>>> crdbronx at erols.com 05/01/01 09:42AM >>>
The key is universality of services and benefits. That's what Charles
means by the comparison with the public schools. Family allowances such
as exist in many advanced countries are a model. So too
is universal day care.
We are not at a point where we can realistically put this forward, but need to be formulating our ideas about policies.
(((((((((
CB:
I know what you mean by we can't realistically put this forward, but I think this is where we should make a radical twist on, "reality-actuality" 2001. All Leftists and Radicals today should just say no to the Reagan-Clinton taboo on even saying "bring back welfare". We need some transgressive discourse on this.
Even in 1944 funky ole Democrat Roosevelt said:
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, State of the Union Message to Congress, 1944
THE ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS
This republic had its beginning and grew to its present strength under the protection of certain inalienable political rights...They were our rights to life and liberty. As our nation has grown in size and stature, however--as our industrial economy expanded--these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.... People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all--regardless of station, race, or creed. Among these are :
the right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; the right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation; the right of every farmer to raise and sell his (sic) products at a return which will give his family a decent living; the right of every business man, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad; the right of every family to a decent home; the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health; the right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age and sickness and accident and unemployment; the right to a good education....
((((((((
One basic component of a left social welfare strategy is a rigorous anti-familism: in other words, we need to be for services and benefits being available to each individual, from birth up, as a right of participation in the society, not to a family as the recipient unit. The religious right is familist exactly because that is a reactionary social welfare policy -- and, as a result, a pro-corporate one.
Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema