Charles Brown
_________
I sent the following to the NY Times in response to the interview with
Mazzochi that appeared in the Sunday paper. Thanks to Dave MacReynolds for
bringing the article to my attention.
>Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 23:06:07
>To: sunbiz at nytimes.com
>From: "s.robinson" <s.robinson at popmail.csuohio.edu>
>
> 3334 Berkeley Avenue
> Cleveland Hts., Oh 44118
>
> November 23, 1998
>
>Editor:
> In his interview with Labor Party leader, Anthony Mazzochi, which
appeared in the business section of the Nov. 22nd NY Times, Steven
Greenhouse states that Mazzochi "freely uses class tinged language that
seems a throwback to the 1930's." That comment brought to mind an
observation made many years ago by Professor C. Wright Mills, who noted that
"America is distinguished by two classes: one, the most class conscious in
the world, and the other, the least class conscious."
> The lack of class consciousness of the working class, coupled with
the determined self-interest of the wealthy class, has led to an
unprecedented bi-furcation of wealth and income. In a recent study, HOW THE
PIE IS SLICED, NYU Economics Professor Edward N. Wolfe states that the share
of national wealth owned by the upper one-percent had increased from 22% in
1976 to 42% in 1992. This trend toward increasing inequality began under a
Democratic President, Jimmy Carter, accelerated further under the
Reagan-Bush Presidencies, and has grown even more rapidly under President
Clinton and his advisors from the Democratic Leadership Council. As
Professor Wolfe observes in his essay: "By the 1980s the U.S. had become the
most unequal industrialized country in terms of wealth."
> Republican Presidents Reagan and Bush began an assault on our
welfare safety net, and President Clinton finished the job his predecessors
had begun. In the words of his former Assistant Secretary of Health,
Education and Welfare, Peter Edelman, "The President dynamited a structure
that was in place for six decades." Edelman resigned his position because of
his "profound disagreement"
>with Clinton's welfare policy.
>
> Indeed, in matters of basic economic policy, I am forced to agree
with Mazzochi: "There is very little difference between the two major
parties." As a retired college professor and life-long Democrat, I hardly
fit Greenhouse's image of the "union stalwarts in the party." After reading
this interview, however, I feel that my well-being and that of most other
Americans will be better served by a Labor Party than by either the
Democrats or Republicans.
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
> Stewart M. Robinson,
> Associate Professor Emeritus,
> Cleveland State University,
> Cleveland, OH 44113
> phone: (216) 321-1677
> e-mail: s.robinson at popmail.csuohio.edu
>