Bailout was not ‘socialism’

Martin Oppenheimer of Franklin
    Although I agree with Richard Moody’s letter published Oct. 28 in supporting Obama for President, I must dissent from the constant, media-driven mantra that the Wall Street bailout is socialistic.
   In fact it is the opposite of socialism. As anyone familiar with the socialist tradition, from Marx to our own Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas knows, socialism is about, as we said in the 60’s, “Power to the People.” That is, it is about democracy from the bottom up, decision-making at the workplace and community level.
   The bailout is the opposite. It is a rescue attempt from the top down in the interest of corporate capital. In that sense, it is far closer to fascism. Both Mussolini and Hitler, in a time of economic crisis, stepped in to rescue the capitalist system. The cost was, as we know, war and devastation.
   But whatever it was, socialism it wasn’t. In order to carry out their plans, they had to try to eradicate the socialist movements of their time, no matter how brutally.
Martin Oppenheimer
Franklin