Populism as Masquerade (was Re: Henwood vs. Cockburn)

[michael perelman]

Although Goodwyn does not have a class analysis, he does tell the intriguing
story of how the populists attempted to link up with workers, both in supporting
their strikes and developing the system of supplying each other with goods.

Mark Rickling wrote:


> The
> Populists' greenback critique of capitalism represented an authentic
> indigenous radicalism, something those firmly entrenched within a Marxist
> tradition have a hard time seeing. Writing in the journal Marxist
> Perspectives (sorry -- I'm away from my books and don't have a proper cite)
> labor historian David Montgomery correctly faulted Goodwyn's history for the
> lack of a true class analysis and noted that Populism had little to offer
> industrial workers and their struggle for workers' control. (Curiously the
> People's Party fared well in many urban areas.) But Montgomery was too good
> of a historian to cavalierly dismiss Populism as petty-bourgeois reformism.
> Instead he saw it as an authentic struggle for workers' control of the
> production process in an agricultural setting.

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu