NEW RADICALISM
191
of new radicals I've been trying to describe have gone beyond bugging
the white folks with apocalyptic images of the fire next time. They
are engaged in the acquisition of hard, practical, "tough" knowledge
-as
are the whites allied with them.
Accordingly, the new radicals have no patience with those older
utopians who are not interested in politics. They aren't themselves
so fully utopian as not to overlook the need to gather support for
such limited immediate goals as massive public works, national health
insurance, a two-dollar-an-hour minimum wage. These are by now
the traditional package of demands of the AFL-CIO, the ADA and
the rest of the liberal "coalition"-which does not yet include the
poor. But at the same time, they are equally aware of the inadequacy
of such "solutions" both because of what cybernation will mean in ten
an.d twenty years and because of their conviction that any change in
the
quality
of American life requires a much more radical approach.
As
John Wilkinson notes, "The exponential rise in the statistics of
crime and mental illness in our cities is as much a part of the cultural
explosion as that of any factor." Not all of that
rise
can be ascribed
to economic determinism.
For the more radical goals, such as a guaranteed annual income
and a redefinition of work, some new radicals do see the possibilities
of a coalition. But not yet. However, as more and more of the lower–
middle and then of the middle classes find themselves made useless
in the technological society, they may be ready viscerally for political
action with the poor. And as security-by-attrition becomes increasingly
difficult for organized labor (where, after all, are
new
union members
going to come from?), that sector, or parts of it, may be ready to
move radically. Even now, a vice-president of the AFL-CIO, George
Woodcock, has said that a guarantee of either a job or an income
to
all
citizens must be considered. There are also signs of awakening
among social workers, who have previously not been very much aware
of forces beyond their insular casework. Last November, the National
Association of Social Workers supported a minimum annual income
as "a matter of right" for all Americans.
But, as Tom Hayden says, and as the more experienced new
radicals know, "Bitter days will pass if ever sweet ones come to be."
The immediate task for many of them is in the black and white
ghettos. This
is
another difference between them and the older,
