Oh, I was trying to resist the first hundred days of Obama presidency, but here I am succumbing to the temptation. I simply cannot help comparing it to FDR’s first days because that’s when the test of the first “100 days” started. The more I think about 1933 versus 2008 the more I am inclined to wonder if we aren’t comparing onions and bananas, as my old algebra professor would say. 2008 ain’t 1933. No way. Having said that, there still might be some lessons to learn.
FDR was elected at a time when the country was in a deep depression. The unemployment rate was around 25 percent. People were going hungry. There was anger and social unrest all across the country. The most important role was played by a strong, well organized left that was able to give direction to the anger and resentment. That meant that very specific demands were made on the Roosevelt administration.
I remember in March of 1930 the Communist Party launched a nation-wide effort of demonstrations demanding jobs, unemployment insurance and home relief. Millions of people across the country joined in those demonstrations. Of course they were not at all communists, but it was the Party that had the organizing skills to get people out into the streets. I would venture a guess that for every actual party member there were a dozen or more people who would support its activities. That was the secret of its strength. This was what FDR was confronted with by the time he took office in ‘33.
When FDR spoke of “nothing to fear but fear itself,” I often thought he was talking about the ruling class as much as anyone else. What was their fear? The Russian Revolution was just 16 years old and believe me it resonated throughout the capitalist world. That was very much part of the “fear” factor. I do believe that was a real spur in moving FDR to act. And act he did. I also believe that, as a result of his experience with polio, FDR developed a real sense of empathy for the victims of the depression.
In the first 100 days FDR submitted 15 pieces of new legislation to the Congress and got them all passed. They included relief for those who needed it most--the Civilian Conservation Corps, Reconstruction Finance Corporation (mortgage relief), Agricultural Adjustment Act relief for farmers, Tennessee Valley Authority and a host of others. Most interesting was the repeal of Prohibition. That got the beer flowing again, created thousands of jobs in the breweries and had us all beer besotted singing “Happy Days Are Here Again.” Newly emerging unions in the mass production industries were all barking at FDR’s heels. No wonder he had to act.
It is easy to simply dismiss any comparison between FDR’s and Obama’s first 100 days. Obama has not sent any new bills to the Congress. He has made some executive changes such as canceling oil leases in Utah and permitting increased stem cell research, gender income equality and pledging to shut Guantanomo. That’s is all fine and good, but does not address some of our most significant underlying problems, namely the millions who have lost their jobs and their homes. Mortgage relief has gone to the banks, not to the homeowners who are losing their homes at an ever increasing rate. Okay so what’s going on here?
An absolutely fundamental difference between then and now was the presence of a powerful left represented by a newly organized dynamic Labor Movement, a strong Communist Party, the Socialist Party, and a large assortment of smaller left organizations all of whom were really putting the pressure on FDR’s White House to act. And they did.
The present political landscape is dramatically different. Not only that the Russian Revolution is far behind us, but the empire it created is gone. There is little or no significant left in the US. Capitalism really has nothing much to fear from the left. It only has to concern itself with its own self destructive activities like selling lousy mortgage derivatives to banks who don’t seem to know what they are buying. Then one day they wake up and find they bought a lot of worthless stuff because the folks who bought those overpriced homes can’t pay for them. The Europeans who lived much closer to that Soviet revolution have learned how to curb the worst abuses of capitalism. They call it Social Democracy. It was those social democratic regulations that the Bush crowd got rid of that caused the collapse of the financial system. Obama wants to try to put it back together again.
Obama has been a great communicator, but so far his administration has not been able to demonstrate any talent for getting things done. That’s the big difference between his administration and FDR’s. Besides all the hell raising in the streets, FDR had a strong cabinet of people who just worked on moving the Congress. Francis Perkins, the first women cabinet member and Secretary of Labor, drafted the legislation and pestered FDR to move on Social Security, which he did. Harry Hopkins, who learned about Home Relief working for FDR as Governor of NY State, pushed the President to send Home Relief legislation to the Congress. Obama has too many old Washington insiders--Summers, Emanuel, Geithner, et al. Not enough new energy there that just says “lets do it” and gets moving.
I do think that the failure to act early will cost Obama support down the road. Why? Because it is giving the right wing opposition time to get themselves reorganized to fight every good idea that the Obama folks might have for Universal Health Care, Job Creation, Social Security, etc. For an old left wing Geezer like me, I do remember the days when the left had a powerful voice in the affairs of the country. Now there is an amorphous gathering out there. I do hope it can get itself into a cohesive organization that can create some real grass roots support for change that benefits the average working person in the country.
PS. A lead story in today’s New York Times tells us that “Bonuses are back on Wall Street.” There was a song we use to sing, “The banks are made of marble. With a guard at every door. The vaults are stuffed with silver. That the workers suffered for.” Some things don’t change. My best RS
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
WPA Back in the News
With all the talk about the Obama program for job creation, the idea of another WPA is back in the news. You guessed it. In the great depression I spent some time on the WPA (Works Progress Administration). My very first assignment was in the National Youth Administration. From there I was sent to work for the National Desertions Bureau as a “detective.” No, I am not kidding. I even had a trench coat and a pair of gum shoes.
The Bureau was a Jewish agency that hunted down men who had deserted their wives and children. As the director, a heavy set man with a full upper lip mustache, explained, “Our objective is to get the deserter to assume financial responsibility for his family. We are not interested in sending the guy off to jail. That would be of no help whatsoever for his family.”
My very first assignment was to find a wrestler called “Sammy the Bull.” To learn how I would track Sammy down I was told to visit his wife and her son. They lived on the Grand Concourse up in the Bronx. The women answered the door in a padded over-washed housecoat and hastily retreated to her bedroom to “get properly dressed.” Her little boy stood in the kitchen doorway staring at me. Whatever sign of recognition I made sent him into rapid retreat. His mother reappeared looking like Gypsy Rose Lee of Burlesque fame. I insisted that we get right down to the business at hand. How could I trace down Sammy?
She suggested I check all the wrestling schedules in New York, Philly, Pittsburgh, etc.; which I did. And sure enough Sammy was due to wrestle at the Bronx Coliseum. This was a huge oval shaped hall that would house hockey, the circus and political rallies, including the Communist Party. It could fill the 10,000 seat arena at very short notice.
When I reported back to the Bureau office I was given a subpoena to serve on Sammy that would get him in front of the D.A. The Bureau would then suggest he be released in their custody. Off I went to the Coliseum to watch wrestling and serve the subpoena. In making my way to the locker room I had to show my detective pass. To my surprise it was instantly respected. It was in the smelly old locker room with its paint peeling walls and rickety benches that I listened to the wrestlers discussing exactly how this Kabuki called wrestling was to be performed.
Late in the program I encountered Sammy the Bull. He was a big heavyset Russian with a very sad expression on a face that seemed to express all the troubles he had seen. When I walked up to him with the subpoena he said, “Oh, so you caught up wit me. So what you want? I do the best I can. I send her what money I can. You think I make much here? Nothing. All dees guys here make nothing. The promoters make the dough, we just break our bones so they can get rich.” “Why don’t you guys organize a union and get a decent wage for your fights,” I said without thinking. Sammy looked around in a panic. “What you crazy. You get me blacklist if anybody hear you. So give me the fuckin’ paper and get the hell out of here.”
Shame and embarrassment hung over me. What the hell was I doing handing some poor bastard a subpoena who can’t even support himself. No, this wasn’t for me. I told the Bureau chief that I couldn’t do this kind of work. He said,”Yes, you’re idealistic and want to change the world. That’s fine for a young man, but you will soon learn that’s much easier said then done. Then you will be satisfied to just do little things that can help people in their everyday lives.”
And so came to an end my short detective career. I would go on to other WPA assignments like Orchard Beach and Pelham Bay Park where in both places I was shoveling dirt. A very grounding experience. And there was of course those great projects like the Triborough Bridge and Jones Beach and all those great public golf courses. And if you look around the city you will find amazing murals in old post office buildings painted by the WPA artist projects.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y
.
PS. The Obama Administration proposals for the Greening of America as a way to create jobs certainly does compare very favorably with the WPA of the thirties. The trick is to get it moving rapidly so that the jobs will have a positive effect on the economy and the effort will help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil. A win win solution.RS
The Bureau was a Jewish agency that hunted down men who had deserted their wives and children. As the director, a heavy set man with a full upper lip mustache, explained, “Our objective is to get the deserter to assume financial responsibility for his family. We are not interested in sending the guy off to jail. That would be of no help whatsoever for his family.”
My very first assignment was to find a wrestler called “Sammy the Bull.” To learn how I would track Sammy down I was told to visit his wife and her son. They lived on the Grand Concourse up in the Bronx. The women answered the door in a padded over-washed housecoat and hastily retreated to her bedroom to “get properly dressed.” Her little boy stood in the kitchen doorway staring at me. Whatever sign of recognition I made sent him into rapid retreat. His mother reappeared looking like Gypsy Rose Lee of Burlesque fame. I insisted that we get right down to the business at hand. How could I trace down Sammy?
She suggested I check all the wrestling schedules in New York, Philly, Pittsburgh, etc.; which I did. And sure enough Sammy was due to wrestle at the Bronx Coliseum. This was a huge oval shaped hall that would house hockey, the circus and political rallies, including the Communist Party. It could fill the 10,000 seat arena at very short notice.
When I reported back to the Bureau office I was given a subpoena to serve on Sammy that would get him in front of the D.A. The Bureau would then suggest he be released in their custody. Off I went to the Coliseum to watch wrestling and serve the subpoena. In making my way to the locker room I had to show my detective pass. To my surprise it was instantly respected. It was in the smelly old locker room with its paint peeling walls and rickety benches that I listened to the wrestlers discussing exactly how this Kabuki called wrestling was to be performed.
Late in the program I encountered Sammy the Bull. He was a big heavyset Russian with a very sad expression on a face that seemed to express all the troubles he had seen. When I walked up to him with the subpoena he said, “Oh, so you caught up wit me. So what you want? I do the best I can. I send her what money I can. You think I make much here? Nothing. All dees guys here make nothing. The promoters make the dough, we just break our bones so they can get rich.” “Why don’t you guys organize a union and get a decent wage for your fights,” I said without thinking. Sammy looked around in a panic. “What you crazy. You get me blacklist if anybody hear you. So give me the fuckin’ paper and get the hell out of here.”
Shame and embarrassment hung over me. What the hell was I doing handing some poor bastard a subpoena who can’t even support himself. No, this wasn’t for me. I told the Bureau chief that I couldn’t do this kind of work. He said,”Yes, you’re idealistic and want to change the world. That’s fine for a young man, but you will soon learn that’s much easier said then done. Then you will be satisfied to just do little things that can help people in their everyday lives.”
And so came to an end my short detective career. I would go on to other WPA assignments like Orchard Beach and Pelham Bay Park where in both places I was shoveling dirt. A very grounding experience. And there was of course those great projects like the Triborough Bridge and Jones Beach and all those great public golf courses. And if you look around the city you will find amazing murals in old post office buildings painted by the WPA artist projects.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y
.
PS. The Obama Administration proposals for the Greening of America as a way to create jobs certainly does compare very favorably with the WPA of the thirties. The trick is to get it moving rapidly so that the jobs will have a positive effect on the economy and the effort will help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil. A win win solution.RS
Monday, April 13, 2009
On Being a Father:
This turned out to be a father and son week as Kate went off with her friend Elaine and my son Fred came here for a few days. Fred is 56 and lives with his wife and daughter in Madison, Wisconsin. Over the years Fred and I have always managed to spend time together, mostly working on what we like to call projects. This time it was putting up a motion detector light and a wind indicator on the roof and wiring it into the house. Another time is was replacing rotted out window sashes and making repairs to the bulkhead. For me there is something about our working together that recreates the times of his childhood. I love that memory as it brings back the fun of watching him grow.
Fred was a child who just loved to laugh. His much older sister Elizabeth was his tease and clown. She just thought that Fred was a barrel of fun, and so they tickled and laughed at just about everything, including their Papa who they helped to not take himself too seriously.
I picked Fred up at LaGuardia Airport. As this young man comes to greet me with a big hug I wonder, where did that little boy go who used to delight in building models? The child has never completely left him. He tells me that now to keep from going crazy he makes flying models. I am reminded of our Sunday mornings in the Bronx Zoo where I read the Times in the Lion house while Fred went off to visit his many animal friends. Then we would head for home with a usual stop at a Frankforter cart where Fred would ask for a “frank with mustar and onion.” He learned that from carefully listening to the primarily Greek cart owners.
The more time I spend with this young man the more I am impressed with what he has been able to do with his life. He is kept busy between a 16 year old daughter, his job as a music teacher in the Madison Public schools, and the first bass player in the Madison Symphony Orchestra. He tells me repeatedly that now his favorite composer is Johannes Brahms. I remember in his teen years when it was “Jimmy Hendricks, the Grateful Dead or Lead Zeppelin.” Like all other parents with children in those times we worried about the drugs and the sex and the whole counter culture world. And yet those kids stopped that awful Vietnam war and changed this country forever. Yes, it was that same world of civil rights kids who sat in on those Southern lunch counters that made it possible for Obama to become President. Wasn’t that a time, and Fred was a part of it. I betcha you can tell by now that I am very proud of him.
As his father, and I am sure I speak for all fathers, there is a very special kind of pleasure to spend time with a fully grown man who once was just your very own little snot nosed kid. Did you ever expect him to grow up and be a father like yourself? I doubt it, only because there is another part of fatherhood that never wants them to grow up, but to always be that little boy who we were trying to teach how to play handball, baseball, build models or whatever. Here he is now my very own son who is a full grown man. There is a shift from being a parent to just being two men who have a special love for each other. I will be forever thankful for that
.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Fred was a child who just loved to laugh. His much older sister Elizabeth was his tease and clown. She just thought that Fred was a barrel of fun, and so they tickled and laughed at just about everything, including their Papa who they helped to not take himself too seriously.
I picked Fred up at LaGuardia Airport. As this young man comes to greet me with a big hug I wonder, where did that little boy go who used to delight in building models? The child has never completely left him. He tells me that now to keep from going crazy he makes flying models. I am reminded of our Sunday mornings in the Bronx Zoo where I read the Times in the Lion house while Fred went off to visit his many animal friends. Then we would head for home with a usual stop at a Frankforter cart where Fred would ask for a “frank with mustar and onion.” He learned that from carefully listening to the primarily Greek cart owners.
The more time I spend with this young man the more I am impressed with what he has been able to do with his life. He is kept busy between a 16 year old daughter, his job as a music teacher in the Madison Public schools, and the first bass player in the Madison Symphony Orchestra. He tells me repeatedly that now his favorite composer is Johannes Brahms. I remember in his teen years when it was “Jimmy Hendricks, the Grateful Dead or Lead Zeppelin.” Like all other parents with children in those times we worried about the drugs and the sex and the whole counter culture world. And yet those kids stopped that awful Vietnam war and changed this country forever. Yes, it was that same world of civil rights kids who sat in on those Southern lunch counters that made it possible for Obama to become President. Wasn’t that a time, and Fred was a part of it. I betcha you can tell by now that I am very proud of him.
As his father, and I am sure I speak for all fathers, there is a very special kind of pleasure to spend time with a fully grown man who once was just your very own little snot nosed kid. Did you ever expect him to grow up and be a father like yourself? I doubt it, only because there is another part of fatherhood that never wants them to grow up, but to always be that little boy who we were trying to teach how to play handball, baseball, build models or whatever. Here he is now my very own son who is a full grown man. There is a shift from being a parent to just being two men who have a special love for each other. I will be forever thankful for that
.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Who Gets Saved?
First let me thank my old friend Stanley Aronowitz for his comment to the blog on Capitalism. Stanley suggested that most of what the Obama team was doing was to save Wall Street for the next bubble and bust. I admit to getting over-involved in the technology of how capitalism works that I lost sight of the woods for the trees. My argument for freeing up credit was an example of how one can get involved in the everyday working of the system and lose the overall view of who is being rescued and who is being suckered.
What brought home to me the uneven distribution of the rescue plan was the Obama treatment of the auto industry and in particular GM. Be assured that I have no particular love for GM or its CEO Rick Wagoner. But just look at the contrast of how the Obama folks are dealing with the banks, especially the big ones like Citi Corp, Bank of America and Washington Mutual. They just get TARP money thrown at them. No suggestion that their CEOs get canned as with Wagoner. Yes, Wagoner and GM screwed up, but probably a lot less than the CEOs of the major banks. I would argue the bank guys are far more responsible for the present economic crisis than Wagoner or GM. The latter have severely hurt the company, but GM did not cause the meltdown. THE BANKS DID.
I have another concern regarding GM and the thousands of auto workers the company represents. There were many people saying we should just let GM go bankrupt. Are we willing to let all manufacturing in this country go by the wayside? That’s the implication when the Obama folks throw money at the banks but tell the auto industry they have to do all kinds of things to be eligible for the bailout. What we have here is a double standard, one for the banks and another for manufacturing. And therein lies my problem.
Historically the American auto industry, with the help of the Bush administration, never recognized their need to change. Remember Bush refused to do anything about the mileage problem, and finally when they did something they did not ask for change until 2020. Yet the industry would have really been helped if the former administration had said in 2005, “you got five years to make cars that get 30 miles on a gallon.” Could GM have done that? Of course they could have. But GM, like the Bush administration, were riding the credit bubble. So GM, instead of concentrating on making the EV1 (their electric car) more marketable, they made the Hummer instead. Why? Because the profit margin on the Hummer was five times what it might have been on the electric car. There was no leadership from Washington to do anything but what they were doing. Bush really loved the big party and thought it would go on forever.
What I find so disturbing is the difference between how the Obama folks are handling the banks versus the manufacturing companies. There seems to be an utter disregard for saving our manufacturing base. We are well on our way to becoming the white collar professional class workforce of the world. Is that what we want to be? That would mean the traditional path for poor people to make it into our middle class would totally disappear. Is that what we want? I would hope not, but that’s where we are headed.
I would argue that if we are interested in saving jobs and creating new ones, we had better take a hard look at what is happening to our ability to make things. If the present trend of “Made In China” continues, here’s what we could be confronted with. In our next military crisis (that I hope doesn’t happen, but just in case it does), we will have to make sure that China can make all our stuff, because we won’t have the facilities or the know how to make any of it ourselves. I’m a peace-nick, so imagine me having to make a case for the maintenance of a manufacturing base as a national security issue. But there it is staring us right in the face,
Getting back to saving the auto industry. If we look at the consequences of letting the industry die, the number of jobs and businesses that will go bust is just mind boggling. There are whole towns, like Jaynesville, WI, that can give us good case studies of what happens if we continue along the path of “let em go bankrupt.” It is millions of workers both employed and on pension who are going to end up on the welfare rolls. These people are all part of a system that grew up during the big bubble party. Now that the party is over, there seems to be an attitude of “well its to bad for them.” And in the meantime the top guys at AIG and now Fredi Mac are getting bonuses as a reward for really f---ing things up.
Obama, your administration is in the triage seat. Lets start being fair about deciding who drowns and who gets saved. Remember all those campaign pledges to the blue collar workers. If you don’t, Joe the Plumber will eat you up comes 2012.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
What brought home to me the uneven distribution of the rescue plan was the Obama treatment of the auto industry and in particular GM. Be assured that I have no particular love for GM or its CEO Rick Wagoner. But just look at the contrast of how the Obama folks are dealing with the banks, especially the big ones like Citi Corp, Bank of America and Washington Mutual. They just get TARP money thrown at them. No suggestion that their CEOs get canned as with Wagoner. Yes, Wagoner and GM screwed up, but probably a lot less than the CEOs of the major banks. I would argue the bank guys are far more responsible for the present economic crisis than Wagoner or GM. The latter have severely hurt the company, but GM did not cause the meltdown. THE BANKS DID.
I have another concern regarding GM and the thousands of auto workers the company represents. There were many people saying we should just let GM go bankrupt. Are we willing to let all manufacturing in this country go by the wayside? That’s the implication when the Obama folks throw money at the banks but tell the auto industry they have to do all kinds of things to be eligible for the bailout. What we have here is a double standard, one for the banks and another for manufacturing. And therein lies my problem.
Historically the American auto industry, with the help of the Bush administration, never recognized their need to change. Remember Bush refused to do anything about the mileage problem, and finally when they did something they did not ask for change until 2020. Yet the industry would have really been helped if the former administration had said in 2005, “you got five years to make cars that get 30 miles on a gallon.” Could GM have done that? Of course they could have. But GM, like the Bush administration, were riding the credit bubble. So GM, instead of concentrating on making the EV1 (their electric car) more marketable, they made the Hummer instead. Why? Because the profit margin on the Hummer was five times what it might have been on the electric car. There was no leadership from Washington to do anything but what they were doing. Bush really loved the big party and thought it would go on forever.
What I find so disturbing is the difference between how the Obama folks are handling the banks versus the manufacturing companies. There seems to be an utter disregard for saving our manufacturing base. We are well on our way to becoming the white collar professional class workforce of the world. Is that what we want to be? That would mean the traditional path for poor people to make it into our middle class would totally disappear. Is that what we want? I would hope not, but that’s where we are headed.
I would argue that if we are interested in saving jobs and creating new ones, we had better take a hard look at what is happening to our ability to make things. If the present trend of “Made In China” continues, here’s what we could be confronted with. In our next military crisis (that I hope doesn’t happen, but just in case it does), we will have to make sure that China can make all our stuff, because we won’t have the facilities or the know how to make any of it ourselves. I’m a peace-nick, so imagine me having to make a case for the maintenance of a manufacturing base as a national security issue. But there it is staring us right in the face,
Getting back to saving the auto industry. If we look at the consequences of letting the industry die, the number of jobs and businesses that will go bust is just mind boggling. There are whole towns, like Jaynesville, WI, that can give us good case studies of what happens if we continue along the path of “let em go bankrupt.” It is millions of workers both employed and on pension who are going to end up on the welfare rolls. These people are all part of a system that grew up during the big bubble party. Now that the party is over, there seems to be an attitude of “well its to bad for them.” And in the meantime the top guys at AIG and now Fredi Mac are getting bonuses as a reward for really f---ing things up.
Obama, your administration is in the triage seat. Lets start being fair about deciding who drowns and who gets saved. Remember all those campaign pledges to the blue collar workers. If you don’t, Joe the Plumber will eat you up comes 2012.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Friday, April 3, 2009
How Will I Know?
Hello: Another poem may be a diversion from the everlasting crisis. I’ll be back on that soon I promise. RS
How Will I Know?
How will I know when it’s time to go?
Not talking about movies,
Or of the bear who knew it was time to go over the mountain
Just to see what he could see.
Or visit an old friend in Mexico or London.
No, this is about that final bow out.
Sylvia Plath, Charles Boyer bowed themselves out.
As did a couple of Hemingway’s.
Luigi, our imperious cat, bowed out.
Not on his own.
With the help of Dr. Brian
Who looked Luigi in the eye and
Asked, “Is it time to go?”
It’s time, Luigi replied.
Then with a needle prick it was over.
It was time to go.
Hamlet ponders over and over,
To be or not to be, that is the question.
Does he get an answer?
I don’t think so.
So I wonder in my ninety-second year,
Will I know for sure when it’s time to go?
Not so fast, still some things undone.
There’s Soren, a new born great-grandson,
Way out there in LA Califor nia.
Waiting for me to kiss his little behind.
But still I don’t know. Who will tell me
When it is time to go?
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
How Will I Know?
How will I know when it’s time to go?
Not talking about movies,
Or of the bear who knew it was time to go over the mountain
Just to see what he could see.
Or visit an old friend in Mexico or London.
No, this is about that final bow out.
Sylvia Plath, Charles Boyer bowed themselves out.
As did a couple of Hemingway’s.
Luigi, our imperious cat, bowed out.
Not on his own.
With the help of Dr. Brian
Who looked Luigi in the eye and
Asked, “Is it time to go?”
It’s time, Luigi replied.
Then with a needle prick it was over.
It was time to go.
Hamlet ponders over and over,
To be or not to be, that is the question.
Does he get an answer?
I don’t think so.
So I wonder in my ninety-second year,
Will I know for sure when it’s time to go?
Not so fast, still some things undone.
There’s Soren, a new born great-grandson,
Way out there in LA Califor nia.
Waiting for me to kiss his little behind.
But still I don’t know. Who will tell me
When it is time to go?
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
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