Beaver County Reds – 4/1/12

This page was last updated on April 3, 2012.

I found what follows on the Facebook wall of Carl Davidson, webmaster and perhaps unofficial leader of Beaver County Reds.

Mr. Davidson wrote, “Now the most interesting and urgent question to me is what kind of organization is needed to make something like this happen? Engaged trade unions, community groups, left student organizations, mass parties of the socialist left for starters? Do we have these things? Only a few unions, some community groups and OWS cores. So what is our task? Build base organizations of the socialist left. In a big way. Now.” (March 30, 2012 @ 8:42am)

Standing on its own there’s nothing improper about this comment. The problem, in my view, is the comment is linked to UK Guardian piece “Spain’s general strike shows first signs of rebellion against austerity,” and the picture at the beginning of the article shows protesters feeding a fire. Intentionally or not, Mr. Davidson’s comments make it sound like he wants something similar in the U.S. This would be consistent with other writings by Mr. Davidson.

Getting back to Spain for a second, you may recall Spain is the home of a “green economy” and MONDRAGON Corporation, both of which Mr. Davidson wants for the U.S. Though I can’t vouch for its content, you may want to read a Universidad Rey Juan Carlos study about Spain’s experience with a “green manufacturing industrial policy.” For what it’s worth, I have no problem with employee-owned businesses. Businesses should be able to operate/organize themselves however they want as long as they get no special government treatment. I found it interesting a quick Google search found no mention of MONDRAGON Corporation and “green manufacturing,” though it’s possible I missed something. Also, a search for “green” on the MONDRAGON Corporation website resulted in “Sorry, no results were found for green.”

Commenting about New York Times opinion piece “Pragmatism on the Prairie,” Mr. Davidson wrote, “Not quite socialism, but some excellent structural reforms pointing the way--and the states GOP voters rather like it.” (March 31, 2012 @ 3:51pm)

Between the NYT opinion piece and Mr. Davidson’s comment, you would think this is a “man bites dog” story. The article says, “A Socialist Republican? That’s weird.” Unfortunately it is not so “weird.” Something-less-than-conservative Republicans date back at least to the early 1900s and President Theodore Roosevelt. Though elected as a Republican, Mr. Roosevelt was a Progressive, founded the Progressive Party of 1912, and ran for President as that party’s nominee. Most of us know this party by its nickname, the “Bull Moose” Party. Though a nominal member of the Republican Party, President Herbert Hoover almost ran for office as a Democrat and was a Progressive, as were Democrat Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt. More recently we have Rockefeller Republicans and RINOs (Republicans in name only). Examples of Rockefeller Republicans include Presidents Richard Nixon (the EPA, OSHA, price and wage controls, et cetera) and George W. Bush (McCain/Feingold, No Child Left Behind, Medicare prescription drug coverage, et cetera). What is different about North Dakota is the location. Most of today’s less-than-conservative Republicans call the Middle Atlantic and New England states home, and the further east and north you go, the more to the left these folks lean.

In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity. <g>