Labor Action special May 1952: The 'Fair Deal': A Socialist Criticism

The 1930s: From the New Deal to the War Deal

It may be difficult to remember that the American economy ever fell to the bottom of the most severe and protracted depression in the history of capitalism, during the 1930s. The depression decade has almost been pushed into the backyard of history away from the loud and sustained paeans of adulations about the fabulous production of the 1950s. No wonder: it can hardly be pointed to as a strong argument in praise of American capitalism, especially since this was the last decade of a peacetime economy. The performance was scarcely impressive. "The Promise of American Life" has not been...

The Fair Deal Has Created the Climate in Which McCarthyism Flourishes - Does It Defend Democratic Rights?

Every spokesman and follower of the Fair Deal says and believes that one of its chief claims to the support of the American people and one of its most important objectives is its defense of, and efforts to extend, democratic rights. This is also one of the central aims of democratic socialism. What, then, separates and distinguishes the socialists, and specifically the Independent Socialist League, from the liberal Fair Dealers when it comes to the question of democratic rights? It would be wrong to question the personal sincerity of the Fair Dealers when they say that they are for democratic...

Today Labor Cannot Take Its Main levers of Power... Can Labor Capture the Party Machine?

As a political platform, the Fair Deal is vague enough, even in the eyes of the labor leaders who support it. What is much clearer is that support to the Fair Deal means support to the Democratic Party, generally speaking. And no discussion of Fair-Dealism can be rounded out without taking up the role of the Fair Dealers' political machine. These two, the Fair Deal on the one hand and the Democratic Party machine on the other, are not at all identical. By its very nature, the party machine has a life of its own. Fair Deal or no Fair Deal, the party machine is not there to carry out the Fair...

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