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Symposium
Iraq Symposium
We are pleased to publish the following exchange on the politics of the U.S. occupation, the Iraqi resistance, and the antiwar movement. The symposium builds on a trio of articles -- by Barry Finger, Wadood Hamad, and Glenn Perusek -- that appeared in New Politics 38 (Winter 2005). Further responses from our readers are welcome.
The Resistance and the Antiwar Movement, Anthony ArnoveIraq and the Third Camp, Barry Finger
Struggling for Progress, in Iraq! Wadood Hamad
Iraq and the Idea of Freedom, Peter Hudis
Immediate U.S. Withdrawal and the Hope for Democracy in Iraq, Joanne Landy
No Blank Checks, Staughton Lynd
The Antiwar Movement and Iraq, Stephen R. Shalom
| Summer 2005 | Vol:X-3 | Whole #: |
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Roundtable on Immigration and African Americans
Stephen Steinberg's "Immigration, African Americans and Race Discourse" in our last issue of New Politics (#39) elicited several responses. Here they are with Steinberg's rejoinder. Steinberg's article, together with a different set of responses and a reply from Steinberg, also appears in the Winter issue of New Labor Forum. We urge readers to follow this debate in both venues. - EDS.
The Intra-Immigrant Dilemma, Alan AjaMobilizing Immigrants and Blacks, Peter Drucker
Alliances Needed, Ron Hayduk
Finger Pointing Toward "Freedom Now!" Michael Hirsch
Another American Dilemma, Gilbert Jonas
Reintroducing the Black/White Divide in Racial Discourse, Gregory D. Squires
Response, Stephen Steinberg
| Winter 2006 | Vol:X-4 | Whole #: 40 |
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Special Section on Latin America
Making Sense of Latin America's "Third Left"Venezuela's PSUV and Socialism from Below
Bolivia: Latin America's Experiment in Grassroots Democracy
Latin America: A Resurgent Left?
Attack and Burn!
| Winter 2008 | Vol:XI-4 | Whole #: 44 |
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Special Section on Women and Work
Edited by Gertrude Ezorsky
The Labor Origins of the Next Women's Movement, Dorothy Sue CobbleMigration, Domestic Work, and Repression, Julia Wrigley
Relevant, Irrelevant, or Both?, Lynn Chancer
Women, Family, Welfare and Work, Betty Reid Mandell
| Summer 2005 | Vol:X-3 | Whole #: 39 |
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Special Section: Women's Issues
Gwendloyn Mink, "Women's Work, Mother's Poverty"Randy Albelda & Betty Reid Mandell, "Paid Family and Medical Leave"
Linda Nicholson, "Feminism in 'Waves': Useful Metaphor or Not?"
Victoria Law, "Nor Meekly Serve Her Time"
Amy Littlefield's review of Janet Afary, Sexual Politics in Modern Iran
Betty Reid Mandell, "Still Fighting: Interview with Judi Chamberlin"
| Winter 2010 | Vol:XII-4 | Whole #: 48 |
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Symposium on Caregiving
Betty Reid Mandell, Foster CareDeanne Bonnar, The Wages of Care
Ravi Malhotra, Empowering People with Disabilities
Helen Lachs Ginsburg and Marguerite Rosenthal, The Ups and Downs of the Swedish Welfare State
| Summer 2006 | Vol:XI-1 | Whole #: 41 |
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Symposium on Gays and the Left (Part I)
Thomas Harrison and Joanne Landy
THE HISTORIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN homosexuals and the left is complicated, because, as Jeffrey Escoffier reminds us in his overview of various currents -- socialist, left-Freudian, post-1969 gay liberationist -- "there are many different lefts." As we see it, the most important difference within the left has been the one separating an authoritarian, top-down tradition that focuses on social engineering, on the one hand, from a democratic, from below tradition that emphasizes freedom and popular control, on the other. Looking at the socialist tradition, specifically -- and all our contributors are or have been associated in some way with it -- one can discern traces of a different attitude toward sexual difference depending on which of the "two souls of socialism" -- to use the term coined by Hal Draper, a frequent contributor to New Politics in its early years -- one is examining. We say "traces" because explicit discussion of sexual matters of any kind, in writing, has been rare among socialists until fairly recent times.
Christopher Phelps has discovered an internal document of the Socialist Party youth, dated 1952, during the darkest days of McCarthyism, which urges the Party to support the decriminalization of same-sex activity. Tentative though it was, this initiative represents an intriguing echo, from within the left, of the politically neutral (though led largely by former Communists) "homophile" movement cautiously emerging in the 50s. In his important article, Phelps places the episode in the context of a long tradition of sexual libertarianism that has flickered unsteadily in and around the socialist movement since the late nineteenth century -- or at least that part of the movement with more democratic proclivities. The U.S. Socialist Party, as Phelps describes it, was probably pretty typical in its treatment of homosexuals and homosexuality: a "peculiar admixture of freedom and caution, acceptance and denial, silence and honesty" prevailed. There was plenty of homophobia, but "no official prohibition against same-sex desire and . . . no official ideology against it." David McReynolds, a veteran of the socialist and pacifist movements, recalls this twilight world of gay radicals in the 50s. In McReynolds' milieu -- the Los Angeles Socialist Party and the War Resisters League in New York -- homosexuals were tolerated, at best, but a same-sex orientation seldom interfered with common work for the cause.
Hardly a heroic record, but what a contrast with the policy of Stalinism, the system that came to power in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and enveloped the Communist parties of the world -- the most extreme development of what Draper called "socialism from above." The Bolsheviks abolished all legal restrictions on same-sex activity after they came to power in 1917, but in 1934 the new Stalinist ruling elite made homosexuality illegal, punishable by three to five years in prison (a penalty far more severe than that imposed under the tsars). Bettina Aptheker, in a candid and hard-hitting recollection, portrays the stiflingly puritanical and homophobic atmosphere in the American Communist Party, which persisted well beyond the explosion of sexual freedom that accompanied the arrival of the New Left in the 1960s and the birth of the gay liberation movement at the end of the decade. Amazingly, the Party's official attitude toward homosexuality, and even toward "recreational sex," differed hardly at all from the most conservative elements in American society. To a young woman trying to come to terms with her lesbianism, it was a powerful obstacle to overcome.
While acknowledging that leftists have played a decisive role in the formation of the modern gay and lesbian movement, John D'Emilio asks why the left as a whole has been so negligent in championing the cause of gay liberation. In our view, the success with which the right has demagogically exploited the same-sex marriage issue has unnerved many on the left as, increasingly, elements of a left program are subordinated to the perceived urgency of electing Democrats, and one senses a tendency to hold gays and lesbians at arm's length. In his critique, D'Emilio asserts the centrality that gay rights ought to have for a left that claims to fight oppression.
THE GAY AND LESBIAN MOVEMENT, AND ITS demands, have been denounced or dismissed with some regularity by the critics of "identity politics" -- moderates such as Todd Gitlin and Michael Tomasky, and even radicals like Ralph Nader. Martin Duberman, in a nuanced and critical defense of the politics of identity, refutes the charge that these politics have destroyed the U.S. left; instead, he insists that it is the homophobia still rampant in the unions, the black churches, and elsewhere, as well as the disdain shown by Gitlin, Tomasky, and co. -- not the alleged obsession with identity and difference -- that prevents the formation of a powerful alliance of all oppressed forces against the right. "You cannot link arms under a universalist banner," he says, "when you can't find your own name on it."
Below is Part One of the New Politics discussion on Gays and the Left. In our next issue we will continue the symposium with contributions from Blanche Wiesen Cook, Thomas Harrison, Amber Hollibaugh, Doug Ireland, and perhaps others.
Thanks to Doug Ireland, Jesse Lemisch, and Christopher Phelps for their help in designing this symposium.
THOMAS HARRISON and JOANNE LANDY, members of the New Politics editorial board, organized this symposium.
On Socialism and Sex: An IntroductionOn Socialism and Sex
Keeping the Communist Party Straight, 1940s - 1980s
Can the Left Ignore Gay Liberation>
Gay Leftie Seeking Straight Friends
Left Wing Homosexuality" Emancipation, Sexual Liberation, & Identity Politics
Queer Reflections
| Summer 2008 | Vol:XII-1 | Whole #: 45 |
Symposium on Gays and the Left (Part II)
IN THE LAST ISSUE OF NEW POLITICS, we published Part I of a symposium on gays and the left, with contributions by Bettina Aptheker, John D’Emilio, Martin Duberman, Jeffrey Escoffier, and David McReynolds, and a piece by Christopher Phelps on a 1952 document of the Socialist Party youth that urged the SP to support the decriminalization of same-sex activity. Below is Part II of the symposium, with articles by Peter Drucker, Marcia Gallo, Thomas Harrison, Doug Ireland, and Sherry Wolf. We invite responses from our readers.
—JOANNE LANDY and THOMAS HARRISON
Reinventing a Queer LeftEight Kinds of Strength: Tribute to Tribute to Valerie Taylor, Lesbian Writer and Revolutionary
Socialism and Homosexuality
Socialism and Gay Liberation: Back To The Future
LGBT Political Cul-De-Sac: Make A U-Turn
| Winter 2009 | Vol:XII-2 | Whole #: 46 |
Symposium on Iraq and the Antiwar Movement
We are pleased to publish the following exchange on the politics of the U.S. occupation, the Iraqi resistance, and the antiwar movement. The symposium builds on a trio of articles -- by Barry Finger, Wadood Hamad, and Glenn Perusek -- that appeared in New Politics 38 (Winter 2005).
The Resistance and the Antiwar Movement, Anthony ArnoveIraq and the Third Camp, Barry Finger
Struggling for Progress, In Iraq!, Wadood Hamad
Iraq and the Idea of Freedom, Peter Hudis
Letter to the Editor, Tom Unterrainer
Immediate U.S. Withdrawal and the Hope for Democracy in Iraq, Joanne Landy
No Blank Checks, Staughton Lynd
The Antiwar Movement and Iraq, Stephen R. Shalom
| Summer 2005 | Vol:X-3 | Whole #: 39 |
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The World Economic Crisis: Labor's Response
IN HIS INTRODUCTION to the Winter 1998 New Politics symposium (Vol. VI, No. 4) marking the 150th anniversary of The Communist Manifesto, Julius Jacobson, co-editor and co-founder of this journal, noted that “symptomatic of the crisis in Marxism” is not only the “failure of the working class to act as the agency for social transformation but the changing nature of the working class itself which is a legitimate area of concern and debate” (p. 47). This special section renews the challenge that New Politics symposium set out, of understanding what has happened to the working class and labor unions internationally, and how they have — and have not — responded to the greatest financial crisis in capitalism we have witnessed in generations. All of the authors are activists in the labor movements in their respective countries. We asked them to describe and analyze how workers in their countries are responding to the world economic crisis, noting what they see as the role of the revolutionary socialist left in all of this, if it has a role, and describing the prospects. Their essays reflect the great differences in political life, social class relations, and union organization in various nations. We anticipate that two additional contributions will be posted on our website (www.newpol.org) by the time the print edition is in your hands. We intend this as the beginning of an ongoing discussion in New Politics and invite readers’ submissions on the subject.
DAN LA BOTZ and LOIS WEINER
The Global Crisis and the World Labor MovementChina: End of a Model...Or the Birth of a New One?
Are U.S. Unions Ready for the Challenge of a New Period?
French Workers Face the Crisis
The Class Struggle in Post-Soviet Russia
Notes Toward a Vision of the Workers' Movement in Mexico
| Summer 2009 | Vol:XII-3 | Whole #: 47 |
The World in Crisis
The world is in crisis.
New Politics is pleased to publish a set of articles that offer insights into some of the world’s major conflicts.
We present three analyses of Iran’s democratic movement, with articles by Yassamine Mather, Negar Mottahedeh, and Danny Postel. There’s been sharp debate on the Left in Pakistan regarding that country’s campaign against Islamic militants; Pervez Hoodbhoy and Adaner Usmani offer contending views. Stephen R. Shalom discusses Obama and Israel-Palestine. Adrienne Pine writes on the twin crises in Haiti and Honduras. Steven Fake and Kevin Funk address the situation in Darfur, and Sudan more generally. And Derrick O’Keefe puts forward a critique of the foreign policies of the Obama administration from a Canadian perspective.
We hope that these articles will help make sense of these different conflicts, and encourage appropriate political action.
— STEPHEN R. SHALOM AND JOANNE LANDY
The View from Canada: Obama's Foreign Policy, Derrick O'KeefeCan the Left Become Relevant to Islamic Pakistan?, Pervez Hoodbhoy
Pakistan: The Myth of Civilizing War, Adaner Usmani
Palling Around with Terrorists: Obama and IsraelPalestine, Stephen R. Shalom
Darfur: The World's Most Famous Humanitarian Disaster, Steven Fake and Kevin Funk
Foosball with the Devil: Haiti, Honduras, and Democracy in the Neoliberal Era, Adrienne Pine
Revolutionary Prefigurations: The Green Movement, Critical Solidarity, and the Struggle for Iran's Future, Danny Postel
Iran: Reform and Revolution, Yassamine Mather
Green Is the New Green: Social Media and the PostElection Crisis in Iran, 2009, Negar Mottahedeh
| Summer 2010 | Vol:XIII-1 | Whole #: 49 |
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