Letters to DL

Republicans who have threatened public hearings on the lawful seizure of Elian Gonzalez by federal authorities need to start worrying about this country’s children. They are cutting poor children off welfare and not helping their parents get a job. They are cutting disabled children off SSI. They are cutting school work programs for poor school children. Republicans are doing nothing for our homeless children. Republicans are trying to pass tougher jail sentences for children (even for minor offenses), yet they are against crime prevention programs for children!
I think there should be hearings on the child-hating Republicans!
Gerald Herald
Combs, KY

I just wanted to thank you for the excellent article John Mason wrote in the last issue of DL on DSA and the Socialist International. Your article left me wanting more, with questions begging. What does DSA do next in order to move out of the margins? Who in the SI can we work with? What kind of resources will DSA have to invest in order to be taken more seriously? Did you imply that DSA needs to become more deeply embedded in the Democratic Party so that we can bring an electoral base to our SI presence? That certainly seems to be one of the criteria for influence and political weight within the SI. If so, that will be a hot potato within DSA! Kinnock’s humiliating sarcasm can be interpreted as reacting to the threat to the “Third Way” that “Harrington’s ghost” still represents. Why would someone so powerful even bother giving such a tiny insignificant grouping any attention at all? Finally, I was very impressed by William Greider’s article in The Nation a couple of months ago dealing with development of a progressive global movement in defense of workers’ rights and the environment. It seemed to me that the SI should be one of the key players to launch such a movement. The issues Greider raised in the article could be the vehicle to organize a stronger left presence in the SI. Thanks again.
Steve Tarzynski
Los Angeles

To the Editor:
It was quite a fascinating juxtaposition to find Paul Buhle’s “Tragedy and Hope in Labor” in the “Ideas for the New Century” issue of Democratic Left. Buhle’s essay had nothing to say about the crucial issues facing the American labor movement in the coming years. It was thoroughly mired in the ideological wars of the past, and did not even remain in the century we just left. The article went back into the 19th century world of Samuel Gompers’ AFT and the Knights of Labor, to settle old political scores.

If this issue of Democratic Left was indeed a “millennium issue that would present ideas from luminaries of the Left on the Prospects for Democratic Socialism,” couldn’t the editors find someone who was actually involved in the labor movement to address one or two of the many strategic issues it faces today? In an era when the emerging knowledge-based economy is establishing a new system of production, surpassing industrial capitalism, and marginalizing industrial unions, was there no one who might have written on what form post-industrial knowledge-based unions might take? In an ever more tightly integrated global economy, was there no one who might have written on how to develop meaningful, transnational solidarity among labor?

Leo Casey
(United Federation of Teachers)
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Dear Leo:

There were two nice articles on labor in Part II of the Millennium Issues by David Moberg and Arthur Shostak.

And there’s good news: More DSA members and alumni of DSA’s Youth Section are moving up through the administrative and organizing reaches of AFL-CIO international unions, and global labor solidarity groups, than ever in recent memory. The bad news, however, is that many of them are constrained by their employers in what they can write for publication.

It has been DSA’s position that the new ‘Greeny-Sweeney’ revitalized labor movement, of which we consider ourselves the supportive, participating left troops, is still at a huge disadvantage given the mobility and viciousness of global capital. So finding the inspiring, dynamic new reproducible organizing models — and there are some — is not so easy.

However, your challenge Brother Casey, should be met. DL’s Editorial Committee vows to find and publish more articles on innovative transnational labor strategies.

Dear Editors:
Just wanted to tell you that the “Millennium Issue Part Two” of Democratic Left was the best issue I can remember. Finally, a series of articles about Socialism and what it means in the current era. I hope you’ll do more of these articles, especially articles relating to currently relevant socialist economic alternatives, rather than limiting the publication to the kind of single-issue or social welfare articles that usually appear.
Chuck Flippo
Alexandria, VA

Dear DSA:
What exactly do you do and are you doing? I get letters throughout the year asking for money.

As an AFDC mom, your annual dues are out-of-reach. Many low and fixed income people barely eat and survive. How about a low-income sliding scale membership ($5 to $20)? We need to organize welfare moms and dads.

Randi Dalton
Laytonville, CA

Dear Randi:
Consider yourself a DSA member in good standing. Thanks to DSA sponsors, sustainers, and lifetime members, DSA does not have to exclude anyone on account of income. We have quite a few members who are financially strapped, are on public assistance, or shut away by the prison-industrial complex. We even recently had a member join who is homeless.