Social Workers and Neo-Liberalism:
In his
instructive article “This Crisis Is Not News,” Sam Coleman explains how many decades of neo-conservative ideology
helped to produce the current
California budget crisis. By repudiating social investments, demonizing
progressive taxation, and by relying exclusively on the unfettered “free
market” to provide for social needs, the neo-conservatives set the stage for
this debacle. Coleman makes a critical observation when he notes that this
unrealistic and unsustainable funding were designed by the “neo-cons”
intentionally as a way to “starve the beast” of government, thereby leaving the
private sector as the only viable alternative. As a consequence, we have again
balanced our budget on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens, sparing Big
Oil (as the only state in the union with no tax on oil extraction), the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (boasting that it will
achieve minimal budget cuts by de-funding rehabilitation programs,) yacht
owners, the wealthiest top percentile of the population, and owners of
commercial real estate, whose real property value is far below its assessment
level for tax purposes.
But this neo-conservative deluge is
only one part of an equation of why this crisis is not news. The other element,
which I will address in this essay, involves the collusion, capitulation, and
cowardice of the neo-liberal wing of the Democratic Party—the Democratic
Leadership Council (DLC).
The DLC “New Democrats” urged a center-right form of government relying
on the marketplace rather than on “New Deal” regulations and public works. A
few brief examples illustrate the damage of this “Republican-lite”
approach. “Exhibit A” is the
de-regulation of banks and the dismantling of the New Deal, under President
Clinton. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, allowing free rein to
non-traditional and unregulated forms of investment, is a key example. In
combination with an emphasis on “free trade” (e.g. NAFTA), this led to a
predictable flood of undocumented workers from the then-devastated rural areas
of Mexico, further pitting African Americans (and others) in the more unionized
sectors of the California economy against an even cheaper labor pool of
“illegals” when they sought work here. Corporate interests, who gained the most
from this arrangement, then sponsored “Tough on Crime” drug laws, leading to
the massively disproportionate incarceration of people of color. Along with speculative investments,
“go-go capitalism,” and massive reliance on credit --including the use of home
mortgages as piggy banks--the recent meltdown of job losses and foreclosures,
was also predictable. To complete the cycle, the enriched corporate owners had
cash aplenty to donate to [i.e. to bribe] politicians. They are, in fact, part
of a system of crony capitalism beholden to Big Oil, the financial and health
insurance sectors of the economy, and the military-industrial complex, to name
just a few of their chief beneficiaries.
Unlike the experience of the “New Deal,” investments in healthcare,
infrastructure, education, and social welfare went south. On one of his signature
issues—healthcare--Obama himself channeled Dick Cheney by inviting only health
insurance representatives to his healthcare summit. “No healthcare
professionals or consumer groups need apply.”
For progressives like myself,
however, the relevant focus is not on individuals, even powerful ones like
Clinton or Obama. Instead, the
issue is the system and how social
movements can be organized to counter a
ruling elite. For those concerned
about ordinary Americans, social workers Frances Fox Piven and Richard
Cloward’s Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed and How They
Fail, points the way to real social change.
These authors note that in times of crisis like those we are now experiencing,
elites (like the neo-conservative and neo-liberals of today) divide not so much
over principles, but rather over tactics of how much “stick” and how much
“carrot” should be used to regulate the poor and the increasingly vulnerable
middle-class.
Those who support neo-liberals
fail to realize how much their co-optation into “the system” harms us all. But don’t take my word for it. Here is what Martin Luther King, Jr.,
said to the liberals of his time:
First, I must confess that
over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white
moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's
great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's
Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted
to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the
absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who
constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot
agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes
he can set the timetable for another man's freedom…Shallow understanding from
people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from
people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright
rejection. [Letter from a
Birmingham Jail, 4/16/63].
Next:
Strategies for progressives in the face of liberal capitulation to
corporate influences.
