Mark Lause's Young America
Land, Labor and the Republican Community
by Louis Proyect
Book Review
Lause, Mark A.: Young America: Land, Labor and the Republican
Community, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 2005 ISBN
0-252-07230-8 (paper), ISBN 0-252-02980-1 (cloth), 240 pages
(Swans - July 31, 2006) There is a tendency to look at American working
people as part of the problem rather than as part of the solution. This was
especially pronounced after the 2004 elections, when despairing liberals
felt that "red state" voters chose George W. Bush against their own class
interests. Oddly enough, their disgust with the American blue collar worker
was reflected in Bertolt Brecht's poem The Selection, with the substitution
of the word "liberals" for "government":
After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts.
Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
Against this understandable tendency to blame the people, labor and left
historians in the U.S. have worked hard to correct the record. Following
the example of Howard Zinn, the dean of this school, they uncover instances
of working people acting on their own class interests and for the interests
of humanity as a whole.
The latest addition to this very necessary literature is Mark Lause's Young
America: Land, Labor and Republican Community. This is a study of an
obscure political party from the 1840s that was in the vanguard of the
fight against the concentration of land ownership, slavery, and for a kind
of utopian socialism that predated the more orthodox Marxism of later
years. If it is obscure, it is no fault of the actors who deserve a more
prominent place in the historical panorama. We have to thank Mark Lause for
rescuing them from obscurity and demonstrating our kinship with them. As we
struggle against the rich and powerful in the 21st century, we can draw
inspiration from our forerunners in the struggle.
The "Young America" in Lause's title refers to the newspaper of the
National Reform Association (NRA), whose initials ironically are the same
as the arch-reactionary National Rifle Association of today. Although, as
one begins to familiarize oneself with the earlier NRA, little doubt will
remain about how distinct they were from each other!
Unlike the political parties of today (with the exception of the Greens and
smaller socialist groups), the NRA was made up of and led by ordinary
working people and small businessmen. In the winter of 1843-44, three men
in the printing trades came together to launch the new group.
Born in Great Britain, George Henry Evans was a veteran labor editor who
had once published Free Enquirer, a paper strongly influenced by the
Owenites in Great Britain. Robert Owen had pioneered communes in Great
Britain and even inspired followers in New Harmony, Indiana to begin work
to realize their ideals. Even Friedrich Engels understood Owen's
importance, despite his disagreement with the utopian underpinnings:
His advance in the direction of Communism was the turning-point in
Owen's life. As long as he was simply a philanthropist, he was rewarded
with nothing but wealth, applause, honor, and glory. He was the most
popular man in Europe. Not only men of his own class, but statesmen and
princes listened to him approvingly. But when he came out with his
Communist theories that was quite another thing. Three great obstacles
seemed to him especially to block the path to social reform: private
property, religion, the present form of marriage.
Evans sought out John Windt, a blacklisted union organizer, who he
collaborated with for fifteen years, and Thomas Ainge Devyr, a veteran of
the Chartist movement in Great Britain. Devyr was also an advocate for
tenant farmers in the United States. One of the lessons of Lause's study is
that land hunger in the U.S. at this time was as pronounced as it was in
Latin America. Despite the reputation that it has for providing ample and
cheap land for immigrants, the U.S. was plagued by the sort of landlordism
that kept people in poverty. The main goal of the NRA was to achieve a
sweeping land reform that would establish the material basis for true
democracy. It was the age-old Jeffersonian hope mixed with the yearnings of
utopian socialism.
full: http://www.swans.com/library/art12/lproy39.html
--
www.marxmail.org
