Of Socialists, Liberals & Others
Howe, Irving
Some of the contributors to this collection of essays would describe themselves as democratic socialists. Some as liberals. Others as liberalsocialists. And a few perhaps as people of...
...The present gathering of essays is mostly devoted to urgencies of "the near," but we shall speak again about "the far...
...So be it...
...We do this in good faith and in the hope that we don't appear to our friends as "know-it-alls...
...With a large part of a forthright liberal program, we socialists entirely agree...
...Proposals can be heard these days on the democratic left that would, for example, subject the big corporations to a measure of social control...
...In a European context such proposals would be called social democratic...
...And this imbalance in economic life soon makes itself felt as a distortion of political life...
...And a few perhaps as people of the democratic left who prefer not to be labeled...
...That doesn't deter us from continuing to advance our views, but we also feel obligated to turn to urgent matters of the moment, in the hope that our fundamental vision will contribute to a better understanding of current problems...
...Sometimes we call this a politics of "the near and the far," immediate proposals and ultimate visions...
...It is the ground for our proposals for a new social order, democratically arrived at and democratically structured, in which there would be a larger amount of equality, with arrangements for democratic participation and control in the workplace...
...We agree because we concern ourselves not only with our own long-range ideas, but also with the immediate needs of our country...
...These corporations dominate our economic life and in consequence have great, indeed, unwarranted power in our politics and culture...
...We are glad to join with others who favor national health insurance, measures for helping black youth in the cities, programs for the unemployed, legislation for equal treatment of women, etc., etc...
...But we must recognize that in America today socialism is not seen as an immediate option...
...Still, it may be of interest if I put down a few remarks about the relationship between socialists and liberals, as seen by one of the former...
...Finally, our differences...
...Socialists would do so...
...The extreme inequalities of income and wealth in America, the maldistribution between rich and poor—this serves as one crux of the socialist critique...
...Most liberals do not advocate, or see any need for, measures that would challenge the structure of property dominating our society...
...32 • DISSENT...
...We believe that a serious deficiency of liberalism is its failure to cope, even analytically, with the role of corporate America...
...they don't signify the end of capitalist economy but they do stretch the dominion of society over the largely irresponsible corporations...
...On many immediate matters, then, we are the allies of American liberalism—at least insofar as it remains true to its best traditions of principle and militancy (something, alas, that isn't always true these days...
...It's an unshakable premise of our politics that freedom is the indispensable prerequisite for social and economic progress...
...Such proposals are very much on the order of the day...
...Whatever our long-range outlooks, we all agree on the need for the programs advanced in these pages...
...As principled democrats, we accept this as the reality...
...Sometimes, especially in these lukewarm days, we socialists try to act as a "ginger group," pressing liberals to hold fast to their own ideas and values, without equivocation or retreat...
...As long as they remain in the hands of the wealthy few, our society remains fundamentally unjust in its socioeconomic arrangements...
...We continue to speak up, write for, agitate in behalf of our views...
...And we are the allies of liberalism not only with regard to proposals for social legislation, but equally in its concern for the protection and extension of civil liberties and civil rights...
...For we don't know it all...
...At present, as everyone knows, this outlook is not in accord with the views held by a majority of Americans...
...Concerning some issues liberals and socialists can join in taking a step or two beyond conventional liberalism...
...But at the same time we link hands with all those, liberals and others, who are working, step by step, for incremental improvements in American society...
Vol. 35 • January 1988 • No. 1
