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.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
*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.
*Labor's Untold Story- In The Sunnier Days Of The Militant Labor Movement- The Great Flint Michigan GM Sitdown Strike Of 1936
Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for the famous Flint auto plant sit-down strikes that did much to organize the automobile industry back in the days. This is one event that I will be covering in more depth at a later time. It is, after all, one thing to have a walk-out strike and encircle the factory it is quite another to occupy the factory itself. That puts the question of the private ownership of the means of production point blank.
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.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
*It's Official- The 'Boss' Military Man Needs More Troops For Obama's Afghan War-Our Reply- Troops Out Now!
Click on title to link to my blog entry of September 4, 2009 on National Public Radio's report on September 1, 2009 of the musings of Afghan top commander, General Stanley McChrystal, about (another) future troop escalation in Afghanistan.
And then, less than two weeks later Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff, shows up, hat in hands, at the Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing asking for just such additional troops. Hey, these guys are good and work fast when they want something.
As I stated in that September 4th entry and will repeat here- "Well,boys and girls, the time for Obamian illusions is over. It is time to settle up. The streets are not for dreaming now. Get the poster boards, the old bed sheets, magic markers, paint and cell phones ready. "Obama-Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan ((Iraq And Pakistan Too!)"
And then, less than two weeks later Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff, shows up, hat in hands, at the Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing asking for just such additional troops. Hey, these guys are good and work fast when they want something.
As I stated in that September 4th entry and will repeat here- "Well,boys and girls, the time for Obamian illusions is over. It is time to settle up. The streets are not for dreaming now. Get the poster boards, the old bed sheets, magic markers, paint and cell phones ready. "Obama-Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan ((Iraq And Pakistan Too!)"
*An Inside Look At The Great Passiac And Gastonia Textile Strikes Of The 1920s- Organizer Vera Weisbord's View-In Honor Of Crystal "Norma Rae" Sutton
Click on title to link to the Albert & Vera Weibord Internet Archives. These two communist organizers from the 1920's, as the archive entries detail, were intimately involved in both the Passiac and Gastonia strikes. For another, later perspective on the political evolution of this pair check out American Communist Party and American Trotskyist Party founder James P. Cannon's views in the early 1930s on the Jame P. Cannon Internet Archives.
This is a repost of a March 2007 review in this space placed here today to show the long, long hard struggle to organize, north and south, the now, for the most part, long gone from America textile mills. In honor of Crystal Lee "Norma Rae" Sutton.
BOOK REVIEW
A RADICAL LIFE, VERA BUCH WEISBORD, INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS,
1977
MARCH IS WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
The history of labor struggles in the United States in the 1920's, which is the most informative part of the book under review, looked a lot like the state of labor struggles today-not much, although there was then, as now a crying need to fight back against the decades old capitalist onslaught against labor. Nevertheless during the 1920’s period of labor's ebb there were a couple of important labor strikes that, as usual, involved radicals, especially members of the American Communist Party (hereafter, CP) that had emerged from the underground after the Palmer Raids and deportations of the post World War I period. Those struggles, the great Passaic, New Jersey strike of 1926 and the heroic Gastonia, North Carolina strike of 1929 detailed here by one of the key leaders, Vera Buch Weisbord, centrally involved women workers in the textile trades, then as now, some of the most hazardous, low paying and stupefying work around. Thus an added impetus for trade union militants to read this book today is to better understand the arduous task of organizing international struggles where women form the backbone of the factory labor force such as in East Asia and Mexico.
As in many such memoirs the author here has her own ax to grind, and she unfailingly names names of those who did not measure up to the eclectic political wisdom that she and her husband and political partner Albert put forth over the years when they were politically active. Thus the early part of the book concerning early Communist trade union policy is where the value of the book lies. Three critical points can be gleaned from her work; the narrowness of the early Communist trade union policy of exclusively ‘boring from within’ the established and organized labor movement; the fatally-flawed ‘dual union’ fetishism of the Stalinist ‘third period’ where Communist trade union policy was essentially to go it alone and create ‘red’ dual unions and eschew united front work; and, the question that presses on every militant today concerning the ability and advisability of doing so-called 'mass' work by small left-wing propaganda groups.
James P. Cannon, an early leader of the CP and its 'trade unionist' wing along with William Z. Foster and others, acknowledged that Albert Weisbord was an exceptional mass trade union organizer. That is high praise indeed coming from an old Wobblie who knew his trade union leaders. He was then, and later as a leader of the American Trotskyist movement, in a position to also know the limits of the Weisbords as political leaders. And there is the rub. Much of Weisbord’s achievement came as a result of his excellent work in the 1926 Passaic textile strike where he, with his future companion and wife Vera, led a hard fought effort to organize the woefully underpaid and exploited women textile workers. Weisbord, basically on his own hook, formed an independent union of the largely unorganized women textile works and led them out on one of the important strikes of the 1920's, despite constant efforts on the part of the central labor bureaucracy to sabotage those efforts as "communist" dominated. However, in order to keep the strike going as it was dying in isolation the CP agreed to remove Weisbord as central leader at the request of that bureaucracy and give the leadership to the tradition union leadership that ultimately settled the strike on very unfavorable terms.
That a communist organization would sacrifice one of its own while caving in to reactionary trade unionists is only understandable if one understands that in this the CP trade union policy, under William Z. Foster's influence, was one of ‘boring from within’ the organized trade union movement. Thus, its sell-out of its leader, and there are no other words for it, was the steep price that it paid to keep in step with the central labor bureaucracy. The fact that important and decisive sections of the American work force in the 1920's were unorganized or poorly organized and needed to be organized independently did not enter the CP’s political horizon at that time.
Another critical, if more bloody, strike occurred in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1929 and there again Communists with Vera playing a key early role led the way. That an urban- based radical party could gain a hearing from rural Southern black and white workers, including a fair share of women workers, tells a hell of a lot about the times and how bad the conditions were there. For a number of reasons, including a police frame-up of the leadership of the strike, this struggle also went down to defeat. By 1929, however, the CP was knee-deep in its' third period' immediate capitalism crisis theory and did not call for the desperately needed united front work that might have saved the strike. The CP's argument at the time was a far cry from its earlier position of ‘boring with in’- now all other labor formations were inherently reformist and therefore not part of the labor movement.
As a youth doing trade union work I was for a short time impressed by 'third period' Stalinism. However, it did not take long to realize that immediate capitalist gloom and doom crisis theory is not the way to organize workers for the long haul. On a more empirical level any gains that the CP made among workers during this period, especially gaining an important small core of black workers was gained in spite of their flawed policies. A few scattered and isolated 'red' unions that, moreover, negotiated some awful contracts in order to keep influence in the unions they controlled did not make a revolutionary mass trade union movement.
As part of the internal turmoil inside the CP during the late 1920’s the Weisbords were part of an international communist right-wing Bukharin-led faction that during the process of the Stalinization of the American CP was purged by the Communist International in Moscow. Thus the pair were left in the political wilderness in America, but not for long. They were in seemingly constant and never-ending contact with groups to the CP's left and right and spent some time around James P. Cannon's Trotskyist Communist League of America (CLA) before eventually drifting into political oblivion later in the 1930's.
The central conflict with the CLA was over the question of ‘mass’ work by small communist propaganda groups. Coming off their CP experiences where they had led masses of workers under the guidance of a small mass party the Weisbords continued to seek to implement that perspective even though ‘mass’ work by a small propaganda group is usually either fake 'paper' work or tends to destroy the real goal of such a group - the cohesion of a cadre that can lead ‘real’ struggles when they come up.
Here is a case where the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Yes, the CLA wandered in the political wilderness in the early 1930's but by 1934 it was in a position to lead the great Minneapolis Teamsters strikes, which put it on the political map. The CLA then was able to gather other left non-Stalinist forces and by the end of the decade had became a small mass party, the Socialist Workers Party, with plenty of trade union supporters and a fair share of mass work. And the Weisbords? Nada. Nevertheless, read this book, even if at times you have to read between the lines, to learn more about an important part of American labor history, an important part of early Communist Party history and a chapter in the history of the women workers movement.
This is a repost of a March 2007 review in this space placed here today to show the long, long hard struggle to organize, north and south, the now, for the most part, long gone from America textile mills. In honor of Crystal Lee "Norma Rae" Sutton.
BOOK REVIEW
A RADICAL LIFE, VERA BUCH WEISBORD, INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS,
1977
MARCH IS WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
The history of labor struggles in the United States in the 1920's, which is the most informative part of the book under review, looked a lot like the state of labor struggles today-not much, although there was then, as now a crying need to fight back against the decades old capitalist onslaught against labor. Nevertheless during the 1920’s period of labor's ebb there were a couple of important labor strikes that, as usual, involved radicals, especially members of the American Communist Party (hereafter, CP) that had emerged from the underground after the Palmer Raids and deportations of the post World War I period. Those struggles, the great Passaic, New Jersey strike of 1926 and the heroic Gastonia, North Carolina strike of 1929 detailed here by one of the key leaders, Vera Buch Weisbord, centrally involved women workers in the textile trades, then as now, some of the most hazardous, low paying and stupefying work around. Thus an added impetus for trade union militants to read this book today is to better understand the arduous task of organizing international struggles where women form the backbone of the factory labor force such as in East Asia and Mexico.
As in many such memoirs the author here has her own ax to grind, and she unfailingly names names of those who did not measure up to the eclectic political wisdom that she and her husband and political partner Albert put forth over the years when they were politically active. Thus the early part of the book concerning early Communist trade union policy is where the value of the book lies. Three critical points can be gleaned from her work; the narrowness of the early Communist trade union policy of exclusively ‘boring from within’ the established and organized labor movement; the fatally-flawed ‘dual union’ fetishism of the Stalinist ‘third period’ where Communist trade union policy was essentially to go it alone and create ‘red’ dual unions and eschew united front work; and, the question that presses on every militant today concerning the ability and advisability of doing so-called 'mass' work by small left-wing propaganda groups.
James P. Cannon, an early leader of the CP and its 'trade unionist' wing along with William Z. Foster and others, acknowledged that Albert Weisbord was an exceptional mass trade union organizer. That is high praise indeed coming from an old Wobblie who knew his trade union leaders. He was then, and later as a leader of the American Trotskyist movement, in a position to also know the limits of the Weisbords as political leaders. And there is the rub. Much of Weisbord’s achievement came as a result of his excellent work in the 1926 Passaic textile strike where he, with his future companion and wife Vera, led a hard fought effort to organize the woefully underpaid and exploited women textile workers. Weisbord, basically on his own hook, formed an independent union of the largely unorganized women textile works and led them out on one of the important strikes of the 1920's, despite constant efforts on the part of the central labor bureaucracy to sabotage those efforts as "communist" dominated. However, in order to keep the strike going as it was dying in isolation the CP agreed to remove Weisbord as central leader at the request of that bureaucracy and give the leadership to the tradition union leadership that ultimately settled the strike on very unfavorable terms.
That a communist organization would sacrifice one of its own while caving in to reactionary trade unionists is only understandable if one understands that in this the CP trade union policy, under William Z. Foster's influence, was one of ‘boring from within’ the organized trade union movement. Thus, its sell-out of its leader, and there are no other words for it, was the steep price that it paid to keep in step with the central labor bureaucracy. The fact that important and decisive sections of the American work force in the 1920's were unorganized or poorly organized and needed to be organized independently did not enter the CP’s political horizon at that time.
Another critical, if more bloody, strike occurred in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1929 and there again Communists with Vera playing a key early role led the way. That an urban- based radical party could gain a hearing from rural Southern black and white workers, including a fair share of women workers, tells a hell of a lot about the times and how bad the conditions were there. For a number of reasons, including a police frame-up of the leadership of the strike, this struggle also went down to defeat. By 1929, however, the CP was knee-deep in its' third period' immediate capitalism crisis theory and did not call for the desperately needed united front work that might have saved the strike. The CP's argument at the time was a far cry from its earlier position of ‘boring with in’- now all other labor formations were inherently reformist and therefore not part of the labor movement.
As a youth doing trade union work I was for a short time impressed by 'third period' Stalinism. However, it did not take long to realize that immediate capitalist gloom and doom crisis theory is not the way to organize workers for the long haul. On a more empirical level any gains that the CP made among workers during this period, especially gaining an important small core of black workers was gained in spite of their flawed policies. A few scattered and isolated 'red' unions that, moreover, negotiated some awful contracts in order to keep influence in the unions they controlled did not make a revolutionary mass trade union movement.
As part of the internal turmoil inside the CP during the late 1920’s the Weisbords were part of an international communist right-wing Bukharin-led faction that during the process of the Stalinization of the American CP was purged by the Communist International in Moscow. Thus the pair were left in the political wilderness in America, but not for long. They were in seemingly constant and never-ending contact with groups to the CP's left and right and spent some time around James P. Cannon's Trotskyist Communist League of America (CLA) before eventually drifting into political oblivion later in the 1930's.
The central conflict with the CLA was over the question of ‘mass’ work by small communist propaganda groups. Coming off their CP experiences where they had led masses of workers under the guidance of a small mass party the Weisbords continued to seek to implement that perspective even though ‘mass’ work by a small propaganda group is usually either fake 'paper' work or tends to destroy the real goal of such a group - the cohesion of a cadre that can lead ‘real’ struggles when they come up.
Here is a case where the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Yes, the CLA wandered in the political wilderness in the early 1930's but by 1934 it was in a position to lead the great Minneapolis Teamsters strikes, which put it on the political map. The CLA then was able to gather other left non-Stalinist forces and by the end of the decade had became a small mass party, the Socialist Workers Party, with plenty of trade union supporters and a fair share of mass work. And the Weisbords? Nada. Nevertheless, read this book, even if at times you have to read between the lines, to learn more about an important part of American labor history, an important part of early Communist Party history and a chapter in the history of the women workers movement.
*Labor’s Told Story-Partially- The Film “Norma Rae”
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Pete Seeger performing our labor anthem, "Solidarity Forever". In honor of Crystal Lee Sutton.
DVD Review
Norma Rae, starring Sally Field, Ron Liebman, directed by Martin Ritt, 1973
On the face of it today a story about an impoverished, hard-nosed widowed woman trying to support several children working in a southern textile mill and who seeks to unionize the plant against one of the major textile companies might rate a documentary or docu-drama treatment but, perhaps not much else. The demographics and the audience would probably not be there for such a commercial endeavor, Sally Field or no Sally Field. That says more about the state of the organized labor movement in this country, the dramatic decline in union membership, the lack of recent successful major union organizing drives, the “globalization” of industry that has de-industrialized America and the attenuation of links between the old trade union movement forged in the class battles of the 1930s and 1940s and their grandchildren, today’s youth.
Back in 1973, however, this film was a hit not only because of the well-done performances by Sally Field, as that down-troddened but spirited woman turned effective union organizer and Ron Liebman, as the northern union organizer called in to advice (?) Norma Rae. 1950s “red scare” black-listed writer Martin Ritt, who directed this film, also deserves kudos for not overburdening the film with unnecessary sentimentality. The times then thus were not out of joint for such an effort. The residue of 1960s radicalism and pro-working class sentiments still hung in the air. Moreover, the times were just becoming ripe for serious films about the trials and tribulations of women, especially working women and their problems, under the sign of the burgeoning women’s movement.
Of courser this particular review is posted here today because, unfortunately, the real-life model for the character of Norma Rae, Crystal Lee Sutton, has just passed away in North Carolina at the age of 68. I will finish up here by quoting a remark that I made in another space about her passing that also reflects on the highlight dramatically tense moment in the film:
“No labor militant, or even just a simple friend of the international labor movement could do anything but cheer at that moment in "Norma Rae", based on the actual experience of Crystal Lee Sutton, when Sally Field silently holds up a handmade sign that said "Union"- and everyone downs tools. Such events are the stuff not just of labor legend, but under the right circumstances revolution. Farewell, Sister.” I need say no more.
Solidarity Forever
Solidarity forever!
Solidarity forever!
Solidarity forever!
For the union makes us strong
When the union's inspiration
through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater
anywhere beneath the sun.
Yet what force on earth is weaker
than the feeble strength of one?
But the union makes us strong.
They have taken untold millions
that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle
not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power;
gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us strong.
In our hands is placed a power
greater than their hoarded gold;
Greater than the might of armies,
magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world
from the ashes of the old
For the Union makes us strong.
This labor anthem was written in 1915 by IWW songwriter and union organizer Ralph Chaplin using the music of Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic. These song lyrics are those sung by Joe Glazer, Educational Director of the United Rubber Workers, from the recording Songs of Work and Freedom, (Washington Records WR460)
DVD Review
Norma Rae, starring Sally Field, Ron Liebman, directed by Martin Ritt, 1973
On the face of it today a story about an impoverished, hard-nosed widowed woman trying to support several children working in a southern textile mill and who seeks to unionize the plant against one of the major textile companies might rate a documentary or docu-drama treatment but, perhaps not much else. The demographics and the audience would probably not be there for such a commercial endeavor, Sally Field or no Sally Field. That says more about the state of the organized labor movement in this country, the dramatic decline in union membership, the lack of recent successful major union organizing drives, the “globalization” of industry that has de-industrialized America and the attenuation of links between the old trade union movement forged in the class battles of the 1930s and 1940s and their grandchildren, today’s youth.
Back in 1973, however, this film was a hit not only because of the well-done performances by Sally Field, as that down-troddened but spirited woman turned effective union organizer and Ron Liebman, as the northern union organizer called in to advice (?) Norma Rae. 1950s “red scare” black-listed writer Martin Ritt, who directed this film, also deserves kudos for not overburdening the film with unnecessary sentimentality. The times then thus were not out of joint for such an effort. The residue of 1960s radicalism and pro-working class sentiments still hung in the air. Moreover, the times were just becoming ripe for serious films about the trials and tribulations of women, especially working women and their problems, under the sign of the burgeoning women’s movement.
Of courser this particular review is posted here today because, unfortunately, the real-life model for the character of Norma Rae, Crystal Lee Sutton, has just passed away in North Carolina at the age of 68. I will finish up here by quoting a remark that I made in another space about her passing that also reflects on the highlight dramatically tense moment in the film:
“No labor militant, or even just a simple friend of the international labor movement could do anything but cheer at that moment in "Norma Rae", based on the actual experience of Crystal Lee Sutton, when Sally Field silently holds up a handmade sign that said "Union"- and everyone downs tools. Such events are the stuff not just of labor legend, but under the right circumstances revolution. Farewell, Sister.” I need say no more.
Solidarity Forever
Solidarity forever!
Solidarity forever!
Solidarity forever!
For the union makes us strong
When the union's inspiration
through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater
anywhere beneath the sun.
Yet what force on earth is weaker
than the feeble strength of one?
But the union makes us strong.
They have taken untold millions
that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle
not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power;
gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us strong.
In our hands is placed a power
greater than their hoarded gold;
Greater than the might of armies,
magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world
from the ashes of the old
For the Union makes us strong.
This labor anthem was written in 1915 by IWW songwriter and union organizer Ralph Chaplin using the music of Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic. These song lyrics are those sung by Joe Glazer, Educational Director of the United Rubber Workers, from the recording Songs of Work and Freedom, (Washington Records WR460)
*Labor's Told Story-Partially- Crytsal Lee Sutton The Model For The Film "Norma Rae" Has Passed Away
Click on title to link to the "New York Times" obituary for Crystal Lee Sutton, the model for the commerical film about the trials and tribulations of union organizing in the American South, organizing in the long embattled runaway textile industry and being a woman organizer starring Sally Field, "Norma Rae".
Markin comment:
No labor militant, or even just a simple friend of the international labor movement could do anything but cheer at that moment in "Norma Rae", based on the actual experience of Crystal Lee Sutton, when Sally Field silently holds up a handmade sign that said "Union"- and everyone downs tools. Such events are the stuff not just of labor legend, but under the right circumstances revolution. Farewell, Sister.
Markin comment:
No labor militant, or even just a simple friend of the international labor movement could do anything but cheer at that moment in "Norma Rae", based on the actual experience of Crystal Lee Sutton, when Sally Field silently holds up a handmade sign that said "Union"- and everyone downs tools. Such events are the stuff not just of labor legend, but under the right circumstances revolution. Farewell, Sister.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
*I Hear The Voice Of My Arky Angel-Once Again, The Music Of Iris Dement
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Iris DeMent performing "Our Town". Every once in a while I NEED to hear that voice, especially her "These Hills" and "After You've Gone". Today is one of those days
CD REVIEW
Infamous Angel, Iris Dement, Rounder Records, 1992
Frankly, and I admit this publicly for the first time in this space, I love Ms. Iris Dement. Not personally, of course, but through her voice, her lyrics and her musical presence. This ‘confession’ may seem rather startling coming from a reviewer who is as likely here to go on and on about Bolsheviks, ‘Che’, Leon Trotsky, high communist theory and the like. Especially, as well given Ms. Dement’s seemingly simple quasi- religious themes and commitment to paying homage to her rural background in song. All such discrepancies though go out the window here. Why?
Well, for one, this old radical got a lump in his throat the first time he heard “These Hills”. Okay, that happens sometimes-once- but why did he have the same reaction on the fifth and twelfth hearings? Explain that. I can easily enough. If, on the very, very remotest chance, there is a heaven then I know one of the choir members. Enough said. By the way give a listen to “Sweet Forgiveness” and “After You’ve Gone” (with that great line about 'knowing' every line in her man's face. Then you too will be in love with Ms. Iris Dement. Iris, here is my proposal. If you get tired of fishing the U.P., or wherever, with Mr. Greg Brown, get bored with his endless twaddle about old Iowa farms or going on and on about Grannma's cellar just whistle. Better yet just yodel like you did on “Jimmie Rodgers Going Home” on that “Driftless” CD.
INFAMOUS ANGEL (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Last night before I went to sleep my knees dropped to the floor
I turned me eyes up to the sky and I prayed "Please help me, Lord,
you know I've sowed my wild oats and now the fun's all gone"
and then I heard these tender words
and I put them in my song:
"Infamous Angel come on home
to someone who loves you and knows you needed to roam
Grab your things, a ticket's waiting at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home"
I heard heaven's choir rejoicing as the tears broke from my eyes
and all at once it lifted the weight from my past life
I found a pen and I left a note on the dresser drawer
"Infamous Angel, she don't live here anymore"
Infamous Angel come on home
to someone who loves you and knows you needed to roam
Grab your things, a ticket's waiting at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
Then I hurried out the back door as quickly as I could
I went flying down two flights of stairs 'til on the street I stood
and there I took that final look at my old neighbourhood
Then I ran down the street proclaiming "Angel gone for good"
Infamous Angel going home
to someone who loves her and knows she needed to roam
She grabbed her things and claimed the ticket at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
SWEET FORGIVENESS (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Sweet forgiveness, that's what you give to me
when you hold me close and you say "That's all over"
You don't go looking back,
you don't hold the cards to stack,
you mean what you say.
Sweet forgiveness, you help me see
I'm not near as bad as I sometimes appear to be
When you hold me close and say
"That's all over, and I still love you"
There's no way that I could make up for those angry words I said
Sometimes it gets to hurting and the pain goes to my head
Sweet forgiveness, dear God above
I say we all deserve a taste of this kind of love
Someone who'll hold our hand,
and whisper "I understand, and I still love you"
AFTER YOU'RE GONE (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
There'll be laughter even after you're gone
I'll find reasons to face that empty dawn
'cause I've memorized each line in your face
and not even death can ever erase the story they tell to me
I'll miss you, oh how I'll miss you
I'll dream of you and I'll cry a million tears
but the sorrow will pass and the one thing that will last
is the love that you've given to me
There'll be laughter even after you're gone
I'll find reason and I'll face that empty dawn
'cause I've memorized each line in your face
and not even death could ever erase the story they tell to me
MAMA'S OPRY (Iris DeMent)
[note: harmony vocals provided by Emmylou Harris]
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
She grew up plain and simple in a farming town
Her daddy played the fiddle and use to do the calling
when they had hoedowns
She said the neighbors would come
and they'd move all my grandma's furniture 'round
and there'd be twenty or more there on the old wooden floor
dancing to a country sound
The Carters and Jimmy Rodgers played her favourite songs
and on Saturday nights there was a radio show
and she would sing along
and I'll never forget her face when she revealed to me
that she'd dreamed about singing at The Grand Ol' Opry
Her eyes, oh how they sparkled when she sang those songs
While she was hanging the clothes on the line
I was a kid just a humming along
Well, I'd be playing in the grass,
to her what might've seemed obliviously
but there ain't no doubt about it, she sure made her mark on me
She played old gospel records on the phonograph
She turned them up loud and we'd sing along
but those days have passed
Just now that I am older it occurs to me
that I was singing in the grandest opry
And we sang Sweet Rose of Sharon, Abide With Me
'til I ride The Gospel Ship to Heaven's Jubilee
and In That Great Triumphant Morning my soul will be free
and My Burdens Will Be Lifted when my Saviour's face I see
So I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World below
but I know He'll Pilot Me 'til it comes time to go
Oh, nothing on this earth is half as dear to me
as the sound of my Mama's Opry
And we sang Sweet Rose of Sharon, Abide With Me
'til I ride The Gospel Ship to Heaven's Jubilee
and In That Great Triumphant Morning my soul will be free
and My Burdens Will Be Lifted when my Saviour's face I see
So I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World below
but I know He'll Pilot Me 'til it comes time to go
Oh, nothing on this earth is half as dear to me
as the sound of my Mama's Opry
HIGHER GROUND (Iris DeMent)
[note: lead vocal by Flora Mae DeMent, backing vocals by "The Infamous Angel Choir" (Iris, etc.)]
Traditional, public domain
[Spoken intro by Iris: "No voice has inspired me more than my mother's. She showed me that music is a pathway to higher ground".]
I'm pressing on the upward way
New heights I'm gaining every day
Still praying as I'm onward bound
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
My heart has no desire to stay
where doubts arise and fears dismay
Though some may dwell where these abound
my prayer, my aim, is higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
I want to scale the utmost heights
and catch a gleam of glory bright
but still I'll pray 'til heaven I've found
Lord, lead me on to higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
CD REVIEW
Infamous Angel, Iris Dement, Rounder Records, 1992
Frankly, and I admit this publicly for the first time in this space, I love Ms. Iris Dement. Not personally, of course, but through her voice, her lyrics and her musical presence. This ‘confession’ may seem rather startling coming from a reviewer who is as likely here to go on and on about Bolsheviks, ‘Che’, Leon Trotsky, high communist theory and the like. Especially, as well given Ms. Dement’s seemingly simple quasi- religious themes and commitment to paying homage to her rural background in song. All such discrepancies though go out the window here. Why?
Well, for one, this old radical got a lump in his throat the first time he heard “These Hills”. Okay, that happens sometimes-once- but why did he have the same reaction on the fifth and twelfth hearings? Explain that. I can easily enough. If, on the very, very remotest chance, there is a heaven then I know one of the choir members. Enough said. By the way give a listen to “Sweet Forgiveness” and “After You’ve Gone” (with that great line about 'knowing' every line in her man's face. Then you too will be in love with Ms. Iris Dement. Iris, here is my proposal. If you get tired of fishing the U.P., or wherever, with Mr. Greg Brown, get bored with his endless twaddle about old Iowa farms or going on and on about Grannma's cellar just whistle. Better yet just yodel like you did on “Jimmie Rodgers Going Home” on that “Driftless” CD.
INFAMOUS ANGEL (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Last night before I went to sleep my knees dropped to the floor
I turned me eyes up to the sky and I prayed "Please help me, Lord,
you know I've sowed my wild oats and now the fun's all gone"
and then I heard these tender words
and I put them in my song:
"Infamous Angel come on home
to someone who loves you and knows you needed to roam
Grab your things, a ticket's waiting at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home"
I heard heaven's choir rejoicing as the tears broke from my eyes
and all at once it lifted the weight from my past life
I found a pen and I left a note on the dresser drawer
"Infamous Angel, she don't live here anymore"
Infamous Angel come on home
to someone who loves you and knows you needed to roam
Grab your things, a ticket's waiting at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
Then I hurried out the back door as quickly as I could
I went flying down two flights of stairs 'til on the street I stood
and there I took that final look at my old neighbourhood
Then I ran down the street proclaiming "Angel gone for good"
Infamous Angel going home
to someone who loves her and knows she needed to roam
She grabbed her things and claimed the ticket at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
SWEET FORGIVENESS (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Sweet forgiveness, that's what you give to me
when you hold me close and you say "That's all over"
You don't go looking back,
you don't hold the cards to stack,
you mean what you say.
Sweet forgiveness, you help me see
I'm not near as bad as I sometimes appear to be
When you hold me close and say
"That's all over, and I still love you"
There's no way that I could make up for those angry words I said
Sometimes it gets to hurting and the pain goes to my head
Sweet forgiveness, dear God above
I say we all deserve a taste of this kind of love
Someone who'll hold our hand,
and whisper "I understand, and I still love you"
AFTER YOU'RE GONE (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
There'll be laughter even after you're gone
I'll find reasons to face that empty dawn
'cause I've memorized each line in your face
and not even death can ever erase the story they tell to me
I'll miss you, oh how I'll miss you
I'll dream of you and I'll cry a million tears
but the sorrow will pass and the one thing that will last
is the love that you've given to me
There'll be laughter even after you're gone
I'll find reason and I'll face that empty dawn
'cause I've memorized each line in your face
and not even death could ever erase the story they tell to me
MAMA'S OPRY (Iris DeMent)
[note: harmony vocals provided by Emmylou Harris]
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
She grew up plain and simple in a farming town
Her daddy played the fiddle and use to do the calling
when they had hoedowns
She said the neighbors would come
and they'd move all my grandma's furniture 'round
and there'd be twenty or more there on the old wooden floor
dancing to a country sound
The Carters and Jimmy Rodgers played her favourite songs
and on Saturday nights there was a radio show
and she would sing along
and I'll never forget her face when she revealed to me
that she'd dreamed about singing at The Grand Ol' Opry
Her eyes, oh how they sparkled when she sang those songs
While she was hanging the clothes on the line
I was a kid just a humming along
Well, I'd be playing in the grass,
to her what might've seemed obliviously
but there ain't no doubt about it, she sure made her mark on me
She played old gospel records on the phonograph
She turned them up loud and we'd sing along
but those days have passed
Just now that I am older it occurs to me
that I was singing in the grandest opry
And we sang Sweet Rose of Sharon, Abide With Me
'til I ride The Gospel Ship to Heaven's Jubilee
and In That Great Triumphant Morning my soul will be free
and My Burdens Will Be Lifted when my Saviour's face I see
So I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World below
but I know He'll Pilot Me 'til it comes time to go
Oh, nothing on this earth is half as dear to me
as the sound of my Mama's Opry
And we sang Sweet Rose of Sharon, Abide With Me
'til I ride The Gospel Ship to Heaven's Jubilee
and In That Great Triumphant Morning my soul will be free
and My Burdens Will Be Lifted when my Saviour's face I see
So I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World below
but I know He'll Pilot Me 'til it comes time to go
Oh, nothing on this earth is half as dear to me
as the sound of my Mama's Opry
HIGHER GROUND (Iris DeMent)
[note: lead vocal by Flora Mae DeMent, backing vocals by "The Infamous Angel Choir" (Iris, etc.)]
Traditional, public domain
[Spoken intro by Iris: "No voice has inspired me more than my mother's. She showed me that music is a pathway to higher ground".]
I'm pressing on the upward way
New heights I'm gaining every day
Still praying as I'm onward bound
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
My heart has no desire to stay
where doubts arise and fears dismay
Though some may dwell where these abound
my prayer, my aim, is higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
I want to scale the utmost heights
and catch a gleam of glory bright
but still I'll pray 'til heaven I've found
Lord, lead me on to higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
Monday, September 14, 2009
*A Carter Family Tribute- Ralph Stanley Is In The House
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Ralph Stanley Doing "Clinch Mountain Backstep".
CD Review
A Distant Land To Roam: Songs Of The Carter Family, Ralph Stanley, Sony, 2006
The body of this review has been used elsewhere in this space to comment on some The Carter Family CDs.
This information is from a review of a PBS documentary and serves my purpose here by bringing out the main points that are central to the place of The Carter Family in American musical history. The last paragraph will detail the outstanding tracks on this CD.
“I have reviewed the various CDs put out by the Carter Family, that is work of the original grouping of A.P., Sara and Maybelle from the 1920’s , elsewhere in this space. Many of the thoughts expressed there apply here, as well. The recent, now somewhat eclipsed, interest in the mountain music of the 1920’s and 30’s highlighted in such films as “The Song Catcher” and George Clooney’s “Brother, Where Art Thou”, of necessity, had to create a renewed interest in the Carter Family. Why? Not taking the influence of that family’s musical shaping of mountain music is like neglecting the influence of Bob Dylan on the folk music revival of the 1960’s. I suppose it can be done but a big hole is left in the landscape.
What this PBS production has done, and done well, is put the music of the Carters in perspective as it relates to their time, their religious sentiments and their roots in the seemingly simple mountain lifestyle. Is there any simpler harmony than the virtually universally known Cater song (or better, variation) “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”? Nevertheless, these gentle mountain folk were as driven to success, especially A.P, as any urbanite of the time. Moreover, they seem, and here again A.P. is the example, to have had as many interpersonal problems (in short, marital difficulties) as us city folk.
I have mentioned elsewhere, and it bears repeating here, that the fundamentalist religious sentiment expressed throughout their work does not have that same razor-edged feel that we find with today’s evangelicals. This is a very personal kind of religious expression that drives many of the songs. These evangelical people took their beating during the Scopes Trial era and turned inward. Fair enough. That they also produced some very simple and interesting music to while away their time is a product of that withdrawal. Listen.”.
Ralph Stanley has here fulfilled a promise to do a Carter Family tribute, music that he listened to early on and that has influenced his own career as an outstanding advocate and performer of mountain music for the past half century or so. He does very nice covers of “Poor Orphan Child”, “Waves On The Sea” and the title song “Distant Land To Roam”. You can hear the mountains echo with this music now.
Ralph Stanley
Rocky Island lyrics
Way up on the Mountain, throw a little cane
See my candy darlin' pretty little Liza Jane
Going to Rocky Island hoh honey hoh
Seein' my candy darlin', you know I love her so
Wish I had a big fat horse gonna feed him `mone
Pretty little girl to stay at home feen him when I'm gone
Going to Rocky Island hoh honey hoh
Seein' my candy darlin', you know I love her so
Dark clouds risin' sure sign of rain
Put your new grey bonnet on sweet little Liza Jane
Going to Rocky Island hoh honey hoh
Seein' my candy darlin', you know I love her so
CD Review
A Distant Land To Roam: Songs Of The Carter Family, Ralph Stanley, Sony, 2006
The body of this review has been used elsewhere in this space to comment on some The Carter Family CDs.
This information is from a review of a PBS documentary and serves my purpose here by bringing out the main points that are central to the place of The Carter Family in American musical history. The last paragraph will detail the outstanding tracks on this CD.
“I have reviewed the various CDs put out by the Carter Family, that is work of the original grouping of A.P., Sara and Maybelle from the 1920’s , elsewhere in this space. Many of the thoughts expressed there apply here, as well. The recent, now somewhat eclipsed, interest in the mountain music of the 1920’s and 30’s highlighted in such films as “The Song Catcher” and George Clooney’s “Brother, Where Art Thou”, of necessity, had to create a renewed interest in the Carter Family. Why? Not taking the influence of that family’s musical shaping of mountain music is like neglecting the influence of Bob Dylan on the folk music revival of the 1960’s. I suppose it can be done but a big hole is left in the landscape.
What this PBS production has done, and done well, is put the music of the Carters in perspective as it relates to their time, their religious sentiments and their roots in the seemingly simple mountain lifestyle. Is there any simpler harmony than the virtually universally known Cater song (or better, variation) “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”? Nevertheless, these gentle mountain folk were as driven to success, especially A.P, as any urbanite of the time. Moreover, they seem, and here again A.P. is the example, to have had as many interpersonal problems (in short, marital difficulties) as us city folk.
I have mentioned elsewhere, and it bears repeating here, that the fundamentalist religious sentiment expressed throughout their work does not have that same razor-edged feel that we find with today’s evangelicals. This is a very personal kind of religious expression that drives many of the songs. These evangelical people took their beating during the Scopes Trial era and turned inward. Fair enough. That they also produced some very simple and interesting music to while away their time is a product of that withdrawal. Listen.”.
Ralph Stanley has here fulfilled a promise to do a Carter Family tribute, music that he listened to early on and that has influenced his own career as an outstanding advocate and performer of mountain music for the past half century or so. He does very nice covers of “Poor Orphan Child”, “Waves On The Sea” and the title song “Distant Land To Roam”. You can hear the mountains echo with this music now.
Ralph Stanley
Rocky Island lyrics
Way up on the Mountain, throw a little cane
See my candy darlin' pretty little Liza Jane
Going to Rocky Island hoh honey hoh
Seein' my candy darlin', you know I love her so
Wish I had a big fat horse gonna feed him `mone
Pretty little girl to stay at home feen him when I'm gone
Going to Rocky Island hoh honey hoh
Seein' my candy darlin', you know I love her so
Dark clouds risin' sure sign of rain
Put your new grey bonnet on sweet little Liza Jane
Going to Rocky Island hoh honey hoh
Seein' my candy darlin', you know I love her so
* Labor's Duty-Fight For Full Citizenship Rights For All Who Make It To America- The Struggle Continues- An Article
Click on title to link to informative article with a left-wing political perspective, from "Workers Vanguard",Number 942, September 11, 2009, about the Obama administration's insidious crackdown on 'illegal' immigrants on the West Coast that has not received nearly enough attention in the mainstream media, except, for the most part, as inflammatory remarks against immigration. In an almost totally immigrant created nation-go figure.
Markin comment:
I have mentioned , on more than one occasion, that our main struggle with the Obama administration today is over the question of its war policies, increasingly the troops escalations, and talk of escalations in Afghanistan. Although that is the main struggle today that we can get a handle on and beat Obama over the head with in more than a propagandistic way this immigration question, especially the wholesale deportations which have gone under under the political radar (except in those immigrant communities that are being ravaged by the policies), needs greater attention. On May Day 2006 and at other times the streets were filled responding to this situation. Today the streets are empty. More later.
Markin comment:
I have mentioned , on more than one occasion, that our main struggle with the Obama administration today is over the question of its war policies, increasingly the troops escalations, and talk of escalations in Afghanistan. Although that is the main struggle today that we can get a handle on and beat Obama over the head with in more than a propagandistic way this immigration question, especially the wholesale deportations which have gone under under the political radar (except in those immigrant communities that are being ravaged by the policies), needs greater attention. On May Day 2006 and at other times the streets were filled responding to this situation. Today the streets are empty. More later.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
*The Not Joan Baez Female Folkies- The Music Of Mary McCaslin
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Mary McCaslin Doing "The Abyss".
CD Review
Broken Promises, Mary McCaslin, Philo Records, 1994
This review has also been used for McCaslin's "Broken Promises" CD.
Okay, okay I have had enough. Recently I received a spate of e-mails from aging 1960's folkies asking why, other than one review of Carolyn Hester's work late in 2008, I have not done more reviews of the female folkies of the 1960's. To balance things out I begin to make amends here. To set the framework for my future reviews I repost the germane part of the Carolyn Hester review:
"Earlier this year I posed a question concerning the fates of a group of talented male folk singers like Tom Rush, Tom Paxton and Jesse Colin Young, who, although some of them are still performing or otherwise still on the musical scene have generally fallen off the radar in today's mainstream musical consciousness, except, of course, the acknowledged "king of the hill", Bob Dylan. I want to pose that same question in this entry concerning the talented female folk performers of the 1960's, except, of course, the "queen of the hill" Joan Baez. I will start out by merely rephrasing the first paragraph from the reviews of those male performers.
"If I were to ask someone, in the year 2008, to name a female folk singer from the 1960's I would assume that if I were to get an answer to that question that the name would be Joan Baez (or, maybe, Judy Collins but you get my point). And that would be a good and appropriate choice. One can endlessly dispute whether or not Baez was (or wanted to be) the female voice of the Generation of '68 but in terms of longevity and productivity she fits the bill as a known quality. However, there were a slew of other female folk singers who tried to find their niche in the folk milieu and who, like Baez, may today still quietly continue to produce work and to perform. The artist under review, Carolyn Hester, certainly had the talent to challenge Baez to be "queen of the hill."
Well, as the CD under review will testify to, the singer /songwriter Mary McCaslin also was in contention, back in the days. I am not familiar with the current status of Ms. McCaslin as a performer although I know several years ago I attended a benefit concert to raise funds for her medical needs. Nevertheless I can remember the first time I heard her in a coffeehouse in Cambridge doing Woody Guthrie's "Oklahoma Hills Back Home". And that was appropriate as Ms. McCaslin is certainly in her singing style and her songwriting interests attached to the Western United States. That tradition got an additional acknowledgement in that Cambridge performance when she brought down the house with her version of the country classic "Pass Me By If You're Only Passing Through".
That theme and, in addition, several more inward searching tracks, make this a very representative McCaslin effort. Needless to say “Way Down In Texas” sticks out on the first theme and “The Abyss” on the second. She also does a very fine version of the Beatles tune “Help”. So, all in all, whatever her later personal journey back in the days she could have been a contender for “queen of the hill”. Listen up.
Mary McCaslin - Better Late Than Never
LYRICS
ACRES OF HOUSES
I returned to my home in the valley
After way too many years
I stopped on the road, stepped out of the car
And I almost broke down there in tears
I stood and looked all around me
At the fields where the corn used to be
Two story houses, manicured yards
As far as my eye could see
Chorus:
Acres of houses on farmland
It's the saddest thing I've ever seen
We better start thinking about making a stand
Or we'll all end up on soylent green
While they don't come from south of the border
And they don't come from over the sea
They pack up their babies and move out from town
And they all look just like you and me
It's a grand old new world order
Religion and business take all
Families and brokers divide up the ground
And the meadow turns into a mall
Chorus:
Acres of houses on farmland
It's the saddest thing I've ever seen
We better start thinking about making a stand
Or we'll all end up on soylent green
THE LIGHTS OF SPARTANBURG
I've made a living with the band for 20 years or more
Days and nights from sun to sun out on the road we tour
After the Atlanta show, we drove all through the night
Crossing states to make it home sometime around daylight
You came to mind that night along the South Carolina road
Years of friendship, years of song - a treasury untold
Chorus: And I heard it on the radio
Outside of your hometown
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
the night your plane went down
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
The night your plane went down
Don't you know you made the news; your songs are on the air
I wonder why we wait to lose to show how much we care
Cars and buses, trains and planes, the highway and the sky
Seem to take a toll of names as every year goes by
Chorus: And I heard it on the radio
Outside of your hometown
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
The night your plane went down
I think about that night along the South Carolina road
Maybe from this life you've gone, but never from the fold
Chorus: And I hear the words forever more
Outside of your hometown
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
The night your plane went down
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
The night your plane went down
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
The night your plane went down
SABERS AND GUNS
Turn in your saddle and look back at home one more time
Quiet her fears with a few words that come to your mind
'Keep supper warm', you lied your brave lie when she asked
'We'll end it this evening if the Yankees don't run too damn fast'
Stop by the well, smell the sweet scent of magnolia trees
Take a cool drink of water and last look at all that you leave
Your graceful white mansions, acres of fields and green lawns
Will be ashes and ragweed, gone to seed by the time you return
Chorus: Off to war - oh just look at your hardware
With the brass shining gold in the sun
Ah, but don't you feel strong in your gray uniforms
With your shiny new sabers and guns
Wait on the hill where the road forks to go into town
To be joined by another and another, till a hundred ride down
Ride on together, form a column of soldiers so bold
Ah, the pride of the south is a grand thing indeed to behold
Charge into battle with the flame of youth hot in your breast
An army of children trying hard to be men in the test
And which of your friends stand brave and strong in the fight
And which of your friends will be left in the cold ground tonight
Chorus: Off to war - oh just look at your hardware
With the brass shining gold in the sun
Ah, but don't you feel strong in your gray uniforms
With your shiny new sabers and guns
It's all over now, there's no place to go but back home
To face all your loved ones and the people that once you did own
Plantation kingdoms passed down from fathers to sons
Could not be defended with your shiny new sabers and guns
Could not be defended with your shiny new sabers and guns
STANDING IN THE DOORWAY
Standing in the doorway of the Salvation Army
In a place where you and i could wind up any day
A scarf and sweater in a paper bag she holds so dearly
Treasures for a buck or two that someone threw away
She turns her head to look each way and steps out 0n the sidewalk
Hums a tune from some old song she learned when it was new
Starts her daily round to make a little change and small talk
Rain or shine, out on the street - it's what she has to do
Chorus: On and on the memories keep running through her mind
All the dreams of younger days left so far behind
All it takes to stay alive is give up every pleasure
A monthly check just pays the rent and leaves so little more
Every day she faces those who know they are much better
Sees 'em turns their eyes away when she comes through the door
Once a young girl held the stage with every eye upon her
Someone spent a fortune after almost every show
Now a woman stands alone, a hand out to a stranger
A far cry from the life she led so many years ago
Chorus: On and on the memories keep running through her mind
All the dreams of younger days left so far behind
Passing by the doorway of the Salvation Army
It's easier to move along and look the other way
Never stop and take the time to listen to a story
Or think about where you and I could wind up any day
MISSING
A little girl is missing - the wind begins to blow
Neighbors are out searching, but who will ever know
Why he had to pick her up, along the road that day
And take her to a lonely stop, half a mile away
Lawmen spread out all around, knock on every door
Trackers cover miles of ground, like soldiers off to war
Parents pleading on TV, for anyone to tell
Where their little girl may be, and end this living hell
Updates on the Internet, posters everywhere
Sightings in another state, leads from here and there
Faith becomes insanity - hope becomes despair
A night becomes eternity - a curse becomes a prayer
Seven long months after, she disappeared that day
She turned up where he left her, a half a mile away
The wind becomes a mother's cry, a high and mournful howl
Echoing across the sky, the night begins to fall
CALIFORNIA JOE (Jack Crawford)
Well Folks, I Don't Like Stories; Nor Am I Going To Act
Nor Part Around The Campfire What Ain't A Truthful Fact.
Fill Up Your Pipes And Listen; I'll Tell You -- Let Me See
I Think It Was In '50; From Then Till '63.
You've All Heard Tell Of Bridger? I Used To Ride With Him.
And Many A Hard Day's Scoutin' I Did 'Longside Of Jim;
And Back Near Old Fort Reno, A Trapper Used To Dwell
We Called Him Mad Jack Reynolds; The Scouts All Knew Him Well.
In The Spring Of '50, We Camped On Powder River.
We Killed A Calf Of Buffalo And Cooked A Slice Of Liver.
While Eating, Quite Contented, We Heard Three Shots Or Four
Put Out The Fires And Listened; And We Heard A Dozen More.
We All Knew Old Jack Reynolds Had Moved The Traps Up There.
So Picking Up Our Rifles And Hitching Up Our Gear,
We Moved As Quick As Lightning; To Save Was Our Desire.
Too Late, The Painted Heathens Had Set The Camp On Fire.
We Turned Our Horses Quickly And Waded Down The Stream,
And Close Beside The Water I Heard A Muffled Scream,
And There Among The Bushes A Little Girl Did Lie
I Picked Her Up And Whispered, "I'll Save You Or I'll Die."
God, What A Ride -- Old Bridger Had Covered My Retreat.
Some Times The Child Would Whisper In A Voice So Low And Sweet,
"Dear Papa, God Will Take You To Mama Up Above.
There's No One Left To Love Me; There's No One Left To Love."
The Little Girl Was Thirteen; And I Was Twenty-Two.
Said I, "I'll Be Your Papa, And I'll Love You Just As True."
She Nestled To My Bosom, Her Hazel Eyes So Bright
Looked Up And Made Me Happy Through The Close Pursuit That Night.
One Year Had Passed When Maggie -- We Called Her Hazel Eyes
In Truth Was Going To Leave Me; Had Come To Say Goodbye.
Her Uncle, Mad Jack Reynolds, Long Since Reported Dead
Had Come To Claim My Angel, His Brother's Child, He Said.
What Could I Say? We Parted. Mad Jack Was Growing Old.
I Handed Him A Banknote And All I Had In Gold.
They Rode Away At Sunrise; I Went A Mile Or Two.
In Parting Said, "We'll Meet Again; May God Watch Over You."
While Resting By A Babbling Brook A Little Cabin Stood,
And Weary From The Long Day's Ride I Saw It In The Wood.
The Pleasant Valley Stretched Beyond The Mountains Towered Above
Like Some Painted Picture, Or A Well-Told Tale Of Love.
Drinking In The Sweetness And Resting In The Saddle,
I Heard A Gentle Rippling, Like The Dipping Of A Paddle,
And, Turning Toward The Water, A Strange Sight Met My View
A Pretty Girl Was Seated In A Little Birch Canoe.
She Stood Up In The Center, Her Rifle To Her Eye.
I Thought For Just A Moment My Time Had Come To Die,
So I Tipped My Hat And Told Her, If It Was All The Same,
To Drop Her Little Shooter, As I Was Not Her Game.
She Dropped Her Deadly Weapon And She Leaped From Her Canoe.
She Said, "I Beg Your Pardon; I Thought You Were A Sioux.
Your Long Hair And Your Buckskins Looked Warrior-Like And Rough.
My Bead Was Spoiled By Sunlight, Or I'd 'A Killed You Sure Enough."
"Well, Perhaps It Would Be Better Had You Killed Me Here" Said I.
"For Surely Such An Angel Could Bear Me To The Sky."
She Blushed And Dropped Her Eyelids; Her Face Was Crimson Red.
One Shy Glance She Gave Me And Then Hung Down Her Head.
Then Her Arm Flew 'Round Me. "I'll Save You Or I'll Die."
I Held Her To My Bosom, My Long-Lost Hazel Eyes.
The Rapture Of That Moment Was Heaven Unto Me.
I Kissed Her Then, Amid Her Tears, Her Merriment And Glee.
Her Heart 'Gainst Mine Was Beating When Sobbingly She Said,
"My Dear Long-Lost Preserver, They Told Me You Were Dead.
The Man Who Claimed Me From You, My Uncle, Good And True
Lies Ill In Yonder Cabin, And He Talks So Much Of You."
"'If Joe Were Living, Darling,' He Said To Me Last Night,
"'He'd Care For You, Dear Maggie, When God Puts Out My Light.'"
We Found The Old Man Sleeping; "Hush, Maggie -- Let Him Rest."
The Sun Was Slowly Sinking In The Far-Off Golden West.
Although We Spoke In Whispers, He Opened Up His Eyes.
"A Dream, A Dream," He Murmured, "Alas! A Dream Of Lies."
She Drifted Like A Shadow To Where The Old Man Lay
"You've Had A Dream, Dear Uncle, Another Dream Today."
"Oh Yes I Saw An Angel, As Pure As Drifted Snow,
And Standing Close Beside Her Was California Joe."
She Said, "I'm Not An Angel, Dear Uncle, This You Know;
"These Little Hands And This Face Were Never White As Snow."
"But Listen While I Tell You, For I Have News To Cheer
Your Hazel Eyes Is Happy, For Truly Joe Is Here."
Then, But A Few Days Later, The Old Man Said To Me,
"Joe, Boy, She Is An Angel, Or As Good As Angels Be."
"For Three Long Months She's Hunted, And, Joe, She's Nursed Me Too;
"And I Believe That She'll Be Safe Alone, My Boy, With You."
Then, But A Few Days Later, Maggie -- My Wife -- And I
Went Riding From That Valley With Teardrops In Our Eyes.
For There Beside The Cabin, Within A New-Made Grave,
We Laid Him 'Neath The Daisies, Her Uncle, Good And Brave.
Hereafter, Every Gentle Spring Will Surely Find Us There,
At His Graveside In The Valley. We'll Keep It Fresh And Fair.
Our Love Was Newly Kindled While Resting By The Stream,
And Two Hearts Were United In Love's Sweet Happy Dream,
And Now You've Heard My Story; And This You Ought To Know
That Hazel Eyes Is Happy With California Joe.
CD Review
Broken Promises, Mary McCaslin, Philo Records, 1994
This review has also been used for McCaslin's "Broken Promises" CD.
Okay, okay I have had enough. Recently I received a spate of e-mails from aging 1960's folkies asking why, other than one review of Carolyn Hester's work late in 2008, I have not done more reviews of the female folkies of the 1960's. To balance things out I begin to make amends here. To set the framework for my future reviews I repost the germane part of the Carolyn Hester review:
"Earlier this year I posed a question concerning the fates of a group of talented male folk singers like Tom Rush, Tom Paxton and Jesse Colin Young, who, although some of them are still performing or otherwise still on the musical scene have generally fallen off the radar in today's mainstream musical consciousness, except, of course, the acknowledged "king of the hill", Bob Dylan. I want to pose that same question in this entry concerning the talented female folk performers of the 1960's, except, of course, the "queen of the hill" Joan Baez. I will start out by merely rephrasing the first paragraph from the reviews of those male performers.
"If I were to ask someone, in the year 2008, to name a female folk singer from the 1960's I would assume that if I were to get an answer to that question that the name would be Joan Baez (or, maybe, Judy Collins but you get my point). And that would be a good and appropriate choice. One can endlessly dispute whether or not Baez was (or wanted to be) the female voice of the Generation of '68 but in terms of longevity and productivity she fits the bill as a known quality. However, there were a slew of other female folk singers who tried to find their niche in the folk milieu and who, like Baez, may today still quietly continue to produce work and to perform. The artist under review, Carolyn Hester, certainly had the talent to challenge Baez to be "queen of the hill."
Well, as the CD under review will testify to, the singer /songwriter Mary McCaslin also was in contention, back in the days. I am not familiar with the current status of Ms. McCaslin as a performer although I know several years ago I attended a benefit concert to raise funds for her medical needs. Nevertheless I can remember the first time I heard her in a coffeehouse in Cambridge doing Woody Guthrie's "Oklahoma Hills Back Home". And that was appropriate as Ms. McCaslin is certainly in her singing style and her songwriting interests attached to the Western United States. That tradition got an additional acknowledgement in that Cambridge performance when she brought down the house with her version of the country classic "Pass Me By If You're Only Passing Through".
That theme and, in addition, several more inward searching tracks, make this a very representative McCaslin effort. Needless to say “Way Down In Texas” sticks out on the first theme and “The Abyss” on the second. She also does a very fine version of the Beatles tune “Help”. So, all in all, whatever her later personal journey back in the days she could have been a contender for “queen of the hill”. Listen up.
Mary McCaslin - Better Late Than Never
LYRICS
ACRES OF HOUSES
I returned to my home in the valley
After way too many years
I stopped on the road, stepped out of the car
And I almost broke down there in tears
I stood and looked all around me
At the fields where the corn used to be
Two story houses, manicured yards
As far as my eye could see
Chorus:
Acres of houses on farmland
It's the saddest thing I've ever seen
We better start thinking about making a stand
Or we'll all end up on soylent green
While they don't come from south of the border
And they don't come from over the sea
They pack up their babies and move out from town
And they all look just like you and me
It's a grand old new world order
Religion and business take all
Families and brokers divide up the ground
And the meadow turns into a mall
Chorus:
Acres of houses on farmland
It's the saddest thing I've ever seen
We better start thinking about making a stand
Or we'll all end up on soylent green
THE LIGHTS OF SPARTANBURG
I've made a living with the band for 20 years or more
Days and nights from sun to sun out on the road we tour
After the Atlanta show, we drove all through the night
Crossing states to make it home sometime around daylight
You came to mind that night along the South Carolina road
Years of friendship, years of song - a treasury untold
Chorus: And I heard it on the radio
Outside of your hometown
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
the night your plane went down
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
The night your plane went down
Don't you know you made the news; your songs are on the air
I wonder why we wait to lose to show how much we care
Cars and buses, trains and planes, the highway and the sky
Seem to take a toll of names as every year goes by
Chorus: And I heard it on the radio
Outside of your hometown
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
The night your plane went down
I think about that night along the South Carolina road
Maybe from this life you've gone, but never from the fold
Chorus: And I hear the words forever more
Outside of your hometown
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
The night your plane went down
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
The night your plane went down
I saw the lights of Spartanburg
The night your plane went down
SABERS AND GUNS
Turn in your saddle and look back at home one more time
Quiet her fears with a few words that come to your mind
'Keep supper warm', you lied your brave lie when she asked
'We'll end it this evening if the Yankees don't run too damn fast'
Stop by the well, smell the sweet scent of magnolia trees
Take a cool drink of water and last look at all that you leave
Your graceful white mansions, acres of fields and green lawns
Will be ashes and ragweed, gone to seed by the time you return
Chorus: Off to war - oh just look at your hardware
With the brass shining gold in the sun
Ah, but don't you feel strong in your gray uniforms
With your shiny new sabers and guns
Wait on the hill where the road forks to go into town
To be joined by another and another, till a hundred ride down
Ride on together, form a column of soldiers so bold
Ah, the pride of the south is a grand thing indeed to behold
Charge into battle with the flame of youth hot in your breast
An army of children trying hard to be men in the test
And which of your friends stand brave and strong in the fight
And which of your friends will be left in the cold ground tonight
Chorus: Off to war - oh just look at your hardware
With the brass shining gold in the sun
Ah, but don't you feel strong in your gray uniforms
With your shiny new sabers and guns
It's all over now, there's no place to go but back home
To face all your loved ones and the people that once you did own
Plantation kingdoms passed down from fathers to sons
Could not be defended with your shiny new sabers and guns
Could not be defended with your shiny new sabers and guns
STANDING IN THE DOORWAY
Standing in the doorway of the Salvation Army
In a place where you and i could wind up any day
A scarf and sweater in a paper bag she holds so dearly
Treasures for a buck or two that someone threw away
She turns her head to look each way and steps out 0n the sidewalk
Hums a tune from some old song she learned when it was new
Starts her daily round to make a little change and small talk
Rain or shine, out on the street - it's what she has to do
Chorus: On and on the memories keep running through her mind
All the dreams of younger days left so far behind
All it takes to stay alive is give up every pleasure
A monthly check just pays the rent and leaves so little more
Every day she faces those who know they are much better
Sees 'em turns their eyes away when she comes through the door
Once a young girl held the stage with every eye upon her
Someone spent a fortune after almost every show
Now a woman stands alone, a hand out to a stranger
A far cry from the life she led so many years ago
Chorus: On and on the memories keep running through her mind
All the dreams of younger days left so far behind
Passing by the doorway of the Salvation Army
It's easier to move along and look the other way
Never stop and take the time to listen to a story
Or think about where you and I could wind up any day
MISSING
A little girl is missing - the wind begins to blow
Neighbors are out searching, but who will ever know
Why he had to pick her up, along the road that day
And take her to a lonely stop, half a mile away
Lawmen spread out all around, knock on every door
Trackers cover miles of ground, like soldiers off to war
Parents pleading on TV, for anyone to tell
Where their little girl may be, and end this living hell
Updates on the Internet, posters everywhere
Sightings in another state, leads from here and there
Faith becomes insanity - hope becomes despair
A night becomes eternity - a curse becomes a prayer
Seven long months after, she disappeared that day
She turned up where he left her, a half a mile away
The wind becomes a mother's cry, a high and mournful howl
Echoing across the sky, the night begins to fall
CALIFORNIA JOE (Jack Crawford)
Well Folks, I Don't Like Stories; Nor Am I Going To Act
Nor Part Around The Campfire What Ain't A Truthful Fact.
Fill Up Your Pipes And Listen; I'll Tell You -- Let Me See
I Think It Was In '50; From Then Till '63.
You've All Heard Tell Of Bridger? I Used To Ride With Him.
And Many A Hard Day's Scoutin' I Did 'Longside Of Jim;
And Back Near Old Fort Reno, A Trapper Used To Dwell
We Called Him Mad Jack Reynolds; The Scouts All Knew Him Well.
In The Spring Of '50, We Camped On Powder River.
We Killed A Calf Of Buffalo And Cooked A Slice Of Liver.
While Eating, Quite Contented, We Heard Three Shots Or Four
Put Out The Fires And Listened; And We Heard A Dozen More.
We All Knew Old Jack Reynolds Had Moved The Traps Up There.
So Picking Up Our Rifles And Hitching Up Our Gear,
We Moved As Quick As Lightning; To Save Was Our Desire.
Too Late, The Painted Heathens Had Set The Camp On Fire.
We Turned Our Horses Quickly And Waded Down The Stream,
And Close Beside The Water I Heard A Muffled Scream,
And There Among The Bushes A Little Girl Did Lie
I Picked Her Up And Whispered, "I'll Save You Or I'll Die."
God, What A Ride -- Old Bridger Had Covered My Retreat.
Some Times The Child Would Whisper In A Voice So Low And Sweet,
"Dear Papa, God Will Take You To Mama Up Above.
There's No One Left To Love Me; There's No One Left To Love."
The Little Girl Was Thirteen; And I Was Twenty-Two.
Said I, "I'll Be Your Papa, And I'll Love You Just As True."
She Nestled To My Bosom, Her Hazel Eyes So Bright
Looked Up And Made Me Happy Through The Close Pursuit That Night.
One Year Had Passed When Maggie -- We Called Her Hazel Eyes
In Truth Was Going To Leave Me; Had Come To Say Goodbye.
Her Uncle, Mad Jack Reynolds, Long Since Reported Dead
Had Come To Claim My Angel, His Brother's Child, He Said.
What Could I Say? We Parted. Mad Jack Was Growing Old.
I Handed Him A Banknote And All I Had In Gold.
They Rode Away At Sunrise; I Went A Mile Or Two.
In Parting Said, "We'll Meet Again; May God Watch Over You."
While Resting By A Babbling Brook A Little Cabin Stood,
And Weary From The Long Day's Ride I Saw It In The Wood.
The Pleasant Valley Stretched Beyond The Mountains Towered Above
Like Some Painted Picture, Or A Well-Told Tale Of Love.
Drinking In The Sweetness And Resting In The Saddle,
I Heard A Gentle Rippling, Like The Dipping Of A Paddle,
And, Turning Toward The Water, A Strange Sight Met My View
A Pretty Girl Was Seated In A Little Birch Canoe.
She Stood Up In The Center, Her Rifle To Her Eye.
I Thought For Just A Moment My Time Had Come To Die,
So I Tipped My Hat And Told Her, If It Was All The Same,
To Drop Her Little Shooter, As I Was Not Her Game.
She Dropped Her Deadly Weapon And She Leaped From Her Canoe.
She Said, "I Beg Your Pardon; I Thought You Were A Sioux.
Your Long Hair And Your Buckskins Looked Warrior-Like And Rough.
My Bead Was Spoiled By Sunlight, Or I'd 'A Killed You Sure Enough."
"Well, Perhaps It Would Be Better Had You Killed Me Here" Said I.
"For Surely Such An Angel Could Bear Me To The Sky."
She Blushed And Dropped Her Eyelids; Her Face Was Crimson Red.
One Shy Glance She Gave Me And Then Hung Down Her Head.
Then Her Arm Flew 'Round Me. "I'll Save You Or I'll Die."
I Held Her To My Bosom, My Long-Lost Hazel Eyes.
The Rapture Of That Moment Was Heaven Unto Me.
I Kissed Her Then, Amid Her Tears, Her Merriment And Glee.
Her Heart 'Gainst Mine Was Beating When Sobbingly She Said,
"My Dear Long-Lost Preserver, They Told Me You Were Dead.
The Man Who Claimed Me From You, My Uncle, Good And True
Lies Ill In Yonder Cabin, And He Talks So Much Of You."
"'If Joe Were Living, Darling,' He Said To Me Last Night,
"'He'd Care For You, Dear Maggie, When God Puts Out My Light.'"
We Found The Old Man Sleeping; "Hush, Maggie -- Let Him Rest."
The Sun Was Slowly Sinking In The Far-Off Golden West.
Although We Spoke In Whispers, He Opened Up His Eyes.
"A Dream, A Dream," He Murmured, "Alas! A Dream Of Lies."
She Drifted Like A Shadow To Where The Old Man Lay
"You've Had A Dream, Dear Uncle, Another Dream Today."
"Oh Yes I Saw An Angel, As Pure As Drifted Snow,
And Standing Close Beside Her Was California Joe."
She Said, "I'm Not An Angel, Dear Uncle, This You Know;
"These Little Hands And This Face Were Never White As Snow."
"But Listen While I Tell You, For I Have News To Cheer
Your Hazel Eyes Is Happy, For Truly Joe Is Here."
Then, But A Few Days Later, The Old Man Said To Me,
"Joe, Boy, She Is An Angel, Or As Good As Angels Be."
"For Three Long Months She's Hunted, And, Joe, She's Nursed Me Too;
"And I Believe That She'll Be Safe Alone, My Boy, With You."
Then, But A Few Days Later, Maggie -- My Wife -- And I
Went Riding From That Valley With Teardrops In Our Eyes.
For There Beside The Cabin, Within A New-Made Grave,
We Laid Him 'Neath The Daisies, Her Uncle, Good And Brave.
Hereafter, Every Gentle Spring Will Surely Find Us There,
At His Graveside In The Valley. We'll Keep It Fresh And Fair.
Our Love Was Newly Kindled While Resting By The Stream,
And Two Hearts Were United In Love's Sweet Happy Dream,
And Now You've Heard My Story; And This You Ought To Know
That Hazel Eyes Is Happy With California Joe.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
*Labor's Untold Story- Lessons Of The Minneapolis Teamsters Strikes Of 1934- A Communist Perspective
Click on title to link to a "Workers Vanguard" article, Number 940, July 31, 2009, commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the famous Minneapolis Teamsters Strikes that went a long way toward organizing the local truckers, and later the over-the-road drivers into one powerful international industrial union. Academic historians can draw one set of conclusions from a study of that struggle, communists, as here need to draw the practical political lessons for when that next big labor upsurge takes place. Be ready, and be ready for anything they throw at us. Read this article for starters, especially about the tactics of the capitalist opposition and the appropriate militant labor response.
Labor's Untold Story- William Z. Foster And The Union Organizing Struggles Of 1919
Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for labor organizer and American Communist Party leader William Z. Foster in his early, pre-Stalinist days. He will be the subject of much more discussion about early communist work in the trade unions and about his Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) that was a proto-type for a political labor caucus in the unions.
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- William Z. Foster And The Trade Union Educational League (TUEL)
Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for William Z. Foster and his Trade Union Educational League (TUEL), a proto-type for a political labor caucus within the trade unions.
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'Untold Story- The Historic Minneapolis Teamsters Strikes Of 1934 In Pictures
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of the great Minneapolis Teamsters strikes of 1934. The class struggle continues.
Every month is labor history month.
Every month is labor history month.
*Labor's Untold Story-Honor The 75th Anniversary Of The Minneapolis Teamsters' Strikes
Click On Title To Link To James P. Cannon's Writings On The Great Minneapolis Teamsters Strikes Of 1934
Commentary
This year marks the 75th Anniversary of three great labor struggles that ended in victory in heart of the Great Depression(the 1930s version of what we, at least partially, confront today); the great General Strike in San Francisco that was led by the dockers and sailor unions and brought victory on the key issue of the union hiring hall (since then greatly emasculated); the great Minneapolis Teamster strikes that led to the unionization of truck drivers and allied workers in that labor-hating town and later to the organizing of over-the-road drivers that created one of the strongest (if corrupt) unions in North America; and, the Toledo Auto-Lite Strike whose key component was leadership by the unemployed workers. Does all of this sound familiar? Yes and no. Yes, to labor militants who, looking to a way out of the impasse of the condition of today's quiescent labor movement, have studied these labor actions. No, to the vast majority of workers who are either not organized or are clueless about their history. In either case, though, these actions provide a thread to how we must struggle in the future. Although 75 years seems like a long time ago the issues posed then have not gone away. Far from it. Study this labor history now to be ready to struggle when we get our openings.
*******
This year is the 75th Anniversary of the great Minneapolis Teamsters strikes that paved the way to the later over-the road trucker unionization that was to make the Teamsters Union one of the strongest unions (if at the same time one of the most corrupt but that is a story for another time). Here is a 1934 article by Socialist Workers Party(SWP) (then Communist League Of America)leader James P. Cannon who was also a key leader behind the scenes (and not so behind the scenes when the law came looking to arrest him and Max Schachtman) about the lessons to be learned by labor militants from that great series of strike actions. I also recommend "Teamster Rebellion" and "Teamster Power" by local Teamsters leader and later SWP leader Farrell Dobbs. Those books trace the rank and file struggle and the later over-the road fight that he was instrumental in leading.
James P. Cannon
The New International
1934
Minneapolis and its Meaning
June 1934
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written: 1934
Source: The New International. Original bound volumes of The New International and microfilm provided by the Holt Labor Library, San Francisco, California.
Transcription\HTML Markup:Andrew Pollack
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Standing by itself, the magnificent strike of the Minneapolis truck drivers would merit recognition as an extraordinary event in modem American labor history. Its connection with the second wave of labor struggles to sweep the country since the inception of the NRA, however, and its indubitable place as the high point of the present strike wave, invest the Minneapolis demonstration with an exceptional importance. Therefore it has come by right to be the subject of serious and attentive study and of heated discussion. This discussion, despite all the partisan prejudice and misrepresentation injected into it, is bound on the whole to have a profitable result. The best approach to the trade union question, the key question of revolutionary politics in the United States, is through the study and discussion of concrete examples.
The second strike wave under the NRA raises higher than the first and marks a big forward stride of the American working class. The enormous potentialities of future developments are clearly written in this advance. The native militancy of the workers, so impressively demonstrated on every strike front in recent months, needs only to be fused with an authentic leadership which brings organization, consciousness, and the spirit of determined struggle into the movement. Minneapolis was an example of such a fusion. That is what lifted the drivers’ strike out above the general run. Therein lies its great significance—as an anticipation, if only on a comparatively small, local scale, of future developments in the labor movement of the country. The determining role of policy and leadership was disclosed with singular emphasis in the Minneapolis battle.
The main features of the present strike wave, on the background of which the Minneapolis example must be considered, are easily distinguishable. Now, as in the labor upsurge of last year, the attitude of the workers toward the NRA occupies a central place. But the attitude is somewhat different than it was before. The messianic faith in the Roosevelt administration which characterized the strike movement of a year ago and which, to a certain extent, provided the initial impulse for the movement, has largely disappeared and given place to skeptical distrust. It is hardly correct, however, to say, as some revolutionary wishful thinkers are saying, that the current strikes are consciously directed against the NRA. There is little or no evidence to support such a bald assertion.
It is more in keeping with reality to say that the striking workers now depend primarily on their own organization and fighting capacity and expect little or nothing from the source to which, a short year ago, they looked for everything. Nevertheless they are not yet ready even to ignore the NRA, to say nothing of fighting against it directly. What has actually taken place has been a heavy shift in emphasis from faith in the NRA to reliance on their own strength.
In these great struggles the American workers, in all parts of the country, are displaying the unrestrained militancy of a class that is just beginning to awaken. This is a new generation of a class that has not been defeated. On the contrary, it is only now beginning to find itself and to feel its strength. And in these first, tentative conflicts the proletarian giant gives a glorious promise for the future. The present generation remains true to the tradition of American labor; it is boldly aggressive and violent from the start. The American worker is no Quaker. Further developments of the class struggle will bring plenty of fighting in the USA.
It is also a distinct feature of the second strike wave, and those who want to understand and adjust themselves to the general trend of the movement should mark it well, that the organization drives and the strikes, barring incidental exceptions, are conducted within the framework of the AFL unions. The exceptions are important and should not be disregarded. At any rate, the movement begins there. Only those who foresaw this trend and synchronized their activities with it have been able to play a part in the recent strikes and to influence them from within.
The central aim and aspiration of the workers, that is, of the newly organized workers who are pressing the fight on every front, is to establish their organizations firmly. The first and foremost demand in every struggle is: recognition of the union. With unerring instinct the workers seek first of all the protection of an organization.
William S. Brown, president of the Minneapolis union, expressed the sentiment of all the strikers in every industry in his statement: “The union felt that wage agreements are not much protection to a union man unless first there is definite assurance that the union man will be protected in his job.” The strike wave sweeping the country in the second year of the NRA is in its very essence a struggle for the right of organization. The outcome of every strike is to be estimated primarily by its success or failure in enforcing the recognition of the union.
And from this point of view the results in general are not so rosy. The workers manifested a mighty impulse for organization, and in many cases they fought heroically. But they have yet to attain their first objective. The auto settlement, which established the recognition of the company union rather than the unions of the workers, weighs heavily on the whole labor situation. The workers everywhere have to pay for the precedent set in this industry of such great strategic importance. From all appearances the steelworkers are going to be caught in the same runaround. The New York hotel strike failed to establish the union. The New York taxi drivers got no union recognition, or anything else. Not a single of the “red” unions affiliated to the Trade Union Unity League has succeeded in gaining recognition. Even the great battle of Toledo appears to have been concluded without the attainment of this primary demand.
The American workers are on the march. They are organizing by the hundreds of thousands. They are fighting to establish their new unions firmly and compel the bosses to recognize them. But in the overwhelming majority of cases they have yet to win this fundamental demand.
In the light of this general situation the results of the Minneapolis strike stand out preeminent and unique. Judged in comparison with the struggles of the other newly formed unions—and that is the only sensible criterion—the Minneapolis settlement, itself a compromise, has to be recorded as a victory of the first order. In gaining recognition of the union, and in proceeding to enforce it the day following the settlement, General Drivers Union No. 574 has set a pace for all the new unions in the country. The outcome was not accidental either. Policy, method, leadership—these were the determining factors at Minneapolis which the aspiring workers everywhere ought to study and follow.
The medium of organization in Minneapolis was a craft union of the AFL, and one of the most conservative of the AFL Internationals at that. This course was deliberately chosen by the organizers of the fight in conformity with the general trend of the movement, although they are by no means worshippers of the AFL. Despite the obvious limitations of this antiquated form of organization it proved to be sufficient for the occasion thanks to a liberal construction of the jurisdictional limits of the union. Affiliation with the AFL afforded other compensating advantages. The new union was thereby placed in direct contact with the general labor movement and was enabled to draw on it for support. This was a decisive element in the outcome. The organized labor movement, and with it practically the entire working class of Minneapolis, was lined up behind the strike. Out of a union with the most conservative tradition and obsolete structure came the most militant and successful strike.
The stormy militancy of the strike, which electrified the whole labor movement, is too well known to need recounting here. The results also are known, among them the not unimportant detail that the serious casualties were suffered by the other side. True enough, the striking workers nearly everywhere have fought with great courage. But here also the Minneapolis strike was marked by certain different and distinct aspects which are of fundamental importance. In other places, as a rule, the strike militancy surged from below and was checked and restrained by the leaders. In Minneapolis it was organized and directed by the leaders. In most of the other strikes the leaders blunted the edge of the fight where they could not head it off altogether, as in the case of the auto workers—and preached reliance on the NRA, on General Johnson, or the president. In Minneapolis the leaders taught the workers to fight for their rights and fought with them.
This conception of the leadership, that the establishment of the union was to be attained only by struggle, shaped the course of action not only during the ten-day strike but in every step that led to it. That explains why the strike was prepared and organized so thoroughly. Minneapolis never before saw such a well-organized strike, and it is doubtful if its like, from the standpoint of organization, has often been seen anywhere on this continent.
Having no illusions about the reasonableness of the bosses or the beneficence of the NRA, and sowing none in the ranks, the leadership calculated the whole campaign on the certainty of a strike and made everything ready for it. When the hour struck the union was ready, down to the last detail of organization. “If the preparations made by their union for handling it are any indication,” wrote the Minneapolis Tribune on the eve of the. conflict, “the strike of the truck drivers in Minneapolis is going to be a far-reaching affair. . . . Even before the official start of the strike at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday the ’General Headquarters’ organization set up at 1900 Chicago Avenue was operating with all the precision of a military organization.”
This spirit of determined struggle was combined at the same time with a realistic appraisal of the relation of forces and the limited objectives of the fight. Without this all the preparations and all the militancy of the strikers might well have been wasted and brought the reaction of a crushing defeat. The strike was understood to be a preliminary, partial struggle, with the objective of establishing the union and compelling the bosses to recognize it. When they got that, they stopped and called it a day.
The strong union that has emerged from the strike will be able to fight again and to protect its membership in the meantime. The accomplishment is modest enough. But if we want to play an effective part in the labor movement, we must not allow ourselves to forget that the American working class is just beginning to move on the path of the class struggle and, in its great majority, stands yet before the first task of establishing stable unions. Those who understand the task of the day and accomplish it prepare the future. The others merely chatter.
As in every strike of any consequence, the workers involved in the Minneapolis struggle also had an opportunity to see the government at work and to learn some practical lessons as to its real function. The police force of the city, under the direction of the Republican mayor, supplemented by a horde of “special deputies,” were lined up solidly on the side of the bosses. The police and deputies did their best to protect the strikebreakers and keep some trucks moving, although their best was not good enough. The mobilization of the militia by the Farmer-Labor governor was a threat against the strikers, even if the militiamen were not put on the street. The strikers will remember that threat. In a sense it can be said that the political education of a large section of the strikers began with this experience. It is sheer lunacy, however to imagine that it was completed and that the strikers, practically all of whom voted yesterday for Roosevelt and Olson, could have been led into a prolonged strike for purely political aims after the primary demand for the recognition of the union had been won.
Yet this is the premise upon which all the Stalinist criticism of the strike leadership is based. Governor Olson, declared Bill Dunne in the Daily Worker, was the “main enemy.” And having convinced himself on this point, he continued: “The exposure and defeat of Olson should have been the central political objective of the Minneapolis struggle.” Nor did he stop even there. Wound up and going strong by this time, and lacking the friendly advice of a Harpo Marx who would explain the wisdom of keeping the mouth shut when the head is not clear, he decided to go to the limit, so he added: “This [exposure and defeat of Olson] was the basic necessity for winning the economic demands for the Drivers Union and the rest of the working class.”
There it is, Mr. Ripley, whether you believe it or not. This is the thesis, the “political line,” laid down for the Minneapolis truck drivers in the Daily Worker. For the sake of this thesis, it is contended that negotiations for the settlement of he strike should have been rejected unless the state troopers were demobilized, and a general strike should have been proclaimed “over the heads of the Central Labor Council and state federation of labor officials.” Dunne only neglected to add: over the heads of the workers also, including the truck drivers.
For the workers of Minneapolis, including the striking drivers, didn’t understand the situation in this light at all, and leaders who proceeded on such an assumption would have found themselves without followers. The workers of Minneapolis, like the striking workers all over the country, understand the “central objective” to be the recognition of the union. The leaders were in full harmony with them on this question; they stuck to this objective; and when it was attained, they did not attempt to parade the workers through a general strike for the sake of exercise or for “the defeat of Governor Olson.” For one reason, it was not the right thing to do. And, for another reason, they couldn’t have done it if they had tried.
The arguments of Bill Dunne regarding the Minneapolis “betrayal” could have a logical meaning only to one who construed the situation as revolutionary and aimed at an insurrection. We, of course, are for the revolution. But not today, not in a single city. There is a certain unconscious tribute to the “Trotskyists”—and not an inappropriate one—in the fact that so much was demanded of them in Minneapolis. But Bill Dunne, who is more at home with proverbs than with politics, should recall the one which says, “every vegetable has its season.” It was the season for an armed battle in Germany in the early part of 1933. In America in 1934, it is the season for organizing the workers, leading them in strikes, and compelling the bosses to recognize their unions. The mistake of all the Stalinists, Bill Dunne among them, in misjudging the weather in Germany in 1933 was a tragedy. In America in 1934 it is a farce.
The strike wave of last year was only a prelude to the surging movement we witness today. And just as the present movement goes deeper and strikes harder than the first, so does it prepare the way for a third movement which will surpass it in scope, aggressiveness, and militancy. Frustrated in their aspirations for organization by misplaced faith in the Roosevelt administration, and by the black treachery of the official labor bureaucracy, the workers will take the road of struggle again with firmer determination and clearer aims. And they will seek for better leaders. Then the new left wing of the labor movement can have its day. The revolutionary militants can bound forward in mighty leaps and come to the head of large sections of the movement if they know how to grasp their opportunities and understand their tasks. For this they must be politically organized and work together as a disciplined body; they must forge the new party of the Fourth International without delay. They must get inside the developing movement, regardless of its initial form, stay inside, and shape its course from within.
They must demonstrate a capacity for organization as well as agitation, for responsibility as well as for militancy. They must convince the workers of their ability not only to organize and lead strikes aggressively, but also to settle them advantageously at the right time and consolidate the gains. In a word, the modem militants of the labor movement have the task of gaining the confidence of the workers in their ability to lead the movement all the year round and to advance the interests of the workers all the time.
On this condition the new left wing of the trade unions can take shape and grow with rapid strides. And the left wing, in turn, will be the foundation of the new party, the genuine communist party. On a local scale, in a small sector of the labor movement, the Minneapolis comrades have set an example which shows the way. The International Communists have every right to be proud of this example and hold it up as a model to study and follow.
Commentary
This year marks the 75th Anniversary of three great labor struggles that ended in victory in heart of the Great Depression(the 1930s version of what we, at least partially, confront today); the great General Strike in San Francisco that was led by the dockers and sailor unions and brought victory on the key issue of the union hiring hall (since then greatly emasculated); the great Minneapolis Teamster strikes that led to the unionization of truck drivers and allied workers in that labor-hating town and later to the organizing of over-the-road drivers that created one of the strongest (if corrupt) unions in North America; and, the Toledo Auto-Lite Strike whose key component was leadership by the unemployed workers. Does all of this sound familiar? Yes and no. Yes, to labor militants who, looking to a way out of the impasse of the condition of today's quiescent labor movement, have studied these labor actions. No, to the vast majority of workers who are either not organized or are clueless about their history. In either case, though, these actions provide a thread to how we must struggle in the future. Although 75 years seems like a long time ago the issues posed then have not gone away. Far from it. Study this labor history now to be ready to struggle when we get our openings.
*******
This year is the 75th Anniversary of the great Minneapolis Teamsters strikes that paved the way to the later over-the road trucker unionization that was to make the Teamsters Union one of the strongest unions (if at the same time one of the most corrupt but that is a story for another time). Here is a 1934 article by Socialist Workers Party(SWP) (then Communist League Of America)leader James P. Cannon who was also a key leader behind the scenes (and not so behind the scenes when the law came looking to arrest him and Max Schachtman) about the lessons to be learned by labor militants from that great series of strike actions. I also recommend "Teamster Rebellion" and "Teamster Power" by local Teamsters leader and later SWP leader Farrell Dobbs. Those books trace the rank and file struggle and the later over-the road fight that he was instrumental in leading.
James P. Cannon
The New International
1934
Minneapolis and its Meaning
June 1934
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Written: 1934
Source: The New International. Original bound volumes of The New International and microfilm provided by the Holt Labor Library, San Francisco, California.
Transcription\HTML Markup:Andrew Pollack
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Standing by itself, the magnificent strike of the Minneapolis truck drivers would merit recognition as an extraordinary event in modem American labor history. Its connection with the second wave of labor struggles to sweep the country since the inception of the NRA, however, and its indubitable place as the high point of the present strike wave, invest the Minneapolis demonstration with an exceptional importance. Therefore it has come by right to be the subject of serious and attentive study and of heated discussion. This discussion, despite all the partisan prejudice and misrepresentation injected into it, is bound on the whole to have a profitable result. The best approach to the trade union question, the key question of revolutionary politics in the United States, is through the study and discussion of concrete examples.
The second strike wave under the NRA raises higher than the first and marks a big forward stride of the American working class. The enormous potentialities of future developments are clearly written in this advance. The native militancy of the workers, so impressively demonstrated on every strike front in recent months, needs only to be fused with an authentic leadership which brings organization, consciousness, and the spirit of determined struggle into the movement. Minneapolis was an example of such a fusion. That is what lifted the drivers’ strike out above the general run. Therein lies its great significance—as an anticipation, if only on a comparatively small, local scale, of future developments in the labor movement of the country. The determining role of policy and leadership was disclosed with singular emphasis in the Minneapolis battle.
The main features of the present strike wave, on the background of which the Minneapolis example must be considered, are easily distinguishable. Now, as in the labor upsurge of last year, the attitude of the workers toward the NRA occupies a central place. But the attitude is somewhat different than it was before. The messianic faith in the Roosevelt administration which characterized the strike movement of a year ago and which, to a certain extent, provided the initial impulse for the movement, has largely disappeared and given place to skeptical distrust. It is hardly correct, however, to say, as some revolutionary wishful thinkers are saying, that the current strikes are consciously directed against the NRA. There is little or no evidence to support such a bald assertion.
It is more in keeping with reality to say that the striking workers now depend primarily on their own organization and fighting capacity and expect little or nothing from the source to which, a short year ago, they looked for everything. Nevertheless they are not yet ready even to ignore the NRA, to say nothing of fighting against it directly. What has actually taken place has been a heavy shift in emphasis from faith in the NRA to reliance on their own strength.
In these great struggles the American workers, in all parts of the country, are displaying the unrestrained militancy of a class that is just beginning to awaken. This is a new generation of a class that has not been defeated. On the contrary, it is only now beginning to find itself and to feel its strength. And in these first, tentative conflicts the proletarian giant gives a glorious promise for the future. The present generation remains true to the tradition of American labor; it is boldly aggressive and violent from the start. The American worker is no Quaker. Further developments of the class struggle will bring plenty of fighting in the USA.
It is also a distinct feature of the second strike wave, and those who want to understand and adjust themselves to the general trend of the movement should mark it well, that the organization drives and the strikes, barring incidental exceptions, are conducted within the framework of the AFL unions. The exceptions are important and should not be disregarded. At any rate, the movement begins there. Only those who foresaw this trend and synchronized their activities with it have been able to play a part in the recent strikes and to influence them from within.
The central aim and aspiration of the workers, that is, of the newly organized workers who are pressing the fight on every front, is to establish their organizations firmly. The first and foremost demand in every struggle is: recognition of the union. With unerring instinct the workers seek first of all the protection of an organization.
William S. Brown, president of the Minneapolis union, expressed the sentiment of all the strikers in every industry in his statement: “The union felt that wage agreements are not much protection to a union man unless first there is definite assurance that the union man will be protected in his job.” The strike wave sweeping the country in the second year of the NRA is in its very essence a struggle for the right of organization. The outcome of every strike is to be estimated primarily by its success or failure in enforcing the recognition of the union.
And from this point of view the results in general are not so rosy. The workers manifested a mighty impulse for organization, and in many cases they fought heroically. But they have yet to attain their first objective. The auto settlement, which established the recognition of the company union rather than the unions of the workers, weighs heavily on the whole labor situation. The workers everywhere have to pay for the precedent set in this industry of such great strategic importance. From all appearances the steelworkers are going to be caught in the same runaround. The New York hotel strike failed to establish the union. The New York taxi drivers got no union recognition, or anything else. Not a single of the “red” unions affiliated to the Trade Union Unity League has succeeded in gaining recognition. Even the great battle of Toledo appears to have been concluded without the attainment of this primary demand.
The American workers are on the march. They are organizing by the hundreds of thousands. They are fighting to establish their new unions firmly and compel the bosses to recognize them. But in the overwhelming majority of cases they have yet to win this fundamental demand.
In the light of this general situation the results of the Minneapolis strike stand out preeminent and unique. Judged in comparison with the struggles of the other newly formed unions—and that is the only sensible criterion—the Minneapolis settlement, itself a compromise, has to be recorded as a victory of the first order. In gaining recognition of the union, and in proceeding to enforce it the day following the settlement, General Drivers Union No. 574 has set a pace for all the new unions in the country. The outcome was not accidental either. Policy, method, leadership—these were the determining factors at Minneapolis which the aspiring workers everywhere ought to study and follow.
The medium of organization in Minneapolis was a craft union of the AFL, and one of the most conservative of the AFL Internationals at that. This course was deliberately chosen by the organizers of the fight in conformity with the general trend of the movement, although they are by no means worshippers of the AFL. Despite the obvious limitations of this antiquated form of organization it proved to be sufficient for the occasion thanks to a liberal construction of the jurisdictional limits of the union. Affiliation with the AFL afforded other compensating advantages. The new union was thereby placed in direct contact with the general labor movement and was enabled to draw on it for support. This was a decisive element in the outcome. The organized labor movement, and with it practically the entire working class of Minneapolis, was lined up behind the strike. Out of a union with the most conservative tradition and obsolete structure came the most militant and successful strike.
The stormy militancy of the strike, which electrified the whole labor movement, is too well known to need recounting here. The results also are known, among them the not unimportant detail that the serious casualties were suffered by the other side. True enough, the striking workers nearly everywhere have fought with great courage. But here also the Minneapolis strike was marked by certain different and distinct aspects which are of fundamental importance. In other places, as a rule, the strike militancy surged from below and was checked and restrained by the leaders. In Minneapolis it was organized and directed by the leaders. In most of the other strikes the leaders blunted the edge of the fight where they could not head it off altogether, as in the case of the auto workers—and preached reliance on the NRA, on General Johnson, or the president. In Minneapolis the leaders taught the workers to fight for their rights and fought with them.
This conception of the leadership, that the establishment of the union was to be attained only by struggle, shaped the course of action not only during the ten-day strike but in every step that led to it. That explains why the strike was prepared and organized so thoroughly. Minneapolis never before saw such a well-organized strike, and it is doubtful if its like, from the standpoint of organization, has often been seen anywhere on this continent.
Having no illusions about the reasonableness of the bosses or the beneficence of the NRA, and sowing none in the ranks, the leadership calculated the whole campaign on the certainty of a strike and made everything ready for it. When the hour struck the union was ready, down to the last detail of organization. “If the preparations made by their union for handling it are any indication,” wrote the Minneapolis Tribune on the eve of the. conflict, “the strike of the truck drivers in Minneapolis is going to be a far-reaching affair. . . . Even before the official start of the strike at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday the ’General Headquarters’ organization set up at 1900 Chicago Avenue was operating with all the precision of a military organization.”
This spirit of determined struggle was combined at the same time with a realistic appraisal of the relation of forces and the limited objectives of the fight. Without this all the preparations and all the militancy of the strikers might well have been wasted and brought the reaction of a crushing defeat. The strike was understood to be a preliminary, partial struggle, with the objective of establishing the union and compelling the bosses to recognize it. When they got that, they stopped and called it a day.
The strong union that has emerged from the strike will be able to fight again and to protect its membership in the meantime. The accomplishment is modest enough. But if we want to play an effective part in the labor movement, we must not allow ourselves to forget that the American working class is just beginning to move on the path of the class struggle and, in its great majority, stands yet before the first task of establishing stable unions. Those who understand the task of the day and accomplish it prepare the future. The others merely chatter.
As in every strike of any consequence, the workers involved in the Minneapolis struggle also had an opportunity to see the government at work and to learn some practical lessons as to its real function. The police force of the city, under the direction of the Republican mayor, supplemented by a horde of “special deputies,” were lined up solidly on the side of the bosses. The police and deputies did their best to protect the strikebreakers and keep some trucks moving, although their best was not good enough. The mobilization of the militia by the Farmer-Labor governor was a threat against the strikers, even if the militiamen were not put on the street. The strikers will remember that threat. In a sense it can be said that the political education of a large section of the strikers began with this experience. It is sheer lunacy, however to imagine that it was completed and that the strikers, practically all of whom voted yesterday for Roosevelt and Olson, could have been led into a prolonged strike for purely political aims after the primary demand for the recognition of the union had been won.
Yet this is the premise upon which all the Stalinist criticism of the strike leadership is based. Governor Olson, declared Bill Dunne in the Daily Worker, was the “main enemy.” And having convinced himself on this point, he continued: “The exposure and defeat of Olson should have been the central political objective of the Minneapolis struggle.” Nor did he stop even there. Wound up and going strong by this time, and lacking the friendly advice of a Harpo Marx who would explain the wisdom of keeping the mouth shut when the head is not clear, he decided to go to the limit, so he added: “This [exposure and defeat of Olson] was the basic necessity for winning the economic demands for the Drivers Union and the rest of the working class.”
There it is, Mr. Ripley, whether you believe it or not. This is the thesis, the “political line,” laid down for the Minneapolis truck drivers in the Daily Worker. For the sake of this thesis, it is contended that negotiations for the settlement of he strike should have been rejected unless the state troopers were demobilized, and a general strike should have been proclaimed “over the heads of the Central Labor Council and state federation of labor officials.” Dunne only neglected to add: over the heads of the workers also, including the truck drivers.
For the workers of Minneapolis, including the striking drivers, didn’t understand the situation in this light at all, and leaders who proceeded on such an assumption would have found themselves without followers. The workers of Minneapolis, like the striking workers all over the country, understand the “central objective” to be the recognition of the union. The leaders were in full harmony with them on this question; they stuck to this objective; and when it was attained, they did not attempt to parade the workers through a general strike for the sake of exercise or for “the defeat of Governor Olson.” For one reason, it was not the right thing to do. And, for another reason, they couldn’t have done it if they had tried.
The arguments of Bill Dunne regarding the Minneapolis “betrayal” could have a logical meaning only to one who construed the situation as revolutionary and aimed at an insurrection. We, of course, are for the revolution. But not today, not in a single city. There is a certain unconscious tribute to the “Trotskyists”—and not an inappropriate one—in the fact that so much was demanded of them in Minneapolis. But Bill Dunne, who is more at home with proverbs than with politics, should recall the one which says, “every vegetable has its season.” It was the season for an armed battle in Germany in the early part of 1933. In America in 1934, it is the season for organizing the workers, leading them in strikes, and compelling the bosses to recognize their unions. The mistake of all the Stalinists, Bill Dunne among them, in misjudging the weather in Germany in 1933 was a tragedy. In America in 1934 it is a farce.
The strike wave of last year was only a prelude to the surging movement we witness today. And just as the present movement goes deeper and strikes harder than the first, so does it prepare the way for a third movement which will surpass it in scope, aggressiveness, and militancy. Frustrated in their aspirations for organization by misplaced faith in the Roosevelt administration, and by the black treachery of the official labor bureaucracy, the workers will take the road of struggle again with firmer determination and clearer aims. And they will seek for better leaders. Then the new left wing of the labor movement can have its day. The revolutionary militants can bound forward in mighty leaps and come to the head of large sections of the movement if they know how to grasp their opportunities and understand their tasks. For this they must be politically organized and work together as a disciplined body; they must forge the new party of the Fourth International without delay. They must get inside the developing movement, regardless of its initial form, stay inside, and shape its course from within.
They must demonstrate a capacity for organization as well as agitation, for responsibility as well as for militancy. They must convince the workers of their ability not only to organize and lead strikes aggressively, but also to settle them advantageously at the right time and consolidate the gains. In a word, the modem militants of the labor movement have the task of gaining the confidence of the workers in their ability to lead the movement all the year round and to advance the interests of the workers all the time.
On this condition the new left wing of the trade unions can take shape and grow with rapid strides. And the left wing, in turn, will be the foundation of the new party, the genuine communist party. On a local scale, in a small sector of the labor movement, the Minneapolis comrades have set an example which shows the way. The International Communists have every right to be proud of this example and hold it up as a model to study and follow.
Friday, September 11, 2009
*Labor's Untold Story- The Twisted Political Career Of Communist Party Leader William Z. Foster
Click on title to link to James P. Cannon's article (in the form of letters in 1954 to historian of the early American Communist Party, Theodore Draper)about the political perspective of William Z. Foster in the early days when they were political associates. Very interesting reading about Foster's political appetites and direction early 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.
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