[lbo-talk] Re: What the Ruling Class Want to Get: A Green Light

[Marvin Gandall]

It's perhaps worth noting that the capitalists were not only, or perhaps
even primarily, concerned with the threat from the left in the 30's. Much of
the New Deal was driven as much by economic as political necessity -- the
desperate need to restore mass purchasing power and the home market for US
goods. Even the Wagner Act, which led to a surge in union organizing and
collective bargaining, has to be seen in this context. The more
"enlightened" wing of the bourgeoisie, which Keynes in the UK and the brain
trust in the US represented, understood this. The gold standard/balanced
budget Republican bankers and businessmen who supported Alf Landon for
President in '36 were vocal enough, but the election result was a good
barometer of their waning influence. In general, the health, education, and
other reforms initiated by left parties under capitalism have had to conform
to the economic needs of the system, and to be perceived as such by the
large corporations who could afford them, in order to become entrenched in
legislation -- which is not, of course, to diminish the achievement and
their importance.

Marv Gandall