Between People Power and Party Politics: Interpreting Bayard Rustin's Approach to Activism

Michael Weinman, Indiana University

In a series of essays and speeches written and delivered in a pivotal moment of American history (1964-1968) when he was at the peak of his following his reception as one of “the leaders” of the March (as Life magazine put it while placing him on the cover on September 6, 1963), Rustin lays out what I think we can consider the central tenets of his political philosophy. This political philosophy, not often recognized as such, is drawn from a number of sources and very much in contact with the main debates of that time; it remains, however, a unique and original reflection on how the normative weight of internationalism, non-violence, integration, and labor-friendly industrial policy are mutually reinforcing and, in fact, why none of those values can be actualized absent the others. In a time when: international and transnational institutions are the least popular they have ever been since the Second World War in both more and less perfectly democratic societies; the efficacy and moral superiority of nonviolent resistance is more doubted by social movements across the ideological spectrum; the politics of identity and identification is celebrated by everyone from white nationalists to Christian nationalists to large portions of the political left; and membership in labor organizations remains at or near historic lows, even if unionization drives have gathered much attention and popular support since the Covid pandemic—in such a time, we surely need to hear and understand Rustin’s unique perspective.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 128. Power and Normativity in Society and History I: Race, Politics, and Legitimation