Saturday, November 03, 2018

As The 100th Anniversary Of The Armistice Day 11/11/1918 at 11 AM Commences-Some Creative Artists Who Fought/Died/Lived Through The Nightmare That Destroyed The Flower Of European And American Youth –

As The 100th Anniversary Of The Armistice Day 11/11/1918 at 11 AM Commences-Some Creative Artists Who Fought/Died/Lived Through The Nightmare That Destroyed The Flower Of European And American Youth –



By Seth Garth

A few years ago, starting in August 2014 the 100th anniversary of what would become World War I, I started a series about the cultural effects, some of them anyway, of the slaughter which mowed down the flower of the European youth including an amazing number of artists, poets, writers and other cultural figures. Those culturati left behind, those who survived the shellings, the trenches, the diseases, and what was then called “shell shock,” now more commonly Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which is duly recognized, and compensated for at least in the United States by the Veterans Administration in proven cases reacted in many different ways. Mainly, the best of them, like the ordinary dog soldiers could not go back to the same old, same old, could not revive the certitudes of the pre-war Western world with it distorted sense of decorum and went to what even today seem quirky with moderns like Dada, Minimalism, the literary sparseness of Hemingway, and so on. I had my say there in a general sense but now as we are only a few months away from the 100th anniversary of, mercifully, the armistice which effectively ended that bloodbath I want to do a retrospective of creative artistic works by those who survived the war and how those war visions got translated into their works with some commentary if the spirit moves me but this is their show-no question they earned a retrospective.


Poets’ Corner-In The Aftermath Of World War I- Poets Take A Stab At Visually Understanding A Broken World After the Bloodbath    

By Lenny Lynch


I don’t know that much about the Dada movement that swept through Europe in the early part of the 20th century in response to the creation of modern industrial society that was going full steam and the modern industrial scale death and destruction such mass scale techniques brought upon this good green earth by World War I. (Foreshadowed it is agreed by the industrial carnage at places like Cold Harbor in the American Civil War, the butchery of the Franco-Prussian War and subsequent river of blood by its own rulers of the Paris Commune and the Boer War.) The war to end all wars which came up quite short of that goal but did decimate the flower of the European youth, including vast swaths of the working class. Such massive blood-lettings for a precious few inches of soil like at the Battle of the Somme took humankind back more than a few steps when the nightmare ended-for a while with the Armistice on November 11, 1918. An event which in observing its centennial every serious artist should consider putting to the paint. And every military veteran to take heart including the descendants of those artists who laid down their heads in those muddy wretched trenches. Should reclaim the idea behind Armistice Day from the militarists who could learn no lessons except up the kill and fields of fire ratios. 


I don’t know much but this space over this centennial year of the last year of the bloody war, the armistice year 1918 which stopped the bloodletting will explore that interesting art movement which reflected the times, the bloody times. First up to step up George Groz, step up and show your stuff, show how you see the blood-lusted world after four years of burning up the fields of sweet earth Europe making acres of white-crossed places where the sullen, jaded, mocked, buried youth of Europe caught shells and breezes. Take one look Republican Automatons. Look at the urban environment, look at those tall buildings dwarfing mere mortal man and woman, taking the measure of all, making them think, the thinking ones about having to run, run hard away from what they had built, about fear fretting that to continue would bury men and women without names, without honor either.         




Look too at honor denied, look at the handless hand, the legless leg, the good German flag, the Kaiser’s bloody medal, hard against the urban sky. The shaky republic, the republic without honor, shades of the murders of the honest revolutionary Liebknecht walking across Potsdam Plaza to go say no, no to the war budget and grab a hallowed cell the only place for a man of the people in those hard times and gallant Luxemburg, the rose of the revolution, mixed in with thoughts of renegade burned out soldiers ready for anything. Weimar, weak-kneed and bleeding,  would shake and one George Groz would know that, would draw this picture that would tell the real story of why there was a Dada-da-da-da-da movement to chronicle the times if not to fight on the barricades against that beast from which we had to run.


Once Again The Legend-Slayer Cometh-This Time In Old Mexico-A Retort To Si Lannon’s Film Review Of “The Mask Of Zorro-A Commentary

Once Again The Legend-Slayer Cometh-This Time In Old Mexico-A Retort To Si Lannon’s Film Review Of “The Mask Of Zorro-A Commentary  

By Will Bradley

If this legend-slaying that I have been asked to perform ever since I debunked the modern legend of one Sherlock Holmes, real name Lawrence Livermore, in battle with old time film reviewer Seth Garth who while as wary of the “fake news” legend of Mr. Livermore as I was, nevertheless got caught up in some semi-homophobic weirdo scene trying to debunk the legend via his and Doc Watson, assumed real name although the name Nigel Bruce has been bandied about of late, membership in the Homintern and their being the masterminds behind all the troubles in Merry Olde England running guns and everything else out of Baker Street and at the Black Swan Tavern on the docks. Thus I got this assignment almost by default since site manager Greg Green now is very aware that anytime some stumblebum legend comes across his desk in film or book form I am the go-to person to utterly destroy whatever nonsense is afoot. (I will also take a shot at art but feel less confident there since the poor buggers who work that trade really believe these legends and spent a ton of time putting paint or chalk to canvas)  

My credentials for today’s debunking of poor deluded Si Lannon’s review of his childhood hero, a guy, a Spanish guy but not from Spain but out in the wilds of California back in the 1800s named Zorro are starting to pile up. The occasion this time a paean to one Zorro, no known last name portrayed in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro and played by either Anthony Hopkins whom I thought had died years ago from withered old age and hubris or Antonio Banderas, take your pick since it is the legend I am smashing not the actors or plot-line of the greedy producers. We live in a funny age, an age where on the one hand a lot of people will believe anything that comes on the television spewed by any dingbat with time on his or her hands and on the other everything has to be dissected by some authority, some college deadbeat who just happened to specialize in whatever the flavor of the month subject was afloat.

Therefore I am duty-bound to present my credentials since at this publication we have since lovely Greg Green arrived to head the day to day operations bent toward that latter practice mentioned above. I have already mentioned my documented (and wearisome having to wade through twelve or was fourteen Holmes films) debunking of the British parlor pink amateur private detective formerly known as Sherlock Holmes and now fully exposed as a guy named Livermore, then recently escaped from Darthmoor Prison. In a way that was kids’ stuff since I was dueling Seth Garth who had I admit had some insights into the psycho world of Holmes and his crowd. On my own though I was able to sniff out the rancorous fake legend of one Johnny Cielo who supposedly was a nearly legendary aviator when that profession meant danger and short lives. Turned out this half-baked junkie was making his stuff up as he went along and some desperate newspaperman down in Miami was gullible enough to believe he had screen siren Rita Hayworth in one arm and guns for Fidel Castro out in the hills of Cuba in the other. (That Rita tag not a hard thing to see guys would lie about since she really was a looker as they used to say even to a twenties something guy.)        

A couple of major coups were ripping the mask off of Robin Hood and his so-called band of Merry Men, really nothing but highway robbers and drunken sots who had the “rep” of robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Bullshit and as hard as it was since the documentation I needed was from church and estate files going back to the 12th century I proved the guy was among the greediest guys in the English realm especially when his sponsor Richard the Lion-Hearted got back from the crusades and gave him whatever he wanted. Smashed like a ripe pumpkin. The other major one and I will stop there since I am started to get heated up about this clown Zorro was the so-called king of love then and leave them, another Spanish dude except this guy actually in Spain, for a while anyway until they deported him or he put himself in exile after disgracing himself before a lot of young virginal convent girls who were suffering from enclosure hysteria and hormonal imbalance and made the whole thing up and created a hell of a lot of work for the Inquisition before some Maria something confessed that she was in heat, something like that.

Look, if you read Si Lannon’s review you could hardly keep a dry eye when he explained that his own precious mother was not the Italian of the neighborhood acceptable ethnic group (if just barely in the Irish Town Acre) but Spanish, Mexican and was keeping that “on the low.” Nobody, no reasonable person could fault him for a certain adult pride in his heritage. He will get no argument from me on that score but what brings me to the boiling point and fast is his cringing fawning of this dead-beat bracero with no last name, and as far as I could discover no address, in California or Mexico. In the early 1800s after Mexico righteously kicked dear mother, madre Spain out of its lands there was still plenty of work to be done. The poor landless peasants were land hungry (hell they still are today to no avail with the decimations of globalization and bum treaties like that old NAFTA rape) and were getting nothing but dust and arroyos. Anybody could have come along and gone with that eternal gag- steal from the rich give to the poor and found a receptive audience. Robin Hood got away with it for centuries before I exposed the bloody bastard for the fake he was.

This Zorro business was of the same cloth, tattered cloth. This guy, this Senor Rios, or whatever moniker he was using depending on what part of California he was working started wearing black, all black and talking tough to the coppers when those land hungry peasants were around. Started calling himself Zorro, the chosen one. Here is his gag though, or part of it. He worked these peasants into a lather, told them he would get land grants and whatever else they were clamoring for but he needed money to raise an army to fight the greedy Dons who did own everything including those braceros. They forked up, forked up plenty and off he went. Friends, one of the great things about breaking up the more modern legends is that there is a paper trail, especially among the Spanish churchman (remember they were the cadre for the Inquisition in an earlier time). A paper trail not easily findable in the Robin Hood and Don Juan cases. After exhaustive study and research I can report that those poor benighted peasants were once again gulled by a passing grifter- a guy named Zorro who never even existed. That Senor Rios on the other hand became one of the wealthiest landowners in California before the Republic. I will put my knife back in my sheath for any day now that I have done what I needed to do.            
       
  

Once Again, The Girl With The Bette Davis Eyes-Bette Davis’ The Golden Arrow” (1936)-A Film Review

Once Again, The Girl With The Bette Davis Eyes-Bette Davis’ The Golden Arrow” (1936)-A Film Review



DVD Review

By Senior Film Critic Sandy Salmon 

The Golden Arrow, starring Bette Davis, George Brent, 1936

Of course when I mention as in the title above Bette Davis’ eyes I am not considering the song made famous by Kim Carnes Bette Davis Eyes but the real Bette Davis and she is the girl with those dewy eyes I am referring to. Here is something funny, actually something of a confession for a film critic who has in his long career reviewed many films like the one under review here The Golden Arrow, I had never seen or certainly I do not remember from childhood a Bette Davis movie before I hear folk-singer/songwriter Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row in 1965 where he sang as part of the lyrics “and puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis-style” and that got me intrigued about her old time black and white movies appeal (although whether she ever really put her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis-style is still an open question). That interest got me doing as my old friend and colleague endlessly reminds when I follow his lead a “run” on her films most notably All About Eve. It also got me interested in her biography enough to find out that she was born in Lowell, Ma about fifty miles from where Sam Lowell grew up the same town where Jack Kerouac came of age (and fled) before making his big dent on his (and my) generations with the timeless On The Road which Sam, book critic Zack James and I have spent the last few month commemorating the 60th anniversary of with various appreciations. Must be something about that mill-town Merrimack River cascading down the rushes.            

But enough of biography and old-time lyrical references except to mention that looking back in my files (both old-time hard copy and work processor saved which tells the tale of how long I have been writing this stuff for a living) I did a number of reviews, six, of Bette Davis movies back in 1965-1966 when I was doing that “run” and have not done anymore since then until now. The “now” a result of Sam Lowell in his role of film critic emeritus (he hypes it up to film editor but I will let that pass out of our old-time friendship) deciding that he didn’t want to review the assigned by Pete Markin The Golden Arrow to concentrate on finishing up his “run” on a series of B-film noir movies produced in the 1950s by the English Hammer Production Company and foisted the assignment on me. I am not complaining or only a little but I have a feeling that I will also be on a “run” with Ms. Davis’ long list of screen credits.    

Mention of a long and illustrious career brings the inevitable question of what was good and what was not in that career. I have long ago under Sam Lowell’s guidance I will admit given up on understanding why perfectly good actors, and Ms. Davis is one with two Oscars and ten nominations up her sleeve, succumb to less worthy film scripts. Not that The Golden Arrow is horrible quite the contrary it is a nice slim little romantic comedy but it hardly let’s Ms. Davis show her stuff, show those Bette Davis eyes to good effect.

I might as well give you, as Sam Lowell made a long career out of saying, “the skinny” on this slender piece and you decide. Daisy, the role played by Ms. Davis, is a high-end society heiress who is whiling away the hours until the next best thing comes along avoiding newspaper reporters like the plague, like seven plagues. Along comes “penny a word” down at the heels reporter Johnny Jones, played by George Brent last seen in this space when my associate Alden Riley reviewed In This Our Life when the affable Brent was given the heave-ho no go engagement by Ms. Davis so that she could run off with her sister’s husband, to try for an interview under mistaken circumstances.


Despite Johnny’s horrible but honorable profession and his personal ethics (he will not publish the results of their conversation) Daisy likes him. Likes him enough that she proposes a deal-they get married so she can avoid the paparazzi and gold-diggers after her so-called fortune and he can write that great American novel he had in him and which is thwarted by his struggle for daily bread working the newspaper gag. He buys in. Except he doesn’t buy into Daisy’s board of directors who want to control his actions. Rebellion takes the form of dating another high society dame to fend off the feelings he has for Daisy. Daisy who seemed indifferent suddenly realizes that she loves the poor bugger penniless reporter. What to do. Well what to do was using her feminine wiles to get him jealous. And in the end when Johnny finds out that his Miss Daisy is not rich but just employed an advertising ploy to sell soap they unite and head off into the sunset. If you only watch one Bette Davis film this is not the one. After re-watching that All About Eve that I had reviewed many years ago watch that. If you have time on your hands then watch this one.                

***From The Archives Of "Women And Revolution"-Norma Rae":A Review

Click on the headline to link to an American Left History entry on this film and mention of  the real Norma Rae (Chrystal Lee Sutton) who passed away a couple of years ago. 

Markin comment:

The following is an article from an archival issue of Women and Revolution, Spring 1979, that may have some historical interest for old "new leftists", perhaps, and well as for younger militants interested in various cultural and social questions that intersect the class struggle. Or for those just interested in a Marxist position on a series of social questions that are thrust upon us by the vagaries of bourgeois society. I will be posting more such articles from the back issues of Women and Revolution during Women's History Month and periodically throughout the year.

*******
"Norma Rae": A Review by Ellie Raitt

"Norma Rae" is an often gripping story of a proletarian heroine. Set in a small Southern town dominated by a textile mill, the film depicts the arrival of a union organizer, Reuben Warshovsky (played by Ron Liebman), and the unfolding of his relationship with Norma Rae (Sally Field), a 31-year-old widow with two small children who works in the mill along with both her parents. Their efforts to organize a union among the socially conservative mill workers form the plot of the movie, but its substance is less concerned with this potentially explosive subject than with Norma Rae's discovery of her own inner resources through her deepening commitment to social justice as expressed in trade unionism.


The use of the political theme as a backdrop for exploring Norma Rae's evolution from victim to "free woman" is an implicit attack on "me decade" feminism which poses introspection, subjectivity and therapy as the road to liberation. So far so good. The problem is that wherever the film touches politics, the politics are fundamentally false. The filmmakers have worked hard to achieve a documentary effect in the in-plant photography, but the political world of the plant is a liberal fiction. The bosses (and cops) in this Southern company town have profound respect for the law and never overstep its bounds; nothing worse than a traffic ticket ever happens to Reuben Warshovsky. But the central problem is the film's view of trade unionism as a kind of liberal ideology divorced from any hint of class struggle. There is no need for picket lines involved in the building of unions, only legal briefs because behind the union stands that well-known "friend of the working man," the federal government.


Norma Rae is an engaging character. Bright, pretty, spirited, she is also deeply frustrated, lacking an outlet for her energy and her anger. Since the death of her husband in a barroom brawl some years before, she has lived with her parents and her children (one of whom is illegitimate). Her sex life is a series of unsatisfying affairs with casual lovers who use and abuse her. At her job, her friends view her promiscuity with envious disapproval while the company calls her "the largest mouth" because of her complaints about working conditions. In an effort to buy her off, the bosses promote her to "spot-checker," which means following the other workers around with a stopwatch. Despite the pay raise, Norma Rae gives up "spot-checking" after her friends stop speaking to her.

Meanwhile, Reuben Warshovsky has arrived in town. Norma Rae meets him when he comes to the door of her house and tells her father, "I'd like to get me a room with a mill family.... I want to get to know some mill hands close up." Rebuffed, he sets up shop at the Golden Cherry Motel, where he encounters Norma Rae en route to an assignation with her current boyfriend.


The latter is your classic male chauvinist pig. She tells him not to expect her next time he is passing through. He calls her names, demands, "What the hell are you good for anyway?" and slaps her. As she hurries past Reuben's door with a bloody nose, he befriends her with a kind word and an icepack. Norma Rae's platonic friendship with Reuben is to become the catalyst for her transformation. They meet again at the local Softball game, where Norma Rae is hassling with another former lover (and Reuben is spitting out his hot dog with the remark that it's "not Nathan's"). She asks him what he thinks of her and he replies, "I think you're too smart for what's happening to you."

How you respond to Reuben Warshovsky probably will depend on your tolerance for the self-mocking Jewish intellectual stereotype. Reuben is a self-avowed hypochondriac who talks about his mother more than about his girlfriend (a "lefto labor lawyer") and consumes club soda at the local bar. When Reuben and Norma Rae take to the back roads one Saturday to proselytize for the union, Reuben trips and falls in cow dung; later, making conversation with a group of old men whittling on the porch, he cuts his finger.

Like the socialist professor hero of "The Organizer," Reuben Warshovsky is a culturally alien "outside agitator" whose success depends on channeling the class instinct of a local militant to create a workers' leader. Yet in transforming Norma Rae into "our own Mother Jones," Reuben never talks politics to her; of his massive pile of books, he lends her only some Dylan Thomas poetry. She becomes a class-struggle heroine without ever articulating more than the liberal rhetoric of democracy and self-help: "The union's the only way we're gonna get our own voice and make ourselves any better."

At the first union organizing meeting, held at the local black church and attended by a racially mixed audience of about 30 mill workers, Reuben comes on more like a liberal-integrationist preacher from the old civil rights movement than a union organizer. He begins:

"On October 8, 1970, my grandfather, Isaac Abraham Warshovsky, died in his sleep in New York. The following Friday his funeral was held. My mother and father attended. My two uncles from Brooklyn were there. And my Aunl Minnie came up from Florida. Also present were 852 members of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers...also members of his family. They had fought battles with him and bound up the wounds of battle. They had earned bread together and had broken it together. When they spoke, they spoke with one voice, and they were heard. And they were black and they were white. And they were Irish and they were Polish. And they were Catholics and they were Jews. And they were one. That's what a union is: one."

He goes on to tell the workers that textile is the only unorganized industry in the country and therefore the company can deny "your health, a decent wage, a fit company. The first day that he turns up at the plant gate to give out leaflets, he has no real conversation with any of the workers (except to ask Norma Rae if her nose is better), but when the company guards bait him, Reuben is ready with a snappy answer: "We already got six of you boss men in civil contempt. Would you care to make it seven?" In the filmmakers' view, union organizing is clearly seen as an adjunct of the legal profession.


In his first confrontation with the company, Reuben arrives at the mill one morning to inspect the employees' bulletin boards. However bumbling he may be in private life, he is in his element now:

"The federal government of the United States in federal court order No. 7778 states the following: The union has the right to inspect the bulletin boards once a week to verify in person that its notices "are not being ripped down."

Gloating that "no union organizer or known union member has been inside the fences of this plant for more than ten years," he proceeds through the plant escorted by management. When the bosses refuse to move the union notice to eye-level, Reuben aggressively responds: "Why do you guys pull this horseshit? Now I got to go to the phone, call my lawyer and get him on your ass." The bosses, seething with rage but trembling at the prospect of a lawsuit, back down.


Norma Rae hesitates before joining the union; she is afraid she may lose her job. "No way," says Reuben. "You can wear a union button as big as a frisbee when you go to work.... There's not a goddamn thing they can do to touch you." Subsequently, when she has been fired and dragged screaming to the police station, he tells her:

"It goes with the job. I saw a pregnant woman get punched in the stomach on a picket line. I saw a boy of 16 get shot in the back.... And you just got your feet wet."

She quickly becomes the spearhead of the organizing. When the local minister refuses to let her use his church for an integrated union meeting, she holds it in her home. She organizes with energy and characteristic personalism: "Will you read one of these for me please," she entreats one man; "Now Doris/' she says, "I want you to come on down to Golden Cherry and bring your peanut butter pie." Putting in long hours on clerical work in Warshovsky's motel room, she jeopardizes her relationship with her new husband (Beau Bridges).

Finally the company hits back, posting a racially provocative notice:"You black employees are being told that by going into this union en masse you can dominate it and control it as you may see fit—"
Reuben is ecstatic: "I love it when these pricks get mean. We can take legal action." He insists that if Norma Rae cannot steal the notice, she copy it down word-for word. The company orders her to stop and finally demands she leave the plant. She refuses. When the security guards arrive, she scrawls the word "UNION" on a piece of cardboard and stands up on a table in the middle of the weaving room. The scene is charged with extraordinary power as the workers, one by one, turn off their machines in a spontaneous work action. The silence in the usually deafening factory when the last machine is down is the film's only hint that unions can be built through the concerted militant action of the workers.


But the movie can do nothing with it. Norma Rae, fired, leaves the mill. The film attempts to defuse the tension of the work stoppage with a scene of her struggling against the burly cops as they stuff her into the patrol car and haul her off to the station.

The film's climax, as befits its view of unionism, is the bargaining election. The workers wait anxiously in the heat as the ballots are counted. When the vote is announced—373 for the company, 425 for the union— pandemonium breaks loose. Outside the gate, Reuben and Norma Rae hear the triumphant chant of "Union, Union." Reuben knows his job is done. He bids Norma Rae a fond farewell ("Be happy. Be well."), gets in his car and drives away. At the point that a real struggle over wages and conditions should begin, the movie ends.

The ending, though unsatisfying, is not so unrealistic. In 1963 the Textile Workers Union embarked on a drive to organize J.P. Stevens, the country's second largest textile firm. In August 1974 the union won its first bargaining election, in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. But the workers there are still working without a contract.

"Norma Rae" is most engaging as a portrait of a very appealing working woman of character and courage. As a film it has its flaws, most notably its sentimentality, some idiocies of dialogue and an old-fashioned sharp separation between sexual relationships and "pure" friendship. Politically it is a cruel joke, presenting the government rather than class struggle as the mechanism for trade-union organizing. To its credit, it treats the working people with sympathy and it presents social involvement rather than self-absorption (a la "An Unmarried Woman") as the means whereby the heroine discovers strength and purpose."

*The Greensboro Massacre 1979-Never Forget

Click on title to link to a YouTube film clip of some of the events of that day in 1979 when various right-wing paramilitary thugs murdered five communist workers.

Commentary

This is the 30th Anniversary of the heinous crimes of 1979 against communist workers in Greensboro, North Carolina

This is a repost of last year's commemorative commentary. The struggle remains the same. As does the message- Never Forget!

REMEMBER SLAIN LABOR MILITANTS-CESAR CAUCE, MICHAEL NATHAN, BILL SAMPSON, SANDI SMITH AND JIM WALLER




For those too young to remember or who unfortunately have forgotten the incident commemorated here this is a capsule summary of what occurred on that bloody day:

On November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina, five anti-racist activists and union organizers, supporters of the Communist Workers Party (CWP), were fatally gunned down by Ku Klux Klan and Nazi fascists. Nine carloads of Klansmen and Nazis drove up to a black housing project-the gathering place for an anti-Klan march organized by the CWP. In broad daylight, the fascists pulled out their weapons and unleashed an 88-second fusillade that was captured on television cameras. They then drove off, leaving the dead and dying in pools of blood. From the outset, the Klan/Nazi killers were aided and abetted by the government, from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent who helped train the killers and plot the assassination to the "former" FBI informer who rode shotgun in the motorcade of death and the Greensboro cop who brought up the rear. The five militants listed above died as a result. The Greensboro Klan/Nazis literally got away with murder, acquitted twice by all-white juries.

This writer has recently been raked over the coals by some leftists who were appalled that he called for a no free speech platform for Nazis and fascists (see below) and argued that labor should mobilize its forces and run these vermin off the streets whenever they raise their heads. Despite recent efforts to blur the lines of the heinous nature of and political motivation for these murders in Greensboro by some kind of truth and reconciliation process militant leftists should etch in their brains the reality of the Klan/Nazis. There is nothing to debate with this kind. The niceties of parliamentary democracy have no place in a strategy to defeat these bastards. The Greensboro massacre is prime evidence that any other way is suicidal for militants. No more Germany, 1933's. No more Greensboro, 1979's. Never Forget Greensboro.

REPOST FROM SEPTEMBER 15, 2006

In a recent blog (dated, September 4, 2006) this writer mentioned that one of the Klan groups in this country held a demonstration at the Gettysburg National Cemetery over the Labor Day 2006 weekend around a list of demands that included bringing the troops home from Iraq in order to patrol the borders. Symbols mean a lot in politics and the notion that Klansmen were permitted to demonstrate at a key symbol in the fight to end slavery and preserve the union raised my temperature more than a little. As I said then Gettysburg is hallowed ground fought and paid for in great struggle and much blood. At that time the writer posed the question of what, if any, opposition to the demonstration leftists had put together to run these hooded fools out of town. In response, this writer was raked over the coals for calling for an organized fight by labor to nip these elements in the bud. Why? Apparently some people believe that running the fools out of town would have violated the Klan's free speech rights. Something is desperately wrong here about both the nature of free speech and the nature of the Klan/fascist menace.

First, let us be clear, militant leftists defend every democratic right as best we can. I have often argued in this space that to a great extend militant leftists are the only active defenders of such rights- on the streets where it counts. That said, the parameters of such rights, as all democratic rights, cannot trump the needs of the class struggle. In short, militant leftist have no interest in defending or extending the rights of fascists to fill the air with gibberish. Now that may offend some American Civil Liberties Union-types but any self-respecting militant knows that such a position is right is his or her 'gut'.

In the final analysis we will be fighting the Klan-types on the streets and the issue will no be rights of free expression (except maybe in defense of ours) but the survival of our organizations. A short glance at history is to the point.
One of the great tragedies of the Western labor movement was the defeat and destruction of the German labor movement in the wake of the fascist Hitler's rise to power in 1933. In the final analysis that destruction was brought on by the fatally erroneous policies of both the German Social Democratic and Communists parties. Neither party, willfully, saw the danger in time and compounded that error when refused to call for or establish a united front of all labor organizations to confront and destroy Hitler and his storm troopers. We know the result. And it was not necessary. Moreover, Hitler's organization at one time (in the mid-1920's) was small and unimportant like today's Klan/Nazi threat. But that does not mean that under certain circumstances that could not change. And that, my friends, is exactly the point.

*The Greensboro Massacre 1979- The 25th Anniversary -Never Forget

Click on title to link to a YouTube film clip of some of the events of that day in 1979 when various right-wing paramilitary thugs murdered five communist workers.

Commentary

This is the 30th Anniversary of the heinous crimes of 1979 against communist workers in Greensboro, North Carolina

This is a repost of last year's commemorative commentary. The struggle remains the same. As does the message- Never Forget!

REMEMBER SLAIN LABOR MILITANTS-CESAR CAUCE, MICHAEL NATHAN, BILL SAMPSON, SANDI SMITH AND JIM WALLER


For those too young to remember or who unfortunately have forgotten the incident commemorated here this is a capsule summary of what occurred on that bloody day:

On November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina, five anti-racist activists and union organizers, supporters of the Communist Workers Party (CWP), were fatally gunned down by Ku Klux Klan and Nazi fascists. Nine carloads of Klansmen and Nazis drove up to a black housing project-the gathering place for an anti-Klan march organized by the CWP. In broad daylight, the fascists pulled out their weapons and unleashed an 88-second fusillade that was captured on television cameras. They then drove off, leaving the dead and dying in pools of blood. From the outset, the Klan/Nazi killers were aided and abetted by the government, from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent who helped train the killers and plot the assassination to the "former" FBI informer who rode shotgun in the motorcade of death and the Greensboro cop who brought up the rear. The five militants listed above died as a result. The Greensboro Klan/Nazis literally got away with murder, acquitted twice by all-white juries.

This writer has recently been raked over the coals by some leftists who were appalled that he called for a no free speech platform for Nazis and fascists (see below) and argued that labor should mobilize its forces and run these vermin off the streets whenever they raise their heads. Despite recent efforts to blur the lines of the heinous nature of and political motivation for these murders in Greensboro by some kind of truth and reconciliation process militant leftists should etch in their brains the reality of the Klan/Nazis. There is nothing to debate with this kind. The niceties of parliamentary democracy have no place in a strategy to defeat these bastards. The Greensboro massacre is prime evidence that any other way is suicidal for militants. No more Germany, 1933's. No more Greensboro, 1979's. Never Forget Greensboro.

REPOST FROM SEPTEMBER 15, 2006

In a recent blog (dated, September 4, 2006) this writer mentioned that one of the Klan groups in this country held a demonstration at the Gettysburg National Cemetery over the Labor Day 2006 weekend around a list of demands that included bringing the troops home from Iraq in order to patrol the borders. Symbols mean a lot in politics and the notion that Klansmen were permitted to demonstrate at a key symbol in the fight to end slavery and preserve the union raised my temperature more than a little. As I said then Gettysburg is hallowed ground fought and paid for in great struggle and much blood. At that time the writer posed the question of what, if any, opposition to the demonstration leftists had put together to run these hooded fools out of town. In response, this writer was raked over the coals for calling for an organized fight by labor to nip these elements in the bud. Why? Apparently some people believe that running the fools out of town would have violated the Klan's free speech rights. Something is desperately wrong here about both the nature of free speech and the nature of the Klan/fascist menace.

First, let us be clear, militant leftists defend every democratic right as best we can. I have often argued in this space that to a great extend militant leftists are the only active defenders of such rights- on the streets where it counts. That said, the parameters of such rights, as all democratic rights, cannot trump the needs of the class struggle. In short, militant leftist have no interest in defending or extending the rights of fascists to fill the air with gibberish. Now that may offend some American Civil Liberties Union-types but any self-respecting militant knows that such a position is right is his or her 'gut'.

In the final analysis we will be fighting the Klan-types on the streets and the issue will no be rights of free expression (except maybe in defense of ours) but the survival of our organizations. A short glance at history is to the point.
One of the great tragedies of the Western labor movement was the defeat and destruction of the German labor movement in the wake of the fascist Hitler's rise to power in 1933. In the final analysis that destruction was brought on by the fatally erroneous policies of both the German Social Democratic and Communists parties. Neither party, willfully, saw the danger in time and compounded that error when refused to call for or establish a united front of all labor organizations to confront and destroy Hitler and his storm troopers. We know the result. And it was not necessary. Moreover, Hitler's organization at one time (in the mid-1920's) was small and unimportant like today's Klan/Nazi threat. But that does not mean that under certain circumstances that could not change. And that, my friends, is exactly the point.

11/03 Movie: Cuba, a Success Story by Alvin Foster

July 26th Coalition<info@july26.org>
Via  Act-MA <act-ma-bounces@act-ma.org>
We would like to let you know about this movie by Al Foster is a long
time supporter of the July 26th Coalition.


*Saturday, November 3 | 3:00 - 4:30 PM*
*Cuba, a Success Story*
Alvin Foster
“Cuba, a Success Story” is the title of the 1.5-hour video. The video is
a culmination of my six-week stay in Cuba, and driving cross-country
from Havana to Santiago. Cuba is a success story because it thrives even
after the longest, sustained boycott of a country in world history. In a
video walk-through, the rich cultural histories of Havana, Santiago,
Trinidad other cities are exhibited and the importance of the revolution
is explained. A classical concert inside the Basilica, the Havana
International Jazz Festival, and a visit to the arts displayed in the
F.A.C. in a small way portray he importance of the arts in Cuba.


550 Massachusetts Ave., 2nd Fl, Cambridge, MA 02139 |
www.centerformarxisteducation.org
---

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After Charlottesvile -The Greensboro Massacre 1979- Never Forget

After Charlottesvile -The Greensboro Massacre 1979- Never Forget




A YouTube film clip about the events of that day in 1979 when right wing thugs in Greensboro, North Carolina murdered five communist workers.

COMMENTARY

This is a repost of last year's commemorative commentary. The struggle remains the same.


REMEMBER SLAIN LABOR MILITANTS-CESAR CAUCE, MICHAEL NATHAN, BILL SAMPSON SANDI SMITH AND JIM WALLER






For those too young to remember or who unfortunately have forgotten the incident commemorated here this is a capsule summary of what occurred on that bloody day:

On November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina, five anti-racist activists and union organizers, supporters of the Communist Workers Party (CWP), were fatally gunned down by Ku Klux Klan and Nazi fascists. Nine carloads of Klansmen and Nazis drove up to a black housing project-the gathering place for an anti-Klan march organized by the CWP. In broad daylight, the fascists pulled out their weapons and unleashed an 88-second fusillade that was captured on television cameras. They then drove off, leaving the dead and dying in pools of blood. From the outset, the Klan/Nazi killers were aided and abetted by the government, from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent who helped train the killers and plot the assassination to the "former" FBI informer who rode shotgun in the motorcade of death and the Greensboro cop who brought up the rear. The five militants listed above died as a result. The Greensboro Klan/Nazis literally got away with murder, acquitted twice by all-white juries.

This writer has recently been raked over the coals by some leftists who were appalled that he called for a no free speech platform for Nazis and fascists (see below) and argued that labor should mobilize its forces and run these vermin off the streets whenever they raise their heads. Despite recent efforts to blur the lines of the heinous nature of and political motivation for these murders in Greensboro by some kind of truth and reconciliation process militant leftists should etch in their brains the reality of the Klan/Nazis. There is nothing to debate with this kind. The niceties of parliamentary democracy have no place in a strategy to defeat these bastards. The Greensboro massacre is prime evidence that any other way is suicidal for militants. No more Germany, 1933's. No more Greensboro, 1979's. Never Forget Greensboro.

REPOST FROM SEPTEMBER 15, 2006

In a recent blog (dated, September 4, 2006) this writer mentioned that one of the Klan groups in this country held a demonstration at the Gettysburg National Cemetery over the Labor Day 2006 weekend around a list of demands that included bringing the troops home from Iraq in order to patrol the borders. Symbols mean a lot in politics and the notion that Klansmen were permitted to demonstrate at a key symbol in the fight to end slavery and preserve the union raised my temperature more than a little. As I said then Gettysburg is hallowed ground fought and paid for in great struggle and much blood. At that time the writer posed the question of what, if any, opposition to the demonstration leftists had put together to run these hooded fools out of town. In response, this writer was raked over the coals for calling for an organized fight by labor to nip these elements in the bud. Why? Apparently some people believe that running the fools out of town would have violated the Klan's free speech rights. Something is desperately wrong here about both the nature of free speech and the nature of the Klan/fascist menace.

First, let us be clear, militant leftists defend every democratic right as best we can. I have often argued in this space that to a great extend militant leftists are the only active defenders of such rights- on the streets where it counts. That said, the parameters of such rights, as all democratic rights, cannot trump the needs of the class struggle. In short, militant leftist have no interest in defending or extending the rights of fascists to fill the air with gibberish. Now that may offend some American Civil Liberties Union-types but any self-respecting militant knows that such a position is right is his or her 'gut'.

In the final analysis we will be fighting the Klan-types on the streets and the issue will no be rights of free expression (except maybe in defense of ours) but the survival of our organizations. A short glance at history is to the point.
One of the great tragedies of the Western labor movement was the defeat and destruction of the German labor movement in the wake of the fascist Hitler's rise to power in 1933. In the final analysis that destruction was brought on by the fatally erroneous policies of both the German Social Democratic and Communists parties. Neither party, willfully, saw the danger in time and compounded that error when refused to call for or establish a united front of all labor organizations to confront and destroy Hitler and his storm troopers. We know the result. And it was not necessary. Moreover, Hitler's organization at one time (in the mid-1920's) was small and unimportant like today's Klan/Nazi threat. But that does not mean that under certain circumstances that could not change. And that, my friends, is exactly the point.

Views From The Left-November 2018 CME Events Schedule

Center for Marxist Education<centermarxisteducation@gmail.com>
Hello friends of the CME,
We have some exciting events coming up this month, which can also be viewed
anytime on our website at www.centerformarxisteducation.org
<http://www.centerformarxisteducation.org/eventschedule.html>.

November 2018
*Saturday, November 3 | 3:00 - 4:30 PM*
*Cuba, a Success Story*
Alvin Foster
“Cuba, a Success Story” is the title of the 1.5-hour video. The video is a
culmination of my six-week stay in Cuba, and driving cross-country from
Havana to Santiago. Cuba is a success story because it thrives even after
the longest, sustained boycott of a country in world history. In a video
walk-through, the rich cultural histories of Havana, Santiago, Trinidad
other cities are exhibited and the importance of the revolution is
explained. A classical concert inside the Basilica, the Havana
International Jazz Festival, and a visit to the arts displayed in the
F.A.C. in a small way portray he importance of the arts in Cuba.
*Saturday, November 10 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM*
*Legacies of the Russian Revolution*
John Womack and Wadi'h Halabi
The Russian Revolution 101 years ago was the greatest single step forward
in the entire history of humanity. Although ultimately overturned, it has
left many legacies -- in experience and actual organizations -- with a
crucial role in advancing humanity's transition to socialism and for
revolutionary optimism today. Join historian John Womack and the CPUSA's
Wadi'h Halabi in this important discussion.
[image: Picture]
*Saturday, November 17 | 2:00 – 5:00 PM*
*Book Sale Fundraiser – Cash or Check Only*
The CME is another hosting a Book Sale Fundraiser. There are no prices –
it’s donation only. Please bring your cash and dive into a gold mine of
books on topics ranging from emerging socialist ideas in the French
Revolution to decolonization, and the age of mass incarceration.

*Sunday, November 18 | 2:00 - 4:00 PM*
*Question 1 and the Struggle for a Just Health Care System*
Sandy Eaton, Mass.Nurses Association, Wadi'h Halabi, CPUSA
The US spends more on health care than any other country. Yet by almost all
measures, the outcome is worse than many countries that spend a fraction as
much. Prevention and public health are neglected. Millions are going
without necessary health care. Bankruptcy often follows a single health
emergency. Join us for a discussion of Question 1 and the struggle for a
just health care system.
*Help us pay the rent! *You can easily donate online
<http://www.centerformarxisteducation.org/donate.html> or mail your check
to: Center for Marxist Education, P.O. Box 390459, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Make checks payable to BookMarx.
*Looking for a meeting space?* The Center welcomes organizations and
individuals from a wide range of progressive viewpoints. Reserving the
space is easy - just submit a simple Reservation Request
<http://www.centerformarxisteducation.org/reserve-the-center.html>.
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WE ARE LOOKING FOR PARTNERS AND INDIVIDUALS TO JOIN US ON THE VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE OF RACE IN BOSTON

The New Democracy Coalition of Massachusetts<thenewdemocracycoalition@gmail.com>
To  undisclosed-recipients:;   Blind copy  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  

ndc logo-0123.jpg 
Dear Leaders/Organizers,

       THE NEW DEMOCRACY COALITION represents a growing effort in Boston and across the nation around addressing racial reconciliation in the city of Boston through collaborative engagement, public education and non-violent challenge.  As the Boston Globe demonstrated through a series of articles about race in Boston last December, our city is starkly divided along racial lines.  The plain facts of the matter are that if you are black in Boston you are more likely to be poorer, less educated, less healthy and less safe than your white counterparts.  We believe that we, as a city, can be better than this.

Last year a number of community-based organizations and clergy formed what is now called the Faneuil Hall Race + Reconciliation Project.  Its goal is to raise the public’s awareness -- especially among our young people -- about the possibility of substantively addressing the racial divide in our city through dialogue and reparation. We believe that justice is achieved by creating what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King called the beloved community.

We are writing because we need your help, your impassioned voice.  We have been asking the mayor of our city and members of the Boston City Council for a hearing about the feasibility of changing the name of Faneuil Hall because it is a city owned building that is connected to slavery. Research tells us that Faneuil Hall was constructed through the sale of a young black boy. We believe Faneuil Hall stands as a metaphor in our city around which people to come together in deep and engaging racial dialogue.  Through dialogue, we can heal.  But our elected officials have refused to host a hearing.

So, on Saturday, November 10 at 12 noon concerned Bostonians will convene at the doors of Faneuil Hall in what we a calling a “SpeakOut” for justice and reconciliation.  We recently were granted a permit for this event. Will you join us as one of the speakers that we are asking to make a 1 Minute statement on the importance of an extended racial dialogue in Boston around Faneuil Hall?  As an leader, you can craft your remarks around the following themes:

Boston residents deserve the right to have their voices heard about the city’s racial past in order to address its future. This should be accomplished through a citywide, City Council Meeting.
The coming and current generation of Bostonians must know the full history of Boston as a matter of civic inclusion and as a prelude to creative, non-violent interaction.
Failing to include the history of black and Native Americans, Asians, Latino and those who have been historically marginalized in Boston’s history is undemocratic.

Will you please join us a a special guest at this event to “SpeakOut” about the importance of public education around race in or for the city to address racial inequity?  And will you help spread the word and invite your network? I hope so.  [SEE MORE INFORMATION BELOW].

Sincerely,
Kevin C.Peterson
Kevin C. Peterson, Director
Founder, Faneuil Hall Race + Reconciliation Project

PLEASE SEE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT OUR EFFORTS BELOW.


Blck speak out pdf JP.jpg 


Please find news links and collaterals connected to the black-led boycott of Faneuil Hall in Boston.  

Boycotters are pushing to change the name of Faneuil Hall in Boston.  Faneuil Hall is an iconic tourist destination spot for national and international visitors to the City of Boston.  It is also associated with the American slave trade.

Black Bostonians have been urging Mayor Matin Walsh to host hearings to consider renaming Faneuil Hall -- which was constructed with monies derived from the sale of a slave boy.

Mayor Walsh has refused to hold hearing on the feasibility, which has led organizers to call for a boycott at Faneuil Hall.

Last week boycotters staged Civil Rights Movement style "sit in" at Faneuil Hall.

Boston organizers have appealed to the Boston City Council and Boston Chamber of Commerce to intervene in urging Mayor Walsh to commit to a hearing.

Contact: Kevin C. Peterson, 617-304-5068 OR 617-506-9028

News Paper Links

WCVB Channel 5 CItyline


New York Times

The Guardian (London)


US METRO


News ONE


Fox News


Commonwealth Magazine


Black Enterprise


TV News Links

WPRI


Boston Fox 25


New England Cable News


CBS Boston


WCVB Channel Five


Radio & TV Interviews

NPR


Nightside with Dan Rea



YOUTUBE

NNN


NNN PART TWO


Our Children Video


A Change Is Going To Come