AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

*Out In The Be-Bop Night- Fragments On The Ethos Of Working Class Culture – Entering High School, Circa 1960

Fragments On The Ethos Of Working Class Culture

http://markinbookreview.blogspot.com/2010/08/fragments-on-ethos-of-working-class.html

Click on the headline to link to an American Left History blog entry, Fragments On The Ethos Of Working Class Culture–Frankie’s Big Summer’s Day Walk, Circa 1960, dated Friday, August 13, 2010, the first entry in this series, to read the introduction to the series.

Markin comment:

Funny, here I am, finally, finally after what seemed like an endless heat-waved, eternal August dog day’d, book-devoured, summer, standing, nervously standing, waiting with one foot on the sturdy granite-chiseled steps, ready at a moment’s notice from any teacher’s beck and call, to climb up to the second floor main entrance of old North, an entrance flanked by huge concrete spheres on each side, that are made to order for me to think that I too have the weight of the world on my shoulders this sunny day. And those doors, by the way, as if the spheres are not portentous enough, are also flanked by two scroll-worked concrete columns, or maybe they are gargoyle-faced, my eyes are a little bleary right now, who give the place a more fearsome look than is really necessary but today, today of all days, every little omen has its evil meaning, evil for me that is.

Here I am anyway, pensive (giving myself the best of it, okay, nice wrap-around-your soul word too, okay), head hanging down, deep in thought, deep in scared, get the nurse fast, if necessary, nausea-provoking thought, standing around, a little impatiently surly as is my “style” (that “style” I picked up a few years back in elementary school down in the Germantown “projects”, after seeing James Dean or someone like that strike the pose, and it stuck). Anyway its now about 7:00 AM, maybe a little after, and like I say my eyes have been playing tricks on me all morning and I can’t seem to focus, as I wait for the first school bell to sound on this first Wednesday after Labor Day in the year of our lord, 1960.

No big deal right, we have all done it many times by now, it should be easy. Year after year, old August dog days turn into shorter, cooler September come hither young wanna-be learner days. Nothing to get nervous about, nothing to it.(Did I say that already?)Especially the first day, a half day, a “gimme” day, really, one of the few out of one hundred and eighty, count ‘em, and mainly used for filling out the one thousand and one pieces of paper about who you are, where you live, who you live with, and who to call in case you take some nasty fall in gym trying to do a double twist-something on the gym mat or a wrestled double-hammer lock grip on some poor, equally benighted fellow student that goes awry like actually happened to me last year in eighth grade. Hey, they were still talking about that one in the Atlantic locker rooms at the end of the year, I hear. Or, more ominously, they want that information so that if you cross-up one, or more, of your mean-spirited, ill-disposed, never-could have-been-young-and-troubled, ancient, Plato or Socrates ancient from the look of some of them, teachers and your parents (embarrassed, steaming, vengeful Ma really, in our neighborhoods) need to be called in to confer about “your problem,” your problem that you will grow out of with a few days of after school “help.” Please.

Or this “gimme” day (let’s just call it that okay, it will help settle me down) will be spent reading off, battered, monotone home room teacher-reading off, the also one thousand and one rules; no lateness to school under penalty of being placed in the stocks, Pilgrim-style, no illness absences short of the plague, if you have it, not a family member, and then only if you have a (presumably sanitized) doctor’s note, no cutting classes to explore the great American day streets at some nearby corner variety store, or mercy, Norfolk Downs, one-horse Norfolk Downs also under severe penalty, no (unauthorized) talking in class (but they will mark it down if you don't authorize talk, jesus), no giving guff (ya, no guff, right) to your teachers, fellow students, staff, the resident mouse or your kid brother, if you have a kid brother, no writing on walls, in books, and only on occasion on an (authorized) writing pad, no(get this one, I couldn’t believe this one over at Atlantic) cutting in line for the school lunch (the school lunch, Christ, as poor as we are in our family we at least have the dignity not to pine, much less cut in line for, those beauties: the American chop suey done several different ways to cover the week, including a stint as baloney and cheese sandwiches, I swear), no off-hand rough-necking (or just plain, ordinary necking, either), no excessive use of the “lav” (you know what that is, enough said), and certainly no smoking, drinking or using any other illegal (for kids) substances. Oh, ya, and don’t forget to follow, unquestioningly, those mean-spirited, ill-disposed teachers that I spoke of before, if there is a fire emergency. And here’s a better one, in case of an off-hand atomic bomb attack go, quickly and quietly, to the nearest fall-out shelter down in the bowels of the old school. That’s what we practiced over at Atlantic. At least, I hope they don’t try that old gag and have us practice getting under our desks in such an emergency like in elementary school. Christ, I would rather take my chances, above desk, thank you. And… need I go on, you can listen to the rest when you get to homeroom I am just giving you the highlights, the year after year, memory highlights.

And if that isn’t enough, the reading of the rules and the gathering of more intelligence about you than the FBI or the CIA would need we then proceed to the ritualistic passing out of your books, large and small. (placing book covers on each, naturally, name, year, subject and book number safety placed in insert). All of them covered against the elements, your own sloth, and the battlefield school lunch room, that humongous science book that has every known idea from the ancient four furies of the air to nuclear fission, that math book that has some Pythagorean properties of its own, the social studies books to chart out human progress (and back-sliding) from stone-cave times on up, and, precious, precious English book (I hope we do Shakespeare this year, I heard we do, that guy knew how to write a good story, same with that Salinger book I read during the summer). Still easy stuff though, for the first day.

Ya, but this will put a different spin on it for you, well, a little different spin anyway. Today I start in the “bigs”, at least the bigs of the handful-countable big events of my short, sweet life. Today I am starting my freshman year at hallowed old North and I am as nervous as a kitten. Don’t tell me you weren’t just a little, little, tiny bit scared when you went from the cocoon-like warmth (or so it seemed compared to the “bigs”) of junior high over to the high school, whatever high school it was. Come on now, I’m going to call you out on it. Particularly those Atlantics who, after all, have been here before, unlike me who came out of the "projects" and moved back to North Quincy after the "long march" move to Atlantic in 1958 so I don't know the ropes here at all. They, especially those sweet girl Atlantics, including a certain she that I am severely "crushed up" on, in their cashmere sweaters and jumpers or whatever you call them, are nevertheless standing on these same steps, as we exchange nods of recognition, and are here just as early as I am, fretting their own frets, fighting their own inner demons, and just hoping and praying or whatever kids do when they are “on the ropes” to survive the day, or just to not get rolled over on day one.

And see, here is what you also don’t know, know yet anyway. I’ve caught Frank’s disease. You never heard of it, probably, and don’t bother to go look it up in some medical dictionary at the Thomas Crane Public Library, or some other library, it’s not there. What it amount to is the old time high school, any high school, version of the anxiety-driven cold sweats. Now I know some of you know Frank, and some of you don’t, but I told his story to you before, the story about his big, hot, “dog day” August mission to get picnic fixings, including special stuff, like Kennedy’s potato salad, for his grandmother. That’s the Frank I’m talking about, my best junior high friend, Frank.

Part of that story, for those who don’t know it, mentioned what Frank was thinking when he got near battle-worn North on his journey to Norfolk Downs back in August. I’m repeating; repeating at least the important parts here, for those who are clueless:

“Frank (and I) had, just a couple of months before, graduated from Atlantic Junior High School and so along with the sweat on his brow from the heat a little bit of anxiety was starting to form in Frank’s head about being a “little fish in a big pond” freshman come September as he passed by. Especially, a proto-beatnik “little fish”. See, he had cultivated a certain, well, let’s call it “style” over there at Atlantic. That "style" involved a total disdain for everything, everything except trying to impress girls with his long chino-panted, plaid flannel-shirted, thick book-carrying knowledge of every arcane fact known to mankind. Like that really was the way to impress teenage girls. In any case he was worried, worried sick at times, that in such a big school his “style” needed upgrading…”

And that is why, when the deal went down and I knew I was going to the “bigs” I spent the summer this year, reading, big time booked-devoured reading. Hey, I'll say I did, The Communist Manifesto, that one just because old Willie Westhaven over at Atlantic called me a Bolshevik when I answered one of his foolish math question in a surly manner. I told you that was my pose, what do you want, I just wanted to see what he was talking about. In any case, I ain’t no commie, although I don’t know what the big deal is, I ain't turning anybody in, and the stuff is hard reading anyway. How about Democracy in America (by a French guy), The Age of Jackson (by a Harvard professor who knows Jack Kennedy, and is crazy for old-time guys like Jackson),and Catcher In The Rye (Holden is me, me to a tee). Okay, okay I won’t keep going on but that was just the reading on the hot days when I didn’t want to go out, test me on it, I am ready. Here's why. I intend, and I swear I intend to even on this first nothing (what did I call it before?-"gimme", ya) day of this new school year in this new school in this new decade to beat old Frankie, old book-toting, girl-chasing Frankie, who knows every arcane fact that mankind has produced and has told it to every girl who will listen for two minutes (maybe less) in that eternal struggle, the boy meets girl struggle, at his own game. Frankie, my buddy of buddies, mad monk, prince among men (well, boys, anyhow) who navigated me through the tough, murderous parts of junior high, mercifully concluded, finished and done with, praise be, and didn’t think twice about it. He, you see, despite, everything I said a minute ago was “in.”; that arcane knowledge stuff worked with the “ins” who counted, worked, at least a little, and I got dragged in his wake. Now I want to try out my new “style”

See, that’s why on this Wednesday after Labor Day in the year of our lord, 1960, this 7:00 AM, or a little after, Wednesday after Labor Day, I have Frank’s disease. He harped on it so much before opening of school that I woke up about 5:00 AM this morning, maybe earlier, but I know it was still dark, with the cold sweats. I tossed and turned for a while about what my “style”, what my place in the sun was going to be, and I just had to get up. I’ll tell you about the opening day getting up ritual stuff later, some other time, but right now I am worried, worried as hell, about my “style”, or should I say lack of style over at Atlantic. That will tell you a lot about why I woke up that morning before the birds.

...Suddenly, a bell rings, a real bell, students, like lemmings to the sea, are on the move, especially those Atlantics that I had nodded to before as I take those steps, two at a time. Too late to worry about style, or anything else, now. We are off to the wars; I will make my place in the sun as I go along, on the fly.

Monday, August 30, 2010

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-Where is the SAP going? (German 1930s Left Party)

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-German Trotskyism in the 1930s

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-The German Left and the Russian Opposition (1926-28)

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-The Decline, Disorientation and Decomposition of a Leadership: The German CP

Sunday, August 29, 2010

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-Alan Wald's "The New York Intellectuals"

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-Grandizo Munis (1912-1989)

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-With Trotsky in Norway

*From The Archives Of The “Revolutionary History” Journal-The History of Argentine Trotskyism

Saturday, August 28, 2010

*From The Blogosphere-40TH ANIVERSARY, CHICANO MORATORIUM - AGAINST THE WAR IN VIETNAM,- AUGUST 29TH, 1970

Click on the headline to link to a Boston Indy Media entry on this archival entry from the Vietnam War era highlighting Chicano opposition to that war (and the current ones).

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

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

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

*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.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

*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

*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