Learning lessons from the struggles of the past

A GREAT HISTORICAL LESSON
"These miners knew the dynamics of capitalism and the role of government. They knew who their friends and enemies were. They knew that only by organizing and physically defying centers of power would they ever get justice. They did not trust authority. They did not wait for authority figures to dole out justice. They were not seduced by the empty rhetoric of politicians. They knew that if they wanted a better world they would have to be their own leaders. They would have to fight for it. And this is a lesson in the nature of corporate and governmental power that we have forgotten. We must make the powerful afraid of us if we are to get any semblance of an open and free society. They are not and never will be on our side." - Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges: The Battle of Blair Mountain - Truthdig

www.truthdig.com

There are still bullets in the ground where working people in the 1920s staged the largest armed insurrection in the United States since the Civil War. - 2012/07/16

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    Rob Horner ‎"They knew that if they wanted a better world they would have to be their own leaders." - Chris Hedges
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    This story was also made into a movie back in the late 80's, "Matewan" - I found it extremely compelling.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matewan
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    Matewan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    en.wikipedia.org

    Matewan (1987) is an American drama film written and directed by John Sayles, il...See More

    3 hours ago · Edited · · 1
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    Alan L. Maki

    This is important history. I do think that Chris Hedges seems to labor under the illusion that there are good and bad forms of capitalism when capitalism never was any good for working people and never will be good for working people. That aside, there are some two-million casino workers employed in the loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos of the Indian Gaming Industry at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws all intentional because of the way Democrats created the "Compacts" giving life to this hideous industry where Native American Indians have been forced to front for organized crime which owns the slot machines leaving Native American Nations saddled with huge poverty causing debt as these mobsters skim the cream off the top handing out millions of dollars in bribes to assure that Obama and these Democrats will continue to turn their racist heads in indifference to the injustices they created.
    
    I bring all of this up because these two-million workers employed in this Indian Gaming Industry, like these coal miners, are presently forced to sign statements as a condition of their employment that they will not join unions or engage in union organizing in complete violation of all state and federal labor laws and against the terms articulated in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights--- and today, we find many unemployed coal miners and coal miners forced from the mines because they are suffering from the vile black lung disease now being forced to work in these casinos.
    
    Think of suffering from Black Lung disease only to be forced to work in these smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any rights just like yesteryear in the coal mines.
    
    We have a similar situation among the iron ore miners up here in northern Minnesota where unemployed miners are forced to take jobs in these casinos under the same conditions.
    
    Ironically, the Rockefeller family has robbed the working people and raped the land leaving behind nothing but poverty, pits and pollution in both Coal Country and on the Iron Ranges of northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and northern Michigan.
    
    And, surprise, surprise; it has been the Rockefellers who have worked in cahoots with organized crime in profiting from the Indian Gaming Industry through the exploitation of casino workers.

    2 hours ago · · 2
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    Rob Horner ‎Alan L. Maki . . . excellent comment. I know what you mean. Hedges has openly said that he is against Corporate capitalism, but for regional capitalism coupled with collective "communitarian" policies. This is a more transitional position. Isn't that the position of a "social democrat" and isn't socialism a state never really fully achieved, but a state to which a people will continually aspire???

    2 hours ago · Edited ·
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    Alan L. Maki I'm not sure what Chris Hedges considers himself to be... has he ever said? Not that it matters since he raises very interesting questions.
    
    I don't really believe in these concepts of "transition" and "transformation" that fit in with things like we have to accept "baby steps," "take-it-slow" and "incrementalism" when it comes to reforms simply because I don't view reforms as just steps to socialism (which they are) but more than that--- reforms help working people cope with the problems created for them as capitalism collapses and we prepare for socialist revolution.
    
    Like you, I have been watching and listening and reading what people like Chris Hedges and Gar Alperovitz have been saying but I am convinced "the old left" had things right in that it takes huge mass movements in the streets together with a political party articulating the demands of the people in their communities, where they work and in the streets insisting and demanding on reforms as we work to get rid of capitalism sooner rather than later.
    
    From what he says, I don't think Chris Hedges agrees with the socialist solution while Gar Alperovitz seems to think that through building these cooperative type alternatives someplace way down the road capitalism will evolve into socialism.
    
    I think we need to advocate the kind of reforms aimed at solving the problems of the people through things like a National Public Health Care System, a National Public Child Care System and through programs like WPA, CCC and C.E.T.A.
    
    I do hope Cheri Honkala is going to do a better job articulating these kinds of reforms which give people more confidence that they can win socialist oriented reforms through mass struggles rather than projecting the idea of the Mondragon experience which leads people to believe they can kind of cope with and muddle through capitalism as it collapses while living on the edge of poverty.
    
    Chris Hedges definitely has a militant spirit but I don't think he gets how militancy has to be connected to mass struggles for real change by building huge movements because he often mocks liberals who are usually socialists in thinking or at least friendly to socialism who haven't taken the plunge into activism.
    
    Quite frankly, I think we have too many non-Marxist socialists and non-Marxist reformers and non-Marxist revolutionaries leading our movements simply because at a grassroots and rank-and-file level people haven't begun turning to Marx, Engels, Lenin and the Communists like William Z. Foster, Earl Browder, James W. Ford, Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, Frank Marshall Davis and Gus Hall to help get their bearings on where we want to be headed.
    
    We can see where all the "New Left" who ridiculed the "old Left" ended up--- backing Wall Street's imperialist warmonger Barack Obama. I doubt this mistake will be made again.
    
    McCarthyism was intended to crush Marxism here in the United States. The American people have proven they, like people in any other country after periods of severe repression, come out thinking even more firmly that socialism is a workable alternative to capitalism. All the polls are showing the American people are looking favorably to towards socialism so it won't be long before these same people start to read a little Marxist literature they will pick up here and there and once this happens people are going to settle for "baby steps" and "incremental reforms." People will not be turning to just cooperatives and worker-ownership and credit unions--- they will begin demanding public ownership of the mines, mills and factories so wealth serves the people not the Wall Street parasites.
    
    I have asked Gar Alperovitz to detail the wages paid in these Mondragon type co-ops; he won't say. What he doesn't want to discuss is often these co-ops are just providing cheap labor in industries and sectors of industries that capitalists can't maximize their profits from.
    
    A while back I called that laundry cooperative in Cleveland Alperovitz referred to and asked what the wages were for workers and the salaries for management--- they refused to disclose this information and the united Steel Workers refused to disclose the wages in one of the big windmill plants that is supposedly worker owned to some extent. They refused to disclose wages but later I was able to get a few workers to give me copies of their pay checks--- they were making just under $14.00 an hour where previously in the steel mills they were making over $30.00 an hour in similar jobs.
    
    So I think working people have a lot to discuss in this country and all ideas belong on the table from the social democratic viewpoint to that of Communists and everything in between and on each side.
    
    I think both Alperovitz and Chris Hedges have a disdain for what they call "state socialism" when we all know they are talking about existing socialism and the socialism that existed in the former "Communist" countries. What this socialism really is is workers having taken political and economic power away from the capitalists. In my opinion a lot more good than bad came out of these systems for working people in spite of the problems and difficulties. In fact, Chris Hedges rejoiced with the counter-revolutions in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union not understanding or not wanting to understand what needed to be done in order to keep the capitalists from returning to power--- now that the capitalists have returned to power there is massive economic and social hardship.
    
    We have hundreds if not thousands of factories, perfectly good factories, being bulldozed over in the steel and auto industries--- what should be the solution? Public ownership.
    
    I was with Phil Raymond, the founder of the United Auto Workers Union at the General Motor's Plant in Lansing, Michigan around 1972 and a worker asked him, "Phil, in your opinion what are we going to have to do to save our jobs?"
    
    Phil Raymond responded, "As you know I am a Communist. We fought to organize these plants back in the 1930's and 1940's. If you are going to keep your jobs you better be prepared to fight and struggle a hell of a lot harder than we did because you are going to be fighting over who will own these plants--- you or the bosses. You are going to have to decide if you want capitalism or socialism. Capitalism is the boss' system; socialism is the worker's system. I'm an old man. I won't live much longer. You are going to have to decide if you want to give up your jobs so Wall Street can profit more producing cars for less overseas." Phil Raymond died not long after that and a couple decades later this plant was bulldozed over putting thousands of auto workers out of work. And as Phil Raymond repeated over and over again: Workers without jobs are going to be poor.

    25 minutes ago · · 1