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Populism now divides, yet once it united the working class

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https://aeon.co/ideas/populism-now-divid...king-class

EXCERPT: [...] Today, half a century after Hofstadter’s influential interpretation, scholars understand better that the Populist Party made revolutionary contributions to advancing democracy, and that it succeeded, however briefly, in building a political coalition of black and white farmers more than a century ago.

They came together in opposition to the unequal distribution of wealth and income, the unjust concentration of political power in the hands of the wealthy, and the big-business corruption of government and government selling out to business. Many organisations, cooperatives, societies and unions, for example the Grange, the Knights of Labor and, most importantly, the Farmers’ Alliance (founded in Texas in 1875) preceded and led to the Populist Party. These were not necessarily small organisations. In Georgia alone, by 1890, the Farmers’ Alliance grew to 100,000. The Alliance disciplined and groomed legions of men and women who would eventually join the ranks of the Populist Party as organisers, supporters or office holders.

The Southern Farmers’ Alliance was a direct predecessor of the Populist Party. It called for the abolition of big banks, proposed their own alternative banking system, wanted the federal government to control credit and money, and fought for an increase in the supply of money in circulation by employing the free coinage of silver. The Alliance sought to break up monopolies, institute an eight-hour law for labour, and to turn railroad and telegraph lines over to the control of the government.

It’s important to remember the Farmers’ Alliance not because it preceded the Populist Party, but because it also makes so clear how the grievances that moved people to populism then, as now, are not the exclusive provenance of white men. Black men and women played a vital role in the Farmers’ Alliance, and the early part of the populist movement: they founded the Colored Farmers’ Alliance – whose members numbered 1.2 million in 1891 – to promote self-help, mutual aid and improved farming techniques. They organised a cotton-picker’s strike to protest working conditions and push for more pay. Their political activism, and the fusion of political parties that led to the Populist Party, makes it clear that Populists were not motivated by misplaced nostalgia for the agrarian past. Far from longing for slavery days, they were courageously engaged with the present while creatively looking to the future, motivated, to safeguard their ability to live a decent life....

MORE: https://aeon.co/ideas/populism-now-divid...king-class
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