Friday, September 25, 2009
*Canada: Reformists and the Quebec National Question-A Guest Commentary
Click on title to link to guest commentary from the pages of "Workers Vanguard", September 25, 2009.regarding the struggle for independence in Quebec. This, today,as I have mentioned before on this question, is basically my position. It is not clear to me, However, other than some anecdotal evidence from some local sources who keep up with events back home in Quebec, about the heat of the question compared with a decade or so ago when it was definitely a "hot button" question. In any case, the article is very polemical and takes a number of other left organizations to task for their wishy-washy (at best) positions. Comment is therefore expected and welcome.
*From The Pages Of “Workers Vanguard”-Trotskyists and the Second World War
Markin comment:
As almost always these historical articles and polemics are purposefully helpful to clarify the issues in the struggle against world imperialism, particularly the “monster” here in America.
Workers Vanguard No. 943
25 September 2009
Trotskyists and the Second World War
(Quote of the Week)
Bourgeois scribblers and reformist swindlers falsely assert that the Second World War, which began in September 1939, was a battle for “democracy against fascism.” In fact, World War II was driven by the same underlying economic impulse as the First World War: the struggle among the imperialist powers to seize new arenas of exploitation around the planet and to defend their existing ones. Against the tide of reactionary patriotism, Trotskyists carried out their internationalist duty to rally the proletariat in its own class interests: standing for the unconditional military defense of the Soviet Union, a workers state despite its Stalinist degeneration, and opposing all the imperialist combatants in that carnage—a position for which U.S. Trotskyists were imprisoned in 1941. We print below excerpts from a resolution adopted by the Eleventh Convention of the American Trotskyist movement in November 1944 that was originally printed in Fourth International, published by the then-revolutionary Socialist Workers Party.
When the United States entered the second World War, Roosevelt, chief spokesman of American capitalism proclaimed that this war was a crusade for democracy, for the “Four Freedoms,” for the destruction of fascism and totalitarianism. The labor bureaucrats, recruiting sergeants for the war machine, volunteered their services to sell the war as a conflict between “free labor” and “slave labor.”
After three years of America’s participation in the war, the demagogic slogans under which the people were dragooned into the slaughter have been stripped bare. Democracy and freedom are among the first casualties of the war. The slogans of “national unity” and “equality of sacrifice” are a snare. The pledges to take the profits out of war to prevent a new crop of wartime millionaires, are proved a monstrous hoax.
The capitalist government logically began its reactionary campaign by striking its first blows at the class-conscious vanguard of the American working class. On the very day war was declared, December 8, 1941, sentence was passed on the leaders of the Socialist Workers Party. They were convicted under the anti-labor Smith “Gag” Act for their uncompromising and outspoken opposition to the war program and because of their firm adherence to the principles of revolutionary Socialism. The conviction and imprisonment of the 18 was accompanied by a whole series of measures designed to throttle the unions and paralyze labor’s resistance to the onslaught of Big Business.
The right to strike, basic to the freedom of the labor movement, has been virtually outlawed. Workers have been frozen to their jobs at frozen wages while the cost of living continues to rise. A “modified” version of forced labor has been imposed by executive decree. An increasing weight of taxes is being saddled on those least able to pay while corporation profits soar to the highest levels in history.
The war immediately strengthened the most reactionary groups and institutions. The surge of reaction, especially the persecution of minorities and the spread of race-hatred, is a wartime continuation of tendencies inherent in capitalist decay. Brutal discrimination and humiliating segregation of the Negro people in the armed forces as well as in civilian life reduce the slogans of “democracy and freedom” to a hideous mockery for 13-million American citizens. The wave of anti-Semitism unloosed by capitalist reaction has already risen to alarming proportions. Jim Crowism and anti-Semitism march hand in hand with the assault against the organizations of the working class. This is the reality behind the demagogic facade of the “Four Freedoms.”
Prior to America’s entry into the war, this reactionary trend was analyzed and forecast in the Manifesto of the Fourth International on The Imperialist War and the Proletarian Revolution which stated:
“Seeking to gain the advantages of a totalitarian regime, the imperialist democracies launch their own defense with a redoubled drive against the working class and the persecution of revolutionary organizations. The war danger and now the war itself is utilized by them first and foremost to crush internal enemies. The bourgeoisie invariably and unswervingly follows the rule: ‘The main enemy is in one’s own country’.”
—“The U.S. and the Second World War,” Fourth International (January 1945)
As almost always these historical articles and polemics are purposefully helpful to clarify the issues in the struggle against world imperialism, particularly the “monster” here in America.
Workers Vanguard No. 943
25 September 2009
Trotskyists and the Second World War
(Quote of the Week)
Bourgeois scribblers and reformist swindlers falsely assert that the Second World War, which began in September 1939, was a battle for “democracy against fascism.” In fact, World War II was driven by the same underlying economic impulse as the First World War: the struggle among the imperialist powers to seize new arenas of exploitation around the planet and to defend their existing ones. Against the tide of reactionary patriotism, Trotskyists carried out their internationalist duty to rally the proletariat in its own class interests: standing for the unconditional military defense of the Soviet Union, a workers state despite its Stalinist degeneration, and opposing all the imperialist combatants in that carnage—a position for which U.S. Trotskyists were imprisoned in 1941. We print below excerpts from a resolution adopted by the Eleventh Convention of the American Trotskyist movement in November 1944 that was originally printed in Fourth International, published by the then-revolutionary Socialist Workers Party.
When the United States entered the second World War, Roosevelt, chief spokesman of American capitalism proclaimed that this war was a crusade for democracy, for the “Four Freedoms,” for the destruction of fascism and totalitarianism. The labor bureaucrats, recruiting sergeants for the war machine, volunteered their services to sell the war as a conflict between “free labor” and “slave labor.”
After three years of America’s participation in the war, the demagogic slogans under which the people were dragooned into the slaughter have been stripped bare. Democracy and freedom are among the first casualties of the war. The slogans of “national unity” and “equality of sacrifice” are a snare. The pledges to take the profits out of war to prevent a new crop of wartime millionaires, are proved a monstrous hoax.
The capitalist government logically began its reactionary campaign by striking its first blows at the class-conscious vanguard of the American working class. On the very day war was declared, December 8, 1941, sentence was passed on the leaders of the Socialist Workers Party. They were convicted under the anti-labor Smith “Gag” Act for their uncompromising and outspoken opposition to the war program and because of their firm adherence to the principles of revolutionary Socialism. The conviction and imprisonment of the 18 was accompanied by a whole series of measures designed to throttle the unions and paralyze labor’s resistance to the onslaught of Big Business.
The right to strike, basic to the freedom of the labor movement, has been virtually outlawed. Workers have been frozen to their jobs at frozen wages while the cost of living continues to rise. A “modified” version of forced labor has been imposed by executive decree. An increasing weight of taxes is being saddled on those least able to pay while corporation profits soar to the highest levels in history.
The war immediately strengthened the most reactionary groups and institutions. The surge of reaction, especially the persecution of minorities and the spread of race-hatred, is a wartime continuation of tendencies inherent in capitalist decay. Brutal discrimination and humiliating segregation of the Negro people in the armed forces as well as in civilian life reduce the slogans of “democracy and freedom” to a hideous mockery for 13-million American citizens. The wave of anti-Semitism unloosed by capitalist reaction has already risen to alarming proportions. Jim Crowism and anti-Semitism march hand in hand with the assault against the organizations of the working class. This is the reality behind the demagogic facade of the “Four Freedoms.”
Prior to America’s entry into the war, this reactionary trend was analyzed and forecast in the Manifesto of the Fourth International on The Imperialist War and the Proletarian Revolution which stated:
“Seeking to gain the advantages of a totalitarian regime, the imperialist democracies launch their own defense with a redoubled drive against the working class and the persecution of revolutionary organizations. The war danger and now the war itself is utilized by them first and foremost to crush internal enemies. The bourgeoisie invariably and unswervingly follows the rule: ‘The main enemy is in one’s own country’.”
—“The U.S. and the Second World War,” Fourth International (January 1945)
***Writer’s Corner- The Avatar Of American Letter, Mark Twain
Click On Title To Link To PBS's Web Page For Ken Burns' "Mark Twain" documentary.
DVD Review
Mark Twain, a film documentary directed by Ken Burns, PBS, Florentine Productions, 2000
No, this will not be a paean to the `transformative' nature of reading Samuel Clemens' (hereafter Mark Twain) seminal works, "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" in childhood. I spend no long nights reading his works under a blanket, flashlight at the ready, until I fell asleep exhausted. (I did do that form of reading but not for Mr. Twain's work.) I, frankly, could not relate to the characters and the dialogue that seemed rather stilted (although I would not have known enough to call it that then). I do admit to having built a raft to try to `escape', along with my brothers, from some unfair sentence imposed my parents for some childhood transgression. But that can hardly be lain at Mr. Twain's door.
Nor will this review be a homage to Twain's treasure chest of humor and witty sayings that are sprinkled through out this documentary, and that have become part of the common language (and were, in the old days, very quotable newspaper filler). This film only reinforced the notion, other than the famous ditty about his response to the premature announcement of his death and his comment about San Francisco in August, that I did not find his humor funny. That said, after viewing this fine almost four hour Ken Burns PBS documentary I will admit to an on-going curiosity about this, arguably, first great modern American writer. Hey, I said Mark Twain didn't "speak" to me. I know that he is a great writer, and I think I sensed that notion even as a kid.
Ken Burns is probably the latter day master of the educational film documentary, most famously, and justly so, from the time of his ten-part PBS "Civil War" epic that I can still take in with my mind's eye. To a lesser degree, but with the same close attention to detail, a fine eye for selecting just the right photograph to make his point and appropriate musical scores in the background (including many variations of Stephan Foster songs that give a feel to the "gilded age" in which Twain lived and to which he added his own imprint).
Here Burns goes through the obligatory life of the author, starting from the rough and tumble days in Missouri and on the Mississippi River, on through to the fits and starts of finding a niche for himself (and a job) in the American literary market to success, fleeting as that was at times, and the fame, fortune, and in the end misfortune that went with that final acknowledgement that he was the premier literary man and storyteller of his times. The heart of this exploration of Twain's life, and what made it intriguing for a skeptical non-literary man like me was the way in which Twain was portrayed as a representative man of his age. That included both in his appetites for success, financial and otherwise, and to be, and be seen, as a successful product of the rough and tumble democratic American social system of the time. No small part of that persona is attributed to his wife and family that seemed, through thick and thin, hard times and good, to be his anchor. Not every successful writer has had that stable foundation but Twain literally thrived on it.
This film spend some time on Twain's literary production, his methods of work, his witticisms and his successful career as a public storyteller. I need not detail that information here. I would only say this-those who argue that Twain was first great American writer certainly have the best of the argument. In retrospect I can see where my own favorite from the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne, really was not writing for the great democratic masses beginning their long search for some cultural expression to which they could relate. Twain, for literary and financial reasons, was trying to reach that audience.
Finally, and here is where Mark Twain gets high marks from this reviewer, as the documentary pointedly highlights on many ocassions. Twain positioned himself as a truth-telling about the inequities of the world, the absurdities of racism and its cultural expressions and about the foolhardiness of the upcoming rise of the American empire that he was, in the end, helpless to stop. That he did so while feting kings and queens, the rich and famous and liking such activities points out the contradictions of his life as a man. A contradiction that more than one American would-be radical had faced unsuccessfully. But here is a home truth. We can always use an extra truth-teller or two, a rather rare commodity in any age. We can sort out Twain's contradictions from there. Twain devotee, or not, this documentary is worth four hours of your time.
DVD Review
Mark Twain, a film documentary directed by Ken Burns, PBS, Florentine Productions, 2000
No, this will not be a paean to the `transformative' nature of reading Samuel Clemens' (hereafter Mark Twain) seminal works, "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" in childhood. I spend no long nights reading his works under a blanket, flashlight at the ready, until I fell asleep exhausted. (I did do that form of reading but not for Mr. Twain's work.) I, frankly, could not relate to the characters and the dialogue that seemed rather stilted (although I would not have known enough to call it that then). I do admit to having built a raft to try to `escape', along with my brothers, from some unfair sentence imposed my parents for some childhood transgression. But that can hardly be lain at Mr. Twain's door.
Nor will this review be a homage to Twain's treasure chest of humor and witty sayings that are sprinkled through out this documentary, and that have become part of the common language (and were, in the old days, very quotable newspaper filler). This film only reinforced the notion, other than the famous ditty about his response to the premature announcement of his death and his comment about San Francisco in August, that I did not find his humor funny. That said, after viewing this fine almost four hour Ken Burns PBS documentary I will admit to an on-going curiosity about this, arguably, first great modern American writer. Hey, I said Mark Twain didn't "speak" to me. I know that he is a great writer, and I think I sensed that notion even as a kid.
Ken Burns is probably the latter day master of the educational film documentary, most famously, and justly so, from the time of his ten-part PBS "Civil War" epic that I can still take in with my mind's eye. To a lesser degree, but with the same close attention to detail, a fine eye for selecting just the right photograph to make his point and appropriate musical scores in the background (including many variations of Stephan Foster songs that give a feel to the "gilded age" in which Twain lived and to which he added his own imprint).
Here Burns goes through the obligatory life of the author, starting from the rough and tumble days in Missouri and on the Mississippi River, on through to the fits and starts of finding a niche for himself (and a job) in the American literary market to success, fleeting as that was at times, and the fame, fortune, and in the end misfortune that went with that final acknowledgement that he was the premier literary man and storyteller of his times. The heart of this exploration of Twain's life, and what made it intriguing for a skeptical non-literary man like me was the way in which Twain was portrayed as a representative man of his age. That included both in his appetites for success, financial and otherwise, and to be, and be seen, as a successful product of the rough and tumble democratic American social system of the time. No small part of that persona is attributed to his wife and family that seemed, through thick and thin, hard times and good, to be his anchor. Not every successful writer has had that stable foundation but Twain literally thrived on it.
This film spend some time on Twain's literary production, his methods of work, his witticisms and his successful career as a public storyteller. I need not detail that information here. I would only say this-those who argue that Twain was first great American writer certainly have the best of the argument. In retrospect I can see where my own favorite from the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne, really was not writing for the great democratic masses beginning their long search for some cultural expression to which they could relate. Twain, for literary and financial reasons, was trying to reach that audience.
Finally, and here is where Mark Twain gets high marks from this reviewer, as the documentary pointedly highlights on many ocassions. Twain positioned himself as a truth-telling about the inequities of the world, the absurdities of racism and its cultural expressions and about the foolhardiness of the upcoming rise of the American empire that he was, in the end, helpless to stop. That he did so while feting kings and queens, the rich and famous and liking such activities points out the contradictions of his life as a man. A contradiction that more than one American would-be radical had faced unsuccessfully. But here is a home truth. We can always use an extra truth-teller or two, a rather rare commodity in any age. We can sort out Twain's contradictions from there. Twain devotee, or not, this documentary is worth four hours of your time.
*A Short Note On The Question Of The Politics Of “To The Streets”
Click on title to link to my blog entry, dated September 21, 2009, concerning the latest talk of of American Afghan troop escalations by chief commander there, General Stanley McChrystal. The Markin commentary there is an example of my "to the streets" perspective.
Markin commentary:
Of late I have been on something of a tear concerning the need for us, that is leftists, labor militants, radicals and the odd, assorted left liberal, to get back on to the streets in opposition to various policies of the Obama administration, especially of the probably endless future troop escalations in Afghanistan(only limited by the shrinking supply of cannon fodder, mainly our working class and minority youth) and the insidious immigration policy of en mass deportations of ‘’illegal’ immigrants that has put the wretched Bush Administration policy in the shade. In response to an inquiry in this space- NO, I do not have a “street” fetish political deviation. Hear me out.
Underlying my political perspective in the various commentaries on “to the streets” politics has been the understanding that we left militants do not, as a practical matter, have very much leverage today, over the political agenda in America. Moreover, Obama, for the most part, still enjoys a “honeymoon" period of unknown duration with the mass of people that we want to get to- labor militants, minority activists, and various other left-leaning constituencies. I have also noted that the Afghan troop escalation question is a wedge that we can use to pry those "folk" away from the Democratic Party. That is the simple politics of my latest my propaganda and agititional proposals.
I pose the question this way to those who offer another perspective. What is it? What is your alternative? Reliance on that slim, very slim parliamentary formal, somewhat half-hearted anti-war opposition? The labor bureaucracy? The “ghost” of Ted Kennedy? You get my drift. Furthermore, that parliamentary opposition to the February Obama Afghan troop escalation while heartening, as any objectively anti-war action is, was very narrow, very narrow indeed. On the real issue, the funding for Afghanistan (and Iraq) there was a very small left Democratic group of Congressional figures who voted the straight up NO vote required on that bill.
And that sad reality points to part of our political problem here in America. We have no independent working class party, we have no worker party representatives to act as “tribunes of the people” on our behalf in the halls of Congress, we, if we are principled, moreover, do not want a workers party executive running this imperialist show so what we have, or don’t have, will be determined by those mean downtown city streets. I will add, under a theme that I have used repeatedly before, that “those streets are not for dreaming now”. But with the hell to come over Afghanistan and other issues we better be there. And this slogan, above all, should be emblazoned on our banners- “Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan (and Iraq).
Note: I have railed, endlessly, about the limits of “peace crawl” demonstrations in stopping imperialist war, at the time of Vietnam and Iraq (I&II), that are the total sum of the strategic perspectives of many leftists and left organizations. I stand by those prior polemics, as a general proposition. The point is that politics, including revolutionary politics, has a lot to do with timing. The timing now calls for a turn to the streets. We will yell at the “peace crawl” strategy and those who endlessly advocate it when those who advocate the strategy are an an obstruction to stronger actions. For now –“To The Streets”
Markin commentary:
Of late I have been on something of a tear concerning the need for us, that is leftists, labor militants, radicals and the odd, assorted left liberal, to get back on to the streets in opposition to various policies of the Obama administration, especially of the probably endless future troop escalations in Afghanistan(only limited by the shrinking supply of cannon fodder, mainly our working class and minority youth) and the insidious immigration policy of en mass deportations of ‘’illegal’ immigrants that has put the wretched Bush Administration policy in the shade. In response to an inquiry in this space- NO, I do not have a “street” fetish political deviation. Hear me out.
Underlying my political perspective in the various commentaries on “to the streets” politics has been the understanding that we left militants do not, as a practical matter, have very much leverage today, over the political agenda in America. Moreover, Obama, for the most part, still enjoys a “honeymoon" period of unknown duration with the mass of people that we want to get to- labor militants, minority activists, and various other left-leaning constituencies. I have also noted that the Afghan troop escalation question is a wedge that we can use to pry those "folk" away from the Democratic Party. That is the simple politics of my latest my propaganda and agititional proposals.
I pose the question this way to those who offer another perspective. What is it? What is your alternative? Reliance on that slim, very slim parliamentary formal, somewhat half-hearted anti-war opposition? The labor bureaucracy? The “ghost” of Ted Kennedy? You get my drift. Furthermore, that parliamentary opposition to the February Obama Afghan troop escalation while heartening, as any objectively anti-war action is, was very narrow, very narrow indeed. On the real issue, the funding for Afghanistan (and Iraq) there was a very small left Democratic group of Congressional figures who voted the straight up NO vote required on that bill.
And that sad reality points to part of our political problem here in America. We have no independent working class party, we have no worker party representatives to act as “tribunes of the people” on our behalf in the halls of Congress, we, if we are principled, moreover, do not want a workers party executive running this imperialist show so what we have, or don’t have, will be determined by those mean downtown city streets. I will add, under a theme that I have used repeatedly before, that “those streets are not for dreaming now”. But with the hell to come over Afghanistan and other issues we better be there. And this slogan, above all, should be emblazoned on our banners- “Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan (and Iraq).
Note: I have railed, endlessly, about the limits of “peace crawl” demonstrations in stopping imperialist war, at the time of Vietnam and Iraq (I&II), that are the total sum of the strategic perspectives of many leftists and left organizations. I stand by those prior polemics, as a general proposition. The point is that politics, including revolutionary politics, has a lot to do with timing. The timing now calls for a turn to the streets. We will yell at the “peace crawl” strategy and those who endlessly advocate it when those who advocate the strategy are an an obstruction to stronger actions. For now –“To The Streets”
Thursday, September 24, 2009
From The Archives Of "Women And Revolution"-"Silkwood"-A Film Review
Click on the headline to link to a "Wikipedia" entry for Karen Silkwood
Markin comment:
The following is an article from the Spring 1984 issue of "Women and Revolution" that may have some historical interest for old "new leftists", perhaps, and well as for younger militants interested in various cultural and social questions that intersect the class struggle. Or for those just interested in a Marxist position on a series of social questions that are thrust upon us by the vagaries of bourgeois society. I will be posting more such articles from the back issues of "Women and Revolution" during Women's History Month and periodically throughout the year.
**********
Silkwood. Directed by Mike Nichols. Written by
Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen. ABC Motion Pictures.
A Twentieth Century-Fox release, 1984.
By Amy Rath
The long-standing controversy over the death of Karen Silkwood is being debated yet again, as the release of the movie Silkwood brings the case into the public eye. Silkwood has long been embraced by feminist and ecology groups as a heroine and martyr to the atomic power industry—the "no-nuke" Norma Rae; many believe she was deliberately poisoned with radioactive material and murdered to shut her up. Now, the movie, starring Meryl Streep and directed by Mike Nichols, has been seized upon by such bourgeois mouthpieces as the New York Times and the Washington Post to propagandize for the nuclear energy industry and smear her name.
"Fact and Legend Clash in "Silkwood'," cired the Times' science writer William J. broad, masquerading as a movie critic in the Sunday Arts and Leisure section. "Chicanery," "meretricious," "a perversion of the reporter's craft," blasts a Times (25 December 1983) editorial. That same day the Washington Post printed a piece by one Nick Thimmesch, a free-lance journalist with ties to Silkwood's employer, the Kerr-McGee corporation, charging "glaring discrepancies between the known record and the film's representations."
These are lies. In fact, Silkwood sticks remarkably close to the documentary record. If anything, it is surprisingly devoid of politics for such an alleged propaganda tract. Frankly, it's a little dull. It includes a lot of material (some of it made up, presumably for dramatic interest) about Karen Silkwood's unremarkable personal life. Like most people, she had problems with her lovers and roommates, didn't get along with her ex-spouse, was often troubled, and drank and took drugs. The bulk of the movie is a retelling of the last few weeks of her life, and raises more questions than it answers. How were Karen Silkwood's body and home contaminated with plutonium? Was Kerr-McGee deliberately covering up faulty fuel rods, which could lead to a disastrous accident at the breeder-reactor in Washington state where the rods were to be shipped? What happened on that Oklahoma highway on 13 November 1974, when Karen Silkwood was killed in a car crash, en route to an interview with a New York Times reporter?
The ending of the movie shows Silkwood blinded by the headlights of a truck on the highway, then her mangled body and car, seeming to imply that she was run off the road, as indeed independent investigators have concluded from an examination of her car and the tire tracks on the road and grass. Then a written message on the screen reports that Oklahoma police ruled her death a one-car accident and found traces of methaqualone (Quaalude) and alcohol in her blood¬stream. The conclusion is left for the viewer to decide We may never know the answers to these questions. As we noted in Workers Vanguard (No. 146,25 February 1977) in an article titled "Conspiracy and Cover-Up in Atomic Industry: FBI Drops Inquiry in Karen Silkwood Death":
"The abrupt cancellation of the second Congressional investigation into FBI handling of the case of Karen Silkwood has added to a widespread belief that the facts surrounding the death of the young trade unionist two years ago are being covered up at the highest levels of industry and government.
"...her documentation of company negligence and falsification of safety records was damning to powerful interests and as long as the bourgeois courts and commissions are running the investigations of her death, the only results will be successive cover-ups of the cover-ups."
In the fall of 1974 Karen Silkwood had been working for two years as a laboratory technician at the Cimarron, Oklahoma plutonium processing facility owned by Kerr-McGee, one of the largest energy conglomerates in the U.S. She became interested in health and safety issues at the plant. She brought her worries to the union, the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW), and was elected as a union safety inspector, the movie makes this appear to be her first interest in the union. In fact, she had been one of the few die-hards in a defeated strike the previous year; she never crossed the picket line and she remained in the union even when its membership went down to 20. Along with fellow unionists, she traveled to union headquarters in Washington, D.C., where officials assigned her to gather documentation of company cover-ups of faulty fuel rods, as well as other safety violations.
Early in November 1974, Silkwood was repeatedly contaminated with plutonium, one of the deadliest materials known to man, in circumstances which have never been fully explained. In the Hollywood movie Meryl Streep ends up with raw pink patches over her face from decontamination scrubdowns. Her panicked expression when she knows she has to face a second one imparts the horror of it. Yet it is only a pale image of the reality. Silkwood's first scrubdown was with Tide and Clorox; the two others which, occurred over the next two days employed a sandpaper-like paste of potassium permanganate and sodium bisulfate. De¬spite this chemical torture (try scrubbing yourself with Ajax sometime), her skin still registered high levels of radiation. Worse yet, three days of nasal smears (to monitor inhaled radioactive contamination) increased to over 40,000 disintegrations per minute (dpm)— normal background radiation from cosmic rays and naturally occurring isotopes is roughly 30 dpm.
Silkwood's house was contaminated as well; it was stripped and her belongings were sealed and buried— one scene poignantly portrayed in the movie. An examination conducted at the medical facility at Los Alamos showed that she had received internal contami¬nation possibly as high as 24 nanocuries of plutonium (about 50,000 dpm). The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC, now Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has set a lifetime limit of 16 nanocuries; many specialists consider this hundreds of times too high. The fact is that plutonium is an extremely potent carcinogen, inhalation of which is virtually certain to induce lung cancer at levels where other radioactive nuclides can be tolerat¬ed. And Silkwood was particularly susceptible—she was female, had lung problems (asthma) and was small, under 100 pounds. In short, the plutonium she received chained her to cancer and a painful, slow death.
It is for this contamination, which an Oklahoma jury ruled the responsibility of Kerr-McGee, that $10.5 million in punitive damages was assessed against the company for the Silkwood estate. On January 11 the Supreme Court ruled the court had a legitimate right to assess this penalty; however, the case has been returned to a Jower court where Kerr-McGee may challenge the award on new grounds. Kerr-McGee has held that the contamination was "by her own hand," as a plot to discredit the company, a contention repeated by the New York Times in its editorial, which doesn't even mention that a jury had ruled this imputation not proved.
Since then, theories about Silkwood's contamination have included such slanderous tales as that put forth by alleged FBI informer Jacque Srouji, who claimed that Silkwood was deliberately contaminated by the union, to create a martyr. This is a telling indication of how far the capitalists will go to discredit the only thing that stands between the workers and total disregard for any safety. In the movie the International union representatives are made to appear as a bunch of slick bureaucrats who push Silkwood way out front without anywhere near sufficient backup. Certainly the OCAW is as craven before the capitalists as any other union in the U.S. But it has fought, however partially, for safer conditions for the workers it represents.
In the movie, Silkwood posits that someone purposely contaminated her urine-specimen jar with plutonium while it was in her locker room, a jar she later accidentally broke in her bathroom at home. This explanation is plausible, but we can't know for certain. We do know that Silkwood had been a straight A student in school, the only girl in her high school chemistry class, a member of the National Honor Society. She had studied medical technology. She knew that tampering with plutonium was death. The idea that she would deliberately contaminate herself could originate only in the sick and vicious minds of a profit-mad industry like Kerr-McGee.
Even the New York Times had to admit that Kerr-McGee was "a hellish place to work." Between 1970 and 1974 there were 574 reported exposures to plutonium. Dr. Karl Morgan, formerly a health physicist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, testified at a Congressional investigation that he had never seen a facility so poorly run. The plant was constructed in a tornado alley; the tornado warnings were so frequent that the company never bothered to remove the plutonium to a safe place. Yet the hazards of the plant get barely a nod in the film. Only one other instance of contamination is shown, Silkwood's friend Thelma. But when Silkwood is shown leaving off her urine sample at the lab for analysis, the audience sees many such samples lined up, thus many more contaminations.
Yes, nuclear power is dangerous. An accident such as almost happened at Three Mile Island could kill thousands of people. But the only "solution" to this problem provided by the movie Silkwood—and shared in real life by the OCAW union tops—is, ironically enough, the New York Times! Get the Times to publish the damning evidence, and the AEC will make Kerr-McGee straighten things out. The crusading press will save America by publicly exposing wrong, and the government will step in and perform justice. Sure. This is a liberal pipedream: the AEC serves the interests of power conglomerates like Kerr-McGee, and the New York Times worships money, not justice.
The "no-nukers" hail the name of Silkwood in their campaign to abolish nuclear power. But the problem is that you have to replace it with something, and in this capitalist society there is no such thing as a danger-free source of energy. For generations workers have died miserably in coal mines and suffocated to death with black lung disease. Like any technology, nuclear power can be used and abused. It is not so much a question of a special technology, but the irrationality of the capitalist economy which makes all industry in the U.S., including the nuclear industry, hazardous. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan threatens to blow up the world hundreds of times over to save American profits. Over 90 percent of the nuclear waste in this country is military. And that's nothing compared to the global nuclear holocaust plotted in the Pentagon. That is the real danger of nuclear power.
The no-nuke movement is part of a middle-class ecological concern that the disastrous conditions which workers have faced for generations might spread to the suburbs, perhaps even onto a college campus. Anti-nuke groups actively publicize and collect funds for the Silkwood lawsuit but not a peep is heard in protest against the murder of Gregory Goobic during a two-week strike by OCAW Local 1-326 in Rodeo, California last January. Goobic, a 20-year-old union member, was run down by a scab truck while picketing a Union 76 oil refinery. A company boss, with arms folded, stood in the dead striker's blood as cops kept the other picketers away. The capitalists and their government are not interested in the lives of their employees, particularly when adequate wages, work¬ing conditions and safety precautions stand in the way of profits. Obviously one thing militants in unions such as OCAW must do is fight for safety committees with the power to close down plants. But equally necessarily is the struggle to replace the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy with a leadership that will break with both bourgeois parties and build a workers party. The world will be safe to live in when the ruling class has been expropriated by a workers government that runs society for the benefit of all, not the profits of a few.
Silkwood has been denounced by corporate spokesmen at the New York Times for portraying Karen Silkwood as "a nuclear Joan of Arc" when she was really "a victim of her own infatuation with drugs"; it has been denounced by anti-nuke fan Anna Mayo of the Village Voice for portraying her as a dope-smoking "bad girl" when she was really "beloved daughter, sister, friend, union martyr and heroine of the largest, most viable grass-roots force in the U.S. and Western Europe, the anti-nuclear movement."
Actually, Karen Silkwood was simply a union militant fighting the best she could for a better life for herself and her coworkers against one of the least safe, most powerful, biggest price-gouging capitalist enterprises in the country. And we think the movie did a nice job showing it."
Markin comment:
The following is an article from the Spring 1984 issue of "Women and Revolution" that may have some historical interest for old "new leftists", perhaps, and well as for younger militants interested in various cultural and social questions that intersect the class struggle. Or for those just interested in a Marxist position on a series of social questions that are thrust upon us by the vagaries of bourgeois society. I will be posting more such articles from the back issues of "Women and Revolution" during Women's History Month and periodically throughout the year.
**********
Silkwood. Directed by Mike Nichols. Written by
Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen. ABC Motion Pictures.
A Twentieth Century-Fox release, 1984.
By Amy Rath
The long-standing controversy over the death of Karen Silkwood is being debated yet again, as the release of the movie Silkwood brings the case into the public eye. Silkwood has long been embraced by feminist and ecology groups as a heroine and martyr to the atomic power industry—the "no-nuke" Norma Rae; many believe she was deliberately poisoned with radioactive material and murdered to shut her up. Now, the movie, starring Meryl Streep and directed by Mike Nichols, has been seized upon by such bourgeois mouthpieces as the New York Times and the Washington Post to propagandize for the nuclear energy industry and smear her name.
"Fact and Legend Clash in "Silkwood'," cired the Times' science writer William J. broad, masquerading as a movie critic in the Sunday Arts and Leisure section. "Chicanery," "meretricious," "a perversion of the reporter's craft," blasts a Times (25 December 1983) editorial. That same day the Washington Post printed a piece by one Nick Thimmesch, a free-lance journalist with ties to Silkwood's employer, the Kerr-McGee corporation, charging "glaring discrepancies between the known record and the film's representations."
These are lies. In fact, Silkwood sticks remarkably close to the documentary record. If anything, it is surprisingly devoid of politics for such an alleged propaganda tract. Frankly, it's a little dull. It includes a lot of material (some of it made up, presumably for dramatic interest) about Karen Silkwood's unremarkable personal life. Like most people, she had problems with her lovers and roommates, didn't get along with her ex-spouse, was often troubled, and drank and took drugs. The bulk of the movie is a retelling of the last few weeks of her life, and raises more questions than it answers. How were Karen Silkwood's body and home contaminated with plutonium? Was Kerr-McGee deliberately covering up faulty fuel rods, which could lead to a disastrous accident at the breeder-reactor in Washington state where the rods were to be shipped? What happened on that Oklahoma highway on 13 November 1974, when Karen Silkwood was killed in a car crash, en route to an interview with a New York Times reporter?
The ending of the movie shows Silkwood blinded by the headlights of a truck on the highway, then her mangled body and car, seeming to imply that she was run off the road, as indeed independent investigators have concluded from an examination of her car and the tire tracks on the road and grass. Then a written message on the screen reports that Oklahoma police ruled her death a one-car accident and found traces of methaqualone (Quaalude) and alcohol in her blood¬stream. The conclusion is left for the viewer to decide We may never know the answers to these questions. As we noted in Workers Vanguard (No. 146,25 February 1977) in an article titled "Conspiracy and Cover-Up in Atomic Industry: FBI Drops Inquiry in Karen Silkwood Death":
"The abrupt cancellation of the second Congressional investigation into FBI handling of the case of Karen Silkwood has added to a widespread belief that the facts surrounding the death of the young trade unionist two years ago are being covered up at the highest levels of industry and government.
"...her documentation of company negligence and falsification of safety records was damning to powerful interests and as long as the bourgeois courts and commissions are running the investigations of her death, the only results will be successive cover-ups of the cover-ups."
In the fall of 1974 Karen Silkwood had been working for two years as a laboratory technician at the Cimarron, Oklahoma plutonium processing facility owned by Kerr-McGee, one of the largest energy conglomerates in the U.S. She became interested in health and safety issues at the plant. She brought her worries to the union, the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW), and was elected as a union safety inspector, the movie makes this appear to be her first interest in the union. In fact, she had been one of the few die-hards in a defeated strike the previous year; she never crossed the picket line and she remained in the union even when its membership went down to 20. Along with fellow unionists, she traveled to union headquarters in Washington, D.C., where officials assigned her to gather documentation of company cover-ups of faulty fuel rods, as well as other safety violations.
Early in November 1974, Silkwood was repeatedly contaminated with plutonium, one of the deadliest materials known to man, in circumstances which have never been fully explained. In the Hollywood movie Meryl Streep ends up with raw pink patches over her face from decontamination scrubdowns. Her panicked expression when she knows she has to face a second one imparts the horror of it. Yet it is only a pale image of the reality. Silkwood's first scrubdown was with Tide and Clorox; the two others which, occurred over the next two days employed a sandpaper-like paste of potassium permanganate and sodium bisulfate. De¬spite this chemical torture (try scrubbing yourself with Ajax sometime), her skin still registered high levels of radiation. Worse yet, three days of nasal smears (to monitor inhaled radioactive contamination) increased to over 40,000 disintegrations per minute (dpm)— normal background radiation from cosmic rays and naturally occurring isotopes is roughly 30 dpm.
Silkwood's house was contaminated as well; it was stripped and her belongings were sealed and buried— one scene poignantly portrayed in the movie. An examination conducted at the medical facility at Los Alamos showed that she had received internal contami¬nation possibly as high as 24 nanocuries of plutonium (about 50,000 dpm). The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC, now Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has set a lifetime limit of 16 nanocuries; many specialists consider this hundreds of times too high. The fact is that plutonium is an extremely potent carcinogen, inhalation of which is virtually certain to induce lung cancer at levels where other radioactive nuclides can be tolerat¬ed. And Silkwood was particularly susceptible—she was female, had lung problems (asthma) and was small, under 100 pounds. In short, the plutonium she received chained her to cancer and a painful, slow death.
It is for this contamination, which an Oklahoma jury ruled the responsibility of Kerr-McGee, that $10.5 million in punitive damages was assessed against the company for the Silkwood estate. On January 11 the Supreme Court ruled the court had a legitimate right to assess this penalty; however, the case has been returned to a Jower court where Kerr-McGee may challenge the award on new grounds. Kerr-McGee has held that the contamination was "by her own hand," as a plot to discredit the company, a contention repeated by the New York Times in its editorial, which doesn't even mention that a jury had ruled this imputation not proved.
Since then, theories about Silkwood's contamination have included such slanderous tales as that put forth by alleged FBI informer Jacque Srouji, who claimed that Silkwood was deliberately contaminated by the union, to create a martyr. This is a telling indication of how far the capitalists will go to discredit the only thing that stands between the workers and total disregard for any safety. In the movie the International union representatives are made to appear as a bunch of slick bureaucrats who push Silkwood way out front without anywhere near sufficient backup. Certainly the OCAW is as craven before the capitalists as any other union in the U.S. But it has fought, however partially, for safer conditions for the workers it represents.
In the movie, Silkwood posits that someone purposely contaminated her urine-specimen jar with plutonium while it was in her locker room, a jar she later accidentally broke in her bathroom at home. This explanation is plausible, but we can't know for certain. We do know that Silkwood had been a straight A student in school, the only girl in her high school chemistry class, a member of the National Honor Society. She had studied medical technology. She knew that tampering with plutonium was death. The idea that she would deliberately contaminate herself could originate only in the sick and vicious minds of a profit-mad industry like Kerr-McGee.
Even the New York Times had to admit that Kerr-McGee was "a hellish place to work." Between 1970 and 1974 there were 574 reported exposures to plutonium. Dr. Karl Morgan, formerly a health physicist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, testified at a Congressional investigation that he had never seen a facility so poorly run. The plant was constructed in a tornado alley; the tornado warnings were so frequent that the company never bothered to remove the plutonium to a safe place. Yet the hazards of the plant get barely a nod in the film. Only one other instance of contamination is shown, Silkwood's friend Thelma. But when Silkwood is shown leaving off her urine sample at the lab for analysis, the audience sees many such samples lined up, thus many more contaminations.
Yes, nuclear power is dangerous. An accident such as almost happened at Three Mile Island could kill thousands of people. But the only "solution" to this problem provided by the movie Silkwood—and shared in real life by the OCAW union tops—is, ironically enough, the New York Times! Get the Times to publish the damning evidence, and the AEC will make Kerr-McGee straighten things out. The crusading press will save America by publicly exposing wrong, and the government will step in and perform justice. Sure. This is a liberal pipedream: the AEC serves the interests of power conglomerates like Kerr-McGee, and the New York Times worships money, not justice.
The "no-nukers" hail the name of Silkwood in their campaign to abolish nuclear power. But the problem is that you have to replace it with something, and in this capitalist society there is no such thing as a danger-free source of energy. For generations workers have died miserably in coal mines and suffocated to death with black lung disease. Like any technology, nuclear power can be used and abused. It is not so much a question of a special technology, but the irrationality of the capitalist economy which makes all industry in the U.S., including the nuclear industry, hazardous. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan threatens to blow up the world hundreds of times over to save American profits. Over 90 percent of the nuclear waste in this country is military. And that's nothing compared to the global nuclear holocaust plotted in the Pentagon. That is the real danger of nuclear power.
The no-nuke movement is part of a middle-class ecological concern that the disastrous conditions which workers have faced for generations might spread to the suburbs, perhaps even onto a college campus. Anti-nuke groups actively publicize and collect funds for the Silkwood lawsuit but not a peep is heard in protest against the murder of Gregory Goobic during a two-week strike by OCAW Local 1-326 in Rodeo, California last January. Goobic, a 20-year-old union member, was run down by a scab truck while picketing a Union 76 oil refinery. A company boss, with arms folded, stood in the dead striker's blood as cops kept the other picketers away. The capitalists and their government are not interested in the lives of their employees, particularly when adequate wages, work¬ing conditions and safety precautions stand in the way of profits. Obviously one thing militants in unions such as OCAW must do is fight for safety committees with the power to close down plants. But equally necessarily is the struggle to replace the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy with a leadership that will break with both bourgeois parties and build a workers party. The world will be safe to live in when the ruling class has been expropriated by a workers government that runs society for the benefit of all, not the profits of a few.
Silkwood has been denounced by corporate spokesmen at the New York Times for portraying Karen Silkwood as "a nuclear Joan of Arc" when she was really "a victim of her own infatuation with drugs"; it has been denounced by anti-nuke fan Anna Mayo of the Village Voice for portraying her as a dope-smoking "bad girl" when she was really "beloved daughter, sister, friend, union martyr and heroine of the largest, most viable grass-roots force in the U.S. and Western Europe, the anti-nuclear movement."
Actually, Karen Silkwood was simply a union militant fighting the best she could for a better life for herself and her coworkers against one of the least safe, most powerful, biggest price-gouging capitalist enterprises in the country. And we think the movie did a nice job showing it."
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-Phil Och's "Hazard,Kentucky"
Click on the title to link to a site to hear Phil Och's Hazard, Kentucky.
In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here. Markin.
*******
Markin comment:
Of course this one has special meaning as my father was born and raised down in that country, coal country.
Hazard, Kentucky Lyrics
Artist(Band):Phil Ochs
Well, some people think that Unions are too strong,
Union leaders should go back where they belong;
But I wish that they could see a little more of poverty
And they might start to sing a different song.
Well, minin' is a hazard in Hazard, Kentucky,
And if you ain't minin' there,
Well, my friends, you're awful lucky,
'Cause if you don't get silicosis or pay that's just atrocious
You'll be screamin' for a Union that will care.
Well, let's look at old Kentucky for a while.
It's hard to find a miner who will smile.
Well, the Constitution's fine, but it's hard reading in the mines,
and when welfare stops, the trouble starts to pile.
Well, minin' is a hazard in Hazard, Kentucky,
And if you ain't minin' there,
Well, my friends, you're awful lucky,
'Cause if you don't get silicosis or pay that's just atrocious
You'll be screamin' for a Union that will care.
Well, the Depression was ended with the war,
But nobody told Kentucky, that is sure.
Some are living in a sewer while the jobs are getting fewer
But more coal is mined than ever was before.
Well, minin' is a hazard in Hazard, Kentucky,
And if you ain't minin' there,
Well, my friends, you're awful lucky,
'Cause if you don't get silicosis or pay that's just atrocious
You'll be screamin' for a Union that will care.
Well, the badge of Sheriff Combs always shines
And when duty calls he seldom ever whines.
Well, I don't like raisin' thunder, but it sort of makes you wonder
When he runs the law and also runs the mines.
Well, minin' is a hazard in Hazard, Kentucky,
And if you ain't minin' there,
Well, my friends, you're awful lucky,
'Cause if you don't get silicosis or pay that's just atrocious
You'll be screamin for a Union that will care.
Well, our standard of living is highest all around,
But our standard of giving is the lowest when you're down,
So give a yell and a whistle when they light that Union missile
And we'll lift our feet up off the ground.
Well, minin' is a hazard in Hazard, Kentucky,
And if you ain't minin' there,
Well, my friends, you're awful lucky,
'Cause if you don't get silicosis or pay that's just atrocious
You'll be screamin for a Union that will care.
In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here. Markin.
*******
Markin comment:
Of course this one has special meaning as my father was born and raised down in that country, coal country.
Hazard, Kentucky Lyrics
Artist(Band):Phil Ochs
Well, some people think that Unions are too strong,
Union leaders should go back where they belong;
But I wish that they could see a little more of poverty
And they might start to sing a different song.
Well, minin' is a hazard in Hazard, Kentucky,
And if you ain't minin' there,
Well, my friends, you're awful lucky,
'Cause if you don't get silicosis or pay that's just atrocious
You'll be screamin' for a Union that will care.
Well, let's look at old Kentucky for a while.
It's hard to find a miner who will smile.
Well, the Constitution's fine, but it's hard reading in the mines,
and when welfare stops, the trouble starts to pile.
Well, minin' is a hazard in Hazard, Kentucky,
And if you ain't minin' there,
Well, my friends, you're awful lucky,
'Cause if you don't get silicosis or pay that's just atrocious
You'll be screamin' for a Union that will care.
Well, the Depression was ended with the war,
But nobody told Kentucky, that is sure.
Some are living in a sewer while the jobs are getting fewer
But more coal is mined than ever was before.
Well, minin' is a hazard in Hazard, Kentucky,
And if you ain't minin' there,
Well, my friends, you're awful lucky,
'Cause if you don't get silicosis or pay that's just atrocious
You'll be screamin' for a Union that will care.
Well, the badge of Sheriff Combs always shines
And when duty calls he seldom ever whines.
Well, I don't like raisin' thunder, but it sort of makes you wonder
When he runs the law and also runs the mines.
Well, minin' is a hazard in Hazard, Kentucky,
And if you ain't minin' there,
Well, my friends, you're awful lucky,
'Cause if you don't get silicosis or pay that's just atrocious
You'll be screamin for a Union that will care.
Well, our standard of living is highest all around,
But our standard of giving is the lowest when you're down,
So give a yell and a whistle when they light that Union missile
And we'll lift our feet up off the ground.
Well, minin' is a hazard in Hazard, Kentucky,
And if you ain't minin' there,
Well, my friends, you're awful lucky,
'Cause if you don't get silicosis or pay that's just atrocious
You'll be screamin for a Union that will care.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
*The Echo Of Vietnam, The Echo Of Iraq, A Voice Of Afghanistan on Obama's War Policy- A Radio Discussion
Click on title to link to an interesting discussion on National Public Radio's (NPR)"On Point" talk show, September 21, 2009, hosted by Tom Ashbrook about General Stanley McChrystal's 'private' report, as summarized by Bob Woodward's story in the "Washington Post", asking for more troops in Afghanistan
Markin comment:
The guests included Daniel Ellsberg, a governmental opposition voice of the Vietnam era and 'leaker' of "The Pentagon Papers", Lawrence Wilkerson a severe governmental critical of the Bush II Iraq War while deputy to the State Department's Colin Powell, and George Packer of "The New Yorker" magazine and a knowledgeable source about the inner workings of the current American Afghan war policy. They painted a grim picture of the future, at best. That, however is not our problem. Our problem is to get people into the streets under the banner of -"Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan (And Iraq)!. The way things are quickly coming to a head we had better get to it fast.
Markin comment:
The guests included Daniel Ellsberg, a governmental opposition voice of the Vietnam era and 'leaker' of "The Pentagon Papers", Lawrence Wilkerson a severe governmental critical of the Bush II Iraq War while deputy to the State Department's Colin Powell, and George Packer of "The New Yorker" magazine and a knowledgeable source about the inner workings of the current American Afghan war policy. They painted a grim picture of the future, at best. That, however is not our problem. Our problem is to get people into the streets under the banner of -"Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan (And Iraq)!. The way things are quickly coming to a head we had better get to it fast.
*Our Tasks Today In Opposition To Obama's Afghan War Policy-To The Streets!
Click on title to link to my blog entry, dated September 3, 2009, that includes commentary on the "united front" and the Joseph Seymour article mentioned below. Forward in opposition to the warmonger-in-chief Barack Obama.
Recently I have been asked by a couple of young concerned people, by not means yet radicals, about the nature of the tasks for revolutionaries, radicals, and the occasional good-hearted left liberal in the fight against the Obama Afghan war policy in particular, and the struggle against capitalism and imperialism in general. Needless to say, today, September 22, 2009 the forces mentioned above are minuscule, as Obama and his operation still have plenty of political capital to expend with elements, like the youth, minorities and working people, that we need to reach in this country. That is not to my liking but it is reality, and should be recognized as such.
That said, I have staked out a position on the Obama Afghan war policy that is the only fairly clear cut pole of attraction that can be offered by leftists today to the emerging, if naïve, left opposition to the Obama administration. We, today, have no leverage on health care, the immigration question, the regulation of financial markets, the fight to save the working class from further immiseration, or a number of other issues that cry out for solution. I have bet, and that bet, unfortunately for the working class youth in the military that will be the cannon fodder for actions ahead, seems to be a winning one, that Obama has decided, as least in the foreign policy arena, to stake his place in history on a successful outcome in Afghanistan.
In the not distant past I posted an entry from the “Young Spartacus” pages of the Trotskyist newspaper, “Workers Vanguard” concerning the application of the “united front”.(See link) In that issue one of the leaders of the Spartacist League in the United States, Joseph Seymour, had an article, based on a talk he had given at an educational, about the history of the “united front” in the international Leninist movement, especially targeting the various controversies in the early Congresses of the Communist International (Comintern). The key point for today’s commentary is that the Comintern spent some time on just the kind of situation we are confronted with today, a lack of an independent working class party and the need to set out current tasks accordingly.
Seymour, in his talk, noted that the early Comintern directives indicated three separate and mainly distinct stages, for lack of a better word, of communist political work. They are: propaganda, which he encapsulated as presenting many complex ideas to a few people, basically cadre formation; agitation, where a few ideas are used to animate some mass action, basically struggling to win on a few demands; and, party formation, where the struggle for power is realistically placed on the agenda.
We are, and here I agree with Seymour, at that propaganda stage, for most of our day to day tasks. But here I want to make an exception for the Obama Afghan war policy because, frankly, it is our only serious leverage today to break people, particularly the young, from capitalist politics. Thus we need to fight to get back to the streets, where believe it or not, the issues of war and peace are ultimately decided. And emblazoned in bright red on those banners that we should fill the streets with- Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan (And Iraq Too)! That is the easy part. On the others, we shall see.
Recently I have been asked by a couple of young concerned people, by not means yet radicals, about the nature of the tasks for revolutionaries, radicals, and the occasional good-hearted left liberal in the fight against the Obama Afghan war policy in particular, and the struggle against capitalism and imperialism in general. Needless to say, today, September 22, 2009 the forces mentioned above are minuscule, as Obama and his operation still have plenty of political capital to expend with elements, like the youth, minorities and working people, that we need to reach in this country. That is not to my liking but it is reality, and should be recognized as such.
That said, I have staked out a position on the Obama Afghan war policy that is the only fairly clear cut pole of attraction that can be offered by leftists today to the emerging, if naïve, left opposition to the Obama administration. We, today, have no leverage on health care, the immigration question, the regulation of financial markets, the fight to save the working class from further immiseration, or a number of other issues that cry out for solution. I have bet, and that bet, unfortunately for the working class youth in the military that will be the cannon fodder for actions ahead, seems to be a winning one, that Obama has decided, as least in the foreign policy arena, to stake his place in history on a successful outcome in Afghanistan.
In the not distant past I posted an entry from the “Young Spartacus” pages of the Trotskyist newspaper, “Workers Vanguard” concerning the application of the “united front”.(See link) In that issue one of the leaders of the Spartacist League in the United States, Joseph Seymour, had an article, based on a talk he had given at an educational, about the history of the “united front” in the international Leninist movement, especially targeting the various controversies in the early Congresses of the Communist International (Comintern). The key point for today’s commentary is that the Comintern spent some time on just the kind of situation we are confronted with today, a lack of an independent working class party and the need to set out current tasks accordingly.
Seymour, in his talk, noted that the early Comintern directives indicated three separate and mainly distinct stages, for lack of a better word, of communist political work. They are: propaganda, which he encapsulated as presenting many complex ideas to a few people, basically cadre formation; agitation, where a few ideas are used to animate some mass action, basically struggling to win on a few demands; and, party formation, where the struggle for power is realistically placed on the agenda.
We are, and here I agree with Seymour, at that propaganda stage, for most of our day to day tasks. But here I want to make an exception for the Obama Afghan war policy because, frankly, it is our only serious leverage today to break people, particularly the young, from capitalist politics. Thus we need to fight to get back to the streets, where believe it or not, the issues of war and peace are ultimately decided. And emblazoned in bright red on those banners that we should fill the streets with- Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan (And Iraq Too)! That is the easy part. On the others, we shall see.
*Miss (Ms.) Rhythm Is In The House- The R&B Of Miss Ruth Brown
Click On Title To Link To YouTube’s Film Clip Of Ruth Brown Doing "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean". Wow!
CD Review
Ruth Brown, Miss Rhythm (Greatest Hits And More), 2CD Set, Ruth Brown, Atlantic Records, 1989
Okay, I have spent a fair amount of time tracing the roots of rock and roll back to the early 1950s and the heyday of rhythm and blues. And of course part of that process required a look, a serious look, at the pivotal roles of the likes of black male R&B performers like Big Joe Turner, Ike Turner and Little Milton. Those are some of the key forces that drove the sound. Unlike the early blues, however, where black female singers dominated the charts and the flow of where the music was heading women were not as prominent in the link between R&B and the emergence of rock and rock as a national (and later international) musical genre. But they were there. And the black (and proud) female singer under review here, Ruth Brown, rightly known under the moniker "Miss Rhythm", was right there along with Dinah Washington and Lavern Baker to sing up a storm. Thanks, gals.
The name Ruth Brown has come up a number of times in this space when talking about 1950's blues, R&B and rock. However, those occasions have usually been as a "talking head" commentator in documentaries like Martin Scorsese's multi-part PBS blues series of 2003. And the tale Miss Brown had to tell about the background to her performing career was not pretty concerning the segregated dance halls, second-rate accommodations and other intolerable conditions that black musicians, great and small, male and female had to work under. Despite that, she still had a few crossover hits and got those white teenagers jumping. That doesn't make up for the indignities she suffered, nothing will, but she has to know that in her prime she had that thing- "Miss Rhythm, indeed!"
Some of this material on this 2CD set sounds as fresh today as when it was first recorded. Others, as is the nature of such compilations, are either gimmicky, second-rate or both. Here are some of the fresh sounds that highlight Miss Brown's talent; "So Long", "Be Anything", "5-10-15 Hours", "Daddy Daddy" and "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (Wow, on this last one). From Disc One. From Disc Two; "Why Me', "This Little Girl's Gone Rocking", "Somebody Touch Me" and "Don't Deceive Me".
"This Little Girl's Gone Rockin'"
I wrote my mom a letter
And this is what I said
Well-a, well-a, well-a, well-a
I washed all the dishes
And I did a lot more
I even bought the dinner
At the grocery store
Now, Mom, you'll find
The key next door cause
This little girl's gone rocking
I left some biscuits for the pup
I put fresh water in his cup
And now I'm off
I'm gonna live it up cause
This little girl's gone rocking
Well, I'm be home about
Twelve tonight and not a
Minute, minute, minute later
Don't forget the front door lock
That's all for now
I'll see you later, mater
You'll find these things
That you wanted done
I'm off to meet that special one
Boy, oh, boy, will we have fun
Cause this little girl's gone rocking
Well, I'm be home about
Twelve tonight and not a
Minute, minute, minute later
Don't forget the front door lock
That's all for now
I'll see you later, mater
You'll find these things
That you wanted done
I'm off to meet that special one
Boy, oh, boy, will we have fun
Cause this little girl's gone rocking
Yeah, this little girl's gone rocking.....
"(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean"
Mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
He's the meanest man I've ever seen
Mama he treats me badly
Makes me love him madly
Mama he takes my money
Makes me call him honey
Mama he can't be trusted
He makes me so disgusted
All of my friends they don't understand
What's the matter with this man
I tell you mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
He's the meanest man I've ever seen
Mama this man is lazy
Almost drives me crazy
Mama he makes me squeeze him
Still my squeezes don't please him
Mama my heart is aching
I believe it's breaking
I've stood all that I can stand
What's the matter with this man?
I tell you Mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
He's the meanest man I've ever seen
CD Review
Ruth Brown, Miss Rhythm (Greatest Hits And More), 2CD Set, Ruth Brown, Atlantic Records, 1989
Okay, I have spent a fair amount of time tracing the roots of rock and roll back to the early 1950s and the heyday of rhythm and blues. And of course part of that process required a look, a serious look, at the pivotal roles of the likes of black male R&B performers like Big Joe Turner, Ike Turner and Little Milton. Those are some of the key forces that drove the sound. Unlike the early blues, however, where black female singers dominated the charts and the flow of where the music was heading women were not as prominent in the link between R&B and the emergence of rock and rock as a national (and later international) musical genre. But they were there. And the black (and proud) female singer under review here, Ruth Brown, rightly known under the moniker "Miss Rhythm", was right there along with Dinah Washington and Lavern Baker to sing up a storm. Thanks, gals.
The name Ruth Brown has come up a number of times in this space when talking about 1950's blues, R&B and rock. However, those occasions have usually been as a "talking head" commentator in documentaries like Martin Scorsese's multi-part PBS blues series of 2003. And the tale Miss Brown had to tell about the background to her performing career was not pretty concerning the segregated dance halls, second-rate accommodations and other intolerable conditions that black musicians, great and small, male and female had to work under. Despite that, she still had a few crossover hits and got those white teenagers jumping. That doesn't make up for the indignities she suffered, nothing will, but she has to know that in her prime she had that thing- "Miss Rhythm, indeed!"
Some of this material on this 2CD set sounds as fresh today as when it was first recorded. Others, as is the nature of such compilations, are either gimmicky, second-rate or both. Here are some of the fresh sounds that highlight Miss Brown's talent; "So Long", "Be Anything", "5-10-15 Hours", "Daddy Daddy" and "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (Wow, on this last one). From Disc One. From Disc Two; "Why Me', "This Little Girl's Gone Rocking", "Somebody Touch Me" and "Don't Deceive Me".
"This Little Girl's Gone Rockin'"
I wrote my mom a letter
And this is what I said
Well-a, well-a, well-a, well-a
I washed all the dishes
And I did a lot more
I even bought the dinner
At the grocery store
Now, Mom, you'll find
The key next door cause
This little girl's gone rocking
I left some biscuits for the pup
I put fresh water in his cup
And now I'm off
I'm gonna live it up cause
This little girl's gone rocking
Well, I'm be home about
Twelve tonight and not a
Minute, minute, minute later
Don't forget the front door lock
That's all for now
I'll see you later, mater
You'll find these things
That you wanted done
I'm off to meet that special one
Boy, oh, boy, will we have fun
Cause this little girl's gone rocking
Well, I'm be home about
Twelve tonight and not a
Minute, minute, minute later
Don't forget the front door lock
That's all for now
I'll see you later, mater
You'll find these things
That you wanted done
I'm off to meet that special one
Boy, oh, boy, will we have fun
Cause this little girl's gone rocking
Yeah, this little girl's gone rocking.....
"(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean"
Mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
He's the meanest man I've ever seen
Mama he treats me badly
Makes me love him madly
Mama he takes my money
Makes me call him honey
Mama he can't be trusted
He makes me so disgusted
All of my friends they don't understand
What's the matter with this man
I tell you mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
He's the meanest man I've ever seen
Mama this man is lazy
Almost drives me crazy
Mama he makes me squeeze him
Still my squeezes don't please him
Mama my heart is aching
I believe it's breaking
I've stood all that I can stand
What's the matter with this man?
I tell you Mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
Mama he treats your daughter mean
He's the meanest man I've ever seen
Monday, September 21, 2009
***Just An Old Country Boy- Bob Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline”
Click On Title To Link To Bob Dylan And Johnny Cash Doing Dylan’s “Girl From The North Country”
CD Review
Nashville Skyline, Bob Dylan, Columbia Records, 1969
In trying to get a handle on reviewing the long musical career of Bob Dylan I have worked under the general outline that his early work constituted one segment, his various ‘bootleg’ and ‘basement’ materials a second and the later post -1990s stuff a third. The album under review, “Nashville Skyline” falls under that first category. The work of this period is reviewed here under the sign of the following paragraph:
“In a review of Bob Dylan’s “The Freewheeling Bob Dylan” elsewhere in this space I noted:
In reviewing Bob Dylan’s 1965 classic album “Bringing All Back Home” (you know, the one where he went electric) I mentioned that it seemed hard to believe now that both as to the performer as well as to what was being attempted that anyone would take umbrage at a performer using an electric guitar to tell a folk story (or any story for that matter). I further pointed out that it is not necessary to go into all the details of what or what did not happen with Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 to know that one should be glad, glad as hell, that Bob Dylan continued to listen to his own drummer and carry on a career based on electronic music.”
That said, originally I was not “glad as hell” when I first heard “Nashville Skyline”. I had no problem with Dylan protest songs like “Blowing In The Wind”. (In fact, those were the songs that first drew me to his work.) Nor did his turn to the electric guitar and to more personal, inward songs like “Desolation Row”. However, at the time of this album, I thought he had sold out to Nashville. Well, we are all wiser now and so that initial scorn has turned into at least partial delight.
A couple of things have contributed to that re-evaluation. First, seeing Dylan as part of the New York folk milieu of the early 1960’s hid the fact that he was raised in rural Hibbing, Minnesota (and influenced by the country sounds he picked up there in his youth). So while the Grand Ole Opry would be “square” to an urbanite like me it was the bill of fare for Dylan and others out there in the hinterlands. Secondly, it took me a long while to realize that Bob Dylan was deeply immersed and interested in knowing about and understanding the so-called American Songbook. If that is one’s frame of reference then country music has to be part of one’s musical repertoire. What really made the me shift though was hearing a ‘basement’ tape recording of Dylan in his hide out days in the mid-1960s (along with The Band) doing a hard to hear but incredible version of the country classic “I Forgot To Remember To Forget”. A lot of country artists cut their teeth on recording this one; virtually all have to take a back seat to Dylan on it. Including Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. Who would have thought?
Needless to say the duo with Johnny Cash on Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” stands up against the test of time. As do “Lay Lady Lay” and “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You”. The others you can judge for yourselves.
*******
Girl of the North Country Lyrics
Girl From the North Country
If you're travelin' in the north country fair,
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline,
Remember me to one who lives there.
For she once was a true love of mine.
If you go when the snowflakes storm,
When the rivers freeze and summer ends,
Please see she has a coat so warm,
To keep her from the howlin' winds.
Please see if her hair hangs long,
If it rolls and flows all down her breast.
Please see for me if her hair's hanging long,
For that's the way I remember her best.
I'm a-wonderin' if she remembers me at all.
Many times I've often prayed
In the darkness of my night,
In the brightness of my day.
So if you're travelin' the north country fair,
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline,
Remember me to one who lives there.
For she once was a true love of mine.
CD Review
Nashville Skyline, Bob Dylan, Columbia Records, 1969
In trying to get a handle on reviewing the long musical career of Bob Dylan I have worked under the general outline that his early work constituted one segment, his various ‘bootleg’ and ‘basement’ materials a second and the later post -1990s stuff a third. The album under review, “Nashville Skyline” falls under that first category. The work of this period is reviewed here under the sign of the following paragraph:
“In a review of Bob Dylan’s “The Freewheeling Bob Dylan” elsewhere in this space I noted:
In reviewing Bob Dylan’s 1965 classic album “Bringing All Back Home” (you know, the one where he went electric) I mentioned that it seemed hard to believe now that both as to the performer as well as to what was being attempted that anyone would take umbrage at a performer using an electric guitar to tell a folk story (or any story for that matter). I further pointed out that it is not necessary to go into all the details of what or what did not happen with Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 to know that one should be glad, glad as hell, that Bob Dylan continued to listen to his own drummer and carry on a career based on electronic music.”
That said, originally I was not “glad as hell” when I first heard “Nashville Skyline”. I had no problem with Dylan protest songs like “Blowing In The Wind”. (In fact, those were the songs that first drew me to his work.) Nor did his turn to the electric guitar and to more personal, inward songs like “Desolation Row”. However, at the time of this album, I thought he had sold out to Nashville. Well, we are all wiser now and so that initial scorn has turned into at least partial delight.
A couple of things have contributed to that re-evaluation. First, seeing Dylan as part of the New York folk milieu of the early 1960’s hid the fact that he was raised in rural Hibbing, Minnesota (and influenced by the country sounds he picked up there in his youth). So while the Grand Ole Opry would be “square” to an urbanite like me it was the bill of fare for Dylan and others out there in the hinterlands. Secondly, it took me a long while to realize that Bob Dylan was deeply immersed and interested in knowing about and understanding the so-called American Songbook. If that is one’s frame of reference then country music has to be part of one’s musical repertoire. What really made the me shift though was hearing a ‘basement’ tape recording of Dylan in his hide out days in the mid-1960s (along with The Band) doing a hard to hear but incredible version of the country classic “I Forgot To Remember To Forget”. A lot of country artists cut their teeth on recording this one; virtually all have to take a back seat to Dylan on it. Including Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. Who would have thought?
Needless to say the duo with Johnny Cash on Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” stands up against the test of time. As do “Lay Lady Lay” and “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You”. The others you can judge for yourselves.
*******
Girl of the North Country Lyrics
Girl From the North Country
If you're travelin' in the north country fair,
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline,
Remember me to one who lives there.
For she once was a true love of mine.
If you go when the snowflakes storm,
When the rivers freeze and summer ends,
Please see she has a coat so warm,
To keep her from the howlin' winds.
Please see if her hair hangs long,
If it rolls and flows all down her breast.
Please see for me if her hair's hanging long,
For that's the way I remember her best.
I'm a-wonderin' if she remembers me at all.
Many times I've often prayed
In the darkness of my night,
In the brightness of my day.
So if you're travelin' the north country fair,
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline,
Remember me to one who lives there.
For she once was a true love of mine.
*From The Austin City Outer Limits- The Music Of Doug Sahm
Click On Title To Link To YouTube’s Film Clip Of Doug Sahm On "Live From Austin City Limits"
CD Review
Doug Sahm & Friends: The Best Of The Atlantic Sessions, Doug Sahm, Bob Dylan, Dr. John and other artists, Atlanta Records, 1992
One of the things that keeps occurring when one is, as I am, tracing in my own eclectic way, some of the roots music of the `American Songbook' is that once familiar names from the distant past keep cropping up in odd ways. Take the artist under review, Doug Sahm, as an example. I knew of his name from 1960's British invasion rock group Sir Douglas Quintet (Go figure, for a Texas boy, but that is the way things went in those helter-skelter days) and, later, from the edges of the Texas-driven "country outlaws" movement of the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark and the like.
However the impetus for this review of Sahm' music is due to a recent interview of Professor Douglas Brinkley (now at Rice University, I believe). Brinkley was talking about the nuts and bolts of his interview of the legendary Bob Dylan for "Rolling Stone" magazine on a National Public Radio talk show. In the course of that interview Professor Brinkley mentioned that the reclusive Dylan missed the companionship of his old time friend, the late Doug Sahm. That set off one alarm. Additionally, Professor Brinkley is well known to this reviewer as a long time friend of the late "Gonzo journalist", Hunter S. Thompson. That combination was enough to get me to this CD.
Like many others, when one is looking for the work of an older artist the best place to start is with some "greatest hits" compilation and that, in effect, is what is being reviewed here. Over the long haul Sahm was associated, broadly, with the Tex-Mex and Texas blues music that came roaring out of his state over the past few decades, particularly out of Austin. That sound, and the seemingly obligatory nod to the free-wheeling 1960's hard rock styles, dominates this well-produced album originally issued by well-regarded Atlantic Records in 1973. There is a virtual who's who of Tex-Mex and Texas blues musicians backing Sahms up (and the great New Orleans bluesman, Dr. John). Plus, as a bonus, Dylan doing his "Wallflower" with Sahm. Additionally, there is a nice booklet of liner notes showing the cast of characters on this CD in sunnier times. After listening to this CD one can now understand why Dylan missed his old friend.
*******
Doug Sahm Is Anybody Going To San Antone by Dave Kirby
Glen Martin
Doug Sahm vocals/guitar/fiddle
Bob Dylan background vocals
Charlie Owens steel guitar
Flaco Jimenez accordion
George Raines drums
Jack Barber bass
Augie Meyers keyboards
Ken Kosek fiddle
A D E7 A A D E7 A
A D E7 A
Rain dripping off the brim of my hat it sure looks cold today
D E7 A
Here I am walkin down Sixty Six wish she hadn't done me this way
D E7 A
Sleeping under a table in a roadside park a man could wake up dead
A D E7 A
But it sure seems warmer than it did sleeping in our king size bed
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her
A D E7 A A D E7 A
A D E A
Wind whippin down the neck of my shirt like I aint got nothin on
A D E7 A
But I'd rather fight the wind and rain than what I was fightin at home
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her.
SOLO
A D E7 A
Yonder comes a truck with the U.S. mail people writin letters back
home
A D E7 A
Well Tommorrow she'll want me back again and I'll be just as gone
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her
CD Review
Doug Sahm & Friends: The Best Of The Atlantic Sessions, Doug Sahm, Bob Dylan, Dr. John and other artists, Atlanta Records, 1992
One of the things that keeps occurring when one is, as I am, tracing in my own eclectic way, some of the roots music of the `American Songbook' is that once familiar names from the distant past keep cropping up in odd ways. Take the artist under review, Doug Sahm, as an example. I knew of his name from 1960's British invasion rock group Sir Douglas Quintet (Go figure, for a Texas boy, but that is the way things went in those helter-skelter days) and, later, from the edges of the Texas-driven "country outlaws" movement of the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark and the like.
However the impetus for this review of Sahm' music is due to a recent interview of Professor Douglas Brinkley (now at Rice University, I believe). Brinkley was talking about the nuts and bolts of his interview of the legendary Bob Dylan for "Rolling Stone" magazine on a National Public Radio talk show. In the course of that interview Professor Brinkley mentioned that the reclusive Dylan missed the companionship of his old time friend, the late Doug Sahm. That set off one alarm. Additionally, Professor Brinkley is well known to this reviewer as a long time friend of the late "Gonzo journalist", Hunter S. Thompson. That combination was enough to get me to this CD.
Like many others, when one is looking for the work of an older artist the best place to start is with some "greatest hits" compilation and that, in effect, is what is being reviewed here. Over the long haul Sahm was associated, broadly, with the Tex-Mex and Texas blues music that came roaring out of his state over the past few decades, particularly out of Austin. That sound, and the seemingly obligatory nod to the free-wheeling 1960's hard rock styles, dominates this well-produced album originally issued by well-regarded Atlantic Records in 1973. There is a virtual who's who of Tex-Mex and Texas blues musicians backing Sahms up (and the great New Orleans bluesman, Dr. John). Plus, as a bonus, Dylan doing his "Wallflower" with Sahm. Additionally, there is a nice booklet of liner notes showing the cast of characters on this CD in sunnier times. After listening to this CD one can now understand why Dylan missed his old friend.
*******
Doug Sahm Is Anybody Going To San Antone by Dave Kirby
Glen Martin
Doug Sahm vocals/guitar/fiddle
Bob Dylan background vocals
Charlie Owens steel guitar
Flaco Jimenez accordion
George Raines drums
Jack Barber bass
Augie Meyers keyboards
Ken Kosek fiddle
A D E7 A A D E7 A
A D E7 A
Rain dripping off the brim of my hat it sure looks cold today
D E7 A
Here I am walkin down Sixty Six wish she hadn't done me this way
D E7 A
Sleeping under a table in a roadside park a man could wake up dead
A D E7 A
But it sure seems warmer than it did sleeping in our king size bed
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her
A D E7 A A D E7 A
A D E A
Wind whippin down the neck of my shirt like I aint got nothin on
A D E7 A
But I'd rather fight the wind and rain than what I was fightin at home
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her.
SOLO
A D E7 A
Yonder comes a truck with the U.S. mail people writin letters back
home
A D E7 A
Well Tommorrow she'll want me back again and I'll be just as gone
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her
*Waist Deep In The "Big Poppy"- Once Again, It's McChrystal Clear- More Boots Needed For Obama's Afghan War Policy- TROOPS OUT NOW!
Click on title to link to Bob Woodward's "Washington Post" article, dated September 21, 2009, concerning Obama's chief Afghan commander on the ground, General Stanley ("Search and destroy, and let god sort it out")McChrystal's 'private' sixty-six page report 'begging' for more boots on the ground.
Markin comment:
After a quick search through my archives of late I have noticed that I have been bringing up the subject of Obama's Afghan war policy more and more. Obviously that frequency has become necessary as the political and military situation in Afghanistan gets more desperate and the American military commanders, headed by the chief reporter on this report, General Stanley McChrystal (see, I can be 'civilized' and not use my nickname above for him at every opportunity), keep trying to 'fix' the thing with more troops. That is, however, their problem.
Our problem, and it is one that I have addressed before, is to stop the bastards in their tracks. I have been something of a Cassandra on this issue of Afghanistan since Obama's election. I have no special insight into his mind, the workings of his administration, or of the military's. However, this I know. When Obama stated in his pre-election speeches and 'debates' that America was fighting the wrong enemy in the wrong place (in Iraq) and the real focus should be Af-Pak then upon his election I started shifting my emphasis(although we still fight under the banner of immediate unconditional withdrawal of ALL U.S./Allied troops from Iraq, as well). I believe that it was not more than a few days after his election that the first rumblings of the Obama February troop escalations started to circulate. Make no mistake-this is Obama's signature war-signed, sealed and delivered. I would hope that no one, at least no self-respecting leftist, would bet me that the latest troop requests were NOT going to be granted.
Notwithstanding that future, take heart. From our anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist perspective this "failed policy-in-waiting" is, if nothing else, unless we can otherwise stop it, unfortunately unlikely at present, a "teachable" moment. I note the growing dissatisfaction with the Obama Afghan War policy, particularly among the left wing of his own Democratic party. They are, however, still somewhat 'smitten' with the man and his "charms", political and otherwise so the opposition is merely tepid and confused at this point. But, as a glance at "The Daily Kos", the left bourgeois political junkies' 'haven', confirms there are rumblings in that empire.
Okay, so our tasks are? Well, for starters, the 8th anniversary of the American occupation in Afghanistan is coming up and we should get out on the streets, yes the streets, to build a physical public presence against this war policy. Most of the political talk that I have heard has come from academics who, more in sorrow than anger, want to direct Obamian American foreign policy elsewhere. Or have enough of a sense of history to know that this one is a 'loser'. Let's make it a loser in our own way- out to the streets. Our battle cry- Obama-Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan (and Iraq too!)
******
Every once in a while (more frequently than I would like but today seems like a very appropriate time) old Pete Seeger's song about his World War II adventures that served as a parable for President Lyndon Johnson and his constant Vietnam escalations, "Waist Deep In The Big Muddy” just seems appropriate. This is one of those occasions. Just switch "Big Poppy" for "Big Muddy" and you will have it just about right.
"Waist Deep In The Big Muddy"-Pete Seeger
It was back in nineteen forty-two,
I was a member of a good platoon.
We were on maneuvers in-a Loozianna,
One night by the light of the moon.
The captain told us to ford a river,
That's how it all begun.
We were -- knee deep in the Big Muddy,
But the big fool said to push on.
The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure,
This is the best way back to the base?"
"Sergeant, go on! I forded this river
'Bout a mile above this place.
It'll be a little soggy but just keep slogging.
We'll soon be on dry ground."
We were -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.
The Sergeant said, "Sir, with all this equipment
No man will be able to swim."
"Sergeant, don't be a Nervous Nellie,"
The Captain said to him.
"All we need is a little determination;
Men, follow me, I'll lead on."
We were -- neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.
All at once, the moon clouded over,
We heard a gurgling cry.
A few seconds later, the captain's helmet
Was all that floated by.
The Sergeant said, "Turn around men!
I'm in charge from now on."
And we just made it out of the Big Muddy
With the captain dead and gone.
We stripped and dived and found his body
Stuck in the old quicksand.
I guess he didn't know that the water was deeper
Than the place he'd once before been.
Another stream had joined the Big Muddy
'Bout a half mile from where we'd gone.
We were lucky to escape from the Big Muddy
When the big fool said to push on.
Well, I'm not going to point any moral;
I'll leave that for yourself
Maybe you're still walking, you're still talking
You'd like to keep your health.
But every time I read the papers
That old feeling comes on;
We're -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep! Neck deep! Soon even a
Tall man'll be over his head, we're
Waist deep in the Big Muddy!
And the big fool says to push on!
Markin comment:
After a quick search through my archives of late I have noticed that I have been bringing up the subject of Obama's Afghan war policy more and more. Obviously that frequency has become necessary as the political and military situation in Afghanistan gets more desperate and the American military commanders, headed by the chief reporter on this report, General Stanley McChrystal (see, I can be 'civilized' and not use my nickname above for him at every opportunity), keep trying to 'fix' the thing with more troops. That is, however, their problem.
Our problem, and it is one that I have addressed before, is to stop the bastards in their tracks. I have been something of a Cassandra on this issue of Afghanistan since Obama's election. I have no special insight into his mind, the workings of his administration, or of the military's. However, this I know. When Obama stated in his pre-election speeches and 'debates' that America was fighting the wrong enemy in the wrong place (in Iraq) and the real focus should be Af-Pak then upon his election I started shifting my emphasis(although we still fight under the banner of immediate unconditional withdrawal of ALL U.S./Allied troops from Iraq, as well). I believe that it was not more than a few days after his election that the first rumblings of the Obama February troop escalations started to circulate. Make no mistake-this is Obama's signature war-signed, sealed and delivered. I would hope that no one, at least no self-respecting leftist, would bet me that the latest troop requests were NOT going to be granted.
Notwithstanding that future, take heart. From our anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist perspective this "failed policy-in-waiting" is, if nothing else, unless we can otherwise stop it, unfortunately unlikely at present, a "teachable" moment. I note the growing dissatisfaction with the Obama Afghan War policy, particularly among the left wing of his own Democratic party. They are, however, still somewhat 'smitten' with the man and his "charms", political and otherwise so the opposition is merely tepid and confused at this point. But, as a glance at "The Daily Kos", the left bourgeois political junkies' 'haven', confirms there are rumblings in that empire.
Okay, so our tasks are? Well, for starters, the 8th anniversary of the American occupation in Afghanistan is coming up and we should get out on the streets, yes the streets, to build a physical public presence against this war policy. Most of the political talk that I have heard has come from academics who, more in sorrow than anger, want to direct Obamian American foreign policy elsewhere. Or have enough of a sense of history to know that this one is a 'loser'. Let's make it a loser in our own way- out to the streets. Our battle cry- Obama-Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan (and Iraq too!)
******
Every once in a while (more frequently than I would like but today seems like a very appropriate time) old Pete Seeger's song about his World War II adventures that served as a parable for President Lyndon Johnson and his constant Vietnam escalations, "Waist Deep In The Big Muddy” just seems appropriate. This is one of those occasions. Just switch "Big Poppy" for "Big Muddy" and you will have it just about right.
"Waist Deep In The Big Muddy"-Pete Seeger
It was back in nineteen forty-two,
I was a member of a good platoon.
We were on maneuvers in-a Loozianna,
One night by the light of the moon.
The captain told us to ford a river,
That's how it all begun.
We were -- knee deep in the Big Muddy,
But the big fool said to push on.
The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure,
This is the best way back to the base?"
"Sergeant, go on! I forded this river
'Bout a mile above this place.
It'll be a little soggy but just keep slogging.
We'll soon be on dry ground."
We were -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.
The Sergeant said, "Sir, with all this equipment
No man will be able to swim."
"Sergeant, don't be a Nervous Nellie,"
The Captain said to him.
"All we need is a little determination;
Men, follow me, I'll lead on."
We were -- neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.
All at once, the moon clouded over,
We heard a gurgling cry.
A few seconds later, the captain's helmet
Was all that floated by.
The Sergeant said, "Turn around men!
I'm in charge from now on."
And we just made it out of the Big Muddy
With the captain dead and gone.
We stripped and dived and found his body
Stuck in the old quicksand.
I guess he didn't know that the water was deeper
Than the place he'd once before been.
Another stream had joined the Big Muddy
'Bout a half mile from where we'd gone.
We were lucky to escape from the Big Muddy
When the big fool said to push on.
Well, I'm not going to point any moral;
I'll leave that for yourself
Maybe you're still walking, you're still talking
You'd like to keep your health.
But every time I read the papers
That old feeling comes on;
We're -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep! Neck deep! Soon even a
Tall man'll be over his head, we're
Waist deep in the Big Muddy!
And the big fool says to push on!
*From The Austin City Outer Limits- An Encore-The Music Of Doug Sahm
Click On Title To Link To YouTube’s Film Clip Of Doug Sahm On "Live From Austin City Limits"
DVD Review
Doug Sahm: Live From Austin, Tx, Doug Sahm (1975), New West Productions, 2007
Most of the following is from a review of a CD, "Doug Sahm and Friends". Except for a list of the song selections the points made there apply here to this DVD as well.
"One of the things that keeps occurring when one is, as I am, tracing in my own eclectic way, some of the roots music of the `American Songbook' is that once familiar names from the distant past keep cropping up in odd ways. Take the artist under review, Doug Sahm, as an example. I knew of his name from 1960's British invasion rock group Sir Douglas Quintet (Go figure, for a Texas boy, but that is the way things went in those helter-skelter days) and, later, from the edges of the Texas-driven "country outlaws" movement of the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark and the like.
However the impetus for this review of Sahm' music is due to a recent interview of Professor Douglas Brinkley (now at Rice University, I believe). Brinkley was talking about the nuts and bolts of his interview of the legendary Bob Dylan for "Rolling Stone" magazine on a National Public Radio talk show. In the course of that interview Professor Brinkley mentioned that the reclusive Dylan missed the companionship of his old time friend, the late Doug Sahm. That set off one alarm. Additionally, Professor Brinkley is well known to this reviewer as a long time friend of the late "Gonzo journalist", Hunter S. Thompson. That combination was enough to get me to this CD.
Like many others, when one is looking for the work of an older artist the best place to start is with some "greatest hits" compilation and that, in effect, is what is being reviewed here. Over the long haul Sahm was associated, broadly, with the Tex-Mex and Texas blues music that came roaring out of his state over the past few decades, particularly out of Austin. That sound, and the seemingly obligatory nod to the free-wheeling 1960's hard rock styles, dominates this well-produced album originally issued by well-regarded Atlantic Records in 1973. There is a virtual who's who of Tex-Mex and Texas blues musicians backing Sahm up (and the great New Orleans bluesman, Dr. John). Plus, as a bonus, Dylan doing his "Wallflower" with Sahm. Additionally, there is a nice booklet of liner notes showing the cast of characters on this CD in sunnier times. After listening to this CD one can now understand why Dylan missed his old friend".
And off of this DVD you can understand why Dylan would have been attracted to Sahm's gravelly-voiced, rough-hewed song style as seen in the "Mendocino" and "She's A Mover" set. Also a nice version of "Stormy Monday", a song that fits his style very well. Here is the kicker though. A lot of times when I am 'watching' music DVDs I am on the computer, or something. I was doing the same here when all of a sudden Doug started doing a version of Elvis Presley's "One Night With You". I jumped up to watch that. Wow. Yes, indeed, I can very definitely understand Dylan's sense of loss.
*******
Doug Sahm Is Anybody Going To San Antone by Dave Kirby
Glen Martin
Doug Sahm vocals/guitar/fiddle
Bob Dylan background vocals
Charlie Owens steel guitar
Flaco Jimenez accordion
George Raines drums
Jack Barber bass
Augie Meyers keyboards
Ken Kosek fiddle
A D E7 A A D E7 A
A D E7 A
Rain dripping off the brim of my hat it sure looks cold today
D E7 A
Here I am walkin down Sixty Six wish she hadn't done me this way
D E7 A
Sleeping under a table in a roadside park a man could wake up dead
A D E7 A
But it sure seems warmer than it did sleeping in our king size bed
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her
A D E7 A A D E7 A
A D E A
Wind whippin down the neck of my shirt like I aint got nothin on
A D E7 A
But I'd rather fight the wind and rain than what I was fightin at home
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her.
SOLO
A D E7 A
Yonder comes a truck with the U.S. mail people writin letters back
home
A D E7 A
Well Tommorrow she'll want me back again and I'll be just as gone
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her
DVD Review
Doug Sahm: Live From Austin, Tx, Doug Sahm (1975), New West Productions, 2007
Most of the following is from a review of a CD, "Doug Sahm and Friends". Except for a list of the song selections the points made there apply here to this DVD as well.
"One of the things that keeps occurring when one is, as I am, tracing in my own eclectic way, some of the roots music of the `American Songbook' is that once familiar names from the distant past keep cropping up in odd ways. Take the artist under review, Doug Sahm, as an example. I knew of his name from 1960's British invasion rock group Sir Douglas Quintet (Go figure, for a Texas boy, but that is the way things went in those helter-skelter days) and, later, from the edges of the Texas-driven "country outlaws" movement of the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark and the like.
However the impetus for this review of Sahm' music is due to a recent interview of Professor Douglas Brinkley (now at Rice University, I believe). Brinkley was talking about the nuts and bolts of his interview of the legendary Bob Dylan for "Rolling Stone" magazine on a National Public Radio talk show. In the course of that interview Professor Brinkley mentioned that the reclusive Dylan missed the companionship of his old time friend, the late Doug Sahm. That set off one alarm. Additionally, Professor Brinkley is well known to this reviewer as a long time friend of the late "Gonzo journalist", Hunter S. Thompson. That combination was enough to get me to this CD.
Like many others, when one is looking for the work of an older artist the best place to start is with some "greatest hits" compilation and that, in effect, is what is being reviewed here. Over the long haul Sahm was associated, broadly, with the Tex-Mex and Texas blues music that came roaring out of his state over the past few decades, particularly out of Austin. That sound, and the seemingly obligatory nod to the free-wheeling 1960's hard rock styles, dominates this well-produced album originally issued by well-regarded Atlantic Records in 1973. There is a virtual who's who of Tex-Mex and Texas blues musicians backing Sahm up (and the great New Orleans bluesman, Dr. John). Plus, as a bonus, Dylan doing his "Wallflower" with Sahm. Additionally, there is a nice booklet of liner notes showing the cast of characters on this CD in sunnier times. After listening to this CD one can now understand why Dylan missed his old friend".
And off of this DVD you can understand why Dylan would have been attracted to Sahm's gravelly-voiced, rough-hewed song style as seen in the "Mendocino" and "She's A Mover" set. Also a nice version of "Stormy Monday", a song that fits his style very well. Here is the kicker though. A lot of times when I am 'watching' music DVDs I am on the computer, or something. I was doing the same here when all of a sudden Doug started doing a version of Elvis Presley's "One Night With You". I jumped up to watch that. Wow. Yes, indeed, I can very definitely understand Dylan's sense of loss.
*******
Doug Sahm Is Anybody Going To San Antone by Dave Kirby
Glen Martin
Doug Sahm vocals/guitar/fiddle
Bob Dylan background vocals
Charlie Owens steel guitar
Flaco Jimenez accordion
George Raines drums
Jack Barber bass
Augie Meyers keyboards
Ken Kosek fiddle
A D E7 A A D E7 A
A D E7 A
Rain dripping off the brim of my hat it sure looks cold today
D E7 A
Here I am walkin down Sixty Six wish she hadn't done me this way
D E7 A
Sleeping under a table in a roadside park a man could wake up dead
A D E7 A
But it sure seems warmer than it did sleeping in our king size bed
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her
A D E7 A A D E7 A
A D E A
Wind whippin down the neck of my shirt like I aint got nothin on
A D E7 A
But I'd rather fight the wind and rain than what I was fightin at home
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her.
SOLO
A D E7 A
Yonder comes a truck with the U.S. mail people writin letters back
home
A D E7 A
Well Tommorrow she'll want me back again and I'll be just as gone
A D E7 A
Is anybody going to San Antone or Phoenix Arizona
D E7 A
Any place is all right as long as I can forget I've ever known her
Sunday, September 20, 2009
*Labor's Untold Story- The "Red Scare" In The Trade Unions After World War II
Click on title to link to basic information about the red scare in the American trade unions immediately after World War II. Needless to say, this is one subject that will receive much fuller coverage later as this series evolves.
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
Labor's Untold Story-Labor's World War II "No Strike" Pledge
Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for World War II on the homefront (America) thta contains some information about labor. More,much more on this subject later.
Every Month Is Labor History Month
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
Every Month Is Labor History Month
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
*Labor's Untold Story-The Other Side In The Class War- The House Un-American Activities Committee,( HUAC, First Version)
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of history of The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Every Month Is Labor History Month
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
Every Month Is Labor History Month
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
*Labor's Untold Story- The Other Side In The Class War- The American Liberty League
Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for another anti-labor organization from the past- The American Liberty League. These groups have their modern counterparts so beware, especially if the class struggle heats up in the near future. Blackwater-tye organizations do not limit themsleves to just kicking around the natives in other countries on behalf of American imperialism. They are more than happy to scab on our labor movement as well.
Every month is labor history month.
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
Every month is labor history month.
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
Friday, September 18, 2009
*Labor's Untold Story- The Unemployed Councils In Washington State In The 1930s- A Case Study
Click on title to link to site that discusses the history of the unemployed councils in Washington state in the 1930s. This is merely a taste of what is available on this subject. The unemployed councils actually drove much of the early work in the great Toledo Auto-Lite Strike of 1934. More on this later as I get better sources. Needless to say the fate of the unemployed is a current (in 2009) pressing issue which a look a history can cast a light on.
Every Month Is Labor History Month
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
Every Month Is Labor History Month
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
Labor's Untold Story- The Trade Union Unity League (TUUL) And "Red" Unions
Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for the Trade Union Unity League, the American Communist Party's successor organization to the William Z. Foster's Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) during the infamous Stalinist "third period" policy of the Communist International.
Every Month Is Labor History Month
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
Every Month Is Labor History Month
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
*Labor's Untold Story-The Hard Struggle to Organize Ford Motor Company
Click on title to link to "Socialist Action" entry for a look at the organizing of black workers at the Ford River Rouge automobile factory. River Rouge at one time could be considered the equivalent of the famous Putilov metalworks factory in Petrograd as a vanguard "hot bed" of militant labor. Sadly, those days are long gone.
Every Month Is Labor History Month
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
Every Month Is Labor History Month
This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!
As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.
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