[lbo-talk] let's all pray for a depression

Seth Ackerman sethackerman1 at verizon.net
Tue Jan 22 20:41:25 PST 2008


John Thornton wrote:


>I disagree. 1934-37 was indeed a time of rising expectations.
>Unemployment fell from 25% to 14% which was one reason for rising
>expectations. The govt. stepped in to do what it could to alleviate
>problems. Are you telling me that creating the Agricultural Adjustment
>Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps [...etc]
>

You're talking about rising *political* expectations. The question at hand was about economic expectations, remember? We were talking about "what are the political effects of an economic collapse?" The programs you've listed *are* the political effects.

Funny thing - just as I read your post, an email came in from Cambridge University Press anouncing the new edition of the classic social history of how workers created the CIO/New Deal - Liz Cohen's _Making A New Deal_.

This is from the blurb:


> Although workers may not have been political in traditional terms
> during the '20s, as they made daily decisions like these, they
> declared their loyalty in ways that would ultimately have political
> significance. As the depression worsened in the 1930s, not only did
> workers find their pay and working hours cut or eliminated, but the
> survival strategies they had developed during the 1920s were
> undermined. Looking elsewhere for help, workers adopted new
> ideological perspectives and overcame longstanding divisions among
> themselves to mount new kinds of collective action.

Seth



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list