Nancy N. Kari Richard Flacks' thoughtful piece argues well that progressives must move beyond a defensive posture. We need a movement for democracy in order to surmount the corporate assault on environmental, consumer, and social protections, as well as to regenerate a sense of hope. Our disagreements with Flacks concern the framework and constituencies for such democratization. Yet work has been the taproot of American democracy.
Work is essential to connecting movement-building with people's everyday lives.
The old left played a central role in popular activity because it organized around labor-based politics. The left did not adequately theorize the civic dimensions of work, trapped as it was by Marxist categories which eclipsed notions of public life entirely. During the New Deal, belief in the dignity of labor fueled vast movements to organize unions. Many of Roosevelt's New Deal programs promoted public work. Millions of poor and unemployed youth put their talents to work building dams and bridges, planting forests, and preventing soil erosion in the Civilian Conservation Corps.