Tuesday, April 17, 2018

*"We Are Coming Father Abraham"- A Song Of The American Civil War

*"We Are Coming Father Abraham"- A Song Of The American Civil War




On the anniversary of the start of the American Civil War.

An example of an American Civil War song that I gleaned from reading the book, Civil War Curiosities" by Webb Garrison.

In the event, although the United States Congress authorized and budgeted for those 300,000 soldiers, I do not believe that the quota was met.


WE ARE COMING, FATHER ABRAHAM
Words by James Sloan Gibbons
Music L.O. Emerson


We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more,
From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore.
We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear,
With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear.
We dare not look behind us but steadfastly before.
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!

CHORUS: We are coming, we are coming our Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!

If you look across the hilltops that meet the northern sky,
Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry;
And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,
And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;
And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour,
We are coming, father Abr'am, three hundred thousand more!

CHORUS

If you look up all our valleys where the growing harvests shine,
You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast forming into line;
And children from their mother's knees are pulling at the weeds ,
And learning how to reap and sow against their country's needs;
And a farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door,
We are coming, Father Abr'am, three hundred thousand more!

CHORUS

You have called us, and we're coming by Richmond's bloody tide,
To lay us down for freedom's sake, our brothers' bones beside;
Or from foul treason's savage group, to wrench the murderous blade;
And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to parade.
Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before,
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!

CHORUS

"REDS"-The Movie-"Radical Chic"-The John Reed-Louise Bryant Romance

"REDS"-The Movie-"Radical Chic"-The John Reed-Louise Bryant Romance




DVD REVIEW


REDS, THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (ORIGINALLY RELEASED IN 1981)

The important contribution of John Reed to the revolutionary movement here in America before World War I and later during the Russian revolution and its aftermath has never been fully appreciated. Thus, Warren Beatty, whatever his personal motives, has done a great service in filming the life of this “traitor to his class” (and his Harvard Class of 1910) and partisan of the international working class.

As usual with such commercial enterprises the order of things gets switched in the wrong direction. The love affair between Reed (played by Beatty) and budding writer and early feminist Louise Bryant (played by Diane Keaton)(and a little third party intervention by playwright Eugene O’Neill, played by Jack Nicholson) is set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution not the other way around, but such is cinematic license. More than most film depictions this one mainly gets the story straight; Reed's early free-lance journalism tied to the Mexican Revolution; the bohemian life of pre-World War I Greenwich Village in New York City including it patronage by socialites like Mabel Dodge; the socialist fight against American participation in World War I; the fight among socialists (and anarchists) over support to the Russian Revolution; and, an interesting segment on the seemingly bewildering in-fighting in the early communist movement between the foreign-language federations and the Reed-led “Natives” (which included James P. Cannon,later a founder of American Trotskyism)that that ultimately had to be 'resolved' at Communist International headquarters in Moscow.

Those ‘natives’, the likes of Earl Browder, James Cannon and William Z. Foster, in the course of events would form the leadership of the party through most of the twenties when the cadre still wanted to make a revolution here and not just cheer on the Russian Revolution from afar. A nice touch in the film is the interweaving of commentaries by those, friend and foe, who knew or knew of Reed or were around during this time. See this movie.

THE GERMAN REVOLUTION OF 1923

THE GERMAN REVOLUTION OF 1923




COMMENTARY

A proper perspective on the question of the failed German revolutionary socialist opportunities starting in 1918 after the debacle of German defeat in World War I, the overthrow of the Kaiser and the establishment of a democratic republic until 1923 with the failure of the revolutionary opportunities resulting from the French reparations crisis is the subject of on-going controversy among revolutionaries. At that time most European revolutionaries, especially the Russians, placed their strategic aspirations on the success of those efforts in Germany. A different outcome during that period, with the establishment of a German Workers Republic, would have changed the course of world history in many ways, not the least of which would have been the probable saving of the isolated Russian socialist revolution and defeating German fascism in the embryo.

Since then, beginning with the Trotsky-led Russian Left Opposition in 1923 and later the International Left Opposition, revolutionaries as well as others have cut their teeth on developing an analysis of the failure of revolutionary leadership as a primary cause for that aborted German revolution. Against that well-known analysis, more recently a whole cottage industry has developed, particularly around the British journal Revolutionary History, giving encouragement to latter day hand wringing about the prospects (or lack of prospects) for revolution at that time and drawing the lesson that a revolution in Germany then could not have happened.

To buttress that argument the writings on the prospects of the 1923 revolution by August Thalheimer, a central theoretician and key adviser to German Communist Party leader Brandler in this period, have been warmly resurrected and particularly boosted. This kind of analysis, however, gets revolutionaries nowhere. It is one thing for those on the ground at the time in Germany and in the Comintern to miss the obvious signals for revolution it is another for later ‘revolutionaries’ to provide retrospective political cover for those who refused to see and act on the revolutionary opportunities at the time. The events surrounding the failed German revolution were also echoed in what was called the ‘literary debate’ inside the Russian Communist Party in 1924 at a time when the internal struggle, after the death of Lenin, was getting to a white heat. While at this historical distance it is probably impossible to argue all of the specifics of the revolutionary crisis of 1923 some lessons stick out.

A quick sketch of events beginning from the start of World War I with the famous treachery of the German Social Democratic leadership in voting for the Kaiser’s war budget (and continuing to vote for it) are in some ways decisive for what happened in 1923. Later, facing the consequences of the defeat of the German army, war exhaustion and the possibility of harsh reprisals from the Allied forces the Kaiser’s government was overthrown shortly after the armistice was signed and the fight was on in earnest for the future of Germany. That question as least temporarily, however, was not decided until the German working class had been subdued and or brought off with a bourgeois democratic republic, the notorious Weimar Republic. Unlike the earlier Russian experience in 1917 no independent mobilization of the working class through Soviets or other pan-working class organizations was fought for to the end. And that is the rub. This is the start of the problem. No Bolshevik-type organization was present to take advantage of the revolutionary situation. What is worst, the forces that did exist led by the heroic martyrs Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were defeated and they personally were tragically and ominously murdered. Thus, a known and tested leadership was an essential missing ingredient that was to have consequences all the way through to 1923.

When a German Bolshevik-type organization finally was formed it contained many elements that were subjectively revolutionary but political naïve or disoriented, and suffered from anarchistic excesses in reaction to the stifling Social Democratic atmosphere of the pre-war period. While a party needs those subjectively elements to make the revolution, and this writer would argue that it cannot be made without them, this confusion gave the Social Democratic party plenty of ammunition for its reformist, parliamentary position. The key result of this lack of organization and proper preparededness was the so-called March Action of 1921. Unlike the overwhelming reaction of the German working class to the attempted Kopp Putsch of the previous year this was an action that went off half–cocked and did much to discredit communists in the eyes of the working class. The sorry results of this action had reverberations all the way up to the Communist International where Lenin and Trotsky were forced to defend the action in public, expel the former German party leader Paul Levi for a breech of discipline for his open criticism of the action (while it was going on) but also point out that it was the wrong way to go. In any case one cannot understand what happened (or did not happen) in 1923 without acknowledging the gun shyness of the Communist party leadership caused by the 1921 events.

So what is the specific argument of 1923 all about? Was there or was there not a realistic revolutionary opportunity to fight for a Soviet Germany which would have gone a long way to saving the Russian Revolution? On the face of it this question is a no-brainer. Of course there was a revolutionary situation. If the disruptions caused by the French take-over in the Ruhr in order to obtain their war reparations and the resultant passive resistance policy of the German government and the later inflationary spiral that affected many layers of German society was not a classic revolutionary situation then there are none this side of heaven. End of story.

The real question that underlines any argument against a revolutionary crisis is what to do (other than stick your head in the sand). This is where the previous “ultra" policies of the German Communist Party came into play. The party remained passive at a time when it was necessary for action. The leadership, including our above-mentioned friend Thalheimer, acted as if a revolutionary crisis would last for a prolonged period and that they had all the time in the world. They caught Zinoviev's disease (named for the Bolshevik leader who always seemed instinctively to go passive when it was necessary for action, and visa versa). Moreover, most critically they did not take advantage of the decline in the authority of the Social Democratic Party in order to win over the mass of the rank and file Soical Democrats that were leaving it in droves. That is where the preceding events described above come into play. The destruction of the authoritative leadership of Luxemburg and Liebknecht left a lesser layer of cadre not known for pursuing an aggressive strategy when called for. It is hard to believe that Luxemburg and Liebknecht would have responded in the same way as the Brandler/Thalheimer leadership. I would argue, if anything, Liebknecht would have had to be restrained a little. This is, in the final analysis, the decisive problem of the failure of the German Revolution in 1923. Nobody can predict whether a revolutionary crisis will lead to revolutionary success but one must certainly know when to move as the Bolsheviks did.

And what of the other reasons given for holding back. The fascists were a menace but hardly more than that. Damn, if they were really as much of a menace as right-wing social democrats and communists have portrayed the situation in 1923 what the hell were the fascists in say 1930, when they had 100,000 well-organized and fighting mad storm troopers in the streets. With that view the only rational policy for Communist would have been to make sure the German working class had its passports in order. As we tragically know there are never enough passports. And what of the German Army and outside capitalist military intervention? The army was not that big even though augmented by ‘unofficial’ paramilitary forces. It definitely would have been harder to split these forces along class lines. But workers militias would have at least been able to hold the line. And do not forget the more than willing Red Army was within a few days march to assist. As the Bolshevik Revolution and the ensuing Civil demonstrated in the final analysis a revolution is victorious or defeated despite the influence of whatever foreign forces are scheming against the regime.

And what about the internal capitalist opposition? And what about the stabilization of the economic situation? One can go on forever with the problems and talk oneself out of any action. While all these factors individually might argue against a revolutionary crisis in 1923 jointly they create the notion that this was a big revolutionary opportunity lost. That should make one suspicious, very suspicious, of the credentials of those ‘revolutionaries’ who argue that one did not exist. Read more on this subject.I know I will.

301 Days in Jail So Far! & Reality's trial date is postponed again

stand with reality winner
 

301 Days in Jail,
as of today.

 
 
Reality's trial
is now postponed 
until October 15th.


That's 500 Days in Jail,
Without Bail!
   

Whistleblower Reality Winner's trial has (again) been postponed.
Her new trial date is October 15, 2018, based on the new official proceedings schedule (fifth version). She will have spent 500 days jailed without bail by then. Today is day #301.
And her trial may likely be pushed back even further into the Spring of 2019.

We urge you to remain informed and engaged with our campaign until she is free! 
 
 
 
 
One supporter's excellent report
on the details of Winner's imprisonment

~Check out these highlights & then go read the full article here~
 
 
"*Guilty Until Proven Innocent*

Winner is also not allowed to change from her orange jumpsuit for her court dates, even though she is “innocent until proven guilty.”  Not only that, but during any court proceedings, only her wrists are unshackled, her ankles stay.  And a US Marshal sits in front of her, face to face, during the proceedings.  Winner is not allowed to turn around and look into the courtroom at all . . .
 
Upon checking the inmate registry, it starts to become clear how hush hush the government wants this case against Winner to be.  Whether pre-whistleblowing, or in her orange jumpsuit, photos of Winner have surfaced on the web.  That’s why it was so interesting that there’s no photo of her next to her name on the inmate registry . . .
 
 
For the past hundred years, the Espionage Act has been debated and amended, and used to charge whistleblowers that are seeking to help the country they love, not harm it.  Sometimes we have to learn when past amendments no longer do anything to justify the treatment of an American truth teller as a political prisoner. The act is outdated and amending it needs to be seriously looked at, or else we need to develop laws that protect our whistleblowers.
 
The Espionage Act is widely agreed by many experts to be unconstitutionally vague and a violation of the First Amendment of Free Speech.  Even though a Supreme Court had ruled that the Espionage Act does not infringe upon the 1st Amendment back in 1919, it’s constitutionality has been back and forth in court ever sense.

Because of being charged under the Espionage Act, Winner’s defense’s hands are tied.  No one is allowed to mention the classified document, even though the public already knows that the information in it is true, that Russia hacked into our election support companies." 
 Want to take action in support of Reality?

Step up to defend our whistleblower of conscience ► DONATE NOW
FRIENDS OF REALITY WINNER ~ PATRIOT & ALLEGED WHISTLEBLOWER
c/o Courage to Resist, 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610 ~ 510-488-3559

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In Boston April 26-Standout for Black Lives Ashmont T Station Plaza



Standout for Black Lives 







Ashmont T Station Plaza
*  Thursday  April 26  *
5:30-6:30 pm
And Every fourth Thursday April-Oct. 
* Spread the Word * All Are Welcome *
Hold BLM banners and signs, Hand out Fliers
Dorchester People for Peace
Contact:    DPP 617-282-3783       or      emmy@emmyrainwalker.com

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The Dim-Witted Ghost Of Davey Jones’ Locker-Johnny Depp’s “Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End” (2007)-A Film Review

The Dim-Witted Ghost Of Davey Jones’ Locker-Johnny Depp’s “Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End” (2007)-A Film Review    




DVD Review

By Associate Film Critic Alden Riley

[As regular readers of this space now are probably painfully aware when Sam Lowell the longtime film critic here retired from the day to day grind of reviewing films, old and young, his old-time friend and competitor from American Film Gazette days Sandy Salmon took over the chores. Sandy himself is in the process of retiring at some point in the near distant future and thus he hired me, Alden Riley, to do some of the leg work with the idea of me taking his place when the time comes for him hang up his hat. Apparently until then I am to take every deadbeat film, every stinker to put the matter more succinctly, like the film below that Sandy doesn’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Okay Sandy but my day will come.]               

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Kiera Knightly, 2007  

Sometimes Hollywood goes too far with a good thing. Tries to squeeze more than that last ounce out of one of its productions, one of its ideas that cannot sustain a battering in sequel land. Not always as the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings trilogies testify to in a big way. Going the other way the prequel to the original Star Wars and The Hobbit trilogies and the film under review here the third installment of the Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy, or what was then billed as a trilogy,  At World’s End lacked reason to go the trifecta distance. (Needless to say films four and five of the series suffer exponentially from that same overdone malaise but they will be reviewed at another time). Despite my love for Johnny Depp in almost everything he has done on screen since Edward Scissorhand, my secret crush on Kiera Knightly and admiration of the work of the dashing Orlando Bloom this one gets a decided thumbs down notwithstanding that at the time it made Disney a bazillion dollars.      


The sinner is the plotline mostly, mostly confusing, and not well thought out once the managerial decision was made to go for broke with a third film. The “late” Captain Jack Sparrow, Depp’s role, long gone to Mister David Jones’ locker, long gone beyond the pale to pirate heaven (or hell is maybe more like it) is in need of resurrection. In need of taking human form again since his services are needed to keep the pirate community from extinction at the hands of the military commander of the dastardly British East India Company which is ready to do major hell-raising with the resources of the sub-continent of India. Dear Jack is needed to show up at an appointed place, Shipwreck Cove, where a great decision needs to be made by the pirate kings, the live pirate kings  in high dungeon Brethren Court about how to fight to the death against the East India commander at the behest of those pirates who faced their last before the hangman’s noose.


Needless to say an uneasy alliance between the fetching even for a pirate leader Ms. Elizabeth Swann, Knightly’s role, Will Turner, Bloom’s role, and the nefarious Captain Barbossa needs to be consummated all with their own agendas else we would have a very short but maybe mercifully short film (at two and one half hours with a thin plotline a length a legitimate criticism). Needless to say as well they spring Jack and then the serious swashbuckling begins as alliances are made and unmade, treachery abounds, and yesterday’s allies can turn sullen on a dime. Through all of this Liz and Will are making very serious eyes at each other (they will be wedded by Captain Barbossa, a questionable legal choice under the circumstances, while beating off, no swashbuckling their way out on yet another set of problems.) Oh yeah, through some bizarre machinations (and a bid to seem democratic and pro-women to modern sensibilities) Liz is made the “king” of the pirates. That will not stop them from being parted for ten years while Will is the middleman in the passage from life business. No problem as they have sex and Liz gets pregnant out of that encounter, very pregnant. Ho hum. Thankfully this is the last of the muddled adventure series.  Not                 

The Dim-Witted Ghost Of Davey Jones’ Locker-Johnny Depp’s “Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End” (2007)-A Film Review

The Dim-Witted Ghost Of Davey Jones’ Locker-Johnny Depp’s “Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End” (2007)-A Film Review    




DVD Review

By Associate Film Critic Alden Riley

[As regular readers of this space now are probably painfully aware when Sam Lowell the longtime film critic here retired from the day to day grind of reviewing films, old and young, his old-time friend and competitor from American Film Gazette days Sandy Salmon took over the chores. Sandy himself is in the process of retiring at some point in the near distant future and thus he hired me, Alden Riley, to do some of the leg work with the idea of me taking his place when the time comes for him hang up his hat. Apparently until then I am to take every deadbeat film, every stinker to put the matter more succinctly, like the film below that Sandy doesn’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Okay Sandy but my day will come.]               

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Kiera Knightly, 2007  

Sometimes Hollywood goes too far with a good thing. Tries to squeeze more than that last ounce out of one of its productions, one of its ideas that cannot sustain a battering in sequel land. Not always as the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings trilogies testify to in a big way. Going the other way the prequel to the original Star Wars and The Hobbit trilogies and the film under review here the third installment of the Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy, or what was then billed as a trilogy,  At World’s End lacked reason to go the trifecta distance. (Needless to say films four and five of the series suffer exponentially from that same overdone malaise but they will be reviewed at another time). Despite my love for Johnny Depp in almost everything he has done on screen since Edward Scissorhand, my secret crush on Kiera Knightly and admiration of the work of the dashing Orlando Bloom this one gets a decided thumbs down notwithstanding that at the time it made Disney a bazillion dollars.      


The sinner is the plotline mostly, mostly confusing, and not well thought out once the managerial decision was made to go for broke with a third film. The “late” Captain Jack Sparrow, Depp’s role, long gone to Mister David Jones’ locker, long gone beyond the pale to pirate heaven (or hell is maybe more like it) is in need of resurrection. In need of taking human form again since his services are needed to keep the pirate community from extinction at the hands of the military commander of the dastardly British East India Company which is ready to do major hell-raising with the resources of the sub-continent of India. Dear Jack is needed to show up at an appointed place, Shipwreck Cove, where a great decision needs to be made by the pirate kings, the live pirate kings  in high dungeon Brethren Court about how to fight to the death against the East India commander at the behest of those pirates who faced their last before the hangman’s noose.


Needless to say an uneasy alliance between the fetching even for a pirate leader Ms. Elizabeth Swann, Knightly’s role, Will Turner, Bloom’s role, and the nefarious Captain Barbossa needs to be consummated all with their own agendas else we would have a very short but maybe mercifully short film (at two and one half hours with a thin plotline a length a legitimate criticism). Needless to say as well they spring Jack and then the serious swashbuckling begins as alliances are made and unmade, treachery abounds, and yesterday’s allies can turn sullen on a dime. Through all of this Liz and Will are making very serious eyes at each other (they will be wedded by Captain Barbossa, a questionable legal choice under the circumstances, while beating off, no swashbuckling their way out on yet another set of problems.) Oh yeah, through some bizarre machinations (and a bid to seem democratic and pro-women to modern sensibilities) Liz is made the “king” of the pirates. That will not stop them from being parted for ten years while Will is the middleman in the passage from life business. No problem as they have sex and Liz gets pregnant out of that encounter, very pregnant. Ho hum. Thankfully this is the last of the muddled adventure series.  Not                 

In Honor Of Russian Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin’s Birthday (April 1870-January 1924)-The Struggle Continues-Ivan Smilga’s Political Journey-Take One

In Honor Of Russian Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin’s Birthday (April 1870-January 1924)-The Struggle Continues-Ivan Smilga’s Political Journey-Take One     




From The Pen Of Frank Jackman 



For a number of years I have been honoring various revolutionary forbears, including the subject of this birthday tribute, the Russian Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin architect (along with fellow revolutionary Leon Trotsky) of the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 in each January under the headline-Honor The Three L’s –Lenin, Luxemburg , Liebknecht. My purpose then was (and still is) to continue the traditions established by the Communist International in the early post-World War I period in honoring revolutionary forbears. That month has special significance since every January  

Leftists honor those three leading revolutionaries who died in that month, V.I. Lenin of Russia in his sleep after a long illness in 1924, and Karl Liebknecht of Germany and Rosa Luxemburg of Poland in 1919 murdered in separate incidents after leading the defeated Spartacist uprising in Berlin.



I have made my political points about the heroic Karl Liebknecht and his parliamentary fight against the German war budget in World War I in which he eventually wound up in prison only to be released when the Kaiser abdicated (correctly went to jail when it came down to it once the government pulled the hammer down on his opposition), on some previous occasions. The key point to be taken away today, still applicable today as in America we are in the age of endless war, endless war appropriations and seemingly endless desires to racket up another war out of whole cloth every change some ill-begotten administration decides it needs to “show the colors”, one hundred years later in that still lonely and frustrating struggle to get politicians to oppose war budgets, to risk prison to choke off the flow of war materials.  



I have also made some special point in previous years about the life of Rosa Luxemburg, the “rose of the revolution.” About her always opposing the tendencies in her adopted party, the German Social-Democracy, toward reform and accommodation, her struggle to make her Polish party ready for revolutionary opportunities, her important contributions to Marxist theory and her willing to face and go to jail when she opposed the first World War.



This month, the month of his birth, it is appropriate, at a time when the young needs to find, and are in desperate need of a few good heroes, a few revolutionaries who contributed to both our theoretical understandings about the tasks of the international working class in the age of imperialism (the age, unfortunately, that we are still mired in) and to the importance of the organization question in the struggle for revolutionary power, to highlight the  struggles of Vladimir Lenin, the third L, in order to define himself politically.



Below is a first sketch written as part of a series posted over several days before Lenin’s birthday on the American Left History blog starting on April 16th of a young fictional labor militant, although not so fictional in the scheme of the revolutionary developments in the Russia of the Tsar toward the end of the 19th century and early 20th century which will help define the problems facing the working-class there then, and the ones that Lenin had to get a handle on.

*******

Ivan Smilga, “Big Ivan” to his friends, called so since childhood in the rural neighborhood, really a village, where he grew up, and rightly so since he was large, six feet six and two hundred and sixty pounds. So large by Russian hunger standards in the winter of 1893 when he had come out of the Ukrainian farmlands, come out of the miniature hamlet of Vresk, not many miles outside of Odessa to Moscow when he had heard that John Smythe and Sons, the big English textile firm had been given a license by the Tsar, by the Ministry of Commerce, to set up a factory in that city to produce cloth for the home market.

The farm life had been so barren, so desolate, so worked out by his father and really by the farmer who had worked the land before and moved east, east toward Siberia where the frontier now lie ahead, that Ivan had walked on foot or taken a sleigh ride most of the way that hard winter in order to as he said (roughly and politely translated from the Russian although the English is almost too gentile for a what a rough-hewn peasant boy not civilized by city ways and what Miss Primrose’s etiquette books would tolerate would thunder when riled) “get the stink of country life blown out of his nostrils.” He was not alone on that first day when the first Smythe plant went on line. Thousands of young farm boy Ivans (although perhaps none quite as large) were standing impatiently in line in front of the main office building for a chance at employment. And more than one farm boy was crestfallen to see that if he had to compete against thousands of Ivans there were that many more thousands of Ivanas, young farm girls, girls as always attracted to textile work in every budding capitalist country in order to get off their own desolate family farms and make their ways in the world before marriage. (Ivan would later find, find out among a lot of things that the idyll textile dewy-eyed factory girl of British and American legend was just that, a legend but that did not stop them or later generations from coming when they heard the spindles roaring). Although perhaps they would be too polite and pious to use the words that Ivan used to indicate his reasoning for getting off the land, and not look back.                

Fortunately Ivan, with his bulk and strength, was chosen very quickly by a savvy watchful Russian foreman who knew what he needed and it was staring him right in the eye, needed the strong back and mitt-like hands of a young man who could lift the rolls of fabric and balance then on his back as they came off the machines. And so Ivan started his new life, or part of his new life as a working-man, as a man of the city. For about a year things went well, although he worked many long sixteen hour days six days a week being young he was capable of doing the work. And loved to pocket his wages at the end of the week (extra wages, a few kopeks more, as it turned out later since that foreman had told the English superintendent that Ivan was something of a superman. Moreover he had the grudging respect of other men (and the eye of a few of the girl operators) so it was best to piece him off before he found out about trade unions and such. Nice maneuver, divide and conquer right on the factory floor). Being somewhat frugal (as he had been taught in the peasant manner) Ivan was able to save for his dream of owning a small shop, maybe a blacksmith’s shop, to service the needs of the fine horses that he saw daily on the streets of Moscow. Ivan also sent, as a dutiful son, kopeks home to his family to help tide them over as the grain harvest that year was sufficiently short to bring the threat of severe hunger, maybe famine it was not unheard of , back to the Smilga door once again.

In the spring of 1895 all that changed though. Ivan had worked his way up to head hauler, directing others to load and unload the rolls of fabric produced from the never-ending machines. He had a good reputation among his fellow workers, although not a few saw his dreams of a little shop as somewhat awry (but who would dare tell Ivan Smilga, even later the hardest toughest street Bolshevik from Georgia, he could not have his dream this side of paradise). Moreover he was a moderate drinker by Russian and Ukrainian standards, no more than a bottle at ta sitting, and so the young women of the factory floor would flirt, or at least cast an eye his way, especially Elena Kassova, who worked one of the machines which Ivan was in charge of keeping up to speed by rapidly get the rolls off the end of the line. Then one day James Smiley, the company owner’s son and manager of the plant announced to young Ivan Smilga that his services (and that of the crew who worked under him) were no longer necessary since the company had purchased a machine that would automatically take the rolls from the machine and place them on a wagon, a wagon so simple to operate that one of the girl machine-tenders could do it periodically as needed while still tending her machine.  

So there Ivan was, out in the cold, without a job, and with no particular prospects. Ivan stewed over his plight for about a week, maybe ten days, with solace only from uncharacteristic endless bottles of vodka. Then one night he rounded up his now unemployed work crew, a group of four young farm boys who like Ivan did not want to go home to that desolate farm land, and explained to them his plan to get his and their jobs back. Of course each crew member had also sought solace in the bottle and so collectively their minds may not have been quite as sharp as they should have been when Ivan unfolded his scheme. To hear Ivan tell the story the plan was simplicity itself. They would sneak into the factory on Saturday night when the machines were shut down and smash that hauling machine to smithereens. Then the Smileys, father and son, would have to hire them back, maybe give them higher wages to boot.


Needless to say greedy for work and plied with liquor the crew bought into the plan with every hand and foot. That very next Saturday night they pulled off the caper. Snuck into the factory undetected by a dozing night watchman to do their nefarious work (that night watchman, Orlov, would subsequently be fired for being drunk and asleep on the job and Ivan would not see him again until he saw him on the barricades in Moscow when the Bolsheviks were trying to subdue the local branch of the Provisional Government after November 1917). All day Sunday the working-class quarters of Moscow were abuzz with the news, spread by the night watchman Orlov who claimed he had been knocked out by whoever did the dastardly deed, that parties unknown had smashed the machinery. There were newspaper reports that the culprits would be momentarily apprehended. That the “Luddites” would be captured and dealt with summarily. (Nobody knew exactly what a Luddite was but they all knew it could not be good to be one, or, worse, accused of being one) Of course they never were. On the other hand come that Monday morning as Ivan and the crew waited around in front of the factory doors expecting to be re-hired coming up the road on a horse-drawn wooden flatbed carriage was an exact replica of the machinery destroyed the previous Saturday night.            

Editorial: For the sake of Tampa Bay veterans, Senate should scrutinize Trump’s VA pick

Editorial: For the sake of Tampa Bay veterans, Senate should scrutinize Trump’s VA pick

Associated Press (2017) Former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, right, and White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, left, watch as President Donald Trump talks with a patient during a VA "telehealth" event in Washington. The Senate needs to use the confirmation process to explore not only Jackson's management ability but his vision for a health system that despite all its faults delivers critical care for millions of Americans.
Published: April 7, 2018
President Donald Trump’s decision to fire Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and to replace him with presidential physician Dr. Ronny Jackson has outsized ramifications for the Tampa Bay area, given the large number of veterans here and the expansive and unique role that two major VA health centers play on both sides of the bay. Whether Jackson is the right person for the job, or whether this amounts to yet another glaring example of gross cronyism in the Trump White House, remains to be seen. But the Senate needs to use the confirmation process to explore not only Jackson’s management ability but his vision for a health system that despite all its faults delivers critical care for millions of Americans.
Shulkin was an Obama-era holdover and his firing was no surprise, coming after a critical report in February by the VA inspector general’s office that faulted him for improperly accepting Wimbledon tickets during an official trip to Europe last summer. Shulkin needs to answer for his conduct, but his bigger offense may have been to slow-walk the administration’s efforts to privatize VA health care services. While Shulkin agreed to explore limited privatization in some service areas and markets, he also recognized that the VA delivered a unique level of care to a specialized patient base. He was widely lauded in his tenure for improving accountability in the VA’s entrenched bureaucracy and for moving to modernize the VA’s delivery of care.
Jackson has won admirers for his service under two presidents prior to Trump as White House physician and for his distinguished career in emergency medicine. His service with a trauma unit in Iraq certainly makes him familiar with and sensitive to the VA’s patient profile and the vital role the agency plays in caring for wounded warriors. But what appears to have propelled him to a Cabinet nominee was Jackson’s televised appearance this year strongly hailing Trump’s physical condition. Having the president’s confidence is invaluable. But it should reflect core competence in a nominee, not merely fealty to any single president.
Jackson’s lack of management experience is an obvious concern for anyone hoping to lead the nation’s largest integrated health care system. With more than 1,700 hospitals and other health care facilities, and nearly 40,000 providers, the VA is the second-largest federal department, and there is nothing automatic about delivering quality, responsive services to 20 million veterans. The VA has rebounded from the recent scandals of secret waiting lists, but its bureaucratic culture still protects many incompetent leaders and outdated practices that harm its quality of care. And that in turn has colored the VA’s public narrative. For all its faults, the VA has been recognized in recent years for outperforming non-VA facilities in outpatient services. And in the most recent survey of customer satisfaction, released in February, VA patients rated their experience higher than did those who were treated in private hospitals.
The next secretary needs to recognize the unique role the VA plays in treating complex cases that involve the intersection of blunt physical trauma and post-traumatic stress. The next leader needs to recognize the challenge of meeting the evolving patient profile, as older veterans require more care and as younger ones cope with regaining physical and emotional skills necessary to get back into civilian life.
The agency also needs to plan for the special needs that veteran-heavy states like Florida — which ranks third in the nation’s veteran population, with 1.6 million — are facing. With 200,000 veterans in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties alone, the VA needs to continue investing in a modern health care delivery system. The Senate should press Jackson on how he would fulfill this mission and examine his commitment to put the interests of veterans ahead of any political agenda by this administration.
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tl;dr: join us for the Children’s March to Protect Immigrant Families - Thursday, April 19 at 12 noon at the Statehouse. Children and adults encouraged to attend!

   
 

 
tl;dr: join us for the Children’s March to Protect Immigrant Families - Thursday, April 19 at 12 noon at the Statehouse. Children and adults encouraged to attend!
 
Dear Matthew,
 
Immigrant families are being ripped apart. Children are being made orphans by state-sponsored kidnappings of their parents. This is a crisis with deep moral and social implications.
 
On Thursday, April 19, join ECCO, MCAN, and more than 30 organizations from across the state who will join together for a Children’s March to Protect Immigrant Families.Children from across the state will lead us around the Statehouse delivering hundreds of children's’ letters calling on our elected officials to take real and meaningful action to protect immigrant families.
 
 
Here's what you can do:
  • Show up at the Statehouse on Thursday, April 19 at noon with children of all ages if possible.
  • Ask children in your families, communities, and congregations to write letters to Governor Baker and Speaker DeLeo urging them to take action to protect immigrant families. These should be written by children and from the heart! Be sure to bring them with you on Thursday or email labdow@mcan-pico.org.
 
Also next week, join MCAN leaders on Tuesday, April 17 at 8:30am on the third floor, courtroom 8 of the JFK Building in Boston to bear witness to the children's immigration court hearings. The cases of young children, often without representation, are heard and sometimes deportation orders are given. Our presence in these courtrooms, to show that we care, matters.
 
Join us as we band together to protect immigrant families across our state.
 
With gratitude,
Luke Abdow