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Politico
2 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
Playbook: Dems rev up 2028 travel
Presented by With help from Eli Okun and Bethany Irvine Happy Saturday morning. It's Adam Wren. We made it to the weekend. What are you up to? Get in touch. DRIVING THE DAY The 2028 shadow Democratic presidential primary is edging into the spotlight. Candidates are crisscrossing the country and delivering after-action reports about what went wrong with Joe Biden's presidency — even some who were involved in the administration. And this weekend it's turning toward South Carolina, where state Democrats gather for their annual confab. On Friday, at the Blue Palmetto Dinner, where Maryland Gov. Wes Moore delivered the keynote address, the rising star who has said he's 'not running' for president sounded a lot like he was running for president. As our colleague Brakkton Booker writes in a dispatch from Columbia, 'Moore's premium speaking slot before the state's well-connected party leaders does little to tamp down speculation he's kicking the tires on an upcoming presidential bid.' FIRST IN THE SOUTH (AGAIN): Speaking at the World Famous Fish Fry, an annual political event hosted by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke of the missteps Democrats made last cycle, even comparing his time on the campaign trail to Taylor Swift's record-setting global tour, Brakkton writes into Playbook. 'I called it my 90-day 'Eras Tour' to seven states,' the former vice presidential nominee said, drawing a smattering of chuckles. 'I went to the same seven damn states over and over and over. You know what? People are pissed off in South Carolina, they're pissed off in Texas, they're pissed off in Indiana. And there's more of us than there are of the billionaires. So we need to change the attitude [and] compete in every district, compete for every school board seat.' Today, moving toward center stage is Walz, who has quite the itinerary. At 10 a.m., in Columbia, he'll speak to South Carolina Democratic Party convention goers. Then, he'll jet to Anaheim, California, where he'll speak at the California Democratic Party Convention. But as they search for a way back, Democrats like Walz, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and even former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg aren't just visiting reliably Democratic (or early primary) states. They're focusing on red states, where the party has endured significant setbacks. In fact, Walz has focused his travel on red states: Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio and West Virginia. And the South Dakota Democratic Party recently announced he will be the keynote speaker at the annual McGovern Day dinner on July 12 in Sioux Falls. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: 2028 Democrats aren't done with South Carolina. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear will travel to the state to speak at the state's AFL-CIO convention on July 16. The following evening, he will also speak at the Georgetown County Democratic Party Dinner — a county Trump won in all three of his presidential bids. But 2028 Democrats' more urgent issue is not where to go, but which direction. Populism? Abundance? A third way? So far, the party has been focused more on where to say what they are saying — the right types of podcasts — than on what they are saying. Their earliest steps out of the wilderness have been in reference to Trump, not the party's own values — whether they should accommodate him or fight him. At a leaderless moment for their party, Trumpism and their response to it has been the clearest organizing principle. On Friday evening, Moore acknowledged that Democrats could learn from the unlikeliest of instructors: Trump himself. 'Urgency is the instrument of change. And do you know who understands that really well? Donald Trump,' Moore said. 'I want to be clear: We can — and we must — condemn Donald Trump's reckless actions. But we would also be foolish not to learn from his impatience.' 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — IMMIGRATION FILES: The Trump administration's 'efforts to strip protections from more than half a million legal immigrants could devastate the health sector, endangering care for the elderly and worsening rates of both chronic and infectious diseases,' POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein reports. By the numbers: 'Hundreds of thousands of health care workers, including an estimated 30,000 legal immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, are at risk of being deported — worrying providers and patients who rely on them for everything from nursing and physical therapy to maintenance, janitorial, foodservice and housekeeping work.' Another case study: The Trump administration has now 'admitted that it improperly deported another immigrant in violation of a court order — the fourth known case in which the administration deported someone erroneously or in breach of specific legal requirements,' POLITICO's Kyle Cheney reports. The details: 'Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, had been in immigration detention since 2022 while deportation proceedings against him were pending. But on May 7, shortly after a federal appeals court ordered the government to keep him in the United States, immigration authorities deported him back to his native country.' Melgar-Salmeron's lawyer told POLITICO he intends to ask the court to order the government to return his client and to hold government officials in contempt. On another note: 'Murkowski slams Trump administration revoking protections for Afghan immigrants,' by POLITICO's Ali Bianco 2. THE STAND OF OZ: CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, a Harvard alum, downplayed concerns surrounding Trump's efforts to ban his alma mater from accepting international students during an interview with Playbook's Dasha Burns for her new podcast, 'The Conversation.' Oz said he still believes Harvard will be able to recruit international students with vetting in the future. What Oz said: 'I think that will happen over time, but this is a bigger discussion about what is Harvard willing to do to truly represent the best interests of its students and the American people. … We will continue to train the best and the brightest of other parts of the world. We want there to be a brain drain towards America from those nations. But there's been a change in my alma mater, Harvard, that anyone who went to school with me would have to acknowledge. We witnessed our school lose its way.' For the full episode: Dasha's full conversation with Oz will be live tomorrow morning. Listen and watch on YouTube … Subscribe to the podcast … More from POLITICO's Katherine Long 3. IN DEFENSE: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a stark warning to Asian allies today, portraying the threat China poses to the region as 'real, and it could be imminent,' POLITICO's Paul McLeary reports. 'In his first speech to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Hegseth was blunt about Washington's view of the Chinese military buildup in the region and the threat it poses to Taiwan, calling on allies to spend more on defense while pledging continued American partnership and support.' What Hegseth said: 'There's no reason to sugarcoat it. The threat China poses is real, and it could be imminent,' Hegseth said. Any Chinese military move on Taiwan 'would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world,' he added. 4. ON THE AGENDA: Despite a week that delivered several blows to his trade agenda, Trump is 'digging in on his vow to impose steep tariffs by any means necessary — and stick it to those who question his strength and think he's bound to 'chicken out,'' POLITICO's Megan Messerly and colleagues report. 'He and administration officials have said that negotiations with other countries will continue, are insisting they'll win their current tariff battle in court and are even preparing back-up strategies for new tariffs in case they don't.' The resolve: 'Trump's determination to move fast could slow implementation of his tariff regime. It also threatens to cost him credibility with businesses he's counting on to invest in the U.S. and world leaders whose buy-in he needs to negotiate trade deals. Still, few expect a different posture from a famously intransigent president or any second-guessing following the Wednesday ruling from the U.S. Court of International Trade, which briefly halted most of the tariffs.' About last night: Trump said that he plans to double his tariff on steel to 50 percent, from 25 percent currently, to prevent billions of dollars worth of foreign steel from continuing to enter the United States, POLITICO's Doug Palmer reports. 'At 50 percent, they can no longer get over the fence,' Trump said during a speech at a U.S. Steel facility in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania last night. 5. BUILDING OUT THE BUDGET: Trump's 'skinny' budget is filling out. Federal agencies began sending the nitty-gritty of Trump's budget proposal to Congress yesterday, detailing which programs he wants Republicans to cut deeply — or wipe out entirely — when they vote to fund the government in September, POLITICO's Jennifer Scholtes reports. The details: 'In 'budget in brief' documents, agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, along with the departments of Education and Health and Human Services, detailed their requests to cut billions of dollars from their budgets. … Among the proposed cuts to most federal departments, the administration is asking Congress to slash $12 billion from federal education programs, $5 billion from agriculture efforts and a total of more than $60 billion from health, housing and community development work.' 6. THE MEDIA MELEE: PBS yesterday sued the Trump administration in an effort to 'block his order stripping federal funding from the 330-station public television system, three days after NPR did the same for its radio network,' AP's David Bauder reports. 'In its lawsuit, PBS relies on similar arguments, saying Trump was overstepping his authority and engaging in 'viewpoint discrimination' because of his claim that PBS' news coverage is biased against conservatives.' From the suit: 'PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms,' lawyer Z.W. Julius Chen wrote. 'But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS's programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.' Meanwhile: 'California lawmakers ask former CBS leaders to testify on proposed settlement with Trump,' by POLITICO's Blake Jones 7. ATTENTION TO DETAIL: DNI Tulsi Gabbard is 'exploring ways to revamp [Trump's] routine intelligence briefing in order to build his trust in the material and make it more aligned with how he likes to consume information,' NBC's Courtney Kube and colleagues scoop. 'One idea that's been discussed is possibly creating a video version of the PDB that's made to look and feel like a Fox News broadcast. … According to his public schedule, since his inauguration Trump has taken the PDB 14 times, or on average less than once a week, which is less often than his recent predecessors.' 8. FOOTING THE BILL: Wall Street is 'privately warning the Trump administration that the tax bill moving through Congress could stoke investor anxiety about rising deficits, push up U.S. borrowing costs and damage the broader economy,' WaPo's Andrew Ackerman and Jeff Stein reports. 'Most have been reluctant to raise their worries publicly, instead passing them along in smaller meetings or through trusted confidants.' Buried in the BBB: A 'retaliatory measure on foreign governments tucked into President Trump's tax bill has investors on edge,' WSJ's Richard Rubin and colleagues report. 'The proposed change would give the U.S. power to impose new taxes of up to 20% on foreigners with U.S. investments, hitting governments, individuals and companies with U.S. outposts. It's being called a 'revenge tax' because it's specifically designed to apply only in cases where other countries are deemed to be imposing unfair or discriminatory taxes against U.S. companies.' 9. SPLIT SCREEN: 'Inside the split between MAGA and the Federalist Society,' by POLITICO's Hailey Fuchs and Daniel Barnes: 'The president's allies had been sowing discontent with [Leonard] Leo's operation long before Trump publicly turned on his onetime adviser. Frustration had been growing among Trump and MAGA loyalists as a series of court rulings have hampered elements of Trump's second term agenda … and by judges Trump installed on the bench during his first term with Leo and the Federalist Society's guidance. Now conflict is openly breaking out among the constellation of conservative judicial leaders that used to operate alongside one another.' CLICKER — 'The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics,' edited by Matt Wuerker — 18 funnies GREAT WEEKEND READS: — 'Does Trump Actually Think He's God?' by POLITICO Magazine's Michael Kruse: 'The president's messianic rhetoric has soared since the assassination attempt.' — 'The New Dark Age,' by The Atlantic's Adam Serwer: 'The Trump administration has launched an attack on knowledge itself.' — 'The Techno-Futuristic Philosophy Behind Elon Musk's Mania,' by Matthew Purdy for the NYT: 'From the White House to Mars, the tech billionaire has his sights set on the long term.' — ''The Federal Government Is Gone': Under Trump, the Fight Against Extremist Violence Is Left Up to the States,' by ProPublica's Hannah Allam: 'Some state efforts are robust, others are fledgling and yet other states are still formalizing strategies for addressing extremism.' — 'Adam Friedland Could Be the Millennial Jon Stewart. But Does He Want That?' by GQ's Kieran Press-Reynolds: '[I]n the wake of an election that podcasters helped swing in Donald Trump's favor, he's fielding interview offers from politicians desperate to connect with disaffected young voters any way they can.' — 'Jordon Hudson, Kash Patel and MJ's fax machine: Pablo Torre's 'terminal content brain' battles the algorithm,' by The Athletic's Zak Keefer TALK OF THE TOWN Joe Biden publicly spoke about his cancer diagnosis for the first time since it was revealed. 'The expectation is we're going to be able to beat this. There's no — it's not in any organ, my bones are strong, it hadn't penetrated,' he told reporters, per WaPo's Dylan Wells. One of Barron Trump's NYU friends tells NewsNation that he has a girlfriend and comes off as 'pretty apolitical.' TOP TALKER — Michael Schaffer pens his latest Capital City column on Trump's proposed National Garden of American Heroes, which he wants to feature 250 life-sized statues in time for the nation's 250th birthday next year. The big problem? Artists, curators and critics who have reviewed the idea say 'America doesn't have enough quality sculptors or museum-caliber foundries to make this happen on Trump's speedy timeline.' The other hang-up: 'The fine print forbids 'abstract or modernist' statues, and the biggest collection of artisans and fabricators working in Trump's preferred old-school realist style turns out to be in China, not the U.S.' THE ARTS TAKEOVER CONTINUES — Trump said in a post on Truth Social yesterday afternoon that he was firing Kim Sajet as director of the National Portrait Gallery. 'She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position,' Trump wrote, promising that he would name a replacement 'shortly.' Trump is also targeting the Smithsonian in his budget request, which 'proposed a 12 percent reduction of the institution's budget and excluded funding for its Anacostia Community Museum and its forthcoming National Museum of the American Latino,' per WaPo. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — 'Trump administration OKs expedited disposal of Greater Washington federal properties,' by the Washington Business Journal's Ben Peters TRANSITIONS — Elisabeth Conklin is now legislative director for Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.). She previously was a senior professional staff member on the House Small Business Committee. … Julia Schechter is now senior manager of policy comms at Snap. She previously was a PR manager at Apple. WEDDING — Justin Papp and Eloisa Melendez, via NYT: '[He's] now a Congress reporter at CQ Roll Call … [She] is the lead manager of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Care at the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood … On May 16, their five-year anniversary, Lauren Papp, the groom's sister, who became a temporary officiant in the District of Columbia, officiated on the couple's rooftop … In January, they plan to celebrate with family and friends in the mountains above Medellín.' HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Jennifer Berlin … Charlie Meisch ... Debra DeShong … NPR's Deirdre Walsh … Julie Moos of The Forward … Clark Judge ... Elizabeth Dos Santos of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's (R-Fla.) office … Matt Berman … Amy Pfeiffer of Sen. Andy Kim's (D-N.J.) office … Michael O'Connor of Williams & Connolly … Marilyn Tavenner … CNN's Sara Sidner … former Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) … Dan Pino … former Del. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) (92) … Al From … DCI Group's Maegan Rosenberg … Erik Telford … Sara Carter … HSGAC's Allison Tinsey … Newsbusters' P.J. Gladnick … Susana Castillo of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's office … Brad Bosserman … Bert Kaufman … Keith Fernandez … Jen Bristol of the Solar Energy Industries Association … Ali Noorani … POLITICO's Haseb Alim … Phil Elwood THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): POLITICO 'The Conversation with Dasha Burns': CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz. NBC 'Meet the Press': Speaker Mike Johnson … Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.). Panel: Lanhee Chen, Jeh Johnson, Jonathan Martin and Kelly O'Donnell. CNN 'State of the Union': OMB Director Russ Vought … House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries … Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Panel: Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Scott Jennings, Jamal Simmons and Shermichael Singleton. FOX 'Fox News Sunday': Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) … Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) … Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Panel: Marie Harf, Guy Benson, Horace Cooper and Meridith McGraw. Sunday Special: Modern Warrior Live. ABC 'This Week': NEC Director Kevin Hassett … Cindy McCain. Trump family business panel: Evan Osnos and Chris Christie. Panel: Donna Brazile, Reince Priebus and Astead Herndon. Fox News 'Sunday Morning Futures': DHS Secretary Kristi Noem … Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) … Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) … Brad Gerstner. Panel: Peter Schweizer and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.). NewsNation 'The Hill Sunday': Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) … Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) … Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. Panel: Amie Parnes, David Drucker, Jessica Taylor and Tia Mitchell. CBS 'Face the Nation': Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent … FDA Commissioner Marty Makary … Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) … Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) … Michael Roth. MSNBC 'The Weekend': Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) … Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) … James Carville … Karen Hao. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
Fox News
6 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Trump admin urged to support striking Iranian truckers: 'Potential to paralyze regime'
Iranian truck drivers have widened their labor stoppage to include more than 100 towns and cities across the country, while the clerical regime launched a violent crackdown on strikers in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj. Iranian experts have long urged successive U.S. administrations to provide strike pay and other forms of aid to restive workers in the Islamic Republic, with a view to improving human rights and causing regime change from within. Truckers are a key industrial force that helps keep the worsening Iranian economy above water. Alireza Nader, a Washington, D.C., expert on Iran's regime who studies Iranian labor unrest, told Fox News Digital, "The Trump administration should offer loud support to the truckers-this would give Trump even more leverage in the nuclear negotiations. And organizations such as the AFL-CIO can play an important role in bringing the trucker strikes to international attention." The U.S. is engaged in talks with Iran's regime to dismantle its illegal nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief. Nader added, "The nationwide trucker strikes have the potential to paralyze the regime as it faces increasing vulnerability. The trucker strikes can be even more effective if other sectors of Iran's economy go on strike, especially the energy sector and other transportation sectors." Many opponents of the clerical regime want the U.S. government to take a page from former President Ronald Reagan's playbook against the now-defunct communist Poland via organized support for workers and their unions. U.S. administrations cooperated prior to the collapse of the communist Soviet Union with the free American labor movement to inject democracy into trade unions in the largely closed communist societies. The core economic issues animating the work stoppage, which started on May 18 in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, involve working conditions and reduced insurance costs. According to the independent diaspora news organization IranWire, the spike in insurance coincided with a downsized medical care. The Union of Iranian Truckers and Heavy Vehicle Drivers is also demanding remedies for the lack of roadside aid for graft in the allocation of cargo. The truckers are also seeking the amelioration of expensive spare parts, freight brokerage fees and diesel quotas. Greater security on the long stretches of Iranian highways is also demanded. "A driver who protests for his bread and dignity is not a rioter," the truckers' union stated, adding, "Protest is not a crime, but our legal right," reported IranWire. Lisa Daftari, an Iran expert and editor-in-chief of the Foreign Desk, told Fox News Digital, "The latest nationwide truckers' strike is not an isolated incident—it is only the latest manifestation of deep disenchantment among Iranians who are denied dignity and proper rights in every industry. Over the past 46 years, we have witnessed waves of protest across a patchwork of sectors and communities, each uprising pointing to a single, overarching truth: the Iranian people are not just sending a message to their government, but to the entire world, urging support in their quest for freedom and basic rights." She added, "This is a fundamental demand, but as history has shown, it is not easily achieved under a government that has proven itself incapable of reform or of delivering the life Iranians deserve." In 2019, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) urged Tehran to release detained workers' rights activists. In 2018, the Teamsters Union, which represents most truckers in the U.S., issued solidarity support for truck drivers on strike in more than 290 Iranian cities.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
What America Made of Marx
The young cigar maker in New York City attended a few socialist meetings in the 1870s. But he longed to hear 'constructive' ideas about how to achieve a better life for himself and his fellow workers. Then an older craftsman, who was a veteran of the European left, offered to take him through 'something tangible' that 'will give you a background philosophy.' That something was The Communist Manifesto. The document, recalled his untutored protégé, 'brought me an interpretation of much that before had been only inarticulate feeling.' Reading that Marx and Engels hailed 'the ever expanding union of the workers' as 'the real fruit' of class struggle encouraged him to organize a durable labor movement. After the ambitious cigar worker left his rolling bench to become a full-time union leader, he would always be suspicious of intellectuals, socialist or otherwise, who believed they had a duty to tell wage earners how to liberate themselves. All his life, he adhered, in effect, to Marx's 1864 motto, 'The emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves.' That erstwhile cigar maker was Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor—the organization that evolved into the AFL-CIO and has dominated American unionism for well over a century. Gompers became a harsh critic of Marxian radicals: He thought their desire to yoke the labor movement to the fate of a socialist party would violate the independence of unions and lead them into a dead end of sectarianism, repression, and defeat. Still, the inspiration the young Gompers drew from the Manifesto appears to support the argument Andrew Hartman makes in his sprawling, often provocative new survey, Karl Marx in America: 'Marx gained purchase in American life because he offered a powerful theory of freedom—one that doubled as a map of an alternative American future.' If the bearded German icon left a strong imprint on organized labor—the movement he believed would be pivotal to overthrowing capitalism—then it must have shaped the views of millions of ordinary Americans who burned to change their society in fundamental ways. Hartman sweeps with gusto through over a century and a half of U.S. history, revealing the influence of Marxism on dozens of institutions, individuals, and events, obscure and famous. Did you know that the revolutionary sage wrote or co-wrote nearly 500 articles for the New-York Tribune during the Civil War era, when it was one of the most popular newspapers in the nation? Or that at least two of his disciples were officers in the Union Army? Or that Franklin D. Roosevelt's 'political philosophy rhymed with Marxism'? While Hartman might overstate the importance of these political details, he largely succeeds at a different, if lesser, mission: to narrate how vital arguments about Marxist thought were to men and women who spent their lives battling about two distinct clusters of well-educated Americans, Marxism has long been a fruitful subject— either a set of ideas to think with or a cudgel to wield against ideological foes. In the first camp are radical and reform-minded intellectuals who take Marx's ideas seriously—even as they ceaselessly dispute, revise, and apply them to explain the evolving forms of American culture, economics, and politics. In the second camp thrive officeholders and propagandists on the right. For them, the old Rhinelander's name and a crude or false version of his doctrines serve as a perennial bogeyman to scare the public away from a welfare state and movements on the left. The Trump administration's recent vow to cancel federal funding that allegedly promotes some evil known as 'Marxist equity' fits a line of attack that has been around since Lenin occupied the Kremlin. Hartman's treatment of both left literati and right-wing witch-hunters brims with insight, cogently presented. In his most original foray into the burned-over ground of left intellectual history, he brings to life a number of thinkers about whom even most academics know little or nothing. There was Friedrich Sorge, who immigrated to New York from exile in Europe after fighting in the revolution of 1848 and 'was arguably better versed in Marx's writings' than anyone in his new country. Sorge, who helped found the nation's first socialist party—the Workingmen's Party of the United States—in 1876, argued that competing in elections would accomplish nothing unless wage earners first organized into powerful unions. Although neither of the parties that flew the Marxist banner across the country in the twentieth century won more than a handful of offices beyond the local level, both the Socialist Party and the Communist Party stamped their mark on American thought and culture. The SP nurtured such writers as Jack London and Helen Keller. During his five campaigns for president on the Socialist ticket, Eugene Debs articulated the need for a 'cooperative commonwealth' in terms borrowed from the Bible as well as the gospel of historical materialism. And while American Communists never abandoned their fealty to the tyrannical rulers of the Soviet Union, they did inspire such famous critics of class oppression and white supremacy as Woody Guthrie, Dorothea Lange, and Angela Davis. Among the more obscure figures whom Hartman profiles is Raya Dunayevskaya, a Ukrainian émigré, who created, after World War II, a fresh variant of the old doctrine she called 'Marxist humanism.' Her aim was to rescue a philosophy of human liberation from the Communists who had converted it into 'the theory and practice of enslavement.' Together with the great Trinidadian writer and organizer C.L.R. James, Dunayevskaya argued that Marx had sharply criticized all forms of labor under capitalism—enslaved or waged—as assaults on individual freedom. Departing from an orthodox focus on white industrial wage earners allowed them to broaden the definition of the exploited to include women, racial minorities, and students. 'Her Marxist theory of revolution was tailored for the 1960s,' Hartman aptly observes. But the radical feminists who coined the phrase 'the personal is political' grasped the same insight without seeking legitimacy in Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. Both James and Dunayevskaya arrived in the United States in the 1920s, before the Great Depression, when Marxists of all stripes understandably viewed that long downturn as proof of the chaos and misery endemic to capitalism. Surely, Americans would be open to a theory that would now seem like common sense. Organizers who happened to be Communists or Socialists played a major role in mobilizing the big strikes that birthed the unions of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the factories where cars, steel, and refrigerators were made: Members of the Communist Party were the chief architects of the sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan, during the winter of 1936–1937 that established the United Auto Workers as a power in the land. Yet Marxists gained more influence among writers and artists in the 1930s than among ordinary people. For all their fervor, leftist intellectuals struggled to understand why their message often failed to resonate more widely. At the polls, workers spurned Marxist candidates in favor of those from the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the patrician-turned-populist. One worker acclaimed FDR as 'the only man we ever had in the White House who would understand that my boss is a sonofabitch.' Bowing to reality, Socialist and Communist organizers narrowed their goals to union recognition, job security, and higher wages instead of a society run by and for the working class. The larger message of Marxism wasn't getting through: As Hartman remarks, 'Either there was something wrong with their theory, or there was something wrong with the working class.' The literary critic Kenneth Burke argued that paying closer attention to how Americans actually talked about their problems could help Marxists appeal to them in terms they might grasp. Poetic discourse, he mused, would advance the class struggle better than alien-sounding jargon. In his landmark 1935 history of the Civil War and Reconstruction, W.E.B. Du Bois hailed Black people for engaging in the biggest 'general strike' in U.S. history when they fled to Union lines, depriving Confederate planters of their labor. If white workers had only shed their racial privilege, he contended, they could have forged a potent alliance across the color line. Alas, 'not enough … were familiar with Capital,' Hartman says, and so they embraced the new Jim Crow order. Du Bois remained a Marxist all his life, but some talented younger leftists soon abandoned their faith in what they took to be a failed theory and became liberal proponents of American exceptionalism. In his immensely popular 1948 book, The American Political Tradition, the historian Richard Hofstadter maintained, a bit sadly, that radical dissenters had never made much headway against a consensual culture that was 'intensely nationalistic and for the most part isolationist … fiercely individualistic and capitalistic.' Whereas the Marxists of the '30s and '40s may have failed to convert the working class, their successors in the '80s and '90s didn't even attempt as much. As conservatives from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump tore away at the legacies of the New Deal, the Great Society, and the New Left, American Marxism entered a newly insular phase. A number of scholars took refuge in spinning out new versions of Marxism whose only audience was inside academia. The literary theorist Fredric Jameson sought to unmask the alienating function of 'commodity fetishism' with 'real thought' that 'demands a descent into the materiality of language and a consent to time itself in the form of the sentence.' Hartman aptly comments, 'Cultural theory made a fetish of difficult language.' In their tome Empire (2000), Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri aimed to give left anti-globalizers an updated version of The Communist Manifesto but managed only to float an abstract hope that 'the multitude's ultimate demand for global citizenship' would be realized through discrete acts of resistance in locations scattered around the world. 'While the Right has been busy taking the White House,' Todd Gitlin quipped about such fanciful notions, 'the left has been marching on the English department.' Since the Great Recession, young activists on the left have turned to a more demotic style of Marxism to make sense of economic inequality as well as to protest it. Hartman points to the 'maximally accessible' prose in Jacobin, the magazine founded in 2010 by Bhaskar Sunkara, and to podcasts like Chapo Trap House, in which 'more than a hint of Marxism' flavors relentless put-downs of deluded liberals. This new generation has failed to gain more than a few slivers of political power: Its electoral victories in Washington have been limited to a handful of candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, notably Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, and the increased prominence of Bernie Sanders. To paraphrase the famous line chiseled on Marx's gravestone in London's Highgate Cemetery: American Marxists have only analyzed the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change Hartman doesn't capture why Marxists have found difficulty in spreading the word in the United States, and often claims victories for his cherished tradition when the story is more complicated. Take the example of Samuel Gompers. What the AFL leader learned from Marx convinced him to oppose the political strategy adopted by American Marxists. A socialist attorney once called Gompers 'the most class-conscious man I know.' But that mindset drove the labor leader to avoid using socialist rhetoric or making big promises about destroying capitalism. He knew such stances would turn off most working men and women in his nation, who demanded higher wages and better treatment on the job—not a proletarian revolution. What was true of labor was even more the case for other movements on the American left whose adherents were drawn from a variety of classes. From abolitionism to the heyday of the civil rights crusade in the 1960s, most Black organizers sought legitimacy and inspiration from such texts as the Bible and the Declaration of Independence—not the words of the Manifesto. Few feminists who were not also socialists took their cues from a nineteenth-century patriarch who wrote little about women besides noting the cheap labor they provided to factory owners. And environmentalists who yearn to do away with fossil fuels know the Soviet regime that made Marxism its state religion developed some of the filthiest carbonized industries on Earth. Even those prominent American activists who did praise what Marx wrote—who included Martin Luther King Jr. in his grad-uate student days—did not employ his language or endorse his ideas as they built powerful social movements. The 'freedom' from class exploitation that Hartman heralds was not the type that motivated many Americans, other than those who joined a socialist or communist party. And the membership and electoral clout of their organizations paled beside those of parties inspired by Marxism in nearly every other industrial nation. Through most of U.S. history, influential dissenters have spoken in registers more indigenous to the republic—democratic, Christian, and populist. 'The people' was a more common, inclusive term than 'the working class,' and urgent calls to realize the promise of self-government resonated far more widely than stern attacks on the power of the homegrown 'bourgeoisie.' 'To make everything depend upon economic forces,' wrote the progressive thinker Richard T. Ely in 1894, 'is shutting one's eyes to other forces, equally great and sometimes greater.' He added, 'one must be blind to historical and actual phenomena who would make religion merely a product of economic life.' Hartman tends to disparage this tradition as 'moral leftism,' but it has been a major driver of nearly every insurgency of consequence in U.S. the right, however, the M-word has long proved an effective weapon in its perpetual war against anyone branded as enemies of liberty and the nation itself. This assault began during the presidency of FDR. 'So help me God,' Father Charles Coughlin vowed in 1936 to his huge radio audience, 'I will be instrumental in taking a Communist from a chair once occupied by Washington.' But invocations of Marx became routine during the Red Scare after World War II and have rarely been absent since then. Senator Joseph McCarthy denounced a 'religion of immoralism … invented by Marx … and carried to unimaginable extremes by Stalin.' Reagan gave Richard Nixon some advice about how to campaign in 1960 against his Democratic opponent for the presidency: 'Shouldn't someone tag Mr. Kennedy's bold new imaginative program with its proper age? Under the tousled boyish haircut is still old Karl Marx—first launched a century ago.' In recent years, Trumpist hacks with big followings gleefully slap the label 'cultural Marxism' onto any phenomena they detest, from critical race theory to teachers' unions to the alleged bias of the liberal media. In a 2021 book, the talk-show jockey Mark Levin called on all Americans 'who love their country, freedom, and family' to fight back against Marxists who 'pursue a destructive and diabolical course for our nation, undermining and sabotaging virtually every institution in our society.' What makes such attacks plausible to millions of Americans was—and remains—the public's ignorance of what Marx actually wrote and believed. Hartman takes pains to show that both liberal critics and right-wing demonizers got his favorite thinker terribly wrong. He argues, with persuasive quotations, that Marx was opposed to neither free speech nor democracy, and thus the tyrannical regimes run by his would-be followers would have appalled him. But if far more Americans think Castro, Stalin, and Mao were genuine Marxists than will ever read a page of Capital, The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, or even the Manifesto, that is just further proof of the small impression his American disciples have made on their fellow citizens. Despite the right's hostility, some of Marx's ideas still have great value almost 150 years after he died. As I wrote in these pages back in 2016, Marx 'brilliantly captured the propulsive dynamic' of the capitalist economy that has now conquered the entire world. What's more, 'our credulous addiction to the magical little computers in our pockets and purses demonstrates the wisdom of the section about 'the fetishism of commodities' in the first volume of Capital.' Anyone who cares about the multiple injuries of class can also learn from Marx's thorough dissection of the system of labor and production that generates so much wealth and so much pain. Yet, at the core of his thought is the determination that capitalism, like all earlier forms of class society, will inevitably fall victim to its own contradictions. After helping dig its grave, proletarians will begin to construct a world of caring and abundance for all. In 1938, George Orwell wrote that 'to the vast majority of people, Socialism means a classless society, or it means nothing at all.' But the gospel of self-reliance and the unions that struggle mainly for better pay and shorter hours have appealed to far more Americans than has the future predicted by Marx and echoed by his disciples. In the twenty-first century, a lot more working women and men have been willing to vote for an authoritarian billionaire who relishes destruction of the welfare state than have rallied to gain a measure of economic power for themselves. A theory that does not unravel that contradiction can do little to defeat Trumpism or build a more egalitarian society for Americans or anyone else.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Show of support for immigrants and refugees gets loud on Omaha's South 24th Street
Dozens packed la Plaza de la Raza in South Omaha Thursday for a rally to support immigrants and refugees and to urge Nebraska's congressional delegation to push for immigration reform. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner) OMAHA — Dozens packed a popular plaza on South Omaha's Latino-dominated commercial corridor Thursday afternoon, carrying immigrant-friendly signs and waving bumper stickers that read: Who would Jesus deport? 'Stand in Solidarity' rallygoers heard from allies at the top of 10 organizations such as the Nebraska AFL-CIO labor union, Nebraska Farmers Union and Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. All touted a message that immigrants and refugees were good for the state's economy, workforce and growth. And as passing cars honked and gave thumbs up, the speakers proclaimed their words from a stage. It was an intentionally blatant show of support, said Itzel Lopez of the Latino Economic Development Council, which helped Omaha Together One Community (OTOC) organize the event at la Plaza de la Raza on South 24th Street. 'We want to draw attention that, yes, it's safe,' said Lopez. 'That there are people in our community who truly care about the well being of immigrants in our state.' Lopez, speaking to the crowd, admitted that she can't help but worry herself about the fallout of President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies. Though she has grown up in Omaha, has seen success in business, she is a DACA recipient without permanent legal status who finds herself 'preoccupied with simply feeling safe.' OTOC leader Denise Bowyer said the diverse speaking lineup representing business, labor, agriculture, faith and community groups was intended to push back against negative messages and restrictive policies initiated at the national level. She said the group wants their message to reach Nebraska's congressional delegation and urged people to get louder and more active. James Krenz, senior program director for the International Council for Refugees and Immigrants, said admissions for refugees are effectively suspended. He said the Trump administration views refugees as 'a threat rather than a part of shared humanity.' 'What we see today is not normal,' he said, adding that quiet acceptance 'allows injustices to persist.' The rally was similar in spirit to one on the steps of the State Capitol in September, which drew more than 60 Nebraska organizations to announce a unified resolve to change state and federal policies to be more welcoming to immigrants and refugees. Over the past four months, said Bowyer, people's lives nationally and in Nebraska have been upended by executive orders, non-renewals of Temporary Protective Status and revocations of parole processes for people who entered the country with permission. OTOC is a religious-based network formed three decades ago to advocate for social justice issues. Trump, who campaigned on the promise to crack down on immigration, has said he is enforcing national laws and that mass deportations and strict border security protect Americans and the country's economic and social structures. Anne Wurth, senior attorney at the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement, said challenges representing newcomers have compounded in the last few months. While Nebraska has not seen the large-scale enforcement raids of the past, or high-profile arrests as some other states, Wurth said foreign-born Nebraskans should know their rights and be 'aware.' From what her organization has seen across the state, Wurth said, immigration agents have focused on 'stated enforcement priorities' — targeting people with prior removal orders and past criminal convictions. She said her office has information that federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security ostensibly have been conducting 'wellness checks' on young people who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied minors and were released to Nebraska sponsors. No one to her knowledge has been detained, said Wurth. 'But under this administration, those things can change.' Heath Mello, president of the Greater Omaha Chamber, said his members hear daily from employers who are struggling to fill jobs. He said the business group believes immigration reform must be part of the state's workforce solution. 'Smart, constructive immigration policy is not just the right thing to do — it's good economics,' Mello said. Sue Martin, president of the Nebraska AFL-CIO, said that without immigrants, America's workforce would shrink, meaning decreased tax revenue. John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, said Nebraska's largest single industry, agriculture, struggles with workforce issues. He named pork producers, dairy producers, poultry producers, beef feedlots, seedcorn companies and the meatpacking industry and said all are dependent on immigrant labor. Other speakers included Mustafa Babak, cofounder of the Afghan American Foundation, the Rev. Debra McKnight, founding pastor of Urban Abbey and Dawn Essink of OTOC. Lina Traslaviña Stover, executive director of the statewide Heartland Workers Center, said immigrant communities help Nebraska thrive. 'We are growing the food, building the homes, running big and small businesses, caring for families and keeping Nebraska moving forward.'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Connecticut's Broken Promise: When Equal Justice Favors Special Interests
'Equal justice under law.' These four words are inscribed on the front of the U.S. Supreme Court — a reminder that impartiality is a promise woven into the fabric of our constitutional system. When the building was under construction in 1935, a journalist questioned whether the word 'equal' was necessary. But Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes insisted. In his words, 'plac[ing] a strong emphasis on impartiality' was essential. He was right. As citizens, taxpayers, and participants in our democratic republic, we are entitled to expect impartiality from those who govern us. That's the promise of the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause — and in an era where government often seems to exceed its proper bounds, that expectation has never been more essential. Yet here in Connecticut, too often, that promise is being broken. Our elected officials are placing a thumb on the scale in deference to favored special interests. In the legislature, they're promoting a bill that would fund striking workers with taxpayer dollars. And nowhere has their one-sidedness been more evident than in recent labor disputes unfolding across our state. Politicians who style themselves as champions of working families seem to forget that employers and their families are also their constituents — and all deserve equal consideration. The strike at Pratt & Whitney began on May 5. Since then, a parade of elected officials from both parties have joined the picket line to demonstrate support for the strikers. Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz tweeted that she was 'proud to stand with members of the machinist union.' The Connecticut AFL-CIO amplified her message with enthusiasm. U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy; U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro, Joe Courtney, Jahana Hayes, and John Larson; and state officials including Attorney General William Tong, State Senate Majority Leader Matt Lesser, Sen. Julie Kushner (herself a former UAW director) and Rep. Ron Delnicki also joined in. Such one-sided and full-throated pro-union support only increases the likelihood of another work stoppage. Is this really in the best interests of Connecticut's people — and who is representing the broader public interest? Unions and employers can come to terms without government involvement, as shown by the tentative agreement reached at Electric Boat on May 18. When elected officials take sides in a dispute between private parties — particularly while negotiations are ongoing — they forfeit their ability to serve as honest brokers. They also alienate those of us who are not party to the conflict but depend on sound governance and a functioning economy. We are right to wonder: Who is looking out for us? The expectation in a free society should be simple: If a person or company is acting lawfully, government should not target or intimidate them. And yet, in Connecticut, official behavior can be tinged with partisanship and even punitive intent. Take the case of Avelo Airlines. Because the airline cooperated with a federal deportation order issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Attorney General Tong threatened to review Avelo's eligibility for state economic incentives. This wasn't in response to illegal activity. It was a retaliatory threat resulting from partisan disapproval against a lawful contract with the federal government. In recent years, it has become a bipartisan mantra that 'no one is above the law.' That's true. But no one is beneath the law, either. Employers engaged in good-faith labor negotiations deserve protection from political harassment. So do businesses acting within the scope of the law — even if their conduct offends the sensibilities of the political class. When politicians pick winners and losers — not in the free market, but in the moral judgment of the state — they corrode the trust our system depends on. They reinforce the suspicion that government no longer serves all its citizens equally, but only those aligned with its preferred ideologies. Trust in government is not a given. It must be earned — and protected. That starts with leaders who recognize that their job is not to champion favored factions, but to serve all of us, without fear or favor. If justice is to be equal, it must also be impartial. The people of Connecticut deserve nothing less. Carol Platt Liebau is the president of Yankee Institute, a Connecticut-based public policy organization.
