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"The New Social Democrats"

This paper was prepared in May 2003 by a sub-committee of the National Committee of Social Democrats, USA, for use in discussion to prepare for the adoption of resolutions and an action program at a meeting to be held in the late Fall or Winter of 2003. It does not represent an official statement by the organization.

America today is rich and strong. Our business and financial sectors have confounded skeptics by aggressively exploiting the globalization of trade and new technologies. Our military has defeated brutal dictatorships in distant countries with minimal losses to our troops, or to civilian populations. Old problems endure, and our changing economy and unprecedented global power have created new ones. But this is surely a time of great promise.

Yet the remarkable potential this moment holds for our own people and the world will not be realized unless we come to terms with a chronic weakness in our political life: America does not have a healthy, pro-democracy Left that can play its necessary and proper role. This means there is no effective and constructive balance to the burgeoning powers of wealth in our society, although there are many issues before us that cannot be resolved in the economic marketplace. This means that our middle classes and poor too often lack effective representation, yielding decision-making to the affluent and the educated of our political parties. This also means that America's global power is not guided by a durable consensus over many central issues, such as our commitment to democracy and human rights.

We believe that an organization based on the constituencies, values and ideas that have shaped the social democratic movement in America can make an important contribution to our civic life at home and to a more democratic and secure world. In our conception, social democracy is not an adversary to capitalism that seeks, however gradually, to do away with it. Social democracy can complement and even strengthen capitalism by helping maintain the framework of rules and obligations that encourage the market to operate with efficiency, vigor, fairness, legitimacy and the fullest possible participation of our citizens. Experience shows that, contrary to both the ideologues of laissez-faire and the dire predictions of the Marxists, a capitalist economy that is complemented by a soundly conceived social-democratic social and regulatory system promotes greater prosperity for both rich and poor.

Building an effective movement of the kind we envision will be the work of a generation. We are proposing the constitution of a truly new and democratic left — something far different from the unfortunate repackaging of compromised traditions that took place in the 1960s. Our undertaking requires a positive spirit, and must draw upon a wide array of ideas and experiences. This paper is not offered as a manifesto, but as a starting point. We welcome contributions to the discussion.

The political experience of the United States over the span of two generations demonstrates that small groups with compelling ideas can have a powerful influence, even in a big and complicated country. In the late 1950s a small circle of conservative intellectuals and activists launched what came to be called the New Right. Country club and boardroom Republicans were astounded when this movement captured the Republican Party nomination for Barry Goldwater in 1964.

In this initial outing the New Right suffered what seemed like a stunning defeat. But the times indeed were a-changing. By the early 1960s another small group, this time on the left, captured the imagination of many disaffected young people. New Right and New Left fed one another, and eventually were able to establish a kind of condominium that still shapes much of our politics and culture. Views and attitudes nurtured in the New Right have become the prevailing outlook in the Republican Party. Those of the New Left have profoundly influenced American liberalism. And, of course, our own small organization had significant impact on the labor, civil rights and foreign policy debates.

For a time it appeared that the end of the Cold War and the election of Bill Clinton, a moderate Democrat, would basically alter the political landscape formed in the 1960s. This has not happened. Circumstances have changed, but ill-conceived political ideas endure, and will, until, through reflection and debate, enough people are persuaded to change them.

Social Democrats are not alone in seeking to break the mould that confines our civic life. But we have convictions and experience in two areas of importance that others have not adequately addressed, and these will be our focus.

I. Toward a Stronger Labor Movement

We hold that an effective trade union movement has immense value to a democratic society. The decline of organized labor in America not only has harmful consequences for union members: we all benefit when large numbers of our citizens enjoy a decent standard of living, a measure of security, and a voice in economic and political affairs.

The labor movement is indeed a special interest, but a special interest that contributes greatly to advancing the public interest. Few of the rights and benefits that Americans take for granted – civil rights legislation, Medicare, social security, public support for education, environmental protections – would have been achieved without labor's support. But the importance of a trade union movement goes far beyond this often-recited litany of good works.

The labor movement is by a long measure the most important institution we have for engaging low and middle-income citizens in our public life. Despite its diminished strength, it represents some 16 million dues-paying members. Unlike many interest groups, its leadership is elected by a broad membership base, making it the most democratic of our non-government institutions. Whatever its shortcomings, it is far more democratic than our corporations, our universities or our churches. As we argued in a statement last December [http://www.socialdemocrats.org/], unions provide a "balance wheel" for American democracy, steadying us against the turbulence and over-reaching that can afflict the market economy, and providing a voice for many of our people whose citizenship would otherwise consist only of casting an occasional vote. The labor movement is also an inclusive institution, spanning race, religious and gender differences in ways that help unify a society that at times is in danger of Balkanizing.

Many liberal and progressive Americans today regard the labor movement as a vestige of the industrial past, and seem indifferent to its future. (This, even as anti-labor operatives press ahead with ever more radical efforts to break or weaken unions.) The consequences of this indifference will soon be felt, perhaps with surprising force. Social and economic inequality will increase, and the progress of minorities will slow. More and more of our citizens will have inadequate health care and retirement. The skills and commitment of our workforce will deteriorate. Our civic and cultural life will lack that independent, sometimes cantankerous, but wholesome and responsible spirit that arose from the empowerment of working people through trade unionism — the spirit that lifted New York on September 11.

Free market radicals, whose ideological obsessions often make them as blind as doctrinaire leftists to the practical consequences of their policies, will continue their campaign against our unions. But conservatives who recognize the dangers of unchecked power and value of mediating institutions may want to reflect on the possible effects of the transformation these radicals seek. (The capitalist arena is too important to leave to capitalists themselves, who, as recently demonstrated, can mangle its rules in pursuit of immediate and personal gain.)

Social democrats must help revive interest in and understanding of the labor movement in the broader public, and encourage support for those measures that can help unions find new strength in the changing circumstances of a new century. It is inevitable that some of us will from time to time disagree with certain of labor's policies, or differ with the views or actions of individual union leaders. But our central concern will be the survival and revitalization of organized labor as an institution of great importance for American democracy.

Beyond this general commitment, two areas stand out for attention:

• Ending abuses of labor law by employers who obstruct unionism through procedural maneuvers that inflict exorbitant costs and interminable delays upon workers seeking to exercise their legal rights to form unions. These abuses have transformed labor law from a system intended to facilitate collective bargaining into a system used to obstruct it: a flagrant misuse of regulatory power. The issues involved here go beyond labor relations, to fundamental matters of democratic rights and processes. Support for reform of this scandalous system must be sought from a broad spectrum of our public leadership.

• Strengthening labor's role in the training and education of our workforce. Unions have historically had important roles in building up their members' skills, a function that in recent times has often gone unnoticed. Our country faces a skills shortage in the years ahead, and union representatives have relationships with workers that can help them honestly evaluate their capabilities and take sound steps to improve them. Today's workers must acquire the skills and professionalism needed by our changing economy to improve their incomes and maintain their employability. As British Labour has shown, unions that help their members build their skills can benefit themselves and gain support in the wider society. New technologies can assist this in many ways.

American social democrats believe unabashedly that the United States is a force for good in the world. (A view most persuasively argued in recent times by the social democratic Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair.) But our citizens and our government alike need continuous encouragement if our moral influence and our diplomatic and military power are to be used effectively to assist those in other countries who share our commitments to democracy and human rights. Some conservatives consider such commitments sentimental, or a drain on our national capabilities. Certain liberals and leftists scorn American efforts in behalf of democracy abroad as a spurious disguise for economic and military domination – an anti-Americanism that overrides consideration of the good that so often comes from such engagement, even under Republican Administrations.

The strident anti-Americanism and magnanimity toward third world dictatorships of some who claim loudly to speak for the left are once again feeding the perception that the left cares little about freedom. As in the conflicts with communism waged by past generations of the democratic left, social democrats not only must distinguish ourselves from the false left — we must take the lead in exposing and combating it. We know this enemy better than the conservatives, we know the territory better, and we understand the damage that can be done to good people and good causes when the battles that must be waged are conducted in reckless ways.

Many opponents of military action in Iraq, while in our view mistaken, are people of good will and reasoned judgement. But not all. A new global network is taking shape that encompasses Islamic extremists, remnants of the old communist system and its friends, agents of thug governments, assorted third world liberation groups and a variety of other dissidents and anti-democratic malcontents. The common premises of this unseemly alliance are anti-Americanism, opposition to Israel and hostility to the global economic system, which is depicted in the most lurid colors. This new movement had its birth in demonstrations against the World Bank, IMF and WTO in Seattle, Prague and Washington. It then reappeared, in somewhat altered form, in the protest movement over US/UK military actions against Saddam Hussein and the Taliban.

This new current in international politics does not make democracy and human rights touchstone principles — to the contrary, it embraces many whose records are deeply stained. But it does take up issues that have appeal for trade unionists and their political allies here and abroad, who are groping in frustration for ways to cope with trends in trade, investment and technology that have eroded hard won achievements. Absent any challenge or alternative, many who ought not to align with this new alliance are being drawn into it. The impact of this new current was apparent in the European demonstrations against the U.S. during the action against Iraq, and was reflected in the diplomacy and parliamentary debates of important allies. Despite a surge of wartime patriotism, it is also a significant force here in the U.S.

The Bush Administration's curt and swaggering diplomatic style contributed something to the growth of this movement, as did the Administration's focus on regime destruction rather than regime change in Iraq. But nothing in the Administration's conduct can explain the virulence of the worldwide outbursts against the United States and Britain, or the willingness of so many opponents of the Iraq campaign to march alongside apologists for terrorism, dictatorship and the abuse of human rights.

All this demonstrates the need for stronger voices from the world of labor and the democratic left that insist on clarity about democracy and that speak out against misconceived and demagogic ideas about America and its allies. Social democracy is an internationalist tradition, with entrιe to labor and political communities abroad that are vulnerable to the temptations of the false left and to distorted notions about America. We will make it our mission to address these untruths, and to challenge those who promote them.

We can do this effectively because we have an alternative vision: international cooperation grounded in democratic values, which accepts the capitalist market but fights to strengthen institutions and practices that make it more responsible, open and humane.

To the anti-American, anti-capitalist and often anti-democratic internationalism of the false left we counterpoise a community of democracies that can undertake effective action — including the use of force — against outlaw governments, and provide assistance to those struggling to move their societies along the democratic path. We offer this concept also as a challenge to those American conservatives who mistakenly believe that the United States should go it alone in a dangerous and ever more complex world.

The democratic alliance we envision will recognize the importance of labor rights, and promote international implementation of the core rights set forward by the ILO, including guarantees of workers' freedom of association. The global spread of trade and investment is not something that can be stopped, nor should it be – it entails too many benefits for workers here and elsewhere. But the global economy should be brought under a social contract, in which both property rights and labor rights are protected, and the exploitation of workers is vigorously resisted. The best way to accomplish this is to push open the door to free trade unionism throughout the world.

Our practical efforts in international affairs will focus on:

• Pressing the Bush Administration to set aside reluctance about "nation-building" to devote the time and resources needed to help Iraqis develop the civil society and government institutions that can make their country an example of democracy to other peoples of the Middle East. Our support for democracy in Iraq should be extended to other societies throughout this troubled region — especially the Palestinians, who can have no peace under corrupt and authoritarian leadership.

• Cooperating with other liberal and progressive groups to create an American community of support for a policy of vigorous international engagement on behalf of democracy worldwide, and for the resources needed to implement this policy. Such an undertaking will necessarily challenge elements on both ends of our own political spectrum that, however contradictory their motives, agree that America should stay at home. There are promising signs that many who once acceded to the post-Vietnam taboo against the use of U.S. military force are beginning to understand what price this exacts from freedom — especially that of less fortunate peoples.

• Engaging with labor, social democratic and related groups abroad to overcome anti-Americanism and build alliances that can advance democracy, labor and human rights. We especially seek cooperation with those in the Islamic world who share our values. We look for opportunities to work with those in Europe who recognize that challenges ahead in the Middle East, in China, and in contending with terrorism and rogue governments will require cooperation among the world's democracies. We will urge the U.S. government openly to undertake "public diplomacy" efforts, similar to those carried out during the Cold War, which build networks of support for democracy among leaders in political, intellectual and cultural life. We will work with educators to encourage education for democracy in schools, here and abroad.

Support for the labor movement at home and for energetic American assistance to democracy abroad are today two points of practical focus for Social Democrats, USA. If this combination somehow seems unnatural, we would argue that it is the lens of our political culture that is clouded: the two actually fit naturally together.

For many of us, social democracy is more than these two agenda items. It is an outlook that encompasses many aspects of life. Our community has long been a forum for debate about a wide range of issues, debate that has provided informal but rigorous education to generations of young people. This is a role we intend to continue.

Political life can be more than the tick lists of pollsters and campaign consultants or the tedious polemics of true believers. It can provide a rich and rewarding journey through the human condition. Much depends, in Ignazio Silone's phrase, on "the choice of comrades."

We have a sense that political life in America may be at one of its turning points, and that adventures lie ahead. The social democratic tradition has contributions to make. We stress the economic and social concerns shared by many low and middle income people – and are wary of the identity politics and culture warfare that engender so much division. We regard government as an instrument – not a good or evil in itself. Important issues of public policy should be resolved through reasoned debate, not at the spender's pork barrel or tax-cutter's chopping block. We argue – as the late Sidney Hook taught us – that individual liberty and human community need not conflict, but can be mutually enriching. We can be critical of our country and society, but ferocious in defending it from unjustified attacks.

If this appeals to you, please get in touch with us, and pass this on to others who might be interested.

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