From The Pen Of Peter Paul Markin-Out In The Be-Bop 1950s Night- Out In The Adventure Car Hop Night

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of the Dubs performing the classic Could This Be Magic? to set the mood for this piece.

Now 1957 was a good year for rock, for "boss" cars, and for car hops if you could keep them, the car hops that is, at least that was what some of the older guys told me later. Of course all such details about “hot” car hops as were related should have been taken with the grain of salt, although they were not always by me anyway. To heard some of the talk, and here I am thinking of my old time high school corner boy king, Frankie Riley, these hard-pressed and abused young women could hardly keep their hands off these guys rather than worry about getting the orders right, did you have a Coke with that burger or Pepsi?, that kind of stuff which was probably more like it. But the pressure, the male peer pressure to come up with spicy (and improbable) tales at before school Monday boys’ “lav” bull sessions dictated such fables. Rightly so, as well, if you wanted to be “cool,” including some tall tales told by this writer.

In 1957 though my drive-in restaurant experiences were limited to, when we had a car, a working car in our family which was an iffy proposition at best, sitting in the back seat of some beat up sedan, maybe a Hudson or Studebaker strictly from hunger, waiting during the daytime (the night belonged to the teens and no self-respecting or smart parent would bring tender children to such a devils’ den place at night) for some cold plastic hamburger with fries. Coke or Pepsi (although I graduated to Robb’s Root Beer, a local elixir, at some point because that is all I would drink for soda (then called tonic in New England). Jesus.

But the music was on fire that year as the breakout of the previous couple of years hit the pre-teen (me and my boys) audience that was just as starved for its own not good housekeeping-parent-seal-of-approval music as the older kids. Swiveling Elvis, duck-walking Chuck Berry, Mad man piano buster Little Richard, Bo Diddley (who made a very early and strong claim with that Afro-Carib beat and that incredible drum line to be the guy, the mad monk, who put the rock in rock and roll), Jerry Lee also busting up the black and whites, and a ton of other talent was hitting the airwaves so that if you tired of hearing one song after the one thousandth consecutive playing on your record player you could move right on.

Some years in those days, I believe reflecting banner years, had a ton of good stuff to listen to and in line with that premise one would today find multiple CDs (with about twenty plus songs on each one remember the songs then were about two and one half minutes or so) dedicated to the greatest hits for that year. For 1957, which had at least a magic two CDs worth we were in very heaven because one could hardly do the trick with just one CD. No way. Stick outs then included Chuck Berry’s Rock & Roll Music (Christ, he had about ten hits in those years and most of them still crank up the teen-memory dark night air with their electricity); The Platters’ classic last dance, school dance I’m Sorry (oh, please, please save that last dance for me certain she that I have eyed until my eyes got sore all night, and she, certain she, peeked at me too); Little Richard’s Jenny, Jenny (another guy who had a ton of hit in a short period, although they haven't worn as well as Chuck's); and Fats Domino’s Blue Monday (yah, back to school days Monday blahs, except for Monday morning boys' "lav" bragging rights if that certain she I just mentioned really did mean to look my way for that last dance, otherwise why have a Monday anyway). Those are just the icing on the cake to make you (me) wish, wish to high heaven that I was older, and had a boss ’57 Chevy so I too could take a run at those car hops and complain, also to high heaven, about those plastic hamburgers and fries to someone that mattered.

RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLEGED WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER PRIVATE BRADLEY MANNING AT THE DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HDQTRS.-SEMPTEMBER 6, 2012-2:00 PM

Click on headline to link to BM Rally Facebook event page.

RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLEGED WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER PRIVATE BRADLEY MANNING AT THE DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HDQTRS.-SEMPTEMBER 6, 2012-2:00 PM

DATE: THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

TIME: STARTING AT 2:00 PM (People will be leafleting downtown from about 11:00 AM and we will stay until about 5:00 PM so join us anytime you can to show your solidarity.)

PLACE: DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HEADQUARTERS AT 77 SUMMER STREET (NEAR THE DOWNTOWN CROSSING STOP ON THE RED AND ORANGE LINES)

The Boston Smedley Butler Brigade and Samantha Smith Chapter- Veterans for Peace, the Boston Bradley Manning Support Network , Bradley Manning Square of Somerville Committee and other social activists and concerned citizens support the call by the National Bradley Manning Support Network and others to rally nationwide at local Obama headquarters on Thursday September 6, 2012, the day President Obama is scheduled to accept the Democratic Party nomination of president, to call for freedom for alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. We also will be calling on the president to use his constitutional authority to pardon Private Manning now.

Contact: Al Johnson-Event Coordinator -alfredjohnson34@comcast.net
or Pat Scanlon (VN 69’)-Coordinator, VFP Chapter 9, Smedley Butler Brigade patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com

FREE BRADLEY MANNING-PRESIDENT OBAMA PARDON BRADLEY MANNING NOW!

Check our Facebook event page –Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Support
Rally-September 6th- http://www.facebook.com/events/439879979398064/

Labor donated

Call for action at Obama 2012 offices nationwide Sept. 6th during DNC

The Bradley Manning Support Network, Afghans For Peace and SF Bay Iraq Veterans Against the War Call for Nationwide Actions at local Obama Campaign Offices September 6th 2012 during the Democratic National Convention! Free Bradley Manning!

Since Army PFC Bradley Manning’s arrest in May 2010 for allegedly sharing the “Collateral Murder” video and other evidence of war crimes and government corruption with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, progressives and human rights activists have been asking, “Why isn’t President Obama stepping in to help Bradley?”

After all, it was President Obama who in May 2011 declared with regards to protests in the Middle East,

“In the 21st Century, information is power; the truth cannot be hidden; and the legitimacy of governments will ultimately depend on active and informed citizens.”

On Thursday, August 16, US military veterans in Portland OR, Oakland CA, and Los Angeles CA, occupied Obama 2012 campaign offices and faxed a letter of demands to the Obama campaign’s central office. Those letters began:

As those who have spent years serving our country, we have faith that as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama will do the right thing in answering our request.

The letter went on to list the following demands:

That President Obama retract and apologize for remarks made in April 2011, in which he said Bradley Manning “broke the law.” Because President Obama is commander-in-chief, this constitutes unlawful command influence, violating Article 37 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and prevents Bradley from receiving a fair trial.

That President Obama pardon the accused whistle-blower, taking into consideration his 800 days of pretrial confinement. UN torture chief Juan Mendez called Manning’s treatment “cruel and inhuman,” as it included nine months of solitary confinement at Quantico despite Brig psychiatrists recommending relaxed conditions.

The Bradley Manning Support Network maintains hope that justice will prevail and that President Obama can be the vehicle of change on this issue, but first he needs to hear loud and clear from veterans and civilians across the country that the American people want amends for the unlawful torture of Bradley Manning, and believe he should be freed.

Organizers of the August 16 West Coast actions are now urging others to join them in a nationwide effort to hold actions at many more local Obama campaign offices on September 6th, the day of candidate’s nomination acceptance speech. We want to share messages of support for Bradley with Obama campaign offices from coast to coast.

Please contact emma@bradleymanning.org for more information about attending and/or organizing an event.

From The Pen Of Peter Paul Markin- Those Oldies But Goodies…Out In The Be-Bop ‘50s Song Night-Mark Dinning's "Teen Angel"

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Mark Dinning performing Teen Angel.

This American Left History blog is noted for politics mainly, and mainly the desperate political fight against various social, economic and moral injustices and wrongs in this wicked old world, although the place where politics and cultural expression, especially post-World War II be-bop cultural expression, has drawn some of my interest over the past several years. The most telling example of that interest is in the field of popular music, centrally the blues, city and country, good woman on your mind, hard working under sweating suns or noisy dust-filled factory floors, hard drinking Saturday into Sunday morning just before church blues and folk music, mainly urban, mainly protest to high heaven against the world’s injustices smite the dragon down, folk music. Of late though the old time 1950s kid, primordial, big bang, jail-break rock and roll music that set us off, the generation of ’68 from earlier generations has drawn my attention. Mostly this retro look has been by reviewing oldies CDs but here, and occasionally hereafter under this headline, specifically songs that some future archaeologists might dig up as prime examples of how we primitives lived ,and what we listened to back in the day.
************

MARK DINNING
"Teen Angel"

(Jean Surrey & Red Surrey)

Teen angel, teen angel, teen angel, ooh, ooh
That fateful night the car was stalled
upon the railroad track
I pulled you out and we were safe
but you went running back
Teen angel, can you hear me
Teen angel, can you see me
Are you somewhere up above
And I am still your own true love
What was it you were looking for
that took your life that night
They said they found my high school ring
clutched in your fingers tight
Teen angel, can you hear me
Teen angel, can you see me
Are you somewhere up above
And I am still your own true love
Just sweet sixteen, and now you're gone
They've taken you away.
I'll never kiss your lips again
They buried you today
Teen angel, can you hear me
Teen angel, can you see me
Are you somewhere up above
And I am still your own true love
Teen angel, teen angel, answer me, please

************
First off when you are in the heart of 1950s rock and roll music get used to hearing ad finitum about angels, earth-bound, heaven-sent, hell-sent, angelic, yes, angelic, heart-broken, heart-breaking angels, and how many angels can fit on the head of a pin, Enough angels to make old revolutionary Puritan poet John Milton's angel fights in Paradise Lost seem, well, punk by comparison. That is if you really want to know about 1950s rock subject matter, all of the above, naturally being teen angels (as if there were any other kind), maybe even Milton's, and that brings us to the heart of this Mark Dinning teen angst classic, Teen Angel.

Frankly, I am bewildered by the bizarre lyrics and story line here, although it rates high, very high on my newly constructed teen song angst-o-meter. Peggy and Billy, okay I know they are not named, or maybe nameable, in the universal teen night but let’s call them that to give name to the kinds of fools we are dealing with, were stranded out on railroad tracks in old Billy’s apparently dead-ender car, probably his father’s hand-me-down. That should have been the first tip-off to Peggy. There were a million guys in town with “boss” cars, including Linc with his ’57 cherry red Chevy by the look on his face every time you passed by, who would have been more than happy to give you a tumble.

Or maybe Billy just didn’t have gas dough and the clunker ran out, unfortunately, ran out on that old dreaded isolated track with all those signs saying don’t stop, please don’t stop, on the tracks because even if trains were going out of style in the big 1950s freeway car exodus they still ran every now and again. No dough Billy, christ I knew seven guys (although not Linc) who had plenty of dough, or could get it, to show you a good time, including Frankie (and Frankie, supposedly only had eyes for his ever lovin’ sweetie, Joanne).

Okay, the ways of love are strange, no question, so Billy it was. But, jesus, he pulled you out, you were safe and then you went ballistic over some f-----g, cheapjack ring, some cheapjack fake gold (like about four carat gold filigree, maybe) with fako diamond and barely legible stuff written on it class ring. And you knew, since you had been out with Billy for a while by then that it was cheapo. Come on you couldn’t have been that naïve. Now you have left Billy all choked up over his teen angel lost, and I know for a fact that he stayed that way, for a while. But just recently he seems to be on the mend because didn’t Tommy T. see him and Linda Lou, ya, sweet “hot stuff’ Linda Lou, walking hand and hand into Kay’s jewelry store that handles the North Adamsville High School class ring account. Maybe it was nothing but I wonder what they were looking for?

***From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin-The Merry Widow Murderer- Alfred Hitchcock’s “Shadow Of A Doubt”

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow Off A Doubt.

DVD Review

Shadow Of A Doubt, starring Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by Thornton Wilder, Universal Pictures, 1943

Sometimes landing on your head or some other traumatic incident when young can have serious consequences later in life. Or at least this is the stated premise, or half premise, behind this Alfred Hitchcock thriller, Shadow Of A Doubt. The mental state angle may be a bit awry and a bit too pat as the draw to pull us in and suspend our disbelief that good old Uncle Charley (played by Joseph Cotton) is the villain of the piece and is the serial killer of rich widows but there are some interesting psychological moments as we see how this villainous man meets his inevitable just desserts. Of course the max daddy of all Hitchcock thrillers, Psycho, set the standard by scaring every pre-teen, teen, and maybe a few adults half to death by NOT showing us what happened when that serial killer was about his mad man work. This one doesn’t really come close by as I say it has a few interesting points.

Needless to say any screen play written by Thornton Wilder (Our Town) means that small town Americana with everybody normal going about their everyday normal business is sure to be in play. Certainly the town is not suspecting that a mad man has just descended on them an event that should have caused every widow in town to check her insurance coverage. And it, late 1930s Santa Rosa (California) is here as the backdrop for Uncle Charlie’s timely visit (timely for him as he as just lammed it out of the East just in front of the law) to rekindle the old family relationships. But see dear Charlie is not the boy of old small town ambitions but of master race certitudes and scorn of the small town rubes. And to cap that scorn he is not above offing a rich widow or two in the process. And that quirky tendency is what drives the film, drives the law men in pursuit and drives one devoted niece, Charlie (nee Charlotte played by Teresa Wright) half-crazy with suspicion and disbelief before she tumbles to the facts of dastardly Uncle Charlie ‘s life. Almost too late.

The Latest From The Private Bradley Manning Support Network-Free Bradley Manning Now! President Obama Pardon Bradley Manning-Call for action at Obama 2012 offices nationwide Sept. 6th during DNC

Click on the headline to link to the Private Bradley Manning Support Network for the latest information on his case and activities on his behalf .
*********
We of the international anti-war movement were not able to do much to affect the Bush- Obama Iraq war timetable or, as of now, the Afghanistan one, but we can save the one hero of that war, American soldier Private Bradley Manning. The Manning legal case, and Private Manning as an exceptionally brave individual, can and should serve to rally all those looking for a concrete way to express their anti-war outrage at the continuing atrocious American imperial war policies. The message below can serve as a continuing rationale for my (and your) support to this honorable whistleblower.
*********
The following are remarks that I have been focusing on of late to build support for Private Manning’s cause at stand-outs, marches and rallies.

Veterans for Peace proudly stands in solidarity with, and in defense of, Private Bradley Manning.

I stand in solidarity with the alleged actions of Private Bradley Manning in bringing to light, just a little light, some of the nefarious war-related doings of this government, under Bush and Obama. Those precious bits of information leaked to Wikileaks about American soldiers committing war atrocities in Iraq as chronicled in the tape known on YouTube as “Collateral Murder” and the Iraq and Afghan War Diaries. If he did such acts they are no crime. No crime at all in my eyes or in the eyes of the vast majority of people who know of the case and of its importance as an individual act of resistance to the unjust and barbaric American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I sleep just a shade bit easier these days knowing that Private Manning may have exposed what we all knew, or should have known- the Iraq war and the Afghan war justifications rested on a flim-flam house of cards. American imperialism’s gun-toting flim-flam house of cards, but cards nevertheless.

I am standing in solidarity with Private Bradley Manning because I am outraged by the treatment meted out to Private Manning, presumably an innocent man, by a government who alleges itself to be some “beacon” of the civilized world. Bradley Manning has been held in solidarity at Quantico, other locales, and now at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas for over two years, and has been held without trial for longer, as the government and its military try to glue a case together. The military, and its henchmen in the Justice Department, have gotten more devious although not smarter since I was a soldier in their crosshairs over forty years ago.

Many of us have become somewhat inured to the constant cases of jackboot torturous behavior on the part of the American military in places like Guantanamo, Bagram and other national security hellhole black box locations against foreign nationals. We have also become inured, or at least no longer surprised, when American civilian citizens are subject to such actions, and more likely death. However, as recent allegations of pre-trial torturous conduct condoned by high military authority (see the allegations and motion to dismiss charged on the Bradley Manning Support Network website) by Private Manning’s civilian defense lawyer David Coombs make clear, those acts are not confined to foreign nationals and American civilian citizens. The torture of Private Manning, an American soldier, by the American government should give us all pause. And should have us shouting to the heavens for his release.

These are more than sufficient reasons to stand in solidarity with Private Manning and will be until the day this brave soldier is freed by his jailers. And I will continue to stand in proud solidarity with Private Manning until that great day.

I urge everyone to sign the petition calling on the American military to free Private Bradley Manning either here or on the Bradley Manning Support Network website. And if we cannot get Private Manning freed that way I urge everyone to begin a campaign in your area to call on President Barack Obama, or whoever is president while Private Manning is incarcerated, to pardon this brave soldier. The American president has the constitutional authority to grant pardons to the guilty and innocent, the convicted and those facing charges. I call on President Obama to pardon Private Manning now.

Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal of All U.S./Allied Troops And Mercenaries From Afghanistan! Hands Off Iran! Free Private Manning Now! President Obama Pardon Private Manning!

************
Call for action at Obama 2012 offices nationwide Sept. 6th during DNC

The Bradley Manning Support Network, Afghans For Peace and SF Bay Iraq Veterans Against the War Call for Nationwide Actions at local Obama Campaign Offices September 6th 2012 during the Democratic National Convention! Free Bradley Manning!

Since Army PFC Bradley Manning’s arrest in May 2010 for allegedly sharing the “Collateral Murder” video and other evidence of war crimes and government corruption with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, progressives and human rights activists have been asking, “Why isn’t President Obama stepping in to help Bradley?”

After all, it was President Obama who in May 2011 declared with regards to protests in the Middle East,

“In the 21st Century, information is power; the truth cannot be hidden; and the legitimacy of governments will ultimately depend on active and informed citizens.”

On Thursday, August 16, US military veterans in Portland OR, Oakland CA, and Los Angeles CA, occupied Obama 2012 campaign offices and faxed a letter of demands to the Obama campaign’s central office. Those letters began:

As those who have spent years serving our country, we have faith that as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama will do the right thing in answering our request.

The letter went on to list the following demands:

That President Obama retract and apologize for remarks made in April 2011, in which he said Bradley Manning “broke the law.” Because President Obama is commander-in-chief, this constitutes unlawful command influence, violating Article 37 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and prevents Bradley from receiving a fair trial.

That President Obama pardon the accused whistle-blower, taking into consideration his 800 days of pretrial confinement. UN torture chief Juan Mendez called Manning’s treatment “cruel and inhuman,” as it included nine months of solitary confinement at Quantico despite Brig psychiatrists recommending relaxed conditions.

The Bradley Manning Support Network maintains hope that justice will prevail and that President Obama can be the vehicle of change on this issue, but first he needs to hear loud and clear from veterans and civilians across the country that the American people want amends for the unlawful torture of Bradley Manning, and believe he should be freed.

Organizers of the August 16 West Coast actions are now urging others to join them in a nationwide effort to hold actions at many more local Obama campaign offices on September 6th, the day of candidate’s nomination acceptance speech. We want to share messages of support for Bradley with Obama campaign offices from coast to coast.

Please contact emma@bradleymanning.org for more information about attending and/or organizing an event.

A MODEST LABOR PROPOSAL-RECRUIT, RUN INDEPENDENT LABOR MILITANTS IN THE 2012 ELECTIONS.

IN THIS TIME OF THE ‘GREAT FEAR’ WE NEED CANDIDATES TO FIGHT FOR A WORKERS GOVERNMENT.

FORGET DONKEYS AND ELEPHANTS - BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!

In the summer of 2006 I originally wrote the following commentary (used in subsequent election cycles and updated a little for today’s purpose) urging the recruitment of independent labor militants as write-in candidates for the mid-term 2006 congressional elections based on a workers party program. With the hoopla already in full gear for the 2012 election cycle I repost that commentary below with that same intention of getting thoughtful leftists to use the 2012 campaign to further our propagandistic fight for a workers’ party that fights for a workers government.

A Modest Proposal-Recruit, Run Independent Labor Militants In The 2012 Elections

All “anti-parliamentarian”, “anti-state”, “non-political” anarchist or anarcho-syndicalist brothers and sisters need read no further. This writer does not want to sully the purity of your politics with the taint of parliamentary electoral politics. Although I might remind you, as we remember the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Barcelona Uprising, that your political ancestors in Spain were more than willing to support the state and enter the government when they got the chance- the bourgeois government of a bourgeois state. But, we can fight that issue out later. We will, hopefully, see you on the barricades with us when the time comes.

As for other militants- here is my modest proposal. Either recruit fellow labor militants or present yourselves as candidates to run for public office, especially for Congress, during the 2012 election cycle. Why? Even a quick glance at the news of the day is calculated to send the most hardened politico screaming into the night. The quagmire in Afghanistan (and unfinished business in Iraq and threats to Iran), immigration walls, flag-burning amendments, anti -same-sex marriage amendments, the threat to separation of church state raised by those who would impose a fundamentalist Christian theocracy on the rest of us, and the attacks on the hard fought gains of the Enlightenment posed by bogus theories such as ‘intelligent design.’ And that is just an average day. Therefore, this election cycle provides militants, at a time when the dwindling electorate is focused on politics, a forum to raise our program and our ideas. We use this as a tool, like leaflets, petitions, meetings, demonstrations, etc. to get our message across. Why should the Donkeys, Elephants, and the other smaller bourgeois parties have a monopoly on the public square?

I mentioned in the last paragraph the idea of program. Let us face it if we do not have a program to run on then it makes no sense for militants to run for public office. Given the political climate our task at this time is to fight an exemplary propaganda campaign. Our program is our banner in that fight. The Democrats and Republicans DO NOT RUN on a program. The sum of their campaigns is to promise not to steal from the public treasury (or at least not too much), beat their husbands or wives, or grossly compromise themselves in any manner. On second thought, given today’s political climate, they may not promise not to beat their husbands or wives or not compromise themselves in any untoward manner. You, in any case, get the point. Damn, even the weakest neophyte labor militant can make a better presentation before working people that this crowd. This writer presents a five point program (you knew that was coming, right?) that labor militants can run on. As point five makes clear this is not a ‘minimum’ program but a program based on our need to fight for power.

1. FIGHT FOR THE IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDITIONAL WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. TROOPS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST NOW (OR BETTER YET, YESTERDAY)! U.S. HANDS OFF THE WORLD! VOTE NO ON THE WAR BUDGET!

The quagmire in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East (Iraq, Syria, Libya, Palestine, Iran) is the fault line of American politics today. Every bourgeois politician has to have his or her feet put to the fire on this one. Not on some flimsy ‘sense of the Congress’ softball motion for withdrawal next, year, in two years, or (my favorite) when the situation is stable. Moreover, on the parliamentary level the only real vote that matters is the vote on the war budget. All the rest is fluff. Militants should make a point of trying to enter Congressional contests where there are so-called anti-war Democrats or Republicans (an oxymoron, I believe) running to make that programmatic contrast vivid.

But, one might argue, that would split the ‘progressive’ forces. Grow up, please! That argument has grown stale since it was first put forth in the “popular front” days of the 1930’s. If you want to end the wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere fight for this position on the war budget. Otherwise the same people (yes, those 'progressive Democrats') who almost unanimously voted for the last war budget get a free ride on the cheap. War President Barack Obama desperately needs to be opposed by labor militants. By rights this is our issue. Let us take it back.

2. FIGHT FOR A LIVING WAGE AND WORKING CONDITIONS-UNIVERSAL FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL.

It is a ‘no-brainer’ that no individual, much less a family can live on the minimum wage (now $7/hr. or so). What planet do these politicians live on? We need an immediate fight for a living wage, full employment and decent working conditions. We need universal free health care for all. End of story. The organized labor movement must get off its knees and fight to organize Wal-Mart and the South. A boycott of Wal-Mart is not enough. A successful organizing drive will, like in the 1930’s; go a long way to turning the conditions of labor around.

3. FIGHT THE ATTACKS ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT.

Down with the Death Penalty! Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants who make it here! Stop the Deportations! For the Separation of Church and State! Defend abortion rights! Down with anti-same sex marriage legislation! Full public funding of education! Stop the ‘war on drugs’, basically a war on blacks and minority youth-decriminalize drugs! Defend political prisoners! This list of demands hardly exhausts the “culture war” issues we defend. It is hard to believe that in the year 2012 over 200 years after the American Revolution and the French Revolution we are fighting desperately to preserve many of the same principles that militants fought for in those revolutions. But so be it.

4. FIGHT FOR A WORKERS PARTY.

The Donkeys, Elephants and other smaller bourgeois parties have had their chance. Now is the time to fight for our own party and for the interests of our own class, the working class. Any campaigns by independent labor militants must highlight this point. And any campaigns can also become the nucleus of a workers’ party network until we get strong enough to form at least a small party. None of these other parties, and I mean none, are working in the interests of working people and their allies. The following great lesson of politic today must be hammered home. Break with the Democrats, Republicans!

5. FIGHT FOR A WORKERS AND XYZ GOVERNMENT. THIS IS THE DEMAND THAT SEPARATES THE MILITANTS FROM THE FAINT-HEARTED REFORMISTS.

We need our own form of government. In the old days the bourgeois republic was a progressive form of government. Not so any more. That form of government ran out of steam about one hundred years ago. We need a Workers Republic. We need a government based on workers councils with a ministry (I do not dare say commissariat in case any stray anarchists are still reading this) responsible to it. Let us face it if we really want to get any of the good and necessary things listed above accomplished we are not going to get it with the current form of government.

Why the XYZ part? What does that mean? No, it is not part of an algebra lesson. What it reflects is that while society is made up mainly of workers (of one sort or another) there are other classes (and parts of classes) in society that we seek as allies and could benefit from a workers government. Examples- small independent contractors, intellectuals, the dwindling number of small farmers, and some professionals like dentists. Yes, with my tongue in my cheek after all my dental bills, I like the idea of a workers and dentists government. The point is however you formulate it you have got to fight for it.

Obviously any campaign based on this program will be an exemplary propaganda campaign for the foreseeable future. But we have to start now. Continuing to support or not challenging the bourgeois parties does us no good. That is for sure. While bourgeois electoral laws do not favor independent candidacies write-in campaigns are possible. ROLL UP YOUR SHEEVES! GET THOSE PETITIONS SIGNED! PRINT OUT THE LEAFLETS! PAINT THOSE BANNERS! GET READY TO SHAKE HANDS AND KISS BABIES.

RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLEGED WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER PRIVATE BRADLEY MANNING AT THE DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HDQTRS.-SEPTEMBER 6, 2012-2 PM

Click on headline to link to Bradley Manning Rally Facebook event page.

RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLEGED WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER PRIVATE BRADLEY MANNING AT THE DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HDQTRS.-SEPTEMBER 6, 2012-2 PM

DATE: THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

TIME: STARTING AT 2:00 PM (People will be leafleting downtown from about 11:00 AM and we will stay until about 5:00 PM so join us anytime you can to show your solidarity.)

PLACE: DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HEADQUARTERS AT 77 SUMMER STREET (NEAR THE DOWNTOWN CROSSING STOP ON THE RED AND ORANGE LINES)

The Boston Smedley Butler Brigade and Samantha Chapter- Veterans for Peace, the Boston Bradley Manning Support Network , Somerville Manning Square Committee and other social activists and concerned citizens support the call by the National Bradley Manning Support Network and others to rally nationwide at local Obama headquarters on Thursday September 6, 2012, the day President Obama is scheduled accept the Democratic Party nomination of president, to call for freedom for alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. We also will be calling on the president to use his constitutional authority to pardon Private Manning now.

Contact: Pat Scanlon (VN 69’)-Coordinator, VFP Chapter 9, Smedley Butler Brigade patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com or Al Johnson-Event Coordinator -alfredjohnson34@comcast.net

FREE BRADLEY MANNING-PRESIDENT OBAMA PARDON BRADLEY MANNING NOW!

Check our Facebook event page –Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Support Rally-September 6th- http://www.facebook.com/events/439879979398064/


Labor donated
Call for action at Obama 2012 offices nationwide Sept. 6th during DNC

The Bradley Manning Support Network, Afghans For Peace and SF Bay Iraq Veterans Against the War Call for Nationwide Actions at local Obama Campaign Offices September 6th 2012 during the Democratic National Convention! Free Bradley Manning!

Since Army PFC Bradley Manning’s arrest in May 2010 for allegedly sharing the “Collateral Murder” video and other evidence of war crimes and government corruption with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, progressives and human rights activists have been asking, “Why isn’t President Obama stepping in to help Bradley?”

After all, it was President Obama who in May 2011 declared with regards to protests in the Middle East,

“In the 21st Century, information is power; the truth cannot be hidden; and the legitimacy of governments will ultimately depend on active and informed citizens.”

On Thursday, August 16, US military veterans in Portland OR, Oakland CA, and Los Angeles CA, occupied Obama 2012 campaign offices and faxed a letter of demands to the Obama campaign’s central office. Those letters began:

As those who have spent years serving our country, we have faith that as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama will do the right thing in answering our request.

The letter went on to list the following demands:

That President Obama retract and apologize for remarks made in April 2011, in which he said Bradley Manning “broke the law.” Because President Obama is commander-in-chief, this constitutes unlawful command influence, violating Article 37 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and prevents Bradley from receiving a fair trial.

That President Obama pardon the accused whistle-blower, taking into consideration his 800 days of pretrial confinement. UN torture chief Juan Mendez called Manning’s treatment “cruel and inhuman,” as it included nine months of solitary confinement at Quantico despite Brig psychiatrists recommending relaxed conditions.

The Bradley Manning Support Network maintains hope that justice will prevail and that President Obama can be the vehicle of change on this issue, but first he needs to hear loud and clear from veterans and civilians across the country that the American people want amends for the unlawful torture of Bradley Manning, and believe he should be freed.

Organizers of the August 16 West Coast actions are now urging others to join them in a nationwide effort to hold actions at many more local Obama campaign offices on September 6th, the day of candidate’s nomination acceptance speech. We want to share messages of support for Bradley with Obama campaign offices from coast to coast.

Please contact emma@bradleymanning.org for more information about attending and/or organizing an event.

***From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin- Handsome Johnnie’s Revenge –Alfred Hitchcock’s “Suspicion”

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion.

DVD Review

Suspicion, starring Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, RKO Radio Pictures, 1941

Everybody knows, well, knows since Dorothy Parker uttered the words, that gentlemen don’t make passes at girls that wear glasses. Period. Well, period, except hard up ne’er-do- well besotted, benighted, be-, well, bedeviled and be done with it, handsome Johnnies gents who are slightly arrears on their rent or I.O.U. obligation to their bookmakers. They glasses, four-eyes, six-eyes, hell, threes eyes are in play then especially if they are well brought up love-starved country gentry daughters with a little dowry, or hopes of one. And especially when that certain girl, woman, when she takes off said glasses is well, by the ugly duckling turning camera magic, fetching. And that in a nutshell is the lead-up to this early Alfred Hitchcock classic under review, Suspicion.

A few details will help to tell why there is suspense in Suspicion (although not as much as in say the later Psycho, etc. when Hitchcock went over the edge and started to scare the bejesus out of every brave pre-teen and teen boy and girl on the earth by NOT showing us what evil lurked in the hearts of men). Johnnie, well-mannered but broke Johnnie (played by Cary Grant, who else would fit as the downwardly mobile British gent), “courts” one plain jane (don’t be deceived like I was at first by the glasses) country house gentry (meaning in those days running after foxes, et. al) daughter Lina (played by Academy Award-winning Joan Fontaine), wins her over and they are married. He has no illusions in what he is doing (mainly male gold-digging in order to maintain a studious avoidance of anything that smacks of work and anything that doesn’t smack of making a sure thing bet on race day) she, intelligent enough although not really world-wary has more than a few.

Up until that point, and somewhat beyond that point, this film is basically a comedy of manners in the old fashion sense. But eventually Johnnie’s gambling debts and thefts start to crowd in on him, and her. And a whole series of events occur that make Lina, well, suspicious that dear old bean Johnnie boy might just get under from under his obligations by putting her under, under the ground. Murder, murder and nothing else is surly in the air. The problem, or really two problems, though are no way, no way in hell can one make playboy Johnnie out as a murder one guy, and problem number two no way, no way in hell, once you take the glasses off, is fetching Lina slated for an early visit to the morgue. Like the title says suspicion, nothing to it but suspicion as the lovers reconcile.

From #Un-Occupied Boston (#Un-Tomemonos Boston)-What Happens When We Do Not Learn The Lessons Of History- The Pre-1848 Socialist Movement-Auguste Blanqui 1849-To the Mountain of 1793! To the Pure Socialists, its True Heirs!

Click on the headline to link to the Occupy Boston General Assembly Minutes website. Occupy Boston started at 6:00 PM, September 30, 2011.

Markin comment:

I will post any updates from that Occupy Boston site if there are any serious discussions of the way forward for the Occupy movement or, more importantly, any analysis of the now atrophied and dysfunctional General Assembly concept. In the meantime I will continue with the “Lessons From History ’’series started in the fall of 2011 with Karl Marx’s The Civil War In France-1871 (The defense of the Paris Commune). Right now this series is focused on the European socialist movement before the Revolutions of 1848.
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An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend The Occupy Movement And All Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against All Occupy Protesters Everywhere!

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Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It Back! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
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A Five-Point Program As Talking Points

*Jobs For All Now!-“30 For 40”- A historic demand of the labor movement. Thirty hours work for forty hours pay to spread the available work around. Organize the unorganized- Organize the South- Organize Wal-Mart- Defend the right for public and private workers to unionize.

* Defend the working classes! No union dues for Democratic (or the stray Republican) candidates. Spent the dough instead on organizing the unorganized and on other labor-specific causes (good example, the November, 2011 anti-union recall referendum in Ohio, bad example the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall race in June 2012).

*End the endless wars!- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops (And Mercenaries) From Afghanistan! Hands Off Pakistan! Hands Off Iran! U.S. Hands Off The World!

*Fight for a social agenda for working people!. Quality Healthcare For All! Nationalize the colleges and universities under student-teacher-campus worker control! Forgive student debt! Stop housing foreclosures!

*We created the wealth, let’s take it back. Take the struggle for our daily bread off the historic agenda. Build a workers party that fights for a workers government to unite all the oppressed.

Emblazon on our red banner-Labor and the oppressed must rule!

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Auguste Blanqui 1849-To the Mountain of 1793! To the Pure Socialists, its True Heirs!

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Source: Banquet des Travailleurs Socialistes. Chez Pages, Paris, 1849;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2010.


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The Socialist Worker’s Banquet took place Sunday December 3, 1848 at exactly noon at the Association of Cooks, 36 Barrière du Maine. 1,000 guests and 300-400 of the curious – 1,500 in all, among them 400-500 women, participated. The name of the Chairman of the banquet, Citizen A. Blanqui, held in the dungeon of Vincennes, could be read on the tribune across from the name of the candidate of the republican socialists, F-V Raspail. There could also be read on signs the names of those outlawed by reaction who are the most beloved of the people: Louis Blanc, Barbès, Albert.

Citizen Salières opened the session with these few words:

Citizens:

The Commission of the Socialist Worker’s banquet has chosen as its Chairman Citizen Auguste Blanqui, held in the dungeon of Vincennes (applause).

This commission, composed of workers, calling workers to this fraternal banquet wants to testify in their name to its gratitude to this indefatigable combatant for democracy, this man who is the incessant victim of persecution because of his defense of the most noble of causes, whose pure devotion has been repaid with persecution and calumny.

Citizens, you know how overwhelmed socialism today is. The very people who, if socialism could be personified in one man, would attempt to cross that man from the book of life, these very people proclaim themselves to be socialists. They say they are its adherents and reject its true principles. This presents a great danger for us. The history of the ideas that in all eras have served to tie men together shows us that it is the same lovers of the form who have often stifled the idea, or at least have reduced it to petty proportions. And so we proletarians, we for whom the word “socialism” is synonymous with that of “liberation,” have come here to present the true idea, the principle of socialism. We will do it in our way, with our hearts. We hope that you will take account of our efforts (Yes! Yes!)

After these words Citizen Salières read the prisoner’s toast:

To the Mountain of 1793! To the Pure Socialists, its true heirs!

Citizens, the Mountain had sublime inspirations, daughters of the gospels and philosophy. But it never possessed those positive theories that only grow slowly from a close analysis of the social body, just as the art of healing is born of the revelations of anatomy.

Nevertheless, if it was lacking in the organizing force of science, the impulses of the heart sufficed to dictate to it the immortal slogan of the future: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and that admirable symbol, the Declaration of Rights, which broadly interpreted contains the seed of all that will come in the future society. Unfortunately, it’s the fate of the works of genius that have shaken the world to perish asphyxiated under the clouds of incense under which superstitious admirers drown them. The vivifying spirit of the master dies suffocated by the narrow observance of the text. The Law of Moses succumbed to the desperate embrace of the Pharisees. The Koran will be extinguished, turned into stone by the immobility of its imbecilic sectarians. And the Gospels themselves would have been sealed in their tomb by the idolatrous hands of its disciples – who had become its gravediggers – if their immortal ideas, escaping from the icy corpse around which they knelt, had not reappeared ever more shining in the new incarnation that will perpetuate them among humanity.

The Declaration of Rights, a formula born yesterday, is already suffering the fate of the old dogmas which in their period of decrepitude almost always become instruments of reaction against the redemptory labors of their revealers. The Judaic cult of the letter killed the revolutionary spirit of the symbol.

The militant life of the Mountain was brief, and like that of Christ ended on Golgotha. But its acts are a sparkling commentary on its words and provide the true meaning of the teachings it spread around the world.

Like Jesus, the consoler of the poor, the enemy of the powerful, the Mountain loved those who suffer and hated those who caused suffering. The salient element of its existence was its intimate alliance with the Parisian proletariat, not because it only felt the pain of one city, but because among so many populations equally bent down by suffering it found this energetic group ready at hand for the fight, for it was moved by the consciousness of its sufferings, and it made of them the liberating army of the human race.

From August 10, the date of the fall of the monarchy, until 4 Prairial, the final convulsion of the faubourgs, the people and the Mountain marched as one across the revolution, inseparable in victory and defeat. What a marvelous role to assume again! And one all the easier because the fight of 1793 was taken up again in 1848, on the same battlefield between the same combatants and , strange as it might seem, with almost the same incidents.

What do we see? As in 1793 privilege in combat with equality, and as their champions in combat a reactionary legislative majority colliding with the masses of Parisian democracy.

Will we also again find the Mountain and its faithful brotherhood in arms with the people?

And in fact, the name has reappeared! All the soldiers of the young phalanx bear it with pride and swear to bravely follow the steps of their predecessors.

Silence! The gates swing open and the action begins.

What do I hear! Under the pretext of fraternity M. Ledru-Rollin, the new leader of the Holy Mountain imperiously demands the return of the troops to the capitol against the will of the people. Is this in any way the tradition of the Mountain? I open my history book and I read that the Gironde, trembling in anger and fright before the pressure of the faubourgs, having demanded the formation of a camp of 20,000 men at the city gates to cover the national representatives, the Mountain rose up against this project fatal to freedom, set the multitude in motion, threatened the majority, and finally gained victory in this life or death question. Paris remained free.

We were less fortunate. And yet, turning the soldiers away from the bloody arena of civil war, where they could only harvest hatred and death, signified treating them as brothers. The men of the Mountain preferred fraternization in the streets.

What do we see now? The people marching in columns from the Champ de Mars to the Hotel de Ville and M. Ledru-Rollin, leader of the Mountain, has them run the gauntlet between two ranks of bayonets. And then he sets counter-revolution on the anarchists. I never saw this maneuver in either Marat’s or Danton’s campaigns. On that day did the hero of the recall of the troops incorrectly read his Montagnard theory?

And then there was another adventure. Who is that on horseback at the head of the National Guard? It’s M. Ledru-Rollin, leader of the Mountain leading victorious reaction to the Hotel de Ville and the patriot prisoners to the dungeon of Versailles.

Is it possible? Is it also M. Ledru-Rollin who presents and the Mountain who vote the draconian law against public gatherings? It is!

Good god! Are these Montagnards nothing but Girondins? But I read the name of Robespierre on their hats.

Be patient. Faithful to the parallels, no scene of the past will be missing from today’s drama. As in the past the mounting tide of hostilities between a reactionary majority and the Parisian workers must inevitably lead to a May 31. It broke out not on May 15, a grotesque day, but on June 23.

The army of the Mountain was ready on that day. And what did we see? Our monkeys of the Mountain throwing away their liberty bonnets and other revolutionary garb, inciting from the four corners all the stored up anger of the federalists, and like an avalanche, precipitating the counter-revolutionary masses on Paris.

The affront of May 31 was avenged; the rebellious Babylon punished. And by whom? By the Mountain!

Woe on the defeated. Those of June drank the chalice to the dregs. Crimes are eagerly being imputed to them. Had they emerged victorious everyone would have asked for a place of honor behind their flag. They are dead, and everyone spits anathema on them. Reaction says they are escapees from penal colonies and the Mountain says they are in the pay of monarchism.

What was the point of this last outrage? What is the goal of the fable of Russian gold and the ridiculous voyage in search of dynastic employment? As if royalty could today move a single paving stone. Why this pathetic tactic which makes friends and enemies laugh with pity? Most likely to prevent any solidarity with the defeated. But everyone knows there is nothing in common between you and them. Your artillery has sufficiently proved your innocence. Perhaps your artillery has to be justified in the eyes of some others, and so you go seeking imaginary leaders at the expense of the honor of the dead.

You dare to say that the Parisian people, the precursors of the future, are nothing but a herd of animals that Pitt and Cobourg lead to the slaughterhouse with a handful of salt. And all this because it pleased M. Ledru-Rolin to harangue them in the form of cannon fire. Fire, gentlemen, but don’t slander. June 26 is one of those ill-fated days that the revolution takes credit for in tears, just as a mother calls for the corpse of her son.

All of you, you great unknowns, who are swallowed up by the mass graves, poor Lazaruses fallen before the bullets in the great hunt for those in rags, you were nothing but the tools and mercenaries of royalism! You too, monuments to the justice and the clemency of our masters, unfortunate victims of prison ships. Colfavru, Thuillier, writers struck from behind, noble martyrs of the press for whom the press had not one word of protection or farewell. And you my old companions of Mont Saint Michel: Jarasse, Herbulet, Pétremann, valiant soldiers of May and February, thrice guilty of the crime of lack of respect for the army, know there in your lion’s pit that the kabyle razzia swept you up as enemies of the republic.

And the saviors of the republic, the Brutuses and Scaevolas are the generals and aides-de-camp of Louis-Philippe, the marquis of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, the holy militias of the congregations. But also the glorious decorated of June, all of them furious newly-minted royalists, the princes and dukes, intrepid leaders of the rural National Guard. And finally, there’s the Chouans who rose up en masse at the call of their priests to attack Paris. Did they do this to avenge ‘93, to avenge the old insults of the impious city? Not at all! It was to defend the republic against the Parisian royalist brigands!

O old formulas! Will of the wisps that cause the mountains to sink into the marshes. This is the result of your blows! You’ve turned our senators into vicars and marabouts murmuring prayers they no longer understand. But this isn’t your fault. You have always been clear about things, but the Mountain’s senses have been weakened.

The world has moved on in fifty years, but they have remained immobile. Science has forged more certain weapons, cleared a wider and more direct road. But the Mountain persists in walking down the paths of the past in old worn out attire, and they cry out against any novelty unknown to our fathers. These Epimenides fell asleep during a session of the Convention and upon awakening inadvertently took their place on the benches of the right. And then there they come, playing the year 1793 before the public, with its words, costumes and decors, everything except the play’s meaning, like those Ellevious and Malibran of Quimper-Corentin who think they’ll find the voices they need in the costume room.

The first act opened with the decree of vests à la Robespierre. The show goes on, and we will be spared not a couplet or a line. The least change in the script will result in its criminal author being sent before the revolutionary tribunal.

Our Epimenides recognize no other living beings than the dead of 1793, and whether they want it or not they assign everyone a role in their play. At the current moment it’s the second Cordelier Club that’s on stage. A deputy (infinitely newer in the Taitbout Room than today on Rue Taitbout) having gotten sensed the presence of the first version and denounced a Hébertist conspiracy, the men of the Mountain immediately set out on their trail.

They swear that in order to fool the bloodhounds who are after them the guilty have changed their names; that Hébert is now called Proudhon and Chaumette Raspail. They are searching everywhere for disguised versions of Ronsin, Momoro, Vincent, Anacharsis Cloots, Bishop Gobel. Watch out for the priest of Saint Eustache, who is a socialist. I advise him if he falls into their hands that if he wants to come out of this safe to protest that he is not Father Gobel, but rather the abbot Gregoire, and then he’ll be smothered in excuses and caresses.

The Jacobins asked M. Buchez to illuminate their searches with his parliamentary history lantern. Imagine their surprise when he angrily answered them: “There’s no need to seek; it is you who are the Hébertists since you don’t admire the Saint Bartholomew’s massacre.”

It appears that at the moment of the abrupt awakening of February 24 all of the sleepers carried out a confused exchange of heads, to such an extent that in the midst of this chaos of unmatched physiognomies the disoriented M. Buchez takes Girondins for Hébertists, the former thinking themselves to be men of the Mountain.

People then ran to seek information from Pierre Leroux, the author of the “Renaissance dans l’Humanité.” But the good patriarch gently told his questioners that without any doubt individuals are indefinitely reborn from generation to generation, but perfected and better; that consequently there were no more, there could no longer be, either Girondins, men of the Mountain, or Hébertists.

The response convinced no one and the searches are actively continuing. We already have proof that “Le Peuple” the newspaper of Hébert-Proudhon is nothing but the former “Père Duchêne” disguising its style.

These buffooneries would be funny if they hadn’t become tragic. Unfortunately, in this play every scene of uncontrollable laughter immediately engenders a scene of tears and blood. The actors themselves don’t know the denouement of their performance. In all good faith they thought they were presenting it for the profit and not at the expense of the workers. They will perhaps console themselves for the misadventure with the thought that they were performing in a play with two ends, one happy and the other sad, and that all that is wrong flows from an error in the variant.

But this mass of unexpected incidents, of situations improvised outside and against the libretto, seriously demoralizes them and leads them to dream about the fickleness of the public. Political romanticism has most decidedly perverted people’s spirits. In no condition to resist the torrent and maintain the classical tradition in its integrity, the academicians of the Mountain painfully resign themselves to make a sacrifice to the folly of the day and dress the old repertoire in the taste of today.

Rags cut from Proudhon, Leroux, Cabet and Fourier have been sewed onto Robespierre’s worn out coat, and from this variety they’ve put together the most eclectic of picturesque and vulgar costumes, a harlequin’s costume, now hung as a sign at the doors of the theater and carried in great pomp around the streets for the edification of the crowd.

On the breast of the mannequin, spread in trompe l’oeil, shine the socialist labels, to the great chagrin of their legitimate owners, the innovators who see their formulas turned into advertisements for the Hotel des Invalides.

These fraudulent borrowings force us to lengthen our motto with endless epithets. Is it not disastrous to call oneself by a name more interminable than that of a Spanish grandee and to need a half an hour to issue one’s rallying cry?

We are victims of the most abominable of ambushes. It is we socialists, the so-called despoilers, who everyone despoils at will and with no shame. Even our name has been taken from us, and soon our shadows will be stolen. What is more, the men of the Mountain, reaction’s youngest children, in pillaging us have done nothing but follow the example of their elders. If today they steal our title of socialist, yesterday the others wrested our title of republican.

Yes, this noble name of republican, outlawed and ridiculed by the counter revolution, was imprudently stolen by them so they could crown themselves with the laurel of our victory. With the same audacity they stole from us our sublime slogan of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, so long insulted and covered with mud by them as the symbol of blood and death.

Fortunately it rejected our flag... This was a mistake: It remains ours.

Citizens, the Mountain is dead!

To socialism, its sole heir!

This speech, religiously listened to, at various points incited unanimous applause among the listeners.

West Coast Bradley Manning Action At Obama Headquarters- August 17, 2012-Pardon Bradley Manning

The Boston Smedley Butler Brigade and Samantha Chapter- Veterans for Peace, the Boston Bradley Manning Support Network , Somerville Manning Square Committee and other social activists and concerned citizens support the call by the National Bradley Manning Support Network and others to rally nationwide at local Obama headquarters on Thursday September 6, 2012, the day President Obama is scheduled accept the Democratic Party nomination of president, to call for freedom for alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. We also will be calling on the president to use his constitutional authority to pardon Private Manning now.

RALLY EN APOYO DE WIKILEAKS DENUNCIANTE ALEGA soldado Bradley Manning EN EL CENTRO DE LA CIUDAD DE BOSTON HDQTRS OBAMA.-SEPTEMBER 6,2012- 2 PM

RALLY EN APOYO DE WIKILEAKS DENUNCIANTE ALEGA soldado Bradley Manning EN EL CENTRO DE LA CIUDAD DE BOSTON HDQTRS OBAMA.-SEPTEMBER 6,2012- 2 PM

FECHA: Jueves 06 de septiembre 2012

HORA: (. Las personas serán el centro de distribución de panfletos de las 11:00 am y nos quedaremos hasta las 5:00 PM para unirse a nosotros en cualquier momento que podamos para mostrar su solidaridad) PUESTA A LAS 2:00 PM

LUGAR: CENTRO DE BOSTON OBAMA LA SEDE EN LA CALLE DE VERANO 77 (cerca de la parada de Downtown Crossing EN LAS LÍNEAS ROJAS Y NARANJA)

El Boston Smedley Butler Brigada y Samantha capítulo-Veteranos por la Paz, la Red de Apoyo a Bradley Boston Manning, Manning Square Somerville Comité y otros activistas sociales y ciudadanos interesados ​​apoyar el llamamiento de la Red Nacional de Apoyo Bradley Manning y otros, para manifestación nacional en el ámbito local sede Obama el jueves 6 de septiembre de 2012, el día que el presidente Obama está previsto aceptar la nominación del Partido Demócrata del presidente, para pedir la libertad de denunciante WikiLeaks supuesto, el Ejército de soldado de primera clase Bradley Manning. También se pide al presidente a usar su autoridad constitucional de indultar a soldado Manning ahora.

Contacto: Pat Scanlon (VN 69 ')-Coordinador, VFP Capítulo 9, Smedley Butler Brigada patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com o Al Johnson, Coordinadora de Eventos -alfredjohnson34 @ comcast.net

FREE Bradley Manning-PRESIDENTE OBAMA PERDÓN Bradley Manning AHORA!

Visita nuestra página de Facebook-Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Support Rally-06 de septiembre- http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRally #! / BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th

Trabajo donado llamada a la acción a Obama 2.012 oficinas a nivel nacional 06 de septiembre durante la DNC La Red de Apoyo a Bradley Manning, los afganos por la Paz y Veteranos de Bahía de SF de Irak contra la Guerra de llamada para las acciones de Nationwide en las oficinas locales de la campaña de Obama 06 de septiembre 2012 durante la Convención Nacional Demócrata! Free Bradley Manning!




Desde el arresto de Ejército PFC Bradley Manning en mayo de 2010 por supuestamente compartir las "Asesinato Colateral" video y otras pruebas de crímenes de guerra y la corrupción del gobierno con los sitios web WikiLeaks denunciantes-, progresistas y activistas de derechos humanos han estado preguntando, "¿Por qué no es el presidente Obama interviniendo para ayudar a Bradley? "

Después de todo, fue el presidente Obama quien mayo 2011 declaró con respecto a las protestas en Oriente Medio,

"En el siglo 21, la información es poder, la verdad no puede ocultarse, y la legitimidad de los gobiernos en última instancia dependerá de ciudadanos activos e informados".

El jueves, 16 de agosto de veteranos militares de EE.UU. en Portland OR, CA Oakland y Los Angeles CA, ocuparon las oficinas de campaña de Obama 2012 y enviado por fax una carta de demandas a la oficina central de la campaña de Obama. Esas cartas se inició:

Como aquellos que llevan años sirviendo a nuestro país, tenemos fe en que como Comandante en Jefe, el Presidente Obama haga lo correcto al responder a nuestra petición.

La carta pasó a enumerar las siguientes demandas:

Que el Presidente Obama retractarse y disculparse por declaraciones formuladas en abril de 2011, en la que dijo Bradley Manning "violó la ley." Porque el presidente Obama es el comandante en jefe, se está ante la influencia de comando ilegal, violando el artículo 37 del Código Uniforme de Justicia Militar Justicia (UCMJ), y evita que Bradley reciba un juicio justo.

Ese indulto del presidente Obama la acusó de denuncia, teniendo en cuenta sus 800 días de reclusión preventiva. Naciones Unidas tortura jefe Juan Méndez llama tratamiento de Manning "cruel e inhumano", ya que incluía nueve meses de confinamiento solitario en Quantico a pesar de psiquiatras Brig recomendando condiciones relajadas.

La Red de Apoyo a Bradley Manning mantiene la esperanza de que prevalecerá la justicia y que el presidente Obama puede ser el vehículo del cambio en este tema, pero primero tiene que oír alto y claro de los veteranos y civiles de todo el país que el pueblo estadounidense quiere reparar la ilegalidad la tortura de Bradley Manning, y creo que debe ser liberado.

Los organizadores de las acciones 16 agosto Costa Oeste están instando a otros a que se sumen a un esfuerzo nacional para sostener las acciones en muchas oficinas de campaña de Obama más locales el 6 de septiembre, el día del discurso de aceptación del candidato candidatura. Queremos compartir mensajes de apoyo a Bradley con oficinas de campaña de Obama, de costa a costa.

Por favor, póngase en contacto con emma@bradleymanning.org para más información sobre la asistencia y / o la organización de un evento.

RALLY DE APOIO ALEGADA WIKILEAKS denunciante Bradley Manning PRIVADO NO centro de Boston OBAMA HDQTRS. -September 6th-2 PM

RALLY DE APOIO ALEGADA WIKILEAKS denunciante Bradley Manning PRIVADO NO centro de Boston OBAMA HDQTRS.

DATA: quinta-feira 06 de setembro de 2012

TEMPO: (. Pessoas serão panfletagem no centro de cerca de 11:00 e vamos ficar até cerca de 17:00 para se juntar a nós a qualquer hora que puder para mostrar sua solidariedade) A partir de 02:00

LOCAL: Centro de Boston SEDE DE OBAMA EM RUA 77 DE VERÃO (perto da paragem de Downtown Crossing NA LINHA VERMELHA E LARANJA)

O Boston Smedley Butler Brigada e Samantha Capítulo-Veteranos pela Paz, o Boston Bradley Manning Support Network, Somerville Manning Praça Comitê e outros ativistas sociais e cidadãos preocupados apoiar o apelo pela Rede Nacional de Apoio Bradley Manning e outros em todo o país para reunir na sede Obama locais na quinta-feira 06 de setembro de 2012, o dia o presidente Obama está programado aceitar a nomeação do Partido Democrata do presidente, para pedir a liberdade de denúncia WikiLeaks alegada, Exército soldado de primeira classe Bradley Manning. Também será convidando o presidente a usar sua autoridade constitucional para perdoar Manning privados agora.

Contato: Pat Scanlon (VN 69 ')-Coordenador, VFP Capítulo 9, Smedley Butler Brigada patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com ou Al Johnson-Coordenador de Eventos -alfredjohnson34 @ comcast.net

GRÁTIS Bradley Manning-PRESIDENTE OBAMA PERDÃO Bradley Manning AGORA!

Confira nossa página do Facebook Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Suporte Rally-06 de setembro- http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRally #! / BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th

Trabalho doado chamada para a ação em Obama 2.012 escritórios em todo o país 06 de setembro durante DNC O Bradley Manning Support Network, os afegãos Pela Paz e da Baía de SF Veteranos do Iraque Contra a Guerra Chamada para Ações de âmbito nacional em escritórios locais da campanha de Obama 6 de setembro de 2012 durante a Convenção Nacional Democrata! Bradley Manning livre!




Desde a prisão do Exército Bradley Manning PFC maio 2010 por supostamente compartilhando a "Assassinato Colateral" de vídeo e outras evidências de crimes de guerra e corrupção do governo com as WikiLeaks delator site, progressistas e ativistas de direitos humanos foram perguntando: "Por que não é presidente Obama entra para a ajudar Bradley? "

Afinal, foi o presidente Obama que maio 2011 declarou com relação a protestos no Oriente Médio,

"No século 21, a informação é poder, a verdade não pode ser escondida e a legitimidade dos governos vai depender cidadãos ativos e informados."

Na quinta-feira, 16 de agosto de veteranos militares dos EUA em Portland OR, CA Oakland e Los Angeles CA, ocuparam Obama 2.012 escritórios de campanha e enviado por fax uma carta de reivindicações para o escritório central da campanha de Obama. Essas cartas começou:

Como aqueles que passaram anos servindo nosso país, temos fé que, como comandante-em-chefe, o presidente Obama irá fazer a coisa certa em responder a nosso pedido.

A carta passou a listar as seguintes exigências:

Que o presidente Obama retratar e se desculpar por observações feitas em abril de 2011, na qual ele disse Bradley Manning "violou a lei." Como o presidente Obama é o comandante-em-chefe, isso constitui a influência de comando ilegal, violando o artigo 37 do Código Uniforme de militar Justiça (UCMJ), Bradley e impede de receber um julgamento justo.

Que o presidente Obama perdão ao acusado delator, levando em consideração seus 800 dias de confinamento pré-julgamento. Tortura chefe da ONU Juan Mendez chamado de tratamento de Manning "cruel e desumano", já que incluía nove meses de confinamento solitário em Quantico, apesar psiquiatras Brig recomendando condições relaxado.

O Bradley Manning Support Network mantém a esperança de que a justiça vai prevalecer e que o presidente Obama pode ser o veículo de mudança sobre esta questão, mas primeiro ele precisa ouvir alto e claro de veteranos e civis de todo o país que o povo americano quer a reparação para o ilegal a tortura de Bradley Manning, e acredito que ele deve ser libertado.

Organizadores dos 16 ago ações da costa oeste estão agora pedindo outros para se juntar a eles em um esforço nacional para realizar ações em diversos escritórios de campanha mais locais de Obama em 6 de setembro, o dia do candidato discurso de aceitação de nomeação. Queremos compartilhar mensagens de apoio para Bradley, com escritórios de campanha de Obama, de costa a costa.

Entre em contato com emma@bradleymanning.org para mais informações sobre como participar e / ou organizar um evento.

Rassemblement de soutien à ALLÉGUÉE WIKILEAKS DÉNONCIATION BRADLEY MANNING PRIVÉ AU CENTRE-VILLE DE BOSTON OBAMA Hdqtrs.

Rassemblement de soutien à ALLÉGUÉE WIKILEAKS DÉNONCIATION BRADLEY MANNING PRIVÉ AU CENTRE-VILLE DE BOSTON OBAMA Hdqtrs.

DATE: JEUDI 6 septembre 2012

HEURE: (. Personnes seront distribution de tracts du centre-ville d'environ 11:00 et nous y resterons jusqu'à environ 17h00 alors rejoignez-nous à tout moment vous pouvez montrer votre solidarité) À PARTIR DE 14h00

LIEU: CENTRE-VILLE DE BOSTON OBAMA SIÈGE à 77, rue SUMMER (près de l'arrêt Downtown Crossing SUR LES LIGNES ROUGES ET ORANGE)

Le Boston Smedley Butler brigade et Samantha Chapitre-Combattants pour la Paix, le Réseau de soutien Bradley Manning Boston, Somerville Manning Place Comité et d'autres militants sociaux et des citoyens intéressés soutenir l'appel lancé par le Réseau national de soutien Bradley Manning et d'autres pays à se rallier à Obama siège local le jeudi 6 Septembre 2012, jour où le Président Obama devrait accepter l'investiture du parti démocrate du président, d'appeler à la liberté de dénonciation WikiLeaks présumé, l'Armée soldat de première classe Bradley Manning. Nous allons également appeler le président à user de son pouvoir constitutionnel de gracier soldat Manning maintenant.

Personne-ressource: Pat Scanlon (VN 69 ')-coordonnateur, VFP chapitre 9, Smedley Butler Brigade patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com ou Al Johnson-Coordonnatrice des événements -alfredjohnson34 @ comcast.net

GRATUIT Bradley Manning-PRÉSIDENT OBAMA PARDON Bradley Manning MAINTENANT!

Visitez notre page Facebook-Downtown Boston Bradley Manning soutien de rallye-Septembre 6e http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRally#!/ BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th

Travail bénévole Appel à l'action à Obama 2012 bureaux dans le pays pendant 6 septembre DNC Le Réseau Bradley Manning soutien, les Afghans pour la paix et SF Bay Vétérans d'Irak Contre la Guerre de l'appel pour des actions à l'échelle nationale des bureaux locaux de la campagne d'Obama le 6 septembre 2012 lors de la Convention nationale démocrate! Bradley Manning gratuit!




Depuis l'arrestation de l'Armée PFC Bradley Manning en mai 2010 pour avoir prétendument le partage de la «Assassiner Collateral" vidéo et autres preuves de crimes de guerre et la corruption gouvernementale avec le site Wikileaks dénonciateurs, les progressistes et les militants des droits humains ont demandé, "Pourquoi pas le Président Obama intervenir pour aider Bradley? "

Après tout, c'est le président Obama qui a déclaré mai 2011 en ce qui concerne les manifestations au Moyen-Orient,

«Au 21e siècle, l'information c'est le pouvoir, la vérité ne peut pas être cachée, et la légitimité des gouvernements dépendra en définitive de citoyens actifs et informés."

Jeudi, Août 16, États-Unis vétérans militaires à Portland OR, Oakland et Los Angeles CA, occupé les bureaux de campagne d'Obama en 2012 et a faxé une lettre de demande au bureau central de la campagne d'Obama. Ces lettres ont commencé:

Comme ceux qui ont passé des années à servir notre pays, nous avons la foi que commandant en chef, le président Obama fera la bonne chose à répondre à notre demande.

La lettre poursuit en énumérant les exigences suivantes:

Que le président Obama se rétracter et de s'excuser de propos tenus en Avril 2011, dans laquelle il a affirmé M. Bradley Manning "a enfreint la loi." Parce que le président Obama est le commandant en chef, ce qui constitue une influence ordre illégal, violant ainsi l'article 37 du Code uniforme de militaire Justice (UCMJ), et empêche Bradley bénéficié d'un procès équitable.

Que le pardon du président Obama à l'accusé dénonciateur, en tenant compte de ses 800 jours de détention préventive. Des Nations Unies torture chef Juan Mendez appelle le traitement de Manning "cruel et inhumain», comme on a inclus neuf mois d'isolement à Quantico en dépit psychiatres Brig recommandant des conditions détendues.

Le Réseau Bradley Manning support maintient l'espoir que la justice prévaudra et que le président Obama peut être le véhicule du changement sur cette question, mais d'abord il a besoin d'entendre haut et fort les anciens combattants et les civils dans tout le pays que le peuple américain veut réparer l'illégalité la torture de Bradley Manning, et je crois qu'il devrait être libéré.

Les organisateurs des 16 août actions de la côte Ouest sont maintenant exhortant les autres à se joindre à un effort national pour organiser des actions à beaucoup plus de bureaux locaux de campagne d'Obama le 6 Septembre, le jour du discours d'acceptation de candidature du candidat. Nous voulons partager des messages de soutien pour Bradley avec des bureaux de campagne d'Obama, d'un océan à l'autre.

S'il vous plaît contacter emma@bradleymanning.org pour plus d'informations à propos de présence et / ou l'organisation d'un événement.

RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLEGED WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER PRIVATE BRADLEY MANNING AT THE DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HDQTRS.-SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLEGED WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER PRIVATE BRADLEY MANNING AT THE DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HDQTRS.-SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

DATE: THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

TIME: STARTING AT 2:00 PM (People will be leafleting downtown from about 11:00 AM and we will stay until about 5:00 PM so join us anytime you can to show your solidarity.)

PLACE: DOWNTOWN BOSTON OBAMA HEADQUARTERS AT 77 SUMMER STREET (NEAR THE DOWNTOWN CROSSING STOP ON THE RED AND ORANGE LINES)

The Boston Smedley Butler Brigade and Samantha Chapter- Veterans for Peace, the Boston Bradley Manning Support Network , Somerville Manning Square Committee and other social activists and concerned citizens support the call by the National Bradley Manning Support Network and others to rally nationwide at local Obama headquarters on Thursday September 6, 2012, the day President Obama is scheduled accept the Democratic Party nomination of president, to call for freedom for alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. We also will be calling on the president to use his constitutional authority to pardon Private Manning now.

Contact: Pat Scanlon (VN 69’)-Coordinator, VFP Chapter 9, Smedley Butler Brigade patscanlonmusic@yahoo.com or Al Johnson-Event Coordinator -alfredjohnson34@comcast.net

FREE BRADLEY MANNING-PRESIDENT OBAMA PARDON BRADLEY MANNING NOW!

Check our Facebook event page –Downtown Boston Bradley Manning Support Rally-September 6th-

http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th#!/events/439879979398064/

Labor donated


Call for action at Obama 2012 offices nationwide Sept. 6th during DNC

The Bradley Manning Support Network, Afghans For Peace and SF Bay Iraq Veterans Against the War Call for Nationwide Actions at local Obama Campaign Offices September 6th 2012 during the Democratic National Convention! Free Bradley Manning!

Since Army PFC Bradley Manning’s arrest in May 2010 for allegedly sharing the “Collateral Murder” video and other evidence of war crimes and government corruption with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, progressives and human rights activists have been asking, “Why isn’t President Obama stepping in to help Bradley?”

After all, it was President Obama who in May 2011 declared with regards to protests in the Middle East,

“In the 21st Century, information is power; the truth cannot be hidden; and the legitimacy of governments will ultimately depend on active and informed citizens.”

On Thursday, August 16, US military veterans in Portland OR, Oakland CA, and Los Angeles CA, occupied Obama 2012 campaign offices and faxed a letter of demands to the Obama campaign’s central office. Those letters began:

As those who have spent years serving our country, we have faith that as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama will do the right thing in answering our request.

The letter went on to list the following demands:

That President Obama retract and apologize for remarks made in April 2011, in which he said Bradley Manning “broke the law.” Because President Obama is commander-in-chief, this constitutes unlawful command influence, violating Article 37 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and prevents Bradley from receiving a fair trial.

That President Obama pardon the accused whistle-blower, taking into consideration his 800 days of pretrial confinement. UN torture chief Juan Mendez called Manning’s treatment “cruel and inhuman,” as it included nine months of solitary confinement at Quantico despite Brig psychiatrists recommending relaxed conditions.

The Bradley Manning Support Network maintains hope that justice will prevail and that President Obama can be the vehicle of change on this issue, but first he needs to hear loud and clear from veterans and civilians across the country that the American people want amends for the unlawful torture of Bradley Manning, and believe he should be freed.

Organizers of the August 16 West Coast actions are now urging others to join them in a nationwide effort to hold actions at many more local Obama campaign offices on September 6th, the day of candidate’s nomination acceptance speech. We want to share messages of support for Bradley with Obama campaign offices from coast to coast.

Please contact emma@bradleymanning.org for more information about attending and/or organizing an event.

From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin -The Songs Of The Pre-Rock Fifties-They Shoot Record Players, Don’t They? -

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Dinah Washington performing What A Difference A Day Makes.


I am a child of rock ‘n’ roll, no question. And I have filled up many sketches in my notebooks with plenty of material about my likes and dislikes from the classic period of that genre, the mid-1950s, when we first heard that different jail-break beat, a beat our parents could not “hear,” as we of the generation of ’68 earned our spurs and started that long teenage angst and alienation process of going our own way. Still, as much as we were determined to have our own music on our own terms, wafting through every household, every household that had a radio in the background, and more importantly, had the emerging sounds from television in it was our parents’ music- the music, mainly of the surviving the Great Depression (the 1930s one not the one we are in now in 2012) and fighting (or frantically waiting at home for news) World War II period. And that is what Lena Horne’s Stormy Weather evokes in these ears as I write this sketch. Or click above in contrast and listen to Dinah Washington (apologies, okay Ms. D.) vanilla kitten croon (nice, huh) What A Difference A Day Makes.

In an earlier piece noted that some the World War II era music “spoke” to me, or at least it did not offend my ear (especially a classic like Lena Horne on Stormy Weather). Some later stuff, however, as it intersected my generation’s jail-breakout rock beat, or should I say interfered with that breakout, is something else again. This material was nothing but a rearguard action, for the most part, to keep everything quiet, to be nice and, to hope, hope to high heaven that they (and you know, if you are of a certain age, who the “they” were) didn’t drop the bomb and ruin a Saturday chaste date. The cover art featured on one such compilation had a boy and girl sitting dreamily in a car (maybe dad’s, maybe in discretionary dollars new teen America, his own, but his, one way or another) looking out at the expanse says it all. This ain’t some reckless little rock ‘n’ roll scene, not even sweet, beatified be-bop. This is the music of older, "square" brothers and sisters caught in between “jump” forties and “rock” mid-fifties.

It is almost impossible to do anything with certain songs except draw and quarter them and make apologies to someone like Tony Bennett who actually did some better stuff later but here is all I can even come close to advising anyone under the age of one hundred (today) to hear:

Memories Are Made Of This, Dean Martin (martini, or whatever, in hand, Dino ain’t rocking, he’ll leave that for his son); Just In Time, Tony Bennett (already noted above); What A Difference A Day Makes, Dinah Washington (Jesus, what is a serious, be-bop jazz singer, “torch” too, and with great phrasing doing in this thing-except to prove my overall point as the exception).

From The Pen Of Peter Paul Markin- From The Boyos- The Songs Of The Dubliners

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of the Dubliners performing Raglan Road.

Since my youth I have had an ear for roots music, whether I was conscious of that fact or not. The original of that interest first centered on the blues, then early rock and roll and later, with the folk revival of the early 1960’s, folk music. I have often wondered about the source of this interest. I am, and have always been a city boy, and an Eastern city boy at that. Nevertheless, over time I have come to appreciate many more forms of roots music than in my youth. The subject of the following review, The Dubliners, is an example.

In a sense it would seem that the source of my interest in the Dubliners would be apparent. My mother’s people came over from Ireland to America on the famine ships in the 1840’s. Not so, in my youth the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Machem were all that I would listen to for Irish, and particularly Irish political, songs. The Dubliners were a later acquired taste as I delved more into Irish history several years ago. I believe that the Dubliners were a little better musically than the Clancys (and Tommy too) and certainly Luke Kelly added much with his deep whiskey-sodden voice to any song he leads.

Politically (and culturally), both groups cover many of the same songs- from traditional Croppy Boy, Boys of Wexford types to the songs of the Easter Uprising in 1916. The Dubliners, probably because they were based in and stayed in Ireland, have a bigger selection of songs reflecting the more current struggles for liberation up in the north. In short, the Dubliners measure up to my youthful standards for Irish political music. If you just want good old Irish sentimental material or party/bar music they have plenty of that too. Check out their A Pub With No Beer or Finnegan’s Wake.

From the Pen Of Peter Paul Markin- Will The Circle Be Unbroken- The Songs Of The Carter Family

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of the Carter Family performing the old-time Under The Weeping Willow Tree.

In my jaded youth I developed an ear for roots music, whether I was conscious of that fact or not. The origin of that interest first centered on the blues, country and city with the likes of Son House , Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Elmore James. Then early rock and roll, you know the rockabillies and R&B crowd, Elvis, Jerry Lee, Chuck, Roy, Big Joe and Ike, and later, with the folk revival of the early 1960’s, folk music, especially the protest to high heaven sort, Bob Dylan, Dave Von Ronk, Joan Baez, etc.

I have often wondered about the source of this interest. I am, and have always been a city boy, and an Eastern city boy at that. Meaning rootless or not meaningfully rooted in any of the niches mentioned above, or others. Nevertheless, over time I have come to appreciate many more forms of roots music than in my youth. Cajun, Tex-Mex, old time dust bowl ballads a la Woody Guthrie, cowboy stuff with the likes of Bob Wills and Milton Brown, Carter Family-etched mountain music and so on. The subject of the following review, The Carter Family, and their influence on mountain music is an example.

With the relatively recent spate of mountain music films, George Clooney’s Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Song-catcher and the Johnny Cash movie biography Walk The Line the Carter Family has again come into greater public prominence. And rightly so. The original trio (A.P., Ruth, May belle) performed simple country (or better rural) music mainly composed by A.P. Carter that evoked, if not a simpler time, then in any case, a simpler type of music. While I cannot listen endlessly to such music at one sitting about one-half a CD at a time works. Why not the whole CD? There is a very similar melody and guitar line to their work in most songs. The value of each song sometimes gets lost in the basic repetition.

A note on subject matter- The bulk of the songs concern home, hearth lovesickness, the vagaries of nature (god’s nature) and religion as might be expected from mountain people (and not just mountain people come to think of it). And that is okay. This reviewer, although not a religious man, can appreciate the simple, fundamentalist but very personal religion evoked here. The god evoked against hard times, hard struggle and righteousness against a seemingly intractable land and forward, ever forward. Not to romanticize the simple rural folk of the past but I do not believe that the religious sentiments expressed in old time mountain music are the same as those of religious fundamentalists today who want to ram a theocracy down our throats in the United States today. Those were people awestruck by the tasks before them and did not need to be “born again” (or see every last citizen in that condition) to appreciate that burden.

Houston Janitors Strike for Economic Justice

Houston Janitors Strike for Economic Justice

by Mark Vorpahl

Email: info (nospam) workerscompass.org (verified)

27 Jul 2012

Echoing the story of David vs. Goliath, janitors in Houston are on strike and taking on such corporate giants as JPMorganChase and Exxon Mobile in an effort to pressure the janitorial companies they employ to agree to the workers' modest demands. It is these big business behemoths that are the real powers behind cleaning contractors such as ABM, GCA, ISS etc. By striking against these contractors, and publicly targeting these contractors' employers, the janitors are using their collective power in a showdown that has great significance for not only the Labor Movement but all workers.



The janitors are members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1, which has a membership of 3,200 in Houston. Currently, these workers' wages top out at $8.35 per hour. On average, they make under $9,000 a year. The government defines the poverty line as an income of $22,314 for a family of four and $11,139 for an individual.

The janitors are asking for a $10.00 per hour starting wage. In response, the contractors offered a combined 50 cents an hour raise over the course of a five-year contract. With the growing cost of living over this time, these workers would sink even further into poverty if they accepted this. The contractors' proposal was nothing more than an insult.

Not content with merely insulting their employees, the contractors began to back up their position with injury. The janitors were subject to captive audience meetings where their jobs were threatened if they participated in union activity. Management warned that they would call for an immigration audit if the employees didn't quiet down. In addition, they also withheld paychecks of some union supporters. In all, 13 Unfair Labor Practices have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

The Union contract expired on May 31st. The janitors held a series of rallies and one-day work stoppages in order to convince management that they meant business. However, because these actions did not seriously impact the contractors' profits, they did not feel compelled to move. Consequently, the membership of SEIU Local 1 had no choice but vote to go on strike.

There are two features of this strike that make it exceptional.

One is how it highlights the growing inequality that exists in this nation and the need to fight it. Houston leads the nation in the growth of the number of millionaires. The companies targeted by the strike in its public campaign are some of the main players in the big business elite. On the other hand, not even the most rabid right-wing pro-corporate media can effectively portray the janitors as greedy unionists. This strike has the potential to tap into a growing discontent in the U.S. over inequality that helped launch Occupy as well as the Madison, Wisconsin Capital occupation in 2011.

The other exceptional feature of this struggle is the use of work stoppages and rallies nationally in solidarity with the Houston janitors. Solidarity strikes was one of the tactics employed by the CIO in the 1930s that propelled its rapid growth. Because of this tactic's effectiveness, it was outlawed in 1947 with the bi-partisan passage of the Taft-Hartley Act.

To get around the rigged rules of this slave labor law, many SEIU janitorial contracts have a "conscience clause." This clause enables janitors to refuse to cross a picket line at their work place without fear of penalty. As a result, picket lines have been set up in several cities at work sites that employ SEIU janitors, elevating the economic impact on the contractors, who are in Houston, to a national scale.

These contractors and their corporate employers are organized to pursue profits across the U.S. These profits are the only thing they care about. While they can more easily handle a strike isolated in one city, the nationwide solidarity work stoppage tactic employed by SEIU is much more difficult for them to deal with. If the bosses refuse to budge, it will be necessary to escalate this tactic further.

By highlighting the issue of inequality and countering the contractors with a nationwide response that uses work stoppages, SEIU is challenging the limits of the corporate political machine. It will be necessary to break these boundaries for Houston’s janitors, and all workers, to decisively win.

Currently, some Democratic politicians, such as Vice President Joe Biden, have voiced support for the strike. Given the massive funding both parties receive from Wall Street and the resulting pro-corporate policies they pursue, there should be no surprise that they either neglect or attack the issues of most importance to workers, so that such fine speeches like Biden’s have the appearance of cynical electioneering.

SEIU, and the unions in general, will not find a national voice by getting a seat at the table with these politicians who ignore or attempt to bind the membership's struggles. Instead Labor must devote its resources towards empowering its own members to fight for their own needs, without fear of offending the politicians, and create a social movement that speaks for all workers.

The demands that the Houston SEIU janitors are putting forward are extremely modest. However, their actions and organizing are growing more bold. They are already providing an example of greater struggles for economic justice in the near future.

For more information and to support the strike go to http://www.seiu1.org/
More info about this article at www.workerscompass.org

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Taxing the Rich and Its “Left” Critics -A Polemic

Markin comment:

I place some material in this space which may be of interest to the radical public that I do not necessarily agree with or support. Off hand, as I have mentioned before, I think it would be easier, infinitely easier, to fight for the socialist revolution straight up than some of the “remedies” provided by the commentators in these entries. But part of that struggle for the socialist revolution is to sort out the “real” stuff from the fluff as we struggle for that more just world that animates our efforts.
**********
Taxing the Rich and Its “Left” Critics

by Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer

28 Jul 2012

In a recent article published on the website of Socialist Viewpoint, Chris Kinder criticized those on the left who call for raising taxes on the rich. Identifying himself as a Trotskyist, Mr. Kinder displayed particular displeasure with Trotskyists who embrace this demand. Yet, as we will argue, his arguments fundamentally deviate from the political-strategic framework established by Marx and Engels and developed by Lenin and Trotsky.

“‘Tax the rich’ is far from a transitional demand,” Mr. Kinder argued and added: “Demanding taxation of the rich presumes the continued existence of the rich! But revolutionists seek to expropriate the rich capitalists as a precursor to creating an egalitarian, socialist society.”

This argument was further developed when he added: “Furthermore, ‘tax the rich,’ by presuming the continued existence of the exploiter class, cuts off any avenue to being a ‘bridge’ to a revolutionary program. As Trotsky explained in The Death Agony of Capitalism..., a transitional demand should help the masses to ‘find the bridge between present demands and the socialist program of the revolution.’”

Mr. Kinder continues his critique by noting that taxing the rich has been promoted by liberals, and, unlike transitional demands, can be won within the framework of capitalism. By improving the lot of the working class it can then defuse their revolutionary impulses.

He also argues that “it’s not a particularly internationalist demand,” since it would only benefit the workers of a particular country.

In place of calling for increasing taxes on the rich, Mr. Kinder offers this substitute: “…the immediate, and transitional, demand must be to expropriate the big banks and financial houses, with no compensation of course, and including no disruption of private individual and small business deposits. Immediately seize all assets, and return them to their proper owners. That means abolition of the mortgage debt owned by the expropriated banks and investors.”

If creating a revolutionary movement simply amounted to broadcasting transitional slogans to workers regardless of the level of consciousness of these workers, then Mr. Kinder’s approach might have some merit. But as Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky all emphasized, revolutionary politics rejects this approach and instead insist that revolutionaries raise demands that resonate with the working class or organize around demands that the workers themselves have raised. In this way workers become engaged, active, and in a position to learn from the dynamics of class struggle.

Let us begin by pointing out that taxing the rich does indeed have a long history, but in reviewing that history Mr. Kinder failed to mention that it was one of Marx’s and Engels’ ten transitional demands in the Manifesto of the Communist Party. They called for “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax,” which means exactly the same as “taxing the rich.”

In 1937, in an introduction to the Communist Manifesto, Trotsky commented on these transitional demands: “Calculated for a revolutionary epoch, the Manifesto contains…ten demands, corresponding to the period of direct transition from capitalism to socialism. In their Preface of 1872, Marx and Engels declared these demands to be in part antiquated, and, in any case, only of secondary importance. The reformists seized upon this evaluation to interpret it in the sense that transitional revolutionary demands had forever ceded their place to the social-democratic ‘minimum program,’ which, as is well known, does not transcend the limits of bourgeois democracy. As a matter of fact, the authors of the Manifesto indicated quite precisely the main correction of their transitional program, namely, ‘the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.’ In other words, the correction was directed against the fetishism of bourgeois democracy. Marx later counterposed to the capitalist state, the state of the type of the (Paris) Commune (1871). This ‘type’ subsequently assumed the much more graphic shape of Soviets. There cannot be a revolutionary program today without Soviets and without workers’ control. As for the rest, the ten demands of the Manifesto, which appeared ‘archaic’ in an epoch of peaceful parliamentary activity, have today regained completely their true significance. The social-democratic ‘minimum program,’ on the other hand, has become hopelessly antiquated.”

In other words, Trotsky endorsed taxing the rich as a transitional demand, and thus Mr. Kinder has unwittingly deviated from those he claims to follow.

Mr. Kinder has committed the kind of error that is frequently committed by beginners in Marxist revolutionary politics. They engage in an abstract, undialectical approach by reducing Marxism to a few doctrinaire slogans that they apply to every situation. Mr. Kinder, for example, takes slogans from Trotsky that were aimed at a class conscious and frequently revolutionary-minded working class in the 1930s. He then applies these same slogans to the current U.S. working class that is fragmented, lacks class consciousness, and is far from revolutionary. This beginners’ approach is both a reflection of their isolation from the working class with its day-to-day struggles as well as a barrier that separates them from the working class.

If one applied Mr. Kinder’s logic to cases where workers were fighting for a wage increase at work, one would be forced to condemn the struggle because wage increases can be won while capitalism remains intact, it is not a transitional demand, and it certainly benefits only a limited section of the working class while leaving the international working class no better off than before. Those who adopt Mr. Kinder’s logic typically are uninvolved with the day-to-day struggles of the working class and hence are not in a position to lead these struggles in a revolutionary direction.

Marxists have always wrestled with the problem of how to imbue the working class with a revolutionary consciousness, given that workers can fall into reformism, apathy, or demoralization. In his strategic essay, “What Next?” (1932), Trotsky confronted this problem by outlining the indispensable role of the united front in developing a revolutionary outlook among workers. In the course of his discussion he made many points that indicate a far more complicated framework than Mr. Kinder’s, a framework forged by Trotsky in the course of constant engagement in working class battles, both large and small. Here are some key passages that Mr. Kinder would have difficulty incorporating into his own two-dimensional framework.

“And so, ten years ago, the Comintern explained that the gist of the united-front policy was in the following: the Communist Party proves to the masses and their organizations its readiness in action to wage battle in common with them for aims, no matter how modest [emphasis added], so long as they lie on the road of the historical development of the proletariat; the Communist Party in this struggle takes into account the actual condition of the class at each given moment [emphasis added]; it turns not only to the masses, but also to those organizations whose leadership is recognized by the masses; it confronts the reformist organizations before the eyes of the masses with the real problems of the class struggle.”

Slightly later he adds, and this is particularly relevant to Mr. Kinder: “The mistakes made in the policy of the united front fall into two categories. In most cases the leading organs of the Communist Party approached the reformists with an offer to join in a common struggle for radical slogans which were alien to the situation and which found no response in the masses.”

Earlier Trotsky quoted from one of his earlier documents: “In these clashes — insofar as they involve the vital interests of the entire working class, or its majority, or this or that section — the working masses sense the need of unity in action…. Any party which mechanically counterposes itself to this need … will unfailingly be condemned in the minds of the workers…. For those who do not understand this task, the party is only a propaganda society and not an organization for mass action.”

And even still earlier Trotsky noted: “To fight, the proletariat must have unity in its ranks. This holds true for partial economic conflicts, within the walls of a single factory, as well as for such ‘national’ political battles as the one to repel fascism. Consequently the tactic of the united front is not something accidental and artificial — a cunning maneuver — not at all; it originates, entirely and wholly, in the objective conditions governing the development of the proletariat. The words in the Communist Manifesto which state that the Communists are not to be opposed to the proletariat, that they have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole, carry with them the meaning that the struggle of the party to win over the majority of the class must in no instance come into opposition with the need of the workers to keep unity within their fighting ranks.”

From the same essay Trotsky cites Lenin’s approach: “Shortly after that Lenin arrived from abroad, and he raked the ultimatists over the coals mercilessly. ‘You can’t,’ he lectured them, ‘nor can anyone else by means of ultimatums force the masses to skip the necessary phases of their own political development.’”

“Instead of monotonously repeating the same ready-made formulas before one and the same audience, it [a revolutionary party] would be enabled to set new strata into motion, to teach them through actual experience, to steel them, and to strengthen its hegemony among the working class.”

The comments above are crucial on several grounds. First, they indicate that Trotsky’s highest priority was to engage massive numbers of workers in class struggle where they learn from the own experiences the nature of capitalist society, its antagonistic class relations, and the role of the state in supporting the ruling class. “Mass actions,” he insisted “[were] the highest form of class struggle….” Even though workers initially might only be willing to fight for “modest” reforms, the education they derive from their battle experience often far exceeds theoretical study. Under conditions of battle, workers begin to develop a strong sense of camaraderie with one another, which is an incipient form of class consciousness. They see more clearly that the boss is their direct enemy, they watch the local or federal government and the media rush to provide support to the bosses and are consequently far from neutral or objective. Most importantly, if the workers win, they begin to sense the tremendous power they can wield when they act in solidarity and unity with one another. This sense of power can then quickly lead to workers eager to return to the battlefield to rack up even bigger victories. Eventually this logic can lead the working class to the realization that reforms are insufficient and only the replacement of capitalism by socialism will satisfactorily address their grievances. Consequently, the struggle for reforms can harbor all sorts of dialectical implications that lead the working class to a more revolutionary outlook.

In “The Belgian Dispute and the De Man Plan” (1935) Trotsky returned to the importance of engaging workers in struggle, this time leaning on Engels for support. “Engels never tired of repeating that Marxism is not an academic doctrine or a sectarian profession of faith but an instrument for systematic work among the masses.” And in the same essay Trotsky quoted Engels as saying: “It demonstrates how very useless a platform that is largely theoretically correct can be, if it does not know how to link itself with the real needs of the masses.”

But this emphasis on engaging the masses in struggle means, secondly, the set of demands appropriate for one set of workers might not coincide with the demands that could activate another set of workers.

For example, when “The Death Agony of Capitalism” in the Transitional Program is read carefully, it becomes apparent that it was aimed at a particular historical juncture, what Trotsky called “a prerevolutionary period.” As Trotsky observed about this particular historical period: “In all countries the proletariat is wracked by a deep disquiet. The multimillioned masses again and again enter the road of revolution. But each time they are blocked by their own conservative bureaucratic machines.” It was a “catastrophic period,” “a transitional epoch,” where the Spanish proletariat had tried to take power, where France and the U.S. experienced a wave of sit-down strikes and massive general strikes. Accordingly, the “time [was] ripe” to advance transitional demands.

But in other less revolutionary periods, transitional demands might not engage workers, which raises the need of less ambitious demands, or as Trotsky is quoted above as saying, demands “no matter how modest,” meaning that Trotsky would have fully endorsed struggles over wages and benefits.

Mr. Kinder takes no notice of the specific historical context that the transitional demands targeted. Instead he rips the transitional demands out of this prerevolutionary historic context and mindlessly applies them to every situation. Therefore, when Trotsky writes in “What Next?” about waging battle around demands “no matter how modest” and criticizes radical slogans that do not resonate with the masses, Mr. Kinder is forced to ignore such observations because they are incompatible with his simple, formulaic approach.

There are several distinctions that would benefit Mr. Kinder’s analysis. As Lenin once explained, propaganda must be distinguished from agitation. Propaganda can involve complex theoretical ideas in which, for example, the full program of revolutionaries is developed and explained. It could include, for example, lengthy expositions explaining why capitalism cannot meet the needs of the working class, why banks should be expropriated, why the workweek should be reduced with no reduction in pay, etc. Propaganda can be properly tackled, for example, in a study group or a lecture situation or perhaps a magazine article.

But agitation is altogether different. Here the revolutionary focuses on a few key slogans that has the potential to inspire workers to act. These slogans might involve a demand for a higher wage, or higher taxes on the rich in order to generate revenue for a massive government jobs program, public education and social services, or immediately terminating the current war, etc. Or, under heightened periods of struggle, they might include the demand that workers’ organizations take power, that all major capitalist businesses be expropriated, etc. Here, in order to get workers to act, the slogans must resonate; they must find a “response in the masses,” as Trotsky put it.

For Trotsky, the creation of united fronts, where workers fight for a few specific demands as opposed to an elaborate political program, is the indispensable road to achieving class consciousness. The united front is the primary vehicle in which workers unite as a class and begin to develop an understanding of society and their role in it. Class struggle is consequently waged by means of the united front. In the final analysis the united front aims at winning the majority of the working class to a revolutionary program.

Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky all emphasized that workers learn above all through their own experiences; going to battle is consequently an indispensable part of their education.

While most workers in the U.S. today might not be prepared to act on the demand to expropriate the banks without compensation, the call to raise taxes on the rich, which many unions have adopted, including the AFL-CIO, has resonated with most working people, as poll after poll has indicated. Moreover, this demand has the potential to unite what is now a fragmented working class. By generating additional revenue from these taxes that would be ear-marked for public education, vital social services, and job creation programs, all highly important to the working class according to polls, these demands have the potential to draw large segments of the working class into common action. And when this demand is won and taxes on the rich are raised, the unemployed, teachers, and other public workers are no longer reduced to fighting among themselves for the crumbs.

The current situation in the U.S. confronting revolutionaries diverges dramatically from the world that Trotsky was addressing when he wrote the “The Death Agony of Capitalism” in the Transitional Program in the late 1930s. Rather than the thousands of strikes taking place yearly, as in the 1930s in the U.S., the number has recently fallen to as low as a half-dozen. Thanks to the failure of the union officials to rally their members to put up a real fight while passively accepting concession after concession, workers often lack any confidence that there is anything they could effectively do that would improve their working conditions. Apathy and demoralization are rampant. Workers have not tried to take power. We are far from a pre-revolutionary situation that Trotsky described as “ripe” for transitional demands. And when those on the far left call for a general strike, few respond.

Given this context, if workers at a particular site without a lot of economic leverage decided to resist further demands for concessions but try instead to hold on to what they have, if the “revolutionary” were to insist that they fight for “30 for 40,” meaning doing 30 hours work for 40 hours of pay, which is one of Trotsky’s transitional demands, then instead of illuminating the correct path forward for the workers, the “revolutionary” would discredit him or herself in their eyes. Workers would believe such radicals are out of touch with reality. (This is not to say that union members might not pass a resolution in favor of “30 for 40;” but in this period such a resolution would only signify what workers would ideally want, not what they are prepared to fight for at this time. In other words, the resolution would take on the character of propaganda, not agitation.)

But revolutionaries who are not engaged in leading struggles, who are content to sit on the sidelines with their moralizing opposition to anything that falls short of a revolutionary leap, are hardly bothered by these critical responses to their proposals. They comfort themselves with the assurance that no reforms within the capitalist system will solve the problems of the working class. And, of course, they are entirely correct. But they simply lack the understanding of how to work with today’s working class — with its significant lack of class consciousness, let alone revolutionary consciousness — in order to make progress towards a socialist future. This is the dilemma that Trotsky’s discussion of the united front in his article “What Next?” was intended to resolve: the united front approach — where workers join together to put up a fight over whatever demands they find compelling — was the crucial link (the “middle term”) that starts with workers’ current level of consciousness in order to raise it through a dialectical, organic process to a higher revolutionary outlook.

About the Authors

Ann Robertson is a Lecturer at San Francisco State University and a member of the California Faculty Association. Bill Leumer is a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 853 (ret.). Both are writers for Workers Action and may be reached at sanfrancisco (at) workerscompass.org.