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
Those Who Honor Sacco And Vanzetti Are Kindred Spirits- "Sacco's Letter To His Son"
SACCO'S LETTER TO HIS SON
If nothing happens they will electrocute us right after midnight
Therefore here I am, right with you, with love and with open heart,
As I was yesterday.
Don’t cry, Dante, for many, many tears have been wasted,
As your mother’s tears have been already wasted for seven years,
And never did any good
So son, instead of crying, be strong, be brave
So as to be able to comfort your mother.
And when you want to distract her from the discouraging soleness
You take her for a long walk in the quiet countryside,
Gathering flowers here and there.
And resting under the shade of trees, beside the music of the waters,
The peacefulness of nature, she will enjoy it very much,
As you will surely too.
But son, you must remember; Don’t use all yourself.
But down yourself, just one step, to help the weak ones at your side.
The weaker ones, that cry for help, the persecuted and the victim.
They are your friends, friends of yours and mine, they are the comrades that fight,
Yes and sometimes fall.
Just as your father, your father and Bartolo have fallen,
Have fought and fell yesterday. for the conquest of joy,
Of freedom for all.
In the struggle of life you’ll find, you’ll find more love.
And in the struggle, you will be loved also.
In Boston -7th Annual Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Day - Sunday, August 26, 2012
Gather at the Boston Common Visitor Center (Tremont/West) at 2PM to star marching toward the North at 3PM. Then rally at 4PM the Greenway Park, Hanover St. and Cross Street in the NOrth End of Boston.
This event is dedicated to all political prisoners and victims of state repression.
JUSTICE CRUCIFIED NO MORE!
Sponsored by the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society and the I.W.W.
Endorsed by the Lantern Collective, Bread and Roses Heritage Committee, Common Struggle
For more info: info[at]saccoandvanzetti.org or call 617-290-5614
Interview with Theodore Grippo, author of the book "With Malice
Aforethought, The Execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti"
07/24/2012 [DOCUMENTS] -
“When I was ten years old, I asked my father about Sacco and Vanzetti. I had heard their names, probably on the radio, in connection with the tenth anniversary of their executions. I still remember the look on my father’s face as he explained that Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti had been sentenced to death for robbery and murder, but many believed they were innocent. My father spoke emotionally of the beautiful letters Sacco wrote to his children just before he was executed, and of Vanzetti’s kind nature and brilliant mind. I believe that my father, an Italian immigrant shoemaker, identified with Sacco, an Italian immigrant shoe trimmer. My father’s expression and tone denoted sadness marked with a fear I could not then understand. I later learned he felt threatened by the ill will many Americans displayed toward Italians as a result of that case.”
Grippo will be speaking Tuesday, August 28th at 6:00 the Boston Public Library , Central Library, Orientation Room, 700 Boylston Street and again on Wednesday, August 29th at 7:00 at the Dante Alighieri Italian Cultural Center, 41 Hampshire Street, Cambridge.
When Sun Records Blew The Lid Off Rock And Roll-With The Show “Million Dollar Quartet” In Mind
By Sam Lowell
“You know they are right whoever said it sometimes a picture, a photograph, tells more than a thousand words, or you name the number of words,” Jack Callahan was telling his lady-friend, wife, and number one companion of forty-odd years, Chrissie (nee McNamara and so as Irish as her beau and husband), as they exited the side door of the Ogunquit Playhouse, the non-profit theater group up in the town of the same name up in Southern Maine which in the fall of 2016 had brought back by popular demand the hit show-The Million Dollar Quartet. (Although it is really a story for another day that forty-odd years started back in high school where Jack was the high-flying ace back for the Blue Devils and Chrissie, who had been smitten with him since junior high school, and he her, finally took matters into her own hands and planted herself smack dab in shy, socially backward Jack’s lap at Tonio’s Pizza Parlor one lonely Friday night and dared him to pull her off. They say in the town legend about that night it would have taken the whole football team to get Chrissie off his lap. Not to worry though the legend also goes on to state that it would have taken the whole football team and the water-boys thrown if somebody had tried to get her off Jack’s lap. Yeah, a story for another day though.)
Jack’s photograph reference was to the now famous one of the key creators and interpreters of rock and roll, ouch, now called the classic age of rock and roll Elvis (no last name needed at least for anybody who knew anything at all about rock and roll and maybe just about music and maybe even know if you look at a recently issued United States postage stamp with the solo moniker on its face), Carl Perkins (who actually had first dibs of right on a song, Blue Suede Shoes, that Elvis blew everybody out of the water with but had been sidelined when the deal went down although he eventually made something of a hit of his own version when it was released), Johnny Cash (a name known as much for good old boy black-attired country and gospel-oriented music later but a serious rocker out of the blocks when he was starting out who travelled with the previously mentioned artists as they wowed the young things in the backwaters of the South), and, Jerry Lee Lewis, in the end the most long-lived and perhaps if he could have as Jack’s grandfather put it, “kept his pecker in his pants” the most prolific of the lot. Certainly the way he was highlighted in the show, the way the actor who portrayed him did his bit, stole the damn show in fact there was much in that possibility. All four, had at various times been under contract to legendary Sun Records owner Sam Phillips and that photograph taken in the end of 1956 represented the only time all four were under one roof singing together. Beautiful.
Chrissie had had to laugh when she thought about how they had come to be in Ogunquit in the late fall, a time when she normally did not even want to think about north, north of their home in Hingham a town on the coast south of Boston. (And more frequently of late in winter not even that close to north as she kept hammering Jack, strictly a New England hearty type to get them a nice winter condo in Florida or California.) The hard fact was that Jack and Chrissie had had another of their periodic falling-outs and Jack had, in the interest of preserving the marriage, taken one of those periodic “sabbaticals” from Chrissie that had helped in the past to salvage their marriage. So Jack had taken a small off-season cottage in Ogunquit, a town he, they knew well for almost as long as they had been together having “summered” up there for many years. (A standing joke between them making “summer” a verb since they had both grown up in Riverdale on the “wrong side of the tracks” in Irishtown and the only summering they had done was walking to Adamsville Beach some five or six miles away.) While he had been in “exile” he would frequently pass the Playhouse and notice the billboard how long the show was playing for. If Chrissie relented before the first week in November he was determined to take her to the show. As it turned out, as usual but nothing negative should be made of the idea, Chrissie had gotten lonely for her Jack and suggested that she would head north (a real sign that she was missing her guy) and stay with Jack before the end of October). Hence the conversation on Friday night as they exited that side door to reach their automobile for the short ride to Jack’s “exile” cottage.
Of course “luring” Chrissie to the show was a no-brainer since they both had grown up, had come of age during the second wave of the rise of rock and roll coming to smite down their parents Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee et al. music that they had been previously enslaved to without recourse. (Their respective older brothers and sisters were the first wave and they passed the torch on.) On any given Friday or Saturday night Jack Callahan, a legitimate high school football hero who would go on to be a good if not great college career, and his corner boys, everybody had corner boys in the old Acre neighborhood of North Adamsville, would hang around Tonio’s Pizza Parlor putting dimes and quarters into the jukebox to hear (and re-hear) the newest big rock hits.
(Although it is really a story for another day that forty-odd years started back in high school where Jack was the high-flying ace back for the Blue Devils and Chrissie, who had been smitten with him since junior high school, and he her, finally took matters into her own hands and planted herself smack dab in shy, socially backward Jack’s lap at Tonio’s Pizza Parlor one lonely Friday night and dared him to pull her off. They say in the town legend about that night it would have taken the whole football team to get Chrissie off his lap. Not to worry though the legend also goes on to state that it would have taken the whole football team and the water-boys thrown if somebody had tried to get her off Jack’s lap. Eventually, after Chrissie had gotten under Jack’s skin and had done something about it that one Friday night, a story in itself worthy of telling, she and Jack would spent those Friday and Saturday nights spinning tunes-and other stuff too. Yeah, a story for another day though. This is about rock and roll legends and not the hi-jinks of 1950s teenagers so we will move on.)
Back to the show though. They had had dinner at a local restaurant and then headed to the Playhouse a little early since neither in all the years they had collectively been going to Maine had set foot in the place. So they were thrilled when they saw the stage all festooned with the Sun Record label in bright lights and with the stage set up to be like Sam Phillips’ wreck of a low rent storefront recording studio. To top that off in the background rock and roll music was being played over the loudspeakers- Jack laughed (and sang along) when he heard Warren Smith doing his classic Rock and Roll Ruby followed by Jerry Lee’s Mona Lisa. Jack admitted and Chrissie would too at intermission that they were amped up, expected to be thrilled to hear a lot of the songs they had grown up with and hadn’t heard for a while. And they were not disappointed, no way.
Of course the core of the show was about the fabulous four (not to be confused with the other fabulous four the Beatles who had worshipped at the shrine of these older rockers over in Britain when the American teen audience was gravitating toward bubble-gum music). But there also was a sub-story line dealing with the hardships of a small record company promoting talent, promoting rock and roll talent, and in those days most of them were small and would be out of business without some kind of hit to keep them afloat. So the story line was as much about the trials and tribulations of Sam Phillips’ trying to keep his operation afloat-including the unfortunate selling of Elvis’ contract to big dog RCA for what in the end was chump change in order to keep above water-to keep his dream of creating rock legends alive.
The other tension was between the various performers and their desires to make the big time which at times did not coincide with what Sam was trying to. At the edge of the Phillips story though is what to do after Elvis got away, and Johnny and Carl wanted to sign with a bigger record company. And that is where grooming Jerry Lee came in, the next big thing that Phillips seemed to be able to draw to his little two-bit operation. Like Jack’s grandfather said if Jerry Lee could have just kept it in his pants once maybe he could have ruled the whole rock and roll universe. That was the way the story played here.
Story-line or no story line (including an additional female singer, a girlfriend of Elvis’ who represented the seriously under told story of female singers in the early days of rock and roll) the show was about the songs that Jack and Chrissie came of age to from Elvis’ classics like Jailhouse Rock, that previously mentioned Blue Suede Shoes, and the amped up cover of black rhythm and blues guru Smiley Lewis’ One Night With You, including those hips moving frantically to Carl’s great rockabilly guitar (he dubbed the “king of rockabilly” back then) to Johnny’s deep baritone. And the topping-the actor doing Jerry Lee’s role doing things with a piano (including blind-folded) that would seem impossible. Made the joint jump and made both of them wonder why they had been so enthralled and entranced by Elvis after the first couple of years when Jerry Lee had more energy in on fist than Elvis had in his whole body. (In preparation for a class reunion one time some classmate, Jack though it was probably Frank Jackman but they decided to let the instigator tab remain nameless, posted a comment, a provocative comment as it turned out on the class reunion website, about who was the “max” daddy, that is the word the instigator used, Elvis or Jerry Lee. A cold civil war brewed up over that one with Jack taking Jerry Lee and Chrissie swooning over Elvis but after the show Chrissie said she probably had to rethink her position on that burning historical question.) What there was no question about, well let’s put it this way after that night Chrissie was seriously thinking about taking Jack back-again. Enough said.
Neo-Nazi Violence in Charlottesville Reawakens the Resistance
By Ty Moore
The vicious white nationalist violence in Charlottesville and across the country this past weekend has acted as a collective wake up call. A powerful left challenge must be built against racist violence, vigilante intimidation, and bigoted government policies. Leaders like Bernie Sanders, alongside the unions, civil rights, immigrant, socialist, and other progressive organizations must step up to coordinate mass protests in every city to isolate and drive back far-right forces. These protests should be linked to a clear anti-Trump, anti-corporate program to unite the vast majority of working people against racism and bigotry.
The Far Right Threat
Alt-right, white nationalist, and neo-nazi groups have organized increasingly bold, racist demonstrations since Trump’s election. While still small, the size and confidence of neo-nazi and white nationalist groups are growing. The hundreds of white nationalists who descended on Charlottesville this past weekend for the “Unite the Right” convergence clearly aimed to launch their movement onto a higher plane.
With the brutal murder of Heather Heyer by neo-nazi motorist James Fields still fresh in the headlines Saturday, Trump got on national television to condemn the violence and hatred “on all sides.” His failure to specifically condemn the white nationalist and neo-nazi groups drew immediate outrage from millions, while at least one neo-nazi website welcomed Trump’s remarks as “really, really good.”
The sweeping public outcry against this display of violence and bigotry in Charlottesville demonstrates the real balance of forces in U.S. society against the far right. Spontaneous mass protests are erupting in cities across the country. Alongside a plan for nationally coordinated mass protests, wherever necessary the left needs to pull together democratic community/labor defense coalitions to physically defend our movement and communities against attack.
What is increasingly clear, however, is that anti-racist protests alone are not enough to cut across the growth of nationalism and racism in society. To push back against the rise of white nationalism, or to build an effective resistance against Trump, requires a conscious political strategy to isolate the far-right.
Addressing the Roots of Trumpism
While most Republican leaders attempt to distance themselves from alt-right groups, in reality their coded bigotry and racist government policies have encouraged the growth of racist and reactionary ideas. Decades of business-backed bipartisan “tough-on-crime” policies, whipping up Islamophobia under the guise of “anti-terrorism,” and escalating deportations of immigrant workers have created a racist climate that white nationalist forces can take advantage of.
At root, the rise of far-right reactionary and neo-fascist forces can only be understood as an international phenomenon, a result of the deep crisis of global capitalism. Capitalist governments everywhere have overseen a dramatic rise in inequality, with islands of extreme wealth surrounded by a fast-growing sea of poverty, economic insecurity, and social disintegration. With their system in crisis, and faced with the threat of a working-class resistance, a section of the ruling class is resorting to racism, nationalism, and bigotry to divide and conquer.
At the same time, the failure of the left and labor movement to offer a bold, working-class political alternative has allowed the rise of right populist figures like Trump. In the last election, Trump appeared as the only “anti-establishment” alternative to the rule of Wall Street and the corrupted political elite after Bernie Sanders’ left-populist campaign was blocked by the Democratic Party establishment. This allowed Trump to demagogically appeal to millions of white working- and middle-class voters who face falling living standards and are furious at the corrupt out-of-touch political establishment. It was this political and social context that allowed Trump to get an echo for his cynical appeals to nationalist pride, his scapegoating of immigrants, his naked misogyny, and his pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington.
A Left Alternative Needed
If the root cause of Trumpism is the crisis of capitalism, any effective movement to fight the right must link a strong opposition to racism and bigotry with an equally bold program to end poverty, unemployment, housing insecurity, and the chronic underfunding of education, infrastructure, and social services - paid for by taxes on the rich. In short, cutting across support for Trump and alt right groups will require building a mass movement which can provide a clear left-wing political alternative.
The potential for this is already visible in the broad support for Bernie Sanders, especially in “red states” that voted heavily for Trump. The self-identified democratic socialist has emerged as the most popular politician in America and is the most prominent voice opposing Trump. Bernie’s popularity is rooted in his call for “a political revolution against the billionaire class,” his demands for “Medicare for All,” free college education, a massive jobs program paid for by taxes on the rich, and his attacks on not just Republicans but also on the Democratic Party’s corporate sponsored establishment.
Unfortunately, Sanders has failed to combine his radical program with the need for an new mass working class political party, a vital step to unite the growing Trump resistance into a coherent mass movement.
Mass Protests and Community Defense Coalitions
The “Unite the Right” marches in Charlottesville have outraged millions of working people who are looking for an effective way to fight back. Understandably, the vicious violence of neo-nazis has created growing sympathy among a section of activists to physically respond, with the popular chant “Any time, any place, punch a nazi in the face” heard on demonstrations across the country.
While appealing to a genuine sentiment, unfortunately, such an approach risks isolating anti-racist activists, cutting across our ability to build the mass involvement and support we need to win. Our power to defeat Trump and alt-right forces lies in the real potential to mobilize the majority of society against them. If progressive leaders like Sanders - alongside civil rights groups, socialists, and labor organizations - energetically built for coordinated, mass peaceful demonstrations, hundreds of thousands - possibly millions - could be brought into the streets in a decisive show of force against bigotry and racism.
At the same time, bitter experience has made clear that the police cannot be relied on to defend our movements, much less to defend the black, brown, and immigrant communities targeted for racist intimidation and violence. We must begin to rely on our own collective strength and self-organization to defend one another. Wherever necessary, the anti-Trump movement should organize democratic community/labor coalitions to steward and defend our demonstrations and come to the aid of threatened communities.
Since Trump’s first hours in office, Socialist Alternative has been at the forefront of building the resistance to his racist, sexist, big business agenda. At every stage, we have aimed to link the movement against Trump and his far-right backers to a strategy and program that can unite working people into a multi-racial mass movement. Our central message is that to effectively fight the right, we cannot limit our message to simply saying “no.”
Instead, we must link today’s defensive struggles to a program and strategy to challenge corporate control of society and to end the economic and social insecurity that is the soil from which racism, nationalism, and bigotry grow.
Capitalism is plunging the world deeper into crisis, social inequality, environmental destruction, conflicts and wars. Fully eradicating these social conditions will require a socialist transformation of society, taking the top 500 corporations and banks under public ownership and democratic control so that the vast resources of society can fully meet human needs, not just line the pockets of the ultra-rich. If you agree with this approach,join Socialist Alternative todayand help us build the kind of movement we need today and into the future.
Fight white supremacy in Boston! March with the socialists!
The white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, and now the white supremacists coming to Boston this Saturday, have thousands of people asking: "How do we defeat the far right?" How do we put an end to racism, sexism, nationalism, and other forms of bigotry?
While the right is certainly rising in the United States, their forces are vastly outnumbered. Thousands of people have organized counter-protests all throughout the country, and the world, in the last few days condemning the neo-Nazi’s malicious and hateful ideas. We must build on this momentum to drive out the far right for good.
At the "Fight Supremacy" march this Saturday, August 19th, Socialist Alternative and the International Socialist Organization will be marching as a Socialist contingent and are inviting you to march with us! We'll be meeting at 10 AM at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center (1350 Tremont Street). As a contingent, we can demonstrate our power and point toward socialist ideas in the fight against the far right.
On Tuesday, August 22nd at 6:30 PM we’ll be hosting a community discussion around "Socialism and the Struggle against Racism and the Far Right” at Encuentro 5 (9A Hamilton Pl. - near Park Street). We hope that you can join us at either or both events to further discuss what it will take to defeat the right and fight for a better world!
North Korea is sitting on a stockpile of minerals worth trillions
Embedded deep beneath the country's mountainous zones are some 200 varieties of minerals, including gold, iron, copper, zinc, magnesite, limestone, tungsten, and graphite, Quartz reports.
Some of these stockpiles are among the largest in the world, and North Korea, a tiny and cash-strapped nation, frequently uses them to bring in additional revenue — no matter the laws against doing so.
But the country is too poor to create the infrastructure needed to export the minerals — at least in large enough quantities to make a dent in its overall wealth. Still reliant on China, South Korea, and Russia for its financial and energy needs, North Korea has only made small deals with neighboring countries.
