[lbo-talk] The Liberal Faith and its Enemy

[Carrol Cox]

Michael's post makes a lot of sense, at least on first reading. I would,
however, like to add a crucial date in the "split" he describes. The day
when WPA became PWA. That was an announcement hidden away in the back
pages of the daily newspaper, but nevertheless it marked the end of
Michael's "progressives" as a real force within the DP. As Sweezy,
Magdoff, and others have pointed out, the WPA was the one New Deal
policy that in any way even made a pretence of pointing beyond the
limits of capitalism.

The PWA, one might say, was the first little foreshadowing of the
privatization campaign launched under Carter. The WPA was grounded in
the rights  of workers. The PWA was grounded in the rights of "fiscal
realism" and efficiency.

Carrol