[Peace-discuss] Socialism in the US

[C. G. Estabrook]

[If you wanted to know about socialism in America, where would you go?  That's 
right: Business Week. --CGE]

	Business Week
	News Analysis May 22, 2009
	Socialism? Hardly, Say Socialists
	Under Obama, socialism chatter has permeated the media in 2009.
	But beyond sound bites, what is socialism?
	By Moira Herbst

The first months of the Obama Administration have given rise to abundant talk 
about a U.S. drift into socialism. "We Are All Socialists Now," a Newsweek cover 
declared in February. On May 20 the Republican National Committee approved a 
resolution calling on Democrats to "stop pushing our country toward socialism." 
The resolution was predicated on the idea that, under Obama, Democrats are 
following the path of Western European countries in advocating expansive social 
safety nets and deeper government involvement in the economy.

Some conservative commentators have even likened Obama's economic stimulus and 
regulatory initiatives to a Soviet-style takeover of the country. In February, 
syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh accused Obama of waging war on capitalism. 
"That's his objective. He wants to destroy capitalism," Limbaugh told a caller. 
"He wants to establish a very powerful socialist government, authoritarian. He 
wants control of the economy."

But real Socialists would vigorously disagree. They say if the Obama 
Administration were establishing a true socialist state, we'd have at least a 
$15-an-hour minimum wage (instead of the current $6.55 federal minimum) and 
30-hour workweeks. Every American would be guaranteed employment and health-care 
coverage. Oh, and homeless people would be occupying vacant office buildings in 
cities and vacant McMansions in the suburbs.

In fact, many Americans appear to be confused about what socialism actually is. 
In a poll of 1,000 adults conducted Apr. 6-7, Rasmussen Reports found that 53% 
of Americans said they prefer capitalism to socialism, while 20% said they 
prefer socialism. More than one-quarter, 27%, said they're not sure which system 
is better. Another poll conducted this month by ConservativeHQ.com found that 
70% of self-identified conservatives consider Obama's political philosophy 
"Socialist" or "Marxist," with 11% calling it "Communist."

Socialists say the policies Obama has pursued are hallmarks of "democratic 
capitalist" states, not socialist ones. "None of the societies of Western Europe 
are socialist, but the political influence of their strong Labor, Social 
Democratic, and Socialist parties make their form of capitalism much more humane 
than our own," says Frank Llewellyn, national director of the New York-based 
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the largest U.S. Socialist party.

Obama: Saving Capitalism from Itself?

As with every political ideology, there's no discrete, tidy explanation of what 
socialism means. "There have been diverse socialist movements that have pursued 
different programs," says Frances Fox Piven, a professor of political science at 
City University of New York (CUNY) and an honorary chair of the DSA. "What they 
have shared is an effort to overcome the historical problem with democracies 
that separate political governance from the economy, often with a rigid wall. 
Socialists have tried to breach that wall in the interest of democracy, or 
expanding the idea that the people shall rule."

Karl Marx called socialism the "revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat," 
the working class seizing power and replacing a political, economic, and social 
system controlled by the bourgeoisie, or the propertied class. Such a reordering 
denotes "an association where the development of each is the basis of the free 
development of all," Marx wrote in 1848 in The Communist Manifesto.

Socialists say that far from creating a state in which workers rule, the Obama 
team is instead scrambling to rescue and preserve capitalism. Sherry Wolf, an 
activist with the Chicago-based U.S. branch of the International Socialist 
Organization (ISO), scoffs at the idea that the U.S. is at the dawn of a 
socialist era. "What Marxists mean by socialism is different from what Rush 
Limbaugh means," she says. "We believe the class that produces the wealth should 
own and control that wealth. That's a far cry from what's happening now. The 
state is propping up banks, mortgage, and insurance companies, while the lives 
of working people are torn apart by foreclosures, evictions, and unemployment. 
It's an effort to save global capitalism from its own excesses."

Wolf's group sees itself as "revolutionary," meaning it advocates not 
incremental changes but rather a "total transformation of society and political 
economy." By definition then, actions by a U.S. President like Obama—tighter 
regulations, tax law revisions, and additional emergency unemployment 
assistance—are not paving a path toward socialism. "Whoever runs U.S. Inc. is in 
no position to advocate for the interests of the class of people who produce the 
wealth," Wolf says. "There is really no way for the President to deliver 
socialism to the people; it has to be fought [for] and won by the workers 
themselves."

"A Hedge Fund Democrat"

Another group, called the Socialist Party USA, based in New York, refuses to 
endorse any Democrat or Republican politician. The party, founded in 1973 when 
the Socialist Party of America split, wants a wholesale reorientation of the 
economy so that the focus is on production "for need, not profit." Billy 
Wharton, editor of the Socialist magazine for the 1,500-member party, wrote in a 
March Washington Post column that his group considers Obama "a hedge-fund 
Democrat—one of a generation of neo-liberal politicians firmly committed to 
free-market policies." "You see [Obama] operating as a hedge fund Democrat on 
health care now," Wharton says. "He blocked advocates of a single-payer system 
from presenting their case to the Senate Finance Committee."

Not all Socialists denounce mainstream parties wholesale. Unlike the ISO and the 
Socialist Party USA, the DSA, with about 7,000 members, is willing to work 
within existing social and political structures toward incremental change. The 
DSA is critical of Democrats, calling them the "second most capitalistic party." 
Says Llewellyn, the DSA's national director: "We have a long-term view of 
protecting people from the devastating power that capitalism is capable of 
inflicting. We think the role of government and civil society is to curtail and 
eventually eliminate the power of capitalism to inflict that destruction." At 
the same time, Llewellyn says, "we recognize that capitalism is capable of 
producing tremendous growth," which the DSA doesn't oppose.

But even to the more inclusive DSA, Obama is no socialist. "The discussion of 
socialism that has appeared in the media is surreal," says Llewellyn. "Nobody in 
their right mind would think Obama is a socialist if they knew anything about 
the meaning of the word. Obama is acting as Roosevelt did, trying to save 
capitalism from itself."

If the U.S. is not operating under a socialist regime, what would it look like 
if it were? The DSA's Llewellyn says that for one, health care would be 
universal and guaranteed, unlike the less comprehensive, market-based plans the 
Obama Administration is floating. The Socialist Party USA takes its platform a 
step further, calling for a full employment policy with a $15 minimum wage, 
30-hour workweeks, and six weeks' annual paid vacation for all workers. The ISO 
would immediately end foreclosures and allow homeless people to occupy vacant 
homes and buildings.

Recovering from Lax Regulation

On Mar. 6 a New York Times reporter asked Obama whether his domestic policies 
indicated the President is a socialist. Obama laughed, replying "the answer 
would be no." In a later telephone call to the paper, Obama said enormous 
taxpayer sums had been injected into the financial system before his election. 
"The fact that we've had to take these extraordinary measures and intervene is 
not an indication of my ideological preference, but an indication of the degree 
to which lax regulation and extravagant risk-taking has precipitated a crisis," 
Obama told the newspaper.

Even if the description of "socialist" isn't accurate for the current state of 
U.S. affairs, look for the term to reemerge in coming months as the battle over 
health-care reform quickens. Earlier this month, for example, U.S. 
Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Democrats are on a "march toward 
socialized medicine." Meanwhile, Socialists consider Obama a stalwart 
capitalist. Says Wolf at the ISO: "We haven't seen Comrade Obama at a meeting."

Herbst is a reporter for BusinessWeek in New York.

http://www.businessweek.com/print/bwdaily/dnflash/content/may2009/db20090522_329825.htm