Paul Horton, teacher of history at the University of Chicago Lab School, wrote the following after participating in the first conference of the Network for Public Education:
Attending the NPE inaugural conference was an exhilarating experience! As Diane said in her keynote, we cannot afford to exclude anyone. We all met hundreds of amazing and dedicated folks in Austin.
I had a conversation with Jason Sanford at Scholtz’s that I would like to share. He encouraged me to share it with everyone: Texas was the birthplace of the Populist Party, the most successful grassroots third party movement in American History. The Party was born outside of Lampasas, Texas and spread to the entire country. The Party sought to unite urban workers, miners, and farmers, black and white, who were being squeezed by economic forces beyond their control.
We would all do well to read the Omaha Platform of the Populist Party, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5361/.
Populists, above all, wanted to do something about corporate dominance of politics and economic decisions. We face many of the same issues today in the second Gilded Age.
The late Larry Goodwyn, who wrote the best book on Populism, Democratic Promise, a University of Texas dissertation originally, wrote that the success that the movement had was based on the construction of a movement culture. Populists organized cooperative stores, newspapers, a lecturer network, raised money to form a national movement, and conventions at every level. Their platforms endorsed candidates who would support their platforms, not political parties. The Populists forced the major parties to listen because they controlled so many votes and candidates who supported their platforms were elected to government at all levels.
Above all, the Populist Party was a grassroots movement. As historian Richard Hofstadter has pointed out, many individuals have ridden populist rhetoric to the White House. Populist rhetoric is a useful political tool for politicians seeking office. Politicians abandon populist rhetoric when they raise money and solicit support from plutocrats.
The history of Populism is instructive for many reasons. Most importantly, the lesson that we need to learn is that grassroots movements are easily coopted by politicians who make promises about support for cosmetic issues and meaningful legislation is too easily watered down in the political process.
Another lesson is that coalitions that seek to unite disparate elements of the working class come under attack. What Joel Williamson has called “racial radicalism” that motivated a resurgence of the Klan in the 1890s was motivated by the political threat of a united Populist Party to the racist white power structure in the South and nationwide.
A third lesson to learn is that political movements that sustain themselves in this country must have the cooperation of the middle class. Because Populists were successfully branded by the corporate media as illiterate and stupid, corporate leaders were successful in marginalizing the Populist movement.
As Jim Hightower would say, we need to dance with the ones we came with. But I say, because teachers, firemen, police officers, doctors, lawyers, and teachers are threatened with downward mobility because corporate honchos using Computer Based Systems are trying to squeeze productivity gains out of us without paying us more, we need to make every effort to bring these groups into a broader coalition that believes in the idea of the public, the nation as a commonwealth that invests in people, not wars, and not privatization.
Back in 1964 when Milton Friedman was Barry Goldwater’s economic advisor, the country laughed at the idea of neoliberalism because most Americans were motivated to serve broader causes. Altruism was cool, and the Civil Rights movement was ascendant. Kennedy had inspired us to think big. Now the ideas of Friedman and Hayek dominate public discourse and the Ayn Rand cult has returned with a vengeance.
The idea that Corporate Education Reform is the Civil Rights Movement of our time is the pinnacle of absurdity. Ella Baker, Septima Clark, and my relative, Myles Horton, are turning over in their graves! There were no students turned out of Freedom Schools! Freedom Schools did not operate with military discipline and focus on preparing students for standardized tests. At Highlander, participants sat in a circle. There were no corporate sponsors or foundations involved. At Highlander, Ziphlia (who rewrote “We Shall Overcome”) and Myles prepared meals and washed the dishes to show their profound respect for Civil Rights leaders. Do we see Bill Gates doing this?
The NPE represents what Larry Goodwyn, who also studied the Poland’s Solidarity Movement, “Democratic Promise.” We are facing a long fight. As Diane told us, “we have to cast a wide net, but we must remain a grassroots movement.” We must insist on inclusivity in all respects. We need to be visible but our platform must speak more loudly than any segmented “talking heads.”
Thank you, NPE Executive Board for an absolutely exhilarating experience! “We Shall Overcome.”
Dear Paul–
Thank you so much for bringing your expertise and credibility to Austin and to the greater fight at large.
The voice you lent was powerful and much appreciated.
You are in the belly of the beast in Chicago and see first hand the difference in education that the kids at the UC Lab School receive and their public school brethren across town.
The headlines of today in New York powerfully contrast our struggle. Gov. Cuomo’s “take” on what needs to be done to “support” education and Mayor DeBlasio’s is the most emblematic division of The Democratic Party and WHO it sides with.. The Neo-liberals have the loudest voice because they have so much money backing them. Because these Dems can wrap themselves in their liberal pro-gay rights, pro reproductive issues, et al., they broadcast that their positions on corporate education reform are seen in the light of their noble championing “Civil Rights”.
Correct.
Civil Rights for a certain moneyed class and a people who have ALWAYS had wherewithal and political connections. These are the very people who, all-too-conveniently, stand to profit from their self-aggrandizing positions.
Forget the GOP. They’ll always be useless. But the Democratic Party who controls many of the large urban centers of the country need to be called out.
Out in the backwater town of Los Angeles, it is hard to keep from thinking WHERE IS EVERYONE ELSE in this fight? We have been muted out here because of the overwhelming firepower our Supt. John Deasy brings to the fight and his brutal use of fear and intimidation he wields to get his way. His actions are propped up and abetted by billions of dollars in both corporate influence and media protection.
More teachers and communities need to become empowered out here. For the love of God, send us Karen Lewis, please!!!!!
It was an honor meeting you and am quite cheered that your intelligence and passion are on our side. I’m looking forward to when our paths will cross again.
–Geronimo
Thank you so much, Paul! I had lunch with the wonderful Myles Horton and Paulo Freire in 1987 in New York when they did a conference together on education. Myles was amazing, tall, articulate and energetic at 82, leading us up the hill from Teachers College to lunch, so fast in his walk, Paulo said to me, “Look at him! He’s old enough to be my father and he’s way ahead!”
To keep this conversation going–very important to discuss populist organization as a political form to help rescue public education and undermine corporate looting of the public sector. Can I also suggest the tactic of boycotts? With teachers, parents, students, and activists from so many areas of the nation involved in NPE, we could consider boycotting the consumer products and services of those corporations most aggressive in looting public schools. Corporations with large market shares are surprisingly sensitive to boycotts because of the bad press it gives them(Americans really don’t like big business bullies and the super-rich.) and also because even the loss of 5% of sales from a boycott is a big hit in their short-term profit strategies. Folks on this list can brainstorm which corporations to target first. A second strategy involves organizing strike support wherever workers and unions are on strike, locked out, or wage-frozen by management(like 153,000 union workers here in NYC, including me). We can raise small amounts of money which do make a difference to striking and locked-out families especially. The idea is to think of how to use an activist network to hit the corporate bullies where it hurts and to help those communities who are natural allies for a populist offensive.
You are absolutely right! Boycotts are essential as are strikes. We need to build blue and white collar unions and we need to cooperate on a unified platform! We all know who we should all boycott!
Of course, I made another huge typo: Jason Stanford, not Jason Sanford! Sorry, Jason!
Speaking of Texas politics…..look what just happened:
Texas Democrat, Kesha Rogers, campaigned in Texas on an “Impeach Obama” platform and won with over 53 % of the vote. Folks are likening Roger’s shocking win to Alvin Greene’s equally bombshell win in South Carolina. Texas Democrats are so mortified that they deleted her district from the list of Democrat races on their official website. If this trend of unexpected winners with unexpected campaigns continues, will incumbent Democrats finally get the message that one way or another, America intends to throw “the bums out”? The Tea Party movement has varied members, and although Rogers is no member, her spirit and her goals are amazingly similar.
Unlike Alvin Greene, Kesha’s was no stealth campaign that blindsided the Democrats. Anyone would consider hers a high profile campaign. Down the road from Dallas, Democrat primary winner, Kesha Rogers, states on her website
“Barack Obama is a threat to the continued existence of the United States, and he must be impeached, or resign. The real question is, what will we replace his bad policies with? Real patriots understand the need to think ahead, to create a meaningful purpose and direction as we rebuild our nation. We know that the next several generations need a better world to live in, which can only be a Post-Obama World.”
Rogers ran for Congress and as the Democratic nominee for Texas’ conservative 22nd District , she promises unwavering commitment to patriotism and acknowledges she is not your ordinary contemporary Democrat – but instead a traditional Democrat harkening back to the days when one need not fear a Democrat winning a seat. Her website bio introduction:
” I have fought long and hard on behalf of the ideals and principles of the true Democratic Party best represented by Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon LaRouche, even at the expense of happily putting myself at odds with the now discredited ‘mainstream’ leadership of my party.”
.This energetic, personable young Democrat is ready to lead a fight in the nation of the true patriots vs the traitors. She wants to put an end to the bail-outs and she considers Obama an incompetent, contemptible puppet of London’s financial interests who must be removed immediately. She also thinks Afghanistan is reason enough to impeach Obama , and don’t even start on his handling of the oil spill. Actually, like many conservatives, this Democrat doesn’t see a thing about Obama that is admirable. There are lots of folks in Dallas, both Democrats and Republicans, who agree with Kesha and wish her well as an outspoken, activist critic of Obama.
Wait, what? Does her website really say, “…the ideals and principles of the true Democratic Party best represented by Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon LaRouche…” ?!!!
Not Lyndon Johnson? Larouche? I had to Google for it, but yes, Texas politics is offering us an avant garde absurdist fringe theatre production.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/05/kesha-rogers_n_4904048.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Why don’t you just listen to what Ms. Rogers has to say instead of flinging invectives at her?
What really struck me with Diane’s remarks was the caution to treat each other with respect. We come from different arenas, but we all have something to offer. We will disagree with each other, but we need to always respect each other. Not one of us has THE ANSWER. I, for one, would run like mad from anyone who said they did.
Just an FYI about Ayn Rand. Her problems and contradictions notwithstanding, she has become a sock puppet for those whom she would vehemently disagree with. . Rand put cronies and other types of corrupt officials, “industrialists” and other unethical big business types solidly into the category of takers no matter how much ill gotten wealth they had amassed. She was also a staunch advocate for the separation of business and state, one at least as strong as the separation of church and state once was here, though her fantasy about how that would manifest itself was irrationally one sided. To my mind her biggest flaw was her denial of things like psychology and Gresham’s Dynamic. Her niaevely binary thinking about her homeland vs American exceptionalism, about good winning out over evil simply because it was good was the flaw that allowed her to be so misused by the neoliberal parasites. Why is this important? Knowing what Rand actually stood for in spite of her contradictions and errors in structuring her ideas will easily enable the debunking and discrediting of those hypocrites who wave her around like an some kind of untouchable icon. Another flaw is that she couldn’t admit that Neitzsche had any insights at all into the human condition. She clung to the idea that the higher the morals and ethics a person had, the greater a success they would be, exceeding the corrupt in every measure. She was ludicrously, pathetically wrong. One scant look at today’s deformers is all the proof of that anyone needs.