I was disappointed that my note about the real bullying of the United States degenerated into a rhetorical debate until Seth jumped in. His point about the rise of socialism in the early part of the last century was interesting, but, in fact, socialism was growing very rapidly throughout the United States and Europe.
Interestingly enough, debates about "humanitarian intervention" destroyed the momentum of socialism in the Atlantic economies. Some socialists argued that the first world war was justified; others disagreed. Seth Sandronsky wrote: > Hi Tom, > > In the July/August 2002 Monthly Review, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes about > left organizing and "Okies" nearly a century ago: > > Between 1906 and 1917, the Wobblies and the Socialist Party won converts on > a mass scale in Oklahoma. They adopted the religious evangelist > technique—indeed many evangelists were themselves converts to socialism—of > holding huge week-long encampments with speakers, usually near small towns. > In 1915 alone, 205 of the mass encampments were held. The Socialists never > won a statewide race in Oklahoma, but their percentage steadily increased > from 1907 to 1914. In 1914, the Socialist candidates for governor and > senator won 21 percent of the vote and they won five seats in the state > legislature, along with many local offices. These phenomena were occurring > in the state’s Indian and African-American communities as well as the white > ones. > > full: http://www.monthlyreview.org/0702dunbar.htm > > US-style leftism is a complex thing :-> > > Seth Sandronsky > > Re: bullying > by Tom Walker > 02 October 2002 > > Carrol Cox wrote, > > >To call the Bush administration fascist is capitalist apologetics. > > It is also bad American history. The Bush administration's ideological > extremism is as "American as cherry pie". Fascism was European and too > damned intellectual. > > The U.S. had an organized, well-financed, ideologically extreme and > politically influential anti-labor, anti-democratic movement back in the > days when Mussolini was still a marxist labor union organizer. It was called > the National Association of Manufacturers (and its front groups like the > Citizens' Industrial Associations), although it was referred to as the > "invisible government" when the scandal broke about the extent of its power > and corruption. These folks developed their own labels and slogans > "Americanism", "The Free Enterprise System", "Right to Work". Jack London's > The Iron Heel (a bad novel in my opinion) was not a premonition about > European fascism, it was a melodramatic extrapolation of the policies of the > N.A.M. > > The lineage of this faction of the U.S. ruling class runs right through > subsequent U.S. history: N.A.M. opposition to the Roosevelt New Deal through > its "American Way" propaganda, the passage of Taft-Hartley after the second > world war, the House Un-American Activities Committee. It has had a large > presence in the Republican party throughout the 20th century, but is not > identical with it. While fascism borrowed from European intellectual > currents, extreme right "Americanism" owes more to revival tent evangelism > and "patent" medicine shows. > > Tom Walker > 604 255 4812 > > _________________________________________________________________ > Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. > http://www.hotmail.com -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
