Wanted a book on laughter. "Only have it on Kindle."”
Are they---- them, kidding me?
The touch ,smell, feel of books.------A love affair----so be it.
In front of a wall of books I sit.
I’m in Tuchman’s “March of Folly”----Believe me,--boom--boom, I'm marching
“Copper Camp” Butte, good old days. Twenty Thousand Miners.
Ten thousand whores. Two to one? Unfair.
In the dark of night------do the books argue?
Creating The Goodlife”-----Try “The Bible.”
“Big Trouble”----“In The Age of the Smart Machine.
”
Das Capital ------All Governments Lie.
Greeks at Delphi Romans at the gate.
Here's 30 Volumes of Brittanica. feel---smell and heavy!
Yes, I know, I know, The whole things on------
A teeny weeny shiny disk nary a feel or smell.
Hate it-----use it. Future trap ?
Robert Frost “Two roads divide.” Take the traveled one
Remember the Donna Party!
Emily Dickenson Beware the snake in the grass.
Shakspeare, The creation of human.
Own-self be true. Conscience makes cowards of us all.”
Douglas “Life & Times In Slavery.’ People of the gospel song.
Tuchman “March of Folly” Is that all there is?
No, Over here, a whole other shelf.
“Left Turn’-----Wasn’t That a Time?
Growing up Radical & Red in America.”
Black Obelisk, Understand the human condition?
Off with you to the mad house.
Lucretius, 100 years before Christ.
“The Nature of Things”----"Nothing comes of nothing.”
Heah, Lear said that.” March of folly?
Encyclopedia of Furniture Making”
I make it, feel it see it, touch, smell,
Remember it was a tree..
Like Hardy’s farmer oak?
Power of Positive Blah Blah Blah
Take A deep breath, We’re in the cast.
Next Episode, March of Folly
Damn you Kindle.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
On The Crisis in Egypt !
Post Script Nov, 23,2011 Originally published Feb.6 2011 I just felt that a rereading of this February blog on Egypt may be useful in understanding the new rage in Tahrir Square.
I mean with all the punditry blah blah blahing on the 24 hour cable circuit I was really trying to stay out of it. Alas, I can not. The problem with the Punditry is they all are saying the same thing. Will Mubarak go, will he stay until September? Who will take over? What’s Obama doing, what did Hillary say? Yeah and what about the Israelis? I’m wading in because nobody seems to be aware of the CLASS STRUGGLE that is taking place in Egypt.
The whole idea of the class struggle got out of favor after Fukuyama wrote “The End of History.” The collapse of the Soviet Union would usher in the era of capitalism as being the only surviving system ipso facto the end of history. That would also include the end of the class struggle. (Pssst, also the end of Marxism.) It wasn’t long after that anyone who used the word “class” in politics was accuse of starting a “class war.” God forbid. Maybe it is this phenomena that now keeps otherwise intelligent people from refusing to look at the class content of the struggle in Egypt.
It has been acknowledged that a million and a half of young people 15 to 25 are unemployed with no chance of finding a job. There’s another million employed workers who are paid substandard wages. Jobs for women are almost non existence. Yes that’s why the street demonstrations have been led by youth. Like the “old man” said, “they have nothing to lose.” Then I started looking for, who are the major employers in Egypt? Wow, guess what I found?
“The army in Egypt is a great power, not only military, but also economic. The army is the main employer in the country , capitalist 1. The military receive contracts for the construction of bridges and roads, and for the production of gasoline and olive oil, and they own tourist hotels and hospitals. The military elite is an integral and important part of the corrupt bureaucratic system. (Sort of like our very own Haliburton but more so.) “And at the same time, in the eyes of the Egyptian people the army is is the symbol of “independence.” Remember Eisenhower’s warning about the “Military Industrial Complex? Guess what? That’s who is actually ruling in Egypt.
Wow! talk about a nifty setup for the military. No wonder they don’t want any class warfare. They are the ruling class who control the whole works. Yes, the production facilities, the infra structure, the roads, the sewers the water works. Eureka I found it. Just like the Anaconda Copper Company back in Montana 1953. How did it happen?
After the 1979 Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt was signed it left the Egyptian Army with little or nothing to do. So, they went into business and they have been there ever since. They are the elite bunch who have sponsored and kept Mubarak in power for 30 years. They will now have Suleiman as the transition boss who will certainly make sure that the business interests of his army buddies is in no way disturbed. Now our leaders seem to have gotten the message. “Oh yes we have to give the Egyptian Government time to “transition.” This so called transition is pure Kabuki. “You are now with Mubarak and will transition to Suleiman.” Guess what? It’s the same old Army Industrial Complex that will continue to rule.
There you have a class analysis of what’s going on in Egypt. Will the removal of Mubarak make much difference? I don’t think so unless the demonstrators can get their stuff together and start negotiating some real concessions from the RULING CLASS.
That’s the problem when an unorganized band of angry people take to the streets without a well disciplined organization. What is essential in that situation? A clear set of demands need to be articulated. Leaders are needed, who represent the will of the demonstrators and can negotiate with the Ruling Class. Otherwise it will just be another brave effort that ends up leaving everything as it was before the uprising. What comes to mind is Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia 1969. Or the Shipyard workers in Gdansk Poland. They had real power and leaders to do the negotiating. That’s the lesson of history.
I mean with all the punditry blah blah blahing on the 24 hour cable circuit I was really trying to stay out of it. Alas, I can not. The problem with the Punditry is they all are saying the same thing. Will Mubarak go, will he stay until September? Who will take over? What’s Obama doing, what did Hillary say? Yeah and what about the Israelis? I’m wading in because nobody seems to be aware of the CLASS STRUGGLE that is taking place in Egypt.
The whole idea of the class struggle got out of favor after Fukuyama wrote “The End of History.” The collapse of the Soviet Union would usher in the era of capitalism as being the only surviving system ipso facto the end of history. That would also include the end of the class struggle. (Pssst, also the end of Marxism.) It wasn’t long after that anyone who used the word “class” in politics was accuse of starting a “class war.” God forbid. Maybe it is this phenomena that now keeps otherwise intelligent people from refusing to look at the class content of the struggle in Egypt.
It has been acknowledged that a million and a half of young people 15 to 25 are unemployed with no chance of finding a job. There’s another million employed workers who are paid substandard wages. Jobs for women are almost non existence. Yes that’s why the street demonstrations have been led by youth. Like the “old man” said, “they have nothing to lose.” Then I started looking for, who are the major employers in Egypt? Wow, guess what I found?
“The army in Egypt is a great power, not only military, but also economic. The army is the main employer in the country , capitalist 1. The military receive contracts for the construction of bridges and roads, and for the production of gasoline and olive oil, and they own tourist hotels and hospitals. The military elite is an integral and important part of the corrupt bureaucratic system. (Sort of like our very own Haliburton but more so.) “And at the same time, in the eyes of the Egyptian people the army is is the symbol of “independence.” Remember Eisenhower’s warning about the “Military Industrial Complex? Guess what? That’s who is actually ruling in Egypt.
Wow! talk about a nifty setup for the military. No wonder they don’t want any class warfare. They are the ruling class who control the whole works. Yes, the production facilities, the infra structure, the roads, the sewers the water works. Eureka I found it. Just like the Anaconda Copper Company back in Montana 1953. How did it happen?
After the 1979 Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt was signed it left the Egyptian Army with little or nothing to do. So, they went into business and they have been there ever since. They are the elite bunch who have sponsored and kept Mubarak in power for 30 years. They will now have Suleiman as the transition boss who will certainly make sure that the business interests of his army buddies is in no way disturbed. Now our leaders seem to have gotten the message. “Oh yes we have to give the Egyptian Government time to “transition.” This so called transition is pure Kabuki. “You are now with Mubarak and will transition to Suleiman.” Guess what? It’s the same old Army Industrial Complex that will continue to rule.
There you have a class analysis of what’s going on in Egypt. Will the removal of Mubarak make much difference? I don’t think so unless the demonstrators can get their stuff together and start negotiating some real concessions from the RULING CLASS.
That’s the problem when an unorganized band of angry people take to the streets without a well disciplined organization. What is essential in that situation? A clear set of demands need to be articulated. Leaders are needed, who represent the will of the demonstrators and can negotiate with the Ruling Class. Otherwise it will just be another brave effort that ends up leaving everything as it was before the uprising. What comes to mind is Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia 1969. Or the Shipyard workers in Gdansk Poland. They had real power and leaders to do the negotiating. That’s the lesson of history.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
O.W.S. Marches To Washington !
Social Unrest Is Working !
First things first. The militarized police actions in breaking up the encampments may have had the unintended consequence of moving the 0.W.S. to it’s next stage. It is additional evidence, if needed, of how social unrest scares the pants off the ruling class. On the other hand it may have moved O.W.S. from the winter encampment problems to what do we do now? Under any circumstance the encampment tactic may have been wearing thin. They have focused attention and so on to the next.
Just checked my files. I started to write about “social unrest” over a year ago. Back then I was wondering how long it would take for people to get angry enough to to get them into the streets. I am happy to salute the Occupy Wall Street folks for getting them “Into the Streets.” Yes, in many places, London, Athens, Madrid, Rome the Euro demand for austerity have seen ongoing street riots for many months. What the US occupiers did was to help legitimatize that form of protest. They have also focused attention by their one percent versus the 99 percent. In previous blogs I was trying to understand how this, “leaderless” group was going to arrive at some kind of “To Do” list. Ahaa, so here it comes.
A group of O.W.S. people have already started to March to Washington to take on the "Super Budget Committee to reduce the deficit" If this committee fails to come up with 1.5 trillion in savings there will be an across the board cut in the Federal Budget. The evidence leaking out the Committee indicates the 6 democrats willing to make concessions. The GOP 6 say absolutely no tax increases on, you guessed it the richest one per-centers who control 40 percent of the countries wealth.
The unforeseen, or unintended consequence of this stupid Bi Partisan Committee idea has got the Pentagon arms dealers in a dithee over a major cut in defense spending, God forbid. That may force the Senate and House to find a way out of this very dumb idea. The arrival of the Occupiers in Washington, I hope would stiffen the spines of the Democrats including the President to start to understand the message of the 99 per-centers.
In another blog I wrote of the need for the protesters to find a "dancing partner" if they were going to bring about change. Though they have not set it forth in so many words they are demanding a redistribution of the countries wealth. That is where the one percent versus 99 percent leads you, or how wealth is distributed in the US. That's just fine with me.
O.W.S is marching to Washington to lobby the Congress in support of their constituents, the 99 percent. This is continuing in the tradition of the struggle for better life for the, working class now called the middle class. I am not sure when the decision was made that the best we could do is beat out concessions from the ruling class with the threat of social unrest. Our legacy in the history of that struggle is written in the Woman's Vote, Right to Bargain Collectively, New Deal, Social Security Minimum Wage Law, Medicare, Wages and hour Law, worker safety, etc. etc. How did we arrive at “lets just keeping on improving the system” instead of overthrowing it? In my years in the Labor Movement it became immanently clear that my union Brothers and Sisters had no interest in system change, They simply wanted the right to a decent life under the existing order of things, called Capitalism. I think that still holds true. They want a decent “middle class” life under the existing system.
That's what we managed to do and that's what the O.W.S. folks are carrying on. Yes they have found a different way to define the issues as well as how to fight the battle. I love that. Yet in the end there is an acceptance that there is not going to be a fundamental change from Capitalism. We tried hard to get the issue of socialism out there as an alternative. It just didn’t work. (Will get into that some other time.)
The issue now is, how the fight gets played out through the existing system, That ends up with the O.W.S. Marching to Washington. I did that many many times in the 30s, 40s 60s and I wish I could do it with this group that is going to raise hell in support of many of our hardest won gains. Maybe a could train to Washington and join up in front of the Capital with a sign.
“I’M A 94 YEAR OLD GEEZER. WE’RE NOT GONNA LET THE ONE PERCENT MILLIONAIRES TAKE AWAY OUR HARD WON GAINS OF THE LAST 100 YEARS”
Those gains are what I called in a previous blog our “imperfect adjustments.” They changed the country for the better.
First things first. The militarized police actions in breaking up the encampments may have had the unintended consequence of moving the 0.W.S. to it’s next stage. It is additional evidence, if needed, of how social unrest scares the pants off the ruling class. On the other hand it may have moved O.W.S. from the winter encampment problems to what do we do now? Under any circumstance the encampment tactic may have been wearing thin. They have focused attention and so on to the next.
Just checked my files. I started to write about “social unrest” over a year ago. Back then I was wondering how long it would take for people to get angry enough to to get them into the streets. I am happy to salute the Occupy Wall Street folks for getting them “Into the Streets.” Yes, in many places, London, Athens, Madrid, Rome the Euro demand for austerity have seen ongoing street riots for many months. What the US occupiers did was to help legitimatize that form of protest. They have also focused attention by their one percent versus the 99 percent. In previous blogs I was trying to understand how this, “leaderless” group was going to arrive at some kind of “To Do” list. Ahaa, so here it comes.
A group of O.W.S. people have already started to March to Washington to take on the "Super Budget Committee to reduce the deficit" If this committee fails to come up with 1.5 trillion in savings there will be an across the board cut in the Federal Budget. The evidence leaking out the Committee indicates the 6 democrats willing to make concessions. The GOP 6 say absolutely no tax increases on, you guessed it the richest one per-centers who control 40 percent of the countries wealth.
The unforeseen, or unintended consequence of this stupid Bi Partisan Committee idea has got the Pentagon arms dealers in a dithee over a major cut in defense spending, God forbid. That may force the Senate and House to find a way out of this very dumb idea. The arrival of the Occupiers in Washington, I hope would stiffen the spines of the Democrats including the President to start to understand the message of the 99 per-centers.
In another blog I wrote of the need for the protesters to find a "dancing partner" if they were going to bring about change. Though they have not set it forth in so many words they are demanding a redistribution of the countries wealth. That is where the one percent versus 99 percent leads you, or how wealth is distributed in the US. That's just fine with me.
O.W.S is marching to Washington to lobby the Congress in support of their constituents, the 99 percent. This is continuing in the tradition of the struggle for better life for the, working class now called the middle class. I am not sure when the decision was made that the best we could do is beat out concessions from the ruling class with the threat of social unrest. Our legacy in the history of that struggle is written in the Woman's Vote, Right to Bargain Collectively, New Deal, Social Security Minimum Wage Law, Medicare, Wages and hour Law, worker safety, etc. etc. How did we arrive at “lets just keeping on improving the system” instead of overthrowing it? In my years in the Labor Movement it became immanently clear that my union Brothers and Sisters had no interest in system change, They simply wanted the right to a decent life under the existing order of things, called Capitalism. I think that still holds true. They want a decent “middle class” life under the existing system.
That's what we managed to do and that's what the O.W.S. folks are carrying on. Yes they have found a different way to define the issues as well as how to fight the battle. I love that. Yet in the end there is an acceptance that there is not going to be a fundamental change from Capitalism. We tried hard to get the issue of socialism out there as an alternative. It just didn’t work. (Will get into that some other time.)
The issue now is, how the fight gets played out through the existing system, That ends up with the O.W.S. Marching to Washington. I did that many many times in the 30s, 40s 60s and I wish I could do it with this group that is going to raise hell in support of many of our hardest won gains. Maybe a could train to Washington and join up in front of the Capital with a sign.
“I’M A 94 YEAR OLD GEEZER. WE’RE NOT GONNA LET THE ONE PERCENT MILLIONAIRES TAKE AWAY OUR HARD WON GAINS OF THE LAST 100 YEARS”
Those gains are what I called in a previous blog our “imperfect adjustments.” They changed the country for the better.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
J. Edgar
Brokeback Mountain at the FBI
I’m back in computer rage. Yupp I wrote it last night and lost it in transfer to blog. Even Mac couldn’t help. They just said sorry. Okay, let’s stop bellyaching and get on with it
I am not neutral when it comes to J. Edgar Hoover. We go back a long way. He created an enormous diary of my life from 1932 to 1965. Over 750 pages of the Schrank file. I estimate it must have cost the taxpayers at least $50,000 dollars.
Okay, when did J. Edgar really got pissed at me? It was at a Machinist Union Convention in the late forties. Grand rapids Michigan. I was on a floor mic arguing a resolution on trade policy. “We should not be trading with countries where workers are denied the rights to bargain collectively.” As I’m speaking a guy from the Press Table hands me a note. Reading and talking it says,” “There are a couple of FBI agents in the balcony taking notes.” “ Brother Chairman point of order. Ask those two guys in the balcony if they are members of this union.” Luckily for me they jump up and start to run. “Stop them, don’t let getaway. catch them!” Mr Chairman they are FBI agents and I want to know how they got into this hall?“ (Only members of the union were permitted.)
Pandemonium in the hall. “Get em, go after them. Who let em in?” The union leadership are ringing their hands like a lot of crooks caught red handed. After the session concludes Abe Raskin the Labor Reporter for the NY Times asks me what is my objection to the FBI sitting in the convention? “Look if we let J. Edgar Hoover stick his pig snout into our union business we will all become victims of his blackmail files.”
Early next morning the phone rings me outa bed. It’s our Local union lawyer. “Schrank have you gone crazy? J. Edgar will never ever forgive you for what’s on the front page of today's Times. Hoover is a man who is obsessive about his looks. How could you call him a pig?” “Well doesn’t he look like one?” Well, that was the start. For the foreseeable future J. Edgar never let up on me. That’s how I got that big fat file with his name, or Toulson on every other page.
The file shows Hoover is beside himself wanting to know how come our FBI Agents can't get union cards to get them into the convention. He's after all the Midwest FBI offices demanding an explanation. (Never knew why this was in my file?) Turns out they were X FBI agents working for the Chicago Chamber of Commerce who had declared me the most dangerous radical in the AFofL Unions. Their publication was known as "Red Channels. Their business was outing radicals primarily in the theater and movies.
Back to the movie. So here is J. Edgar struggling with his gay demons. He has hired Clyde Toulson as his depatty who Eastwwod thinks is his lover. They have a lovers spat. End up breaking glasses and wrestling down on the floor where they embrace in a bloody lovers kiss. You know what Clint? I don’t give a shit about all this, “Oh maybe he was Gay.” I care much more about the terrible harm this man has done with his gigantic blackmail files. He used them against all who as judge and jury he decides is a threat to the country and more important to him. How do you think he lasted for 47 years? He even had F.D.R. in check as he threatened to blow his cover of the affair with his secretary. Yes his victim list started up there with the like of Martin Luther King all the way down to me. How so me?
In the late forties he was trying to get me indicted under the Taft Hartley law for signing the non communist affidavits. My luck. He was stopped by the Truman White House. They said that he could not require people in the Labor Movement to testify against me. They actually told him to knock off the investigation. Look, it was some time during a court hearing on my expulsion from the Machinist for writing the pamphlet on the Taft Hartley Law that I learned about my immunity from J. Edgar.
It was at a urinal. The guy next to me a lawyer for the International Union said, “listen Schrank they are not going to indict you.” “Really, pray tell how do you know?” Well, you see they don’t want all you know about what went on during the 1944 Presidential Election Campaign. After all you were on the Democratic National Labor Committee working for Dan Tobin President of the Teamsters. Whatever it is that you know they don’t want to hear about in some Federal Court.” “Really, so that's what this is all about.” So, I thought have I got people I could also blackmail if J. Edgar succeeded in blackmailing me?” I must confess, I don;t know what the urinal talker was talking about.
I continue to wonder what on earth got Clint Eastwood all worked up about J.Edgar's sexual orientation? The real issue her is his paranoid. masterful. evil Henry the 111 kind of control of other peoples lives through blackmail? Now there’s a story that needs to be told in defense of individual rights. Clint Eastwood where are you?
I’m back in computer rage. Yupp I wrote it last night and lost it in transfer to blog. Even Mac couldn’t help. They just said sorry. Okay, let’s stop bellyaching and get on with it
I am not neutral when it comes to J. Edgar Hoover. We go back a long way. He created an enormous diary of my life from 1932 to 1965. Over 750 pages of the Schrank file. I estimate it must have cost the taxpayers at least $50,000 dollars.
Okay, when did J. Edgar really got pissed at me? It was at a Machinist Union Convention in the late forties. Grand rapids Michigan. I was on a floor mic arguing a resolution on trade policy. “We should not be trading with countries where workers are denied the rights to bargain collectively.” As I’m speaking a guy from the Press Table hands me a note. Reading and talking it says,” “There are a couple of FBI agents in the balcony taking notes.” “ Brother Chairman point of order. Ask those two guys in the balcony if they are members of this union.” Luckily for me they jump up and start to run. “Stop them, don’t let getaway. catch them!” Mr Chairman they are FBI agents and I want to know how they got into this hall?“ (Only members of the union were permitted.)
Pandemonium in the hall. “Get em, go after them. Who let em in?” The union leadership are ringing their hands like a lot of crooks caught red handed. After the session concludes Abe Raskin the Labor Reporter for the NY Times asks me what is my objection to the FBI sitting in the convention? “Look if we let J. Edgar Hoover stick his pig snout into our union business we will all become victims of his blackmail files.”
Early next morning the phone rings me outa bed. It’s our Local union lawyer. “Schrank have you gone crazy? J. Edgar will never ever forgive you for what’s on the front page of today's Times. Hoover is a man who is obsessive about his looks. How could you call him a pig?” “Well doesn’t he look like one?” Well, that was the start. For the foreseeable future J. Edgar never let up on me. That’s how I got that big fat file with his name, or Toulson on every other page.
The file shows Hoover is beside himself wanting to know how come our FBI Agents can't get union cards to get them into the convention. He's after all the Midwest FBI offices demanding an explanation. (Never knew why this was in my file?) Turns out they were X FBI agents working for the Chicago Chamber of Commerce who had declared me the most dangerous radical in the AFofL Unions. Their publication was known as "Red Channels. Their business was outing radicals primarily in the theater and movies.
Back to the movie. So here is J. Edgar struggling with his gay demons. He has hired Clyde Toulson as his depatty who Eastwwod thinks is his lover. They have a lovers spat. End up breaking glasses and wrestling down on the floor where they embrace in a bloody lovers kiss. You know what Clint? I don’t give a shit about all this, “Oh maybe he was Gay.” I care much more about the terrible harm this man has done with his gigantic blackmail files. He used them against all who as judge and jury he decides is a threat to the country and more important to him. How do you think he lasted for 47 years? He even had F.D.R. in check as he threatened to blow his cover of the affair with his secretary. Yes his victim list started up there with the like of Martin Luther King all the way down to me. How so me?
In the late forties he was trying to get me indicted under the Taft Hartley law for signing the non communist affidavits. My luck. He was stopped by the Truman White House. They said that he could not require people in the Labor Movement to testify against me. They actually told him to knock off the investigation. Look, it was some time during a court hearing on my expulsion from the Machinist for writing the pamphlet on the Taft Hartley Law that I learned about my immunity from J. Edgar.
It was at a urinal. The guy next to me a lawyer for the International Union said, “listen Schrank they are not going to indict you.” “Really, pray tell how do you know?” Well, you see they don’t want all you know about what went on during the 1944 Presidential Election Campaign. After all you were on the Democratic National Labor Committee working for Dan Tobin President of the Teamsters. Whatever it is that you know they don’t want to hear about in some Federal Court.” “Really, so that's what this is all about.” So, I thought have I got people I could also blackmail if J. Edgar succeeded in blackmailing me?” I must confess, I don;t know what the urinal talker was talking about.
I continue to wonder what on earth got Clint Eastwood all worked up about J.Edgar's sexual orientation? The real issue her is his paranoid. masterful. evil Henry the 111 kind of control of other peoples lives through blackmail? Now there’s a story that needs to be told in defense of individual rights. Clint Eastwood where are you?
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Occupiers Remembered
Oh, I know once again I’m about to become a pain in your butt. Yes, this is about the Occupy Wall Street, O.W.S. now referred to as a “movement.” This is part of my own struggle to understand what is going on here. Yes ,I get the rage and anger. I don’t get what OWS is going to do with it. In my organizing days we would fan the flames of the discontent and channel the anger into organizing workers into unions. They did change the face of America.
Remembering some occupy experiences beginning with 1932. I was 15. From all corners of the US comes the Bonus Army marching to Washington. 43,000 of them strong. Their demand, the promised WW 1 War Bonuses they never received. They encamp on the Anacostia flats close to the capital. They put up a tent city and were determined to stay until the Congress Agreed to pay the promised bonus. Their tent city is orderly and peaceful. Alas it was not to be. Yes there were efforts in Congress to honor the promise but President Hoover did not think it was fiscally responsible to do so.
Army Chief of Staff, Yupp Douglas MacArthur with the help of Patton led a charge of infantry, Cavalry and tanks against the encampment that they then proceeded to burn to the ground. Defeated the bonus army retreated home. (The Long Island airport, not far from where we live is named after General MacArthur.)
Flint Michigan 1936, The Fisher Body Plant 1. The company G.M., was preparing to move the Plant out of Flint as a way to resist the Unions effort for recognition. The workers inside the Plant quickly realized that once the machine tools were removed from the plant it was goodbye jobs. How to prevent it? Flint Sit-down Strike was born.(A very dear friend, Henry Kraus, long departed wrote a great book about that strike. ”The Many and the Few.”)
The sit down strike went on for 44 days with the Michigan National Guard waiting out side. There was a band of tough women who were determined to to keep the strikers fed. There were lots of provocation to insight violence but the men inside the plant were determined to stay until they won their demands for Union Recognition and the rights that go with it. The sit-downers won and it become the turning point in the long fight to win union recognition at the GM. plants. The U.A.W. would become the most powerful union in the country. Helped change the Country by putting the assembly workers into the "middle class."
Okay, The next one I remember was “The Poor Peoples Campaign December 1968 Washington D.C. organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Council the had been led by Martin luther King. (King was assassinated April 4th in Memphis.) The Council then led by Minister Dr. Ralph Abernathy decided to go ahead with Kings original plan to bring thousands to Washington and camp there until they won their “Economic Bill of Rights.” That would mean equal employment opportunities for all peoples.
Seven to ten thousand people encamped on the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial. It was called Resurrection City. They stayed there for six weeks. They were literally forced out by an incessant rain that never seemed to quit. Knee deep in mud they decided to go home. Needless to say nothing came of the Economic Bill of Rights. I hasten to add the early young Black occupiers of the lunch counters changed America. Like the Auto workers they also were inside.
This of course brings me to, “Occupy Wall Street.” Yes, of course I am fully supportive of the “Movement.” It is now being called a “movement.” Well I’m not sure of that either. A movement need some clear definition or goals or both. ie, the Civil Rights movement, the Labor movement, the Feminist movement. All had very specific objectives. I know, i’ve been told that this is a knew way to bring people together without creating an organization that ultimately leads to leaders, bureaucracies and the end of participatory democracy. Maybe so. On the other hand I don’t know how the “movement” makes known exactly what it wants to do to change how wealth becomes distributed so the 99 percent can be part of the economic benefits?
Looking back at the experiences of the occupiers. I would suggest that comes this long hard winter somehow the OWS movement will need to define why these wonderful brave people are freezing their butts off for exactly what? In the case of the Flint Sit-ins they had very clear objectives and they were inside a building. Yes, the heat was turned off. Still easier to deal with the weather than on the street. Same was true of the lunch counter occupiers. Look I want the OWS to succeed and I don’t understand the reluctance to say clearly what is wanted. Yes I get clear inference from we are the 99 percent. Okay then what? If I were out there with those brave folks I would love to make this same argument. And I’d love to hear the response.
Remembering some occupy experiences beginning with 1932. I was 15. From all corners of the US comes the Bonus Army marching to Washington. 43,000 of them strong. Their demand, the promised WW 1 War Bonuses they never received. They encamp on the Anacostia flats close to the capital. They put up a tent city and were determined to stay until the Congress Agreed to pay the promised bonus. Their tent city is orderly and peaceful. Alas it was not to be. Yes there were efforts in Congress to honor the promise but President Hoover did not think it was fiscally responsible to do so.
Army Chief of Staff, Yupp Douglas MacArthur with the help of Patton led a charge of infantry, Cavalry and tanks against the encampment that they then proceeded to burn to the ground. Defeated the bonus army retreated home. (The Long Island airport, not far from where we live is named after General MacArthur.)
Flint Michigan 1936, The Fisher Body Plant 1. The company G.M., was preparing to move the Plant out of Flint as a way to resist the Unions effort for recognition. The workers inside the Plant quickly realized that once the machine tools were removed from the plant it was goodbye jobs. How to prevent it? Flint Sit-down Strike was born.(A very dear friend, Henry Kraus, long departed wrote a great book about that strike. ”The Many and the Few.”)
The sit down strike went on for 44 days with the Michigan National Guard waiting out side. There was a band of tough women who were determined to to keep the strikers fed. There were lots of provocation to insight violence but the men inside the plant were determined to stay until they won their demands for Union Recognition and the rights that go with it. The sit-downers won and it become the turning point in the long fight to win union recognition at the GM. plants. The U.A.W. would become the most powerful union in the country. Helped change the Country by putting the assembly workers into the "middle class."
Okay, The next one I remember was “The Poor Peoples Campaign December 1968 Washington D.C. organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Council the had been led by Martin luther King. (King was assassinated April 4th in Memphis.) The Council then led by Minister Dr. Ralph Abernathy decided to go ahead with Kings original plan to bring thousands to Washington and camp there until they won their “Economic Bill of Rights.” That would mean equal employment opportunities for all peoples.
Seven to ten thousand people encamped on the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial. It was called Resurrection City. They stayed there for six weeks. They were literally forced out by an incessant rain that never seemed to quit. Knee deep in mud they decided to go home. Needless to say nothing came of the Economic Bill of Rights. I hasten to add the early young Black occupiers of the lunch counters changed America. Like the Auto workers they also were inside.
This of course brings me to, “Occupy Wall Street.” Yes, of course I am fully supportive of the “Movement.” It is now being called a “movement.” Well I’m not sure of that either. A movement need some clear definition or goals or both. ie, the Civil Rights movement, the Labor movement, the Feminist movement. All had very specific objectives. I know, i’ve been told that this is a knew way to bring people together without creating an organization that ultimately leads to leaders, bureaucracies and the end of participatory democracy. Maybe so. On the other hand I don’t know how the “movement” makes known exactly what it wants to do to change how wealth becomes distributed so the 99 percent can be part of the economic benefits?
Looking back at the experiences of the occupiers. I would suggest that comes this long hard winter somehow the OWS movement will need to define why these wonderful brave people are freezing their butts off for exactly what? In the case of the Flint Sit-ins they had very clear objectives and they were inside a building. Yes, the heat was turned off. Still easier to deal with the weather than on the street. Same was true of the lunch counter occupiers. Look I want the OWS to succeed and I don’t understand the reluctance to say clearly what is wanted. Yes I get clear inference from we are the 99 percent. Okay then what? If I were out there with those brave folks I would love to make this same argument. And I’d love to hear the response.
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