Movatterモバイル変換

[0]ホーム
URL:

Skip to main content
Newspapers.com by Ancestryprint logo
Free Trial
Sign in

Article clipped from The Courier-News

Socialists and the 1980 election Aronowitz is not new. It goes all the way back to Karl Marx, who dismissed other leftists of his time for being "reformist" or "utopian" and declared that his analysis of capitalism was the only one that could clear a path to economic and political justice for the masses. Marx has certainly been the most influential of all socialist thinkers. But his ideas have been interpreted in many different ways by socialists all over the world searching for the best strategy to apply Marx's ideas in the unique political and economic environments that have existed at different times and in different countries of the industrialized world. The debate between Aronowitz and Harrington was a small part of this continuing dialogue here in America. But it is a debate that not all elements of the small American left participate in with equal fervor. The American Communist Party, for example, believes that socialists here should look to the Russian experience as a model of socialism in action. There are also a host of splinter groups that profess to strictly follow the beliefs of one or another socialist theorist, such as Lenin or Mao Tse-tung. These groups characteristically have a strict economic interpretation of politics and believe that a revolution can occur in America through organization of the working class. The Democratic-Socialist left, of which Harrington and Aronowitz are major figures, are generally wary of Russian socialism and believe that socialists should engage in questions involving politics, culture and personal lifestyle, as well as traditional economic concerns. Of all the major industrialized countries, socialism has found its least favorable reception here in America. Attempts to make socialist ideas and actions an important force in American society have always failed - the most recent example being the New Left of the 1960s. The debate between Aronowitz and Harrington boils down to their differing explanations of why the New failed. Aronowitz believes it is because the New Left had no positions to articulate after the Vietnam War ended. Harrington sees it as the left's; continued failure to itself to the political mainstream. What about the future? Today, Aronowitz sees the new campaign against the draft as a movement that can engage large numbers of people and at the same time raise serious questions about the political and economic structure of American society. Harrington wants the left to campaign for Kennedy for many reasons, not the least of which is the senator's opposition to the draft. What about the immediate prospects for the growth of socialism in America? Both Aronowitz and Harrington agree that it doesn't look very good. By JOE KELLY In a sense, the debate between Harrington and "No serious politician in America today worries about what the socialists will do," Michael Harrington, chairman of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) told a gathering in New York City last week. The occasion for Harrington's rueful assessment was a debate with the author and former labor organizer. Stanley Aronowitz, over the role that American socialists should take in this year's presidential race. Harrington, who came to prominence in the early 1960s by writing "'The Other America," a book about poverty, argued that socialists will never have any presence in American politics until they learn to build coalitions with other groups on the left, such as the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. This means compromising some principles and making difficult choices. One choice socialists should make right now, Harrington argued, is to support the presidential campaign of Ted Kennedy. "I'm not saying he's the best," Harrington told an audience of more than 400 at Columbia University attending a debate sponsored by the DSOC and the New American Movement (NAM), another Democratic Socialist organization. "I'm merely saying he is the best possibility for an organization of the mass left. He represents a challenge from the point of view of working people and minorities, women and other outcast people in society. If Kennedy loses or is driven out of this campaign, it will be a loss for the left. " Harrington's coalition strategy and his support for Kennedy stem from one basic principle that Harrington follows: "It is not enough to have good socialist positions. You have to translate tho.se positions into a politics that reaches people where they are." Aronowitz disagreed. The author of "False Promises." a book about the shaping of the American working class, asserted that it is enough sometimes to simply have positions. We live in a time, he says, when the major political actors and parties are refusing to acknowledge the existence of certain key issues, such as the decline of American power in the world. And only politicians are seriously addressing the economic right questions raised by the collapse of New Deal and Great Society liberalism. According Aronowitz, who is a member of NAM, socialists must make it their first responsibility to address those issues, even at the risk of breaking ranks with other liberal groups and losing any voice in electoral politics. "Socialists have the responsibility of saying things about the world situation that have to be said, sometimes despite where people are. Electoral activity, given the weakness of the socialist movement, can never be what we spend most of our time doing. Unless we begin to think as clearly as the right wing. we are doomed." Joe Kelly, a former reporter for the Paterson News and the Yonkers Herald Statesman, is a freelance writer living in New York City.
Article from 08 Feb 1980The Courier-News(Bridgewater, NJ)
•
CLIPPED BY
The_Archiver

Topics to Browse:

Get started searching Newspapers by searching a keyword, name, or phrase…

PeopleTopicsLocationsOther

More Clippings by tags, date and location

Loading

Loading

Loading

Loading

Trending Clippings

Loading

Loading

Loading

Loading

View All Clippings
[8]ページ先頭
©2009-2025 Movatter.jp