Like many who advocate for greater economic fairness, I was excited by the elections this past November. The Democrats, at least on paper, are champions for issues such as expanding access to health care, child poverty programs, increasing the minimum wage, protecting workers rights and providing affordable housing. But before we all exhale a sigh of relief because we have a new ruling party in control of our state and federal legislatures, let us remember the lessons of the New Deal.
The New Deal is perhaps the finest example of good government policy to balance the natural inertia of capitalism and the rights of regular Americans to have their basics needs met. Through the New Deal, President Franklin Roosevelt established crucial elements of the American social and economic safety net (Social Security, unemployment insurance and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are all New Deal programs), and the federal government made a massive investment in jobs creation programs that helped spur our nation’s recovery from the Great Depression. The New Deal also created the Wagner Act, also known as the National Labor Relations Act, which protects the rights of most workers in the private sector to organize labor unions to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support of their demands.
The New Deal was a watershed moment for good government. But let us not get confused that President Roosevelt and Congress enacted the New Deal because it was the right thing to do. There was a tremendous groundswell for change among labor unions, the political machines of the big cities, farmers and Southern whites, as well as marginalized groups such as Catholics, Jews, and African Americans. The collective advocacy and effort from these grassroots movements (combined with the undeniable economic disaster of the Depression) put Roosevelt in a position where he had to take bold action and enact large-scale economic reform.
Seven decades after the New Deal, as the numbers of homeless reach Great Depression levels, we need to band together and create a new groundswell to push for the changes our society so desperately needs. Whether we want to stop the unjust war in Iraq, institute universal health care, reform our tax system so the rich and the corporations pay their share, or actually end homelessness, our elected leaders will only take bold action if we push them.
We have a great opportunity to make change in the last four years on the first decade of this new millennium. The table is set for us: Like the pre-New Deal America, our social fabric has been stretched beyond the breaking point for all sorts of people: families, veterans, people with disabilities, service industry workers, seniors and most everyone else without significant economic clout. When the vast majority of people are hurting, the time is right to build a movement.
During the past two-plus decades of union busting, destruction of the social and economic safety net, corporate greed, failed trickle down economics and massive homelessness, we of a liberal mindset have done our best to play defense and hang on. But now that the tables are turning, we must reach deep inside ourselves and push as we never have before. We must forge new alliances and strengthen our existing coalitions. We have the power and opportunity to restore some of the equity and integrity upon which America has hung its hat—but only if we join together and push.
One immediate area we can push together on in urging the Oregon State Legislature to make a serious funding commitment to meet our state’s housing needs. The Housing Alliance, a broad based, urban-suburban-rural coalition, has a proposal that would commit
$100 million to affordable housing. These funds, if approved by the state Legislature, would provide housing affordable to families working low wages, for seniors and people with disabilities on fixed incomes, and would commit the resources necessary to breathe life into the local and state plans to end homelessness.
Please take action and help the push to win these needed funds for housing. Call your state senator and representative today and ask them to support the $100 Million for Affordable Housing and the 2007 Housing Opportunity agenda.
Only by working together can we make the change we so desperately need. Let’s come together and push for justice.
