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VOl. 1 5, NO.5 $2.50

STONEHILL COLLEGE

Re-industrialization:
I
LlBR,',RY

FEB 13 1982
TAKES FliGHT

MEN'S MOVEMENT

HEALTH & SAFETY


'
Editors : Frank Brodhead, Margery Davies, John Demeter, Marla Erlien, Phyllis Ewen, Linda
Gordon, Jim Green, Allen Hunter, Joe Interrante, Neil McCafferty, Jim O' Brien, Billy Pope,
Donna Penn (intern), Judy Smith,and Ann Withorn.

Staff: John Demeter.

Associate Editors : Peter Biskind, Carl Boggs, Paul Buhle, Margaret Cerullo, Jorge C. Corralejo,
Ellen DuBois, Barbara Ehrenreich, John Ehrenreich, Dan Georgakas, Martin Glaberman, Michael
Hirsch, Mike Kazin, Ken Lawrence, Staughton Lynd, Betty Mandell, Mark Naison, Brian
Peterson, Sheila Rowbotham, Annemarie Troger, Martha Vicinus, Stan Weir, David Widgery .

Cover by Nick Thorkelson

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INTRODUCTION

REIN DUSTRIALIZATION:
A DEBATE AMONG CAPITALISTS
Goetz Wolff 7

FROM THE RUNAWAY TO THE SWEATSHOP:


"ENTERPRISE ZONES" AND REDEVELOPMENT
OF THE CITIES
Phil Mattera 17

FIGHTING FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY:


WINDSOR, ONTARIO
Jim Brophy and John Jackson 27

ADVERSARIES AND MODELS: ALTERNATIVE


INSTITUTIONS IN AN AGE OF SCARCITY
Carl Hedman 41

DANCING ALONG THE PRECIPICE:


THE MEN'S MOVEMENT IN THE 80s
1 JO� Interrante
.
53

GOOD READING 72

.,

INTRODUCTION

As if on cue from a motion picture industry that floods theaters each summer with inane
comedies and escapist adventures, the US press showed us the American eagle simulta­
neously swatting Medflies and Libyan aircraft while performing daring feats of aerial union
busting. With the advent of fall, we can expect little relief, with shows such as " Raiders of
the Lost Budget," "Escape from the New Deal," and "Endless Supply." It's more of the
same in the continuing attempt at a general capitalist restructuring of American society, the
economy, and the state.
While it is critically important to realize that there are variations - from center to right -
in the proposals from the business and corporate community, their collective goal is to
encourage a high level of investment - of capital formation - and thus to restore the
competitiveness and profitability of US capitalism. They do differ on the degree of govern­
ment involvement necessary for this restructuring, but they generally agree that "what's
good for GM is good for the country. " The question is, "What's good for GM?" I.)
As an attempt to provide an overview of two aspects of the Reaganomic strategy, we are
presenting Goetz Wolff's essay on capitalist reindustrialization strategies and Phil Mattera's
analysis of the "enterprise zone" proposal. Wolff's article outlines the sweep of the various
competing proposals and assesses their prospects for gaining support in the business commu­
nity. Here we might mention a few blind spots or unstated assumptions in the strategies. The
first is that the strategies uniformly discount the role of the US labor movement in any

2
development of new economic strategy. from the mainstream of environmentalism. Yet
"Worker dislocation " while waiting for a as Jim Brophy, one of the authors o f our article
mystical "bail out" of the economy is viewed on the Windsor Occupational Safety and

.eindustrialization .
by capitalist planners as a small price to pay for Health Council, has said, it is essentially the
same struggle separated only by factory walls.
Yet, despite the collapse of liberalism and the This is one reason the Windsor article is politic­
Democratic Party, it seems unlikely that a ally interesting. The group is based in the
sustained program for capitalist renewal can be Windsor trade-union movement, but from the
successful without the incorporation of the start its activities have seen industrial health
trade unions. It is precisely in those areas of and safety as an environmental issue in which
greatest trade-union strength, the industries workers have the chance to act in behalf of the
organized by the CIO in the 1930s, that the surrounding community. And, in turn, commu­
reindustrialization programs are most ambi­ nity support has been crucial to the victories
tious. If such an alliance does take place, what that have been won; school janitors, for
will it be based on? Will it be marked by an example, won a fight with the school board
extension of race and gender privileges and by over asbestos only when concerned parents
appeals to nationalism? Will it be shaped by came to their support and students at one high
continuing high unemployment rates that school staged a walkout.
make any job look good. The unabashed Here in the US, it is the Reagan administra­
union busting typified in Reagan's handling of tion that is making the connection between
the air tra ffic controllers' strike will certainly be industrial health and the environment, by
policy more than exception in the coming wielding a broad ax against all the protections
period of continuing industrial dislocation. that were fought for in the 1970s. Those, espec­
What are we to read into the timidity of the ially in the mainstream environmental move­
trade-union hierarchy to this attack? ment, who were accustomed to winning victor­
A second assumption in the discussion of the ies in the seventies are now faced with the need
strategies concerns the military budget and its for allies to avoid disastrous defeats in the
relation to reindustrialization. It will take a eighties. The Windsor article shows, albeit on a
major effort simply to rebuild and retool the very small scale, the possibilities of such an
factories needed to produce the military hard­ alliance.
ware now budgeted for the next five years . That The Windsor article is of interest also
effort will be coupled with the military sector's because of the extremely adverse conditions in
large-scale absorption of technicians, engi­ which the health-and-safety struggles have been


neers, and strategic materiel for the forseeable conducted. Windsor's depression-level unem­
future. Will people and planners alike continue ployment has ranged as high as 20 percent over
,
to accept the leap of faith Reagan is asking as the past two years, and employers have been
services, transportation, and necessities are cut quick to use the threat of mass layoffs to
to ward off the Soviet bogeyman? discourage protests over workplace conditions.
And to some extent this tactic has succeeded.
It was a striking feature of activist politics in But the Windsor Occupational Safety and
the 1970s that struggles for industrial health Health Council, rather than folding under the
and safety were conducted largely in isolation counterattack, has dug in for a long struggle

3
and has won some victories. Its experience nile corrections programs. Changes in Medicaid
offers hope for health-and-safety groups else­ rules take away the rights of poor people to
where, most of whom have much lower rates of choose their doctor. Educational cuts mean

students . The institutional innovations of th .


unemployment to cope with . that "basic" education is all that is offered to

Today we find ourselves defending basic 1970s - many of which grew out of the
public services against attacks from the Right. examples and pressures of alternative programs
It seems hard to remember that, only a few - are the first items to be cut in times of
years ago, we fought against some of these "realistic choices ." The result is that social
programs ourselves and struggled to create expectations shrink and people cannot even
alternative institutions which would provide a imagine ways to make their schools, hospitals,
vision for how education, health care, and or social services better ; so they withdraw into
other services could be more responsive to themselves, decreasing their demand on the
community needs. It is easy now to view such system in ways which can later be used as
alternative institutions as utopian or as frills justification for more cuts .
which we can no longer defend in the current Perhaps the conclusion here is that, difficult
climate of political reaction . as it may seem in these times, Leftists may need
Carl Hedman's article on alternative institu­ to consider renewing their efforts in support of
tions suggests that we should not be so quick to alternative institutions, especially of those
dismiss free schools, free clinics and other community self-help efforts which do not rely
counter-institutions. In his· examination of on public money. We may need to take some
Multicultural, an alternative school in Mil­ time away from the angry and depressing work
waukee, he shows the important roles which of fighting cutbacks to re-create small
such a school can play in giving working-class programs which remind people that other social
communities a model for what to demand from options exist besides the increasingly narrow,
the public schools, as well as providing the Left mean-spirited or inadequate ones now
with a forum for discussing the purposes and presented. Here we can look to feminist services
limits of public education under capitalism. He and to schools like Multicultural for lessons
also explores the ways in which alternative and examples.
programs must always fight the tendency to
become "safety valves" for the establishment, There should be no question that a new sensi­
whereby they take responsibility for all those bility about male gender roles has spread widely
who are pushed out or who fail within the throughout the US . Since the rebirth of the

(0)
existing stuctures. In all, his article reminds us women's movement a decade ago, there has
of the importance and problems of alternative been incessant challenge to masculinity . There
institutions which can provide a solid base for is growing support for male parenting, men are
criticism and change of dominant institutions . questioning the roles that they have been
Despite all the current pressures, we need conditioned to accept, and, in fact, there have
such a base more than ever . Budget cuts and arisen some loosely connected groups around
right-wing attacks are pushing public institu­ the country that have identified themselves as
tions increasingly back into blatant social­ part of a "men's movement ."
control activity . Youth services revert to juve- As with many progressive changes in the

4
recent past, the media has also begun to reflect the context of feminism. There can be no doubt
this change with a new "commodity" : "the that feminism made possible this rebellion
Sensitive Male." One friend reported seeing against conventional masculinity . Ironically,
four instances of "sensitive male roles" the men's movement is experiencing types of
&ecently in one evening's TV viewing. internal dissension and diffuseness that charac­
With the decline in power and the fragmen­ terized the early women's movement. For
tation of the women's movement, the pressure example, the men's movement appears to be a
against the traditional construction of mascu­ bit beyond the consciousness-raising stage but
linity has lessened. Indeed, the appropriate falling short of any strategy for political action .
patterns of masculinity are sparkling political More seriously, the movement is deeply divided
issues today, but the sparks are coming mostly between its pro feminist sections and one organ­
from the Right. New Right propaganda is ization, "Free Men," which is explicitly anti­
powerful in part because of the images of feminist .
masculinity it manipulates . By contrast, the Yet Interrante argues that even within the
Left is not offering any cohesive alternative progressive wing of the men's movement there
sense of what progressive masculinity might are varying degrees of acceptance of analyses
mean . and actions that directly challenge the struc­
In this isse, RA editorial board member Joe tures of male power and domination . Further­
Interrante has written an examination of the more, there are inevitable ambiguities in the
men's movement using the occasion of the situation of those who, accustomed to domi­
Seventh National Conference on Men and nating the political stage, want to relinquish
Masculinity held in July 1 98 1 at Tufts Univer­ that center-stage position without becoming
sity - a stone's throw from our office. He politically inactive. These criticisms, skepti­
provides a history of this movement and an cisms, and bewilderments are however offered
analysis of conflicts between its two major from a position of support. Surely we all need
tendencies, as well as an overall evaluation o f groups which can work to stimulate further
the conference itself. cultural challenge to destructive, insensitive,
His analysis places the men's movement in and instrumental patterns of masculine being.

'.

5
REINDUSTRIALIZATION:
� DEBATE AMONG
CAPITALISTS

GOETZ WOLFF

I
!
In the past few years business leaders have shown increasing concern about the state of the
US economy. They see stagflation, insufficient productivity, decreasing profit levels, lagging I
.1
technology, too little investment in productive capital, and lack of competitiveness in world
markets. And they don't like any of it.
At the same time, business leaders are careful to distinguish between these serious
problems and other problems which they accept philosophically. Plant closings, in their
v�ew, are merely manifestations of a period of change and disruption for older, declining
industries. The frost belt is losing to the sunbelt; the US is losing to Japan and to industrial­
izing Third World nations; steel, rubber, textiles, and autos are losing to computers,
aerospace, and machinery.
Integral to this process of change are the impetus of capitalists to increase their profits in
order to enlarge the reproduction of capital (i.e., increase capital accumulation) and a
�oncomitant class struggle in which workers tend to resist increased exploitation. In order to
increase accumulation, a variety of strategies are pursued, including the disciplining of labor
in order to keep wages low (and to reduce wages if they have risen) and the replacement of
demanding and unruly labor with machines. In addition, capital seeks out cheaper, more
docile labor. Thus the growth in manufacturing jobs has taken place in regions and
countries where wages tend to be lower, and where unions are less evident and/or less
militant.

Opposite: Edward Steichen, The Maypole (Empire State Building) 1932

7
\ 'i
But capital doesn't only strike out geograph­ the economic maladies manifested by the
ically in search of higher profits. There also United States. Credit for coining the name is
exists competition for investment among claimed by Amitai Etzioni, a sociologist and
sectors of the economy (and within sectors). As former Senior Advisor to President Carter. 3
was noted above, in the area of manu facturing, Because the economic problems are so co ne
there are sectors that have been growing ( "sun­ plex, there isn't any agreement yet among
rise") while others have been declining ( "sun­ busines leaders as to which route is the best way
set"). In addition, the goods-producing sector out of the economic crisis. But if we are going
as a whole has been giving way to the services to understand what business has in mind for the
sector.' nation, we have to be able to distinguish among
For many economy analysts, this is but a the various plans which are being proposed.
natural process resulting from the births and We can identify at least three major strands
deaths in the corporate species. They conven­ in this reindustrialization debate among busi­
iently overlook the human costs that are ness leaders and their spokesmen. One might be
involved in these changes. For them, a readjust­ called the unfettered-capitalism version of
ment and restructuring will work itself out as reindustrialization because it is advanced by
corporations and individuals seek out the more those who still have a great deal of faith in the
profitable sectors and regions in which to free market. They believe that most of the
invest. As this happens, the less profitable economic problems of the US have their roots
regions will adjust their business climate so that in excessive government-business interdepend­
they will become more attractive to investment ence. A second strand, called the Business
in the future. The process will result in a Week version because of the now-famous issue
"convergence of regional incomes, " according which delineated the problems facing the US
to one study by the American Enterprise economy as well as provided a strategy for
Institute. 2 rebuilding the economy, is advocated by those
Nevertheless, even the businessmen and their who believe that, for better or worse, govern­
economists are concerned with the way in which ment and business are linked to each other's
these structural changes are going to come fates.4 A third version of reindustrialization,
about. From their point of view : will the pragmatic state capitalism, agrees with the
changes come soon enough, or will America be second, but goes one step further and suggests
left in the lurch while other countries surge that it is in the long-term interests of capitalism
ahead? How disruptive will this working out of for government to take a guiding role in rein­
"natural " market forces be? What corpora­ dustrialization. It also holds that the most
tions will suffer the greatest losses? Will the US pressing needs of labor, minorities, women,
risk losing some basic industries that are critical and the poor should be taken into serious
.
to military production? Their primary concern account in the restructuring process.
is how their own economic positions might be Although the three reindustrialization plans
adversely affected by the economic changes aren't as sharply distinct as I'm portraying
brought on by the dynamics of capitalism. them, it is necessary to recognize that with each
This is where the idea of reindustrialization version different tactics and strategies are being
comes in. It's a single name given to a number proposed, and consequently working people
of different policy proposals for dealing with will be a ffected differently. This means too,

8
ployment insurance, food stamps, COLA, the
minimum wage) which have made life more
tolerable and secure for workers and their
families in the past half-century . The complaint
by these free-enterprise economists and politi­
cians is that the labor force has extracted a
"cushy " existence which discourages produc­
tivity and keeps market forces from allowing
wages to fluctuate with the demand for labor .
Another proposal is the creation of enterprise
zones, recommended by the Heritage Founda­
tion 6 and presented to Congress as the Kemp­
Garcia Urban Jobs and Enterprise Zone Act,'
which has some disconcerting similarities to the
export platforms ( Free Trade Zones, or FTZs)
that are most common in Asian nations which
border on the Pacific Basin .8 Closely related is
the proposal to drop the minimum wage for
young people - a first step toward a more
widespread modification of the minimum
wage, and thus the wage structure in general.
Another tactic focuses on unions, for they are
to "be considered an obstacle to the optimum
Fritz Eichenberg, 1937
performance of our economic system. "9 The
thrust of these proposals and tactics is to make
that different responses may be called for, American labor cheaper, and thus more com­
depending on the version of reindustrialization petitive with Third World workers.
which is being promoted . Direct benefits for industry are also advo­
cated in this approach to reindustrialization .
"Uofettered Capitalism" Here the assumption is that as government
'
(
Reindustrialization by unfettered capitalism "gets out of business," business will be able to i:

,
' '

relies upon a perspective of free enterprise choose the most efficient strategies to compete "

which sees government as an impediment to the in the world economy - unrestricted by so­
I
success of capitalism. Of course, this is the called costly health, safety, and environmental III
.perspective that dominates the rhetoric - and regulations. ( The costs will not go away - they 'I I
1',,1
to a surprising extent the actual policies - of will be borne, not by business, but by the
the Reagan administration . S The solutions that workers in the form of injury and illness.) It is
make up this reindustrialization approach can believed that the most profitable directions for
be capsulized into a strategy of less government investment will somehow be the ones that meet
and more capitalism. the needs of the nation . Thus the way forward
;
Specifically this strategy wants to strip away is to cut taxes drastically through accelerated
or reduce virtually all social buffers (e.g . unem- depreciation for capital purchases such as

9
equipment and buildings, through decreased this rhetoric was never anything more than a
corporate tax rates, and through decreased perfunctory window dressing .
personal income taxes in the upper brackets .
Unfettered capitalism does not ignore the Business Week
poor, the minorities, and "the truly needy " - The second version of reindustrialization, the •
in its rhetoric. One repeatedly encounters refer­ Business Week approach, includes some related
ences to the concern for the less well off, and proposals coming from other sources . For
how workers and job seekers will gain with the example, the Time-Life empire has jumped into
soon-to-come booming, restructured, revital­ the fray with a special project on American
ized economy . But as the Reagan program Renewal in which Fortune advocates a slightly
takes shape, it becomes increasingly clear that more cautious, and somewhat more broad-

10
brushed, set of proposals. 10 However, to avoid sure to limit wage gains in the first phase of
complicating this brief review, I will focus most reindustrialization . " 1 2 Business Week attempts
of my attention on Business Week. to balance this bargain by affirming the need
It should be noted that Business Week for "high employment and decent wages" -
. oesn't oppose the labor sacrifices that are the point being, nevertheless, that business is
explicit strategies in the unfettered capitalism the implicit decisionmaker about what is
version. Thus it endorses Amitai Etzioni's needed and how the needs are to be fulfilled.
statement that reindustrialization will require The Business Week position still fears
" 1 0 years of belt tightening. " 1 1 Likewise, Busi­ government as potentially unmanageable,
ness Week is supportive of cuts in personal because the electorate is made up of more
income taxes as well as liberalized depreciation workers than capitalists . Thus it says " It will be
allowances, increased investment tax credits , legitimate for government to work with the
and cuts in the corporate income tax. However, private sector in developing a road map for
the somewhat more "liberal" Business Week healthy industrial development, showing which
perspective acknowledges that the government, industries should be encouraged to grow and
if dominated by the appropriate business inter­ which have only a limited future. " But " it will
ests, can serve as an important coordinating not be legitimate for government to legislate a
agent in overcoming the anarchy of the capital­ new industrial structure. Nor will it be legiti­
ist system. Thus a key aspect of the approach is mate for government to take over sick indus­
that selective budgetary and tax policies will tries to preserve obsolete j obs. "13 This principle
strengthen industry by rewarding investment in has been taken to heart by Governor Jerry
the production of capital goods , by encour­ Brown who wants to "go with the flow" of
aging research and development , and by industrial growth. In California he has pro­
promoting exports. It is not simply a matter of posed a state reindustrialization program which
putting money in the hands of investors , as in would aid research in microelectronics,
the unfettered-capitalism approach to reindus­ encourage new firms in high-technology "sun­
trialization. rise" industries as well as create an "industrial
. Business Week wants to forge a "new social reinvestment fund . " 14 Whether these new
contract, " a tripartite consensus among busi­ industries will provide accessible and well­
ness, labor, and government in order to achieve paying j obs to those being displaced by reindus­
the needed climate for restructuring American trialization is open to question.
industry. In particular, the worker-versus Both Business Week and Fortune take note
owner adversarial relationship (class struggle) is of minorities, women, the needy - and they
II
I) Week calls a "collaborative relationship" in
to be replaced by a partnership which Business are quick to emphasize that reindustrialization I

must be fair. But not very well hidden in this


shops and factories. By such an arrangement, rhetoric are statements such as: "each social
policies would emerge that represent the needs group will be measured by how it contributes to
and contributions of all the economic elements, economic revitalization . " 1 S "The drawing of
according to this approach. And among the the social contract must take precedence over
first to "contribute" to the "needs" of the aspirations of the poor, the minorities, and
business will be labor. " As part of the new the environmentalists. "16 "In the 1 970s,
social contract, unions will come under pres- however, the egalitarian thrust went too

11
far .... Now, without overreacting and subor­ unfettered capitalism, it must be remembered
dinatng equality too much, we need to restore that the goals are basically the same: maintain­
the balance in our values, as we have so many ing the health of the capitalist system. Rohatyn
times before."17 sees an even greater need for governmen(
Finally, it should be noted that Business involvement and direction of the capitalis�
Week is not blind to possible failings within the economy than Business Week - but always for
leadership of capital. They are critical of busi­ the long-term benefit of the capitalist economy.
ness management itself for its short-sighted, While Business Week hesitantly considers the
quick-profit approach which hasn't had the creation of a Reconstruction Finance Corpora­
nerve to grab hold of the long range oppor­ tion as an option, Rohatyn embraces and advo­
tunities confronting the American economy. cates the idea without apology: in addition to
Before turning to the third version of rein­ intervening in the economy "to shore up
dustrialization, it should be pointed out that America's troubled older industries by provid­
while Busines Week did the "outreach" work ing equity capital ... it would have the right to
with its special issue, the outlines of the insist on management changes."19 Because an
problem and the strategies for dealing with it America "half rich, half poor; half suburb,
were already formulated by the Trilateral Com­ half slum ... is a recipe for social strife," the
mission in 1 979. There is no need to leap to R.F.C. could "also play a major role in shaping
assumptions of conspiratorial machinations to regional policy," aiding regions and cities that
acknowledge the role of multinational corpor­ are hit particularly hard by economic changes.20
ations and financial interests in formulating the Such an intervention by the government is not
agenda for discourse on industrial policy. How­ meant to be a permanent one, however. "The
ever, it is significant to note that such a power­ R.F.C. should never become a permanent
ful configuration of economic/political inter­ stockholder in any corporation."21 Rather, the
ests was concerned with this issue. Thus we may R.F.C. would gradually remove itself as the
speculate that the Business Week version will be economy becomes regenerated. Rohatyn is
most likely to be adopted as policy in the long undaunted by those capitalists who suggest that
run. this strategy involves excessive interference in
the free-market system: "Free markets are
Pragmatic State Capitalism clearly desirable, but we do not in fact live in a
To the left of Business Week is an approach free-market economy and never will; we live in
to reindustrialization which places even greater a mixed economy in which prices and capital
reliance on government involvement and are, and will be, subject to governmental
influence. "22
The basic thrust of Rohatyn's proposal is f))
includes an explicit strategy for dealing with the
problems of the disadvantaged regions and
sectors of the US. Felix Rohatyn - an invest­ that the US has to maintain its basic industries,
ment banker and chairman of New York City's for both national security and the economy as a
Municipal Assistance Corporation - best whole depend on these industries. "Is it
typifies the pragmatic state capitalism approach rational, in the name of the mythical free
to reindustrialization.18 Although this approach market, to let our basic industries go down one
causes distress at the Wall Street Journal and after the other, in favor of an equally mythical
heart failure among some of the advocates of 'service society' in which everyone will serve

12
I
everyone else and no one will be making ourselves how Rohatyn arrives at his solution:
anything? "23 Furthermore, rather than waste it involves business interests dominating
precious capital by having to build new plants government policy making and it involves

&tion
and the related infrastructures in one paTt of the "belt-tightening" which means that the
while the other sections die "natural workers will pay for most of the changes he
deaths," the reindustrialization project he advocates, even though he claims that everyone
envisions "will provide work enough for will pay a price. It is the workers who bear the
everyone as far as the eye can see."24 greater burden with frozen wages or givebacks,
Before this approach to reindustrialization is with higher energy costs, with reduced social
accepted as the best one, we have to remind services, with cutbacks in unemployment bene-

III

13
fits. Thus the price of pragmatic state capitalist workers from organizing independently of
reindustrialization involves giving up the management.
"padded society," as Rohatyn characterizes Pragmatic state capitalism may hold out for
it.2S The problem is that this''padding" is a lot those sectors and regions where industries have
thinner for the workers than it is for the corpor­ been in decline because this approach seems u.
ate interests who will be deciding where the be aware that you don't simply throw away
padding gets reduced. investment in capital and skilled human beings.
What does all this mean for the US? It seems In addition, the Rohatyn approach seems to be
pretty obvious that the unfettered capitalism more concerned with the "less fortunate " in
approach wants little more than to convert the our economy, although the reason for concern
US into a Milton Friedman-approved Hong appears to be based on the pragmatic concern
Kong free-market economy. It will rely upon with the adverse consequences arising from
unemployed workers (the "reserve army ") "social strife " - i.e., disruption and disorder.
forcing labor to become cheaper and more In that sense, it appears that the Rohatyn
productive, thus encouraging new plant open­ approach is far more sensitive to the nature of
ings and expansions in the US. And too, as the the struggle between the classes. But as has
declining industries die off, it is assumed that a already been noted, the cost of the strategy will
new set of suitable replacement "sunrise " ultimately be borne by the workers who will
industries will be ready to take their place. have to accept pay cuts, givebacks, and declin­
Whether the laid-off workers will have the skills ing social services. And in the long run, the
to fit into the sunrise industries and the strategy of pragmatic state capitalism may
"freedom " to move to the location of the new oreate an even closer bond between business
plants seems more certain in supply-side and government, resulting in what Bertram
economic texts than in the real world. Gross has called "friendly fascism. "26
The Business Week approach would keep None of the various reindustrialization advo­
government in the picture as an agent of general cates consider the fact that state and local
direction ( "indicative planning"), and there government accounted for about one-fifth of
would be some concern with having labor the additional jobs in the US in the past twenty
included in the planning for shifts that take years.31 The government has played a special
place. The question, though, is which elements role in absorbing employable citizens in a
of labor will be speaking for the workers? changing economy. But now, obviously, that
Although Business Week wants to avoid major role will be much smaller. Not only will there be
disruptions in declining industries, at the same a decline in services by the government, but
time it doesn't want to maintain "sick indus­ fewer jobs will be made available in precisely
tries to preserve obsolete jobs. " And while on the major growing sector in which wages weref»))
the one hand Business Week talks of labor higher, and increasing at a rapid rate. The
nestling in with business as a way to improve service and trade sectors, also growing during
communication and achieve a "collaborative the past twenty years, tend to pay less than the
relationship, " it should be remembered that manufacturing jobs that are being eased out.
Business Week doesn't oppose corporations' Thus many of the "job opportunities " in the
attempts to dismantle unions and prevent nonmanufacturing sectors are (and will be)

14
lower-paying, less unionized, and more likely to 11.Business Week, June 30, 1980, p.88.
be dead-end jobs.28 12.Business Week, p. 88.
13.Ibid. , p.146.
If, as Fortune asserts, reindustrialization has
14. "California's Own Reindustrialization Program,"
become "an 'empty-bottle' word,"29 into
Business Week, January 26, 1981, p.40.
&'hich various wines have been poured, it 15.Business Week, June 30, 1980, p.86.
should be recognized that whatever the vintage, 16.Ibid. , p. 146.
all have come from the same capitalist vine­ 17.Fortune, p. 115.
yard. What needs to be added to this debate on 18. Rohatyn has presented his ideas on several occasions:
"The Coming Emergency and What Can Be Done About
reindustrialization is a perspective which speaks
It," New York Review of Books, December 4, 1980, pp.
for the workers and progressives, not only for 20-26; "Reconstructing America," New York Review of
corporate interests. Books, March 5, 1981, pp. 16-20; "Putting the US
Economy Back on Its Toes," Los Angeles Times, February
15, Pt. V, p. 1; "A Matter of Psychology," New York
Review of Books, April 16, 1981, pp. 14-16.
19.Rohatyn,"Putting the US Economy Back on Its Toes."
Footnotes 20. Ibid. , and the same points are made in "Reconstructing
America," pp. 20, 16, 19.
1. By 1977,only 32 percent of the working population was 21.Rohatyn,"Putting the US Economy Back on Its Toes."
employed producing goods. Eli Ginzberg and George J. 22. Rohatyn, "Reconstructing America," p. 18.
Vojta,"The Service Sector of the US Economy," Scientific 23.Ibid. , p. 20.
American 244 (March 1981): p.48.According to my own 24. Rohatyn,"Putting the US Economy Back on Its Toes."
calculations from the Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1979, 25. Rohatyn, "The Coming Emergency," p. 23.
the proportion dropped to 29.7 percent by 1979. 26. Bertram Gross, Friendly Fascism: The New Face of
2.Richard B.McKenzie,Restrictions on Business Mobility: Power in A merica (New York: M. Evans, 1980). Sidney

I
A Study in Political Rhetoric and Economic Reality Lens, looking at reindustrialization in general, notes its
(Washington,DC: American Enterprise Institute,1979),pp. resemblance to Mussolini's corporate state,"'Reindustrial­
5,22. ization': Panacea or Threat?" The Progressive, November
3. Amitai Etzioni, "Reindustrialization: View from the 1980, p.44.
Source," New York Times, June 29,1980. 27. Goetz Wolff, "Trends in Industry and Labor," Figs.
4. "The Reindustrialization of America," special issue of 20a and 20b.

5. A book that is taking on the status of a tome for the


BliSiness Week, June 30,1980. 28.On this point,see also Emma Rothschild,"Reagan and
the Real America," New York Review of Books, February
administration's approach is George Gilder, Wealth and
Poverty (New York: Basic Books, 1981) - ordered by
5, 1981.
29. William Bowen, "How to Regain Our Competitive
I I
Budget Director David Stockman for distribution to his Edge," Fortune, March 9, 1981, p.84.
col1eagues.
6. Stuart M. Butler, Enterprise Zones: Pioneering in the
Inner City (Washington,DC: Heritage Foundation, 1980).

. see Urban Revitalization and Industrial Policy, Hearings


7.For a discussion of the Kemp-Garcia Bill by its authors,
GOETZ WOLFF has taught political science at
" ,
11:
"
before the Subcommittee on the City, 96th Congo 2nd several universities. He works with labor unions
Session, September 16 and 17, 1980, pp.205-224. and is presently the coordinator of a conference
8.Ho Kwon Ping, "Bargaining on the Free Trade Zones,"
on economic dislocation, November 6-7 at ,:11!I,
New Internationalist (April 1980), pp. 12-14.
9. Albert Rees,The Economics of Trade Unions (Chicago: UCLA (where he is a graduate student in urban
planning). This article was written in April,
1981.
University of Chicago Press, 1977)
10. "Special Project: American Renewal," Fortune, March
9, 1981.

15
Clarence John Laughlin, Doorway to a Lost World, 1955
FROM THE
RUNAWAY SHOP TO

THE SWEATSHOP:

f
� "Enterprise Zones" and
Redevelopment of the Cities

PHILIP MATTERA

Earlier this year Ronald Reagan told the national convention of the NAACP that his admin­
istration wants to free blacks from the "bondage" of government programs. Whenever
public officials in this country speak of freedom, they usually end up meaning freedom for
business - and Reagan is certainly no exception. It thus comes as no surprise that what
. Reagan is offering inner-city blacks, along with the rest of the urban poor and working class,
as replacements for those programs are "urban enterprise zones." These zones would
supposedly stimulate investment in the cities, especially by small business, through tax
reductions and eased regulation - the two pillars of supply-side economics. Like that
doctrine as a whole, the zone proposal is partly hucksterism parading as a serious policy
prescription, and partly an element of a general capitalist restructuring of the labor market
and industry.
• The enterprise zone idea originated in Britain about four years ago, when Peter Hall, a
professor of urban planning, became enamored of the political economy of fast-growing
Asian countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Despite being a Fabian socialist by
disposition, Hall apparently decided that unfettered capitalism was indeed the solution to
economic development - in the first world as well as the third. The scheme described by
Hall was picked up by Geoffrey Howe, a Tory theorist who became Thatcher's chancellor
o� the exchequer.

17
By 1980 Howe was able to incorporate enter­ vention but all too often the presence of it ....
prise zones into the government's economic (Let's) provide free enterprise with the chance
strategy, and the scheme was approved for to deal with the problems ."3 .

New York State and one of the glamour boys of e


about half a dozen blighted areas in Britain, Jack Kemp, a member of Congress from
Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland .
Although Hall initially wanted the zones to be supply-side economics, latched on to the pro­
free of virtually all regulation short of the posal in partnership with Rep. Robert Garcia of
prohibition against murder, political pressures the South Bronx, a Democrat . It is interesting
forced the Thatcher government to limit itself to note that both in Britain and here the enter­
to a few concessions such as the elimination of prise zone idea has been presented as bipartisan
property taxes, 100 percent capital allowances , and thus supposedly devoid of narrow political
and simplified planning requirements. Never­ motives . If anything, it shows how in both
theless, the plan was denounced by the Left as countries the differences between the parties
an attempt to return to nineteenth-century have been further reduced, and the accepted
conditions for industry. I wisdom of all is the need to cater to business.
Some advocates of a nineteenth-century The zone proposal became known starting
renaissance here in the US adopted the zone last year as the Kemp-Garcia Bill, which was
idea about two years ago, amid the heated dis­ not acted on in 1 980 but was recently reintro­
cussion over the future of areas such as the duced. As in Britain, the bolder provisions such
South Bronx. While Carter 's uninspiring urban as elimination of the minimum wage were
policy proposals languished in Congress, dropped for reasons of political expedience, but
conservatives, who had started mobilizing in a they remain part of a longer-term agenda held
serious way, offered the scheme as a bold new by the supply-side crowd for not only the zones
approach to solving the crisis of the cities. The by the entire economy. Such intentions
plan was pushed by the ultra-right Heritage continue to surround discussion of the bill, and
Foundation and its staff member Stuart Butler. Kemp 's office has even found it necessary to
In a 1 980 op-ed article in the New York Times state explicitly that no , the Congressman is not
which introduced the idea to many people -
- now calling for the abolition of child labor
Butler said the zones would "provide an attrac­ laws .4
tive climate for private money and business . " While it is not clear how quickly Congress
Among the allures, he indicated, would be not will act on the measure, the enterprise zone
only reduced taxes and eased zoning rules, but proposal continues to pick up steam around the
also the possible elimination of rent control and country. Local goverments in places such as
the minimum wage. 2
developing their own versions of the plan, and t�)
Miami and the District of Columbia have been
Butler continued his crusade, which was
endorsed by candidate Reagan, in the pages of the Connecticut legislature passed a bill in July
Policy Review, the house organ of Heritage. He establishing zones in that state . Support for the
argued that the depopulation and economic idea, though perhaps not in its most radical
stagnation of older cities are often their own form , has even been expressed by liberal organ­
fault, the result of misguided policies. "The izations such as the NAACP , the National
chief barrier to the revival of dilapidated inner­ Urban League, and the Congressional Black
city districts is not the lack of goverment inter- Caucus . Either this is supply-side fever run

18
rampant, or else what remains of the liberal cates on small business entrepreneurs is signifi­
establishment feels the zones are the most that cant and is part of a general glorification of
can be expected in the way of urban policy from small business in the supply-side creed. The

.denounced the plan as the' 'localized version of


the Reagan regime. At least the AFL-CIO has implication here is not simply that the Right has
been converted to a "small is beautiful" atti­
'trickle-down' economics . ' " tude , but rather that they recognize that any
I n its current form the Kemp-Garcia bill new economic activity in the inner cities will be
would permit zone businesses various types of limited to marginal enterprises employing
federal tax relief and commit local governments workers from the lower rungs 'of the labor
to reducing such "burdens" as property taxes market hierarchy.
and zoning laws. As for workers, aside from This is of no concern to the supply-siders,
the privilege of toiling in these paradises, the who think there is no such thing as labor
bill would reward them with a 5 percent refund­ market segmentation and that every worker is
able income tax credit. This is in line with the properly paid in accordance with his or her
supply-siders ' call for "incentives to the marginal productivity, in this best of all eco­
people. " As Kemp puts it in a promotional nomic systems. Other less cynical supporters of
pamphlet, "When it comes to his or her own the plan may feel that a bad j ob is better than
personal welfare, every individual is an entre­ no job at all, but, as usual, the people who will
preneur. Everyone makes economic calcula­ be affected by the policy will have little to say in
tions. "6 As the legislature is designed, the
entrepreneur will need to make few of those
calculations; the scheme all but guarantees his
success . For the worker, the "risk-reward
ratio" seems considerably higher . Aside from
the measley tax credit, all that Kemp-Garcia
holds out is the possibility of some kind of job.
The bill is conspicuously silent on what types of
employment might be generated in the zones .
Yet the discussion of the proposal strongly
suggests they will not be the kind that insure
rapid ascent up the ladder of success . Aside
from the hints of possible encroachments on
the minimum wage, there are indications that

I) probably dirty, unsafe, and nonunion . This is


the jobs will be not only low-paying but

undoubtedly behind Kemp 's talk of " small,


independent, labor-intensive industries"1 and
Butler' s version, as stated by the New York
Times, of "dozens of 'basement businesses' -
laundries, garment shops, bakeries and the like
- each employing a half-dozen or so unskilled
workers . " 8 The emphasis placed by zone advo- Clarence John Laughlin, The Spell of the Shadow, 1953

19
choosing between lousy regular work and a reductions in public services, layoffs of tens of
combination of lousy irregular work and inade­ thousands of city workers, increases in the
quate government benefits. Kemp 's talk of the transit fare, the end of free tuition at City Uni­
zones as a form of "greenlining" will apply to versity, and so forth . The unquestioned prin­
nothing other than the pockets of these vaunted ciple was that in a crisis, business gets incentives.
new entrepreneurs . Perhaps the best assessment and the people get austerity.
has been given by former activist Sam Brown, New York City has also pioneered a zone
who called the zones "colonialism brought approach to rebuilding the delicate "confi­
home. "9 dence" of business, at least in the field of
finance. The large commercial banks were
In one sense, the emphasis on business tax rewarded for their role in precipitating the
relief in the zone proposal is simply bewilder­ budget crisis with an intense effort by local offi­
ing. Why is this presented as something new, cials to get the entire city declared a free bank­
something that will suddenly stimulate new ing zone. The Federal Reserve finally approved
economic activity in urban areas? The fact is the plan this year, freeing Citibank, Chase
that the past six years or so have been charac­ Manhattan, and their brethren from much
terized by an extraordinary effort by local taxation and regulation (including reserve
governments to attract investment through requirements and interest rate limitations) . The
wholesale reductions in taxes and adjustments claim was that the establishment of a monetary
of other laws and regulations . 10 Mobile corpor­ free zone would create thousands of new jobs in
ations have found themselves the recipients of the city by allowing the banks to bring back
seemingly endless "incentives" dished up by home the international finance business now
localities who have made a cult out of conducted in places such as London and the
competitiveness . Bahamas. The number of new j obs has been
What began as a shift from the snowbelt disputed, but in any event , the new scheme does
states - with their high levels of unionization little more than institutionalize a tax haven and
and taxes - to the sunbelt states has turned give freer rein to a group of rapacious
into a national bidding contest for investment. enterprises.
The business press is full of advertisements Corporations have become so used to this
from states and cities offering themselves to sort of treatment that, in the rare instance when
corporate planners . So aggressive are some of a local government acts differently, business is
these ads in presenting the local workforce as outraged . This has happened with New York
disciplined, productive, and willing to work for State's attempt to tax the oil companies for
subsistence wages that they sound like the revenues needed to ease the financing of mass
transit. Following the transit strike in New e):�)
pitches made by pimps to potential customers.
I
The religion of business incentives was so York City last year, the legislature approved a 2 . .

strong in the 1 970s that in New York City, for percent levy on the gross revenues of oil
instance , officials were proposing more and companies and prohibited them from passing
more of them even in the midst of a grave the tax on to customers. The oil behemoths, led
budget crisis. There seemed to be no reluctance by Mobil, first threatened to stop doing busi­
to offer tax relief for capital at a time when the ness in the state and then took the matter to
people were being forced to accept severe court, claiming the tax was "discriminatory

20

f .
Clarence John Laughlin. The Head in the Wall. /945

and confiscatory." The courts agreed, and the relations that has characterized the response to
taxes were voided . the social struggles of the 1 960s . In that period,
This year the legislature passed a new tax that public workers and the poor forced the state -
the companies were free to pass on at the pump. at both the federal and local levels - to
Still, Mobil spitefully raised its prices 6 cents a improve the conditions of their lives by expand­
gaBon - far more than the cost of the tax . The ing public expenditures. Now the state .1

' utcry even from the likes of Mayor Koch, so


crude way in which Mobil acted provoked an
.>o
unabashedly orients itself to meeting the
I[
demands of business. Supply-side economics is
the company lowered the increase to 1 .3 cents. the elevation of this new policy to a theology; it
This is hardly a popular victory; it only means is the culmination of a fiscal counter-revolution.
the tax will cost Mobil nothing rather than
being an opportunity for gross theft. Despite the laissez-faire rhetoric of the
This, then, is one side of the enterprise zone supply-siders, the enterprise zone proposal
proposal. It furthers the reversal of fiscal power should also be understood as a form of capital-

21
ist planning aimed at a basic restructuring of The zone proposal pursues this aim with
production and the labor market. In this sense precedents from the Third World, where capital
it is not so different from the more explicit has been much bolder in its experiments in
social-engineering approach , now largely out of controlling labor . In a sense all of Puerto Rico
favor but still promoted by Felix Rohatyn, Wall was made a zone after World War II through.
Street financier and supposed saver of cities. Operation Bootstrap . An analagous scheme,
Over the past five years Rohatyn has issued the Border Industrialization Program, was
calls for an urban Marshall Plan through the instituted in Mexico following the end of the
creation of a new Reconstruction Finance Cor­ Bracero , or guest worker, system in 1 965 . Since
poration . To provide the managerial talent for the early 1 960s dozens of Third World coun­
such a project, Rohatyn has proposed an urban tries, especially in Asia, have created export
peace corps, consisting of young executives processing zones, in which foreign investors,
who would take time off from their corporate mainly from the US and West Germany, were
jobs to save the cities of America. able to take advantage of cheap and very
Rohatyn has made no bones about how he closely controlled labor in assembly operations
would reshape inner-city areas to serve the that had been shifted out of factories in the
needs of business. He offered the following advanced countries . It is not surprising that the
recipe in 1 976: "Take a 30-block area, clear it, Washington Post recently said, "the ideal
blacktop it, and develop an industrial park with behind the urban enterprise zone is to help the
the whole package of tax, employment , financ­ nation's blighted central cities follow the devel­
ing incentives already in place. " 1 \ Actually, it opment trail blazed by the industrializing coun­
does not sound so different from an enterprise tries of Asia. " 1 2
zone, though Rohatyn's scheme would include I n Asia, the zones have even spread to China,
large federal investments and public jobs where Hong Kong entrepreneurs are seeking
programs . That would be tempered, however, even cheaper labor than they have in that city­
with the kind of local fiscal austerity he insti­ state . But to their dismay they have found that,
tuted in New York and has more recently been although China's new leadership is promoting
preaching to cities such as Cleveland and foreign investment, the workers have a more
Detroit. casual attitude . The Economist magazine of
Each approach tolerates the uncontrolled London has reported that the Hong Kong
mobility of capital at the same time that it bosses are confronted with "laziness, indisci­
encourages marginal industry. To some extent pline, and shoddy workmanship . . . . Workers
the latter aspect is meant as a remedy for the accustomed to the relaxed pace of Chinese
effects of the former . Urban redevelopment in communes have found it hard to adjust to the
whatever form is supposed to pick up the pieces standards expected by Hong Kong profit 1)1)1)
in communities devastated by runaway plants. seekers . " 1 3
Waged work in substandard conditions serves The zone idea in the US suggests the creation
as a form of social control. In line with the of the Third World in the midst of the First.
fiscal counter-revolution, it is deemed better to This is true in the change of sovereignty of cities
keep the people in precarious employment than implied by the establishment of special areas in
to grant their subsistence through social which many laws do not apply. As in the export
spending. processing zones of Taiwan, South Korea, and

22
elsewhere, local authorities would play little force women back into the home while retain­
more than a symbolic role, and the real power ing them as a source of cheap labor.
would be held by the entrepreneurs . Rohatyn Thus, one way to understand the enterprise

•for this in New York, Yonkers, and other cities,


and his colleagues have already paved the way zone proposal is as an attempt to rationalize
and institutionalize the underground economy .
,
where emergency financial control boards have Instead of the current situation, in which fly­
put businessmen in power over elected officials. by-night businesses exploit workers in sweat­
Also as in the Third World, the zones could shops and through home labor for a while and
be characterized by a virtual militarization of then disappear , small entrepreneurs could do
the conditions of work and living . Part of this the same in a more orderly way. The sweatshop
would undoubtedly be a serious increase in the proprietor would no longer be a villain, but
intensity of exploitation . Recent years have rather the protagonist of a new era of economic
already seen a resurgence of sweatshop labor growth. I S
amid a general expansion of low-wage j obs in I t may seem odd to speak o f sweatshops and
marginal industries. State Senator Franz Leich­ marginal jobs at a time when the media are
ter has estimated that as many as 50,000 people ballyhooing a new technological revolution and
may be working in sweatshops in New York a new wave of automation in the factory, the
City alone, for wages as low as $5 a day. 14 office, and the home. Increasingly sophisti­
There have also been many indications of cated microprocessors and eventually
growth in off-the-books labor and the under­ computers that can think - are supposed to be
ground economy, in addition to the increasing transforming our lives.
use of free-lance, temporary, and part-time The fact is that both tendencies are real: there
workers in above-ground businesses. are simultaneous moves toward labor-intensive,
While many people prefer more flexible primitive forms of production and toward an
working conditions, there is no doubt that busi­ advanced electronics, genetic engineering, and
ness is eager to decrease its use of full-time, the like. What this implies is an increasing
permanent, decently paid employees . This has polarization of both the forms of production
gone along with a certain decentralization of and the conditions of work and life for the
production - the closing or scaling down of people involved in each phenomenon. More
the operations of large factories in favor of and more, the economy and society will
smaller situations in which the workers are not probably be divided. The larger number of
unionized , are paid less, and have no job secur­ people will find themselves in tighter spots:
ity. In some cases, the decentralization goes as grossly reduced social services, irregular
far as relocating production in the worker' s employment, poor wages and working condi­
home. There has been a significant expansion tions , and inadequate and deteriorated housing
.)
of home labor, both legal and illegal, in recent and transportation. A smaller group of indus­
years, and the Reagan Labor Department has trial workers and technicians will be relatively
called for the elimination of all restrictions on privileged. As in the Japanese model, which
this practice, which has traditionally been large corporations here are hastening to adopt,
subject to extensive employer abuse. Since this reduced labor force will be permitted good
almost all home workers are female, this form wages, benefits , and job security in exchange
of employment fits in with the Right's move to for loyalty and discipline. 1 6 Working conditions

23
may very well be safer - since robots will be comparable to that of capital and the redefin­
doing much of the difficult or hazardous labor ition of territorial control in favor of business
- but probably more boring. are bound to face more resistance . The events
The two groups in this admittedly simplified of Brixton and Liverpool may be repeated on
scheme may very well fit together in terms of this side of the Atlantic.
production. Even advanced industries would A hint of the new forms in which con flicts will
take advantage of cheap labor in certain take place can be seen in Detroit. After years of
processes . In addition to serving as a form of controversy around the country about plant
social control, the marginal sector (which closings, a community in that city found itself
would in terms of size be far from marginal) battling a plant opening. Residents in the Pole­
would thus contribute to the accumulation o f town section w aged a brave but doomed battle .)�)
capital . Like the export-processing zones against the destruction of fifteen hundred
abroad, all-American sweatshops would homes and the rest of the neighborhood to
become integrated into the new highly frag­ make room for a sprawling Cadillac factory .
mented international division of labor. The main enemy was not General Motors, but
The fit may not be so neat in social terms. the city government, which not only provided
The attempt to create a new mobility of labor GM enormous tax abatements but also took

24
on the dirty work of assembling the needlessly Footnotes
large site. Those homeowners who refused to
1. James Anderson, "Back to the 19th Century , " New
sell out at below-market rates found themselves
Statesman, July 11, 1980.
harassed and faced with a wave of arson. A 2.New York Times, June 13, 1980.
•roup of residents who occupied a church were 3. Stuart Butler, "Urban Renewal: A Modest Proposal, "
forcibly removed by police , and the building Policy Review 13 (Summer 1980), 98.
4.New York Times, November 23, 1980.
was immediately razed by bulldozers.
5. Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, May 9, 198 1 ,
Poletown shows how the left-liberal support
p.806.
for jobs at all costs (the position taken by the 6. Jack Kemp, "A Strategy for Jobs in the Inner City, "
United Auto Workers and Mayor Coleman pamphlet (undated), p.3.
Young) is inadequate in the current context. 7. Quoted in National Journal, February 14, 1981, p.265.
8.New York Times, November 23, 1980.
Business is now in a position to expand employ­
9. Quoted in In These Times, March 11-17, 198 1 .
ment , but the question is where and under what
10. See Robert Kuttner, The Revolt o f the Haves: Tax
conditions. Rebellions and Hard Times, Simon & Schuster, New York,
An integral part of our response to the new 1980, ch.10, "The Tax Abatement Game."
offensive of capital must be the development of 1 1 .New York Times, March 16, 1976.
12. Washington Post, June 19, 1981.
new forms of struggle relating to mobility and
13.The Economist (London), July 11, 198 1 , p. 74.
territory. This begins with simple resistance to
14.New York Times, February 26, 1981.
displacement and militarization of the cities. 15. See the outrageous editorial, "In Praise of Sweat­
Yet if we are truly going to turn the tables , we shops, " Barron 's, March 16, 1 981.
have to fight for community control in a more 16. For more on the Japanese model and how it is being
fundamental sense. Broadly , this would mean imported into US industry, see: Jeremy Main, "Westing­
house's Cultural Revolution, " Fortune, June 15, 1981;
finding a way of improving our lives directly ,
Special Report: "The New Industrial Relations, " Business
not through aiding business. To talk of autono­ Week, May 1 1 , 1981; and Earl C.Gottschalk, "U.S.Firms,
mous development in a society still controlled Worried By Productivity Lag, Copy Japan in Seeking
by capital raises all kinds of obstacles. But the Employee's Advice, " Wall Street Journal, February 21,
1980.
only hope for the future is to replace enterprise
zones with liberated zones.
"�.-c�.-c.)04 I _"''''�:''.
I JOB OPENING

I The Funding Exchange is seeking a staffperson for its


NYC office. The Exchange is an association of 7

1
foundations committed to supporting grassroots

,I) York. He is a frequent contributor to


PHIL MATTERA is a writer living in New social change projects. Requirements: strong organ-
RA and
last wrote for us in the Sept. -Oct. 1980 issue
izational and communications skills, general office
-
------
skills, legal or foundation experience helpful; 2 year
"Small is not beautiful: Decentralized Produc- commitment. Salary: $ 17,655, health benefits; send
tion and the Underground Economy in Italy. "
resume, including political/community work to:
Funding Exchange, 80 Fifth Avenue, #1 204, NY, NY

J
1001 1 . Deadline: Oct. 9, 198 1 . Third World peoPle '
women encouraged to apply .
.-c ..... .-c.....�.....-c�
.

25
Marg Deutsch
FIGHTING F O R HEA LTH
• AND SA FET Y:
WINDSO R, ONTA RIO

J i m Brophy and John Jackson

Every year 1 5,000 Canadian and US workers are killed on the job, and an estimated
1 50,000 others die as a result of having been exposed to cancer-causing agents in their
workplaces. Many millions of others are injured - 5 million a year if we count only the
minority of cases that are officially reported. Governments made timid beginnings in the
1 970s at dealing with this ghastly toll, but these programs are now under sustained assault
from industry, especially in the US. It is more important than ever for the grass-roots organ­
izations that have grown up to work on industrial health and safety to keep in close touch
with each other and compare experiences. In this article we will try to share the experience of
the Windsor Occupational Safety and Health Council (WOSH) - how we came together
and what problems we have encountered in our work so far.
,I Windsor is a heavily industrialized city in southern Ontario just across the border from
Detroit. Aside from auto assembly lines Windsor has foundries, paint booths, factories for
making plastic goods and asbestos brake linings, and other hazardous workplaces. It has
long been a major producer, not only of automobiles, but also of industrially caused
diseases. But it is only recently that the fight for a safe workplace has become an important

This article was written with considerable help from other members of WaSH.It is a revised and updated version of an article
that appeared in Canadian Dimension, June 1980.

27
focus of worker activism and has gotten the Larry Gauthier, the Oil, Chemical and
understanding, sympathy, and support of Atomic Workers (OCA W) health and safety
workers' families and the community at large. representative at Wyeth Ltd., a local producer
The development of WOSH has been closely of birth control pills and tranquilizers, was also .
interwoven with this struggle. getting a lot of complaints about health probt>
lems. Female workers were developing irregular
menstrual periods and headaches, and one of
The Origins of WOSH the male workers developed enlarged breasts.
For a number of years before WOSH's The suspected cause was the estrogen used in
founding in the winter of 1979-80, health and manufacturing birth control pills. There was
safety had been an issue in individual work­ also growing fear about possible exposure to
places. The United Auto Workers (UA W) local isosorbide dinitrate, a compound that can
representing Bendix Corporation workers, who increase susceptibility to heart attacks.
produced asbestos lining for brakes, had staged A major step in taking these complaints out
a three-month strike in 1977, mainly to get a of the isolation of individual workplaces came
full-time health and safety representative. Jack in the spring of 1979, when the Ontario Feder­
McCann, who undertook the job, worked ation of Labor organized a course for health
especially on compiling information about and safety representatives in Windsor. Those
cancer suffered by Bendix workers. Asbestos workers who attended became better able to
has been known since the early 1 900s to be one pinpoint the causes of the complaints they were
of the most dangerous of all workplace sub­ receiving. They also learned how specific haz­
stances; it is estimated to be responsible for 1 7 ards could be removed and what legal routes
percent of all cancer deaths in Canada and the could be used to pressure employers. To date,
US. In 1 979 the UAW presented the provincial approximately five hundred union members
Workmen's Compensation Board with three from across the province have taken the course.
cases of Bendix workers who had cancer of the In July 1979, the UAW and the Ontario
larynx. Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG)
Likewise, the UAW health and safety organized a public forum on the asbestos
committeemen at the Canadian Rock Salt mine, problem at Windsor's two Bendix plants. The
Bob McArthur and Harold Woodson, did union leafletted the two Bendix plants and
research for eighteen months on diesel emis­ OPIRG distributed leaflets to the residents in
sions from underground machinery, a chronic the neighborhood. It was known that asbestos
problem for every miner in the country. The could have spread into the area because of the
emissions bring headaches, drowsiness, eye and way it was dumped outide the factory. About
throat irritation, and the coughing up of black 135 people attended this forum; many of these,)
and gray sputum. The long-term effects are were from other workplaces around the city.
much more serious. The union's research - Several stood up to voice concerns about their
begun when a worker showed a newspaper day-to-day situations. As a result, awareness
clipping to Bob McArthur, who talked to the was increased among the workers in this city
reporter and followed up a widening circle of about common problems they were facing. This
leads - showed that diesel emissions contain at recognition led naturally to an understanding
least six carcinogens. of the need to work together and to deal with

28
their problems . environmental issues .
The forum and an accompanying news con­ During the first part of 1 980, we formalized
ference also stimulated new publicity for the our existence by approving a constitution and

, • national news services in Canada have , since


issue. The Windsor and Detroit media and electing officers . Gerry Becigneul was elected
chairperson and Barbara Wimbush vice­
that time, paid close attention to the activities chairperson. Both were long-time VAW activ­
over occupational health in Windsor. Major ists, Becigneul at Canadian Rock Salt and
articles appear regularly in local newspapers Wimbush at a plastics factory. The role played
and the issue gets a lot of television time as well. by more experienced trade unionists such as this
In the spring of 1 980, a half-hour special on the has been key in our work.
occupational health struggles in Windsor
appeared on the local TV station; it was also
shown on many other stations across the
country.
The success of the forum in arousing public
support encouraged the Wyeth and the Rock
Salt safety and health committees to publicize
their research that fall . Also a group of workers
and other concerned citizens took every
opportunity to discuss occupational health
problems and to educate the public about their
rights under The Ontario Health and Safety
Act, Bill 70. This bill, enacted in October 1 979
as a response to wildcat strikes by northern
Ontario uranium miners, affords workers the I
I I
right to refuse work that they deem unsafe. It " I
.also provides for health and safety committees I
i
in every workplace with more than twenty
workers. The act further attempts, for the first Marg Deutsch
time in Ontario, to establish some control over

'I
toxic substances in the workplace. Into the Battle
During the month of November, our first To help spur public awareness , the new II
meetings were held establishing the Windsor WOSH, along with OPIRG and the antinuclear
II

• beginning group was made up of about twenty


Occupational Safety and Health Council. That Downwind Alliance for a Safe Energy Future,
brought the famous American environmentalist I ii
, !'H
people. Most of them were workers from a Barry Commoner to speak. This meeting drew
variety of different industries . Several of them a lot of attention from the press. Dr. Com­
were health and safety representatives at the moner said that workers should be prepared for ' ; 11
J
plants they worked in. But in addition to these an industrial counterattack against the occupa­
workers, the meetings were regularly attended tional health movement. He described the
by other concerned citizens in the community, attempts being made to dismantle the Occupa­
several of whom were actively �nvolved in other tional Safety and Health Administration in the

29
US, and particularly the use of "cost-benefit" WOSH held a news conference. We released
analyses as a means of avoiding workplace Ontario Ministry of Labour documents show­

Three days after Dr. Commoner's visit ; .,


improvements . ing that the Bendix Corporation had failed to
comply with directives issued against it in 1 966,
and that the. ministry had failed to enforce its claim the lives of a half-million workers
own directives. This news was made all the between now and the year 2000. WaSH leader
more dramatic by the fact that a thirty-four­ Gerry Becigneul helped focus Nader's discus­
year-old Bendix worker had just been diagnosed sion on the local situation; this made the

• gists said these tumors contained asbestos


as having two inoperable lung tumors; patholo­ meeting 's impact all the more powerful. The
exchange created an important atmosphere in
fibers. It is difficult to describe the shock that Windsor. It secured Windsor Labor Council
set in even among the WaSH people when this support for WaSH and it encouraged the
news became public. It drew the attention, not health and safety people to maintain the
only of the local community, but of the struggle.
national media as well.
At first, Bendix and the ministry hid behind Counterattack
the fact that asbestos-in-air concentrations at Two days after Nader' s visit, the Bendix
Bendix were currently below legal limits. The Corporation in the United States announced
ministry made some pious noises until two that it was selling one of the Bendix plants in
workers, exercising their new rights under Bill Windsor to General Motors for a parking lot.
70, refused to work in the asbestos department. This would eliminate sixty-five j obs. Windsor
Declaring that the area was unsafe, they refused already had the highest rate of unemployment
to work until the asbestos level was significantly of the twenty-two largest cities in Canada and
reduced. (In fact , the level permitted under now, in the middle of a health-and-safety
Ontario law was twenty times greater than the struggle, the employer was using its ultimate
level specified by the most advanced US law, weapon: a plant shutdown.
that of California.) Under Bill 70, such a The day after the closure was announced, the
refusal immediately brings in provincial inspec­ Ontario Workmen's Compensation Board
tors. The pressure on the ministry was made rejected ten of the seventeen claims submitted I
even greater by the attention that the national by the UAW on behalf of Bendix workers. i I
. I
media were giving the struggle. Extensive moni­ Although the Board failed to clarify the reasons
toring was done and the ministry's chief to the public, many. of the cases were turned
physician admitted that the asbestos standard down on technicalities, such as lack of a
might be too lenient. He suggested public hear­ dependent to whom the pension could be
ings to reexamine the standards and establish awarded or use of outdated exposure-level
'I
realistic levels for other toxic substances . This standards. In one instance, a claim was denied I

was a major change in the ministry's stance. It because, even though the worker's employ­
opened the door for every trade union and ment extended for three decades, she apparently 11
environmental group in the province to present had been exposed to hazardous levels for less
., briefs and attract public attention to carcino­
than the required ten continuous years.
gens in the workplace. The impact of these events, happening as
On February 1 1 , Ralph Nader held a public they did in quick succession, was devastating
meeting with more than 1 25 trade unionists in for the Bendix workers. Many of the workers
Windsor on the issue of occupational health. felt that perhaps the union had overdramatized
Nader emphasized the menace of asbestos. He the asbestos hazard and that the plant closure
cited a study estimating that asbestos alone will was a punishment for all the publicity. The

31
timing from the Corporation's and govern­
ment's perspectives was excellent.
Four months later, the workers
remaining Bendix plant in Windsor showed up
at the
TH E
for work as usual. At ten that morning they R I G H T TO
were sent home. The Corporation had decided
to close its Windsor operations completely. In a R E FU S E
city with an official unemployment rate of just
over 15 percent, the loss of another five
hundred jobs had a dramatic impact on the
whole community . Rumors quickly circulated
through other workplaces where health and
safety issues were being pursued that the same
thing could happen to their plants that had
happened at Bendix. These
threats were initiated by management.
not-so-subtle
U N SAFE
To this day, our health and safety work
continues to be plagued by the workers' fears of
WORK
stimulating plant closures. With Windsor's Marg Deutsch
unemployment rate staying at an unusually high
level, this fear is understandably a very deep­ The WaSH council decided to contact
rooted one. The priority that workers place on workers at each platics plant in the city and
health and safety problems is seriously affected organize a meeting to bring together workers
by Windsor's bleak economic situation. from all parts of the industry. This was the first
time in Windsor that an occupational health
issue had been approached on an industry­
The Plastics Investigation wide, rather than plant-by-plant, basis. This
The threat of shutdowns in a time of high was important because the bottom line in any
unemployment has also stymied our work health and safety struggle is always the possi­
around the problems of the plastics industry. In bility of a plant closure. Since the plastics
the summer of 1979, Bob McArthur and industry is labor-intensive, with little invest­
Barbara Wimbush, the UA W health and safety ment in machinery, it is easy for a company to
representative for a small plastics factory, had simply shut down and move. We felt the only
met to discuss what should be done about the way workers in the plastics industry could
health problems arising at her plant. Workers reasonably influence both the government and
were experiencing not only headaches and the industry was to work together, making joint t)D
nausea but also hair and skin discoloration, demands.
breathing difficulties, loss of feeling in the We asked Dr . John Marshall, a participant in
hands, and severe nose bleeds. These seemed to the asbestos forum, to come back to Windsor
be signs of toxic exposure, possibly to one of to meet with the plastics workers. The aim was
the most dangerous workplace carcinogens, to make up a medical questionnaire which
vinyl chloride. would help the safety committees educate the

32
workers about health hazards . We also hoped to take the risk of pressing the health issue .
that data from the questionnaires could be used Therefore, the problems that were shown so
to force the Ministry of Labour to intervene in clearly in the questionnaire results have still not
been dealt with .

all the plants .
The meeting at which the questionnaire was
developed was an intense learning experience . Asbestos in the Schools
More than twenty-five workers attended. Dr . Our first big success, on the other hand,
Marshall started by asking the workers to came in the work we did with a public employ­
describe the work process and then asked if ees union . The Ontario Ministry of Education
they experienced any discomforts or health had asked all school boards in the province to
problems . It was the first time many of the inspect for asbestos during the summer of 1979.
plastics workers made the link betwe tn health A year later, the Windsor Board of Education
problems and the workplace . This link was started its inspection . In October it reported
made all the stronger when the people from that sixteen of its sixty buildings had perforated
different plants told about having the same asbestos, but that none of these was serious .
symptoms . Eighty-five percent of the asbestos was in the
With the assistance of a multi-racial center, boiler room so, according to the Board of Edu­
we translated the questionnaire into three cation, it was not a serious health hazard .
languages other than English so that immigrant But the whole study was thrown into ques­
workers would know exactly what was being tion when the person who conducted the inspec­
asked of them. We also saw this as helping to tion said that he did not know what asbestos
break down some of the divisions in the looked like . He also said that he had taken
workforce . samples and done repairs without being
I
The questionnaires documented shockingly informed of the dangers to his own and others' I I
I
I
high rates of chest pains, dizziness, blackouts, health . This man was a member of the Cana­
nosebleeds, nausea, vomiting, and numbness of dian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local
the fingers . For example, at one plant, 7 1 per­ 27, the maintenance workers in the public
cent of the employees who responded said they schools.
had chest pains, 88 percent dizziness, and 41 CUPE tried to persuade the school board to
percent blackouts . do a proper inspection, then came to us for help
. As we feared would happen from the begin­ when they were rebuffed. We helped them gain
ning, once the companies discovered that the ear of the media, whose diligent reporting
people were beginning to organize around was crucial to making it a public issue . After
health problems in their plants, management considerable pressure - not only from the
.\ began to threaten plant closures . Even though union and WOSH but also from parents - and
., ventilating systems would not have cost that
a student walkout at one of the high schools,
much to install, the companies used the high the Board agreed to a completely new inspec­

.1
unemployment rates as a weapon with which to tion . This time an outside expert was brought in
rebuff the slightest hint of challenge to their and the CUPE Local 27 president accompanied _, I

mastery of workplace. We were faced with an him on the inspection . Forty-six schools were
atmosphere of intimidation and fear in which found to have asbestos problems, with twenty­
neither workers nor union officials were willing six of these schools requiring major repairs .

33
I i The repairs program was begun in . February safety, our work has given us a kind of credibil­
I
1 98 1 , only three months after we had first gone ity in the community. For example, workers at
public with the issue. a chrome-bumper plant who were occupying

called us because our research gave us somt't)


The union also charged the school board their factory to keep it from being shut down
under Bill 70 with failure to protect the health
of one of its employees - the maintenance knowledge of their industry.
worker who conducted the first inspection. This We have also prepared materials which can
court case is now being heard. be used in our education programs . Probably
the most successful of these is a fifteen-minute
Other WOSH Activities slide-tape show called "Acceptable Risks . " It
Our primary focus tends to be educational. provides an introduction to the issues involved
We have conducted several eleven-week courses in health and safety. Local workers describe
at the local community college. We have also some of the health issues and struggles that they
made many presentations at meetings in the have been involved in. At this point, forty
community, under the auspices of unions, copies of "Acceptable Risks" have been
churches, schools and environmental groups. distributed across the continent . An educa­
Such educational work often meshes well with tional tool that we have just completed is " A
the support work we do for specific groups of Worker' s Guide to Occupational Health and
workers. In fact, it was CUPE members Safety. " This pocket-size booklet explains
enrolled in our community-college course who common workplace hazards and suggests ways
started to question the way asbestos was being of dealing with them.
handled. After they decided to push harder for
a proper inspection and cleanup, we helped The Role of Professionals in WOSH
them do the research, formulate their demands, The almost complete absence of professional
and prepare for press conferences and public people from WaSH sets us apart from many
meetings. of the occupational health committees in the
We have also developed an extensive library US, which in general were initiated by scien­
with detailed materials on specific substances and tists, medical doctors , health care workers, and
workplace situations. It is used by a wide variety industrial hygienists. In our case, although we
of groups. In our new office (made available by have found lawyers who have been quite help­
CUPE ) we have become a resource that is used ful, there has been almost no interest in our
whenever health and safety issues come up. work among local medical people.
Recently when a pesticide that was declared The absence of professionals has affected
illegal in Canada was brought to a storage facil­ WaSH's development profoundly. It has
ity near Windsor (preparatory to being forced the workers to educate themselves and f)1»
" dumped" back in the United States) we others about occupational health concerns and
helped give railway and other unions the infor­ to become conversant with as much of the
mation they needed to organize against having available data as they can. Rather than turning
to handle it. Out of this fight has come a Right to professionals for investigations and written
to Know Committee formed chiefly by the rail­ reports, the workers directly affected have been
way unions and the firefighters union. Even on full participants in the process. This has given
issues that have no direct relation to health and them a kind of power, since access to and

34
control over scientific information is a prime
requisite for power in our society. It has also
made us more of a direct contributor to the
development of an occupational health move-
. ment than are many of those committees which
see their main function as being a resource for
workers in their separate plants.
Of course, the absence of professionals has
been a handicap at times, and we would love to
have more medical people to work with.
Companies always have "experts" they can
bring in to testify in hearings. Medical and
scientific professionals who are familiar with
the technical literature in their fields can also be
immensely helpful in providing raw data that
workers can assess.

The Role of the Unions in WOSH

When Barry Commoner visited us early in


1 980, he pointed out that just as workers have
to negotiate with companies to achieve that
other basic right - a living wage - workers
have to negotiate into their contracts adequate
safeguards for health and safety. " The
company won't give you anything," he said.
"Your most powerful weapon is your negotiat­
ing power." The support of the union hierarchy
is necessary to make these matters central nego­
tiating concerns.
Most of the people who have been the leading
force in the development of WOSH have been
p.lant health and safety representatives and
rank-and-file workers who have gotten together

, I)
through WOSH to work on their problems.
Our experience, however, has shown that we
cannot take for granted the wholehearted
support of those in the upper echelons of the
union hierarchy.

Opposite: 50,000 copies of this pamphlet were ordered


destroyed by the Reagan Administration because of its
"Bias " cover.

35
€"PF£Crs �F
AS8£Sr{) �/s
OIJ J-IJAJt;
n�u£

Marg Deutsch
In some of the work we have done, the union
hierarchy has withdrawn support at a critical Wage increases enable the organization to raise its
point. When this happens , the whole effort may dues without any corresponding increase in staff
fizzle out or at least be weakened . In other work. Similarly, increases in employer pension
instances , however, the union officials have fund contributions give the union's leadership
been the main leaders in very difficult more financial power; depending on the degree of
control union trustees have over the funds,
health and safety struggles. The union leader­
leaders can raise their own salaries and put more
ship of CUPE put amazingly high levels of
of their allies and relatives on the work payroll.
energy, time, and money into the fight against By contrast, the occupational health and safety
asbestos in the Windsor public schools. The rail­ issue confers no direct benefits on union officials.
way unions provided strong leadership in the Instead, it increases the staff workload without
pesticide struggle. The Windsor Labour generating additional income to deal with the
Council's endorsement of our work has been demands on staff time. New and untrustworthy
helpful. The membership of CUPE Local 27 health technicians who want direct contact with
has shown how seriously it feels about our work rank and file must be hired. Since safety is inher­
by setting up an hourly addition to their union ently a local issue it shifts power to "hotheads"

official, with a disconcerting tendency to assumef)


dues in order to give regular financial assistance who are the . . . natural enemies of the union

to WaSH.
that every grievance must be settled here and
Daniel Berman in Death on the Job gives
now.'
some important insights into why unions may
have mixed feelings about health and safety Although the unions' wholehearted support
issues. cannot be taken for granted, it is clear that they
must be brought into the health and safety
One result is an inherent tendency on the part struggle . Pressure from the rank and file will
of top union leaders to favor money demands. ensure that this happens.

36
Our Relationship to Environmentalists The Potential of WOSH
Many people believe that the interests of The Windsor Occupational Safety and
environmentalists and of workers are diamet- Health Council has already had a substantial
' rically opposed to each other. But two observ­ impact upon the development of a movement
.
ers of WOSH's activities and of our relation­ by Windsor workers around health and safety
ship to other community groups have made the issues. WOSH has been important in educating
following comment: the workers about the causes of many of their
Once it is realized by environmental, occupa­ health problems and methods they can use to
tional health and other groups that they are all solve them. As they have trained themselves
opposing a common enemy, and are all seeking and as they have worked together as a mutual
the same thing, i.e. to claim control over those support group, they have gained a sense of the
elements which most directly affect their well­
potential power of such a movement.
being, then a satisfactory resolution is more likely
We also have had substantial impact upon
to evolve. It is to this end which WOSH is striving.'
making the general public aware of the diffi­
From the very beginning our group was made culties faced by workers and raising commu­
up of people who were also involved in environ­ nity support for their struggles. WOSH has
mental issues. But the group which has most provided a forum where professionals and
sharply pointed out the common concern is workers can co�e together. It has also helped
Citizens Rebelling Against Waste (CRAW). to bring together environmentalists with
CRAW is a group of farmers and townspeople workers as they recognize their common
from Harwich Township, which is approxi­ concerns. Breaking the isolation of the workers
mately fifty miles east of Windsor. They have from each other and from other parts of the
been organizing to stop the dumping of liquid community has been very significant.
industrial wastes at a dump site in their town­ Many groups in Windsor, including WOSH,
ship. They have been in frequent touch with are now planning to conduct a "Town Meeting
WOSH and we have helped them set up joint on Windsor's Economic Situation" at the
meetings and demonstrations with other groups beginning of November. We hope to pull
elsewhere in this section of Ontario. This coop­ together a wide spectrum of concerned people
eration has led to a growing recognition of how in the community to spend a day discussing
much we have in common. Not only are we all how Windsor's depressed economy is affecting
concerned about toxic substances, but we also their lives and their groups' work. This effort
meet the same frustrations when we try to reflects our recognition of the need to broaden
protect ourselves from them. The indifference the base of our work well beyond traditional
of corporations toward complaints, and the occupational heal�h and safety activists.
It) government's habit of siding with the corpor­ We recognize that we face a long and diffi­
ations instead of with the concerned public, cult struggle to cl «1�m up the workplace which
take very similar forms. The discovery of this may well involve �any setbacks. For, as Ralph
common link between the problems of city Nader pointed out when he spoke with us in
workers, of townspeople, and of farmers has February of 1 980, occupational health hazards
given all of us a deeper understanding of the are "the classic corporate blackmail in
problems we face and of the potential for America." When the corporations have
I

developing broad-based coalitions. exhausted their exc\lses of ignorance and lack

37
of money, they confront the unions with the Footnotes
choice of j obs or health. Workers in Windsor
are becoming increasingly aware that they must 1. Ontario Federation of Labour, Occupational Health &
Safety Manual (1979), pp. 1-7 and Daniel Berman,Death


not fall for this blackmail. The health risks are
on the Job (New York, 1978), pp. 38-53.
too obvious . Being pushed into making this
2. Ibid., 171.
choice, graphically exposes the corporations' 3. Leonard Wallace and John Shields, "The Windsor
callous disregard for the lives of the workers. Occupational Safety and Health Council: The Fight for
These workers are coming to realize that, if Occupational Health and Safety in Times of Economic
they are to have a safe workplace, they must Crisis" (unpublished, 1981), p. 33.

control the work process.


JIM BROPHY is a former auto worker and
JOHN JACKSON is a long-time activist in the
antiwar and environmental movements. Both
are staff members of WOSH.

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39
• ADVERSARIES
AND MODEL S:
Alternative I nstitu tions
in an Age of Scarcity

Carl H ed man

A distinguishing feature of the alternative institutions of the 1 960s and early 1 970s was
that they tried to combine an external critique of mainstream institutions with an internal
critique of top-down organizational structures. Thus, for example, the typical free clinic of
this era was concerned not only with challenging the inequities of the dominant health care
system by also with creating new, more democratic ways of working together as aides,
nurses, doctors, and patients. As Paul Starr puts it,
" nearly all adversary groups attempted to exemplify at least some alternative ideals as t'hey
protested against dominant institutions. "1

To be sure, this attempt to combine adversarial and exemplary roles was not without its
problems. In Starr's view, counterinstitutions faced a "trade-off between exemplifying
ideals and waging conflict" and there was a "tendency for them to adopt either exemplary
organization, without engaging in conflict, or adversary organization without immediately
attempting to realize ultimate values. " Indeed, Starr goes on to suggest that those of us who
are still committed to the guiding ideas of the movement would be well advised to adopt 1 1
I
more realistic goals :
Most counterinstitutions experience some tension about how exemplary or how adversarial
they can afford to be, and make the necessary trade-off and compromises. A few counter­
institutions of the sixties attempted to push both to their limits , and burned themselves out in a
brief incandescent glare.

Opposite: Don Gavronski


41
.---- .---- .-�-- .........� -

But is Starr correct to imply that alternative bought were pure. After a while their case load
ins t i t ut i o n s took on too much when they at­ became too large to handle. But clinic workers
tempted to do justice to both the adversarial could think of few palatable ways to pare it down.
One of the most damaging consequences of their
• .
and exemplary roles? I think not . Building on
reluctance to cut some people off was that most of
the ten-year history of an alternative high
their frustration was vented on their patients.
school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I will argue
" Free clinics just promote the class system, " said
that at a certain stage in the development of an one overworked medic in a meeting. "Poor
alternative institution, the failure to adopt an people who come here don't have to face realities;
adversarial role is one of the principal threats to they could get on Medicaid. We're not a free
a truly exemplary practice. I will argue that, clinic. Someone has to pay for it. We have to
contrary to Starr, an alternative institution make people responsible for their own care. I'm
increases the danger of burning out if it pulls burnt out with all these demands. We're abused. "
back from a strongly adversarial role.
In short, a kind o f "dumping" phenomenon
put pressures on the institution that made it
The Dangers of Being a Safety Valve
extremely difficult to create new ways of
To set the stage for my discussion of the relating to patients . The clinic came to be a kind
alternative school case, I want to consider of "medical safety valve" for the prevailing
briefly Rosemary Taylor's recent discussion of system and in the process lost not only the
the problems confronted by a free clinic. ability to change existing institutions but also
According to Taylor, workers at this clinic the ability to exemplify new ways of meeting
enjoyed a supportive atmosphere during the the health needs of its community. 3
early years and "were able to discard the for­
bidding symbols of clinical authority and build Filling a Vacuum
more egalitarian relationships among workers
I want now to consider in some detail the case
and patient. " 2 But ultimately they failed to
of Multicultural Community High School, a
"reach out to other community programs or
tuition-free alternative school in Milwaukee,
pressure the medical institutions around
Wisconsin. This institution has prospered just
them. " The result was that the internal pres­
because it had the good fortune of being
sures built-up to the point where their exem­
forced, early on, to combat the attempts of
plary goals were subverted:
public school administrators to use it as a
A hard-headed weeding out of the patients they "safety valve" for students they didn't want to
should or shouldn't serve was almost impossible deal with.
for clinics bent on correcting the selective proce­ Multicultural began in the fall of 1 97 1 as a

.
dures of hospitals and private practitioners. The
rather typical "free school, " with students and
Gilford clinic complicated things even further '
volunteers who reflected its university neigh­
because its workers conceived the roots of their
borhood. Given this middle-class context, it
patients' problems as primarily social rather than
medical. So they were prepared to take in almost seemed reasonable to deemphasize nuts-and-
everyone: transients who needed somewhere to bolts courses in reading and math in favor of
spend the night, adults who needed a physical such things as glass blowing and medieval
examination for a job application, people who history. It soon became apparent, however,
wanted to find out if the street drugs they had that it wasn't Multicultural 's fancy list of

42
courses that was bringing dozens of new [Dropouts] have been schooled to the belief in
students each month. What was attracting most rising expectations and can now rationalize their
of these people was the school's explicit com­ growing frustration outside school by accepting
their rejection from scholastic grace. They are
mitment to open enrollment and absolutely

excluded from Heaven because once baptized they
voluntary attendance . 4 It became clear that
did not go to church . Born in original sin, they
there were hundreds , perhaps thousands of
are baptized into first grade, but go on to
young people in the city who needed a tuition­ Gehenna (which in Hebrew means "slum")
free escape from traditional public schools. By because of their personal faults. 5
the end of its second year, most of the students Courts were still sending young people to
were from low income families . What the
reform school for truancy when Multicultural
students wanted - once they had decided to get
was founded. Given a typical big-city situation
down to work - was highly individualized where thousands of young people were refusing
instruction in basic skills . As Multicultural was to attend traditional schools, Multicultural' s
pulled into the lives of inner-city people, as its enrollment began t o take off. Beginning with 3 0
volunteers got beyond the euphoria of starting students i n 1 972, enrollment reached 1 00 by
their very own "free school" , its literature 1 973 , and 200 by 1 974. To meet the needs of all
began to stress Ivan Illich's analysis of how these people - and Multicultural was finding
schools rationalize a class-divided society: that a surprisingly large number of so-called

, ):

43
: 1
I I
!

I
I

Don Gavronski

dropouts did want to work on their basics when friendly place to begin preparing for the high
given a supportive environment - they estab­ school equivalency (OED) exam, enrollment
lished thr,ee small outreach centers in donated snowballed . By 1 97 5 , Multicultural had four
space in churches and social agencies . The centers and served as the official school of
population of each of these centers tended to record for over 400 young people between the
reflect the inter-city neighborhood it served. ages of fourteen and eighteen . Throughout
The Westside center was nearly half black and these early years Multicultural relied primarily
had three or four Native American students. on volunteers - many of whom put in as many


The Southside center had a large number of as twenty-five hours a week while supporting
Latino students. Students were pretty evenly themselves with other jobs. When it became
divided between men and women, and there possible to pay a modest stipend to people
were students from all socio-economic classes , through VISTA, these positions tended to go to
though the majority of students continued to key volunteers who had a clear understanding
come from poor families. of the school's philosophy. Thus, there was no
As the word got out that Multicultural was division between paid staff and volunteers.
not only a place to escape the truant officer but a The various centers were given a good deal of

44
autonomy in managing tl1eir own daily affairs, "push-out" phenomenon was occurring at
but overall policy was worked out by consensus other high schools in the city, particularly in the
at biweekly community meetings . Again, there solid working-class neighborhoods where high
was no presumption of special prerogatives for schools prided themselves in having high aca­

• those who happened to be paid a modest demic standards and low truancy rates . In
stipend . The unwritten rule was that if you were short, Multicultural found itself being coopted
contributing on a regular basis to the work o f in the sense that public schools were using it to
the school, your input would b e given equal limit the options of young people . And in the
weight regardless of whether you were a process its centers were being inundated with
student, VISTA, a volunteer tutor, or a parent . young people who weren 't making a conscious
Since all classroom space was donated b y com­ choice to come to Multicultural and make a
munity organizations, and since VISTA wages fresh start . Staff members and volunteers were
were administered by a VISTA umbrella beginning to express some of the same feelings
agency, Multicultural 's annual budget was only Taylor found characterized the overworked
around $800. This money, which went for medics at the free clinic : "Who are we to think
things like a citywide phone and mimeographed we can liberate the whole city? Does a kid have
worksheets, was raised through small benefits the right to walk into my over-crowded study
and individual gifts . group expecting individualized attention when
that is what public school people get big salaries
to do?"
Pushing Out Multicultural 's first impulse was to storm
During these early years, students tended to back to the principals who were orchestrating
enroll at Multicultural over the objections of all this and demand that they create, on the
public school administrators . The school 's spot, the nontraditional programs the students
basic commitment to voluntary attendance and wanted: a morning-only tutoring program in
its public stand against state certification basic skills, an informal, highly individualized
guaranteed an adversarial relationship with the OED preparation program, and so forth. But
public schools . 6 Thus, though overworked, - and thus arose Multicultural 's dilemma -
Multicultural teachers felt that enrollment pres­ many of these young people didn't want any­
sures simply reflected a tremendous need on the thing more to do with public schools, especially
part o f individual students. There was little talk after they had talked with a Multicultural coor­
during this period of public schools "using" dinator and gotten a glimpse of what a
Multicultural as a "dumping ground" for "school" could be like . Multicultural felt

I>
unwanted students . But as Multicultural trapped, much as the free clinic people felt
continued to thrive, things began to change . In trapped. It didn't want to let public schools off
January 1 976, the coordinator of the Southside the hook via its absolutely open enrollment
center reported that during a two-week period policy . But neither did it want to "use" individ­
some twenty young people had come to him ual students in its desire to put pressure on the
saying that their public school principal had public system. Yet this would have been the -I,
told them they "had to go to Multicultural ."· result of its saying to each and every " push­
As coordinators from other parts o f the city out" something like "You 've got to go with me
compared notes, they found that a similar to get you back in public schooL"

45
As the Multicultural community struggled that would subvert the first two strategies .
with this dilemma at an abstract level, someone Nobody realized in 1 976 j ust how much time
came up with the suggestion - which carried and effort all this would involve. At first, they
the day - that the school opt for the more got nowhere . Leaflets handed out at a slickly
messy but more palatable strategy of trying to promoted "anti-truancy" conference were .
work with these young people on.a case-by-case ignored. High-level meetings with public school
basis. How the school would respond, it was administrators - gained with great difficulty in
decided, would depend on the student 's desires those days - resulted in words like "What do
in the matter. Many "push-outs, " after all, you guys want, anyway? Do you want us to
wouldn't mind returning to public school if take you over as public alternatives ? " Some
public schools would budge a bit. If the Multi­ individual principals were downright hostile
cultural coordinator sensed a student was a when confronted; others merely pretended to
"push-out , " he or she would ask if the student create new options for young people. Mean­
wanted to fight back. The school devised a while, conservative forces in the city were
form to take back to public schools in such working quietly to tighten up truancy arrange­
cases to insure that the administrator had ments. At one point, there was considerable
indeed offered genuinely new options to the support for a program where all truants would
student. It was felt that public school officials be rounded-up daily and placed in a special
would be hesitant to sign a form in effect building until proper "placement" could be
admitting that they couldn't meet the educa­ determined.
tional needs of the young person. To its This is not to say that nothing was accom­
chagrin, Multicultural found these forms came plished in the years from 1 976 to 1 978. At one
back almost as quickly as they were sent out. point, five public school teachers were assigned
Public school officials were not being brought to spend a few hours each week observing the
into line. Multicultural model. Progressive forces in the
At this point, Multicultural realized that it city rallied together to stop the truancy propos­
could stem the tide of " push-outs" only by al. Most important, perhaps, was the decision
escalating the struggle, that there was no magic by Multicultural to attend each and every
paper procedure that would force public school School Board meeting simply to repeat time
people to do their job of finding appropriate and time again that "dropouts" are not flawed
programs for these young people. It began to people, but are driven away by the school
dawn on them that they must do at least three system . Meanwhile, even though Multicul­
things . First, they must find the time to go in tural's enrollment had gone above 500, it was

ted staff members to steadily improve its offer- •


person to offending public school admini­ able to recruit enough volunteers and commit-
strators and challenge by every means possible
their treatment of particular young people. ings at what was now a network of six learning
Second , they must find the time to begin centers serving all parts of the city.
mounting a political campaign at the School Two CETA positions were assigned to the
Board level that would force central admini­ school and two agencies that donated space
strators to meet the educational needs of all agreed to pick up the salaries of the Multi­
young people. Third, they must be prepared to cultural coordinators . Thus, the amount of
fight attempts to pass regressive truancy laws money that the school needed to raise each year

46
remained around $ 1 ,000 . (Multicultural's able to maintain its exemplary role through all
reliance on volunteers , donated space, and of this. It still maintains its commitment to
cooperative funding arrangements with host open enrollment. No one who shows up at a


groups has allowed it to prosper in the face of center expressing a desire to get down to work
Reagan's attacks on CETA and other is put on a waiting list. It still holds fast to
programs.) its voluntary-attendance policy, and the
The "dumping" phenomenon continued to atmosphere at each center is still one of
be a problem, however, and in 1 979 one of the voluntary learning. There are no discipline
most committed and gifted coordinators told problems because students simply don't show
the community that the tide of "push-outs" up unless they want to work on their basics or
was preventing him from doing the kind of job to prepare for the state-administered high­
he felt he must do. "I just can't keep up with school equivalency exam . (Typically, a student
the people we are already committed to, " he will have a part-time job and show up at a
said. And so the entire Multicultural commun­ center two or three times a week for several
ity reaffirmed the need to put pressure not only hours of hard work.)
on central administration by on individual prin­ Some of the younger people use their time at
cipals and social workers as well. A VISTA was Multicultural to catch upon their basic skills to
assigned to document especially blatant cases of the point where they feel they can return to
"dumping , " and one group of Multicultural public school . Most, however , prepare system­
people reserved Wednesday mornings to go en atically for the GED exam. Last year over
masse to talk with principals at offending seventy people, many of whom had been
schools. For whatever reason - be it concern written off by traditional educators, passed this
with losing state aid for the hundreds of young exam. Through cooperative programs with
people who come to Multicultural each semes­ local postsecondary schools, these people are
ter, or the dawning realization that more and encouraged to continue their education. (All of
more young people cannot be forced to attend this confirms, by the way, Paul Goodman's
traditional high school programs, or the fact point that adolescents don't need to be locked
that progressive forces had beaten back yet up all day every day to make real progress.

.1
another hard-line truancy bill - top public Multicultural has found that it is the quality of
school administrators finally agreed to work time that matters.) In short, the problem the
with Multicultural to set up a wide range of Multicultural volunteer or staff member faces is
public alternatives. 7 the psychologically manageable one of keeping
Multicultural 's enrollment seems to be level­ up with people who want to learn, rather than

t)
ing off at approximately 500 students each the psychologically debilitating problem of
semester, but no one is taking anything for trying to work with adolescents who have been , il
granted. If the lessons of the last four years forced to come to school. By continuing its I ', I
make anything clear, it is that one can never adversarial role, therefore, Multicultural
forget, in Illich 's words, the establishment's continues to minimize the tendency - noted by :1
penchant for "substituting new devices for Taylor in the case of the free clinic worker - to
school and readjusting the existing power struc­ resent the person one is ostensibly serving.
ture to fit these devices. " 8 But - and this is the Rather than turning against the young person,
point I want to stress - Multicultural has been there are already identified targets in public

47
II i Iil
I
schools !
Multicultural has also maintained it commit­
ment to nonhierarchical modes of internal
organization. Although each center continues
to have a good deal of autonomy in its daily
operations, citywide policy continues to be
worked out at the biweekly community
meetings. Typically, these Saturday morning
meetings are attended by the dozen or so people
who play key roles at the six centers. Although
three people are paid a modest stipend through
VIST A or a host agency, most are volunteers
who contribute a significant number of hours Don Gavronski
each week. (At present, three centers are actu­ institution must take on an adversarial role. Let
ally coordinated by volunteers. One is a young me mention briefly one more example. Con­
mother who is also pursuing graduate work in sider the case of a co-op as it moves into an
i.
exceptional education. One is a young woman inner-city market abandoned by a traditional
who supports herself through a weekend job at supermarket. As it tries to survive in this fragile
a shelter for young people who have problems market niche, it experiences various pressures
at home. Another supports himself by teaching to abandon some of its original exemplary
guitar and by playing in a band.) All happen to goals. For example, the push to increase sales
be certified teachers but Multicultural continues volume so that it can bring down prices creates
to stress that it isn't necessary to have a teach­ pressure for tighter management practices, thus
ing degree to be an effective alternative educa­ threatening its commitment to member involve­
tor. The task of chairing these meetings is ment and worker self-management. 9 In short,
rotated, as are official titles within the school . while traditional market forces hand potential
While new volunteers, students, and parents are patrons over to the alternative institution, the
invited to attend these meetings and share in the larger economic and political structures deliver
governance of the school, most do not choose nothing in the way of support. In fact, recent
to attend on a regular basis. Each year, how­ developments in connection with a Milwaukee
ever, the school seems to attract the one or two co-op show that new roadblocks can be placed
people needed to replace key people who move in front of such groups just as they reach what
on to other things. looks like a "take-off" point in terms of sales. I
refer to the precedent-setting judgment by the
Another Example Internal Revenue Service that Gordon Park I)
I 've argued that Multicultural's ten-year Food Co-op's system of volunteer discounts
history shows that there is not always a deep constituted a form of wage and was subject,
tension between an alternative's exemplary therefore, to Social Security and federal income
goals and an adversarial stance vis-a-vis main­ taxes. Clearly such an action, if generalized,
stream institutions. I suspect many other cases would threaten every small co-op that relies on
could be cited in support of the claim that at a volunteer contributions. In the words of Ron
certain point in its development, an exemplary Cotterill, "the extra expense of federal contri-

48
butions and the bookkeeping would thwart its
successful program to lower food costs and
develop strong member participation . " 10 Here,


then, is another case where an alternative
institution cannot afford to set aside an adver­
sarial role and concentrate simply on internal
matters. While Gordon Park remains very
much committed to membership involvement
and worker self-management, it has realized
that- continued progress in these areas will
require a strong adversarial stance vis-a-vis the
government. It has been working with its local
US representative to find ways to deal with the Tom Bamberger
IRS challenge, and what began as a purely local public school on her own terms. Second, it feels
matter has attracted the support of over forty good to get the support of other exemplary
small co-ops from all parts of the country. organizations when one adopts an openly
adversarial role. Gordon Park felt good when a
This discussion has focused on a particular small Detroit co-op set up a spare change can
practical reason for combining a strongly on its checkout counter to help pay for the IRS
adversarial role with an exemplary role. To struggle. Third, an adversarial stance helps
fully develop the case for alternative institu­ attract the kind of people who, while they want
tions as "adversarial exemplars " one would to create new forms of working together, also
also have to consider theoretical reasons for feel the need to engage the larger system in
combining these roles - reasons that have to concrete ways. Both Multicultural and Gordon
do with creating the dialectical process that will Park report that some of their key people
be required to build a genuinely democratic would not still be with them had it not been for
socialism from within the context of advanced the larger struggles. 1 2 To be sure, there are
capitalism. I I Clearly this last kind of case for times when people in these organizations wish
. combining both roles is important. The Multi­ that they could simply be genuinely nonauthor­
cultural experience has shown that such theo­ itarian teachers or self-managed grocers . But
retical arguments provided the basis for link­ they realize more clearly than ever that given
ages with progressive political groups that had present-day society they cannot be these things
no particular feeling for alternative educational without also being such things as hard-nosed

t)
practices. But there are also straightforward advocates and effective lobbyists .
psychological reasons for adopting both a
Footnotes
strongly exemplary and strongly adversarial
I I
I '
role. First, it feels good to win a victory vis-a­ 1.Paul Starr, "The Phantom Community," Co-ops, Com­
, 'I
vis a dominant mainstream institution . Multi­ munes, and Collectives: Experiments in Social Change in
cultural felt good when it helped defeat a bill the 1960s and 1970s, ed. John Case and Rosemary C. R.
Taylor (New York, 1979), p . 250. As will be clear from
that would have taken drivers licences from
what follows,I have found this anthology to be an invalu­
truants . It feels good to help a student stand up able source of data and thoughtful reflection on the alterna­
to a traditional educator and get back into tive institution movement.

49
2. Rosemary C. R. Taylor, " Free Medicine, " Co-ops, cussion of this problem, with particular reference to food
Communes and Collectives, p. 43. co-ops, see David Zwerdling's "The Uncertain Revival of
3 . Toward the end of her essay, Taylor takes up in greater Food Cooperatives, " Co-ops, Communes, and Collectives,

.
detail the reasons behind the clinic's failure to develop a pp. 89- 1 1 1 .
strong adversarial stance. She notes that while it had tried 4. From the beginning, Multicultural drew on the work of '

to "band together with other free clinics in a broad coali­ Ivan Illich for moral support regarding their rejection of
tion to pressure the medical establishment," these attempts teacher certification and compulsory attendance arrange­
had floundered on quarrels between the alternatives them­ ments. Thus, an early flyer contained the following passage
selves. In focusing on how the "dumping" phenomenon from Illich's Deschooling Society ( New York, 1 97 3 ) : "The
can subvert the exemplary function of alternative institu­ first article of a bill of rights for a modern, humanist
tions, I don't for a moment want to downplay the difficul­ society would correspond to the First Amendment of the
ties that surround coalition building. All of us who have US Constitution: 'The state shall make no law with respect
worked with alternative institutions are well aware of how to the establishment of education . ' There shall be no ritual
difficult it is to form a coalition around anything short of obligatory for all" (p. 1 6) . When students came to enroll,
an explicit threat to one's survival. For an interesting dis- they were told that it was up to them and their parents how

Tom Bamberger

50
they used their time at the school,be it working at a job of alternatives." Multicultural is convinced that everything
their choosing, catching up on their basics by attending a will depend on whether it and other progressive groups can
smay group a couple of times a week, or whatever. find ways of making sure that these units do not become
5. Illich,Deschooling Society, p.64. It might be noted,by internal "dumping grounds." One encouraging sign in this


the way,that Multicultural's reading of IIIich differed from connection is that the administration recently implemented
that of Herbert Gintis who accused IIIich of accepting the Multicultural's proposal for a systematic review of these
"basic economic institutions of capitalism. " I defend this programs.
anticapitalist reading of IIIich in "The 'Deschooling' 9. Zwerdling discusses this development in "The Uncertain
Controversy Revisited: A Defense of Ivan IIIich's 'Partici­ Revival of Food Cooperatives," p. 105.
patory Socialism,' ' ' Educational Theory, 29 (Spring 1979) 10. Ron Cotterill, "Do You Know a Good Lawyer?," Co­
pp. 109-1 16. op Magazine (MarchiApril 1979).
6. That Multicultural's philosophy did not go unnoticed by 1 1 . David Moberg summarizes the theoretical case for such
the establishment is clear from testimony before a State a dialectic in "Experimenting with the Future: Alternative
Assembly hearing that a way must be found to deal with Institutions and American Socialism," Co-ops,
"so-called alternative schools whose innovative curriculum Communes, and Collectives, pp. 274-3 1 1 .
made it difficult for local districts to set standards," 12. It should be noted, however, that neither group feels
(Milwaukee Journal, May 19, 1977) and the State Super­ comfortable with people who are attracted to the group just
intendent's concern with the "proliferation of small,poorly by its adversarial role. For example, Multicultural
organized, poorly staffed and poorly supplied private continues to suggest than anyone who wants to take an
operations masquerading under the title of private active role in the struggle with public schools should find a
schools. " (Milwaukee Journal, Sept. 16, 1977). way to involved themselves in the exemplary aspects of an
7. Due in large part to Multicultural's pressure,the public alternative school as well. Its point is that the ongoing
system had created two alternative centers by 1979. The critique of existing educational institutions must be
1980-81 school year saw the creation of two additional city­ grounded in an alternative daily practice.
wide centers modeled on these earlier programs, and the
overall enrollment at these public alternatives passed 700.
Recently the School Board instructed all senior high schools
to replicate the "outpost" model that Multicultural helped
two high schools set up in 1980. There are also plans,again
CARL HEDMAN is a teacher in the Milwaukee
at Multicultural's urging, to set up an experimental area and has been active in both Multicultural
"outpost" for middle-school "dropouts." High and Gordon Park Food Coop.
8 . Ivan Illich, "After Deschooling, What?" in After
Deschooling, What? ed . Gartner et al. (New York, 1973), p.
2. It is clear that the battle has not been won just because
the public school system has created a vast array of "public

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MASKIN
-DANCING ALONG
THE PRECIPICE:
The Men's Movement in the '80s

Joe I nterrante

"A what? A men's movement? Organized for what? Men's liberation? ! You've got to be

I�
kidding ! What do they want, anyway, higher wages? Good grief, aren't there enough men's
!
groups already - the government, General Motors, the American Medical Association . . .
the list could go on and on. Isn't a conference on 'Men and Masculinity' a bit like a confer­
ence on rich people and money? "
"Oh, those people. All they do is sit around and play touchy-feely. It's like being trapped I I
in a crowd of gender moonies. No, I'm not going to the conference. I'm afraid of being
hugged to death."
Those are composites of reactions I received when I told friends that I was planning to
attend the Seventh National Conference on Men and Masculinity, "Reweaving Mascu­
linity," at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, on June 12- 1 6, 1 98 1 . They are, I
believe, typical of the attitudes held by many people. Television, motion pictures, and best-
t) selling novels have swamped us with stories about men: about the tribulations of men's lives
(Annie Hall, The World According to Garp); about "sensitive fathers" rescuing their
, II
families from, or deserted by, "insensitive mothers" (Kramer vs. Kramer, Ordinary
I II
People) ; about the pleasures and dangers of heterosexual male bonding ( The Deer Hunter, II
'1, , 1

Cutter's Way, "Hill Street Blues "). In many cases, these presentations of "new men"
experiencing uncertainty, vulnerability, and sometimes emotional expressiveness have also
communicated an antifeminist message, by making independent women part of the problem

Opposite: A lan Maskin


53
facing their male characters . Clearly, in such a • my gayness existed "in addition to" my mascu­
context, one may be skeptical, if not openly linity, whereas I had found that it colored my
suspicious , of a movement organized for entire experience of manhood. I distrusted a

•.
"men's liberation. " literature which claimed that gay men were just
But I came to the conference with excitement like heterosexual men except for what they did
as well as misgivings. There is a new literature in bed. Moreover, I found the literature at
about the male " sex role" - books like Jack times homophobic, as in its assurance that
Nichol's Men 's Liberation and Joseph Pleck gentleness doesn't mean being a sissy, or that
and Jack Sawyer's Men and Masculinity' - wanting to touch and hold men doesn't mean
and it looks self-critically at the ideology and wanting to "sleep" with men . What if I am a
practice of masculinity. Much of what these sissy? What if I do want to be sexual with other
books say rings true: an obsession with social men? Was this the men's movement? Would
and economic success inside and outside the the conference be a group of "sympathetic"
workplace; insensitivity born of a fear of heterosexual men loosening themselves up at
making oneself vulnerable; deep-seated fears of my expense?
" femininity, " " sissyness , " and homosexuality; What I found at the "Reweaving Masculin­
crippling restraints on emotional expres­ ity" conference, despite my misgivings, was a
siveness; competitive zeal fraught with implicit loose network of local and regional groups with
and explicit violence. Here, I thought, were serious politics. They are working to build a
men who recognized sexism as a deeply profeminist, progay, and antiracist movement.
embedded problem that men need to confront. These men face a crossroads in their efforts to
What bothered me about some of the new develop a set of comprehensive goals which can
literature was its frequent myopia about polit­ appeal to men from different classes, races, and
ical implications . A focus on the "costs" of sexual orientations. To understand the dilem­
masculinity had led some of these writers to ma, one needs to know something about the
claim that men were "oppressed too , " a claim changing character of men's lives during the
that skirts the fundamental issue of male power last century (especially in the last twenty years),
and priviledge. Unless you distinguish between as well as the beginnings of the men's move­
the forms of male behavior and the substance ment itself.
of male privilege, you are led into the world of
make-believe typified by Kramer vs. Kramer. Background:
Indeed, I had heard what were called "men's Men's Lib Discovers a Fork in the Road
movement figures" on the TV news complain Historically, the men's movement developed
about women's "power" in divorce and child out of feminism. Many men who first joined
custody cases. Was the men's movement pro­ men's "consciousness-raising" (CR) groups in (I))
moting white, middle-class men's "personal the late 1 960s and early 1 970s did so out of
growth" without questioning the directions of conflicts with women - wives, lovers , friends ,
that growth? Would men at the conference acquaintances - who had discovered feminism
consider such questions "avoiding what's really and begun to challenge men's sexist behavior .
going on with your feelings " ?
As a gay man, I also had suspicions about the My full introduction to the women ' s movement
came through a personal relationship . . . I met
.
heterocentrist bias of this work. It told me that

54
I

Harry Annas Studio, Lockhart, Texas, 1930-

I
and fell in love with a woman who was being For many men, these groups were a transform­
politicized by woman's liberation. As our rela­ ative experience in self-awareness:
tionship developed, I began to receive repeated We did some "guilt-tripping" at first - flagel­
criticism for being sexist. At first I responded . . . ,I
lating ourselves for the ways we were oppressing
with anger and denial. In time, however, I began women - but we soon moved on to sharing other 1
to recognize the validity of the accusation, and problems. We soon came to see that it wasn't just
eventually to acknowledge the sexism in my denial the women in our lives who were having problems
of the accusation. 2 and that we were having problems relating to, but
Borrowing the consciousness-raising format of
women's groups, men around the country
that we also had problems within ourselves, and
problems relating to each other. We discovered in , !1
� 'i
I,

some way that we had been dehumanized . 3 . .


began to form "men's groups" to deal with the
feelings of confusion, hurt, anger, defensive­ By 1 974, when the first national conference was
ness, and guilt which they were experiencing . organized by the Women' s Studies Program at

55
:1 I '
\ ' i

I the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, there other groups, welcomed women members. But
I
I were hundreds of men's CR groups and "men's they focused on the revision of divorce and
I,
I ' centers" around the country. Three hundred child custody laws, in order to give men "equal
I

0
men and women attended the conference, at rights" to alimony, child custody, and visita­
which they organized a Men's Awareness Net­ tion. Their emphasis was on freeing men .from
work (MAN) to publish a "Men 's Resource the responsibilities of patriarchy.
Guide and Newsletter. " During the seventies, these groups continued
During the seventies, the men's movement to work as part of a loose network. Yet there
grew and diversified . Men continued to form were clear differences between the two tenden­
CR groups and men's centers in order to recruit cies. For the antisexist groups, male privilege
new men and to provide a source of ongoing was a social question, linked to a host of other
support for men already involved . Men also issues such as reproductive rights, violence
began to work politically on a range of issues. against women, lesbian and gay rights, racism,
The broadest-based activity was support for the and imperialism - to the very structure of
ERA, embodied in groups like Men Allied society. For the Free Men, it was more of an
Nationally (MAN) for ERA. (Indeed, the ERA individual question. This was a crucial differ­
remains a kind of "bottom line" criterion for ence, because it brought to the surface the
involvement in the movement.) Beyond that, experiences which led these men to the men's
however, political activity moved in two movement in the first place. Those experiences
directions. were the personal conflicts which grew out of
On the one hand, there were men who women's involvement with feminism . The last
formed groups to support more radical feminist thing many men wanted to hear, once they
issues. These groups, such as the California became involved in the men's movement, was
Anti-Sexist Men's Political Caucus and OASIS that they still enjoyed privileges as men. Clear­
in Boston, began to work on issues like abor­ ly, this was a difference which questioned the
tion and lesbian and gay rights. Some organized very meaning of men's liberation. Could men
men's childcare collectives to offer childcare at be nonsexist in a sexist society, or could they
women's and (in some cases) Third World be, at most, antisexist?
people's events . Men also formed counseling The growing split in the men's movement was
organizations, such as Boston's EMERGE, St. and is a response to changes in the forms of
Louis's RAVEN, and Denver's AMEND, to male dominance first pointed out by feminists,
combat rape, battering, and other forms of a change from what Barbara Easton has called
violence against women. These groups also saw "legitimate" forms of legal and economic
fighting class and race priviledges as part of discrimination, to "illegitimate forms . . . that
their work to "reweave" masculinity. lie outside traditionally accepted definitions. "4
'.
On the other hand, there were men who Let us look at this phenomenon more closely. S
formed "men's rights" and " fathers' rights" The withering away of America's post-World
organizations. The largest of these groups was War II international hegemony, and the con­
and is Free Men, which is based in Columbia, comitant crumbling of the postwar corporate
Maryland, and has members in thirty-five economy, have together eroded the credibility
states. They supported the ERA, and like the of the professional or bureaucratic career.

56
"

These middle-class careers always had built-in


insecurities: men's personal achievement as
breadwinners was always threatened by compe-
tition from others (even within the so-called
(.
teamwork of management) and by a nagging
inner sense of incompetence . These insecurities
could be tolerated, so long as the professional
could justify his perseverance by an ethos of
"duty" to the higher goals of the corporate or
governmental enterprise. For men who could
not do so, academia and service professions
offered a relative autonomy from corporate
priorities. Most important, for both groups of
men, home and a companionate family life were
the sources of emotional fulfillment. (Consider,
for example, the fifties film, The Man in the
Grey Flannel Suit.)
The current economic crisis has both reduced
work opportunities outside corporations and
undermined the ethos of professionalism within
the corporation. Men's responses to this ero­
sion have been a withdrawal into cynicism
about the rewards of work, and an increasing
investment in the home as an emotional haven.
Since domesticity is predicated upon women's
subordinate position within it, however, the
feminist movement has denied men this easy
escape. The "castle" itself has become a
battleground. As already noted, men's response
has often been anger, an anger fueled and
focused by the media's misrepresentation of Francie C. Thayer, Seventeen, 1959
feminism-as-lifestyle. And it is this anger which
.1
finds expression in the intensified use of The antisexist groups, particularly those like
1

\1 domination. As Easton notes, not only are men


cultural, as opposed to legal, forms of male EMERGE and RAVEN, were attempting to
deal with the intensified use of these forms.
turning more to "emotional withdrawal" as a This work pushed them to confront issues of
weapon, but: men's sexual and personal behavior, which
highlight the ways men's very personalities are
As the older mechanisms of male control over
women break down, the blatant efforts of some wrapped up in the structure of male domin­
men to retain that control, through rape and other ance. It led them to take up issues like freedom
forms of violence,intensify.· of choice on abortion which conflicted with the
demands of "father's rights" groups . The

57
conflict began to surface in debates over polit­ with the "Men and Violence" workshop series.
ical resolutions at the national conferences in In response, Robert Sides , the director of Free
St. Louis ( 1 977), Los Angeles ( 1 978), and Men/Boston, wrote an open letter to the Tufts
Milwaukee ( 1 979). And it began to emerge conference, "On Male Oppression. " The fol­
within local men's groups and centers, over the lowing excerpts illustrate the differences ()
individual vs. social nature of men's oppression between the two movements:
of women. Except for the ERA, the men's
It is oppressive to hear of universal female power­
movement was in sharp disagreement over the
lessness while seeing the ubiquity of "Wom­
nature of its relationship to feminism . en's" . . . Studies, Book-store Sections, Theatre,
Art Shows, Information vans, Health Centers,
The Two Men's Movements Radio Shows, etc . . . . It is not a little ironic, too,
The issue was, in a sense, resolved by 1 98 1 . to hear of women's "second-class" status when
At the conference at Tufts , I discovered that they have such privilege in divorce settlements,
Free Men, along with a number of father's custody hearings, draft acts, statutory rape laws,
sexual harassment hearings, lifeboat seat alloca­
rights and men's rights groups, was holding a
tions, etc.
conference during the same weekend in Hous­
ton, Texas, to organize a "National Congress
of Men . " The Tufts conference, in contrast, It is angering to hear feminists give lip-service
reflected the diverse interests of the antisexist to sexual equality while avoiding responsibility for
groups. There were seventy-four workshops on their needs. Just ask yourself how many "asser­
tive" women came up to meet you last year
such topics as directions for the movement,
versus, if you are single, how many you had to
images of masculinity, the experience of grow­
approach. Also ask yourself how much you had
ing up male, fathering, men and violence, men
to mask your loneliness and needs to be seen as
and women, men and men, heterosexuality, attractive. Or even how it feels to be "evaluated"
homosexuality, bisexuality, androgyny, homo­ by the impression of your approach by someone
phobia, antisemitism , racism , class arrogance, who has never had to face or acknowledge the
guilt, anger, assertiveness, and nurturing. In stress involved.
particular, the antirape and antibattering
groups exerted a strong influence on the confer­ It is bad enough not to meet many assertive
ence. There were seven workshops specifically women. It is worse to meet so many the feminists
on men and violence, and EMERGE screened never mention: insensitive and rude women who,
its new film on domestic violence. Male vio­ far from being the "intuitive, feeling" beings we
lence was the most clearly articulated political think all women are, act like emotional-bank

men; who ignore or act crudely toward men who (I»


issue at the Tufts conference. examiners when they deal with the inner lives of
It was, in fact, violence as a political issue
must approach them if anyone is to get their needs
that crystalized the differences between the
met; who dehumanize male feelings by calling
antisexist men and the Free Men. Some
them, clinically, "egos" ; whose passivity neces­
members of Free Men submitted a proposal for sarily causes them to respond to the very macho
a workshop on "A Look at the Violence behavior they decry . . . ; who don't care what
Women do to Men . " The conference planning pressures "privileged" men are under to earn
committee rejected the proposal as not in line money just so long as they spend it on them . . . ;

58
who are sexual only if prompted by booze-or­ point for a critical self-examination of that
bennies to avoid responsibility and blame male anger. This workshop clearly distinguished
sexuality (A.K.A. "lust") for taking advantage of between the confusing and often painful per­
them . . . . All women are not like this, but few are sonal experiences of negotiating new, nonsexist
truly acting like the New Woman they so often relationships between men and women, and the
talk about. 7
political question of power and privilege. As
According to a New York Times article on the one man told me, "Sometimes individual
Free Men conference, they also argue that women do abuse individual men, but that's not
"abortion performed unilaterally by women, a political question. We shouldn't generalize
often trample on the legitimate rights of the from that to contend that women have privilege
father-to-be. "8 - which they [Free Men] do . "
The Free Men have bought the feminism-as­ Despite this difference, the antisexist men
lifestyle version of the women's movement . were unable at this conference to formulate a
They are responding to men's anger and vio­ clearly defined political relationship toward the
lence within the confines of this "you've come a Free Men, even though they were confronted
long way baby" image of the ideal woman with the issue directly. Some men objected to
(which, I suspect, some of these professional the decision to reject the Free Men workshop
men helped to create) . Their response has been, on the grounds of censorship, an issue which
"Fine, if women want to be independent, then some people told me has existed since the fifth
let them be self-dependent; if women have a national conference in Los Angeles . The work­
right to their interests, men also have a right to shop was still rejected, but a compromise was
their own . " This seems to be the gist of the reached by inviting a member of Free Men to
statements by Robert Sides. As the name "Free speak at the closing panel of the conference.
Men" suggests, it is a response to feminism However, this invitation was withdrawn when
within the confines of an individualistic "free some of the antirape and antibattering groups
market" mentality. This is how they can protested . Then the planning committee
support the ERA and in the same breath attack changed its mind again and permitted a
other feminist issues as women 's failure to "act member of Free Men to make a statement from
like the New Woman they so often talk about. " the audience. Indeed, the final panel turned
<By focusing on civil inequality and ignoring the into a discussion about the Free Men . Yet the
existence of extra-legal forms of male domin­ issue remained unresolved, and many men felt
ance - by ignoring what has not changed - uneasy about the issue of censorship.
Free Men offers an ideology which absolves I think there were two reasons for this uneas­
men of responsibility. iness. First is a kind of guilt that grows natur­

"I The antisexist men are aware of men's anger


ally from the initial acceptance of the critique
- one man on the conference' s closing panel on of male dominance. Although not universally
"The Men ' s Movement in the ' 80s" spoke of shared at the conference, this guilt surfaced
men's anger as a critical issue for grassroots over questions of organization, decision­
organizing. But they obviously deal with that making, and leadership. Refusing Free Men a
anger very differently. For example, a work­ forum here - saying "no" to the Free Men -
shop on " Men's Anger at Women" focused on was perceived as traditional male behavior and
men's expectations of women as the starting as violating the conference's ethos of openness

59
11 !
.
I,
I'

ent political implications from their analyse s.


For the anti-sexist men , this difference is one of
"understanding." Their response to the Free

the Free Men so that they can reveal the "larger ()


Men is a desire to "talk with" and "counsel"

issue ." But the Houston conference indicates


that these men are no longer open to dialogue .
And given the closed nature of Free Men's focus
on "men's rights," it seems to me like trying to
"counsel" Phyllis Schafly about abortion and
the ERA .

The Spatial Politics of Men's Liberation

"According to usage and conventions which


are at least being questioned but have by no
means been overcome," John Berger observes
in Ways of Seeing, "the social presence of a
woman is different in kind from that of a
man."

A man's presence is dependent upon the promise


of power which he embodies. If the promise is
large and credible his presence is striking. If it is
small or incredible, he is found to have little
presence. The promised power may be moral,
Clarence John Laughlin, A Vision of Dead Desire, 1954
physical, temperamental, economic, social, sexual
- but its object is always exterior to the man. A
and support .
Second, this guilt is accentuated by the anti- man's presence suggests what he is capable of
sexist men's realization that they and the Free doing to you or for you. His presence may be
fabricated, in the sense that he pretends to be
Men start from similar analyses of masculinity .
capable of what he is not. But the pretense is
An incident from the closing panel can illus­
always towards a power which he exercises on
trate the ambivalence that is involved here . One
others!
panelist read from the New York Times article
on the Free Men eonference , selecting out anti­ As Berger suggests , this masculine "pres­
feminist statements like the one on abortion ence" is both an outward style of presentation
mentioned earlier . Then another man read and an internalized self-image . It is at its core \t)
from the same article , selecting out the state­ instrumental in nature (what he can do to or for
ments about the cost of masculinity . These you) . It is communicated through the sugges­
latter statements sounded exactly like the tion of distance from others, which establishes
critique of masculinity made by the antisexist the individualized presence of the man and
men . helps to maintain the illusory promise of the
Here , then, are two groups which talk about man's power , to set him above by setting him
the male role in identical ways, but draw differ- apart . In the body language of masculinity ,

60
men do not touch, except for occasional back­ noninstrumental. Play is animated by fantasy
slapping which represses as much as it ex­ and imagination; it allows men to act "as if. "
presses. (I was at a meeting once where we In that sense, play allows men to experience

• while women shared the couch - this is simply


discovered that the men had all sat in chairs what nontraditional interactions - interactions
not organized around a division of labor -
one minor example of the way distance is main­ might become . It allows men to experience
tained.) Distance is also maintained on an masculinity as something to enjoy rather than
emotional level: men talk about themselves but as something around which to erect a presence.
rarely from themselves; they are trained not to All of this is important, and needs to remain
be directly introspective, but to organize their an integral part of men's movement activity.
thoughts , to clear out the self-doubts, before But there is a way in which these activities can
speaking . seduce you into a kind of stasis. Consciousness
Men came to this conference for a variety of raising can reach a dead end of "personal"
reasons, but one of the most frequently voiced differences, as the imbroglio with Free Men
goals was to use it as an opportunity to break makes clear. Play can generate an ambience,
through some of the restraints and isolation of but not specific goals and strategies. Left at this
masculinity. Indeed, one of the oldest and level, it seems to me that this nontraditional
perhaps strongest features of men's conferences male presence can itself become a way to exer­
has been the creation of an environment sup­ cise power; I saw a few men at workshops use
porting this kind of personal growth. Many of their "sensitivity" to manipulate the group. It
the seventy-four workshops were patterned also seems to me that such a presence animates
after conciousness-raising sessions, and the a film like Kramer vs. Kramer, and is part of
speakers on panels emphasized their exper­ the difficulty which the antisexist men have in
iences in a way which expressed the complexity formulating a political relationship toward the
of nuance and sensation, uncertainty and Free Men.
change. There was allotted time for men to This problem is embedded in the ambiguities
gather in "affinity groups, " with interests of a "men's politics . " It can support profem­
ranging from alcoholism to homophobia to inist, progay, and antiracist legislation - which
domestic violence counseling, to share their many men here see as the legislation of
ideas and experiences . There were cultural "others" - but it has no legislation of its own .
events of theatre, song, and poetry scheduled Rejecting the "men's rights" legislation of Free
each evening. And there was time to socialize Men, it sees its main function as encouraging . 1
and play. personal growth. This perception is reinforced
1

�I) man tells me; his view is echoed by many


" It is political for men to be playful , " one by the fact that many conference participants
do not have (or know of) an antisexist men's
others. It may be difficult at first to take this group in their communities. Many men told me
idea seriously. We have all grown up in a cul­ that they came to the conference for "renew­
ture in which play is regarded as an idle, trivial al, " "regeneration, " or "resuscitation. "
pursuit, something reserved for children. That Isolated and even exhausted by their efforts to
equation suggests some of its importance for live nontraditional lives, and lacking a group
men. Play (as opposed to "leisure" ) is activity which can support their personal efforts on an
pursued for its own sake; it is open-ended and ongoing basis, they came for enough "nurtur-

61
ance" to carry them through to the next confer­ told me how destructive these images are. While
ence. This attitude toward the conference as an I identified with some of this experience, I also
" energy" refueling station is part of the history had reactions very different from what I was
of the antisexist network, and can only be dealt
of men erotic. I also kept noticing images thaf()
being told to feel. I found many of the images
with by organizing at the local level. But to do
that, the movement needs to develop a set of told me something more complicated than
political issues and strategies which move simple destructiveness. For example, in a
beyond the limits of sensibility. In the context section on war , I saw a picture of a soldier
of 1 980s reaction, "personal growth" may not holding an injured or dying soldier. A picture, I
be political enough to engage with the majority thought, of a man nurturing another man. I
of men's lives. thought of gay historian Allan Berube's work
on World War II as a massive "coming out"
The Privatization of Gay Concerns
experience for lesbians and gay men. 11 And I
In their efforts to "reweave masculinity" all thought about how contradictory the exper­
men might learn a lot from the way sociali­ iences of men are; how we need to rediscover
zation is experienced by gay men . For men and emphasize the ways men have survived by
coming to grips with their gayness, masculinity adapting or avoiding the limits of male social­
is a problem which must be dealt with in the ization. In the discussion afterwards, I only
absence of the staple references of heterosex­ heard gay men raise that question. I wondered
uality. Yet while at least half of the men at this why that was, and I wondered if the way gay
conference were gay, only a few workshops men are forced to deal more immediately than
reflected gay concerns : two on developing a heterosexual men with the issue of survival had
Radical Faggot Identity, one on specific gay anything to do with that awareness .
male sexual practices , one on homophobia, and The invisibility o f gay issues at workshops
two on gay and straight cooperation - six out and conference panels contrasted with the quite
of seventy-four. At the opening panel, one man visible presence of gay singers, poets, and
of eight identified himself indirectly by using performers during the cultural events held each
his male lover's name, but never suggested in evening during the conference. It also con­
his remarks that his sexual orientation had trasted with some of my personal interactions
anything to do with his experience as a man. at the conference. Some gay and heterosexual
This "privatization" of gay concerns pervaded men with whom I talked told me that, at men's
the workshops I attended on "general" male gatherings and conferences, they often can't tell
issues. The upshot was an extreme heterocen­ who is gay and who is straight - meaning that
trism that ironically also inhibited discussion men are openly affectionate with one another
about how to change men's roles. regardless of sexual orientation. This was.)
For example, I went to a slideshow on "The certainly true to some extent; socializing did
American Male: Exploring Male Consciousness seem more relaxed here. On the other hand, I
in American Society. " Admittedly, this show felt a difference in the way I personally inter­
was done several years ago, and qualified itself acted with openly gay men and other men,
as the experiences of white, middle-class men. especially in the way these men touched me. I
The show was a collage of images which men don't have precise language to describe this
are supposedly told to emulate; the narration difference - there was electricity, energy,

62
"sexuality" in the touches of gay men . When Women and the Men's Movement
openly gay men touched my body, I could feel The antisexist men's conferences have always

• of my chest sent sensations through my arms .


it elsewhere; a knuckle moved down the middle welcomed and encouraged the participation of
'
women . Women have always held key admini­
When other men touched me, the sensations strative positions at them. The women at the
were localized ; they were sincere and pleasur­ conference with whom I spoke expressed a
able, but they were different . I don't expect this variety of reasons for their attendance . Some
difference not to exist, but I think it is danger­ came because their partners are active in this
ous to privatize it and pretend it doesn't exist or movement, and they wanted to share the exper­
is of secondary importance to outward ience of the conference . Others, who had
behavior . attended past conferences for that reason,
developed their own interests in the movement
I asked one gay man about the separation
which they felt were related to their work in
between what was going on at this conference
women's organizations.
on an individual basis, and what was said at
Despite the sincere interest in having women
panels and workshops. Part of the problem, he
participate in the movement, I sensed a certain
said, is the difference in the experiences of
ambivalence or awkwardness around the
"veterans" of past conferences and men's
presence of women here. "The presence of
groups, and of newcomers. Men who have been
through the consciousness raising of past
conferences - for example, at Des Moines in
1976, when gay and heterosexual men were
paired up and sent around the city to act affec­
tionately with each other in public - forget that
these issues need to be raised afresh for new
people . He added that raising the issues is made
more difficult by the fact that the movement
wants to attract men (both heterosexual men
and men unsure of their preference) who are
threatened by homosexuality . This seems to me
a persistent problem in a mixed movement. But
the problem is not resolved by tacitly ignoring
: I
or at best ghettoizing the issues of homophobia

"I)
and heterosexism. Indeed, the problem can only I
become worse as the movement grows, as more
men affiliate with the antisexist movement with­
out dealing with those questions . I also doubt
that these are issues only for newcomers, that
homophobia is easily dealt with by heterosexual
men in one or two sessions. At this conference,
the separation was not challenged until the final
panel . Jack Rodden Studio, Tahota, Texas

63
women and gays is and isn't an open issue, " conference seemed close to the Free Men in
one woman told me. Part of this discomfort their views) . This treatment of individual
seemed related to planning decisions : how to women as the guardians of political virtue must

to the conference. And it may be one reason S


create a space in which women are welcome, place a terrible burden on the women who came
r
while at the same time providing space for men
to explore issues on their own. Providing such why the number of women at these conferences
spaces raises issues of guilt about being exclu­ has declined steadily.
sionary. But this awkwardness seemed to be Treating individual women in this way also
handled fairly smoothly. assumes that there is something known as " the
A deeper part of the ambivalence seemed to women's movement," which they can each
come from the way in which this conference represent in a holistic way. Ironically, this
perceived its relation to the women's move­ perspective bears similarity to the different view
ment. Many men told me that one of their taken by Free Men. If the Free Men have
personal goals is to become more like women in bought the "you've come a long way, baby"
their behavior. Many felt that the best way to image of women, the antisexist men seem to
do this was to "learn from" women. Behind take a "they've got it all together " attitude
this phrase (which I hear over and over again), I toward the women's movement. With the
sensed a perception of women as the sources of exception of obvious groups like STOP ERA,
"political correctness " : not only that women the antisexist men tend to regard every state­
can show men how to change, but in many ment made by a women's organization as the
cases that men need women in order for men to feminist position on that issue, one which they
do this. To put it in a slightly different way, I must uphold if they are to think of themselves
sensed a hope that, by copying the women's as antisexist. There is a tendency here to reduce
movement, this men's movement could avoid feminism to a set of commandments which men
the "mistakes " which are a part of any group's can follow. It avoids all the difficulties involved
growth. If feminism was, historically, the in using feminism - a woman-centered
"mother " of the men's movement, some men perspective - to understand the experiences of
at this conference seemed reluctant to give up masculinity. And it simply doesn't work for
the security of the relationship. some issues (like pornography, adult-minor
This perception seems a way for men to abdi­ relationships, and specific sexual practices),
cate responsibility for taking chances that over which feminists are deeply divided.
might not work out as intended. Male guilt and
a fear of not appearing "politically correct " A Comprehensive Theory is Possible

fl)
surfaced at moments when women spoke at a Both the Free Men and the antisexist men
panel or workshop. Some men would suddenly rely on a theory of men's liberation based on
become studiously attentive (the "now we'll the sociological work on sex roles mentioned at
find out the answer " syndrome), others would the beginning of this article. This sociological
shift positions uncomfortably ( the "oh no, I'm work is largely ahistorical and generally liberal
going to be criticized" syndrome), while the in its politics. To the degree that it does contain
faces of others would tighten with resentment a historical perspective, it treats men's roles in
(possibly a reaction against either syndrome, or terms of a linear progression, from restraint
a reflection of the fact that some men at this toward liberation. Men are beginning to ques-

64
tion their dedication to work; they are begin­ There are historical examples which would
ning to take on domestic tasks in order to make contribute to a different conclusion. Changes in
their marriages more equal "companionate" the male role between 1 860 and 1 920, from an
partnerships . As they do this, they are becom­ ethos of self-disciplined individual competition
ing more openly emotional. There is no ques­ to an ideology of cooperative team effort and
. 1
tion that these changes are good for men. But loyalty to the corporation, did not change the
1
· ,. in which these changes are occurring . While the
this literature does not discuss the social context substance of male privilege in the " public

:. 1
sphere. " The rise of companionate marriage

: I
sex-role literature assumes that social arrange­ and suburban consumerism between 1 900 and
ments are in part maintained and reproduced 1 970, did not in itself challenge the social and
by male socialization and male role
identification, it does not examine in detail how
sexual power of the husband and father in the
home . 1 3 The current sharing of housework by
:1
this occurs. Thus, the fact that the male role is men and women may be less of a decline in
changing is taken as prima facie evidence that male dominance and more a response to "stag­
male domination is declining. 1 2 flation" which requires both husband and wife

,l:,
,>, ', 65

. ;
" f..

"
i

1 \1
1
I 1i
I
I

I I on the male' role need to overcome their almost

j'
I II

I
reflexive hostility to psychology. This hostility
I is an understandable reaction to the ways

dominance . But without a critical use of psyl.


psychology has been used to prop up male

chology (which feminists writers have shown to


be possible), they will not be able to understand
the social and cultural relations of dominance
which are not easily or automatically affected
by social reforms. I S This is one lesson to be
learned from the intensified uses of "nontrad­
itional" forms of male dominance described
previously. In short, a comprehensive theory of
masculinity needs to treat masculinity as a
cultural�rather than a sex role.
If masculinity is a cultural role, then it
includes class and race as well as sex distinc­
tions . The fact that masculinity cuts across class
and race lines does not mean that the male role
is the same for all men. A working-class boy,
for example, not only learns to relate to women
as "other" and inferior beings ; he also learns to
relate to some men as "bosses," as superiors
who will manage his work, give him orders, yet
relate to him as another man . He faces, not the
promise of future achievement in which domes­
ticity is the fulfillment of that success, but a
daily routine of hard alienating work in which
his "home life" is an expected compensation .
Florence Henri, Double Portrait This does not mean that working-class men or
to work to support a household . These changes men of color are necessarily more sexist than
can be used to reduce male dominance, but they white, middle-class men . It means, rather, that
do not reduce it by. themselves . Indeed, as the working-class men and men of color learn to

e)
example of Free Men suggests, the emotional wield at home the authority which they are
liberation of men today may simply be "pur­ denied at work - an authority which, in both
chased" with new forms of women's subordin­ places, is defined in terms of masculinity .
ation . Moreover, the ways in which these men are able
A comprehensive theory of men's liberation to exercise authority in their families is itself
needs to move away from the sociological shaped by the forms of household organization
concept of "sex role" toward a more complex which families of different classes and races
analysis of "gender" as a changing system of devise to meet their distinctive problems of day­
social relations . 1 4 To do this, however, writers to-day survival . 1 6 These men's class/race exper-

66
iences do not exist "in addition to" their exper­ Third World Task Force which dealt with
iences as men ; they are interwoven threads of a broadening the movement beyond its present
single masculine identity . white, middle-class constituency, grappling

flnasculine
For working-class men and men of color, this with racism, and recognizing the distinctive
experience poses a unique problem. styles of Third World and working-class man­
Masculinity is not only part of the ideology of hood. But in practice, these remained future
class and racial oppression, which condemns issues at the seventh conference. There were
them to the frustrations of the workplace or the two workshops on racism, one on class, and
back of the social bus. Masculinity has also two that mentioned capitalism. The mixed
been part of their cultures of resistance. A workshops also ignored these issues, assuming
culture of male comaraderie has been a vital a uniform male experience. The conference was
part of union "brotherhood" and a source of pervaded by what one black man here called an
flexibility and spontaneity in shop-floor poli­ atmosphere of white liberalism. Multi-issue
tics. But to the extent that a masculine perspec­ politics became a way of avoiding hard issues of
tive has colored every aspect of working-class race and class. But these issues must be
politics - a perspective based on men as confronted substantively if the movement is to
"breadwinners" - it is also a source of weak­ attract working-class men and men of color.
ness and division. Customarily this weakness Similarly, if the movement intends to keep
has been "resolved" through forms of discrim­ and attract more gay male members, it will have
ination against working women : in the nine­ to examine critically the distinctive features of
teenth century, for example, in the AFL's com­ their experience of masculinity. Gay men can­
plaint that women workers threatened a man's not rely on the staple references of masculinity
right to a decent "family wage." Today, the to build their identities as men. If the ultimate
weakness appears in the dilemmas faced by reward for adherence to the standards of
unions in dealing with cases of sexual harass­ masculine behavior is, as the literature on the
ment. 1 7 In similar ways, paternalism has been a male role argues, "ownership" of a woman in
source of strength and limitation in Afro­ marriage and family life, the bottom line of this
Americans' day-to-day resistance to slavery and reward is sexual possession. For men who
racism, as well as a politics of black power . 1 8 acknowledge their sexual desires for other men,
Thus, a critique of masculinity from the however, this "reward" obviously has less
perspective of working-class and Third World "value." These men and boys are forced to
men must be directed both at a system of capi­ deal with the issue of what being a man means
I
talist exploitation and white supremacy, and at to them. Of course, they can resolve this ques­

_system.
their traditional forms of opposition to that tion in numerous ways : outright acceptance of

A comprehensive analysis of masculinity can


the standard; compensation for some perceived
"lack" in themselves ; rejection of the standard ; :I
therefore offer much to traditional left groups, inversion of it ; or redefinition of masculinity.
by enabling them to reexamine bases of class But in all these cases, gay men are forced to
and race consciousness. The men's movement is think consciously about masculinity in a way
in principle committed to that kind of analysis : heterosexual men are not. Gay men are forced
the sixth national conference in Milwaukee to invent their identities as gay men .
endorsed a series of resolutions passed by the The question is itself a historical one. In the

67

Florence Henri, Double Portrait

68

-. .�-�-
.'
"
colonial period of agrarian patriarchy, when all so neatly. Does this mean that all sex without
men were considered liable to sodomy, and feeling" (as if there were such a thing) is objec­
marriage was an economic and religious neces­ tification? Could it be, rather, sexual play? As
sity for all men, "homosexual" and "hetero- a gay man, I o ften experience being a sexual
asexual" men lived very similar lives . Difference subject and a sexual object at the same time ;
was not a question of "orientation" but a and I experience this in a way which (in the best
matter of "sinfulness" which applied to and, not coincidentally, most pleasurable
"unnatural" acts between persons of the oppo­ instances) empowers both parties rather than
site sex as well as persons of the same sex. Only one at the expense of the other. I do not think
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries did a this experience is intrinsic or unique to same-sex
classification of these acts as different kinds of relationships . I see it rather as a glimpse of
behavior emerge . It was in this period that what all "sexual" interactions and relation­
singlehood and other forms of companionate ships might be like in a society where women
living became options in industrial cities, that truly have power of sexual self-determination
masculinity became a cluster of attitudes incul­ (including the right to be sexual), where sexual
cated into boys during "childhood" and orientation is not a principal criterion of differ­
"adolescence," that "proper" sexual desire entiation (this does not mean that sexual prefer­
became a central aspect of the male role, and - ence will not exist), and where power is not
perhaps most important - that homosexuality divided along class and race lines . If the men's
and heterosexuality came to be seen as dichoto­ movement wants to build a theory and political
mous conditions constituting the core of a program toward these goals, then it will have to
man's being . As sexual "orientation" became a develop a theory which does not connect sex
question of gender (and vice-versa), growing up and power in a knee-jerk way .
male became a fundamentally different exper­
ience for gay and heterosexual men. 19 The Conclusion

meaning of this difference needs to become part The need for a comprehensive analysis of
of a comprehensive analysis of masculinity and masculinity which can inform antisexist politics
,part of the antisexist political program. seems the most pressing concern of the anti­
Consideration of this difference seems sexist men's movement at this time . It gets a
crucial as the men's movement begins to deal great deal of its importance from growing
with issues like pornography and with "fringe" conflict between the antisexist men and the Free
practices such as SIM and adult-minor Men . There was a virtual news blackout on this
relationships . "Sexual objectification" is an conference, while the Free Men in Houston · 1

old concept in movement writings ; it is cur- received quite a lot of national coverage in the ' I
�. rently being used as a catch-all term to New York Times and elsewhere. The only real
show that something like pornography is intrin­ coverage of the Tufts conference appeared in :1
sically related to violence and exploita­ the Boston Sunday Globe.2 0 This hatchet job , I
tion. "Sexual objectification" seems to cover
almost any kind of attraction. ( If you look at
described the conference, in no uncertain
terms, as a bunch of fairies : from the erroneous
"I
someone you do not know and find yourself claim that eighty percent of the participants
"turned on," you are objectifying that person .) were gay, to the repeated (and usually mis­
I cannot categorize my own sexual experiences taken) references to "homosexual themes," to

69
the inaccurate statement that many hetero­ Him/Her/Self (New York, 1974). For critiques of this
sexual men were alienated and left the confer­ work see my reviews of Brannon and David in Gay Com­
ence early, to the rather vulgar innuendo munity News, April 2 1 , 1979, p. 15; my review of Dubbert

review of Pleck and Pleck in Gay Community News Book .


in Body Politic, 64 (June-July 1980), pp. 33-34; and my
behind the claim that the participants were
"confused, frustrated and lonely ." '
Supplement, April 1980, p.4.
As one participant told me, the sensibility An up-to-date bibliography is available from the Men's
generated at this conference is threatening. Studies Collection, Charles Hayden Humanities Library,
Personal change, introspection, and play are MIT, Cambridge, Mass. 02139.

important parts of this nontraditional sensi­ 2. Jon Snodgrass, ed. "Introduction " , For Men Against
bility. But sensibility alone cannot be the basis Sexism (NY, 1977), p. 7.
3. Quoted in Barbara Katz, "Saying Goodbye to Super­
for an antisexist men's movement identity . For
man, " in David and Brannon, eds., Forty-Nine Percent
the network to grow as a movement for social Majority, p. 294.
change, it needs to deal with the political issues 4. Barbara Easton, "Feminism and the Contemporary
that have crystallized in the conflicts with the Family, " Socialist Review, 39 (May-June 1978), 33.
5.My argument here is based on Tolson, Limits of Mascul­
Free Men . And it needs to do that in a compre­
inity, ch. 3; Michael Winter and Ellen Robert, "Male
hensive way, without backing off from the
Dominance, Late Capitalism and the Growth of Instru­
uncomfortable questions raised by differences mental Reason, " Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 25 1980),
of class, race, and sexual orientation . This is 249-80; Barbara Ehrenreich, "The Women's Movements:
crucial if the movement expects to exist in any­ Feminist and Anti-Feminist, " Radical America, 15 (Spring
198 1 ) 93-101; Peter Biskind and Barbara Ehrenreich,
thing other than a small enclave of American
"Machismo and Hollywood's Working Class, " Socialist
society.
Review, 50-51 (March-June 1980), 109-130; and Easton,
Footnotes "Feminism and the Contemporary Family . "
6. Easton, "Feminism and the Contemporary Family, " pp.
An earlier version of this article appeared in Gay Commu­ 30-31 .
nity News, July 1 1 , 198 1 , pp. 8-9, 1 1. My thanks go to 7. "An Opportunity to Explore Both Sides of the Gender­
Cindy Patton of GCN and the Radical America board, Liberation Coin, " a letter from Robert Sides to
especially Phyllis Ewen, for comments on that version. participants of the seventh annual conference on Men and
Masculinity, in possession of author (emphases in quote are
I . The books on the male sex role include: Warren Farrell, in original). The national advisor of Free Men is Herb
The Liberated Man (New York, 1974); Marc Feigen Goldberg, author of The Hazards of Being Male and The
Fasteau, The Male Machine (New York, 1974); Jack New Male: From Macho to Sensitive But Still All Male.
Nichols, Men 's Liberation (Baltimore, 1975); John Petras, 8. William K.Stevens, "A Congress of Men Asks Equality
ed., Sex: Male/Gender: Masculine (Port Washington, for Both Sexes, " New York Times, June 15, 198 1 , p. B9.
N.J., 1975); Deborah David and Robert Brannon, eds., 9. John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London, 1972; Baltimore,
The Forty-Nine Percent Majority ( Reading, Mass., 1975); 1973), pp.45-46.
Joseph Pleck and Jack Sawyer, eds. , Men and Masculinity 10. Francis Hearn, "Toward a Critical Theory of Play, "

1 1. Allan Berube, "Marching to a Different Drummer: •


(Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1974); Joseph Pleck and Robert Telos, 30 (Winter 1976-77), 145-60.
Brannon, eds., "Male Roles and the Male Experience, "
special issue of Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 34, No. 1 Coming Out in World War II: A Slide/Talk with a Focus
( 1978). The two best books are Elizabeth Pleck and Joseph on Gay Men; " for information on the talk, write Berube
Pleck, eds., The American Man (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., care of the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project,
1980); and Andrew Tolson, The Limits of Masculinity, P.O.Box 42332, San Francisco, CA, 941 0 1 . See also John
(New York, 1977). Two other books which take a historical D'Emilio, "Gay Politics, Gay Community: San Francisco's
·
perspective, but do so largely for middle-class men and Experience, " Socialist Review, 55 (January-February
mainly in terms of ideology, are: Joe Dubbert, A Man 's 1981), 77-104.
Place (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1979); and Peter Filene, 12.For a critique of the progressivist view, see Winter and

70
Robert, "Male Dominance, Late Capitalism and the Radical America, I S ( July-August 198 1 ), 1 7-34. See also
Critique of Instrumental Reason." the figures on women's waged underemployment in Ehren­
1 3 . See Pleck and Pleck, The American Man; and Dubbert, reich, "The Women's Movements" and Winter and
A Man 's Place, both of which are fairly uncritical of Robert, "Male Dominance, Late Capitalism, and the
(rtIIH rent changes. Growth of Instrumental Reason."
"lIIf4. Gayle Rubin, "The Traffic in Women: Notes on the 18. Eugene Genovese, Roll Jordan Roll: The World the
'Political Economy' of Sex," in Rayna Reiter, ed., Toward Slaves Made (New York, 1974); "Why Did They Die? A
an Anthropology of Women (New York, 1975), pp. Document of Black Feminism, " Radical America, 1 3
1 57-210; Ellen Ross and Rayna Rapp, "Se" and Society: A (November-December 1 979), 41-47; and Barbara Smith,
Research Note from Social History and Anthropology," "Notes for Yet Another Paper on Black Feminism, or Will
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 23 ( 198 1 ) , The Real' Enemy Please Stand Up?, Conditions, 5,
51-72. 123-127.
1 5 . Rubin, "Traffic in Women;" Nancy Chodorow, The 19. Jeffrey Weeks, "Movements of Affirmation: Sexual
Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Soci­ Meanings and Homosexual Identities, " Radical History
ology of Gender (Berkeley, 1978), especially part 3 ; Review, 20 (Spring-Summer 1979), 164-179; and Weeks,
Chodorow, "Feminism and Difference, " Socialist Review, "Capitalism and the Organization of Sex," in Gay Left
46 (July-August 1 979), 5 1 -69. Collective, eds., Homosexuality: Power and Politics
16. My argument here is based upon Tolson, Limits of (London, 1 980) pp. 1 1-20; David Fernbach, The Spiral
Masculinity, pp. 28-3 1 , 40-8 1 , and Rayna Rapp, 'Family Path (London and Boston, 198 1 ) , ch. 2.
and Class in Contemporary America: Notes Toward an 20. Robert Charm, "From Macho to Mellow, " Boston
Understanding of Ideology," Science and Society, 42 (Fall Sunday Globe (July 5, 1981), pp. A9, 14.
1978), 278-300.
17. Tolson, pp. 65-72; Alice Kessler-Harris, "Where are
the Organized Women Workers?," Feminist Studies, 3

JOE INTERRANTE is an RA editor and a


(Fall 1975), 92-1 10, and "The AFL View of Women
Workers [ 1 8971 ," in Rosalyn Baxandall, Linda Gordon
and Susan Reverby, eds . , America's Working Women member of the Boston-area Lesbian and Gay
(New York, 1976), pp. 167- 169; Alliance Against Sexual History Project.
Coercion, "Organizing Against Sexual Harassment,"

Now that we have


a movie star in the
S l lJ J

� (j � .f , I
White House
are you ready for
a radical film magaZine?
,
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, � -S tS -$ ! () � lJ.;
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71
Cuba's changing policies on these issues in terms of
the immediate domestic needs and alternatives facing
Cuban policymakers at various times. He does not
base his explanation on the leaders' ideologies, on
factional struggles within the Cuban Communi _
Party, or on pressures from the Soviet Union.
Because of this approach, I found the book a
welcome relief from most writing about Cuba in the
1970s and '80s - whether by liberal academics or by
left-wing critics - which is dominated by the urge to
identify the good guys (if any) and bad guys. This
book summarizes and evaluates the twists and turns
of Cuba's attempt to put together a socialist system
which can meet its own economic needs. It is really
about Cuba and not about something else.
The book does have certain limits, some self­
imposed and some unavoidable. It is an interpretive
essay, not a picture of the Cuban economy, and as a
result there are not many people in it. We don't learn
how the revolution in agriculture has affected what
an average Cuban gets to eat, or what concrete
Arthur MacEwan, Revolution and Economic Devel­ changes a sugar mill worker has seen in the pace of
opment in Cuba. St. Martin's Press, New York , work and division of labor. The style is on the
198 1 . $22.50, hardback. academic side, and therefore slow, though it does
successfully avoid economics jargon and confine
When a group of us from Boston were getting most statistics to tables that don't interrupt the text.
ready to go cut sugar cane in the projected ten­ Through no fault of the author's, the publisher has
million-ton sugar harvest of 1970, we got a briefing so far limited the audience by marketing the book
on the Cuban economy from Arthur MacEwan. He only in a ridiculously priced hardback edition. And,
was the only person we met for the next few months given the delays in getting information from Cuba
who supported the Cuban revolution but at the same and in commercial publishing, the book is not able to
time suggested that the ten-million-ton goal might deal very much with the events of the past five years.
not be achieved. On the whole, I recommend the book to anyone
Revolution and Economic Development in Cuba who wants to come to grips with the problems and
brings the same mixture of support and detachment choices facing successful socialist revolutions in the
to bear on the sweep of Cuban economic develop­ Third World, as well as anyone who wants to under­
ment from 1 959 until the late 1970s, with a special stand the Cuban economy. Certainly anyone plan­
emphasis on the role of agriculture. The book ning to visit Cuba should check it out, to avoid the
focuses especially on the role played in Cuban devel­ common pitfall of assuming that the way things are .
opment by decisions about economic equality, moral the way they have been since the Revolution took
vs. material incentives, and hierarchical vs. demo­ power. The dynamic of the past is easy to miss - and
cratic organization. therefore the likelihood of significant changes in the
These are key issues for any country trying to build future as well. This history of the evolution of the
socialism, and therefore in socialist theory and revolution in the economic sphere is an effective anti­
debates today. Interestingly, MacEwan explains dote, and good preparation for a trip.

Dick Cluster

72

..
----
.."
',.;.

<'tS
<'tJ)
fff,\\ JrJt� IS J) 0
srf,C\r\L O '
l' Jt

BACK ISSUES OF RADICAL AMERICA W l'. Jr. !

Vol. 14 #4 ( July-Aug. '80): Workers' control and the


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73
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Vol. 9 #3 (May-June '75): American Workers and African •

Liberation; Slavery and the Origins of Racism.


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the South; Tenant Organizing; Workers' Commissions in

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