The Long New Deal

ABSTRACT

Calls for a Green New Deal in the United States represent an opportunity to learn from, and avoid the mistakes of, the last New Deal. We outline not the suite of Franklin Delano Roosevelt-era policies that fell under the umbrella of New Deal, but the conditions of their possibility, and what the aftermath of the New Deal means for the United States and beyond. The success of a Green New Deal rests both on the mobilization of a counter-movement to backlash caused by, and a commitment to avoid the injustices furthered through, the original compact after which it is named.

KEYWORDS:

• Green New Deal
• hegemony
• United States
• militancy

Acknowledgement

Parts of this paper first appeared in Jacobin magazine, and sections on populism are from forthcoming work by Patel. Both are reprinted with permission. The authors are grateful for the encouragement of Jun Borras, Phil McMichael and the insightful suggestions of two anonymous reviewers, to whom we apologize for not being able to include excellent ideas that might have made this overview yet longer.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID

Raj Patel http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3669-4222

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Raj Patel

Raj Patel is a Research Professor at the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author, most recently, of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature and the Future of the Planet, co-written with Jason W. Moore. He is currently finishing a documentary on gender, climate change and the food system.

Jim Goodman

Jim Goodman was a dairy farmer for over 40 years in Wonewoc, Wisconsin. Now ‘repurposed’, he is the president of the National Family Farm Coalition, a member of the international peasant movement, La Via Campesina.