Socialism and U.S. cultural traditions

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Socialist Action FEBRuary 2010 11 T are not alien to the traditions of the he ideas of revolutionary socialism American people. The history of the United States begins with a revolution against a despotic empire in 1776. It is also graced with a second revolution in 1864, whereby the slave power was overthrown and the bondage of chattel slavery tossed into the muck of history.

Many American cultural traits—ranging from holidays, style, food, and music—originated with the toiling masses. When one thinks of American music, one may think of the folk music of the Appalachian peoples or the blues music and spirituals of African Americans.

Both of these musical traditions in turn were blended into rock ’n’ roll by the mid-20th century, and ever since then American popular music and culture— ranging from rock, folk, rap, metal, hip hop, and so forth—has come to be a symbol of youth self-expression outside the norms of bourgeois social conservatism.

In the late 19th century up to the 1930s, a popular art and writing culture called “Regionalism” arose, which celebrated the cultures and histories of nationalities and also of smaller sub regions. Regionalism did not blindly praise regional characteristics without recognizing the very real problems that faced it, and more times than not those problems addressed were of a class nature.

An example of Regionalism can be seen in the works of James Whitcomb Riley. Riley wrote various poems and prose on the regional aspects of his native rural Indiana and of “middle America.” He would often weave in the colloquialisms of his native Indiana (he was a collegeeducated man, so this style of writing was not really his own). But Riley was no chauvinist, nor was he ignorant of the problems that faced both the United States and his native Indiana. “A Peace Hymn of the Republic” was Riley’s profound response to the rise of imperialism, and works such as “Jamesy” and “The Raggedy Man” expressed his understanding that class struggle was a very real problem for the land that he loved.

Other progressive artists and cultural icons—such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, John Mellencamp, and Bruce Springsteen—have through their work celebrated their regional and national backgrounds while maintaining an expressed love for humanity and a cry for the downtrodden and exploited peoples of the Earth.

Woody Guthrie, who was sympathetic to socialism and the Communist Party, wrote a song that almost became our national anthem: “This Land is Your Land.” (Unfortunately, many of the radical lyrics were censored out, thanks to the McCarthy era.)

Of course, the United States is not unique in its rich history or its cultural contributions. And in many ways, the greatest of revolutionary heroes treated their homelands in very much the same way.

In Russia, the revolutionaries of the early 1900s were inspired by their country’s traditions through the populist works of Tolstoy. In Yugoslavia, the communist Partisans inspired the masses to fight fascism through public performances about legendary Slavic peasants who had rebelled against the landlords in medieval times. In Cuba, the people were inspired by the truly Cuban works of Jose Marti and the liberating tune of “Guantanamera.”

In his 1948 piece, “The Two Americas,” James P. Cannon, the major founder of the Trotskyist movement in the United States, outlines that in America, as in every country, there are two “nations”: that of the working people, and that of the bosses and exploiters. “One is the America of the imperialists—of the little clique of capitalists, landlords, and militarists who are threatening and terrifying the world. This is the America the people of the world hate and fear.

“There is the other America—the America of the workers and farmers and the “little people.” They constitute the great majority of the people. They do the work of the country. They revere its old democratic traditions—its old record of friendship for the people of other lands, in their struggles against kings and despots—its generous asylum once freely granted to the oppressed.

“This is the America which must and will solve the world crisis—by taking power out of the hands of the little clique of exploiters and parasites, and (Above) Pete Seeger (left) and Bruce Springsteen sing Woodie Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” at Obama’s inaugural celebration, Jan.18, 2009.

establishing a government of workers and farmers. The workers’ and farmers’ government will immediately proceed to change things fundamentally….

“We, the American Trotskyists—we, the national convention of the Socialist Workers Party, summon our America to her great destiny—not as conqueror but as liberator of the world.”

Here is the most revolutionary attitude towards one’s home country. Socialists in the U.S. do not declare war on the name “America” nor are we here to destroy its very existence. We seek only to destroy that part of “America,” and that great ulcer on the whole world that allows one class to oppress another: capitalism. n

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Brennan Linsley / AP