So the other day I pointed out why the National Strike set for October 29th will fail

[nadinbrzezinski]

I pointed out that we lack the organzation that labor once had. We lack the drive that the American people once had. We also lack the sense of WE and class consciousness. Regardless of what you think of Marx or the implementation of his theories in the USSR (which were a disaster) he got the analysis right...

So today I went to Borders. Originally my mission was to find a tasty scone recipe in any of the cooking magazines on the shelf. I do not bake or cook enough to justify a subscription... but that is another rant. So I decided... ok lets go see what they have on the history of labor...

In the history section I found Zihn's work... the more general books though. Under sociology I find Stud Terkel's essays on work and some of Eirenbach's books, such as nickel and dimed. So I walked over to current affairs, poli sci and ok there is Hartmann. Overall though there wasn't much.

So between the allergy that the American people have to labor and the history of labor... and the lack of material in a borders... no wonder people read this call for ORGANIZATION with all kinds of excuses.

Hey I did get Jacoby's book on anti-intellectualism. I wanted it when it came out, but decided to wait for the soft cover... which has been updated to cover the after election environment. So I guess... I should do some research and some writing and put a comprehensive history of labor... and then find a University Press to print that... assuming outside the Journals anybody is interested. After all all this silliness about class consciousness or how much we are WORKERS not middle class flies in the face of American Myth, and lord knows we need to preserve the myth as long as the empire lives.

[GMA]

1. Now

that was a mouthful! Did you find a good scone recipe?

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Nope... will look online later

after I send the sun conure to bed.

[panader0]

3. Dennis Lehane's (Mystic River) new book, 'The Given Day',

has some great historical perspective about labor and unions in 1918 Boston. The novel touches on terrorists (the anarchists of the day), the flu epidemic, recession and more. But all set 90 years ago. A good read.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I wanted to get my paws on an actual history book

none to be found. I fear I will have to go to the University Library if I want to do that research. (Which would be the case anyway for any serious research) but usually it is nice to start with a general book.

And the fact that such a critter does not exist explains a lot,

[robdogbucky]

5. Try these

Nadin:

The best recipe I found for scones is in Joy of Cooking, using the base cream scone one, with embellishments of more than called-for blueberries and added pecans. If you don't have Joy, just let me know and I will type it out and email it to you. MMMMMMmmmmmm, good!

For historical perspective of when labor was a force in this country, you could start with:

A couple of books at Amazon on Harry Bridges:

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=harry+bridges...

Harry Bridges (July 28, 1901–March 30, 1990) was an influential Australian-American union leader, in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), a longshore (dock) and warehouse workers' union on the West Coast, Hawai'i and Alaska which he helped form and led for over 40 years. As controversial as he was charismatic, he was prosecuted by the US government during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, and was convicted by a federal jury of having lied about his Communist Party membership, a conviction which was set aside. On the West Coast, Bridges still excites passions both for and against the labor movement………

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Bridges

http://www.ilwu19.com/history/dragon.htm

Then there is Waiting for Lefty:

Waiting for Lefty is a 1935 play by American playwright, Clifford Odets. Consisting of a series of related vignettes, the entire play is framed by the meeting of cab drivers who are planning a labor strike. The framing situation effectively utilizes the audience as part of the meeting.

The play is composed of seven different vignettes separated by blackouts. As the play opens, several taxi drivers sit in a semicircle. To one side stands a gunman. A large man and union leader, Harry Fatt, tells the men that a strike is not a good idea. When a man in the crowd mocks this idea, Fatt calls him a "red" (slang for Communist), says he is keeping an eye out for them in the union, and claims that the reds, given the chance, will betray their fellow workers. The crowd questions where Lefty is, their elected chairman. Fatt reminds them they already have their elected committee present. He lets Joe, one of the workers, speak. Joe maintains he is not a "red boy," citing his status as a wounded war veteran, and discusses how if a worker expresses dissatisfaction, the union leaders label him a "red." He says his wife convinced him last week to strike for higher wages.

The taxi drivers remain dimly visible on stage as Edna joins Joe in their home (the scene is supposed to take place a week before the play's first scene). She tells him that their furniture, unpaid for, was repossessed. They argue; Joe claims that strikes do not work, and that they lose money while they are on strike, while she says that while his salary barely covers rent now, soon the owners will push down their wages even more. She says his boss is "making suckers" out of the workers, and out of their families. Joe tells her she'll wake the children, but she says she only wants to wake him up. She calls his union "rotten," since they don't tell the workers what their plans are. Joe admits they're "racketeers." When Edna challenges Joe to stand up to them, and he backs down, she tells him she's going back to her old boyfriend, since he earns a living. The taxi drivers, still in the dark, whisper words like "She will." Edna turns the subject to Joe's boss who, she says, is creating all these problems. She encourages Joe to start a workers' union without the racketeers. Joe gets swept up in her passion and tells her he's going to find Lefty Costello. Edna cheers him on. Back in the taxi driver's meeting, one of the men says that his fellow workers know better than he does, and that "We gotta walk out!"

More at ......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_Lefty

PS: This play was based on a true story, as the real Lefty was not killed but survived a brutal beating when he was left for dead, to be a hero among the organized cabbies of NYC, and was the uncle of my friend that just survived the cytokine storm and flu/viral pneumonia I told you about. How's that for a cosmic coincidence?


Just my dos centavos

robdogbucky

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Thank you, putting this in notebook

[Selatius]

7. If we could get rid of the Taft-Hartley Act, it would make labor activism much easier.

As it stands, that act makes it quite difficult to accomplish the kind of mass action that really hurts employers who intentionally try to attack its labor union or destroy it. In the old days, cross-industry labor strikes were common, so if the steel mill workers went on strike, the railroad workers who ship in the fuel to run the mills as well as the miners who pull out the iron ore needed for steel production could easily throw sympathy strikes in response; this helped generate an atmosphere of brotherhood between workers of all industries and trades, but that was outlawed by the Taft-Hartley Act specifically to atomize the movement.

The industrialists were smart enough to get the T-H Act passed. They knew it would make collective action nearly impossible, and eventually, the workers would forget what it felt like. They calculated correctly. Otherwise, the US would be riven with strikes on a yearly basis like France.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Correct...

[Brickbat]

8. I have found that reading primary sources is a lot more helpful than reading academic analysis when

it comes to labor history.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Reminds me in that sense

of my thesis.

Yes, there was a historiography of sorts... after all for some reason Fray Servando is not that popular as a subject... and damn it he should... the Thomas Payne of Mexico.

But the historiography was so damn thin.

I guess we really do need a good book that is accessible...

Perhaps it is a worthy project to take on?

I wonder if a university press would take it on or the unions. We have no real history, at least not recent history.

For the record, for my thesis, the historiography was composed of three historians at the 19th century and none of them were really good... oh the biases...

[autorank]

11. Alas, you're probably right k*r for intellectual honesty

We don't get leaders. We don't get the motivation to have leaders. We don't get paid much and
we end up paying for the rich.



It's a total disgrace but the perpetuation of this system where we're finally getting around
to community banks and postponing the new labor law is realized through the most effective
information control imaginable. Our media manipulators are the best ever. Unfortunately, the
elite that they prop up consists of people with the vision of a gnat.

I support a national strike and hope this one succeeds. But it's going to take an event to push
people into the streets. I nominate the passage of a health bill that doesn't do jack to help
people in needs. That will be the end of the imagineers who think that people will eat the cereal
box but not notice that it's empty. Health is the existential issue of all time.