What Was The Original American Populism?

We often time see debates on who in American politics is the real populist
some say Donald Trump and the conservatives’ others will say Bernie Sanders and
his social democrats and there will also be those who say Marxism or Fascism
are the true and real forms of populism. However, if we look at the original
American populists of the 1870s to 1890s that being the People Populist Party,
The Farmer Alliance, the Knights of Labor, the National Labor Union, and the
Greenback Party we find there are many similarities with all tendencies but had
many stark differences.

What united the People Populist Party all the way to the Greenback Party was
a strong resistance to monopoly capitalism, Banking cartels and support for
cooperatives and preservation of family farms, craftmanship, artisans,
shopkeepers, and local communities that were being displaced by the
centralization of land and capital by corporations and banking cartels. They
were also very localist, and religious, had negative attitudes towards
immigration, and were agrarian in many cases. They were also very key on
producers and workers owning the means of production not being controlled by
large corporate or government bureaucracies which is the heart of original
American Populism.

As mentioned earlier the original American populism has some similarities
with current forms of so-called populism but has many strong differences. For
starters, if we are to look at the Trump forms of populism, we see it shares
its conservative and anti-immigration stances however Trump’s populism was
hardly against corporate capitalism despite many elements of this class
despising him. Not to mention Trumpian populism fails to see how corporate
capitalism wants cheap foreign labor and how corporate monopolies destroyed
small businesses and traditional social norms that original populists sought to
preserve. Sanders shares some of the anti-capitalist sentiments however if we
get down to what social democracy is which is a welfare state which hardly
opposes corporate bureaucracy which in many ways strengthens it and removes
support for more radical opposition to capitalism not to mention its strengths in
government bureaucracy as well.  Fascism shares its synthesis of politics
and support for unions however what separates American populism is the localist
and anti-centralization sentiments of the populist while fascism is inherently
statist. Not to mention the reason the original populists wanted to preserve
localism and mass proprietorship/ ownership by forming cooperatives not only to
preserve their way of life and independence but also because mass
proprietorship was seen as something necessary for democracy to survive and not
have politicians be controlled by large corporate or banking interest while
fascism is an inherently anti-democratic movement. Marxism shares many of populism’s
anti-capitalist sentiments however Marxism believed that the small shopkeepers,
farms, and others who made up populists were destined to be defeated by larger
corporate industrial capitalism and centralized industrial production, the last
one even being also a part of a Marxian socialist society both in theory and in
practice seeing it as the progress of history. Populists were in complete
revolt against this so-called progress of the centralization of production
which they fought against in the name of keeping control of the means of
production or in the case of the National Labor Union and Knights of Labor to
regain control and to preserve their local communities and democracy.

 

I believe that it becomes obvious after looking into how the original American populist opposed corporate and government bureaucracy it becomes clear that both the Trump and Sanders forms of populism are nothing more than shams that are used to rally people to support one section of the ruling class over another instead of abolishing both. While Fascism and Marxism maybe strong opponents of the modern system but would still lead to the centralization of power that so many want to move away from. However, I do admit that some industries like media, social media, and large-scale industries that must be that way have to be under state supervision but can still have some form of worker control whether through a guild or union-like system. I also admit that the agrarian democracy that the original populist wanted to preserve is long gone and there is no way of going back to it. However, the populist strong distaste of capitalism, and bureaucracy, and their belief in mass proprietorship and synthesis politics is worthy of keeping. The populist attempts to unite different economic disciplines and races are also noble and needed if a populist movement is to succeed and maintain a populist American society.

With the rise of populism in the last several years and the recent railroad workers union deal which despite its reformism shows that unions and workers still have some power by organizing, it is necessary for real populists and dissidents to make their ideas known and to disprove and comfort those of both democrats and republicans who espouses this pseudo populism. Along with those who espouse welfare reform instead of the producers and workers owning the means of production. If any populist movement is to succeed it cannot just appeal to one group or industry but rather must be far-reaching appealing to small businesses, the working class, rural people, churches, students, people from the right and left, and of all racial demographics. United against international capitalism and for the national liberation of this country from this class. While this is a long stretch it is not impossible to take for example the March 8^th Alliance in Lebanon which is made up of Muslim, Christian, and secular parties and parties from both the right, left and in between only a few decades ago were fighting a religious/class/ethnic sectarian civil war inside the country many times fighting with and against one another. If they can put aside their differences after trying to kill one another I’m pretty sure we can too.

                  Sources

The True and Only Heaven Progress and Its Critics by Christopher Lasch

Conservatism Against Itself by Christopher Lasch

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx Fredrick Engels

The Doctrine of Fascism by Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile

March 8 Alliance – Wikipedia

Alpert, B. (2022, September 16). A railroad strike has been averted for now. What happens next. Barrons. https://www.barrons.com/articles/railroad-strike-deal-what-happens-next-51663367552

Populist Party Platform of 1892 | The American Presidency Project. (n.d.-b). https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/populist-party-platform-1892