Post by karpomrx on May 10, 2004 15:58:48 GMT -5
Before WWI the US had a strong labor movement, growing and slowly forcing the major parties to accept reform. Along with the socialists and progressives of all types, these groups were addressing issues of voting,civil liberties, public health and many more that are very familiar to the posters on this site.
When the more internationalist types of the left were swept from the leadership of the groups by the nationalistic disasters of WWI, the left was dealt a blow from which it has never recovered.
The bloody handed revolutionists of Europe justified the harsh methods of the violent uprisings by pointing out that the proletariats were doing all the dying and the capitalists were not going to strike any bargains without bloodshed.
I am simplifying what is a most complicated period of time, I know, however the fact is that millions of people died in WWI and the resultant revolutions, famines and all of the other disasters that resulted from people's inability to form rational social organizations.
This led to a further acceptance of almost any solution that could bring order to a chaotic situation.People were less sensitive about mass killings, (or the reportage of such things became a way to sell papers), the fascist movements came to be a near mirror image of the "communist" movements of the same period.
In the fear and backlash of national defence , the USA was able to institute the Palmer raids, the destruction of the IWW and a general branding of anything remotely leftist as "bolshevik", hence foreign to real american values.
As the labor movement bled and died for reforms and contracts during the 20's and 30's the elites of this nation saw that there was a genuine danger that democracy might break out, so concessions were made and deals were struck, finalised after WWII with the Taft-Hartley Act and other laws which effectively destroyed the only real power a union has, which is to stay out on strike.
The ease with which Reagan was able to dispose of the air controllers showed me that there was nothing left of a real labor movement save a few ghosts.
When the more internationalist types of the left were swept from the leadership of the groups by the nationalistic disasters of WWI, the left was dealt a blow from which it has never recovered.
The bloody handed revolutionists of Europe justified the harsh methods of the violent uprisings by pointing out that the proletariats were doing all the dying and the capitalists were not going to strike any bargains without bloodshed.
I am simplifying what is a most complicated period of time, I know, however the fact is that millions of people died in WWI and the resultant revolutions, famines and all of the other disasters that resulted from people's inability to form rational social organizations.
This led to a further acceptance of almost any solution that could bring order to a chaotic situation.People were less sensitive about mass killings, (or the reportage of such things became a way to sell papers), the fascist movements came to be a near mirror image of the "communist" movements of the same period.
In the fear and backlash of national defence , the USA was able to institute the Palmer raids, the destruction of the IWW and a general branding of anything remotely leftist as "bolshevik", hence foreign to real american values.
As the labor movement bled and died for reforms and contracts during the 20's and 30's the elites of this nation saw that there was a genuine danger that democracy might break out, so concessions were made and deals were struck, finalised after WWII with the Taft-Hartley Act and other laws which effectively destroyed the only real power a union has, which is to stay out on strike.
The ease with which Reagan was able to dispose of the air controllers showed me that there was nothing left of a real labor movement save a few ghosts.
