I am proud to honor a great man. He was a big influence on my life as well as on leaders of our country. These are some of the things Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Had to say on his birthday:
Remembering Michael Harrington
In a lifetime of political engagement, Michael Harrington must have given ten thousand speeches, and of those, probably a thousand in New York City, where he had made his home since his arrival in 1949, age 21. He gave his final speech in the city 40 years later, in May 1989. Suffering from the cancer of the esophagus that would end his life in less than three months, he spoke that day to reporters and editors from the city’s union press.
Over the years, Mike met and worked with many important and famous people, including Dr. Martin Luther King, United Auto Worker president Walter Reuther, Ms. Magazine founder Gloria Steinem, U.S. senator and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, and Prime Minister Olof Palme, leader of Sweden’s ruling Socialist Party, to name but a few. The publication in 1962 of his landmark study of poverty, The Other America, helped spark the Johnson administration’s War on Poverty. He had another best-seller in 1972 with the unlikely title of Socialism, which sold over 100,000 copies in paperback and influenced many readers with its argument that the “real Karl Marx” was a radical democrat, not a would-be dictator. His last book, Socialism: Past and Future, came out shortly before his death. He was an editor of Dissent, a commentator on National Public Radio, a frequent contributor to leading opinion magazines like the Nation and the New Republic. As a public intellectual and a moral tribune, in the 1970s and 1980s, he had few equals on the left, or indeed across the political spectrum. Harrington, Senator Ted Kennedy would write, “has made more Americans more uncomfortable for more good reasons than any other person I know.”
Read on below for more.
Michael's history is worth some study. He was a remarkable man.
Harrington was an editor of the newspaper The Catholic Worker from 1951 to 1953. However, he became disillusioned with religion and, although he would always retain a certain affection for Catholic culture, he ultimately became an atheist.
In 1978 the periodical Christian Century quoted him thus: "I am a pious apostate, an atheist shocked by the faithlessness of the believers, a fellow traveler of moderate Catholicism who has been out of the church for 20 years."
Having been a Catholic until age 21 (1957) and then becoming a socialist, I can identify strongly with this. He grew very fast as a socialist:
Harrington served as the first editor of New America, the official weekly newspaper of the Socialist Party-Social Democratic Federation, initiated in October 1960.
During this period Harrington wrote The Other America: Poverty in the United States, a book that had an effect on President Kennedy's administration, and on President Lyndon B. Johnson's subsequent so-called War on Poverty. Harrington became a widely read intellectual and political writer. He would frequently debate noted conservatives but would also argue with younger "New Left" radicals. He was present at the 1962 SDS conference that resulted in the creation of the Port Huron Statement, concerning which he argued that the final draft was insufficiently anti-Communist. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. referred to Harrington as the "only responsible radical" in America. His relative fame caused him to be added to the master list of Nixon political opponents.
By the early 1970s, the governing faction of the Socialist Party continued to endorse a negotiated peace to end the Vietnam War, an opinion that Harrington increasingly believed was no longer viable. The majority changed the organization's name to Social Democrats, USA. After losing at the convention, Harrington resigned and, with his former caucus, formed the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee. (A smaller faction associated with peace activist David McReynolds formed the Socialist Party USA).
During the early 1980s The Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee merged with the New American Movement, an organization of New Left activists, forming the Democratic Socialists of America. This organization remains the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International, which includes socialist parties as diverse as the Swedish and German Social Democrats, Nicaragua's FSLN, and the British Labour Party. Harrington was the Chairman of DSA from its inception until his death.
I am proud to be a charter member of DSA and am grateful to Michael for the invitation to join.
And now we have a potential socialist Presidential candidate in Bernie Sanders. If Michael were alive he would be doing everything he could to support Bernie. DSA is circulating a petition urging people to support Bernie's candidacy.
Democratic Socialists of America strongly encourages Senator Sanders to officially announce his candidacy for President of the United States. We further encourage him to meet with grassroots activists throughout the country to discuss how his candidacy might effectively promote their varied struggles for social and economic justice, human rights, world peace and a healthy environment.
By running in Democratic Party primaries, Independent Senator Sanders would challenge the dominant discourse of the neoliberal Democrats that privilege corporate business interests over those of all working people. Thus he would contribute to building a strong movement to halt the vicious attacks of Tea Party Republicans at all governmental levels on workers' rights, voting rights, and people of color in general.
Those who wish to promote the goals of this petition should consider taking concrete and specific actions at the grassroots level that would promote a Sanders run. Note that you are interested in volunteering with us to stand and say, we need Bernie!
I can't think of a better way of paying tribute to michael on his birthday than by signing this petition.