A Freedom Budget for All Americans: Recapturing the Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in the Struggle for Economic Justice Today

Salim Lamrani

ISBN 10: 158367361X / ISBN 13: 9781583673614

Published by Monthly Review Press,U.S., 2013

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # B9781583673614

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Freedom Budget for All Americans: Recapturing the Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in the Struggle for Economic Justice Today
• Publisher: Monthly Review Press,U.S.
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 158367361X
• ISBN 13: 9781583673614
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 484 grams

About this title

Synopsis

While the Civil Rights Movement is remembered for efforts to end segregation and secure the rights of African Americans, the larger economic vision that animated much of the movement is often overlooked today. That vision sought economic justice for every person in the United States, regardless of race. It favored production for social use instead of profit; social ownership; and democratic control over major economic decisions. The document that best captured this vision was the Freedom Budget for All Americans: Budgeting Our Resources, 1966-1975, To Achieve Freedom from Want published by the A. Philip Randolph Institute and endorsed by a virtual ‘who’s who’ of U.S. left liberalism and radicalism.

Now, two of today’s leading socialist thinkers return to the Freedom Budget and its program for economic justice. Paul Le Blanc and Michael D. Yates explain the origins of the Freedom Budget, how it sought to achieve “freedom from want” for all people, and how it might be reimagined for our current moment. Combining historical perspective with clear-sighted economic proposals, the authors make a concrete case for reviving the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement and building the society of economic security and democratic control envisioned by the movement’s leaders―a struggle that continues to this day.

About the Authors

Paul Le Blanc is Professor of History at La Roche College and the author of many titles, including From Marx to Gramsci and Marx, Lenin and the Revolutionary Experience.

Michael D. Yates is Editorial Director of Monthly Review Press. For many years, he taught working people in labor education programs throughout the United States, seeking to teach, speak, and write for and with the working class and not just about it. He has helped organize labor unions and has written extensively about them. His most recent book is Can the Working Class Change the World? (Monthly Review Press).