Can the Alt-Labor movement take hold in Corporate-Dem blue states? Probably not.
The crux of the division in the Democratic Party have been well discussed and are well known to readers of DL, so there is no need to go into them here. For a long time I thought that the divisions were something that could be worked out. I once naively thought that the abject heinousness of GOP misrule is more than enough motivation for all Democrats to come together. Now I’m not so sure. For me, the rise of wildcat teacher strikes is some tipping point evidence that we have two fundamentally different Democratic Parties trying to wear the same sweater. One Democratic Party wants social and economic justice, and one does not. I don’t think they can co-exist. The goals of the two parties are antithetical.
America’s “red states” are often thought of as homogeneous nests of parochial reactionary voters; it’s more accurate to say that their places that have been cruelly dominated by Republican lawmakers who owe their seats to gerrymandering and voter suppression that disenfranchises progressives.
That’s why wildcat, uncompromising, radical teachers’ strikes have erupted in four states that helped elect Trump in 2016.
What’s more, these are states where the far-right leadership has steadily eroded the power of unions, making them into something more like “associations,” with the intention of weakening their ability to collectively bargain for a fair deal for teachers — and with the unintended consequence of weakening the power of union leaders to divert or damp the radical sentiments of the rank-and-file, whose steadily worsening living conditions (these can’t be overstated, truly) have left them spoiling for a fight, with nothing to lose.
Alt-labor is labor without compromise and without leaders who can compromise: it’s cross-sector, unhindered by legal niceties, and it has nothing left to lose.
One important question is whether alt-labor will take hold in “blue” states — as Corey Robin points out, the liberal left was AWOL-to-hostile when teachers in Chicago struck over the same issues that these much-praised red state teachers are striking over — because the Chicago teachers were up against Obama’s right-hand man, Rahm Emmanuel. Emmanuel, like Obama, epitomizes establishment Democrats, long on the finance sector, long on mass surveillance, long on endless war and unchecked executive authority — but charming, cultured, and willing to say the right things on race and gender, provided that class is never part of the equation.
Consider the example of two Delaware Democrats, Matt Denn and Mitch Crane, when imagining the future of the Democratic Party. In these very pages Mitch Crane has said that he was once concerned with racial, social and economic justice – now he works for Pete Schwartzkopf. Denn worked for years to reconcile being a Democratic concerned with racial, social and economic justice within the constraints of a Party run by Tom Carper that holds racial, social and economic justice to be an anthem. Finally, he found that could not do it. I don’t blame him for making the decision he did. Life is short and he has a family to consider.
Whatever hope I had for the Democratic Party being the one that is “concerned for the little guy” grows a little dimmer each time a Democrat like Crane makes the choice he did, or Denn makes the choice he did. The cultural memory of the Party grows more distant and more difficult to access.
That’s good news for banks, and terrible news for the rest of us.
Sadly right on the money and I have no clue as to an answer. Other than removing the parties overlords in the house and senate, we will not move forward when the party leadership consists of millionaires in their late seventies.
As I reread this, it isn’t true that Tom Carper that holds racial, social and economic justice to be an anthem.
He, and his version of the Democratic Party, hold economic justice to be an anthem, and use nods to racial and social justice as window dressing.
Well now I’m mad dammit. That’s all I can stand and I can’t stands no more!
Both democratic “parties” are better than the “Trump” party. Democrats better find a way to come together or things are only going to get worse. I know some want absolutely everything to be as they want it and right now. I want to run to Mercury. We’re fighting something like fascism here folks. I respect the things you’re going after, but Hitler succeeded partly because the resistance to him was fragmented.
“Democrats better find a way to come together or things are only going to get worse. I know some want absolutely everything to be as they want it and right now.”
How do you see that happening? Let’s say there are no bad guys or good guys, but a set of people who are devoted to “Tree” and another set devoted to “Sea.”
There is no middle ground to seek. There is no averaging out of “Tree” and “Sea” to come to some consensus. There will only be a winner and a loser.
“Alt-labor is labor without compromise and without leaders who can compromise: it’s cross-sector, unhindered by legal niceties, and it has nothing left to lose.”
I guess my question, Jason, is whether this is a term you’ve already heard used to refer to “new” labor, or is it a term you coined yourself. Given the associations with “alt-right”, could this term throw people off as to the nature of this phenomenon. I would suggest a term that is independent of the “alt” designation.
The term is not a new one. From American Prospect, 2013:
http://prospect.org/article/alt-labor
https://inequality.org/facts/income-inequality/
Who is the one person who speaks about this every time he speaks!
“Who is the one person who speaks about this every time he speaks!”
Someone who gets very few dinner invitations?
https://newrepublic.com/article/139078/whats-behind-decline-american-unions
When was the last time you heard a democrat even mention income equality, or automation. Only the independent on a daily basis.
It was a joke. Sorry you missed it.
We talk about this here all the time. Mainstream Democrats, or whatever you want to call them, are all about preserving the current system, which is why so much of our discourse here is against them.
FWIW, though, if I want to have dinner with a cranky old guy, I eat alone.
https://newrepublic.com/article/139078/whats-behind-decline-american-unions
Alby I would eat with the old guy, they can be very wise and humorous people.
Jason: I don’t think “finding a way to come together” means capitulating to the banker/corporation Democrats. I’d like to think both sides could give a little. If not, then we’re all fucked. We’re not actually talking about “seas” and “trees” here. People have agency.
http://inequality.org/great-divide/how-to-reduce-poverty-and-inequality-through-state-government-taxes/
check this out as a solution.
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-government-should-guarantee-everyone-a-good-job/
Another great solution. Read the section where the democratic party? rebelling re: medicare for all…
@spk: We can’t even get a simple income tax increase on high earners. Such solutions should be considered, but in the real world that’s not going to happen unless we replace a significant number of the Democrats in the General Assembly with actual progressives.
The GA won’t raise taxes on high earners because that will just encourage more of them to pretend to move to Florida. I used to think it was ridiculous that people would actually move out of the state to avoid the taxes, but that’s the thing — they don’t actually have to. They buy a place in Florida and claim that they’re there six months plus one day per year. It would cost more to disprove that on a case-by-case basis than the state would collect in taxes. One banker I know bought his place in Florida for no more, on a cash-flow basis, than he saved in state taxes.
The solution is to tax the property rather than the earnings. We’re badly out of whack that way anyhow — we tax earnings at a far higher rate than anything else. Our property tax rates are at a Deep South level, while our income tax rates are Northeast level.
Ok…what about option 2 from the Nation.
Eff Labor!
State taxes are not much money for most folk
One can say what he really thinks once he leaves office.
@spk: You seem to misunderstand the problem. In order to put any of those suggestions into place you must have the political power to do so. We don’t, so none of these solutions are practical. Carney actually wants to raise property taxes and can’t do it, so how are you going to pass anything more liberal?
I agree with Alby.
I also think the way to win the political power back isn’t equivocation and centrist babbling.
Say what you believe. Explain why the policies will help people. Convince people you’re on their side and that you believe what you’re saying.
Trying to engineer some middle ground, across the aisle, nibbling at the edge, Chris Coons appease the corporate interest, bullshit won’t win over anybody. It won’t. We should stop doing it.
@REV: It’s not a matter of winning the political power “back.” Delaware has never been a progressive state, and as long as it’s the Cayman Islands of the Mainland it never will be. I just want to elect enough progressives to blunt the Carper Corps.
LLCs can’t vote I don’t think.
Yes, we want the same thing. I think we get it the way that I said. That’s all.
I wish that were true. Last time they checked, Delaware had more people who described themselves as “moderate” than any other state.
https://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/delaware-a-small-example-of-a-larger-trend/
I describe myself as a moderate
See what mouse said?
$15 minimum wage
Medicare for everyone
Higher marginal taxes on the wealthiest
Not radical ideas. “Moderate” people can be convinced of this.
The alternative is the Mitch Crane idea. Well, these people are these people so let’s just roll out the same worthless scumbag the know…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/24/black-thinkers-bernie-sanders-studied-clintons-true-cost
the Clintons were racist
You guys sound like really need to come out of closet. Bunch of commie’s…
@TK “You guys sound like really need to come out of closet. Bunch of commie’s…”
Well, that’s certainly what the Russian bots will say, again and again and again.
RUNNING TO THE MIDDLE DOES NOTHING”: CAN THE BERNIES CATCH THE BLUE WAVE?
So far, the Democrats’ early success has had a centrist tinge—but progressives say it’s the same old story of the Establishment keeping them out.
BY CHRIS SMITH Vanity Fair Today.
Same ole crap the corporate owned establishment dems keeping progressives, and progress moving forward.
I believe the American people for the most part have a healthy political instinct but it’s one that is profoundly uninformed–so uniformed that they are politically disabled. Their instinct is to be anti status quoist because they sense correctly that the economic, social, and political status quo doesn’t work for their well being. But they are politically disabled because as long as someone presents as anti status quoist, they buy it automatically even if it’s right wing tripe. That’s why Trump won. He made made anti status quo intonations and the American people lacked the political sophistication to see beneath the enticing sounds and realize the implications of what he was saying. That’s why ONLY real progressives can defeat Trumpism. They are anti status quoist and their proposals if enacted really will benefit the American people. It’s in the Democratic Party’s interest to drop the centrist corporate pleasing garbage.
“I believe the American people for the most part have a healthy political instinct but it’s one that is profoundly uninformed–so uniformed that they are politically disabled”
Let me fix that for you, Dana:
I believe the American people for the most part have a barely functional political instinct but it’s one that is profoundly misinformed. They’re so misinformed because they get much of their news from echo chambers.
The Fox “News” echo chamber and Russian social media bots got the orange moron elected.