*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-The 1934 Minneapolis Strike

Click on the headline to link to the Revolutionary History Journal entry listed in the title.

Markin comment:

This is an excellent documentary source for today’s militants to “discovery” the work of our forbears, whether we agree with their programs or not. Mainly not, but that does not negate the value of such work done under the pressure of revolutionary times. Hopefully we will do better when our time comes.

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-The strike at the Renault Plant, AprilMay 1947

Click on the headline to link to the Revolutionary History Journal entry listed in the title.

Markin comment:

This is an excellent documentary source for today’s militants to “discovery” the work of our forbears, whether we agree with their programs or not. Mainly not, but that does not negate the value of such work done under the pressure of revolutionary times. Hopefully we will do better when our time comes.

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-The Renault Strike of April and May 1947

Click on the headline to link to the Revolutionary History Journal entry listed in the title.

Markin comment:

This is an excellent documentary source for today’s militants to “discovery” the work of our forbears, whether we agree with their programs or not. Mainly not, but that does not negate the value of such work done under the pressure of revolutionary times. Hopefully we will do better when our time comes.

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-The Stalinist Apparatus end the Renault Strike of May 1947

Click on the headline to link to the “Revolutionary History” Journal entry listed in the title.

Markin comment:

This is an excellent documentary source for today’s militants to “discovery” the work of our forbears, whether we agree with their programs or not. Mainly not, but that does not negate the value of such work done under the pressure of revolutionary times. Hopefully we will do better when our time comes.

*For The Folkies From Muskogee And Elsewhere- The Bob Feldman Music Blog On "My Space"-Barbara Dane's Speech To GI Movement Revisited: Part 1

Click on the headline to link to the Bob Feldman Music Blog( for lack of a better name) on My Space.

Markin comment:

This is great stuff for any music aficionado, especially of folk, social protest, and roots music. I am going to be "stealing" entries off of this site periodically but you should be checking it out yourselves. Kudos, Bob Feldman.

*********

Barbara Dane's Speech To GI Movement Revisited: Part 1
Current mood: thoughtful

Category: Music

In her speech to the GI Movement of the Vietnam War Era (whose text can be found in the booklet that's included in Paredon Records' FTA! Songs of the GI Resistance vinyl album of 1970), Barbara Dane said the following:

"When I was a kid, I loved to sing for teenagers, and made a big hit with marvy songs like "Blue Moon." I tried to get jobs doing that, and quickly found out how insultingly easy it is to get ahead in show business if you were "a smart girl with a little looks" who was willing to play by the rules: Look like and act like a Barbie doll, be for sale at a price, and complain about as much as Barbie if the male society sees you only as a cute commodity without ideas or feelings. I decided that the price was too high...

"I sang for the youth movements, the labor struggles which spread after WW II to most of the auto plants, and in the election campaigns of progressive and left candidates, as well as black candidates, in which case even a liberal was considered a threat to the status quo. I worked in factories and offices so I wouldn't have to mix singing with money making, but some times the organizations and unions could afford a few bucks in the name of building and supporting our own culture. Then I was able to spend full time organizing and singing. Now and then I was offered some "Golden Opportunity" but the more I saw of how little the system respected its artists, particularly when they were women, the less I was interested in buying the deal.

"Then the fifties came. Repression of political ideas spread with the coming of the "cold war" and the Korean war...

"I decided the best thing to do was to keep on singing, as publicly and loudly as possible. And I always used my own name, in spite of the frequent visits from the "boy scouts" as we used to call the tall men in suits who flashed FBI badges and asked a lot of questions. We understood they were mainly trying to intimidate us, so we just told them to get out and don't bother coming back. Most of the organizations either fell apart or sank underground, and soon there was no place to sing or talk about what was on our minds, so some of the artists who wanted to find an audience to influence went into the nightclubs..."


Read more: http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music/blog?page=4#ixzz0xwlVXNMZ

*For The Folkies From Muskogee And Elsewhere- The Bob Feldman Music Blog On "My Space"-Barbara Dane's Speech To GI Movement Revisited: Part 2

Markin comment:

This is great stuff for any music aficionado, especially of folk, social protest, and roots music. I am going to be "stealing" entries off of this site periodically but you should be checking it out yourselves. Kudos, Bob Feldman.

**********

Barbara Dane's Speech To GI Movement Revisited: Part 2
Current mood: contemplative

Category: Music
In her speech to the GI Movement of the Vietnam War Era (whose text can be found in the booklet that's included in Paredon Records' FTA! Songs of the GI Resistance vinyl album of 1970), Barbara Dane said the following:

"I became very interested in other forms of people's expression, like the blues and traditional jazz. I worked with incredible musicians like Jack Teagarden, Louis Armstrong, and Turk Murphy. Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon (who wrote most of Muddy Waters' stuff) were my group for a year, and I worked with Muddy himself. Brownie McGhee, Lightning Hopkins, Kenny Whitson, Wellman Braud, and Sonny Terry were some others. They showed the creativity of brotherhood and love amidst the very exploitive, racist atmosphere we worked in. Their music affirmed life, while the nation waged war in Korea, and the CIA ran massacres in South America and Indochina. I worked with social analysts and satirists like Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl, who exhausted themselves trying to penetrate the curtain of apathy and helplessness that had fallen over the country."


Read more: http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music/blog?page=4#ixzz0xwkyBYHX

*For The Folkies From Muskogee And Elsewhere- The Bob Feldman Music Blog On "My Space"-Barbara Dane's Speech To GI Movement Revisited: Part 3

Markin comment:

This is great stuff for any music aficionado, especially of folk, social protest, and roots music. I am going to be "stealing" entries off of this site periodically but you should be checking it out yourselves. Kudos, Bob Feldman.

*******

Barbara Dane's Speech To GI Movement Revisited: Part 3
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Music
In her speech to the GI Movement of the Vietnam War Era (whose text can be found in the booklet that's included in Paredon Records' FTA! Songs of the GI Resistance vinyl album of 1970), Barbara Dane said the following:

"I worked in many groovy and some lousy nightclubs and coffeehouses; I made a lot of records, did TV and radio work, and communicated in any way possible. The message was mostly through the blues: Life in the USA is a crying shame but we, the people, are real. We are as deep as the seas and as loving as the sunshine, strong as the mountains and determined as the wind. And we will prevail!

"Instant overnight, Hollywood wetdream success kept flashing in my face, but it was creepy. And I never met a super star who was really able to enjoy what the stardom brought. Most of the well-known cultural workers I knew were so damned lonely from being on the road month in and month out, getting bored with repeating their greatest hits, and out of touch with ordinary pleasures like friends and family, had no idea what was going on from the political point of view and therefore didn't understand the effect of their work, and weren't really bringing home enough money to make it worth all that trouble..."


Read more: http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music/blog?page=4#ixzz0xwkUY4ar

*For The Folkies From Muskogee And Elsewhere- The Bob Feldman Music Blog On "My Space"-Barbara Dane's Speech To GI Movement Revisited: Part 4

Markin comment:

This is great stuff for any music aficionado, especially of folk, social protest, and roots music. I am going to be "stealing" entries off of this site periodically but you should be checking it out yourselves. Kudos, Bob Feldman.

************

Barbara Dane's Speech To GI Movement Revisited: Part 4
Current mood: thoughtful

Category: Music
In her speech to the GI Movement of the Vietnam War Era (whose text can be found in the booklet that's included in Paredon Records' FTA! Songs of the GI Resistance vinyl album of 1970), Barbara Dane said the following:

"I was too stubborn to hire one of the greed-head managers, probably because I'm a woman who likes to speak for herself. I always made my own deals and contracts, and after figuring out the economics of it, I was free to choose when and where I worked, able to spend lots more time with my three children and doing political work, and even brought home more money in the end, by not going for the "bigtime." I did make some really nice records, because I was able to choose and work with wonderfully gifted musicians. Some of them are: TROUBLE IN MIND--with Don Ewell, Pops Foster and others on San Francisco Records. LIVING WITH THE BLUES--with Earl "Fatha" Hines, Benny Carter, etc. on Dot. WHEN I WAS A YOUNG GIRL--solo, folk songs...on Tradition/Everett...I'M ON MY WAY--with Kenny Whitson, Wellman Braud, etc. on Capitol. BARBARA DANE AND THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS--on Folkwyas (Freedom Songs), BARBARA DANE SINGS BLUES with 6 and 12 string guitar, solo on Folkways..."


Read more: http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music/blog?page=4#ixzz0xwjylpIx

*For The Folkies From Muskogee And Elsewhere- The Bob Feldman Music Blog On "My Space"-Barbara Dane's Speech To GI Movement Revisited: Part 5

Markin comment:

This is great stuff for any music aficionado, especially of folk, social protest, and roots music. I am going to be "stealing" entries off of this site periodically but you should be checking it out yourselves. Kudos, Bob Feldman.

*********

Barbara Dane's Speech To GI Movement Revisited: Part 5
Current mood: thoughtful

Category: Music
In her speech to the GI Movement of the Vietnam War Era (whose text can be found in the booklet that's included in Paredon Records' FTA! Songs of the GI Resistance vinyl album of 1970), Barbara Dane said the following:

"I started my own nightclub in San Francisco, so I'd have more freedom to sing when I wanted to and under conditions I could control. SUGAR HILL was an immediate success. I brought in Mose Allison, Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, Lightnin' Hoopkins, Jimmy Rushing, Mama Yancey, T-Bone Walker, Jesse Fuller, Mance Lipscomb, and others and together we built the "home of the blues." But the sixties had come, and a whole new deal. JFK was in the White House, Joe McCarthy was dead, the Cubans had won their revolution, and a group of black students had decided it was time to stop being humiliated in silence. They staged the first sit-ins at a Woolworth store lunch counter. Support movements sprang up around the country, and I started singing on the streets again, and at benefits. From their inspiration, other student movements began, like the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, where I lived.

"One of the most thrilling things I did in Berkeley was one of the last before I moved away. I led songs from the top of a police car which was swamped in the middle of thousands of students sitting down to demonstrate and using the car itself as a Free-Speech platform! That was the University of California campus where only a few years before hundreds of teachers signed "loyalty oaths" rather than be thrown out of their jobs, and where a handful of others had conducted a fight for their right to teach as they saw fit, with their loyalty to be defined by their own conscience alone...and where thousands of students had kept their mouths shut to avoid trouble."


Read more: http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music/blog?page=4#ixzz0xwjPz1wu

*For The Folkies From Muskogee And Elsewhere- The Bob Feldman Music Blog On "My Space"-On GI Coffeehouses by Irwin Silber--Part 1

Markin comment:

This is great stuff for any music aficionado, especially of folk, social protest, and roots music. I am going to be "stealing" entries off of this site periodically but you should be checking it out yourselves. Kudos, Bob Feldman.

********

On GI Coffeehouses by Irwin Silber--Part 1
Current mood: thoughtful

Category: Music
In a 1970 article, titled "About The GI Movement," former Sing Out! magazine editor Irwin Silber wrote the following about the GI Coffeehouses of the Vietnam War Era:

"One of the most effective devices for helping the growth of organized protest in the Army has been the "GI coffeehouse." This idea was launched early in 1968 by a young anti-war activist, Fred Gardner, who together with a group of friends opened a small coffee house in Columbia, South Carolina, homeof Fort Jackson. The UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) as it was called, was first of all an alternate-culture center for off-duty GIs who were fed up with the bars, drug stores, magazine stands and other traditional Army town enterprises designed to separate a young soldier from his monthly paycheck as quickly and deftly as possible.

"By contrast with the B-girl infested joints openly encouraged and supported by both the military and civilian authorities, the UFO (and other coffee houses which have grown up since) offered simple, wholesome food and a decent cup of coffee at low prices. More important, they combined an atmosphere of relaxation--escape from the brass harass--with a hi-fi record player and the kind of recordings young people like, plus people willing to listen and to talk about real things. And all of this takes place in an atmosphere more in keeping with the mood of young people than anything else in town."


Read more: http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music/blog?page=4#ixzz0xwiuOYWa

*From "The Rag Blog"-Nancy Miller Saunders' "Combat by Trial"- A Guest Book Review

Click on the headline to link to a The Rag Blog entry-Combat by Trial: An Odyssey with 20th Century Winter Soldiers by Nancy Miller Saunders. (iUniverse, Inc., 2008.) 591 pp, $34.95. Available at www.iuniverse.com.

Turning the Guns Around: Notes on the GI Movement by Larry G. Waterhouse and Mariann G. Wizard (Praeger, 1971). 221 pp., published at $6.95.

Markin comment:

This material is required reading, especially for younger leftist militants unfamiliar with the hard road, but necessary, work of organizing soldiers. That road is, after all, the short way home out of the quagmire of Afghanistan. Kudos.

*On Paying Homage To Leftist (And Other) Political Opponents- A Short Note

Click on the headline to link to a Leon Trotsky Internet Archives online copy of his political obituary for German Social- Democratic Party and pre- World War I Second International leader, and a former co-thinker, the "pope" of Marxism in that era, Karl Kautsky. This is a good example of a model for the way to deal with the contributions of political opponents.

Markin comment:

First question: What do the murdered heroic Kansas abortion provider, Doctor George Tiller, the 17th century Puritan revolutionary poet and propagandist, John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, and the early 20th century labor and civil rights lawyer, Clarence Darrow, defender of “Big” Big Haywood and John Scopes, among others, have in common? Similar expertise in similar fields? No. Common political vision? Hell, no. Could it be that they, each in their own way, contributed to the store of our human progress? Well, yes. And also, by the way, they have all been honored on this American Left History site for those contributions. And nary a flea-bitten, hard-shell, broad-backed, barn-burning, blood-thirty, red meat, communistic, reds under every bed, Bolshevik bastard who wants to “nationalize” women and “eat babies” for breakfast among them.

Second question: What do the pre-World War II American communist renegade from Marxism, Max Shachtman, the old English socialist and novelist turned British imperial informer, George Orwell, and the German “pope” of pre- World War I Marxism in the Second International , Karl Kautsky have in common? I will not prolong the agony on this one because I have to make my point before the next millennium so it is that they have made contributions to our common socialist movement before they went over to the other, pro-capitalist, pro-imperialist side (one way or the other). And also, by the way, they have all been honored on this American Left History site for those contributions. And nary a flea-bitten, hard-shell, broad-backed, barn-burning, blood-thirty, red meat, communistic, reds under every bed, Bolshevik bastard who wants to “nationalize” women and “eat babies” for breakfast among them.

Third question: What do the old-fashioned 19th century French revolutionary and Paris Commune member, Louis–August Blanqui, the iconic American black liberation fighter, Malcolm X, and the old Industrial Workers of World (IWW-Wobblies) organizer extraordinaire, Vincent St. John, have in common? Again, I will cut to the chase; they were all, one way or the other, political opponents of Marxism. And also, by the way, they have all been honored on this American Left History site for those contributions. And nary a flea-bitten, hard-shell, broad-backed, barn-burning, blood-thirty, red meat, communistic, reds under every bed, Bolshevik bastard who wants to “nationalize” women and “eat babies” for breakfast among them.

Okay, by my count I see zero legendary Bolshevik names listed above. Names like Leon Trotsky, V.I. Lenin, N. Krupskaya, J. Sverdlov, Jim Cannon, John Reed, “Big” Bill Haywood, and so on. Oh, they have been honored in this space, profusely. Of course. (Although I do not believe that there was a flea-bitten, hard-shell, broad-backed, barn-burning, blood-thirty, red meat, communistic, reds under every bed, Bolshevik bastard who wants to “nationalize” women and “eat babies” for breakfast among them either, that was pure bourgeosi propaganda, always). And that is exactly my point here.

Let me back track on this one, a little. Recently I did a series of reviews of the work of American detective fiction writer, Dashiell Hammett. (see blogs, dated August 15-18, 2010). Beyond a review of his outstanding literary work I noted that Hammett was a prominent supporter of the Stalinized American Communist Party in the 1930s and 1940s. In that dead night of the "red scare", which many from that time and since would prefer to obliterate from American "democratic" memory, especially the memory of their own silence and complicity, just said no to the committees that wanted him to “name names.” He didn’t and paid the price for his courageous act. Others, including long time Stalinists and fellow–travelers squawked to high heaven before those committees, sometimes without the least bit of pressure. A simple acknowledgement of Hammett’s deed, noting along the way, that Hammett and our Trotskyist forbears were still political opponents at the end of the day seemed less than controversial.

Not so, at least from an e-mail that I received, claiming (for me) the mantle of Stalinophile for such a “tribute”. First, I assume that the person, for good or ill, had not read my "tributes” to arch-Stalinist American Communist Party supporters, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who I have termed “heroic” for their deeds in behalf of the Soviet Union, when those deeds counted. Or that if the person had deeds, like Hammett's, involving less than going to meet death fearlessly by Stalinists are not worthy of kudos. In any case, this person is all wrong.

Go back to the first question above where basically non-political types were noted for their contributions to human progress. That is the “missing link” to this person’s mistaken position. I could have gone on and on about various persons that have been honored in this American Left History blog. But that seemed to me to be unnecessarily hammering home the point. Here is the real point. We have had few enough occasions when our fellows get it right to narrow the parameters of what contributes to human progress. If we get too picky we are left with honoring Lenin, Trotsky, and a few other Bolsheviks. Oh yes, and, of course, those few of us who claim to be contemporary Bolsheviks- including, I presume, the heroic, non-Stalinophile, e-mail sender. Enough said.

Note: I did not mention this e-mail sender’s political affiliation although it was provided. Let us just put it this way. The organization that the person belongs to (and I am not sure the person knows all the organization’s history, it didn’t seem so) has a history of “bailing water” (my term)for the “progressive" wing of the Democratic party (whatever that is?) and wondered out loud why I did not honor the likes of California’s’ current Attorney General, Jerry Brown, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, ex-Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney,and so on. Jesus, give me a break. But, wait a minute, if the shades of old Dashiell Hammett were around today or those of some of his fellow reprobate Stalinists, those are the same kindreds that they would be kowtowing to, as well. Hey, I just tipped my hat to old Hammett I did not try to "steal" his "progressive/ popular front" political strategy. Strange bedfellows, indeed. Double, Jesus give me a break.

*From The "SteveLendmanBlog"-"Notes from Besieged Gaza" - A Guest Commentary

Click on the headline to link to a SteveLendmanBlog entry-Notes from Besieged Gaza.

Markin comment:

End the blockade of Gaza now! Defend the Palestinian people!

*From "The Rag Blog"-Protesters at Fort Hood in Killeen Block buses deploying troops to Iraq- All Honor To These Anti-War Fighters

Click on the headlines to link to a The Rag Blog entry- Protesters at Fort Hood in Killeen Block buses deploying troops to Iraq.

Markin comment:

All Honor To These Anti-War Fighters! Make Every Military Base An Anti-War Fortress!

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-Harry McClintock's "Big Rock Candy Mountain"- Fight For "The Big Rock" Dream- Fight For A Workers Party!

Click on the title to link a YouTube film clip of Harry McClintock performing his classic Big Rock Candy Mountain.

In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here. Markin.

************

Big Rock Candy Mountain- Harry McClintock

One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fires were burning,
Down the track came a hobo hiking,
And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning
I'm headed for a land that's far away
Besides the crystal fountains
So come with me, we'll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
There's a land that's fair and bright,
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night.
Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day
And the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The farmers' trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
Oh I'm bound to go
Where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall
The winds don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railway bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew
And of whiskey too
You can paddle all around it
In a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
The jails are made of tin.
And you can walk right out again,
As soon as you are in.
There ain't no short-handled shovels,
No axes, saws nor picks,
I'm bound to stay
Where you sleep all day,
Where they hung the jerk
That invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
....
I'll see you all this coming fall
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-Woody Guthrie's "Deportees"- Full Citizenship Rights For All Those Who Make It To The U.S.!

Click on the title to link a YouTube film clip of Arlo Guthrie and Emmylou Harris performing his father's Deportee.

In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here. Markin.

****

Markin comment:

Woody's words were written long ago but they definitely resonate today. This is a "no-brainer" for us- Full citizenship rights for all who make it to the United States!



**********
Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)
Lyrics by Woody Guthrie
Music by Martin Hoffman

The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are piled in their cresote dumps
They're flying you back to the Mexico border
To pay all your money to wade back again

My father's own father, he wanted that river
They took all the money he made in his life
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees
And they rode the truck till they took down and died

CHORUS
Good-bye to my Juan, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maris
You won't have a name when you ride the big air-plane
And all they will call you will be deportees.

Some of us are illega, and others not wanted
Our work contract's out and we have to move on
But it's six hundred miles to that Mexican border
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like theives.

We died in your hills, we died in your deserts
We died in your valleys and died on your plains
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes
Both sides of the river, we died just the same.

CHORUS

A sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos canyon
Like a fireball of lightning, it shook all our hills
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says they are just deportees.

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except deportees?

©1961 (renewed) & 1963 Ludlow Music Inc., New York,NY (TRO)

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-Woody Guthrie's "Pastures Of Plenty"- Fight For A Workers Government!

Click on the title to link a YouTube film clip of Arlo Guthrie performing his father's Pastures Of Plenty.

In this series, presented under the headline Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here. Markin.

**********

Markin comment:

Woody's words were written long ago but they resonate today. We better get to the task at hand- Fight for a workers party that fights for a workers government. And pronto.

********

Pastures Of Plenty

It's a mighty hard row that my poor hands have hoed
My poor feet have traveled a hot dusty road
Out of your Dust Bowl and Westward we rolled
And your deserts were hot and your mountains were cold

I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes
I slept on the ground in the light of the moon
On the edge of the city you'll see us and then
We come with the dust and we go with the wind

California, Arizona, I harvest your crops
Well its North up to Oregon to gather your hops
Dig the beets from your ground, cut the grapes from your vine
To set on your table your light sparkling wine

Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground
From the Grand Coulee Dam where the waters run down
Every state in the Union us migrants have been
We'll work in this fight and we'll fight till we win

It's always we rambled, that river and I
All along your green valley, I will work till I die
My land I'll defend with my life if it be
Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free

*Writer's Corner- The Life And Times Of Jack London- A Guest Book Review/Interview

Click on the headline to link to National Public Radio's On Point for an interview with a new Jack London biography, Wolf: The Lives Of Jack London, by James Haley

Markin comment:

I don't know that I have still gotten over the sense of hunger, hard, right to the nub hunger, after reading Jack London's Call Of The Wild (or the look of food in the same way afterwards). Whoa! Stand back this guy London can write. His politics, ostensibly socialist, were a little more problematic. More on that later, for now though listen to this informative interview.

*Poet's Corner- Marilyn Buck's' "Black August"- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!

Black August

Would you hang on a cliff’s edge
sword-sharp, slashing fingers
while jackboot screws stomp heels
on peeled-flesh bones
and laugh
“let go! die, damn you, die!”
could you hang on 20 years, 30 years?

20 years, 30 years and more
brave Black brothers buried
in US koncentration kamps
they hang on
Black light shining in torture chambers
Ruchell, Yogi, Sundiata, Sekou,
Warren, Chip, Seth, Herman, Jalil,
and more and more they resist: Black August

Nat Turner insurrection chief executed: Black August
Jonathan, George dead in battle’s light: Black August
Fred Hampton, Black Panthers, African Brotherhood murdered: Black August
Kuwasi Balagoon, Nuh Abdul Quyyam captured warriors dead: Black August
Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ella Baker, Ida B. Wells
Queen Mother Moore – their last breaths drawn fighting death: Black August

Black August: watchword
for Black liberation for human liberation
sword to sever the shackles

light to lead children of every nation to safety
Black August remembrance
resist the amerikkan nightmare for life

-- Marilyn Buck, 2000

*From The Rag Blog- The Late Class-War Prisoner And Poet Marilyn Buck Honored In Texas- "Black August"

Click on headline to link to a The Rag Blog entry- The Late Class-War Prisoner Marilyn Buck Honored In Texas.

Markin comment:

Honor Marilyn Buck! Fight to Free All Class-War Prisoners from A to Z Now!

**********

Black August

Would you hang on a cliff’s edge
sword-sharp, slashing fingers
while jackboot screws stomp heels
on peeled-flesh bones
and laugh
“let go! die, damn you, die!”
could you hang on 20 years, 30 years?

20 years, 30 years and more
brave Black brothers buried
in US koncentration kamps
they hang on
Black light shining in torture chambers
Ruchell, Yogi, Sundiata, Sekou,
Warren, Chip, Seth, Herman, Jalil,
and more and more they resist: Black August

Nat Turner insurrection chief executed: Black August
Jonathan, George dead in battle’s light: Black August
Fred Hampton, Black Panthers, African Brotherhood murdered: Black August
Kuwasi Balagoon, Nuh Abdul Quyyam captured warriors dead: Black August
Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ella Baker, Ida B. Wells
Queen Mother Moore – their last breaths drawn fighting death: Black August

Black August: watchword
for Black liberation for human liberation
sword to sever the shackles

light to lead children of every nation to safety
Black August remembrance
resist the amerikkan nightmare for life

-- Marilyn Buck, 2000