Fighting for Social Democracy in Missouri

By Patty Friend

One of the attractive things about being a social democrat is the fact that it is a pragmatic ideology.

Let’s look at economics. Unlike revolutionary Communism, social democrats believe the capitalist system can be improved by adding elements of socialism to capitalism for a mixed economy. The Social Security system is a citizen-owned insurance company run by the government that provides retirement security to all who pay into the system. Medicare is similar, providing health insurance to retirees and the disabled. However, it’s hard to say that Social Security in America, along with unemployment insurance, a legal structure for collective bargaining, and all other social democratic reforms, have hoisted anything like the old Soviet economy on America.

Democracy is another belief held dear by social democrats that revolutionary communists reject. I should say the political structure known as the democratic republic, as a total democracy might not provide civil liberties like freedom of the press, religion, and assembly. In addition, a total democracy might not use legislators to make laws; it might allow citizens to craft legislation and implement it via vote. This is impractical because professional legislators know much more about writing laws than your average citizen. The ancient Greek city-states practiced something like this in allowing citizens and not legislators to craft and vote on legislation. However, remember that that was only in the city-states, as in the agricultural world that defined ancient Greek city-states, most still lived in the country and farmed.  In addition, slaves, and ancient Greece was a slave society, and women, ancient Greece was also a patriarchal society, were not allowed to vote. In keeping with the tradition of democracy, the democratic republic allows for the removal of legislators in elections. In allowing this, social democrats allow for a revolution within democratic limits. It could be said that social democracy delivers power to the people in the political and economic realms and avoids the pitfalls of total democracy.  

There’s a move away from democratic ways in the State of Missouri. Like other states, Missouri has a referendum process that allows citizens to amend the state’s constitution. One can call this semi-direct democracy. It enables citizens to make laws themselves if certain conditions are met while not doing away with professional legislators. Switzerland has it on a national scale. If one wants to bring a referendum to vote, signatures of registered voters in Missouri must be collected. Republicans in Missouri have recently aimed at this form of semi-direct democracy, a taste of Switzerland in the conservative state. Remember, corporate America can play the referendum game as well, as corporate front groups have the money to hire staff to gather names to push legislation favorable to them.

The Republicans proposed legislation came after a move by certain groups to overturn Missouri’s almost total ban on abortion via state referendum. In response, Democrats engaged in a two-day filibuster. Currently, a referendum can pass by a majority vote, but the proposed legislation would require a referendum also to receive a majority vote in five of the eight Congressional districts, giving rural areas more power even though they are sparsely populated. Some Republicans appear to want to put the proposal on the August ballot, hoping to raise the bar for amendments ahead of a potential abortion rights vote in the election month of November. 

Historically, most petitions to change Missouri’s constitution have failed. There have been 69 citizen-driven initiative petitions placed in front of voters between 1910 and 2022. Of those petitions, voters have approved 28 — 40.6 percent. Voters shot down the remaining proposed referendums.  That data only analyzes the proposals that have reached the ballot — most petitions to amend the constitution fail to make it through the expensive and time-consuming signature-gathering process. For example, more than 80 initiative petitions were filed with the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office in 2022, but only one, marijuana legalization, reached the ballot. About 170,000 signatures are required to amend the state’s constitution. Remember, this is a time-consuming process and often costs millions of dollars. Those who gather signatures are often paid. The pay is low, and the work is often difficult, making it an unattractive option for many.

Amending the constitution has been used to pass progressive legislation in this Republican-leaning state. Examples include a bump in the minimum wage (2006), Medicaid expansion (2021), and the above-mentioned marijuana legalization (2022) Republicans are trying to fight semi-direct democracy in other Republican-leaning states like South Dakota and Ohio right now

Social democrats in Missouri and other states must fight against the trend of grabbing sovereignty away from the citizenry.

Patty Friend is the National Chair of SDUSA.

The Only Way to Save America from Fascism

By Susan Stevens

President Biden has made it clear that he needs a strong, progressive, pro-Palestine candidate running against him all the way up to November 5, 2024. If he thinks he can disregard the voices clamoring for a Permanent Ceasefire and a Free Palestine and just focus on courting moderate conservatives, he’ll continue his current policy of dropping food parcels inadequate for the sheer mass of starving Gazans, while supplying Israel with ever-increasing weapons to annihilate them, and providing the press with intentional leaks about how tough he talks about Netanyahu behind closed doors — never backing that “leaked” profanity up with any action.

That’s why I’m supporting Marianne Williamson in the Democratic Primary, and then, barring a miracle that lands her the nomination, getting behind Dr. Cornel West in the General Election. It’s only if Biden’s concerned about losing critical margins in battleground states, that there’s any hope of our nation cutting off the military aid without which Israel cannot complete their anti-Semitic genocide against their Palestinian brethren.

I pray that social democrats everywhere will join forces in pushing our world towards this healing end, and that Biden will care enough about saving America’s soul from fascist tyranny to listen. 

Susan Stevens is the Chair of Kansas City, Kansas SDUSA.

The PILOT and WyCo

By Aaron Coleman

Currently in Wyandotte County, Kansas, our residents pay too much in taxes whether in the form of sales tax, property tax, or the criminal PILOT fee that is pricing our residents out of their homes. The PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) fee is an additional 11.9% added to the total utility bill of residents in Wyandotte County.

Kansas City collects $37,000,000 each year from the PILOT fee that flows to the city’s general fund and is used for the general operation of city programs. In this case, it truly is payment instead of taxes, with the revenue from the PILOT constituting an amount over 20% of the city’s general fund operating budget.”(see: Gooch, Bonita).

This tax is applied to all residents regardless of income level. Both the rich and the poor pay the same amount, therefore making it a regressive tax. The benefits of a progressive tax are that it helps to reduce income inequality. WyCo/KCK needs a 3% earning tax on incomes over $30,000. This tax would be paid by doctors at KU, and other high earners, who work here in Wyandotte County but live in Johnson County and Missouri.

I’m proposing the following allocation of that 3%:

● 1% to eliminate the criminal PILOT fee.

●1% to fund our crumbling infrastructure and create construction jobs for hard-working ‘Dottes.

●1% to maintain and expand our stormwater management system in Wyandotte.

For this proposal to be successful it must be implemented by a vote of the people through a referendum, so that the “Good ‘Ol Boys”(see: Rives, Tim) in City Hall cannot just take this big pot of money and blow it all on pork-barrel spending. This would take an act of the Kansas State Legislature to allow Wyco/KCK to implement an income tax. Cities and counties have previously petitioned the Kansas Legislature for special tax zones. So there would be precedent for our request. If we can get our State Senators and State Representatives from Wyandotte County to support it, why would the rest of Kansas say no? We have a right to Home Rule in our state constitution. Home Rule says that the locals of an area know how to live best in their area, and don’t need to be dictated to.

Citations:

Gooch, Bonita. “Really Understanding BPU’s Pilot .” The Community Voice, 2 Oct. 2023, www.communityvoiceks.com/2023/07/25/really-understanding-bpus-pilot/.

Rives, Tim. The Ku Klux Klan in Kansas City, Kansas. The History Press, 2019. The last pages of the book are a list of members of the KKK in KCK. Some of these last names are still working in our government today.

Former State legislator Aaron Coleman represented Kansas HD 37 in 2021 – 2023.

STUMP SPEAKING

Editor’s Note: Continuing our retrospective on the American “sewer socialism” movement

J. Henry Stump, Socialist Mayor of Reading, Pennsylvania

By Jason Sibert

Reading, Pennsylvania – a city of 95,112 residents as of the 2020 census – and the fourth largest city in Pennsylvania behind Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Allentown  hardly makes national news today. Reading Hospital, East Penn Manufacturing, Carpenter Technology Corporation, and the Reading School District are among its biggest employers.

However, the city, which could be called a part of a mini-metro area, played a role in the history of the political movement known as sewer socialism. Sewer Socialist J. Henry Stump served as mayor of the city for the first time from 1927 to 1931 with two socialist councilmen, one being James Maurer, also a trade unionist and state legislator, making Reading the only city with a majority Socialist government at the time. In that election cycle, Reading also elected two socialist school directorships and a socialist city comptroller. In 1929, the party captured the two remaining seats on the city council.

By 1931, the Republicans and Democrats united in a fusion movement to turn the Socialist Party out of office, and Stump and the socialist councilmen lost their jobs. However, Stump returned as a mayoral candidate in 1935 – this time, winning. However, the Socialist candidates for council lost in that cycle. Stump suffered another defeat in 1939 but returned to the office for a third time in 1943. The up-and-down cycle of his political career continued with Stump being defeated for reelection in 1947 – by 200 votes!

Stump did have some accomplishments as a sewer socialist. Reading gained with a new city hall, new firehouses, an outdoor auditorium in City Park, a new branch library at Schuylkill Avenue and Windsor Street, and a tower on Mt. Penn. The taxpayer won through the municipal collection of garbage, improvements in the sewer and water systems, modernizations of the fire and police alarm systems, including two-way radios for police patrol cars, the Glenside housing development, and improvements to the airport.  The children of Reading enjoyed new recreational opportunities – the improvement of the playground on Lance Place, the installation of field houses on several other playgrounds, and the purchase and equipping of the Eleventh and Pike playground.

The former Mayor of Reading parted ways with the Socialist Party of America (SPA) in 1936 and joined the splinter group – the Social Democratic Federation (SDF). At the SDF founding convention in 1937, he said: “We came here because we could no longer square our Socialist conscience with remaining in the party which has fallen into the hands of disruptors, of people who do not believe in the idea and ideals of democratic Socialism. I am confident that at this convention, we will build an organization that will truly represent these ideas.” The split occurred because of the conflict between the SPA “Old Guard” and “the militants,” a younger faction that favored sabotage and cooperation with the Communists on some issues. Including dissident Communists, like the Trotskyists and Lovestoneites, in the party was also an issue.  At its founding conventions, the SDF supported expanded social security, slum clearance, and opposition to Fascism.

J. Henry Stump passed away in 1949

Jason Sibert is the Executive Director of the Peace Economy Project in St. Louis.

The City on the Horizon

GREATER BUFFALO TROLLEY

By Michael Mottern

Greater Buffalo includes the Town of Tonawanda, which has its own municipal government and a thriving boulevard that leads directly to Niagara Falls.

For years people have been secretly fighting any proposed NFTA [Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority] extension of the metro rail that would lead to an uptick in economic development, however, and are scared of extending the metro rail to deter another “Main Street Effect”, when it comes to keeping local businesses in Tonawanda and the town of Amherst which are right across the street from one another on Niagara Falls Boulevard. The “Main Street Effect” occurred in 1984 when the NFTA metro rail subway made certain that traffic is not allowed to go down a particular stretch of narrow thoroughfare being dug up…

The Buffalo NFTA metro rail system is not old. The current system has been with us since 1984 when it opened and was welcomed by Governor Mario Cuomo. The hope was it would eventually extend further out into the suburbs like Tonawanda and Amherst, maybe even into the South towns. But that project fell short due to costs. Normally, Westchester County chips in for its Metro service, Metro-North directly to Grand Central because it benefits the commuters who otherwise do drive cars, but Erie County does not. 

Historically, the people in the town of Tonawanda and the greater Buffalo area have depended upon cars due to their being manipulated by the automobile industry. This is very evident considering it was the automobile industry which tore up the tracks in the original system that had the longest lifespan in Buffalo trolley history, the IRC system (International Railway Company), that had the longest lifespan in trolley history in the Buffalo area including Tonawanda and Kenmore, a village inside Tonawanda.

But that was 1922 through 1950. What the automobile industry did was offer the town of Tonawanda manufacturing jobs at the General Motors plant. Because in Buffalo one could get a job one day and get fired the next day, only to get a really good job in the automobile industry with hours of being fired. That’s what my grandfather went through when he was a young man in the 1950s when jobs were plentiful in Buffalo. The automobile industry ruled the roost burning the trolley cars to be exact and tearing up the tracks! But getting people from one point to another with a great car industry, that is now just a distant memory!

Map for proposed NFTA Extension out to University of Buffalo North campus

While the number one employer in the Western New York area nowadays is the healthcare insurance industry like Kaleida, back in the day Buffalo’s politicians would give into things like lucrative deals with the automobile industry, not giving a crap about the aesthetics or the job growth that a metro rail system would bring and economic development. The IRC went bankrupt by 1947.The saddest part is the last trolley went down Broadway Avenue in 1950 and was a huge success when it came to “last minute nostalgia.”

Citizens waited minutes to get rides on the old trolley car system from 1922 to 1947. Operators would make personal stops for riders along local routes. In both Buffalo and the Town of Tonawanda, Tonawanda’s Gateway Park which features the Erie Canal, and Buffalo’s Erie Canal commercial slip on the Buffalo waterfront are tourist highlights as well as major resident stops. Both Buffalo and Tonawanda, of course, have Niagara Falls for sightseers.

But that brings us back to Niagara Falls Boulevard and the Main Street Effect. Commercial travelers in Buffalo only travel by car the majority of the time, and don’t want to be inconvenienced in one of the only shopping districts with retail stores like Christmas Tree Shop or Dick’s Sporting Goods. When I was a kid I had to settle for Kmart; I can never get out to Dick’s by streetcar or tram.  I hope one day Tonawanda will get out of its small town effect and care about real job growth in the community. Some citizens depend on it for their livelihood, just like commuters and people that work downtown in Buffalo and live in the suburbs. A metro rail is the least they can do!

Michael Mottern is the first vice-chair of SDUSA.