I have always hated this time of year, an endless series of four-day weekends and forced jollity. As I approach my 89th birthday in just six days, I have taken to protecting myself by meditating on three upcoming events in which I shall take a great and mean-spirited pleasure: Kevin McCarthy’s hopeless struggle to become Speaker of the House, the report of the special grand jury to the Fulton County DA in Georgia, which with any luck will lead to the indictment of Trump, and the coming to fruition of the Justice Department’s investigation of the stolen classified documents case. These are terrible times and one must take one’s pleasures where one finds them.
ICYMI, nice article by NYT columnist Jamelle Bouie today (or yesterday) discussing early American (1829) socialist Thomas Skidmore
ReplyDeleteA 200-Year-Old Argument on Behalf of the Many Against the Few
Skidmore was not a political theorist. He was, at the time of his writing, a machinist who had taken a prominent role in the newly formed New York Working Men’s Party. He wrote its platform, which included a call for land redistribution to every man and unmarried woman over the age of 21, an end to commercial monopolies and an end to the hereditary transfer of wealth....
His plan was straightforward. The people of New York, to whom he was primarily writing, would adopt a new Constitution that would abolish all debts and renounce most private property. The state would then “order an equal division of all this property among the citizens, of and over the age of maturity, in manner yet to be directed.” Adopting an idea Paine explored in “Rights of Man,” Skidmore also called for the state to provide “a sum paid by monthly or other more convenient installments [...].” In short, a universal basic income.
And unlike many of his contemporaries, Skidmore wanted these rights for all—white, black, native men alike, as well as women.
One of the comments readers contributed to the article cites another article I think well worth reading.
ReplyDeleteThe American Workingmen's Parties, Universal Suffrage, and Marx's Democratic Communism
Sean F. Monahan, Brown U
Modern Intellectual History (2021) 18:379
Monahan shows how early 19th-century American socialists like Skidmore influenced Marx.
The abstract:
The American Workingmens' Parties in the 1828-32 period occupy a distinctive place withint the history of socialism: they were the first to embrace a strategy of organizing a working-class political party and seizing the democratic state for their collective self-liebration. With universal suffrage, a working-class majority could take political power electorally and expropriate the rich. Karl Marx read about these workers' parties through works by Thomas Hamilton and Thomas Cooper in the period of his early political development. Like the American workers, he conceived of socialism as a democratic mass movement. Unlike the antipolitical socialists predominant in his day, Marx saw the northern United States as uniquely situated for socialism precisely because it had already solved the basic political problem facing Europe: the workers could vote.
I don't have time right now to describe more from the paper. But it's definitely worth a look.
Eric,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reference to the Monahan book.
Thanks to Eric for both references. I especially enjoyed reading about Thomas Skidmore. I was totally ignorant about him and his socialist ideas, I only knew about his name sake Skidmore college. The idea of the redistribution of the land and what could have been a universal basic income for all, Blacks, whites, women and native men. The ideas of Justice and equality are embedded in our American history, which were never part of the "Official history".
ReplyDeleteIf Trump is convicted of inciting an insurrection or related charges, will that make him ineligible to be president in the future? If so then I hope he will not be convicted before the upcoming election cycle, as I believe that his being on the ballot will cause the GOP to implode (whether he wins their nomination or not).
ReplyDeletecharles L.
ReplyDeleteThe opening paragraph about Skidmore College's history in its Wikipedia entry does not suggest any connection with the Thomas Skidmore that Jamelle Bouie is writing about. Skidmore College was not founded until the early 20th cent.
"Skidmore College has undergone many transformations since its founding in the early 20th century as a women's college. The Young Women's Industrial Club was formed in 1903 by Lucy Ann Skidmore (1853–1931) with inheritance money from her husband who died in 1879, and from her father, Joseph Russell Skidmore (1821–1882), a former coal merchant. In 1911, the club was chartered under the name "Skidmore School of Arts" as a college to vocationally and professionally train young women."
I suppose it's possible that Lucy Ann Skidmore was a descendant of Thomas...
I heartily agree on all points! Happy birthday and hope you live to see peace and justice in the world. Or at least Trump in jail!
ReplyDeleteLFC, your explanation of Skidmore college's name as a mere possibility to rescue my ignorant remark is gracious. But, your remarks do fill out more full bodied, than what totally escaped me. Thank you.
ReplyDeletecharles L.,
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome -- I was curious about it myself, since I know someone who teaches there. (No one famous or even well-known, I wd hasten to add, so no pt in dropping the name.)
FYI
ReplyDeleteGreg Palast may be the most relentless investigative journalist who focuses on voter suppress. His recent work has turned on investigations into Georgia's voting suppression legislation, in particular the elimination of drop-boxes in African American communities which precipitated a decrease in mail in ballots from 1.2 million in 2020 to .2 million this year among African Americans.
His film on the subject, "Vigilante," will be streaming for free through 1 January 2023. Here's the link:
https://www.gregpalast.com/vigilantefilm/
Given the holiday pause here, I thought I would ask: have you ever critiqued DuBois' Black Reconstruction?
ReplyDeleteJerry, black Reconstruction is a truly great book, several generations ahead of its time. I think I talk about it in the third chapter of my book on my experiences as a professor of Afro-American studies.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Prof!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this space with us. I have learned a lot from you.
Belated Happy Birthday wishes, Prof. Wolff, and thank you again for your blogging.
ReplyDelete