How Change Will Happen

It's becoming increasingly clear to me that nothing changes on the economic justice front until there's significant pressure that comes from the bottom up, and that's not going to happen until the culture-war issues that divide us are put to the side.

I'd go farther and say that the upward pressure has to come from a coalition of blue collars for it to have any credibility. It's not something that organized labor can effect anymore; it has to come from a more spontaneous movement of blacks, rural whites, Catholic and Jewish urban ethnics, and Hispanics--people who on the whole tend to be culturally conservative. They have to be at the center of such a movement, and then get support from sympathetic, educated, liberal cosmopolitans.

The Jane Hamshers, Arianna Huffingtons, and Ralph Naders are not going to be the leaders of such a movement. They will have their roles to play, but they'll be support roles, not leadership roles. Leadership has to emerge from the ranks of the Blue Collars, and if influential Liberal elites serious about progressive structural change had any sense, they'd be looking for ways to identify and promote such blue-collar leadership while keeping themselves and their egos out of the limelight. 

It's the same as the civil rights movement in that regard. It has to be driven by the people who are feeling the injustice most, not by the rich and educated who, regardless of their progressive opinions, with a few exceptions are not willing to risk anything when push comes to shove.

 

Comments

[Mathe]

Your idea is a good one but there is a gap. Exactly how are these blue collar whites,
blacks, Hispanics and others who as cultulral conservatives don't like gay marriage,
much less GLBT people, and who don't approve of abortion going to get together.
Typically these attitudes are also linked to negative feelings about race and immigrants.
Putting aside the legal and civil rights aspects of these issues a Live and Let Live detente
has to emerge particularly among whites. It has to happen despite the overwhelming
propaganda force designed to keep the culture wars alive.
Alas, that may not happen before there is disruption and increasing hardship.

In the time of Martin Luther King, I can tell you that he was definitely a progressive
liberal able to lead elements of the black community who were more conservative than
he was. The moral force of his arguments and how they resonated with the larger
black community was a factor no doubt.

Mathe

[Jack Whelan]

The quick answer to your question is that the kind of leader I think that needs to emerge is someone with a profile similar to Jock Yablonski's. If you're not familiar with him, look him up. I think it has to be a white guy because whites are still the majority, but he has to be someone who is capable of reaching out generously to Blacks, Hispanics, and southern populists. He needs to have credibility with blue-collar whites, a credibility he can use to appeal to the better angels of the blue collar nation. He has to have unimpeachable integrity. The people in that nation are the ones that Lakoff (See: "Battle for the Commonplace Center" on this site) describes as in the center, people who have both conservative and liberal brain wiring, the people, in other words, who were at the heart of the New Deal coalition. They need to be won back.

I want gays a lesbians to get their civil rights, and they almost certainly will in the near future. I personally think that Roe v. Wade was a short-sighted, ill-considered, tragic mistake, and apart from the fundamental barbarism that it enables, I think it functions now as the keystone that holds all the bricks of the culture war in place, and that culture war is one of the most important causes of our political impotency. But that's not the argument that I want to have, because it's unwinnable and a waste of time in today's climate.

I think that gays and lesbians will get their rights before the country comes to its senses on abortion, but I think those political arguments are fundamentally different than the economic justice argument that should unite ordinary Americans regardless of their thinking about abortion or GLBT rights. All I'm saying is let's agree to disagree on cultural issues, and look for ways to organize around the economic justice issue that require a broad-based people-power movement to have any chance of fighting the enormous power of the superwealthy.

[mathe]

Jack,

As a matter of fact I do remember Jock Yablonski (I was in
college when I believe he running for president of the
miner's union). I frankly would be quite OK with such a figure rising to eminence but frankly I don't think if she or he is white that will have any creditability with people of color unless s/he has a history of deep involvement in a community of color or issues affecting them. Case in point, years ago in the 80's I worked for a white candidate'scampaign for Chairmen of the City Council of Washington D.C. Dave Clark , the candidate in question was unusual in that he was running in the heyday of Marion Barry. Home rule was still new enough and the demographics of the District were such that the majority African American voters were anxious to exercise their new found power to elect candidates who would work in their interest and at that time, that meant African American candidates. Dave, coming from a modest middle income background was a graduate Howard University's Law School (an HBCU institution) and a former member of SNCC This and his pro-working people stances gave him bona fides with the African American community. He was a deeply committed progressive and as a member of the council had represented his multi-racial district well. This included a growing population of Hispanics. His campaign was an extraordinary mix of whites, African-Americans, and a variety of other groups and classes; rather like the Obama campaign. He was not terribly eloquent but he was rather good looking which like it or not I suspect enhanced his appeal. He served quite ably but he died before his time.
My take is that such a figure will be of color and that s/he will appeal to a variety of races including younger white people. I'm not convinced our difficulty with middle and working class whites in red districts isn't to some extent generational. That means that it will take time. Time for older folks to die and younger folks to see the picture for what it is.
By the way, the abortion question is really intractable. It involves a much more profound issue that economic justice as important as that is. Women must be granted full human rights. That is going to happen if the species is to continue, no matter what how our society organizes itself eventually and women can't be given human rights without given autonomy over their own bodies. Here in the US we argue about abortion--the issue takes different forms in other countries but it comes down to power. The struggle is transforming societies, culture, and religion and will not stop. We will just go backward and perish or move forward and away from male control of women's lives.

[Jack Whelan]

Fern--

I'm not saying it's going to be easy or that it won't require imagination, effort, and a special kind of leader who can overcome the natural tribal tendencies of these different groups. But I just don't see any other scenario that could. I think it's more likely to be a white guy who could play this uniting leadership role, but I could be wrong about that. I just wish someone would emerge who can do the job.