When The Tin Can Bended…. In The Time Of The Late Folk-Singer Dave Van Ronk’s Time

When The Tin Can Bended…. In The Time Of The Late Folk-Singer Dave Van Ronk’s Time

  

From The Pen Of Bart Webber

Sometimes Sam Lowell and his “friend” Laura Perkins (really “sweetie,” long time sweetie, paramour, significant other, consort or whatever passes for the socially acceptable or Census Bureau bureaucratic “speak” way to name somebody who is one’s soul-mate, his preferred term) whose relationship to Sam was just described in parenthesis, and righteously so, liked to go to Crane’s Beach in Ipswich to either cool off in the late summer heat or in the fall before the New England weather lowers its hammer and the place gets a bit inaccessible. That later summer heat escape valve is a result of the hard fact that July, when they really would like to go there to catch a few fresh sea breezes, is not a time to show up at the bleach white sands beach due to nasty blood-sucking green flies swarming and dive-bombing like some berserk renegade Air Force squadron lost on a spree who breed in the nearby swaying mephitic marshes.

The only “safe haven” then is to drive up the hill to the nearby robber-baron days etched Crane Castle to get away from the buggers, although on a stagnant wind day you might have a few vagrant followers, as the well-to-do have been doing since there were well-to-do and had the where-with-all to escape the summer heat and bugs at higher altitudes. By the way I assume that “castle” is capitalized when it part of a huge estate, the big ass estate of Crane, now a trust monument to the first Gilded Age, not today’s neo-Gilded Age, architectural proclivities of the rich, the guy whose company did, does all the plumbing fixture stuff on half the bathrooms in America including the various incantations of the mansion. 

Along the way, along the hour way to get to Ipswich from Cambridge Sam and Laura had developed a habit of making the time more easy passing by listening to various CDs, inevitably not listened to for a long time folk CDs, not listened to for so long that the plastic containers needed to be dusted off before being brought along, on the car CD player. And is their wont while listening to some CD to comment on this or that thing that some song brought to mind, or the significance of some song in their youth.  One of the things that had brought them together early on several years back was their mutual interest in the old 1960s folk minute which Sam, a little older and having grown up within thirty miles of Harvard Square, one the big folk centers of that period along with the Village and North Beach out in Frisco town, had imbibed deeply. Laura, growing up “in the sticks,” in farm country in upstate New York had gotten the breeze at second-hand through records, records bought at Cheapo Records and the eternal Sandy's on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge and a little the fading Cambridge folk scene when she had moved to Boston in the early 1970s to go to graduate school.     

One hot late August day they got into one such discussion about how they first developed an interest in folk music when Sam had said “sure everybody, everybody over the age of say fifty to be on the safe side, knows about Bob Dylan, maybe some a little younger too if some hip kids have browsed through their parents’ old vinyl record collections now safely ensconced in the attic although there are stirrings of retro-vinyl revival of late according a report he had heard on NPR. Some of that over 50 crowd and their young acolytes would also know about how Dylan, after serving something like an apprenticeship under the influence of Woody Guthrie in the late 1950s singing Woody’s songs imitating Woody's style something fellow Woody acolytes like Ramblin’ Jack Elliot never quite got over moved on, got all hung up on high symbolism and obscure references. Funny guys like Jack actually made a nice workman-like career out of Woody covers, so their complaints seen rather hollow now. That over 50s crowd would also know Dylan became if not the voice of the Generation of ’68, their generation, which he probably did not seriously aspire in the final analysis, then the master troubadour of the age.

Sam continued along that line after Laura had said she was not sure about the connection and he said he meant, “troubadour in the medieval sense of bringing news to the people and entertaining them by song and poetry as well if not decked in some officially approved garb like back in those olden days where they worked under a king’s license if lucky, by their wit otherwise but the 'new wave' post-beatnik flannel shirt, work boots, and dungarees which connected you with the roots, the American folk roots down in the Piedmont, down in Appalachia, down in Mister James Crow’s Delta. So, yes, that story has been pretty well covered.”  

Laura said she knew all of that about the desperate search for roots although not that Ramblin’ Jack had been an acolyte of Woody’s but she wondered about others, some other folk performers who she listened to on WUMB on Saturday morning when some weeping willow DJ put forth about fifty old time rock and folk things a lot of which she had never heard of back in Mechanicsville outside of Albany where she grew up. Sam then started in again, “Of course that is hardly the end of the story since Dylan did not create that now hallowed folk minute of the early 1960s. He had been washed by it when he came to the East from Hibbing, Minnesota for God’s sake (via Dink’s at the University), came into the Village where there was a cauldron of talent trying to make folk the next big thing, the next big cultural thing for the young and restless of the post-World War II generations. For us. But also those in little oases like the Village where the disaffected could put up on stuff they couldn’t get in places like Mechanicsville or Carver where I grew up. People who I guess, since even I was too young to know about that red scare stuff except you had to follow your teacher’s orders to put your head under your desk and hand over your head if the nuclear holocaust was coming, were frankly fed up with the cultural straightjacket of the red scare Cold War times and began seriously looking as hard at roots in all its manifestations as our parents, definitely mine, yours were just weird about stuff like that, right, were burying those same roots under a vanilla existential Americanization. How do you like that for pop sociology 101.”

“One of the talents who was already there when hick Dylan came a calling, lived there, came from around there was the late Dave Van Ronk who as you know we had heard several times in person, although unfortunately when his health and well-being were declining not when he was a young politico and hell-raising folk aspirant. You know he also, deservedly, fancied himself a folk historian as well as musician.”    

“Here’s the funny thing, Laura, that former role is important because we all know that behind the “king” is the “fixer man,” the guy who knows what is what, the guy who tells one and all what the roots of the matter were like some mighty mystic (although in those days when he fancied himself a socialist that mystic part was played down). Dave Van Ronk was serious about that part, serious about imparting that knowledge about the little influences that had accumulated during the middle to late 1950s especially around New York which set up that folk minute. New York like I said, Frisco, maybe in small enclaves in L.A. and in precious few other places during those frozen times a haven for the misfits, the outlaws, the outcast, the politically “unreliable,” and the just curious. People like the mistreated Weavers, you know, Pete Seeger and that crowd found refuge there when the hammer came down around their heads from the red-baiters and others like advertisers who ran for cover to “protect” their precious soap, toothpaste, beer, deodorant or whatever they were mass producing to sell to a hungry pent-ip market.  

Boston and Cambridge by comparison until late in the 1950s when the Club 47 and other little places started up and the guys and gals who could sing, could write songs, could recite poetry even had a place to show their stuff instead of to the winos, rummies, grifters and conmen who hung out at the Hayes-Bickford or out on the streets could have been any of the thousands of towns who bought into the freeze.”     

“Sweetie, I remember one time but I don’t remember where, maybe the Café Nana when that was still around after it had been part of the Club 47 folk circuit for new talent to play and before Harry Reid, who ran the place, died and it closed down, I know it was before we met, so it had to be before the late 1980s Von Ronk told a funny story, actually two funny stories, about the folk scene and his part in that scene as it developed a head of steam in the mid-1950s which will give you an idea about his place in the pantheon. During the late 1950s after the publication of Jack Kerouac’s ground-breaking road wanderlust adventure novel that got young blood stirring, not mine until later since I was clueless on all that stuff except rock and roll, On The Road which I didn’t read until high school, the jazz scene, the cool be-bop jazz scene and poetry reading, poems reflecting off of “beat” giant Allen Ginsberg’s Howl the clubs and coffeehouse of the Village were ablaze with readings and cool jazz, people waiting in line to get in to hear the next big poetic wisdom guy if you can believe that these days when poetry is generally some esoteric endeavor by small clots of devotees just like folk music. The crush of the lines meant that there were several shows per evening. But how to get rid of one audience to bring in another in those small quarters was a challenge.

Presto, if you wanted to clear the house just bring in some desperate “from hunger” snarly nasally folk singer for a couple, maybe three songs, and if that did not clear the high art be-bop poetry house then that folk singer was a goner. A goner until the folk minute of the 1960s who probably in that very same club then played for the 'basket.' You know the 'passed hat' which even on a cheap date, and a folk music coffeehouse date was a cheap one in those days like I told you before and you laughed at cheapie me and the 'Dutch treat' thing, you felt obliged to throw a few bucks into to show solidarity or something.  And so the roots of New York City folk according to the 'father.'

Laura interrupted to ask if that “basket” was like the buskers put in front them these days and Sam said yes. And asked Sam about a few of the dates he took to the coffeehouses in those days, just out of curiosity she said, meaning if she had been around would he have taken her there then. He answered that question but since it is an eternally complicated and internal one I have skipped it to let him go on with the other Von Ronk story. He continued with the other funny story like this-“The second story involved his [Von Ronk's] authoritative role as a folk historian who after the folk minute had passed became the subject matter for, well, for doctoral dissertations of course just like today maybe people are getting doctorates in hip-hop or some such subject. Eager young students, having basked in the folk moment in the abstract and with an academic bent, breaking new ground in folk history who would come to him for the 'skinny.' Now Van Ronk had a peculiar if not savage sense of humor and a wicked snarly cynic’s laugh but also could not abide academia and its’ barren insider language so when those eager young students came a calling he would give them some gibberish which they would duly note and footnote. Here is the funny part. That gibberish once published in the dissertation would then be cited by some other younger and even more eager students complete with the appropriate footnotes. Nice touch, nice touch indeed on that one, right.”

Laura did not answer but laughed, laughed harder as she thought about it having come from that unformed academic background and having read plenty of sterile themes turned inside out.       

As Laura laugh settled Sam continued “As for Van Ronk’s music, his musicianship which he cultivated throughout his life, I think the best way to describe that for me is that one Sunday night in the early 1960s I was listening to the local folk program on WBZ hosted by Dick Summer, who was influential in boosting local folk musician Tom Rush’s career and who was featured on that  Tom Rush documentary No Regrets we got for being members of WUMB, when this gravelly-voice guy, sounding like some old mountain pioneer, sang the Kentucky hills classic Fair and Tender Ladies. It turned out to be Von Ronk's version which you know I still play up in the third floor attic. After that I was hooked on that voice and that depth of feeling that he brought to every song even those of his own creation which tended to be spoofs on some issue of the day.”

Laura laughed at Sam and the intensity with which his expressed his mentioning of the fact that he liked gravelly-voiced guys for some reason. Here is her answer, “You should became when you go up to the third floor to do your “third floor folk- singer” thing and you sing Fair and Tender Ladies I hear this gravelly-voiced guy, sounding like some old mountain pioneer, some Old Testament Jehovah prophet come to pass judgment come that end day time.”

They both laughed. 

Laura then mentioned the various times that they had seen Dave Von Ronk before he passed away, not having seen him in his prime, when that voice did sound like some old time prophet, a title he would have probably secretly enjoyed for publicly he was an adamant atheist. Sam went on, “ I saw him perform many times over the years, sometimes in high form and sometimes when drinking too much high-shelf whiskey, Chavis Regal, or something like that not so good. Remember we had expected to see him perform as part of Rosalie Sorrels’ farewell concert at Saunders Theater at Harvard in 2002 I think. He had died a few weeks before.  Remember though before that when we had seen him for what turned out to be our last time and I told you he did not look well and had been, as always, drinking heavily and we agreed his performance was subpar. But that was at the end. For a long time he sang well, sang us well with his own troubadour style, and gave us plenty of real information about the history of American folk music. Yeah like he always used to say-'when the tin can bended …..and the story ended.'

As they came to the admission booth at the entrance to Crane’s Beach Sam with Carolyn Hester’s song version of Walt Whitman’s On Captain, My Captain on the CD player said “I was on my soap box long enough on the way out here. You’re turn with Carolyn Hester on the way back who you know a lot about and I know zero, okay.” Laura retorted, “Yeah you were definitely on your soap-box but yes we can talk Carolyn Hester because I am going to cover one of her songs at my next “open mic.” And so it goes.               

In Search Of Heroes Of The Great American Hispanic Night-Mi Hombre Senor Zorro-The ‘Z’ Man Of My Youthful Dreams-Antonio Banderas’s “The Mask Of Zorro” (1998)-A Film Review

In Search Of Heroes Of The Great American Hispanic Night-Mi Hombre Senor Zorro-The ‘Z’ Man Of My Youthful Dreams-Antonio Banderas’s “The Mask Of Zorro” (1998)-A Film Review

DVD Review

By Si Lannon

The Mask Of Zorro, starring Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anthony Hopkins and assorted sleaze-ball Spanish dons and their senoras and senoritas, 1998

I have made no secret here or in private conversations that in my youth, my childhood really, I was crazy to watch the Zorro half hour on 1950s black and white television. For a reason that only a few people knew then, mostly family, and excluding my corner boys, some of who work for this publication, and whom I grew up with in the heavily working- class Irish and some Italian neighborhood of the Acre in North Adamsville a suburb south of Boston. I suppose every family has its family secrets, its skeletons in the closet like some looney grand aunty up on the batty attic, a brother, a hermano in home speak, who has spent more time in jail for various armed felonies than on the outside, that some cousin was in the vernacular of the day in our family at least was “different” meaning then a “fairy, fag” you know what I mean and today proudly LGBTQ, a young female relative who also in the code words of the day had to travel to “Aunt Emmy” for a while, meaning that she was pregnant out of wedlock and had to leave town to avoid family disgrace and dagger neighborhood dowager grandmother eyes probably never to come back.

In my family the deep dark secret which also reveals in passing why I loved Zorro as my youthful hero was that my mother was a Latina, Hispanic, you know from Mexico whose last name was Juarez, Bonita Juarez. No big deal right, now anyway although in the age of the long knives, in the age of Trump and all the animosities he has helped stir up, bring to the ugly surface of American life, that may no longer be true. But back then, back in 1950s growing up Irish-Italian Acre that was a no-no. The way around it devised by my parents was that sweet Bonita was “passed off” as Italian. An entirely respectable ethic designation in a town that drew Italians back around the turn off the 20^th century to work the granite quarries that dominated the topography of the landscape (that work died out with the exhaustion of the quarries to be replaced by a booming shipbuilding industries which by the 1950s has in their turn faded this time by off-shore outsourcing and eventual departure which explained a lot about the wanting habits of we corner boys in the 1950s while other working class towns were observing something of a golden age-also mainly gone now with globalization). While there were names, derogatory names, for Italians in some Irish working-class homes in the neighborhood there was enough intermixing to level things off.

Almost universally though since there were absolutely no Hispanic families in the whole town the normal terms of abuse applies-spics, wetbacks, braceros, and the like. My father could not stand for that and even his relatives in the neighborhood believed my mother was from Italy. She had come up to California from Mexico during World War II with her family to work the grape and melon fields and my father stationed at Fort Ord at the time met her at a USO dance and wooed her after that. Since Bonita’s English was halting she was forbidden to speak Spanish when others were around. The only way any corner boys knew that she was Spanish was in high school when in ninth grade my best friend Jack Callahan had been taking Spanish and had come to the house unannounced and heard her speaking that language and not Italian. Naturally asking what gives and I told him and from there to the rest of the guys who hung around Tonio’s Pizza Parlor. [In the interest of today’s seemingly compulsory transparency statement Jack Callahan has not only occasionally written in this publication but has been a substantial financial backer-Greg Green]

The corner boys when they found out since we were “brothers” today hermanos were pretty cool about the whole thing since she was my mother and that counted a lot even when we were at civil war with them, con madres. In general though it was not until many years later after Bonita passed away that people became aware of her nationality in a time when such things were more openly okay-even in the Acre.                    

Secrets aside I loved Zorro the same way my corner boys loved say white gringo good guys, avenging angels like Wyatt Earp or the Maverick boys from the television our main source outside of the movies from having characters we could identify with. Swashbuckling Zorro taking on all-comers, bad ass gringos especially but also batos locos paid soldiers and other scumbags and of course the oppressor hombres-the mainly Spanish dons who had the huge land grants from the Spanish kings when California was part of the fading Spanish Empire and later after formal independence and creation of a Mexican state who gouged the peasantry into the ground to maintain their freaking luxurious lifestyles. I would have to keep my devotion something of a secret although in general Zorro was a positive figure among the television-watching corner boys.

I was therefore very interested in doing this review of The Mask of Zorro when site manager Greg Green decided that enough was enough as Mexican Nationals, immigrants, citizens, hard-working peoples were being bashed for no good purpose by the Trump unleashed dark alt-right-Nazi-fascist-white nationalist cabal and had to be defended on all fronts including popular culture-including films. And in a very definitive way-beyond the obvious romance between Zorro, played by a youthful Antonio Banderas and his lovely senorita and soon to be marida and madre of his child, Elena, played by drop-dead beautiful Catherine Zeta-Jones-this film shows a heroic and honorable side of the Mexican saga-of cultural super-heroes among the oppressed peoples of the world. 

Here is the way the thing worked on this one although one can take the production to task for not have more Hispanics, Latinos, etc. in key roles like Elena, who could have worthily been played by Penelope Lopez, and certainly Zorro, the elder, played by venerable and ubiquitous high-toned Brit actor Anthony Hopkins could have had a better casting. The elder Zorro has a running battle in the Mexican independence struggle with the soon to be departed Spanish viceroy, a real bastard whose name is legend so no need to give him some human surname over the way the peasantry and others were treated by him. More importantly over the elder Zorro’s wife and daughter since that msl hombre viceroy was smitten by her. Eventually the bastard was the cause of the mother’s death and the elder Zorro’s imprisonment leaving the field clear for him to raise that daughter, Elena, when going back to Spain in comfort and culture.    

Then fast forward twenty year later and the bastard returned with Elena and with the idea of turning via those well-off land grant Dons California into an independent republic by stealth and cold hard cash to the Mexican leader Santa Ana, known as a villain in U.S. history via the Alamo and Jimmy Polk’s Mexican War adventure. The one guys like young Abe Lincoln and Henry avid Thoreau couldn’t stomach. Enter a rejuvenated elder Zorro who nevertheless is too old to go mano a mano with the bastard and his hired thugs. Through serious trial and error he trains a new generation Zorro, played by Banderas, to lead the struggle against the returned kingpin oppressor and let the peasantry live off the their lands in some peace. Once our new Zorro finishes his basic training he is off and running to woo the lovely Elena, tweak the bastard, fight a million sword fights, woo the lovely Elena, fight a few million more sword fights, and well you know the “and” part by now. A most satisfying film which only rekindled my love of the sacred youthful character-thanks young and old Zorro.         

In Honor Of The King Of The Folk-Singing Hard-Living Hobos The Late Utah Phillips -From The Archives- *Labor's Untold Story-The Industrial Workers Of The World (IWW)- Party Or Union?

Click on title to link to ex- IWW'er, American Communist Party founder and Socialist Workers Party (Trotskyist)founder James P. Cannon's analysis of the IWW.

Every Month Is Labor History Month

This Commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!

As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.

In Honor Of The Anniversary Of The Paris Commune-From The Archives-From The Pages Of The Socialist Alternative Press-WikiLeaks: The case of Julian Assange

Click on the headline to link to the Socialist Alternative (CWI) website.

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.
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WikiLeaks: The case of Julian Assange

Aug 27, 2012
By Per-Ake Westerlund, Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (CWI Sweden)

Towards a new turn?

On the world stage, the case of Julian Assange is about U.S. imperialism’s need to punish WikiLeaks. There is no doubt that the Swedish state and the government would be happy to assist the US. However, the case is also about serious allegations of rape, which must be investigated.


Julian Assange was received as a hero when he came to Sweden, invited by the Christian organisation of Social Democrats in August 2010. Four months earlier, WikiLeaks released the video “Collateral Murder”, showing U.S. soldiers in a helicopter killing civilians in Iraq, including children. And in June of the same year came revelations about the U.S. war in Afghanistan, published by WikiLeaks in cooperation with leading newspapers like the New York Times and Le Monde.


When Assange left Sweden on 27 September, however, he was suspected of rape. First, he was arrested in absentia on 20 August. The following day the arrest was lifted. However, on 1 September the investigation resumed. In November, he was arrested in his absence and warrant was sought by Interpol, for one case of rape, two counts of sexual molestation and one case of duress. Just over two weeks later, he reported himself to the police in London.


Then, a more than a year and a half long process of extradition to Sweden began. The Swedish prosecutor, Marianne Ny, has requested his extradition, something Assange fought against, for fear that the next step to be extradited to the US. In June of this year, Assange went into the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and asked for asylum, which he was granted last week.


Julian Assange has every reason to fear US retaliation. Since May 2010, the US has detained Breanna (formerly known as Bradley) Manning, a 24-year-old who worked in the military intelligence in Iraq and was pointed out as one of the main sources of WikiLeaks. Manning risks life imprisonment, accused of “support for terrorists.” Several leading right-wing politicians in the United States have requested that Assange should be treated in the same way.


“In the US, the Justice Department is considering prosecuting the founder of Wikileaks for espionage, and according to the British Independent, there have been unofficial talks between officials from the US and Sweden on the prospects for the extradition of Assange. This story is rejected, however, by Foreign Minister Carl Bildt,” wrote the Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, in December 2010.


Criticism of US imperialism is also what unites those who provide support for Assange. Ecaudor’s President, Rafael Correa, has been supported by the governments of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Argentina for its decision to grant Assange asylum. All the governments in South America have condemned the possibility that Britain would plan an assault of Ecuador’s embassy.


Assange also turned directly to the United States in his 10-minute speech from the balcony of the Embassy of Ecuador on 19 August. To applause from the audience, he requested that the FBI investigation and the witch hunt against WikiLeaks cease.


But US imperialism’s hunt for Assange does not mean that he is innocent of the accusations by the two women in Sweden. “However, some of the activists associated with Occupy who have turned up outside the embassy have stressed their presence is about showing solidarity with Wikileaks rather than necessarily endorsing Assange.” reported the Guardian on Monday.


That the allegations made against Assange - intercourse with a sleeping woman and deliberately destroying a condom during intercourse – are classed as rape is used in both the international and Swedish debates as an argument that Swedish legislation is “feminist” or exaggerated.


But Sweden does not distinguish itself for its harshness against rapists. This tougher law is a result of women’s struggles, which in turn were supported the labour movement and the rest of society. This means that no means no and forced sex is a crime, which even those who believe that Assange is innocent should realise is progress.


Despite the tougher laws, very few accused men are convicted or even investigated. About 200 men are convicted of rape annually in Sweden compared to over 6,000 filings. Even in cases which are prosecuted, a third are acquitted. In this context, to speak of “state feminism”, as some supporters of Assange does, is absurd.


The Swedish Prosecution acted very clumsily and slowly in 2010. When the investigation was resumed, they had three weeks to interview Assange before he left the country, which they allowed him to do. Since then, prosecutors have refused to interrogate Assange in London, which would be a natural step for those who want to pursue the investigation.


Similarly, the Swedish government refused to promise that Assange would not be extradited to the United States. Such a promise would, according to Kristinn Hrafnsson from WikiLeaks in a comment after Assange’s speech, be “a way to break the current impasse.”


Socialists stand for the allegations of rape being investigated without the threat of deportation to the United States or other repressive measures against WikiLeaks.


WikiLeaks’ revelations about Iraq and Afghanistan have played an important positive role in the struggle against war and imperialism. Not least in Sweden. It confirmed Foreign Minister Carl Bildt’s warmongering role, as well as the government’s pressure on Iraq to stop refugees coming to Sweden. Socialists stand for Breanna Manning’s release and defend the democratic rights of Wikileaks and its sources. A democratic socialist mass movement must stand up for free speech, against violence against women, against war and imperialism.



Socialist Alternative, P.O. Box 45343, Seattle WA 98145
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Far From The Outlaw Minute-Willie Nelson’s Outlaws And Angels (2004 )-A Musical Film Review

Far From The Outlaw Minute-Willie Nelson’s Outlaws And Angels (2004 )-A Musical Film Review   

DVD Review

By Film Editor Sandy Salmon

Willie Nelson: Outlaws and Angels, starring Willie Nelson and a cast of outlaws like Merle Haggard and angels like Lucinda Williams and everything in between including a retired outlaw like Jerry Lee Lewis, 2004     

I freely admit that as a tough mean city streets New Jersey-bred guy I did not have anything like an “outlaw country music minute” back in early 1980s when traditional country music, Nashville-driven music by the likes of George Jones and say Loretta Lynn ran out of steam. Or out of ideas beyond whiskey nights, faded love, fast cars, fast women and good old boy foolishness. The time when guys like the central figure in this music video Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker and Townes Van Zandt and gals like Emmylou Harris and Rachel Farling stepped off that reservation and gave a new definition to the parameters of country music. Brought an updated beat, an update ethos and some quirky twists to the genre. In some cases as well living the real outlaw life, by approximating the free spirit life.        

My admission has a purpose since under normal circumstances I would not review a country music video having neither expertise nor interest in the genre. The only reason I have done so is as a favor to my old friend and fellow film critic from the American Film Gazette Sam Lowell who is my immediate predecessor at this site who actually did have a “outlaw country music minute.” Since he is in retirement and only wishes to review material periodically when something like say the celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the Summer of Love, 1967 sparks his interest. At least that was the story line he spun when he practically begged me to do this review. (I really think that he just wanted to see the expression “outlaw country music minute” used in a review here like he used to hammer endlessly on the “folk minute” of the early 1969s in a lot of his reviews).

That short flirtation was driven by the musical stalemate of those early 1980s when classic rock and roll had had one of its periodic fallow periods like it had in the late 1950s and Sam was looking for something interesting musically to listen to and maybe drive to wider critical notice. According to Sam he was snagged into the moment not by Willie Nelson but by Townes Van Zandt one night at Jackie Speed’s in of all places Harvard Square in Cambridge. Hardly a known Mecca for country music although well know back in the “folk minute” days of Sam’s blessed memory. He had appreciated Willie as outside the Nashville club (although Nelson had started in traditional 1950s Nashville fashion with Crazy made a big of by the premier woman traditional country singer of the time Patty Cline, who still has the best version of that classic). But something about the painful Van Zandt lyrics and rough-hewn sense of humor appealed to his strictly urban upbringing like there might be a bridge somehow.           

But on to the music DVD. This is the third in a series of Willie Nelson driven DVDs with various themes and various guest singers and hangers-on. This one took place in Los Angeles under the guise of outlaws and angels. The line-up was certainly filled with guys with outlaw reputations like Bob Dylan (who “mailed in” his duet with Willie on the Hank Williams classic “You Win Again” reportedly via YouTube being drunk on stage in the days when he used to drink), legendary Merle Haggard (who passed away in 2016), Kid Rock and Keith Richards among others. And gals like Lucinda William and Ricki Lee Jones who can make the real angels weep for their inadequacies. Overall though other than showing that Willie has a great command of the American (maybe world) songbook most of the performances were unremarkable. Except, and this is a big exception, when the ancient rock and roller Jerry Lee Lewis whose prime before that fallow time in the late 1950s previously mentioned who “stole” the show with his two songs. Leave it to a rocker to bail things out. You would grab this one for that performance.          

From The Pages Of The Socialist Alternative Press-What is the Alternative to Capitalism?

Click on the headline to link to the Socialist Alternative (CWI) website.

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.
**********
What is the Alternative to Capitalism?

Aug 31, 2012
By Ty Moore

For a few months last year, Occupy Wall Street thrust anti-capitalist ideas back into mainstream discussion. Corporate media and capitalist politicians of both parties were forced to respond in defense of their system. By December, a Pew Poll recorded the growing rejection of the system; among young people aged 18-29 opposition to cap­italism rose to 47%, with only 46% in favor.

Yet a year later, the central question asked by millions of Occupy’s sympathiz­ers – and exploited by Occupy’s opponents – remains unanswered: “What are we fight­ing for?”


Unless movements for change squarely address this question, inviting a healthy debate over what kind of society we aim to create, we won’t move beyond endless protests against the status quo. It is one thing to tap popular rage at big business, but quite another to transform this anger into a mass movement capable of replacing the dictatorship of the 1% with a genuine democracy of the 99%.


History repeatedly demonstrates that the majority of working people will only be drawn into struggle when they are convinced that their efforts can bear tan­gible fruit – when they are inspired by a clear vision of how society could be run differently.


It should be no surprise, then, that the same December 2011 Pew Poll which found falling support for capitalism also showed that 49% of young people view socialism positively, with just 43% opposed. The poll doesn’t yet indicate mass support for a rounded-out socialist program, but it does demonstrate widespread desire for a clear left alternative to capitalism.


To mark the upcoming one-year anniver­sary of Occupy Wall Street, and to advance the debate over what kind of society we should be fighting for, Socialist Alternative will be organizing public meetings across the country to argue the case for socialism. This article previews some central themes we aim to address.


What is Socialism?


The defenders of capitalism attempt to paint socialism as a utopian schema dreamed up by self-appointed intellectuals who would dogmatically impose their grey, lifeless system on the unwilling masses. For many who associate socialism with the Stalinist legacy or the sellout social demo­cratic parties, there is an understandable desire to abandon the “old ideas” and start fresh.


Yet any serious look at the history of working peoples’ struggles reveals a funda­mentally different story.


Workers and oppressed people worldwide have repeatedly fought back to improve their conditions and liberate themselves. Everywhere, a central feature of the class struggle is a battle of ideas. The ruling minority attempt to shroud their exploitation through lies and distractions. Meanwhile, the exploited majority attempt to clear the fog and discover the real mechanics of the system which oppresses them, and what an alternative system might look like.


Arising organically from the experience of the class struggle, the genuine ideas of Marxism – initially worked out over 160 years ago – are a living body of ideas contin­uously developed by successive generations of class fighters. The history of capitalism reveals how social movements repeatedly face similar challenges and similar debates, and how the most far-thinking fighters draw similar conclusions. Marxist theory and practice flows from careful study of these international and historical experiences and from rigorous debates within these living struggles.


So while this article will mainly highlight our vision for a socialist future, most of the intellectual work of the socialist movement today and historically focuses on how social movements can win victories in the here and now. The best test of any theory is whether it offers an effective guide to action.


In the same way that a doctor who mis­diagnoses a patient will likely prescribe an ineffective or even harmful treatment, a movement leader who fails to understand the mechanics of capitalism will typically lead struggles to defeat.


Marxism is an attempt to scientifically trace out the actual dynamics of global capi­talism and the class struggle. Only through a lucid understanding of social processes, cleared of the fog of capitalist propaganda, can workers and the oppressed map out a strategy and tactics to defeat big business and transform society.


Genuine socialist theory is therefore a sort of “best practices” guide to win­ning short-term struggles, a transitional method of linking today’s movements to a broader global strategy to end capitalism, and a vision of a future society based on the experience of workers’ self-organization in struggle.


Workers’ Democracy


The 2012 U.S. elections show more clearly than ever that democracy under capitalism boils down to “one dollar, one vote.” Wall Street and the big corporations finance both parties, so whether the Democrats or Repub­licans win, the 99% loses. Yet corporate domination of our political system is just an extension of capitalists’ control over our economy.


Consider the awesome power concentrated in the hands of the few owners of the big corporations. Five companies dominate the U.S. media industry. A handful of corpora­tions, such as Google and Microsoft, control the information age industries.


The energy industry is monopolized by several fossil fuel profiteers who effectively prevent a shift to a renewable energy economy and better mass transit.


The overriding goal of these corpora­tions is not to produce quality TV programs, wider information access, or a sustainable energy policy; their goal is to maximize prof­its. Achieving this requires a relentless drive to cut costs and increase market share at the expense of all other considerations.


Apologists for capitalism reduce the prob­lem of corporate political domination of soci­ety to “corrupt” or “greedy” political leaders, or to the lack of sufficient regulations. This flips reality upside down. The capitalists’ dominant economic position affords them the power to determine the political leaders, the laws, and the ruling ideologies, not the other way around.


Socialists argue that only by placing the big banks and corporations into public owner­ship, under workers’ democratic control, can a genuine democracy of, by, and for the 99% be achieved.


This idea of working class self-organiza­tion was a feature of virtually every major mass uprising since the Paris Commune of 1871. The historic wave of revolt that swept the globe in 2011 was no exception. From the mass assemblies in Tahrir Square to the general assemblies of Occupy Wall Street, millions of workers and youth discovered that the forms of organization originally thrown up for their immediate struggle offered a glimpse of what a real bottom-up socialist democratic society might look like.


However, a genuine socialist transforma­tion of society would require the occupation movements to expand into workplaces, uni­versities, and all major institutions, replac­ing top-down capitalist control with elected workplace and community councils. Instead of elections every two or four years deter­mining which capitalist party runs things, a socialist government would be composed of elected representatives from workplace, com­munity, and student councils. Representatives would be immediately recallable and paid no more than those they represent.


In this way, the profit motive could be removed from society and the warped pri­orities of the market replaced with a global economic plan. All political and economic decisions could be made democratically, with social and environmental priorities determin­ing investments, wages and laws.


Ending Poverty and Inequality


Since the onset of the global economic crisis, capitalist politicians everywhere demand working people tighten their belts while they rake in record profits. In the “recovery” of 2010, the top 1% pocketed 93% of all economic gains, according to a study of tax returns by Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Pikkety. Meanwhile, the poorest 90% gained nothing.


“The past four years have been bad for workers and savers but good for the corporate sector,” explained The Economist (3/30/12). “Profit margins in America are higher than at any time in the past 65 years.”


Yet according to the Census Bureau, 46.2 million Americans have fallen below the pov­erty line, up by 7 million since 2008. Official poverty rates for blacks and Latinos hover around 37% while 34% of single mothers are poor, underscoring the deep racism and sexism in U.S. society.


What is truly staggering is the growth in those categorized as “low income.” The 97.3 million hovering just above poverty, together with those in poverty, equal almost half the U.S. population.


We face a distribution crisis, not a scarcity crisis. There are more than enough resources to ensure a decent life for all, but a tiny elite hoard the wealth or waste it in nonproductive speculative investments. To take one example, a recent study by the Tax Justice Network found that up to $20 trillion is being looted from national treasuries through offshore tax havens! This is a sum of money larger than the U.S. and Japanese economies combined!


Socialists argue for taking the top 500 cor­porations and financial institutions into public ownership and using their wealth to fund a massive green jobs program. On this basis, all the unemployed could be offered jobs at living wages on projects addressing vital social needs.


Tens of thousands of new teachers could be hired and crumbling schools rebuilt. Free, quality health care could be extended to everyone, unhindered by the rapacious insur­ance companies. Huge investments in clean energy infrastructure, including the dramatic expansion of mass transit, could accompany the phase-out of fossil fuel reliance. Free, quality child care, elderly care, and programs serving the disabled could be established.


On this basis, poverty could be rapidly wiped out, alongside the crime and social problems caused by widespread economic desperation.


Fighting Oppression


In the struggles against racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression, few serious activists argue that any specific oppression can be understood - or fought - in isolation from capitalism as a whole. Despite this, most movement leaders fail to link anti-oppression struggles to a unifying socialist vision.


As Malcolm X argued, “you can’t have capitalism without racism,” because if the diverse American working class became con­scious of their collective interests, and their potential power, the rule of the 1% could be rapidly broken up.


That’s why the rich and big business con­tinue to fund far-right political forces like the Tea Party to further their divide-and-conquer agenda. That’s why the corporate media amplifies the voices of bigots and perpetuates racial and gender stereotypes.


There are also narrow economic incentives to maintain structural inequalities. Sexist ideas allow businesses to pay women just 73 cents to every dollar men make and to deny proper maternity and paternity benefits. Racism jus­tifies maintaining 12 million undocumented immigrants as a terrorized, super-exploited underclass.


A socialist transformation of society wouldn’t automatically erase deeply ingrained prejudices, but it would remove the most sig­nificant root cause. With workplaces under public ownership and democratic control, there would be no capitalist class with an inter­est in dividing workers from one another.


A socialist system would invest in commu­nities of color traditionally starved of quality schools, grocery stores, and social services. Homophobic laws and education curriculums could be removed. Women could be guaran­teed equal pay for equal work, free quality child care, paid maternity leave, and other necessities. The mass media, run democrati­cally under worker/community control, could be a powerful tool for undermining prejudice.


Sustainable World


In June, on the 20th anniversary of the first major summit on global warming, world lead­ers once again met in Rio de Janeiro. And, once again, the conference ended in failure, with all meaningful solutions blocked by the profit-driven interests of the world’s biggest economies.


Then, as if on cue, July was the hottest month on record in the Northern Hemisphere.


The scientific community is virtually unanimous that unless we drastically reduce consumption of fossil fuels in the next few years, catastrophic climate change is inevita­ble. Already the impact is being felt. Extreme weather is on the rise.


Droughts are causing crop failures across the world, driving up food prices, pushing millions more into hunger.


Yet both Obama and the Republicans are encouraging more drilling for oil, more frack­ing and more coal usage. No wonder, since capitalist politicians from both parties rely on the support of the huge energy corporations for their political careers. On a global scale, the cooperation needed to address the crisis is blocked by capitalist competition between nations.


Numerous studies show it is technically possible for a combination of wind, solar, tidal, and hydro power to meet world energy needs. With a democratically planned socialist economy, and the profit motive removed from global investment decisions, this transition could be achieved.


With the energy corporations placed into public ownership under democratic workers’ control, their massive resources could be redi­rected toward coordinated global investments in clean energy infrastructure. Tens of mil­lions of unemployed worldwide could be pro­vided jobs in an urgent, coordinated drive to save the planet.

Socialist Alternative, P.O. Box 45343, Seattle WA 98145
Phone: (206)526-7185
Comments? Suggestions for improving our web page? Please email info@SocialistAlternative.org

In Honor Of The Anniversary Of The Paris Commune-From The Archives-From The Pages Of The Socialist Alternative Press-One Year Since Occupy Shook the World

Click on the headline to link to the Socialist Alternative (CWI) website.

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.

**********
One Year Since Occupy Shook the World

Sep 1, 2012
By Greg Beiter, Seattle Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587 Shop Steward

Only one year ago, the Occupy Wall Street movement began its encampment of Zucotti Park in New York City. A mere two weeks later, the movement exploded to hundreds of cities in every state across the U.S., spreading the struggle against massive wealth inequality in society.

A year later, despite the move­ment’s decline, it transformed con­sciousness among the broad mass of workers and young people. It brought tens of thousands into action, many for the first time, giving them a taste of their col­lective power.


Many lessons can be learned from the movement, from both its successes and its later decline. And though Occupy today isn’t a mass force in the streets, its early days last year foreshadowed the even bigger struggles that will emerge in the near future.


The Beginnings


Occupy Wall Street began as a small protest of a few hundred young people, who began an occu­pation a few blocks from Wall Street. It rapidly attracted the attention and support of many in New York and all over the U.S. The main message was simple, yet effective: The 1%, the super-rich who control the vast majority of wealth – and with it economic, social and political power – were getting even richer at the expense of the vast majority, the 99%.


This message resonated with workers and young people who had been battered by budget cuts, foreclosures, unemployment, and tuition hikes. It spoke to the brutal reality facing working people under the Great Recession and U.S. capitalism’s crisis.


Attraction to Occupy’s message quickly translated into active sup­port. Unions mobilized thousands of their members to Occupy Wall Street marches. After heavy-handed police repression, such as mass arrests and pepper-spraying of protesters, was broadcast to millions through YouTube videos, occupations sprouted up in sev­eral hundred cities, both in the U.S. and globally. After initially ignoring the movement, the cor­porate media was forced to cover what had become a mass force in society.


What most strikingly demon­strated the power of mass move­ments in changing consciousness was the effect that Occupy had in changing the political debate in the U.S.


Response to 1% Politicians


At the end of 2010, the Tea Party and Republicans rode into office on a wave of disillusionment with Obama and the Democratic major­ity in both Houses of Congress.


Emboldened by this victory, Tea Party politicians blamed pub­lic-sector workers and unions for the economic crisis and the budget deficits facing state governments. Democrats, who when in power were no better, considering they also attacked state workers and social programs, put up little resistance. Under this right-wing ideological onslaught, which was essentially unchallenged by the Democrats and corporate media, public-sector workers became the scapegoats.


Nobody epitomized this more than Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. He led the charge in trying to not only to attack public-sector unions, but to smash them out­right. In February 2011, Walker proposed legislation to strip col­lective bargaining rights from teachers and other state workers. This unleashed a tidal wave of protests and a month-long occu­pation of the state Capitol. Walker was only able to ram his rotten bill through the Republican-controlled legislature after union leaders demobilized the struggle. Walker’s victory emboldened other Repub­lican governors in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana to push through simi­lar legislation.


The Tea Party/right-wing mes­sage that public-sector workers and unions were to blame per­sisted unchallenged – until the emergence of Occupy. Occupy rapidly relegated this reactionary scapegoating to the trash heap. The blame was squarely placed where it belongs: on the Wall Street bank­sters and the billionaire investors who caused the crisis. Occupy was also able to mobilize into its ranks a number of union members, who saw little defense put up by their own leaders, and to organize suc­cessful actions like the Oakland general strike in November and the West Coast port shutdown in December.


The movement also earned massive public support. In numer­ous polls, a large majority of the public agreed with the movement’s message. And the hundreds of encampments in parks and city halls were a visible daily reminder that the super rich were getting even richer off of all of us.


Weakness and Decline


Unfortunately, Occupy also had weaknesses that helped lead to its decline. Many in the move­ment rejected having demands and statements of what it stood for. So, other than the overall message of “We Are the 99%,” the movement didn’t publicly demand an end to budget cuts or wars, or taxing Wall Street and the rich.


Despite the movement’s enor­mous public support, the number of people actively involved in it was relatively small. Tens of millions passively supported it, but only around tens of thousands regularly came out to its marches, encamp­ments and general assemblies.


Having clear demands that spoke to the daily struggles of working people and youth would’ve helped mobilize more into action. But having a plan of action for the struggle would have also drawn more into the movement.


Occupy became overly focused on maintaining the protest encampments in the face of threats and attempts to disperse them from police and politicians. The struggle came to revolve around the occupations as an example of the type of society the movement wanted to build. Many activists thought that these could become examples that would be emulated, transforming capitalist exploita­tion into a more egalitarian soci­ety. But this insular vision, after not attracting mass numbers in defense of the occupations, was in most cases violently dispersed by the forces of the capitalist state.


Rather than calling on the public to join their model microcosm of a better society, Occupy could have better marshaled people into action by organizing an escalating series of actions around a clear set of demands. For example, during the height of the movement actions were organized protesting the big banks, which included occupying and shutting them down. But most of these protests were symbolic, one-off events, with no demands being put on the banks.


These actions – and the move­ment as a whole – could have more effectively drawn support­ers into the struggle by placing a set of demands on the banks at the initial actions. Halting fore­closures, paying proper taxes, or ending executive bonuses are a few examples. If – and most likely, when – the banks didn’t meet those demands, the movement could have then organized a series of escalating public actions until the banks gave in.


Publicly calling attention to the intransigence of banks, exploit­ative corporations, or politicians in ignoring the movement’s demands and continuing their unjust activities can often spring more people into action. Winning victo­ries, making our target buckle and meet some of our demands, can have the same effect. It shows that organized, mass pressure has the power to force change.


Lasting Imprint


Despite Occupy having declined as an active, mass movement, it has left a lasting imprint on U.S. consciousness. Tens of millions now recognize that they’re being exploited by corporate America and the rich. This will lay the foundations on which future mass movements will be built.


Occupy also trained tens of thousands of activists in the heat of struggle. Many of these activists will question why the movement wasn’t able to force fundamental change. They will learn from their experience and be at the forefront of building future struggles.


Even now, Occupy hasn’t com­pletely disappeared. Sections have reorganized around specific attacks: the Occupy Homes move­ment against foreclosures in Min­neapolis and other cities, for exam­ple. This campaign has successfully prevented several families from being kicked out of their homes by the banks. It provides an excel­lent model of the targeted demands and actions that can achieve the victories necessary to increase the power of the movement and draw more people in.


Likewise, student movements are emerging across the country against tuition hikes and student debt.


Fundamentally, the conditions that gave rise to Occupy haven’t gone away. U.S. capitalism is still in crisis and will be for some time. The living standards of working and young people will continually be under attack. If the economy moves back into recession, these attacks will only intensify. These assaults will again provoke out­breaks of mass struggle in the near future.

Socialist Alternative, P.O. Box 45343, Seattle WA 98145
Phone: (206)526-7185
Comments? Suggestions for improving our web page? Please email info@SocialistAlternative.org

In Honor Of The 150th Anniversary Of The Publication Of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” (1868)-A Book Review

In Honor Of The 150^th Anniversary Of The Publication Of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” (1868)-A Book Review

Book Review

By Alden Riley

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, Roberts Brothers, 1868

I thought things were supposed to change around here with the changing of the guard, otherwise known at least among the younger writers as the purge and exile of the previous site manager Allan Jackson and his replacement by Greg Green after a bitter internal fight with no holds barred and no prisoners taken in the fall of 2017. The idea was to let the younger writers spread their wings, learn to fly and not do dreary pieces like the 24/7/365 1960s nostalgia hippie revival regime under Jackson.  And for a while there was a breath of fresh air around the place, around the formerly hostile water cooler which drives the social life of many operations and this one is no exception. Then Greg, I think to show he was his own boss, his own operator came up with the silly, silly even to Will Bradley who originally presented idea before thinking better of it, that to appeal to a younger, eventually non-existent audience, that the publication would feature film reviews of Marvel/DC comic book characters gone to screen, serious analysis of rap and pop music, and review graphic novels.  Over the top silly stuff since that phantom audience wouldn’t touch a high-brow publication if they were paid to do so and even then it would be Seth’s six, two and even that would rouse them. They get their ideas, information, style elsewhere.

We younger writers in our turn rebelled at that fantastic imposition and Greg retreated mostly gracefully under the blowback and let us do our own thing. Then Allan Jackson whom we all though had perished, gone to pot, dope pot, was working for Mitt Romney out in Utah Mormon country, running a whorehouse with an old flame in East Bay or living with an old former hometown corner boy turned “out” drag queen in San Francisco depending on which rumor you believed at the moment, showed up to do a series of encore presentations of material he had produced over the years in order to get back that older audience which had sustained the publication through good times and bad. Invited by Greg via old geezer Sam Lowell and the Editorial Board. Something has happened to Greg since Allan’s return, maybe he is under the Svengali influence of the man but now we are all expected to write “outside the box” meaning material that we know damn little about and could care even less about. Hence I have been assigned to do a book review of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women in honor of the 150^th anniversary of its original publication.         

There is where things have gone awry with Greg’s I am sure Allan-inspired approach. The only thing I knew about Louisa May Alcott, and this second-hand through Sandy Salmon when he was Senior Film Editor and I was his associate editor was that her father, Bronson Alcott, was a wild man, had run amok at Brooks Farm, the holy of holies in the pre-Civil War Transcendentalist movement, you know Emerson, Thoreau and other Buddha-like figures who ran around Cambridge, mainly Brattle Street telling naked truths naked. Bronson has run through whatever dough he had from his inheritance and had fathered, some say illegimately, a bunch of children by various female denizens of that isolated farm including Nathaniel Hawthorne’s wife and had had an affair with Herman Melville’s brother. Such things are hard to pin down but all I know for sure is that he claimed Louisa May and three other young women as his children. Lacking DNA testing who knows. So old Bronson was a certified wild man no doubt but that was hardly enough knowledge to help ‘the hook” of this famous book which in its time was a best-seller and a standard for young girls and young women’s bedside reading.

Here is where things get weird though Sandy who knew Allan Jackson when they both were much younger and had worked the free-lance stringer racket we all go through before getting our so-called cushy by-lines at American Film Gazette asked him what sources I should go to for a look at the lingering influence of the book on modern girls and young women. Told Sandy to tell me to ask my sister, Ellen, when she had read the book and what she had thought of it. Here is the honest truth Ellen had never heard of the book, didn’t know who or what I was talking about and when I told her the outline of the story she laughed, smirked and laughed saying “are you kidding” who had time to read such old-time melodramas. Failing there I figured that I would work my way back so I mentioned the book I was reviewing to my mother who told me that my grandmother had read her the book at night before bed but she didn’t remember much except there were four sisters who grew up and got married or something like that and were good wives except one who died young of some strange disease. She said ask my grandmother. Bingo. Grandma quoted me chapter and verse without hesitation until I asked how the book influenced her. She told me those were different times, more restrictive times even against her growing up times in the 1930s so she would have to pass on the influence question. She was only a little shocked that my sister knew nada about the book and my mother only a little more. So I am going to take a stab and say as a 150^th anniversary honor-women you have come a long way since those homebody marriage child-rearing times.   

I had to think awhile, had to ask Seth Garth who is good at this kind of question and his old flame Leslie Dumont, both fellow writers here what was it about the novel that would have appealed to young girls and women up at least until my grandmother’s growing up times. And why when I later asked some other female contemporaries they came up as blank as my sister on even having heard of the book. Leslie said it best, or at least better. Those were male dominated times and so even the least amount of spunk, independence  by say Jo, who is the character in the book who pretty much represents Louisa May’s profile was like a breath of fresh air even to young girls and women who knew the score, knew they would be driven back into the cave if they got too brave. Seth, who was more than willing to defer to Leslie’s judgment took a more historical approach saying there was nothing in the plotline that dealt with eternal truths so that such a novel would have a limited life-span except in the groves of academia where a couple of generations of Ph.ds could get worked up about the social meaning of it all.   

That is about it except to briefly trace the story line, or lines since there are actually two main threads, the almost universal family-centered expectations for women and Louisa May’s struggle to get somebody to survive into strong independence co-managership of the family along with a thoughtful husband. Oldest sister Meg is pretty conventional, beautiful and domestic preaching to the younger sisters’ choir about the need to be civilized and good God-fearing wives. Jo, Louisa May’s character is strong-willed and thoughtful and will make the marriage that Alcott thought should be appropriate for her times and class. Beth is something of a cipher, musical but early on sickly who dies young from the after effects of horrible scarlet fever so no real lesson can be drawn from her life. (Funny how these Victorian novelists, male and female, have to have some frail sickly female character hovering in the background.) Amy, the youngest, is the closest to the character that let’s say my daughter could relate to if she ever finished reading the book which she adamantly refused to finish after reading about a third of it and declaring the thing  utterly boring even the Amy character who struggle for artistic self-expression is very similar to her own feelings about what she wants out of life. As Sam Lowell has stated on many occasions-a slice of life circa the 1860s-that is the “hook.”      

*Labor's Untold Story- Honor The Haymarket Martyrs-Fight For A Real Eight Hour Day

Click on title to link to information about the Haymarket Martyrs of 1886 whom we celebrate on May Day and with the struggle for a shorter work day and a classless society.

Every Month Is Labor History Month

This commentary is part of a series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!

As a first run through, and in some cases until I can get enough other sources in order to make a decent presentation, I will start with short entries on each topic that I will eventually go into greater detail about. Or, better yet, take my suggested topic and run with it yourself.