Keith Ellison on Progressivism

Today we start a weekly series of interviews on American Progressivism. Our first interviewee is the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who tells us what progressives stand for and how they differ from liberals

You co-chair the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Please outline its core principles.

There are four. We stand for peace and justice around the world. A lot of our caucus members were active on getting out of Iraq and now Afghanistan. We try to promote diplomacy and development as opposed to military confrontation. That's one principle. Second, we're about working class prosperity. We're about working class people being able to have a strong economic future that includes retirement, decent wages and good educational opportunity for their kids. We believe the Bush tax regime has contributed to growing inequality in our country and we're all strong advocates of consumer law. All of us voted for the Obama health bill but most of us are supporters of single-payer [healthcare]. Third, we believe in environmental sustainability and regulation of toxic substances. And last, we believe in human rights and the equality of all people. We believe that race, gender, sexual orientation, religion – none of these things disqualifies a person from being a good American. We believe in liberty and justice for all, and we underline the word all.

How, if at all, do progressives differ from liberals?

Liberals also believe in equality and economic fairness. I think what makes somebody a progressive is a willingness to challenge the system. I think some liberals look at poverty and feel they need to go to a food shelter to volunteer, which is great. But a progressive would say, “Why are there poor people in the land of plenty?” And they would agitate and organise to change that status quo. Do you see the difference?

I see what you are saying. Do you think that difference is rooted in history? The progressive movement, founded in the early 20th century, was a reformist movement.

We do draw from the progressive era of the early 20th century, but it's not the same movement. For instance, some elements of the progressive movement were for temperance. I don't think any one of us is calling for that. But we are calling for internationalism, good government and challenging economic plutocracy. So we’re really a new movement that draws inspiration from the earlier progressive era.

The Browser

Stride Toward Freedom

By Martin Luther King Jr

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The earliest book you chose is Stride Toward Freedom by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, published in 1958. Tell us about it.

Stride Toward Freedom is Martin Luther King's personal account of the Montgomery bus boycott [of 1955], which lasted for 381 days. During segregation, in some areas of the South, black people, who paid the same fares as white riders, were forced to sit in the back of the bus and give up their seats to white passengers if there weren’t enough. Rosa Parks sparked the boycott. But an incredibly bright and articulate 26 year old man known as Martin Luther King emerged as a leader of the protests. He incorporated Gandhi’s principles of nonviolence, which he learned from other leaders. He went on to galvanise the civil rights movement and win the Nobel peace prize.

Why should progressives read or reread this book?

Progressives need to read and reread this book because if you want to know anything about advancing progressive values, you need to know about the best example of progressive success in the last 100 years, the American civil rights movement. It is an example within the memory of many people in which ordinary citizens took on the system, with dignity and unity, and won. People were killed, people were bombed, people were blasted with hoses and yet they prevailed. I’d recommend this book to anyone who wants to know how to press for change and for anyone who doubts that things do change and ordinary people can change them.

How central are civil rights to the progressive agenda?

They're the heart and soul of it. We take all colours, all cultures and all faiths. We take you as you are. We accept you as a person with dignity, without regard to whether you have a disability, without regard to whether you're an immigrant, without regard to whether you're gay or lesbian or Muslim or anything. We embrace the diversity of America. We embrace this idea of liberty and justice for all. So the struggle that converted our society from a racial hierarchy into a truer democracy – you can't be a progressive and be ignorant about it.

What are the important points of the progressive platform concerning civil rights in the 21st century?

In the 21st century, we've got to make sure that new Americans are treated with respect – so we're fighting for immigration reform. We're also standing against some of the xenophobia that has emerged. We want to make sure that America remembers how much new Americans contribute to our society. Then, there’s the fact that the gay community is still subject to hate crimes, mistreatment, discrimination and bullying that leads to suicides. This is something that we've got to stand up to as a society. Then, of course, a lot of anti-Muslim stuff has flared up, including ethnic profiling and this recent ridiculous myth that American Muslims want to impose their religious law on others. Not one city, one state or one Muslim has attempted to institute sharia law in the United States, yet we’ve got laws passed to ban it. These are attempts to make it illegal to be Muslim, despite our constitutional commitment to freedom of religion. We still have good old American racism. We still have racial disparities in health, in sentencing. If you listen to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the people who are most often the target of hate crimes are still black Americans. And anti-semitism still rears its ugly head. We’ve got a lot to fight.