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#workingclass

35 posts16 participants3 posts today
Public
MikeDunnAuthor

California's senator Scott Wiener proposed a bill that would've let wildfire victims sue the oil companies for causing the climate crisis.

Guess who teamed up with the Big Oil execs to defeat the bill?

Unions.

Specifically the unions representing oil industry workers. In other words, the workers collaborated with their class enemies: their bosses.

I'm not opposed to unions. I've been a union organizer for decades. But goddamn, these blockheads are acting just like Mr. Block. They somehow forgot the first rule of labor: the boss is NOT your friend. Be suspicious. Don't trust them. And sure as hell don't collaborate with them to help enrich them even further, especially not on your backs, nor in ways that further destroy the planet.

:The working class and the employing class have nothing in common....Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organise as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the earth."

That last line, added to the original 1905 preamble to the IWW constitution in the late 1980s, might sound a bit vague and "crunchy." But it was an attempt to acknowledge that some types of work simply shouldn't exist. That's not to say those who currently work in those industries (e.g. Fossil fuel extraction) should be thrown under the bus. Everyone should be allowed to do something productive that they enjoy. And everyone should have all the material necessities to live a safe secure and meaningful existence. But saving the planet from climate collapse will certainly require many changes in the types of work that are available. Coal mining, for example, has been on the decline for years because there is so little left in many regions that it's not profitable for the bosses to continue paying miners to mine ît anymore.

In a sane and compassionate world, we'd provide these workers with free Healthcare housing, UBI, and retraining so they could transition to some other productive endeavor. And union leaders would recognize that the interests of their members are much more closely aligned with, and linked to, those of the rest of the working class. (Continued burning of oil will contribute to more climate disasters, more wild fires, and possible the loss of their own members' lives or homes).

I know it's hard not to fight blindly to protect one's job, as I presume the oil workers unions thought they were doing. But these

calmatters.org/politics/2025/0

CalMatters · Unions block California bill to sue Big Oil for climate damageSen. Scott Wiener's bill failed after construction trade unions - major Democratic donors - convinced lawmakers to kill the legislation.
#workingclass#LaborHistory#IWW
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Erik L. Midtsveen 🏴🏳️‍🌈

Why are tankies so blind to what they’re doing? How can they worship dictators like the Kim dynasty, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Castro, Maduro, and vanguards like the CPSU?

It doesn’t make sense, if you want the working class to be free, why are you idolizing authoritarian rulers?

What the hell is happening here? This blind devotion and cult-like behavior is downright insane.

#Tankie#Authoritarianism#AntiHierarchy
Public
MikeDunnAuthor

Today in Labor History April 14, 1919: Workers in Limerick, Ireland, initiated a General Strike against the British military occupation. They ran the city as a soviet for two weeks. Workers printed their own newspaper and issued their own currency, which local businesses accepted. They also regulated food supplies to keep prices low and prevent profiteering. Numerous other soviets were created during the Irish War of Independence.

Money printed by the Limerick Soviet. It reads: “General Strike Against British Militarism. The workers of Limerick promise to pay the bearer 1 shilling.” By Limerick Soviet - http://www.irishpapermoney.com/ancillary/ancil/ancil03.htmlTransferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Innotata using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15704166
#workingclass#LaborHistory#generalstrike
Public
MikeDunnAuthor

Today in Labor History April 14, 1917: IWW sailors went on strike in Philadelphia and won a ten dollar per month raise. Ben Fletcher, an African-American IWW organizer, was instrumental in organizing the Philadelphia waterfront. Fletcher was born in Philly in 1890. He joined the Wobblies (IWW) in 1912, became secretary of the IWW District Council in 1913. He also co-founded the interracial Local 8 in 1913.

In 1913, Fletcher led 10,000 IWW Philly dockworkers on a strike. Within two weeks, they won a 10-hr day, overtime pay, & created one of the most successful antiracist, anticapitalist union locals in the U.S. At the time, roughly one-third of the dockers on the Philadelphia waterfront were black. Another 33% were Irish. And about 33% were Polish and Lithuanian. Prior to the IWW organizing drive, the employers routinely pitted black workers against white, and Polish against Irish. The IWW was one of the only unions of the era that organized workers into the same locals, regardless of race or ethnicity. And its main leader in Philadelphia was an African American, Ben Fletcher.

By 1916, thanks in large part to Fletcher’s organizing skill, all but two of Philadelphia’s docks were controlled by the IWW. And the union maintained control of the Philly waterfront for about a decade. At that time, roughly 10% of the IWW’s 1 million members were African American. Most had been rejected from other unions because of their skin color.

Fletcher also traveled up and down the east coast organizing dockers. However, he was nearly lynched in Norfolk, Virginia in 1917. And in 1918, the state arrested him, sentencing him to ten years for the crime of organizing workers during wartime. He served three years.

You can read my full biography of Ben Fletcher here: michaeldunnauthor.com/2021/05/

Photograph of Ben Fletcher, 1918. Ben Fletcher, a union organizer for Industrial Workers of the World, was photographed when he arrival at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas, September 1918. He was found guilty of "espionage and sedition" and sentenced to ten years in federal prison and fined $30,000. By U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128257560
#workingclass#LaborHistory#IWW
Public
MikeDunnAuthor

Today in Labor History April 13, 1873: The Colfax massacre, occurred in Colfax, Louisiana. A mob of former Confederate soldiers and current KKK members murdered 60-153 black militiamen after they surrendered. The militiamen were guarding the parish courthouse in the wake of the contested 1872 election for governor. Southern elections during Reconstruction were regularly marred by violence and fraud. It was the worst act of racist violence during Reconstruction.

Gathering the dead after the Colfax massacre, published in Harper's Weekly, May 10, 1873. By Unknown author - http://blackhistory.harpweek.com/7Illustrations/Reconstruction/Illustrations/0397w500.jpg via http://blackhistory.harpweek.com/7Illustrations/Reconstruction/GatheringTheDead.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6693644
#workingclass#LaborHistory#kkk
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MikeDunnAuthor

Today in Labor History April 12, 1963: Mexican journalist and human rights activist, Lydia Cacho, was born on this day. She has reported extensively on violence and sexual abuse against women in Mexico. In 2006, she reported on the hundreds of female homicides in Ciudad Juárez. That same year, a tape emerged of a conversation between businessman Kamel Nacif Borge and the governor of Puebla, in which they conspired to have her beaten and raped for her reporting.

Cacho, looking directly at the camera, smiling, with long black hair. By Eneas De Troya - https://www.flickr.com/photos/eneas/21583878214, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86503413
#LaborHistory#workingclass#rape
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MikeDunnAuthor

Today in Labor History April 12, 1900: Florence Reece was born. Reece was an activist in the Harlan County, Kentucky, coal strikes, and author of the song, “Which Side Are You On?” She originally wrote the song when she was twelve, when her father was on strike. She updated it to its current form in 1931, during a UMW strike, in response to Sheriff Blair’s thugs, who beat & murdered union leaders. Florence wrote the revised lyrics on an old wall calendar while her home was being ransacked by Blair’s goons, who were looking for her husband, Sam Reece, an organizer with the miners’ union. Many artists covered “Which Side Are You On,” including Pete Seeger, Billy Bragg, Dropkick Murphys, Natalie Merchant, Ani DiFranco, and Tom Morello.

youtube.com/watch?v=K7ZHfZt4o6

YouTubeFlorence Reece segment from Harlan County, USABy Oakland Public Education
#workingclass#LaborHistory#FlorenceReece
Public
MikeDunnAuthor

Covid is no worse than the flu?

I know, I have now led dozens of posts over the past few years with this sarcastic question. But now, with the pandemic officially declared over by the politicians and the majority of the public behaving as though Covid19 is no longer a threat, it seems particularly apropos in light of the reasons for declaring the pandemic over: to get people back to work and back to consuming. Yet, as the data from this study show, Long Covid has had an enormous negative impact on the income and quality of life for millions of Americans, particularly the poor and working class, and particularly for African Americans and women.

*Nearly 1 in 7 working-age adults in the U.S. had experienced Long Covid by the end of 2023
*Socially disadvantaged adults were 152% more likely to suffer from Long Covid
*Groups with higher risk for Long Covid include being Black, LGBTQ, Hispanic, Female, or low income
*In 2022, people with Long Covid lost $211 billion in wages
*In 2023, people with Long Covid lost $218 billion in wages

One reason for the disproportionate effect of Long Covid on marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC and poor people, is that these groups suffer disproportionately from chronically elevated levels of the stress hormone, Cortisol, due to the stress caused by racism, sexism, homophobia, and poverty. Elevated Cortisol levels are also associated with increased risk of heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes, as well as impaired immune function.

For a really good documentary on the Social Determinants of Health and the relationship between racism and poverty on stress/cortisol levels and negative health outcomes, please see the Unnatural Causes video series

cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/studie

CIDRAPStudies: 1 in 7 US working-age adults report long COVID, with heaviest burden on the poor
#covid#COVID19#longcovid
Continued thread
Public
Assoc for Scottish Literature

“[Davidson] makes the case for those in the depth of hardship by the depiction of an ordinary husband and wife, suffering inescapably, but maintaining a grip on their powers of resilience and love.”

—Carol Rumens on John Davidson’s “Villanelle” – “A still potent vision of a Glasgow family in poverty at the end of the 19th century, clinging on to hope.”

3/3

theguardian.com/books/2024/dec

The Guardian · Poem of the week: Villanelle by John DavidsonBy Carol Rumens
#Scottish#literature#poetry
Continued thread
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Assoc for Scottish Literature

“As a condition-of-England poem, ‘A Northern Suburb’ rings bells louder than a Royal wedding, even today.”

John Davidson grew up in Greenock, a son of the manse – although he soon rebelled against his father’s religious beliefs. A prolific writer, he influenced many Modernist poets such as WB Yeats, Wallace Stevens, TS Eliot & Hugh MacDiarmid

2/3

theguardian.com/books/booksblo

The Guardian · Poem of the week: A Northern Suburb by John DavidsonBy Carol Rumens
#Scottish#literature#poetry
Public
Assoc for Scottish Literature

I couldn’t touch a stop and turn a screw,
And set the blooming world a-work for me,
Like such as cut their teeth—I hope, like you—
On the handle of a skeleton gold key…

—“Thirty Bob a Week”, by the 19th-century poet, playwright & novelist John Davidson (1857–1909) – born #OTD, 11 April. A 🎂 🧵

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Page images from THE YELLOW BOOK vol. 2, 1894 – available on @gutenberg_org

gutenberg.org/files/41876/4187

John Davidson Thirty Bob a Week I couldn’t touch a stop and turn a screw, And set the blooming world a-work for me, Like such as cut their teeth—I hope, like you— On the handle of a skeleton gold key. I cut mine on a leek, which I eat it every week: I’m a clerk at thirty bob as you can see. But I don’t allow it’s luck and all a toss; There’s no such thing as being starred and crossed; It’s just the power of some to be a boss, And the bally power of others to be bossed: I face the music, sir; you bet I ain’t a cur! Strike me lucky if I don’t believe I’m lost! For like a mole I journey in the dark, A-travelling along the underground From my Pillar’d Halls and broad suburban Park To come the daily dull official round; And home again at night with my pipe all alight A-scheming how to count ten bob a pound.
And it’s often very cold and very wet; And my missis stitches towels for a hunks; And the Pillar’d Halls is half of it to let— Three rooms about the size of travelling trunks. And we cough, my wife and I, to dislocate a sigh, When the noisy little kids are in their bunks. But you never hear her do a growl or whine, For she’s made of flint and roses, very odd; And I’ve got to cut my meaning rather fine Or I’d blubber, for I’m made of greens and sod: So p’rhaps we are in hell for all that I can tell, And lost and damn’d and served up hot to God. I ain’t blaspheming, Mr. Silvertongue; I’m saying things a bit beyond your art: Of all the rummy starts you ever sprung Thirty bob a week’s the rummiest start! With your science and your books and your the’ries about spooks, Did you ever hear of looking in your heart? I didn’t mean your pocket, Mr., no! I mean that having children and a wife, With thirty bob on which to come and go, Isn’t dancing to the tabor and the fife; When it doesn’t make you drink, by Heaven! it makes you think, And notice curious items about life. I step into my heart and there I meet A god-almighty devil singing small,
Who would like to shout and whistle in the street, And squelch the passers flat against the wall; If the whole world was a cake he had the power to take, He would take it, ask for more, and eat them all. And I meet a sort of simpleton beside— The kind that life is always giving beans; With thirty bob a week to keep a bride He fell in love and married in his teens; At thirty bob he stuck, but he knows it isn’t luck; He knows the seas are deeper than tureens. And the god-almighty devil and the fool That meet me in the High Street on the strike, When I walk about my heart a-gathering wool, Are my good and evil angels if you like; And both of them together in every kind of weather Ride me like a double-seated “bike”. That’s rough a bit and needs its meaning curled; But I have a high old hot un in my mind, A most engrugious notion of the world That leaves your lightning ’rithmetic behind: I give it at a glance when I say “There ain’t no chance, Nor nothing of the lucky-lottery kind.” And it’s this way that I make it out to be: No fathers, mothers, countries, climates—none!— Not Adam was responsible for me; Nor society, nor systems, nary one! A little sleeping seed, I woke—I did, indeed— A million years before the blooming sun.
I woke because I thought the time had come; Beyond my will there was no other cause: And everywhere I found myself at home Because I chose to be the thing I was; And in whatever shape, of mollusc, or of ape, I always went according to the laws. I was the love that chose my mother out; I joined two lives and from the union burst; My weakness and my strength without a doubt Are mine alone for ever from the first. It’s just the very same with a difference in the name As “Thy will be done.” You say it if you durst! They say it daily up and down the land As easy as you take a drink, it’s true; But the difficultest go to understand, And the difficultest job a man can do, Is to come it brave and meek with thirty bob a week, And feel that that’s the proper thing for you. It’s a naked child against a hungry wolf; It’s playing bowls upon a splitting wreck; It’s walking on a string across a gulf With millstones fore-and-aft about your neck: But the thing is daily done by many and many a one . . . And we fall, face forward, fighting, on the deck.
#Scottish#literature#poetry
Public
Gary Hall

You’ve 9 more days to catch the Lives Less Ordinary : Working-Class Britain Re-seen exhibition at Two Temple Place:

twotempleplace.org/exhibitions

Well worth a visit. It expands the idea of the w/c beyond the usual cliches. Though it’s not without limits of its own – perhaps inevitably so. That’s the problem with representation: you construct – and so more or less violently delimit – the very thing you think you’re just depicting.

Why is working class life so often presented as being grim in one way or another? In this sense, Lives Less Ordinary offers a marked contrast to the joy and vitality displayed by those working class artists, designers, photographers, models, musicians, fashion stylists and art directors who feature in The Face Magazine: Culture Shift exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery:

npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions

Two Temple PlaceLives Less Ordinary - Two Temple PlaceTwo Temple Place, one of London’s hidden architectural gems, hosts exhibitions and events and is owned by the charity The Bulldog Trust.
#art#culture#classwar
Public
MikeDunnAuthor

Today in Labor History April 10, 1947: FBI agents visited Ronald Reagan (then president of the Screen Actors Guild) and his wife Jane Wyman, accusing them of belonging to a communist front group. To prove his loyalty, Reagan agreed to become a secret informer and went on to have a long and illustrious career as an anti-communist, union-busting, trickle-down asshole.

Caricature of Ronald Reagan, flashing an FBI identification card.
#workingclass#LaborHistory#communism
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