Editor's note: In the U.S., the word "liberal" is taken generally to mean center-left and at one time included defense of worker rights against capital and a more equitable distribution of wealth.
"It has become the typical response of liberal Democrats and most U.S. Labor leaders, when they come up against corporate America's definition of 'reality,' not to challenge it but to adjust to it."
"If this is the best American capitalism has to offer, maybe it's the system and not workers' hopes that have to be changed?"
McGovern Hoists the White Flag
By Jerry Tucker
A few weeks ago George McGovern, former US senator for South Dakota & 1972 Democratic Presidential candidate, made use of the opinion pages of the Los Angeles Times to display his liberal orthodoxy. His message, in a piece (May 22) called "The End of More"?
U.S. workers and working class communities should quit struggling against the tide of "a new competitive reality." But whose reality is it? Telling workers that they are asking for too much without a corresponding analysis of the increasing inequity of wealth division in this country further debunks the myth that the U.S. doesn't operate on a class system.
As someone who in 1972 co-chaired a state labor committee for McGovern's presidential candidacy (while the AFL-CIO's George Meany withheld support) and, in the late 1970's called on him in his Senate office to affirm support for key labor and social issues, I can think of many public figures more worthy of criticism than George McGovern, but the distorted conclusions of that Los Angeles Times piece leave little choice.
It's too bad a man of McGovern's acknowledged compassion and history of dissent against reckless imperialism and championship of worker rights, feels obligated to help hoist American liberalism's flag of surrender to global capital. It has become the typical response of liberal Democrats and most U.S. Labor leaders, when they come up against corporate America's definition of 'reality,' not to challenge it but to adjust to it.
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |