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Socialism is American as Apple Pie
http://newscentral.exsees.com/item/9c269dbbd50e3f3b267c83d28091f6ba-93322e2e5aee73f525260161cb550317This was written by the president of the state chapter of my union, the CFT.
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Whether Giuliani likes it or not, American socialism has been an important current in American political life since the rise of the industrial age more than 150 years ago. The countless women and men who considered themselves socialists have sacrificed their lives for this country, helped shape foreign and domestic policy, created this country’s art, assembled the cars, built the highways and contributed in exactly the same way as those with differing economic and political philosophies.
Lucy Parsons, a socialist and advocate for women’s rights, was a former slave who along with her husband Albert led the struggle for the eight hour day in the 1880s. Prior to the movement for the eight-hour day, American workers routinely worked 12-14 hours daily, six days a week. Lucy’s tireless organizing helped transform the workday and bring a degree of dignity to American workers.
Helen Keller, an icon of American history, whose struggle to overcome blindness and deafness has inspired countless people around the world, was an active member of the Socialist Party of America.
Likewise Eugene V. Debs, one of America’s foremost labor leaders in the late 1800s, received nearly a million votes for president of the United States while jailed for speaking out in opposition to U.S. involvement in World War I.
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The American socialist tradition has never been monolithic in its views on a wide range of issues including the nature of China or the former Soviet Union or the strengths and weaknesses of American capitalism. Nevertheless, socialists have either led or been active in the struggles for worker and civil rights, opposition to U.S. military involvement in foreign countries and quality of life issues like social security, health care reform and the environment.
The former mayor of New York may believe that only those who remain silent about the exploitation of workers and the growing inequality of an economic system that benefits the top 1% to the detriment of the 99% warrant the mantle of patriotism. But the words of Helen Keller are as true today as when she wrote them in 1911: “the majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands— the ownership and control of their livelihoods— are set at naught, we can have neither men’s rights nor women’s rights.” That’s true patriotism.
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