Today, actually yesterday (I opened this e-mail late) is the birthday of the late Socialist Partys leader, Norman Thomas, and I am receiving many e-mails and reading a great deal on the Internet about him. This is something I received along with my response: I think there is one very important point that needs to be stated about Norman Thomas. He had the opportunity to bring his Socialist Party into the 1930s peoples front and he refused. The invitation was extended by Earl Browder. thomas refused and chose to join with the very reactionary America Firsters--- very similar to todays Ron Paul movement. This was a fatal mistake. Of course, less than a decade later, Earl Browder made a similar fatal mistake. We should learn from the mistakes of both of these leaders what we shouldnt do today as we seek to build a massive united grad alliance bringing together liberals, progressives and leftists in seeking meaningful reforms as we challenge Wall Street for political and economic power. There is this tendency that we either dont talk about mistakes or there is an even stronger tendency that we treat mistakes of the past only superficially. I would like to share the obituary from the LA Times for former Minnesota Governor Elmer Benson who also became the campaign manager for Henry Wallaces because it shows us how some of these leaders deal very openly with their mistakes and miscalculations: articles.latimes/1985-03-16/business/fi-27186_1_minnesota-politics I would note that LaFollette in Wisconsin made almost the identical mistake made later by Norman Thomas. Both were influenced by a very pernicious form of anti-Communist red-baiting. It doesnt take much to understand that had their been the kind of unity between Communists and Socialists which Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs had encouraged, we most likely would be living in a very much different country today; most likely a socialist U.S.A. We have paid a terrible price for this lack of unity in the past. Norman Thomas made a huge mistake in the late 1930s and Earl Browder made one great biog blunder in the mid-1940s. We want to avoid both pitfalls as we seek to build some kind of grand alliance, today. We cant learn from mistakes if we are too timid to address them. Alan L. Maki
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 19:13:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015