[Remarks
by Dan Livingston upon receiving the People's World Amistad Award
at the December 4, 2016 event in memory of our brother Art Perry, held at Wexler-Grant
Community School in New Haven, Connecticut. Livingston
is a groundbreaking labor
attorney and lifelong union and progressive activist. As a member of
a firm of “troublemaking lawyers” (Livingston, Adler, Pulda,
Meiklejohn and Kelly), he represents many public and private sector
unions. He represents, works with, and serves on the boards of many
coalitions, community and progressive organizations fighting for
social justice in Connecticut.]
]
Since
2 a.m. on November 9th, I’ve spent a lot of time
thinking about what happened to our country.
This
is one crazy time in our history. A sociopathic con man
elected president with a Tea Party Congress. Our once deeply blue
General Assembly now evenly divided, and a great danger of electing a
Republican governor in 2 years. In the few moments I
have, I want to stress 3 words to guide us through the insanity.
The
first is Clarity: This is a moment in time
when the two greatest contradictions in the so-called American
experiment are made absolutely clear. The first is
exemplified by the ringing words of Thomas Jefferson our founding
hero:
“We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights.”
This
is the contradiction of exclusion. The greatest call for
universal democracy on its face excluding women, half the human race,
and penned by a white slave owner who would shortly support the
so-called great compromise which not only continued slavery, but gave
southern states extra political power. Ironically it was to
preserve the despicable 3/5’s rule that the electoral college was
retained for presidential elections.
Over
our history, this contradiction of exclusion has been applied to
immigrants, the lgbtq community, and many others.
The
second great contradiction is that our democracy is premised on
“checks and balances,” three branches of government that check
each other and in turn are checked every two years by the democratic
vote of the people. Yet the most powerful force in
our civil society has been elevated beyond almost all checking.
One of the earliest phrasing of this contradiction comes from a quote
often attributed to Abe Lincoln:
"It
has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the
near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me
to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the
war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption
in high places will follow, and the money power of the country
will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the
prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few
hands and the Republic is destroyed."
One
can make a million arguments about exactly how we elected Donald
Trump President of the United States, but all explanations must begin
with the “money power of the country…”working upon the
prejudices of the people” until “wealth is aggregated in a few
hands.” The opposite of our “checks and balances”
system, this is the contradiction of dominance, the contradiction
of unchecked corporate power.
At
the height of America’s broadest prosperity there were 5 powerful
checks on what has now become the multinational corporate system.
One of them was a rival system of state socialism, but
the Soviet Union has fallen and sadly not towards democratic
socialism but to corporate capitalism. It’s no check on
multi-national corporate power. The other 4 checks have
also been obliterated or weakened:
(1)
Restrictions on the movement of capital; (2) Restrictions on unfair
international trade; (3) the trade union movement; and (4) state and
national regulation of core businesses.
The
economic dislocation of ordinary people throughout our nation is the
direct result of this nearly unchecked corporate power, their ability
to do what they want, to whom they want, whenever they want to.
And these two fundamental contradictions work together, the
contradiction of exclusion being used to divide us and weaken our
ability to address the contradiction of unchecked corporate power.
Which
leads to the second word. Peril.
The last phrase of the Lincoln quote is “and the Republic is
destroyed.” In the midst of a civil
war which almost ended this nation, he saw the greater risk to
American democracy being unchecked corporate power, and its appeal to
popular prejudice.[1]
In
the long run, there has never been a successful democracy in the
history of the world which has withstood the levels of income
inequality which unchecked corporate power has produced. Add
that to the toxic mix of racism, sexism, homophobia, jingoism, not to
mention the risks to our natural environment which Lincoln could not
possibly have foreseen, and we are indeed in peril. Our
democracy will not last unless the checks and balances on corporate
domination can be rebuilt and new ones created. And unless and
until the contradictions of exclusion are acknowledged and overcome.
Which
leads to the third word that will guide me.
Solidarity. It is a word that
for those in this room and those of us who grew up in the labor and
civil rights movements means everything. Ordinary people are
not strongest when they stand up for themselves. We are
strongest when we stand up for each other.
But
it is in the combination of those three words that I find a guide for
action over the next 4 years. Solidarity, energized
and activated by the peril we face, informed and educated by the
clarity with which we understand and articulate our nation’s
problems and the solutions to them.
In
the labor movement we say “the Boss is the best organizer.”
When the employer is most oppressive and disdainful of our rights,
this is our greatest opportunity to bring workers together, to
overcome the prejudices that divide us, and demand structural
change. With clarity, energized by our common peril,
we can make Donald Trump our greatest organizer.
One
other thing I think we need to be clear about as we move forward –
who our enemies are. Defenders of unchecked corporate power are our
enemies. Sociopaths like Donald Trump are our enemies.
But most of Trump’s individual voters, and the voters for his
fellows in Connecticut are neither billionaire defenders of corporate
power nor sociopaths. Whatever percentage of those voters
were motivated by intolerance and bigotry we must reach with
tolerance and love. As Martin Luther King tells us,
Darkness doesn’t drive out darkness, only light does that.
Hate doesn’t drive out hate. Only love does that.
As
for whatever percentage of Trump voters were motivated not by bigotry
but by despair in the status quo -- touched more effectively by
Trump’s magical promises than by the muddled message of too many of
our Democratic leaders -- we need to reach them with real organizing,
and with real answers. The contradictions of
our American democracy would have existed regardless of the election
results of 2016, as would the growing demand that we address them.
Indeed, our fight is neither to “make American great
again,” nor to claim it is great already, but to make America great
in a way it has never yet been.
And
we must be humble enough to admit the rationality of a belief that
the Democrats will not address the fundamental contradictions which
are disrupting people’s lives – for they won’t, unless we make
them -- even if we cannot see the rationality of a belief that
somehow Donald Trump will. Lincoln was right that all
of us can be fooled some of the time and Donald Trump is a masterful
con man.
In
Connecticut this year, many Democrats ran on not raising taxes,
defending a so-called “New Economic reality” and a record of
heartless austerity. Republicans ran on a false pledge to
turn things around for working families. The result
– tremendous gains for Republicans.
If
we learned anything from the state and national elections of 2016,
it’s that we can’t make change on mushy appeals to the middle.
As the great Jim Hightower tells us “Ain’t Nothing in the Middle
of the Road but yellow lines and dead armadillos.” And
even if we sometimes elect dead armadillo’s to office, we rarely
see them change anything.
Another
way to say that is that with lies and half truths, you may be able to
stoop a movement that seeks to change the world -- but you can’t
build one that way. That’s a big
advantage that the defenders of the status quo have in any election,
but we just have to deal with it. And take comfort from
the fact that there clearly is a big demand for change in this
country, even we have not yet found a way to capture it.
An avowed socialist came damn close to winning a major party
nomination, and perhaps then the general election. An
impossible thought a decade ago. That means something.
Not enough. But something. So here’s what I say we do:
We
openly and proudly address the contradiction of exclusion by
defending each other when we are attacked, and working with each
other to move forward. In Connecticut we are
building a coalition of labor, civil rights, faith, community group
called DUE Justice. You can check out our Facebook page. DUE
Justice All of us coming together and working towards our
common interest in real change.
We
all know the famous lament written by Martin Neimoller about the man
who did not speak out while the Nazi’s came for group after group
because he was not in that group, and then when the Nazi’s came for
him, there was no one left to speak out. We have plenty of time
to make that not a lament, but a pledge:
When
they come for the Muslims, I will speak out, even if I am not a
Muslim. When they come for the trade unionists, I will speak out,
even if I am not a trade unionist. When they come for our lgbtq
sisters and brothers I will speak out, even if I am straight. When
they come to steal women’s reproductive freedoms, I will stand with
women, even if I am a man. Whether they come for Jews or Gentiles or
Atheists, Citizens or immigrants, communists, socialists,
environmental activists, or Native Americans, I will stand with them.
And when they come for me, I will not stand alone.
And
let us openly and honestly address the contradiction of unchecked
corporate power. As Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz
explained so clearly:
"The
rules of economic globalization are likewise designed to benefit the
rich: they encourage competition among countries for business, which
drives down taxes on corporations, weakens health and environmental
protections, and undermines what used to be viewed as the “core”
labor rights, which include the right to collective bargaining.
Imagine what the world might look like if the rules were designed
instead to encourage competition among countries for workers.
Governments would compete in providing economic security, low taxes
on ordinary wage earners, good education, and a clean
environment—things workers care about. But the top 1 percent don’t
need to care."
With
this vision in mind we need not just to defend our unions, but to
build them stronger. And we need to be in the streets and in
the halls of government. They need to be our
streets. Imagine what the 8 years of Barak Obama
might have been like if the streets had belonged to us in 2009 and
2010 powered by the heady excitement of the 2008 victory, instead of
by the reaction and bigotry of the Tea Partiers. Almost
certainly no Tea Party Congress elected in 2010. Our
energy, and demands pushing Obama and Congress left, just as
progressives (and Eleanor) pushed Franklin Roosevelt left in the
30s. And almost certainly no President-elect Donald Trump.
We
need to take the streets from Donald Trump just as the Tea Party took
the streets from Barak Obama. If the new born Tea
Party could own the streets after Obama beat McCain by nearly 10
million votes, certainly we can own them after Trump lost to Clinton
by over 2 million.
It
is going to be an ugly, ugly 4 years. While our greatest
challenges existed long before the election of 2016 and would have
continued no matter who won this year, they are magnified when our
enemies control so much of our government’s power. There will
be moments when it seems there is no way to go but back, nothing to
do but suffer.
Indeed,
in the short term, we will be dragged into many defensive battles,
and we will lose some of those. We can’t control
that. But what we can control is our response, our
energy, our commitment, the organization and solidarity that we
build, and the clarity with which we speak truth to power.
All
of our brothers and sisters who came before us, whether they built
the labor movement, or won the right to vote, or most recently the
freedom to marry, all of them knew such moments. And
found a way to move forward.
In
the 30s they created unemployed counsels so that workers who had been
victims of the Great Depression became instead warriors for the New
Deal. Dr. King and the civil rights leaders of the 60s turned
the segregationist fire hoses and police dogs from tools of
oppression into rallying and recruitment devices for a growing
non-violent movement. They built something
bigger and stronger using what Dr. King called the “fierce urgency
of the now” to rally from short-term defeat to longer term
progress.
Sisters
and Brothers, it will not be easy. But with clarity of vision,
with recognition of the peril we face, and with true solidarity, we
will come out stronger together.
[1]
I learned recently that there is substantial controversy about
whether this quote, around at least since the 1890’s, is in fact
authentic; it could have been an effort to use the spirit of
Lincoln’s definition of democracy -- government “of the people,
by the people, and for the people” – to call out what was by the
1890’s already becoming a dangerous accumulation of power in
corporate hands. Either way, it well
expresses the peril of unchecked corporate power which we experience
today.
