From The Bob Feldman 68 Blog- "Ben Davis" (Black Communist Councilman From New York City)

Click on the headline to link to a Bob Feldman 68 post for his protest song, Ben Davis

Ben Davis

My name it is Ben Davis and I’m in a prison cell
In Terre Haute, Indiana, that’s where I’m forced to dwell
In a segregated section of the penitentiary
And while I’m locked in solitary, I write my life story.

“I grew up in Jim Crow, Georgia and became a people’s lawyer
I defended Angelo Herndon when he organized workers
They wished to execute him for uniting Black and white
To march to the county courthouse and demand `jobs or relief.’

“For defending the free speech rights of a 19-year-old communist
They threatened me with `contempt of court’ and to lynch me by the neck
Inspired by Angelo’s testimony, his Party I did join
And four years after his rigged trial, the verdict was overturned.

“I worked to build the Party and moved up to Harlem
I rented an apartment and owned no stocks and bonds
I found myself elected in 1943
To serve the working people in the Council of New York City.

“I fought discrimination by Metropolitan Life
And demanded that the major leagues cease to be lily-white
I fought against the fare increase and protected rent control
And denounced police brutality and applied the housing code.

“They could not defeat me at the polls in two elections
So they spent a lot of money to change the regulations
Then in July of 1948, while writing in my home,
Six FBI agents did appear and dragged me from Harlem.

“Although I was elected by the people of New York
They threw me in a prison and charged me in their court
An unconstitutional Smith Act, they used to imprison me
And expelled me from the Council in the name of `democracy.’

“Locked inside this prison by Truman, the `Democrat',
I received a 5-year sentence, just because I’m a communist
Along with other comrades, I’m jailed for my beliefs
And this book I write in prison, they vow they won’t release.

“Yes, my name it is Ben Davis and I’m in a prison cell
In Terre Haute, Indiana, that’s where I’m forced to dwell
In a segregated section of the penitentiary
And while I’m locked in solitary, I write my life story.”

To listen to this song, you can go to following music site link:

http://www.last.fm/music/Bob+A.+Feldman/More+Biographical+Folk+Songs/Ben+Davis

The Ben Davis biographical protest folk song lyrics were written a few years ago, after I read the book Communist Councilman From Harlem: Autobiographical Notes Written in a Federal Penitentiary by Benjamin Davis, and are sung to the traditional Scottish folk song tune of “Come, All Ye Tramps and Hawkers”. Prior to Ben Davis’s release from prison the manuscript of his autobiography was seized by U.S. prison authorities and kept by the Bureau of Prisons until after Ben Davis’s death in 1964—before the autobiographical manuscript was finally allowed by U.S. government officials to be published in 1969 by International Publishers.

To listen to some of the other protest folk songs that I’ve written since the late 1960s, you can check out the “Columbia Songs for a Democratic Society” music site at the following link:

http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music

*From The Renegade Eye Blog-Iran: We Will Take Revenge for Farzad and His Comrades!

Click on the headline to link to a "Renegade Eye" Blog entry-Iran: We Will Take Revenge for Farzad and His Comrades!

Markin comment:

Every militant leftist fighter stands behind this commentary, whatever our other poltical differences.

*From Renegade Eye- The Struggle in Iran Today- A Guest Commentary

Click on the title to link to a guest commentary on the current struggle in Iran from the "Renegade Eye" blog.

Markin comment:

The situation in Iran cries out to high heaven for a communist solution. Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky's Theory of Permanent Revolution is fully applicable here. However, there is no vanguard party to lead this struggle so the question of what we get in the short term, other than the removal of the current regime, is rather problematic. All we can say for sure today, as we have for the past 30 odd years is- Down With The Mullahs! Fight For A Revolutionary Constituent Assembly! No political support for any bourgeois parties or politicians! Defend the Iranian peoples! Hands Off The Protesters! World Imperialism Hands Off Iran!

More, much more on this as events continue to unfold.

*Solidarity- Defend The Iranian Protesters-U.S. Hands Off Iran!

Click On To Title To Link To Associated Press Article On The Latest Demonstrations In Iran. Information is sketchy, the motives of the protesters are varied but this we know- we stand with the people in the streets as they struggle for some form of democratic voice on this one. Needless to say though at the governmental level-Obama-U.S. Hands Off Iran!

*The Struggle In Iran 2009- The View Of The Internationalist Group

Click on title for a leftist perspective on the situation in Iran in the aftermath of the "elections" there from the Internationalist Group.

Markin comment:

The article is placed here for informational purposes as I am not that familiar with the politics of the group (other than that it split from the International Communist League a number of years ago). This article makes several interesting points. The most important, thirty years after the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, is that leftists can give no political support to any of the various religious factions in Iran. A whole generation of Iranian leftists and working class militants paid with their lives and their blood for that serious mistake in the struggle against the Shah. Learn the lessons of history, damn it.