From The American Left History Blog Archives (2009) - On American Political Discourse  

Markin comment:

In the period 2006-2009 I, in vain, attempted to put some energy into analyzing the blossoming American presidential campaign since it was to be, as advertised at least, a watershed election, for women, blacks, old white anglos, latinos, youth, etc. In the event I had to abandon the efforts in about May of 2008 when it became obvious, in my face obvious, that the election would be a watershed only for those who really believed that it would be a watershed election. The four years of the Obama presidency, the 2012 American presidential election campaign, and world politics have only confirmed in my eyes that that abandonment was essentially the right decision at the right time. In short, let the well- paid bourgeois commentators go on and on with their twitter. I, we, had (have) better things to do like fighting against the permanent wars, the permanent war economies, the struggle for more and better jobs, and for a workers party that fights for a workers government . More than enough to do, right? Still a look back at some of the stuff I wrote then does not a bad feel to it. Read on.

************

*As We Gear Up Our Opposition To Obama's Afghan War A Song To Lift Our Spirits- Stepphenwolf's "The Monster"

Guest Commentary/Lyrics by John Kay and other

Chorus

America where are you now?

Don't you care about your sons and daughters?

Don't you know we need you now

We can't fight alone against the monster

Hell, there is not much more that I need to say, the lyrics tell it all. Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan!-Markin

******

 

Words and music by John Kay, Jerry Edmonton, Nick St. Nicholas and Larry Byrom

(Monster)

Once the religious, the hunted and weary

Chasing the promise of freedom and hope

Came to this country to build a new vision

Far from the reaches of kingdom and pope

Like good Christians, some would burn the witches

Later some got slaves to gather riches

But still from near and far to seek America

They came by thousands to court the wild

And she just patiently smiled and bore a child

To be their spirit and guiding light

 

And once the ties with the crown had been broken

Westward in saddle and wagon it went

And 'til the railroad linked ocean to ocean

Many the lives which had come to an end

While we bullied, stole and bought our a homeland

We began the slaughter of the red man

 

But still from near and far to seek America

They came by thousands to court the wild

And she just patiently smiled and bore a child

To be their spirit and guiding light

 

The blue and grey they stomped it

They kicked it just like a dog

And when the war over

They stuffed it just like a hog

 

And though the past has it's share of injustice

Kind was the spirit in many a way

But it's protectors and friends have been sleeping

Now it's a monster and will not obey

(Suicide)

The spirit was freedom and justice

And it's keepers seem generous and kind

It's leaders were supposed to serve the country

But now they won't pay it no mind

'Cause the people grew fat and got lazy

And now their vote is a meaningless joke

They babble about law and order

But it's all just an echo of what they've been told

Yeah, there's a monster on the loose

It's got our heads into a noose

And it just sits there watchin'

Our cities have turned into jungles

And corruption is stranglin' the land

The police force is watching the people

And the people just can't understand

We don't know how to mind our own business

'Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us

Now we are fighting a war over there

No matter who's the winner

We can't pay the cost

'Cause there's a monster on the loose

It's got our heads into a noose

And it just sits there watching

(America)

America where are you now?

Don't you care about your sons and daughters?

Don't you know we need you now

We can't fight alone against the monster</strong>

© Copyright MCA Music (BMI)

All rights for the USA controlled and administered by

MCA Corporation of America, INC

 

--Used with permission--

From The American Left History Blog Archives (2009) - On American Political Discourse  

Markin comment:

In the period 2006-2009 I, in vain, attempted to put some energy into analyzing the blossoming American presidential campaign since it was to be, as advertised at least, a watershed election, for women, blacks, old white anglos, latinos, youth, etc. In the event I had to abandon the efforts in about May of 2008 when it became obvious, in my face obvious, that the election would be a watershed only for those who really believed that it would be a watershed election. The four years of the Obama presidency, the 2012 American presidential election campaign, and world politics have only confirmed in my eyes that that abandonment was essentially the right decision at the right time. In short, let the well- paid bourgeois commentators go on and on with their twitter. I, we, had (have) better things to do like fighting against the permanent wars, the permanent war economies, the struggle for more and better jobs, and for a workers party that fights for a workers government . More than enough to do, right? Still a look back at some of the stuff I wrote then does not a bad feel to it. Read on.

************
*A Short Note, A Very Short Note On The 6th Anniversary Of The Bush/Obama Iraq War

On this the Sixth Anniversary of the Iraq invasion I repost my entries from previous years. There is essentially nothing new to add, except to replace the name Bush with Obama in the slogan- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal of All U.S./Allied Troops from Iraq and Afghanistan!

 

From March 19, 2008

Today I will go to downtown Boston and participate in my nth demonstration against the Iraq War. I will have my banner, I will shout and I ....will be frustrated that in many fundamentals we (meaning here the anti-war movement) are no closer to forcing a total troop withdrawal from Iraq than 5 years ago. But, my frustration will pass. In fact it has already. I will shout to the bitter end- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal of All United States/Allied Troops and Mercenaries From Iraq and Afghanistan!

Below I have reposted, as much as it pains me, a comment I made as we approached last year’s 4th Anniversary of the Iraq War. Damn.

COMMENTARY

WRITTEN ON MARCH 19, 2007 THE FOUTH ANNIVESARY OF THE AMERICAN INVASION AND OCCUPATION OF IRAQ.

 

This will be short and sweet for four years of war without an effective extra-parliamentary (or for that matter, parliamentary) opposition in an unpopular war led by an unpopular President speaks for itself. That said, the slogan Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal from Iraq by the United States and its rapidly dwindling coalition forces retains its validity. As does the fight for a straight no vote on the war budget. And, finally, as does the validity of the desperately necessary fight to form anti-war soldiers and sailors solidarity committees. Otherwise this time next year we will be writing about the fifth year of the war. Forward.

 

 

Waist Deep In The Big Poppy Field- U.S. Out Of Afghanistan!

 

This is a song relating to Pete Seeger's World War II experience but politically applied to Vietnam. I called George Bush's (father and son) Iraq wars the Big Sandy. Obama's war in Afghanistan (along with the Big Sandy) can be called the Big Poppy Field. The names change but the hubris remains the same. In any case old Pete is on target here. Read the lyrics.

Pete Seeger Lyrics

Waist Deep In The Big Muddy Lyrics</strong>

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!

 

 

***Out In The Wild West Night- With Howard Hughes’ The Outlaw In Mind

 

From The Pen Of  Frank Jackman

Rio, Rio Adams by name, if only partly by blood, by blood a yankee, a Norte Americana, was there to watch it all, to see that first tentative taming of the West the yankee garbacho west, the white man’s west. And to pick up the pieces of whomever was left standing at the end of the day, whatever man was left standing to be precise because Rio, Rio Adams by name, was that kind of woman, not a whore like some women who came to the west after the Civil War looking to cash in on the woman-scarce west and then settle down, or maybe turn that trick work into some business. legit or not, there was room for that too. So Rio was not a whore, not by a long shot although when she had been up against it a couple times she did what she had to do, no regrets, as a woman of the west. What she was thought and also no regrets was the kind who left with whoever was left standing, and by her simple mixed –blood logic of survival rightfully so. But maybe we had better start at the beginning, no, not the conquistador Spanish rapine beginning and not even the white man’s rapine beginning back about forty or fifty years before in the New Mexico night but the beginning of Rio watching, watching the west tentatively tamed in about 1880.

See Rio started out as  Doc’s girl, Doc’s ever-lovin’ girl, since he had been nice to her, had helped her out of a jam with a couple of quack desperados trying to paw at her over in Tombstone in Arizona Territory and she, despite his being about twice her age and might not have been too good for a beauty like her to look at then (although she had seen a picture of him in his younger days and she would have followed him anywhere on that basis but the west took a lot out of a man, fast), and decided to cast her fate with his, for a while anyway. And Doc wasn’t complaining about her company, or about helping her out of that jam because if he hadn’t some other lonesome cowboy would have jumped at the chance (although strictly speaking Doc wasn’t a cowpoke but rather a gambler, a fixer man, a little of this and a little of that man). Needless to say he had many a pleasant night in her company, many a sweet dream after some sweaty exertions under those clean hotel sheets when she showed her appreciated for that help out of that jam too.

Maybe we had better speak a little more about Rio, and her charms, since she is the only pretty thing in this desolate brush country saga. Like I said she was only part yankee by blood but Mex in spirit, in beauty and in her charms. A buxom brunette, and not afraid to show it, show it to effect when someone caught her eye, always wearing revealing blouses, you know those low cut Mex kind that every peasant senorita wore to turn a man, to tease a man sometimes. Long hair, long shining hair, flowing around those shoulders and eyes, yes, laughing brown eyes, dark complexion, and big ruby red lip, painted by some Mex –grown plant that make those lips cry out to the heavens to be kissed. Topped off by some scent, some cactus concoction, that followed her around and made a man pray, even non-praying men, that the scent would never leave the room. And of course she had that Mex high spirit, that Mex tough in the clinches if that was her mood or in your clinches if that was her mood. Wild and unpredictable like a lot of mixed-bloods but a woman who every man somewhere in the recesses of his mind wanted to have pass by him, if only for a whiff of that alluring scent.

So when Billy showed up in Lincoln, Lincoln, New Mexico just when Doc and Rio (and Rio’s aunt as wink, wink chaperone for Rio’s reputation, reputation around the Mex population, the Yankees just wanted at her) were getting ready to set up housekeeping in the town at the invitation of Doc’s old pal, his amigo, Pat there was bound to be trouble, woman trouble, hell, Rio trouble. See this Billy had something of a reputation around those parts as a hell-raising, as a sharp-shooter and as a guy you had better not cross, not if you didn’t want to be buried un-mourned on some lonesome boot hill or find yourself as just another notch on Billy’s 45s. And he was a good-looking kid, maybe as good-looking as that picture of Doc back when he had first started out in the west, all raw-boned, wiry and full of sex. So naturally Rio was looking, looking and maybe figuring already that house-keeping for some old codger, some viejo, was not her best career path. And just as naturally Doc, no fool, no fool when young or old, especially if you wanted to grow old in the west sensed danger, Billy-sized danger. That danger, that natural protective reaction of what was his was his, set off a chain of actions that led to some changes in that old dusty town.

Of course you know Doc called Billy out, called him out over some foolish horse trade (as if he needed any pretext except Rio’s look to draw his guns) that went awry and Billy was wounded in the melee. Pat, newly installed as sheriff in Lincoln, warned his old friend Doc out of town, out of town for keeps, at the cost of having to arrest him otherwise. So Doc blew town, blew town with a couple of other desperados who were heading west and needed an extra gun. But here is where things went wrong, very wrong. See Billy was shot up pretty bad and it was a close thing whether he would live or die so Rio was brought into nurse him, nurse him or hold some death watch over him. In the case it was the former. Along the way though she got hotter than hell for Billy especially when one night as he was recovering he grabbed her, well not grabbed her but grabbed for her, and she responded, well, you know how she responded once you knew she was hotter than hell for him. And so they set up housekeeping or mainly stayed in bed, stayed under the sheets. But as things in the west usually worked word of the new Rio arrangement got back to Doc and he was hell-bent on doing something about it. No man could, would let another man, young or old, take his woman, without a fight, not in women-scarce, not in Rio woman with that scent and those red lips scarce New Mexico times.

So like some lemming to the sea Doc headed back to Lincoln, headed back alone at night, two guns in his holsters and a shotgun tied to the saddle of his roan. And here is where the details get confused, either deliberately confused to protect Pat, or to protect Rio, or hell, maybe to protect Billy. Somehow Pat found out Doc was back, was back for Billy vengeance and confronted him when he went to the room where Billy and Rio were keeping house. There was a confrontation, guns blazing, and in the aftermath one good old boy of the west, a hardened veteran of the western saga, a man with many notches on his guns, Billy, was face down, face down to meet his maker. But here is the funny part Pat got the credit for the kill, got a salary raise to boot and Doc was never seen in those parts again. Rio, well, like we said Rio left with the last man standing, her last man, as they rode off with her behind her man who strangely enough looked an awful lot like Billy. And things around Lincoln were never that wild again.

 

From The American Left History Blog Archives (2007) - On American Political Discourse  

Markin comment:

In the period 2006-2008 I, in vain, attempted to put some energy into analyzing the blossoming American presidential campaign since it was to be, as advertised at least, a watershed election, for women, blacks, old white anglos, latinos, youth, etc. In the event I had to abandon the efforts in about May of 2008 when it became obvious, in my face obvious, that the election would be a watershed only for those who really believed that it would be a watershed election. The four years of the Obama presidency, the 2012 American presidential election campaign, and world politics have only confirmed in my eyes that that abandonment was essentially the right decision at the right time. In short, let the well- paid bourgeois commentators go on and on with their twitter. I, we, had (have) better things to do like fighting against the permanent wars, the permanent war economies, the struggle for more and better jobs, and for a workers party that fights for a workers government . More than enough to do, right? Still a look back at some of the stuff I wrote then does not a bad feel to it. Read on.

************
A NOTE ON THE WORKERS PARTY QUESTION- CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

COMMENTARY

TRADE UNIONISTS-NO PAC/COPE MONIES FOR CAPITALIST PARTY CANDIDATES

FORGET DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS AND GREENS- BUILD A WORKERS PARTY THAT FIGHTS FOR A WORKERS GOVERNMENT!

Let is get one thing straight as we enter the seemingly never-ending 2008 election cycle here in America-the question of a workers party to fight for the just and equitable needs of working people is a more pressing question than ever before. This writer has spent a good portion of his political life propagandizing for such a party so that it is no surprise that he feels this urgency. Nevertheless, he also is savvy enough to know that this question in this electoral cycle will continue to be a propaganda task. So be it. However not all political work on this issue has to be of a propaganda nature. And here is my point.

Trade unions- the organized expression of working class power and the organizational nucleus for any workers party, as almost every political person knows, have at least since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s second presidential campaign in 1936 poured vast monies, energies and human resources into supporting capitalist parties, mainly the Democratic Party. A shorthand expression for this policy by the trade union tops can be stated as rewarding the ‘friends of labor’.  As the state of the organized labor movement in this country demonstrates those ‘friends of labor’ have come up a little short on their end of the deal. As witnessed by the more than 50 million dollars spent in the 2006 election campaigns by organized labor and one may presume for the 2008 election cycle as well this policy continues in full force.  This is where trade union militants and their allies have a wedge issue. Here is my proposition for militants to fight around during this election cycle.

Labor organizations, like almost all political associations these days, give their monies, endorsements and make available human resources through Political Action Committees (PAC’s) or Committees on Political Education (COPE’s). I have witnessed this process first hand in my own union local. Basically, it works like this- some candidate, usually a Democrat, comes to the monthly union meeting, asks for support, smiles and after a perfunctory vote gets the support. Oh I forgot, he or she promises to be the best ‘friend of labor’ the movement ever had. Sometimes he or she doesn’t even go that far. And still gets the support. But you get the drift. This time let us say no to that business as usual.

Don’t get me wrong. I LIKE the idea of trade unions having the resources to support a service structure for its members and promote political ideas. Nobody wants to go back to the old days on this issue. What militants should fight for is to stop funding our enemies. And when the deal goes down that is what these capitalist politicians are. If you want a recent example just look at the December 2005 transit workers strike in New York City. Every politician from Hillary “Hawk”, Elliot Spitzer and Michael Bloomberg on down cried for blood. And in the end, got it. That, my friends, should be etched forever in every militant’s brain. Thus, every time one of these enemies comes knocking at the door, say no way. When the labor bureaucrats inevitably say- but what should we do with our resources? Here’s our answer- use the monies to fund organizing drives at Wal-Mart and in the South. Hell, those efforts need all the resources they can get.  If you want organized labor to have influence that is where OUR ‘friends of labor’ are. This is where a future workers party gets its start.

TRADE UNIONISTS-VOTE AGAINST YOUR UNION FUNDING CAPITALIST CANDIDATES. BRING MOTIONS TO PUT YOUR UNION ON RECORD ON THIS ISSUE. BRING ALTERNATIVE MOTIONS TO USE COPE FUNDS FOR ORGANIZING DRIVES AT WAL-MART AND IN THE SOUTH.  

 

 

 

 

 

From The American Left History Blog Archives (2007) - On American Political Discourse  

Markin comment:

In the period 2006-2008 I, in vain, attempted to put some energy into analyzing the blossoming American presidential campaign since it was to be, as advertised at least, a watershed election, for women, blacks, old white anglos, latinos, youth, etc. In the event I had to abandon the efforts in about May of 2008 when it became obvious, in my face obvious, that the election would be a watershed only for those who really believed that it would be a watershed election. The four years of the Obama presidency, the 2012 American presidential election campaign, and world politics have only confirmed in my eyes that that abandonment was essentially the right decision at the right time. In short, let the well- paid bourgeois commentators go on and on with their twitter. I, we, had (have) better things to do like fighting against the permanent wars, the permanent war economies, the struggle for more and better jobs, and for a workers party that fights for a workers government . More than enough to do, right? Still a look back at some of the stuff I wrote then does not a bad feel to it. Read on.
************
A TALE OF TWO MARCHES

COMMENTARY

A NOTE ON THE WINTER/SPRING 2007 ANTI-WAR ‘OFFENSIVE’

IMMEDIATE, UNCONDITIONAL WITHDRAWAL OF U.S./ALLIED TROOPS FROM IRAQ!-NO TROOP ESCALATION!-BUILD ANTI-WAR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS SOLIDARITY COMMITTEES!

As we enter the first week of the New Year 2007 the front pages continue to be full of articles about the quagmire in Iraq. The death toll for American troops reached the 3000 mark. More importantly, the wounded numbers are even grimmer, over 20,000, 10,000 grievously. The number of Iraqis killed and wounded is in dispute but those numbers are vastly greater than the American causalities. The controversy over the hanging of the main villain of the piece, Saddam, if anything seems to have heightened the already inflamed tensions there among Sunnis and Shiites.  The civil war rages unabated with the monotonous daily reports of X number of victims found bound, shot in the head and dumped somewhere.

Furthermore, President Bush has apparently decided to ‘purge’ the current American Iraq military command, interestingly enough, a purge of commanders on the ground who did not support an increase in American troops. Why? The news in the coming weeks will not be pretty. This administration has decided that the way to end the Iraq problem is to send in more troops in order to achieve ‘victory’. The highly-touted Iraq Study Group Report (you remember that document, don’t you?) that was supposed to insure a ‘graceful exit’ is in the bottom of some White House wastepaper basket by now. Oh yes, I almost forgot, the Democrats have taken over both Houses in the 110^th Congress. It only seems like yesterday that my liberal friends held that this event in itself was enough to end the war. Believe that idea at your peril.

All of the above-mentioned events would seem to point to a ready-made basis for a ‘surge’ of anti-war protest this season based on more political clarity than the movement has exhibited in the past. Not so, unfortunately. Those who are unaware of the organizational fracture that occurred a couple of years ago should be informed here that the two mass umbrella organizations, United for Peace and Justice (UJP, for short) and the Answer Coalition,  which have led the anti-war movement thus far have two separate marches scheduled. On the weekend of January 27^th the UJP plans to bring its contingents to Washington to rally and then lobby Congress on bended knees to end the war. The Answer Coalition intends to bring its contingents to Washington to rally at the Pentagon on March 17^th (the 4^th anniversary of the war) and commemorate the 40^th Anniversary of the March on the Pentagon in 1967 which signaled an escalation of anti-war tactics at that time. Perhaps the strategy this time, like then, is to ‘levitate’ that building. I wish that political solutions in the fight against imperialist war were so easy.

Please do not get me wrong. I have spent almost my whole political life on the streets at some demonstration for or against some egregious policy or cause. Damn, it is always better to protest some injustice in the streets than remain passive in the face of imperialist governmental policy. That is not the question. The point is that you cannot keep spinning your wheels with the same namby-pamby strategy of assuming that you are dealing with a government made up of rational people. Nor, for that matter, can mere symbolic acts get you very far. Believe me, I have participated in more than my share of symbolic protests. Yes it does make one feel good, for a moment. That, however, is not enough.

What is enough? Readers of this space know my answer- a workers party that fights for a workers government. But today that is merely music for the future. I make two proposals for immediate action here. The first, which I have been harping on for years, is to fight against the war budget. You know, the money that funds the war. Historically, socialists and their allies have fought for that position. The honored name of German Left Social Democratic leader Karl Liebknecht and his fight against the war budget during World War I comes easily to mind. By this fight I do not mean some ‘sense of the Congress’ non-binding resolution that liberal Democratic politicians love to vote for, as long as it does not tie them to anything. I mean a straight up YES or NO vote on the appropriations themselves. From the news out of Washington it does not look like that is even on the agenda. Yes, all manner of Democrat are bewailing the President about the correctness of troop escalation but in the end they will vote to fund that increase, probably even ‘socialist’ Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. That, dear reader, will not be a sight for the faint-hearted as the leading presidential candidates and others fall all over themselves to vote yes.

Secondly, and more realistically today, the anti-war movement needs to build anti-war soldier and sailor committees. I have been harping on this issue for at least a year now. Let us get serious about the focus of the anti-war fight. We have been aiming in the wrong direction. The Bush Administration is inured to talk, demonstrations or anything else. The military command has led the rank and file troops down the golden path. It should be clear by now that even they do not take the noise about ‘victory’ from the Administration seriously. The loyal governmental opposition, the Democrats, have had nothing to add but confusion. We of the anti-war movement, and I will take my fair share of responsibility on this, have failed in our efforts for immediate, unconditional withdrawal up to now. That leaves the rank and file soldiers and sailors to figure a way out. More than a few are fed up with the war and their useless sacrifice. Our task is to help them out. They must not stand alone. Yes, it is important to go to Washington to protest, but, it is more important to get out to the army, marine and naval bases and talk to and listen to the troops that have fought or preparing to fight in Iraq. That, my friends, in the final analysis is the short way to end this damn war.               

 

From The American Left History Blog Archives (2007) - On American Political Discourse  

Markin comment:

In the period 2006-2008 I, in vain, attempted to put some energy into analyzing the blossoming American presidential campaign since it was to be, as advertised at least, a watershed election, for women, blacks, old white anglos, latinos, youth, etc. In the event I had to abandon the efforts in about May of 2008 when it became obvious, in my face obvious, that the election would be a watershed only for those who really believed that it would be a watershed election. The four years of the Obama presidency, the 2012 American presidential election campaign, and world politics have only confirmed in my eyes that that abandonment was essentially the right decision at the right time. In short, let the well- paid bourgeois commentators go on and on with their twitter. I, we, had (have) better things to do like fighting against the permanent wars, the permanent war economies, the struggle for more and better jobs, and for a workers party that fights for a workers government . More than enough to do, right? Still a look back at some of the stuff I wrote then does not a bad feel to it. Read on.

************

For the past year this writer has been harping on the need for the anti-war movement to turn its face to win the troops over to an anti-war perspective.  As put forth in a recent commentary I motivated that turn in the following way which I repost here.

 

… “Secondly, and more realistically today, the anti-war movement needs to build anti-war soldier and sailor committees. I have been harping on this issue for at least a year now. Let us get serious about the focus of the anti-war fight. We have been aiming in the wrong direction. The Bush Administration is inured to talk, demonstrations or anything else. The military command has led the rank and file troops down the golden path. It should be clear by now that even they do not take the noise about ‘victory’ from the Administration seriously. The loyal governmental opposition, the Democrats, have had nothing to add but confusion. We of the anti-war movement, and I will take my fair share of responsibility on this, have failed in our efforts for immediate, unconditional withdrawal up to now. That leaves the rank and file soldiers and sailors to figure a way out. More than a few are fed up with the war and their useless sacrifice. Our task is to help them out. They must not stand alone. Yes, it is important to go to Washington to protest, but, it is more important to get out to the army, marine and naval bases and talk to and listen to the troops that have fought or preparing to fight in Iraq. That, my friends, in the final analysis is the short way to end this damn war.”

 

Up until now the anti-war sentiment in the military has generally expressed itself by individual acts of refusal,  an increase of AWOL’s,  attempts to get out of the military by seeking political asylum, an increase in the number of  applications for conscientious objector status and the like. Earlier this fall a petition against the war was signed by a couple of hundred soldiers actually serving in Iraq. Now, however, comes news that about one thousand California soldiers in Reserve and National Guard units has taken all this a step further. They have collectively, as citizen-soldiers, petitioned Congress for the redress of grievance calling for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. As a first step, well done brothers and sisters. This hellish war has finally begun to split the military, just a little for now but with the expected ‘surge’ in Iraq this could very well lead to a groundswell.

 

If we think about it this situation was almost inevitable. Why? This war has gone on so long and has stretched the military resources so thin that the call up of the citizen-soldier has dramatically increased. While this is not a draft army like in Vietnam it is not now made up totally of mercenary professional soldiers. And that is where the action of the California soldiers comes in as an extremely important political development. What do anti-war activists do? As noted in that recent article quoted above. Get out to the military bases. Fraternize with the soldiers, sailors, marines and air personnel. Build those vital soldier and sailor support committees to link up the struggle. THE ANTI-WAR TROOPS MUST NOT STAND ALONE!!!                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***UP FROM SLAVERY-THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

BOOK REVIEW

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, FREDERICK DOUGLASS

At the start of the 21^st century the international labor movement faces, as it has for a long time, a crisis of revolutionary leadership. That leadership is necessary to resolve the contradiction between the outmoded profit-driven international capitalist productive system and a future production system based on social solidarity, cooperation and production for social use. In America, at least, there is also a crisis of leadership of the black liberation struggle, which is tied into the labor question as well through the key role of blacks in the labor force. More happily in the 19^th century in the struggle against slavery by the slaves and former slaves for black liberation there was such a leadership and none more important than the subject of this autobiography, Frederick Douglass. Even a cursory look at his life puts today‘clean’ black leadership in the shades.

That Frederick Douglass was exceptional as a fighter for black freedom, women’s rights and as a man there is no question. His early life story of struggle for individual escape from slavery, attempts to educate himself and take an active political role on the slavery question rightly thrilled audiences here and in Europe. I, however, believe that he definitely came into his own as a revolutionary politician when he broke from Garrisonian non-resistant abolitionism and linked up with more radical elements like John Brown and the Boston‘high’ abolitionists like Wendell Phillips and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. This abolitionist element pointed the way to the necessary fight to the finish strategy, arms in hand, to end slavery that eventually came to fruition in the Civil War.

At one time I personally believed that Douglass should have gone with John Brown to Harper’s Ferry. He would have provided a better grasp of the political and military situation there than Brown had and would have been forceful in calling out the slaves and others in the area to aid the uprising. In no way was my position on his refusal based on his personal courage of which there was no question. I now believe that Douglass more than made up for any help he would have given Brown by his work for an emancipation proclamation and for his calls for arming blacks in the Civil War to take part in their own emancipation. As such, it is well known that Douglass was instrumental in calling for the creation of the famous Massachusetts 54^th Regiment, including the recruitment of two of his sons. Yes, 200,000 black soldiers and sailors under arms fighting to the death, and under penalty of death by the rebels, for their freedom is a fitting monument to the man.

Douglass, as well as every other militant abolitionist worth his or her salt, lined up politically with the new Republican Party headed by Lincoln and Seward before, during and shortly after the Civil War. However, the Republican Party ran out of steam as a progressive force fairly shortly after the war, culminating in the sell-out Compromise of 1877 which abandoned blacks to their fate in the South. Douglass, committed to emancipation, education and ‘forty acres and a mule’ for his fellows stayed with that party far too long. When key elements of that party lost heart in the black struggle due to their racism and other factors, moved on to other interests, or accepted the traditional white leadership of the South he also should have moved on to another progressive formation. Embryonic workers parties and other such progressive formations were raising their heads in the 1870’s. I do not believe that office in the Consular Service in Haiti was worth continuing to support a party going in the wrong direction. Notwithstanding that point, if you want to read about the exploits of a ‘big man’ in the history of struggle of the oppressed, our history, when it counted this is your stop. Honor the memory of Frederick Douglass.

From The American Left History Blog Archives (2007)- On American Political Discourse

Markin comment:

In the period 2006-2008 I, in vain, attempted to put some energy into analyzing the blossoming American presidential campaign since it was to be, as advertised at least, a watershed election, for women, blacks, old white anglos, latinos, youth, etc. In the event I had to abandon the efforts in about May of 2008 when it became obvious, in my face obvious, that the election would be a watershed only for those who really believed that it would be a watershed election. The four years of the Obama presidency, the 2012 American presidential election campaign, and world politics have only confirmed in my eyes that that abandonment was essentially the right decision at the right time. In short, let the well- paid bourgeois commentators go on and on with their twitter. I, we, had (have) better things to do like fighting against the permanent wars, the permanent war economies, the struggle for more and better jobs, and for a workers party that fights for a workers government . More than enough to do, right? Still a look back at some of the stuff I wrote then does not a bad feel to it. Read on.

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LABOR AND THE IRAQ WAR

COMMENTARY

LABOR-SUPPORT YOUR CLASS BROTHERS AND SISTERS-BUILD ANTI-WAR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS SOLIDARITY COMMITTEES-IMMEDIATE UNCONDITIONAL WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ!

As readers of this space are aware over the last year I have been running a propaganda campaign for the anti-war movement to change its focus and concentrate on winning over the rank and file troops that are fighting the bloody war in Iraq. Readers will also note that these commentaries are part of a byline dedicated to fighting for a workers party here in America. Recently I received a rather surprising communication from a young militant who in essence accused me of having a ‘military’ deviation on the war question. The basis for this comment is the notion that propaganda for a workers party- a political solution to the crisis of leadership in the American labor movement and thus ultimately the question of the war in Iraq-precludes my so-called ‘military’ solution. Needless to say this calls for some commentary, or rather clarification, on my part.

Politics, including left-wing propaganda politics, is about timing as much as any other factor. A realistic look at the political landscape of the organized labor movement today shows no particular movement at the base to defend itself against the onslaught of effective wage and benefit cuts. Nor is there a serious commitment to massively organize the working class into trade unions, particularly the critical Wal-Mart and Southern labor forces that would go a long way to reversing the decline in the power of the organized labor movement. Given those conditions, what is the likelihood today of galvanizing organized labor for meaningful political action in opposition to the Iraq war? While many unions and labor federations, including my union, have gone on record in ‘paper’ opposition to the war, it remains a paper position except for support to bourgeois , mainly Democratic Party,‘anti-war’ candidates. This abject support is the labor equivalent of those meaningless non-binding resolutions that the Congress is so fond of, and that require no heavy lifting.

A look at the general political scene is even more depressing, if not down right embarrassing to those in the anti-war movement who, unlike me, took the mid-term 2006 elections as good coin. After six years of getting hammered by the likes of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove one would think that those esteemed bourgeois politicians from Hillary “Hawk” to Obama the “Charma” would be able to ratchet up the courage to say no. No, not meaningless non-binding resolutions gently chiding President Bush for his ‘surge’ strategy. No, not trying to have one’s cake and eating it too by supporting the troops and opposing the war policy. The only meaningful anti-war parliamentary maneuver is to vote NO on the war budget. That proposition will come up for a vote (maybe) soon. Watch all the rats deserting ship on that one after the great political courage they summoned up to vote for the non-binding resolution. It will not be pretty and it is not recommended for the faint-hearted.

If one takes a look at the causality lists from the war or reads the seemingly endless local news profiles of those who have died or been severely wounded (a more difficult number to digest) it is plain as day that working people from the cities and small towns of America have taken the brunt of the beating in Iraq. While my appeals to form ant-war solidarity committees have been generic one thing is clear the class brothers and sisters of those soldiers and sailors have a very deep interest in getting their people the hell out of Iraq. Thus, the dragging out of the war, the average citizen’s frustrated desire to get out, the bourgeois political impasse, the anti-war leadership’s parliamentary cretinism strategy and labor’s unwillingness to take decisive action at this time makes it necessary to call for the troops to take action as the short way home. We must not let our anti-war class brothers and sisters in uniform stand alone. Yes, in a beautiful, politically conscious labor movement we should be calling for political strikes against the war and calling on dockworkers and others not handle military goods to Iraq but that is not the case right now (although it might be latter). Till then I can take the heat on my ‘military’ deviation-as long as we get those anti-war solidarity committees up and running.

Out In The Be-Bop 1960s Night- Annie. The Queen Of Do Lang Boulevard

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

As she dusted off his portrait for the hundredth hundredth time Annie, Annie Lament (her street name, not her real name, that name is not important to the story so don’t press if you are curious. Something about maybe certain statutes of limitation not having run out and so don’t blame me I am just the messenger on this one.), Queen of the Do Lang Boulevard as she has been more recently, and affectionately, become known, let out another hundredth, hundredth sigh and lamented also for the ten thousandth time that she missed her late Harry Hopper, her walking daddy. Yes, Harry had, in his time, turned her into a street trick whore, and in the process a junkie too, but he, they had had their love moments and that was all that counted for Annie now that Harry was gone, had been gone for over ten years now, found face down in a tide pool over by Point Of Pines, ODed, hell, calcified with some run off horse in his veins. The police never made it clear whether he had done it to himself or some parties, third parties that he had welched on, that he had forgot to pay had a part in his demise. She hoped the former. She always wondered what it was like for Harry in those last blood rush moments when he was probably seeing the face of god coming hell-bent to take him home, to take him to junkie heaven, take him to a place where he could always make a connection, could always get a fix.

In those lost walking daddy moments, she had never called him her pimp, never, although others had, lots of others, but she, all country fresh when she met him, had refused to believe that he had turned her out that first time for some crass motive after he said they needed dough, needed dough quick. She knew pimp daddies, knew badass pimp daddies like Loretta’s, and called them pimps with no qualms but not her Harry, not her sweet-talking walking daddy, a daddy that never once hit her, scolded her, or said many unkind words to her, except, and maybe when she thought about it now a big except, when he was hungry for a fix, hungry needing a sweet walking daddy fix to get well. Annie, just turned thirty-five and still turning street tricks with the best of them, under new management, her own courtesy of the latest media innovations that eliminated that badass pimp middle man, remembered back to those days, those late 1960s days, when she first meet walking daddy and she would kind of retreat back into that world, retreat back into the time before she became the Queen of Do Lang Boulevard, the time when she had Harry’s love.

Those were crazy times, those late 1960s times, when the whole world seemed to go topsy-turvy, when the young, and she was young, just sixteen and with wanderlust in her eyes (and other lusts too although she didn’t know them then until Harry brought them out, brought those wanting habits out wild and strong) and tired of school, of home, of freaking North Andover, the works. Her home such as it was in a trailer park just off Riverbank Road near the river, near the Merrimack. She was just too confined for the times and so one day, on a lark , she and a girlfriend , Emmy, who later drifted west on some yellow school bus caravan hitchhike trip and died one night after absorbing some LSD, acid for the squares or the clueless, had a bad reaction and thinking she was Icarus or something fell off the Golden Gate Bridge at dawn, Poor Emmy, skipped school (she wasn’t going so frequently anyway and at that point nobody at home was stopping her from not going), and headed to the amusement park at Revere Beach. (That amusement park has long since been replaced by high- rises and condos for those who want to know. And for those who want to know something else the street in front of those buildings has been nicknamed Do Lang Boulevard, the very place where Annie first worked the streets and does still in her capacity of queen. Her apartment, her real apartment not her work apartment, her place where her portrait of Harry resides is located just off that dream boulevard.)

After a few hassles finding parking spot in the hectic June sun Emmy and Annie walked the boulevard for the first time. Amazingly though the amusement park and adjoining beach were less than an hour away from home neither girl had been there before (and they were just girls then, Annie, like she said, was sixteen, Emmy had just turned seventeen). They immediately got caught up in the rush of rides, ferry wheel, roller coaster, whips, and the like, and the smells of pizza, hot dogs, sausages, beer, salt water taffy and one thousand and one other smells to make your mouth water. They decided to take a break after a while and found a park bench, empty, in front of the penny arcade (the pinball machines, Skee ball lanes, win a kewpie doll places). That is where she spied Harry holding forth to some guys, some corner boy guys from the look of them if her North Andover sense applied in Revere, about the way to rack up points at Skee. Naturally a place like an amusement park then, now too probably, is where the young seek each other out. Both Annie and Emmy being more that passably pretty and with good figures showing long legs in their short, shorts and thin blouses were bound to attract the attentions of ambling young men, especially corner boys endlessly eyeing the fresh country girls. They had been given the once over more than once as they walked around. But Harry was the first time Annie had given the boys a once over that day. Harry, long and thin like she liked them, a mass of long hair as was the style then, a light beard just coming into style, wearing an army jacket and jeans and wearing Chuck Taylor sneakers looked to her like the Adonis of the world.

Somehow Harry sensed that Annie was looking at him more than somewhat, and he headed in her direction with a couple of his corner boys (one took an interest in Emmy and she, thrilled, walked off with him as the mating ritual of the young started. The other guy drifted off somewhere). He walked right up to her and asked whether she would like him to win a kewpie doll for her. Never having owed such an item, never having a boy (really a man since Harry was twenty-two at the time) offer to win her anything , or even thought of such an idea she said yes. (All her beaus were looking for something between her legs or for her to put something of theirs in her mouth and that was okay, she was okay with sex having started at thirteen with a cousin when they were both curious about how sex worked and they found out, found out accidently almost just fumbling around.) And so Annie found her walking daddy, found him good, found him through thick and thin. Would come to love him too, loved him good and loved him bad.

Of course Harry won the kewpie doll for Annie, they walked around and finally wound up down at the far end, the secluded end of Revere Beach where as the sun went down they made love for the first time, made mad love, according to Annie since that was the first time she had an orgasm or the first time she thought she had had an orgasm. Eventually that night Annie found Emmy (who had had her own little tryst with Harry’s friend and they both laughed on the way home about their sexual escapades Emmy telling Annie about a couple of tricks she had learned to keep guys going after they were depleted. Annie would remember and use those techniques later on Harry when he had a hard time when he was junked up and with her johns). Annie could hardly wait for Friday night when Harry said he would pick her up at her home since he had some business in Lawrence a town nearby. What clueless (then) Annie did not know was that Harry’s business was that of a small time dope dealer, at that time mainly pot, grass, marijuana ,then the rage. What clueless (then) Annie also didn’t know was that Harry was just beginning to be in the throes of cocaine habit, sister, girl, then on the fringes of the respectable drug culture.

Of course, small time anything, but particularly small time drug dealing means you have to hustle like crazy to keep from having to work for a living (Harry, and Annie made no excuse for him on this hated work, nine to five work, even the thought of it). More so when you have those demon wanting habits on. And so Harry was always hustling for the first couple of years that they were together. But Annie didn’t care, had dropped out of school (nobody really stopped her), and was living with Harry not far from where Annie lived now on Do Lang Boulevard (that moniker came from a song, a doo wop, by the Chiffons, He’s So Fine, that Annie would sing the chorus of which contained the do lang line when she was happy and when she thought about Harry in those days. It stuck.

Then, after a while, the other shoe dropped as it must in the deep end of the drug night. Harry wasn’t getting kicks from coke anymore, and being an intense guy, needed something to level him off, something to take world hurts away (Annie never really did learn Harry’s whole story, and eventually didn’t care anyway, she just wanted to save him), and so he slid down the horse trail, H, boy, heroin, the magic fix. And he got fixed bad, and fast. Worse he couldn’t make his connections and if he did he was in such as stupor that he couldn’t make enough money to maintain his growing habit. Worse, worse as far as Annie was concerned he was slipping away from her. And so he did two things, first he put her pretty please to work out on the trick streets, just once in while at first, then every freaking night, and two, he convinced her, convinced her hard, that they would get along better, much better if she became his boy soul-mate (really soulless mate). She bucked at first, didn’t like it, then liked it a little when Harry became more sociable with her, liked it a lot when she found it was easier to do her trick work, especially with some of the traffic that was coming her way then, when she was high, high and in her own world. And so it went until that night a few years later when they found Harry face down. Then she went clean, went drug clean (although every once in a while that siren call would hit her veins the first few clean years), and tried to take a job as a waitress in bar but that was too tempting. So she went back out into the streets under her own power, as her own boss. And on more than one night, one sultry night she, the queen of the do lang boulevard, could feel the hot breath of Harry Hopper in her ear and she would begin to tear up….

Press and public denied access to documents in Bradley Manning case

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In the press release below, the Center for Constitutional Rights (contact: press@ccrjustice.org) announces that the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has dealt yet another blow to press and public access to basic documents in Bradley Manning’s case. The rejection comes mere days after a military spokesperson warned that the media center at Ft. Meade, which streams live video to reporters of Manning’s proceedings, is a “privilege, not a right.”
By the Center for Constitutional Rights. April 17, 2013.

CCR lawyer Shayana Kadidal. Photo credit: The Ithacan (click for source)

New York – Today, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF) rejected claims in a lawsuit by the Center for Constitutional Rights challenging government secrecy around the court martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning. The suit, bought on behalf of a group of journalists, asked the court to ensure members of the press and public have access to court documents and transcripts in the case and challenged the fact that important legal matters in the pre-trial proceedings have been argued and decided in secret. The court rejected the claims on the grounds that military appellate courts lack jurisdiction to address the scope of public access until a trial is over and the sentence has been issued. The decision was 3-to-2, issued over two vigorous dissents.
“Today’s decision flies in the face of decades of First Amendment rulings in the federal courts that hold that openness affects outcome – that the accuracy of court proceedings depends on their being open,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Attorney Shayana Kadidal, who argued the case. “Bradley Manning’s trial will now take place under conditions where journalists and the public will be unable as a practical matter to follow what is going on in the courtroom. That ensures that any verdict will be fundamentally unfair, and will generate needless appeals afterwards if he is convicted.”
The majority’s decision ensures that no appellate military court will be able to review a decision of a trial judge denying public access to proceedings until after the proceedings are over. As a result, a military trial judge could exclude the public from being present in the courtroom – in violation of existing military law – and there would be no place for members of the public to appeal that decision within the military court system.
The dissenting judges wrote that this decision “leaves collateral appeal to [civilian] courts as the sole mechanism to vindicate the right to a public trial … beyond the initial good judgment of the military judge. This is unworkable and cannot reflect congressional design or presidential intent.”
Today’s ruling is likely to also apply to proceedings in the upcoming court-martial trials of accused Ft. Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan and of Staff Sgt. Robert Bates, who is accused of massacring civilians in Afghanistan.
Plaintiffs in the case, in addition to the Center for Constitutional Rights, are journalists Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman,Democracy Now!, Jeremy Scahill, The Nation magazine, Julian Assange, Kevin Gosztola, and Chase Madar.
Attorneys are considering options for appeal to the civilian federal courts. Bradley Manning’s trial is scheduled to start June 3, 2013.
For more information, visit CCR’s case page.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.

***From The May Day 2012 Organizing Archives –May Day 2013 Needs The Same Efforts

Boston's International Workers Day 2013


BMDC International Workers Day Rally
Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at Boston City Hall
Gather at 2PM - Rally at 2:30PM
(Court St. & Cambridge St.)
T stops Government Center (Blue line, Green line)

To download flyer click here. (Please print double-sided)

Other May Day events:

Revere - @ City Hall - gather at 3:pmbegin marching at 3:30 (to Chelsea)
Everett - @ City Hall - gather at 3:pm begin marching at 3:30 (to Chelsea)
Chelsea - @ City Hall - rally a 3:pm (wait for above feeder marches to arrive) will begin marching at 4:30 (to East Boston)
East Boston - @ Central Square - (welcome marchers) Rally at 5:pm

BMDC will join the rally in East Boston immediately following Boston City Hall rally

Supporters: ANSWER Coalition, Boston Anti Authoritarian Movement, Boston Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee, Greater Boston Stop the Wars Coalition, Harvard No-Layoffs Campaign, Industrial Workers of the World, Latinos for Social Change, Mass Global Action, Sacco & Vanzetti Commemoration Society, Socialist Alternative, Socialist Party of Boston, Socialist Workers Party, Student Labor Action Movement, USW Local 8751 - Boston School Bus Drivers Union, Worcester Immigrant Coalition, National Immigrant Solidarity Network, Democracy Center - Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridge/Somerville/Arlington United for Justice with Peace, International Socialist Organization, Community Church of Boston

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The Latest From The “Occupy May Day Facebook Page”Website- March Separately, Strike Together –International General Strike- Down Tools! Down Computers! Down Books!- All Out On May Day 2012

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An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend The Occupation Movement And All The Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against All Occupy Protesters Everywhere!
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Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It, It’s Ours! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
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OB Endorses Call for General Strike

January 8th, 2012 • mhacker •

Passed Resolutions No comments The following proposal was passed by the General Assembly on Jan 7, 2012:

Occupy Boston supports the call for an international General Strike on May 1, 2012, for immigrant rights, environmental sustainability, a moratorium on foreclosures, an end to the wars, and jobs for all. We recognize housing, education, health care, LGBT rights and racial equality as human rights; and thus call for the building of a broad coalition that will ensure and promote a democratic standard of living for all peoples.
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Markin comment:

Wage cuts, long hours, steep price rises, unemployment, no pensions, no vacations, cold-water flats, homelessness, wide-spread sicknesses as a result of a poor medical system. Sound familiar? Words, perhaps, taken from today’s global headlines. Well, yes. But these were also the conditions that faced our forebears in America back in the 1880s when the “one percent”were called, and rightly so, “the robber barons,” and threatened, as one of their kind stated in a fit of candor, to hire one half of the working class to kill the other half, so they could maintain their luxury in peace. That too has not changed. What did change then is that our forebears fought back, fought back long and hard, starting with the fight for the eight-hour day symbolized each year by a May Day celebration of working class power. We need to reassert that claim. This May Day let us revive, revive big time, that tradition as we individually act around our separate grievances and strike, strike like the furies, collectively against the one percent.

No question over the past several years (really decades but it is just more public and in our face now) American working people, the so-called middle class for those who frown upon that previous more truthful designation, has taken it on the chin, taken it on the chin big time. What with job losses, heavy job losses in the service and manufacturing sectors (and jobs not coming back), paying for the seemingly never-ending bank bail-outs, home foreclosures, effective tax increases (since the rich refuse to pay, we pay), mountains of consumer debt for everything from modern necessities to just daily get-bys, and college student loan debt as a lifetime deadweight around the neck of the kids there is little to glow about in harsh light of the American Dream. Add to that the double (and triple) troubles facing immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities and women and the grievances voiced in the Declaration of Independence seem like just so much whining. In short, it is not secret that the working class and its allies have faced, are facing and, apparently, will continue to face an erosion of their material well-being for the foreseeable future something not seen by most people since the 1930s Great Depression, the time of our grandparents (or, ouch, great-grandparents).

That is this condition will continue unless we take some lessons from those same 1930s and struggle, struggle like demons against the imperial capitalist monster that seems to have all the card decks stacked against us. Struggle like they did in places like Minneapolis San Francisco, Toledo, Flint, and Detroit. Those labor-centered struggles demonstrated the social power of working people to hit the “economic royalists” (the name coined for the one- per centers of that day) to shut the capitalist down where it hurts- in their pocketbooks and property. The bosses will let us rant all day, will gladly take (and throw away) all our petitions, will let us use their “free-speech” parks (up to a point as we have found out), and curse them to eternity as long as we don’t touch the two “p’s.” Moreover a new inspired fight like the action proposed for this May Day 2012 can help inspire new generations of working people, organized, unorganized, unemployed, homeless, houseless, and just plain desperate, to get out from under. Specific conditions may be different just now from what they were in the 1930s but there is something very, very current about what our forebears faced down there and then.

We ask working people to join us this day in solidarity by stopping work for the day, and if you cannot do that reasonably for the day then for some period. Students-out of the class rooms and into the streets. The unemployed, homeless and others who have been chewed up by this system come join us on the Boston Common. Watch this site for further specific details of events and actions. All out on May Day 2012.