I mean, we can go back and forth rationalizing our historical perspectives until we are just talking past each other. Ultimately I think I’d like to have a more complete understanding than what I have now. So in time, I’d like to be able to see value in your emphasis.
But almost no-one teaches the labor history that lead up to the new deal. Its something that was given to workers, not something we fought for. It elevates a representative of the ruling class to hero status, while the heroes of the labor movement are all but completely forgotten.
Remember, this is the same guy who put a million Japanese Americans into concentration camps. The excuse he gave was risk of sedition, but what it actually accomplished was liquidating the farms of Japanese farmers and ag workers, to be bought up by American farmers and large producers. Japanese farming practice yielded much higher volume and quality of produce per acre, and US firms couldn’t compete.
Also, the New Deal was essentially a deal for whites. BIPOC workers were left out and suffered severe material wretchedness and discrimination.
So I choose not to give any leeway to the man who oversaw this, and I choose to decenter the liberal hero analysis to replace it with one that recognizes and lionizes the working class.
If you have any books or articles you think support your views I’d happily consider them however.
I mean, we can go back and forth rationalizing our historical perspectives until we are just talking past each other. Ultimately I think I’d like to have a more complete understanding than what I have now. So in time, I’d like to be able to see value in your emphasis.
But almost no-one teaches the labor history that lead up to the new deal. Its something that was given to workers, not something we fought for. It elevates a representative of the ruling class to hero status, while the heroes of the labor movement are all but completely forgotten.
Remember, this is the same guy who put a million Japanese Americans into concentration camps. The excuse he gave was risk of sedition, but what it actually accomplished was liquidating the farms of Japanese farmers and ag workers, to be bought up by American farmers and large producers. Japanese farming practice yielded much higher volume and quality of produce per acre, and US firms couldn’t compete.
Also, the New Deal was essentially a deal for whites. BIPOC workers were left out and suffered severe material wretchedness and discrimination.
So I choose not to give any leeway to the man who oversaw this, and I choose to decenter the liberal hero analysis to replace it with one that recognizes and lionizes the working class.
If you have any books or articles you think support your views I’d happily consider them however.