience as an inspiration for the Green New Dealers of today. He does not discuss why the spirit of that
great movement dissipated. Nor specific lessons for today’s social democrats
and progressives, except the big point that the kind of big plans they want to realize
were the kind that were realized in the 30s, and can be again. Certainly the story
Nelson presents is exciting and inspirational. And it really happened.
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*Hold on: Are Krugman
and I wrong and Dickens right? Salesforce chief Marc Benioff claimed that “Capitalism
as we know it is dead.” It is being replaced by businesses that are “driven by
values, ethics and a desire to take care of employees.” (“Touting Kinder,
Gentler Values in Business,” Los Angeles
Times, Business section, 12/26/2019). Really? Let’s check back in five
years to see whether there was a surge in real wages and in union membership. I
am pretty sure right now that Mr. Benioff
had a little too much Christmas rum and slipped off into Dickensland. Some
big banks may serve more eco-friendly food in their cafes, but will workers
gain substantial income? Will corporations refrain from so many stock buybacks?
Will the lords of Wal-Mart and Amazon get behind unionization? I think we know
the answer. If Trump wins again and the ideas of Warren and Sanders are seen to
have been repudiated, even the era of good-feelings, paternalistic rhetoric may
be over.
Frank Stricker is a
board member of NJFAN and emeritus professor of history and labor studies,
California State University, Dominguez Hills. His new book, American Unemployment, Past, Present and
Future, will be out in June. His views here do not necessarily reflect
those of the organizations he is part of.