Posted on 05/02/2026 4:20:07 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The Cloward-Piven strategy was a calculated blueprint for social disruption. How is it working out?
In the spring of 1966, the United States was in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement and Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. It was at a time when the New Left concluded that American capitalism had neutralized the working class; therefore, it was no longer suitable to be cannon fodder for revolution. To answer the collectivist call, two Columbia University School of Social Work professors—Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven—published a provocative essay in The Nation magazine. Titled “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty,” the May 2 article outlined what later became known as the Cloward-Piven strategy.
Far from a conventional policy proposal, it was a calculated blueprint for social disruption. Cloward and Piven, who were members of the ultra-left Democratic Socialists of America—where Piven was an honorary chair—argued that the existing welfare system, riddled with gaps between statutory eligibility and actual benefits, could be politically weaponized. By organizing a mass enrollment drive to claim every available benefit, activists could intentionally overload local and state welfare bureaucracies, trigger fiscal crises, and force the federal government—then controlled by Democrats—to replace fragmented public assistance with a guaranteed annual income.
The professors were blunt about mechanics. They noted that roughly eight million Americans received welfare, but at least as many more were eligible yet unserved because of restrictive local practices and bureaucratic hurdles. “The discrepancy is not an accident stemming from bureaucratic inefficiency,” they wrote; “rather, it is an integral feature of the welfare system.” A “massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls” would produce “bureaucratic disruption in welfare agencies and fiscal disruption in local and state governments.” This chaos would deepen rifts in the big-city Democratic coalition
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Happy Cloward-Piven day on the 60th anniversary of their strategy.
“...Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.”
LBJ was possibly the worst president in a century by creating the welfare state - and much of it has evolved into the criminal state we see today, start with Congress.
Naw, the $40,000,000,000,000 in debt we have now had nothing to do with it. /s
In the spring of 1966, I was sent to sunny South Vietnam.
IT WORKS
ALAS
Cloward-Piven gets credit for stealing the democrat manual.
And turning it into a DEMONrat manifesto!
You should re-visit. I met a nice mother-son from Hanoi in Bangkok recently. She was there getting cancer treatment. The son and I had several long conversations. From what he said VN leadership has mostly transitioned to a bureaucracy and is laissez-faire towards capitalism.
Just think, you could visit Hanoi and say “Whelp, took me 60 years to get here but I finally made it”
Food quality is superior. Ppl get up early, work late and laziness is looked down upon. Unlike the West which thinks laziness is a symbol of achievement and distinction. The West’s culture is corrupted and debased.
Homeless drug addicts and sexually perverted elites are the Ubermensch in the West.
As they have demonstrated over multiple decades, the left (Socialists, Communists, Marxists, etc.) is primarily focused on gaining control of government so that they may loot the public treasury for their own benefit. The benefits they promote for “workers” are simple part of their con.
YES
I know a bunch of guys who’ve been back. All of them had a good time. They went to The Rockpile and Khe Sanh. A few of them climbed Hill 881S again.
I can do that in my sleep any time.
I would have gone back twice, but my cancer kept coming back at the wrong times.
They took some wonderful pics, though.
It’s strange to see other people living on ground we bled for.
It makes me think the Vietnam war taught a lot of Vietnamese the Americans have the right idea.
It makes you wonder what all the fuss about Communism was in Vietnam.
Do they have “social services” in Vietnam? Free health care? A social “safety net”? Guaranteed annual income?
“Disruption” is an understatement meant to hide the true intent. Revolution followed by communism was the goal.
Anyone with any sort of economics understanding would see that you cannot fund those programs forever without bankrupting the country, hyper inflating the currency, and having the useful idiots flood the streets because their monthly government checks cannot buy a loaf of bread. The leftists will be there, waiting, with the only solution left; Destroy the constitution, confiscate property, and force us into a velvet lined cage.
Two groups who aren't slaves to anyone other than themselves.
A dread anniversary.
God bless you CG, thank you for your service.
Nuke Columbia university.
With the ascendancy of communism in the Democrat Party it is important that the right expose the “affordability” scam. The left’s solution to “affordability” is increased income redistribution through government benefits and welfare, nationalized health care and government subsidies. It is practically Cloward-Piven guaranteed annual income.
The Trump admin is doing a good job of exposing waste, fraud and abuse which is Achilles heal of socialism. Now Republicans have to go to the next step and defend capitalism as the way to lift people out of poverty and encourage life with dignity.
Thank you.
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