ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with some matters that Tom Hayden has raised about American society and politics that have the most important implications for the future, not the past, of Black men, women, and children in American ghettos. There can be no doubt Mr. Hayden is right in saying that the interests of federal government, and of national coalitions of business, labor, and churches, do not "coincide with the interests of ghetto dwellers". The federal government has been far more zealous in enforcing civil rights measures against the wishes of white majorities than it has dared to be in defying majorities on most other issues. Most of federal measures on behalf of Blacks have been gained through politics, in most instances, activist pressure politics. In a statement Mr. Hayden issues a particularly salient challenge to the social work profession. He has called for the profession's abolition because, in his view, it functions as part of the repressive machinery of American society.
