For The Late Rosalie Sorrels-A Rosalie Sorrels Potpourri- Utah Phillips, Idaho, Cafe Lena, Childhood Dreams and Such

For The Late Rosalie Sorrels-A Rosalie Sorrels Potpourri- Utah Phillips, Idaho, Cafe Lena, Childhood Dreams and Such

If I Could Be The Rain I Would Be Rosalie Sorrels-The Legendary Folksinger-Songwriter Has Her Last Go Round At 83

By Music Critic Bart Webber

Back the day, back in the emerging folk minute of the 1960s that guys like Sam Lowell, Si Lannon, Josh Breslin, the late Peter Paul Markin and others were deeply immersed in all roads seemed to lead to Harvard Square with the big names, some small too which one time I made the subject of a series, or rather two series entitled respectively Not Bob Dylan and Not Joan Baez about those who for whatever reason did not make the show over the long haul, passing through the Club 47 Mecca and later the Café Nana and Club Blue, the Village down in NYC, North Beach out in San Francisco, and maybe Old Town in Chicago. Those are the places where names like Baez, Dylan, Paxton, Ochs, Collins and a whole crew of younger folksingers, some who made it like Tom Rush and Joni Mitchell and others like Eric Saint Jean and Minnie Murphy who didn’t, like  who all sat at the feet of guys like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger got their first taste of the fresh breeze of the folk minute, that expression courtesy of the late Markin, who was among the first around to sample the breeze.

(I should tell you here in parentheses so you will keep it to yourselves that the former three mentioned above never got over that folk minute since they will still tell a tale or two about the times, about how Dave Van Ronk came in all drunk one night at the Café Nana and still blew everybody away, about catching Paxton changing out of his Army uniform when he was stationed down at Fort Dix  right before a performance at the Gaslight, about walking down the street Cambridge with Tom Rush just after he put out No Regrets/Rockport Sunday, and about affairs with certain up and coming female folkies like the previously mentioned Minnie Murphy at the Club Nana when that was the spot of spots. Strictly aficionado stuff if you dare go anywhere within ten miles of the subject with any of them -I will take my chances here because this notice, this passing of legendary Rosalie Sorrels a decade after her dear friend Utah Phillips is important.)

Those urban locales were certainly the high white note spots but there was another important strand that hovered around Saratoga Springs in upstate New York, up around Skidmore and some of the other upstate colleges. That was Caffe Lena’s, run by the late Lena Spenser, a true folk legend and a folkie character in her own right, where some of those names played previously mentioned but also where some upstarts from the West got a chance to play the small crowds who gathered at that famed (and still existing) coffeehouse. Upstarts like the late Bruce “Utah” Phillips (although he could call several places home Utah was key to what he would sing about and rounded out his personality). And out of Idaho one Rosalie Sorrels who just joined her long-time friend Utah in that last go-round at the age of 83.

Yeah, came barreling like seven demons out there in the West, not the West Coast west that is a different proposition. The West I am talking about is where what the novelist Thomas Wolfe called the place where the states were square and you had better be as well if you didn’t want to starve or be found in some empty arroyo un-mourned and unloved. A tough life when the original pioneers drifted westward from Eastern nowhere looking for that pot of gold or at least some fresh air and a new start away from crowded cities and sweet breathe vices. A tough life worthy of song and homage. Tough going too for guys like Joe Hill who tried to organize the working people against the sweated robber barons of his day (they are still with us as we are all now very painfully and maybe more vicious than their in your face forbear). Struggles, fierce down at the bone struggles also worthy of song and homage. Tough too when your people landed in rugged beautiful two-hearted river Idaho, tried to make a go of it in Boise, maybe stopped short in Helena but you get the drift. A different place and a different type of subject matter for your themes than lost loves and longings.  

Rosalie Sorrels could write those songs as well, as well as anybody but she was as interested in the social struggles of her time (one of the links that united her with Utah) and gave no quarter when she turned the screw on a lyric. The last time I saw Rosalie perform in person was back in 2002 when she performed at the majestic Saunders Theater at Harvard University out in Cambridge America at what was billed as her last go-round, her hanging up her shoes from the dusty travel road. (That theater complex contained within the Memorial Hall dedicated to the memory of the gallants from the college who laid down their heads in that great civil war that sundered the country. The Harvards did themselves proud at collectively laying down their heads at seemingly every key battle that I am aware of when I look up at the names and places. A deep pride runs through me at those moments)

Rosalie Sorrels as one would expect on such an occasion was on fire that night except the then recent death of another folk legend, Dave Von Ronk, who was supposed to be on the bill (and who was replaced by David Bromberg who did a great job banging out the blues unto the heavens) cast a pall over the proceedings. I will always remember the crystal clarity and irony of her cover of her classic Old Devil Time that night -yeah, give me one more chance, one more breathe. But I will always think of If I Could Be The Rain and thoughst of washing herself down to the sea whenever I hear her name. RIP Rosalie Sorrels 

CD REVIEWS

Music For The Long Haul

If I Could Be The Rain, Rosalie Sorrels, Folk-Legacy Records, 2003 (originally recorded in 1967)

The first paragraph here has been used in reviewing other Rosalie Sorrels CDs in this space.

“My first association of the name Rosalie Sorrels with folk music came, many years ago now, from hearing the recently departed folk singer/storyteller/ songwriter and unrepentant Wobblie (IWW) Utah Phillips mention his long time friendship with her going back before he became known as a folksinger. I also recall that combination of Sorrels and Phillips as he performed his classic “Starlight On The Rails” and Rosalie his also classic “If I Could Be The Rain” on a PBS documentary honoring the Café Lena in Saratoga, New York, a place that I am also very familiar with for many personal and musical reasons. Of note here: it should be remembered that Rosalie saved, literally, many of the compositions that Utah left helter-skelter around the country in his “bumming” days.”

That said, what could be better than to have Rosalie pay an early musical tribute (1967) to one of her longest and dearest folk friends, her old comrade Utah Phillips, someone who it is apparent from this beautiful little CD was on the same wavelength as that old unrepentant Wobblie as well as a few of her own songs. I have reviewed Rosalie’s recent (2008) tribute CD to the departed Utah “Strangers In Another Country” elsewhere in this space. Here Rosalie takes a scattering of Utah’s work from various times and places and gives his songs her own distinctive twist. Those efforts include nice versions of “If I Could Be The Rain”, “Goodbye To Joe Hill” and “Starlight On The Rails”. From her own work “One More Next Time” and “Go With Me” stick out. And here is the real treat. Rosalie’s voice back in the old days was just as strong as it was in 2008 on “Strangers”. Nice.

If I Could Be The Rain-"Utah Phillips"

Everybody I know sings this song their own way, and they arrive at their own understanding of it. Guy Carawan does it as a sing along. I guess he thinks it must have some kind of universal appeal. To me, it's a very personal song. It's about events in my life that have to do with being in love. I very seldom sing it myself for those reasons.


If I could be the rain, I'd wash down to the sea;
If I could be the wind, there'd be no more of me;
If I could be the sunlight, and all the days were mine,
I would find some special place to shine.

But all the rain I'll ever be is locked up in my eyes,
When I hear the wind it only whispers sad goodbyes.
If I could hide the way I feel I'd never sing again;
Sometimes I wish that I could be the rain.

If I could be the rain, I'd wash down to the sea;
If I could be the wind, there'd be no more of me;
If I could hide the way I feel I'd never sing again;
Sometimes I wish that I could be the rain.

Copyright ©1973, 2000 Bruce Phillips


THE TELLING TAKES ME HOME
(Bruce Phillips)

Let me sing to you all those songs I know
Of the wild, windy places locked in timeless snow,
And the wide, crimson deserts where the muddy rivers flow.
It's sad, but the telling takes me home.

Come along with me to some places that I've been
Where people all look back and they still remember when,
And the quicksilver legends, like sunlight, turn and bend
It's sad, but the telling takes me home.

Walk along some wagon road, down the iron rail,
Past the rusty Cadillacs that mark the boom town trail,
Where dreamers never win and doers never fail,
It's sad, but the telling takes me home.

I'll sing of my amigos, come from down below,
Whisper in their loving tongue the songs of Mexico.
They work their stolen Eden, lost so long ago.
It's sad, but the telling takes me home.

I'll tell you all some lies, just made up for fun,
And the loudest, meanest brag, it can beat the fastest gun.
I'll show you all some graves that tell where the West was won.
It's sad, but the telling takes me home.

And I'll sing about an emptiness the East has never known,
Where coyotes don't pay taxes and a man can live alone,
And you've got to walk forever just to find a telephone.
It's sad, but the telling takes me home.

Let me sing to you all those songs I know
Of the wild, windy places locked in timeless snow,
And the wide, crimson deserts where the muddy rivers flow.
It's sad, but the telling takes me home.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STARLIGHT ON THE RAILS
(Bruce Phillips)

I can hear the whistle blowing
High and lonesome as can be
Outside the rain is softly falling
Tonight its falling just for me

Looking back along the road I've traveled
The miles can tell a million tales
Each year is like some rolling freight train
And cold as starlight on the rails

I think about a wife and family
My home and all the things it means
The black smoke trailing out behind me
Is like a string of broken dreams

A man who lives out on the highway
Is like a clock that can't tell time
A man who spends his life just rambling
Is like a song without a rhyme

On The 100th Anniversary -The Bolsheviks: A Party Ready to Take Power (Quote of the Week)

On The 100th Anniversary -The Bolsheviks: A Party Ready to Take Power (Quote of the Week)

Workers Vanguard No. 1114 30 June 2017 TROTSKY LENIN The Bolsheviks: A Party Ready to Take Power (Quote of the Week) The Provisional Government that emerged after the 1917 February Revolution in Russia, which overthrew tsarist rule, was capitalist and committed to launching a new military offensive in the interimperialist First World War. Speaking at the First All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, V. I. Lenin denounced Menshevik leaders like Irakli Tsereteli, who served in the Provisional Government as the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs. In counterposition, Lenin called for a soviet government based on workers and soldiers councils and asserted the willingness of the Bolsheviks to take power. The Bolsheviks were a minority at the Congress, while the Mensheviks and petty-bourgeois Socialist-Revolutionaries were the majority. By the time of the Second Congress four months later, the Bolsheviks had become the majority. Lenin’s struggle paved the way for the victory of soviet power in the October Revolution. According to the previous speaker, the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs...there was no political party in Russia expressing its readiness to assume full power. I reply: “Yes, there is. No party can refuse this, and our Party certainly doesn’t. It is ready to take over full power at any moment.”... Side by side with a government in which the landowners and capitalists now have a majority, the Soviets arose, a representative institution unparalleled and unprecedented anywhere in the world in strength, an institution which you are killing by taking part in a coalition Ministry of the bourgeoisie. In reality, the Russian revolution has made the revolutionary struggle from below against the capitalist governments welcome everywhere, in all countries, with three times as much sympathy as before. The question is one of advance or retreat. No one can stand still during a revolution. That is why the offensive is a turn in the Russian revolution, in the political and economic rather than the strategic sense. An offensive now means the continuation of the imperialist slaughter and the death of more hundreds of thousands, of millions of people—objectively, irrespective of the will or awareness of this or that Minister, with the aim of strangling Persia and other weak nations. Power transferred to the revolutionary proletariat, supported by the poor peasants, means a transition to revolutionary struggle for peace in the surest and most painless forms ever known to mankind, a transition to a state of affairs under which the power and victory of the revolutionary workers will be ensured in Russia and throughout the world. (Applause from part of the audience.) —V. I. Lenin, “Speech on the Attitude Towards the Provisional Government” (June 1917)

For The Late Rosalie Sorrels-In Honor Of Lena Spencer- Caffé Lena And Saratoga’s Folk Scene

For The Late Rosalie Sorrels-In Honor Of Lena Spencer- Caffé Lena And Saratoga’s Folk Scene

If I Could Be The Rain I Would Be Rosalie Sorrels-The Legendary Folksinger-Songwriter Has Her Last Go Round At 83 (June 2017)

By Music Critic Bart Webber

Back the day, back in the emerging folk minute of the 1960s that guys like Sam Lowell, Si Lannon, Josh Breslin, the late Peter Paul Markin and others were deeply immersed in all roads seemed to lead to Harvard Square with the big names passing through the Club 47 Mecca and later the Café Nana and Club Blue, the Village down in NYC, North Beach out in San Francisco, and maybe Old Town in Chicago. That is where names like Baez, Dylan, Paxton, Ochs, Collins and a whole crew of younger folksingers who sat at the feet of guys like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger got their first taste of the fresh breeze of the folk minute (that expression courtesy of the late Markin, who was among the first around to sample the breeze. (I should tell you here in parentheses so you will keep it to yourselves that the former three mentioned above never got over that folk minute since they will still tell a tale or two about the times, about how Dave Van Ronk came in all drunk one night at the Café Nana and still blew everybody away, about catching Paxton changing his Army uniform when he was stationed down at Fort Dix  right before a performance at the Gaslight, about walking down the street Cambridge with Tom Rush just after he put out No Regrets/Rockport Sunday, and about affairs with certain up and coming female folkies at the Club Nana when that was the spot of spots. Strictly aficionado stuff if you go anywhere within ten miles of the subject with any of them -I will take my chances here because this notice, this passing of legendary Rosalie Sorrels a decade after her dear friend Utah Phillips is important)

Those urban locales were the high white note spots but there was another important strand that hovered around Saratoga Springs in upstate New York, up around Skidmore and some other colleges. That was Caffe Lena’s, run by the late Lena Spenser, a true folk legend and character in her own right, where some of those names played but also where some upstarts from the West got a chance to play the small crowds who gathered at that famed (and still existing) coffeehouse. Upstarts like Bruce “Utah” Phillips (although he could call several places home Utah was key to what he would sing about and rounded out his personality. And out of Idaho one Rosalie Sorrels who just joined her long-time friend Utah in that last go-round at the age of 83.

Yeah, out there in the West, not the West Coast west that is different, where what the novelist Thomas Wolfe called the place where the states were square and you had better be as well if you didn’t want to starve or be found in some empty arroyo un-mourned and unloved. A tough life when the original pioneers drifted westward from Eastern nowhere looking for that pot of gold or at least some fresh air and a new start away from crowded cities and sweet breathe vices. Tough going for guys like Joe Hill who tried to organize the working people against the sweated robber barons of his day (they are still with us as we are all now very painfully and maybe more vicious than their in your face forbear). Tough too when you landed in rugged beautiful two-hearted river Idaho, tried to make a go of it in Boise, maybe stopped short in Helena but you get the drift. A different place and a different type of subject matter for your themes.  

The last time I saw Rosalie perform in person was back in 2002 when she performed at what was billed as her last go-round, her hanging up her shoes from the dusty travel road. She was on fire that night except the then recent death of another folk legend, Dave Von Ronk, who was supposed to be on the bill (and who was replaced by David Bromberg who did a great job) cast a pall over the proceedings. I will always remember her cover of her classic Old Devil Time that night -yeah, give me one more chance, one more breathe. But I will always think of If I Could Be The Rain whenever I hear her name. RIP Rosalie Sorrels

     

Caffé Lena, Kate McGarrigle and various artists, directed by Stephen Trombley, Miramar Production, 1991

I know of the work of, and have reviewed in this space, the late Utah Phillips, Rosalie Sorrels, obviously Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, The McGarrigle family, David Bromberg and many of the other “singing” heads that populate this tribute documentary or found their way to Café Lena’s. Lena Spencer, owner, operator (and, from all accounts off-hand fairy godmother), through thick and thin, as thoroughly documented here , of Saratoga’s Café Lena was the impresario of the upstate New York’s booming 1960s folk scene. So there is a certain sense of déjà vu in viewing this film. This documentary film was probably as much about our youthful dreams and ambitions (and that hard musical road, although voluntarily chosen) as it was a tribute to Lena.

I know Saratoga and its environs well and if New York City’s Greenwich Village and Cambridge’s Harvard Square are better known in the 1960s folk revival geography that locale can serve as the folk crowd’s summer watering hole (and refuge from life’s storms all year round). From the descriptions of the café ‘s lifestyle and of the off-beat personality of Lena it also was a veritable experiment in ad hoc communal living). The folkies that did find found refuge there have been interesting behind- the- scenes stories to tell about Len that make this a very nice slice of history of the folk revival of the 1960s.

A special note to kind of bring us full circle. My first CD review of folksinger Rosalie Sorrels and the late Utah Phillips combined works together, who are highlighted in this documentary along with Kate and Anna McGarrigle, mentioned a spark of renewed recognition kindled on my part by the famous folk coffee house “The Café Lena” in Saratoga Springs, New York. Thus, it is rather fitting that Rosalie performs Utah’s “If I Could Be The Rain” and Utah his “Starlight On The Rails” here. Even more fitting are the McGarrigles performing their “Talk To Me Of Mendocino”, song composed in honor of Lena.

"Talk to Me of Mendocino"

written by Kate McGarrigle
© 1975 Garden Court Music (ASCAP)

I bid farewell to the state of old New York
My home away from home
In the state of New York I came of age
When first I started roaming
And the trees grow high in New York State
And they shine like gold in the autumn
Never had the blues from whence I came
But in New York State I got 'em

Talk to me of Mendocino
Closing my eyes I hear the sea
Must I wait
Must I follow
Won't you say come with me

And it's on to South Bend, Indiana
Flat out on the western plain
Rise up over the Rockies
And down on into California
Out to where but the rocks again
And let the sun set on the ocean
I will watch it from the shore
Let the sun rise over the redwoods
I'll rise with it till I rise no more

Talk to me of Mendocino
Closing my eyes I hear the sea
Must I wait
Must I follow
Won't you say come with me

From The Archives-On Reviving The International Labor Defense-(ILD)- In Boston-Free All The Class-War Prisoners

On Reviving The International Labor Defense-(ILD)- In Boston-Free All The Class-War Prisoners  

Committee
for International Labor Defense Panel Discussion and Organizing
Meeting

Saturday,
August 15th | 2:00-5:00 PM

Encuentro5
| 9a Hamilton Place Boston

  

Some statements in support of reviving ILD, August 2015

 

Dear brothers and sisters of the International Labor Defense:

We want to express our support and solidarity to the International Labor Defense in this struggle for the freedom of our polítical prisoners all over the globe. Please keep us updated and count on us always.

Five big hugs!

"The Cuban Five"
Ramon Labañino Salazar

----------------

"The murders, frame-ups, and repression of trade unionists today are just as vicious as they were in the days of Sacco and Vanzetti.  Sure, perhaps, the sites have changed from Brockton, MA to the streets of Barrancas, Colombia, Tehran, Iran and a myriad of other locales.  But the struggle for freedom of association and to withhold one's labor continues.  For too long ideology has divided international support for the defense of trade unionists.  I welcome the new initiative to unite workers, regardless of ideology, in the global defense of trade unionists in their struggle against the power of corporations."

David Campbell
Secretary-Treasurer
USW Local 675
1200 E. 220th St.
Carson, CA 90745-3505

-------------------

"As the bad old days for worker rights return, more vicious than ever, there is no better time to revive the idea of international solidarity, international help for our fellow workers. The catalyst is the outsourcing and shifting of jobs from one country to another to increase massive profit, and to avoid the puny labor laws that remain. We must reject the idea that workers are “stealing our jobs”. If work has no borders, then all workers are brothers and sisters. And all deserve fairness and support. It’s good to see the International Labor Defense being revived so as to be ready with that support.     Barbara and Bob Ingalls, Detroit-area labor and social justice activists

(Barbara was the leader of the remarkable Detroit newspaper workers' struggle. She was known as 'Barbarian' for her relentlessness and courage; her husband Bob, a lifelong union auto worker, also played a big role in the strike. Through Jobs with Justice, Sandy and I worked on organizing labor support across New England for the Detroit workers, and we often hosted the workers at our house.)

-----------------------

"International Labor Defense not only allowed workers all over the world to join forces in the face of repression but also get to know each other as allies, share our knowledge, feel victories or defeats anywhere in the world as our own. Its rebirth now reminds us of our history of solidarity."  Richard Levins

(Richard Levins is the great Marxist ecologist, probably the most consistent scientist in the US. He was one of the architects of the ecological transformation of Cuba's agriculture. He is a strong supporter of ILD.)

Committee
for International Labor Defense Panel Discussion and Organizing
Meeting

Saturday,
August 15th | 2:00-5:00 PM

Encuentro5
| 9a Hamilton Place Boston

International
Labor Defense was an organization founded by the Communist Party USA in Chicago
in 1925 (when we were known as the Workers Party of America). By 1926 it had
20,000 dues-paying members. The ILD worked to build solidarity and unity in the
world labor movement. It mobilized to defend persecuted labor organizers and
members of oppressed nations under attack from the exploiters and their state.
Its defense of the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s turned into a worldwide campaign
and also facilitated organizing the Sharecroppers Union.

Other
high profile ILD cases included the case of black communist Angelo Herndon
facing a death sentence for involvement with the Atlanta  Unemployed Council
(1932-1937); jailed west coast labor organizer Tom Mooney (1931-1939),
Massachusetts anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti facing execution
(1926-1930), the case of the Gallup, N. Mex., coal mine workers, (1933-1938),
and Los Angeles Times bomber John McNamara.  

Repression
breeds resistance.  As with the crises of the 1920s and '30s, capital's
deepening contradictions and crisis today is resulting in rising police
brutality and prison hells, in the US, Mexico, Colombia, indeed in most
capitalist countries. And as with the 1920s, this may be a good time to revive
International Labor Defense. It is certainly a necessary task of the
period.

Please
join us for a panel discussion on the history of International Labor Defense and
the need for similar mass organizations to defend political and class war
prisoners today. Following the panel discussion we will have an organizing
meeting for all who are interested in this organizing effort.

Meeting
Schedule-

2:00-4:00
PM Panel Discussion featuring organizers speaking on the history and current
necessity of International Labor Defense and similar efforts, participants in
struggles to free political and class war prisoners, and reports from
international efforts to revive ILD.

The
speakers on the panel are Wadi'h Halabi (Center for Marxist Education and
Economics Commission of CPUSA), Steve Kirschbaum ( United Steelworkers of
America Local 8751 Boston School Bus Drivers/Team Solidarity), and Tom Whitney
(political journalist, writes on Latin America, especially Cuba and Colombia,
member of Maine Veterans for Peace and Let Cuba life of Maine, formerly worked
as child health care worker).

4:00-5:00
PM Organizing Meeting will follow the Panel Discussion. All who are interested
in working towards a revived ILD are encouraged to attend and contribute ideas
that help in this effort.

ILD
Solidarity Statements

“Dear
brothers and sisters of the "International  Labor Defense" :

We
want to express our support and solidarity to the "International Labor Defense"
in this struggle for the freedom of our polítical prisoners all over the globe.
Please keep us updated and count on us always.

Five
big hugs!

"The
Cuban Five".

                         

Ramon
Labañino Salazar.

"The
murders, frame-ups, and repression of trade unionists today are just as vicious
as were in the days of Sacco and Vanzetti.  Sure, perhaps, the sites have
changed from Brockton, MA to the streets of Barrancas, Colombia, Tehran, Iran
and a myriad of other locales.  But the struggle for freedom of association and
to withhold one's labor continues.  For too long ideology has divided
international support for the defense of trade unionists.  I welcome the new
initiative to unite workers, regardless of ideology, in the global defense of
trade unionists in their struggle against the power of
corporations."

David
Campbell

Secretary-Treasurer

USW
Local 675

"International
Labor Defense not only allowed workers all over the world to join forces in the
face of repression but also get to know each other as allies, share our
knowledge, feel victories or defeats anywhere in the world as our own. Its
rebirth now reminds us of our history of solidarity."

Richard
Levins

Marxist
ecologist and one of the architects of the ecological transformation of
agriculture in Cuba in the 1990s.

“As
the bad old days for worker rights return, more vicious than ever, there is no
better time to revive the idea of international solidarity, international help
for our fellow workers. The catalyst is the outsourcing and shifting of jobs
from one country to another to increase massive profit, and to avoid the puny
labor laws that remain. We must reject the idea that workers are “stealing our
jobs”. If work has no borders, then all workers are brothers and sisters. And
all deserve fairness and support. It’s good to see the International Labor
Defense being revived so as to be ready with that support.”

Barbara
and Bob Ingalls

Detroit-area
labor and social justice activists.

Further
Reading-

Reviving
International Labor Defense - Wadi'h Halabi, Sandy Rosen, and Tom
Whitney*

International
Labor Defense was an organization founded by the Communist Party USA in Chicago
in 1925 (when we were known as the Workers Party of America). By 1926 it had
20,000 dues-paying members. The ILD worked to build solidarity and unity in the
world labor movement. It mobilized to defend persecuted labor organizers and
members of oppressed nations under attack from the exploiters and their state.
Its defense of the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s turned into a worldwide campaign
and also facilitated organizing the Sharecroppers Union.

CPUSA
leader Sam Dlugin, the father of our comrade Lee Dlugin, participated in the
original ILD.  His agitational pamphlet, "Blood on the Sugar", written in
defense of Cuban workers, can be found on the web.  In fact, the Communist Party
of Cuba organized ILD branches in 1933.

Repression
breeds resistance.  As with the crises of the 1920s and '30s, capital's
deepening contradictions and crisis today is resulting in rising police
brutality and prison hells, in the US, Mexico, Colombia, indeed in most
capitalist countries. And as with the 1920s, this may be a good time to revive
International Labor Defense. It is certainly a necessary task of the
period.

Already,
there are many prisoner defense efforts around the world. Our own comrades have
participated in efforts in defense of Mumia and other African-American and
Puerto Rican political prisoners, the Cuba 5, Los Mineros and electrical workers
in Mexico, David Ravelo and other Colombian political prisoners, and many more.
In Massachusetts, a remarkable Jobs not Jails coalition has developed in recent
months.

In
addition, there are thousands of campaigns worldwide in defense of prisoners,
some large, some small. Reviving International Labor Defense can help join these
many campaigns and build international labor solidarity.

The
CPUSA was the organizing center of the original ILD. Today it may be best if an
international union federation or grouping of unions in an industry, such as
transport or metal, serves as the ILD's organizing center. CP leadership and
guidance of course remains essential.

As
Communists, we can build on our historic connections and special access to CPs
(and many unions) worldwide to help develop ILD. There are indications that the
CPs of China, Cuba, Portugal, Colombia, and several other states could lend
support to reviving ILD.

One
important task of the ILD will be selection of prisoners to be defended and the
corresponding class education. This is in part because the capitalist class is
certain to attempt to weaken or neutralize a revived ILD by promoting
anti-working class prisoners held in states such as Cuba, Vietnam and
China.

(*excerpt
from CPUSA 30th National Convention discussion document “Two ideas to Build the
Party Today: REVIVE INTERNATIONAL LABOR DEFENSE AND DEVELOP A YOUTH/UNION
ALLIANCE FOR GOOD UNION JOBS AND AGAINST DEBT SLAVERY” available here:
http://www.cpusa.org/convention-discussion-two-ideas-to-build-the-party/
)

Considerations
on forming a unified organization dedicated to the cause of political prisoners
worldwide. The model is International Labor Defense (ILD)  

From
Tom Whitney, May 12, 2014

ILD
will undertake to organize, publicity, political education, agitation,
facilitation of legal assistance, administrative capabilities, and recruitment
of supporters on behalf of selected political prisoners, especially those
victimized as members of the working class or in struggle to defend the working
class

Purposes:

1.
A revived ILD undertakes to respond to needs not presently being met due to many
difficulties. They include: waning socialist internationalism, reverses
affecting the labor movement, divisions among now tiny leftist political
parties, and residual impact of demagogic anti-communism. Currently, political
prisoner campaigns are often only as large as political parties, single issue
campaigns, and organizations they were affiliated with.  Advocacy and organizing
that cross international, political, and organizational borders would be an
advance.

2.
ILD, by its nature, implies political work broader than defense of political
prisoners alone. As such, and as long as its membership is drawn from a variety
of political groups, ILD should serve as a focus for recruitment of class –based
activists as yet undifferentiated by particular political groupings.

Methods:

1.
IWD will comprise national leadership formations and local chapters. They will
be joined by activists representing groups and campaigns already involved with
political prisoners.

2.
IWD may leave considerable autonomy to local chapters. Chapters would act under
the aegis of centralized and collective leadership.

3.
Prisoner selection would be an orderly and collective process.

4.
IWD activities will include: the gathering, analyzing, and dissemination of
relevant political news; public education and advocacy efforts; organizing of
appropriate direct action modalities, and active recruitment of
members

5.
Methods of prisoner selection, recruitment of leadership, organization of
chapters and central governance remain to be determined.

Assumptions:

1.
    ILD will provide support for other groups already involved with a particular
prisoner or prisoners, contributing political education, recruiting, publicity,
direct action, coordinating, and general advocacy. Important strategic decisions
ought to be left to the initiative of groups already involved.

2.
    Criteria for selecting prisoners ILD would support include the class-based
nature of their political struggles, the political significance of the fight for
which they were incarcerated, dangers threatening to prisoners or their cause,
special humanitarian needs, and prospects for their release.  

3.
    ILD’s contribution to the liberation of selected prisoners would be more to
encourage popular mobilization on their behalf than to join in their legal
fight, although IWD would, if necessary, help secure and maintain adequate legal
defense.

4.
    The role of ILD, in general, will be to facilitate, support, and coordinate
campaigns for prisoners. Usually ILD will not undertake primary direction of
individual campaigns for prisoners.

5.
    Advocacy on behalf of prisoners will, if possible, be integrated into the
larger struggles for which they were detained.

6.
    Taking pains to remain non-sectarian, ILD will endeavor to recruit members
and leaders from a variety of organizations working on behalf of the working
class.

Questions,
to begin with:

1.
Do material and personnel resources exist to begin an IWD? Where does money come
from?

2.
What is the constituency for IWD in terms of existing organizations,
campaigns?

3.
How does IWD steer clear of becoming sectarian amd promoting
division?

4.
How should ILD approach existing organizations and political prisoner campaigns
to benefit from their ideas and/or gain their eventual
participation?

5.
What categories of political prisoners are off limits for the
IWD?

6.
 How would IWD deal with political figures unjustly imprisoned by progressive or
left-leaning states?  

7.
 Are imprisoned members of objectionable labor unions candidates for ILD
support?

Commentary:

1.
In contrast to our present situation, ILD developed within the context of mass
left- leaning political movements and amidst ubiquitous labor mobilizations. It
was a situation providing plenty of victims. At the time, 1925 – 1940, many
popular resistance movements were aligned more or less with the rising
international communist movement. ILD materialized within that framework.  Lack
of mass political mobilization today is a handicap.

2.
The need addressed by ILD, of mobilizing large-scale support for victims
particularly of judicial abuse, remains. The need likewise remains for resources
being available in support of campaigns of political solidarity on their
behalf,

3.
Founders of the original ILD counted on mass support not necessarily attached to
participants’ primary political affiliations. They seemed to regard ILD as
itself a means for building a mass left-leaning political movement, that is to
say, a tool.

4.
Certain political developments of recent decades may be relevant to refashioning
an ILD, among them:  development and persistence of anti-communist bias against
class-based workers’ defense, the splintering of movement for democratic change
into single-issue mobilizations, pervasive fear of U. S. state security
apparatus, diminished understanding of historical antecedents of struggle,
weakening of both the U.S. labor movement and worldwide labor federations, and
responsibility for defending victims increasingly taken on by their own
organizations.

5.
Organizations purporting to defend political prisoners have proliferated
worldwide. They operate within circumscribed boundaries of action often defined
by national, religious, and/or political identification.

6.
Progress in forming a renewed ILD will depend, it seems, on engaging newer
generations of activists.

Considerations
of feasibility:

1.
    Existing organizations that defend political prisoners may resist
intervention presented as friendly but is perceived as
interfering.

2.
    People and financial resources are lacking essential for creating and
organizing a new ILD with ambitious goals.

3.
    Leadership capabilities presently seem thin.

Brief
Historical Addendum

The
Workers Party of America – later to become the Communist Party – formed the
International Labor Defense (ILD) in 1925 as a “consolidated legal defense mass
organization.” Its headquarters were in Chicago, Ill. The idea was a
“non-partisan body that would defend any member of the working class movement,
without regard to personal political views.” Victims “under the thumb of
persecution by the capitalist legal system would be supported legally, morally,
and financially.” Of note is that initial planning seemed to envision help for
members and non-members alike of the organized labor movement. And ILD would not
confine its help exclusively to victims of judicial processes.

“The
ILD was a membership organization [with] the holding of regular local meetings.
There were 20,000 dues-paying ILD members by late 1926, with 75,000 other
supporters of ILD goals and actions who were members of affiliated
organizations,. Local branches conducted mass meetings and fundraising events.
 ILD published a monthly magazine in Chicago called Labor Defender. The editor
was a Workers Party member, the business manger, a member of the Socialist
Party.  Circulation boomed, rising from about 1,500 paid subscriptions and 8,500
copies in bulk bundle sales in 1927 to about 5,500 paid subscriptions with a
bundle sale of 16,500 by the middle of 1928. Of 38 original National Committee
members, 12 of them belonged to the Workers (or Communist) Party. The nine –
member ILD Executive Committee included six party members.

According
to founding Executive Director James P. Cannon, reporting on a survey:  "There
were [initially] 106 class war prisoners in the United States -- scores of IWW
members railroaded in California, Kansas, Utah, and other states under the
criminal syndicalist laws. We located a couple of obscure anarchists in prison
in Rhode Island; a group of AFL coal miners in West Virginia; two labor
organizers in Thomaston, Maine -- besides the more prominent and better known
prisoners... They were not criminals at all, but strike leaders, organizers,
agitators, dissenters -- our kind of people. Not one of these 106 prisoners was
a member of the Communist Party! But the ILD defended and helped them
all."

High
profile ILD cases included the “Scottsboro Boys” 1931-1936,”  the case of black
communist Angelo Herndon facing a death sentence for involvement with the
Atlanta  Unemployed Council (1932-1937); jailed west coast labor organizer Tom
Mooney (1931-1939), Massachusetts anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo
Vanzetti facing execution (1926-1930), the case of the Gallup, N. Mex., coal
mine workers, (1933-1938), and Los Angeles Times bomber John McNamara.
 

ILD
backed labor organizing in southeastern United States:  “Working through a
variety of communist-led mass organizations, from the International Labor
Defense to the Congress of Spanish-Speaking Peoples, the Communist Party
eventually produced a noteworthy group of Mexican American women leaders.”
(Vargas, 2004). ILD in the late 1920’s defended striking coal miners in Ohio,
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Illinois, also jailed textile workers in New
Bedford, MA.  According to Jules Robert Benjamin (1977), “the Communist Party of
Cuba established ILD branches there in 1933, as well as branches of the
anti-imperialist League.”  In 1946 the ILD was merged with the National
Federation for Constitutional Liberties to form the Civil Rights
Congress.

 

In Honor Of The King Of The Folk-Singing Hard-Living Hobos The Late Utah Phillips -From The Archives- Happy Birthday Woody Guthire The Father We Never Knew- An Unrepentant Wobblie At Work- The Music Of Utah Phillips

An Unrepentant Wobblie At Work- The Music Of Utah Phillips

If I Could Be The Rain I Would Be Rosalie Sorrels-The Legendary Folksinger-Songwriter Has Her Last Go-Round At 83

By Music Critic Bart Webber

Back the day, back in the emerging folk minute of the 1960s that guys like Sam Lowell, Si Lannon, Josh Breslin, the late Peter Paul Markin and others were deeply immersed in all roads seemed to lead to Harvard Square with the big names, some small too which one time I made the subject of a series, or rather two series entitled respectively Not Bob Dylan and Not Joan Baez about those who for whatever reason did not make the show over the long haul, passing through the Club 47 Mecca and later the Café Nana and Club Blue, the Village down in NYC, North Beach out in San Francisco, and maybe Old Town in Chicago. Those are the places where names like Baez, Dylan, Paxton, Ochs, Collins and a whole crew of younger folksingers, some who made it like Tom Rush and Joni Mitchell and others like Eric Saint Jean and Minnie Murphy who didn’t, like  who all sat at the feet of guys like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger got their first taste of the fresh breeze of the folk minute, that expression courtesy of the late Markin, who was among the first around to sample the breeze.

(I should tell you here in parentheses so you will keep it to yourselves that the former three mentioned above never got over that folk minute since they will still tell a tale or two about the times, about how Dave Van Ronk came in all drunk one night at the Café Nana and still blew everybody away, about catching Paxton changing out of his Army uniform when he was stationed down at Fort Dix  right before a performance at the Gaslight, about walking down the street Cambridge with Tom Rush just after he put out No Regrets/Rockport Sunday, and about affairs with certain up and coming female folkies like the previously mentioned Minnie Murphy at the Club Nana when that was the spot of spots. Strictly aficionado stuff if you dare go anywhere within ten miles of the subject with any of them -I will take my chances here because this notice, this passing of legendary Rosalie Sorrels a decade after her dear friend Utah Phillips is important.)

Those urban locales were certainly the high white note spots but there was another important strand that hovered around Saratoga Springs in upstate New York, up around Skidmore and some of the other upstate colleges. That was Caffe Lena’s, run by the late Lena Spenser, a true folk legend and a folkie character in her own right, where some of those names played previously mentioned but also where some upstarts from the West got a chance to play the small crowds who gathered at that famed (and still existing) coffeehouse. Upstarts like the late Bruce “Utah” Phillips (although he could call several places home Utah was key to what he would sing about and rounded out his personality). And out of Idaho one Rosalie Sorrels who just joined her long-time friend Utah in that last go-round at the age of 83.

Yeah, came barreling like seven demons out there in the West, not the West Coast west that is a different proposition. The West I am talking about is where what the novelist Thomas Wolfe called the place where the states were square and you had better be as well if you didn’t want to starve or be found in some empty arroyo un-mourned and unloved. A tough life when the original pioneers drifted westward from Eastern nowhere looking for that pot of gold or at least some fresh air and a new start away from crowded cities and sweet breathe vices. A tough life worthy of song and homage. Tough going too for guys like Joe Hill who tried to organize the working people against the sweated robber barons of his day (they are still with us as we are all now very painfully and maybe more vicious than their in your face forbear). Struggles, fierce down at the bone struggles also worthy of song and homage. Tough too when your people landed in rugged beautiful two-hearted river Idaho, tried to make a go of it in Boise, maybe stopped short in Helena but you get the drift. A different place and a different type of subject matter for your themes than lost loves and longings.  

Rosalie Sorrels could write those songs as well, as well as anybody but she was as interested in the social struggles of her time (one of the links that united her with Utah) and gave no quarter when she turned the screw on a lyric. The last time I saw Rosalie perform in person was back in 2002 when she performed at the majestic Saunders Theater at Harvard University out in Cambridge America at what was billed as her last go-round, her hanging up her shoes from the dusty travel road. (That theater complex contained within the Memorial Hall dedicated to the memory of the gallants from the college who laid down their heads in that great civil war that sundered the country. The Harvards did themselves proud at collectively laying down their heads at seemingly every key battle that I am aware of when I look up at the names and places. A deep pride runs through me at those moments)

Rosalie Sorrels as one would expect on such an occasion was on fire that night except the then recent death of another folk legend, Dave Von Ronk, who was supposed to be on the bill (and who was replaced by David Bromberg who did a great job banging out the blues unto the heavens) cast a pall over the proceedings. I will always remember the crystal clarity and irony of her cover of her classic Old Devil Time that night -yeah, give me one more chance, one more breathe. But I will always think of If I Could Be The Rain and thoughts of washing herself down to the sea whenever I hear her name. RIP Rosalie Sorrels 

CD REVIEW

STARLIGHT ON THE RAILS- UTAH PHILLIPS, 2005

Although this space is mainly dedicated to reviewing political books and commenting on past and current political issues as a way to orient today’s alienated radical youth on the lessons of the past literary output is hardly the only form of political creation. Occasionally in the history of the American and international left musicians, artists and playwrights have given voice or provided visual reminders to the face of political struggle. With that thought in mind, every once in a while I will use this space to review those kinds of political expression.

My musical tastes were formed, as were many of those of the generation of 1968, by ‘Rock and Roll’ music exemplified by the Rolling Stones and Beatles and by the blues revival, both Delta and Chicago style. However, those forms as much as they gave pleasure were only marginally political at best. In short, these were entertainers performing material that spoke to us. In the most general sense that is all one should expect of a performer. Thus, for the most part that music need not be reviewed here. Those who thought that a new musical sensibility laid the foundations for a cultural or political revolution have long ago been proven wrong.

That said, in the early 1960’s there nevertheless was another form of musical sensibility that was directly tied to radical political expression- the folk revival. This entailed a search for roots and relevancy in musical expression. While not all forms of folk music lent themselves to radical politics it is hard to see the 1960’s cultural rebellion without giving a nod to such figures as Dave Van Ronk, the early Bob Dylan, Utah Phillips, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and others. Whatever entertainment value these performers provided they also spoke to and prodded our political development. They did have a message and an agenda and we responded as such. That these musicians’ respective agendas proved inadequate and/or short-lived does not negate their affect on the times.

My leftist political consciousness, painfully fought for in my youth coincided with an expansion of my musical tastes under the influence of the great blues and folk revivals of the 1960’s. Unfortunately my exposure to the blues greats was mainly on records as many of them had been forgotten, retired or were dead. Not so with the folk revival which was created mainly by those who were close contemporaries. Alas, they too are now mainly forgotten, retired or dead. It therefore is with special pleasure that I review Utah Phillips Songbook while he is very much alive.

Many of the folksingers of the 1960’s attempted to use their music to become troubadours for social change. The most famous example, the early Bob Dylan, can be fairly described as the voice of his generation at that time. However, he fairly quickly moved on to other concepts of himself and his music. Bob Dylan’s work became more informed by the influences of Rimbaud and Verlaine and the French Symbolists of the late 1800’s and thus moved away to a more urban, sophisticated vision. From the start and consistently throughout his long career Utah has acted as a medium giving voice to the troubles of ordinary people and the simpler ethos of a more rural, Western-oriented gone by day in the American experience. He evokes in song the spirit of the people Walt Whitman paid homage to in poetic form and John Dos Passos and John Steinbeck gave in prose. He sits comfortably in very fast company. Therefore, Utah Phillips can justly claim the title of a people’s troubadour.

A word about politics. Generally, one rates music without reference to politics. However, Utah has introduced the political element by the way he structured the Songbook. Each song is introduced by him as to its significance heavily weighted to his political experiences, observations and vision. Thus, political comment is fairly in play here. Utah is a long time anarchist and unrepentant supporter of the Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World, hereafter IWW). Every militant cherishes the memory of the class battles led by the IWW like the famous Lawrence strike of 1912 and honors the heroes of those battles like Big Bill Haywood and Vincent St. John and the militants they recruited to the cause of the working class in the first part of the 20th century. They paved the way for the later successful organization drives of the 1930’s.

Nevertheless, while Utah and I would both most definitely agree that some old-fashioned class struggle by working people in today’s one-sided class war would be a very good thing we as definitely differ on the way to insure a permanent victory for working people in order to create a decent society. In short, Utah’s prescriptions of good moral character, increased self-knowledge and the creation of small intentional communities are not enough. Under modern conditions it is necessary to take and safeguard political power against those who would quite consciously deny that victory. History has been cruel in some of the bitter lessons working people have had to endure for not dealing with the question of taking state power to protect their interests. But, enough said. I am more than willing to forgive the old curmudgeon his anarchist sins if he’ll sing ‘I Remember Loving You’ the next time he tours the Boston area.