[Marxism] YADL (Yet another disillusioned liberal)

[Joaquin Bustelo]

Marc Gandall writes: "Let's recall also that there was an absence of mass
action in the early years of the Great Depression. The working class was
overwhelmed by the abrupt deterioration of the economy and the soaring rate
of job losses, wage cuts, and home evictions. It was natural that workers in
these circumstances would scramble as individuals to save themselves and
their families. They had little choice. Contracting economies = labour
surpluses, lack of working class confidence, declining unions."

This reminds me of the closing scene in "The Sun also Rises" (Fiesta, for
those of you outside the United States) where Lady Brett Ashley and Jake
Barnes are riding in a horse-drawn  cab in Madrid together, and she says
something like

 "Oh Jake, we could have been so happy together."

To which he replies "Yes, isn't it pretty to think so."

*  *  *

The DIFFERENCE between the first years of the great depression and today is
that back then, there WAS a real working class movement. Hundreds of
thousands of workers had been to school with the Socialist Party or the
Wobblies; the Communist Party had thousands of members. Workers back then
did not overwhelmingly view unions as a sort of business that you pay to
represent you the way you might pay an agent if your were a Hollywood Star.
There was a very real living tradition of working class movement, a whole
series of cultural expressions associated with it, etc.

Arguably, much or most of the industrial proletariat back then did not
represent nearly as privileged a layer as is the case of working people in
the United States today, and a very large percentage were immigrants and
discriminated against on that basis. 

*  *  *

Marv writes further: "The general level of political consciousness of the
American working class was no higher and possibly lower at the onset of the
30's depression than it is today."

This is simply not true. Look at the membership statistics for the SP, CP
and the Wobs. 

"What differed immensely, of course, was that there was a vigorous and
growing international socialist movement embedded in the unions and other
working class organizations, whose influence extended even into the US."

I think viewing the U.S. class movement as an expression or outgrowth of the
international movement is fundamentally mistaken. The class movement that
existed in the United States (with ups and downs) from the late 1800's to
the mid-1900's was the result of the internal class contradictions of
American society, not foreign influences. Arguably, "foreign" influence is
much greater in today's internet-connected globalized society than it was
then. What is different is that the position of U.S. imperialism on a world
scale has allowed it to bribe "its own" workers.

Joaquin