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Working-Class New YorkBy Msgr. George G. HigginsThe Yard StickJune 5, 2000In a recent column recommending a new pictorial history of working people in New York City, I quoted labor historian Joshua Freeman to the effect that it was ordinary working men and women who were the key to New York's exceptional stature. I have since received a book by Freeman on the same subject, "Working-Class New York" (New Press, New York).Freeman's book is much more ideological than the earlier book. This one says much less about rank-and-file New York workers than the role of so-called "left-wing" New York unions in developing a system of social democratic politics that provided affordable housing, health insurance, cheap transportation and good jobs in the post-war decades. Freeman's use of the word "left-wing" to describe his favorite unions and to distinguish them from allegedly conservative or retrograde unions is problematical. He comes close to making the word "left-wing" synonymous with the word communist or pro-communist. Moreover, he is extremely sparing in his criticism of left-wing unions, including some he himself describes as "Stalinists." At the same time, he leaves the impression that Catholic workers in New York were almost exclusively right-wing anti-communist zealots who contributed little to the city's social and economic progress. He clearly implies that the anti-communism of New York Catholics was instigated and orchestrated by the Catholic hierarchy. Some of it was, of course. But Freeman makes no mention of the fact that many of the most vocal anti-communist workers in New York were at odds with the hierarchy on certain issues and could not be described as pawns of the hierarchy. Freeman's blithe dismissal of the anti-communism of Catholic workers is a familiar line with many self-styled radical academics and ntellectuals. For many years revisionist historians looked for dark, cynical motives behind the Catholic Church's involvement in the labor movement. A common thesis is that if not for the Catholic Church's intervention, there might have been a socialist labor movement in the United States. It is worth clearing the air on this point if for no other reason than that the ghosts of past quarrels appear now and then in dialogues between religion and labor. Much of the revisionism has dealt with the now-defunct Association of Catholic Trade Unionists. It is ACTU's brush with communism that has driven much of the historical revisionism. It has been argued by more than one self-styled radical revisionist that ACTU was a -- if not the -- crucial factor in determining the "conservative" direction taken by the industrial unions between 1937 and 1950. Undergirding this sweeping generalization is the recurrent charge that Catholic social teaching, which ACTU however effectively or otherwise tried to put into practice, is hopelessly "conservative." One revisionist referred to here gives his hand away by defining his own loaded terms. In short, "radical" (the good guys) are those committed to class struggle and a socialist or social-democratic order. "Conservatives" (the bad guys) are, conversely, those who reject the philosophy of class struggle and do not belong to any formal school of socialism or social democracy. I think it fair to say that Freeman (who unaccountably never so much as mentions ACTU in his book) parrots this line by romanticizing the contribution of communist or pro-communist unions while caricaturing New York's Catholic workers as hopelessly reactionary anti-communists. A well-known historian, reviewing Freeman's book in the New York Times, says "that may be comforting to some, but it is profoundly misleading." I agree. Incidentally, I say this as one who was not an uncritical supporter of ACTU and would not like to see it come back to life again anywhere.
Papal Social Encyclicals Other Catholic Social Teachings General Articles of Interest Catholic Worker Connection Msgr. George Higgins Home Page E-Mail: Fr. Sinclair Oubre
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