Bread and Roses Humanism

Bread and Roses is a new national movement. It embodies a new social vision we call “Bread and Roses Humanism.” We urge involvement in electoral politics, not just voting, but running for office. We see elections as the central free speech realm in America, as the place where change happens, where people are raising new visions, and are listening to one another.. Bread and Roses humanists identify in different ways, as socialists, as progressives, even as libertarians.

Bread and Roses Humanism is utopian. We aspire to a society and a culture which is vastly superior to the present day. While we seek great transformations, we seek to develop a new political culture that is experimental and modest rather than dogmatic with respect to its efforts to build a better world. We are not clairvoyant. We believe in keeping our eyes on ultimate goals and values, while being a society that learns, even from failure.

We embrace the social vision implied in the labor slogan, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” We are all in this together. We wish to build a society where everyone can make a contribution and is given an opportunity to do so. That contribution should come from our deepest abilities, from potentials that we are able to develop to their fullest. And in exchange, we all have a right to fulfillment of core economic needs, regardless of income level.

Secondly, we believe that the “The Job System,” our basic economic framework that divides us into two groups: “the job creators” and the “the job seekers,” is not an eternal fact of nature. It is a recent system, primarily the result of industrialization, and it has largely served its purpose. We are ready to move beyond the job system, and to transform what remains of it to provide meaningful work and just rewards for all. We are developing policies to promote the transition from job-system work to lives that central around what we call “passion-work” — work one would do, even if you weren’t paid to do it.

Our roots are broad. They include elements of the democratic socialist tradition,but they are broader than that. We strongly identify with the “plain living, high thinking” traditions of America, whether the Quakers, John Adams, Thoreau, the experimental utopian communes of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, or the “Cooperative Commonwealth” sought by generations of American workers and farmers. We seek a socio- economic framework that makes it easier to pursue a New American Dream, one of modest consumption, solid economic security, and abundant leisure, sufficient to do the things in life that matter most.

We believe in choice. In particular, in the liberty to choose to live a simpler life, to opt out of the dominant consumer culture; even the liberty to opt out of the meritocracy and the pursuit of the standard “American Dream.” We see public policy as a vehicle for expanding this liberty, and elections as a way of influencing policy.

In principle there are small-government approaches that could achieve these goals; there could even be Bread and Roses Libertarians alongside Bread and Roses Socialists. We don’t believe there is a need to be dogmatic about how government policy helps or hinders fulfillment of an Alternative American Dream. We should be open to being surprised. We are open to working with all who deeply and honestly share our values and vision.

“Roses” is central to our outlook. First expressed by the suffragist Helen Todd in 1910 and immortalized in the 1911 poem “Bread and Roses” by James Oppenheim and the 1912 Lawrence textile strike, “Roses” stands for the non-material things that make life worth living—time, art, friendship, love, nature and beauty, both in the urban and natural environment, a society With Beauty For All. More fundamentally, in demanding “Bread and Roses too” the women of Lawrence were saying, “We are not just laborers who need only material things. We are also complex human beings, with complex needs for lives of meaning and richness.” We agree. We believe that a Renaissance of Roses is America’s future.

For us, Roses also symbolizes nature, a sustainable planet for ourselves and future generations. And finally, we are international in our orientation. We believe in an engaged America, one that seeks a world of peace in which human rights are respected, in which cultures are tolerant and in which oppression is checked by evolving international institutions that ensure liberty and justice for all people on planet Earth.

Yes, we wanted sewers…but we wanted much, oh, so very much more than sewers. We wanted our workers to have pure air; we wanted them to have sunshine; we wanted planned homes; we wanted living wages; we wanted recreation for young and old; we wanted vocational education; we wanted a chance for every human being to be strong and live a life of happiness. And, we wanted everything that was necessary to give them that: playgrounds, parks, lakes, beaches, clean creeks and rivers, swimming and wading pools, social centers, reading rooms, clean fun, music, dance, song and joy for all. That was our Milwaukee Social Democratic movement.

–Emil Seidel, first socialist mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin

- Jerome Segal, founder

OUR VIEWS

Our Version of the American Dream: To have a modest but secure income, sufficient for meeting core needs, through meaningful work in a beautiful environment, with sufficient leisure to do those things that matter most in life.

Our view of the central criteria for evaluating social policy: 1) Does it offer all people an equal opportunity, should they so choose, to fulfill this New American Dream? 2) Does it actually advance the quality of life?

Our view of our current socio-economic framework: It fails the basic tests of quality, fairness and sustainability. It frustrates the New American Dream. For most American families, need- required labor time is increasing, as is economic insecurity.

Our view of America’s future: We believe in a Renaissance where the quality of our lives is more important than the quantity of our goods. We are utopians.

Our view of the American economy: In many ways, we live in the most inefficient economy in human history. The real measure of efficiency is need required labor time: how much labor time does it take most households to satisfy legitimate needs.

We must reduce the amount of Job System labor-time required to live lives of health and decency and beauty.

Our Practical Agenda Approach

Electoral Action: Bread and Roses is explicitly directed at public policy. This, in turn, means emphasizing elections, not just voting, but reunning for office. There are several reasons for this, including the obvious, that in a democracy it is through winning elections that the ability to affect public policy is attained. Secondly, in the United States, elections are the primary realm within which public discourse occurs. In elections, people are listening more attentively than in any other context. By running for office, it is possible to engage with voters on fundamental question such as “What is an economy for, anyway?” and “How should we define the American Dream?” Third, it is in the competition for votes that grand ideas must be made relevant to the needs and perceptions of ordinary people. This is a very valuable discipline, especially for those infatuated (as we are) with ideas and transformative schemes. Fourth, electoral politics lends itself to leadership from individual candidates. Let there be a competition for that leadership.

Jerome M. Segal is now running against Joe Biden for the 2024 Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.

Segal For President 6909 Laurel Ave, Takoma Park, MD 20912 445-216-3846

Email: JSegal@BreadandRoses.US