Buckley Jr. debated

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On the 1968 show Buckley’s first question to Hal­ stead was whether his political doctrine instructs him when making public appearances “to act in any particular way toward the ‘bourgeois imperialists’ he finds himself confronting.” Politically inspired by the ideas of Russian Marxist Leon Trotsky, Halstead and Boutelle would have nothing to do with Buckley’s condescending attempt to bait them as exotic, infan­ tile political characters. Instead, Halstead calmly re­ plied that our object is simply to get our political ideas across to as many people as possible, and to do so in a clear way.

Of course, to express ideas in a clear way ought to be goal of every legitimate political movement guided by ideals of social justice. Yet how difficult that challenge has proven to be over the years. In a society where popular media and politics are overwhelmingly con­ trolled by corporate power, with two established po­ litical parties dedicated in their essential outlook to maintaining the “free enterprise” status quo, those who advocate radical social change face an inherently uphill battle to get a fair hearing for their ideas.

Now, 45 years later, the task hasn’t gotten much eas­ ier. Mainstream politics remains effectively in the vice grip of the two established parties. But in other ways these are also different times. American capitalism is long past its expansionist, post-war heyday. The stan­ dard of living for working-class Americans has been in decline for decades. Indeed, five years past the eco­ nomic crash of 2008, the economics of everyday life remains strained and bleak for many Americans. As even Forbes magazine acknowledges, the real (i.e., not official) unemployment rate hovers around 14 per­ cent (and for minorities is much higher). Meanwhile, many millions of Americans are underemployed or working for low-wage service industries with dismal benefits.

As political scientist Sheldon Wolin describes in “De­ mocracy Incorporated” (Princeton University Press, 2008), “democracy” in the United States is effectively not much more than a management concept favored by the elites who hold real political and economic power. The 1 percent will always rule, declares the prevailing assumption of mainstream political wis­ dom, while the rest of the populace are manipulated to keep their mouths quiet, stay depoliticized, and work without complaint for their wealthy employers. The peace movement In 1968, one of the ideas espoused by Halstead and Boutelle was opposition to the Vietnam War. The American people had no interest in supporting the government’s war in Vietnam, they declared. The United States was at war not to promote “freedom” and “democracy,” but to destroy through genocidal war a national independence movement considered a threat to its economic interests. That’s not just hyper­

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News and views from SA Canada website: http://socialistaction.ca (Photo) CUPW picketers during 2011 strike/lock-out. counts for 70 per cent of the profit earned by that coun­ try’s post office. The comparable figure for Italy is 67 per cent. France’s postal savings bank accounts for 36 per cent of its postal service’s pre-tax earnings. Even though Britain is privatizing mail delivery, it is not privatizing its system of post offices and postal savings banks. They’re too lucrative.

The present assault on the postal service occurs in a broad anti-worker context. The disappearance of thou­ sands of full-time, decent-paying jobs puts pressure on unions to grant wage and benefit concessions. The layoffs at Electro-Motive Diesel and the planned closures of the Heinz and Kellogg’s plants in southern Ontario, add to the malaise—as will the elimination of 10,000 letter-carrier jobs if home delivery is cut.

Laws hostile to the rights and conditions of education workers, Bill 22 in British Columbia and Bill 115 in On­ tario, roused student protests and broad public dissent, but union leaders gave way to the governments’ will. In 2011, the first year of the Stephen Harper majority government, there was a flood of back-to-work legisla­ tion against postal workers, Air Canada service workers, flight attendants, ground crew and pilots, and Canadian Pacific rail engineers. Wildcat actions by Air Canada ground crew in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Que­ bec City in March 2012, and the following month when Air Canada pilots organized a “sick-out” not sanctioned by their union, did not generate an anti-worker backlash,