tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80305622942061126252024-03-06T12:02:57.787-08:00Labor SouthThis blog puts a spotlight on the working class in the U.S. South, always in context with what is going on nationally and internationally in the Global South as well. This blog provides a historical and cultural--including music, literature, film, and art--perspective about the region with a special focus on the long, hard, and often bloody struggle Southern workers have always had in asserting their rights, particularly whenever they tried to organize.Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.comBlogger432125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-65925503204608559252024-03-01T12:32:00.000-08:002024-03-01T12:38:38.599-08:00Organizing the South--Building success by learning from the victories of the 1930s and the failures of Operation Dixie in the late 1940s and early 1950s<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1KWgLWmEupEkO8hbDjzcB7MLaX-l5lkjjaeGuN-ojIl1wRWledhw1_dVA2hcqG_ngcaY4ro8Pl2J7t_iSPjYBLbF1xrjlSDV79uIekq6tl2FcohiUX00IQTXCahB9plmzcV7sybCZ12pUc2I3LJZU9OuxliObmG3IN-VMgDbxb8Oja5YuaXWtWct46SM/s4356/Sidney_Hillman,_circa_1940.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4356" data-original-width="3498" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1KWgLWmEupEkO8hbDjzcB7MLaX-l5lkjjaeGuN-ojIl1wRWledhw1_dVA2hcqG_ngcaY4ro8Pl2J7t_iSPjYBLbF1xrjlSDV79uIekq6tl2FcohiUX00IQTXCahB9plmzcV7sybCZ12pUc2I3LJZU9OuxliObmG3IN-VMgDbxb8Oja5YuaXWtWct46SM/s320/Sidney_Hillman,_circa_1940.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>(Sidney Hillman)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">At the beginning of the Congress of Industrial Organizations’
“Operation Dixie” campaign to organize the U.S. South in 1946, Sidney Hillman,
the leader of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, called the South “a venture
into unplowed fields.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nearly 80 years later, organized labor has vowed finally to
plow those fields and plant seeds that will ultimately help build a new labor
movement across the nation.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Take heart, learn the lessons and apply them to your
situation, and thing big,” former UE (United Electrical, Radio & Machine
Workers of America) Director of Organizing Ed Bruno told participants from
across the South in a Southern Workers Assembly online discussion Thursday,
February 29. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Indeed, the United Auto Workers, fresh off its Stand Up
Strike victories with General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis in 2023, has pledged
$40 million to organize non-union auto plants, with a focus on the South.
Results are already coming in. This month workers at both the Volkswagen plant
in Chattanooga, Tennesee, and the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama (that
German company’s largest U.S. plant) announced majority support for unionizing.
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">They’re among some 10,000 non-union autoworkers signing
union cards at 14 plants across the country.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After failed unionizing efforts at the Nissan plants in
Mississippi and Tennessee and the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga in recent
years, many wondered if the South would ever shake off its longheld distinction
as the least-unionized region in the country, whether its “unplowed fields”
will ever grow rich with a true harvest of its underpaid, overworked laborers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After what has been dubbed “The Year of the Strike” in 2023
with UAW victories at the Big Three, nationwide organizing at Starbucks cafes
(Starbucks has finally agreed to stop opposing unionization), in hospitals and
on college campuses across the land, workers have a new confidence. The
pandemic and record corporate profits also helped create a new worker
consciousness, and polls show public support for unions at its highest level
since the 1960s.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We’ve learned that
we can’t trust Mercedes with our best interests,” Mercedes-Benz workers in
Vance, Alabama, said in their announcement of majority union support this
month. Citing the company’s “record profits”, widespread use and abuse of
temporary workers, and imposition of a two-tier pay scale, the announcement
continued, “There comes a time when enough is enough. Now is that time.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At the Southern Workers Assembly Zoom session this week,
Bruno and Jim Wrenn, a founding member of UE Local 150 at the Cummins Diesel
Engine Plant in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, talked at length about the reasons
behind the widely acknowledged failure of Operation Dixie between 1946 and
1953. The exploitation of divisions between black and white workers, the rank
anti-communist demagoguery of the era, and inability of organizers to network
campaigns at different plants in the region and work in solidarity rather than
individually were all factors in the campaign never reaching its goals.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bruno contrasted Operation Dixie with the massive pro-union
surge in the mid-1930s that gave rise to the UAW and other unions, a high point
in the history of organized labor in this country.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Five factors were key to the success of the 1930s labor
movement, Bruno said:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>A committed cadre of organizers who were few in
number but young and energized and who networked with other organizers. They
were “not isolated.”</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>A militant minority who “were fed up and ready
to do something.”</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>A high degree of class politics with pro-labor
President Franklin D. Roosevelt leading the nation and powerful pro-labor
forces in Congress and beyond.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>New rights as a result of the Wagner Act of 1935
and other legislation backing workers.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>The development of a “national voice” by strong
labor leaders like John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Workers today need to learn the lessons from successes and
failures in the past, to work in solidarity with other workers who are
struggling, to network, and build “corporate campaigns” that drive home their
issues and demands to corporate headquarters, not just to local management,
Bruno said.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidHQja8Y01SVAsnxFLUcUYEB2WItnoYD6ckuF9RApRr5U5JSZonFt5z6K3mcR3KsT739UYdxxILxKsjDZtKba5Js_5hfF57f4_zTYdH2SbykwW0756ocq0m2vlW8NepP80zqeOa-nHWLeEczEUIiBLH7T_t072v2_pimqv2LtLk902KM_ACv5KpIHcLm0/s6300/murray-philip.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5453" data-original-width="6300" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidHQja8Y01SVAsnxFLUcUYEB2WItnoYD6ckuF9RApRr5U5JSZonFt5z6K3mcR3KsT739UYdxxILxKsjDZtKba5Js_5hfF57f4_zTYdH2SbykwW0756ocq0m2vlW8NepP80zqeOa-nHWLeEczEUIiBLH7T_t072v2_pimqv2LtLk902KM_ACv5KpIHcLm0/s320/murray-philip.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(Philip Murray)<br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 1946, CIO president Philip Murray called Operation Dixie
“the most important drive of its kind ever undertaken by any labor organization
in the history of the country.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The new organizing campaign in the South in 2024 doesn’t
have a name yet, but Murray’s words may very well still apply.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}ol
{margin-bottom:0in;}ul
{margin-bottom:0in;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-17707398693595904392024-01-29T12:52:00.000-08:002024-01-29T12:52:52.133-08:00"War is a bad thing," young Hanh of Vietnam said in 1971, that is, unless today you're a neocon warmonger, struggling politician, or corporate member of the military-industrial complex<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyO9w1J8L8w5veBEKvkv_966JrAvfGOxoAsvme6v7NZUAfK_Q6lFh3AH3konm26tuSYT8HjXVxnYQ1O8xT8szWuQQncI1KC-BrmQ50dIjmbOhS91XrfF0HLthfR2bFX_ubg6Y-TVlZPD8x7QCGM5L8tyugBcfp7eOssedYlh3N9TRDb0R2qxbCaCqf8hE/s2613/VN%20Plantation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2613" data-original-width="2561" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyO9w1J8L8w5veBEKvkv_966JrAvfGOxoAsvme6v7NZUAfK_Q6lFh3AH3konm26tuSYT8HjXVxnYQ1O8xT8szWuQQncI1KC-BrmQ50dIjmbOhS91XrfF0HLthfR2bFX_ubg6Y-TVlZPD8x7QCGM5L8tyugBcfp7eOssedYlh3N9TRDb0R2qxbCaCqf8hE/s320/VN%20Plantation.jpg" width="314" /></a></div>(U.S. soldiers and hooch maids near hooches in Plantation, Vietnam, around 1971) <br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">The year was around 1971, and my Vietnamese girlfriend Hanh
and I were talking in my hooch on the U.S. Army base at Plantation near Long
Binh, Vietnam. A hooch maid, she was<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>beautiful, maybe 18, and I was 22. Our relationship was just getting
started, but something real was there and we both felt it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then came this explosion somewhere in the distance. A bomb? We
kept talking. No big deal. Then came another, this one closer, and finally a
third explosion, this time closer still and loud and scary. Hanh looked at me,
eyes full of experience way beyond 18 years.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“War is a bad thing,” she said in her broken English. I
nodded as we got up and joined everyone else outside their hooches to see what
was going on. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">No more explosions came, thankfully, and no Army alerts were
issued, so everyone went back to their lives, even if a little rattled. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a few months, my tour was up and I’d leave
Hanh with tears in her eyes and my heart heavy and no longer sure I was ready
to go back to the “world” even though that’s what every soldier dreamed about
day and night.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“We’ll see each other again,” I told her. “No,” she said,
again much wiser than me, “we never see each other again.” She was right.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">War has been on my mind a lot lately. It should be on
everyone’s mind with wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, and all the
saber-rattling from our own political and military leaders toward Russia,
China, Iran, Yemen, North Korea, or any other nation that might want to join
the newly reconstructed “axis of evil”. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">War was the topic of my recent discussion with host Nima
Rostami Alkhorshid on his international podcast <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dialogue Works</i>. It was my fourth appearance on his show, and war
has dominated every discussion.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even as we spoke, Israel continued its brutal bombing of the
Gaza Strip, an ethnic cleansing launched after Hamas’ bloody October 7 terrorist
attack in Israel. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed tens of thousands, including
thousands of children, injured more than 60,000, and displaced nearly two
million, with more than 60 percent of Gaza homes destroyed or damaged, and it
has sowed the seeds of hatred and revenge for generations to come.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">President Joe Biden, the number one beneficiary in
Washington, D.C., of the largesse of the Israeli lobby over his long
career—some $4.3 million in the past three decades, early on pledged total
support to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloody campaign. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In a presidential election year with polls showing a
dramatic loss of support among Arab-Moslem voters and the crucial youth vote,
the president has since urged Israel to ease up on civilian bombing—pretty
please!—but his administration continues to send Israel weapons and has blocked
UN efforts to demand a cease-fire. Now the military conflagration has spread to
the Red Sea with the Houthi rebel group attacking cargo and other ships doing
business with Israel, and the U.S. responding with bombing attacks on suspected
Houthi bases in Yemen. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon has
spilled across that border as Israeli settlers continue violent attacks on
Palestinians in the West Bank. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">An attack this week on a U.S. base in Jordan killing three
U.S. soldier and wounding dozens of others has ratcheted up the danger of a
major regional war that brings in the U.S. and that perennial enemy of the
neoconservative hawks in Biden’s administration, Iran. Recent Iranian attacks
on suspected terrorist bases in Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan were a signal to the
U.S., according to writer M.K. Bhadrakumar, that it will not tolerate the CIA’s
efforts to help terrorist groups surround and attack Iran.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Of course, the war in Ukraine rages on despite the clear
fact that Russia has won and Ukraine has lost. The recent discovery of a $40
billion corruption case dealing with military weapons in Ukraine is just
another event souring public support for the Ukrainian cause.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then there’s all this unrest in Europe with massive protests
by farmers in Germany and France against the deteriorating economy that the
bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline heralded. Energy costs are up an estimated
18 percent in Europe, putting the pinch not only on farmers but other major
industries as well. Green Party ideologues in Germany and their fellow
travelers in France want farmers—and, well, everyone—to get off coal, gas, oil,
and nuclear dependency, and get those wind turbines turning! Suffer today in
order to save the world tomorrow!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My key points to Nima on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dialogue
Works</i> this past week were several:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Politicians, not the military, are really
running these wars in Ukraine and in Gaza. Netanyahu’s approval ratings in
Israel are even lower than Biden’s in the United States. Both fear not only
loss of power but also the future possibility of jail. U.S. House impeachment
proceedings against Biden are proceeding, and Netanyahu has long faced a day of
reckoning over corruption allegations. Biden can’t allow a defeat in Ukraine
before election day in November. So Ukrainians have to keep dying until then.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Unhinged capitalism is destroying the United
States with the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about now
determining nearly all of U.S. foreign policy. Biden has signed off on $886 billion
in defense spending for 2024. That’s “b” as in billion, or, in other words, nearly
a trillion!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>The eastward expansion of NATO began under the
Clinton Administration in the 1990s, continuing the long history of broken U.S.
promises that date back at least as far as all those broken treaties with
American Indians in the 1800s. Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary essentially
destroyed the modern-day Democratic Party, making it as war-like and Wall
Street-ruled as the Republican Party. No longer is it the party that helped
champion the rise of the American Labor Movement in the 1930s and support the
Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Why do we still listen to neocons and other
warmongers after the utter failures they created in Vietnam, Libya, Iraq, and
Afghanistan, wars that left ruin and devastation in their paths and served no
purpose other than to further enrich corporate giants like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin,
and BlackRock? How are wars with Russia, Iran, and/or China going to end any
differently? I’ll answer that last one—those wars, if they happen, will end in
the nuclear destruction of us all.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All these years later, I still think occasionally about Hanh
and wonder how she fared after all the Americans left and the Communists took
over. Did working on a U.S. Army base result in her going to one of those
re-education camps, or worse? I want to think of her in Vietnam today living a
good life with family and friends. Even so, I’ll bet she would still say as she
did so many years ago, “War is a bad thing.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"Courier New";
panose-1:2 7 3 9 2 2 5 2 4 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073711037 9 0 511 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Wingdings;
panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:2;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}ol
{margin-bottom:0in;}ul
{margin-bottom:0in;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-19633224038240523522024-01-09T10:57:00.000-08:002024-01-11T10:43:48.960-08:00Bringing to light injustice within the nation's justice system--Theatre Oxford's tales of former death row inmates whose innocence finally won them freedom<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmQ4S59VOX5jMCTFEAjJ8JGh9CHeCE4HpGnYSTtqMd_8je9YRD6LAequAWQYZMQdbBGeSqHn7oqZftPDEKe_WLuRnJ9N8v9t_RyN0sa7A7iba8fOHZ45C3QMkPazpKYvADMzkoIFjoR8TtZb4uXBTnn6HH3yaOmIkeNop4XYIqT6zNifMVWL1plGStdqg/s1280/Photo%204%20-%20Exonerated-Cast.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="994" data-original-width="1280" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmQ4S59VOX5jMCTFEAjJ8JGh9CHeCE4HpGnYSTtqMd_8je9YRD6LAequAWQYZMQdbBGeSqHn7oqZftPDEKe_WLuRnJ9N8v9t_RyN0sa7A7iba8fOHZ45C3QMkPazpKYvADMzkoIFjoR8TtZb4uXBTnn6HH3yaOmIkeNop4XYIqT6zNifMVWL1plGStdqg/s320/Photo%204%20-%20Exonerated-Cast.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(Felipe Esteban Macias directing the cast of <i>The Exonerated </i>during a rehearsal)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">OXFORD, Miss. - The stories told in the play <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Exonerated</i> are testaments to resilience and faith but also the
post-traumatic stress that having lived in the shadow of death can bring,
particularly when you are innocent of the crimes that put you on prison’s death
row.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sunny, 50, a mother of two, was in the wrong place at the
wrong time and ended up on Death Row. Gary, a 45-year-old hippie, was so
“brainwashed” by police interrogators that he falsely confessed to murdering
his own parents. Sixty-year-old Delbert Tibbs got convicted of murder because
he happened to be black and near the small Florida town where a man was killed
and young woman raped.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“A bunch of cops surround us, and I’m trying to explain that
we were kidnapped, but they just wouldn’t listen,” Sunny said about the
aftermath of her fateful ride with a armed man who had forced her and her
children into a car after killing two cops.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Gary’s troubles accelerated after he got to the police
station. “They wouldn’t let me sleep, wouldn’t let me lie down,” he said. “I
was emotionally distraught. I was physically exhausted. I was confused. … They
started making me think I had a blackout and actually done it.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Delbert Tibbs, an old soul from Chicago, seminary dropout, military
veteran, and radical poet, had to learn how to cope with being an innocent man
on death row. “This is not the place for thought that does not end in
concreteness,” Tibbs tells us. “It is dangerous to dwell too much on things. To
wonder who or why or when, to wonder how, is dangerous. How do we, the people,
get outta this hole, what’s the way to fight?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">These true stories were among the half-dozen told in Theatre
Oxford’s January 6 production of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Exonerated</i> at the Powerhouse Arts Center in Oxford, Mississippi. A discussion
on the legal and other issues raised by the play was led by <span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Tucker Carrington, the founding
director of the Mississippi Innocence Project, at the Powerhouse after the Saturday
matinee. Serving as moderator was Melissa Gwin Pedron.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Authored by Jessica Blank and Erik Jenson, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Exonerated</i> shares stories that range
from racially motivated arrests and false confessions to tales of guilt by
association. Directing the Theatre Oxford production was theatre veteran Felipe
Esteban Macias. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“We have six wonderful stories wrapped up in one play,”
Macias said about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Exonerated</i>. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Taken from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files, and
public records, the stories offer sobering insights into the nation’s criminal
justice system and capital punishment. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Exonerated</i> won the 2003 Drama Desk and Outer Critic’s Awards and also
received the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Champion of
Justice Award.<span class="normaltextrun"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Theatre
Oxford’s January 6 production of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Exonerator</i> was timely considering the current case in Mississippi of death
row inmate Willie Jerome Manning, whose attorneys are seeking a dismissal of
state Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s efforts to establish an execution date for
Manning. The attorneys argue that new evidence challenges the convictions of Manning,
on death row since 1994, for the murders of two Mississippi State University
students. Theatre Oxford does not have a position on this case.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpZsfI-OGSWiOq4E75iyobsLX9YvFiOL0nmx8htZHkONZlKJltu3Us4aCfBWtDjsZ4WqqObCGREcxX7RSOj5pZ7NfRiyxK5S3V_9FlF0qsDAOVOpnC6uqO-_s-RCwVDkS-sh03bWpSOiEUAMum31h-V6nBB4jiVX4gYa6GzhSLpNbRh0QBWCcRJz-851o/s349/Parchman_prison_convict_labor_1911.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="349" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpZsfI-OGSWiOq4E75iyobsLX9YvFiOL0nmx8htZHkONZlKJltu3Us4aCfBWtDjsZ4WqqObCGREcxX7RSOj5pZ7NfRiyxK5S3V_9FlF0qsDAOVOpnC6uqO-_s-RCwVDkS-sh03bWpSOiEUAMum31h-V6nBB4jiVX4gYa6GzhSLpNbRh0QBWCcRJz-851o/s320/Parchman_prison_convict_labor_1911.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>(To the right, convict labor at Mississippi's notorious Parchman prison in 1911) <br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> <br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">The
production was also fitting considering the sordid history of prisons and jails
in Mississippi, the U.S. South, and across the nation as a whole. Mississippi
typically rivals Louisiana, Oklahoma, and other states for high incarceration
rates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since 2006, 14 Mississippians
have died in local jail houses while they awaited mental health treatment. Nine
of them committed suicide. Twelve had not been charged with any crime. They
were in jail because local and state governments have not funded sufficient
mental health facilities.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">The
Mississippi Supreme Court ruled unanimously in April to end the so-called “dead
zone” at jails across the state that allowed some inmates to stay up to years
in jail without even being indicted for a crime or having a lawyer to defend
them.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Convict
leasing got its start in Mississippi in 1868 when cotton and railroad magnate
Edmund Richardson needed cheap labor to offset the loss of slave labor on his
25,000 acres of cotton after the Civil War. Within 14 years, nearly one out of
every five Mississippi’s leased convicts died from overwork or related causes.
By 1906 even Mississippi’s notoriously racist governor James K. Vardaman was so
incensed he said the system rivaled “in brutality and fiendishness the
atrocities of … Torquemada.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Private
prisons today in Mississippi and elsewhere are the equivalent of convict
leasing in that incarceration serves a profit motive. Both are abominable
injustices within the so-called justice system. Conditions in private prisons,
often owned by private-equity firms, can and do sink quickly as operators look
for ways to cut costs and increase profits.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">“Private
or public, the places where people are warehoused for their crimes are back to
being the kind of hellholes they were before the federal government intervened
in the 1970s and told Mississippi it had to do better than this,” editorialized
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Greenwood Commonwealth</i> in
Greenwood, Mississippi, back in August 2019.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">The
nation has a whole isn’t much better. Immigration by the undocumented has
proven a goldmine for private prisons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Guantanamo has become a symbol for a nation that has been called the
world’s largest modern-day gulag with more people behind bars than any other
nation in the world, including Russia and China.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">The
production of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Exonerated</i>,
re-scheduled to January 6 after a cast illness prevented production on its
original September 8 and 9 dates, was made possible by the support of Frye |
Reeves Attorneys at Law, the Mississippi Arts Commission, and Yoknapatawpha
Arts Council.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="normaltextrun"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">The Exonerated</span></i></span><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> provided a stark reminder of
how theatre and all art can bring to light injustice in our world and give
voice to the voiceless.</span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}span.normaltextrun
{mso-style-name:normaltextrun;
mso-style-unhide:no;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-48332653543101352192023-12-06T09:32:00.000-08:002023-12-06T14:25:31.319-08:002023's "Kaisers, kings & czars", as Carl Sandburg called them, brought war and destruction, but the year also brought union solidarity on the labor battlefield<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_-swBtwCGv_EFiEyiXm_LIgBbJOhU1cCwzinA027o5lRX1tXOj_vnhtsnCaHls3vzlb86W0syvPCTeLOikfsA8f6HVajadoviDHWb8z8QWBJKsrLax4FpKctG_STPntQVBn7ZUr6mnjrZTtagYWu3YKYT-5aHCKkYxKQ14ER3DpKw3aLsGeyKz6PaZwM/s2731/Carl_Sandburg_NYWTS.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2731" data-original-width="2195" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_-swBtwCGv_EFiEyiXm_LIgBbJOhU1cCwzinA027o5lRX1tXOj_vnhtsnCaHls3vzlb86W0syvPCTeLOikfsA8f6HVajadoviDHWb8z8QWBJKsrLax4FpKctG_STPntQVBn7ZUr6mnjrZTtagYWu3YKYT-5aHCKkYxKQ14ER3DpKw3aLsGeyKz6PaZwM/s320/Carl_Sandburg_NYWTS.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>(Carl Sandburg)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">A little more than a century ago the poet Carl Sandburg,
young and radical at that time, had this to say about the world situation:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“And what scientist or clairvoyant can go farther and tell
us</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">when the working class of the world</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">will kick all Kaisers, kings & czars</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">out of the palaces?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The famed poet and Lincoln biographer could be speaking
about modern times when the Kaisers, kings, and czars occupy corporate
boardrooms as well as government palaces. As 2023 draws to a close, war rages
on in Ukraine, Israel is ethnically cleansing the Gaza Strip of Palestinians,
lunacy reigns in Argentina with the election of Javier Milei as president, and
Americans face the prospect of choosing between a brain-fuddled warmonger and a
loudmouth, potentially convicted felon for president in 2024. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The stink of the world’s injustice and the world’s
indifference is all around us,” Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day once
wrote. “The world has lost a sense of sin. Not personal sin, but social sin.”</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEBnR7ithGnRwm8FbnFVpXY98SalGJ0PozPblY7SmuaOeR6k-YXJcDyRCk_MABajjWwVEQC04JVhxdm1GhU04OR9t74E_pnGsubYB3f62CI89Mxl7fWMIKn40k4prc2e4tW9-sm9FdKGY64T8tj8gCkrhIV_ZGSfRWyRITYFYz3bLciHEI2WNj8ha4y7w/s137/Dorothy_Day_1934.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="137" data-original-width="109" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEBnR7ithGnRwm8FbnFVpXY98SalGJ0PozPblY7SmuaOeR6k-YXJcDyRCk_MABajjWwVEQC04JVhxdm1GhU04OR9t74E_pnGsubYB3f62CI89Mxl7fWMIKn40k4prc2e4tW9-sm9FdKGY64T8tj8gCkrhIV_ZGSfRWyRITYFYz3bLciHEI2WNj8ha4y7w/s1600/Dorothy_Day_1934.jpg" width="109" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, Dorothy Day)<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yet there’s good news from 2023, too. Major strikes by the
United Auto Workers (UAW), the Writers Guild of America (WGA), and the Screen
Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)
resulted in major agreements that may be less than ideal but which proved the
power of worker solidarity and which, in the case of the UAW, promised to
reverse the trend of union concession after concession to Big Industry.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Workers at Starbucks cafes across the country staged a “Red
Cup Rebellion” in November, a major walkout on the union-busting company’s
annual Red Cup Day to protest working conditions and the lack of a contract two
years after they joined a union. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Joe Biden’s claim to become the nation’s most pro-union
president ever rang hollow in late 2022 when he sided with the railroad
companies and forced workers to accept a contract that did little to end their
servitude to profit-obsessed executives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2023 he tried to repair the damage to his
image by publicly declaring solidarity with the UAW in its strike against major
automakers Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. He actually appeared on the
picket line with workers. Still wondering if this was mainly a photo-op.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nothing can window dress Joe Biden as the world’s leading
warmonger, however. He and the warlords in his administration knowingly pushed
Russia into its invasion of Ukraine, breaking promise after promise, creating a
border threat to Russia that the United States itself would never tolerate. Today
Ukraine is in ruins with a large portion of an entire generation of men dead on
the battlefield or suffering lifelong injuries. And for what? The same greed
and desperation to hold on to world hegemony that left Iraq, Libya, and
Afghanistan in ruins.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Given the excuse of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israeli
citizens, Israel’s own chief warmonger, Benjamin Netanyahu, unleashed his
long-wanted war of destruction on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, bombing
hospitals, killing women, children, and old men indiscriminately. Meanwhile
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in the West Bank while the Israeli
military looked the other way. What Netanyahu has done is sow the seeds of hate
and rebellion for generations to come. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And what did Joe Biden do? Stand by his friend Bibi and
pledge undying support. Back in Washington, Under Secretary of State Victoria
Nulend and other bloodthirsty neo-cons in Biden’s administration are drooling
at the prospect that all this will finally lead to a war with Iran.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Facing potential war on three fronts, Biden tried to offer a
fig leaf to China, inviting Chinese leader Xi Jinping to San Francisco. I can
imagine Biden’s words: “Forget all the saber-rattling earlier, Xi, those
promises to defend Taiwan if you attacked. Sure, you’re a dictator, but let’s
be at least friendly until we resolve this Ukraine thing and this Gaza Strip
thing.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Biden’s behavior in this Middle East crisis has cost him
much-needed re-election support in the Arab and Muslim community in the United
States. All the indictments his Justice Department and local prosecutors have
hurled at Donald Trump have done little to dampen support for the former
president. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What is likely is that many Americans will stay home on
election day next November, and that’s not good for Joe Biden.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Looking to the deep south of the continent below, many are
scratching their heads at the election of the Trump-like Javier Milei as president
of Argentina, a nation this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Labor South</i>
blog has long watched with interest.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s not so hard to understand. Argentines are deeply frustrated
at the failure of successive administrations to end out-of-control inflation
and wrest their nation from the deadly grip of the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank, the giant loans that become impossible to pay back, the
austerity measures demanded by these neoliberal institutions that gut government programs serving the working class and poor. This frustration led to a shot
in the dark, one that is sadly bound to make their lives even worse.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Milei promises to make the U.S. dollar Argentina’s currency,
to privatize a wide swath of government services, to break relations with China
and other important trading partners. In other words, he’s doing the will of
the neoliberals and neoconservatives—I truly don’t know the difference any
more—back in Washington, D.C., New York, and European capitals whose
behind-the-scenes efforts likely helped propel his ascendancy.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCOX9gOI9dgEMemxcigVMNqIbrXADeiqIY_UQ6Bc58CX-GyOaqxI9zC_C-4ag0YFZ8NwdZaxzKIVcN4V3po2PNiEjwpIaECt76iYcstxA0jz897xCeDKvEXR1flDiiff0_lS8yJaZwVVrspnnQ7ynZcG0fhRcg463Up33n9IeAWHJR6-qR7yQuoZKD2XQ/s3264/CSandburg's%20office.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCOX9gOI9dgEMemxcigVMNqIbrXADeiqIY_UQ6Bc58CX-GyOaqxI9zC_C-4ag0YFZ8NwdZaxzKIVcN4V3po2PNiEjwpIaECt76iYcstxA0jz897xCeDKvEXR1flDiiff0_lS8yJaZwVVrspnnQ7ynZcG0fhRcg463Up33n9IeAWHJR6-qR7yQuoZKD2XQ/s320/CSandburg's%20office.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">(Carl Sandburg's office in his later years in Flat Rock, North Carolina)<br /> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Poor old Carl Sandburg. Few in the United States listened to
his harangue against the “Kaisers, kings & czars.” He saw his nation plunge
into war and economic Depression as Wall Street ruled while Kaisers, kings and
czars fell elsewhere in the world. World War I ended and a decade later the
working class gained power under a friendly president, but soon enough Kaisers
and kings re-emerged and so did war. By that time, however, the poet was
completing his highly praised biography of Abraham Lincoln, a leader who saw
and hated the savagery of war and was determined to keep it from destroying his
nation.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-64295871690673734812023-11-09T11:41:00.004-08:002023-11-11T11:10:15.863-08:00A call for values, dialogue, and compromise from Norwegian peace advocate Henrik Syse when all so many political leaders seem to want it is war <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih8cEMdPnQfsDBFGOU0JP0z4tGEIvY_USkeT-KLhCao7IgsBaJ-XZ9wDW3u4pi9BUDWr7jb1MT7t3Aaugn4rINdOkTerg6iILtdW4j8T0it5HaZsg8782sFd7E_IMMFilrOW42w8jyJihAxbaSY1Y71J3c65w7_8oICM0LLelpeGdiH3EYN177sMnvRZc/s1919/Henrik%20Syse.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1919" data-original-width="1095" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih8cEMdPnQfsDBFGOU0JP0z4tGEIvY_USkeT-KLhCao7IgsBaJ-XZ9wDW3u4pi9BUDWr7jb1MT7t3Aaugn4rINdOkTerg6iILtdW4j8T0it5HaZsg8782sFd7E_IMMFilrOW42w8jyJihAxbaSY1Y71J3c65w7_8oICM0LLelpeGdiH3EYN177sMnvRZc/s320/Henrik%20Syse.JPG" width="183" /></a></div>(To the right, Henrik Syse)<br /><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Norwegian philosopher, peace advocate, and former vice chair
of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Henrik Syse smiled and quipped jokes with his
audience at the University of Mississippi this week, but his subsequent lecture
proved somber.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“We live in a time of very serious challenges to peace,” he
said. “We are living in a time of crisis, of great polarization.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Recalling the horrific wars of the 20<sup>th</sup> century
and the brutal regimes of Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union, he asked
the question: “What stands between us and that nightmare scenario?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">His answer was values, dialogue, compromise, diplomacy. “We
have certain values that we need to protect.” Then, “the mystery of dialogue.
Look at Plato’s dialogues. In conversation, you have to pay attention to
others.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Giving respect to the human dignity of the other is key.
“The mystery of the other person. If you know them, you don’t want to destroy
them.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Words of wisdom at a time when the world seems teetering
toward what the old 1960s ballad sung by Barry McGuire and written by P.F.
Sloan called the “Eve of Destruction”.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ away</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A murderous attack by the Hamas terrorist group on Israeli
citizens followed by what appears to be the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip by Israeli armed forces, the bloody proxy war between USA-led NATO
and Russia on the increasingly scorched earth of Ukraine, the dangerous
saber-rattling by both Democrats and Republicans against China and Iran—not
much dialogue, compromise, or diplomacy there.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“You cannot negotiate with evil,” GOP presidential candidate
Tim Scott said during the most recent televised debate with fellow candidates.
Essentially calling for war against Iran, Scott said, “You have to destroy it.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Scott merely echoed what Republican U.S. Senator Lindsay
Graham of South Carolina has been saying. When CNN asked him whether the U.S.
and Israel should “bomb Iran even in the absence of direct evidence of their
involvement” in the Hamas attack, Graham said, “Yeah.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Syse’s answer? “Compromise is not a four-letter word. Most
people are not evil. (Former Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev and (former U.S.
President Ronald) Reagan saw you have to build bridges. They spoke with each
other and publicly praised each other. … We must try to sit at the same table.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Paraphrasing Pope Francis, Syse said, “One doesn’t come out
of a crisis the same as one was before. We’re either better or worse.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yet look at the first point Syse made: the necessity of
protecting values. According to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New
York Times</i>, abortion has become the major issue of the modern-day
Democratic Party and was a key reason for victories in this week’s elections.
What about the values of the Democratic Party of Franklin D. Roosevelt:
workers’ rights, limits on unhinged capitalism, the positive role that government
can play in people’s lives, help for the desperate and needy?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Today, Democratic President Joe Biden is a warmonger who
ended the war in Afghanistan only to launch one in Ukraine, albeit with only
Ukrainian and Russian lives at stake, no Americans. He and the other warmongers
in his administration are already preparing for possible war against China primarily
to prevent that nation from outdoing the USA as the world’s premier economic
power. Biden gave Israel’s right-wing leader, Benhamin Netanyahu, carte blanche
support when he launched his vengeful attack on not just Hamas but also the
Palestinian people.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Republicans aren’t any better. A few have begun to be critical
of the war in Ukraine, but they march in lockstep support for Israel’s reckless
bombing of Gaza.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQEPDXBD7k1Ik5ppbU2RkPhCIsyICV2QDOVvyexVmdM5x6GAXbzv0f-pk08Gplonc7KNf0bMACqUWFqa_LKQqbNJdmHmoTToGwQFF6y9HSvwRTN6WlPI3V_ibQpYi6sPJ_pdpsLcHUR5db_HT6bmemZNhfVt3inUiPD4pERlcKfvhY8S-R8DyfUNYmMmQ/s1320/Feodor_Chaliapin_signed.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1320" data-original-width="987" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQEPDXBD7k1Ik5ppbU2RkPhCIsyICV2QDOVvyexVmdM5x6GAXbzv0f-pk08Gplonc7KNf0bMACqUWFqa_LKQqbNJdmHmoTToGwQFF6y9HSvwRTN6WlPI3V_ibQpYi6sPJ_pdpsLcHUR5db_HT6bmemZNhfVt3inUiPD4pERlcKfvhY8S-R8DyfUNYmMmQ/s320/Feodor_Chaliapin_signed.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>(Fedor Chaliapin)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">These times are reminiscent of what the great opera singer
Fedor Chaliapin saw when he returned to his native Russia from war-torn Europe.
He sensed that his homeland, caught between the senseless destruction of World
War I and an impending revolution, stood at the brink of something overwhelming
and that it would never be the same afterward.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Chaliapin started to think that what was happening was
nothing other than collective madness,” his biographer, Victor Borovsky, wrote.
“In a world which has visibly run amok, stifling the voice of reason, calls for
new sacrifices and for new victories grew increasingly vociferous.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A major reason was political corruption and the performance
of the media, as is the case today. “The widespread corruption and confusion,
the blaring manifestos, the boastful claims of newspapers too revolting to soil
your hands with, the reports of successes when in reality military debacle was
complete.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And in Chaliapin’s own words: “When war is declared, it is
not the people who want it, but the leaders.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-34244295784959607402023-10-06T11:27:00.035-07:002023-10-11T14:31:32.626-07:00In Navajo land's Monument Valley, where the people look to Father Sun for harmony, something often hard to find on a reservation<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs2Z8rJYbnyKWGn_AOQF7byc-cJaFSCCrV-ksYwYZVGWonP2K6dERIQdIVVNzMRP3EchZuK6nZjkBftWe0JJEi8d0Z2TxtUp9f-YCkBcSCZpiDB3StnRwgyORP0s2CVfIHEIMlpfwmcrJu6wjil3I9Ml7dipLz6dCnEB9uywKo65bi8eqtC8n8RdQhBIY/s4032/Monument%20Valley.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs2Z8rJYbnyKWGn_AOQF7byc-cJaFSCCrV-ksYwYZVGWonP2K6dERIQdIVVNzMRP3EchZuK6nZjkBftWe0JJEi8d0Z2TxtUp9f-YCkBcSCZpiDB3StnRwgyORP0s2CVfIHEIMlpfwmcrJu6wjil3I9Ml7dipLz6dCnEB9uywKo65bi8eqtC8n8RdQhBIY/s320/Monument%20Valley.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />(Monument Valley)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">MONUMENT VALLEY, Navajo Nation, Utah - Navajo guide,
philosopher, mystic, musician Duffy Holiday points to the ground and then stretches
his hands toward the sky as he explains Navajo thinking to the eight
non-Indians standing around his makeshift guide truck.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“We are connected,” he tells them. “At the end of our toes,
we have these swirls, and that is how we are connected to the earth.” Then he
opens the palms of his hands--“See these swirls?”—and reaches toward the sky. “We
are connected to the heavens like that. So when we are standing, we are
standing to the east.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0GEE3ag8fG_0zc5ju4k7mPl5MJxUcFG7n79XP20L6Zk43juoqjiB3REy9zuzNZoeDS07UV3ganWGGsJFnvfILLOLuOc1hV_sn9YjeQC5DB26IERA63WmCJyc1L4PrqcDvNeuaKpdr11_uaphYjzTj8KOOHnTNHEHa7pDWU9Kb6opPrCHLKZteiZR3t1M/s4032/Duffy%20Holiday.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0GEE3ag8fG_0zc5ju4k7mPl5MJxUcFG7n79XP20L6Zk43juoqjiB3REy9zuzNZoeDS07UV3ganWGGsJFnvfILLOLuOc1hV_sn9YjeQC5DB26IERA63WmCJyc1L4PrqcDvNeuaKpdr11_uaphYjzTj8KOOHnTNHEHa7pDWU9Kb6opPrCHLKZteiZR3t1M/s320/Duffy%20Holiday.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />Facing east is important to Navajos. They build their homes
facing east so they can greet the sunrise. For the Navajo, Father Sun
represents universal harmony, something often difficult to find on an American reservation where poverty is widespread and so is U.S. and state government neglect.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, Duffy Holiday) <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">My wife Suzanne and I met Duffy Holiday during a 17-day, 4,400-mile
road trip across the Great American West in September. We traveled from Oxford,
Mississippi, across the Mississippi River and Arkansas into the Great Plains of
Oklahoma and Kansas, stopping in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, at the museum dedicated to
the great Western character actor Ben Johnson, and on to a wedding in Golden,
Colorado, where we also visited Buffalo Bill’s gravesite.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then we traveled through the Arches, the Painted Desert,
Monument Valley, the north rim of the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Grand Canyon, and Zion National Park in Utah and Arizona before stopping
to visit friends in Mesquite, Nevada. Through the Mohave Desert we drove en
route to Los Angeles and Palm Springs. On the road back through Arizona, New
Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma, we took every chance we got to drive Route 66, the
Mother Road of the Joads, Tod and Buz, Jack Kerouac, Bobby Troup, Nat King
Cole, and the Rolling Stones.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The beauty of the Great American West is breathtaking, and
amid the vastness and seeming emptiness of all those mountains, mesas, buttes, bluffs,
plateaus, and deserts you find not only millions of years of earthen history
but a very important history of the these United States as well. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Some of that history is etched in Duffy Holiday’s
sun-darkened face. The grandson of one of the Navajo tribe’s legendary code-talkers
(who developed a secret code of communication during World War II that the
Japanese could not break), he’s a proud man who makes a point to contrast the
Navajo sense of family and community with Western man’s strident individualism.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Also speaking to that history are the small communities that
dot the Navajo Nation—a reservation the size of West Virginia that stretches
across Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
an overall population of 400,000, 160,000 of whom live on the reservation, the
Navajo Nation has 13,500 reservation families who live without electricity—and
thus no lights and no refrigeration--and 17,000 homes have no running water.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiivSF_aVBEhLRsOqQ9ZlSc15jArJULhiUw0M8ZQzZ-R_huoDrsCSz8F3MNveEL7jIeD3BWX88r1sJo5BF17zvkoiJxREH_Fl8-lBwTvOVIFmkZc9C611858dZYBC6uh3NscshBl05NT_zvkpde1k3OqaMkvJnppOqkd2vO4Bknj8tSptYovWgHEof4gRY/s4032/Navaho%20singer.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiivSF_aVBEhLRsOqQ9ZlSc15jArJULhiUw0M8ZQzZ-R_huoDrsCSz8F3MNveEL7jIeD3BWX88r1sJo5BF17zvkoiJxREH_Fl8-lBwTvOVIFmkZc9C611858dZYBC6uh3NscshBl05NT_zvkpde1k3OqaMkvJnppOqkd2vO4Bknj8tSptYovWgHEof4gRY/s320/Navaho%20singer.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>(A Navajo woman singing at a sandstone formation called "The Sun's Eye" in Monument Valley)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">These and other grim statistics, reported by journalist
Elyse Wild in a recent edition of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Navajo-Hopi
Observer</i>, are reminders of centuries-old greed and lack of concern toward
the American Indian. The unemployment rate on the reservation is 50 percent.
Half of all adult Navajos suffers from Type 2 diabetes. Their mortality
rate—fueled by heart disease--is 31 percent higher than that of the rest of the
nation.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With such statistics, of course, come drugs, suicide,
domestic violence, crime, and the other ills that always attach themselves to
poverty.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Lack of electricity exacerbates disparities that have long
had a foothold in Indian Country,” Wild writes, “driven by a federal legacy of
forced removal and assimilation, the U.S. government’s neglect of treaty
agreements, and systemic apathy for Native Americans living on reservations.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The sordid trail of broken agreements with American Indians
by the U.S. government is a shameful national legacy that continues today in
our nation’s foreign relations—witness the empty boasts of protecting democracy
as the CIA supported dictatorial coups in Latin America, the broken promises to
Russia not to expand NATO eastward that led to the current war in Ukraine.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Navajos are resilient, however, a point of pride
for Duffy Holiday and his people. “In Navajo, we have this kinship,” Navajo
Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) official Deenise Becenti told Wild. “We are
related to one another through these clan systems. A lot of people I am related
to and people that I know don’t have electricity. That is part of what keeps me
here.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A four-year-old “Light Up Navajo” program has brought
electricity to 662 families thus far, including 159 just this past summer.
Light Up Navajo is a joint operation between the NTUA and a coalition of
nonprofit, community-owned utilities called the American Public Power
Association. Electrical workers from across the country volunteer to travel to
Navajo Nation to help build lines that can finally bring electricity and refrigeration
to families on the reservation. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed through the Rural
Electrification Act of 1936 to help the poor in regions such as Appalachia, it
excluded Indian tribes. Even today, political resistance to Navaho pleas for
such basics as water rights can be fierce, particularly in Republican-dominated
Arizona, which requires a maze of bureaucratic hurdles to be crossed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At a time in the United States when newspapers everywhere
have either died or shrunken to near worthlessness, this old journalist found
two worthy newspapers in Navajo Nation—the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Navajo-Hopi
Observer</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Navajo Times</i>. In the
editions I read were well-written, well-researched, longform stories that
delved deep into the issues that affect Navajos today, stories also with a keen
sense of history.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-5bxbJlA6cnOAwJUixP7ispIeP4T_B0-0pxc75taghWUMxYFQSPpEvV8oZxmoBfrQEpioSM9_nvZRugdbJfnslItB7ciqrgj5Yn77wyOeeEu2VZGJQ6QuHj_1Fs0-0skJRHU2geDRl5VF8ONMoBn2mW3PPcc_XQ_gBqDwd_hJz92Pj23KY8Ufj6CYKXY/s4032/J&S%20with%20Duffy.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-5bxbJlA6cnOAwJUixP7ispIeP4T_B0-0pxc75taghWUMxYFQSPpEvV8oZxmoBfrQEpioSM9_nvZRugdbJfnslItB7ciqrgj5Yn77wyOeeEu2VZGJQ6QuHj_1Fs0-0skJRHU2geDRl5VF8ONMoBn2mW3PPcc_XQ_gBqDwd_hJz92Pj23KY8Ufj6CYKXY/s320/J&S%20with%20Duffy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(My wife Suzanne and me with Duffy Holiday)<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For example, Wild’s story on efforts to bring electricity to
residents of Monument Valley included a poignant reminder of a past that
included the forced migration in 1863 of 10,000 Navajos from their home in the
Canyon de Chelly to Fort Sumner some 300 miles away in what is today New Mexico.
In what writer Nicky Leach has called “the first concentration camp on American
soil,” these Navajo were held in slave-like conditions without clean water,
provisions, or proper shelter. Many died before a public outcry forced the U.S.
government to allow them to return home in 1868.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As I scanned the vast and mystical beauty of this amazing
landscape—made famous in all those John Ford Westerns starring John Wayne and
Ben Johnson—I pondered the story of our American nation and of the Navajo
Nation. It’s a sweeping story of courage, resilience, and sacrifice, but also
one of the suffering, sadness, and tragedy that violence, selfishness, racism,
and greed make inevitable.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></p><p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-71032909355634887812023-08-11T15:56:00.018-07:002023-08-14T13:01:02.328-07:00Hollywood writers on strike, and the actors joining them in solidarity--the latest battle in a struggle with a long history<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivqyELeEQuhabIH7ySAfArGBxtBOzpQiLnH_HpQvKcZXZ4NIanun6sIlzqX1QEufS6c44AKWGIhB74cmkQJVsYfiLsZNeF0xoFpvGb4Bm8WH5ptQ7U5LB2aZgpWuNa23hV_VeMSGeubW4OlHK-rZu1UvAR7N0n35b6h33Kn48gDyDCKg4R2GD0cFkQaRg/s3526/Carl_Van_Vechten_-_William_Faulkner.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3526" data-original-width="2507" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivqyELeEQuhabIH7ySAfArGBxtBOzpQiLnH_HpQvKcZXZ4NIanun6sIlzqX1QEufS6c44AKWGIhB74cmkQJVsYfiLsZNeF0xoFpvGb4Bm8WH5ptQ7U5LB2aZgpWuNa23hV_VeMSGeubW4OlHK-rZu1UvAR7N0n35b6h33Kn48gDyDCKg4R2GD0cFkQaRg/s320/Carl_Van_Vechten_-_William_Faulkner.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>(William Faulkner, from a photograph by Carl Van Vechten)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">OXFORD, Miss. - Here in the heart of Yoknapatawpha I think
about our favorite literary son, William Faulkner, during his time as a
screenwriter in Hollywood and how he would feel about the current strike by
members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), now past the 100-day mark, and
members of the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Faulkner tended to keep his political cards close to his
chest, but perhaps he might remember Warner Brothers’ exec Jack Warner’s boast
that he had hired the world’s best writer for “peanuts”. While Faulkner saw his
Hollywood wages rise and fall depending on the mood of his benefactors, his
main goal always was to earn enough money to get back home to Oxford to do some
real writing.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For the screenwriters and actors today striking for better
wages and conditions in Hollywood, this is their livelihood as well as their
home, and they want the security that pensions and health care plans bring.
Launched by some 11,000 screenwriters on May 2 and joined a month ago by
the 160,000-member SAG-AFTRA, the strike is one of the largest in Hollywood history.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The strikers are demanding fair wages from the residuals
that streaming media bring plus guarantees that the expanding artificial
intelligence technology will be used in positive ways such as helping research
and story ideas, not in ways to take their jobs. The writers also want guarantees
on minimum working hours as well as pension and health care plans.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thus far, these demands have met a stone wall erected by the
Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which has
dismissed their complaints and accused them of striking at a particularly
vulnerable time for the industry. SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, famous for
her role in the television series <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Nanny</i>, has become a rousing spokesperson not only for the strikers but for
labor as a whole.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil6BIsutgRDVq1v7sy3pYQhm4HVV7eKzHVWIdUAeUfEriByclFLFVGSyA7V0Aa9wRS9KEMzqKgHb_Yv1Ypck_XVpfV6K50vdy4J8RfiUv9jKaQrxwMO2Tj30Arz4Q-kOpURibZ9A4AydfGJBYKqydfaGgQ1iune_Y5RZYjBYj6hPvuyM4eBQTuPVAgKog/s1135/Fran_Drescher_2018.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1135" data-original-width="815" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil6BIsutgRDVq1v7sy3pYQhm4HVV7eKzHVWIdUAeUfEriByclFLFVGSyA7V0Aa9wRS9KEMzqKgHb_Yv1Ypck_XVpfV6K50vdy4J8RfiUv9jKaQrxwMO2Tj30Arz4Q-kOpURibZ9A4AydfGJBYKqydfaGgQ1iune_Y5RZYjBYj6hPvuyM4eBQTuPVAgKog/s320/Fran_Drescher_2018.jpg" width="230" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, Fran Drescher) <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“What’s happening to us is happening across all fields of
labor,” Drescher said during a recent press conference. “When employers make
Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential
contributors that make the machine run, we have a problem.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A strike “is a very serious thing that impacts thousands, if
not millions, of people around this country and all over the world,” she
continued. “We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy
entity. … How they plead poverty, that they are losing money left and right,
when they are giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Indeed, nearly 90 percent of SAG-AFTRA actors make less than
$26,470 a year, the required minimum to qualify for health care insurance.
Screenwriters have seen their pay decline by as much as 23 percent over the
last 10 years. By contrast, in the corporate offices of the $43 billion
Warner/Discovery/CNN company, Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslav earned $500
million between 2018 and 2022. His company fired 1,000 workers in 2022. At the
$120 billion Comcast/Universal/NBC outfit, top executive Brian Roberts raked in
$170 million over the past five years.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The gap between what AMPTP is offering and what the WGA is
demanding is wide. AMPTP has offered a plan totaling some $86 million. The WGA
wants $429 million.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Writers have never been particularly valued in Hollywood
even though their work is central to the film industry. The great director and
screenwriter Billy Wilder talked about the particular challenge and importance
of a writer in Hollywood. “Writing is just an empty page. You start with
nothing, absolutely nothing, and, as a rule, writers are vastly underrated and
underpaid. It is totally impossible to make a great picture out of a lousy
script.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, Darryl F. Zanuck) <br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjLA125A59xz1M9-X3vDlEtf38_EymP3I05ltDgPaM6hJaAD1edsV7sPSPnDJObAZMCBMz4kYzTtCMkTJGqqEOmh7cJ_cJ7qEV-hoRTEV_-BKdsPDcu-zz64VvkqoKQIxGUa9wPHbUVojiVprAEWY84ttCXmW0DBUGbaJDNbjT-citvxhpx6N--QrAdI/s520/Darryl_F._Zanuck_1964.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjLA125A59xz1M9-X3vDlEtf38_EymP3I05ltDgPaM6hJaAD1edsV7sPSPnDJObAZMCBMz4kYzTtCMkTJGqqEOmh7cJ_cJ7qEV-hoRTEV_-BKdsPDcu-zz64VvkqoKQIxGUa9wPHbUVojiVprAEWY84ttCXmW0DBUGbaJDNbjT-citvxhpx6N--QrAdI/s320/Darryl_F._Zanuck_1964.jpg" width="246" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br />Hollywood mogul Jack Warner called writers “schmucks with
Underwoods.” Darryl F. Zanuck so despised the union activity that was growing
in movieland in the late 1930s that he threatened, “if those guys set up a
picket line and try to shut down my studio, I’ll mount a machine gun on the
roof and mow them down.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the late 1920s, another powerful mogul, Louis B. Mayer,
was key in the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in
part as an effort to quell labor activity. He pushed for a “writers division”
within the Academy that would deal with writer disputes and issues. In other
words, a company union. The Academy’s nod to a 50 percent pay cut in 1933
helped inspire a resurrection of the Screen Writers Guild, an early version of
the WGA. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s the Academy that awards the world-famous Oscars. Is
Oscar in reality just a gold-plated union buster?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV0dJHbzu3fZyj3zsVSXs__EtofC6pZzCVjxS0aQvVE-cCqitVZNSQXEZfR6bbj5h4T3ZFczd4XvIrJZVEaOph572d_1M2g3uFw0WJlpHLrZmBvHErxeFwWwagQuULIshCVazztHuYAzm2d7Y_ocqb4wUHvs_XddrBCGHoaI3Mp0c9FK5vwJA170MmnTg/s1518/LOUIS%20B.%20MAYER%201953.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1518" data-original-width="1296" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV0dJHbzu3fZyj3zsVSXs__EtofC6pZzCVjxS0aQvVE-cCqitVZNSQXEZfR6bbj5h4T3ZFczd4XvIrJZVEaOph572d_1M2g3uFw0WJlpHLrZmBvHErxeFwWwagQuULIshCVazztHuYAzm2d7Y_ocqb4wUHvs_XddrBCGHoaI3Mp0c9FK5vwJA170MmnTg/s320/LOUIS%20B.%20MAYER%201953.jpg" width="273" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">(Louis B. Mayer)<br /> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Hollywood disdain for writers showed its ugly face
throughout the industry’s “Golden Years”. One Thanksgiving during the 1930s,
the Republic studio fired every writer on the lot to avoid holiday pay and then
re-hired them the following Monday.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">During the post-World War II purge of left-leaning
sympathies across the country, the notorious U.S. House for Un-American
Activities focused its attention on Hollywood and suspicions that closet
communists were sneaking their propaganda into the motion pictures Americans
were watching. The Hollywood Ten, all but two screenwriters, stood up to the
HUAC demagogues and paid the price of prison and blacklisting as a result.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even after the HUAC rampages lost momentum, writers had to
face the next challenge of so-called “auteur” theory, which insisted directors
are the true creators of film, the true artists responsible for what is seen on
the screen, further diminishing the role of the screenwriter. Screenwriters
“had weathered the contract system, they had survived the blacklist, and
then—in the early 1960s—they found themselves more or less eliminated from the
critical-historical map,” writes Ian Hamilton in his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Writers in Hollywood: 1915-1951</i>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Wby7L63QMsLECeyQaqBkm5XnaKU2Dw-HJi9082aCC3Hy4_rr3dQrcNSJ1BMdmb_b0CRKnmInlg4kLqfYcHca82uwftypzGGusoeYnk1LibZi1FaZuvPJKvSFKI8NwsLyu4fkCLYWLAiX6VTAa4QE_HH45UHnv5CJp8AmvJuUs8Ow1qvVAPUV80WTW30/s336/H10Protest.gif" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="336" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Wby7L63QMsLECeyQaqBkm5XnaKU2Dw-HJi9082aCC3Hy4_rr3dQrcNSJ1BMdmb_b0CRKnmInlg4kLqfYcHca82uwftypzGGusoeYnk1LibZi1FaZuvPJKvSFKI8NwsLyu4fkCLYWLAiX6VTAa4QE_HH45UHnv5CJp8AmvJuUs8Ow1qvVAPUV80WTW30/s320/H10Protest.gif" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, the Hollywood Ten and supporters) <br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">What is happening today is the latest battle in a long
struggle for writers, and the actors who speak their words on screen stand in
solidarity with them. Fran Drescher says that solidarity speaks to the
importance of this moment. “At some point, the jig is up. This is a moment of
history, a moment of truth. AMPTP, you have to wake up and smell the coffee.
You can’t exist without us.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-64184043668062729962023-07-27T10:31:00.011-07:002023-07-27T15:55:55.168-07:00Avast ye hearties, was the pirate a bloodthirsty brigand or perhaps a revolutionary who defied the system?<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzarECsWJLEcce43p26VY0WXO9op9ddxHG-Y2O2Zc_mHfLGLnUlErWXye9a1_VOJtj36PgNFT4Nln9ohYXQJwgrF7JG18IgVi6ndvy6z6pVjCgc_Dq2EDQlzlU6pk0889YEq5n_xq_9QtGHQtZImTxkRUMnreyq3EU8L2Hs2iBB7grqhdbxklinDSkcQs/s3774/Wyeth%20-%20Treasure_Island-pirates-1911.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3774" data-original-width="2625" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzarECsWJLEcce43p26VY0WXO9op9ddxHG-Y2O2Zc_mHfLGLnUlErWXye9a1_VOJtj36PgNFT4Nln9ohYXQJwgrF7JG18IgVi6ndvy6z6pVjCgc_Dq2EDQlzlU6pk0889YEq5n_xq_9QtGHQtZImTxkRUMnreyq3EU8L2Hs2iBB7grqhdbxklinDSkcQs/s320/Wyeth%20-%20Treasure_Island-pirates-1911.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>(N.C. Wyeth's 1911 depiction of pirates on the cover of Robert Louis Stevenson's <i>Treasure Island</i>) <br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">I’ve always been fascinated by pirates. Maybe it started way
back in the mid-1950s when as a child I first saw the film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Treasure Island</i> starring Robert Newton as the incorrigibly lovable
one-legged pirate Long John Silver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maybe it was a few years later when I read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold
Bug” about Captain Kidd’s lost treasure.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Or was it when I discovered Jack London, who as a teenager became
an oyster pirate after meeting French Frank in the Last Chance saloon in
Oakland and buying the sloop Razzle Dazzle? He even got French Frank’s
girlfriend in the deal, Mamie, queen of the oyster pirates.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From there I went on to adopt the Pittsburgh Pirates
baseball team as my own—despite the fact that I grew up hundreds of miles away
in central North Carolina—and I rooted for the East Carolina University Pirates
as an undergraduate there! I’m still a Pirates fan. (curiously, I'm not a fan of the <i>Pirates of the Caribbean</i> movies. Just can't seem to get into them.)<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqFi5h4Fgwl-Uf87ZfJcxDc6Xpg6iQddhG3VVbVYlzq-EppDN_h5U_o5CplOgVXpFK5bceqAuPMbRr2BBwwei1np6ctZlCDUZj4GEu4eYZgvz1m76T7Ahx_giChxVPV2Fp0U4cipnJLOKM5kFaYSNAcUfsx7t8aOYZs45uPUVulXMeS6CzuF7Ceo5KL34/s5581/1909_Pittsburgh_Pirates_on_a_boat_FINAL.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3412" data-original-width="5581" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqFi5h4Fgwl-Uf87ZfJcxDc6Xpg6iQddhG3VVbVYlzq-EppDN_h5U_o5CplOgVXpFK5bceqAuPMbRr2BBwwei1np6ctZlCDUZj4GEu4eYZgvz1m76T7Ahx_giChxVPV2Fp0U4cipnJLOKM5kFaYSNAcUfsx7t8aOYZs45uPUVulXMeS6CzuF7Ceo5KL34/s320/1909_Pittsburgh_Pirates_on_a_boat_FINAL.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(a 1909 drawing of the Pittsburgh Pirates)<br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All this is to note the recent publication of the graphic
novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Under the Banner of King Death:
Pirates of the Atlantic</i> by David Lester (author and illustrator), Marcus
Rediker (author), and Paul Buhle (editor). This wonderful book, an adaptation
of Lester’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Villains of All Nations:
Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age</i>, tells a different story of pirates from
the ones I heard growing up. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJL0MbnPY_-0Cu2xzgwuXi6kXArtAEigDbY7hOyLFmuJpYkxDX04FlnnSAA8_M2WIu4s8uJDwCQsnQL7glq9-LzBfgBzrX4fa3n_GmNtlWpCbhWFq2eHfD9sRFhBX0tYoF7_q-tMykFbUwbAs2BvhGLQN1sQyNoPqs-YEFqr9kC2cLS6l94rbEuiBNjXM/s4032/Robert%20Newton.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJL0MbnPY_-0Cu2xzgwuXi6kXArtAEigDbY7hOyLFmuJpYkxDX04FlnnSAA8_M2WIu4s8uJDwCQsnQL7glq9-LzBfgBzrX4fa3n_GmNtlWpCbhWFq2eHfD9sRFhBX0tYoF7_q-tMykFbUwbAs2BvhGLQN1sQyNoPqs-YEFqr9kC2cLS6l94rbEuiBNjXM/s320/Robert%20Newton.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, Robert Newton as Long John Silver in the 1950 film <i>Treasure Island</i>) <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Not sure I felt any guilt at my fascination with pirates—I
wanted to be one! Still, these were bloodthirsty brigands and cutthroats,
right? Didn’t Edward Teach, the pirate who called himself Blackbeard, tie
little lit fuses at the end of his beard to scare the wits out of his enemies?
I remember going to some of Blackbeard’s old haunts off the eastern North
Carolina coast when I was at ECU. I loved it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnXD3f2FqoPp76NiDsGf1s4STs_DSoHtToyfSo6h5IycdWan0jZAj29c96xLClMyJ-NIrd8A0dkSTORDCFjbGuKuURbGSuaV1GK-4oXfMgT5katQj3S-UZbAGjNKtsQvQKz5zolPKKVc3LUI3WMycMBp3KeCuRuYrIBaEgl0N-yylDnXALw6FOXw_eCjY/s4032/Blackbeard%20by%20Schoonover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnXD3f2FqoPp76NiDsGf1s4STs_DSoHtToyfSo6h5IycdWan0jZAj29c96xLClMyJ-NIrd8A0dkSTORDCFjbGuKuURbGSuaV1GK-4oXfMgT5katQj3S-UZbAGjNKtsQvQKz5zolPKKVc3LUI3WMycMBp3KeCuRuYrIBaEgl0N-yylDnXALw6FOXw_eCjY/s320/Blackbeard%20by%20Schoonover.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>(Frank Schoonover's 1922 depiction of Blackbeard)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">It was hard not to be drawn to the pirates in the depictions
of artists like Howard Pyle, Frank Schoonover, and N.C. Wyeth, pictures that
helped make <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Treasure Island</i> and other
books about pirates come alive.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Under the Banner
of King Death</i> tells us is that the pirates of the so-called Golden Age of
Piracy (1660 to 1730) “were almost all common working sailors, poor men from
the lowest social class, who crossed the line into illegal activity, most of
them bearing the scars of a dangerous line of work,” Buhle, Rediker, and Lester
wrote in their article “Why We Need Pirates” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yes!</i> magazine this past January. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Furthermore, they were “routinely maimed in the course of
their work, bilked of their wages, fed rotten provisions, and beaten around the
deck by captains with tyrannical powers.” In their rebellion against those
conditions, they turned to piracy, commandeering Jolly Old England’s ships and
raising the Jolly Roger over them! Buhle, Rediker, and Lester describe how they
created a remarkable form of democracy on those stolen ships.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">They elected their captain and officers, organized a
redistribution of goods, and shared booty in what Buhle, Rediker, and Lester
call “a rudimentary social welfare system” that came in handy when a pirate was
injured or fell ill. They were racially inclusive—a significant point in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Under the Banner of King Death</i>—given
that pirates came from all races and ethnic groups--from the rum-swilling
denizens of the pirate capital, Port Royal , Jamaica, to Chinese pirates in
their virtual navies of junk ships (now hard to find, but I saw countless
Chinese junks in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor back in 1972) to the Barbary Coast
corsairs of the Mediterranean and the buccaneers off the coast of Madagascar.
No glass ceiling for female pirates either. Arabella Drummond, Mary Read, and
Anne Bonny bowed to no man in their fierceness and ability to lead a ship’s
crew.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Gentleman, piracy is damaging the economy of England,” a
loyal servant of the Royal Court tells his colleagues in a London coffeehouse
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Under the Banner of King Death</i>.
“England’s power, even civilization itself, depends on mastery of the seas.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Piracy is first and foremost a crime against the property
of merchants,” says a judge in the novel just prior to sentencing the three
pirates in front of him to hang. “Because piracy damages maritime commerce it
also damages the interests of the state.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Indeed, the Royal Navy ultimately succeeds in hanging
countless pirates and making a spectacle of their dangling corpses as a warning
to all who dare threaten the power of the monarchy and certainly its economic
wellbeing. The warlords of 18<sup>th</sup> century commerce and industry won
the war.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">None of this should be interpreted as a blanket pardon for
all piracy, of course. Jean Lafitte in New Orleans was an active slave-trader
as well as a smuggler before he won a pardon from General Andrew Jackson in
order to help Jackson defeat the British in the Battle of New Orleans. The
colorful Lafitte, whose blacksmith shop in the French Quarter is a popular bar
today, was, in the words of writer Herbert Asbury, the “Moses of the freebooters”
in the Big Easy of his time, a charmer who spoke four languages fluently and
was the toast of the town before the charm wore off and he had to relocate to the
Texas coast (he helped found the city of Galveston) and finally to the Yucatan
Peninsula.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Lester, Rediker, and Buhle remind us, however, that it’s indeed
the victors who write history. Who will write the history of today? Will it be
the descendants of the hedge fund operators and arms dealers and deep-pocketed
lobbyists who run our world? Or will it be the handful of rebels who challenge
that rule and refuse to let them continue to exploit and leave ruin and havoc
in their wake?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the end, who are the real pirates? Maybe it’s how you
define “pirate”. Is the pirate the bloodthirsty brigand we always thought he—or
she—was, or perhaps a revolutionary? </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-61666947915184190072023-05-27T15:41:00.016-07:002023-05-28T12:24:26.609-07:00Children are under assault in the United States--from both the Left and the Right. Republicans won't protect them from guns or exploitative bosses. Democrats put them in the middle of the sex wars.<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx1OIEjeIDF15dX_sQYDqubfuElO5_khmoO7XLec_3TDhhQm6qXYKLy7Pg2H7c3geXo1HGBN0iCwjKccIoCtClojO8XQHRkiKmA11O03BUsx6tvxjD9bUBwJPv7F2ZS2xzyHuoL72IGaKGIH4jhUcPPgpOUfhGhuT3DBE8KBe6B95WoXwAS5T-LaPe/s240/Dostoevsky%20by%20Vasily%20Perov.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="192" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx1OIEjeIDF15dX_sQYDqubfuElO5_khmoO7XLec_3TDhhQm6qXYKLy7Pg2H7c3geXo1HGBN0iCwjKccIoCtClojO8XQHRkiKmA11O03BUsx6tvxjD9bUBwJPv7F2ZS2xzyHuoL72IGaKGIH4jhUcPPgpOUfhGhuT3DBE8KBe6B95WoXwAS5T-LaPe/s1600/Dostoevsky%20by%20Vasily%20Perov.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>(To the right, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1872 portrait by Vasily Perov)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky considered
crimes against children as the ultimate human sin. He wrote about it in his
landmark novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Brothers Karamazov</i>
in 1880.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Love children especially, for they too are sinless like the
angels,” says the Russian monk, Father Zossima, the spiritual guide of the
religious novice Alyosha Karamazov in the novel. “They live to soften and
purify our hearts and, as it were, to guide us. Woe to him who offends a
child!”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">How needed are those words today in the United States, where
children are under assault from both the Left and the Right. Where are the
Father Zossimas to stand up to the political leaders and activists who would
put children back to work into what writer Edwin Markham once called the
“Bastilles of Labor”, the factories and farms where they could work cheap and
fill the gaps left by adult workers no longer willing to slave away at
unlivable wages?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Where are the Father Zossimas who would protect children
from the crazed attackers who shot their way through dozens of schools in 2022,
killing 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and continuing their
assaults today while politicians argue the sanctity of the 2<sup>nd</sup> Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Where are the Father Zossimas who would protect children
from sexualized performances in kindergartens and grade schools by Drag
Queens who want to push a Queer theory agenda that would reformulate
“children’s relationship with sex, sexuality, and eroticism,” in the words of
North Carolina therapist and author Paula Rinehart?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bastilles of labor</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Recent reports by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In
These Times</i>, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i>,
and the U.S. Department of Labor show that hundreds of underage children are
working at fast food outlets, construction projects, food processing plants,
farms, and factories across at least 20 states. “Some were working 12 hours a
day and many were not attending school,” Sonali Kolhatkar wrote for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In These Times</i>. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Many of these children are undocumented migrants from
Central America, the victims along with their parents of neoliberal economic
and trade agreements and policies that have impoverished small farmers and
blue-collar workers across the Global South and forced them to migrant into
foreign lands like the United States in search of jobs and sustenance. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This past March Arkansas’s Republican governor, Sarah
Huckabee Sanders, signed into law a bill that eliminated requirements by
employers to verify the age of children before hiring them. Republicans are
leading the charge to eliminate such requirements, and they’ve succeeded in
Iowa and Wisconsin, and are pushing similar bills in other states. The U.S.
Department of Labor reported this month that some 300 children in Kentucky
worked illegally at McDonald’s franchises.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Post-pandemic demands by workers for better wages and
working conditions have led profit-obsessed employers to seek other sources
of labor, rather than simply paying workers what they deserve.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPo4dsqTQErkt38z7QeREDuyjsmKT2rHgYE27FCe5JRtDLhNcQqlFk7vYDLRqx3jCeqz5r_Y4v9ZoTIHGAIgcUNVgiJ9Gkd6Y3ZA7r9D_hMtD427jzoGLHTdMt9NfRZP_FtU7gYc5Ri7LVPYGT7KZMkyN_kFgPwLh7TFo0xLDzTdNMsAM7SGOkhbzZ/s1225/Child%20coal_miners%20W.VA.1908)_Lewis%20Hine.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="951" data-original-width="1225" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPo4dsqTQErkt38z7QeREDuyjsmKT2rHgYE27FCe5JRtDLhNcQqlFk7vYDLRqx3jCeqz5r_Y4v9ZoTIHGAIgcUNVgiJ9Gkd6Y3ZA7r9D_hMtD427jzoGLHTdMt9NfRZP_FtU7gYc5Ri7LVPYGT7KZMkyN_kFgPwLh7TFo0xLDzTdNMsAM7SGOkhbzZ/s320/Child%20coal_miners%20W.VA.1908)_Lewis%20Hine.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(Child coal miners in West Virginia in 1908. Photograph by Lewis Hine)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Nearly 120 years ago, during the great Muckraking era in
journalism, poet and teacher Edwin Markham raged in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cosmopolitan</i> magazine against the child labor practices of the day.
“An army of one million seven hundred thousand children are at work in our
`land of the free’ … many of them working their ten or fourteen hours by day or
by night, with only a miserable dime for a wage!”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Both the robber barons and the preachers of the day defended
the practice of sending children off to “the ogre scream of the factory
whistle” where they worked so hard that at night “they fall asleep with the
food unswallowed in the mouth.” Many of these children were young daughters of
the South, sweating away their childhood in textile mills and subsceptible to
the desires of their overseers if they happened “to be cursed with a little
beauty.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Markham’s public outrage helped spark widespread
condemnation of child labor and passage of laws that largely eliminated it—for
a time.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In a land where the 2<sup>nd</sup>
amendment is more important than children</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Between 2019 and 2021 the United States reported more than
1,700 mass shootings. Hundreds more came in 2022, and the numbers are climbing
in 2023. Children are often the victims of these shootings, and schools are
especially vulnerable. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Last month thousands of students in the Nashville area
walked out of their schools and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to the
Tennessee State Capitol to protest the state’s lax gun laws in the wake of a
March 27 shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian school where police
said 28-year-old Audrey Hale killed three children and three adults before
being shot and killed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Republican Governor Bill Lee pledged $155 million toward
increased security at schools but he’s done nothing to repeal the 2021
statute he championed that allows 21-year-olds to carry handguns in public with
no requirement for a permit. The state Legislature is considering a bill to
lower the age to 18.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile in Uvalde, Texas, mourners this month marked the
one-year anniversary of the shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19
children and two teachers dead. They also watched in despair as proposals to
tighten gun laws in Texas floundered before the state Legislature.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their fellow mourners
in Tennessee can understand their frustration. “We all want to live through
high school,” Amy Goetzinger, 17, told the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chalkbeat
Tennessee</i> publication as she protested her state’s inability to make guns
less accessible to potential murderers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Drag queens and young
children</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Democrats and left-leaning liberals don’t get off the hook
in the multi-faceted assault on children taking place in the United States.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A video filmed in 2022 by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">BlazeTV</i> host Sara Gonzales showing a Texas drag queen dancing to a sexually
provocative song in front of a young girl at a restaurant in Plano, Texas, not
only went viral but also sparked outrage by politicians in the state who vowed
legislation that would crack down on such performances. Leading the charge were
Republicans, not Democrats.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The video was an early volley in a growing battle not only over
children and exposure to highly sexual drag queen performances but also to
questions of the propriety of allowing children to undergo life-changing gender
transition procedures.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A commitment to equality and fairness in the treatment of
people who are not strictly heterosexual is admirable, but should such a
commitment include allowing blatant sexual demonstrations in front of young and
vulnerable children who have enough challenges in their lives without a
premature push to assess their sexuality? That includes allowing them to make
or be part of decisions that they don’t have the maturity to make?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Paula Rinehart, a therapist in Raleigh, North Carolina, says
drag queen culture ultimately attempts to “deconstruct childhood” and thus rob
“children of the innocence that protects their maturing process” in the name of
liberating “society from the oppression of gender.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Children are neither hormonally nor psychologically
inclined to explore their sexuality,” Rinehart writes. “They don’t naturally
worry if they are `nonbinary’. They must be primed, stimulated, dragged in that
direction.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A final word</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A key word in Rinehart’s comment is “dragged”--children
forced into back-breaking labor, exposed to life-threatening assaults at
schools where they are supposed to learn and not hide under desks, and drawn
into adult sexual wars. We adults have a responsibility. We should be not only
protecting, educating, and preparing children for adulthood. We should also, as
Father Zossima says, admire, appreciate, and love them for their ability “to
soften and purify our hearts.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-56042554709823473912023-05-12T07:51:00.013-07:002023-05-19T12:47:29.805-07:00Atkins gives his "Last Lecture" with a sharp critique of mainstream media and praise for I.F. Stone and today's truthtellers in the alternative media<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho4lKrYIY7eF_TpKf33jHlyAXVnWvYUNDGYK5714RuvyTYemm65kjolCa24gpN37TN7KSS5Y_XvZVMretEweo24zJ0qoHmKKorDe10LE2lRKy4_BBIC_Uux0_nHcLxkaAB5pUzPtRiv2fV1ZtNsR-_H9R7DYzcEfQb8JLhGTN7eZFE6IUKNYLJJtWp/s3456/JBA%20Mortar%20Brd%20photo.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2304" data-original-width="3456" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho4lKrYIY7eF_TpKf33jHlyAXVnWvYUNDGYK5714RuvyTYemm65kjolCa24gpN37TN7KSS5Y_XvZVMretEweo24zJ0qoHmKKorDe10LE2lRKy4_BBIC_Uux0_nHcLxkaAB5pUzPtRiv2fV1ZtNsR-_H9R7DYzcEfQb8JLhGTN7eZFE6IUKNYLJJtWp/s320/JBA%20Mortar%20Brd%20photo.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>(Yours truly giving the "Last Lecture" for the Mortar Board May 5. Photo by my student Eva-Marie Luter)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>On May 5, with a hundred or so colleagues, peers, family, friends, and students in attendance, I gave what is called the "Last Lecture" to the University of Mississippi Mortar Board chapter (a National College Senior Honor Society), an honor generally given to a retiring professor. Yes, I'm retiring after 33 years of teaching (a reason for the long delay since my last post!) but will continue to write and do my due diligence as a journalist (a writer never retires!). Asked to discuss my "legacy" as well as my message to students, I did so, but I also talked about media and society today, and how mainstream media have failed the public, leaving it to alternative media to fill the gap and strive to bring truth to the people. </i><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">This is a great honor for me, of course, and a privilege to
be able to give this, my last lecture, before my peers, colleagues, students,
and friends and family, including my lovely wife Suzanne. I’ve said I would
talk about media and its role in society, and my understanding is I’m also to
address what I might consider my own legacy as well as message to students.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I should here acknowledge a few people who greatly
influenced the trajectory of my life at key moments: Charles Overby, who
brought me to Washington, D.C. to be a congressional correspondent with Gannett
News Service, and five years later Will Norton, who hired me to teach at the
University of Mississippi when my first wife Marilyn was suffering from cancer
and wanted to return to her native Mississippi. I also need to thank my
cousin-in-law Marsha Tapscott, who recommended me to Will. When I got here, I
wasn’t really sure how long I’d stay, but this university and this town get
into your blood, and this became home.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I feel I’m leaving the journalism and new media program at a
very exciting time with our Dean Andrea Hickerson and a fine faculty on the
brink of great and positive change. Expanding into a school with three
departments, and more students and faculty than ever in the program’s history. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My retirement this summer comes after a 33-year career here.
For 15 years prior to that, I was a practicing daily journalist working at
newspapers in North Carolina and Mississippi and finally with Gannett News
Service. Over the years I’ve criss-crossed many times the U.S. South that I’ve
long considered my “beat”, and I’ve traveled as far away as Singapore and Hong
Kong in pursuit of stories about real people living real lives. I’ve been a
business reporter, a political reporter, a labor reporter, a theater critic, a
feature writer, and more recently a film writer of all things. Over my career I’ve
interviewed a long list of the good, the bad, and the ugly—from Rosa Parks,
Hazel Brannon Smith, Bill Monroe, B.B. King, Ted Kennedy, and Gerald Ford to Jim
Eastland, Orval Faubus, Strom Thurmond, and Ross Barnett, to notorious
murderers Willie Horton during the 1988 presidential campaign, and Roy Bryant,
one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My focus as a journalist was usually on regular folks and
their struggles. I come from a blue-collar family. My father was a World War II
veteran and a tool-and-dye maker. My mother was a German war bride and a
seamstress. From that German mother I learned to love philosophy, classical
music, and appreciate the value of religious faith. From my father I learned
the value of good, hard, honest work. I hope my concern for the Average Joe and
Jane, the working class, is a legacy of sorts—their worthiness, their
struggles, their untold stories, their lack of voice in our politics, economic,
and cultural life today. Note I said “working class”, not the increasingly
meaningless term “middle class”. As a teacher, I never tried to preach to my
class. That’s not my job. Confession: I may try to preach a little today. I am,
after all, the grandson of a Pentecostal Holiness preacher, a street preacher,
no less. In my classes, however, I have tried to make sure students knew our real
history, the full breadth of issues in our society, and the ramifications of
the decisions of our leaders, the importance of good writing and reporting, and
our duty as journalists to tell the truth as best as we can. I’ve wanted them
to know that everybody’s got a story. I remember my own encounters—the farmer
who still plowed with a mule, the Pentecostal preacher and his tent revival,
the Lumbee Indian and his visions of past glories, the Delta blues singer who
dug graves on the side. Sometimes, maybe even most times, the loser’s story is
better than the winner’s story. The baseball player who never made it out of
the minors after 12 years of trying may be a hellavu lot more interesting than
this year’s MVP. These were reasons I developed courses in how social issues
affect film and documentaries, and finally this last semester, a brand new
course on Alternative Media.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I look back across the many classrooms I have faced, and the
faces among them—too many to name all, but including a couple of our current
faculty members as well as highly successful journalists like Nancy Xu from
China and Takehiko Nomura from Japan, those successive waves of Bangladeshi
graduate students, my American-born-and-bred students like Barrett Welch, and
the Gang of Five—Allie Watson, Lila Nakaidinae, Jaylin Smith, Eva-Marie Luter,
and Hayden Wiggs—who’ve followed me through three courses over the last two
semesters—and, of course, Rhodes scholar Jaz Brisack and Evan Morrisey in the
Honors College, where I was able to teach my beloved Dostoevsky, Balzac, and Chicago
writer Nelson Algren, as well as the great writers of nonfiction. I hope these
bright young people learned as much from me as I did from them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As a professor here, I have also continued to practice
journalism—to practice what I preach--and it has gotten me in trouble at times.
A couple decades ago, there was an effort in the state Legislature to get me
fired because of opinion columns I had written that some politicians disagreed
with. This was the year I was up for tenure. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jackson </i>(Mississippi) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Clarion
Ledger</i> legislative reporter Andy Kanengeiser called me and said, “Damn,
Joe, they’re coming after you.” Let me say this, then-Liberal Arts Dean Dale
Abadie (we were under them at the time) and the University of Mississippi stood
with me, however, and that effort ultimately failed. Dale said to me, "Don’t you
worry about a thing, Joe Atkins.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I want to talk about the media. As both a journalist and a
professor of journalism, I am very concerned about the state of media in our
society and our world today. I love the democratic potential our technological
advances promise, but I also know how powerful forces in the past circumscribed
the promises of earlier technological revolutions such as radio and television
and even as far back as Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press. A real commitment
has to be made to protect the public’s rights as beneficiaries of these
advances, yet how difficult that is today when both our major political parties
as well as our courts seem to be in the hands of those circumscribing powerful
forces.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps like many of you, I feel sometimes like a stranger
in a strange land when I turn to the media to try to understand the world.
Mainstream media today—everywhere, not just here in the United States—too often
are what crusading journalist Patrick Lawrence has called “merely mirrors
reflecting the established ethos of the polity in which they operate. They do
their best to keep Americans ignorant. If the ruling cliques wanted America to
boast an intelligent populace, the press and broadcasters would do their
part—as Jefferson understood this part to be—to inform them.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I may rub some people the wrong way today—like I did with my
35 years of newspaper columns--but I’m going to weigh in on a few things. While
we fight among ourselves, retreating to our tribes, bickering and fussing
ourselves into blind corners, our nation and world inch toward nuclear war.
Look at the superficial coverage of the current war in Ukraine, our proxy war
with Russia, and the warmongering and saber rattling of our government toward
China. Much of our mainstream media today remind me of the time the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> told us Iraq had weapons
of mass destruction. Where is there a discussion of the history that led up to
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, our own complicity in helping prompt that
invasion? Not giving Russia an out here, but we simply aren’t being told the
whole story. And why are we preparing to go to war—what would be a nuclear
war--with China? Hasn’t the U.S. agreed for many years with a “One China
Policy” that essentially asserts Taiwan is indeed part of China? I’ve been to
Taiwan and loved the place and its people, and I don’t want to see it invaded,
but I also don’t a nuclear war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What has
China truly done other than threaten U.S. economic hegemony over the world and thus
the treasure chests of our own nation’s oligarchs? Do we have more right being in
the South China Sea than China? I mean isn’t that a legitimate question?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Where are the in-depth reports into the civil war in Sudan?
Isn’t it interesting that not long before the current civil war the government
agreed to have a Russian naval base on that country’s Red Sea? Do you think the
CIA might have something to do with this civil war? </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let us remember that in the last 50 years, our own country
has invaded Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and
Syria. Since World War II we’ve helped overthrow governments in most of those
countries, plus Iran, Chile, Honduras, who knows where else. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I love my country but I am not blind to its faults or to its
potential to be better.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2klFXzNloGQD5hA6oPraD4JbX89LhzDr-EjEudjo378lM4rb9nJbQ7Y3GxyosByVSH0tFyOyaZtn_wsn9HHY5-EmgfkiI26fkZpwJmBQUikBoI8f1JZwIJaUqF1nFBIqFC7ud5IG-tCwbkSuS7dRI5Q6QnuDwgDJRfTjX05bzn02EGlHOm7lK5I59/s355/IFStoneApril1972.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2klFXzNloGQD5hA6oPraD4JbX89LhzDr-EjEudjo378lM4rb9nJbQ7Y3GxyosByVSH0tFyOyaZtn_wsn9HHY5-EmgfkiI26fkZpwJmBQUikBoI8f1JZwIJaUqF1nFBIqFC7ud5IG-tCwbkSuS7dRI5Q6QnuDwgDJRfTjX05bzn02EGlHOm7lK5I59/s320/IFStoneApril1972.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, I.F. Stone)<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">In the early 1980s, when I was a graduate student in
journalism at American University in Washington, D.C., I was fortunate to get a
much-prized internship with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Baltimore
Sun</i>’s Washington bureau. Many great journalists came through the doors of
that relatively small newsroom—Thomas Edsall, whom I shadowed as an intern,
bureau chief Pat Furgurson. These were largely Old School, Gentlemen of the
Press journalists, some of whom I believe still banged out their stories on
typewriters. One day I was at my desk in my tiny cubbyhole when a little old
man with thick glasses walked up to the desk next to me and picked up the
phone. “Hello,” the little old man said into the receiver, “this is I.F. Stone,
and I’d like to speak to” ….. well, I didn’t hear any of the rest of what he
said. “I.F. Stone,” I said to myself. “My gosh, I. F. Stone is standing a few
feet from me.” One of the great crusading fathers, along with his mentor George
Seldes, of modern-day independent journalism in America, Stone was writing a
column for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sun </i>at the time. After
his call, I immediately went up and introduced myself. I’ll never forget that
he took notes as I did. “Joe Atkins, huh,” he said as he scribbled on his
notepad. I later interviewed him for a story.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To me, in many ways, Stone represented the best of American
journalism. He told the stories the mainstream media wouldn’t touch. His “I.F.
Stone Weekly” never reached mass circulation, but those who wanted to be in the
know read it religiously. He wrote and reported with a passion, a search for
the unvarnished truth, and let the chips fall where they damn well may.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“You’ve got to wear your chastity belt as a journalist,” Stone
used to say. The seducers are everywhere out there to get you to spin the story
or simply not tell the story. We have a few I.F. Stones in our midst today—Matt
Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Patrick Lawrence, Eva Bartlett, perhaps the lone
Western reporter actually reporting from the Donbass in Eastern Ukraine, and
bless his Pulitzer Prize-winning heart, Seymour Hersh, who told us it was the
U.S. that bombed the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea last September, an
act of war not only against Russia but against our own ally, Germany. His
report was met with complete silence by his former employer, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i>. No surprise there, I’m
afraid. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As a journalist and journalism professor, I stand with the
Stones and Hershes of my profession, the storytellers of truth. The great
Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, whose works I taught in my International
Journalism class, said once, and I paraphrase, “All the intellectuals who sip
their tea from their safe posts in Paris and New York look down their noses on
us lowly journalists out there in the mud trying to get our stories,” but it’s
we, when we do it right, who help our readers and viewers, the regular Joes and
Janes, make sense of their world. What a mission to undertake. This is a noble
profession, journalism, even reaching the level of an art, when it is practiced
the way it should be, the way our nation’s founders meant when they adopted the
First Amendment. What a glorious gift it has been for me not only to try to
practice but also to be able to try to teach such journalism. I hope I have.
What I can say is I deeply appreciate the opportunities this university has
given me, and I’ll never forget it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-70921627259724119082023-03-31T11:37:00.006-07:002023-03-31T11:48:24.645-07:00Making "The Killing", the 1956 classic film noir: "Auteur" Stanley Kubrick's shameful treatment of hardboiled writer Jim Thompson <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj350nIIS3LozQW_n6l8FL0KtL81AryXB3NFc_ZkZjCMTReWTiwUfyinREFbjk54aqAsdubwuQsX1hBT1wCI-meJMaF3j5M63TyT43jCECH6wMBBbd-T_43uG8bSRk--IX-po99sp_wr3gdgZ3d1pedZgmLVkGacIJyM-t6xOqFdsWScTqtmGolThHo/s1280/The%20Killing.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj350nIIS3LozQW_n6l8FL0KtL81AryXB3NFc_ZkZjCMTReWTiwUfyinREFbjk54aqAsdubwuQsX1hBT1wCI-meJMaF3j5M63TyT43jCECH6wMBBbd-T_43uG8bSRk--IX-po99sp_wr3gdgZ3d1pedZgmLVkGacIJyM-t6xOqFdsWScTqtmGolThHo/s320/The%20Killing.jpg" width="240" /></a></i></div><i><br /></i>Labor South <i>looks at film and culture as well as politics, and thus here is an article I recently published in the amazing online film magazine, </i>Vague Visages<i>, about the making of the 1956 noir film </i>The Killing<i>. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the film was co-written by the legendary hardboiled writer Jim Thompson, an Oklahoma Territory native and former IWW/Wobbly who became the first of many writers the would-be auteur Kubrick shamefully cheated or tried to cheat out of their proper writing credits. The film's marvelous cast is a Who's Who of great character actors, the working stiffs of the Big and Small Screen, long a fascination of yours truly. This is a tribute to them as well as to film noir and Jim Thompson. A link to the </i>Vague Visages <i>article is also below. </i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><a href="https://vaguevisages.com/2023/03/24/the-killing-essay-stanley-kubrick-movie-film/">https://vaguevisages.com/2023/03/24/the-killing-essay-stanley-kubrick-movie-film/</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><span> </span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">I can see it just as clearly as if it had really happened.
The gathering at the table midway down the left aisle at Hollywood’s Musso
& Frank Grill is getting emotional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They’re hovering over their cigarettes, their glasses of bourbon and
wine and beer, their half-eaten plates corned beef and cabbage, chicken pot
pie, and sauerbraten.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A waiter whispers to Gustav Hasford and points to a table
across the room. “That’s where Faulkner sat,” the waiter says, knowing this is
Hasford’s first time at Musso & Frank. The Alabamian nodded appreciatively.
The other writers at the table—Jim Thompson, Calder Willingham, Frederic
Raphael, Terry Southern, and Dalton Trumbo—have been here a thousand times.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“He thought you were verbose and self-important,” Raphael
says to Trumbo.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“And you know what Kirk Douglas said about him,” Trumbo
answers after another sip of his wine. “He’s `not a writer.’ He’s `a talented
shit’ who tried to steal credit for my screenplay and keep me on the
Blacklist.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“He gave me some of that same strange love, too,” Southern
rejoins.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“He nearly ruined my film trying to rewrite it,” Willingham
says. “The auteur. It was all him and nobody else, whether he deserved it or
not.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hasford drinks deep into his Budweiser. “He and Michael Herr
wouldn’t even let me meet with them, and I not only helped write the script, I
wrote the goddamn book.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Directors are often unpunished serial killers who
appropriate credit from writers whom they have jettisoned,” Raphael says.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Big Jim Thompson waves a big paw, polishes off his whiskey
and motions to the waiter for another. He leans across the table, long-held anger
and hurt and resentment embedded in his rutted face. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You all came after me. I was the first he
betrayed. You fellows just followed in my footsteps.”</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxIWXry1SnQshE1RSC6AJIAEOHdd3K0agSR-jcwW4_gy7Z7j5_B4xlVvggLiKlHdttY1f0WJPSIDwcwsjUt3tEJGmvgZAeXYHlRTirk8mvnaCEf5vVzIOrjVLlv3FHhLLFFJNhaXawIQdD-HeNfL4e71sH2KH_Ki6qLbQyk6xM_KgLbNiGxw3JysY5/s474/Jim%20Thompson.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="474" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxIWXry1SnQshE1RSC6AJIAEOHdd3K0agSR-jcwW4_gy7Z7j5_B4xlVvggLiKlHdttY1f0WJPSIDwcwsjUt3tEJGmvgZAeXYHlRTirk8mvnaCEf5vVzIOrjVLlv3FHhLLFFJNhaXawIQdD-HeNfL4e71sH2KH_Ki6qLbQyk6xM_KgLbNiGxw3JysY5/s320/Jim%20Thompson.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> (To the right, Jim Thompson)<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hardboiled writer Jim Thompson never forgave director
Stanley Kubrick for denying him screenwriting credit in the 1956 noir
masterwork <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i>. It was just
one of many historic precedents of Kubrick’s first major feature film. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hailed by Noir Czar Eddie Muller as “a monument to the
classic caper film and a fresh gust of filmmaking in one clever package,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i> would go on to influence
filmmakers ranging from those of the French New Wave to New Hollywood
filmmakers like Martin Scorsese to today’s Quentin Tarantino. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing </i>also marked
a special moment in film history. It heralded the arrival of a film world
enfant terrible. It featured a collection of some of film’s greatest character
actors, a star wrestling with deep self-contempt for his earlier testimony
before the U.S. House for Un-American Activities Committee, and a compelling
story of a racetrack heist that becomes an existential probe into the meaning
of life. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even 67 years after its release, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i> resonates. Tarantino talks about the “non-linear plot,”
how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i> “changed the movies
you love.” This low-budget—it cost $320,000 to make—box office failure “boldly”
announced “the stylistic and thematic preoccupations that would become
important constants” in Kubrick’s career, Haden Guest writes in an essay for
the Criterion edition of the film. Scenes like Johnny Clay hiding a gun in a
flowerbox later inspired a similar scene in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Godfather</i>. The mask Johnny uses during the heist shows up later in films
like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Batman: The Dark Knight</i> (2008). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Timothy Carey’s sharpshooter, though hidden
from view, is even among the crowd on the cover of the Beatles’ album <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band</i>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAZtGzfPMtH_bjO_Ua0dmV1UISPsveVukNjIuQKIj3kdiVjFpgQ7i4Um3txqTRAJm3N40jOVixf5s2_aM-H61TOZsFnbx54lTQrt3aNR3_DnFv0iHwMaYw8Y3s7c5wHQK1D7qVrHXQApajePdW3Af4qHIff4NPzSb4cfVrPjOk6JvrGVyHivFxi-zG/s1328/stanley%20kubrick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1328" data-original-width="1006" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAZtGzfPMtH_bjO_Ua0dmV1UISPsveVukNjIuQKIj3kdiVjFpgQ7i4Um3txqTRAJm3N40jOVixf5s2_aM-H61TOZsFnbx54lTQrt3aNR3_DnFv0iHwMaYw8Y3s7c5wHQK1D7qVrHXQApajePdW3Af4qHIff4NPzSb4cfVrPjOk6JvrGVyHivFxi-zG/s320/stanley%20kubrick.jpg" width="242" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(Stanley Kubrick) <br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i>
anticipated the films of the French New Wave—and with “its jagged time
structure and doubling back over past events” marks Kubrick as not only “a bridge
between the studio genre picture and the European art film” but as a “key
transitional figure between Old and New Hollywood,” Guest says.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzxF9KEe22KrgWK1AUMGFYWQI5h3H_ocXGDdxodJPZi8OMr5W7ZY9X9TJTYcYsIhatd5vG1rT83T_mewjyraE7kK07vS960PwAz3Yxy5MKBqq19NjECKCceCiwaEQcH7Kgaf7CTHaKWfoUAGSp5MdA9AOUVfGb38zTCrwTB-3bYVjUwf3-R4gha0tD/s1280/Marie%20Windsor.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzxF9KEe22KrgWK1AUMGFYWQI5h3H_ocXGDdxodJPZi8OMr5W7ZY9X9TJTYcYsIhatd5vG1rT83T_mewjyraE7kK07vS960PwAz3Yxy5MKBqq19NjECKCceCiwaEQcH7Kgaf7CTHaKWfoUAGSp5MdA9AOUVfGb38zTCrwTB-3bYVjUwf3-R4gha0tD/s320/Marie%20Windsor.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(Marie Windsor and Elisha Cook Jr.)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Casting was another key to the genius that was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i>. No noir film ever boasted a
greater gathering of character actors—Elisha Cook Jr., Jay C. Flippen, Ted de Corsia,
Timothy Carey, Marie Windsor, and Coleen Gray. Sterling Hayden got the lead
role as Johnny Clay after Frank Sinatra never could commit to a film version of
the Lionel White novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Clean Break</i>
that became the basis for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i>.
The studio, United Artists, wanted Victor Mature, but Kubrick and producer
James B. Harris refused to wait the eighteen months Mature needed before he
became available.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got Hayden for
$40,000, but the studio then only committed $200,000 to the project. Harris had
to raise the rest from his own savings account plus a loan from his father.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hayden’s performance was masterful, and driven in part
perhaps by the inner tensions that had always created misgivings about choosing
acting as a career, tensions then exacerbated by the former seaman’s caving and
naming of names of suspected Communist sympathizers before the House for
Un-American Activities Committee. He had briefly joined the Communist Party
after fighting with the Partisans in Yugoslavia during World War II.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxo0tN8rSj0c9Wa5ieYhHQPrhTGi05TQrOWrRcdsex-YKKibIx5k1JzbyO7P3Z6iwr-fdAiqOI3nuq8UbsS_7O9F6pcMwWzQ28sXVsLCCyTH9n8rJDkV18WmvpuAkMpAXJFRGZcgApyEuBIE2IZbK-I2ybe0uR0R4-fEVAbI_jPZix3fUUmB8GyLkd/s670/Sterling_Hayden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="474" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxo0tN8rSj0c9Wa5ieYhHQPrhTGi05TQrOWrRcdsex-YKKibIx5k1JzbyO7P3Z6iwr-fdAiqOI3nuq8UbsS_7O9F6pcMwWzQ28sXVsLCCyTH9n8rJDkV18WmvpuAkMpAXJFRGZcgApyEuBIE2IZbK-I2ybe0uR0R4-fEVAbI_jPZix3fUUmB8GyLkd/s320/Sterling_Hayden.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> (To the right, Sterling Hayden)<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The sense of disturbance prevails—deep-set, its roots in
self-contempt,” he writes in his autobiography <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wanderer</i>. “I’ve lived with such torment for years and maybe I
always will.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the film, Hayden’s Johnny Clay has just gotten out of
prison and believes he has a plan for the perfect crime, a $2 million heist at
a racetrack. What’s perfect, he believes, is the fact he’s assembled a five-man
team of non-criminals, including a cop, a wrestler buddy, sharpshooter, and one
of the window tellers at the racetrack, none of whom would likely raise
suspicion from the law. His sharpshooter Nikki Arcane, played by Timothy Carey,
is assigned to shoot the lead horse in the race, creating enough havoc to allow
Clay and the others to pull off the heist.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg31cZ9EfQgu_D0Dyt4SihNfkApkIq1pg0x_I7u9DFMhk6IvuxAfewAnKEtLwQz-XMuBeZil3Q-sxf9J9eQvkyOPrG9YE2zWN3vJbT-yCvjlaeIahOS3UXADiN9twczjvndJpYqD87FchBCF8XOcL9fYq42hiQ7x5l4-ToqjX6zqAhs5M6IBbxPeh8k/s1280/Timothy%20Carey.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg31cZ9EfQgu_D0Dyt4SihNfkApkIq1pg0x_I7u9DFMhk6IvuxAfewAnKEtLwQz-XMuBeZil3Q-sxf9J9eQvkyOPrG9YE2zWN3vJbT-yCvjlaeIahOS3UXADiN9twczjvndJpYqD87FchBCF8XOcL9fYq42hiQ7x5l4-ToqjX6zqAhs5M6IBbxPeh8k/s320/Timothy%20Carey.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">(Timothy Carey)<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The weak link proves to be the window teller, who lets his
cheating wife find out enough about the plan to tip off her gangster lover. The
lover decides he wants that $2 million and ends up in a deadly shooting match
with Johnny’s team. Johnny manages to slip away with the loot and his
girlfriend but before they can fly away they see the suitcase carrying the
money fall off the airport baggage wagon and two million dollars scatter in the
wind across the tarmac.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It was a chance meeting on a New York City street between Harris
and Kubrick, both in their mid-twenties at the time and still fledglings in
filmmaking, that planted the seed that became <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kubrick was a
former <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Look</i> magazine photographer who
had turned to film and had a couple low-budget minor films to his credit,
including the feature film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Killer’s Kiss</i>,
a noir with haunting and promising cinematography but amateurish dialogue and
plot.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i>, a
brilliantly paced story about a racetrack robbery, is the work of a
professional filmmaker,” writes Foster Hirsch in his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Dark Side of the Screen</i>. “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Killer’s
Kiss</i>, that of a talented amateur.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">James B. Harris had made training films for the Signal Corps
during the Korean War. A founder of Flamingo Films, he learned about Stanley
Kubrick from his partner and fellow Signal Corps member Alexander Singer, who
invited Kubrick to the set of a film they were making after the war. Harris
would go on to work as a producer with Kubrick not only on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i> but also <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paths of
Glory</i> (1957) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lolita</i> (1962)
before pursuing his own career as a director. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It was Harris who found the crime novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Clean Break</i> by Lionel White in the Scribner’s Bookstore on New
York’s Fifth Avenue and decided it would be a great vehicle for the new company
he and Kubrick had just formed, Harris-Kubrick Pictures. He liked the book’s
flashbacks and unusual nonlinear structure. He gave it to Kubrick, who agreed
and asked Harris to pursue getting the rights for it. They learned that the Los
Angeles-based Jaffe Agency was already negotiating with Frank Sinatra for a
film version, but no decision had been reached. Harris bought the rights with
$10,000 out of his own pocket.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After getting United Artists on board to back the project,
Kubrick, an avid reader and lover of literature, suggested crime novelist Jim
Thompson as a writer for the script. Thompson today is a legend in the
hardboiled world of noir—a former IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) Wobbly
and author of chilling tales such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Killer Inside Me</i>--but at the time he was on a downward, alcoholic spiral
working at tabloids and strapped for cash. “Stanley Kubrick rescued Thompson
from an early retirement into hackdom,” writes Robert Polito in his 1995
biography of Thompson, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Savage Art</i>. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thompson, unfamiliar with the screenplay format, went to
work for Harris and Kubrick. They worked at their company’s 57<sup>th</sup>
Street office before Thompson migrated to a nearby hotel.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Jim Thompson had made him nervous when they were working
together on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i>,” writer
Michael Herr recounts in 2000 memoir <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kubrick</i>,
“a big guy in a dirty old raincoat, a terrific writer but a little too
hard-boiled for Stanley’s taste. He’d turn up for work carrying a bottle in a
brown paper bag, but saying nothing about it—it was just there on the desk with
no apology or comment—not at all interested in putting Stanley at ease except
to offer him the bag, which Stanley declined, making no gestures whatever to
any part of the Hollywood process, except maybe toward the money.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One of the first big hurdles in the project was the fact no
racetrack would agree to be the setting of a movie about a racetrack grand
robbery. Kubrick’s biographer Vincent LoBrutto writes about this. Knowing it
was be impossible to secure such an agreement, “sets were being designed and
built for the interior sequences. Other exterior sequences could be achieved
using second-unit footage and rear-screen projection.” Still, an agreement was
reached with San Francisco’s Bay Meadows Racetrack to allow the filming of
“second-unit material of a race in progress.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Union restrictions (Kubrick could not both direct and be
director of photography) forced camera-savvy Kubrick to hire veteran
cinematographer Lucien Ballard. He and Ballard locked horns a number of times
during the filming, however, as Kubrick challenged Ballard’s time-honed methods
with untested innovations, such as using a hand-held camera and a 25mm lens for
certain shots when Ballard wanted a more standard 50mm lens. However, Ballard’s
contributions made the film better, Haden Guest writes. “Ballard’s diagrammatic
hot-spot lighting transforms dingy apartments and hidden back rooms into
dramatic extensions of the robbers’ feverishly claustrophobic lives,” and it
points to elements seen in future Kubrick films like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">2001: A Space Odyssey</i> (1968) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Shining</i> (1980).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9If1zkYAEtKeLgwqHXZKE0Lq09Y2nmRrcqcfpvvr9kFB4rbwYe5FAJY5TkJIWsFy3Z7DccoiLb2BXbcw3bOq--nWcJ4DQxc6A0OGbcCeWelK0gwA5L6YH7WqF1lr9Vi_XAx8s63jkKHT9EEEar36GXa_SimJeQ8x17QcpZzBvNIyRk2hrtB-jwUGa/s1280/Ted%20de%20Corsia.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9If1zkYAEtKeLgwqHXZKE0Lq09Y2nmRrcqcfpvvr9kFB4rbwYe5FAJY5TkJIWsFy3Z7DccoiLb2BXbcw3bOq--nWcJ4DQxc6A0OGbcCeWelK0gwA5L6YH7WqF1lr9Vi_XAx8s63jkKHT9EEEar36GXa_SimJeQ8x17QcpZzBvNIyRk2hrtB-jwUGa/s320/Ted%20de%20Corsia.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(To the right, Ted de Corsia)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The supporting cast of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Killing</i> is a Who’s Who of noir character actors. Elisha Cook Jr. firmly
established himself as a founding father of Noir World in his role as the gunsel
Wilmer Cook in John Huston’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Maltese
Falcon</i> in 1941.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Further roles such
as hopped-up jazz drummer Cliff March in Robert Siodmak’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Phantom Lady</i> (1944) cemented his status. Ted de Corsia, who plays
corrupt policeman Randy Kennan, looks “like a guy who’d spent his whole life in
boxing gyms and bookie joints” with his barrel chest, beady eyes, and “hair
glistening with a hard shell lacquer of Wildroot Cream,” writes Eddie Muller in
his 1998 book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark City: The Lost World
of Film Noir</i>.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Timothy Carey’s sharpshooter character, Nikki Arcane,
completes his task of killing the thoroughbred Red Lightning in the race
allowing Johnny Clay’s gang to do the heist. However, his surly, racist
behavior toward the African American parking attendant sets the stage for his
own ultimate demise. “Played with reptilian charm,” as Haden Guest describes
the performance, Carey’s Nikki Arcane “leers and grunts and groans out of his
permanent death-mask face,” writes Barry Gifford in his 1988 book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir</i>.
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Carey was one of the most unusual of Hollywood character
actors. Notorious for scene-stealing and his unexpected improvisations—such as
his extended crying and moaning “I don’t want to die” during the execution
scene in Kubrick’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paths of Glory</i>
(1957)—he had one of those<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“difficult to
work with” reputations in Hollywood, yet directors from Kubrick to Cassavetes
to Coppola to Tarantino recognized his talent and repeatedly sought him out for
supporting roles in their films.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“He was unrivaled in the 1950s in expressing his nuttiness
in unexpected ways,” Eddie Muller says.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Marie Windsor and Coleen Gray provide the feminine challenge
to all the testosterone in the film. Gray is Johnny Clay’s long-suffering
girlfriend. Gray brought noir credits to the cast with roles in classics like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kiss of Death</i> (1947) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nightmare Alley</i> (1947), but she was “always
the lone ray of light in noir’s dismal demimonde,” according to Muller, the
lone good girl amid a crew of criminal ne’er-do-wells. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Windsor’s Sherry Peatty is the classic femme fatale, the
cheating, scheming wife of Elisha Cook Jr.’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>henpecked cuckold George Peatty, yet another gem of a role that
established Cook as “the avatar of weak-willed weasles,” in Eddie Muller’s
estimation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Windsor’s noir credits
included <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Force of Evil</i> (1948) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Narrow Margin</i> (1952).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeORA3W8RCy8bx1PFP6HsCz8KJRzjwx25vN647ED5Rg6gKQXEVLj1ogUAHVeAXhhJ2QTLAaUST64Zb-I8nOrBP0gcUgLSy5bNdFSF4qEADvhPWs6GpdUgrtWV9qc0Id0riYpcENb24PufRkD-ONG2LTyDCMH86zY-eWUK8JfOvUlajDtP1e3tn75Kh/s1280/Kola%20Kwariani.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeORA3W8RCy8bx1PFP6HsCz8KJRzjwx25vN647ED5Rg6gKQXEVLj1ogUAHVeAXhhJ2QTLAaUST64Zb-I8nOrBP0gcUgLSy5bNdFSF4qEADvhPWs6GpdUgrtWV9qc0Id0riYpcENb24PufRkD-ONG2LTyDCMH86zY-eWUK8JfOvUlajDtP1e3tn75Kh/s320/Kola%20Kwariani.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(Kola Kwariani)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Add to these other cast members such as Jay C. Flippen as
the heist’s homosexual underwriter Marvin Unger, Kubrick’s chess-playing buddy Kola
Kwariani as strongman Maurice Oboukhoff, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and, of course, Sterling Hayden, whose noir
creds included his role as Dix Handley in John Huston’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Asphalt Jungle</i> (1950), and you’ve got what Eddie Muller calls
“a hand-picked rogue’s gallery,” and “ample proof that Stanley Kubrick loved
film noir.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The film was shot quickly—less than the 24 days scheduled--in
Los Angeles on an independent’s budget with UA providing only $200,000. Kubrick
took no salary and lived off loans from Harris. Kubrick’s directing—the
27-year-old director had never acted himself--was largely low-key.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He didn’t direct in front of anybody else,’
Marie Windsor recalled. “He’d say, `Marie, come over here a minute.’ We’d go
behind the scenery, and he’d say, `In this scene, I want you to be really tired
and lazy.’ I’d had some stage training, and he was trying to get me not to use
my big voice.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Once filming ended, Hayden’s agent, Bill Shiffren, and other
industry previewers weren’t impressed and insisted Kubrick re-shoot the film in
a more traditional linear fashion. Kubrick re-edited it, but he and Harris
decided they had to go with their original version, which more closely matched
the structure of Lionel White’s book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“We put it back the way we had it at the preview and delivered it that
way to United Artists,” Harris later recalled.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With a score that featured Andr<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">é</span> Previn on piano and Shelly
Manne on drums, the re-constituted film got through UA executives, but the
studio released the film on May 20, 1956, earlier than scheduled and with
minimal publicity. Plus the studio gave it second billing in a double feature
with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bandido</i> starring Robert Mitchum
on top. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i> thus got little attention and lost money, but it caught
Hollywood’s eye. MGM’s Dore Shary liked it enough to bring Harris and Kubrick
under his studio’s wing for future productions, and the following year it led
to a huge career boost for Kubrick with the director’s job for the war film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paths of Glory</i> (1957) starring Kirk
Douglas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i> would
prove pivotal to Kubrick’s career. Douglas had seen the film and “was so taken”
by it that he asked to meet Kubrick, who also wanted Douglas for the lead role
of Colonel Dax in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paths of Glory</i>. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing </i>“was an unusual picture, and
the studio had no faith in it and handled it poorly,” Douglas writes in his 1988
autobiography <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ragman’s Son</i>. “I
was intrigued by the film, and wanted to meet the director.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Douglas, a big star at the time, was key in helping to get
financing for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paths of Glory</i>. He told
Kubrick the film was important and needed to be made even though it was unlikely
to turn a profit. During filming, he was impressed with Kubrick’s talent but
also found him frustrating. Kubrick tried to change the screenplay written by
Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson—whose anger at Kubrick over the credits in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i> didn’t prevent him from
signing on to another film with him—and turned “a beautiful script” into a “cheapened
version” with dialogue that was “atrocious.” When confronted by Douglas about
the changes, Kubrick retorted, “I want to make money.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Douglas said Kubrick’s rewritten script included lines like
“You’ve got a big head. You’re so sure the sun rises and sets up there in your
noggin you don’t even bother to carry matches.” The film was shot with the
original script and is today a classic.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Douglas later would hire Kubrick to replace Anthony Mann as
director of his 1960 epic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spartacus</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With an all-star cast that included Lawrence
Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Tony Curtis, and Peter Ustinov as well
as Douglas in the lead role as the Roman Empire-era slave Spartacus, the $12
million film would win four Academy Awards and become a huge box office success
for Universal Studio. However, Kubrick hated working under studio and Douglas’
own restrictions, and Douglas would never forget how Kubrick was willing to
steal screenwriting credits from HUAC blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo.
Douglas’ decision to credit Trumbo on the big screen effectively restored
Trumbo’s career and brought an end to the dreaded blacklist that had ruined so
many lives and careers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Douglas recalled the discussion he, producer Edward Lewis,
and Kubrick had about screenwriting credits for the film. “Use my name,” Kubrick
told them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Eddie and I looked at each other horrified. I said,
`Stanley, wouldn’t you feel embarrassed to put your name on a script that
someone else wrote?’ He looked at me as if he didn’t know what I was talking
about. `No.’ He would have been delighted to take the credit. … Stanley is not
a writer. … All this proves that you don’t have to be a nice person to be
extremely talented. You can be a shit and be talented and, conversely, you can
be the nicest guy in the world and not have any talent. Stanley Kubrick is a
talented shit.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kubrick, the lifelong lover of books who couldn’t write,
would go on to a heralded career as a director but one haunted by his obsession
with being the “auteur” who bears sole responsibility for a film and shadowed
by the same treatment he gave writer Jim Thompson in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Even then a self-styled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">auteur</i>,
Kubrick was notorious for his cavalier use of writers,” Woody Haut writes in
2002 book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heartbreak and Vine: The Fate
of Hardboiled Writers in Hollywood</i>. “Some authors would buy into the
Kubrick myth to such a degree that they would come to thank the director for mistreating
them.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Writer Calder Willingham would get similar treatment in his
work with Kubrick on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paths of Glory</i>
as would Terry Southern on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dr.
Strangelove</i> (1964). Gustav Hasford’s book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Short-Timers</i> became the basis for Kubrick’s 1987 war film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Full Metal Jacket</i>. The author also
worked with Kubrick and writer Michael Herr in crafting a script out of the
novel. A little known writer of a little known book with no agent or lawyer,
however, he only met Kubrick in person once and was relegated to communicating
with him only via phone, fax, or e-mail while Kubrick and the better-known Herr
worked more intimately together. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Both Herr and Kubrick’s biographer, Vincent LoBrutto, tend
toward hagiography in their books about the director, but Hasford’s dissatisfaction
with his treatment was obvious when he showed up unexpectedly on the set of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Full Metal Jacket </i>during filming. “I
wanted to see in fact whether the film was being made,” he said later in an
interview. “I was contemplating legal action at the time, and it would’ve been
pointless if there were no movie.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hasford won equal screenwriting credit with Kubrick and Herr
on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Full Metal Jacket</i> but it took a
small war to get it. “In the cynical world of L.A., where show ‘biz’ deals are
conducted in the back alleys of cocktail parties like self-parodying out-takes
from a comedic film noir, you might want to interject this lively note of
(transitory) optimism,” he later wrote. “I won my credit battle with Stanley. I
beat Stanley, City Hall, The Powers That Be, and all the lawyers at Warner
Bros., to and including the Supreme Boss Lawyer. As a little Canuck friend of
mine would say, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I kicked dey butt</i>.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Michael Herr stopped speaking to him as a result, however.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kubrick’s treatment of Jim Thompson left the writer scarred
for life. “That Stanley Kubrick `cheated’ him out of his credit on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i> became another of Thompson’s
personal myths in the sense that for the rest of his life he rehearsed his
grievance to all who would listen,” Robert Polito writes in his biography of
Thompson. “His `betrayal’ by Kubrick is an anecdote that everyone who knew him
after 1955 can recite.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Although Thompson’s family insists that the writer took his
case to the Writers Guild and won concessions plus the opportunity to work on
the Harris-Kubrick production of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paths of
Glory</i>, Polito challenges that story, pointing out that Thompson didn’t join
the Writers Guild until two years later. Nevertheless, Thompson didn’t let
Kubrick’s betrayal prevent them from indeed working together on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paths of Glory</i>, for which he did receive
joint credit with Kubrick and Calder Willingham for the screenplay.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">James Harris insisted that Thompson only deserved his
“additional dialogue” credit, that the writer didn’t deserve more credit for
the script. Associate producer Alexander Singer, however, disagreed, telling
Polito that Thompson was “the person who wrote the script.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In his 1999 book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eyes
Wide Open</i>, a sharp critique of the director from a writer who’d worked with
him on his last film, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eyes Wide Shut</i>
(1999), screenwriter Frederic Raphael describes Kubrick as a gifted director
with no ability to write. “Longing to deserve the accolade of auteurship,
directors often seek to append their names to the writing credits. Their habit
is to be empowered to embellish scripts which they were powerless to begin.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kubrick, with all his love for literature, had little
respect for screenwriters, Raphael writes. He recalled a conversation he once
had with Kubrick who told him the following: “No writer who’s really good is
ever going to invest his full ego in work that some other guy is going to come
in and direct. It’s a psychological impossibility.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nonetheless, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Killing</i> “ranks … among (Thompson’s) crowning accomplishments,” Polito
writes, while also marking the emergence of one of Hollywood’s greatest modern
directors. Thompson never became a Hollywood insider. “Jim Thompson loved the
idea of Hollywood, especially the old Hollywood that endured around such
vintage establishments as the Musso & Frank Grill—Hollywood’s oldest
restaurant, a dark, woody chop house, fortified with two matching bars, on Hollywood
Boulevard.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kubrick eventually left Hollywood and moved to England to
make his movies. However, he was in many ways the embodiment of a new
Hollywood--brilliant, creative, and perhaps a bit ruthless, words that could
also be used to describe his first great film, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p><p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:1;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
mso-themecolor:hyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-23638450282051179092023-02-24T14:55:00.012-08:002023-03-06T07:23:54.770-08:00From Biden's absence in East Palestine, Ohio, to the rise of another Presley in Mississippi to one journalist's take on "Labor in the South" <p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi505p_6g54cchrEehwqXygIe3yQFGesyRs-k36yBB7_tniO2IZvtramhPuaW33FivelijWrdNpt_VCa-ZM5oOTB6Ej42uXFsfcIXxJgxDghJiJvr8xs_OdFFkDVLTH5V0-fUDfz2XPVDGPoPkwdgkA2YRrB9tNBdws7y71OBr0KIWzdGqHC0miBdB-/s1536/Mother_Jones_1902-11-04.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1041" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi505p_6g54cchrEehwqXygIe3yQFGesyRs-k36yBB7_tniO2IZvtramhPuaW33FivelijWrdNpt_VCa-ZM5oOTB6Ej42uXFsfcIXxJgxDghJiJvr8xs_OdFFkDVLTH5V0-fUDfz2XPVDGPoPkwdgkA2YRrB9tNBdws7y71OBr0KIWzdGqHC0miBdB-/s320/Mother_Jones_1902-11-04.jpg" width="217" /></a></i></div><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Mother Jones, "The Miners' Angel")<br /></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Let’s have a bit of a
roundup—from Biden’s misplaced sympathies to a progressive populist challenge
in Mississippi--before we get down to the business of my recent talk to union
members on “Labor and the South</i>”:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Today is the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, and
the warmongers are rattling their sabers louder than ever and wanting more war. It's very telling that Joe Biden
went to Kiev instead of East Palestine, Ohio, site of a recent environmental
disaster that was brought on by the same pampered railroad industry he has allowed
to profiteer at the expense of its workers and the American people.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here, closer to home in Mississippi, populist Democrat
Brandon Presley—yes, a relative of the late Elvis himself—has declared his
candidacy for governor, challenging right-wing Republican incumbent Tate Reeves. More than
three decades ago, I covered the then-very young Presley’s rousing speech at
the fabled Neshoba County Fair endorsing fellow populist Democrat Wayne Dowdy’s
ultimately unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That speech launched a political career that led to Presley
today being the state's highest elected Democrat as the Northern District
public service commissioner. Though by no means a raging radical, he has well
established his grassroots populist credentials, taking on the utilities again
and again on behalf of the people. So far he’s ahead of the widely disliked Reeves in the polls,
but Reeves commands a formidable $5 million war chest in a deeply conservative
state.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now to the business of the day. Earlier this month, I gave a
short talk to members of the United Campus Workers/Communications Workers of
America Local 3565 on the University of Mississippi campus about a favorite topic: “Labor and the
South”. Here is the draft of my discussion, which I’m going to leave in the original caps
of my prepared remarks and with my marked emphases if you don’t mind. I take a
look at labor’s past, present, and future in the U.S. South:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THE SOUTH HAS A LONG,
RICH HISTORY OF LABOR THAT GOES BACK TO THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">KNIGHTS OF LABOR</b> AT THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY, A UNION THAT
ANTICIPATED THE FUTURE CIA IN SEEKING BOTH SKILLED AND NON-SKILLED
WORKERS—INCLUDING COAL MINERS, TURPENTINE WORKERS, AND DOCKYARD WORKERS IN THE
SOUTH--AND WHICH HELD A <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">BI-RACIAL
CONVENTION IN RICHMOND, VA., IN 1886</b> THAT INCURRED THE WRATH OF THE LOCAL
AND REGIONAL PRESS. THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">HAYMARKET AFFAIR</b>
ON MAY DAY IN CHICAGO THAT SAME YEAR EFFECTIVELY ENDED THE KNIGHTS BUT SET THE
STAGE FOR THE LATER RISE OF THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">INDUSTRIAL
WORKERS OF THE WORLD (IWW)</b> AND EVEN LATER THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">CIO</b>.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THE 20TH CENTURY BEGAN WITH <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">MOTHER JONES’</b>
ORGANIZING OF COAL MINERS IN APPALACHIA, THEN A COUPLE DECADES LATER CAME STRIKES BY <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">TEXTILE WORKERS IN THE CAROLINAS</b> AND <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">TENANT FARMERS AND SHARECROPPERS IN ARKANSAS AND BEYOND</b>, HUGE
PROTESTS AGAINST THE BIG TEXTILE MAGNATES AND COTTON PLANTATION OWNERS, LABOR
HEROES LIKE COTTON MILL TROUBADOUR AND MARTYR <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ELLA MAY WIGGINS</b>, SOME VICTORIES AND SOME BRUTAL LOSSES. LATER THE
CREATION OF <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">THE HIGHLANDER SCHOOL</b> IN
TENNESSEE GAVE NEW HOPE TO RAISING WORKER CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE SOUTH.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1igeMzm-N4O1mOe4C9QCShUEugeqOU80vbhxH4d0FnQ-7VQ9Mj2EaZ5QzlweJKTgKwC1aq-x50FecLYSShYkwAZ91s4SMXGAvkjjYE7nsnGKykMfU9tkCPVi6Y08K0ein3b6aFSxd9cmWE8ncSQRVO_FYHhLg7RxMBOkUhIZESKw4EKgtoOh1sMr8/s159/Ella%20May%20Wiggins.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="149" data-original-width="159" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1igeMzm-N4O1mOe4C9QCShUEugeqOU80vbhxH4d0FnQ-7VQ9Mj2EaZ5QzlweJKTgKwC1aq-x50FecLYSShYkwAZ91s4SMXGAvkjjYE7nsnGKykMfU9tkCPVi6Y08K0ein3b6aFSxd9cmWE8ncSQRVO_FYHhLg7RxMBOkUhIZESKw4EKgtoOh1sMr8/s1600/Ella%20May%20Wiggins.jpg" width="159" /></a></i></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(To the right, Ella May Wiggins)<br /></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">OPERATION DIXIE</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> IN THE LATE
1940S AND EARLY 1950S WAS A HUGE EFFORT TO ORGANIZE THE SOUTH AND SCORED
VICTORIES IN PLACES LIKE THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">MASONITE
PLANT IN LAUREL, MISSISSIPPI</b>, BUT IT ULTIMATELY FAILED AMID THE HYPED-UP-<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ANTI-COMMUNISM</b> WITCHHUNTS THAT
CHARACTERIZED THAT TIME. UNIONS ACROSS THE LAND STRIPPED THEMSELVES OF THEIR
MOST MILITANT AND HARD-WORKING ORGANIZERS.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THIS NEW CENTURY<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>BEGAN WITH A HUGE LABOR VICTORY BY THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN’S ASSOCIATION
LOCAL 1422 IN CHARLESTON, S.C.,</b> AFTER THEIR STRIKE FORCED THE DANISH
NORDANA SHIPPING LINE TO RETURN TO HIRING UNION WORKERS. THE VICTORY CAME NOT,
HOWEVER, WITHOUT A BRUTAL COURT BATTLE. </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MORE RECENTLY, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">THE FAILURE OF UNION CAMPAIGNS AT THE
NISSAN PLANTS IN TENNESSEE AND MISSISSIPPI AND THE AMAZON PLANT IN BESSEMER,
ALABAMA, </b>HAVE RESURRECTED THE OLD “THE SOUTH IS ANTI-UNION” MANTRA.
SOUTHERN WORKERS FACE WHAT I’VE LONG CALLED <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A PHALANX OF OPPOSITION</b> THAT NOT ONLY INCLUDES MANAGEMENT AND
OWNERSHIP BUT ALSO THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP, THE MEDIA, THE COURTS, AND EVEN
MANY OR MOST CHURCHES.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">STILL, YOU CAN’T KILL
AN IDEA.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">TECHNICIANS AT THE NISSAN PLANT IN SMYRNA, TENNESSEE</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, JUST GOT NLRB APPROVAL TO VOTE ON JOINING
A UNION. THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">SOUTHERN WORKERS ASSEMBLY</b>
IS HOSTING A “SOUTHERN WORKER SCHOOL’ IN CHARLOTTE, NC, IN APRIL. THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">UE</b> (THE UNITED, ELECTRICAL, RADIO &
MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA), ONE OF THE MOST DYNAMIC UNIONS IN LABOR HISTORY,
HAS WORKED WITH THE ASSEMBLY AND HELPED ORGANIZE WORKERS IN THE CAROLINAS IN
RECENT DECADES. MY FORMER STUDENT <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">JAZ
BRIZACK </b>HAS LED THE CHARGE TO ORGANIZE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">STARBUCKS
WORKER</b>S ACROSS THE COUNTRY, INCLUDING IN <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">MEMPHIS AND EVEN HERE IN OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI</b>. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">KELLOGG WORKERS IN MEMPHIS</b> AND OTHER CITIES ENDED THEIR 77-DAY
STRIKE IN LATE 2021 WITH A NEW CONTRACT THAT INCLUDED COST-OF-LIVING RAISES AND
BETTER WORKING CONDITIONS. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NURSES IN
ASHEVILLE, NC</b>, SUCCESSFULLY ORGANIZED DESPITE OPPOSITION FROM ONE OF THE
NATION’S GIANT HEALTH CARE COMPANIES. THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">FARM
LABOR ORGANIZING COMMITTEE</b> AND <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">COALITION
OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS</b> HAVE WON SIGNIFICANT GAINS FOR MIGRANT FARM WORKERS
FROM FLORIDA TO NORTH CAROLINA. IN NOVEMBER A NEW UNION, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">THE UNION OF SOUTHERN SERVICE WORKERS</b>, CAME INTO BEING IN ALABAMA,
GEORGIA, AND THE CAROLINAS. LET’S NOT FORGET THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">UNITED CAMPUS WORKERS’ OWN VICTORY IN THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY SYSTEM IN TENNESSEE</b>
A FEW YEARS BACK, PREVENTING A MASSIVE PRIVATIZATION EFFORT LED BY THE GOVERNOR.
THE COVID PANDEMIC HELPED RAISE CONSCIOUSNESS OF WORKERS RIGHTS ACROSS THE
COUNTRY—FROM NURSES TO TEACHERS TO COFFEE SHOP WORKERS.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">WORKERS IN THE SOUTH,
AS ACROSS THE COUNTRY, NEED TO KNOW THEY <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">CAN’T
RELY ON THE MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES, AND THAT INCLUDES THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY</b>,
FOR CONSISTENT SUPPORT. EVEN <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">THEIR OWN
NATIONAL UNION LEADERSHIP HAS TOO OFTEN COMPROMISED AND GOTTEN TOO USED TO THE
BENEFITS OF COSY RELATIONSHIPS WITH POLITICIANS</b>—WITNESS THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">BREWING REVOLUTIONS IN OLD UNIONS LIKE THE
UNITED AUTO WORKERS AND THE TEAMSTERS</b>. UNIONS NEED <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING</b> AND <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A
MILITANT COMMITMENT</b> TO TAKE ON THE EXISTENTIAL CHALLENGES ORGANIZERS HAVE
ALWAYS FACED. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">THE SOUTH HAS LONG BEEN
THE KEY TO A RESURGENT LABOR MOVEMENT</b> IN THIS COUNTRY. THAT’S A MOVEMENT
THAT SERVES ALL WORKERS, REGARDLESS OF RACE.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_4FP03PzT_OHMX_q2W6c_jW3l84a7duQCzVflEp86759NDmAbEllm5ByGIKz0x9QOeR38-b0b71qKeXDOGk8cUgbHpI_sOew7jDBxGJ51Ga7T6ylNa88FWPaNVmzv4aDPaZoDZ3IWLe6ietQw_pxxOl19WV7KsUTQlq4DQka2O5zvcGT2EbFqxkK8/s3000/Martin_Luther_King_Jr_NYWTS.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2473" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_4FP03PzT_OHMX_q2W6c_jW3l84a7duQCzVflEp86759NDmAbEllm5ByGIKz0x9QOeR38-b0b71qKeXDOGk8cUgbHpI_sOew7jDBxGJ51Ga7T6ylNa88FWPaNVmzv4aDPaZoDZ3IWLe6ietQw_pxxOl19WV7KsUTQlq4DQka2O5zvcGT2EbFqxkK8/s320/Martin_Luther_King_Jr_NYWTS.jpg" width="264" /></a></i></b></div><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Martin Luther King Jr.)<br /></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></b><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
SAW THE IMPORTANCE OF A MOVEMENT THAT IMPROVES THE LIVES OF ALL WORKING PEOPLE, AND THAT’S ONE REASON HE CAME TO MEMPHIS IN 1968 TO SUPPORT THE <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">STRIKING SANITATION WORKERS</b>. THAT’S A
PART OF THE KING LEGACY YOU DON’T HEAR DURING CELEBRATIONS OF HIS LIFE AND
DURING BLACK HISTORY MONTH. IT’S A LEGACY OF DR. KING THAT WE NEED TO EMBRACE
AS WELL AS REMEMBER.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-68969398565473320872023-02-10T12:17:00.021-08:002023-02-12T10:04:47.456-08:00The Hersh report on the U.S. destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines is the tale of an act of war, not only against Russia but against U.S. ally Germany<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ28IFgrCtmHi4ACOV-bEBFrVgXleejZoNWiyfqzh3L4mbWZBMm70ECqyHjRaXH9tVU9i5CINePtNuuKSQVKRT1KAywTIjm5POxaM-IrzuUPanXzbdE5lCLaesYDe3tv_SHMs7zL-o_dpqaGtAd7yLVdip6E28oJDEy9hGhta8-EhDSEnLPBXLTkOL/s4918/Atomic_bombing_of_Japan.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2918" data-original-width="4918" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ28IFgrCtmHi4ACOV-bEBFrVgXleejZoNWiyfqzh3L4mbWZBMm70ECqyHjRaXH9tVU9i5CINePtNuuKSQVKRT1KAywTIjm5POxaM-IrzuUPanXzbdE5lCLaesYDe3tv_SHMs7zL-o_dpqaGtAd7yLVdip6E28oJDEy9hGhta8-EhDSEnLPBXLTkOL/s320/Atomic_bombing_of_Japan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The United States committed an act of war on September 26,
2022, when it blew up the Nord Stream pipelines that funneled vital natural gas
from Russia to Germany and elsewhere in Europe, an act of war not only against
Russia but against U.S. ally Germany.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The fact that the U.S. indeed committed this act has been
now revealed by the nation’s premier investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in
his online substack publication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize winner, gained fame
for his groundbreaking reporting on the My Lai massacre by U.S. soldiers in
Vietnam in 1968 and later for exposing the torturing of prisoners at Abu Ghaib
by the U.S. military in 2004..</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You’ll have to go online to Hersh's site to read it because you’re not going to be getting much follow-up any
time soon in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Washington Post</i> or hearing about it on
the CBS, NBC, ABC news or on MSNBC or CNN because those organizations don’t
report stories without first getting FBI and CIA approval.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What you will get in the mainstream media are denunciations
such as in <i>Business Insider</i> with its February 9 story headlined “The claim by a
discredited journalist that the US secretly blew up the Nord Stream pipeline is
proving a gift to Putin”.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In his February 8 story, Hersh detailed a plan by U.S.
officials dating back to December 2021, even before the Russian invasion of
Ukraine, to destroy the pipelines in order to end German dependence on cheap
natural gas from Russia and utterly sever a key economic link between Russia
and Europe. Greatly assisting in the plan was Norway, which would provide the base for the mission.<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With Nord Stream out of operation, Germany has had to turn
to the U.S. for natural gas supplies at a much higher price than it was paying
Russia. The result has been inflation and economic turmoil in Germany while
Russia turned to China, India and other customers for its natural gas. Russia
is doing just fine, thank you, while the German people have had to ration fuel
this winter.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hersh reported that the U.S. Navy planted explosives on both
the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in June 2022 and detonated them on September
26. Approval of the sabotage came from President Joe Biden himself and, of
course, the puppeteers who tell Biden what to do and what to say: Under
Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, Secretary of State
Anthony Blinken, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The act was
committed without congressional approval or even notification.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Biden’s decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more
than nine months of highly secret back and forth debate inside Washington’s
national security community,” Hersh writes. “For much of that time, the issue
was not whether to do the mission, but how to get it done with no overt clue as
to who was responsible.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nord Stream was a 750-mile long operation running under the
Baltic Sea and connecting ports in Russia and northern Germany. Ownership was
shared by the Russian company Gazprom and energy firms in Germany, France, and
the Netherlands. Although the operation of Nord Stream 2 hadn’t yet been
activated, it was predicted to be able to provide Germany with 50 percent of
its natural gas needs. Biden and company had strongly opposed Nord Stream since
its inception more than 15 years ago.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A deliberate act of terror to destroy a vital source of fuel
to an ally like Germany would seem inconceivable in normal times. These aren’t
normal times. The United States is in a desperate struggle to hold on its
post-Cold War status as the single world power, a hegemony that can tolerate no
competition from Russia or China. The Ukrainian people are victims of that
futile struggle.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What ultimately at risk is a nuclear war with Russia. The
United States bullied its way across Vietnam, Serbia, Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan,
one failure after another that left behind countless dead and scars that may
never heal. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of these countries had
the nuclear weapons or powerful armies that Russia has. The leaders of the
United States, in their arrogance, have now picked a fight with a country that
won’t be bullied.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Where in this vast and diverse nation is there open and
vigorous discussion over this catastrophic slide into insanity? Why is our
much-ballyhooed “free press” silent? With all the fighting that goes on in Congress,
why is there little or no debate about the White House’s warmongering? </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One has to ask: Is this still a democracy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-38394073951934326732022-12-30T13:40:00.024-08:002023-01-03T09:53:51.610-08:00The Collective West's macabre dance of death in Ukraine, what Beat poet Gregory Corso would call a "laughable preview" of the "corpse the universe" that awaits <p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz64MZl7sxZ5YoJ1AjCffDvhq9ymr0jPvWkFX2JPfOKclNCzI5q1eWwChz84R8MYiipp9fnQK111_SOauK-gNr5zVDeNsbHT_sCAAPlQZ5Iq_pHwOEQCeJeyy9-1e47lpNl9-aBIwwtmEgB328lN3H4K14veav_mx0NRncdxpSUdjuAa-FnCqYlcZf/s259/Gregory_Corso.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="200" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz64MZl7sxZ5YoJ1AjCffDvhq9ymr0jPvWkFX2JPfOKclNCzI5q1eWwChz84R8MYiipp9fnQK111_SOauK-gNr5zVDeNsbHT_sCAAPlQZ5Iq_pHwOEQCeJeyy9-1e47lpNl9-aBIwwtmEgB328lN3H4K14veav_mx0NRncdxpSUdjuAa-FnCqYlcZf/s1600/Gregory_Corso.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />(Gregory Corso) <br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Beat poet Gregory Corso came from that generation that
most viscerally understood how the atomic bomb that the United States dropped
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, at the end of World War II had changed the
world. He wrote a poem about it in 1958, appropriately titled “BOMB”.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“I do not know just how horrible
Bombdeath is<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can only imagine</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Yet no other death I know has so
laughable a preview …</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Corpse the universe … O Bomb<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>O final Pied Piper</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Know that the earth will madonna
the Bomb</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">that in the hearts of men to come
more bombs will be born</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">magisterial bombs wrapped in
ermine<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>all beautiful</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">and they’ll sit plunk on earth’s
grumpy empires</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">fierce with moustaches of gold”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Don’t you love that line “so laughable a preview”? Did it
make you think of former comedian Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent visit to
Washington, D.C., where he was toasted and lauded with affection and admiration
by President Biden, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell, who called the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine against Russia the
nation’s number one priority?</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Y-GrEbinz_hdloaPcluDscAOXbkufA0HY4aGzyGYzW28Fj5uQ-pj0Kmqi_M-riLqaTm18p5-wcUzi8yiP70aV2CRsg-HnOoQTmMrd2OpRk30FvgIUIrxjXkfIzpdgvU7ZspDEXjcJmUe-Kf_pFMPFtQ58beqDa7W6myWtL5xBKlnbp2oxi3wChrM/s1197/ZELENSKY%20AS%20A%20PERFORMER%202018.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="803" data-original-width="1197" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Y-GrEbinz_hdloaPcluDscAOXbkufA0HY4aGzyGYzW28Fj5uQ-pj0Kmqi_M-riLqaTm18p5-wcUzi8yiP70aV2CRsg-HnOoQTmMrd2OpRk30FvgIUIrxjXkfIzpdgvU7ZspDEXjcJmUe-Kf_pFMPFtQ58beqDa7W6myWtL5xBKlnbp2oxi3wChrM/s320/ZELENSKY%20AS%20A%20PERFORMER%202018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(Volodymyr Zelensky, center, as a performer in 2018)<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Zelensky, looking buff in his green sweatshirt, even got a kiss
from 82-year-old Pelosi even though what he really wanted was yet more billions
of dollars and weapons to use against the Russians, whose invasion of Ukraine
is brutal but who also rightfully don’t want a belligerent NATO member on their
border, one that has already warred against the Russian-speaking population of
eastern Ukraine for eight years. Zelensky had hardly thanked Congress for the billions he’s already received before he asked for more, assuring his
fawning audience it’s an investment, not a dubious handout to what has been
designated the most corrupt nation in Europe.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Never mind that Zelensky has repeatedly called for a “no-fly
zone” over Ukraine and other measures that could plunge the world into a third
world war and nuclear Armageddon. The neoliberal establishment in
Washington—including Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who championed
the 2014 coup that installed a pro-Western leadership in Kyiv and set the stage
for the current war—is bound and determined to cripple Russia even at the risk
of countless deaths not only in Ukraine but around the world.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Why do they want to cripple Russia? To claim its markets,
eliminate its potential as an economic rival, and free U.S. and other Western
corporations for further exploitation of the world. The bombing of the Nord Stream
pipeline is the clearest of evidence for this. Now boot-licking Europe has to
buy its fuel from the United States, at a much higher price than it was paying
Russia, of course. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once Russa is
crippled, the focus can shift to China, an even more threatening economic
competitor.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The true motivation of the proxy war in Ukraine is greed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Biden finally shut down the United
States’ 20-year war in Afghanistan, the insatiable wolves of the military-industrial
complex howled in anger. They had to be fed, and Biden knew it. His and his son
Hunter’s deep knowledge of and investment in corrupt Ukraine, the antipathy
toward Russia that he and fellow Democrats like Hillary Clinton shared, the
slavishness of allies like the European Union coupled with the U.S. domination
of NATO--all made Ukraine perfect as the next battleground. To hell with the
Ukrainian people.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3FxIl4K23jQrF-QZudkepmIDO_BhZVXqcYb_kEx7jgYTETcJX-ssDVKMvM4VejJISjVUGaIeAcq7VpZg0Rj6bFnxpE696Dlfr7pyOIsHTNPPKX0Mieq7VKfCeevQRtFbdwc60HflbUKh3bcjJoF136OcjNh4h_o7BnwEAe4x9B32jpEndoWAuN6rs/s1781/Oswald_Spengler.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1781" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3FxIl4K23jQrF-QZudkepmIDO_BhZVXqcYb_kEx7jgYTETcJX-ssDVKMvM4VejJISjVUGaIeAcq7VpZg0Rj6bFnxpE696Dlfr7pyOIsHTNPPKX0Mieq7VKfCeevQRtFbdwc60HflbUKh3bcjJoF136OcjNh4h_o7BnwEAe4x9B32jpEndoWAuN6rs/s320/Oswald_Spengler.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">(Oswald Spengler) <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">“War is the primary politics of EVERYTHING that lives,” the
German philosopher Oswald Spengler wrote in his 1918 magnum opus <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Decline of the West</i>, “so much so
that in the deeps battle and life are one, and being and will-to-battle expire
together. The aim, too, remains the same—namely the growth of one’s life-unit
(class or nation) at the cost of the others.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The 19<sup>th</sup> century German historian Heinrich von
Treitschke praised the “sacredness” of war. “Without war no State
could be. … The laws of human thought and of human nature forbid any
alternative, neither is one to be wished for.”</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnIEWa49PXbm1zBN9RVurijUC3Tox1x88iD1CCyxiYpEWa8nf3AG_UpJkJM4UOgSNL-rujnGqP_CqMyd3xwaBpsB-9nkqBFweI52P8gTVQoi8dPIkNr86I2jddm2FpbwwH1fkLlB2-spVFFwybrB1v00vSUFW1lI7Hm84W_0EqOqfP5t1tEu9ROmcV/s892/Treitschke.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="812" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnIEWa49PXbm1zBN9RVurijUC3Tox1x88iD1CCyxiYpEWa8nf3AG_UpJkJM4UOgSNL-rujnGqP_CqMyd3xwaBpsB-9nkqBFweI52P8gTVQoi8dPIkNr86I2jddm2FpbwwH1fkLlB2-spVFFwybrB1v00vSUFW1lI7Hm84W_0EqOqfP5t1tEu9ROmcV/s320/Treitschke.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, Heinrich von Treitschke)<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those are the voices that today echo through the halls of
the U.S. State Department, Wall Street, and at NATO headquarters in Brussels. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A voice not heard in those unhallowed halls is that of 19<sup>th</sup>
century Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, who defined evil as “the state
of tension of a will which asserts itself exclusively, denying every other.” Solovyov
believed “suffering is the necessary reaction of the other against such a
will.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEium5dHqAMpYErBNFskfLA5UIHfWNzEBuHR71tmHIDL6-1I9MVE_TFLAv_rWBa6zYIUrMPODESUPB6Wj1uBVUu9vF0NKxgwm1gGsVSl3QHCvpj-zq-DVBKtiYJGcQyE1IV_PcpirWeHWbSVSU7XydYT9Um8lgrozxs5AbM4DgQHO1X_exc4CBXEX1vO/s1100/VS_Solovyov.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="828" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEium5dHqAMpYErBNFskfLA5UIHfWNzEBuHR71tmHIDL6-1I9MVE_TFLAv_rWBa6zYIUrMPODESUPB6Wj1uBVUu9vF0NKxgwm1gGsVSl3QHCvpj-zq-DVBKtiYJGcQyE1IV_PcpirWeHWbSVSU7XydYT9Um8lgrozxs5AbM4DgQHO1X_exc4CBXEX1vO/s320/VS_Solovyov.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br />(Vladimir Solovyov) <br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">In other words, war and utter selfishness—translate:
greed—are evil. Sadly, Solovyov concluded that only the end of the world will
destroy evil.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the theater of the absurd that is today’s “Collective
West”, a kind of macabre dance is taking place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A “laughable preview,” Corso would call the procession of its
greed-and-ambition-blinded leaders behind the “final Pied Piper”, their beautiful,
ermine-wrapped bomb. Onward they march toward the “corpse” of the universe that
is the ultimate end of their machinations. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-75899353363824756892022-12-05T11:08:00.019-08:002022-12-05T16:45:53.665-08:00Biden's betrayal of railroad workers is par for the course for the modern-day Democratic Party<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiAE-J_YgvLibdJnQjJKFUh2cTp8dO5N_jULrgzE-2t8xNMX020SeUlC9Z_1LocI2bgMpGsxWrOysDjJ-kxMN5Jn3_zRQ5Y0XO82AsDS_VJBdQapUPpWPUUCUBpaeyKnk5EasRpOIpRnk51WnIcUGKjkbzo0J-Py05Gh4fAtcQq8IHR5sxn4D_v8GK/s2292/RWU_patch.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2224" data-original-width="2292" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiAE-J_YgvLibdJnQjJKFUh2cTp8dO5N_jULrgzE-2t8xNMX020SeUlC9Z_1LocI2bgMpGsxWrOysDjJ-kxMN5Jn3_zRQ5Y0XO82AsDS_VJBdQapUPpWPUUCUBpaeyKnk5EasRpOIpRnk51WnIcUGKjkbzo0J-Py05Gh4fAtcQq8IHR5sxn4D_v8GK/s320/RWU_patch.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />My friend is a longtime Democrat in the Republican-controlled
Mississippi Legislature, a veteran of many battles with the arch-conservatives who
rule this state, and he’s got a few scars to show it. As we enjoyed tailgating
on the fabled University of Mississippi Grove one football game day, I lamented
how today’s national Democratic Party has abandoned its working class roots.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Blue-collar workers are forever lost to the party, he told a
wide-eyed me. “They’re never coming back,” he said. The seductive power of
Republican demagoguery has won them over forever.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So what then is the modern-day Democratic Party, I asked.
“Suburban women,” he said. “That’s our target.” He was serious. The party of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the New Deal, the Great Society was now the party of
“suburban women”—in other words, well-to-do, well-educated and predominantly
white suburbanites. Nothing against suburbanites, but that's all?<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Then you’ve lost me,” I told him. And indeed, on May 10 of
this year, before an audience of one (me) in my home office in Oxford,
Mississippi, I declared my independence from the Democratic Party, a hollow
shell of its former self that today is as beholden to its corporate and wealthy
donors as the Republicans. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At no time was this point driven home more clearly than when
President Joe Biden, the self-proclaimed “most labor-friendly president in
American history”, recently signed legislation forbidding railroad workers from
going on strike to secure paid sick leave and a more human work schedule.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“I don’t think (Biden) is a friend of labor,” a railroad
signalman told the World Socialist Web Site after Biden’s betrayal. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I think he’s in it for the money. I think the
whole thing is very corrupt.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The political parties have been corrupted and no longer
represent the people,” another railroad worker wrote the Railroad Workers
Rank-and-File Committee.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Years of futile wrangling between workers and the leaders of
one of the most profitable industries in the nation finally raised the specter
of a strike and forced Biden to intervene. What the president did, however, was
try to force down the throats of workers an industry-backed plan that would
have raised wages but done nothing to address the core issues of sick leave and
the inhumane work scheduling on the nation’s rail lines.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Biden boasted of the 24 percent pay increase that was in his
plan. However, that pay increase was spread across five years and comes after a
three-year hiatus since the last pay increase. Add inflation, and just how much
of a pay increase is it?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Why didn’t Biden tell the railroad industry, “Give the
workers the same paid sick days that most other American workers have”? He
didn’t because in the end he stands with big business, not the working class.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Railroad workers not only had to contend with an
intransigent industry and hypocritical politicians but also the top brass of
their major railroad unions, who also opposed a potentially crippling strike
just as the Christmas season is getting started. Across the wide spectrum of
the labor movement, from railroad worker unions to the United Auto Workers, the
rank-and-file is finding itself increasingly alienated from its entrenched,
utterly compromised leadership.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Voting with both Democrats and Republicans in supporting
Biden’s ban on a strike was the so-called “left wing” in Congress, including
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and House Progressive Caucus leader Pramila Jayapal.
In the Senate, Bernie Sanders proposed a separate bill that would have given
workers seven days sick leave, but it failed, of course. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Underlying these betrayals of the railroad workers is the
overall abandonment of the working class that my legislator friend talked about
on the Ole Miss Grove. Bill and Hillary Clinton spearheaded that abandonment 30
years ago, and Barack Obama helped solidify it. Joe Biden’s entire political
history is a long sad story of shifts and compromises and turnabouts. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The terrible truth is that they (Democrats) prefer horse
trading over the issues of importance to their donor class than they do meeting
the needs of the people,” columnist Margaret Kimberly wrote in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Black Agenda Report</i> last month. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“They don’t want to transform the country on
behalf of the people. They are always on the side of their donor class. … It is
clear that the people must look to themselves and not at Joe Biden, Nancy
Pelosi, or former president Obama, to guard their interests.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Of course, you might have a shot at getting their attention if you're wealthy and live in the suburbs. <br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-37582949631820710682022-11-18T13:51:00.024-08:002022-11-18T14:40:52.119-08:00Philosopher Brian Leiter says universities are one of the nation's last outposts for truth searching as right wing pols threaten tenure and teachers and graduate students in California and New York are forced to strike for better pay and worker rights<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRtZ-6bRqVcHiaiMxITvlSh32sctIOeXiTmXqKrd6kKy3ggK0VVbp_nGaIOfKohTB-8FegZxOdHlBltzgDVCFAOrYzd57pWSejIjDvTSOrVKUAVC0aOCNEl4cERCMARXMnzAgWBYYDPykSWS2ER4YGJg38s_2Oc3z3Umq4noomepn-RB5tP8M6Y0cA/s4288/Leiter,_Brian_2012.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4288" data-original-width="2848" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRtZ-6bRqVcHiaiMxITvlSh32sctIOeXiTmXqKrd6kKy3ggK0VVbp_nGaIOfKohTB-8FegZxOdHlBltzgDVCFAOrYzd57pWSejIjDvTSOrVKUAVC0aOCNEl4cERCMARXMnzAgWBYYDPykSWS2ER4YGJg38s_2Oc3z3Umq4noomepn-RB5tP8M6Y0cA/s320/Leiter,_Brian_2012.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>(Philosopher Brian Leiter) <br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Some 48,000 University of California researchers, graduate
students, and other workers went on strike this week to demand better wages to
cover rising costs of living. More than 1,300 part-time faculty members also
voted to go on strike this week at the legendarily progressive New School in
New York City to protest their low pay and difficulties in getting health care
coverage. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican and potential
presidential candidate, has declared his intention to put restrictions on
tenure in Florida’s public universities, while Mississippi state Sen. Chris
McDaniel, also a Republican, has pushed legislation that would eliminate tenure
altogether in his state.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Mississippi Institutions for Higher Learning board
recently met and voted in new language that would add “contumacious conduct”
and lack of “collegiality” as well as lack of “effectiveness, accuracy and
integrity in communications” to reasons to consider in granting tenure and for firing a tenured professor. It also
shifted from itself the final sayso in tenure decisions to college presidents.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the midst of all this upheaval in higher education, noted
philosopher and Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University
of Chicago Brian Leiter met this week with members of United Campus Workers
Local 3565 at the University of Mississippi and other UCW members and
interested parties across the state in a zoom session to discuss academic
freedom and tenure. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Universities are—at least in the capitalist world—the
primary sites of … challenges (in search for truth), the only ones, outside of courts
of law, in which knowledge of the truth stands some chance of prevailing
subject to rigorous disciplinary interrogation,” Leiter has written. “Academic
freedom is the hallmark of a serious university.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ah, truth! How elusive in today’s world of fake news,
conspiracy theories, and utterly compromised mainstream media. How would the
ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes fare today in his search for an honest man
and unfiltered truth. Probably not much better than he did in the glorious
democratic experiment that was his Athens, where he was forced to live in a
rain barrel and survive on handouts.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yours truly and Joshua Bernstein of the University of
Southern Mississippi served as moderators of Leiter’s discussion, which
included issues facing part-time faculty as well as those on tenure track and other challenges to higher education today.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">The strikers
at the California and New York schools are members of the United Auto Workers,
a union that itself is facing an upcoming election that pits an entrenched and
sorely compromised leadership against a much-needed rank-and-file challenger to
the status quo in Will Lehman. These academic workers' fight "is not just a trade union struggle," Lehman has written, "but a political fight against both corporate-controlled parties. At its center is the question: Who will determine how society's resources are distributed?"<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Leiter, also director of the Center for Law, Philosophy
& Human Values at the University of Chicago, spoke at length of the basic
rights of free speech afforded faculty just as they are all American citizens.
Tenure, a kind of job guarantee that isn’t unlimited but which goes much
further than what most American workers have, serves as a form of “non-monetary
compensation” for faculty, Leiter said. It thus benefits universities that must
hire employees who might could expect much higher compensation due to their advanced
education. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Mississippi IHL board’s March meeting, during which it
discussed at length its subsequently approved changes in tenure (and hiring) rules,
was held without public or faculty input. However, reports surfaced about the
discussions that took place. At one point, the board was told that even tenured
faculty can be fired for just or good “cause”.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“But I can terminate without cause in my company,” CITE
Armored President and board trustee Teresa Hubbard responded, according to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mississippi Today</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CITE Armored manufactures SWAT vehicles.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I asked Leiter if these threats to tenure could ultimately lead to
a slippery slope in which at-will firing becomes the practice on university
campuses.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Leiter again cited the freedom of speech guarantees that all
Americans at least in theory enjoy. In addition, if such a situation became the
rule in Mississippi, for example, prospective faculty would be going to
another state, and certainly not Mississippi, he said.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The United Campus Workers, a member of Communication Workers
of America, has issued an open letter to the IHL opposing the recent
changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, PEN America and the
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education have decried the changes and
warned that they pose threats to First Amendment rights and could lead to the
kind of self-censorship that itself threatens academic freedom.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-24543418687423912352022-10-26T10:10:00.002-07:002022-10-26T10:10:29.777-07:00The Collective West, led by the United States, will lose the war in Ukraine and here's why<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFGOllu50B1_646EXfKqEQ3UpIAFmII1CMVZkFtrjDiy5ZtqoTSKbC1hYjaVcB3_llePOL8W7QbtL9RB_diRSjz00tmsLNjx1evBfnAfB40OjYGTlv2c36hUIeFMjsis_KP6kNtGpWUHGU3sfrpG-EVQWSk7paDEqHJnaa6BPUSlGFh5G2o-VCkq2/s2800/PanamaJustCause1991.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1850" data-original-width="2800" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFGOllu50B1_646EXfKqEQ3UpIAFmII1CMVZkFtrjDiy5ZtqoTSKbC1hYjaVcB3_llePOL8W7QbtL9RB_diRSjz00tmsLNjx1evBfnAfB40OjYGTlv2c36hUIeFMjsis_KP6kNtGpWUHGU3sfrpG-EVQWSk7paDEqHJnaa6BPUSlGFh5G2o-VCkq2/s320/PanamaJustCause1991.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(A scene from the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Collective West, led by the United States, is going to
fail in Ukraine. Why do I say this? Look at the long, sordid history of failure
by the Deep State in Washington, D.C., and its uncontrolled vanguard, the
Central Intelligence Agency.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Deep State, led by neocon/neolib warmongers like
Victoria Nulend of the U.S. State Department, wants to reduce Russia to a
second-rate country that can never again challenge U.S. hegemony as it once did
as the Soviet Union. It wants to strip countries from the Russian Federation,
reduce them to future customers of the corporatocracy that rules hand-in-hand
with the Deep State and controls both the Democratic and Republican parties.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After eliminating Russia from competition with the United
States, the Deep State will turn its full attention to China, a still-rising
global economic power that poses even more of a threat to U.S. world hegemony
than Russia. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan this year was
clearly a signal to Beijing that that the United States is ready to rough it up
if necessary to assert dominance in a region that is thousands of miles from
its shores.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But let’s look at
that history of failure and what it portends about the current proxy war the
United States and its puppets, NATO and the European Union, are waging with
Russia. The sordid history of the CIA reaches back into the earlier years of
the post-World War II era—CIA-and-Deep State-sponsored coups and other deadly
political manipulations in Chile and elsewhere across Latin American, Africa,
and Asia.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">More recent history provides us a long, bloody list of wars
where countless people died, including American soldiers, whole nations were
left in smoldering ruin, and economic and political chaos ensued: Vietnam,
Libya, Iraq, Syria, Honduras, Afghanistan. A renewed look at the 1992
documentary <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Panama Deception</i>
would be instructive as it details a bloody U.S. invasion that had everything
to do with U.S. dominance and nothing to do with the rights of the Panamanian
people.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All of this done with the complete complicity of the U.S.
mainstream media. As a longtime journalist and professor of journalism, I am
embarrassed, disgusted, and angered but not surprised by the gutless lapdog
behavior of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Washington Post</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Los Angeles Times</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wall
Street Journal</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CNN</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MSNBC</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CBS</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ABC</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NBC</i> in regards to their coverage of the
Ukraine war. I am no fan of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fox News</i>,
but at least it allows Tucker Carlson to tell the truth about Ukraine. And thank
goodness for alternative media, a rare source of truth these days. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Deep State/CIA history of failure isn’t the only reason
the Collective West is going to lose, however. Compared to U.S. President Joe
Biden’s babbling meanderings, British bellicosity and nostalgia for empire, and
the utter obeisance of continental European leaders to U.S. will, Russia’s
Vladimir Putin seems to be a leader who knows what he’s doing and knows what he
needs to do to protect his country and his people. He knows the threat an
expanded and aggressive NATO on his borders poses. He knows the broken promises
of NATO and Ukrainian leaders that led to NATO expansion, the broken Minsk
agreements, and the 2014 coup that put pro-Western stooges in power in Kiev.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Putin and Russia will fight this war to the end and win
because to them this is an existential threat, something it is not to the
Collective West. The Deep State has never understood such determination because
it never takes the time to study a foreign culture, foreign history, the deep
sense of history that permeates the world beyond theirs in the Beltway. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Of course, the Deep State and its CIA wing essentially operate
at the behest of giant U.S. corporations—the military-industrial complex, if
you will. They want the free range of markets that U.S. global dominance
provides. They don’t want to compete with the Chinese or the Russians.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have no doubt in my mind that the U.S. was behind or at
least approved the sabotaging of the Nord Stream pipelines. It was good for
business even if it guaranteed a long, dark, and cold winter for Germans and
other Europeans. European leaders know this, but they are too cowardly to
confront the U.S.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Where will this all end? For Russia, a new era in which it
will play a leading role in what has been called “the emerging order” that
includes China, India, African nations, and others and that will mean an end to
U.S. hegemony.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What does it mean for the Collective West? Chaos and
division in Europe—already seen in rising inflation, multiple prime ministers
in England, a rise in right-wing politics in response to the continent’s current
Weimar-like leadership, and deep divisions that will render the term
“collective” completely inoperative.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As for the United States, it will mean political and
economic turmoil at home as it adapts to a rightfully reduced role in the
world.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-26867374080178203242022-09-23T15:53:00.008-07:002022-09-24T08:58:43.849-07:00Hypocrisy--from Joe Biden to Starbucks' Howard Schultz--is alive and well in the United States <p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio25RCmEDoMw9weZNj2gn4uuItu87E20HaRsrq6e0x9ElCWaJIIKH8uUGvmoITpJhh-Hz3XNWg_tmpkCPAVYEzL6xdC3KILR3TIKv5wkYdFPN1tB_ClqvqE4te612-yff6g1C0B15vDTVoovmN1_x7T4SYOVDI0DWSYyPRo7x7uK0YoHYuE7cpQpmY/s888/Joe%20Hill.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="888" data-original-width="873" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio25RCmEDoMw9weZNj2gn4uuItu87E20HaRsrq6e0x9ElCWaJIIKH8uUGvmoITpJhh-Hz3XNWg_tmpkCPAVYEzL6xdC3KILR3TIKv5wkYdFPN1tB_ClqvqE4te612-yff6g1C0B15vDTVoovmN1_x7T4SYOVDI0DWSYyPRo7x7uK0YoHYuE7cpQpmY/s320/Joe%20Hill.jpg" width="315" /></a></div>(Martyred labor organizer, troubadour and immigrant Joe Hill)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">American hypocrisy was one of my German-born mother’s first
discoveries of the United States when she arrived with my U.S. Army-veteran
father in 1948.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Into the welcoming arms
of the Statue of Liberty she came only to find intense discrimination and
resentment against immigrants like herself, particularly Germans after a war
that had devastated her land and people as well as most of Europe. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">No matter that she herself had been imprisoned by the
Gestapo for her efforts to make lives easier for French prisoners at a camp in
La Rochelle, France, where she had been sent by the German government to work.
When she arrived in my father’s native South, first in Georgia then North
Carolina, she heard a lot about “Southern hospitality” but then witnessed a
racism that at times could be as raw and deadly as the racism of the Nazis in
Germany.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For all its ideals of liberty and equality, the United
States remains a nation where hypocrisy continues to reign—certainly at the
highest levels of business and government, including Joe Biden.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My former University of Mississippi student Jaz Brisack, a
Rhodes scholar, was fired in recent days from her job as a barista at Starbucks
in Buffalo, New York. The firing was not a complete surprise given the fact she
led the successful unionization effort at her shop, an effort that subsequently
spread to Starbucks coffee shops around the country and won her nationwide
attention as a leading new force in grassroots organizing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBfhxY7fygpbzl-68eQSK6ZervKIzELVeff924-tWQcXy3x-h2MkrGgNZF2Qbsgbm6PCJuyZamqFQWRxPPzinK4fZF6sYvLoSZ8hpsltgsKEnrrfx9-1kxmt5tgGCkWYH7yxGsZn6Ef4ML_5rVH-JS87dF72zHaGeNplN7aYZHygFAyc87yuP-L7Kb/s1280/Jaz%20Brisack.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBfhxY7fygpbzl-68eQSK6ZervKIzELVeff924-tWQcXy3x-h2MkrGgNZF2Qbsgbm6PCJuyZamqFQWRxPPzinK4fZF6sYvLoSZ8hpsltgsKEnrrfx9-1kxmt5tgGCkWYH7yxGsZn6Ef4ML_5rVH-JS87dF72zHaGeNplN7aYZHygFAyc87yuP-L7Kb/s320/Jaz%20Brisack.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, Jaz Brisack) <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">An expected firing perhaps, but still it hurt. “I will admit
to mourning more than (legendary martyred union leader, troubadour and immigrant) Joe Hill
might have approved of,” she told me, adding, however, “the union rolls on!”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Starbucks chief Howard Schultz and his team may offer a
litany of excuses for their firings—they recently fired a union organizing
barista here in my town of Oxford, Mississippi, and notoriously fired pro-union
workers in Memphis—but their real reason is they want to purge their shops of
pro-union workers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The hypocrisy is that Starbucks has always marketed itself
as a cool place to work—hip and youthful and in tune with modern, egalitarian
values. Wrong. It’s a union-busting outfit on a par with Walmart.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Labor South</i> has
been reporting on the war in Ukraine extensively in recent months. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s an issue that threatens the entire world,
one that pits old Western colonial powers against the Global South as well as
against Russia. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The proxy war that NATO and the United States are waging
against Russia has been planned by the Deep State in Washington, D.C., for
years, and its purpose is to destroy the Russian federation and its challenge
to U.S. hegemony, a first step in a broader effort that also targets China.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You’d think mainstream journalists would at least
acknowledge or at least explore this in their coverage, but they’re so
imprisoned by the worldview of their corporate owners that real reporting is
impossible outside of independent media. The result is an hypocrisy that would
be laughable if it weren’t so serious.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When Russian leader Vladimir Putin recently announced a
partial military mobilization in his country, mainstream media—from the <i>New
York Times</i> to BBC and the major U.S. television networks—rushed to report on
protests by Russians against Putin’s move. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The scale of those protests is likely much more limited than
what is being reported, and certainly less than the 70,000 protesters in the
Czech Republic earlier this month who called for an end to the proxy war with
its devastating economic impact on their lives. You’d never know there was such
a protest in the Czech Republic if you didn’t go to YouTube or some other
source for independent reportage. The same is true of similar nationwide
protests in the United States in recent weeks.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Remember the myriad reports of shelling near the
Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the Ukraine, and the
mainstream reports about both Russia and Ukraine charging each other with
firing those shells. The answer would come, we were told, once international
inspectors arrived to assess the safety of the plant. Well, those inspectors
came and not a single mainstream report followed as to which side fired those
shells.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Wanna know why? It is because the Ukrainians were firing
those shells. Of course, they did. Why would Russians fire at a nuclear plant
that they already occupy?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Phillip Knightly’s 1975 book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The First Casualty</i> is considered the classic account of the history
of war correspondence. It’s a sad history of more often bad rather than good
reporting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not just because of the
“fog of war”. A prime example is coverage of the Spanish Civil War in the
mid-1930s. Many of the reporters there were so enamored of the leftist Spanish
Republicans and full of hatred for Generalissimo Franco’s fascist army that
they failed to report the brutal murders of thousands of Catholic priests and
nuns across the land by the Republicans. Every outrage by Franco’s fascists,
however, was dutifully reported.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My late mother, Maria Stoller, bless her very religious
heart, knew Hitler and the Nazis could be as hypocritical as anyone with all
their talk of love for the Vaterland. And she grew to love the people in her
new homeland. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Well, maybe not all of them. It’s hard to love hypocrisy. In
fact, you can’t. Even hypocrites don’t. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-74565112810909253412022-09-04T14:05:00.014-07:002022-09-04T17:22:59.473-07:00A rising consciousness about the Neoliberal Order that dominates the world economy and how it serves the corporate rich and its handpicked politicians but impoverishes everyone else<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(For the second year in a row, I was asked by the Unitarian Church of Oxford, Mississippi, to give a Labor Day speech, the draft of which I copied below. My topic: Neoliberalism and its effects on working class people</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> <br /></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">An International
Perspective on Labor Day</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From Joseph B. Atkins to the Unitarian Church of Oxford </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sunday, September 4, 2022:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is a pleasure speaking to you again this Sunday just
before Labor Day. When I spoke to you last time, I focused on our labor history
and traditions in the United States and the religious underpinnings that thread
throughout that history.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Today I’m going to look at labor from an <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">international perspective</b>, something
very important today in view of the interconnectedness of our modern world in
nearly every aspect of our lives.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We live in a world that today is dominated by a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NEOLIBERAL ORDER</b>. What is
NEOLIBERALISM? It has nothing whatsoever to do with liberalism or conservatism.
What it refers to is an economic philosophy that promotes the following
(borrowing here somewhat from the writings of Enrico Tortolano):</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">FREE
TRADE</b> with as few impediments as possible</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Free movement of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">CAPITAL</b> across borders</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>A belief in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">AUSTERITY</b>
as the best path toward economic stability. Witness the EU’s demands of Greece
and other countries when they experienced economic difficulty in recent years.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">PRIVATIZATION</b>
of public space and services and reduction or ELIMINATION of the WELFARE STATE
and its safety net programs</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">LOW PAY</b>
and benefits for workers and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">RESTRICTIONS
on LABOR UNIONS</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Who is the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">PRIME
MOVER of NEOLIBERALISM</b> in the world today? <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The UNITED STATES and its surrogate institutions: THE WORLD BANK,
INTERNATIOAL MONETARY FUND, THE EUROPEAN UNION, and even NAT</b>O, ostensibly a
defense military organization but one that has waged aggressive offensive
military campaigns in Serbia, Libya, and Syria, and whose expansion since the
fall of the Soviet Union led to the current war in Ukraine, a proxy war for the
U.S. that ultimately is being waged to preserve <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a unipolar world of Western dominance unchallenged by Russia or China.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, Bill Clinton) <br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs3YLxCijF5Ga11NWDWgP5FKAHQzWyXvImKQwD5-ygaJKOq-iCUBRmn-0Bi5nK8h7OljiMd-chfGzfYQrqfLJpx3pcfx28IJMCPX3j1hAKVrDM29PKmMaXkdOwMVruaLaL8yppIjsePXKUSyIwdGn2WACDKNUHKaGKCKpna5G0GurO6fufQq8bTF4Q/s3000/Bill_Clinton.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2299" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs3YLxCijF5Ga11NWDWgP5FKAHQzWyXvImKQwD5-ygaJKOq-iCUBRmn-0Bi5nK8h7OljiMd-chfGzfYQrqfLJpx3pcfx28IJMCPX3j1hAKVrDM29PKmMaXkdOwMVruaLaL8yppIjsePXKUSyIwdGn2WACDKNUHKaGKCKpna5G0GurO6fufQq8bTF4Q/s320/Bill_Clinton.jpg" width="245" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br />The cause of neoliberalism rose as a philosophy in the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">graduate demise of the New Deal era</b> of
Franklin D. Roosevelt and aftermath of World War II, the splintering and
unraveling of the Democratic Party that began in the 1960s and that reached
its nadir under the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Clinton
Administration</b>, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s that led
to an arrogant assumption of the subsequent dominance of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">GLOBAL CAPITALISM</b>. Much of this history is detailed in the just
published book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Rise and Fall of the
Neoliberal Order</i> by Gary Gerstle.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Trade treaties like <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NAFTA</b>
(North American Free Trade Agreement) and the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">TPP</b> (Trans-Pacific Partnership) are essentially neoliberal vehicles
to legalize a globalization of free-moving capital that enriches powerful
corporations and their friendly politicians but which have had the effect of
uprooting millions of workers and small farmers, forcing a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">mass migration across borders around the world</b> in search of work
and sustenance. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I wrote about this in my book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Strangers Among Us: Tales of a Global Migrant Worker Movement </i>in
2016. A collection of essays by writers from around the world, including me,
the book details lived lives among <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the
world’s 200 million migrant workers, 40 million of whom are undocumented</b>,
and most of whom live marginal lives of bare existence in an economy that has
awarded untold riches to a few.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What the book also details, however, are the efforts of
organizations and individuals around the world to give voices to those migrant
workers, to work to uphold their rights as human beings. They have had some remarkable successes along the way. Many of these
organizations are religious. They include: </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Asia
Floor Wage Alliance</b> in various countries of Asia</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Alliance
of Progressive Workers</b> in the Philippines</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Vietnamese
Migrant Workers & Brides Office</b> in Taiwan, run by a Maryknoll priest
and also serving Vietnamese wives of Taiwanese men who are essentially sex
slaves</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Migrant
Empowerment Network</b> (MENT) of Taiwan</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mission
for Migrant Workers</b> in Hong Kong</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Transient
Workers Count Too</b> in Singapore</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>And in the United States, the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Farm Labor Organizing Committee</b> (FLOC),
the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Coalition of Immokalee Workers</b>
(CIW), <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">National Farm Workers</b>, United
Farm Workers, and the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">United Electrical,
Radio & Machine Workers of America</b> (UE) union.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In researching this book, I traveled around the world from
Hong Kong to Singapore and Taiwan, to Buenos Aires, Argentina. These workers
are their organizations are up against powerful forces, but, as Gerstle’s book
details, the neoliberal world order those forces represent is beginning to
crumble.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAubm0B0VHvaCGnJmecT6Ch3RO21ODN0tAi8Pr9T8HKO-HyFFdumeyRSpF_cnn5lvTcaKI1-Ca1gx912N_9R8XGkCtzZ9N-mgr7mijkWvdJMcxScK2VRir_hpcTeA0mtq6o5wUNZiYhYRHLgLSmJWQJlR_YUxDHTxXLz7Gfe3A2gx8DZoAPR4bR3Ff/s3264/BernieSanders.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAubm0B0VHvaCGnJmecT6Ch3RO21ODN0tAi8Pr9T8HKO-HyFFdumeyRSpF_cnn5lvTcaKI1-Ca1gx912N_9R8XGkCtzZ9N-mgr7mijkWvdJMcxScK2VRir_hpcTeA0mtq6o5wUNZiYhYRHLgLSmJWQJlR_YUxDHTxXLz7Gfe3A2gx8DZoAPR4bR3Ff/s320/BernieSanders.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(Bernie Sanders during a labor rally in Clinton, Mississippi) <br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">The rise of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bernie
Sanders on the Left</b> and even <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Donald
Trump on the Right</b> is a sign of the deep disaffection within the American
public with things as they are. So are <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Black
Lives Matter</b> and even the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tea Party</b>.
The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">BREXIT</b> vote by the British
people to exit the EU has more to do with that same disgruntlement than it does
with an inherent racism or narrow-mindedness. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rise of the above-mentioned organizations
and the remarkable successes they’ve achieved in many cases indicate that
neoliberalism’s days may be numbered. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mainstream media</b>,
lapdogs rather than watchdogs mostly, essentially carry the water for
NEOLIBERALISM, echoing its ideas and beliefs, the policies of its politicians
and governments. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the coverage of the war in Ukraine</b>. This tragic war could have been
prevented had NATO not broken its promise to not expand to Russia’s very
borders. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then there was the 2014 coup
that ousted a democratically elected leader and put Western-looking leaders in
power, the betrayal of the Minsk agreement, the threats to the Russian-speaking
people of the Donbas. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I’m not giving a
pass to Russia or Vladimir Putin in this horrible war.</b> However, the truth
is Ukraine’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ZELENSKY is a puppet of the
neoliberal order</b>. If he weren’t, then why did he recently sign a law that
essentially <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">guts worker rights in
Ukraine</b>, all in the name of, and I quote, “raising the competitiveness of
employers.”</p>
<p>According to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">OpenDemocracy</i>, “<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The new law significantly
curtails employees’ rights (on working hours, working conditions, dismissal and
compensation after dismissal) and increases employers’ leverage over their
workforce. … </span>Employers can require employees to do other work not
covered by their contract if it is necessary for defence purposes, as long as
this work is not detrimental to their health. … One of the most controversial
provisions of the bill concerns the ability to involve women in physically
strenuous labour and work underground (in mines, for example), which is
currently prohibited by Ukraine’s labour laws.“</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Where is the push for a negotiated peace in Ukraine? Where
is there diplomacy? There is none because the proxy war ultimately has nothing
to do with Ukraine. It is about markets, the free flow of capital from the West
without interference or competition from Russia and above all China, the reason
for the recent and needless saberrattling over Taiwan.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Constant war, by the way, is another by-product of
neoliberalism. Just consider the 20-year war in Afghanistan, a length of
wartime unprecedented in previous U.S. history. War feeds the military-industrial
complex that Eisenhower warned us about a half-century or more ago.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, again let me say there is a growing awareness, a
consciousness, about this neoliberal order, how it serves the wealthy and
corporate bottom line but little else. Witness the recent protests in Prague
against the Western-and-NATO-dominated leadership of that country. An estimated
70,000 people in the streets protested. A new order is bound to emerge, and it
is one that Wall Street and the EU are not going to like at all.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Joseph B. Atkins</p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"Courier New";
panose-1:2 7 3 9 2 2 5 2 4 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073711037 9 0 511 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Times;
panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Wingdings;
panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:2;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Times;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}ol
{margin-bottom:0in;}ul
{margin-bottom:0in;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-77412804772117059182022-08-26T15:48:00.012-07:002022-08-29T09:33:04.869-07:00Russian dissident journalist and rock music pioneer Artemy Troitsky at the University of Mississippi weighing in on Putin, Ukraine, and rock music in Russia<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbKibL63zuxOsVYAOu6TxEePiE-vu21F6vFW762NY79fv_b9iokrrPPIB2_HgdA7Bbb93Uu-eMX-ItwExqd4rLfN27liQr4P8CLgt_Sg8WEMMfhyF44e1lLGq97PXxxTDBbF_II3sFxMk_gsOaVVYevJdvy5hv62WdRZXPfolLM-Asqc58mUNHnkmd/s4032/Troitsky%20and%20JBA.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbKibL63zuxOsVYAOu6TxEePiE-vu21F6vFW762NY79fv_b9iokrrPPIB2_HgdA7Bbb93Uu-eMX-ItwExqd4rLfN27liQr4P8CLgt_Sg8WEMMfhyF44e1lLGq97PXxxTDBbF_II3sFxMk_gsOaVVYevJdvy5hv62WdRZXPfolLM-Asqc58mUNHnkmd/s320/Troitsky%20and%20JBA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">(Artemy Troitsky and <i>Labor South</i>'s Joe Atkins)<br /> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Vladimir Putin’s Russia is “getting similar to the Stalinist
period” in Russia’s history, and “the Stalinist period was a nightmare,”
dissident Russian journalist and pioneer rock music writer and promoter Artemy
Troitsky told students at the University of Mississippi this week.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The 67-year-old Troitsky, a sharp critic of the Putin regime
whose views have forced him into exile in Tallinn, Estonia, came to Oxford,
Mississippi, to visit friends and spoke at my Media History class at Farley
Hall on the University of Mississippi campus Thursday, August 25.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The war in Ukraine that began this February “is a huge
catastrophe to Ukraine but also for Russia,” Troitsky told students and
faculty. “Russia has become a pariah state. In the Soviet Union we had several
phases—Lenin, Stalin, Brezhnev, Gorbachev. During the Cold War, there was at
least a degree of respect (for the Soviet Union as a nation), an enemy, yes,
but not a stray dog, a bandit.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT7NEmUZgd-rEAwe13C6qas0oLk10pqF5EvQhFAYNxh13Oxopzxf895LjU31S9bE6wWl-aq7vCD0FHaetsdAJJ4px3pjjXfibRUxwFSXyuGs6uneT6BvxkEX17BWrIAiI8BN0NWZEUF7yt2dgks7q0ohy-Fkb34fa_7grVz6cAfH2QTsLMUZwFCtm2/s4032/Troitsky%20lecturing.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT7NEmUZgd-rEAwe13C6qas0oLk10pqF5EvQhFAYNxh13Oxopzxf895LjU31S9bE6wWl-aq7vCD0FHaetsdAJJ4px3pjjXfibRUxwFSXyuGs6uneT6BvxkEX17BWrIAiI8BN0NWZEUF7yt2dgks7q0ohy-Fkb34fa_7grVz6cAfH2QTsLMUZwFCtm2/s320/Troitsky%20lecturing.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>(Artmy Troitsky lecturing at the University of Mississippi)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Troitsky is a legendary writer and commentator whose efforts
to promote rock music in the 1970s made him Russia’s premier music writer and
promoter. He led discos at Moscow State University in the early 1970s, played
guitar with the rock ban Zvuki Mu, co-founded the label General Records. Over the years he has interviewed musicians such as Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, and David Bowie.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Known
worldwide for his political views as well as his music writing, he is the author of
the classic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Back in the USSR: The True
Story of Rock in Russia</i> (1988) and other books. <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Early on, authorities largely ignored rock music as merely
Western decadence. Later, as it grew in popularity in Russia, it became more
controversial and under the watchful eyes of the powerful.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, it is mostly Troitsky’s political views that have
gotten him into trouble. After several lawsuits were filed against him in 2011,
musicians helped organize a benefit concert. Twenty-three musicians joined to
record an album titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For Troitsky</i>
in his honor.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Today, he lectures in Estonia, Finland, England, and other
countries, and has a music program on Radio Liberty as well as a videoblog.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“I’m absolutely sure Ukraine is going to win the war,” he
said. “They are hugely motivated. The question is what will happen afterward.
Russia cannot win against the whole free world.” However, he added, “Russia
will not be occupied.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In my discussions with Troitsky, I told him my own views of
the war and the complicity of the United States and NATO in starting the war—the
expansion of NATO to Russia’s very borders, the U.S. role in the 2014 coup d’<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">é</span>tat
in Ukraine that ultimately led to the pro-Western leadership of Volodymyr
Zelensky, Zelensky’s failure to abide by the Minsk Agreement that would have
allowed autonomy in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and eased Russian
concerns about an anti-Russian military buildup there. Furthermore, I don't believe Ukraine will win this war. There needs to be a negotiated peace.<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Labor South</i>
readers know, I’m also concerned about Zelensky’s corruption, the right-wing
elements in his regime that recently gutted worker rights in Ukraine. I have no
illusions about Putin, however. Putin has gutted press freedom in his country
and silenced or jailed his political critics. In the first eight years of his
two-decade rule, some 13 journalists were murdered in Russia under mysterious
circumstances. These include the crusading Putin critic Anna Politkovskaya, a
former colleague of Troitsky’s at the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Novaya
Gazeta</i>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“You are a dissident in your country, and I am a dissident
in my country,” I told Troitsky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Troitsky looked at me with a silent nod, and we shook hands.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-font-charset:78;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-font-charset:78;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-85636784352112472962022-08-09T11:47:00.022-07:002022-08-10T10:20:08.469-07:00I. F. Stone would have told the truths about the war in Ukraine that mainstream corporate media won't tell<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5fVuC-WdpN9X5zf-JPLMgIRiqJORXuWY4hDLH5RfyoU_UgfScA0PD_aWnjnYtfR8CN7433y5UVWntZvu1CTMOEr6UFr3t-B-Tv6WatAvi6uPa3bpOeJ3JPl8JRZpNfnmvq0YIpNmzIDd2kd_7FjGlR7OeEQ8OGmlbkZ3eXmrJvftzApGiJGgBblf/s355/IFStoneApril1972.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5fVuC-WdpN9X5zf-JPLMgIRiqJORXuWY4hDLH5RfyoU_UgfScA0PD_aWnjnYtfR8CN7433y5UVWntZvu1CTMOEr6UFr3t-B-Tv6WatAvi6uPa3bpOeJ3JPl8JRZpNfnmvq0YIpNmzIDd2kd_7FjGlR7OeEQ8OGmlbkZ3eXmrJvftzApGiJGgBblf/s320/IFStoneApril1972.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>(I.F. Stone in 1972) <br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">I.F. Stone, the crusading underground journalist who got
rejected from the National Press Club for telling truths that mainstream
journalists wouldn’t tell, once had this to say about the corrupting influence
of close ties between media and government:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“You’ve really got to wear a chastity belt to preserve your
journalistic virginity. Once the Secretary of State invites you to lunch and
asks your opinion, you’re sunk.” It’s those private lunches and meetings where
“highly confidential (and one-sided) information is ladled out to a flattered
elite.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For this reason, Stone, who died at the age of 81 in 1989,
eschewed press conferences as “brain washings” and power lunches with
the powerful. “All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries
whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Too bad Stone isn’t around any more to prove the lie to much
of what is being reported these days about the war in Ukraine. Not since the
days of U.S.-led NATO’s invasion of Serbia in the late 1990s has there been
such jingoistic reporting from “a flattered elite” ladled with one-sided
information.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Though the U.S. and European public rarely, if ever, gets a
complete, multi-sided view of the war in Ukraine from mainstream media, whether
it’s the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Washington Post</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CNN</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MSNBC</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CB</i>S, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fox</i>,
or the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">BBC</i> in England, the Ukrainian
people themselves know what’s going on. A recent poll showed that 82 percent of
Ukrainians, of course, blame Russia for the war, but more interestingly 58 percent <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">of them </span>believe the United States bears responsibility
as well. NATO fares little better with 55 percent of Ukrainians blaming it in
some measure for the war.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those are not the kind of poll statistics you’ll read about in
corporate mainstream media. One has to turn instead to news outlets like FAIR
(Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) and its newsletter <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">EXTRA</i>!, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Consortium News</i>,
or to YouTube to see the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jimmy Dore Show</i>
or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Breaking Points</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reporters Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Robert
Scheer, and Chris Hedges keep the I.F. Stone tradition alive. Not the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Washington Post</i>, and certainly not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MSNB</i>C or Russophobe reporters like Rachel Maddow. Ironically,
one of the few mainstream journalists who has truly probed the causes and
truths of the war in Ukraine is conservative <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fox</i> commentator Tucker Carlson.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let’s have some examples.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, Volodymyr Zelensky) <br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQWd7qB_nU3Wf2zBa44yGE2MFEcf94H-S6ibqvQ13Sd1nT95iFefuuzUp27-M-RdbaCNnvZ_MaSikr8WvDr3oqcYgSJGNF5KZ5yO_wrbTjwxVSYXJv27e7ej-gN0fRMcVNyq892YeNEwXS_ttCsXNuSgL3bv_o-oo6VWdzBYdqbQ5bt1_qvTpA59CU/s4724/Volodymyr_Zelensky_Official_portrait.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4724" data-original-width="3488" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQWd7qB_nU3Wf2zBa44yGE2MFEcf94H-S6ibqvQ13Sd1nT95iFefuuzUp27-M-RdbaCNnvZ_MaSikr8WvDr3oqcYgSJGNF5KZ5yO_wrbTjwxVSYXJv27e7ej-gN0fRMcVNyq892YeNEwXS_ttCsXNuSgL3bv_o-oo6VWdzBYdqbQ5bt1_qvTpA59CU/s320/Volodymyr_Zelensky_Official_portrait.jpg" width="236" /></a></div><br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky’s ruling Servant of the People party has pushed through
legislation in the nation’s parliament that will gut workers’ rights, using the
war with Russia as an excuse but continuing the deterioration of those rights
that has been a feature of Zelensky’s rule. Not a word about this in U.S.
mainstream media. To get that story a reader has to go to a news outlet called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">OpenDemocracy</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">OpenDemocracy</i>
reporters Thomas Rowley and Serhiy Guz quote the party’s official line that
“extreme over-regulation of employment contradicts the principles of market
self-regulation (and) modern personnel management.” Furthermore, the change in
labor laws is needed to allow “the self-realisation (sic) of employees and for
raising the competitiveness of employers.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is also the party line of the International Monetary
Fund, World Bank, and European Union, where “austerity” is preached and the
taking down of government safety-net programs is demanded when countries, like
Greece in recent years, get into economic trouble and need assistance. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Where are the ace
reporters of the elite media of the United States and Europe when the issue is
corruption in Ukraine or the fate of the billions in Western military arms that
have been sent into what has been the most corrupt country in Europe? <i>Chronicles</i> journalist Pedro
Gonzales has reported at some length on Zelensky’s off-shore
financial holdings and his relationship with Ukrainian oligarch/kingmaker Ihor
Kolomoisky. Gonzales’ sources included the so-called “Pandora Papers” compiled
by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Zelensky’s nationalization of TV news and restriction of
opposition parties also received only passing coverage in American media as if
such coverage is reserved for the Russian side of the war.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">FAIR recently published a study that showed the slanted
coverage the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times </i>has given
the war in Ukraine compared to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The Ukraine invasion
received nearly twice the front-page, mostly top-of-the-fold coverage that the
Iraq invasion received in the first months of the two wars.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Of course, what’s also missing in the mainstream coverage is
a sense of history about what is going on in Ukraine, a detailed explanation of
the 2014 coup that forced a Russia-leaning president out of office and replaced
him with Western-leaning heads of state and eventually Zelensky. Little
attention has been given to broken promises to Russia by NATO not to expand
eastward, its betrayal of its supposedly defensive identity in the invasions and wars in
Serbia, Syria, and Libya. Remember U.S. threats of war when the old Soviet Union
wanted to put missiles in Cuba back in 1962? Of course, it’s a different story
when it’s Russia’s reaction to NATO’s threats to arm Ukraine on the Russian
border.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mainstream corporate-owned media in the United States are
part of the same “Deep State” that has dominated both Democratic and Republican
administrations for decades. Their reporters and editors wine and dine with the
same Deep State operatives that give marching orders to members of Congress and
presidents. The failures of the Deep State in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and
Libya in the name of preserving U.S. hegemony matter little so long as the
weapons industry is kept happy and prosperous and the dream is kept alive that the
United States will remain a shining capitalist citadel that oversees the world.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-76335062886699496542022-07-11T15:00:00.023-07:002022-07-14T07:52:15.487-07:00"Elvis" the film tells the tale of a Southern country boy who crossed the racial divide, fused blues & country into rock 'n' roll, then followed his Svengali into a glittering blind alley <p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkZ6DkAmFqERzDhCR7IywvTyFxgkpJcQfJ1Q5RN7J1fq6XcLiOflJERKQt4ogHgIJGpuAQ95XU3btnIf9gkbVG6H68UnuJ8UPJ3MWiEbyV4e4ekA9QgENzpjXP3uH14uWa7mZ8on1tBUxjF1ethtzPjoVqjOV9--dgmXSmtkYWveebNAUdWl4PaWLP/s3952/Elvis%20in%20cloth.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3952" data-original-width="2944" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkZ6DkAmFqERzDhCR7IywvTyFxgkpJcQfJ1Q5RN7J1fq6XcLiOflJERKQt4ogHgIJGpuAQ95XU3btnIf9gkbVG6H68UnuJ8UPJ3MWiEbyV4e4ekA9QgENzpjXP3uH14uWa7mZ8on1tBUxjF1ethtzPjoVqjOV9--dgmXSmtkYWveebNAUdWl4PaWLP/s320/Elvis%20in%20cloth.jpg" width="238" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">(A cloth hanging of Elvis I purchased at a roadside stand in rural Marshall County, Mississippi, back in the early 1990s) <br /> </p><p class="MsoNormal">The lady on the porch of the Tupelo, Mississippi, shotgun
house stood in contrast to her surroundings. She looked like the nicely dressed, somewhat stocky, bouffant-hairdoo’d Southern women I used
to see on the front steps of the First Baptist Church on Sundays as my family
made its way to the Pentecostal Holiness church on the other
side of town.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This was back in the 1980s, and she was part of the two-lady
welcoming committee to the humble birthplace of Elvis Presley. She nodded when
I asked her if she was a native of Tupelo.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Did you ever know or see Elvis when he was growing up
here?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">She shook her head. “No, we never came over to this part of
town.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Elvis is much on my mind these days after seeing director
Baz Luhrmann’s film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Elvis</i>, an $85
million extravaganza that likely will earn twice that or more in box office
receipts around the world. Actors Austin Butler as Elvis and Tom Hanks as
Elvis’ Svengali-like manager, the ol’ carny Colonel Tom Parker, breathe new
life into those familiar protagonists of a much-told story.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The kind of sumptuous visual and audial feast we’ve come to
expect in a Baz Luhrmann movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Elvis</i>
is simply amazing to the eyes and to the ears. Luhrmann and cinematographer
Mandy Walker’s sense of mis-en-sc<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">è</span>ne in the depictions of the juke joints
and ramshackle black churches around Tupelo and the throbbing life on Memphis’ Beale
Street in the late 1940s and early 1950s is nothing short of thrilling.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In a film about arguably the world’s most famous singer,
music is central, and Luhrmann and music director Elliott Wheeler create a
world where blues and gospel provide a tonal backdrop for the music that
ultimately comes out of Elvis. The blues hollers of Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup and
“Big Mama” Thornton, the soaring gospels of Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta
Tharpe at times blend with the intense modern-day sounds of rapper Eminem and
others as Elvis shakes, rattles, and rolls his way from Tupelo and Memphis
fairgrounds to the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport to neon-lit Las Vegas.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Based on the 2001 book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Colonel
Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley’s Eccentric Manager</i> by James
L. Dickerson, my good friend and publisher, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Elvis</i>
does a good job probing the toxic relationship that ultimately developed
between Elvis and Tom Parker, a Netherlands-born snake-oil salesman and
carnival huckster who rose from managing dancing chicken sideshows in Tampa,
Florida, to managing country stars like Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow before he
discovered Elvis. His demand for total control over Elvis was a huge factor in
Elvis’ rise but then also his decline in his later years and in the
frustrations and addictions that led to his death at 42.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Still, the film’s storyline is flawed in some important ways.
Much attention is paid to the influence of blues and black gospel on Elvis’
career. A sharecropper’s son who lived in public housing and whose family
depended on welfare, Elvis also grew up listening to Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb,
and Hank Williams, like most young Southerners his age. The film depicts Hank
Snow as jealous of Elvis and highly critical of the sexual energy his shaking
and wiggling on stage created among the legions of females in the audience.
However, Snow played a critical role in Elvis’ career by helping him get the
RCA contract that led to Elvis becoming a national star.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Films today, likes films of yesterday, have great trouble
dealing with the poor Southern white. Directors and producers, like journalists
and writers and intellectuals in general, can’t rid themselves of the images of
the “rednecks” and “white trash” who screamed at blacks and civil rights
workers trying to integrate their schools in the 1950s and 1960s. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">They can deal with the Southern white country boy who crossed
the color line, shopped at Lansky’s on Beale Street, and sneaked into juke
joints to get the inspiration that led to him singing Crudup’s “That’s All
Right, Mama” on his first record. They’re less comfortable with the Southern
white country boy who recorded Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” on its
flip side.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yet, in the end, it was both those songs that created not
only Elvis but also rock ‘n’ roll. There’s a lot of blues in country music. The
first great country music star, Jimmie Rodgers, belted out blues after blues,
albeit with a twang. Way back in 1980, I interviewed Bill Monroe in his
“Bluegrass Special” bus, and the King of Bluegrass talked to me about the blues. “If
you are a sad man and you like to hear the blues,” Monroe said, “you can get it out
on a mandolin or a fiddle.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Of course, you can also find a lot of country music in the
blues as well. Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf used to listen to the Grand Ol’
Opry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take Jimmy Reed”s “Honest I Do” or
Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry’s “Down by the Riverside” and you get
country-infused blues.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The magic of Elvis was that he saw value and freedom in that
cultural amalgamation, challenged the powerful forces that wanted to stifle it,
took it, and made it his own. The world owes him a lot for that.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-25768244627053664322022-06-15T10:35:00.042-07:002022-06-16T08:14:27.048-07:00Is Biden's America starting to resemble Germany's Weimar Republic in the 1920s?<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDIhi66Ji4gnWHj3uDy_GrR6zDt-w77RY5vuQMW7auM6BIbdR6KrXFYNc9-EZ9FnTb6JqXn9Vu5yZ56HbVbLYz6YGKbqRV96ci5xv8s0JFHTs3BsHCUXDoZhGhB9QiQE7EYV8oY5cHc03wbmeNFxNICZbT0LWm7c2230-MgMhX4XU1zDVCEJT52DdF/s1024/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1972-062-01,_Berlin,_bettelnder_Kriegsinvalide.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDIhi66Ji4gnWHj3uDy_GrR6zDt-w77RY5vuQMW7auM6BIbdR6KrXFYNc9-EZ9FnTb6JqXn9Vu5yZ56HbVbLYz6YGKbqRV96ci5xv8s0JFHTs3BsHCUXDoZhGhB9QiQE7EYV8oY5cHc03wbmeNFxNICZbT0LWm7c2230-MgMhX4XU1zDVCEJT52DdF/s320/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1972-062-01,_Berlin,_bettelnder_Kriegsinvalide.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, a disabled German World War I veteran begging on a Berlin street in 1923)<br /> </p><p class="MsoNormal">In the mid-1970s I lived in Munich, Germany, and I used to
love to hear Oma and Opa, my German grandparents Josef and Maria Stoller, tell
stories of the old days. Still, many of those memories were painful. Tears would run
down Oma's cheeks when she talked of the poverty and desperation of the
1920s, a time of out-of-control inflation, rising political extremism, and
governmental incompetence.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“One day I was walking down a street to our apartment, and I
saw a man feeding his horse a semmel (a Bavarian bread roll). I just stood
there and watched. I was so hungry and I wanted that semmel so bad.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those were the days of the Weimar Republic, a period of some
democracy in traditionally autocratic Germany but also one of great struggle with
the impossibly punitive reparations France’s Georges Clemenceau and other
Allied leaders had imposed after World War I. Another struggle was with
the monarchal and industrial forces that still wielded power. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwTSJ_WZAkmcuax5LeQtDUbdf4swozFsgUBdgay2KlTwvCa6IqLmddZGvqjqJZUZSs4wxJFkpb3DgL0s-4zW8hwSUGURnEdkEBpfkajqViitEnCBuNt2bFB1vT4Mya8Sfe0f2n9q3hnCAt2UxMBs3yiLPbdSYA1VY6JXFyX_-s2f70eEAt9sp_m09Q/s976/50_millionen_mark_1_september_1923.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="976" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwTSJ_WZAkmcuax5LeQtDUbdf4swozFsgUBdgay2KlTwvCa6IqLmddZGvqjqJZUZSs4wxJFkpb3DgL0s-4zW8hwSUGURnEdkEBpfkajqViitEnCBuNt2bFB1vT4Mya8Sfe0f2n9q3hnCAt2UxMBs3yiLPbdSYA1VY6JXFyX_-s2f70eEAt9sp_m09Q/s320/50_millionen_mark_1_september_1923.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(A 50 million German Mark issue in 1923)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The value of the mark collapsed, inflation raged, and the
Weimar government response was to print more money. By 1922, inflation topped
700 percent. “A wheelbarrow full of money couldn’t buy a newspaper,” the
Britannica historical website says.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As the government floundered in finding solutions, the streets
roared with political extremism and conspiracy theories.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Am I hearing echoes of the Weimar Republic across the United
States today? Inflation, fueled by Western sanctions on Russia, has reached a 41-year high with energy prices rising
34.6 percent in May, fuel oil 106.7 percent, food costs ranging from 10 to 14
percent. The government in Washington, D.C., led by millionaires and financed
by billionaires, is stalemated and grossly out of touch. It is willing to send $40
billion to Ukraine, thus further enriching the military-industrial complex Eisenhower
warned us about, but unable to agree on spending an additional $10 billion for
COVID-19 relief.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Crippled Germany saw political gridlock and a succession of
leaders take over in the 1920s, but eventually the nation looked
to an old war hero, Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg, to lead it out of its
morass. He was 78, the same age as Joe Biden when he became president. A
monarchist with hardly a political vision, Hindenburg tried feebly to steer a
course through the troubled political waters but, slipping toward senility and
under the influence of close advisers, ended up handing the keys of power to
the most extremist of all the upstarts around him, Adolf Hitler. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fast forward to Joe Biden, who’s ostensibly holding the fort
of America against a return of the autocratic extremist Donald Trump. Yet he has
serious trouble getting his program through a divided Congress and is funding a distant
war that has nothing to do with American security interests but that is doing
serious damage to the nation and world’s economy. Biden talks about democracy
and justice and his pro-labor, working class roots. Yet in his heart of hearts,
he is a pro-corporate neoliberal whose foreign policies are enriching the rich
while bringing suffering to average working class Americans. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Biden’s proxy war with Russia in Ukraine is an utterly
misguided effort to continue U.S. post-Cold War dominance by weakening and humiliating Russia. It’s not working. Russia’s
Vladimir Putin, tired of broken Western promises and continued military
encroachment on his nation’s borders, is winning the war in Ukraine that the
U.S. and NATO are largely funding. Ukraine is tragically a victim caught between competing world powers.<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As in the other disastrous wars the U.S. has waged in the
last 50 years, its political and military leaders don’t really know or
understand their enemy. The same goes for the sycophantic mainstream,
corporate-owned media—from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York
Times</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Washington Post</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wall Street Journal</i> to network news and
CNN and Fox (BBC in England is no better). They are mainly mouthpieces for their
government, publishing or broadcasting every memo from Washington or Kyiv whether validated or not.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even when mainstream media begrudgingly acknowledges
Russia’s gains—and Putin is close to complete success in the Donbas in eastern
Ukraine—they never fail to remind us how Russia failed to take the capital city
of Kyiv. They never explore the possibility that Russia did not want to destroy
a city that is close to the heart and soul of Russian history and culture.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Is there today another parallel to the Weimar Republic in
that era’s much-discussed decadence, the drunken orgies and bacchanalia of
Berlin’s cabarets that raged while Hitler’s storm troopers tightened their
collective fist around the country’s neck? If there is, it can be found among
the American oligarchs who fund our politicians, both Democrat and Republican,
and engorge themselves with untold wealth that even
their counterparts in Russia can’t claim.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What are those lyrics from “Willkommen”, the theme of the
1966 Broadway musical <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cabaret</i>? “Leave
your troubles outside. So life is disappointing, forget it! In here life is
beautiful.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Indeed life is beautiful where America’s oligarchs play.
But, forget it, those of us on the outside are not “willcommen.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></p><p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-16067471433148955732022-04-30T12:43:00.008-07:002022-05-02T10:48:45.119-07:00Why aren't reporters asking about peace negotiations in Ukraine? Why isn't Joe Biden pushing for peace instead of more weapons?<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibQAafFjM7J8A02mD4l4VSngADPDkkM-o6zKRfEHXBgsbrvwvHqiZY1fG_QieQwN2zHLLPmNuJN0mGTjzyUQDA7fErN1RfUMb2RY8QwhY5hcMUdSa2uHYbZ4RxWCiaqo1PpVYsV1GjjzcnrXfz8Mpy2uF2Q-cjM-dffQy6DyLTXMK6PdpRN42nseX7/s1000/Ukrainian%20Woman.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibQAafFjM7J8A02mD4l4VSngADPDkkM-o6zKRfEHXBgsbrvwvHqiZY1fG_QieQwN2zHLLPmNuJN0mGTjzyUQDA7fErN1RfUMb2RY8QwhY5hcMUdSa2uHYbZ4RxWCiaqo1PpVYsV1GjjzcnrXfz8Mpy2uF2Q-cjM-dffQy6DyLTXMK6PdpRN42nseX7/s320/Ukrainian%20Woman.JPG" width="256" /></a></div>(To the right, a painting of a Ukrainian woman by Ilya Repin, considered by many Russia's greatest painter. Repin was born in Ukraine.)<br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">It was the summer of 1992, and the embers of Russia’s
70-year experiment with communism still smoldered. Near Red Square in Moscow
protesters called for a return to the glory days of the dismembered Soviet
Union. One of the clearest signs of that dismemberment was near the city’s
Tretyakov Gallery, where the paint-smeared, uprooted statues of Stalin and
other Communist leaders lay helter-skelter on the ground.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our guide, 25-year-old university student Roman Fiodorov,
always a sly grin on his face, waxed philosophical. “Systems are different, but
people are the same. People just want a (normal) life.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’ve been thinking back to that trip to Russia that my wife
and I made back in 1992. It became an important experience in my life, a
turning point, in many ways, prompting me into a years-long obsession with
Eastern Europe. What followed were three trips to Poland, other trips to
Slovakia, the former East Germany, sponsored visits of students from Slovakia,
Bulgaria, and Albania to the University of Mississippi, where I teach. I studied Russian for two years and Polish for one.<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It also led to a lot of writing, including my first book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Mission: Journalism, Ethics and the
World</i> (2002), which drew comparisons between Eastern Europe and my native
U.S. South. I railed in newspaper columns against NATO’s bombing of Serbia in
the former Yugoslavia in 1999 allegedly on behalf of the Kosovar Albanians. It
was an illegal and unnecessary war given the fact that then-Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic had already agreed to allow Kosovo autonomy.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Watching those developments closely were the leaders of
post-communist Russia, which had agreed to the reunification of Germany after
NATO promised not to expand eastward. As the years passed, however, Russia also
watched as NATO broke its promise again and again, expanding to Russia’s very
doorstep, with even Ukraine wanting to join and given encouragement by U.S.
officials.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Today, Ukraine is the blood-soaked victim of, yes, a brutal Russian
invasion but also of the U.S.-led NATO’s relentless push to preserve the United
States as the world’s lone superpower and to mock Russia’s security concerns
about the Western military buildup on its borders.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You wouldn’t know the complex backstory to this invasion by
reading, watching or listening to mainstream, corporate-owned media in the
United States and Europe. What you get from their alleged journalists is the
same old jingoistic claptrap that comes with every war—the demonization of
Russia and Russians, even including Russian opera singers and athletes as well
as Vladimir Putin, the reporting of every claim from the Ukrainian side and the
parroting of endless U.S. military speculation about the war, whether validated
or not, and the glorification of so-called heroes like Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky, who has repeatedly called for a “no fly zone” over his
country and other Western interventions that likely would cause a global
nuclear war. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Where are the questions from journalists about peace
negotiations? To his credit, Zelensky had indicated his willingness to
relinquish Ukrainian hopes to join NATO, a key Russian demand, but the last
thing the U.S. oligarchs of the military-industrial complex and the Deep State
in Washington, D.C., want is any semblance of a Russian victory. What they want
are more weapons to be poured into Ukraine, continuing the war until the Russians
give up or the last Ukrainian is dead. They want a humiliated Russia that can
never challenge the United States’ status as the world’s only superpower. Once
they’ve taken care of Russia, then they can focus on China.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">President Biden seems utterly in the throes
of the Deep State, and perhaps now he has been forgiven for ending the war in
Afghanistan. Spending billions of taxpayer dollars on weapons for Ukraine goes
a long way toward getting forgiveness. By the way, why does the Deep State
still have credibility after its dismal failures in Vietnam, Iraq, and
Afghanistan, all U.S. invasions in which oceans of blood were spilled? </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">None of this is to paint Putin as anything but the autocrat
that he is. I have no illusions about what lies within his capability. I would
likely be in prison if I were a journalist in Russia.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Back in 1992, Roman Fiodorov, again grinning, made a comment
to us tourists that spoke more truth than perhaps intended. “You Americans,” he
said with a shake of his head, as my memory recalls. “Two people are killed in
a car wreck and it’s on the front pages of your newspapers. Here in Russia,
hundreds disappear in Siberia, and no one says anything.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030562294206112625.post-91852889141024882702022-03-18T11:48:00.043-07:002022-03-19T10:09:09.576-07:00Ink-stained wretches join baristas and other working stiffs in the call for "Union!"<p>(To the right, Heywood Broun)
</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhn-R0Nvl0VLvmQdLHxUlB81YhBq94cpYtc6616hkA6J2ALzaA_X6ciY-J6wKBXICDb-E6hE6_Fz31NjBgpVzuMIsZQgRtwekcFChIU6YaE3duZqrPQNs5sqIHFI5PGjbwPjArXGOpBfuUs0sIBbqjR24WKF9-t_vQDeq6h10_i2tAX6UqR33YlfWRZ=s241" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="241" data-original-width="161" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhn-R0Nvl0VLvmQdLHxUlB81YhBq94cpYtc6616hkA6J2ALzaA_X6ciY-J6wKBXICDb-E6hE6_Fz31NjBgpVzuMIsZQgRtwekcFChIU6YaE3duZqrPQNs5sqIHFI5PGjbwPjArXGOpBfuUs0sIBbqjR24WKF9-t_vQDeq6h10_i2tAX6UqR33YlfWRZ" width="161" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">When highly successful columnist Heywood Broun called for a
union of newsrooms workers across America nearly 90 years ago, he reminded his fellow journalists
of their misperceptions about themselves.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The men who make up the papers of this country would never
look upon themselves as what they really are—hacks and white collar slaves,”
Broun wrote in his August 7, 1933, column for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York World Telegram</i>. “Any attempt to unionize leg, re-write,
desk or makeup men would be laughed to death by these editorial hacks themselves.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those hacks looked down on the unionized, blue-collar
printers in the same building, yet the printers earned an average 30 percent
more than the reporters and editors.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Broun is smiling from heaven these days at the resurgence of
union activity in newsrooms across the country. Like their counterparts at
Starbucks coffee shops from the East to the West Coast, newsroom working stiffs
are brandishing their union cards. The NewsGuild that Broun helped establish
has more than 6,300 members who’ve joined in just the past four years. Another
2,400 joined the Writers Guild of America, East, over the past eight years.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“I watched too many decent people stripped of their
professional dignity,” columnist Mike Kelly of the New Jersey-based <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Record</i> told veteran labor reporter
Steven Greenhouse. “We were watching out colleagues just pushed out the door
willy-nilly and without any warning.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kelly referred to the standard Gannett company practice of
buying newspapers like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Record</i> and
quickly eliminating staff. Also swelling the ranks of newsroom
union card holders was the COVID-19 pandemic, which proved not only to
reporters and editors but to workers around the nation and world that they were
less important than the bottom line in the eyes of their employers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A key figure in the growth of unions among newsroom workers
is Hamilton Nolan, who now covers Southern labor activity for the Chicago-based
magazine <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In These Times</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back in 2015, Nolan worked for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gawker Media</i> and led his fellow
journalists to make it the first big-sized digital media outfit to unionize. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gawker</i> later had
to declare bankruptcy after losing a legal battle with nationally known
wrestler Hulk Hogan. However, the unionization of its newsroom inspired similar
labor actions across the digital news world as well as at old established
outfits like the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chicago Tribune</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Los Angeles Times</i>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjI8HjTcF32fL4BxwSOFsHsYNbOe3Y6lZmo5-RE8hLBWU-rQMLMCtu4-s0QNGkP_8mJH2ac8HZzSq69jjf9CLoAcQXkvOpevAQEQ_0SazxPIvNGL8Ym_IZqoLezl4WPB2A0U6yPJd3wr9QsYB0tUnEpdlpNJWUHqaDEH_8MzbnZtvyQ5CRcr_PtZ6dS=s1280" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjI8HjTcF32fL4BxwSOFsHsYNbOe3Y6lZmo5-RE8hLBWU-rQMLMCtu4-s0QNGkP_8mJH2ac8HZzSq69jjf9CLoAcQXkvOpevAQEQ_0SazxPIvNGL8Ym_IZqoLezl4WPB2A0U6yPJd3wr9QsYB0tUnEpdlpNJWUHqaDEH_8MzbnZtvyQ5CRcr_PtZ6dS=s320" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">(Jaz Brisack during a visit to Oxford, Mississippi)<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Young people are
leading the way at these news organizations, much as they are at Starbucks,
where Rhodes scholar and University of Mississippi graduate Jaz Brisack helped
start a union movement that spread from the Buffalo, New York, Starbucks shop where
she worked as a barista to other Starbucks stores across the country.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Both Nolan and Brisack, a former student of mine, recently
stopped in Oxford, Mississippi, to visit this old labor writer to talk about
the labor movement in the South. While much attention was paid to the failed
union effort at the Amazon plant in Bessemer, Alabama, the media haven’t much
noticed other labor activity in the region. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Starbucks workers here in Oxford are now calling for a
union. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The firing of seven pro-union
workers at a Memphis Starbucks has galvanized the movement with the Rev.
William Barber leading a recent march in their support. Newsroom workers at
newspapers in Dallas, Austin and Fort Worth, Texas, are already unionized and
calling on management to finalize contracts.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">All three—the <i>Dallas Morning News,</i> <i>Austin American-Statesman
</i>and <i>Forth Worth Star-Telegram</i>—have been unionized only since July 2020, the
first in Texas in 30 years, and this will be their first contracts.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps in part because of what’s going on inside these and other
newsrooms, labor coverage nationwide is on the rise in the U.S. media. Labor reporters,
who had almost disappeared from the landscape a decade or more ago, are now
back on the beat at at least a dozen or more major news organizations. This may
also be a reflection of a recent Gallup poll that shows a whopping 68 percent
of Americans support unions despite an overall decline in union membership. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:1;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style> <br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As evident with these newspapers and Starbucks shops, the South is seeing some of this rising union activity. Despite its anti-union reputation, the South has a long
labor history that includes the successful organizing of sharecroppers and
tenant farmers in Arkansas in the 1930s, Martin Luther King’s support of the
ultimately successful unionizing effort among sanitation workers in Memphis in
the late 1960s, textile workers' victory in North Carolina in the 1970s, and catfish
workers organizing in the Mississippi Delta in the 1990s.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi59iQXok4YzkZLMtMyWY51TVsBwkfiwSflDnxtc0T-N2DWl0fn0J5rJer6_x9BAgGQaRApCPfSsx6wWom8thfEIFzJSS61CRhUsfbrA2X5LASmtXJx7a1rxObiLWGnpIYn0EXxuHFJWFN0VDbU1Tq91IsQkkePfJsTZ02Vd0pdCzJwqpA8TwAD-Bol=s3264" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi59iQXok4YzkZLMtMyWY51TVsBwkfiwSflDnxtc0T-N2DWl0fn0J5rJer6_x9BAgGQaRApCPfSsx6wWom8thfEIFzJSS61CRhUsfbrA2X5LASmtXJx7a1rxObiLWGnpIYn0EXxuHFJWFN0VDbU1Tq91IsQkkePfJsTZ02Vd0pdCzJwqpA8TwAD-Bol=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(To the right, a Southern Tenant Farmers' Union poster in the 1930s calling for a strike) <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Back during the 1930s, Heywood Broun backed up his column
with frontline organizing and became a hero of the movement. “I think I could
be happy on the opening day of the general strike if I had the privilege of watching
(wealthy and influential Establishment journalist) Walter Lippmann heave a half
a brick through a Tribune window at a non-union operative who had been called
in to write the current (Lippmann’s) Today and Tomorrow column on the gold
standard.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let’s hope Broun’s spirit continues to live and prosper
among today and tomorrow’s ink-stained wretches.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Joseph B. Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02096522432351736337noreply@blogger.com0