Social Democrats, USA

For the 1898–1901 party, see Social Democratic Party (United States).

Social Democrats, USA
Chairperson	Rick D’Loss and Craig Miller (co-chairs)
Founded	December 1972 (December 1972)
Preceded by	Socialist Party of America
Headquarters	PO Box 16161, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Newspaper	New America
Youth wing	Young Social Democrats
Ideology	Social democracy
Political position	Centre-left
International affiliation	Socialist International (lapsed)
Colors	Red
Website
http://socialistcurrents.org/

Social Democrats USA was headed by National Chairman Bayard Rustin.

Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA) is an association of U.S. social democrats, that had been called the Socialist Party of America (SP) until the 1972 convention where it changed its name to SDUSA to clarify its objectives.

The Socialist Party had stopped running independent Presidential candidates, and consequently the name "Party" had confused the public. Replacing the name "socialist" with "social democrat", SDUSA clarified its vision to Americans who confused socialism with Soviet Communism, which SDUSA opposed. In response, former SPA Co-Chairman Michael Harrington resigned from SDUSA in 1973 and founded the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, which criticized SDUSA's anti-Communism and which welcomed the middle-class movements associated with the unsuccessful Presidential Campaign of George McGovern. SDUSA members opposed McGovern's politics; a few of them helped to start the Coalition for a Democratic Majority, and such members have been called "Scoop" Jackson Democrats or neoconservatives (or both).

SDUSA's members had been active in the African-American civil-rights movement, which had been led since the 1940s by A. Philip Randolph. SDUSA's leaders had organized the 1963 March on Washington, during which Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech. Under the leadership of Randolph and Bayard Rustin, SDUSA championed Rustin's emphasis on economic inequality as the most important issue facing African-Americans after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. SDUSA's efforts to reduce economic inequality led to a focus on labor unions and economic policy, and SDUSA members were active in the AFL–CIO confederation as well as in individual unions, especially the American Federation of Teachers.

SDUSA's electoral strategy ("realignment") intended to organize labor unions, civil rights organizations, and other constituencies into a coalition that would transform the Democratic Party into a social-democratic party. The realignment strategy emphasized working with unions and especially the AFL–CIO, putting an emphasis on economic issues that would unite working-class voters. SDUSA opposed the New Politics of Senator George McGovern, which had lost all states but Massachusetts to Richard Nixon at the 1972 election, when Americans voted for a Democratic House of Representatives in the House elections. While SDUSA had endorsed McGovern, it had adopted resolutions criticizing the New Politics for having made criticisms of labor unions and working-class Americans and for its advocacy of an immediate and unconditional U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.

SDUSA's organizational activities included sponsoring discussions and issuing position papers. SDUSA included civil-rights activists and leaders of labor unions, such as Bayard Rustin, Norman Hill, and Tom Kahn of the AFL–CIO, and Sandra Feldman and Rachelle Horowitz of the American Federation of Teachers. SDUSA's Tom Kahn organized the AFL-CIO's support of Poland's Solidarity, an independent labor-union that challenged Communism. Penn Kemble and Carl Gershman cooperated with Republican and Democratic administrations on democracy promotion, beginning with the Reagan administration. Other members included the philosopher Sidney Hook. SDUSA ceased operations in 2005, following the death of Penn Kemble. In 2008–2009 two small organizations emerged, each proclaiming itself to be the successor to SDUSA.

SDUSA's politics were criticized by former Socialist-Party Chairman Michael Harrington, who in 1972 announced that he favored an immediate pull-out of US forces from Vietnam (without requiring any guarantees); after losing all votes at the 1972 convention that changed the Socialist Party to SDUSA, Harrington resigned in 1973 and formed his Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), which welcomed the New Politics and middle-class leadership. The 1972 changing of the name of the Socialist Party of America to SDUSA and the 1973 formation of DSOC represented a split in the U.S. socialist movement.

Some members of SDUSA have been called "right-wing social-democrats", a taunt according to Ben Wattenberg. SUDSA members supported the free labor-union of Poland, Solidarity (Solidarność), with Tom Kahn working for AFL-CIO and later Carl Gershman working for the National Endowment for Democracy. Their support of Solidarity was criticized by the Carter Administration, the Soviet Union, and other supporters of Détente. SDUSA members (like the AFL-CIO and at Solidarity's request) supported using economic aid to Poland's Communist government as a bargaining chip to help Solidarity, while neoconservatives and "hard-line" conservatives opposed such aid in 1981.

SDUSA leaders Penn Kemble and Bayard Rustin and former SDUSA-member Joshua Muravchik were called "second-generation neoconservatives" by Justin Vaisse. These leaders, along with Kahn, Horowitz and Gersham, are also regarded as Shachtmanites by most other scholars. SDUSA leader Penn Kemble rejected the neoconservative label and called himself a social democrat (even while dying in 2005). Muravchik (the 1973 youth-leader), disputed the Shachtmanite label for his generation and has called himself a neoconservative, to the disappointment of his SDUSA associates who continue to identify with social democracy and to disagree with neoconservatism.

Formerly the Socialist Party of America

File:Zimmerman-charles-s-1939.jpg

ILGWU officer Charles S. Zimmerman (pictured) and Bayard Rustin were the Co-Chairmen of the Socialist Party when it changed its name to Social Democrats, USA in 1972.

Main article: Socialist Party of America

See also: Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and Socialist Party of the USA

By the early 1970s,the Socialist Party was publicly associated with A. Philip Randolph, the civil-rights and labor-union leader, and with Michael Harrington, the author of The Other America. Even before the 1972 convention, Michael Harrington had resigned as an Honorary Chairperson of the Socialist Party, "because he was upset about the group’s failure to enthusiastically support George McGovern and because of its views on the Vietnam War."

In its 1972 Convention, the Socialist Party had two Co-Chairmen, Bayard Rustin and Charles S. Zimmerman (of the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union, ILGWU) and a First National Vice Chairman, James S. Glaser, who were re-elected by acclamation. In his opening speech to the Convention, Co-Chairman Bayard Rustin called for SDUSA to organize against the "reactionary policies of the Nixon Administration"; Rustin also criticized the "irresponsibility and élitism of the 'New Politics' liberals".

The Party changed its name to "Social Democrats, USA" by a vote of 73 to 34. Changing the name of the Socialist Party to "Social Democrats USA" was intended to be "realistic": the intention was to respond to the end of the running of actual Socialist Party candidates for office, to respond to the confusions of Americans. The New York Times observed that the Socialist Party had last sponsored a candidate for President in 1956, who received only 2,121 votes, which were cast in only 6 states. Because the Socialist Party no longer sponsored party candidates in elections, continued use of the name "Party" was "misleading" and hindered the recruiting of activists who participated in the Democratic Party, according to the majority report. The name "Socialist" was replaced by "Social Democrats" because many American associated the word "socialism" with Soviet communism. Moreover, the organization sought to distinguish itself from two small Marxist parties, the Socialist Workers Party and the Socialist Labor Party.

During the 1972 convention, the majority ("Unity Caucus") won every vote, by a ratio of two to one. The Convention elected a national committee of 33 members, with 22 seats for the majority caucus, 8 seats for the "Coalition Caucus" of Michael Harrington, 2 for the left-wing "Debs Caucus", and one for the "independent" Samuel H. Friedman. Friedman and the minority caucuses had opposed the name change.

The convention voted on and adopted proposals for its program by a two-one vote. On foreign policy, the program called for "firmness toward Communist aggression". However, on the Vietnam War, the program opposed "any efforts to bomb Hanoi into submission"; instead, it endorsed negotiating a peace agreement, which should protect Communist political cadres in South Vietnam from further military or police reprisals. Harrington's proposal for a ceasefire and immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces was defeated. Harrington complained that, after its convention, the Socialist Party had endorsed George McGovern only with a statement loaded with "constructive criticism" and that it had not mobilized enough support for McGovern. The majority caucus's Arch Puddington replied that the California branch was especially active in supporting McGovern, while the New York branch were focusing on a congressional race.

When the Socialist Party changed its name to Social Democrats, USA, Bayard Rustin became its public spokesman. According to Rustin, SDUSA aimed to transform the Democratic Party into a social-democratic party. Some months after the convention, Michael Harrington resigned his membership in SDUSA; he and some of his supporters from the Coalition Caucus soon formed the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC). Many members of the Debs caucus resigned from SDUSA, and some of them formed the Socialist Party USA. The changing of the name of the Socialist Party of America to SDUSA and the 1973 formation of DSOC and the SPUSA represented a split in the U.S. socialist movement.

Early years

SDUSA opposed the politics of George McGovern, whose 1972 Presidential Campaign lost 49 of 50 states to Richard Nixon.

In the 1972 Congressional Election, the majority of Americans voted for Democratic Congressmen. This map shows the House seats by party holding plurality in state
80.1–100% Republican	80.1–100% Democratic
60.1–80% Republican	60.1–80% Democratic
up to 60% Republican	up to 60% Democratic

In domestic politics, the SDUSA leadership emphasized the role of the American labor movement in advancing civil rights and economic justice. The domestic program followed the recommendations of Rustin's article "From Protest to Politics". In it, Rustin analyzed the changing economy and its implications for African Americans. Rustin wrote that the rise of automation would reduce the demand for low-skill high-paying jobs, which would jeopardize the position of the urban Black working-class, particularly in the northern US. The needs of the Black community demanded a shift in political strategy, where Blacks would need to strengthen their political alliance with mostly white unions and other organizations (churches, synagogues, etc.) to pursue a common economic agenda. It was time to move from protest to politics, wrote Rustin. A particular danger facing the Black community was the chimera of identity politics, particularly the rise of "Black power" which Rustin dismissed as a fantasy of middle-class African-Americans that repeated the political and moral errors of previous black nationalists, while alienating the white allies needed by the Black community.

SDUSA documents had similar criticisms of the agendas advanced by middle-class activists increasing their role in the Democratic Party. SDUSA members stated concerns about an exaggerated role of "middle-class" peace activists in the Democratic Party, particularly associated with the "New Politics" of Senator George McGovern, whose Presidential candidacy was viewed as an ongoing disaster for the Democratic Party and for the USA. In electoral politics, SDUSA aimed to transform the Democratic Party into a social democratic party.

In foreign policy, most of the founding SDUSA leadership called for an immediate cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam. They demanded a negotiated peace treaty to end the Vietnam War. However, the majority opposed a unilateral withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam, suggesting that such a withdrawal would lead to an annihilation of the free labor-unions and of the political opposition. After the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam and the victory of the Vietnamese Communists, SDUSA supported humanitarian assistance to refugees and condemned Senator McGovern for his failure to support such assistance.

Organizational activities

SDUSA was governed by biannual conventions which invited the participation of interested observers. These gatherings featured discussions and debates over proposed resolutions, some of which were adopted as organizational statements. The group frequently made use of outside speakers at these events: Non-SDUSA intellectuals ranged from neoconservatives like Jeane Kirkpatrick on the right to democratic socialists like Paul Berman on the left; similarly, a range of academic, political, and labor-union leaders were invited. These meetings also functioned as reunions for political activists and intellectuals, some of whom worked together for decades. SDUSA also published a newsletter and occasional position papers.

SDUSA issued statements supporting labor unions and workers' interests at home and overseas. It supported the existence of Israel and the Israeli labor movement. It opposed many of the G. W. Bush administration's domestic policies. From 1979–1989, SDUSA members were organized to support of Solidarnosc (Solidarity), the independent labor-union of Poland.

The organization also attempted to exert influence through endorsements of Presidential candidates. The group's 1976 National Convention, held in New York City, formally endorsed the Democratic ticket of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale and pledged the group to "work enthusiastically" for the election of the pair in November. The organization took a less assertive approach during the divisive 1980 campaign, marked as it was by a heated primary challenge to President Carter by Senator Edward Kennedy; SDUSA chose not to hold its biannual convention until after the termination of the fall campaign. The election of conservative Ronald Reagan was chalked up to the failure of the Democrats to "appeal to their traditional working class constituency."

Early in 1980 long-time National Director Carl Gershman resigned his position, to be replaced by Rita Freedman. Freedman previously had served as organizer and chair of SDUSA's key New York local.

Dues in Social Democrats, USA were paid annually in advance, with members receiving a copy of the organization's official organ, the tabloid-sized newspaper New America. The dues rate was $25 per year in 1983.

Member activities

Small organizations associated with the Debs–Thomas Socialist Party have served as schools for the leadership of social-movement organizations, including the civil-rights movement and the sixties radicalism. These organizations are now chiefly remembered because of their members' leadership of large organizations that directly influenced USA and international politics. After 1960 the Party also functioned "as an educational organization" and "a caucus of policy advocates on the left wing of the Democratic Party". Similarly, SDUSA was known mainly because of the activities of its members, many of whom publicly identified themselves as members of SDUSA. Members of SDUSA have served as officers for governmental, private, and not-for-profit organizations. A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and Norman Hill were leaders of the African American civil rights movement. Tom Kahn, Sandra Feldman, and Rachelle Horowitz were officers of labor unions. Carl Gershman and Penn Kemble served in governmental and non-governmental organizations, particularly in foreign policy. Philosopher Sidney Hook was a public intellectual.

Writing after the death of Tom Kahn, Ben Wattenberg commented that SDUSA as an "umbrella organization" associated with other letterhead organizations; according to him, SDUSA members seemed to be

"ingeniously trying to bury the Soviet Union in a blizzard of letterheads. It seemed that each of Tom's colleagues—Penn Kemble, Carl Gershman, Josh Muravchik and many more—ran a little organization, each with the same interlocking directorate listed on the stationery. Funny thing: The Letterhead Lieutenants did indeed churn up a blizzard, and the Soviet Union is no more.

I never did quite get all the organizational acronyms straight—YPSL, LID, SP, SDA, ISL—but the key words were "democratic", "labor", "young" and, until events redefined it away from their understanding, "socialist". Ultimately, the umbrella group became "Social Democrats, U.S.A", and Tom Kahn was a principal "theoretician".

They talked and wrote endlessly, mostly about communism and democracy, despising the former, adoring the latter. It is easy today to say "anti-communist" and "pro-democracy" in the same breath. But that is because American foreign policy eventually became just such a mixture, thanks in part to those "Yipsels" (Young People's Socialist League), with Tom Kahn as provocateur-at-large.

On the conservative side, foreign policy used to be anti-communist, but not very pro-democracy. And foreign policy liberal-style might be piously pro-democracy, but nervous about being anti-communist. Tom theorized that to be either, you had to be both.

It was tough for labor-liberal intellectuals to be "anti-communist" in the 1970s. It meant being taunted as "Cold Warriors" who saw "Commies under every bed" and being labeled as—the unkindest cut—"right-wingers".

A. Philip Randolph

A. Philip Randolph was a visible member of the Socialist Party of Norman Thomas and then of Social Democrats, USA.

Main article: A. Philip Randolph

The long-time leader and intellectual architect of the civil rights movement, A. Philip Randolph was also a visible member of the Socialist Party of Norman Thomas. He remained with the organization when it changed its name to SDUSA. Along with ILGWU President David Dubinsky, Randolph was honored at the 1976 SDUSA convention.

A. Philip Randolph came to national attention as the leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Randolph proposed a march on Washington to protest racial discrimination in the armed forces. Meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Oval Office, Randolph respectfully, politely, but firmly told President Roosevelt that Negroes would march in the capital unless desegregation would occur. The planned march was canceled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 (the Fair Employment Act), which banned discrimination in defense industries and federal agencies.

In 1942, an estimated 18,000 blacks gathered at Madison Square Garden to hear Randolph kick off a campaign against discrimination in the military, in war industries, in government agencies, and in labor unions.  Following the act, during the Philadelphia Transit Strike of 1944, the government backed African-American workers' striking to gain positions formerly limited to white employees.

In 1947, Randolph, along with colleague Grant Reynolds, renewed efforts to end discrimination in the armed services, forming the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service, later renamed the League for Non-Violent Civil Disobedience.  On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman abolished racial segregation in the armed forces through Executive Order 9981. Randolph was the nominal leader of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which was organized by Bayard Rustin and his younger associates. At this march, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. Soon aferwords, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.

Bayard Rustin

Rustin, 1965

Main article: Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin was National Chairman of SDUSA. He also was President of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.

Rustin had had a long association with A. Philip Randolph and with pacifist movements. In 1956 Rustin advised Martin Luther King Jr. who was organizing the Montgomery bus boycott. According to Rustin, "I think it's fair to say that Dr. King's view of non-violent tactics was almost non-existent when the boycott began. In other words, Dr. King was permitting himself and his children and his home to be protected by guns." Rustin convinced King to abandon the armed protection. The following year, Rustin and King began organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Rustin and Randolph organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. On September 6, 1963 Rustin and Randolph appeared on the cover of Life magazine as "the leaders" of the March.

From protest to politics

After passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, Rustin advocated closer ties between the civil rights movement and the Democratic Party and its base among the working class.

With the assistance of Tom Kahn, Rustin wrote the 1965 article "From protest to politics", which analyzed the changing economy and its implications for American Negroes. This article stated that the rise of automation would reduce the demand for low-skill high-paying jobs, which would jeopardize the position of the urban Negro working-class, particularly in the northern US. To pursue its economic agenda, the Negro community needed to shift political strategy, strengthening its political alliance with mostly white unions and other organizations (churches, synagogues, etc.). As its agenda shifted from civil rights to economic justice, the Negro community's tactics needed to shift from protest to politics, wrote Rustin.

A particular danger facing the Negro community was the chimera of identity politics, particularly the rise of "Black power", for which Rustin expressed contempt:

"Wearing my hair Afro style, calling myself an Afro-American, and eating all the chitterlings I can find are not going to affect Congress."

Rustin wrote that "Black power" repeated the moral errors of previous black nationalists, while alienating the white allies needed by the Negro community.

Influence on William Julius Wilson

See also: William Julius Wilson

Rustin's analysis was supported by the later research by William Julius Wilson. Wilson documented an increase in inequality within the Black community, following educated Blacks moving into white suburbs and following the decrease of demand for low-skill labor, as industry declined in the Northern USA. Such economic problems were not being addressed by a civil rights leadership focused on "affirmative action", a policy benefiting the truly advantaged within the Black community. Wilson's criticism of the neglect of working-class and poor African Americans by civil rights organizations led to his being mistaken for a conservative, despite his having identified himself as a Rustin-style social democrat. Wilson has served on the advisory board of Social Democrats, USA.

Labor movement: unions and social democracy

Rustin increasingly worked to strengthen the labor movement, which he saw as the champion of empowerment for the African American community and for economic justice for all Americans. He contributed to the labor movement's two sides, economic and political, through support of labor unions and social-democratic politics.

He was the founder and became the Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, which coordinated the AFL-CIO's work on civil rights and economic justice. He became a regular columnist for the AFL-CIO newspaper.

On the political side of the labor movement, Rustin increased his visibility as a leader of the American social democracy. He was a founding National Co-Chairman of Social Democrats, USA.

Human rights, especially ending discrimination against gays

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Rustin worked as a human rights and election monitor for Freedom House. He also testified on behalf of New York State's Gay Rights Bill. In 1986, he gave a speech "The new 'niggers' are gays," in which he asserted,

Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new "niggers" are gays.... It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change.... The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.

Rustin also helped to write a report on peaceful means to end Apartheid (racial segregation) in South Africa.

Norman Hill

Main article: Norman Hill

Norman Hill (born April 22, 1933 in Summit, New Jersey) is an influential African-American administrator, activist and labor leader.

Graduating in 1956, he was one of the first African-Americans to graduate from Haverford College. Joining the civil rights movement and working in Chicago, Hill was an organizer for the Youth March for Integrated Schools, and then Secretary of Chicago Area Negro American Labor Council, and Staff Chairman of the Chicago March Conventions. In the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Hill was first the East Coast Field Secretary and then National Program Director. He assisted Bayard Rustin with organizing the 1963 March on Washington. As National Program Director of CORE, Hill coordinated the route 40 desegregation of restaurants, the Waldorf campaign, and illustrated the civil rights demonstration that took place at the 1964 Republican National Convention.

From 1964 to 1967, Norman Hill served as the Legislative Representative and Civil Rights Liaison of the Industrial Union department of the AFL-CIO. He was involved in the issue of raising minimum wage and the labor delegation on the Selma to Montgomery marches against racial discrimination in politics and voting in the southern United States.

In 1967, Hill became active in the A. Philip Randolph Institute. He began as Associate Director, but later became Executive Director, and finally President. As Associate Director, Hill coordinated and organized the Memphis March in 1968, after Martin Luther King’s assassination. In his career at the A. Philip Randolph Institute, Hill created over two hundred local chapters of this organization across the United States.

Tom Kahn

Main article: Tom Kahn

Tom Kahn was a leader of SDUSA, who made notable contributions to the Civil Rights movement and to the labor movement.

Civil rights

Kahn helped Bayard Rustin organize the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington and the 1958 and 1959 Youth March for Integrated Schools. As a white student at historically black Howard University, Kahn and Norman Hill helped Rustin and A. Philip Randolph to plan the 1963 March on Washington, at which Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his I have a dream speech. Kahn's role in the civil rights movement was discussed in the eulogy by Rachelle Horowitz.

Support of Solidarity, the Polish union

The Polish labor-union's demand for legality were supported by Tom Kahn, who testified on behalf of the AFL-CIO to the US Congress. The picture displays the 21 demands of Solidarity.

See also: Solidarity (Polish trade union)

When he became an assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO from 1972–1986, Kahn developed an expertise in international affairs.

Kahn was deeply involved with supporting the Polish labor movement. The trade union Solidarity (Solidarność) began in 1980. The Soviet-backed communist regime headed by General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in December 1981. Lane Kirkland appointed Kahn to organize the AFL-CIO's support of Solidarity. Politically, the AFL-CIO supported the twenty-one demands of the Gdansk workers, by lobbying to stop further U.S. loans to Poland unless those demands were met. Materially, the AFL-CIO established the Polish Workers Aid Fund, which raised almost $300,000 by 1981. These funds purchased printing presses, and office supplies. The AFL-CIO donated typewriters, duplicating machines, a minibus, an offset press, and other supplies requested by Solidarity.

The AFL–CIO sought approval in advance from Solidarity's leadership, to avoid jeopardizing their position with unwanted or surprising American help. On September 12, Lech Walesa welcomed international donations with this statement: "Help can never be politically embarrassing. That of the AFL-CIO, for example. We are grateful to them. It was a very good thing that they helped us. Whenever we can, we will help them, too." Kahn explained the AFL–CIO position in a 1981 debate:

"Solidarity made its needs known, with courage, with clarity, and publicly. As you know, the AFL-CIO responded by establishing a fund for the purchase of equipment requested by Solidarity and we have raised about a quarter of a million dollars for that fund.

This effort has elicited from the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Bulgaria the most massive and vicious propaganda assault on the AFL–CIO ... in many, many years. The ominous tone of the most recent attacks leaves no doubt that if the Soviet Union invades, it shall cite the aid of the AFL-CIO as evidence of outside anti-Socialist intervention aimed at overthrowing the Polish state.

"All this is by way of introducing the AFL–CIO’s position on economic aid to Poland. In formulating this position, our first concern was to consult our friends in Solidarity .... We did consult with them ... and their views are reflected in the statement unanimously adopted by the AFL–CIO Executive Council.:

' The AFL-CIO will support additional aid to Poland only if it is conditioned on the adherence of the Polish government to the 21 points of the Gdansk Agreement. Only then could we be assured that the Polish workers will be in a position to defend their gains and to struggle for a fair share of the benefits of Western aid.'"

In testimony to the Joint Congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Kahn suggested policies to support the Polish people, in particular by supporting Solidarity's demand that the Communist regime finally establish legality, by respecting the twenty-one rights guaranteed by the Polish constitution.

The AFL-CIO provided the most aid to Solidarity, but substantial additional aid was provided by Western-European labor unions, including the U. K.'s Trades Union Congress and especially the Swedish Trade Union Confederation.

Criticism of AFL–CIO

SDUSA leader Tom Kahn was appointed by Lane Kirkland (pictured), the President of the AFL-CIO after George Meany, to organize the AFL-CIO's aid to Solidarity, the Polish labor union that challenged Communism in 1979.

The AFL-CIO's support enraged the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Its support worried the Carter Administration, whose Secretary of State Edmund Muskie told Kirkland that the AFL-CIO's continued support of solidarity could trigger a Soviet invasion of Poland. After Kirkland refused to withdraw support to Solidarity, Muskie met with the USSR's Ambassador, Anatoly Dobyrnin, to clarify that the AFL-CIO's aid did not have the support of the US government.

Aid through the 1980s

Later, the National Endowment for Democracy provided $1.7 million for Solidarity, which was transferred via the AFL-CIO. In both 1988 and 1989, the U.S. Congress allocated $1 million yearly to Solidarity via the AFL-CIO. In total, the AFL-CIO channeled 4 million dollars to Solidarity.

Sandra Feldman

Main article: Sandra Feldman

Sandra Feldman (October 13, 1939 – September 18, 2005) was an American civil rights activist, educator and labor leader who served as president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) from 1997 to 2004. She helped to organize and was the keynote speaker at the 1999 SDUSA workshop on "American Labor in the New Economy: A Day of Dialogue,"January 22, 1999.

Socialist activism

She became active in socialist politics and the civil rights movement. When she was 17 years old, she met civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who became her mentor and close friend. During her early years in the civil rights movement, Feldman worked to integrate Howard Johnson's restaurants in Maryland. She soon became employment committee chairwoman of the Congress of Racial Equality in Harlem. She also participated in several Freedom Rides, and was arrested twice.

Teaching

Upon graduation from Brooklyn College in 1962, Feldman worked for six months as a substitute third-grade teacher in East Harlem. She continued to be active in the civil rights movement, working to desegregate Howard Johnson restaurants in Maryland. She participated in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which was organized by Rustin and his associates. From 1963 to 1966, Feldman matriculated in a master's degree program in literature at New York University. While in graduate school, Feldman worked as a fourth-grade teacher at Public School 34 on the New York City's Lower East Side. She immediately joined the American Federation of Teachers, which had only one other member at the school. When New York City teachers won collective bargaining rights in 1960, she organized the entire school staff within a year. During this time, Feldman became an associate of Albert Shanker, then an organizer for the United Federation of Teachers.

United Federation of Teachers (UFT)

See also: Albert Shanker and American Federation of Teachers

In 1966, on the recommendation of Rustin, Shanker—now executive director of the UFT—hired Feldman as a full-time field representative. Over the next nine years, Feldman became the union's executive director and oversaw its staff. She was elected its secretary (the second-most powerful position in the local) in 1983.

After just two years on the UFT staff, Feldman played a crucial role in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville strike. The city of New York had designated the Ocean Hill-Brownsville area of Brooklyn as one of three decentralized school districts in an effort to give the minority community more say in school affairs. The crisis began when the Ocean Hill-Brownsville governing board fired 13 teachers for allegedly sabotaging the decentralization experiment. Shanker demanded that specific charges be filed and the teachers given a chance to defend themselves in due process proceedings.

A protracted fight erupted between those in the community who supported the Ocean Hill-Brownsville board and those supported the UFT. Many supporters of the local school board resorted to racial invective. Shanker was branded a racist, and many African-Americans accused the UFT of being "Jewish-dominated". Feldman was often at the center of the strike. The UFT emerged from the crisis more powerful than ever, and Feldman's hard work, good political judgment and calm demeanor won her widespread praise within the union.

Shanker was elected president of the AFT in 1974, but retained his post as president of the UFT. In 1986, Shanker retired as UFT president, and Feldman was elected president.

UFT President after Shanker

Feldman was known for being a quiet but very effective leader of the UFT. She fought school system chancellors and mayors both, winning significantly higher wages and benefits as well as improved working conditions for her members. She lobbied so fiercely for Bernard Gifford as New York City schools chancellor that Robert F. Wagner, Jr., President of the New York City Board of Education, threatened to resign unless Feldman backed off and he was given a free hand.

She was instrumental in helping David Dinkins win election as mayor of New York in 1989 by using union members and resources to build a winning electoral coalition of black and white voters. But once mayor, Dinkins stalled on signing a new contract with the teachers' union. Feldman rarely criticized Dinkins publicly for his actions, but she kept the UFT out of Dinkins' 1993 re-election. Dinkins lost in a tight race to Rudy Giuliani.

American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

Feldman had been elected an AFT vice president in 1974, serving on the national union's executive council and the executive council's executive committee.

After Shanker died in February 1997, Feldman won election as the AFT's president in July 1998, becoming the union's first female president since 1930. Feldman re-emphasized the AFT's commitment to educational issues. She also renewed the union's focus on organizing: During her tenure, the AFT grew by more than 160,000 new members (about 17 percent). With Feldman as President, in 2002, AFT delegates approved a four-point plan: 1) building a "culture of organizing" throughout the union, 2) enhancing the union's political advocacy efforts, 3) engaging in a series of publicity, legislative, funding and political campaigns to strengthen the institutions in which AFT members work, and 4) recommitting the AFT to fostering democratic education and human rights at home and abroad. Feldman moved quickly to ensure that the plan was implemented.

In May 1997, Feldman was elected to the AFL-CIO executive council and appointed to the executive council's executive committee. During her tenure at the head of the AFT, Feldman also served as a vice president of Education International and was a board member of the International Rescue Committee and Freedom House.

Sandra Feldman died in 2005 at the age 65.

Sidney Hook

File:Sidney Hook.jpg

Philosopher Sidney Hook gave the keynote speech to the second convention of SDUSA.

Main article: Sidney Hook

Sidney Hook (December 20, 1902 – July 12, 1989) was an American pragmatic philosopher known for his contributions to public debates. A student of John Dewey, Hook continued to examine the philosophy of history, of education, politics, and of ethics. He was known for his criticisms of totalitarianism and (fascism. A pragmatic social democrat, Hook sometimes cooperated with conservatives, particularly in opposing communism. After WWII, he argued that members of conspiracies, like the Communist Party USA and other Leninist conspiracies, ethically could be barred from holding offices of public trust.

Hook gave the keynote speech to the July 17–18, 1976 convention of SDUSA.

For the Social Democrat, democracy is not merely a political concept but a moral one. It is democracy as a way of life. What is "democracy as a way of life." It is a society whose basic institutions are animated by an equality of concern for all human beings, regardless of class, race, sex, religion, and national origin, to develop themselves as persons to their fullest growth, to be free to live up to their desirable potentials as human beings. It is possible for human beings to be politically equal as voters but yet so unequal in educational, economic, and social opportunities, that ultimately even the nature of their political equality is affected.

When it comes to the principled defense of freedom, and to opposition to all forms of totalitarianism, let it be said that to its eternal credit, the organized labor movement in the United States, in contradiction to all other sectors of American life, especially in industry, the academy and the churches, has never faltered, or trimmed its sails. Its dedication to the ideals of a free society has been unsullied. Its leaders have never been Munich-men of the spirit.

I want to conclude with a few remarks about the domestic scene and the role of Social Democrats, U.S.A. in it. We are not a political party with our own candidates. We are not alone in our specific programs for more employment, more insurance, more welfare, less discrimination, less bureaucratic inefficiency. Our spiritual task should be to relate these programs and demands to the underlying philosophy of democracy, to express and defend those larger moral ideals that should inform, programs for which we wish to develop popular support.

We are few in number and limited in influence. So was the Fabian Society of Great Britain. But in time it reeducated a great political party and much of the nation. We must try to do the same.

Penn Kemble

Main article: Penn Kemble

Richard Penn Kemble (January 21, 1941 — October 15, 2005), commonly known as "Penn," was an American political activist and a founding member of SDUSA. He supported free labor-unions and democracy in the USA and internationally, and so was active in the civil rights movement, the labor movement, and the social-democratic opposition to communism. He founded organizations including Negotiations Now!, Frontlash, and Prodemca. Kemble was appointed to various government boards and institutions throughout the 1990s, eventually becoming the Acting Director of the U.S. Information Agency under President Bill Clinton. After moving to New York, Kemble stood out as a neatly dressed, muscular Protestant youth, in an urban political setting that was predominantly Catholic and Jewish. He worked at The New York Times but was fired for refusing to cross a picket line during a typesetters' strike. A leader in the East River chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, Kemble helped to organize a non-violent blockade of the Triborough Bridge during rush hour, to raise consciousness among suburbanites of the lives of Harlem residents. Kemble was a founder of Negotiation Now!, a group which called for an end to the bombing of North Vietnam and a negotiated settlement of the Vietnam War. He was opposed to a unilateral withdrawal of U.S forces from Vietnam.

In 1972, Kemble was a founder the Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM), an association of centrist Democrats that opposed the "new politics" liberalism exemplified by Senator George McGovern, who suffered the worst defeat of a Presidential candidate in modern times, despite the widespread dislike of Nixon. Kemble was Executive Director of CDM from 1972–76, at which time he left to become a special assistant and speechwriter for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He remained with Moynihan until 1979. Concerned about the direct and indirect role of the Communist Party USA and of sympathizers of Marxist-Leninist politics in the US Peace Movement and in the National Council of Churches, Kemble helped found the Institute on Religion and Democracy. From 1981 until 1988 Kemble was the President of the Committee for Democracy in Central America (PRODEMCA), which opposed the Sandinistas and related groups in Central America.

He supported the Bill Clinton's campaign for the Presidency. During the Presidency of Bill Clinton, Kemble served first in 1993 as the Deputy Director and then in 1999 as Acting Director of the U.S. Information Agency. He was also made a special representative of Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright to the Community of Democracies Initiative.

In 2001, Kemble was appointed to the Board of International Broadcasting by President George W. Bush. He also became the Washington, D.C. representative of Freedom House; in his last years, he was especially involved in supporting peace efforts in the Middle East. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell appointed Kemble to be the Chairman of the International Eminent Persons Group on Slavery, Abduction and Forced Servitude in Sudan. Despite being diagnosed with brain cancer, Kemble spent his last months organizing a conference on the contributions of Sidney Hook, the late pragmatic philosopher and SDUSA spokesperson; Carl Gershman took over the leadership of the conference after Kemble's cancer made it impossible for him to continue.

Carl Gershman

Main article: Carl Gershman

Carl Gershman was the Executive Director of the SDUSA from 1975 to 1980. After having served as the U.S. Representative to the U.N.'s Committee on human rights during the first Reagan Administration, Carl Gershman has served as the President of the National Endowment for Democracy. After the Polish people overthrew communism, their elected government awarded the Order of the Knight's Cross to Carl Gershman and (posthumously) the Order of the White Eagle to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland.

Hiatus and re-foundation

Following the death of the organization's Notesonline editor Penn Kemble of cancer on 15 October 2005, Social Democrats USA lapsed into a state of organizational hiatus, with no further issues of the online newsletter produced or updates to the group's website made.

Following several years of inactivity, an attempt was subsequently made to revive Social Democrats, USA. In 2008, a group centered around Pennsylvania members of SDUSA emerged, determined to re-launch the organization. A re-founding convention of the Social Democrats, USA was held May 3, 2009, at which a National Executive Committee was elected.

Owing to factional disagreements, a group based in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and the newly elected NEC parted company, with the former styling itself as the "Social Democrats USA — Socialist Party, USA" and the latter as "Social Democrats, USA."

Two additional conventions took place since the 2009 reformation, an internet teleconference on September 1, 2010 featuring presentations by guest speakers Herb Engstrom of the California Democratic Party Executive Committee, and Roger Clayman, Executive Director of the Long Island Labor Federation; and a convention held August 26–27, 2012 in Buffalo, New York with a keynote address delivered by Richard Lipsitz, Executive Director of Western New York Labor Federation.

Controversies

Anti-Communism

Michael Harrington charged that its "obsessive anti-Communism" rendered SDUSA politically conservative. In contrast, Harrington's DSOC and DSA criticized Communism but opposed many defense-and-diplomatic policies against the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc. Harrington voiced admiration for German Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik, which sought to reduce Western distrust of and hostility towards the Eastern Bloc and so entice the USSR reciprocally to reduce its aggressive military posture. A member of DSA's National Committee, Kurt Stand, was convicted of spying on behalf of the East German secret-police (Stasi) for 20 years.

Max Shachtman and alleged Trotskyism

SDUSA leaders have served in the administrations of US presidents since the 1980; the service of some members in Republican administrations has been associated with controversy. SDUSA members like Gershman were called "State Department socialists" by Massing (1987), who wrote that the foreign policy of the Reagan administration was being run by Trotskyists, a claim that was called a "myth" by Lipset (1988, p. 34). This "Trotskyist" charge has been repeated and even widened by journalist Michael Lind in 2003 to assert a takeover of the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration by former Trotskyists; Lind's "amalgamation of the defense intellectuals with the traditions and theories of 'the largely Jewish-American Trotskyist movement' [in Lind's words]" was criticized in 2003 by University of Michigan professor Alan M. Wald, who had discussed Trotskyism in his history of "the New York intellectuals". SDUSA and allegations that "Trotskyists" subverted Bush's foreign policy have been mentioned by "self-styled" paleoconservatives (conservative opponents of neoconservatism).

Harrington and Tom Kahn had been associated with Max Shachtman, a Marxist theorist, who had broken with Trotsky, because of his criticism of the Soviet Union as being a totalitarian class-society after having supported Trotsky in the 1930s. Although Max Schachtman died in 1972 before the Socialist Party was renamed as SDUSA, Shachtman's ideas continued to influence the Albert Shanker and The American Federation of Teachers, which was often associated with SDUSA members. Decades later, conflicts in the AFL-CIO were roughly split along the lines of the conflict between the "Shachtmanite Social Democrats and the Harringtonite Democratic Socialists of America, with the Social Democrats supporting Kirkland and Donahue and the Democratic Socialists supporting Sweeney", in 1995.

Alleged conservatism or neoconservatism

Some SDUSA members have been called right-wing social-democrats, a taunt according to Wattenberg.

SUDSA members supported the independent labor-union of Poland, Solidarity. The organizer of the AFL-CIO's support for Solidarity, SDUSA's Tom Kahn, criticized Jeane Kirkpatrick's Dictatorship and Double Standards, arguing that democracy be promoted even in the countries dominated by Soviet communism. In 1981 leading Social Democrats and some moderate Republicans wanted to use economic aid to Poland as leverage to expand the freedom of association in 1981, whereas Casper Weinberger and neoconservative Jeane Kirkpatrick preferred to force the Communist government of Poland to default on its international payments and so lose credibility; Kahn argued for his position in a 1981 debate with neoconservative Norman Podhoretz, who like Kirkpatrick and Weinberger opposed all credits. In 1982 Kirkpatrick called similarly for Western assistance to Poland to be used to help Solidarity.

Some of SDUSA's former members have been called neoconservatives. Justin Vaisse listed five SDUSA associates as "second-generation neoconservatives" and "so-called Shachtmanites", including "Penn Kemble, Joshua Muravchik, ..., and Bayard Rustin". Throughout his life, Penn Kemble called himself a social-democrat and objected to being called a neoconservative. Kemble and Joshua Muravchik were never followers of Max Shachtman; on the contrary, Kemble was recruited by a non-Shachtmanite professor, according to Muravchik, who wrote, "Although Shachtman was one of the elder statesmen who occasionally made stirring speeches to us, no YPSL [Young People's Socialist League] of my generation was a Shachtmanite". Besides objecting to being called a "neoconservative", Kemble "sharply criticized the Bush administration's approach on [Iraq]. 'The distinction between liberation and democratization, which requires a strategy and instruments, was an idea never understood by the administration,' he told the New Republic", wrote the Washington Post in Kemble's obituary.

Former member Joshua Muravchik

Joshua Muravchik has identified himself as a neoconservative, When Muravhchik appeared at the 2003 SDUSA conference, he was criticized by SDUSA members:

"Rachelle Horowitz, another Social Democrats, USA, luminary and an event organizer, called Muravchik’s comments “profoundly disturbing” — both his use of “us and them” rhetoric and the term “evil.” The existence of evil in the world was something Horowitz was happy to concede, she said from the floor. But it was a word incapable of clear political definition and thus a producer of muddle rather than clarity, zeal rather than political action.

Then Herf jumped in with similar criticisms. And then Berman. And Ibrahim. And before long, more or less everyone else in the room. There was still something, it seemed, that separated them from the neocons who hovered over the proceedings both as opponents and inspirations. Muravchik wanted to pull them somewhere most of the attendees — and organizers — were unwilling to go."

Among Joshua Muravchick's SDUSA citics was his own father, Emanuel Muravchik (a Norman Thomas Socialist); his mother was too upset with Joshua's Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism to attend the discussion. On the other hand, Joshua Muravchik was called a "second-generation neoconservative" by Vaisse.

Conventions

Convention	Location	Date	Notes and references
1973 National Conference	Hopewell Junction, NY	Sept. 21–23, 1973	From registration ad, New America, July 30, 1973, pg. 7.
1974 National Convention	New York City	Sept. 6–8, 1974	125 delegates, keynote speaker Walter Laqueur. Per NA, Aug. 20, 1974, pg. 8.
1976 National Convention	New York City	July 17–18, 1976	500 delegates and observers, keynote speaker Sidney Hook. Per NA, Aug.-Sept. 1976, pg. 1.
1978 National Convention	New York City	Sept. 8–10, 1978	Introductory report by Carl Gershman. Per NA, Oct. 1978, pg. 1.
1980 National Convention	New York City	Nov. 21–23, 1980	Per NA, Dec. 1980, pg. 1.
1982 National Convention	Washington, DC	Dec. 3–5, 1982	Keynote speech by Albert Shanker. Dates per NA, Oct. 1982, pg. 8.
1985 National Convention	Washington, DC	June 14–16, 1985	Keynote speech by Alfonso Robelo. Per NA, Nov.-Dec. 1985, pg. 6.
1987 National Convention
1990 National Convention
1994 National Convention

After reorganization

Convention	Location	Date	Notes and references
2009 Reorganization Convention		May 3, 2009
2010 Convention	Internet teleconference	Sept. 1, 2010
2012 National Convention	Buffalo, New York	Aug. 26-27, 2012	Keynote speech by Richard Lipsitz, Executive Director of Western New York Labor Federation.
2014 Convention	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	Oct 23-24, 2014	Link to video of convention.

Prominent members

• Robert J. Alexander
• Paul Feldman
• Sandra Feldman
• Joel Freedman
• Rita Freedman

• Carl Gershman
• James S. Glaser
• Al Glotzer
• Norman Hill
• Sidney Hook
• Tom Kahn
• Penn Kemble

• Arch Puddington
• A. Philip Randolph
• Bayard Rustin
• Don Slaiman
• Joan Suall
• Gus Tyler
• Charles S. Zimmerman

References

• Revised and incorporated in

Publications

• "The following program was adopted at the Social Democrats, U.S.A. and Young People's Socialist League conventions at the end of December, 1972."
• Bayard Rustin and Carl Gershman, Africa, Soviet imperialism and the retreat of American power. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1978. (SD papers #2)
• Carl Gershman The world according to Andrew Young. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1978. (SD papers #4)
• Leszek Kołakowski and Sidney Hook, The social democratic challenge. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1978. (SD papers #5)
• Carl Gershman, Selling them the rope: Business and the Soviets. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1979. (SD papers #6)
• Lane Kirkland and Rita Freedman, Building on the past for the future. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1981.
• Social Democrats, USA: Standard bearers for freedom, democracy, and economic justice. New York: Social Democrats, USA, n.d. [1980s].
• A challenge to the Democratic Party. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1983.
• Alfonso Robelo, The Nicaraguan democratic struggle: Our unfinished revolution. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1983. (SD papers #8)
• Scabs renamed, permanent replacements. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1990.
• On foreign policy and defense. Washington, D.C. : Social Democrats, USA, 1990
• SD, USA statement on the economy. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1991.
• Child labor, US style. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1991.
• Child labor, an international abuse. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1991.
• John T. Joyce, Expanding economic democracy. New York: Social Democrats, USA, 1991.
• Rita Freedman, Does America need a social democratic movement? Washington, DC: Social Democrats, USA, 1993.
• Why America needs a social democratic movement. Washington, DC : Social Democrats, USA, 1993.
• The future of socialism. San Jose, CA: San Francisco Bay Area Local of Social Democrats, USA, 1994.

External links

• Preliminary Inventory of the Social Democrats, USA Records, 1937–1994, Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, NC.
• Dale Reed, Register of the Carl Gershman Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 1999.
• Dale Reed, Register of the Albert Glotzer Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 2010.
• Social Democrats, USA official website, NEC-based group, socialdemocrats.org/