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California's Energy Crisis
by steve - 2001-07-26 ( education / politics / energy ) [html version]
Steve
Subject: energy crisis
Date: Friday, May 11, 2001 9:13 AM
Dear Mark Williams (KFBK talk show host, for those others getting this message)
You mentioned the $2,000 price of energy the other day, not paid to the power generators, but to the middlemen. From what I understand, (and please correct me where I am mistaken) energy is to be bought daily and that is why we have middlemen like Enron. Enron scoops up contracts for energy (probably on long-term) for low rates. If the state didn't ask for enough energy early enough, it has to go to the spot market, through the ISO, probably still dealing with middlemen such as Enron.
So, here's the game: Enron is nice enough to offer $10 per megawatt to the energy producers, giving them more than their costs and keeping them happy. It holds that energy hostage until the day before when the state has to choose how much it wants to get, telling the state it has 99% of the energy needed. The state has to use the ISO to get that last 1% of the energy (that middlemen have tied up). The only energy left to obtain (because middlemen have 99% of it tied up) is very expensive, like $2,000 per megawatt.
Because the price for the day is set by the last seller to energy pool, the 99% held by middlemen plus the 1% held by tiny local producers is sold for $2,000. Well, guess what? Enron makes $1990 on 99% of the energy, making enormous profits.
Does Enron sell all of its energy? No, but if it makes so much on what it sells, it can throw away a lot and probably writes it off as a loss!
Follow the money! So who owns Enron and the other middlemen? is it people like George Bush, Dick Cheney, and others in his crowd? Yes! So, guess why they don't want to conserve?
Would production of more efficient devices help the economy? Yes, because industry would hustle to build them and customers would (and are) hustling to buy them. So, it looks like our administration is anti-conservation because they want to rape the people's savings to fill their own coffers!
Can we do something about it? Yeah, but not what the whole media scene is saying. First, change it so energy is not bought daily through middlemen. Second, don't have the day's price set by the last (and most expensive) supplier. Third, tell the power people that the state of California will not buy energy over a certain reasonable price, making it so it's not profitable for middlemen to hold back energy and write it off until their other purchases can be sold at obscene prices.
Will anyone do this? Not unless someone who has a soap box to stand on, like radio, TV, and the papers point these simple things out!
Steve Holmes
Snippets from a Political Discussion Re Election 2000
by bill - 2001-07-26 ( education / civics / politics / legal ) [html version]
Don
Subject: Your Supreme Court statement
This analysis, written by a California attorney, is a challenging read, but worth wading through...
Q: I'm not a lawyer and I don't understand the recent Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore. Can you explain it to me?
A: Sure. I'm a lawyer. I read it. It says Bush wins, even if Gore got the most votes.
Q: But wait a second. The US Supreme Court has to give a reason, right?
A: Right.
Q: So Bush wins because hand-counts are illegal?
A: Oh no. Six of the justices (two-thirds majority) believed the hand-counts were legal and should be done.
Q: Oh. So the justices did not believe that the hand-counts would find any legal ballots?
A: Nope. The five conservative justices clearly held (and all nine justices agreed) "that punch card balloting machines can produce an unfortunate number of ballots which are not punched in a clean, complete way by the voter." So there are legal votes that should be counted but can't be.
Q: Oh. Does this have something to do with states' rights? Don't conservatives love that?
A: Generally yes. These five justices have held that the federal government has no business telling a sovereign state university it can't steal trade secrets just because such stealing is prohibited by law. Nor does the federal government have any business telling a state that it should bar guns in schools. Nor can the federal government use the equal protection clause to force states to take measures to stop violence against women.
Q: Is there an exception in this case?
A: Yes, the Gore exception. States have no rights to have their own state elections when it can result in Gore being elected President. This decision is limited to only this situation.
Q: C'mon. The Supremes didn't really say that. You're exaggerating.
A: Nope. They held "Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, or the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities."
Q: What complexities?
A: They don't say.
Q: I'll bet I know the reason. I heard Jim Baker say this. The votes can't be counted because the Florida Supreme Court "changed the rules of the election after it was held." Right?
A: Dead wrong. The US Supreme Court made clear that the Florida Supreme Court did not change the rules of the election. But the US Supreme Court found the failure of the Florida Court to change the rules was wrong.
Q: Huh?
A: The Legislature declared that the only legal standard for counting vote is "clear intent of the voter." The Florida Court was condemned for not adopting a clearer standard.
Q: I thought the Florida Court was not allowed to change the Legislature's law after the election.
A: Right.
Q: So what's the problem?
A: They should have. The US Supreme Court said the Florida Supreme Court should have "adopt[ed] adequate statewide standards for determining what is a legal vote"
Q: I thought only the Legislature could "adopt" new law.
A: Right.
Q: So if the Court had adopted new standards, I thought it would have been overturned.
A: Right. You're catching on.
Q: If the Court had adopted new standards, it would have been overturned for changing the rules. And if it didn't, it's overturned for not changing the rules. That means that no matter what the Florida Supreme Court did, legal votes could never be counted.
A: Right. Next question.
Q: Wait, wait. I thought the problem was "equal protection," that some counties counted votes differently from others. Isn't that a problem?
A: It sure is. Across the nation, we vote in a hodgepodge of systems. Some, like the optical-scanners in largely Republican-leaning counties record 99.7% of the votes. Some, like the punchcard systems in largely Democratic-leaning counties record only 97% of the votes. So approximately 3% of "Democratic" votes are thrown in the trash can.
Q: Aha! That's a severe equal-protection problem!!!
A: No it's not. The Supreme Court wasn't worried about the 3% of "Democratic" ballots thrown in the trashcan in Florida. That "complexity" was not a problem.
Q: Was it the butterfly ballots that violated Florida law and tricked more than 20,000 Democrats to vote for Buchanan or Gore and Buchanan.
A: Nope. The Supreme Court has no problem believing that Buchanan got his highest, best support in a precinct consisting of a Jewish old age home with Holocaust survivors, who apparently have changed their mind about Hitler.
Q: Yikes. So what was the serious equal protection problem?
A: The problem was neither the butterfly ballot nor the 3% of Democrats (largely African-American) disenfranchised. The problem is that somewhat less than .005% of the ballots may have been determined under slightly different standards because judges sworn to uphold the law and doing their best to accomplish the legislative mandate of "clear intent of the voter" may have a slightly opinion about the voter's intent.
Q: Hmmm. OK, so if those votes are thrown out, you can still count the votes where everyone agrees the voter's intent is clear?
A: Nope.
Q: Why not?
A: No time.
Q: No time to count legal votes where everyone, even Republicans, agree the intent is clear? Why not?
A: Because December 12 was yesterday.
Q: Is December 12 a deadline for counting votes?
A: No. January 6 is the deadline. In 1960, Hawaii's votes weren't counted until January 4.
Q: So why is December 12 important?
A: December 12 is a deadline by which Congress can't challenge the results.
Q: What does the Congressional role have to do with the Supreme Court?
A: Nothing.
Q: But I thought ---
A: The Florida Supreme Court had earlier held it would like to complete its work by December 12 to make things easier for Congress. The United States Supreme Court is trying to help the Florida Supreme Court out by forcing the Florida court to abide by a deadline that everyone agrees is not binding.
Q: But I thought the Florida Court was going to just barely have the votes counted by December 12.
A: They would have made it, but the five conservative justices stopped the recount last Saturday.
Q: Why?
A: Justice Scalia said some of the counts may not be legal.
Q: So why not separate the votes into piles, indentations for Gore, hanging chads for Bush, votes that everyone agrees went to one candidate or the other so that we know exactly how Florida voted before determining who won. Then, if some ballots (say, indentations) have to be thrown out, the American people will know right away who won Florida.
A: Great idea! The US Supreme Court rejected it. They held that such counts would likely to produce election results showing Gore won and Gore's winning would cause "public acceptance" and that would "cast[] a cloud" over Bush's "legitimacy" that would harm "democratic stability."
Q: In other words, if America knows the truth that Gore won, they won't accept the US Supreme Court overturning Gore's victory?
A: Yes.
Q: Is that a legal reason to stop recounts? or a political one?
A: Let's just say in all of American history and all of American law, this reason has no basis in law. But that doesn't stop the five conservatives from creating new law out of thin air.
Q: Aren't these conservative justices against judicial activism?
A: Yes, when liberal judges are perceived to have done it.
Q: Well, if the December 12 deadline is not binding, why not count the votes?
A: The US Supreme Court, after admitting the December 12 deadline is not binding, set December 12 as a binding deadline at 10 p.m. on December 12.
Q: Didn't the US Supreme Court condemn the Florida Supreme Court for arbitrarily setting a deadline?
A: Yes.
Q: But, but --
A: Not to worry. The US Supreme Court does not have to follow laws it sets for other courts.
Q: So who caused Florida to miss the December 12 deadline?
A: The Bush lawyers who first went to court to stop the recount, the rent-a-mob in Miami that got paid Florida vacations for intimidating officials, and the US Supreme Court for stopping the recount
Q: So who is punished for this behavior?
A: Gore, of course.
Q: Tell me this, Florida's laws are unconstitutional?
A: Yes
Q: And the laws of 50 states that allow votes to be cast or counted differently are unconstitutional?
A: Yes. And 33 states have the "clear intent of the voter" standard that the US Supreme Court found was illegal in Florida
Q: Then why aren't the results of 33 states thrown out?
A: Um. Because . . . um . . . the Supreme Court doesn't say.
Q: But if Florida's certification includes counts expressly declared by the US Supreme Court to be unconstitutional, we don't know who really won the election there, right?
A: Right. Though a careful analysis by the Miami Herald shows Gore won Florida by about 20,000 votes (excluding the butterfly ballot errors)
Q: So, what do we do, have a re-vote? throw out the entire state? count under a single uniform standard?
A: No. We just don't count the votes that favor Gore.
Q: That's completely bizarre! That sounds like rank political favoritism! Did the justices have any financial interest in the case?
A: Scalia's two sons are both lawyers working for Bush. Thomas's wife is collecting applications for people who want to work in the Bush administration.
Q: Why didn't they recuse themselves?
A: If either had recused himself, the vote would be 4-4, and the Florida Supreme Court decision allowing recounts would have been affirmed.
Q: I can't believe the justices acted in such a blatantly political way.
A: Read the opinions for yourself: December 12 2000 opinion
Q: So what are the consequences of this?
A: The guy who got the most votes in the US and in Florida and under our Constitution (Al Gore) will lose to America's second choice who won the all important 5-4 Supreme Court vote.
Q: I thought in a democracy, the guy with the most votes wins.
A: True, in a democracy. But America is not a democracy. In America in 2000, the guy with the most US Supreme Court votes wins.
Q: So what will happen to the Supreme Court when Bush becomes President.
A: He will appoint more justices in the mode of Thomas and Scalia to ensure that the will of the people is less and less respected. Soon lawless justices may constitute 6-3 or even 7-2 on the court.
Q: Is there any way to stop this?
A: YES. No federal judge can be confirmed without a vote in the Senate. It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. If only 41 of the 50 "Democratic" Senators stand up to Bush and his Supremes and say that they will not approve a single judge appointed by him until a President can be democratically elected in 2004, the judicial reign of terror can end...and one day we can hope to return to the rule of law.
Q: What do I do now?
A: Email this to everyone you know, and write or call your senator, reminding him that Gore beat Bush by several hundred thousand votes (three times Kennedy's margin over Nixon) and that you believe that VOTERS rather than JUDGES should determine who wins an election by counting every vote. And to protect our judiciary from overturning the will of the people, you want them to confirm NO NEW JUDGES until 2004 when a president is finally chosen by most of the American people.
Mark H. Levine, Attorney at Law
Steve
It's the last baseball game of the season. The Democrats are a half game ahead of the Republicans in wins. The game is being held in Florida. It's the bottom of the ninth inning and the Democrats are up to bat. The Republicans are ahead by 1 run. The Democrats have one man on base. The count is 3 balls and two strikes. The Democrat batter hit a high ball, down the left field line, higher than the foul line pole. The Republicans start to march, declaring that the Democrats are "sore losers" and that the Republicans won because the ball was out of bounds. The Democrats call the ball in and a home run. The Republicans protest the game, calling a time out. One judge calls the ball fair. Another judge calls the ball foul. It starts to rain. The owner of the ball park, who is a Republican fan turns out the lights because it looks like rain. The judges meet and say the season is over and that the Republicans won because they had the most points when the lights were turned off.
Mark
Try this scenario instead: The Democrats and Republicans are playing the baseball game in Florida. The Republicans win, albeit barely. Since so many runs were scored, and the game was so close, the umpires review videotapes of the game to determine whether or not each run should count. As in prior baseball games, some players neglected to touch all the bases, so their runs didn't count. After their review, the umpires determine that the Republicans were indeed the winners among the valid runs.
The Democrats then contest the game, asking that runs be counted because the players "intended" to touch the bases, even though they didn't. Of course, they only want to review the runs in the 3rd, 5th, and 7th innings, and only during their own at-bats. Even after selectively determining that certain non-counted runs should count, by looking at dimpled bags, they realize that they are still behind in the score. The Republicans appeal to the commissioner of baseball to stop the run recount. The Democrats complain that the owner of the stadium is the brother of the Republican manager. The Republicans complain that the umpires are Democrats. For six weeks, the country has no idea who won or lost the game. Many fans don't care which team won. Finally, the commissioner of MLB steps in and says that there was no uniform standard followed for recounting the runs. So, as has always been the case, the only runs that count are those runs where the players touched all the bases. Game over. Next season, the Democrats should sign up more intelligent players.
Doug at 11:18 AM 12/9/2000 , Mark wrote:
Since I knew the election would be close, I was ready to accept a President Gore if he had won the vote. He didn't. He lost the machine vote. He lost the first recount. He lost the second recount.
The only one he lost was the machine vote. The other recounts were never completed. Now, if he is elected President after all this legal maneuvering, I will never accept his administration as legitimate. Neither will a vast majority of Americans.
"vast majority"?? -- when he had 50+% of the popular vote? other countries, his actions are grounds for a violent revolution. Perhaps that won't happen here, but be prepared for some serious civil disobedience.
Quite the opposite of what you thought. Here is the quote from my friend Luis KW of Lisboa:
People around here (Europe) is amazed with the lack of independence of your Judges and Courts (Supreme, and Florida's). How can a Judge say (without laughing) that there's no use on recounting 10,000 or 11,000 doubtful votes, arguing it wouldn't change anything to the final result, when the difference among the candidates is under 400 votes???? I have seen the amazing printed ballots of Palm Beach. No wonder 19,000 voters made the same mistakes and double voted... it is too obvious that the ballot was mis-printed or so many people would not have made such a silly mistake. And what about the hundreds of Negroes that were unable to vote thanks to the State Militia? I think that if ALL the votes are not recounted, people all over the world will think that the new president was elected in cheated election. And the US will look like any other American banana's republic.
Steve
Great, Doug. Republicans keep claim about the "rules being changed". The rules at the start were that every registered voter has the opportunity to vote and their vote is to be counted. No, I don't think that it is right that "pregnant chads" be counted as votes. If somebody is so incompetent to not be able to push the tab at least half way (not 1/4 way) out then they should be voting through the mail, ahead of time.
Republicans, led by Rush Limbaugh, talk all about those pregnant chads but ignore all the votes that were rejected by the machines that had two or three chads removed. According to the law in most states, including Florida and Texas, hand counts are to be used in the case of close votes. In testimony before the courts, a Bush expert even admitted that machine counts aren't best. Then Republicans call Democrats as not being democratic because of their using the courts to fight for the following the rules, as laid out before the vote started, counting all votes.
Now the Republicans try to run out the clock so not all votes are counted. They call that democratic? They also protest the US Supreme Court, unless it's in their favor. If they don't like true democracy (or as close as we can get) and they aren't supportive of our system of checks and balances, they should find another country.
Mark
And that's where I think you are wrong, Steve. The rules at the start were that every registered voter has the opportunity to vote. But where is it a rule that every vote is to be counted? You yourself said that pregnant chads shouldn't be counted. So, are you already violating your rule? Undervotes and overvotes were counted--they were counted as no vote for president.
Speaking of running out the clock, you know that if Florida misses the Dec. 12th deadline for certifying electoral college electors, Gore will win (since he has a majority of the remaining electors). So who has the motive to delay things through litigation? Not Bush. No one argues that people should not be allowed to vote. What we disagree upon is what should count as a vote. If the President vote is blank, but all other officers are chosen from a single party, does that mean the voter "meant" to vote for the presidential candidate of that same party? If there is a dimpled chad for president, but not on any other choices, does that count? If the chad is hanging by one, two, or three corners, should that count? (I think so). Herein lies the problem. What standards are we using to discern the intent of the unknown voter? We don't have any!
Finally, why are we not concerned with any other state? There were thousands of ballots thrown out nationwide for exactly the same reasons. If you truly want every vote to count, let us hand count every vote in every state. We may get an accurate count in a year or so. Meanwhile, let's leave the presidency vacant. After all, I didn't notice any difference when the federal government shut down a few years ago, did you? :)
P.S. Doug, how can you say that Gore has only lost once? The machine count had Bush the winner. Because the vote was so close, Florida law demanded a hand recount. Fine. But the parties argued over the deadline, the standards, and the locations of the hand recount. When the legal deadline for the recount passed, Bush was still in the lead. The Florida Supreme Court then extended the deadline. Some counties couldn't make it in time, but when the extended deadline passed, the election was certified. Bush had won again. That's three.
Jeannie
Dad, You seem to think Gore is some smart guy. What is his IQ? I seem to remember he didn't get high grades in college. Just because he got a degree doesn't mean he is smart. I know a lot of people who didn't do well in school but are very smart. Most of them are artists who march to a different beat. I see Gore as that kind of guy.
Lionel
Jeannie: Smart compared with Bush. Actually, grades don't equate with smarts. Some students are just lazy. "Knowledgeable" and "experienced" would be better adjectives than "smart," actually. He was an excellent member of Congress before he became vice-president. Have you seen Bush's resume? Dad
Bill
To me, "smart" means "a good comprehension of one's environment/surroundings." Add to that, "the ability to communicate that comprehension." Using those criteria, I see Gore way ahead of Bush. But then you add qualities such as honesty and integrity into the equation, and both candidates fail miserably, as do most politicians (and almost anyone in any kind of position of power). In other words, I don't think either one will be a president whom I, or most anyone else, can rally behind. It's too bad we can't require some sort of "intelligence, honesty and integrity" test of all prospective political candidates. But then, of course, we'd have a country without politicians! Wouldn't that be great!?
But seriously, the only way to settle this vote tally problem to everyone's satisfaction is to do a manual recount of every disputed ballot. I can't believe that the Florida Supreme Court had the common sense to order exactly that (as I understand their ruling). Equally unbelievably, we then have the fairly obviously prejudiced U.S. Supreme Court coming in and contradicting Florida's decision, voting mostly along party lines, and throwing the whole thing back into confusion.
I think Doug's Portuguese friend is right: the rest of the world probably won't respect our next president, whoever he is.
Lionel
Steve is absolutely right. Gore won the popular vote nationwide, and doubtless would have won the Florida popular vote if the Republicans hadn't schemed to prevent so many Blacks from voting. (He also would have won, of course, if Nader hadn't siphoned off 30,000 votes.) Excluding Florida, Gore is also ahead in the electoral votes, and would surely capture the Florida electoral vote if all the votes were counted. It's obvious to any objective observer that the Bush team has sought to delay that count until the deadline is past, thereby assuring Bush's victory. Mark has suggested that there will be demonstrations in the street if Gore wins. There should be demonstrations if Bush wins, for obviously he and his team have sought to steal the election (or, more properly, "robbed," since it was done openly.) Oh well, if Bush eventually is declared the winner, as I suspect he will be (albeit illegally), his presidency will provide rich fodder for the late-night comedians. Why do you suppose Bush has been kept hidden on his ranch out of view of the reporters, other than the fear that, like Reagan, being unable to say "good morning" without a cue card, he'd make an ass of himself every time he opened his mouth to speak without a teleprompter. If I sound bitter, I am. I don't want America to be the laughingstock of the world.
Mark
Come on, Lionel! Do you really think that America will be the laughingstock of the world because it elected a guy who might not be playing with a full deck? Looking at the past presidents, a lot of them strike me as average intellects. The smarter ones seem to be the ones who get us into more trouble (Wilson and the League of Nations, for example). And, in any case, aren't we already the laughingstock of the world for Clinton getting oral sex in the Oval Office from Monica Lewinsky, telling us he didn't inhale, eating Big Macs, or discussing his choice of underwear on MTV? Bush may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I don't think he'll demean the office like Clinton did. Cheer up! At least the Bee will go back to its role as government watchdog with a Republican in the White House--a role it seems to have abandoned during the past 8 years while China was stealing our secrets.
Lionel
Laughing stock already? Not at all. Most countries don't care about the private lives of their leaders; they're more concerned that they have the ability to lead, and Clinton certainly has that. I don't recall Republicans being concerned when Republican Eisenhower was having an affair with his chauffeur, nor should they have been. Lionel
George Bush Sr. was known to be having an affair the whole time he was in the White House, but the woman would not come forward, so there was no story. Reagan AND Nancy were having affairs. Clinton AND Hillary, ditto (Hillary's more female-oriented anyway). People who are having affairs are sleaze bags, that is well accepted as fact. The question is: can we afford to have a leader who's NOT a sleaze bag in a world full of sleaze bags? I think we should elect the sleaziest person possible. We have done that every time, except for Carter, and look what a mistake he was! Clinton is the sleaziest person ever to sit in the oval office, and look how we've prospered! Bush Jr. was brought up in a family of sleaze bags. Even though he is too dumb to be really innovative in that regard, I think we will be pleasantly surprised by a Bush presidency! Sure, he may not get into massive cocaine smuggling the way Reagan did, or rent out the US military to a small dictatorship in the middle east the way his dad did, but he is sure to come up with SOMETHING that will keep our economy perking along. Don't worry, be happy! Just hold your nose and smile! It's easy!
Mark
I don't know you [Luis], but I appreciate hearing your point of view. Let me respond to a few things, however. First of all, I don't think African Americans would appreciate being called Negroes. It isn't politically correct. And what evidence are you referring to? Just because Jesse Jackson gets on television to complain doesn't mean that there was "abuse of the Negroes' votes." You said that you were sure that most of the counters were Republicans. Wrong! In fact, most of the canvassing boards that began the recounts were Democrats. Only lately have there been representatives from both parties. And, in case you don't understand, if Florida fails to certify its electors, Gore wins the election with the majority of the rest of the electoral college. So who has the most to gain by recounting as slowly as possible? You also mentioned the prejudice of having Bush's brother as the governor of Florida. But you fail to mention the prejudice of having "Democratic" canvassing boards, and a "Democratic" Florida Supreme Court. Or do you not see that as equally prejudicial? If Republicans aren't to be trusted and are biased in favor of Bush, then why are Democrats similarly not to be trusted since they are biased for Gore? Finally, I don't have a problem with a foreigner talking about American elections. It is always good to get another perspective. But I also keep in mind the bias that foreigners may have. If Bush or Buchanan became President and decided to stop subsidizing European and other foreign countries, providing them with aid and military defense, I can see why some foreigners would prefer that Gore wins. So I take the comments of foreigners with a grain of salt.
Luis
You write with a great deal of good arguments. You should be on politics! :-) Sorry for my bad use of the English-American language. Here in Europe we don't have that usage of speaking P.C. We call the things by their names. And the Portuguese word "Negro" sounds nicer than the other one ("preto") meaning "black". That's why I used that word. What I was referring to was what people described while in line: black persons (is this more p.c.?) being pulled out of line and state militia demanding an impossible number of proofs of identification from the blacks. Those that tried to produce cards of ID were still told to "GO HOME" and get more proof of their identify (this was about 4 p.m). Then, about 5 p.m., these Florida militia police began stopping all cars on the highway that contained black persons on their way to the polls. These cars were held so long that the polls had closed before they could vote. In addition, several blacks were told they were "not registered" and their votes simply thrown in the garbage. I don't known if it is true or not, but it isn't a nice story to tell, is it? And the terrible thing is that it sounds pretty true... I didn't understand why counters stopped the recount long before the legal delay, when GWB was winning, arguing they would never have the time of recounting all the votes... unless they were willing GWB to win. Some hours later, GWB was declared winner in the State of Florida. I can't believe that the Florida Supreme Court is that "Democratic". Last Dec. 5 the Supreme Court in Florida has ruled against Gore, remember? And the clever last decision (recounting Every vote) was taken by the shortest majority of one vote (4 -- 3). The terrible thing is that your Justice is completely biased by politics. At least our Judges seem to be independent from Political Parties.
Now, about foreign politics. That's exactly what we (the foreigners) are afraid of: the narrow-minded isolationists who think that World economy could develop closing the American borders. Subsidizing poor countries always had a counterpart, Mark. It could be a permission to introduce Coca-Cola and McDonalds in China, or making IBM's in Malaysia... America paid Portugal for the use of the Air base in Azores. The other side of the medal is that we suffered much more with the oil embargo (from Arab countries) than any other eastern country, because the Base was used to help the Israeli Army during the war (in the 60's). When it comes to American interests in the outside world, you acted like a falcon... why do you think we are all willing to have your Marines and submarines around? What we really want is to keep the borders open to trade and the minds open to world development. And please, don't think that every body is pro-Gore. It is just a question of fairness. He already got more than 50% of the ballots, and it seems that he should have won in Florida. I hope that your next President -- who ever he is -- wins the election fairly (counting the votes)... and not just in Court.
Waxman Sneaks Anti Vitamin Amendment into Wall Street Reform Bill
by bill - 2010-05-17 ( life / health / politics ) [html version]
Waxman represents L.A. on the west side up to Santa Monica. I bet those people take LOTS of supplements.
"Of all the sneaky tactics practiced in Washington D.C., this recent action by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) is one of the most insidious."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: naturalnews.com/028687_Henry_Waxman_health_freedom.html
Obama's Sell Out
by bill - 2010-05-18 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
A Bill Moyers show from a few months ago, but still worth watching.
Rep. Alan Grayson Introduces the War is Making You Poor Act
by bill - 2010-05-27 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Rep Alan Grayson Introduces the War Is Making You Poor Act
May 21, 2010 -- Uploaded by Alan Grayson
Grayson v. Broun on the Constitution ... Watch the Speech the Republicans Don't Want You to See
Who Voted to Go Easy on the Oil Industry
by bill - 2010-06-14 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
?This law set the foundation for the carelessness that caused the BP oil disaster:breakthematrix.com/latest/who-voted-to-limit-the-liability-of-oil-companies/
Vote Out Anyone Who Still Supports Israel
by bill - 2010-06-14 ( education / civics / politics / israel ) [html version]
The last straw was when they killed innocent peace activists on the Gaza flotilla.
Anyone, such as that retard Joe "What's the big deal?" Biden, who still supports them has lost all touch with humanity and really needs to go ... to hell.
Time for James Sensenbrenner to Go
by bill - 2010-06-16 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
breakthematrix.com/latest/gop-lawmaker-with-bp-stock-has-role-in-spill-probe/
Time for John Boehner to Go
by bill - 2010-06-16 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Funny how these "conservatives" want less government, but only when it's convenient for their corporate masters.
Read, listen or watch the rest here:tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/boehner-government-ie-taxpayers-should-help-pay-for-oil-spill.php
Time for Brad Sherman to Go
by bill - 2010-06-22 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
This pinhead is calling the unarmed victims of Israeli aggression "terrorists?"
It Has Long Been Time for Joe Lieberman to Go
by bill - 2010-06-25 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
The epitome of slime, of course, it's long BEEN time for Joe Lieberman to go:libertymaven.com/2010/06/22/loathsome-joe-liebermans-internet-kill-switch/10005/
Genetically-Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act
by bill - 2010-06-29 ( life / health / food / politics ) [html version]
Ask Your Congresspersons to Cosponsor HR 5577, Representative Kucinich's Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act
"10. Almost all non-organic processed food or animal products in the U.S. today contain ingredients that come from genetically engineered crops or from animals given genetically engineered feed, "vaccines" or growth hormones.
9. Genetically engineered foods have not been tested to determine whether they are safe for human consumption.
8. Genetically engineered foods ARE different from conventional and organic foods.
7. A single serving of genetically engineered soy can result in "horizontal gene transfer," where the bacteria in the human gut adopts the soy's DNA.
6. Animals fed genetically engineered feed ARE different from animals fed conventional and organic feed.
5. The third generation of hamsters fed genetically engineered soy suffered slower growth, a high mortality rate, and a bizarre birth defect: fur growing in their mouths. Many also lost the ability to have pups.
4. The more genetically engineered corn fed to mice, the fewer babies they had and the smaller the babies were.
3. Biotech's scattershot technique of spraying plant cells with a buckshot of foreign genes that hit chromosomes in random spots would trigger the expression of new allergens and change the character of plant proteins.
2. Scientists reviewing data from Monsanto's own studies "have proven that genetically engineered foods are neither sufficiently healthy or proper to be commercialized."
1. The Convention on Biodiversity recognizes that genetic engineering is a threat to amount and variety of life on the planet."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Take Action -- The above was copied from: The Killing Fields of Agribusiness #234, July 22, 2010, Health, Justice and Sustainability Newsfrom the Organic Consumers AssociationEdited by Alexis Baden-Mayer and Ronnie Cummins -- - also FreeDocumentaries.org Airing The World According to Monsanto
Carl Levin, Warmonger
by bill - 2010-07-03 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Time to go, Carl.
Read here:afterdowningstreet.org/node/53604
Who is he trying to impress glaring down his long nose over those granny glasses, anyway?
Help Randy Credico Oust Chuck Schumer
by bill - 2010-07-03 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Here's fairly recent evidence of Schumer's lack of character/humanity:randycredico2010.org/?p=535
Blue Dog Democrats
by bill - 2010-07-21 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
The nickname is an insult to dogs.
Vote out anyone of these people who voted for doctors while at the same time voting against the unemployed.
Washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2010060103831.html
Never Re-elect Anyone
by bill - 2010-08-05 ( education / civics / politics / opinion ) [html version]
Fresh start! Reboot! Recycle! Whatever you want to call it.
Sure, the 5% who are good will have to find a real job for 2-6 years, but they can run again next time. It'll keep them from screwing up the economy because they know they will soon be back in it.
It's the best way to stop the corruption, also known as "cronyism." Government (especially military) departmental heads (not just the Directors) need to be recycled in between every presidential election (straddling both administrations for basic functionality assurance).
Election Guide for Election Haters
by bill - 2010-10-28 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Great Depression II
by bill - 2010-10-30 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
I guess they didn't call it The Great Depression during that depression, did they? We shouldn't be surprised they're not honestly calling this one Great Depression II. Or, in current parlance, maybe, G-Dep-2. It's "only" The Great Recession. As if those of us out of work (or in my case, "under-employed") and facing such dire uncertainty really care about semantics?
The main problem for many unemployed is that they're depending on Corporate America to provide a job. Not gonna happen. 
These days, you have to fend for yourself, create a job/business for yourself. I see happening here what has already happened in Russia after the "collapse" of the Soviet Union. We, like them, are going to have to become a nation of hustlers. It's not a pretty picture, and I'm not advocating it, but it's probably unavoidable. If only we, like them, had leaders strong enough and wise enough to get rid of our own oligarchs. Don't get me started on "leaders."
Don't depend on bank loans for your new business. Loans at interest are for fools. No offense. I'm still working my way through mortgage and credit card payments, at interest, so I suffer from the same foolishness as most everyone else. Do it the Muslim way -- no, I'm not Muslim -- and find investors, not blood-sucking bankers. Funny how vampires are so popular these days as we're surrounded by real life blood-suckers.
In New Orleans Debate, Sen. Vitter Admits to Serious Sins
by bill - 2010-11-03 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"By Sean J. Miller, The Hill, October 28, 2010
Louisiana Sen. David Vitter again confessed he had committed "serious sins" but said the "strong forgiveness" he received has allowed him to carry on and seek reelection."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/126193-sen-vitter-admits-to-serious-sins-in-new-orleans-debate
Voting for a Resident of the Secretive C Street House?
by bill - 2010-11-05 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
By Jeff Sharlet, The Huffington Post
America's oldest and most influential Christian conservative political group doesn't publish voter guides or buy ad time or even make endorsements. For the Family, it's all about the relationships, the kind forged "beyond the din of the vox populi," as the group's founder put it-beyond the voice of the people.
Tsa Sexual Assault
by bill - 2010-11-06 ( life / travel / politics ) [html version]
TSA -- Sexual AssaultIf I do have to fly, I'll try and make all connections through New Jersey! See the next link:New Jersey moves to ban full-body scanners
Is this Not Treason?
by bill - 2010-11-17 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
By his own admission, Cantor appears to be a traitorous dumb ass:
crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/his-own-standard-did-eric-cantor-just
Stronger Magnifying Glass Needed
by bill - 2010-11-20 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Previous argument/post, continued:
FIRST POINT OF VIEW:
Yes, it's an excellent justification for not paying attention to what is going on in politics right now.
I think W. proved very nicely that they are NOT all alike, and not making even a small effort to select who might be a little less worse is abdicating one's responsibility as a citizen.
The two-party corporate-dominated system that we have right now will not allow much change, but it makes it all the more important to do the best we can with what we do have, rather than whine "they are all alike" and go back to watching television.
SECOND POINT OF VIEW:
But it does take a higher power of magnifying glass to tell who's worse these days. Clinton was "less worse" than Bush, but Bush couldn't pass NAFTA, which Clinton happily did, as well as repealing Glass-Steagal and other economically ruinuous measures. Obama was less worse than Bush Jr, but Obama re-instituted the Patriot Act, passed corporate dream healthcare bill and escalated the Afghan war. So not voting is starting to look like a more viable option than getting tricked into supporting someone just because you voted for him, forgetting he was the "less worse" then, and still is not worth supporting or defending. I think it's part of what Noam Chomsky called "manufactured consent." Partisanship is NOT good citizenship. It is what allowed Bush Jr to balloon the deficit against the principles of many Republican Congressthings that knew better. It is what allowed Clinton to pass NAFTA. It is what is being used against the American people to carry out the corporate agenda.
City Creates Alternate Banking System for Illegal Aliens
by bill - 2010-12-05 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"While local governments work to curb the ravaging effect of illegal immigration, a major U.S. city is helping its undocumented aliens by creating an alternative banking system and giving them official government identification cards.
The northern California city of Oakland..."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: judicialwatch
Dems Pull Fast One with Food Safety Bill
by bill - 2010-12-16 ( life / health / food / politics ) [html version]
"It didn't take long for Democrats in the House to figure a way around the constitutional roadblock that halted the advance of S. 510: The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, following its approval by the Senate last week."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news233.htm
Gov Kills Immigration Laws in Name of Economic Growth
by bill - 2011-01-27 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Rhode Island's new governor has killed crucial measures to crack down on illegal immigration for the sake of statewide economic growth and prosperity in immigrant-rich areas.
Just a few days on the job, Democrat Lincoln Chafee wasted no time issuing executive orders to accommodate illegal aliens, assuring that Rhode Island can grow economically by being a tolerant place to do business. He also took action so that immigrant-rich areas could prosper throughout the state, which has an estimated 40,000 illegal aliens mingled in its population of a little over 1 million. With a scribble on a paper Chafee rescinded a 2008 law requiring public agencies and vendors that do business with the state to use a federal databaseknown as E-Verifyto check the legal status of their workers. The governor also ordered Rhode Island State Police to stop participating in a federal program that allows officers to enforce immigration laws. The executive order calls the laws agents of divisiveness, incivility and distrust among the states citizens.
Its simply part of the governors mission to create civil state with a vibrant, diverse community that is free of political, cultural and ethnic division. During his inauguration speech Chaffee vowed to implement an era of cultural and ethnic acceptance that will bring the state immediate prosperity. He took the opportunity to also say that his predecessors efforts to crack down on illegal immigration caused needless anxiety within our Latino community.
The immigration laws were implemented to soften the huge financial toll that illegal aliens are having on Rhode Island taxpayers amid federal inaction. The Republican governor (Donald Carcieri) who enacted the measures said he was forced to because the flow of illegal immigrants had become epidemic and state taxpayers were getting stuck with the enormous tab.
There were also serious concerns of escalating violence by illegal immigrants with criminal histories. The same year the immigration control laws were enacted, an illegal alien with an extensive criminal record kidnapped and raped a woman in Providence, despite his repeated encounters with local law enforcement officers for driving drunk and domestic assault. Had local authorities contacted federal immigration officials, the Guatemalan man would have been deported long ago.
New House Watchdog Lets Obama Slide on Criminal Event
by bill - 2011-01-27 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"During a public relations campaign touting upcoming probes of the Obama Administration, the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said the president wont be investigated for a bribery scandal because his party is guilty of the same crime.
This astounding example of bipartisan corruption was actually delivered on national television over the weekend. California Republican Darrell Issa, the federal lawmaker responsible for scrutinizing presidential misconduct, did the Sunday talk-show rounds to promote a wasteful spending inquiry of one of the most corrupt administrations, and assure Americans that his committee will identify $200 billion in waste. In the process, Issa confirmed that he'll let President Obama slide on one of his most serious offenses so far.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/01/new-house-watchdog-lets-obama-slide-on-%e2%80%9ccriminal-event%e2%80%9d/
Feds Blow Off Recovering $643 Mil in Fraudulent Payments
by bill - 2011-01-27 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"As if it weren't enraging enough that the U.S. government made $125 billion in faulty payments last year, a new report says the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has for years neglected its legal responsibility to recover $643 million paid fraudulently after natural disasters."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: judicialwatch.org
Feds Take Over School Bake Sales
by bill - 2011-01-27 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
The far-reaching tentacles of the bloated U.S. government will control a cherished public school fundraiserthe bake saleunder Michelle Obamas precious new law to combat childhood obesity.
Signed this week by her husband, the $4.5 billion measure (The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act) is expected to revolutionize the inner-city diet by providing fresh produce and grilled lean meats as alternatives to greasy, fried foods that tend to be more popular in so-called food deserts. These are areasall low-incomedetermined by the government to be deficient in affordable healthy fare such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat milk.
Poor and at-risk children around the country will get free nutritious meals from U.S. taxpayers and the government will have the power to decide what exactly constitutes healthy cuisine. The law will also help communities establish local farm to school networks, create school gardens, and ensure that more local foods are used in the school setting. The idea is to slash greasy foods and extra calories by letting the government regulate what can be consumed on school grounds, including vending machines and at fundraisers.
That puts bake sales on the chopping block. Under the new measure, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will decide if and when schools can have bake sales and the agency has the authority to ban them all together. After all, the USDA provides leadership on food, agriculture and natural resources based on sound public policy and science. No word yet on the results of any national bake-sale studies.
The federal government should not be in the business of regulating this sort of activity at the local level, according to a national group that represents school board districts across the country. But the First Lady insists that government intervention is necessary when it comes to child nutrition because we cant just leave it up to the parents.
Earlier this year Michelle Obama asserted that childhood obesity is a threat to national security. A few months later she declared war against French fries, advising restaurants to serve apple slices or carrots with hamburgers in lieu of the popular fried potato strips.
Tsa Persecutes Critics, Ignores Security Threats
by bill - 2011-01-28 ( life / travel / politics ) [html version]
"While the Department of Homeland Security investigates a commercial airline pilot for exposing security flaws at a major U.S. airport, it fails to protect America against terrorism by not screening passengers and cargo on thousands of planes that fly over the country each week."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: judicialwatch.org
Decision to Seize Control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
by bill - 2011-01-29 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"Washington, DC -- January 6, 2011
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it filed a motion on December 17, 2010, with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asking the court to force the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to abide by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and release documents related to the federal governments September 2008 decision to place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship. Judicial Watch filed its motion pursuant to a July 12, 2010, FOIA lawsuit filed on behalf of former FDIC and Federal Reserve employee Vern McKinley as part of Judicial Watch's comprehensive investigation of the federal governments unprecedented response to the so-called financial crisis (Vern McKinley v. Federal Housing Finance Agency, Civil Action No. 10-cv-01165 (HHK))."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-asks-court-to-review-government-documents-on-decision-to-seize-control-of-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac/
Homeland Security Claims the Right to Take Your Valuables
by bill - 2011-02-07 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"According to in-house memos now circulating, the DHS has issued orders to banks across America which announce to them that "under the Patriot Act" the DHS has the absolute right to seize, without any warrant whatsoever, any and all customer bank accounts, to make "periodic and unannounced" visits to any bank to open and inspect the contents of "selected safe deposit boxes."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: dinarvets.com/forums/index.php?/topic/52464-do-not-use-safety-deposit-boxes/#ixzz1CWy8y1SC
The above link no longer works, but this page says it's b.s., anyway, assuming this page can be believed. :)
Higher Percentage of Americans Believed in King George
by bill - 2011-03-04 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
During the Revolutionary War than Congress TodayA During the Revolutionary War than Believe in Congress Today
Us Officials Pushed Products Deemed Unsafe by China
by bill - 2011-03-15 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
U.S. officials pushed products deemed unsafe by China
"When it comes to protecting consumers, American politicians in China don't always practice what they preach, unpublished U.S. diplomatic cables show."
So That's What They Mean by the War on Poverty
by bill - 2011-03-26 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month."
So that's what they mean by the "War on Poverty" : Pharyngula.
Only a Republican politician would be that stupid.
Mitt Romney and Citizens United
by bill - 2011-06-08 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"Savor the irony that the same legislators who demand photo I.D.s from private citizens are giving corporations a free pass to conceal their own identities, and contributions to political campaigns."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Mitt Romney and 'Citizens United' Intrepid Report.com
"Mitt Romney's inevitable re-emergence and manipulation of the 2012 presidential race comes about largely because many Republicans are dissatisfied with the alternatives. But, there's another factor, a Supreme Court ruling back in January 2010 that empowered the candidacy of a corporatist like Mr. Romney in the first place."
Top 10 Corrupt Politicians of (2010)
by bill - 2011-06-09 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"Judicial Watch released its 2010 list of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians." While there may be some surprises, readers will note that ...
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Top 10 Corrupt Politicians of 2010 ~ Economy Watch.
Leaderless Resistance
by bill - 2011-06-13 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
... there will, no doubt, be mentally handicapped people out there who, while standing at a podium with an American flag draped in the background, and a lone eagle soaring in the sky above, will state emphatically in their best sounding red, white, and blue voice, "So what if the government is spying? We are not violating any laws."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Leaderless Resistance -- Nationalist Coalition Blog.
Welfare for the Rich
by bill - 2011-07-09 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"In another era, we would have seen Congressional hearings on this matter within days, yet a year has passed and...nothing. This type of fraud never grows old.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: dailybail.com/home/matt-taibbi-the-real-housewives-of-wall-street-how-morgan-st.html 
Why Borrow When You Can Print Your Own Money?
by bill - 2011-08-08 ( life / money / politics ) [html version]
Why is the US Government borrowing money at interest from a private bank (the Fed) when Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution allows the US Government to create its own money, interest-free?
Great Anti-obama, Anti-stupidity Article
by bill - 2011-08-17 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Like I've been saying for years, this author agrees.
Lesser evil voting has been one of the primary causes of the decline of American democracy ...globalresearch.ca
Goldman Sachs Exec Working for Issa
by bill - 2011-08-21 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Super Committee Members Super Corrupt
by bill - 2011-08-23 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"The bipartisan "super committee" created by the debt ceiling deal is comprised of lawmakers who have received big bucks from special interest groups, according to a report by MapLight."
Rick Perry's Gardasil Problem
by staff - 2011-08-24 ( life / health / politics ) [html version]
... his former chief of staff was a lobbyist for Merck and ... his chief of staff's mother-in-law ... was the state director of an advocacy group bankrolled by Merck ...
Read, listen or watch the rest here
"Why in early 2007 did he sign an executive order mandating that 11- and 12-year-old girls in Texas be given the "vaccine" Gardasil?"
also.
Gardasil-and-Cervarix-dont-work-are-dangerous-and-werent-tested"Dr. Harper explained in her presentation that the cervical cancer risk in the U.S. is already extremely low, and that vaccinations are unlikely to have any effect upon the rate of cervical cancer in the United States. In fact, 70% of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year, and the number rises to well over 90% in two years. Harper also mentioned the safety angle. All trials of the "vaccines" were done on children aged 15 and above, despite them currently being marketed for 9-year-olds."
click here for related articles.
See also: gardasil-vaccine-linked-to-record-birth-rate-declines/
Brzezinski Opens Up
by bill - 2011-09-23 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
veteranstoday.com/2011/09/19/brzezinski-opens-up-the-last-american-cowboy/
"He goes two steps further, taking America's political "loonies" as he calls them "to the woodshed" and, avoiding the term "class war," speaks of the real violence of poverty, of the real extremism from above, the top 1% looting the world and what it will cost us all."
Is this the Sanest Man Running for President?
by bill - 2011-09-28 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
?
Gary Johnson, Republican Presidential Candidate: Politics: GQ
"If you're seeking the presidency but no one notices, are you still seeking the presidency? Gary Johnson was governor of New Mexico for eight years, balanced his budgets, and climbed Mount Everest with a broken leg. You'd think that would at least give him a shot at the GOP nomination. Nope. Lisa DePaulo hits the surreal non-campaign trail with the most compulsively honest Republican in the race -- and returns with some disturbing truths about the Kabuki sht show we like to call modern presidential politics"
Foreign Policy Hypocrisy
by bill - 2011-10-03 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Copied from Liberty Underground:"Thirteen doctors and nurses who treated anti-government protesters during demonstrations in Bahrain earlier this year have been jailed for 15 years for crimes against the state. Seven other medical professionals were given sentences of between five and 10 years by a special tribunal that was set up during the emergency rule that followed the demonstrations," reports al Jazeera this morning.
If Gaddafi had done this in Libya, the corporate media arm of the National Security State and our fascist State Department would be all over this story, headlined everywhere.
Examining major headlines at ABC, CBS, and CNN, we found nothing about this major miscarriage of justice, but they did put the following among their major headlines this morning: ABC News: PHOTOS: Molly Sims Takes Stroll in Bikini; CBS News: Nancy Grace tweets flashing flap "evidence" (nipples were covered); CNN: Hillary Swank, dog kicked out of cafe.
We found no statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who appears to be covering for the client state of Bahrain, and nothing on the State Department home page state.gov
Times Sues Gov't for Refusing to Reveal Its Interpretation of Patriot Act
by bill - 2011-10-17 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
What sort of democracy are we living in when the government can refuse to even say how it's interpreting its own law? That's not democracy at all
"We've been covering for a while now how Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall have been very concerned over the secret interpretation the feds have of one piece of the PATRIOT Act. They've been trying to pressure the government into publicly explaining how they interpret the law, because they believe that it directly contrasts how most of the public (and many elected officials) believe the feds are interpreting the law. While the two Senators continue to put pressure on the feds and to hint at the feds' interpretation, just the fact that the government won't even explain its own interpretation of the law seems ridiculous."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: NYTimes Sues The Federal Government For Refusing To Reveal Its Secret Interpretation Of The PATRIOT Act Techdirt.
How the U.s. Gov't Secretly Reads Your Email
by bill - 2011-10-17 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"Somewhere, a US government official is reading through a list of those who sent or received an email from Jacob Appelbaum, a 28-year-old computer science researcher at the University of Washington who volunteered for WikiLeaks. Among those listed will be my name, a journalist who interviewed Appelbaum for a book about the digital revolution."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: How the US Government Secretly Reads Your Email
Link Between Earthquakes and Hydraulic Fracturing
by bill - 2011-11-19 ( education / civics / politics / environment ) [html version]
"... injecting water into deep rock formations causes earthquakes ..."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: U.S. Government Confirms Link Between earthquakes and "fracking".
Down the Path of Increasingly Repressive Measures
by bill - 2011-12-06 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." -Harry S. Truman"
Congress is Apparently Repealing the Constitution
by bill - 2011-12-07 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2021-06-18 16:55:39]
Paul Craig Roberts: Congress is Repealing the Constitution : Information Clearing House
"There is a bill in the Senate that is attempting to keep torture alive as an interrogation technique. The National Defense Authorization Act is being debated in Congress and if passed, American citizens could be detained without a court hearing anywhere in the world. President Obama stated he will veto the bill if it should pass. Is Senate Bill 1867 threatening the US constitution? Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan administration official and columnist, gives us his take on the proposed bill."
UPDATE: what else is new
Gingrich Tried to Prevent Ron Paul's 1996 Return to Congress
by bill - 2011-12-19 ( education / civics / politics / conspiracies ) [html version]
Newt Gingrich tried to prevent Ron Paul's 1996 return to Congress
Could You Pass a U.S. Citizenship Test?
by bill - 2012-01-12 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Applicants must get 6 answers out of 10 in an oral exam to pass the test.Could you pass a US citizenship test?
Trap Doors in New Hampshire Elections
by bill - 2012-01-13 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
SIX TRAP DOORS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTION PROCESS
1. Removed safeguards for its same-day registration system.
2. Ignores the law on ballot-stuffing safeguards
3. Breaks the chain of custody
4. Conceals vote-counting from the public, in violation of Article 32 of its own Constitution
5. Removed candidate recount rights 2009
6. Made it illegal for public citizens or members of the press to examine the ballots after the election is over 2003
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Black Box Voting : USA 1/12 -- AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT -.
Ron Paul 2nd in Nh Democratic Primary
by bill - 2012-01-16 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Everybody already knows that Ron Paul placed second in the New Hampshire 2012 Republican Presidental Primary. But, at 7 o'clock tonight, the New Hampshire Secretary of State published the full results of the primary, including write-ins, and Ron Paul also won the #2 spot in the "Democratic" Primary.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Ron Paul #2 in NH … "Democratic" Primary! Democrats for Ron Paul.
Who are the Idiots Voting for Mitt Romney?
by bill - 2012-01-16 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Gov'track: Search Legislation in Congress
by bill - 2012-01-19 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Here's Lieberman's trail of slime, for example:GovTrack: Search Legislation in Congress
UPDATE: Here is a list of alternative search engines/sites:
Newt Gingrich Promises Palin a Presidential Appointment
by bill - 2012-01-23 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
And Gingrich thinks he's the intellectual one among his competition
"...I was honored and delighted last night when she said if she were in South Carolina, she'd vote for Newt Gingrich....
...I would ask her to consider taking a major role in the next administration if I'm president..."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Newt Gingrich Promises Palin a Presidential Appointment and Commits a Felony.
Voters' Idea: Replace Congress
by bill - 2012-02-02 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Voters' Idea: Replace Congress -- Washington Wire -- WSJ
"Finally, there's a cause that Americans of all political persuasions can rally behind: It's time to dump every member of Congress."
Tennessee Begins to Push Back Against Ndaa Tyranny
by bill - 2012-02-09 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Some possible good news, for a change:
"... any federal law purporting to require local or state law enforcement agencies to act at the direction of the federal government or the United States military is beyond the authority granted to the federal government pursuant to the United States Constitution, is not recognized by this state, is specifically rejected by this state and is declared to be invalid in this state."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Activist Post: Tennessee begins to push back against NDAA tyranny. -->
Taxpayers Lose $1.3 Billion as Gov't Exits Chrysler
by bill - 2012-02-10 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"U.S. taxpayers likely lost $1.3 billion in the government bailout of Chrysler, the Treasury Department announced Thursday."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Taxpayers lose $1.3 billion as gov't exits Chrysler
Result Not Even Close to the Actual Vote
by bill - 2012-02-18 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"It's not the votes that count, it's who counts the votes." -- Josef Stalin"
Judge Napolitano, How to Get Fired from Fox Business in Under 5 Mins
by bill - 2012-02-18 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Judge Napolitano: how to get fired from Fox Business in under 5 mins
Judge Napolitano -- How to get fired from Fox Business in under 5 mins.
All I Wanted to Do was Vote
by bill - 2012-02-28 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Indiana Official Worried About Voter Fraud Is Convicted of Voter Fraud
"Irony Still Not Dead Dept: Indiana's ousted top elections official, former GOP Secretary of State Charlie White has been convicted of six felony counts of voter fraud -- an almost unheard-of offense, despite a slew of voter I.D. laws nationwide and White's support for a particularly onerous Indiana law, upheld by the Supreme Court, which turned out to be no protection against an actual fraudulent voter, ie: himself. Good thing he wasn't black or poor or young or he never would have made it to the (bogus) polls."
What If Democracy is Bunk?
by bill - 2012-02-28 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"What if you are only allowed to vote because it doesn't make a difference? What if no matter how you vote, the "elites" get to have it their way? What if "one person, one vote" is just a fiction created by the government to induce your compliance? What if democracy is dangerous to personal freedom? What if democracy erodes the people's understanding of natural rights and the foundations of government, and instead turns elections into beauty contests?"
Read, listen or watch the rest here: The Daily Bell -- What If Democracy Is Bunk?
Virginia Declares Emperor Has No Clothes: Nullifies Ndaa
by bill - 2012-03-09 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Virginia declares "emperor has no clothes": nullifies NDAA
Good for Virginia!
And it looks like Tennessee may follow suit.
Part 1 Hungry for Change
by bill - 2012-03-15 ( culture / movies-tv-video / politics ) [html version]
"This inspiring film has the power to transform your health!" -- Anthony Robbins, World Renowned Peak Performance Expert.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Hungry For Change -- Part 1.
Mitt Romney is Goldman Sachs
by bill - 2012-03-19 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
To call Mitt Romney a "Goldman" Boy is an understatement.
"Goldman Sachs is quite the player in politics. In fact, it would be fair to say that Goldman and politics are joined at the hip."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Paul Drockton. Mitt Romney IS Goldman Sachs
Unplugging Americans from the Matrix
by bill - 2012-04-28 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
... political "elites" represent only the powerful special interests that write the country's laws in exchange for funding the political campaigns of "lawmakers."
"The West passes judgment on the rest of the world as if the West is God and the rest of the world are barbarians in need of chastisement, invasion, and occupation. As readers know, from time to time I raise questions about the validity of the West's extreme hubris."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Unplugging Americans from the Matrix
The Thrive Movement
by bill - 2012-05-09 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Great video ... and idea.
"Stay informed, subscribe to our mailing list: bit.ly/updatesBuy the DVD w/ 50 minutes of bonus features: thrivemovement.comFollow us on Facebook: Facebook/Movement
For the first time, Foster and Kimberly are hosting live, interactive, online video events to engage the Movement in addressing key principles and strategies to inform the most leveraged solutions. Check out our new Together initiative (www.thrivemovement.com/thrive-together-enrollment) to learn more.
If you value what is presented in this movie, please go to donations where you can support Movement by making a donation. You will also find more in-depth information on each of the subjects discussed in the movie, learn about Critical Mass initiatives supported by , and connect with others who are waking up and taking action.
Film Synopsis:
THRIVE is an unconventional documentary that lifts the veil on what's REALLY going on in our world by following the money upstream -- uncovering the global consolidation of power in nearly every aspect of our lives. Weaving together breakthroughs in science, consciousness and activism, THRIVE offers real solutions, empowering us with unprecedented and bold strategies for reclaiming our lives and our future."
Bush Found Guilty of War Crimes
by bill - 2012-05-15 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Bush Found Guilty Of War Crimes
Too bad nothing will come of it, but it's nice to see, anyway
"In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were today (Friday) found guilty of war crimes."
Roseanne Barr: Two Major Parties are Prostitutes for Big Money
by bill - 2012-06-02 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"RB: I think this government is broken and unfixable, and it needs to be tossed out and replaced with a parliamentary government. This one is just a whored-out bunch of prostitutes who work for big money. Big money is what's in the saddle and the citizens of this country are down on all fours.
JH: It's interesting that in the wake of World War II it was American forces that helped draft the German and Japanese constitutions, and they both have parliamentary systems where if you win 10 percent of the vote your party gets 10 percent of the seats."
Read, listen or watch the rest here (prepare for so many popups, they'll cover the entire screen): Roseanne Barr on Presidential Run: Two Major Parties Are a Bunch of Prostitutes Who Work for Big Money
Quote of the Day (6/25/2012)
by bill - 2012-06-27 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Voltaire"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."
Good quote, but apparently not spoken by Voltaire.
See answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid 120826085842AAwFmIv
Lawmakers Got Inside Information During (2008) Financial Crisis
by bill - 2012-07-02 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"The lawmakers, many of whom held leadership positions and committee chairmanships in the House and Senate, changed portions of their portfolios a total of 166 times within two business days of speaking or meeting with the administration officials. The party affiliation of the lawmakers was about evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, 19 to 15."
34 Lawmakers Including Speaker Boehner Got Inside Information
by bill - 2012-07-03 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"The lawmakers, many of whom held leadership positions and committee chairmanships in the House and Senate, changed portions of their portfolios a total of 166 times within two business days of speaking or meeting with the administration officials. The party affiliation of the lawmakers was about evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, 19 to 15."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: 34 lawmakers -- including Speaker of the House John Boehner -- got inside information during the 2008 financial crisis and immediately changed their investment portfolios.
The Two Party System Summed Up Nicely
by bill - 2012-07-07 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
posted without permission, but we hope they don't mind
The Bain Legacy
by bill - 2012-08-19 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
... the GOP presidential hopeful was a key architect of what has become known as the "Bain model." And as president, it can be expected that he would govern the country using the values that governed Bain Capital.
see The Bain Legacy for the entire story
"The new bosses billed the meeting in late January 2011 as their 'welcome' to the 200 workers at a long-established factory in Freeport, Ill. Maybe the description reflected some dark corporate humor lost on the workers, but just three minutes into their welcome, the new managers from Sensata announced that all the jobs in the factory -- which produces finely calibrated sensors for the automobile and other industries -- would be moved to China or another country by 2013."
Greed and Debt, the True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital
by bill - 2012-09-03 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
In light of Mitt Romney's resurfacing, a reminder: If you don't read it, it explains vulture capitalism and how Romney is the poster child for that. Basically,Romney borrowed millions (with little of his own money) from others to buy sick companies, such as KB Toys. Then somehow shifted those millions in debt onto the companies, and further looted the companies, driving them into bankruptcy and making millions for himself. Bain is similar to Carlyle Group, another famous vulture capital firm. Good reading.
"... that same belief in the lunatic pursuit of instant borrowed millions -- it's dusted itself off, it's had a shave and a shoeshine, and it's back out there running for president.
The incredible untold story of the 2012 election so far is that Romney's run has been a shimmering pearl of perfect political hypocrisy, which he's somehow managed to keep hidden, even with thousands of cameras following his every move. And the drama of this rhetorical high-wire act was ratcheted up even further when Romney chose his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin -- like himself, a self-righteously anal, thin-lipped, Whitest Kids U Know penny pincher who'd be honored to tell Oliver Twist there's no more soup left. By selecting Ryan, Romney, the hard-charging, chameleonic champion of a disgraced-yet-defiant Wall Street, officially succeeded in moving the battle lines in the 2012 presidential race."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829#ixzz25DjNA1e3
Mitt Romney, Monsanto Man
by bill - 2012-09-17 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Introduced in the Bain years with Bain boosting, Roundup's supposedly "biodegradable" and "nontoxic" claims have led to false advertising findings in France and by the Attorney General of New York. Studies are also now beginning to link Roundup to cancer and birth defects, the first indication that it may be going the way of Lasso, another Monsanto herbicide endorsed by Bain that was forced from the market because of health hazards.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Mitt Romney, Monsanto Man
"Though Mitt Romney has been campaigning for president since 2006, it's alarming how little is known about critical chapters of his business biography. Nothing spells that out more clearly than his ties to Monsanto -- the current target of a mid-September Occupy nationwide action -- whose dark history features scandals involving PCBs, Agent Orange, bovine growth hormone, NutraSweet, IUD, genetically modified (GM) seed and herbicides, reaching back to the 1970s and '80s."
Putin Thanks Romney for Reckless Remarks
by bill - 2012-09-19 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Further proof of Romney's stupidity.
"I'm grateful to [Romney] for formulating his stance so clearly because he has once again proven the correctness of our approach to missile defense problems," Putin told reporters, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Putin Thanks Romney For Reckless Remarks.
This Guy is a Joke
by bill - 2012-10-01 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2021-06-06 09:59:25]
Who's his national security advisor, Wile E. Coyote?
Here is a timeline of "dire" warnings since 1979
Related articles here and here."For more than quarter of a century Western officials have claimed repeatedly that Iran is close to joining the nuclear club. Such a result is always declared "unacceptable" and a possible reason for military action, with "all options on the table" to prevent upsetting the Mideast strategic balance dominated by the US and Israel."
Time to Include Third Party
by bill - 2012-10-07 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
CNN Poll: 47% Chose Neither After 2012 Presidential Debate! See Time To Include 3rd Party.
Ya think?
Hacking Democracy on Youtube
by bill - 2012-10-10 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"The disturbingly shocking HBO documentary HACKING DEMOCRACY bravely tangles with our nation's ills at the heart of democracy."
On the Subject of Tyrants
by bill - 2012-10-23 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Plato"When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader."
Free and Equal Presidential Debate
by bill - 2012-10-26 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Free and Equal -- Presidential Debate.
These candidates might discuss ACTUAL issues, not corporate-sponsored "issues."
Here's Your Sign, Mr. Ryan
by bill - 2012-10-27 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Appearing on CBS the next morning, Ryan told host Norah O'Donnell that he couldn't make sense out of the "horses and bayonets" line.""I think Gov. Romney maybe hasn't spent enough time looking at how our military works. You mentioned the Navy, for example. And that we have fewer ships that we had in 1916. Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. And so, the question is not a game of Battleship where we're counting ships, it's what are our capabilities?"
"To compare modern American battleships with bayonets, I just don't understand that comparison," the Wisconsin Republican said. "Look, we have to have a strong Navy to keep peace and prosperity."
What an idiot.
Texas Threatens to Arrest International Monitors
by bill - 2012-10-28 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
When the government remains [unresponsive] to egregious attempts to suppress the vote, such as mass mailings to ex-felons falsely telling them they are not allowed to vote, there certainly is a need for someone to step in to document the scandal and demand the issues be rectified.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Texas Threatens To Arrest International Monitors Sent To Watch US Election.
Obama/Romney: Same Police State
by bill - 2012-10-30 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Obama, Romney same police state: Third party debate up-close (FULL VIDEO)
Romney's Lax Regulation May Have Fueled Meningitis Outbreak
by bill - 2012-11-05 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"The fatal meningitis epidemic sweeping the United States can now be traced to the failure of then-Gov. Mitt Romney to adequately regulate the Massachusetts pharmaceutical company that is being blamed for the deaths."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Romney's lax regulation may have fueled meningitis outbreak.
Monsanto Funded Anti-gmo Labeling Campaign
by bill - 2012-11-07 ( life / health / food / politics ) [html version]
Corporate scum at their worst, or is this merely typical?
"Misuse of a United States government seal can lead to a $250,000 fine, twenty years in prison, and three years of supervised release -- unless you're a campaign organization funded by major corporations like Monsanto. In a move completely ignored by the mainstream media (many of which have financial ties to such corporations), the anti-GMO labeling No on 37 Committee paid for and disseminated a physical piece of direct mail that not only entirely misused the FDA logo but even sported a fabricated quote."
Free and Equal Fighting for a More Equal Election Process
by bill - 2012-11-07 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"As a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization, we work to give all ballot-qualified local and presidential candidates the opportunity to debate important political issues in public forums."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Free & Equal -- Fighting for a more equal election process.
Rolling Jubilee
by bill - 2012-11-17 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Great idea!
"A bailout of the people by the people
Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Our latest project The Debt Collective aims to build collective power to challenge the way we finance and access basic necessities such as housing, medical care and education. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits."
Russia Ousts U.S. NGOs, Fake Protests Peter Out
by bill - 2012-12-20 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Activist Post: Russia Ousts Meddling US NGOs, Fake Protests Peter Out."Reuters states ... Putin ... has pushed through laws which critics say can be used to stifle dissent -- tightening controls of the Internet ... and broadening the definition of treason."
Replace "treason" with "terrorism" and this is EXACTLY what Obama has been doing! How's that for hypocrisy?
Fooling Themselves
by bill - 2012-12-29 ( culture / writing / blog / politics ) [html version]
The "elites" are adept at fooling themselves and too many others into thinking that they know best. The superiority they bestow upon themselves is a convenient justification for keeping us "commoners" in the dark, and themselves in power.
Major Food Companies Consider Lobbying for Gmo Labeling
by bill - 2013-02-07 ( life / health / food / politics ) [html version]
Maybe there is hope for mankind, after all? Thanks to the boycotts, and more people refusing to remain ignorant? Whatever the reason, this looks promising.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Activist Post
"... there is talk of Walmart, Pepsi, ConAgra and at least 20 major food companies possibly switching sides and lobbying FOR national labeling. It's probably the very least all those companies could do after spending more than $45 million to keep food unlabeled."
Chris Hedges Quote
by bill - 2013-02-10 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Chris Hedges"We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy"
Don't forget judges, CEOs and "regulatory" agencies!
We Need a New Sherman Antitrust Act
by bill - 2013-02-11 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
We need a new Sherman Antitrust Act! (or enforce the one we've got).
Limit, by statute, the allowed size of any company.
Having too much of the economy controlled by too few corporations translates out to not enough jobs! Screw "economies of scale!"
It's actually less efficient in the greater scheme of things if no one has a job/income with which to purchase our own products.
Bob Woodward Criticizes Obama
by bill - 2013-03-03 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
If Bob Woodward Criticizes Obama, that's actually in Obama's favor in my opinion, though I'm not a fan of either oone.
Liberty Versus Security
by bill - 2013-03-21 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
I like this graphic showing this nation's descent into totalitarianism
No Deal on Backs of Elderly, Children, Sick and Poor
by bill - 2013-03-22 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
We demand a budget that makes sure that the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations pay their fair share.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Send a Message to President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner: No Budget Deal on the Backs of the Elderly, the Children, the Sick and the Poor. Friends of Bernie Sanders.
Why is Socialism Doing So Darn Well in Deep Red North Dakota?
by bill - 2013-04-04 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Public "social" banking works, even for otherwise "conservative" people.Why Is Socialism Doing So Darn Well in Deep-Red North Dakota?
"North Dakota's thriving state bank makes a mockery of Wall Street's casino banking system -- and that's why financial "elites" want to crush it."
The Psychology of the Powerful
by bill - 2013-04-06 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Instead of analysing actions, checking through the consequences of those actions and chatting through the decisions made, leaders too often rely on impulsive decision-making -- and this is when hubris can set in.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: .
This describes almost every decision-maker I've ever met in a corporate setting
"Instead of analysing actions, checking through the consequences of those actions and chatting through the decisions made, leaders too often rely on impulsive decision-making -- and this is when hubris can set in."
Bitcoin Vs. Big Gov't
by bill - 2013-04-13 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Nice!
"Interest in Bitcoin has surged along with its valuation. Last week saw its exchange rate soar past $100 for the first time ever, landing the virtual currency on the front pages of The Washington Post and the Financial Times. Yet the media frenzy, which has focused on the rapidly rising valuation and its possible causes stemming from the bank crisis in Cyprus, is overlooking Bitcoin's true radical significance -- that it can't be controlled by government."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Bitcoin vs. Big Government
Anger Builds in Illinois at Bain's Latest Outsourcing Plan
by bill - 2013-04-14 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
'I'm sick to my stomach': anger builds in Illinois at Bain's latest outsourcing plan
"The Sensata plant in Freeport is profitable and competitive, but its majority owner, Bain Capital, has decided to ship jobs to China -- and forced workers to train their overseas replacements."
Why is Boston Terrorism but Not Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tucson and Columbine?
by bill - 2013-04-26 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Why is Boston 'terrorism' but not Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tucson and Columbine?Glenn Greenwald asks in his latest column, "Why is Boston 'terrorism' but not Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tucson and Columbine?" Can it be because the suspects in this one are Muslim? Can only Muslims commit terrorism? What have we become? -- LUV News
Has the U.s. War on Terror Just Had Its Cronkite Moment?
by bill - 2013-06-13 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
PRISM looks like that Cronkite moment: The moment when even the staunchest Obama supporter admits they've been taken for a ride.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: rt.com/op-edge/war-terror-cronkite-moment-457
Revealing NSA Spying Program Doesn't Harm National Security
by bill - 2013-06-15 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Terrorists Already Knew about the Programs … The Only People Who Were Kept In the Dark Were the American People
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Top Counter-Terrorism Czar: Revealing NSA Spying Program DOESN'T Harm National Security
Gardasil and Cervarix Don't Work, are Dangerous and Weren't Tested Properly
by staff - 2013-06-24 ( life / health / politics ) [html version]
The Lead Vaccine Developer Comes Clean So She Can "Sleep At Night": Gardasil and Cervarix Don't Work, Are Dangerous, and Weren't Tested."Dr. Diane Harper was the lead researcher in the development of the human papilloma virus "vaccines" Gardasil and Cervarix. She is the latest to come forward and question the safety and effectiveness of these "vaccines."
also.
"Dr. Harper explained in her presentation that the cervical cancer risk in the U.S. is already extremely low, and that vaccinations are unlikely to have any effect upon the rate of cervical cancer in the United States. In fact, 70% of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year, and the number rises to well over 90% in two years. Harper also mentioned the safety angle. All trials of the "vaccines" were done on children aged 15 and above, despite them currently being marketed for 9-year-olds."
click here for related articles.
See also: gardasil-vaccine-linked-to-record-birth-rate-declines/
12 Real Patriots Brave Enough to Fight for Truth and Justice
by bill - 2013-07-07 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
12 Real Patriots Brave Enough to Fight for Truth and Justice
"Who are the true patriots of today? Not the flag-wrapped politicians who send other people's children off to be killed or disabled in wars to make the world safe for big businesses. Not the flag-waving profiteers who view their successes as their due. Not the crowds who chant USA, USA, USA, upon learning of death of Osama bin Laden. Not the religious hypocrites who worship this nation and its flag as yet another one of their gods."
Conspiracy Theorists Sane, Gov't Dupes Hostile
by bill - 2013-07-18 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Told ya! :)
"In short, the new study by Wood and Douglas suggests the negative stereotype of conspiracy theorists -- a hostile fanatics wedded to the truth of their own fringe theories -- more accurately describes people who defend the official account of 9/11, not those who dispute it."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: New studies: 'Conspiracy theorists' sane; government dupes crazy, hostile.
How to Know If Your Co-worker is a Threat to National Security
by bill - 2013-07-20 ( culture / humor / politics ) [html version]
"Essentially, pretend the Soviets won the Cold War and then conquered the United States -- that's how the government is operating."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: How to know if your coworker is a threat to national security
The Jobs Number is B.s. Says Former Head of Bls
by bill - 2013-07-22 ( life / money / employment / politics ) [html version]
The Jobs Number Is BS Says Former Head Of BLS
"After every non-farm payroll report we provide our own breakdown of what the real unemployment rate is in a country in which the labor force participation rate has not been adjusted to normalize for the Second Great Depression. In the most recent such endeavor we found the "Real Unemployment Rate" to be 11.3%."
Wouldn't It Just Be Easier to Change Our Foreign Policy?
by bill - 2013-07-22 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"... it would lessen the supposed need to spy on Americans, which is unacceptable under any circumstances, but can only be sold with endless fear-mongering about terrorism. So it's a win-win-win, except for the corporations that profit from weapons, war and global violence.
Then there's the National Security Agency (NSA), doing its typical skullduggery, spying on everyone's phone calls, emails, Facebook posts and other online activity. Our tax dollars pay them to do this to us, supposedly to make us safer, but I don't feel safer, I feel violated and disgusted, how about you? And the alleged trade-off between privacy and security was concocted by forces that want us to have less of both."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Wouldn't It Just Be Easier to Change Our Foreign Policy?.
Lawmakers Who Allowed NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Cash
by bill - 2013-08-01 ( education / tech / politics ) [html version]
"... those 217 "no" voters received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 "yes" voters."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash
Feds Give Laid-off Boeing Workers a Helping Hand
by bill - 2013-08-04 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
The Labor Department ruling also means that if laid-off Boeing workers need to travel, say to California, for a job interview, the government will reimburse 90 percent of the costs.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Feds give laid-off Boeing workers a big helping hand ~ Business & Technology ~ The Seattle Times
"Thanks to a federal program lined up by their unions, local workers laid off during the current dip in employment at Boeing Commercial Airplanes will enjoy a financial cushion that's much, much plumper than what the average unemployed state resident gets."
Retarded People Running Things
by bill - 2013-08-13 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Obama himself says, "The odds of dying in a terrorist attack are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident." And he's right, for a change. Yet he/they want us all to be constantly afraid of this bogeyman, these nebulous "terrorists," which nowadays includes just about everyone.
I get tired of retarded people -- emotionally and morally, if not mentally -- running the world, and the gullible people who fall for their lies and become their enforcers/enablers, wittingly or not.
Ruling Elite Destroying Our Economies
by bill - 2013-08-28 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
... on purpose, is what he seems to be implying without saying so in so many words.
Constitution Banned on Constitution Day
by bill - 2013-09-24 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
ABombazine: WTF?? Constitution Banned on Constitution Day in California."Prevented from passing out free copies of the Constitution to his fellow students. Free copies. Of the Constitution. On Constitution Day."
Why War with Russia is Unavoidable, Unless
by bill - 2013-10-02 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Why War With Russia is Unavoidable, Unless ...."Both "conservative" Republican voters and "liberal" Democrat voters wash their consciences by blaming the other party for the evils of American politics. But they are the only ones to blame, because they keep electing to public office people like McCain, the Bushes, the Clintons and Obama"
Israel Threatens to Go It Alone Against Iran
by bill - 2013-10-06 ( education / civics / politics / israel ) [html version]
I hope they do. Maybe then we'll be rid of them once and for all.
Israel has been screaming since 1985 that Iran is just "months away" from nuclear weapons.
Simple Reform Could Save America from Wall Street
by bill - 2013-10-21 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"We're talking about a financial transaction tax (FTT) -- a tiny tax of, say, less than half a percent: maybe 3 cents per $100 -- on Wall Street trading. It's simple, more than fair, widely supported by the public, and long overdue."
Chris Hedges Imploding the Myth of Israel
by bill - 2013-11-29 ( education / civics / politics / israel ) [html version]
"... a state whose real goal is, and always has been, the transfer, forced immigration or utter subjugation and impoverishment of Palestinians inside Israel and the occupied territories."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Chris Hedges: Imploding the Myth of Israel.
The Fallacy of Lesser Evil Choice
by bill - 2013-12-05 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"... the main issue here is that it is delusional if not moronic for persons who describe themselves as "progressive" to insist upon copping out to the "Lesser-Evil" candidate for fear of "losing" an election, rather than to support -- whatever the odds -- a candidate they will admit to possessing superior intelligence, moral courage and genuine goodwill."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: OpEdNews -- Article: The Fallacy of "Lesser-Evil" Choice.
Icelanders Overthrow Gov't and Rewrite Constitution After Banking Fraud
by bill - 2013-12-13 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"Icelanders forced their entire government to resign after a banking fraud scandal, overthrowing the ruling party and creating a citizen's group tasked with writing a new constitution that offered a solution to prevent corporate greed from destroying the country."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: guardianlv.com/2013/12/icelanders-overthrow-government-and-rewrite-constitution-after-banking-fraud-no-word-from-us-media
We Stopped Sopa, Let's Stop the Tpp
by bill - 2014-01-11 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"The text of the agreement has been shrouded in secrecy. But we know from leaked documents that the TPP would let corporations monitor our online activities, cut off our Internet access, delete content and impose fines."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: We Stopped SOPA -- Lets Stop the TPP.
Putin-style Politics Could Be What Saves U.s
by bill - 2014-01-22 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
I used to think Putin was a thug/autocrat [I should say I assumed he must be], but that's what it takes sometimes.
That being said, he does seem to have Russia's (and his own) interests at heart.
I like what he's done to the oligarchs internally and his management of the Russian ship of state internationally ... so far, especially regarding Syria and Crimea
"... those worrying about socialism in America missed the big picture, ignoring what media critics John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney have called the dollarocracy, which they contend has set in place a "money and media election complex" that is destroying America."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Putin-Style Politics Could Be What Saves U.S.
The Architects of Free Trade Really Did Want a World Gov't
by bill - 2014-02-25 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"It's amazing what you find in the Congressional Record. For example, you find American political officials (liberal ones, actually) engaged in an actual campaign to get rid of countries with their pesky parochial interests, and have the whole world managed by global corporations. Yup, this actually was explicit in the 1960s, as opposed to today's passive aggressive arguments which amount to the same thing."
Why I Am Burning My Last Bridge with Obama
by bill - 2014-03-18 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
She pretty well sums it up!
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Why I'm burning my last bridge with Obama.
Sc State Senate Nullifies Hemp Ban
by bill - 2014-03-19 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"Many hemp supporters feel that the DEA has been used as an "attack dog" of sorts to prevent competition with major industries where American-grown hemp products would create serious market competition: Cotton, Paper/Lumber, Oil, and others."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Activist Post: S.C. State Senate Unanimously Nullifies Federal Hemp Ban.
Good news!
This is a wonderful natural resource that's been made illegal by whores beholden to the above-mentioned industries.
Another hemp-related article here: thespiritscience.net/2016/06/22/henry-ford-made-a-hemp-car-in-1941-but-no-one-knows-about-it/
Us is An Oligarchy Not a Democracy, Says Scientific Study
by bill - 2014-04-20 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
US is an oligarchy not a democracy, says scientific study
Of course, astute observers have known this for years. Still, it's nice to see it "officially" recognized.
Then again, this country NEVER WAS a democracy, it's a republic. An actual democracy would have everyone voting on everything, which is what we need more than anything else to help combat our current corrupt/stupid government officials.
The World According to Time Magazine
by bill - 2014-05-13 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
The World According to TIME Magazine.
For those who still read TIME magazine.
Let Us Vote Whether Money is Speech
by bill - 2014-06-04 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
The Supreme Court's decisions to let the rich buy as many politicians as they want are outrageous. Pass SB 1272 to demand a Constitutional amendment that overturns Citizens United and McCutcheon -- and that says once and for all that corporations aren't people, and money isn't speech.
Police Arrest Politician for Distributing Voting Rights Leaflets
by bill - 2014-09-05 ( education / civics / politics / rights ) [html version]
"I asked [the policeman] for the ordinance number [being violated], because they can't put handcuffs on you if they cannot tell you why they're detaining you."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Police Arrest Young Black Politician For Distributing Voting Rights Leaflets.
The Whys Behind the (u.s. Puppet) Ukraine Crisis
by staff - 2014-09-09 ( education / civics / politics / conspiracies ) [html version]
"Further supporting the "natural gas motive" is the fact that it was Vice President Joe Biden who demanded that President Yanukovych pull back his police on Feb. 21, a move that opened the way for the neo-Nazi militias and the U.S.-backed coup. Then, just three months later, Ukraine's largest private gas firm, Burisma Holdings, appointed Biden's son Hunter to its board of directors.
Further, there was the possibility that an expansion of the Obama-Putin cooperation could have supplanted Israel's powerful position as a key arbiter of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Thus, the Obama-Putin relationship had to be blown up -- and the Ukraine crisis was the perfect explosive for the destruction."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: The Whys Behind the Ukraine Crisis
Putin on Russian Culture
by bill - 2017-01-16 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Long article (transcript) of Putin speech from 2013.
Too long to read now, so this is essentially a bookmark:
Grim false Depiction of Russian Life
by bill - 2017-08-12 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"As a top propaganda outlet pushing the New Cold War, The New York Times paints life in Russia in the darkest hues, but this one-sided depiction misses the reality of the increasingly vibrant country that Gilbert Doctorow sees."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Grim [false] depiction of Russian life
Remove Dogfight-Supporting Moron, Steve King
by bill - 2017-09-15 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
What a pinhead.
"King supports dog fighting [because] "... humans are allowed to fight, so dogs should be, too." The difference, obviously, is that humans can choose whether or not to fight, and dogs cannot. Also, many dog fights are to the death, or the loser is executed after their excruciating fight, anyway."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: thepetitionsite.com/774/802/232/steve-king-supports-dog-fights-he-must-resign/.
Flipping Off Trump
by bill - 2017-11-20 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
I'm working on an arrangement with my employer whereby I flip off Trump's motorcade, get photographed doing it, get fired for it, then have a "go fund me" campaign pay me $100K. Wish me luck!
THIS JUST IN: Woman who flipped off trump motorcade wins election
Merck Accused of Fraud Re Gardasil
by staff - 2018-06-08 ( life / health / politics ) [html version]
They failed to clearly state.
"... the MINIMAL RISK that, even once the individual was infected with the HPV virus, the infection would result in precancerous lesions..."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: greenmedinfo.com
also.
"Dr. Harper explained in her presentation that the cervical cancer risk in the U.S. is already extremely low, and that vaccinations are unlikely to have any effect upon the rate of cervical cancer in the United States. In fact, 70% of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year, and the number rises to well over 90% in two years. Harper also mentioned the safety angle. All trials of the "vaccines" were done on children aged 15 and above, despite them currently being marketed for 9-year-olds."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Gardasil-and-Cervarix-dont-work-are-dangerous-and-werent-tested
click here for related articles.
See also: gardasil-vaccine-linked-to-record-birth-rate-declines/
Judge Brett Kavanaugh
by bill - 2018-09-28 ( education / civics / politics / legal ) [html version]
Just thought I'd put some click bait out there with the words Judge Brett Kavanaugh in it to see if it generates any hits.
UPDATE: It didn't. :(
Autism Linked to Aluminum Adjuvants
by bill - 2018-10-06 ( life / health / politics ) [html version]
"We now have 5 years of medical research, mostly from outside the United States, incriminating aluminum adjuvants in "vaccines" as the SOLE cause of autism epidemic. JB Handley does a nice job laying out the argument and summarizing this research.(3) He uses the web site, Vaccine Papers, as a good source for the documentation.(4) Many others have raised the red flag on aluminum adjuvants.(1-2)(31)"
Read, listen or watch the rest here: aluminum-vaccine"s-cause-autism
click here for related articles.
Israel Lobby
by bill - 2018-11-05 ( education / civics / politics / israel ) [html version]
Watch the film the Israel Lobby didn't want you to see.
Good Explanation of the Annexation of Crimea
by bill - 2018-11-13 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"In response to us-issues-new-russia-sanctions-over-profiting-on-Crimean-resort. Reprinted without permission from whatreallyhappened.com
The world knows that Russia did not annex Crimea. [see politically-correct version here]
Perhaps you are having a difficult spell of SMD, (selective memory disorder), so let me re-orient you to 2014 in my exclusive way-back machine.
This was the year when the duly-elected president of Ukraine, Yanukovych, was deposed in a US/World Bank coup [see also how and why], thrown under the proverbial bus, and Poroshenko was installed as President.
You might remember (or most probably don't) that even President Barak Obama, made a very public announcement in an interview that the US was definitely a part of that coup. [See Obama admits US complicity in Kiev coup and President Obama admits to US complicity in Kiev Coup]
You probably do not know, Mr. President, that Crimea had been part of Russia until Russian President Nikita S. Khrushchev annexed it to Ukraine in the late 50s, as he himself was Ukrainian.
Well, the Crimeans understood very clearly that there was no true representative in Kiev to whom they could turn. So they did something amazing.
They voted, in a free and fair referendum, to ask the Crimean people if they wanted to stay with Ukraine, or petition the Russian Federation to join it, and overwhelmingly, the Crimean people voted to ask to join the Russian Federation, and their petition was granted.
You may recall, sir, that the US is a signatory to the UN Charter, which guarantees people the right to peaceful-self-determination; this is precisely what the Crimean people did, yet the US government refuses to accept what the Crimean people have done here.
Attempting to punish Russia for something it absolutely did not do, and lying about what really went down, makes the optics on this new sanctioning look really ugly, and punishing countries for what they have not done, is a very ugly way of having to deal with blowback.
Russia-gate Explained
by bill - 2019-04-08 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2022-08-10 12:03:25]
This pretty well sums up the stupidity known as "Russia-gate": russiagate cartoon.
And, can we please stop adding "gate" to the end of every scandal? Millennials are too young to remember Watergate, the original "gate."
Thank you for your cooperation.
World's Oldest Pm to Youngest: Listen to Old People & Hold onto Idealism
by bill - 2019-12-17 ( life / help / advice / politics ) [html version]
Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad, the world's oldest prime minister, has offered the world's youngest, Finland's Sanna Marin, some words of wisdom as she takes on her new role: Ask "old people" for their advice.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: mahathir-marin-finland-advice
Israel Lobby Con
by bill - 2020-03-18 ( education / civics / politics / israel ) [html version]
Looks like a worthy cause for the sake of world peace.
"An annual conference series traditionally held at the National Press Club before the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby's damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. Visit the YouTube video playlist, subscribe to the Podcast, or download audio files."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Israel Lobby Con
The Ppp is Letting Our Small Restaurants and Businesses Die
by bill - 2020-04-26 ( culture / food / restaurants / politics ) [html version]
"The PPP was supposed to save our small restaurants and businesses. But where's the money?...
Read, listen or watch the rest here: news.yahoo.com
See also: The PPP Is Letting Our Small Restaurants And Businesses Die ? Does Science Justify Closing Bars And Restaurants? No. ? NYC Restaurants To Ban Cuomo From Dining
Political Compass Test
by bill - 2020-05-05 ( culture / writing / politics ) [html version]
"Welcome! It's timely to stress that The Political Compass has been on the internet since 2001. The uniqueness of our take on politics is reflected in the gratifyingly enthusiastic reviews we've enjoyed in the national media of many countries from our earliest years -- as well as from many teachers and academics who continue to use our work."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: politicalcompass.org
My score -- as of May 1 (May Day), 2020 -- was "left, libertarian."
Benjamin Franklin Quotes
by bill - 2020-05-06 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
Trump Hammers Cuba While Cuba Cures the Sick
by bill - 2020-06-22 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"Not content to sabotage Cuba's domestic health sector, the Trump administration has been attacking Cuba's international medical assistance, from the teams fighting coronavirus to those caring for underserved communities in 164 countries...
Read, listen or watch the rest here: mintpressnews.com/trump-sanctions-cuba-while-cuba-battles-coronavirus-world/268592/
Us & Russia Not Enemies Despite Existing Disagreements -- Russian Ambassador
by bill - 2020-07-14 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"The United States and Russia are not enemies and cannot afford to stop talking to one another, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has said. Speaking on Russia-US relations during a video conference organized by the Washington-based Center for the National Interest on Wednesday, he said: "There is an ongoing debate on who is more at fault for their current deplorable state."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: rt.com/newsline/494228-us-russia-relations-ambassador/
Good News from Washington: Aipac, Israel Losing to Progressive Democrats
by bill - 2020-07-23 ( education / civics / politics / israel ) [html version]
"The age of total dominance of Israel over the US Congress is likely over, and hopefully, this time, for good.Good News from Washington: AIPAC, Israel Losing to Progressive Democrats...
Read, listen or watch the rest here: mintpressnews.com/aipac-israel-losing-to-progressive-democrats/269500/
How to Be a Tyrant
by don - 2020-08-05 ( education / research / politics ) [html version]
How To Be a Successful Tyrant
by Larken Rose
"Almost all oppression via propaganda is based upon scaring people, and then presenting a false choice where the people can chose either to do what you want them to do, or face some unknown (often purely fictional) horror. This is not the method of the common thug, which can be summarized as 'do this or I will hurt you.' A successful modern tyrant never presents himself as the thing to be afraid of, as doing so would obviously create resentment and hatred in the peasantry, and that leads to resistance."
"Every 'Thing To Be Feared' (or 'TTBF') with which you terrorize your peasants must be presented as some separate, 'outside' evil that only you can save them from. You must present the simple choice between obedience to you and the threat of some unpleasant happening -- which does not appear to be of your doing and which you pretend to lament the existence of. In short, you must deceive and scare the citizens into voluntarily giving up their freedom."
"'The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.' [Edmund Burke]"
"A simple example would be making up a plague of some sort, assuring the people that millions are doomed to die, and then claiming that giving you a lot of money and control is the only hope of averting disaster. Or perhaps, instead of making up a disease, you can pick a real disease, grossly exaggerating the risk it poses to the peasants, whipping them into a frenzy and then present yourself as their only hope for salvation (which, of course, will require giving you much wealth and power). Recent history gives many examples to build upon, such as AIDS, anthrax, 'mad cow' disease, etc... Even the common flu [edit: SARS-CV-2, a/k/a "covid 19 disease"] can be used to spread alarm and panic in the peasantry."
"Conveniently, peasants love promises of protection, but don't usually require much explanation of how you intend to protect them. If you say that giving you ten billion dollars will enable you to 'fight against AIDS,' they will give it to you, without even a vague notion of exactly how doing so might accomplish anything. They don't want a rationale, substantive explanation of a real 'solution'; they merely want someone to say the problem is being fixed, or at least being 'addressed' (whatever that means)." pp. 19-20."
Two-tiered Medicine: Why is Hydroxychloroquine Being Censored and Politicized?
by bill - 2020-08-09 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"Childrens Health Defense Team -- Even with the mixed results for late use, some clinicians have described clear-cut and dramatically positive clinical responses in individuals...
Read, listen or watch the rest here: wakingtimes.com/2020/07/31/two-tiered-medicine-why-is-hydroxychloroquine-being-censored-and-politicized/
Help Stop Gov't Overreach
by bill - 2020-08-28 ( life / health / covid / politics ) [html version]
This man and his organization are suing the governor of Tennessee for unconstitutional overreach in reaction (over-reaction) to this so-called "pandemic."
As I keep saying, where is the emergency? One sixth of one percent dying from something (and even those numbers are questionable) does not constitute an epidemic, let alone a "pandemic."
See also: Help Stop Gov't Overreach
Bill Hicks Quote
by bill - 2020-09-28 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Bill Hicks"The problem isn't a lack of money, food, water or land. The problem is that you've given control of these things to a group of greedy psychopaths who care more about maintaining their own power than helping mankind."
Leaked Documents Expose Massive Anti-Syria Propaganda Operation Waged by Western Gov'ts and Media
by bill - 2020-09-30 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"Western government-funded intelligence cutouts trained Syrian opposition leaders, planted stories in media outlets from BBC to Al Jazeera, and ran a cadre of journalists. A trove of leaked documents exposes the propaganda network. Leaked documents show how UK...
Read, listen or watch the rest here: sott.net
George Orwell Quotes
by bill - 2020-10-02 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2020-10-27 14:36:34]
After Chinese Scientists Steal Billions in American Research, U.S. Finally Bans Communists
by bill - 2020-10-11 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2020-10-19 16:31:06]
"The U.S. government has finally issued an official policy on the inadmissibility of foreigners affiliated with Communist or totalitarian parties. The critical new rule appears to be the Trump administrations response to an epidemic of Communists, mainly from...
Read, listen or watch the rest here: judicialwatch.org/corruption-chronicles/after-chinese-scientists-steal-billions-in-american-research-u-s-finally-bans-communists/
Psychopaths Among Us
by bill - 2020-10-25 ( culture / people / politics ) [html version]
"Politicians are more likely than people in the general population to be sociopaths. I think you would find no expert in the field of sociopathy/ psychopathy/ antisocial personality disorder who would dispute [that] a small minority of human beings literally have no conscience -- but it does explain a great many things, shamelessly deceitful political behavior being one." -- Dr. Martha Stout, clinical psychologist and former instructor at Harvard Medical School
Trump Rewards Army of Fans After They Defy Governor's Order Limiting Outdoor Rally to 250
by bill - 2020-11-04 ( education / civics / politics / covid ) [html version]
"Trump said [governor] Walz and [attorney general] Ellison were totally lax toward Black Lives Matter rioters who had torched and looted Minneapolis in August, but tried to suppress his outdoor MAGA rally because they're left-wing hypocrites."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: bizpacreview.com
Are You Still Voting for Biden?
by bill - 2020-11-04 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
You might want to read this first: Tara Reade exposes truth
"This is Beth Reinhard from The Washington Post. You have come forward with a sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden. Don't you realize this will hurt his campaign?" She is almost shouting at me. I was stunned and silent for a second. "
And then, of course, there's all of the proven corruption involving China and Ukraine. But, yeah, go ahead and stick your head back into the sand.
The U.S.A. is Now Truly a Banana Republic
by bill - 2020-11-09 ( education / research / conspiracies / politics ) [html version]
The USA is now officially, if we were not already, a banana republic. The Democrats have stolen the 2020 presidential election. Trump was leading in quite a few states (AZ, GA, NC, WI, MI, PA) and it looked like it was just a matter of time before those states were announced in his favor. But then, lo and behold, the counts went the other way, and Biden was deemed the prospective winner. I guess they finally got even for what happened in 2000? If you are too young to remember that, look it up. I wonder if Hillary is upset they didn't go to such extremes on her behalf four years ago?
Anyway, maybe it's time for me to move to one of the former banana republics? I've heard good things about Costa Rica and Dominican Republic. I just need to find one that is not going along with the covid lie. You know, one that knows there is no "pandemic". 
Biden Uses the Hammer and Scorecard to Win
by bill - 2020-11-11 ( education / research / conspiracies / politics ) [html version]
"According to CIA contractor-turned-whistleblower Dennis Montgomery, SCORECARD, a cyberwarfare application designed to steal elections, has been activated to ensure that Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump in Pennsylvania and other battleground states."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: biden-using-scorecard-and-the-hammer-to-steal-another-u-s-presidential-election-just-like-obama-and-biden-did-in-2012
UPDATE: This says the "hammer and scorecard" angle is false. Not the fraud entirely, just that one piece of the story.
Ms Gov Not Going to Participate in Biden Regime Lockdown Scheme
by bill - 2020-11-17 ( life / health / covid / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2021-06-16 14:36:45]
Read, listen or watch the rest here: conservativedailypost.com
I might have to move to Mississippi... if Biden wins is declared the winner
"In Mississippi, the governor has just declared war on any democrat scheme to lockdown the nation, destroying lives. Experts cite the massive voter fraud and legal challenges that show Donald Trump as the clear winner of the election, so its likely..."
UPDATE: Good for them!
No Massive Fraud? 1994 Precedent: Vote-Fraud Ruling Shifts PA Senate
by bill - 2020-11-18 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2020-11-20 12:24:11]
"Saying Philadelphia's election system had collapsed under a massive scheme by Democrats to steal a State Senate election in November, a Federal judge today took the rare step of invalidating the vote and ordered the seat filled by the Republican candidate."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: sott.net/article/444327-No-massive-fraud-February-1994-precedent-vote-fraud-ruling-shifts-Pennsylvania-Senate-absentee-ballots-ALL-rejected
What Trump Has Accomplished
by bill - 2020-11-20 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Someone on Twitter gave a long list of what Trump has accomplished while in office. I appreciate that because I keep forgetting what he's good for, exactly. Anyway, I took his list and removed what probably would have happened without Trump, as well as things I don't consider to be especially good. At least, not how they were done. Here is my edited list, with question marks after the ones I'm still not sure of, and exclamation points after the ones I'm very happy about:
Map of House of Representatives Voting
by bill - 2020-11-22 ( education / civics / politics / fraud ) [html version]
See Map of House of Representatives voting
And we're supposed to believe all of these Republican voters voted for Biden?
In a related story, here's an article about the Dominion voting systems engineer who claims to have rigged it himself.
Greater Idaho
by bill - 2020-11-23 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
This (below) is great. Will probably never happen, but wouldn't it be great if counties could secede from one state and join another... as long as they're connected?
Here are a couple of renderings: here and here.
Of course, if that did happen, Oregon might as well just join Washington.
And don't forget the State of Jefferson initiative, which has been a legitimate movement for years now.
Governors Have Way Too Much Power
by bill - 2020-11-23 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2022-03-26 02:13:40]
If there is one thing we learned this year, it should be this: Governors have WAY too much power. Actually, the entire top-down governance model needs to go.
UPDATE: And now, in light of the "supply chain issues," I'd say EVERYONE in charge of ANYTHING that affects our way of life has way too much power. We need alternatives to everything now.
UPDATE: See How To Ensure Lockdowns Cannot Happen Again
The Steal was Massive. Expert Reveals How Thousands of Trump Votes Were Shifted to Biden
by bill - 2020-11-24 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2020-11-24 07:50:08]
"Another brilliant mind on the Internet revealed how votes were shifted from President Trump to Biden in the 2020 election. This Internet sleuth shared his results on Twitter. This is what the Trump team just announced today at their press conference! An expert on...
Read, listen or watch the rest here: thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/breaking-exclusive-steal-massive-expert-reveals-hundreds-thousands-trump-votes-shifted-biden-election-night/
Obama Attacks Jewish Money, Power in New Memoir
by bill - 2020-11-24 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2020-11-24 05:15:27]
Obama's tough-on-Israel stance was quite possibly his only policy I agreed with.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Obama's new book
"Barack Obama's presidential memoir A Promise Land hit store shelves this week. The book, which portends to be an intimate look into his eight year presidency, joins Jimmy Carter in denouncing the Jewish lobby and the power of Israel over the American government."
Hilarious Memes About Lockdowns
by bill - 2020-11-27 ( culture / humor / covid / politics ) [html version]
"Look folks, there's an easy way around the government ban on having a traditional Thanksgiving feast with friends and family. Hold a protest against colonialist oppression instead! As we know, protests are exempt from the rules, and are "scientifically" proven to pose lower risk of covid spread than, say, a MAGA meetup or a motorcycle rally in Sturgis."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: powerlineblog.com
UPDATED: And here's one about rioting: Best anti-riot memes
What We Must Believe to Believe Biden Won
by bill - 2020-11-28 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"In the end, to accept Joe Biden as our legitimate Chief Executive, we must believe the voters hammered the Democrats in congressional, state, and local elections, yet decided to elect the "leader" of their party president. We must believe that he dramatically underperformed among minority voters, yet received 10 million more votes than Barack Obama. We must believe that virtually all of the reliable election bellwethers were wrong. We must believe that all of the elections in the swing states were conducted honestly and that the Venezuelan software used to tabulate the votes was secure. All of this beggars belief. Joe Biden may be inaugurated in January, but he certainly wasn't elected president.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: spectator.org/what-we-must-believe-to-believe-biden-won/
Here is the Evidence of 2020 Vote Fraud
by bill - 2020-11-28 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Here's a sample of submitted evidence. Their page takes a while to load
"Microsoft Designed Election Fraud Software Used By Dominion ~ Nationwide ~ Historical Context ~ 22/11/2020 01:36 PM ~
Michigan elections process: What happens to ballots after you vote ~ Michigan ~ Historical Context ~ 22/11/2020 01:37 PM ~
MI -- SUSPICIOUS:Biden Underperformed Hillary Nationwide, Except In 4 Cities ~ Michigan ~ Statistical ~ 22/11/2020 01:39 PM ~
Largest Number of Cluster Votes In Wayne Co. MI Came From Psychiatric Hospital ~ Michigan ~ Document ~ 22/11/2020 01:48 PM ~
2019 Dominion agreement with Santa Clara County allows manual tally adjustment ~ California ~ Document ~ 22/11/2020 01:57 PM ~
Dominion Exec Lets It Slip:Software Switched Votes From One Candidate to Another ~ Nationwide ~ Document ~ 22/11/2020 02:01 PM ~
Elizabeth Warren investigating ownership of Dominion in 2019 ~ Nationwide ~ Document ~ 22/11/2020 03:12 PM ~
I personally witnessed several people committing voter fraud and suppression. ~ Arizona ~ Document ~ 22/11/2020 04:04 PM ~
Anomalies in Fulton County, GA counting according to WSBTV article updates ~ Georgia ~ Historical Context ~ 22/11/2020 04:32 PM ~
Antifa Coomer Sold Dominion to GA ~ Georgia ~ Historical Context ~ 22/11/2020 04:38 PM ~
Eric Coomer sold GA its Dominion machines ~ Georgia ~ Document ~ 22/11/2020 04:56 PM "
Read, listen or watch the rest here: here is the evidence
WV Governor Forced to Back Down on Draconian Rules
by bill - 2020-11-30 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
West Virginia's attorney general said:
"Governor Justice just said that he does not "have the right to legislate or deem criminal charges on people." We agree and elaborate further on this issue."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: citizens stand up to threats of arrest
Mask Policies, State by State
by bill - 2020-11-30 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
See also life/health/covid. Of the thirteen states where masks are NOT mandatory, state-wide, all but one of them has a Republican governor. Coincidence? I don't think so. Sources: washington examiner and wikipedia
- STATE * MASK POLICY * GOVERNOR
- Alabama * Mandatory * Republican
- Alaska * Not Mandatory * Republican
- Arizona * Not Mandatory * Republican
- Arkansas * Mandatory * Republican
- California * Mandatory * Democrat
- Colorado * Mandatory * Democrat
- Connecticut * Mandatory * Democrat
- Delaware * Mandatory * Democrat
- Florida * Not Mandatory * Republican
- Georgia * Not Mandatory * Republican
- Hawaii * Mandatory * Democrat
- Idaho * Not Mandatory * Republican
- Illinois * Mandatory * Democrat
- Indiana * Mandatory * Republican
- Iowa * Mandatory * Republican
- Kansas * Not Mandatory * Democrat
- Kentucky * Mandatory * Democrat
- Louisiana * Mandatory * Democrat
- Maine * Mandatory * Democrat
- Maryland * Mandatory * Republican
- Massachusetts * Mandatory * Republican
- Michigan * Mandatory * Democrat
- Minnesota * Mandatory * Democrat
- Mississippi * Not Mandatory * Republican
- Missouri * Not Mandatory * Republican
- Montana * Mandatory * Democrat
- Nebraska * Not Mandatory * Republican
- Nevada * Mandatory * Democrat
- New Hampshire * Mandatory * Republican
- New Jersey * Mandatory * Democrat
- New Mexico * Mandatory * Democrat
- New York * Mandatory * Democrat
- North Carolina * Mandatory * Democrat
- North Dakota * Mandatory * Republican
- Ohio * Mandatory * Republican
- Oklahoma * Mandatory * Republican
- Oregon * Mandatory * Democrat
- Pennsylvania * Mandatory * Democrat
- Rhode Island * Mandatory * Democrat
- South Carolina * Not Mandatory * Republican
- South Dakota * Not Mandatory * Republican
- Tennessee * Not Mandatory * Republican
- Texas * Mandatory * Republican
- Utah * Mandatory * Republican
- Vermont * Mandatory * Republican
- Virginia * Mandatory * Democrat
- Washington * Mandatory * Democrat
- West Virginia * Mandatory * Republican
- Wisconsin * Mandatory * Democrat
- Wyoming * Not Mandatory * Republican
See also...
Adlai Stevenson Quote
by bill - 2020-11-30 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Adlai Stevenson"The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live, and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind, are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism."
Today, it's the cloak of a bad flu bug called covid-19.
Christian Josi (Columnist) Quote
by bill - 2020-12-01 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Christian Josi"Polling: The gateway political drug to misinformation, mistakes and malfeasance."
This was actually just a headline, but I thought it was great all by itself.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: pjmedia.com
Aldous Huxley Quotes
by bill - 2020-12-11 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
Solzhenitsyn Quotes
by bill - 2020-12-11 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.
-- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn"The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles." "Violence does not always and necessarily lunge straight for your throat; more often than not it demands of its subjects only that they pledge allegiance to lies, that they participate in falsehood."
NYC Restaurants to Ban Cuomo from Dining
by bill - 2020-12-25 ( culture / food / restaurants / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2020-12-25 03:48:27]
Serves him right! No pun intended.
"Struggling restaurant owners city-wide are permanently banning New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo from setting foot into their establishments. Effective immediately..."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Cuomo banned 
See also: The PPP Is Letting Our Small Restaurants And Businesses Die ? Does Science Justify Closing Bars And Restaurants? No. ? NYC Restaurants To Ban Cuomo From Dining
One Man's Response to the Incident at the Capitol
by bill - 2021-01-11 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
One man's response (as a comment on Watch on YouTube) to the January 6, 2021 incident at the Capitol in Washington, DC
by Seventeen Raccoons
I was at the DC rally, first Trump spoke at the Ellipse and at the end of the speech said "Let's all walk down to the Capitol" So we all begin walking down Pennsylvania Ave, it was fun, they had a giant American flag that people were holding and we chanted and sang on our way to the Capitol. Thousands of people were gathered on the grass in front of the building. As I approached that area I noticed there were a lot of Antifa guys there, who were not really dressed like trump supporters, many of them wore olive drab military style clothing had helmets and gas masks (when was the last time Trump supporters brought gas masks and helmets to a rally?) They were organized, a guy in his fifties was in charge of the group and were in the process of scaling a wall in order to get behind the police line that were positioned at the steps. The guy in charge was yelling to his guys to scale the wall to get behind the Capitol Hill police line which were to the left blocking the stairs. After a few guys got teargassed that reached the top, the guy in charge had his guys confront the police line at the steps when within a few minutes the police retreated and we all had access to the stairs. At this point hundreds of us went up the stairs to the Capitol building and had gathered, mostly just yelling chants and singing but within a few minutes the Antifa guys began smashing windows. I was screaming at them to stop but there were at least 20-30 antifa guys and they were on a mission to enter the building. Well, they got a window open and few went in, more tear gas, then a Capitol Hill cop appeared inside standing by the door (had a glass window) with a cell phone recording/taking pictures and within a minute or two after he left, the door popped open and now a several antifa guys were there encouraging Trump supporters to enter the building. Well, about 100 people went inside. I saw what was happening and wanted no part of it and exited stage left.
Gandhi Quotes
by bill - 2021-01-15 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
"
"Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has become lawless or corrupt, and a citizen who barters with such a state shares in its corruption and lawlessness." "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." "Things that will destroy man: Politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; worship without sacrifice."
When asked his opinion of Western civilization, he said, "I think it would be a good idea." -- Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi
It was a War on Populism and Independent Thinking
by don - 2021-01-24 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
The deep state pulled out all the stops to get rid of Trump. [They] immediately named him a racist because he wanted a real border; [concocted] the Russia hoax and impeachment; [gave us] 100% anti-Trump news every night; the massive Q psy-op; [and, finally,] the vote rigging that Trump foresaw but was unable to stop. It was a war on populism and independent thinking." -- Anonymous
Don't forget the fake '"pandemic"'! -- [ed.]
Amazon Admits In-Person Voting is the Only Way to Go
by bill - 2021-01-28 ( education / civics / politics / voting ) [html version]
How ironic! I wonder if they'll have their Twitter and Facebook accounts suspended for saying so?
"...Amazon is fighting for an in-person election because it is "the best approach to a valid, fair and successful election... conducted manually, in-person..."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: theblaze.com
So, What Can We Each Do to Take Back Our Country?
by doug - 2021-01-29 ( education / civics / politics / covid ) [html version]
Barring a miracle, maybe from the declassifications including Obamagate and 9/11 (if that is even true), we have to do more and spread the word to the American patriots to make positive changes.
- So here is a list I may revise from time to time:
- Take off your F---ing mask, or don't EVER wear it. If you just don't want to make waves, find places to shop that don't require it. Give THAT business your money.
- Use your money strategically. BUY 100% American made products as much as possible. Here is a link to a website created by An0maly that will help find 100% USA made items: https://www.usaproductsonly.com/;
- Take your children and grandchildren out of public schools, or even private schools if they are enforcing mask and other satanic covid rituals like 6ft distancing. You will save them from the brainwashing going on, including the BLM (Burn, Loot, Murder) education agenda. You can legally remove your child from schools by accepting responsibility for their education. We homeschool our son and will start another son in September 2021. It is an official home school that we receive funds for education supplies. It's not perfect because we can't use it for field trips to museums yet, nor for any in-person services like gymnastics, music, like we used to before the 2020/2021 covid hoax.
- Find like-minded people in your area and meet up to discuss things. Band together. Share sources for organic food, hair cuts, dentist, medical, etc. Give your business to patriots only.
If you can think of more things and comment, I may add your ideas. Feel free to share this with anyone. We need to take control.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: mewe.com
Do You Love Oxygen? Support Our Bill Just Filed, Sb 0320
by bill - 2021-01-29 ( education / civics / politics / covid ) [html version]
"Let's get some support going for our latest bill, SB 0320. It's about liberty, contrary to what some might say.
What will this bill do functionally? Well, if passed, it would prohibit business owners from forcing consumers to wear masks, or perhaps even take a "vaccine" to enter the establishment, primarily, businesses classified as places of public accommodation like grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, etc. "But Gary, don't you understand that this is restricting businesses and therefore against liberty," you say.
Let me explain."
As Gov't Demands Our Trust, Here are Multiple Examples of the State Endangering Public Health
by bill - 2021-02-01 ( life / health / covid / politics ) [html version]
This is what happens when you blindly trust "officials." For your own sake, don't be so stupid/trusting
"...there still seems to be a contingent of holdouts [clinging] to the idea that their own government would not intentionally put the well being of its citizens at risk."
They Want You Dumb and Dependent
by bill - 2021-02-02 ( education / civics / politics / opinion ) [html version]
"It breaks my heart to see black culture reduced to strippers yelling about dollar bills and designer shoes. Of course I love it in a trivial and ironic way... But the Worldstar tendency, in which ignorance and stupidity and self-destructive clownishness have become aspirational lifestyle choices -- that's truly evil.
...There is a word for the systematic enslavement of a people to their carnal desires. Satanic."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: milo.net
Sucks to Be Canadian Right Now
by staff - 2021-02-03 ( education / civics / politics / covid ) [html version]
Some might say it ALWAYS sucks to be Canadian. Anyway...
Here's what Trudeau has done now:
"Today, travel restrictions to and from Canada have taken an even more draconian turn for the worse.
P.M. Trudeau announced that travelers returning to Canada must take a PCR test at the airport and then go immediately to designated hotels for three days while the test results are processed.
A negative test result will allow you to be released to your home where you must wait out the remainder of the 14-day quarantine. A positive test result will result in you being detained at designated quarantine camps as you wait out the remainder of the 14-day quarantine.
Oh, and the three day stay at selected 'luxury' hotels and the PCR test is on your tab! Trudeau estimates this will set you back at least $2,000.
Trudeau also announced today that all Canadian airlines must halt all flights to the Caribbean and Mexico beginning Jan 31, 2021 until at least April 30, 2021.""
It's important to watch Trudeau because what he does is what the Dems in this country WANT to do.
Deep Insider Says Trump's Advisors Deliberately Ran Out the Clock to Cover Up Election Theft
by bill - 2021-02-04 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"What follows is just the tip of the iceberg of the massive betrayal of Donald Trump by his lifelong friend, Rudy Giuliani. Just like Giuliani was used by the Khazarian Mafia to get rid of the Sicilian Mafia in the 5 boroughs of New York City when he was both Mayor and United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, he was used to cover up the crime wave known as the 9/11 terror attacks."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: https://stateofthenation.co/?p=50405
The CDC Keeps Overstepping Its Charter
by bill - 2021-02-05 ( life / health / covid / politics ) [html version]
Since when does the CDC have any authority/control over anyone? They are not a government agency but a private organization with close government ties. All they can legally do is give advice. And that, lately, has been less than worthless.
From someone online in response to this latest b.s.: CDC Announces All Travelers (on public transport) Must Wear Two Masks, Threatens Arrest
"The CDC has no power to issue any criminal penalties. "...its power to act is extremely restricted. The agency traditionally acts in an advisory role and can only take control from local authorities under two circumstances: If local authorities invite them to do so or under the authority outlined in the Insurrection Act in the event of a total breakdown of law and order."
Thomas Jefferson Quotes
by bill - 2021-02-07 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2022-10-03 00:08:50]
Stand Against Tyranny
by bill - 2021-02-07 ( education / tech / internet / politics ) [html version]
It worked against apartheid South Africa. Let's hope it works against other tyrants, in this case tech tyrants
"Take a Stand Against Big Tech: Facebook, Google, Twitter.
These tech titans seek to silence us from public discourse...and they're doing it with our tax dollars.
Each state government spends a tremendous amount of money with these companies. This includes buying stock, purchasing ads, buying equipment, and more. It adds up to a tremendous investment of our tax dollars into companies that are entirely hostile to our views.
I say no more.
Florida is the first state that is considering divesting in Big Tech. It's essentially the same approach that was used toward South Africa during Apartheid...and it can be quite effective.
Click here to send one message that goes to your governor, state representative, and state senator. It goes to your locally elected officials, too. (Each box must be completed in order for the message to be delivered to them)
Tell them you don't want your tax dollars supporting companies that censor conservative views. Once one state divests from Big Tech, others will follow. The only thing these companies understand is cash."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Accuracy in Media
Thomas Sowell Quotes
by bill - 2021-02-12 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
Racism is not dead, but it is on life support -- kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as 'racists.'"
Some of the biggest cases of mistaken identity are among intellectuals having trouble remembering that they are not God." -- Thomas Sowell
George Washington Quote
by bill - 2021-02-15 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- George Washington"If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."
Harry Truman Quote
by bill - 2021-02-15 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Harry S. Truman"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
Various Political Quotes
by bill - 2021-02-17 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Frederick Douglas"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence."
-- Steven Biko"The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed... "
-- Morpheus"I didn't say it would be easy. I just said it would be the truth."
-- Dr Seuss"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
-- George Orwell"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- Upton Sinclair"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
-- John Loeffler"Your failure to be informed does not make me a wacko."
Stalin Quote
by bill - 2021-02-19 ( culture / quotes / conspiracies / politics ) [html version]
-- Josef Stalin"It's not the votes that count, it's who counts the votes."
Balfour Declaration Declared Invalid
by bill - 2021-02-26 ( education / civics / politics / israel ) [html version]
A hundred years too late, and nothing will come of it, but it's nice to see
"A Palestinian court has declared as invalid the Balfour Declaration, a document issued by the British government in 1917 that paved the way for the creation of Israel, as it violates the rules of international law."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: Court invalidates Balfour Declaration, holds UK responsible for Palestinian plight
Does this Concern Anyone?
by bill - 2021-02-28 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
"On Thursday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold a nomination hearing for Dr. Rachel Levine, formerly the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Pennsylvania was one of the states that sent covid patients into nursing homes. At the same time covid patients were sent into nursing homes, Dr. Levine quietly moved one of her parents out of a nursing home to a safer location. Rules for thee, but not for me. However, that is the least of the problems with this nominee."
Read the rest of this article at RightWingGranny.com
Excellent Interview of Sidney Powell by Dinesh D'souza
by doug - 2021-04-07 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Excellent interview of Sidney Powell by Dinesh D'Souza on 3 Apr 2021
She is very disappointed in Trump. See why.
Here is the link to all of his videos. Just scroll down a little to see a 4-part series
I think if you voted for Trump, you will really like this interview.
Gun Laws are Changing
by staff - 2021-04-12 ( education / civics / politics / guns ) [html version]
Yippee! This will really piss off the Dems.
newsmax.com/newsfront/guns-tennessee/2021/04/08/id/1016890/
On 4/8/21, Bill wrote:
So, according to the article, there are already 30 states that don't require a gun permit, and 20 of those allow permitless concealed carry? I'm surprised it's so many.
On 48/21, anonymous replied:
It's becoming a movement in the red states. Don't even need a background check now. Of course, the elite may decide to install a Dem as the next governor and un-do it. So take that $1400 check from Biden and buy your handgun now.I decided a semi-auto, which has a clip with a spring in it, isn't so good for self-defense. The spring goes bad sitting in your drawer for 5 years and then fails to fire. So I got a .38 revolver a while back at a gun show, which I can leave loaded without that kind of worry.
Of course, anyone with kids should think thrice before buying a gun, and always with a trigger lock.
Desantis Sues Cdc Over Their Power Grab
by admin - 2021-04-15 ( education / civics / politics / covid ) [html version]
The CDC has no power other than the power of suggestion.
"Great news!
"On Thursday, DeSantis sued the Biden administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the CDC's role in locking down the cruise industry, one of his state's most important sources for jobs and tourism in an unprecedented overreach by an agency that is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: trendingpolitics.com/desantis-sues-cdc-in-major-challenge-to-agencys-sweeping-covid-power-grab/"
World War 3 Started in 2020, but Did You Even Notice?
by doug - 2021-04-15 ( education / civics / politics / covid ) [html version]
The title of Dr. Vernon Coleman's latest video inspired me to write this today. Find him on Brand New Tube -- simply an awesome soul.
The two prior world wars involved older technology and were guns and bombs. This war may morph into that, especially if the globalists who profit from wars get their way. But for now, this is a war on humanity. It is not a war between countries. It's a war to enslave humanity and there are almost countless attacks of all types -- psychological, pharmaceutical, food, air, water, and often there are pawns who really do shoot people, i.e. Antifa or Black Lives Matter's useful idiots.
But ask "the man on the street" whether we are at war and I would guess most answers would be a bewildered "no" which make them question the sanity of the person asking. This is because it started off as a psychological war. Almost at the same time it started as a biological attack. Most would assume I mean the dreaded "covid-19" but that is more of the psychological aspect because it's not even real. They are using the threat that it's real [in order] to cause panic. The panic is spread by the media and has been so incredibly successful that the victims of the panic are lining up to save their lives.
How will they be saving their lives? This is where the biological aspect of the war comes in -- the fraudulent "cure" called the "covid-19 vaccinations" which do nothing for health other than destroy it.
At this point, there will be fear victims who will attack me for what I claim above. This is the genius of the slave masters (or as Dr. Coleman calls them "conspiracy perpetrators") -- they turn their victims into comrades in arms who are nothing more than completely duped and useful idiots.
Rather than investigating or even just noticing their rights vanishing before their very eyes, they parrot the scripts handed out to all media by the globalists and try to justify why they are wearing not 1 but often 2 or 3 masks in a false sense of safety from the make believe virus.
They refuse to notice that there are no more deaths from the 2019/2020 or the 2020/2021 flu seasons than in any prior years. They don't grasp that these genius globalists found a way to rebrand the yearly flu into a "pandemic" and call it by their new name "covid-19" (some clever thinkers call it more accurately "covid-1984" in reference to George Orwell's book that foretold what we are experiencing today).
The planning for this war is simply staggering in its complexity. It has been planned for literally decades. So in some respects the war began decades ago -- surely by the 1960s when outdated and fraudulent science about our immune systems convinced President JFK to sign the vaccine act to target the health of the population, create the CDC to make people believe the government has your best interests in mind, put fluoride into the water to dumb down the population, and not least, the CIA's mind control techniques were perfected.
The world population became dumb, sick, and brainwashed. Who can't parrot the CDC's propaganda slogan "vaccines are safe and effective" and firmly believe every word they write, no matter how absurd?
Another gem is "we believe in science" or "we follow the science" or "the science is settled" when that fraudulent "science" is created by corporations with an agenda to ultimately enslave us.
Who will win this war? And are you one of the useful idiots who doesn't even know we are at war?
I hope enough people will wake the F--- up that humanity wins this war. But right now we (humanity) are losing.
The funny thing about a psychological war is that it can switch to winning simply by realizing we have a war and who our enemies are. Changing the awareness of 1 single person (waking them up) gets another person on the side of humanity. Unless a person wakes up, they are on the wrong side because they are just mindlessly reading the script of their enslavers.
If you think I AM
being political, that's completely wrong. There is virtually no difference anymore between the Right or Left (Democrats or Republicans). Even Trump's "Make America Great Again (MAGA)" movement went off the rails. I was on that train and anyone who realized we were at war in 2020 was with me. But don't bash yourself because I was just as fooled as everyone about Trump. Sure, he was lightyears better than the stupid idiot pretending to be POTUS (President of the US) now. But as smart people always know, actions speak louder than words and unless you are still suffering from Trump worship, you will see he is pushing the most evil thing probably ever created -- his pride and joy "Warp Speed" vaccines that are the final end game of this war to enslave us all. Nothing could be more evil than that. But like other Trump voters, I want to believe Trump is basically a good man and just doesn't know how duped he has become. Perhaps his vanity prevents him from seeing that he went off a cliff and probably millions of his supporters have jumped off with him by taking that poison "vaccine" which is a misnomer because it is actually gene therapy and indeed will alter your DNA as published by none other than Harvard University.
Yes, we will win this war. We have to. WE MUST, because the consequences of losing are too great. And I will die trying rather than be enslaved. I think that must be everyone's attitude. "Live Free or Die" as we see is the state motto of New Hampshire since 1945.
If you think my words will help convince some duped person to join the battle rather than puppet the slave master's slogans, please share it.
Above all, realize there is no going back once a person gets this poison gene therapy falsely called a "vaccine." And did you know that the reason they even call it a vaccine is that it provides complete liability protection (at least in the USA)? Gene therapies wouldn't give that liability protection and they would be sued into dust -- their only just end.
When this war is over, countless enemies and collaborators will face a new series of Nuremberg style trials. Executions galore.
I won't do your own job by citing my sources for the above claims. Don't be so damn lazy and do your own research. In fact, you are unable to join this fight unless and until you actually wake up at least a little bit. Soon your research will lead you down a path of discovery that will blow your mind.
To help your research, I will name a few of the researchers and content creators I think you will appreciate, in no particular order:
There are so many more who use the above people as a reference and are good to watch their videos.
While I reserve all copyrights for this post, feel free to quote all or part of it in any way you think may help us win this war. Contact me through MeWe (my new home after being thrown in jail for a month at a time from Facebook) where I AM
most active.
LET'S TURN THE TABLES ON THESE PSYCHOPATHS AND WIN THIS WAR
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
by staff - 2021-04-17 ( education / civics / politics / rights ) [html version]
Since the (as James Corbett says) "powers that should not be" don't like the US Bill of Rights and have no qualms violating it, maybe they should know they're also violating the UN's own Universal Declaration of Human Rights with their covid lockdown nonsense.
Winston Churchill Quotes
by bill - 2021-04-17 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Winston Churchill"Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others."
Jury Intimidation: I Did Not Want to Go Through Rioting, Destruction Again Says Chauvin Juror
by admin - 2021-04-26 ( education / civics / politics / legal ) [html version]
Read, listen or watch the rest here"An alternate juror on the Derek Chauvin trial told a local news that she did not want to go through rioting and destruction again and was concerned about people coming to her house if they were not happy with the verdict.
The juror, Lisa...
Nicholas Klein Quote
by bill - 2021-05-22 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- union leader Nicholas Klein. See wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Klein"First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they attack you. And then, they build monuments to you."
"Klein's words are often summarized as 'First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win,' and misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi[2] and to Arthur Schopenhauer as 'All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.'"
Historic Court Case by Dr. Shiva to Fight Government, Twitter and Big Tech
by doug - 2021-05-24 ( education / civics / politics / legal ) [html version]
Incredible Court Case by Dr. Shiva to fight Government, Twitter and Big Tech.
The judge predicts this lawsuit will be taught in every future law class.
Get caught up to date on this amazing victory for Americans and the Constitution.
THE MEDIA REFUSES TO COVER THIS HISTORIC CASE -- YOU GOTTA WONDER WHY.
Dr.SHIVA LIVE: The Lawsuit Against Government & Twitter That Big Media Will NEVER Cover.
Support this historic lawsuit at: WinBackFreedom.Com
See also: On YouTube
Netanyahu Ousted After 12 Year Reign of Terror
by bill - 2021-06-06 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Only for the new boss to be same as the old boss. His replacement "supports illegal settlements." Still, this needs to be an international holiday!
Read, listen or watch the rest here"Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving [scumbag/]leader, was reportedly ousted as Prime Minister today. Rival parties say they have reached a coalition to name far-right nationalist Naftali Bennett, who supports illegal settlements and opposes Palestinian rights, to replace him...."
Good News Re Gov't Overreach
by bill - 2021-06-12 ( education / civics / politics / covid ) [html version]
"...Circuit Court of Boone County declar[ed] that all of Governor Andy Bashear's emergency orders and actions are unconstitutional and void. The ruling was in the state-court challenge to the governor's emergency powers executive orders, filed by Wiest on behalf of Beans Cafe & Bakery.
Dr. Stephen Petty, an actual expert in masks, testified at the trial about their uselessness under the circumstances in which they're being idolized..."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: thecivilrightslawyer.com
Tom Mullen Quote
by bill - 2021-06-18 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Tom Mullen"We even have an organization that styles itself, "AntiFa," its chief means for fighting fascism being to dress all in black and beat its political opponents with clubs."
How to Contact Elected Officials
by bill - 2021-06-22 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Contact List For All U.S. State Legislators and Governors
https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/
Contact List For U.S. Mayors
https://www.usmayors.org/mayors/
Contact List For U.S. Sheriffs
Joseph Goebbels Quote
by admin - 2021-06-23 ( culture / quotes / conspiracies / politics ) [html version]
-- Joseph Goebbels"Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty."
I first noticed this coming from Bush-Cheney in 2000. Then, of course -- because no politician can let a good dirty trick go to waste -- Hillary Clinton and friends started using it (on steroids) in 2008 onward.
Hitler Quote
by admin - 2021-06-24 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Adolf Hitler (no, we're not endorsing him or this idea)"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it."
The Need for Evidence-based Public Health Emergency Response
by bill - 2021-06-27 ( life / health / covid / politics ) [html version]
What a concept! We never did get any sort open-to-the-public evidence proving the existence of the so-called covid-19. None that I saw, anyway
"Faced with disasters, people want public health authorities to do something and expect to see them knowing what to do and doing what they ought to do. People care about what works rather than what ought to work. In other words, empiricism rather than logic ought to guide emergency healthcare response."
White House, CDC and W.H.O. are Hereby Banned
by bill - 2021-07-20 ( culture / humor / covid / politics ) [html version]
In accordance with the White House's wishes, we are banning all misinformation from the worst offenders (the White House, CDC and WHO) from this website/platform. They have lost all credibility. I guess we should add justthenews.com&utm_medium=feed&external-news-aggregators">Facebook, Twitter and Watch on YouTube to that list.
Thank you for the suggestion, Joe.
See also: reclaimthenet.org or lewrockwell.com
Desantis Just Lost My 2024 Vote with This
by bill - 2021-07-26 ( education / civics / politics / israel ) [html version]
[Updated: 2022-07-16 16:08:24]
He stood as a beacon of courage against the covid lockdown scam, but this latest from him is disgusting. I know, I know, never expect a politician to have a spine, but this is downright un-American.
You can't ban criticism of a foreign country. You can't ban criticism, period. Crap like this is why I cannot stand Israel, its supporters, or anyone who thinks they are above reproach simply by virtue of their demographic. Also, Israel as a country has no right to exist. They invaded Palestine in 1948, a legally recognized country, and have never stopped expanding their own territory ever since.
"Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is placing Ben and Jerry's on an official government blacklist because the ice cream company is removing its product from Israel in protest of the Zionist regime's war actions. DeSantis is standing against free speech and the free market by using the power of the state to blacklist a private company choosing to do business the way it wants. This case has massive implications for civil liberties in America going forward. Which business will be targeted next for not supporting Israel? DeSantis previously banned criticism of Israel or Jewish people in public schools and colleges."
See DeSantis Uses Power of The State To Blacklist Ben And Jerry's For Not Loving Israel Enough
Judge to J6 Political Prisoner Not Wearing Mask: When Did You Go to Medical School?
by admin - 2021-08-03 ( education / civics / politics / covid ) [html version]
"You don't need medical school to read the back of the box where it says, "Will NOT protect against viruses."
"Daniel Goodwyn is an American political prisoner. Daniel Goodwyn live-streamed his trek inside the US Capitol on Jan. 6. Police officers that day were waving protesters into the US Capitol. Now Daniel is sitting behind bars for his live-streaming from inside the US Capitol and not..."
The Nuremberg Code
by bill - 2021-08-04 ( education / history / politics / legal ) [html version]
Copied from https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/08/nullifying_nuremberg.html
- The voluntary consent of the human subject is essential. This means that the person involved should have the legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved, as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that, before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject, there should be made known to him the effects upon his health or person, which may come from his participation in the experiment;
- The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature;
- The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation;
- The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury;
- No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur;
- The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment;
- Proper preparations should be made, and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability, or death;
- The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highest degree of skill and care should be required through all stages of the experiment of those who conduct or engage in the experiment;
- During the course of the experiment, the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental state where continuation of the experiment seems to him to be impossible;
- During the course of the experiment, the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probable cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill, and careful judgment required of him that a continuation of the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject;
A Letter to My Congressman Re H.R. 4980
by bill - 2021-08-25 ( life / health / covid / politics ) [html version]
Dr. Green, H.R. 4980 is flat-out tyranny and MUST be defeated. It says...
"...take such actions as are necessary to ensure that any individual traveling on a flight that departs from or arrives to an airport inside the United States or a territory of the United States is fully vaccinated against covid-19."
You cannot ethically require vaccination against minimal-threat (to 99% of us) viruses such as covid. Remember your Hippocratic Oath. This "pandemic" b.s. (which is nothing more than bureaucrats drunk with power) has never been about public health, it's about fear-mongering and abuse of power.
Thank you.
William Casey Quote
by admin - 2021-09-09 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
We'll know our disinformation [campaign] is complete when everything the American public believe[s] is false."William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Todd Wagner Quote
by bill - 2021-09-14 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Todd Wagner"The truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth"
Minnesota Vikings fan still, Doug?
by bill - 2021-09-20 ( culture / sports / politics ) [html version]
I still watch international soccer, but have to turn it off when I see that no fans are allowed into the stands; or, worse, when they have fake crowd noise. That one kills me. So fake, both of which were worst in England. But I think that was only last year. All of the 'leisure' industries (sports, entertainment, travel) seem to be the worst enablers/enforcers of this worldwide farce. I guess it's because they're so completely at the mercy of various government regulations and hand-outs, so they have to play along?
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2021 12:23 AM
Not a fan whatsoever of any sports team. It's been 18 months since I turned on the TV.
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2021 9:01 PM
I'll watch out of curiosity.
Super rich people don't mind playing God if they get the chance. After all, they have nothing more to aspire to. So if they can get some result they think it smart by stoking fires here and there, it's all justified in their warped thinking. Don't know if that's what some owner was doing, but they probably think they will be part of the elite who will run the world once the great reset comes into being.
I Now Better Understand the Good German
by admin - 2021-10-06 ( education / history / politics / wwii ) [html version]
Good article.
"Prior to the lockdowns, I flew almost every week of the year, so I was approached by people who recognized me on a regular basis. Increasingly, I noticed that people would look around to see if anyone was within earshot and then tell me in almost a whisper: 'I support Trump' or, 'I'm a conservative.' The last time people looked around and whispered things to me was when I used to visit the Soviet Union."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: https://dennisprager.com/column/i-now-better-understand-the-good-german/
Poland Tells Eu to Get F***ed
by staff - 2021-11-27 ( education / civics / politics / europe ) [html version]
You might appreciate this!
Bruce Pardy Quote
by admin - 2021-12-07 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Bruce Pardy"...either individuals are essentially free to pursue their own interests, express their own thoughts, and own their own property, or the state directs their actions, words, and beliefs to comport with official dogma."
See rightsprobe.org/read/the-cold-war-continues-and-now-we-are-losing
Authoritarian Politicians Over-stepping Their Bounds Must Be Stopped
by bill - 2021-12-07 ( life / health / covid / politics ) [html version]
The headline says it all, but we need a quicker fix than to wait until the next election cycle to replace these bureaucrats and politicians, drunk with power, mandating this and that. The solution? As tempting as it may be, you cannot go around killing people, but you can kill their power. One state legislature, South Carolina, did try to limit its governor's power, but the governor, a Democrat, vetoed it. Shocker, I know.
They had the right idea, but need to be more persistent and override such vetoes.
California tried to remove its dictatorial governor, Gavin the Clueless, through the recall process, but the same apparatchiks who stole the 2020 presidential election took over and ensured ol' Gavin's victory, after which he predictably enacted even more draconian rules against this non-existent "pandemic".
Leave a comment, below, if you have any better ideas.
UPDATE: Here's one state, Wisconsin, whose legislature (through the courts) managed to rein in their out-of-control "health" department and governor. Mainstream news NBC spins it to make you think it's is a bad thing, but here is that article: nbcnews.com
Marian Turski Quote
by bill - 2021-12-11 ( culture / quotes / politics / covid ) [html version]
-- Marian Turski, Auschwitz survivor"...the Holocaust didn't start with death camps. Instead, it began with propaganda, scaremongering, scapegoating, segregation, and exclusion. Then, it was an easy next step to strip further rights, dehumanize, and brutally extinguish that minority."
See austrians-beg-for-help-unvaccinated-to-face-1-year-in-prison-video/
There Has Never Been a Better Time to Question Authority
by bill - 2021-12-28 ( culture / people / politics / freedom ) [html version]
[Updated: 2021-12-28 12:27:37]
Remember that old bumper sticker, "QUESTION AUTHORITY"? Well, there has NEVER been a better time than NOW for that frame of mind. These past two years it has been "AUTHORITIES" and "EXPERTS" versus FREEDOM OF CHOICE and COMMON SENSE. THE GROUP versus THE INDIVIDUAL. The 66.6% versus the 33.3%.
Okay, that last one might be a bit of a stretch, but it does make me wonder if that is where the much-feared 666 comes from. Somebody into numerology two thousand years ago decided it was significant somehow? Who knows, but it is pretty much the split -- two-thirds against one-third -- between pro-covid-shot and anti-covid-shot.
And, on this Christmas Day, it might be good to remember that Jesus was a rebel, going against the powers-that-be.
We should all do the same. It's time.
Fascism: a Bipartisan Affliction
by staff - 2022-01-18 ( education / civics / politics / fascism ) [html version]
See Fascism: A Bipartisan Affliction, by Ron Paul
If neoconservatives and progressives truly understood fascism, they would stop using the word as a smear term. That is because both groups, along with most political figures and commentators, embrace fascist ideas and policies.
Why I Stand for Our National Anthem
by staff - 2022-01-18 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Out of respect for those before us who fought for our country.
Now for ... everyone who continues to fight for our country. Sadly, our fight is more important than ever... Stay strong and warrior on.
Canadian Truckers Come Through for Us
by don - 2022-02-08 ( education / civics / politics / covid ) [html version]
[Updated: 2022-02-11 20:42:11]
It's the college-educated who are most supportive of corporate/government totalitarianism, but it's the blue collar workers who are saving us from it. See https://twitter.com/i/status/1489675311042150403
UPDATE: I just donated to the Canadian Truckers. Did you know Ottawa Police are exempt from this vaccine mandate? See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbmdtcX5BR0
Here's the donation link: FreedomConvoy2022
Amnesty International Smears Peaceful Freedom Protesters as Violent Racists
by admin - 2022-02-18 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
How can a protest against unsafe medical treatments be equated to racism?.
"( Natural News ) Amnesty International has issued a statement Friday smearing the peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters in the city of Ottawa as violent racists. (Article by James Anthony republished from ThePostMillenial.com ) The international non-governmental organization focused on...
Cruz: Biden Limiting Scotus Pick to a Black Woman is Discriminating Based on Race'
by admin - 2022-02-24 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Yep. Liberals just don't get it, can't see what should be obvious.
"Ted Cruz on bombshell Durham report: 'People need to go to jail for this' if 'allegations are true' 00:00 00:0010:07GO LIVE Facebook Twitter Email Embed SpeedNormal Autoplay Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said on this weeks broadcast of Fox News Sunday that President Joe Bidens...
Tennessee Legislative Priorities for 2022
by bill - 2022-02-24 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Take Action For Medical Freedom.
These bills have been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee and House Civil Justice Committee. Make your support known to members of these committees and ask them to vote YES on this bill.
Canada-wide Walk-out
by admin - 2022-02-25 ( education / civics / politics / tyranny ) [html version]
"Note that not one Western leader has condemned the actions of Justin Trudeau, which indicates they all plan to de-bank and disenfranchise their own people soon enough. With the trampling of peace-loving grandmothers on Saturday in Ottawa by apparent private contractors...
Canadians are known around the world to be among the most kind, the most peace-loving people anywhere. And so you know that when Canadians start rising up by the millions to oppose what their government is doing, something is horribly wrong.
Tyranny is a Sign of Weakness
by bill - 2022-02-25 ( education / civics / politics / covid ) [html version]
"... so don't underestimate the power of refusing to comply.
When people realize that they individually strengthen the State by submitting to its lies, people then understand that the whole artifice of the system survives purely through their individual consent.
Good point! See tyranny-is-a-sign-of-weakness-so-dont-underestimate-the-power-of-refusing-to-comply
The U.s. Bill of Rights
by bill - 2022-02-25 ( education / history / politics / rights ) [html version]
"Just enforce the Bill of Rights and all unlawful activity will come to a halt. This is what our true founders from the uprising of April 19, 1775 intended.
Dark Day for Canada: Mps Side with Trudeau, Vote in Favor of Police State...puppet Masters
by admin - 2022-02-25 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
What is it with the former British colonies turning Fascist? First Australia and New Zealand, and now Canada?.
"The Canadian House of Commons has authorized an emergency measure to crack down on those protesting against vaccine mandates. The measure was initially invoked by the federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as mass demonstrations paralyzed the country's capital....
WEF's Young Global Leaders
by doug - 2022-03-03 ( education / research / politics / conspiracies ) [html version]
He names more than I ever heard before. Since Putin is one of them, it's interesting to see the war game the globalists are playing.
See https://www.bitchute.com/video/LcxpDhsaVZFO/
I think many are compiling a list so we can all shame them. I suppose you saw in Canada's parliament a question was asked about how many exist there, and they pretended not to understand... after saying it's a good question!!
Useful Russia-ukraine Background Info (since 1990)
by bill - 2022-03-03 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If61baWF4GE&t=199s.
The last five minutes is an ad for another streaming service called Nebula
Thanks to From the Trenches World Report for the link.
Biden Nominates Ketanji Jackson to Supreme Court, Keeps Vow to Base Choice on Race and Sex
by admin - 2022-03-03 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
So, he admits to being racist and sexist, but his 2,345 actually verified voters will be too stupid to see that.
"Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is President Joe Bidens choice to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the US Supreme Court, fulfilling a campaign promise to nominate a black woman, instead of basing his choice on merit....
Putin Hopes to Expose Biden's Crime Wave in Ukraine
by admin - 2022-03-04 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Let's hope!
"There are so many complex reasons for Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. And so many outcomes yet to be determined sadly, all of them bad for the USA. First, let me tell you a personal story that explains the psychology of Putin. I grew up the only white Jewish kid...
Putin Orders Military to Destroy Bio-Labs in Ukraine as U.S.A. Scrubs Evidence of Their Existence
by bill - 2022-03-05 ( education / civics / politics / war ) [html version]
"Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to seek and destroy US-Deep State bio-labs engaged in top-secret zoonotic and infectious disease research in dozens of locations across Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Ukraine has been caught scrubbing evidence of biolabs in Ukraine while mainstream media and "fact checkers" have begun telling the masses that the biolabs don't exist.
See Putin Orders Military to Destroy Bio-Labs in Ukraine as US Scrubs Evidence of Their Existence 
Has Biden Unknowingly Begun Wwiii in Financial Markets?
by admin - 2022-03-06 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Everything Biden does is unknowingly.
"We have a very serious problem. I know ow where the advice to Biden and world leaders is coming from telling them to now seize all the assets of Putins friends to put pressure on him their yachts, bank accounts, houses everything. It is Bill Browder who was Safras partner in...
'Beyond Humanity ... Damn Them': Russian Attack on Holocaust Memorial Slammed
by admin - 2022-03-06 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
It wasn't hit. Every article I've read says missiles struck CLOSE TO or NEARBY. See Babi Yar Unscathed.
"(FOX NEWS) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the Monday Russian airstrike that took out the Holocaust memorial site Babi Yar in the capital city of Kyiv in a news conference Tuesday, calling the destruction beyond humanity. This is beyond humanity, Zelenskyy said,...
Russia Declares War on the Straussians...secret History
by admin - 2022-03-06 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Good article.
"Russia is not waging war on the Ukrainian people, but on a small group of people within the US power that has transformed Ukraine without its knowledge, the Straussians. It formed half a century ago and has already committed an incredible amount of crimes in Latin America and the...
Biden Rejected by Saudis, Uae as He Tries to Replace Banned Russian Oil
by admin - 2022-03-12 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Misleading headline. Being squeezed is not the same as being rejected.
"The Gulf states are trying to squeeze Biden, as US-led sanctions against Russia begin to backfire badly....
Assad: What is this Democratic West in Which Hundreds of Millions of People Live but Which Has Only One Opinion?'
by admin - 2022-03-25 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Good point.
"UNDEFEATED Syrian President Bashar al-Assad DESTROYS CANCEL CULTURE, leaves libtards SHOOK!!!
...
Grim Milestone: U.s. Coronavirus Deaths Pass One Million Mark - More Than 600,000 Deaths Under Biden
by admin - 2022-03-27 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Humans have been dying from coronaviruses for millennia.
"Over 1,000,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus and with the coronavirus since it was leaked from a China lab back in 2019. The US hit ONE MILLION covid deaths on Thursday. Over 60% of those deaths occurred under Joe Biden even with the experimental vaccine. When Joe Biden...
Biden: Expect Real Food Shortages in Europe and the United States
by admin - 2022-03-27 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Only a crappy "leader" would tell his people to "expect" bad things. A good leader would warn of impending problems while maintaining an encouraging tone, and come up with good real-world solutions.
"Joe Biden on Thursday held a solo press conference in Brussels, Belgium amid meetings with NATO members. Biden took questions from a list of pre-approved reporters and mumbled his way through answers. Biden was asked if he discussed potential food shortages during his huddle with...
Biden Braces America for the Great Reset: with Regard to Food Shortage Its Gonna Be Real
by admin - 2022-03-27 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Only a crappy "leader" would tell his people to "expect" bad things. A good leader would warn of impending problems while maintaining an encouraging tone, and come up with good real-world solutions.
"Food shortages are coming. If you've read anything I've written over the last couple of months about The Great Reset, you already knew that. Now, the man they installed as President of the United States issued a warning about the coming food shortages. Following his attendance at a...
Eight in Ten Americans Worried Bidens Bumbling Will Lead to Nuclear War
by admin - 2022-03-31 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
I get so tired of the fear porn, don't you?.
"Biden approval falls to record low amid Russia regime change...
Deeply Compromised Biden is Driving the West Toward a Nuclear War with Russia
by admin - 2022-04-01 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
I get so tired of the fear porn, don't you?.
"On Thursday, March 24, the Russian government held a press conference in which it presented evidence that Hunter Biden, the disgraced son of American president Joe Biden, helped to finance bioweapons research in Ukraine. Hunters untoward activity took place in 2014. The proof comes...
Only 28% Say Biden Better for America Than Trump
by admin - 2022-04-10 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Where were these 28%, at a home for the mentally-disabled?.
"More than half of Americans say Joe Biden has been bad for the country, and only 28% believe he'd be better for America in the future than a second term for President Trump. The numbers from Rasmussen Reports, based on an April 4-5 telephone survey, found 52% of Likely U.S. Voters...
Actor Sean Penn's Charity Funded by Usaid, the Clintons, Rockefellers, Bill Gates and Jack Dorsey
by admin - 2022-04-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Bill Gates needs to go back to whatever hell he slithered out of.
"Penn's organization, CORE, has pivoted from disaster relief abroad to playing a key role in providing covid-19 testing in the US and the promotion of the false covid narrative. Penn has demanded that the military must be tasked with a full offensive against this virus....
Biden Bypasses Congress, Issues New Gun Control Dictate with Complete Disregard for 2nd Amendment
by admin - 2022-04-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
And Congress just lets him?.
"Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist On Monday, the White Houseannounceda new crack down on Americans Second Amendment rights entirely bypassing Congress ...
Trump's Approval Ratings Remain High in Battleground States, Biden's Continue to Decline
by admin - 2022-04-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
I get so tired of this Trump fanboy crap, don't you?.
"Former President Trump is polling very well in key battleground states, as Joe Biden's approval rating continues to downward spiral. According Morning Consult surveys conducted in March and published on Monday, roughly four in five Republican voters in the early primary states of...
BBC Guide Tells Parents to Examine Their Biases If Their Toddler Only Has White Friends
by admin - 2022-04-15 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Of course, if they only have black or brown friends, that's fine.
"Absurdly suggests white people are over-represented...
80 Year Old Bernie Sanders Open to Running Again If Biden Doesn't Run in 2024
by admin - 2022-04-24 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
All political and judicial positions need a mandatory retirement age of 75, if not younger.
"Bernie Sanders is apparently open to running for president in 2024 if Biden doesn't run. Bernie is already 80 years old. Is he planning to retire? Ever? Is there anyone on the left under the age of 80 who is capable of running for office? The Hill reports: Sanders open to running...
Are Russian Oligarchs Being Assassinated?
by admin - 2022-04-26 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
It' hard to feel sorry for oligarchs.
"Two Russian oligarchs have wound up dead, one of whom was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Monday from a gunshot wound and the other was discovered dead 2,000 miles away in Spain. ...
Biden Accepts Invitation to Visit Israel in Coming Months
by admin - 2022-04-28 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
I won't be surprised if the Deep State takes him out and blames it on Muslim terrorists.
"President" Joe Biden has accepted an invitation to visit Israel in the coming months, the two countries announced on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister...
Nearly One-third of Le Pen Backers Say French Presidential Election is Rigged
by admin - 2022-04-28 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Another rigged election, I'm sure.
"Almost a third of Marine Le Pen's voters believe that the French presidential election has been rigged, according to an opinion poll. The survey by the Ifop institute underlined widespread distrust with the electoral process, notably among supporters of the populist National Rally...
Fertilizer Giant Cf Industries Begs Biden to Allow Shipments for Spring Planting, to Prevent Food Shortages
by admin - 2022-04-29 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Intentional, manufactured shortage.
"Strange Sounds CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CF), a leading global manufacturer of hydrogen and nitrogen products, today informed customers it serves by Union Pacific... ...
Biden Regime Announces Creation of Disinformation Governance Board Under the Authority of Homeland Security with a Lunatic in Charge
by admin - 2022-04-30 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
... because only THEY can be allowed to spew disinformation.
"Following Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter last week, which was a triumphant victory in the ongoing war over free speech, the Biden Regime announced the creation of a Disinformation Governance Board that will be tasked with silencing anything deemed to be misinformation that's...
Stephen Lendman Quote
by bill - 2022-04-30 ( culture / quotes / conspiracies / politics ) [html version]
-- Stephen Lendman"We're lied to with headlines like 'US counts record 4,000 covid deaths in a day as virus continues to wreak havoc.' These deaths, if accurate in number, were from seasonal flu/influenza -- perhaps pneumonia, and/or related illnesses -- not covid. Individuals succumbing are largely elderly, infirm, likely with other health issues, and weakened immune systems."
Biden's Disinformation Chief: There are Many Non-binary People Who Give Birth'
by admin - 2022-05-02 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
There are many WOMEN of various sexual PREFERENCE who give birth, sure.
"The woman President Joe Biden chose to be the government-sanctioned arbiter of truth believes there are many non-binary people who give birth despite the basic fact that pregnancy is biologically unique to women. The Biden administration appointed Nina Jankowicz as chief of the...
Biden Claims Oil Production at Historic Levels Even as Output Plunges
by admin - 2022-05-05 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Historically low, yes.
"By Thomas Catenacci Daily Caller News Foundation Domestic crude oil production has sharply decreased for three consecutive months even as demand and prices have remained elevated, according to federal data released Friday. Total U.S. oil production decreased to about 11.3 million...
Biden Official Puts Positive Spin on Food Shortages: Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste'
by admin - 2022-05-05 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Intentional, manufactured shortage.
"I would have thought we would have retired Winston Churchill's Never let a good crisis go to waste quote in the context of American politics after 2008. When Churchill reportedly uttered it, he was trying to create the United Nations. However, in 2008, Rahm Emanuel -- the incoming...
Orwellian Fellows: Hitler, Stalin, Putin and Biden
by admin - 2022-05-05 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Hitler arguably DID have Jewish blood on his mother's side.
"Autocratic and authoritarian governments have long employed censorship, deception and propaganda to control the people they rule and influence their adversaries. As U.S. Marines, we were urged to read Sun Tzu's fifth-century B.C. work, The Art of War. In it, the Chinese...
Trump Would Beat Biden by Double Digits If Election Were Held Today
by admin - 2022-05-07 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
He beat him by double digits in 2020, but look where that got him.
"Elections have consequences. Stolen elections have catastrophic consequences. Joe Biden has been a complete disaster as president. Maybe that was the plan all along. Biden's actions have been completely insane. He's destroyed the Trump economy, created greatest inflation of our...
Biden's Climate Czar Declares War on Kitchen Appliances
by admin - 2022-05-08 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Yes, God forbid we have the ability to cook our own meals and not depend on government-provided MREs.
"The Todd Starnes Show is now available on Spotify. Click here to follow! Hello Americans, Im Todd Starnes. Stand by for news and commentary next. If President Bidens climate czar has her way, Americans will washing dishes by hand and drying their laundry on a clothes line. Climate...
Dark Origins of Biden's New Ministry of Truth
by admin - 2022-05-08 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Biden REALLY wishes people would stop reading and quoting Orwell's 1984).
"By Daniel McAdams Yesterday Sen. Rand Paul hammered Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkis over the Agency's creation of a Disinformation Governance Board – i.e. a government-run... Dark Origins Of Bidens New Ministry Of...
Biden Announces Food Shortages Then Makes It Happen
by admin - 2022-05-08 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Yep.
"On March 24, 2022, after the G7 meeting in Brussels, Biden announced that the food shortages around the world would be real of course, because of the Ukraine war, which he so desperately wanted, and those dastardly Russians. Now, he is making it...
Bidenomics: Gas Prices Reach Another All-time High as Congress Votes to Send $40 Billion to Ukraine and Baby Formula Shortage Worsens
by admin - 2022-05-13 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Intentional, manufactured shortage.
"On Tuesday night the Democrat-led US House of Representatives approved the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act 2022 with bipartisan support by a vote of 368 to 57. 149 Republicans voted for the war funding. 57 Republicans voted against it. The funding package includes...
Koch Network Cheers Biden's Extending Work Permits for Illegal Aliens as 12M Americans are Jobless
by admin - 2022-05-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
The Biden regime WANTS Americans jobless and dependent upon the gov't, and they want illegals for their cheap labor.
"Breitbart – by John Binder The billionaire Koch brothers network of donor class organizations are cheering President Joe Bidens automatic extension of work permits for... ...
Washington Post Op-ed: Change Racist Name of George Washington University
by admin - 2022-05-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
By that logic, they need to change the name of the city and their own paper.
"The iconic paper bearing the name of the father of our nation published an op-ed calling for the renaming of George Washington University. The author of the Washington Post op-ed, a student at George Washington University, contended the university's low number of black professors...
Biden Spox Karine Jean-pierre Laughs When Asked Who is Running Point on Baby Formula Shortage
by admin - 2022-05-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Intentional, manufactured shortage.
"White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday laughed when asked who's running point on the baby formula shortage. Baby formula is out of stock in stores across the United States. In 25 states, 40-50% of baby formula is out of stock. In 5 states over 50% of baby...
Biden Randomly Starts Screaming About Food Shortages... Currently Happening Under His Administration, Rips into MAGA Crowd
by admin - 2022-05-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Intentional, manufactured shortage.
"Joe Biden on Wednesday traveled to Illinois to deliver remarks on inflation and food supply shortages. Biden addressed the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 40th annual conference at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago after visiting a family farm in Kankakee,...
Biden's Economy is a Colossal Failure When Compared to Donald Trump's
by admin - 2022-05-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Compared to almost ANY president.
"The average annual inflation rate under Biden continues to crush the US economy under the Biden Administration. According to US Inflation Calculator, the annual rate of inflation for the calendar year 2022 remains at over 8%. When compared to the Trump years this number is shocking....
Psaki Grilled on Baby Formula Shortage as Biden Regime Prioritizes Illegal Aliens Over Americans
by admin - 2022-05-15 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Intentional, manufactured shortage.
"White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday was grilled on the baby formula shortage created by the Biden Regime. The largest producer of baby formula wasshut down by Biden/Obamafor 3 months. Biden is to blame because hisFDA shut down a huge plantthat makes baby formula in...
Biden Regime Knew of Baby Formula Shortage in February, Failed to Prevent It
by admin - 2022-05-16 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Intentional, manufactured shortage.
"The Biden administration knew about the baby formula shortage as early as February, the director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese, told CNNs New Day on Friday morning. Deese said the administration is working around the clock to tackle the issue from every angle...
All of a Sudden It's on the Front Page of Every Newspaper...Dummy Biden Finally Addresses Baby Formula Shortage
by admin - 2022-05-16 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Intentional, manufactured shortage.
"Joe Biden on Friday delivered remarks on the American Rescue Plan from the Rose Garden. A reporter asked Joe Biden about the baby formula shortage after he ignored questions about the crisis Thursday evening. In 25 states, 40-50% of baby formula is out of stock. In 5 states over 50%...
Gas Prices Hit 4th Straight All-Time Record High on Friday...As Biden Cancels Oil-Gas Leases in Gulf of Mexico and Alaska
by admin - 2022-05-16 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
His puppeteers must be squealing with delight at the destruction wrought by this idiot president.
"Gas prices hit ANOTHER all-time record high on Friday at $4.432 for a gallon of regular gas. This followed several all-time record highs this week. The US gas prices under Joe Biden set FOUR STRAIGHT all-time record highs this week. But for some reason, the fake news mainstream...
Biden Loses Cool While Recalling Food Shortages Under Donald Trump
by admin - 2022-05-17 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Intentional, manufactured shortage.
"Joe Biden completely lost his cool during a speech at a union convention, going into a rage about food shortages under President Trump. He asked audience members from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to remember the lines of cars where people waited for hours for...
Biden's America: Mother Charged with Manslaughter After She Steals Baby Items and Her Baby and Boyfriend are Killed During Pursuit
by admin - 2022-05-17 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Partisan overreach. You can't blame Biden (as destructive as he is) for this couple's crimes.
"Candance Gill, the mother of a five-week-old baby was charged with manslaughter after she stole baby items and her baby and boyfriend died in a high-speed police chase. KNOE reported that Gill and her boyfriend Edward Williams stole baby items from the store and ran after being...
Buttigieg Says Biden Regime Working to End Baby Formula Shortage
by admin - 2022-05-18 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Intentional, manufactured shortage.
"Face the Nation May 15, 2022 Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the Biden administration is working to ramp up production of baby formula, and... ...
Bernie Refuses to Rule Out 2024 Presidential Bid After Blasting Pro-Life Dems, Manchin, Sinema
by admin - 2022-05-18 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
So he can lose yet again? He's too old, anyway.
"U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats and twice ran for the Democratic nomination for president, has refused to rule out another run for the White House in 2024, even as incumbent Joe Biden has repeatedly hinted he will run for a second term. Sanders, who is...
Californians Fleeing to Portugal
by doug - 2022-05-19 ( education / news / travel / politics ) [html version]
I guess they didn't do their research because Portugal is just as bad as other locations in Europe with medical fascism, etc.
Maybe that's what they seek.
So then good riddance!
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2022 8:43 AM
Escape "Trumpian politics"?
I suppose they're liberals ruining another place as those from SF ruined Sacto
On Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 08:16:45 AM
Locals don't like it
Biden Faces Criticism for Visiting Buffalo Having Skipped Visit to Waukesha
by admin - 2022-05-19 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Corrupt politicians only visit false-flag sites.
"White House press secretary asked about double...
Elon Musk Slams Dummy Biden: the Real President is Whoever Controls the Teleprompter
by admin - 2022-05-20 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Yes!
"Elon Musk slammed dummy Joe Biden in an interview on the All-In Podcast on Monday. Musk said Joe Biden is just a puppet and the real president is whoever controls his teleprompter. Its hard to tell what Bidens doing, to be frank, Musk said. The real president is whoever controls the...
Biden Appointee Calls Washington, D.c. Ancestral Homelands for Two Tribes
by admin - 2022-05-22 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
They can have it!
"By Thomas Catenacci Daily Caller News Foundation Interior Secretary Deb Haaland referred to the nations capital as the homelands of two Native American tribes, not Washington, D.C. during a Senate hearing Thursday. Chairman Manchin, Ranking Member Barrasso, and members of the...
Biden's America: Mother Caught Hoarding Baby Formula to Feed Her Infants
by admin - 2022-05-22 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Hoarding or stocking up? If you're a human, it's called hoarding; for companies it's called planning ahead.
"Did you ever in your wildest dream think you'd see the day when mothers were hoarding baby formula to feed their infants in America! A woman filmed a mother hoarding all of the baby formulae off of the shelves at a local store. The mother confronted the woman after she took every...
It's Time to Walk Away from a Hopelessly Corrupt Federal Government that Facilitates Biden's Destruction of America
by admin - 2022-05-23 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Don't walk away. It's our country. Send THEM packing!
"Guest post by Lawrence Sellin Historically, all revolutions arise from societal disruption, chaos, if you will. Case in point is the rise of Nazism. In the 1928 German elections, the Nazis received 2.6% of the vote. In 1930, a year after the 1929 Wall Street crash, the Nazis...
Australia Votes for Leftism; Center-right Party Loses Control After 9 Years in Power
by admin - 2022-05-24 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Whoever was in power the past 2.5 years NEEDED to go.
"Australians voted in favor of a leftist government Saturday, stripping the center-Right party of its power for the first time in nine years. Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese of the leftist Labor Party will be sworn in after current Prime Minister Scott Morrison conceded defeat,...
Backlash Prompts State Farm to Stop Donating Trans Books for 5-year-olds
by admin - 2022-05-27 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Ya think? Their community outreach (or whatever) person needs to be fired.
"(WASHINGTON EXAMINER) -- Insurance company State Farm is discontinuing its support for the controversial GenderCool Project amid backlash following reports that the company was donating books about transgender issues, targeted at 5-year-olds, to schools . State Farm's support of a...
News from Australia
by staff - 2022-05-30 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
In case you're interested...
Right Now -- Playwright & Historian Michael Gray Griffith Tells Us About His Freedom Fighting Tour
Brazilian President Bolsonaro: I Hope Biden Will Keep the Agreements I Signed with Trump
by admin - 2022-05-30 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
You seriously expect him to keep any promise, let alone his predecessor's?.
"Bolsonaro and Christopher Dodd after a meeting in Braslia, on May 24, 2022. Photographer: Clauber Caetano/Planalto Palace RECIFE, BRAZIL Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at Summit of the Americas next month in Los Angeles. The...
We Need Your Guidance...Biden Praises Authoritarian New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
by admin - 2022-06-03 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Of course he does.
"Joe Biden on Tuesday held a bilateral meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the Oval Office. Biden praised the wicked, authoritarian PM and said the US 'needs her guidance.' Jacinda Ardern is famous for ordering the people of New Zealand to not talk to your...
Tucker Carlson Warns Disarming You is the Point of Biden Gun Control Push
by admin - 2022-06-05 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Duh.
"The point of this, of course, is to disarm people who did not vote for Joe...
Biden's Cdc: Put the Masks Back on for Monkeypox
by admin - 2022-06-09 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Even Fauci admits masks don't block viruses.
"The U.S. has just 31 confirmed cases of...
Biden Trips While Boarding Air Force One
by admin - 2022-06-10 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
TGP is juvenile sometimes with their headlines.
"79-year-old Joe Biden on Wednesday tripped while boarding Air Force One. It appears as though the president did have a slight trip there – MSNBC said as Biden departed DC for the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Joe Biden caught himself this time. WATCH: Recall, in March...
Biden Threatens to Uphold Abortion with Executive Orders If Roe V. Wade is Overturned
by admin - 2022-06-12 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2023-02-19 05:29:20]
He can try, but Supreme Court rulings and Congressional acts supersede Presidential memos.
"Biden said the country wont stand for abortion restrictions. QUICK FACTS: Joe Biden said that he is looking into using an executive order to protect abortion access if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Bidens comments came while talking on comedian Jimmy Kimmels show this week about the...
Read, listen or watch the rest here
UPDATE: See also: how-to-effectively-resist-tyranny-without-direct-confrontation-threats-or-danger/
Another British Mercenary was Killed While Fighting with Kiev Forces
by admin - 2022-06-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Are we supposed to feel sorry for mercenaries now?.
"Another British mercenary had been killed while fighting in the ranks of Kiev forces against the Russian military and its... South...
MAJORITY of AMERICANS BELIEVE Biden Regime is INTENTIONALLY LETTING GAS PRICES SKYROCKET
by admin - 2022-06-15 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
He practically said as much, himself.
"source: blacklistednews Published: June 12, 2022 SOURCE:LEGAL INSURRECTION A new Trafalgar poll finds that a majority of Americans believes the Biden administration is letting gas prices rise intentionally in order to get the country off of fossil fuels and on to green...
Alarm Over Poll that Reveals Large Numbers of Canadians Believe in Conspiracy Theories
by admin - 2022-06-17 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
As Dobie Pokorny says, if you're not a conspiracy theorist these days, you're just not paying attention.
"Ludicrous idea that powerful people work together to further their...
Biden Refers to L-g-b-t-q-l Community in Yet Another Verbal Gaffe
by admin - 2022-06-18 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
In his defense, nobody can keep up with that ever-expanding acronym.
"To be fair, it is constantly...
Biden Says He is Unpopular Because Americans are Mentally Unwell
by admin - 2022-06-19 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
The old I know you are, but what am I? angle, eh?.
"Joe Biden said he is unpopular because Americans are mentally unwell. Of all the excuses… Joe Bidens poll collapse continues with thelatest CIVIQS pollshowing the man who we were told got 81 million votes for president just over a year-and-a-half ago now mired in the low...
People Who Still Support Biden Be Like
by doug - 2022-06-23 ( culture / humor / politics ) [html version]
Funny!
What We DON'T Want You To Know! - News Update
on behalf of JP Sears
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2022 6:27 AM
Let's just blame Russia.
In this segment of Lies You Can Trust, we take a break from committee coverage of the insurrection that "never happened" to bring to you the inside scoop of recently released network news show ratings. Who has the most views CNN, Fox News or yours truly? Remember, numbers are #facts.
Grab some propaganda popcorn and watch it here.
For my next video I confront a loyal Uncle Joe supporter to discuss gas prices, food shortages, and inflation -- all the while a big, black goat gets a bit overly friendly. Don't worry, no animals were harmed while making this video. (Though if it were, we would just blame Russia.) Enjoy People Who Still Support Biden here!
If you love the red-white-and-blue as much as I do, check out our Independence Day Collection mech. Grab it by tomorrow (6/23), so you can spread the free-thinking vibes this July 4th!
Remember, we are home of the free because of the BRAVE!
Together we are TEAM FREEDOM!
JP
PS) Avoid looking like a communist sympathizer, and make sure to place an order by tomorrow (6/23) to get your freedom merch in time for the 4th! Shop here.
Awaken with JP
PO BOX 92135 6104 Old Fredericksburg Rd, Austin, TX, United States, 78709
BBC Staff Told There are More Than 150 Genders and Urged to Develop Trans Brand'
by admin - 2022-06-28 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
BBC leaders are clearly morons.
"Gender ideology continues to spread within the BBC, with the Telegraph revealing staff are being taught there are 150 genders and they should declare their pronouns to reduce suicide risks for trans people. The Daily...
Infertility: a Diabolical Agenda
by staff - 2022-07-02 ( culture / movies-tv-video / politics / conspiracies ) [html version]
Every pharma product is suspect, I think. I heard the tetanus shot has something inside to sterilize people. A neighbor claims it happened to her. Unless humanity stops them I think they will achieve their goal.
A film by award-winning filmmaker Andy Wakefield, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Children's Health Defense. Watch the chilling tale of African women whose fertility was tragically stripped away through an experimental tetanus vaccination program. Are women everywhere next?
NEW DOCUMENTARY
INFERTILITY: A DIABOLICAL AGENDA
"When they're through with Africa, they're coming for you." -- DR. STEPHEN KARANJA
Read, listen or watch the rest here: infertilitymovie.org
Here's another link to watch that you don't have to sign up. Scroll down a bit. https://www.survivethenews.com/watch-infertility-a-diabolical-agenda-for-free-at-brighteon-com/
Biden Claims Americans Must Pay More at the Pump Until Russian War Ends
by admin - 2022-07-03 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Bush falsely linked 9/11 to the Iraq war, now Biden is falsely linking the Ukraine war and U.S. fuel prices.
"by Julian Conradson Joe Biden took the podium at Thursdays post-NATO summit press conference and was subsequently hammered by the press about... ...
Biden Job Approval Hits New Low
by admin - 2022-07-06 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
A more honest poll would show 10% approval, at best. And now, there's this: 90% say country on wrong track.
"It's sunk to negative 27 percent...
Biden's Massive Failures Would Not Have Occurred Under Trump Presidency
by admin - 2022-07-07 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
...which is why the election was thrown in Biden's favor.
"Over the past year since the 2020 Inauguration of Joe Biden where no one showed up but Deep State actors and DC politicians, America has been systematically destroyed by the Biden regime. This July 4th, President Trump shared his thoughts about the state of this union in a short...
Be Sociable, Not Socialist
by admin - 2022-07-09 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Good idea.
"Recently I had the pleasure of hosting an old student of mine and his family. He was an excellent engineering student but went on to a career in medicine. The conversation came around to the state of the US healthcare system. I made the point that I recognize a social responsibility...
Surprise Article
by doug - 2022-07-15 ( education / news / politics / wwiii ) [html version]
[Updated: 2023-05-24 01:25:11]
I ran across this article from 2021 which quoted me. Look near the end.
" da Rocha, a subscriber, wrote to me the other day, saying, quite rightly that, 'This is a war on humanity. It is not a war between countries. It's a war to enslave humanity and there are almost countless attacks of all types – psychological, pharmaceutical, food, air, water, and often there are pawns who really do shoot people, i.e. Antifa or Black Lives Matter's useful idiots."
Read, listen or watch the rest here: aspergers-alumni-association-what-if-cancel-culture-fascists-have-a-clinical-condition
Tucker Carlson Confirmed as Victim of NSA Spying
by staff - 2022-07-23 ( education / news / politics / communism ) [html version]
I wrote my senator and asked them to start a public investigation. You all should assume your emails are being recorded and saved. 
I must point out that, though their methods are fascist, technically, they are Marxist. That's why they hate the middle class, a.k.a. the bourgeoisie. The response to covid specifically targeted small business. But wage earners are called the "petty bourgeoisie," so they hate us, too.
"In Marxist philosophy, the bourgeoisie is the social class that came to own the means of production during modern industrialization and whose societal concerns are the value of property and the preservation of capital to ensure the perpetuation of their economic supremacy in society."
Democrats operate like the Communist party of the USSR. Party is everything, issues are not to be discussed, only: are you Blue or Red?
Of course, when Big Tech colludes with Big Gov't, that is the very definition of fascism. So it's more like Chinese communism than Soviet.
To understand why Democrats such as Biden, Obama and Pelosi hate you, you must understand Marx.
Country Star John Rich Bypasses Woke Labels, Releases Song on Truth Social, Rumble, and Soars to No. 1
by don - 2022-08-04 ( culture / music / country / politics ) [html version]
Really great story about music and what Nashville has become.
Read, listen or watch the rest here: john rich bypasses woke labels
If Democrats Aren't Racist and Marxist
by staff - 2022-08-20 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2022-08-28 06:37:58]
Here's what I sent Dinesh D'souza in hopes the ideas might propagate without my having to join social media. I told him he could borrow/steal it, and that I only had a 2-year degree in the 1970s when college education was a real thing.
"If Democrats aren't racist, then why are they calling people who aren't racist, racists? (Psychology 101)
If Democrats aren't Marxist, then why do they constantly go after the bourgeois values of the bourgeoisie (middle class) such as family, thrift, freedom, rule of law, and constantly promote the values of the 'elite' as seen on Netflix, such as homosexuality, pedophilia, and general depravity?"
On the Abuse of Power
by bill - 2022-08-24 ( education / civics / politics / power ) [html version]
[Updated: 2023-01-19 07:16:18]
These past few years have made it clear it's the haves against the have-nots; the governments/corporations/groups against the individuals; the controllers versus the controlled. Here's a great article on the subject: The Authorities are our Enemies
A list of relevant articles:
Very Good Conversation with Harvey Sch
by doug - 2022-09-12 ( education / research / politics ) [html version]
Worth watching for world politics.
Starts about the 10 minute mark.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/mrGMGq619Jq9/
Very Good Conversation with Harley Schlanger
by doug - 2022-09-13 ( education / civics / politics / conspiracies ) [html version]
Worth watching for world politics. Starts about the 10-minute mark.
"Harley Schlanger rejoins the program to explain the organized targeting, censoring and eliminating of journalists and politicians who dare to think differently."
Biden Pardoning All Prior Federal Offenses of Simple Marijuana Possession
by admin - 2022-10-08 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Probably to benefit his son Hunter, but still a good idea
"(FOX NEWS) President Biden will pardon all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession, the White House said Thursday. The move applies to those convicted of simple possession of marijuana, including those in the..."
Community Organizer
by don - 2022-10-18 ( education / research / politics ) [html version]
Since many believe Obama is running the Marxist Biden administration
We might want to look at a history of comnunist organizing,
euphemistically called a community organizing
https://temple.manifoldapp.org/read/philadelphia-communists-1936-1956/section/c5cbd6e3-ed24-4bcb-97b0-da424fc58416
*/the communist as organizer/*
In the period between the Great Crash and the McCarthy era the CPUSA was
the most effective organizing agency within the American experience.=1
In this most politically stable of societies, radicals have usually
battered their heads against the stone wall of affluence, rising
expectations, and Democratic Party loyalty. Within the narrow space of
agitation allowed by the political order, Communist Party activists
built a small but influential organization devoted to organizing
constituencies for social change. According to even the most
unsympathetic accounts, Communist activists played important roles in
organizing the unemployed, evicted tenants, minorities, and workers in a
wide variety of fields. They were central in the emergence of the CIO
and thus in the organizing of workers in heavy industry and mass
production; they spearheaded the defense of the right of black people to
equality before the law and social and economic opportunity; and they
participated in virtually all of the nationalefforts to establish humane
social services and eliminate hunger, disease, and neglect from our
communities.=2
Many analysts question the motives of Communist Party activists, and
there certainly is controversy about the extent of their organizing
successes. Nevertheless, Communist organizing merits serious and
objective consideration. For a period of approximately thirty years,
Communist Party activists and organizers sought out constituents in the
mines, plants, and neighborhoods of the United States. Other left-wing
groups, such as the Socialist Party, the Trotskyist Socialist Workers
Party, and A. J. Muste's Workers Party, also deserve study, but the
CPUSA offers students the best opportunity to examine the dynamics of
organizing sponsored and directed by a radical political group.=3
The organizers under consideration came to political maturity during the
1930s, mostly in an era associated with the Popular Front, and remained
within the Party until at least the mid-Fifties. Indeed, many remained
active organizers and participants after leaving the organizational
framework of the Communist Party. In the thirties and forties, they
modified their Bolshevik rhetoric and participated in antifascist
alliances, worked for modest short-term successes within the fledgling
CIO, and provided support and manpower for a diverse group of radical
and progressive political movements and leaders, including Democrats,
Farmer-Laborites, the American Labor Party in New York, and Communist
Party councilmen in New York City, all under an essentially New Deal
banner.=4
Organizers operating in the greater Philadelphia district had important
trade-union successes and played a key role in organizing unemployed
councils, electoral efforts, tenant rights, and peace, professional
lobbying, civil liberties, ethnically based, and neighborhood groups.
For a period of approximately ten years, from 1936 to perhaps 1947, the
Communist Party of Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware, District Three,
played an important if modest role in the political life of the area,
generating ideas, programs, and visions that later became the
commonplaces of social policy.
The Party offered its membership several roles. One could remain at the
rank-and-file level, become a cadre, or rise to functionary. One could
engage in mass work within one of the Party fronts or a non-Party
organization (e.g., the YMCA) or one could become a "colonizer,"
engaging in industrial organizing at the beck and call of the Party. In
addition, one could work within the professional section, providing the
Party with such services as legal counsel.=5
*/rank and file/*
At the lowest level of Party membership were the rank and file, the
proverbial "Jimmy Higginses" who worked within Party clubs and branches,
paid their dues, went to a variety of meetings, and joined the mass
organizations and fronts, often focusing on a specific issue like Spain,
civil rights, or Scottsboro. Such rank-and-filers were at the heart of
everyday activities and what Gornick calls "grinding ordinariness."=6
There was an extraordinary turnover among such members, who often became
weary of meetings,/Daily Worker/solicitations, and office chores.
Many rank-and-filers began their activism while in college or sometimes
high school. The Philadelphia high school movement was quite sizable,
including ASU and YCL chapters in at least eight schools. High school
activists ranged throughout the city, meeting radical peers,
socializing, and developing their own circle of comrades. For those who
entered college either already active or about to be radicalized, there
was an almost dizzying flow of activities, including demonstrations,
marches, sit-downs, leaflettings, fundraisers, dances, parties, socials,
lectures, speeches—and meetings. Always, there were meetings, one for
every night of the week, often more.=7
Enthusiastic, recently converted Communists, like their spiritual
children in the 1960s, had unbounded energy for political work. Most
speak of being aroused and inspired by their sense of the significance
of their efforts, the quality of their comrades, and the grandeur and
power of their movement. Abe Shapiro recalls being engrossed at one time
in the following activities: formal YCL meetings, ASU leadership, a
universityantiwar council (of which he was director), Spanish civil war
relief efforts, a variety of antifascist activities, a student-run
bookstore cooperative, and support work for assorted civil liberties and
civil rights causes. Some activists found schoolwork boring under the
circumstances and devoted all of their time to politics. A few became
"colonizers." In most cases, however, Communist students completed their
degree work, and if they dropped out of school, it was often for
financial reasons. For most, the excitement of campus politics held
their attention and their interest.
Some found Party youth work a path toward leadership, becoming citywide
or national ASU or YCL leaders. Others on leaving campus became YCL
branch or section organizers in different parts of the district.
Many who did not attend college did neighborhood work with the YCL,
often focusing their mass organizational efforts through the American
League for Peace and Democracy. To many youthful rank-and-filers, "the
YCL became . . . Marxist-Leninist theory all mixed up with baseball,
screwing, dancing, selling the/Daily Worker/, bullshitting, and living
the American-Jewish street life."=8
Certainly the first flush of radicalism, the emotional high of
purposeful activity, the sense of accomplishment and of sacrifice for
the good of humanity, the work with fine and noble comrades, the love
affairs with those sharing a common vision, the expectation that the
future was indeed theirs, created a honeymoon effect for most young
Communists.
For some, the fad of radicalism passed upon graduation or thereabouts.
Others simply maintained a regular but distant "fellow-traveling" role
as they entered the work world. And many were disillusioned by the
Party's dogmatism or the great purge trials, the attacks on Trotsky, or
the Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. Others, including those interviewed,
remained in the Party. The shortest stay was six years, and most
remained loyal for twenty years or more. For all of those who stayed,
the Party and its small subculture became their lives.
Those working at the branch, club, and section levels were rarely on the
Party payroll and had to find work to supportthemselves. For single
people problems were few and life could be lived at a double-time pace,
working hard all day and then organizing and holding meetings every night.
Some young Communists drifted for a time after school, doing Party work
but not settling into anything. Ben Green lived in Strawberry Mansion, a
lower-middle- and working-class Jewish neighborhood filled with Party
people at the time. He did some work with the American League Against
War and Fascism, spoke on street corners occasionally, went to three to
four meetings a week, and helped to start a union local of public
employees at his Works Progress Administration (WPA) office. He
remembers that the Party "made it a big thing" when he shifted from the
YCL to adult membership, but he was still looking at his future with
uncertainty.
Upon completing high school, George Paine felt that "sports were gone"
from his life except for an occasional neighborhood basketball game. He
kept in touch but saw less of old non-Party buddies and did standard
political work, "hustling the paper," going to meetings, demonstrating.
Finally he decided to go to college, suspending but not ending his Party
ties.
One rank-and-filer was a skilled craftsman, "glad of the class I was
born into." He belonged to a conservative craft union and limited his
political work to mass work at the local YMCA. He never really got
involved with a club or branch group but paid his dues, subscribed to
the paper, and worked with comrades to move the "Y" in a more
"progressive" direction. He was quite open about his views, which would
eventually get him into trouble at his job: "I felt that since to me
everything was so clear, they'd hug me."
Tim Palen, a farmer and skilled craftsman who lived in a rural suburb of
Philadelphia, worked with the Farmers Union. A Party rank-and-filer, he
helped farmers get low-interest loans through the union and sympathetic
banks. Palen never involved himself with Party affairs in the city, and
the highest office he held was dues secretary of his section.
Since the Communist Party did not formally label members according to
their rank, it is not always clear who was a rank-and-filer and who was
considered cadre. One former district leader defines cadres as the
people in training for leadership, like officers in an army. The rank
and file are, therefore, foot soldiers, less involved and more a part of
their own neighborhood or plant, more likely to hold conventional jobs,
and more subject to pressures from neighbors, family, and changing
circumstances. Annie Kriegel, who analyzes the French Communist Party as
a set of concentric circles, places fellow travelers who vote for the
Party and read the Sunday Party press on the "outer circle" and
"ordinary party members" in the "first circle."=9
Many observers describe such rank-and-filers as less "Bolshevik"—that
is, more likely to break Party discipline in everyday activity and
closer to the behavior and sensibilities of their non-Party peers.
Harvey Klehr puts it, "Many party members received no training of any
kind, attendance at party meetings was often spotty, and members
frequently ignored or failed to carry out assigned tasks."=10
Almond presents esoteric and exoteric models to distinguish
rank-and-filer from cadre, suggesting that the Party daily press
directed itself to the relatively idealistic and naive external members,
while the Comintern, Cominform, and internal Party journals spoke to
insiders and sophisticated activists.=11
*/cadre/*
The cadre has a "personal commitment." He or she is a "true Bolshevik,"
internally Communized, with an almost priestly function and sense of
specialness. The cadre is a "professional revolutionary" along Leninist
lines.=12
Philip Selznick adds that cadres are "deployable personnel," available
to the Party at all times.=13
Some observers use "cadre" interchangeably with "functionary," while
others distinguish them. I interpret "functionary" as a more
administrative and executive role, usually carrying more authority and
generally associated with top district and national leadership.=14
Cadres were field workers, organizers, sometimes on the payroll but
often holding a non-Party job. Some more mobile cadres lefttheir own
neighborhoods, but most worked at least within their home districts.
(Functionaries, on the other hand, could be homegrown and district-bound
or at the service of the national, even international, office.)
Many studies exaggerate the distinction between inner core and outer
rings because of their dependence on the abstractions of Party tracts.
Almond, for example, claims that the "true Communist" was beyond any
commitment to the Popular Front since he was presumably fully
Bolshevized and aware of the duplicity and tactical nature of moderated
rhetoric. Perhaps this is true of the national leadership, who had
associations with Moscow, training at the Lenin School, and Comintern
experience. At the district level, however, the patterns are not as
clear and seem to be more sensitive to generational, class, and ethnic
variables.=15
Among informants, the word "cadre" connoted "hard-working," "brave,"
"dogged," and "honorable"—someone who followed a Leninist model of
behavior; "functionary," on the other hand, was often used negatively to
imply that someone was "bureaucratic," "aloof," "abstract," and "remote
from struggle"—in brief, the Stalinist/apparatchik/. Neither necessarily
belonged to an inner core.
Fred Garst tells of the "process of indoctrination" he underwent as he
entered into Party life, beginning with "the regularity of systematic
participation"—dues, meetings, selling Party literature. He says that
the number of meetings began slowly to escalate to three, sometimes five
a week: section and subsection meetings, executive meetings, front
meetings. Next, Garst was asked to lead a discussion, then to take
responsibility for organizing the distribution of literature. He started
taking classes at a local Workers School in Marxist theory and labor
history. His commitment grew, his experience deepened, and he soon
became a section leader.
Some Philadelphia Communists moved from rank-and-file to cadre roles
during important political campaigns like theProgressive Party efforts
of 1947–1948. One woman had been serving in a minor capacity—"not
anything earth-shattering"—but was swept up by what Wallace referred to
as "Gideon's Army." She became a full-time Progressive Party organizer
at a district level, her "first real organizing"; from that point on,
she was fully involved in Party work at a variety of levels.
Some cadres emphasized front and mass work, serving as leaders of IWO
ethnic groups, youth groups, and defense groups. Such cadres were
particularly likely to operate clandestinely, although many communicated
their affilitation all but formally to constituents.
Cadres can be distinguished by their level of operation (club, branch,
section, or district), by their funding (on the payroll or holding a
regular job), by their relative mobility and willingness to do political
work outside their own milieu, and, finally, by the type of organizing
they did (mass or front work, electoral party work, industrial
organizing). The most prestigious cadres were those who did full-time
industrial organizing at the will of the Party leadership. Such
organizers, whether of working-class origins or not and whether
indigenous or colonizers, were the heart of Party operations, seeking to
develop a proletarian constituency and a trade-union base.
/ny tisa/
ny Tisa's history shows what an experienced organizer could
accomplish. Tisa, a second-generation son of illiterate, working-class
peasants, went to work at the Campbell's Soup plant in his own South
Camden "Little Italy" after completing high school in the early 1930s.
While working summers at the plant, he had been stimulated by
street-corner radical speakers and had joined the Socialist Party, which
had a presence at Campbell's Soup. The Socialists sent him to Brookwood
Labor College, where he met young Communists who impressed him with
their earnestness and apparent lack of factionalism, a problem he
encountered among the Socialists. He returned to help organize the
plant, starting with a small group of about a half-dozen Italian
workers, none of themCommunists, whom he molded through a discussion
group. His group received a federal charter from the American Federation
of Labor and began to develop an underground, dues-paying membership.
Tisa tells of frustrating experiences within the conservative AFL. At
the 1939 convention in Tampa, for example, he found himself accidently
strolling into a local walk-out of Del Monte workers, just as the police
were arresting the leader. He spoke to thery workers and was himself
threatened with arrest. The workers exclaimed, "You got Bo [the arrested
leader] but you're not gonna get him," and made a ring to escort Tisa to
a streetcar. That evening, at his suggestion, there was a union meeting,
packed and excited. When Tisa tried to speak about this remarkable
experience at the AFL convention, he was refused the floor. Finally he
simply took over the podium and microphone. Later that day, he met with
other militants, including Communists, to organize the ClO-affiliated
Food, Tobacco and Agricultural Workers Union.
He took a detour, however, as events in Spain captured his energies and
idealism. Tisa served two years in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade, gaining "a sense of internationalism that never escapes you."
On his return, he immediately set out to organize Campbell's Soup.
At the time Tisa began to organize it, Campbell's Soup employed about
5,500 full-time workers, with another 5,000 part-timers who came in
during the heavy season. At least half the workers were of Italian
descent; there were few blacks until the late 1940s. About half the work
force was female. There was a sexual division of labor based on physical
strength. Tisa's organizing group consisted of eleven or twelve key
workers, all leftists, mostly Italian. None were "colonizers." All were
indigenous workers who, under Tisa's leadership, planned the
unionization of Campbell's. Tisa recalls that the group would often go
crabbing and then return to his home to eat, drink, and talk strategy.
Tisa was the only member of the group on the national union's payroll;
he made a bare ten or fifteen dollars a week.
The organizers distributed themselves through the plant, reaching out to
obvious sympathizers and picking up useful information that they would
relay to Tisa, who could not enter the plant. He would take names and
visit workers in their homes, signing them up so that the union could
hold a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. He would also
cull information about working conditions from his organizers and
publish it in a union bulletin that they distributed clandestinely, each
carrying five to ten copies.
As their numbers increased, they became bolder and distributed the much
discussed bulletin openly. Campbell's Soup had Tisa arrested once, but
when he was released, many workers came to greet him. He assured them
that the law permitted them to organize a union. The company tried many
tactics to block his efforts: they started a company union; they charged
that he was a "Red" and had raped nuns and killed priests in Spain. But
Tisa lived in an Italian neighborhood among plant workers and had a
mother who had worked in the plant for many years (cheering his
speeches, often at the wrong times, he wryly and lovingly notes); he
could not be red-baited easily. He was an open Communist; his neighbors
would say, "ny's a Communist, but he's all right." Despite the real
barrier of the workers'traditional Catholicism, he produced traditional
trade-union benefits for members and was popular enough locally, a
neighbor, to remain in leadership until the CIO purges of the late
forties and early fifties finally forced him out.
Tisa's experience highlights the importance of developing indigenous
personnel in organizing activity. His efforts were certainly bolstered
by support from the national union, by Communist Party training and aid,
and by the relative benevolence of the federal government as expressed
through the new NLRB. Yet the presence of local activists, something the
Communist Party sought but did not often achieve, invariably made the
task of organizing a plant or neighborhood that much easier.
Other organizers performed similar roles without formally entering the
Party, preferring to remain independent although generally taking
positions consistent with Party policy.
/jack ryan/
Jack Ryan's old man was "a union man," later a foreman, a local
Democratic politician, and a bootlegger. As a teen-ager, and a high
school drop-out, Ryan ran poker and crap games in the neighborhood with
a group of friends, some of whom wound up in prison. He worked
sporadically as a roofer, during which time he was influenced by a
socialist "who couldn't read or write until he was twenty-three."
His father finally got him a job at a local plant, where he worked as a
crane operator in the early Depression years until he was laid off in
1931. Over the next two years, he tried a small store and "managed to
hang on," selling water ice and running crap games. In 1933 he went back
to the plant just at the point when the local union was being formed.
Ryan recalls that he was "sworn in in an elevator with the lights out in
between the floors." Despite his emerging radical politics, Ryan
remained on the margins at first. "I deliberately didn't get active," he
says, indicating that life seemed too unpredictable to take chances. In
fact, he entered into a real-estate business on the side, and it
eventually provided him with the cushion that allowed him to become more
active within the plant.
Initially he ran for the general committee, backed by the other crane
operators because of his successful grievance work. Still cautious ("I
kept my mouth shut," he notes), Ryan went along with the conservative
local leadership while maintaining contact with the plant militants,
several of whom were old Wobblies suspicious of any Communist Party
leadership. Ryan worked primarily through his own crane operators'
network within the plant. He played the trade-offs in union posts among
the plant's crafts to become local president, an unpaid post, and
finally business representative, the only salaried position within the
local. Ryanremained close to the Party but never joined. "I was more
radical than they were," he brags. He criticizes their twists and turns
and suggests that "in the end you can't trust any of them" because of
"the goddamn line." He adds that the/Daily Worker/was "written for a
bunch of morons." On the other hand, Ryan admits that Party union
members were often competent and successful organizers and that he
agreed with most of their Popular Front stances, particularly their
antifascism. On the Soviets, he says that he did not spend too much time
thinking about them, but adds, "I don't blame them for having a treaty
with the Germans."
Ryan is clearly concerned with the practical issues of trade unionism.
In describing one of his national officers, he exclaims, "A dedicated
Communist but a helluva guy." He praises L. Lewis's efforts at
industrial unionization: "him and the Commies put together the CIO; they
were the smartest crowd." So Jack Ryan worked with but kept some
distance from "the Commies": "they were a little bit nutty." His union
was one of those expelled from the CIO in the late forties, and he
remains bitter about the Party's role in the union's decline. He
remained active, holding union office on and off until his retirement.
Ryan proudly concludes that he was placed on Social Security while on
strike for the last time in the early seventies.
ny Tisa and Jack Ryan were working-class organizers, with roots in
their ethnic communities, able to establish a rapport with their peers
and, at the same time, develop more sophisticated skills within a
broader and more ideological movement in or around the Communist Party.
Their failures were mostly exogenous, the results of Taft-Hartley oaths,
CIO purges, and McCarthyism in general.
Others operated in less favorable terrain, without the decided
advantages of an indigenous, working-class background. The most
characteristic Party labor organizer was a young, educated,
second-generation Jewish-American sent to "dig roots into the
working-class." The efforts of such organizers were prodigious; their
accomplishments, however, were more problematic.
/al schwartz/
Al Schwartz's father was a 1905er, a Party organizer in the garment
industry who had to open a small shop after he was blacklisted. Al, a
classic "red-diaper baby," went through all of the Party developmental
steps, from Young Pioneers through YCL to full Party involvement. Most
of all he wanted to be a radical journalist. For a few years he was able
to work on the Pennsylvania supplement to the/Worker/, but when it
folded, his journalism career seemed over. Over the next half-dozen
years, Schwartz, now in his late twenties, went into the shops as a
"colonizer." He remembers the sense of adventure and mission he felt
working at a few of the larger heavy industrial plants in the area. Yet
he also speaks of his sense of loss and defeat in having to aban
hopes of writing. Schwartz's response to colonizing was painfully
ambivalent: a college graduate and a Jew, born and bred within the
Yiddish-Left subculture, he both relished the contact with blue-collar
workers and remained distant from them. They were not like him, he
stresses; they were mired in back-breaking labor, poor educations, and
plebian forms of leisure. For a time he enjoyed the camaraderie of the
local taverns, but ultimately he was an outsider, a Jewish family man
and a struggling intellectual. Schwartz most fondly recalls the hardness
and fitness of his body, the feeling that he was young and strong and
physically a worker. But the successes were few, and later the McCarthy
period made such Party efforts even more marginal. Schwartz found
himself a family man in his mid-thirties without a career or a
profession; frustrated and drifting out of Party life without drama or
flourish, he moved to reorganize his life. His political values held,
but his colonizing days were over.
/sol davis/
Sol Davis grew up in a poor, working-class, immigrant household. He was
a bright young boy, and like many other upwardly aspiring Jewish males,
he flourished at the elite Central High School andbegan moving toward a
professional career. At this point, in the early years of the
Depression, he was swept off his feet, as he puts it, by the Communist
Party. After completing his schooling, he worked lackadaisically at his
profession while seeking an opportunity to go into the shops as a
Communist Party organizer; he was "determined to be shop worker."
His first attempts allowed him to learn something about machinery,
although in each instance he was fired for his inexperience and
incompetence. Finally he caught on. "I was in my element," he asserts,
describing the war years in heavy industry. For Davis, the good
organizer had to have a commitment to "the principles of Communism," "a
talent for leadership," and a willingness to listen. A confident
speaker, whose words are clipped and terse, he worked twenty-nine years
in the shops, twenty-six of them at one plant. Located within the city,
the plant was staffed mostly by Catholic workers (Polish or Irish),
initially few blacks, and even fewer Jews.
Davis's recollections are filled with bitter refrains about red-baiting
and "turn-coat ex-CPers," sell-outs and "social democrats." He is proud
of his successes, which include chairing the grievance committee and
serving as shop steward during most of his union years. Davis presents
his life as devoted to organizing in the shops; he never got involved in
his neighborhood and tended to leave Party electoral work to others. A
hard-line orthodox Communist still, Davis argues that those who
abandoned the Party were "petty-bourgeois with petty-bourgeois ideas,"
whereas he "was nursed out of the trade-union movement." In the fifties,
he admits, "life became unpleasant," both in his largely Jewish
lower-middle-class neighborhood and in the shop, where "a certain
resistance developed to my activity" among people he calls
anti-Communist socialists.
Davis believes that most American workers have been bought off in
"discrete and discernible fashion" by imperialist profits, manipulated
by the mass media, and blinded by nationalism, religion, and racism.
After spending almost thirty years in theindustrial heartland, Davis
remains "dedicated to an idea," an "unquestioned belief" in communism.
Yet when asked about his ability to convert workers to class
consciousness, a saddened Sol Davis replies, "Never—the shop was a
desert for me." He did not convert a single worker and was "in that
respect an utter failure." The shops, to the stoical Davis, were "a
cultural, political, and philosophical wasteland despite having made so
many friends." Sol Davis has kept the faith since he was "baptized" in
the movement; his singular lack of organizing success rests, in his
mind, on factors beyond his control—repression, cowardice,
self-interest. He is a confident man.
/ caldwell/
Other colonizers had more mixed results. Caldwell, a college
graduate with a middle-class WASP heritage, recalls that in his initial
colonizing effort, "I wasn't very smart and made a lot of stupid
mistakes—talked to people, became known as a troublemaker." He was
fired. Fortunately for Caldwell, his firing made him a "celebrated
case," and the predominantly Irish and Italian Catholic workers, and
even the conservative union officials, rallied to his support. Caldwell
says that whereas other Party organizers had their best contact in their
own departments, he touched bases throughout the plant and often
socialized at the local bar to maintain and develop relationships. "A
fair number knew I was a Communist," he says. "I never denied it." But
most did not. In most plants to admit membership in the Party meant
probable firing and certain harassment. For organizers like Caldwell,
discretion was the rule.
His efforts paid off against the union's local establishment. The
national, a left-wing union, sent in an organizer to help fashion a
local coalition to defeat the established group, and Caldwell worked
with him as elections chairman. The progressive slate was successful.
Caldwell, a leader of a left-wing veterans' group, participated in the
1946 strike surge. When mounted police chased people ontoporches in
Southwest Philadelphia to break up injunction-defying demonstrations,
the local CIO was able to bring out 25,000 workers to protest against
police brutality in front of City Hall. But such Popular Front-style
unified efforts were shattered by the developing Cold War consensus,
which began to drive radicals, particularly Party members, out of the
unions.
Caldwell shifted jobs in this period, finally taking a full-time
organizing job in a nearby industrial town. The plant had some IWO
members and a few Party members, but no organization. Caldwell, who
observes that "it really became difficult after the Korean War" started,
found some success in putting out a small paper and handing it out at
the main gates. He worked to develop contacts mainly by distributing the
Party paper, first for free, then by subscription. Caldwell remembers
proudly that he won a district drive with eighty subscriptions in his
area. Gains were modest: a Hungarian sympathizer sent him two black shop
stewards; then a few Irish Catholics made contact. Caldwell recalls
going into Philadelphia to see prize fights with the latter workers,
mixing pleasure with discussions of possible articles about their area
for the Party press.
But the times wrecked any chance Caldwell had of developing a Party
group. The FBI scared off possible sympathizers; he was arrested for
circulating antiwar petitions, and the venture finally ended in the
heyday of the McCarthy period when Caldwell was sent to join the Party's
underground.
Caldwell and Al Schwartz experienced the ebb of the progressive union
movement in the late forties and early fifties. Most Party labor
organizers and colonizers, however, joined the fray during the
extraordinary upsurge of the late thirties that established industrial
unionism through the CIO.
/milt goldberg/
Milt Goldberg, despite winning a Mayor's Scholarship, was unable to
continue his education after graduating from Central High School.
Instead, he scratched to make a living at odd jobs, gradually becoming
interested in radical politics. While he wasworking a pre-Christmas job
at Sears, the department store warehousemen went out on strike. Clerks
refused to cross the picket lines. Goldberg recalls that the
increasingly anxious owners persuaded the clerks to return to work with
promises of improved conditions and wage increases that were never
fulfilled; meanwhile, the warehousemen settled. In the aftermath, the
strike leaders were all fired. Goldberg says that many of them were
Communists and that he began to notice how often that was the case: "I
respected the Party people; they were able, talented people."
Goldberg became an organizer for a white-collar union dominated by
mobsters who made deals with management at the expense of the
membership. He describes his early efforts as "naive, inexperienced."
Goldberg played a key role in leading his membership out of the corrupt
union into a new CIO local, whose Philadelphia office staff was
dominated by Party organizers. In those days, the late thirties, the era
of sit-downs and a crescendo of collective bargaining agreements,
organizing was remarkably fluid. Goldberg says that charters were
granted easily and with little need for substantiation or the apparatus
of negotiation soon to appear under the NLRB. In those days, he asserts
with some nostalgia, one could go in and organize a place in one or two
days, present demands to the employer, and make a deal. Such rapid
victories were, of course, exceptions; Goldberg also recalls the often
brutal resistance of management, particularly in heavy industry.
After serving in the war, Goldberg returned to his union efforts,
despite family advice that he try something more prestigious and
lucrative. The union was his life, so he stayed. He never formally
rejoined the Party, although he remained in close contact. The
Taft-Harley anti-Communist oath soon reinforced this decision.
Nevertheless, Goldberg and his small union were red-baited and
constantly under McCarthyite attack.
How did he survive? Goldberg argues that he "was very close to the
membership" and had solid support from his fellow leaders. He emphasizes
that the union provided real benefits and servicesto membership and
sustained their loyalty despite the attacks. In addition, he notes that
by this time the small union did not have a Party group, only him. One
of the more damaging policies of Party-dominated unions was what
Goldberg calls "the resolution bit"—the passing of Party-sponsored
resolutions on every issue from Scottsboro to Spain. Too many left-wing
unions manipulated such resolutions without making any effort to educate
the membership; all that mattered was that local such-and-such of the
so-and-so workers sent a resolution attacking Franco's dictatorship in
Spain. Goldberg dropped such tactics in the postwar period, instead
working with his local's officers and servicing the practical needs of
the membership. By the mid-fifties, still a socialist, Milt Goldberg had
become estranged from the Communist Party.
As is true of most arts, the qualities that make for a successful
organizer are uncertain and descriptions are inevitably cliche-ridden.
As the experiences of ny Tisa and Jack Ryan indicate, having roots
in the work force being organized gives one a decided advantage. But the
Party could use only the troops it had available, and these were for the
most part educated, urban, Jewish Americans, most of whom had no
experience in the heavy industries that were their "colonies." Most of
them experienced frustration; one cadre estimates that 95 percent of all
Party colonizers failed. Too often colonizers were unable to operate in
a sea of Gentile proletarians. Fred Garst, stillry at the Party for
its insensitivity to context, charges that "the Left didn't have any
organizing skills." But some organizers, remarkably, succeeded.
/ike samuels/
Ike Samuels still speaks with an accent that reveals the years he spent
in Eastern Europe before his mother, taking the remains of the family
silver, arrived in the United States. No red-diaper baby, Samuels
describes his youth as "street-wise" and his ambition as making it in
America. Like many others, however, "the whole thing burst into flame"
when the Depression forced him to dropout of school and hunger marches,
bonus marches, and unemployed council protests acted on his emerging
social conscience. Soon he was moving toward the Party and engaging in
union organizing.
Samuels, a gruff, self-deprecating man who often refers to his "big
mouth," rose to leadership within a small craft union and served on the
city CIO council. His CIO union was dominated by a Popular Front
coalition of the Party and a progressive Catholic group. The union
president, a leader of the latter, was incompetent; on several occasions
Samuels had to bail him out of collective-bargaining disasters. Finally
the Catholic faction and the Party faction sought to replace the
president with Samuels. The national Party leadership, however, afraid
of upsetting the delicate coalition, said no. Samuels recalls that he
"didn't even question" the decision, but he was frustrated and soon left
the union to become an organizer for a larger, industrial union.
Samuels agrees with Milt Goldberg that it was relatively easy to be a
good organizer in that period. Labor was in an upswing, workers were
clamoring to be organized, NLRB cards were easy to accumulate. In heavy
industry, Samuels stresses, the key was to seek out the pockets of old
radical workers—not colonizers, he emphasizes—who had broken down the
old ethnic barriers. Many such organizers were members of the IWO
foreign-language federations. Next, one needed the "pie-cards," the
full-time organizers supplied by the CIO itself, many of whom were
veteran radicals. Along with and sometimes among the pie-cards were the
younger Communists going into the shops, supported by a growing and
confident Party organization. A "highly developed structure," Samuels
recalls, was essential to organizing success. One had to develop shop
committees and day-to-day contacts in each department.
The sense of strength provided by the union itself and, crucially, by
its CIO sponsor, allowed workers to imagine that the employers could be
successfully challenged. In the automobile, steel, rubber, mining, and
electrical equipment industries, workers facedmammoth corporations
willing to use any means necessary to throw back the unionist surge. The
New Deal, by encouraging a more neutral judiciary and law enforcement
role, made it easier for the coordinated CIO drives to gain concessions
from corporate heads. Samuels suggests that the workers, some of whom
had backed decades of unsuccessful rank-and-file efforts, needed the
sense that they were a part of a powerful coalition. L. Lewis
appealed to this sense when he proclaimed, "The President want you to
join a union." Such a coalition advanced unionization at the same time
that it necessitated concessions and strictures that limited the
leverage of the newly legitimized unions.=16
Samuels argues that it was imperative for organizers to have knowledge
of their industries. He deliberately worked in a craft shop to learn the
trade and later carefully studied one heavy industry before going out to
organize its workers. He was not typical. Hodee Edwards, a thirties
organizer, stresses "our consistent failure to investigate the
neighborhoods and factories where we tried to work, thus applying a
generalized, sectarian plan usually incomprehensible to those we wanted
to reach."=17
And Sam Katz suggests that the Party did not always recognize the
tension between the leadership and the activist/organizer over the pace
and nature of organizing. The functionaries often pushed for the most
advanced positions, including the "resolutions bit," whereas the
organizers focused on the issues that confronted their constituents.
Conflict was inevitable between broad policy and local needs and
variations, and between policy planners and functionaries and field
organizers and the rank and file. It is clear that the Communist Party
suffered chronically from top-heavy decision making, which often left
local organizers and members with policy directives that made little
sense in local circumstances.
In addition to organizational strength and preparation, Samuels feels
that leadership ability and, at times, personal courage must be
demonstrated. On several occasions he had to take risks or lose the
confidence of his membership. In one local the workers affectionately
referred to him as "R.R.J.B.," Red Russian JewBastard. He tells of
organizing workers in a small Georgia company town. Fifteen hundred were
on strike, and the patriarchal owners were negotiating only under
pressure from the NLRB. They were stalling, however, so Samuels called
on the work force to increase the pressure by massing outside the
building where the negotiations were taking place. The next day, in the
midst of bargaining, Samuels noticed the face of the company's attorney
turning an ash white as he glanced out the window. What he saw were
about three hundred workers marching toward the building carrying a
rope; lynching was on their agenda. Samuels went out and calmed them
down, "modified" their demands, and then wrapped up negotiations. His
early organizing days also included maritime struggles with gangster
elements who were not beyond "bumping off" militants. Samuels implies
that the Left elements fought back, sometimes resorting to their own
brand of physical intimidation.=18
Peggy Dennis describes the Bolshevik ideal as "soldiers in a
revolutionary army at permanent war with a powerful class enemy." And
"in permanent war, doubts or questions are treason."=19
Yet as Joseph Starobin asks, "How could the Leninist equilibrium be
sustained in a country so different from Lenin's?"
In fact, it was sustained unevenly and at a price. In a society with a
tradition of civil liberties (albeit inconsistently applied and
occasionally suspended in moments of stress) and a remarkably resilient
political democracy, the Leninist model, hardened and distorted by
Stalinism, mixed uncomfortably with American realities.=21
At its best the Leninist ideal encouraged the incredible levels of hard
work and perseverance that even critics of Communism grant to its
cadres; it also evoked such personal qualities as integrity, courage,
honesty, and militancy. Yet the ideal seemed to degenerate too easily
into a model of behavior appropriately labeled Stalinist. Communist
cadres accepted deceptive tactics and strategies that inevitably
backfired and undermined theirintegrity and reputations—for example, the
front groups that "flip-flopped" at Party command after years of denying
Party domination. The intolerance and viciousness with which Communists
often attacked adversaries, including liberals, socialists, and their
own heretics, remains inexcusable.=22
As organizers, Communist activists suffered from a tendency toward a
special kind of elitism that often made them incapable of working with
diverse groups sharing common goals. In some periods they turned this
streak of inhumanity against themselves, engaging in ugly campaigns of
smear and character assassination to eliminate "Titoists,"
"Browderites," "revisionists," "left-wing adventurists," or "white
chauvinists."
Moreover, the secrecy within which Communists often operated, while
sometimes justified by the danger of job loss or prosecution, served to
undermine the Party's moral legitimacy. An organizer's relationship with
his constituents depends on their belief in his integrity, and this is
especially true when the organizer is an outsider. Too often, Communists
undermined their own integrity by covering manipulative and cynical acts
with the quite plausible explanation that survival required secrecy. The
tendency of Communists to resort to First and Fifth Amendment protection
during the McCarthy period falls under similar challenges. As Joseph
Starobin asks:
Should left-wingers and Communists have gone to jail in large numbers?
Might they have been better off/politically/, in terms of their/image/,
to assert their affiliations, to proclaim them instead of asserting
their right to keep them private, to explain the issues as they saw
them, and to take the consequences?=23
Communist activists certainly did not lack courage or commitment to a
protracted struggle. Many risked prison, and some served prison
sentences; perhaps as many as one-third of the cadres painfully accepted
assignments to go underground in the early fifties. Their Leninism had
to navigate contradictory currents of Stalinism and Americanization,
militancy and opportunism.
Local Communist activists often lived a somewhat schizophrenic life,
alternately internationalist and indigenous, Bolshevik and
"progressive," admiring the Leninist model of cadre and yet falling into
more settled, familial patterns of activism. There was a clear if often
ignored sexual division of labor: men were more likely to be the cadres,
women performed auxiliary clerical functions and unnoticed but essential
neighborhood organizing.
The Party was also divided between theorists and intellectuals on the
one hand and field workers and activists on the other. As one field
worker proclaimed, "I couldn't be spending hours on ideological
conflicts; I'm an activist, not an intellectual." Many agree that the
bulk of an organizer's time went into local actions and much less went
into discussions and considerations of important theoretical or
programmatic matters.=24
Only a small proportion received the type of ideological and
intellectual training suggested by the Leninist ideal, an ideal that
formally sought the obliteration of the distinctions between thought and
action, intellectual and activist.
In fact, Party intellectuals faced chronic and ingrained suspicion, even
contempt, from Party leaders. Abe Shapiro sardonically charges that the
function of Party intellectuals was "to sell the/Daily Worker/at the
waterfront." He remembers checking on a new Party document on the
economy: "I actually read the document. I wanted to know what the Hell
it was." He found it infantile and far below what well-trained but never
used Party intellectuals and social scientists could have produced. The
Party rarely, except for showcase purposes, relied on its trained
intellectual or academic members; instead, it called on Party
functionaries, often of very narrow training, to write about complex
sociological, economic, and scientific matters. Theory suffered as a
result, and the Party, particularly after 1939, included very few
intellectuals.
Until the mid-fifties crisis, the Party, strangled by Stalinist dogma
and intolerance, was closed to intellectual discourse. Abe Shapiro
finally left the Party because his intellectual training hadgiven him a
commitment to intellectual honesty that he could not shake. Among
organizers, Party arrogance cut off messages from the grass roots.
Orders from what one veteran calls "the Cave of Winds"—Party
headquarters in New York—often contradicted practical organizing experience.
The Party also suffered from insularity. Mark Greenly brought interested
fellow workers to a Party-dominated union meeting. They were curious and
"antiboss" but quite unsophisticated and not at all ready to make any
commitments. Unfortunately, the Party organizer immediately started to
discuss class struggle and a variety of abstract political matters. The
workers were quickly alienated and frightened away, never to return.
Ethel Paine recalls such "inappropriate behavior" as the sectarian
conversations Party people would carry on in the presence of
non-Communist acquaintances and neighbors. Although chronically
secretive about membership, Communists could be remarkably insensitive
to their audience in revealing ways. A successful organizer learned when
and how to introduce more controversial ideas to nonmembers. Training,
including the Party schools, helped to some extent, but most Communists
agree with the veteran organizer who feels that such learning has to be
done on the job, by trial and error. Many Communists, like Sam Katz and
Caldwell, tell painful if sometimes hilarious tales of their own
and others' ineptitude as beginning organizers. Some discovered that
they simply were not suited for the job and would never develop the
personal qualities that make for a competent organizer. Several veterans
insist that organizers are born, not made. Yet relatively introverted
and socially awkward young people, inspired by the idealism and the
comradeship of the Communist movement, did transform themselves into
effective organizers. Vivian Gornick points out that such
transformations did not always survive the collapse of association with
the Party.=25
I did not, however, discover total or near total personality changes
caused either by joining or abandoning the Party.
Although most of the literature about radical organizers deals with men,
it is increasingly apparent that some of the mostsignificant and
consistently ignored organizing within the Communist Party involved
women. The ten women interviewed performed a rich variety of Party
tasks, but perhaps the most important were those not officially
designated, like the informal neighborhood activities organized by Edith
Samuels, described inChapter Five
.
Sarah Levy was also involved in such efforts. Sarah and her two children
joined her colonizer husband, Moe, in leaving the comfortable Party
concentration in the Strawberry Mansion section to live in a nearby
industrial town. She refers to the next three and a half years as "not
the easiest times and, yet to me, personally, one of the best growing
experiences—and I have never regretted it." (Moe's wry rejoinder was
"She didn't have to work the blast furnaces.")
There were only three Party families in the town, quite a difference
from the thirty or forty Party friends they left behind in Strawberry
Mansion. While Moe worked the furnaces and tried to develop contacts
with plant workers, Sarah joined a folk dance group at the local "Y,"
where she got to know Greek, Yugoslav, Italian, and other immigrant
women. Moe, limited in the plant to a small Party circle of colonizers
and sympathizers, was able to socialize with the husbands of Sarah's
folk dancing partners.
Colonizers often ended up working with a local Party apparatus while
their wives, working through neighborhood networks, reached into the
community through its women, older people, and children. Asie Repice
casually but proudly concluded about her work with a community center
during the war years; "I am an organizer, so I organized a nursery." Her
husband was in the service. Moving around to stay close to his base, she
put her organizing abilities and political values to work. Such efforts
remain an unwritten chapter in the history of radical organizing.=26
*/functionaries/*
Few district functionaries other than Sam Darcy achieved any national
stature or had much leverage outside the district. Dave Davis, the
business manager of UE Local 155 and an importantPhiladelphia-area labor
leader, was often elected to the Party's national committee but never
entered the inner decision-making group. Other district leaders—like Pat
Toohey, Phil Bart, Phil Frankfeld, and Ed Strong—were D.O.s sent into
the district and then moved out again to other assignments.
Most district functionaries played dominant roles within the district
committee and ran such important Party operations as the local
Progressive Party and the Civil Rights Congress. They drew meager
salaries, which were sometimes supplemented by Party-related employment.
The Party network, at least during the late thirties and forties, could
place members in some union jobs.=27
Possibly several dozen members depended on the Party for their
livelihood in this way.
*/nonmembers/*
One often encounters Communists who, for very specific reasons, were not
formal Party members. One former Progressive Party leader never joined
the Party but worked closely with district Communist leaders to map
strategy and coordinate activity. Some union leaders stayed out of the
Party to deny employers the red-baiting weapon, and a number dropped out
after the Taft-Hartley Act made a union officer liable to prosecution
for perjury if he lied about current Party membership.=28
*/professionals/*
Some professionals who joined the Party operated at a rank-and-file
level, belonging to a professional branch or club, attending meetings,
and fulfilling subscription quotas. Several recall being highly
impressed with the other professionals they met at Party functions. But
such members—often doctors, dentists, and architects—were on the margins
of Party life.
Many professionals, especially lawyers associated with Party causes,
found membership problematic and chose not to formalize their
relationships with the Party, though they might be members of a
professional club. "I fought against loose tongues," one states."I never
asked a soul whether they were Communists or not." Several left-wing
attorneys stress that they did not want to be in a position to betray
anyone or risk a perjury charge if questioned about their own
affiliations and associations. The law in America is a conservative
profession, and several Left lawyers paid a high price for their
efforts.=29
Another consideration was that the Party sometimes pressured lawyers to
use a particular legal strategy in Party-related cases, and such
pressure was more effectively applied to members.=30
One attorney notes that the Party itself seemed ambivalent about
requiring formal membership. A few district leaders pressured him to
join, while others understood that it was not particularly useful or
necessary.
Some lawyers, whether members or not, found their services very much in
demand. They were needed in labor negotiations, electoral activities,
and civil rights and civil liberties cases. In the late forties and
early fifties, Party-affiliated lawyers found it less easy than it had
been to earn a living through Party-based clients, such as left-wing
unions. Instead they were called upon to deal with the titanic task of
defending Party members indicted under the Smith Act and other pieces of
repressive legislation. Thanks to this demand, as one attorney suggests,
they received special treatment from the district leadership. They mixed
with labor leaders, politicians, judges, and, at times, the national
Party leadership. Several had more contact with the non-Communist local
authorities than district functionaries had. One left-wing attorney
recalls that he had the luxury of criticizing Party policies and
decisions, within limits, because "I was needed, I was special, a lawyer."
More significant than membership was the degree of autonomy a member
had, and this was based on his importance to the Party or his
institutional leverage. A professional could get away with criticism of
the Nazi-Soviet Pact that would not be tolerated from rank-and-filers or
most cadres. A union leader could ignore Party instructions, aware that
his own organization was his power base. A former Communist, George
Charney, criticizes in his memoirsthe "left-wing aristocracy of labor
that rarely mingled with the herd of party members or the middle
functionaries."=31
Such trade-unions "influentials" often had contempt for functionaries
and would go over their heads to top leadership.
Those who entered the Party, at whatever level, in whatever role,
operated within a well-defined organization and lived within a somewhat
insular and often nurturing subculture that provided them with formal
and informal relationships. These relationships eased the often lonely
organizing work. One veteran unashamedly calls his fellow Communist
organizers "the most dedicated, most selfless people in the struggle."
Many would share Jessica Mitford's feelings:
I had regarded joining the Party as one of the most important decisions
of my adult life. I loved and admired the people in it, and was more
than willing to accept the leadership of those far more experienced than
I. Furthermore, the principle of democratic centralism seemed to me
essential to the functioning of a revolutionary organization in a
hostile world.=32
Any tendency to romanticize such activists must be tempered by an
awareness of their mistakes, limitations, and weaknesses, and it is true
that many non-Communists made similar commitments to organizing the
oppressed and the weak. They too merit consideration. These Philadelphia
veterans of the Communist Party are very human actors who worked on a
particular historical stage. Some conclude that their years of effort
never really brought any of their factory and shop constituents into the
movement. Like Sol Davis, they admit that they were utter failures in
that "cultural, political, and philosophical wasteland" of blue-collar
America. Others share the pride, perhaps the arrogance, of one of Vivian
Gornick's subjects:
We're everywhere, everywhere. We/saved/this fucking country. We went to
Spain, and because we did America understood fascism. We made Vietnam
come to an end, we're in there inWatergate. We built the CIO, we got
Roosevelt elected, we started black civil rights, we forced this shitty
country into every piece of action and legislation it has ever taken. We
did the dirty work and the Labor and Capital establishments got the
rewards. The Party helped make democracy work.=33
The road from Spain to Watergate is a long one. Communists, euphoric at
their prospects in the heyday of CIO sit-downs and Popular Front
triumphs, later needed remarkable inner resources to sustain political
activity. They sensed the first tremors from the purge trials, received
a severe jolt from the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, and in
the postwar years faced first political repression and then, more
painfully, internal disintegration and demoralization.
NEXT CHAPTER
seven: problems and crises, 1939–1956
the founder of Black Lives Matter once described herself as a trained
, like Obama, but I could only find this:
https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/blm-co-founder-describes-herself-as-trained-marxist/
On 10/17/22 10:32 wrote:
Since many believe Obama is running the Marxist Biden administration
We might want to look at a history of comnunist organizing,
euphemistically called a community organizing
https://temple.manifoldapp.org/read/philadelphia-communists-1936-1956/section/c5cbd6e3-ed24-4bcb-97b0-da424fc58416
*/the communist as organizer/*
In the period between the Great Crash and the McCarthy era the CPUSA
was the most effective organizing agency within the American
experience.^1
In this most politically stable of societies, radicals have usually
battered their heads against the stone wall of affluence, rising
expectations, and Democratic Party loyalty. Within the narrow space of
agitation allowed by the political order, Communist Party activists
built a small but influential organization devoted to organizing
constituencies for social change. According to even the most
unsympathetic accounts, Communist activists played important roles in
organizing the unemployed, evicted tenants, minorities, and workers in
a wide variety of fields. They were central in the emergence of the
CIO and thus in the organizing of workers in heavy industry and mass
production; they spearheaded the defense of the right of black people
to equality before the law and social and economic opportunity; and
they participated in virtually all of the nationalefforts to establish
humane social services and eliminate hunger, disease, and neglect from
our communities.^2
Many analysts question the motives of Communist Party activists, and
there certainly is controversy about the extent of their organizing
successes. Nevertheless, Communist organizing merits serious and
objective consideration. For a period of approximately thirty years,
Communist Party activists and organizers sought out constituents in
the mines, plants, and neighborhoods of the United States. Other
left-wing groups, such as the Socialist Party, the Trotskyist
Socialist Workers Party, and A. J. Muste's Workers Party, also deserve
study, but the CPUSA offers students the best opportunity to examine
the dynamics of organizing sponsored and directed by a radical
political group.^3
The organizers under consideration came to political maturity during
the 1930s, mostly in an era associated with the Popular Front, and
remained within the Party until at least the mid-Fifties. Indeed, many
remained active organizers and participants after leaving the
organizational framework of the Communist Party. In the thirties and
forties, they modified their Bolshevik rhetoric and participated in
antifascist alliances, worked for modest short-term successes within
the fledgling CIO, and provided support and manpower for a diverse
group of radical and progressive political movements and leaders,
including Democrats, Farmer-Laborites, the American Labor Party in New
York, and Communist Party councilmen in New York City, all under an
essentially New Deal banner.^4
Organizers operating in the greater Philadelphia district had
important trade-union successes and played a key role in organizing
unemployed councils, electoral efforts, tenant rights, and peace,
professional lobbying, civil liberties, ethnically based, and
neighborhood groups. For a period of approximately ten years, from
1936 to perhaps 1947, the Communist Party of Eastern Pennsylvania and
Delaware, District Three, played an important if modest role in the
political life of the area, generating ideas, programs, and visions
that later became the commonplaces of social policy.
The Party offered its membership several roles. One could remain at
the rank-and-file level, become a cadre, or rise to functionary. One
could engage in mass work within one of the Party fronts or a
non-Party organization (e.g., the YMCA) or one could become a
"colonizer," engaging in industrial organizing at the beck and call of
the Party. In addition, one could work within the professional
section, providing the Party with such services as legal counsel.^5
*/rank and file/*
At the lowest level of Party membership were the rank and file, the
proverbial "Jimmy Higginses" who worked within Party clubs and
branches, paid their dues, went to a variety of meetings, and joined
the mass organizations and fronts, often focusing on a specific issue
like Spain, civil rights, or Scottsboro. Such rank-and-filers were at
the heart of everyday activities and what Gornick calls "grinding
ordinariness."^6
There was an extraordinary turnover among such members, who often
became weary of meetings,/Daily Worker/solicitations, and office chores.
Many rank-and-filers began their activism while in college or
sometimes high school. The Philadelphia high school movement was quite
sizable, including ASU and YCL chapters in at least eight schools.
High school activists ranged throughout the city, meeting radical
peers, socializing, and developing their own circle of comrades. For
those who entered college either already active or about to be
radicalized, there was an almost dizzying flow of activities,
including demonstrations, marches, sit-downs, leaflettings,
fundraisers, dances, parties, socials, lectures, speeches—and
meetings. Always, there were meetings, one for every night of the
week, often more.^7
Enthusiastic, recently converted Communists, like their spiritual
children in the 1960s, had unbounded energy for political work. Most
speak of being aroused and inspired by their sense of the significance
of their efforts, the quality of their comrades, and the grandeur and
power of their movement. Abe Shapiro recalls being engrossed at one
time in the following activities: formal YCL meetings, ASU leadership,
a universityantiwar council (of which he was director), Spanish civil
war relief efforts, a variety of antifascist activities, a student-run
bookstore cooperative, and support work for assorted civil liberties
and civil rights causes. Some activists found schoolwork boring under
the circumstances and devoted all of their time to politics. A few
became "colonizers." In most cases, however, Communist students
completed their degree work, and if they dropped out of school, it was
often for financial reasons. For most, the excitement of campus
politics held their attention and their interest.
Some found Party youth work a path toward leadership, becoming
citywide or national ASU or YCL leaders. Others on leaving campus
became YCL branch or section organizers in different parts of the
district.
Many who did not attend college did neighborhood work with the YCL,
often focusing their mass organizational efforts through the American
League for Peace and Democracy. To many youthful rank-and-filers, "the
YCL became . . . Marxist-Leninist theory all mixed up with baseball,
screwing, dancing, selling the/Daily Worker/, bullshitting, and living
the American-Jewish street life."^8
Certainly the first flush of radicalism, the emotional high of
purposeful activity, the sense of accomplishment and of sacrifice for
the good of humanity, the work with fine and noble comrades, the love
affairs with those sharing a common vision, the expectation that the
future was indeed theirs, created a honeymoon effect for most young
Communists.
For some, the fad of radicalism passed upon graduation or thereabouts.
Others simply maintained a regular but distant "fellow-traveling" role
as they entered the work world. And many were disillusioned by the
Party's dogmatism or the great purge trials, the attacks on Trotsky,
or the Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. Others, including those
interviewed, remained in the Party. The shortest stay was six years,
and most remained loyal for twenty years or more. For all of those who
stayed, the Party and its small subculture became their lives.
Those working at the branch, club, and section levels were rarely on
the Party payroll and had to find work to supportthemselves. For
single people problems were few and life could be lived at a
double-time pace, working hard all day and then organizing and holding
meetings every night.
Some young Communists drifted for a time after school, doing Party
work but not settling into anything. Ben Green lived in Strawberry
Mansion, a lower-middle- and working-class Jewish neighborhood filled
with Party people at the time. He did some work with the American
League Against War and Fascism, spoke on street corners occasionally,
went to three to four meetings a week, and helped to start a union
local of public employees at his Works Progress Administration (WPA)
office. He remembers that the Party "made it a big thing" when he
shifted from the YCL to adult membership, but he was still looking at
his future with uncertainty.
Upon completing high school, George Paine felt that "sports were gone"
from his life except for an occasional neighborhood basketball game.
He kept in touch but saw less of old non-Party buddies and did
standard political work, "hustling the paper," going to meetings,
demonstrating. Finally he decided to go to college, suspending but not
ending his Party ties.
One rank-and-filer was a skilled craftsman, "glad of the class I was
born into." He belonged to a conservative craft union and limited his
political work to mass work at the local YMCA. He never really got
involved with a club or branch group but paid his dues, subscribed to
the paper, and worked with comrades to move the "Y" in a more
"progressive" direction. He was quite open about his views, which
would eventually get him into trouble at his job: "I felt that since
to me everything was so clear, they'd hug me."
Tim Palen, a farmer and skilled craftsman who lived in a rural suburb
of Philadelphia, worked with the Farmers Union. A Party
rank-and-filer, he helped farmers get low-interest loans through the
union and sympathetic banks. Palen never involved himself with Party
affairs in the city, and the highest office he held was dues secretary
of his section.
Since the Communist Party did not formally label members according to
their rank, it is not always clear who was a rank-and-filer and who
was considered cadre. One former district leader defines cadres as the
people in training for leadership, like officers in an army. The rank
and file are, therefore, foot soldiers, less involved and more a part
of their own neighborhood or plant, more likely to hold conventional
jobs, and more subject to pressures from neighbors, family, and
changing circumstances. Annie Kriegel, who analyzes the French
Communist Party as a set of concentric circles, places fellow
travelers who vote for the Party and read the Sunday Party press on
the "outer circle" and "ordinary party members" in the "first
circle."^9
Many observers describe such rank-and-filers as less "Bolshevik"—that
is, more likely to break Party discipline in everyday activity and
closer to the behavior and sensibilities of their non-Party peers.
Harvey Klehr puts it, "Many party members received no training of any
kind, attendance at party meetings was often spotty, and members
frequently ignored or failed to carry out assigned tasks."^10
Almond presents esoteric and exoteric models to distinguish
rank-and-filer from cadre, suggesting that the Party daily press
directed itself to the relatively idealistic and naive external
members, while the Comintern, Cominform, and internal Party journals
spoke to insiders and sophisticated activists.^11
*/cadre/*
The cadre has a "personal commitment." He or she is a "true
Bolshevik," internally Communized, with an almost priestly function
and sense of specialness. The cadre is a "professional revolutionary"
along Leninist lines.^12
Philip Selznick adds that cadres are "deployable personnel," available
to the Party at all times.^13
Some observers use "cadre" interchangeably with "functionary," while
others distinguish them. I interpret "functionary" as a more
administrative and executive role, usually carrying more authority and
generally associated with top district and national leadership.^14
Cadres were field workers, organizers, sometimes on the payroll but
often holding a non-Party job. Some more mobile cadres lefttheir own
neighborhoods, but most worked at least within their home districts.
(Functionaries, on the other hand, could be homegrown and
district-bound or at the service of the national, even international,
office.)
Many studies exaggerate the distinction between inner core and outer
rings because of their dependence on the abstractions of Party tracts.
Almond, for example, claims that the "true Communist" was beyond any
commitment to the Popular Front since he was presumably fully
Bolshevized and aware of the duplicity and tactical nature of
moderated rhetoric. Perhaps this is true of the national leadership,
who had associations with Moscow, training at the Lenin School, and
Comintern experience. At the district level, however, the patterns are
not as clear and seem to be more sensitive to generational, class, and
ethnic variables.^15
Among informants, the word "cadre" connoted "hard-working," "brave,"
"dogged," and "honorable"—someone who followed a Leninist model of
behavior; "functionary," on the other hand, was often used negatively
to imply that someone was "bureaucratic," "aloof," "abstract," and
"remote from struggle"—in brief, the Stalinist/apparatchik/. Neither
necessarily belonged to an inner core.
Fred Garst tells of the "process of indoctrination" he underwent as he
entered into Party life, beginning with "the regularity of systematic
participation"—dues, meetings, selling Party literature. He says that
the number of meetings began slowly to escalate to three, sometimes
five a week: section and subsection meetings, executive meetings,
front meetings. Next, Garst was asked to lead a discussion, then to
take responsibility for organizing the distribution of literature. He
started taking classes at a local Workers School in Marxist theory and
labor history. His commitment grew, his experience deepened, and he
soon became a section leader.
Some Philadelphia Communists moved from rank-and-file to cadre roles
during important political campaigns like theProgressive Party efforts
of 1947–1948. One woman had been serving in a minor capacity—"not
anything earth-shattering"—but was swept up by what Wallace referred
to as "Gideon's Army." She became a full-time Progressive Party
organizer at a district level, her "first real organizing"; from that
point on, she was fully involved in Party work at a variety of levels.
Some cadres emphasized front and mass work, serving as leaders of IWO
ethnic groups, youth groups, and defense groups. Such cadres were
particularly likely to operate clandestinely, although many
communicated their affilitation all but formally to constituents.
Cadres can be distinguished by their level of operation (club, branch,
section, or district), by their funding (on the payroll or holding a
regular job), by their relative mobility and willingness to do
political work outside their own milieu, and, finally, by the type of
organizing they did (mass or front work, electoral party work,
industrial organizing). The most prestigious cadres were those who did
full-time industrial organizing at the will of the Party leadership.
Such organizers, whether of working-class origins or not and whether
indigenous or colonizers, were the heart of Party operations, seeking
to develop a proletarian constituency and a trade-union base.
/ny tisa/
ny Tisa's history shows what an experienced organizer could
accomplish. Tisa, a second-generation son of illiterate, working-class
peasants, went to work at the Campbell's Soup plant in his own South
Camden "Little Italy" after completing high school in the early 1930s.
While working summers at the plant, he had been stimulated by
street-corner radical speakers and had joined the Socialist Party,
which had a presence at Campbell's Soup. The Socialists sent him to
Brookwood Labor College, where he met young Communists who impressed
him with their earnestness and apparent lack of factionalism, a
problem he encountered among the Socialists. He returned to help
organize the plant, starting with a small group of about a half-dozen
Italian workers, none of themCommunists, whom he molded through a
discussion group. His group received a federal charter from the
American Federation of Labor and began to develop an underground,
dues-paying membership.
Tisa tells of frustrating experiences within the conservative AFL. At
the 1939 convention in Tampa, for example, he found himself accidently
strolling into a local walk-out of Del Monte workers, just as the
police were arresting the leader. He spoke to thery workers and
was himself threatened with arrest. The workers exclaimed, "You got Bo
[the arrested leader] but you're not gonna get him," and made a ring
to escort Tisa to a streetcar. That evening, at his suggestion, there
was a union meeting, packed and excited. When Tisa tried to speak
about this remarkable experience at the AFL convention, he was refused
the floor. Finally he simply took over the podium and microphone.
Later that day, he met with other militants, including Communists, to
organize the ClO-affiliated Food, Tobacco and Agricultural Workers Union.
He took a detour, however, as events in Spain captured his energies
and idealism. Tisa served two years in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade, gaining "a sense of internationalism that never escapes you."
On his return, he immediately set out to organize Campbell's Soup.
At the time Tisa began to organize it, Campbell's Soup employed about
5,500 full-time workers, with another 5,000 part-timers who came in
during the heavy season. At least half the workers were of Italian
descent; there were few blacks until the late 1940s. About half the
work force was female. There was a sexual division of labor based on
physical strength. Tisa's organizing group consisted of eleven or
twelve key workers, all leftists, mostly Italian. None were
"colonizers." All were indigenous workers who, under Tisa's
leadership, planned the unionization of Campbell's. Tisa recalls that
the group would often go crabbing and then return to his home to eat,
drink, and talk strategy. Tisa was the only member of the group on the
national union's payroll; he made a bare ten or fifteen dollars a week.
The organizers distributed themselves through the plant, reaching out
to obvious sympathizers and picking up useful information that they
would relay to Tisa, who could not enter the plant. He would take
names and visit workers in their homes, signing them up so that the
union could hold a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. He
would also cull information about working conditions from his
organizers and publish it in a union bulletin that they distributed
clandestinely, each carrying five to ten copies.
As their numbers increased, they became bolder and distributed the
much discussed bulletin openly. Campbell's Soup had Tisa arrested
once, but when he was released, many workers came to greet him. He
assured them that the law permitted them to organize a union. The
company tried many tactics to block his efforts: they started a
company union; they charged that he was a "Red" and had raped nuns and
killed priests in Spain. But Tisa lived in an Italian neighborhood
among plant workers and had a mother who had worked in the plant for
many years (cheering his speeches, often at the wrong times, he wryly
and lovingly notes); he could not be red-baited easily. He was an open
Communist; his neighbors would say, "ny's a Communist, but he's
all right." Despite the real barrier of the workers'traditional
Catholicism, he produced traditional trade-union benefits for members
and was popular enough locally, a neighbor, to remain in leadership
until the CIO purges of the late forties and early fifties finally
forced him out.
Tisa's experience highlights the importance of developing indigenous
personnel in organizing activity. His efforts were certainly bolstered
by support from the national union, by Communist Party training and
aid, and by the relative benevolence of the federal government as
expressed through the new NLRB. Yet the presence of local activists,
something the Communist Party sought but did not often achieve,
invariably made the task of organizing a plant or neighborhood that
much easier.
Other organizers performed similar roles without formally entering the
Party, preferring to remain independent although generally taking
positions consistent with Party policy.
/jack ryan/
Jack Ryan's old man was "a union man," later a foreman, a local
Democratic politician, and a bootlegger. As a teen-ager, and a high
school drop-out, Ryan ran poker and crap games in the neighborhood
with a group of friends, some of whom wound up in prison. He worked
sporadically as a roofer, during which time he was influenced by a
socialist "who couldn't read or write until he was twenty-three."
His father finally got him a job at a local plant, where he worked as
a crane operator in the early Depression years until he was laid off
in 1931. Over the next two years, he tried a small store and "managed
to hang on," selling water ice and running crap games. In 1933 he went
back to the plant just at the point when the local union was being
formed. Ryan recalls that he was "sworn in in an elevator with the
lights out in between the floors." Despite his emerging radical
politics, Ryan remained on the margins at first. "I deliberately
didn't get active," he says, indicating that life seemed too
unpredictable to take chances. In fact, he entered into a real-estate
business on the side, and it eventually provided him with the cushion
that allowed him to become more active within the plant.
Initially he ran for the general committee, backed by the other crane
operators because of his successful grievance work. Still cautious ("I
kept my mouth shut," he notes), Ryan went along with the conservative
local leadership while maintaining contact with the plant militants,
several of whom were old Wobblies suspicious of any Communist Party
leadership. Ryan worked primarily through his own crane operators'
network within the plant. He played the trade-offs in union posts
among the plant's crafts to become local president, an unpaid post,
and finally business representative, the only salaried position within
the local. Ryanremained close to the Party but never joined. "I was
more radical than they were," he brags. He criticizes their twists and
turns and suggests that "in the end you can't trust any of them"
because of "the goddamn line." He adds that the/Daily Worker/was
"written for a bunch of morons." On the other hand, Ryan admits that
Party union members were often competent and successful organizers and
that he agreed with most of their Popular Front stances, particularly
their antifascism. On the Soviets, he says that he did not spend too
much time thinking about them, but adds, "I don't blame them for
having a treaty with the Germans."
Ryan is clearly concerned with the practical issues of trade unionism.
In describing one of his national officers, he exclaims, "A dedicated
Communist but a helluva guy." He praises L. Lewis's efforts at
industrial unionization: "him and the Commies put together the CIO;
they were the smartest crowd." So Jack Ryan worked with but kept some
distance from "the Commies": "they were a little bit nutty." His union
was one of those expelled from the CIO in the late forties, and he
remains bitter about the Party's role in the union's decline. He
remained active, holding union office on and off until his retirement.
Ryan proudly concludes that he was placed on Social Security while on
strike for the last time in the early seventies.
ny Tisa and Jack Ryan were working-class organizers, with roots in
their ethnic communities, able to establish a rapport with their peers
and, at the same time, develop more sophisticated skills within a
broader and more ideological movement in or around the Communist
Party. Their failures were mostly exogenous, the results of
Taft-Hartley oaths, CIO purges, and McCarthyism in general.
Others operated in less favorable terrain, without the decided
advantages of an indigenous, working-class background. The most
characteristic Party labor organizer was a young, educated,
second-generation Jewish-American sent to "dig roots into the
working-class." The efforts of such organizers were prodigious; their
accomplishments, however, were more problematic.
/al schwartz/
Al Schwartz's father was a 1905er, a Party organizer in the garment
industry who had to open a small shop after he was blacklisted. Al, a
classic "red-diaper baby," went through all of the Party developmental
steps, from Young Pioneers through YCL to full Party involvement. Most
of all he wanted to be a radical journalist. For a few years he was
able to work on the Pennsylvania supplement to the/Worker/, but when
it folded, his journalism career seemed over. Over the next half-dozen
years, Schwartz, now in his late twenties, went into the shops as a
"colonizer." He remembers the sense of adventure and mission he felt
working at a few of the larger heavy industrial plants in the area.
Yet he also speaks of his sense of loss and defeat in having to
aban hopes of writing. Schwartz's response to colonizing was
painfully ambivalent: a college graduate and a Jew, born and bred
within the Yiddish-Left subculture, he both relished the contact with
blue-collar workers and remained distant from them. They were not like
him, he stresses; they were mired in back-breaking labor, poor
educations, and plebian forms of leisure. For a time he enjoyed the
camaraderie of the local taverns, but ultimately he was an outsider, a
Jewish family man and a struggling intellectual. Schwartz most fondly
recalls the hardness and fitness of his body, the feeling that he was
young and strong and physically a worker. But the successes were few,
and later the McCarthy period made such Party efforts even more
marginal. Schwartz found himself a family man in his mid-thirties
without a career or a profession; frustrated and drifting out of Party
life without drama or flourish, he moved to reorganize his life. His
political values held, but his colonizing days were over.
/sol davis/
Sol Davis grew up in a poor, working-class, immigrant household. He
was a bright young boy, and like many other upwardly aspiring Jewish
males, he flourished at the elite Central High School andbegan moving
toward a professional career. At this point, in the early years of the
Depression, he was swept off his feet, as he puts it, by the Communist
Party. After completing his schooling, he worked lackadaisically at
his profession while seeking an opportunity to go into the shops as a
Communist Party organizer; he was "determined to be shop worker."
His first attempts allowed him to learn something about machinery,
although in each instance he was fired for his inexperience and
incompetence. Finally he caught on. "I was in my element," he asserts,
describing the war years in heavy industry. For Davis, the good
organizer had to have a commitment to "the principles of Communism,"
"a talent for leadership," and a willingness to listen. A confident
speaker, whose words are clipped and terse, he worked twenty-nine
years in the shops, twenty-six of them at one plant. Located within
the city, the plant was staffed mostly by Catholic workers (Polish or
Irish), initially few blacks, and even fewer Jews.
Davis's recollections are filled with bitter refrains about
red-baiting and "turn-coat ex-CPers," sell-outs and "social
democrats." He is proud of his successes, which include chairing the
grievance committee and serving as shop steward during most of his
union years. Davis presents his life as devoted to organizing in the
shops; he never got involved in his neighborhood and tended to leave
Party electoral work to others. A hard-line orthodox Communist still,
Davis argues that those who abandoned the Party were "petty-bourgeois
with petty-bourgeois ideas," whereas he "was nursed out of the
trade-union movement." In the fifties, he admits, "life became
unpleasant," both in his largely Jewish lower-middle-class
neighborhood and in the shop, where "a certain resistance developed to
my activity" among people he calls anti-Communist socialists.
Davis believes that most American workers have been bought off in
"discrete and discernible fashion" by imperialist profits, manipulated
by the mass media, and blinded by nationalism, religion, and racism.
After spending almost thirty years in theindustrial heartland, Davis
remains "dedicated to an idea," an "unquestioned belief" in communism.
Yet when asked about his ability to convert workers to class
consciousness, a saddened Sol Davis replies, "Never—the shop was a
desert for me." He did not convert a single worker and was "in that
respect an utter failure." The shops, to the stoical Davis, were "a
cultural, political, and philosophical wasteland despite having made
so many friends." Sol Davis has kept the faith since he was "baptized"
in the movement; his singular lack of organizing success rests, in his
mind, on factors beyond his control—repression, cowardice,
self-interest. He is a confident man.
/ caldwell/
Other colonizers had more mixed results. Caldwell, a college
graduate with a middle-class WASP heritage, recalls that in his
initial colonizing effort, "I wasn't very smart and made a lot of
stupid mistakes—talked to people, became known as a troublemaker." He
was fired. Fortunately for Caldwell, his firing made him a "celebrated
case," and the predominantly Irish and Italian Catholic workers, and
even the conservative union officials, rallied to his support.
Caldwell says that whereas other Party organizers had their best
contact in their own departments, he touched bases throughout the
plant and often socialized at the local bar to maintain and develop
relationships. "A fair number knew I was a Communist," he says. "I
never denied it." But most did not. In most plants to admit membership
in the Party meant probable firing and certain harassment. For
organizers like Caldwell, discretion was the rule.
His efforts paid off against the union's local establishment. The
national, a left-wing union, sent in an organizer to help fashion a
local coalition to defeat the established group, and Caldwell worked
with him as elections chairman. The progressive slate was successful.
Caldwell, a leader of a left-wing veterans' group, participated in the
1946 strike surge. When mounted police chased people ontoporches in
Southwest Philadelphia to break up injunction-defying demonstrations,
the local CIO was able to bring out 25,000 workers to protest against
police brutality in front of City Hall. But such Popular Front-style
unified efforts were shattered by the developing Cold War consensus,
which began to drive radicals, particularly Party members, out of the
unions.
Caldwell shifted jobs in this period, finally taking a full-time
organizing job in a nearby industrial town. The plant had some IWO
members and a few Party members, but no organization. Caldwell, who
observes that "it really became difficult after the Korean War"
started, found some success in putting out a small paper and handing
it out at the main gates. He worked to develop contacts mainly by
distributing the Party paper, first for free, then by subscription.
Caldwell remembers proudly that he won a district drive with eighty
subscriptions in his area. Gains were modest: a Hungarian sympathizer
sent him two black shop stewards; then a few Irish Catholics made
contact. Caldwell recalls going into Philadelphia to see prize fights
with the latter workers, mixing pleasure with discussions of possible
articles about their area for the Party press.
But the times wrecked any chance Caldwell had of developing a Party
group. The FBI scared off possible sympathizers; he was arrested for
circulating antiwar petitions, and the venture finally ended in the
heyday of the McCarthy period when Caldwell was sent to join the
Party's underground.
Caldwell and Al Schwartz experienced the ebb of the progressive union
movement in the late forties and early fifties. Most Party labor
organizers and colonizers, however, joined the fray during the
extraordinary upsurge of the late thirties that established industrial
unionism through the CIO.
/milt goldberg/
Milt Goldberg, despite winning a Mayor's Scholarship, was unable to
continue his education after graduating from Central High School.
Instead, he scratched to make a living at odd jobs, gradually becoming
interested in radical politics. While he wasworking a pre-Christmas
job at Sears, the department store warehousemen went out on strike.
Clerks refused to cross the picket lines. Goldberg recalls that the
increasingly anxious owners persuaded the clerks to return to work
with promises of improved conditions and wage increases that were
never fulfilled; meanwhile, the warehousemen settled. In the
aftermath, the strike leaders were all fired. Goldberg says that many
of them were Communists and that he began to notice how often that was
the case: "I respected the Party people; they were able, talented people."
Goldberg became an organizer for a white-collar union dominated by
mobsters who made deals with management at the expense of the
membership. He describes his early efforts as "naive, inexperienced."
Goldberg played a key role in leading his membership out of the
corrupt union into a new CIO local, whose Philadelphia office staff
was dominated by Party organizers. In those days, the late thirties,
the era of sit-downs and a crescendo of collective bargaining
agreements, organizing was remarkably fluid. Goldberg says that
charters were granted easily and with little need for substantiation
or the apparatus of negotiation soon to appear under the NLRB. In
those days, he asserts with some nostalgia, one could go in and
organize a place in one or two days, present demands to the employer,
and make a deal. Such rapid victories were, of course, exceptions;
Goldberg also recalls the often brutal resistance of management,
particularly in heavy industry.
After serving in the war, Goldberg returned to his union efforts,
despite family advice that he try something more prestigious and
lucrative. The union was his life, so he stayed. He never formally
rejoined the Party, although he remained in close contact. The
Taft-Harley anti-Communist oath soon reinforced this decision.
Nevertheless, Goldberg and his small union were red-baited and
constantly under McCarthyite attack.
How did he survive? Goldberg argues that he "was very close to the
membership" and had solid support from his fellow leaders. He
emphasizes that the union provided real benefits and servicesto
membership and sustained their loyalty despite the attacks. In
addition, he notes that by this time the small union did not have a
Party group, only him. One of the more damaging policies of
Party-dominated unions was what Goldberg calls "the resolution
bit"—the passing of Party-sponsored resolutions on every issue from
Scottsboro to Spain. Too many left-wing unions manipulated such
resolutions without making any effort to educate the membership; all
that mattered was that local such-and-such of the so-and-so workers
sent a resolution attacking Franco's dictatorship in Spain. Goldberg
dropped such tactics in the postwar period, instead working with his
local's officers and servicing the practical needs of the membership.
By the mid-fifties, still a socialist, Milt Goldberg had become
estranged from the Communist Party.
As is true of most arts, the qualities that make for a successful
organizer are uncertain and descriptions are inevitably cliche-ridden.
As the experiences of ny Tisa and Jack Ryan indicate, having roots
in the work force being organized gives one a decided advantage. But
the Party could use only the troops it had available, and these were
for the most part educated, urban, Jewish Americans, most of whom had
no experience in the heavy industries that were their "colonies." Most
of them experienced frustration; one cadre estimates that 95 percent
of all Party colonizers failed. Too often colonizers were unable to
operate in a sea of Gentile proletarians. Fred Garst, stillry at
the Party for its insensitivity to context, charges that "the Left
didn't have any organizing skills." But some organizers, remarkably,
succeeded.
/ike samuels/
Ike Samuels still speaks with an accent that reveals the years he
spent in Eastern Europe before his mother, taking the remains of the
family silver, arrived in the United States. No red-diaper baby,
Samuels describes his youth as "street-wise" and his ambition as
making it in America. Like many others, however, "the whole thing
burst into flame" when the Depression forced him to dropout of school
and hunger marches, bonus marches, and unemployed council protests
acted on his emerging social conscience. Soon he was moving toward the
Party and engaging in union organizing.
Samuels, a gruff, self-deprecating man who often refers to his "big
mouth," rose to leadership within a small craft union and served on
the city CIO council. His CIO union was dominated by a Popular Front
coalition of the Party and a progressive Catholic group. The union
president, a leader of the latter, was incompetent; on several
occasions Samuels had to bail him out of collective-bargaining
disasters. Finally the Catholic faction and the Party faction sought
to replace the president with Samuels. The national Party leadership,
however, afraid of upsetting the delicate coalition, said no. Samuels
recalls that he "didn't even question" the decision, but he was
frustrated and soon left the union to become an organizer for a
larger, industrial union.
Samuels agrees with Milt Goldberg that it was relatively easy to be a
good organizer in that period. Labor was in an upswing, workers were
clamoring to be organized, NLRB cards were easy to accumulate. In
heavy industry, Samuels stresses, the key was to seek out the pockets
of old radical workers—not colonizers, he emphasizes—who had broken
down the old ethnic barriers. Many such organizers were members of the
IWO foreign-language federations. Next, one needed the "pie-cards,"
the full-time organizers supplied by the CIO itself, many of whom were
veteran radicals. Along with and sometimes among the pie-cards were
the younger Communists going into the shops, supported by a growing
and confident Party organization. A "highly developed structure,"
Samuels recalls, was essential to organizing success. One had to
develop shop committees and day-to-day contacts in each department.
The sense of strength provided by the union itself and, crucially, by
its CIO sponsor, allowed workers to imagine that the employers could
be successfully challenged. In the automobile, steel, rubber, mining,
and electrical equipment industries, workers facedmammoth corporations
willing to use any means necessary to throw back the unionist surge.
The New Deal, by encouraging a more neutral judiciary and law
enforcement role, made it easier for the coordinated CIO drives to
gain concessions from corporate heads. Samuels suggests that the
workers, some of whom had backed decades of unsuccessful rank-and-file
efforts, needed the sense that they were a part of a powerful
coalition. L. Lewis appealed to this sense when he proclaimed,
"The President want you to join a union." Such a coalition advanced
unionization at the same time that it necessitated concessions and
strictures that limited the leverage of the newly legitimized
unions.^16
Samuels argues that it was imperative for organizers to have knowledge
of their industries. He deliberately worked in a craft shop to learn
the trade and later carefully studied one heavy industry before going
out to organize its workers. He was not typical. Hodee Edwards, a
thirties organizer, stresses "our consistent failure to investigate
the neighborhoods and factories where we tried to work, thus applying
a generalized, sectarian plan usually incomprehensible to those we
wanted to reach."^17
And Sam Katz suggests that the Party did not always recognize the
tension between the leadership and the activist/organizer over the
pace and nature of organizing. The functionaries often pushed for the
most advanced positions, including the "resolutions bit," whereas the
organizers focused on the issues that confronted their constituents.
Conflict was inevitable between broad policy and local needs and
variations, and between policy planners and functionaries and field
organizers and the rank and file. It is clear that the Communist Party
suffered chronically from top-heavy decision making, which often left
local organizers and members with policy directives that made little
sense in local circumstances.
In addition to organizational strength and preparation, Samuels feels
that leadership ability and, at times, personal courage must be
demonstrated. On several occasions he had to take risks or lose the
confidence of his membership. In one local the workers affectionately
referred to him as "R.R.J.B.," Red Russian JewBastard. He tells of
organizing workers in a small Georgia company town. Fifteen hundred
were on strike, and the patriarchal owners were negotiating only under
pressure from the NLRB. They were stalling, however, so Samuels called
on the work force to increase the pressure by massing outside the
building where the negotiations were taking place. The next day, in
the midst of bargaining, Samuels noticed the face of the company's
attorney turning an ash white as he glanced out the window. What he
saw were about three hundred workers marching toward the building
carrying a rope; lynching was on their agenda. Samuels went out and
calmed them down, "modified" their demands, and then wrapped up
negotiations. His early organizing days also included maritime
struggles with gangster elements who were not beyond "bumping off"
militants. Samuels implies that the Left elements fought back,
sometimes resorting to their own brand of physical intimidation.^18
Peggy Dennis describes the Bolshevik ideal as "soldiers in a
revolutionary army at permanent war with a powerful class enemy." And
"in permanent war, doubts or questions are treason."^19
Yet as Joseph Starobin asks, "How could the Leninist equilibrium be
sustained in a country so different from Lenin's?"^20
In fact, it was sustained unevenly and at a price. In a society with a
tradition of civil liberties (albeit inconsistently applied and
occasionally suspended in moments of stress) and a remarkably
resilient political democracy, the Leninist model, hardened and
distorted by Stalinism, mixed uncomfortably with American
realities.^21
At its best the Leninist ideal encouraged the incredible levels of
hard work and perseverance that even critics of Communism grant to its
cadres; it also evoked such personal qualities as integrity, courage,
honesty, and militancy. Yet the ideal seemed to degenerate too easily
into a model of behavior appropriately labeled Stalinist. Communist
cadres accepted deceptive tactics and strategies that inevitably
backfired and undermined theirintegrity and reputations—for example,
the front groups that "flip-flopped" at Party command after years of
denying Party domination. The intolerance and viciousness with which
Communists often attacked adversaries, including liberals, socialists,
and their own heretics, remains inexcusable.^22
As organizers, Communist activists suffered from a tendency toward a
special kind of elitism that often made them incapable of working with
diverse groups sharing common goals. In some periods they turned this
streak of inhumanity against themselves, engaging in ugly campaigns of
smear and character assassination to eliminate "Titoists,"
"Browderites," "revisionists," "left-wing adventurists," or "white
chauvinists."
Moreover, the secrecy within which Communists often operated, while
sometimes justified by the danger of job loss or prosecution, served
to undermine the Party's moral legitimacy. An organizer's relationship
with his constituents depends on their belief in his integrity, and
this is especially true when the organizer is an outsider. Too often,
Communists undermined their own integrity by covering manipulative and
cynical acts with the quite plausible explanation that survival
required secrecy. The tendency of Communists to resort to First and
Fifth Amendment protection during the McCarthy period falls under
similar challenges. As Joseph Starobin asks:
Should left-wingers and Communists have gone to jail in large numbers?
Might they have been better off/politically/, in terms of
their/image/, to assert their affiliations, to proclaim them instead
of asserting their right to keep them private, to explain the issues
as they saw them, and to take the consequences?^23
Communist activists certainly did not lack courage or commitment to a
protracted struggle. Many risked prison, and some served prison
sentences; perhaps as many as one-third of the cadres painfully
accepted assignments to go underground in the early fifties. Their
Leninism had to navigate contradictory currents of Stalinism and
Americanization, militancy and opportunism.
Local Communist activists often lived a somewhat schizophrenic life,
alternately internationalist and indigenous, Bolshevik and
"progressive," admiring the Leninist model of cadre and yet falling
into more settled, familial patterns of activism. There was a clear if
often ignored sexual division of labor: men were more likely to be the
cadres, women performed auxiliary clerical functions and unnoticed but
essential neighborhood organizing.
The Party was also divided between theorists and intellectuals on the
one hand and field workers and activists on the other. As one field
worker proclaimed, "I couldn't be spending hours on ideological
conflicts; I'm an activist, not an intellectual." Many agree that the
bulk of an organizer's time went into local actions and much less went
into discussions and considerations of important theoretical or
programmatic matters.^24
Only a small proportion received the type of ideological and
intellectual training suggested by the Leninist ideal, an ideal that
formally sought the obliteration of the distinctions between thought
and action, intellectual and activist.
In fact, Party intellectuals faced chronic and ingrained suspicion,
even contempt, from Party leaders. Abe Shapiro sardonically charges
that the function of Party intellectuals was "to sell the/Daily
Worker/at the waterfront." He remembers checking on a new Party
document on the economy: "I actually read the document. I wanted to
know what the Hell it was." He found it infantile and far below what
well-trained but never used Party intellectuals and social scientists
could have produced. The Party rarely, except for showcase purposes,
relied on its trained intellectual or academic members; instead, it
called on Party functionaries, often of very narrow training, to write
about complex sociological, economic, and scientific matters. Theory
suffered as a result, and the Party, particularly after 1939, included
very few intellectuals.
Until the mid-fifties crisis, the Party, strangled by Stalinist dogma
and intolerance, was closed to intellectual discourse. Abe Shapiro
finally left the Party because his intellectual training hadgiven him
a commitment to intellectual honesty that he could not shake. Among
organizers, Party arrogance cut off messages from the grass roots.
Orders from what one veteran calls "the Cave of Winds"—Party
headquarters in New York—often contradicted practical organizing
experience.
The Party also suffered from insularity. Mark Greenly brought
interested fellow workers to a Party-dominated union meeting. They
were curious and "antiboss" but quite unsophisticated and not at all
ready to make any commitments. Unfortunately, the Party organizer
immediately started to discuss class struggle and a variety of
abstract political matters. The workers were quickly alienated and
frightened away, never to return. Ethel Paine recalls such
"inappropriate behavior" as the sectarian conversations Party people
would carry on in the presence of non-Communist acquaintances and
neighbors. Although chronically secretive about membership, Communists
could be remarkably insensitive to their audience in revealing ways. A
successful organizer learned when and how to introduce more
controversial ideas to nonmembers. Training, including the Party
schools, helped to some extent, but most Communists agree with the
veteran organizer who feels that such learning has to be done on the
job, by trial and error. Many Communists, like Sam Katz and
Caldwell, tell painful if sometimes hilarious tales of their own and
others' ineptitude as beginning organizers. Some discovered that they
simply were not suited for the job and would never develop the
personal qualities that make for a competent organizer. Several
veterans insist that organizers are born, not made. Yet relatively
introverted and socially awkward young people, inspired by the
idealism and the comradeship of the Communist movement, did transform
themselves into effective organizers. Vivian Gornick points out that
such transformations did not always survive the collapse of
association with the Party.^25
I did not, however, discover total or near total personality changes
caused either by joining or abandoning the Party.
Although most of the literature about radical organizers deals with
men, it is increasingly apparent that some of the mostsignificant and
consistently ignored organizing within the Communist Party involved
women. The ten women interviewed performed a rich variety of Party
tasks, but perhaps the most important were those not officially
designated, like the informal neighborhood activities organized by
Edith Samuels, described inChapter Five
.
Sarah Levy was also involved in such efforts. Sarah and her two
children joined her colonizer husband, Moe, in leaving the comfortable
Party concentration in the Strawberry Mansion section to live in a
nearby industrial town. She refers to the next three and a half years
as "not the easiest times and, yet to me, personally, one of the best
growing experiences—and I have never regretted it." (Moe's wry
rejoinder was "She didn't have to work the blast furnaces.")
There were only three Party families in the town, quite a difference
from the thirty or forty Party friends they left behind in Strawberry
Mansion. While Moe worked the furnaces and tried to develop contacts
with plant workers, Sarah joined a folk dance group at the local "Y,"
where she got to know Greek, Yugoslav, Italian, and other immigrant
women. Moe, limited in the plant to a small Party circle of colonizers
and sympathizers, was able to socialize with the husbands of Sarah's
folk dancing partners.
Colonizers often ended up working with a local Party apparatus while
their wives, working through neighborhood networks, reached into the
community through its women, older people, and children. Asie
Repice casually but proudly concluded about her work with a community
center during the war years; "I am an organizer, so I organized a
nursery." Her husband was in the service. Moving around to stay close
to his base, she put her organizing abilities and political values to
work. Such efforts remain an unwritten chapter in the history of
radical organizing.^26
*/functionaries/*
Few district functionaries other than Sam Darcy achieved any national
stature or had much leverage outside the district. Dave Davis, the
business manager of UE Local 155 and an importantPhiladelphia-area
labor leader, was often elected to the Party's national committee but
never entered the inner decision-making group. Other district
leaders—like Pat Toohey, Phil Bart, Phil Frankfeld, and Ed Strong—were
D.O.s sent into the district and then moved out again to other
assignments.
Most district functionaries played dominant roles within the district
committee and ran such important Party operations as the local
Progressive Party and the Civil Rights Congress. They drew meager
salaries, which were sometimes supplemented by Party-related
employment. The Party network, at least during the late thirties and
forties, could place members in some union jobs.^27
Possibly several dozen members depended on the Party for their
livelihood in this way.
*/nonmembers/*
One often encounters Communists who, for very specific reasons, were
not formal Party members. One former Progressive Party leader never
joined the Party but worked closely with district Communist leaders to
map strategy and coordinate activity. Some union leaders stayed out of
the Party to deny employers the red-baiting weapon, and a number
dropped out after the Taft-Hartley Act made a union officer liable to
prosecution for perjury if he lied about current Party membership.^28
*/professionals/*
Some professionals who joined the Party operated at a rank-and-file
level, belonging to a professional branch or club, attending meetings,
and fulfilling subscription quotas. Several recall being highly
impressed with the other professionals they met at Party functions.
But such members—often doctors, dentists, and architects—were on the
margins of Party life.
Many professionals, especially lawyers associated with Party causes,
found membership problematic and chose not to formalize their
relationships with the Party, though they might be members of a
professional club. "I fought against loose tongues," one states."I
never asked a soul whether they were Communists or not." Several
left-wing attorneys stress that they did not want to be in a position
to betray anyone or risk a perjury charge if questioned about their
own affiliations and associations. The law in America is a
conservative profession, and several Left lawyers paid a high price
for their efforts.^29
Another consideration was that the Party sometimes pressured lawyers
to use a particular legal strategy in Party-related cases, and such
pressure was more effectively applied to members.^30
One attorney notes that the Party itself seemed ambivalent about
requiring formal membership. A few district leaders pressured him to
join, while others understood that it was not particularly useful or
necessary.
Some lawyers, whether members or not, found their services very much
in demand. They were needed in labor negotiations, electoral
activities, and civil rights and civil liberties cases. In the late
forties and early fifties, Party-affiliated lawyers found it less easy
than it had been to earn a living through Party-based clients, such as
left-wing unions. Instead they were called upon to deal with the
titanic task of defending Party members indicted under the Smith Act
and other pieces of repressive legislation. Thanks to this demand, as
one attorney suggests, they received special treatment from the
district leadership. They mixed with labor leaders, politicians,
judges, and, at times, the national Party leadership. Several had more
contact with the non-Communist local authorities than district
functionaries had. One left-wing attorney recalls that he had the
luxury of criticizing Party policies and decisions, within limits,
because "I was needed, I was special, a lawyer."
More significant than membership was the degree of autonomy a member
had, and this was based on his importance to the Party or his
institutional leverage. A professional could get away with criticism
of the Nazi-Soviet Pact that would not be tolerated from
rank-and-filers or most cadres. A union leader could ignore Party
instructions, aware that his own organization was his power base. A
former Communist, George Charney, criticizes in his memoirsthe
"left-wing aristocracy of labor that rarely mingled with the herd of
party members or the middle functionaries."^31
Such trade-unions "influentials" often had contempt for functionaries
and would go over their heads to top leadership.
Those who entered the Party, at whatever level, in whatever role,
operated within a well-defined organization and lived within a
somewhat insular and often nurturing subculture that provided them
with formal and informal relationships. These relationships eased the
often lonely organizing work. One veteran unashamedly calls his fellow
Communist organizers "the most dedicated, most selfless people in the
struggle." Many would share Jessica Mitford's feelings:
I had regarded joining the Party as one of the most important
decisions of my adult life. I loved and admired the people in it, and
was more than willing to accept the leadership of those far more
experienced than I. Furthermore, the principle of democratic
centralism seemed to me essential to the functioning of a
revolutionary organization in a hostile world.^32
Any tendency to romanticize such activists must be tempered by an
awareness of their mistakes, limitations, and weaknesses, and it is
true that many non-Communists made similar commitments to organizing
the oppressed and the weak. They too merit consideration. These
Philadelphia veterans of the Communist Party are very human actors who
worked on a particular historical stage. Some conclude that their
years of effort never really brought any of their factory and shop
constituents into the movement. Like Sol Davis, they admit that they
were utter failures in that "cultural, political, and philosophical
wasteland" of blue-collar America. Others share the pride, perhaps the
arrogance, of one of Vivian Gornick's subjects:
We're everywhere, everywhere. We/saved/this fucking country. We went
to Spain, and because we did America understood fascism. We made
Vietnam come to an end, we're in there inWatergate. We built the CIO,
we got Roosevelt elected, we started black civil rights, we forced
this shitty country into every piece of action and legislation it has
ever taken. We did the dirty work and the Labor and Capital
establishments got the rewards. The Party helped make democracy
work.^33
The road from Spain to Watergate is a long one. Communists, euphoric
at their prospects in the heyday of CIO sit-downs and Popular Front
triumphs, later needed remarkable inner resources to sustain political
activity. They sensed the first tremors from the purge trials,
received a severe jolt from the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of
1939, and in the postwar years faced first political repression and
then, more painfully, internal disintegration and demoralization.
NEXT CHAPTER
seven: problems and crises, 1939–1956
the founder of Black Lives Matter once described herself as a trained
, like Obama, but I could only find this:
https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/blm-co-founder-describes-herself-as-trained-marxist/
On 10/17/22 10:32 wrote:
Since many believe Obama is running the Marxist Biden administration
We might want to look at a history of comnunist organizing,
euphemistically called a community organizing
https://temple.manifoldapp.org/read/philadelphia-communists-1936-1956/section/c5cbd6e3-ed24-4bcb-97b0-da424fc58416
*/the communist as organizer/*
In the period between the Great Crash and the McCarthy era the CPUSA
was the most effective organizing agency within the American
experience.^1
In this most politically stable of societies, radicals have usually
battered their heads against the stone wall of affluence, rising
expectations, and Democratic Party loyalty. Within the narrow space of
agitation allowed by the political order, Communist Party activists
built a small but influential organization devoted to organizing
constituencies for social change. According to even the most
unsympathetic accounts, Communist activists played important roles in
organizing the unemployed, evicted tenants, minorities, and workers in
a wide variety of fields. They were central in the emergence of the
CIO and thus in the organizing of workers in heavy industry and mass
production; they spearheaded the defense of the right of black people
to equality before the law and social and economic opportunity; and
they participated in virtually all of the nationalefforts to establish
humane social services and eliminate hunger, disease, and neglect from
our communities.^2
Many analysts question the motives of Communist Party activists, and
there certainly is controversy about the extent of their organizing
successes. Nevertheless, Communist organizing merits serious and
objective consideration. For a period of approximately thirty years,
Communist Party activists and organizers sought out constituents in
the mines, plants, and neighborhoods of the United States. Other
left-wing groups, such as the Socialist Party, the Trotskyist
Socialist Workers Party, and A. J. Muste's Workers Party, also deserve
study, but the CPUSA offers students the best opportunity to examine
the dynamics of organizing sponsored and directed by a radical
political group.^3
The organizers under consideration came to political maturity during
the 1930s, mostly in an era associated with the Popular Front, and
remained within the Party until at least the mid-Fifties. Indeed, many
remained active organizers and participants after leaving the
organizational framework of the Communist Party. In the thirties and
forties, they modified their Bolshevik rhetoric and participated in
antifascist alliances, worked for modest short-term successes within
the fledgling CIO, and provided support and manpower for a diverse
group of radical and progressive political movements and leaders,
including Democrats, Farmer-Laborites, the American Labor Party in New
York, and Communist Party councilmen in New York City, all under an
essentially New Deal banner.^4
Organizers operating in the greater Philadelphia district had
important trade-union successes and played a key role in organizing
unemployed councils, electoral efforts, tenant rights, and peace,
professional lobbying, civil liberties, ethnically based, and
neighborhood groups. For a period of approximately ten years, from
1936 to perhaps 1947, the Communist Party of Eastern Pennsylvania and
Delaware, District Three, played an important if modest role in the
political life of the area, generating ideas, programs, and visions
that later became the commonplaces of social policy.
The Party offered its membership several roles. One could remain at
the rank-and-file level, become a cadre, or rise to functionary. One
could engage in mass work within one of the Party fronts or a
non-Party organization (e.g., the YMCA) or one could become a
"colonizer," engaging in industrial organizing at the beck and call of
the Party. In addition, one could work within the professional
section, providing the Party with such services as legal counsel.^5
*/rank and file/*
At the lowest level of Party membership were the rank and file, the
proverbial "Jimmy Higginses" who worked within Party clubs and
branches, paid their dues, went to a variety of meetings, and joined
the mass organizations and fronts, often focusing on a specific issue
like Spain, civil rights, or Scottsboro. Such rank-and-filers were at
the heart of everyday activities and what Gornick calls "grinding
ordinariness."^6
There was an extraordinary turnover among such members, who often
became weary of meetings,/Daily Worker/solicitations, and office chores.
Many rank-and-filers began their activism while in college or
sometimes high school. The Philadelphia high school movement was quite
sizable, including ASU and YCL chapters in at least eight schools.
High school activists ranged throughout the city, meeting radical
peers, socializing, and developing their own circle of comrades. For
those who entered college either already active or about to be
radicalized, there was an almost dizzying flow of activities,
including demonstrations, marches, sit-downs, leaflettings,
fundraisers, dances, parties, socials, lectures, speeches—and
meetings. Always, there were meetings, one for every night of the
week, often more.^7
Enthusiastic, recently converted Communists, like their spiritual
children in the 1960s, had unbounded energy for political work. Most
speak of being aroused and inspired by their sense of the significance
of their efforts, the quality of their comrades, and the grandeur and
power of their movement. Abe Shapiro recalls being engrossed at one
time in the following activities: formal YCL meetings, ASU leadership,
a universityantiwar council (of which he was director), Spanish civil
war relief efforts, a variety of antifascist activities, a student-run
bookstore cooperative, and support work for assorted civil liberties
and civil rights causes. Some activists found schoolwork boring under
the circumstances and devoted all of their time to politics. A few
became "colonizers." In most cases, however, Communist students
completed their degree work, and if they dropped out of school, it was
often for financial reasons. For most, the excitement of campus
politics held their attention and their interest.
Some found Party youth work a path toward leadership, becoming
citywide or national ASU or YCL leaders. Others on leaving campus
became YCL branch or section organizers in different parts of the
district.
Many who did not attend college did neighborhood work with the YCL,
often focusing their mass organizational efforts through the American
League for Peace and Democracy. To many youthful rank-and-filers, "the
YCL became . . . Marxist-Leninist theory all mixed up with baseball,
screwing, dancing, selling the/Daily Worker/, bullshitting, and living
the American-Jewish street life."^8
Certainly the first flush of radicalism, the emotional high of
purposeful activity, the sense of accomplishment and of sacrifice for
the good of humanity, the work with fine and noble comrades, the love
affairs with those sharing a common vision, the expectation that the
future was indeed theirs, created a honeymoon effect for most young
Communists.
For some, the fad of radicalism passed upon graduation or thereabouts.
Others simply maintained a regular but distant "fellow-traveling" role
as they entered the work world. And many were disillusioned by the
Party's dogmatism or the great purge trials, the attacks on Trotsky,
or the Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. Others, including those
interviewed, remained in the Party. The shortest stay was six years,
and most remained loyal for twenty years or more. For all of those who
stayed, the Party and its small subculture became their lives.
Those working at the branch, club, and section levels were rarely on
the Party payroll and had to find work to supportthemselves. For
single people problems were few and life could be lived at a
double-time pace, working hard all day and then organizing and holding
meetings every night.
Some young Communists drifted for a time after school, doing Party
work but not settling into anything. Ben Green lived in Strawberry
Mansion, a lower-middle- and working-class Jewish neighborhood filled
with Party people at the time. He did some work with the American
League Against War and Fascism, spoke on street corners occasionally,
went to three to four meetings a week, and helped to start a union
local of public employees at his Works Progress Administration (WPA)
office. He remembers that the Party "made it a big thing" when he
shifted from the YCL to adult membership, but he was still looking at
his future with uncertainty.
Upon completing high school, George Paine felt that "sports were gone"
from his life except for an occasional neighborhood basketball game.
He kept in touch but saw less of old non-Party buddies and did
standard political work, "hustling the paper," going to meetings,
demonstrating. Finally he decided to go to college, suspending but not
ending his Party ties.
One rank-and-filer was a skilled craftsman, "glad of the class I was
born into." He belonged to a conservative craft union and limited his
political work to mass work at the local YMCA. He never really got
involved with a club or branch group but paid his dues, subscribed to
the paper, and worked with comrades to move the "Y" in a more
"progressive" direction. He was quite open about his views, which
would eventually get him into trouble at his job: "I felt that since
to me everything was so clear, they'd hug me."
Tim Palen, a farmer and skilled craftsman who lived in a rural suburb
of Philadelphia, worked with the Farmers Union. A Party
rank-and-filer, he helped farmers get low-interest loans through the
union and sympathetic banks. Palen never involved himself with Party
affairs in the city, and the highest office he held was dues secretary
of his section.
Since the Communist Party did not formally label members according to
their rank, it is not always clear who was a rank-and-filer and who
was considered cadre. One former district leader defines cadres as the
people in training for leadership, like officers in an army. The rank
and file are, therefore, foot soldiers, less involved and more a part
of their own neighborhood or plant, more likely to hold conventional
jobs, and more subject to pressures from neighbors, family, and
changing circumstances. Annie Kriegel, who analyzes the French
Communist Party as a set of concentric circles, places fellow
travelers who vote for the Party and read the Sunday Party press on
the "outer circle" and "ordinary party members" in the "first
circle."^9
Many observers describe such rank-and-filers as less "Bolshevik"—that
is, more likely to break Party discipline in everyday activity and
closer to the behavior and sensibilities of their non-Party peers.
Harvey Klehr puts it, "Many party members received no training of any
kind, attendance at party meetings was often spotty, and members
frequently ignored or failed to carry out assigned tasks."^10
Almond presents esoteric and exoteric models to distinguish
rank-and-filer from cadre, suggesting that the Party daily press
directed itself to the relatively idealistic and naive external
members, while the Comintern, Cominform, and internal Party journals
spoke to insiders and sophisticated activists.^11
*/cadre/*
The cadre has a "personal commitment." He or she is a "true
Bolshevik," internally Communized, with an almost priestly function
and sense of specialness. The cadre is a "professional revolutionary"
along Leninist lines.^12
Philip Selznick adds that cadres are "deployable personnel," available
to the Party at all times.^13
Some observers use "cadre" interchangeably with "functionary," while
others distinguish them. I interpret "functionary" as a more
administrative and executive role, usually carrying more authority and
generally associated with top district and national leadership.^14
Cadres were field workers, organizers, sometimes on the payroll but
often holding a non-Party job. Some more mobile cadres lefttheir own
neighborhoods, but most worked at least within their home districts.
(Functionaries, on the other hand, could be homegrown and
district-bound or at the service of the national, even international,
office.)
Many studies exaggerate the distinction between inner core and outer
rings because of their dependence on the abstractions of Party tracts.
Almond, for example, claims that the "true Communist" was beyond any
commitment to the Popular Front since he was presumably fully
Bolshevized and aware of the duplicity and tactical nature of
moderated rhetoric. Perhaps this is true of the national leadership,
who had associations with Moscow, training at the Lenin School, and
Comintern experience. At the district level, however, the patterns are
not as clear and seem to be more sensitive to generational, class, and
ethnic variables.^15
Among informants, the word "cadre" connoted "hard-working," "brave,"
"dogged," and "honorable"—someone who followed a Leninist model of
behavior; "functionary," on the other hand, was often used negatively
to imply that someone was "bureaucratic," "aloof," "abstract," and
"remote from struggle"—in brief, the Stalinist/apparatchik/. Neither
necessarily belonged to an inner core.
Fred Garst tells of the "process of indoctrination" he underwent as he
entered into Party life, beginning with "the regularity of systematic
participation"—dues, meetings, selling Party literature. He says that
the number of meetings began slowly to escalate to three, sometimes
five a week: section and subsection meetings, executive meetings,
front meetings. Next, Garst was asked to lead a discussion, then to
take responsibility for organizing the distribution of literature. He
started taking classes at a local Workers School in Marxist theory and
labor history. His commitment grew, his experience deepened, and he
soon became a section leader.
Some Philadelphia Communists moved from rank-and-file to cadre roles
during important political campaigns like theProgressive Party efforts
of 1947–1948. One woman had been serving in a minor capacity—"not
anything earth-shattering"—but was swept up by what Wallace referred
to as "Gideon's Army." She became a full-time Progressive Party
organizer at a district level, her "first real organizing"; from that
point on, she was fully involved in Party work at a variety of levels.
Some cadres emphasized front and mass work, serving as leaders of IWO
ethnic groups, youth groups, and defense groups. Such cadres were
particularly likely to operate clandestinely, although many
communicated their affilitation all but formally to constituents.
Cadres can be distinguished by their level of operation (club, branch,
section, or district), by their funding (on the payroll or holding a
regular job), by their relative mobility and willingness to do
political work outside their own milieu, and, finally, by the type of
organizing they did (mass or front work, electoral party work,
industrial organizing). The most prestigious cadres were those who did
full-time industrial organizing at the will of the Party leadership.
Such organizers, whether of working-class origins or not and whether
indigenous or colonizers, were the heart of Party operations, seeking
to develop a proletarian constituency and a trade-union base.
/ny tisa/
ny Tisa's history shows what an experienced organizer could
accomplish. Tisa, a second-generation son of illiterate, working-class
peasants, went to work at the Campbell's Soup plant in his own South
Camden "Little Italy" after completing high school in the early 1930s.
While working summers at the plant, he had been stimulated by
street-corner radical speakers and had joined the Socialist Party,
which had a presence at Campbell's Soup. The Socialists sent him to
Brookwood Labor College, where he met young Communists who impressed
him with their earnestness and apparent lack of factionalism, a
problem he encountered among the Socialists. He returned to help
organize the plant, starting with a small group of about a half-dozen
Italian workers, none of themCommunists, whom he molded through a
discussion group. His group received a federal charter from the
American Federation of Labor and began to develop an underground,
dues-paying membership.
Tisa tells of frustrating experiences within the conservative AFL. At
the 1939 convention in Tampa, for example, he found himself accidently
strolling into a local walk-out of Del Monte workers, just as the
police were arresting the leader. He spoke to thery workers and
was himself threatened with arrest. The workers exclaimed, "You got Bo
[the arrested leader] but you're not gonna get him," and made a ring
to escort Tisa to a streetcar. That evening, at his suggestion, there
was a union meeting, packed and excited. When Tisa tried to speak
about this remarkable experience at the AFL convention, he was refused
the floor. Finally he simply took over the podium and microphone.
Later that day, he met with other militants, including Communists, to
organize the ClO-affiliated Food, Tobacco and Agricultural Workers Union.
He took a detour, however, as events in Spain captured his energies
and idealism. Tisa served two years in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade, gaining "a sense of internationalism that never escapes you."
On his return, he immediately set out to organize Campbell's Soup.
At the time Tisa began to organize it, Campbell's Soup employed about
5,500 full-time workers, with another 5,000 part-timers who came in
during the heavy season. At least half the workers were of Italian
descent; there were few blacks until the late 1940s. About half the
work force was female. There was a sexual division of labor based on
physical strength. Tisa's organizing group consisted of eleven or
twelve key workers, all leftists, mostly Italian. None were
"colonizers." All were indigenous workers who, under Tisa's
leadership, planned the unionization of Campbell's. Tisa recalls that
the group would often go crabbing and then return to his home to eat,
drink, and talk strategy. Tisa was the only member of the group on the
national union's payroll; he made a bare ten or fifteen dollars a week.
The organizers distributed themselves through the plant, reaching out
to obvious sympathizers and picking up useful information that they
would relay to Tisa, who could not enter the plant. He would take
names and visit workers in their homes, signing them up so that the
union could hold a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. He
would also cull information about working conditions from his
organizers and publish it in a union bulletin that they distributed
clandestinely, each carrying five to ten copies.
As their numbers increased, they became bolder and distributed the
much discussed bulletin openly. Campbell's Soup had Tisa arrested
once, but when he was released, many workers came to greet him. He
assured them that the law permitted them to organize a union. The
company tried many tactics to block his efforts: they started a
company union; they charged that he was a "Red" and had raped nuns and
killed priests in Spain. But Tisa lived in an Italian neighborhood
among plant workers and had a mother who had worked in the plant for
many years (cheering his speeches, often at the wrong times, he wryly
and lovingly notes); he could not be red-baited easily. He was an open
Communist; his neighbors would say, "ny's a Communist, but he's
all right." Despite the real barrier of the workers'traditional
Catholicism, he produced traditional trade-union benefits for members
and was popular enough locally, a neighbor, to remain in leadership
until the CIO purges of the late forties and early fifties finally
forced him out.
Tisa's experience highlights the importance of developing indigenous
personnel in organizing activity. His efforts were certainly bolstered
by support from the national union, by Communist Party training and
aid, and by the relative benevolence of the federal government as
expressed through the new NLRB. Yet the presence of local activists,
something the Communist Party sought but did not often achieve,
invariably made the task of organizing a plant or neighborhood that
much easier.
Other organizers performed similar roles without formally entering the
Party, preferring to remain independent although generally taking
positions consistent with Party policy.
/jack ryan/
Jack Ryan's old man was "a union man," later a foreman, a local
Democratic politician, and a bootlegger. As a teen-ager, and a high
school drop-out, Ryan ran poker and crap games in the neighborhood
with a group of friends, some of whom wound up in prison. He worked
sporadically as a roofer, during which time he was influenced by a
socialist "who couldn't read or write until he was twenty-three."
His father finally got him a job at a local plant, where he worked as
a crane operator in the early Depression years until he was laid off
in 1931. Over the next two years, he tried a small store and "managed
to hang on," selling water ice and running crap games. In 1933 he went
back to the plant just at the point when the local union was being
formed. Ryan recalls that he was "sworn in in an elevator with the
lights out in between the floors." Despite his emerging radical
politics, Ryan remained on the margins at first. "I deliberately
didn't get active," he says, indicating that life seemed too
unpredictable to take chances. In fact, he entered into a real-estate
business on the side, and it eventually provided him with the cushion
that allowed him to become more active within the plant.
Initially he ran for the general committee, backed by the other crane
operators because of his successful grievance work. Still cautious ("I
kept my mouth shut," he notes), Ryan went along with the conservative
local leadership while maintaining contact with the plant militants,
several of whom were old Wobblies suspicious of any Communist Party
leadership. Ryan worked primarily through his own crane operators'
network within the plant. He played the trade-offs in union posts
among the plant's crafts to become local president, an unpaid post,
and finally business representative, the only salaried position within
the local. Ryanremained close to the Party but never joined. "I was
more radical than they were," he brags. He criticizes their twists and
turns and suggests that "in the end you can't trust any of them"
because of "the goddamn line." He adds that the/Daily Worker/was
"written for a bunch of morons." On the other hand, Ryan admits that
Party union members were often competent and successful organizers and
that he agreed with most of their Popular Front stances, particularly
their antifascism. On the Soviets, he says that he did not spend too
much time thinking about them, but adds, "I don't blame them for
having a treaty with the Germans."
Ryan is clearly concerned with the practical issues of trade unionism.
In describing one of his national officers, he exclaims, "A dedicated
Communist but a helluva guy." He praises L. Lewis's efforts at
industrial unionization: "him and the Commies put together the CIO;
they were the smartest crowd." So Jack Ryan worked with but kept some
distance from "the Commies": "they were a little bit nutty." His union
was one of those expelled from the CIO in the late forties, and he
remains bitter about the Party's role in the union's decline. He
remained active, holding union office on and off until his retirement.
Ryan proudly concludes that he was placed on Social Security while on
strike for the last time in the early seventies.
ny Tisa and Jack Ryan were working-class organizers, with roots in
their ethnic communities, able to establish a rapport with their peers
and, at the same time, develop more sophisticated skills within a
broader and more ideological movement in or around the Communist
Party. Their failures were mostly exogenous, the results of
Taft-Hartley oaths, CIO purges, and McCarthyism in general.
Others operated in less favorable terrain, without the decided
advantages of an indigenous, working-class background. The most
characteristic Party labor organizer was a young, educated,
second-generation Jewish-American sent to "dig roots into the
working-class." The efforts of such organizers were prodigious; their
accomplishments, however, were more problematic.
/al schwartz/
Al Schwartz's father was a 1905er, a Party organizer in the garment
industry who had to open a small shop after he was blacklisted. Al, a
classic "red-diaper baby," went through all of the Party developmental
steps, from Young Pioneers through YCL to full Party involvement. Most
of all he wanted to be a radical journalist. For a few years he was
able to work on the Pennsylvania supplement to the/Worker/, but when
it folded, his journalism career seemed over. Over the next half-dozen
years, Schwartz, now in his late twenties, went into the shops as a
"colonizer." He remembers the sense of adventure and mission he felt
working at a few of the larger heavy industrial plants in the area.
Yet he also speaks of his sense of loss and defeat in having to
aban hopes of writing. Schwartz's response to colonizing was
painfully ambivalent: a college graduate and a Jew, born and bred
within the Yiddish-Left subculture, he both relished the contact with
blue-collar workers and remained distant from them. They were not like
him, he stresses; they were mired in back-breaking labor, poor
educations, and plebian forms of leisure. For a time he enjoyed the
camaraderie of the local taverns, but ultimately he was an outsider, a
Jewish family man and a struggling intellectual. Schwartz most fondly
recalls the hardness and fitness of his body, the feeling that he was
young and strong and physically a worker. But the successes were few,
and later the McCarthy period made such Party efforts even more
marginal. Schwartz found himself a family man in his mid-thirties
without a career or a profession; frustrated and drifting out of Party
life without drama or flourish, he moved to reorganize his life. His
political values held, but his colonizing days were over.
/sol davis/
Sol Davis grew up in a poor, working-class, immigrant household. He
was a bright young boy, and like many other upwardly aspiring Jewish
males, he flourished at the elite Central High School andbegan moving
toward a professional career. At this point, in the early years of the
Depression, he was swept off his feet, as he puts it, by the Communist
Party. After completing his schooling, he worked lackadaisically at
his profession while seeking an opportunity to go into the shops as a
Communist Party organizer; he was "determined to be shop worker."
His first attempts allowed him to learn something about machinery,
although in each instance he was fired for his inexperience and
incompetence. Finally he caught on. "I was in my element," he asserts,
describing the war years in heavy industry. For Davis, the good
organizer had to have a commitment to "the principles of Communism,"
"a talent for leadership," and a willingness to listen. A confident
speaker, whose words are clipped and terse, he worked twenty-nine
years in the shops, twenty-six of them at one plant. Located within
the city, the plant was staffed mostly by Catholic workers (Polish or
Irish), initially few blacks, and even fewer Jews.
Davis's recollections are filled with bitter refrains about
red-baiting and "turn-coat ex-CPers," sell-outs and "social
democrats." He is proud of his successes, which include chairing the
grievance committee and serving as shop steward during most of his
union years. Davis presents his life as devoted to organizing in the
shops; he never got involved in his neighborhood and tended to leave
Party electoral work to others. A hard-line orthodox Communist still,
Davis argues that those who abandoned the Party were "petty-bourgeois
with petty-bourgeois ideas," whereas he "was nursed out of the
trade-union movement." In the fifties, he admits, "life became
unpleasant," both in his largely Jewish lower-middle-class
neighborhood and in the shop, where "a certain resistance developed to
my activity" among people he calls anti-Communist socialists.
Davis believes that most American workers have been bought off in
"discrete and discernible fashion" by imperialist profits, manipulated
by the mass media, and blinded by nationalism, religion, and racism.
After spending almost thirty years in theindustrial heartland, Davis
remains "dedicated to an idea," an "unquestioned belief" in communism.
Yet when asked about his ability to convert workers to class
consciousness, a saddened Sol Davis replies, "Never—the shop was a
desert for me." He did not convert a single worker and was "in that
respect an utter failure." The shops, to the stoical Davis, were "a
cultural, political, and philosophical wasteland despite having made
so many friends." Sol Davis has kept the faith since he was "baptized"
in the movement; his singular lack of organizing success rests, in his
mind, on factors beyond his control—repression, cowardice,
self-interest. He is a confident man.
/ caldwell/
Other colonizers had more mixed results. Caldwell, a college
graduate with a middle-class WASP heritage, recalls that in his
initial colonizing effort, "I wasn't very smart and made a lot of
stupid mistakes—talked to people, became known as a troublemaker." He
was fired. Fortunately for Caldwell, his firing made him a "celebrated
case," and the predominantly Irish and Italian Catholic workers, and
even the conservative union officials, rallied to his support.
Caldwell says that whereas other Party organizers had their best
contact in their own departments, he touched bases throughout the
plant and often socialized at the local bar to maintain and develop
relationships. "A fair number knew I was a Communist," he says. "I
never denied it." But most did not. In most plants to admit membership
in the Party meant probable firing and certain harassment. For
organizers like Caldwell, discretion was the rule.
His efforts paid off against the union's local establishment. The
national, a left-wing union, sent in an organizer to help fashion a
local coalition to defeat the established group, and Caldwell worked
with him as elections chairman. The progressive slate was successful.
Caldwell, a leader of a left-wing veterans' group, participated in the
1946 strike surge. When mounted police chased people ontoporches in
Southwest Philadelphia to break up injunction-defying demonstrations,
the local CIO was able to bring out 25,000 workers to protest against
police brutality in front of City Hall. But such Popular Front-style
unified efforts were shattered by the developing Cold War consensus,
which began to drive radicals, particularly Party members, out of the
unions.
Caldwell shifted jobs in this period, finally taking a full-time
organizing job in a nearby industrial town. The plant had some IWO
members and a few Party members, but no organization. Caldwell, who
observes that "it really became difficult after the Korean War"
started, found some success in putting out a small paper and handing
it out at the main gates. He worked to develop contacts mainly by
distributing the Party paper, first for free, then by subscription.
Caldwell remembers proudly that he won a district drive with eighty
subscriptions in his area. Gains were modest: a Hungarian sympathizer
sent him two black shop stewards; then a few Irish Catholics made
contact. Caldwell recalls going into Philadelphia to see prize fights
with the latter workers, mixing pleasure with discussions of possible
articles about their area for the Party press.
But the times wrecked any chance Caldwell had of developing a Party
group. The FBI scared off possible sympathizers; he was arrested for
circulating antiwar petitions, and the venture finally ended in the
heyday of the McCarthy period when Caldwell was sent to join the
Party's underground.
Caldwell and Al Schwartz experienced the ebb of the progressive union
movement in the late forties and early fifties. Most Party labor
organizers and colonizers, however, joined the fray during the
extraordinary upsurge of the late thirties that established industrial
unionism through the CIO.
/milt goldberg/
Milt Goldberg, despite winning a Mayor's Scholarship, was unable to
continue his education after graduating from Central High School.
Instead, he scratched to make a living at odd jobs, gradually becoming
interested in radical politics. While he wasworking a pre-Christmas
job at Sears, the department store warehousemen went out on strike.
Clerks refused to cross the picket lines. Goldberg recalls that the
increasingly anxious owners persuaded the clerks to return to work
with promises of improved conditions and wage increases that were
never fulfilled; meanwhile, the warehousemen settled. In the
aftermath, the strike leaders were all fired. Goldberg says that many
of them were Communists and that he began to notice how often that was
the case: "I respected the Party people; they were able, talented people."
Goldberg became an organizer for a white-collar union dominated by
mobsters who made deals with management at the expense of the
membership. He describes his early efforts as "naive, inexperienced."
Goldberg played a key role in leading his membership out of the
corrupt union into a new CIO local, whose Philadelphia office staff
was dominated by Party organizers. In those days, the late thirties,
the era of sit-downs and a crescendo of collective bargaining
agreements, organizing was remarkably fluid. Goldberg says that
charters were granted easily and with little need for substantiation
or the apparatus of negotiation soon to appear under the NLRB. In
those days, he asserts with some nostalgia, one could go in and
organize a place in one or two days, present demands to the employer,
and make a deal. Such rapid victories were, of course, exceptions;
Goldberg also recalls the often brutal resistance of management,
particularly in heavy industry.
After serving in the war, Goldberg returned to his union efforts,
despite family advice that he try something more prestigious and
lucrative. The union was his life, so he stayed. He never formally
rejoined the Party, although he remained in close contact. The
Taft-Harley anti-Communist oath soon reinforced this decision.
Nevertheless, Goldberg and his small union were red-baited and
constantly under McCarthyite attack.
How did he survive? Goldberg argues that he "was very close to the
membership" and had solid support from his fellow leaders. He
emphasizes that the union provided real benefits and servicesto
membership and sustained their loyalty despite the attacks. In
addition, he notes that by this time the small union did not have a
Party group, only him. One of the more damaging policies of
Party-dominated unions was what Goldberg calls "the resolution
bit"—the passing of Party-sponsored resolutions on every issue from
Scottsboro to Spain. Too many left-wing unions manipulated such
resolutions without making any effort to educate the membership; all
that mattered was that local such-and-such of the so-and-so workers
sent a resolution attacking Franco's dictatorship in Spain. Goldberg
dropped such tactics in the postwar period, instead working with his
local's officers and servicing the practical needs of the membership.
By the mid-fifties, still a socialist, Milt Goldberg had become
estranged from the Communist Party.
As is true of most arts, the qualities that make for a successful
organizer are uncertain and descriptions are inevitably cliche-ridden.
As the experiences of ny Tisa and Jack Ryan indicate, having roots
in the work force being organized gives one a decided advantage. But
the Party could use only the troops it had available, and these were
for the most part educated, urban, Jewish Americans, most of whom had
no experience in the heavy industries that were their "colonies." Most
of them experienced frustration; one cadre estimates that 95 percent
of all Party colonizers failed. Too often colonizers were unable to
operate in a sea of Gentile proletarians. Fred Garst, stillry at
the Party for its insensitivity to context, charges that "the Left
didn't have any organizing skills." But some organizers, remarkably,
succeeded.
/ike samuels/
Ike Samuels still speaks with an accent that reveals the years he
spent in Eastern Europe before his mother, taking the remains of the
family silver, arrived in the United States. No red-diaper baby,
Samuels describes his youth as "street-wise" and his ambition as
making it in America. Like many others, however, "the whole thing
burst into flame" when the Depression forced him to dropout of school
and hunger marches, bonus marches, and unemployed council protests
acted on his emerging social conscience. Soon he was moving toward the
Party and engaging in union organizing.
Samuels, a gruff, self-deprecating man who often refers to his "big
mouth," rose to leadership within a small craft union and served on
the city CIO council. His CIO union was dominated by a Popular Front
coalition of the Party and a progressive Catholic group. The union
president, a leader of the latter, was incompetent; on several
occasions Samuels had to bail him out of collective-bargaining
disasters. Finally the Catholic faction and the Party faction sought
to replace the president with Samuels. The national Party leadership,
however, afraid of upsetting the delicate coalition, said no. Samuels
recalls that he "didn't even question" the decision, but he was
frustrated and soon left the union to become an organizer for a
larger, industrial union.
Samuels agrees with Milt Goldberg that it was relatively easy to be a
good organizer in that period. Labor was in an upswing, workers were
clamoring to be organized, NLRB cards were easy to accumulate. In
heavy industry, Samuels stresses, the key was to seek out the pockets
of old radical workers—not colonizers, he emphasizes—who had broken
down the old ethnic barriers. Many such organizers were members of the
IWO foreign-language federations. Next, one needed the "pie-cards,"
the full-time organizers supplied by the CIO itself, many of whom were
veteran radicals. Along with and sometimes among the pie-cards were
the younger Communists going into the shops, supported by a growing
and confident Party organization. A "highly developed structure,"
Samuels recalls, was essential to organizing success. One had to
develop shop committees and day-to-day contacts in each department.
The sense of strength provided by the union itself and, crucially, by
its CIO sponsor, allowed workers to imagine that the employers could
be successfully challenged. In the automobile, steel, rubber, mining,
and electrical equipment industries, workers facedmammoth corporations
willing to use any means necessary to throw back the unionist surge.
The New Deal, by encouraging a more neutral judiciary and law
enforcement role, made it easier for the coordinated CIO drives to
gain concessions from corporate heads. Samuels suggests that the
workers, some of whom had backed decades of unsuccessful rank-and-file
efforts, needed the sense that they were a part of a powerful
coalition. L. Lewis appealed to this sense when he proclaimed,
"The President want you to join a union." Such a coalition advanced
unionization at the same time that it necessitated concessions and
strictures that limited the leverage of the newly legitimized
unions.^16
Samuels argues that it was imperative for organizers to have knowledge
of their industries. He deliberately worked in a craft shop to learn
the trade and later carefully studied one heavy industry before going
out to organize its workers. He was not typical. Hodee Edwards, a
thirties organizer, stresses "our consistent failure to investigate
the neighborhoods and factories where we tried to work, thus applying
a generalized, sectarian plan usually incomprehensible to those we
wanted to reach."^17
And Sam Katz suggests that the Party did not always recognize the
tension between the leadership and the activist/organizer over the
pace and nature of organizing. The functionaries often pushed for the
most advanced positions, including the "resolutions bit," whereas the
organizers focused on the issues that confronted their constituents.
Conflict was inevitable between broad policy and local needs and
variations, and between policy planners and functionaries and field
organizers and the rank and file. It is clear that the Communist Party
suffered chronically from top-heavy decision making, which often left
local organizers and members with policy directives that made little
sense in local circumstances.
In addition to organizational strength and preparation, Samuels feels
that leadership ability and, at times, personal courage must be
demonstrated. On several occasions he had to take risks or lose the
confidence of his membership. In one local the workers affectionately
referred to him as "R.R.J.B.," Red Russian JewBastard. He tells of
organizing workers in a small Georgia company town. Fifteen hundred
were on strike, and the patriarchal owners were negotiating only under
pressure from the NLRB. They were stalling, however, so Samuels called
on the work force to increase the pressure by massing outside the
building where the negotiations were taking place. The next day, in
the midst of bargaining, Samuels noticed the face of the company's
attorney turning an ash white as he glanced out the window. What he
saw were about three hundred workers marching toward the building
carrying a rope; lynching was on their agenda. Samuels went out and
calmed them down, "modified" their demands, and then wrapped up
negotiations. His early organizing days also included maritime
struggles with gangster elements who were not beyond "bumping off"
militants. Samuels implies that the Left elements fought back,
sometimes resorting to their own brand of physical intimidation.^18
Peggy Dennis describes the Bolshevik ideal as "soldiers in a
revolutionary army at permanent war with a powerful class enemy." And
"in permanent war, doubts or questions are treason."^19
Yet as Joseph Starobin asks, "How could the Leninist equilibrium be
sustained in a country so different from Lenin's?"^20
In fact, it was sustained unevenly and at a price. In a society with a
tradition of civil liberties (albeit inconsistently applied and
occasionally suspended in moments of stress) and a remarkably
resilient political democracy, the Leninist model, hardened and
distorted by Stalinism, mixed uncomfortably with American
realities.^21
At its best the Leninist ideal encouraged the incredible levels of
hard work and perseverance that even critics of Communism grant to its
cadres; it also evoked such personal qualities as integrity, courage,
honesty, and militancy. Yet the ideal seemed to degenerate too easily
into a model of behavior appropriately labeled Stalinist. Communist
cadres accepted deceptive tactics and strategies that inevitably
backfired and undermined theirintegrity and reputations—for example,
the front groups that "flip-flopped" at Party command after years of
denying Party domination. The intolerance and viciousness with which
Communists often attacked adversaries, including liberals, socialists,
and their own heretics, remains inexcusable.^22
As organizers, Communist activists suffered from a tendency toward a
special kind of elitism that often made them incapable of working with
diverse groups sharing common goals. In some periods they turned this
streak of inhumanity against themselves, engaging in ugly campaigns of
smear and character assassination to eliminate "Titoists,"
"Browderites," "revisionists," "left-wing adventurists," or "white
chauvinists."
Moreover, the secrecy within which Communists often operated, while
sometimes justified by the danger of job loss or prosecution, served
to undermine the Party's moral legitimacy. An organizer's relationship
with his constituents depends on their belief in his integrity, and
this is especially true when the organizer is an outsider. Too often,
Communists undermined their own integrity by covering manipulative and
cynical acts with the quite plausible explanation that survival
required secrecy. The tendency of Communists to resort to First and
Fifth Amendment protection during the McCarthy period falls under
similar challenges. As Joseph Starobin asks:
Should left-wingers and Communists have gone to jail in large numbers?
Might they have been better off/politically/, in terms of
their/image/, to assert their affiliations, to proclaim them instead
of asserting their right to keep them private, to explain the issues
as they saw them, and to take the consequences?^23
Communist activists certainly did not lack courage or commitment to a
protracted struggle. Many risked prison, and some served prison
sentences; perhaps as many as one-third of the cadres painfully
accepted assignments to go underground in the early fifties. Their
Leninism had to navigate contradictory currents of Stalinism and
Americanization, militancy and opportunism.
Local Communist activists often lived a somewhat schizophrenic life,
alternately internationalist and indigenous, Bolshevik and
"progressive," admiring the Leninist model of cadre and yet falling
into more settled, familial patterns of activism. There was a clear if
often ignored sexual division of labor: men were more likely to be the
cadres, women performed auxiliary clerical functions and unnoticed but
essential neighborhood organizing.
The Party was also divided between theorists and intellectuals on the
one hand and field workers and activists on the other. As one field
worker proclaimed, "I couldn't be spending hours on ideological
conflicts; I'm an activist, not an intellectual." Many agree that the
bulk of an organizer's time went into local actions and much less went
into discussions and considerations of important theoretical or
programmatic matters.^24
Only a small proportion received the type of ideological and
intellectual training suggested by the Leninist ideal, an ideal that
formally sought the obliteration of the distinctions between thought
and action, intellectual and activist.
In fact, Party intellectuals faced chronic and ingrained suspicion,
even contempt, from Party leaders. Abe Shapiro sardonically charges
that the function of Party intellectuals was "to sell the/Daily
Worker/at the waterfront." He remembers checking on a new Party
document on the economy: "I actually read the document. I wanted to
know what the Hell it was." He found it infantile and far below what
well-trained but never used Party intellectuals and social scientists
could have produced. The Party rarely, except for showcase purposes,
relied on its trained intellectual or academic members; instead, it
called on Party functionaries, often of very narrow training, to write
about complex sociological, economic, and scientific matters. Theory
suffered as a result, and the Party, particularly after 1939, included
very few intellectuals.
Until the mid-fifties crisis, the Party, strangled by Stalinist dogma
and intolerance, was closed to intellectual discourse. Abe Shapiro
finally left the Party because his intellectual training hadgiven him
a commitment to intellectual honesty that he could not shake. Among
organizers, Party arrogance cut off messages from the grass roots.
Orders from what one veteran calls "the Cave of Winds"—Party
headquarters in New York—often contradicted practical organizing
experience.
The Party also suffered from insularity. Mark Greenly brought
interested fellow workers to a Party-dominated union meeting. They
were curious and "antiboss" but quite unsophisticated and not at all
ready to make any commitments. Unfortunately, the Party organizer
immediately started to discuss class struggle and a variety of
abstract political matters. The workers were quickly alienated and
frightened away, never to return. Ethel Paine recalls such
"inappropriate behavior" as the sectarian conversations Party people
would carry on in the presence of non-Communist acquaintances and
neighbors. Although chronically secretive about membership, Communists
could be remarkably insensitive to their audience in revealing ways. A
successful organizer learned when and how to introduce more
controversial ideas to nonmembers. Training, including the Party
schools, helped to some extent, but most Communists agree with the
veteran organizer who feels that such learning has to be done on the
job, by trial and error. Many Communists, like Sam Katz and
Caldwell, tell painful if sometimes hilarious tales of their own and
others' ineptitude as beginning organizers. Some discovered that they
simply were not suited for the job and would never develop the
personal qualities that make for a competent organizer. Several
veterans insist that organizers are born, not made. Yet relatively
introverted and socially awkward young people, inspired by the
idealism and the comradeship of the Communist movement, did transform
themselves into effective organizers. Vivian Gornick points out that
such transformations did not always survive the collapse of
association with the Party.^25
I did not, however, discover total or near total personality changes
caused either by joining or abandoning the Party.
Although most of the literature about radical organizers deals with
men, it is increasingly apparent that some of the mostsignificant and
consistently ignored organizing within the Communist Party involved
women. The ten women interviewed performed a rich variety of Party
tasks, but perhaps the most important were those not officially
designated, like the informal neighborhood activities organized by
Edith Samuels, described inChapter Five
.
Sarah Levy was also involved in such efforts. Sarah and her two
children joined her colonizer husband, Moe, in leaving the comfortable
Party concentration in the Strawberry Mansion section to live in a
nearby industrial town. She refers to the next three and a half years
as "not the easiest times and, yet to me, personally, one of the best
growing experiences—and I have never regretted it." (Moe's wry
rejoinder was "She didn't have to work the blast furnaces.")
There were only three Party families in the town, quite a difference
from the thirty or forty Party friends they left behind in Strawberry
Mansion. While Moe worked the furnaces and tried to develop contacts
with plant workers, Sarah joined a folk dance group at the local "Y,"
where she got to know Greek, Yugoslav, Italian, and other immigrant
women. Moe, limited in the plant to a small Party circle of colonizers
and sympathizers, was able to socialize with the husbands of Sarah's
folk dancing partners.
Colonizers often ended up working with a local Party apparatus while
their wives, working through neighborhood networks, reached into the
community through its women, older people, and children. Asie
Repice casually but proudly concluded about her work with a community
center during the war years; "I am an organizer, so I organized a
nursery." Her husband was in the service. Moving around to stay close
to his base, she put her organizing abilities and political values to
work. Such efforts remain an unwritten chapter in the history of
radical organizing.^26
*/functionaries/*
Few district functionaries other than Sam Darcy achieved any national
stature or had much leverage outside the district. Dave Davis, the
business manager of UE Local 155 and an importantPhiladelphia-area
labor leader, was often elected to the Party's national committee but
never entered the inner decision-making group. Other district
leaders—like Pat Toohey, Phil Bart, Phil Frankfeld, and Ed Strong—were
D.O.s sent into the district and then moved out again to other
assignments.
Most district functionaries played dominant roles within the district
committee and ran such important Party operations as the local
Progressive Party and the Civil Rights Congress. They drew meager
salaries, which were sometimes supplemented by Party-related
employment. The Party network, at least during the late thirties and
forties, could place members in some union jobs.^27
Possibly several dozen members depended on the Party for their
livelihood in this way.
*/nonmembers/*
One often encounters Communists who, for very specific reasons, were
not formal Party members. One former Progressive Party leader never
joined the Party but worked closely with district Communist leaders to
map strategy and coordinate activity. Some union leaders stayed out of
the Party to deny employers the red-baiting weapon, and a number
dropped out after the Taft-Hartley Act made a union officer liable to
prosecution for perjury if he lied about current Party membership.^28
*/professionals/*
Some professionals who joined the Party operated at a rank-and-file
level, belonging to a professional branch or club, attending meetings,
and fulfilling subscription quotas. Several recall being highly
impressed with the other professionals they met at Party functions.
But such members—often doctors, dentists, and architects—were on the
margins of Party life.
Many professionals, especially lawyers associated with Party causes,
found membership problematic and chose not to formalize their
relationships with the Party, though they might be members of a
professional club. "I fought against loose tongues," one states."I
never asked a soul whether they were Communists or not." Several
left-wing attorneys stress that they did not want to be in a position
to betray anyone or risk a perjury charge if questioned about their
own affiliations and associations. The law in America is a
conservative profession, and several Left lawyers paid a high price
for their efforts.^29
Another consideration was that the Party sometimes pressured lawyers
to use a particular legal strategy in Party-related cases, and such
pressure was more effectively applied to members.^30
One attorney notes that the Party itself seemed ambivalent about
requiring formal membership. A few district leaders pressured him to
join, while others understood that it was not particularly useful or
necessary.
Some lawyers, whether members or not, found their services very much
in demand. They were needed in labor negotiations, electoral
activities, and civil rights and civil liberties cases. In the late
forties and early fifties, Party-affiliated lawyers found it less easy
than it had been to earn a living through Party-based clients, such as
left-wing unions. Instead they were called upon to deal with the
titanic task of defending Party members indicted under the Smith Act
and other pieces of repressive legislation. Thanks to this demand, as
one attorney suggests, they received special treatment from the
district leadership. They mixed with labor leaders, politicians,
judges, and, at times, the national Party leadership. Several had more
contact with the non-Communist local authorities than district
functionaries had. One left-wing attorney recalls that he had the
luxury of criticizing Party policies and decisions, within limits,
because "I was needed, I was special, a lawyer."
More significant than membership was the degree of autonomy a member
had, and this was based on his importance to the Party or his
institutional leverage. A professional could get away with criticism
of the Nazi-Soviet Pact that would not be tolerated from
rank-and-filers or most cadres. A union leader could ignore Party
instructions, aware that his own organization was his power base. A
former Communist, George Charney, criticizes in his memoirsthe
"left-wing aristocracy of labor that rarely mingled with the herd of
party members or the middle functionaries."^31
Such trade-unions "influentials" often had contempt for functionaries
and would go over their heads to top leadership.
Those who entered the Party, at whatever level, in whatever role,
operated within a well-defined organization and lived within a
somewhat insular and often nurturing subculture that provided them
with formal and informal relationships. These relationships eased the
often lonely organizing work. One veteran unashamedly calls his fellow
Communist organizers "the most dedicated, most selfless people in the
struggle." Many would share Jessica Mitford's feelings:
I had regarded joining the Party as one of the most important
decisions of my adult life. I loved and admired the people in it, and
was more than willing to accept the leadership of those far more
experienced than I. Furthermore, the principle of democratic
centralism seemed to me essential to the functioning of a
revolutionary organization in a hostile world.^32
Any tendency to romanticize such activists must be tempered by an
awareness of their mistakes, limitations, and weaknesses, and it is
true that many non-Communists made similar commitments to organizing
the oppressed and the weak. They too merit consideration. These
Philadelphia veterans of the Communist Party are very human actors who
worked on a particular historical stage. Some conclude that their
years of effort never really brought any of their factory and shop
constituents into the movement. Like Sol Davis, they admit that they
were utter failures in that "cultural, political, and philosophical
wasteland" of blue-collar America. Others share the pride, perhaps the
arrogance, of one of Vivian Gornick's subjects:
We're everywhere, everywhere. We/saved/this fucking country. We went
to Spain, and because we did America understood fascism. We made
Vietnam come to an end, we're in there inWatergate. We built the CIO,
we got Roosevelt elected, we started black civil rights, we forced
this shitty country into every piece of action and legislation it has
ever taken. We did the dirty work and the Labor and Capital
establishments got the rewards. The Party helped make democracy
work.^33
The road from Spain to Watergate is a long one. Communists, euphoric
at their prospects in the heyday of CIO sit-downs and Popular Front
triumphs, later needed remarkable inner resources to sustain political
activity. They sensed the first tremors from the purge trials,
received a severe jolt from the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of
1939, and in the postwar years faced first political repression and
then, more painfully, internal disintegration and demoralization.
NEXT CHAPTER
seven: problems and crises, 1939–1956
the founder of Black Lives Matter once described herself as a trained
, like Obama, but I could only find this:
https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/blm-co-founder-describes-herself-as-trained-marxist/
On 10/17/22 10:32 wrote:
Since many believe Obama is running the Marxist Biden administration
We might want to look at a history of comnunist organizing,
euphemistically called a community organizing
https://temple.manifoldapp.org/read/philadelphia-communists-1936-1956/section/c5cbd6e3-ed24-4bcb-97b0-da424fc58416
*/the communist as organizer/*
In the period between the Great Crash and the McCarthy era the CPUSA
was the most effective organizing agency within the American
experience.^1
In this most politically stable of societies, radicals have usually
battered their heads against the stone wall of affluence, rising
expectations, and Democratic Party loyalty. Within the narrow space of
agitation allowed by the political order, Communist Party activists
built a small but influential organization devoted to organizing
constituencies for social change. According to even the most
unsympathetic accounts, Communist activists played important roles in
organizing the unemployed, evicted tenants, minorities, and workers in
a wide variety of fields. They were central in the emergence of the
CIO and thus in the organizing of workers in heavy industry and mass
production; they spearheaded the defense of the right of black people
to equality before the law and social and economic opportunity; and
they participated in virtually all of the nationalefforts to establish
humane social services and eliminate hunger, disease, and neglect from
our communities.^2
Many analysts question the motives of Communist Party activists, and
there certainly is controversy about the extent of their organizing
successes. Nevertheless, Communist organizing merits serious and
objective consideration. For a period of approximately thirty years,
Communist Party activists and organizers sought out constituents in
the mines, plants, and neighborhoods of the United States. Other
left-wing groups, such as the Socialist Party, the Trotskyist
Socialist Workers Party, and A. J. Muste's Workers Party, also deserve
study, but the CPUSA offers students the best opportunity to examine
the dynamics of organizing sponsored and directed by a radical
political group.^3
The organizers under consideration came to political maturity during
the 1930s, mostly in an era associated with the Popular Front, and
remained within the Party until at least the mid-Fifties. Indeed, many
remained active organizers and participants after leaving the
organizational framework of the Communist Party. In the thirties and
forties, they modified their Bolshevik rhetoric and participated in
antifascist alliances, worked for modest short-term successes within
the fledgling CIO, and provided support and manpower for a diverse
group of radical and progressive political movements and leaders,
including Democrats, Farmer-Laborites, the American Labor Party in New
York, and Communist Party councilmen in New York City, all under an
essentially New Deal banner.^4
Organizers operating in the greater Philadelphia district had
important trade-union successes and played a key role in organizing
unemployed councils, electoral efforts, tenant rights, and peace,
professional lobbying, civil liberties, ethnically based, and
neighborhood groups. For a period of approximately ten years, from
1936 to perhaps 1947, the Communist Party of Eastern Pennsylvania and
Delaware, District Three, played an important if modest role in the
political life of the area, generating ideas, programs, and visions
that later became the commonplaces of social policy.
The Party offered its membership several roles. One could remain at
the rank-and-file level, become a cadre, or rise to functionary. One
could engage in mass work within one of the Party fronts or a
non-Party organization (e.g., the YMCA) or one could become a
"colonizer," engaging in industrial organizing at the beck and call of
the Party. In addition, one could work within the professional
section, providing the Party with such services as legal counsel.^5
*/rank and file/*
At the lowest level of Party membership were the rank and file, the
proverbial "Jimmy Higginses" who worked within Party clubs and
branches, paid their dues, went to a variety of meetings, and joined
the mass organizations and fronts, often focusing on a specific issue
like Spain, civil rights, or Scottsboro. Such rank-and-filers were at
the heart of everyday activities and what Gornick calls "grinding
ordinariness."^6
There was an extraordinary turnover among such members, who often
became weary of meetings,/Daily Worker/solicitations, and office chores.
Many rank-and-filers began their activism while in college or
sometimes high school. The Philadelphia high school movement was quite
sizable, including ASU and YCL chapters in at least eight schools.
High school activists ranged throughout the city, meeting radical
peers, socializing, and developing their own circle of comrades. For
those who entered college either already active or about to be
radicalized, there was an almost dizzying flow of activities,
including demonstrations, marches, sit-downs, leaflettings,
fundraisers, dances, parties, socials, lectures, speeches—and
meetings. Always, there were meetings, one for every night of the
week, often more.^7
Enthusiastic, recently converted Communists, like their spiritual
children in the 1960s, had unbounded energy for political work. Most
speak of being aroused and inspired by their sense of the significance
of their efforts, the quality of their comrades, and the grandeur and
power of their movement. Abe Shapiro recalls being engrossed at one
time in the following activities: formal YCL meetings, ASU leadership,
a universityantiwar council (of which he was director), Spanish civil
war relief efforts, a variety of antifascist activities, a student-run
bookstore cooperative, and support work for assorted civil liberties
and civil rights causes. Some activists found schoolwork boring under
the circumstances and devoted all of their time to politics. A few
became "colonizers." In most cases, however, Communist students
completed their degree work, and if they dropped out of school, it was
often for financial reasons. For most, the excitement of campus
politics held their attention and their interest.
Some found Party youth work a path toward leadership, becoming
citywide or national ASU or YCL leaders. Others on leaving campus
became YCL branch or section organizers in different parts of the
district.
Many who did not attend college did neighborhood work with the YCL,
often focusing their mass organizational efforts through the American
League for Peace and Democracy. To many youthful rank-and-filers, "the
YCL became . . . Marxist-Leninist theory all mixed up with baseball,
screwing, dancing, selling the/Daily Worker/, bullshitting, and living
the American-Jewish street life."^8
Certainly the first flush of radicalism, the emotional high of
purposeful activity, the sense of accomplishment and of sacrifice for
the good of humanity, the work with fine and noble comrades, the love
affairs with those sharing a common vision, the expectation that the
future was indeed theirs, created a honeymoon effect for most young
Communists.
For some, the fad of radicalism passed upon graduation or thereabouts.
Others simply maintained a regular but distant "fellow-traveling" role
as they entered the work world. And many were disillusioned by the
Party's dogmatism or the great purge trials, the attacks on Trotsky,
or the Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. Others, including those
interviewed, remained in the Party. The shortest stay was six years,
and most remained loyal for twenty years or more. For all of those who
stayed, the Party and its small subculture became their lives.
Those working at the branch, club, and section levels were rarely on
the Party payroll and had to find work to supportthemselves. For
single people problems were few and life could be lived at a
double-time pace, working hard all day and then organizing and holding
meetings every night.
Some young Communists drifted for a time after school, doing Party
work but not settling into anything. Ben Green lived in Strawberry
Mansion, a lower-middle- and working-class Jewish neighborhood filled
with Party people at the time. He did some work with the American
League Against War and Fascism, spoke on street corners occasionally,
went to three to four meetings a week, and helped to start a union
local of public employees at his Works Progress Administration (WPA)
office. He remembers that the Party "made it a big thing" when he
shifted from the YCL to adult membership, but he was still looking at
his future with uncertainty.
Upon completing high school, George Paine felt that "sports were gone"
from his life except for an occasional neighborhood basketball game.
He kept in touch but saw less of old non-Party buddies and did
standard political work, "hustling the paper," going to meetings,
demonstrating. Finally he decided to go to college, suspending but not
ending his Party ties.
One rank-and-filer was a skilled craftsman, "glad of the class I was
born into." He belonged to a conservative craft union and limited his
political work to mass work at the local YMCA. He never really got
involved with a club or branch group but paid his dues, subscribed to
the paper, and worked with comrades to move the "Y" in a more
"progressive" direction. He was quite open about his views, which
would eventually get him into trouble at his job: "I felt that since
to me everything was so clear, they'd hug me."
Tim Palen, a farmer and skilled craftsman who lived in a rural suburb
of Philadelphia, worked with the Farmers Union. A Party
rank-and-filer, he helped farmers get low-interest loans through the
union and sympathetic banks. Palen never involved himself with Party
affairs in the city, and the highest office he held was dues secretary
of his section.
Since the Communist Party did not formally label members according to
their rank, it is not always clear who was a rank-and-filer and who
was considered cadre. One former district leader defines cadres as the
people in training for leadership, like officers in an army. The rank
and file are, therefore, foot soldiers, less involved and more a part
of their own neighborhood or plant, more likely to hold conventional
jobs, and more subject to pressures from neighbors, family, and
changing circumstances. Annie Kriegel, who analyzes the French
Communist Party as a set of concentric circles, places fellow
travelers who vote for the Party and read the Sunday Party press on
the "outer circle" and "ordinary party members" in the "first
circle."^9
Many observers describe such rank-and-filers as less "Bolshevik"—that
is, more likely to break Party discipline in everyday activity and
closer to the behavior and sensibilities of their non-Party peers.
Harvey Klehr puts it, "Many party members received no training of any
kind, attendance at party meetings was often spotty, and members
frequently ignored or failed to carry out assigned tasks."^10
Almond presents esoteric and exoteric models to distinguish
rank-and-filer from cadre, suggesting that the Party daily press
directed itself to the relatively idealistic and naive external
members, while the Comintern, Cominform, and internal Party journals
spoke to insiders and sophisticated activists.^11
*/cadre/*
The cadre has a "personal commitment." He or she is a "true
Bolshevik," internally Communized, with an almost priestly function
and sense of specialness. The cadre is a "professional revolutionary"
along Leninist lines.^12
Philip Selznick adds that cadres are "deployable personnel," available
to the Party at all times.^13
Some observers use "cadre" interchangeably with "functionary," while
others distinguish them. I interpret "functionary" as a more
administrative and executive role, usually carrying more authority and
generally associated with top district and national leadership.^14
Cadres were field workers, organizers, sometimes on the payroll but
often holding a non-Party job. Some more mobile cadres lefttheir own
neighborhoods, but most worked at least within their home districts.
(Functionaries, on the other hand, could be homegrown and
district-bound or at the service of the national, even international,
office.)
Many studies exaggerate the distinction between inner core and outer
rings because of their dependence on the abstractions of Party tracts.
Almond, for example, claims that the "true Communist" was beyond any
commitment to the Popular Front since he was presumably fully
Bolshevized and aware of the duplicity and tactical nature of
moderated rhetoric. Perhaps this is true of the national leadership,
who had associations with Moscow, training at the Lenin School, and
Comintern experience. At the district level, however, the patterns are
not as clear and seem to be more sensitive to generational, class, and
ethnic variables.^15
Among informants, the word "cadre" connoted "hard-working," "brave,"
"dogged," and "honorable"—someone who followed a Leninist model of
behavior; "functionary," on the other hand, was often used negatively
to imply that someone was "bureaucratic," "aloof," "abstract," and
"remote from struggle"—in brief, the Stalinist/apparatchik/. Neither
necessarily belonged to an inner core.
Fred Garst tells of the "process of indoctrination" he underwent as he
entered into Party life, beginning with "the regularity of systematic
participation"—dues, meetings, selling Party literature. He says that
the number of meetings began slowly to escalate to three, sometimes
five a week: section and subsection meetings, executive meetings,
front meetings. Next, Garst was asked to lead a discussion, then to
take responsibility for organizing the distribution of literature. He
started taking classes at a local Workers School in Marxist theory and
labor history. His commitment grew, his experience deepened, and he
soon became a section leader.
Some Philadelphia Communists moved from rank-and-file to cadre roles
during important political campaigns like theProgressive Party efforts
of 1947–1948. One woman had been serving in a minor capacity—"not
anything earth-shattering"—but was swept up by what Wallace referred
to as "Gideon's Army." She became a full-time Progressive Party
organizer at a district level, her "first real organizing"; from that
point on, she was fully involved in Party work at a variety of levels.
Some cadres emphasized front and mass work, serving as leaders of IWO
ethnic groups, youth groups, and defense groups. Such cadres were
particularly likely to operate clandestinely, although many
communicated their affilitation all but formally to constituents.
Cadres can be distinguished by their level of operation (club, branch,
section, or district), by their funding (on the payroll or holding a
regular job), by their relative mobility and willingness to do
political work outside their own milieu, and, finally, by the type of
organizing they did (mass or front work, electoral party work,
industrial organizing). The most prestigious cadres were those who did
full-time industrial organizing at the will of the Party leadership.
Such organizers, whether of working-class origins or not and whether
indigenous or colonizers, were the heart of Party operations, seeking
to develop a proletarian constituency and a trade-union base.
/ny tisa/
ny Tisa's history shows what an experienced organizer could
accomplish. Tisa, a second-generation son of illiterate, working-class
peasants, went to work at the Campbell's Soup plant in his own South
Camden "Little Italy" after completing high school in the early 1930s.
While working summers at the plant, he had been stimulated by
street-corner radical speakers and had joined the Socialist Party,
which had a presence at Campbell's Soup. The Socialists sent him to
Brookwood Labor College, where he met young Communists who impressed
him with their earnestness and apparent lack of factionalism, a
problem he encountered among the Socialists. He returned to help
organize the plant, starting with a small group of about a half-dozen
Italian workers, none of themCommunists, whom he molded through a
discussion group. His group received a federal charter from the
American Federation of Labor and began to develop an underground,
dues-paying membership.
Tisa tells of frustrating experiences within the conservative AFL. At
the 1939 convention in Tampa, for example, he found himself accidently
strolling into a local walk-out of Del Monte workers, just as the
police were arresting the leader. He spoke to thery workers and
was himself threatened with arrest. The workers exclaimed, "You got Bo
[the arrested leader] but you're not gonna get him," and made a ring
to escort Tisa to a streetcar. That evening, at his suggestion, there
was a union meeting, packed and excited. When Tisa tried to speak
about this remarkable experience at the AFL convention, he was refused
the floor. Finally he simply took over the podium and microphone.
Later that day, he met with other militants, including Communists, to
organize the ClO-affiliated Food, Tobacco and Agricultural Workers Union.
He took a detour, however, as events in Spain captured his energies
and idealism. Tisa served two years in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade, gaining "a sense of internationalism that never escapes you."
On his return, he immediately set out to organize Campbell's Soup.
At the time Tisa began to organize it, Campbell's Soup employed about
5,500 full-time workers, with another 5,000 part-timers who came in
during the heavy season. At least half the workers were of Italian
descent; there were few blacks until the late 1940s. About half the
work force was female. There was a sexual division of labor based on
physical strength. Tisa's organizing group consisted of eleven or
twelve key workers, all leftists, mostly Italian. None were
"colonizers." All were indigenous workers who, under Tisa's
leadership, planned the unionization of Campbell's. Tisa recalls that
the group would often go crabbing and then return to his home to eat,
drink, and talk strategy. Tisa was the only member of the group on the
national union's payroll; he made a bare ten or fifteen dollars a week.
The organizers distributed themselves through the plant, reaching out
to obvious sympathizers and picking up useful information that they
would relay to Tisa, who could not enter the plant. He would take
names and visit workers in their homes, signing them up so that the
union could hold a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. He
would also cull information about working conditions from his
organizers and publish it in a union bulletin that they distributed
clandestinely, each carrying five to ten copies.
As their numbers increased, they became bolder and distributed the
much discussed bulletin openly. Campbell's Soup had Tisa arrested
once, but when he was released, many workers came to greet him. He
assured them that the law permitted them to organize a union. The
company tried many tactics to block his efforts: they started a
company union; they charged that he was a "Red" and had raped nuns and
killed priests in Spain. But Tisa lived in an Italian neighborhood
among plant workers and had a mother who had worked in the plant for
many years (cheering his speeches, often at the wrong times, he wryly
and lovingly notes); he could not be red-baited easily. He was an open
Communist; his neighbors would say, "ny's a Communist, but he's
all right." Despite the real barrier of the workers'traditional
Catholicism, he produced traditional trade-union benefits for members
and was popular enough locally, a neighbor, to remain in leadership
until the CIO purges of the late forties and early fifties finally
forced him out.
Tisa's experience highlights the importance of developing indigenous
personnel in organizing activity. His efforts were certainly bolstered
by support from the national union, by Communist Party training and
aid, and by the relative benevolence of the federal government as
expressed through the new NLRB. Yet the presence of local activists,
something the Communist Party sought but did not often achieve,
invariably made the task of organizing a plant or neighborhood that
much easier.
Other organizers performed similar roles without formally entering the
Party, preferring to remain independent although generally taking
positions consistent with Party policy.
/jack ryan/
Jack Ryan's old man was "a union man," later a foreman, a local
Democratic politician, and a bootlegger. As a teen-ager, and a high
school drop-out, Ryan ran poker and crap games in the neighborhood
with a group of friends, some of whom wound up in prison. He worked
sporadically as a roofer, during which time he was influenced by a
socialist "who couldn't read or write until he was twenty-three."
His father finally got him a job at a local plant, where he worked as
a crane operator in the early Depression years until he was laid off
in 1931. Over the next two years, he tried a small store and "managed
to hang on," selling water ice and running crap games. In 1933 he went
back to the plant just at the point when the local union was being
formed. Ryan recalls that he was "sworn in in an elevator with the
lights out in between the floors." Despite his emerging radical
politics, Ryan remained on the margins at first. "I deliberately
didn't get active," he says, indicating that life seemed too
unpredictable to take chances. In fact, he entered into a real-estate
business on the side, and it eventually provided him with the cushion
that allowed him to become more active within the plant.
Initially he ran for the general committee, backed by the other crane
operators because of his successful grievance work. Still cautious ("I
kept my mouth shut," he notes), Ryan went along with the conservative
local leadership while maintaining contact with the plant militants,
several of whom were old Wobblies suspicious of any Communist Party
leadership. Ryan worked primarily through his own crane operators'
network within the plant. He played the trade-offs in union posts
among the plant's crafts to become local president, an unpaid post,
and finally business representative, the only salaried position within
the local. Ryanremained close to the Party but never joined. "I was
more radical than they were," he brags. He criticizes their twists and
turns and suggests that "in the end you can't trust any of them"
because of "the goddamn line." He adds that the/Daily Worker/was
"written for a bunch of morons." On the other hand, Ryan admits that
Party union members were often competent and successful organizers and
that he agreed with most of their Popular Front stances, particularly
their antifascism. On the Soviets, he says that he did not spend too
much time thinking about them, but adds, "I don't blame them for
having a treaty with the Germans."
Ryan is clearly concerned with the practical issues of trade unionism.
In describing one of his national officers, he exclaims, "A dedicated
Communist but a helluva guy." He praises L. Lewis's efforts at
industrial unionization: "him and the Commies put together the CIO;
they were the smartest crowd." So Jack Ryan worked with but kept some
distance from "the Commies": "they were a little bit nutty." His union
was one of those expelled from the CIO in the late forties, and he
remains bitter about the Party's role in the union's decline. He
remained active, holding union office on and off until his retirement.
Ryan proudly concludes that he was placed on Social Security while on
strike for the last time in the early seventies.
ny Tisa and Jack Ryan were working-class organizers, with roots in
their ethnic communities, able to establish a rapport with their peers
and, at the same time, develop more sophisticated skills within a
broader and more ideological movement in or around the Communist
Party. Their failures were mostly exogenous, the results of
Taft-Hartley oaths, CIO purges, and McCarthyism in general.
Others operated in less favorable terrain, without the decided
advantages of an indigenous, working-class background. The most
characteristic Party labor organizer was a young, educated,
second-generation Jewish-American sent to "dig roots into the
working-class." The efforts of such organizers were prodigious; their
accomplishments, however, were more problematic.
/al schwartz/
Al Schwartz's father was a 1905er, a Party organizer in the garment
industry who had to open a small shop after he was blacklisted. Al, a
classic "red-diaper baby," went through all of the Party developmental
steps, from Young Pioneers through YCL to full Party involvement. Most
of all he wanted to be a radical journalist. For a few years he was
able to work on the Pennsylvania supplement to the/Worker/, but when
it folded, his journalism career seemed over. Over the next half-dozen
years, Schwartz, now in his late twenties, went into the shops as a
"colonizer." He remembers the sense of adventure and mission he felt
working at a few of the larger heavy industrial plants in the area.
Yet he also speaks of his sense of loss and defeat in having to
aban hopes of writing. Schwartz's response to colonizing was
painfully ambivalent: a college graduate and a Jew, born and bred
within the Yiddish-Left subculture, he both relished the contact with
blue-collar workers and remained distant from them. They were not like
him, he stresses; they were mired in back-breaking labor, poor
educations, and plebian forms of leisure. For a time he enjoyed the
camaraderie of the local taverns, but ultimately he was an outsider, a
Jewish family man and a struggling intellectual. Schwartz most fondly
recalls the hardness and fitness of his body, the feeling that he was
young and strong and physically a worker. But the successes were few,
and later the McCarthy period made such Party efforts even more
marginal. Schwartz found himself a family man in his mid-thirties
without a career or a profession; frustrated and drifting out of Party
life without drama or flourish, he moved to reorganize his life. His
political values held, but his colonizing days were over.
/sol davis/
Sol Davis grew up in a poor, working-class, immigrant household. He
was a bright young boy, and like many other upwardly aspiring Jewish
males, he flourished at the elite Central High School andbegan moving
toward a professional career. At this point, in the early years of the
Depression, he was swept off his feet, as he puts it, by the Communist
Party. After completing his schooling, he worked lackadaisically at
his profession while seeking an opportunity to go into the shops as a
Communist Party organizer; he was "determined to be shop worker."
His first attempts allowed him to learn something about machinery,
although in each instance he was fired for his inexperience and
incompetence. Finally he caught on. "I was in my element," he asserts,
describing the war years in heavy industry. For Davis, the good
organizer had to have a commitment to "the principles of Communism,"
"a talent for leadership," and a willingness to listen. A confident
speaker, whose words are clipped and terse, he worked twenty-nine
years in the shops, twenty-six of them at one plant. Located within
the city, the plant was staffed mostly by Catholic workers (Polish or
Irish), initially few blacks, and even fewer Jews.
Davis's recollections are filled with bitter refrains about
red-baiting and "turn-coat ex-CPers," sell-outs and "social
democrats." He is proud of his successes, which include chairing the
grievance committee and serving as shop steward during most of his
union years. Davis presents his life as devoted to organizing in the
shops; he never got involved in his neighborhood and tended to leave
Party electoral work to others. A hard-line orthodox Communist still,
Davis argues that those who abandoned the Party were "petty-bourgeois
with petty-bourgeois ideas," whereas he "was nursed out of the
trade-union movement." In the fifties, he admits, "life became
unpleasant," both in his largely Jewish lower-middle-class
neighborhood and in the shop, where "a certain resistance developed to
my activity" among people he calls anti-Communist socialists.
Davis believes that most American workers have been bought off in
"discrete and discernible fashion" by imperialist profits, manipulated
by the mass media, and blinded by nationalism, religion, and racism.
After spending almost thirty years in theindustrial heartland, Davis
remains "dedicated to an idea," an "unquestioned belief" in communism.
Yet when asked about his ability to convert workers to class
consciousness, a saddened Sol Davis replies, "Never—the shop was a
desert for me." He did not convert a single worker and was "in that
respect an utter failure." The shops, to the stoical Davis, were "a
cultural, political, and philosophical wasteland despite having made
so many friends." Sol Davis has kept the faith since he was "baptized"
in the movement; his singular lack of organizing success rests, in his
mind, on factors beyond his control—repression, cowardice,
self-interest. He is a confident man.
/ caldwell/
Other colonizers had more mixed results. Caldwell, a college
graduate with a middle-class WASP heritage, recalls that in his
initial colonizing effort, "I wasn't very smart and made a lot of
stupid mistakes—talked to people, became known as a troublemaker." He
was fired. Fortunately for Caldwell, his firing made him a "celebrated
case," and the predominantly Irish and Italian Catholic workers, and
even the conservative union officials, rallied to his support.
Caldwell says that whereas other Party organizers had their best
contact in their own departments, he touched bases throughout the
plant and often socialized at the local bar to maintain and develop
relationships. "A fair number knew I was a Communist," he says. "I
never denied it." But most did not. In most plants to admit membership
in the Party meant probable firing and certain harassment. For
organizers like Caldwell, discretion was the rule.
His efforts paid off against the union's local establishment. The
national, a left-wing union, sent in an organizer to help fashion a
local coalition to defeat the established group, and Caldwell worked
with him as elections chairman. The progressive slate was successful.
Caldwell, a leader of a left-wing veterans' group, participated in the
1946 strike surge. When mounted police chased people ontoporches in
Southwest Philadelphia to break up injunction-defying demonstrations,
the local CIO was able to bring out 25,000 workers to protest against
police brutality in front of City Hall. But such Popular Front-style
unified efforts were shattered by the developing Cold War consensus,
which began to drive radicals, particularly Party members, out of the
unions.
Caldwell shifted jobs in this period, finally taking a full-time
organizing job in a nearby industrial town. The plant had some IWO
members and a few Party members, but no organization. Caldwell, who
observes that "it really became difficult after the Korean War"
started, found some success in putting out a small paper and handing
it out at the main gates. He worked to develop contacts mainly by
distributing the Party paper, first for free, then by subscription.
Caldwell remembers proudly that he won a district drive with eighty
subscriptions in his area. Gains were modest: a Hungarian sympathizer
sent him two black shop stewards; then a few Irish Catholics made
contact. Caldwell recalls going into Philadelphia to see prize fights
with the latter workers, mixing pleasure with discussions of possible
articles about their area for the Party press.
But the times wrecked any chance Caldwell had of developing a Party
group. The FBI scared off possible sympathizers; he was arrested for
circulating antiwar petitions, and the venture finally ended in the
heyday of the McCarthy period when Caldwell was sent to join the
Party's underground.
Caldwell and Al Schwartz experienced the ebb of the progressive union
movement in the late forties and early fifties. Most Party labor
organizers and colonizers, however, joined the fray during the
extraordinary upsurge of the late thirties that established industrial
unionism through the CIO.
/milt goldberg/
Milt Goldberg, despite winning a Mayor's Scholarship, was unable to
continue his education after graduating from Central High School.
Instead, he scratched to make a living at odd jobs, gradually becoming
interested in radical politics. While he wasworking a pre-Christmas
job at Sears, the department store warehousemen went out on strike.
Clerks refused to cross the picket lines. Goldberg recalls that the
increasingly anxious owners persuaded the clerks to return to work
with promises of improved conditions and wage increases that were
never fulfilled; meanwhile, the warehousemen settled. In the
aftermath, the strike leaders were all fired. Goldberg says that many
of them were Communists and that he began to notice how often that was
the case: "I respected the Party people; they were able, talented people."
Goldberg became an organizer for a white-collar union dominated by
mobsters who made deals with management at the expense of the
membership. He describes his early efforts as "naive, inexperienced."
Goldberg played a key role in leading his membership out of the
corrupt union into a new CIO local, whose Philadelphia office staff
was dominated by Party organizers. In those days, the late thirties,
the era of sit-downs and a crescendo of collective bargaining
agreements, organizing was remarkably fluid. Goldberg says that
charters were granted easily and with little need for substantiation
or the apparatus of negotiation soon to appear under the NLRB. In
those days, he asserts with some nostalgia, one could go in and
organize a place in one or two days, present demands to the employer,
and make a deal. Such rapid victories were, of course, exceptions;
Goldberg also recalls the often brutal resistance of management,
particularly in heavy industry.
After serving in the war, Goldberg returned to his union efforts,
despite family advice that he try something more prestigious and
lucrative. The union was his life, so he stayed. He never formally
rejoined the Party, although he remained in close contact. The
Taft-Harley anti-Communist oath soon reinforced this decision.
Nevertheless, Goldberg and his small union were red-baited and
constantly under McCarthyite attack.
How did he survive? Goldberg argues that he "was very close to the
membership" and had solid support from his fellow leaders. He
emphasizes that the union provided real benefits and servicesto
membership and sustained their loyalty despite the attacks. In
addition, he notes that by this time the small union did not have a
Party group, only him. One of the more damaging policies of
Party-dominated unions was what Goldberg calls "the resolution
bit"—the passing of Party-sponsored resolutions on every issue from
Scottsboro to Spain. Too many left-wing unions manipulated such
resolutions without making any effort to educate the membership; all
that mattered was that local such-and-such of the so-and-so workers
sent a resolution attacking Franco's dictatorship in Spain. Goldberg
dropped such tactics in the postwar period, instead working with his
local's officers and servicing the practical needs of the membership.
By the mid-fifties, still a socialist, Milt Goldberg had become
estranged from the Communist Party.
As is true of most arts, the qualities that make for a successful
organizer are uncertain and descriptions are inevitably cliche-ridden.
As the experiences of ny Tisa and Jack Ryan indicate, having roots
in the work force being organized gives one a decided advantage. But
the Party could use only the troops it had available, and these were
for the most part educated, urban, Jewish Americans, most of whom had
no experience in the heavy industries that were their "colonies." Most
of them experienced frustration; one cadre estimates that 95 percent
of all Party colonizers failed. Too often colonizers were unable to
operate in a sea of Gentile proletarians. Fred Garst, stillry at
the Party for its insensitivity to context, charges that "the Left
didn't have any organizing skills." But some organizers, remarkably,
succeeded.
/ike samuels/
Ike Samuels still speaks with an accent that reveals the years he
spent in Eastern Europe before his mother, taking the remains of the
family silver, arrived in the United States. No red-diaper baby,
Samuels describes his youth as "street-wise" and his ambition as
making it in America. Like many others, however, "the whole thing
burst into flame" when the Depression forced him to dropout of school
and hunger marches, bonus marches, and unemployed council protests
acted on his emerging social conscience. Soon he was moving toward the
Party and engaging in union organizing.
Samuels, a gruff, self-deprecating man who often refers to his "big
mouth," rose to leadership within a small craft union and served on
the city CIO council. His CIO union was dominated by a Popular Front
coalition of the Party and a progressive Catholic group. The union
president, a leader of the latter, was incompetent; on several
occasions Samuels had to bail him out of collective-bargaining
disasters. Finally the Catholic faction and the Party faction sought
to replace the president with Samuels. The national Party leadership,
however, afraid of upsetting the delicate coalition, said no. Samuels
recalls that he "didn't even question" the decision, but he was
frustrated and soon left the union to become an organizer for a
larger, industrial union.
Samuels agrees with Milt Goldberg that it was relatively easy to be a
good organizer in that period. Labor was in an upswing, workers were
clamoring to be organized, NLRB cards were easy to accumulate. In
heavy industry, Samuels stresses, the key was to seek out the pockets
of old radical workers—not colonizers, he emphasizes—who had broken
down the old ethnic barriers. Many such organizers were members of the
IWO foreign-language federations. Next, one needed the "pie-cards,"
the full-time organizers supplied by the CIO itself, many of whom were
veteran radicals. Along with and sometimes among the pie-cards were
the younger Communists going into the shops, supported by a growing
and confident Party organization. A "highly developed structure,"
Samuels recalls, was essential to organizing success. One had to
develop shop committees and day-to-day contacts in each department.
The sense of strength provided by the union itself and, crucially, by
its CIO sponsor, allowed workers to imagine that the employers could
be successfully challenged. In the automobile, steel, rubber, mining,
and electrical equipment industries, workers facedmammoth corporations
willing to use any means necessary to throw back the unionist surge.
The New Deal, by encouraging a more neutral judiciary and law
enforcement role, made it easier for the coordinated CIO drives to
gain concessions from corporate heads. Samuels suggests that the
workers, some of whom had backed decades of unsuccessful rank-and-file
efforts, needed the sense that they were a part of a powerful
coalition. L. Lewis appealed to this sense when he proclaimed,
"The President want you to join a union." Such a coalition advanced
unionization at the same time that it necessitated concessions and
strictures that limited the leverage of the newly legitimized
unions.^16
Samuels argues that it was imperative for organizers to have knowledge
of their industries. He deliberately worked in a craft shop to learn
the trade and later carefully studied one heavy industry before going
out to organize its workers. He was not typical. Hodee Edwards, a
thirties organizer, stresses "our consistent failure to investigate
the neighborhoods and factories where we tried to work, thus applying
a generalized, sectarian plan usually incomprehensible to those we
wanted to reach."^17
And Sam Katz suggests that the Party did not always recognize the
tension between the leadership and the activist/organizer over the
pace and nature of organizing. The functionaries often pushed for the
most advanced positions, including the "resolutions bit," whereas the
organizers focused on the issues that confronted their constituents.
Conflict was inevitable between broad policy and local needs and
variations, and between policy planners and functionaries and field
organizers and the rank and file. It is clear that the Communist Party
suffered chronically from top-heavy decision making, which often left
local organizers and members with policy directives that made little
sense in local circumstances.
In addition to organizational strength and preparation, Samuels feels
that leadership ability and, at times, personal courage must be
demonstrated. On several occasions he had to take risks or lose the
confidence of his membership. In one local the workers affectionately
referred to him as "R.R.J.B.," Red Russian JewBastard. He tells of
organizing workers in a small Georgia company town. Fifteen hundred
were on strike, and the patriarchal owners were negotiating only under
pressure from the NLRB. They were stalling, however, so Samuels called
on the work force to increase the pressure by massing outside the
building where the negotiations were taking place. The next day, in
the midst of bargaining, Samuels noticed the face of the company's
attorney turning an ash white as he glanced out the window. What he
saw were about three hundred workers marching toward the building
carrying a rope; lynching was on their agenda. Samuels went out and
calmed them down, "modified" their demands, and then wrapped up
negotiations. His early organizing days also included maritime
struggles with gangster elements who were not beyond "bumping off"
militants. Samuels implies that the Left elements fought back,
sometimes resorting to their own brand of physical intimidation.^18
Peggy Dennis describes the Bolshevik ideal as "soldiers in a
revolutionary army at permanent war with a powerful class enemy." And
"in permanent war, doubts or questions are treason."^19
Yet as Joseph Starobin asks, "How could the Leninist equilibrium be
sustained in a country so different from Lenin's?"^20
In fact, it was sustained unevenly and at a price. In a society with a
tradition of civil liberties (albeit inconsistently applied and
occasionally suspended in moments of stress) and a remarkably
resilient political democracy, the Leninist model, hardened and
distorted by Stalinism, mixed uncomfortably with American
realities.^21
At its best the Leninist ideal encouraged the incredible levels of
hard work and perseverance that even critics of Communism grant to its
cadres; it also evoked such personal qualities as integrity, courage,
honesty, and militancy. Yet the ideal seemed to degenerate too easily
into a model of behavior appropriately labeled Stalinist. Communist
cadres accepted deceptive tactics and strategies that inevitably
backfired and undermined theirintegrity and reputations—for example,
the front groups that "flip-flopped" at Party command after years of
denying Party domination. The intolerance and viciousness with which
Communists often attacked adversaries, including liberals, socialists,
and their own heretics, remains inexcusable.^22
As organizers, Communist activists suffered from a tendency toward a
special kind of elitism that often made them incapable of working with
diverse groups sharing common goals. In some periods they turned this
streak of inhumanity against themselves, engaging in ugly campaigns of
smear and character assassination to eliminate "Titoists,"
"Browderites," "revisionists," "left-wing adventurists," or "white
chauvinists."
Moreover, the secrecy within which Communists often operated, while
sometimes justified by the danger of job loss or prosecution, served
to undermine the Party's moral legitimacy. An organizer's relationship
with his constituents depends on their belief in his integrity, and
this is especially true when the organizer is an outsider. Too often,
Communists undermined their own integrity by covering manipulative and
cynical acts with the quite plausible explanation that survival
required secrecy. The tendency of Communists to resort to First and
Fifth Amendment protection during the McCarthy period falls under
similar challenges. As Joseph Starobin asks:
Should left-wingers and Communists have gone to jail in large numbers?
Might they have been better off/politically/, in terms of
their/image/, to assert their affiliations, to proclaim them instead
of asserting their right to keep them private, to explain the issues
as they saw them, and to take the consequences?^23
Communist activists certainly did not lack courage or commitment to a
protracted struggle. Many risked prison, and some served prison
sentences; perhaps as many as one-third of the cadres painfully
accepted assignments to go underground in the early fifties. Their
Leninism had to navigate contradictory currents of Stalinism and
Americanization, militancy and opportunism.
Local Communist activists often lived a somewhat schizophrenic life,
alternately internationalist and indigenous, Bolshevik and
"progressive," admiring the Leninist model of cadre and yet falling
into more settled, familial patterns of activism. There was a clear if
often ignored sexual division of labor: men were more likely to be the
cadres, women performed auxiliary clerical functions and unnoticed but
essential neighborhood organizing.
The Party was also divided between theorists and intellectuals on the
one hand and field workers and activists on the other. As one field
worker proclaimed, "I couldn't be spending hours on ideological
conflicts; I'm an activist, not an intellectual." Many agree that the
bulk of an organizer's time went into local actions and much less went
into discussions and considerations of important theoretical or
programmatic matters.^24
Only a small proportion received the type of ideological and
intellectual training suggested by the Leninist ideal, an ideal that
formally sought the obliteration of the distinctions between thought
and action, intellectual and activist.
In fact, Party intellectuals faced chronic and ingrained suspicion,
even contempt, from Party leaders. Abe Shapiro sardonically charges
that the function of Party intellectuals was "to sell the/Daily
Worker/at the waterfront." He remembers checking on a new Party
document on the economy: "I actually read the document. I wanted to
know what the Hell it was." He found it infantile and far below what
well-trained but never used Party intellectuals and social scientists
could have produced. The Party rarely, except for showcase purposes,
relied on its trained intellectual or academic members; instead, it
called on Party functionaries, often of very narrow training, to write
about complex sociological, economic, and scientific matters. Theory
suffered as a result, and the Party, particularly after 1939, included
very few intellectuals.
Until the mid-fifties crisis, the Party, strangled by Stalinist dogma
and intolerance, was closed to intellectual discourse. Abe Shapiro
finally left the Party because his intellectual training hadgiven him
a commitment to intellectual honesty that he could not shake. Among
organizers, Party arrogance cut off messages from the grass roots.
Orders from what one veteran calls "the Cave of Winds"—Party
headquarters in New York—often contradicted practical organizing
experience.
The Party also suffered from insularity. Mark Greenly brought
interested fellow workers to a Party-dominated union meeting. They
were curious and "antiboss" but quite unsophisticated and not at all
ready to make any commitments. Unfortunately, the Party organizer
immediately started to discuss class struggle and a variety of
abstract political matters. The workers were quickly alienated and
frightened away, never to return. Ethel Paine recalls such
"inappropriate behavior" as the sectarian conversations Party people
would carry on in the presence of non-Communist acquaintances and
neighbors. Although chronically secretive about membership, Communists
could be remarkably insensitive to their audience in revealing ways. A
successful organizer learned when and how to introduce more
controversial ideas to nonmembers. Training, including the Party
schools, helped to some extent, but most Communists agree with the
veteran organizer who feels that such learning has to be done on the
job, by trial and error. Many Communists, like Sam Katz and
Caldwell, tell painful if sometimes hilarious tales of their own and
others' ineptitude as beginning organizers. Some discovered that they
simply were not suited for the job and would never develop the
personal qualities that make for a competent organizer. Several
veterans insist that organizers are born, not made. Yet relatively
introverted and socially awkward young people, inspired by the
idealism and the comradeship of the Communist movement, did transform
themselves into effective organizers. Vivian Gornick points out that
such transformations did not always survive the collapse of
association with the Party.^25
I did not, however, discover total or near total personality changes
caused either by joining or abandoning the Party.
Although most of the literature about radical organizers deals with
men, it is increasingly apparent that some of the mostsignificant and
consistently ignored organizing within the Communist Party involved
women. The ten women interviewed performed a rich variety of Party
tasks, but perhaps the most important were those not officially
designated, like the informal neighborhood activities organized by
Edith Samuels, described inChapter Five
.
Sarah Levy was also involved in such efforts. Sarah and her two
children joined her colonizer husband, Moe, in leaving the comfortable
Party concentration in the Strawberry Mansion section to live in a
nearby industrial town. She refers to the next three and a half years
as "not the easiest times and, yet to me, personally, one of the best
growing experiences—and I have never regretted it." (Moe's wry
rejoinder was "She didn't have to work the blast furnaces.")
There were only three Party families in the town, quite a difference
from the thirty or forty Party friends they left behind in Strawberry
Mansion. While Moe worked the furnaces and tried to develop contacts
with plant workers, Sarah joined a folk dance group at the local "Y,"
where she got to know Greek, Yugoslav, Italian, and other immigrant
women. Moe, limited in the plant to a small Party circle of colonizers
and sympathizers, was able to socialize with the husbands of Sarah's
folk dancing partners.
Colonizers often ended up working with a local Party apparatus while
their wives, working through neighborhood networks, reached into the
community through its women, older people, and children. Asie
Repice casually but proudly concluded about her work with a community
center during the war years; "I am an organizer, so I organized a
nursery." Her husband was in the service. Moving around to stay close
to his base, she put her organizing abilities and political values to
work. Such efforts remain an unwritten chapter in the history of
radical organizing.^26
*/functionaries/*
Few district functionaries other than Sam Darcy achieved any national
stature or had much leverage outside the district. Dave Davis, the
business manager of UE Local 155 and an importantPhiladelphia-area
labor leader, was often elected to the Party's national committee but
never entered the inner decision-making group. Other district
leaders—like Pat Toohey, Phil Bart, Phil Frankfeld, and Ed Strong—were
D.O.s sent into the district and then moved out again to other
assignments.
Most district functionaries played dominant roles within the district
committee and ran such important Party operations as the local
Progressive Party and the Civil Rights Congress. They drew meager
salaries, which were sometimes supplemented by Party-related
employment. The Party network, at least during the late thirties and
forties, could place members in some union jobs.^27
Possibly several dozen members depended on the Party for their
livelihood in this way.
*/nonmembers/*
One often encounters Communists who, for very specific reasons, were
not formal Party members. One former Progressive Party leader never
joined the Party but worked closely with district Communist leaders to
map strategy and coordinate activity. Some union leaders stayed out of
the Party to deny employers the red-baiting weapon, and a number
dropped out after the Taft-Hartley Act made a union officer liable to
prosecution for perjury if he lied about current Party membership.^28
*/professionals/*
Some professionals who joined the Party operated at a rank-and-file
level, belonging to a professional branch or club, attending meetings,
and fulfilling subscription quotas. Several recall being highly
impressed with the other professionals they met at Party functions.
But such members—often doctors, dentists, and architects—were on the
margins of Party life.
Many professionals, especially lawyers associated with Party causes,
found membership problematic and chose not to formalize their
relationships with the Party, though they might be members of a
professional club. "I fought against loose tongues," one states."I
never asked a soul whether they were Communists or not." Several
left-wing attorneys stress that they did not want to be in a position
to betray anyone or risk a perjury charge if questioned about their
own affiliations and associations. The law in America is a
conservative profession, and several Left lawyers paid a high price
for their efforts.^29
Another consideration was that the Party sometimes pressured lawyers
to use a particular legal strategy in Party-related cases, and such
pressure was more effectively applied to members.^30
One attorney notes that the Party itself seemed ambivalent about
requiring formal membership. A few district leaders pressured him to
join, while others understood that it was not particularly useful or
necessary.
Some lawyers, whether members or not, found their services very much
in demand. They were needed in labor negotiations, electoral
activities, and civil rights and civil liberties cases. In the late
forties and early fifties, Party-affiliated lawyers found it less easy
than it had been to earn a living through Party-based clients, such as
left-wing unions. Instead they were called upon to deal with the
titanic task of defending Party members indicted under the Smith Act
and other pieces of repressive legislation. Thanks to this demand, as
one attorney suggests, they received special treatment from the
district leadership. They mixed with labor leaders, politicians,
judges, and, at times, the national Party leadership. Several had more
contact with the non-Communist local authorities than district
functionaries had. One left-wing attorney recalls that he had the
luxury of criticizing Party policies and decisions, within limits,
because "I was needed, I was special, a lawyer."
More significant than membership was the degree of autonomy a member
had, and this was based on his importance to the Party or his
institutional leverage. A professional could get away with criticism
of the Nazi-Soviet Pact that would not be tolerated from
rank-and-filers or most cadres. A union leader could ignore Party
instructions, aware that his own organization was his power base. A
former Communist, George Charney, criticizes in his memoirsthe
"left-wing aristocracy of labor that rarely mingled with the herd of
party members or the middle functionaries."^31
Such trade-unions "influentials" often had contempt for functionaries
and would go over their heads to top leadership.
Those who entered the Party, at whatever level, in whatever role,
operated within a well-defined organization and lived within a
somewhat insular and often nurturing subculture that provided them
with formal and informal relationships. These relationships eased the
often lonely organizing work. One veteran unashamedly calls his fellow
Communist organizers "the most dedicated, most selfless people in the
struggle." Many would share Jessica Mitford's feelings:
I had regarded joining the Party as one of the most important
decisions of my adult life. I loved and admired the people in it, and
was more than willing to accept the leadership of those far more
experienced than I. Furthermore, the principle of democratic
centralism seemed to me essential to the functioning of a
revolutionary organization in a hostile world.^32
Any tendency to romanticize such activists must be tempered by an
awareness of their mistakes, limitations, and weaknesses, and it is
true that many non-Communists made similar commitments to organizing
the oppressed and the weak. They too merit consideration. These
Philadelphia veterans of the Communist Party are very human actors who
worked on a particular historical stage. Some conclude that their
years of effort never really brought any of their factory and shop
constituents into the movement. Like Sol Davis, they admit that they
were utter failures in that "cultural, political, and philosophical
wasteland" of blue-collar America. Others share the pride, perhaps the
arrogance, of one of Vivian Gornick's subjects:
We're everywhere, everywhere. We/saved/this fucking country. We went
to Spain, and because we did America understood fascism. We made
Vietnam come to an end, we're in there inWatergate. We built the CIO,
we got Roosevelt elected, we started black civil rights, we forced
this shitty country into every piece of action and legislation it has
ever taken. We did the dirty work and the Labor and Capital
establishments got the rewards. The Party helped make democracy
work.^33
The road from Spain to Watergate is a long one. Communists, euphoric
at their prospects in the heyday of CIO sit-downs and Popular Front
triumphs, later needed remarkable inner resources to sustain political
activity. They sensed the first tremors from the purge trials,
received a severe jolt from the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of
1939, and in the postwar years faced first political repression and
then, more painfully, internal disintegration and demoralization.
NEXT CHAPTER
seven: problems and crises, 1939–1956
the founder of Black Lives Matter once described herself as a trained
, like Obama, but I could only find this:
https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/blm-co-founder-describes-herself-as-trained-marxist/
On 10/17/22 10:32 wrote:
Since many believe Obama is running the Marxist Biden administration
We might want to look at a history of comnunist organizing,
euphemistically called a community organizing
https://temple.manifoldapp.org/read/philadelphia-communists-1936-1956/section/c5cbd6e3-ed24-4bcb-97b0-da424fc58416
*/the communist as organizer/*
In the period between the Great Crash and the McCarthy era the CPUSA
was the most effective organizing agency within the American
experience.^1
In this most politically stable of societies, radicals have usually
battered their heads against the stone wall of affluence, rising
expectations, and Democratic Party loyalty. Within the narrow space of
agitation allowed by the political order, Communist Party activists
built a small but influential organization devoted to organizing
constituencies for social change. According to even the most
unsympathetic accounts, Communist activists played important roles in
organizing the unemployed, evicted tenants, minorities, and workers in
a wide variety of fields. They were central in the emergence of the
CIO and thus in the organizing of workers in heavy industry and mass
production; they spearheaded the defense of the right of black people
to equality before the law and social and economic opportunity; and
they participated in virtually all of the nationalefforts to establish
humane social services and eliminate hunger, disease, and neglect from
our communities.^2
Many analysts question the motives of Communist Party activists, and
there certainly is controversy about the extent of their organizing
successes. Nevertheless, Communist organizing merits serious and
objective consideration. For a period of approximately thirty years,
Communist Party activists and organizers sought out constituents in
the mines, plants, and neighborhoods of the United States. Other
left-wing groups, such as the Socialist Party, the Trotskyist
Socialist Workers Party, and A. J. Muste's Workers Party, also deserve
study, but the CPUSA offers students the best opportunity to examine
the dynamics of organizing sponsored and directed by a radical
political group.^3
The organizers under consideration came to political maturity during
the 1930s, mostly in an era associated with the Popular Front, and
remained within the Party until at least the mid-Fifties. Indeed, many
remained active organizers and participants after leaving the
organizational framework of the Communist Party. In the thirties and
forties, they modified their Bolshevik rhetoric and participated in
antifascist alliances, worked for modest short-term successes within
the fledgling CIO, and provided support and manpower for a diverse
group of radical and progressive political movements and leaders,
including Democrats, Farmer-Laborites, the American Labor Party in New
York, and Communist Party councilmen in New York City, all under an
essentially New Deal banner.^4
Organizers operating in the greater Philadelphia district had
important trade-union successes and played a key role in organizing
unemployed councils, electoral efforts, tenant rights, and peace,
professional lobbying, civil liberties, ethnically based, and
neighborhood groups. For a period of approximately ten years, from
1936 to perhaps 1947, the Communist Party of Eastern Pennsylvania and
Delaware, District Three, played an important if modest role in the
political life of the area, generating ideas, programs, and visions
that later became the commonplaces of social policy.
The Party offered its membership several roles. One could remain at
the rank-and-file level, become a cadre, or rise to functionary. One
could engage in mass work within one of the Party fronts or a
non-Party organization (e.g., the YMCA) or one could become a
"colonizer," engaging in industrial organizing at the beck and call of
the Party. In addition, one could work within the professional
section, providing the Party with such services as legal counsel.^5
*/rank and file/*
At the lowest level of Party membership were the rank and file, the
proverbial "Jimmy Higginses" who worked within Party clubs and
branches, paid their dues, went to a variety of meetings, and joined
the mass organizations and fronts, often focusing on a specific issue
like Spain, civil rights, or Scottsboro. Such rank-and-filers were at
the heart of everyday activities and what Gornick calls "grinding
ordinariness."^6
There was an extraordinary turnover among such members, who often
became weary of meetings,/Daily Worker/solicitations, and office chores.
Many rank-and-filers began their activism while in college or
sometimes high school. The Philadelphia high school movement was quite
sizable, including ASU and YCL chapters in at least eight schools.
High school activists ranged throughout the city, meeting radical
peers, socializing, and developing their own circle of comrades. For
those who entered college either already active or about to be
radicalized, there was an almost dizzying flow of activities,
including demonstrations, marches, sit-downs, leaflettings,
fundraisers, dances, parties, socials, lectures, speeches—and
meetings. Always, there were meetings, one for every night of the
week, often more.^7
Enthusiastic, recently converted Communists, like their spiritual
children in the 1960s, had unbounded energy for political work. Most
speak of being aroused and inspired by their sense of the significance
of their efforts, the quality of their comrades, and the grandeur and
power of their movement. Abe Shapiro recalls being engrossed at one
time in the following activities: formal YCL meetings, ASU leadership,
a universityantiwar council (of which he was director), Spanish civil
war relief efforts, a variety of antifascist activities, a student-run
bookstore cooperative, and support work for assorted civil liberties
and civil rights causes. Some activists found schoolwork boring under
the circumstances and devoted all of their time to politics. A few
became "colonizers." In most cases, however, Communist students
completed their degree work, and if they dropped out of school, it was
often for financial reasons. For most, the excitement of campus
politics held their attention and their interest.
Some found Party youth work a path toward leadership, becoming
citywide or national ASU or YCL leaders. Others on leaving campus
became YCL branch or section organizers in different parts of the
district.
Many who did not attend college did neighborhood work with the YCL,
often focusing their mass organizational efforts through the American
League for Peace and Democracy. To many youthful rank-and-filers, "the
YCL became . . . Marxist-Leninist theory all mixed up with baseball,
screwing, dancing, selling the/Daily Worker/, bullshitting, and living
the American-Jewish street life."^8
Certainly the first flush of radicalism, the emotional high of
purposeful activity, the sense of accomplishment and of sacrifice for
the good of humanity, the work with fine and noble comrades, the love
affairs with those sharing a common vision, the expectation that the
future was indeed theirs, created a honeymoon effect for most young
Communists.
For some, the fad of radicalism passed upon graduation or thereabouts.
Others simply maintained a regular but distant "fellow-traveling" role
as they entered the work world. And many were disillusioned by the
Party's dogmatism or the great purge trials, the attacks on Trotsky,
or the Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. Others, including those
interviewed, remained in the Party. The shortest stay was six years,
and most remained loyal for twenty years or more. For all of those who
stayed, the Party and its small subculture became their lives.
Those working at the branch, club, and section levels were rarely on
the Party payroll and had to find work to supportthemselves. For
single people problems were few and life could be lived at a
double-time pace, working hard all day and then organizing and holding
meetings every night.
Some young Communists drifted for a time after school, doing Party
work but not settling into anything. Ben Green lived in Strawberry
Mansion, a lower-middle- and working-class Jewish neighborhood filled
with Party people at the time. He did some work with the American
League Against War and Fascism, spoke on street corners occasionally,
went to three to four meetings a week, and helped to start a union
local of public employees at his Works Progress Administration (WPA)
office. He remembers that the Party "made it a big thing" when he
shifted from the YCL to adult membership, but he was still looking at
his future with uncertainty.
Upon completing high school, George Paine felt that "sports were gone"
from his life except for an occasional neighborhood basketball game.
He kept in touch but saw less of old non-Party buddies and did
standard political work, "hustling the paper," going to meetings,
demonstrating. Finally he decided to go to college, suspending but not
ending his Party ties.
One rank-and-filer was a skilled craftsman, "glad of the class I was
born into." He belonged to a conservative craft union and limited his
political work to mass work at the local YMCA. He never really got
involved with a club or branch group but paid his dues, subscribed to
the paper, and worked with comrades to move the "Y" in a more
"progressive" direction. He was quite open about his views, which
would eventually get him into trouble at his job: "I felt that since
to me everything was so clear, they'd hug me."
Tim Palen, a farmer and skilled craftsman who lived in a rural suburb
of Philadelphia, worked with the Farmers Union. A Party
rank-and-filer, he helped farmers get low-interest loans through the
union and sympathetic banks. Palen never involved himself with Party
affairs in the city, and the highest office he held was dues secretary
of his section.
Since the Communist Party did not formally label members according to
their rank, it is not always clear who was a rank-and-filer and who
was considered cadre. One former district leader defines cadres as the
people in training for leadership, like officers in an army. The rank
and file are, therefore, foot soldiers, less involved and more a part
of their own neighborhood or plant, more likely to hold conventional
jobs, and more subject to pressures from neighbors, family, and
changing circumstances. Annie Kriegel, who analyzes the French
Communist Party as a set of concentric circles, places fellow
travelers who vote for the Party and read the Sunday Party press on
the "outer circle" and "ordinary party members" in the "first
circle."^9
Many observers describe such rank-and-filers as less "Bolshevik"—that
is, more likely to break Party discipline in everyday activity and
closer to the behavior and sensibilities of their non-Party peers.
Harvey Klehr puts it, "Many party members received no training of any
kind, attendance at party meetings was often spotty, and members
frequently ignored or failed to carry out assigned tasks."^10
Almond presents esoteric and exoteric models to distinguish
rank-and-filer from cadre, suggesting that the Party daily press
directed itself to the relatively idealistic and naive external
members, while the Comintern, Cominform, and internal Party journals
spoke to insiders and sophisticated activists.^11
*/cadre/*
The cadre has a "personal commitment." He or she is a "true
Bolshevik," internally Communized, with an almost priestly function
and sense of specialness. The cadre is a "professional revolutionary"
along Leninist lines.^12
Philip Selznick adds that cadres are "deployable personnel," available
to the Party at all times.^13
Some observers use "cadre" interchangeably with "functionary," while
others distinguish them. I interpret "functionary" as a more
administrative and executive role, usually carrying more authority and
generally associated with top district and national leadership.^14
Cadres were field workers, organizers, sometimes on the payroll but
often holding a non-Party job. Some more mobile cadres lefttheir own
neighborhoods, but most worked at least within their home districts.
(Functionaries, on the other hand, could be homegrown and
district-bound or at the service of the national, even international,
office.)
Many studies exaggerate the distinction between inner core and outer
rings because of their dependence on the abstractions of Party tracts.
Almond, for example, claims that the "true Communist" was beyond any
commitment to the Popular Front since he was presumably fully
Bolshevized and aware of the duplicity and tactical nature of
moderated rhetoric. Perhaps this is true of the national leadership,
who had associations with Moscow, training at the Lenin School, and
Comintern experience. At the district level, however, the patterns are
not as clear and seem to be more sensitive to generational, class, and
ethnic variables.^15
Among informants, the word "cadre" connoted "hard-working," "brave,"
"dogged," and "honorable"—someone who followed a Leninist model of
behavior; "functionary," on the other hand, was often used negatively
to imply that someone was "bureaucratic," "aloof," "abstract," and
"remote from struggle"—in brief, the Stalinist/apparatchik/. Neither
necessarily belonged to an inner core.
Fred Garst tells of the "process of indoctrination" he underwent as he
entered into Party life, beginning with "the regularity of systematic
participation"—dues, meetings, selling Party literature. He says that
the number of meetings began slowly to escalate to three, sometimes
five a week: section and subsection meetings, executive meetings,
front meetings. Next, Garst was asked to lead a discussion, then to
take responsibility for organizing the distribution of literature. He
started taking classes at a local Workers School in Marxist theory and
labor history. His commitment grew, his experience deepened, and he
soon became a section leader.
Some Philadelphia Communists moved from rank-and-file to cadre roles
during important political campaigns like theProgressive Party efforts
of 1947–1948. One woman had been serving in a minor capacity—"not
anything earth-shattering"—but was swept up by what Wallace referred
to as "Gideon's Army." She became a full-time Progressive Party
organizer at a district level, her "first real organizing"; from that
point on, she was fully involved in Party work at a variety of levels.
Some cadres emphasized front and mass work, serving as leaders of IWO
ethnic groups, youth groups, and defense groups. Such cadres were
particularly likely to operate clandestinely, although many
communicated their affilitation all but formally to constituents.
Cadres can be distinguished by their level of operation (club, branch,
section, or district), by their funding (on the payroll or holding a
regular job), by their relative mobility and willingness to do
political work outside their own milieu, and, finally, by the type of
organizing they did (mass or front work, electoral party work,
industrial organizing). The most prestigious cadres were those who did
full-time industrial organizing at the will of the Party leadership.
Such organizers, whether of working-class origins or not and whether
indigenous or colonizers, were the heart of Party operations, seeking
to develop a proletarian constituency and a trade-union base.
/ny tisa/
ny Tisa's history shows what an experienced organizer could
accomplish. Tisa, a second-generation son of illiterate, working-class
peasants, went to work at the Campbell's Soup plant in his own South
Camden "Little Italy" after completing high school in the early 1930s.
While working summers at the plant, he had been stimulated by
street-corner radical speakers and had joined the Socialist Party,
which had a presence at Campbell's Soup. The Socialists sent him to
Brookwood Labor College, where he met young Communists who impressed
him with their earnestness and apparent lack of factionalism, a
problem he encountered among the Socialists. He returned to help
organize the plant, starting with a small group of about a half-dozen
Italian workers, none of themCommunists, whom he molded through a
discussion group. His group received a federal charter from the
American Federation of Labor and began to develop an underground,
dues-paying membership.
Tisa tells of frustrating experiences within the conservative AFL. At
the 1939 convention in Tampa, for example, he found himself accidently
strolling into a local walk-out of Del Monte workers, just as the
police were arresting the leader. He spoke to thery workers and
was himself threatened with arrest. The workers exclaimed, "You got Bo
[the arrested leader] but you're not gonna get him," and made a ring
to escort Tisa to a streetcar. That evening, at his suggestion, there
was a union meeting, packed and excited. When Tisa tried to speak
about this remarkable experience at the AFL convention, he was refused
the floor. Finally he simply took over the podium and microphone.
Later that day, he met with other militants, including Communists, to
organize the ClO-affiliated Food, Tobacco and Agricultural Workers Union.
He took a detour, however, as events in Spain captured his energies
and idealism. Tisa served two years in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade, gaining "a sense of internationalism that never escapes you."
On his return, he immediately set out to organize Campbell's Soup.
At the time Tisa began to organize it, Campbell's Soup employed about
5,500 full-time workers, with another 5,000 part-timers who came in
during the heavy season. At least half the workers were of Italian
descent; there were few blacks until the late 1940s. About half the
work force was female. There was a sexual division of labor based on
physical strength. Tisa's organizing group consisted of eleven or
twelve key workers, all leftists, mostly Italian. None were
"colonizers." All were indigenous workers who, under Tisa's
leadership, planned the unionization of Campbell's. Tisa recalls that
the group would often go crabbing and then return to his home to eat,
drink, and talk strategy. Tisa was the only member of the group on the
national union's payroll; he made a bare ten or fifteen dollars a week.
The organizers distributed themselves through the plant, reaching out
to obvious sympathizers and picking up useful information that they
would relay to Tisa, who could not enter the plant. He would take
names and visit workers in their homes, signing them up so that the
union could hold a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. He
would also cull information about working conditions from his
organizers and publish it in a union bulletin that they distributed
clandestinely, each carrying five to ten copies.
As their numbers increased, they became bolder and distributed the
much discussed bulletin openly. Campbell's Soup had Tisa arrested
once, but when he was released, many workers came to greet him. He
assured them that the law permitted them to organize a union. The
company tried many tactics to block his efforts: they started a
company union; they charged that he was a "Red" and had raped nuns and
killed priests in Spain. But Tisa lived in an Italian neighborhood
among plant workers and had a mother who had worked in the plant for
many years (cheering his speeches, often at the wrong times, he wryly
and lovingly notes); he could not be red-baited easily. He was an open
Communist; his neighbors would say, "ny's a Communist, but he's
all right." Despite the real barrier of the workers'traditional
Catholicism, he produced traditional trade-union benefits for members
and was popular enough locally, a neighbor, to remain in leadership
until the CIO purges of the late forties and early fifties finally
forced him out.
Tisa's experience highlights the importance of developing indigenous
personnel in organizing activity. His efforts were certainly bolstered
by support from the national union, by Communist Party training and
aid, and by the relative benevolence of the federal government as
expressed through the new NLRB. Yet the presence of local activists,
something the Communist Party sought but did not often achieve,
invariably made the task of organizing a plant or neighborhood that
much easier.
Other organizers performed similar roles without formally entering the
Party, preferring to remain independent although generally taking
positions consistent with Party policy.
/jack ryan/
Jack Ryan's old man was "a union man," later a foreman, a local
Democratic politician, and a bootlegger. As a teen-ager, and a high
school drop-out, Ryan ran poker and crap games in the neighborhood
with a group of friends, some of whom wound up in prison. He worked
sporadically as a roofer, during which time he was influenced by a
socialist "who couldn't read or write until he was twenty-three."
His father finally got him a job at a local plant, where he worked as
a crane operator in the early Depression years until he was laid off
in 1931. Over the next two years, he tried a small store and "managed
to hang on," selling water ice and running crap games. In 1933 he went
back to the plant just at the point when the local union was being
formed. Ryan recalls that he was "sworn in in an elevator with the
lights out in between the floors." Despite his emerging radical
politics, Ryan remained on the margins at first. "I deliberately
didn't get active," he says, indicating that life seemed too
unpredictable to take chances. In fact, he entered into a real-estate
business on the side, and it eventually provided him with the cushion
that allowed him to become more active within the plant.
Initially he ran for the general committee, backed by the other crane
operators because of his successful grievance work. Still cautious ("I
kept my mouth shut," he notes), Ryan went along with the conservative
local leadership while maintaining contact with the plant militants,
several of whom were old Wobblies suspicious of any Communist Party
leadership. Ryan worked primarily through his own crane operators'
network within the plant. He played the trade-offs in union posts
among the plant's crafts to become local president, an unpaid post,
and finally business representative, the only salaried position within
the local. Ryanremained close to the Party but never joined. "I was
more radical than they were," he brags. He criticizes their twists and
turns and suggests that "in the end you can't trust any of them"
because of "the goddamn line." He adds that the/Daily Worker/was
"written for a bunch of morons." On the other hand, Ryan admits that
Party union members were often competent and successful organizers and
that he agreed with most of their Popular Front stances, particularly
their antifascism. On the Soviets, he says that he did not spend too
much time thinking about them, but adds, "I don't blame them for
having a treaty with the Germans."
Ryan is clearly concerned with the practical issues of trade unionism.
In describing one of his national officers, he exclaims, "A dedicated
Communist but a helluva guy." He praises L. Lewis's efforts at
industrial unionization: "him and the Commies put together the CIO;
they were the smartest crowd." So Jack Ryan worked with but kept some
distance from "the Commies": "they were a little bit nutty." His union
was one of those expelled from the CIO in the late forties, and he
remains bitter about the Party's role in the union's decline. He
remained active, holding union office on and off until his retirement.
Ryan proudly concludes that he was placed on Social Security while on
strike for the last time in the early seventies.
ny Tisa and Jack Ryan were working-class organizers, with roots in
their ethnic communities, able to establish a rapport with their peers
and, at the same time, develop more sophisticated skills within a
broader and more ideological movement in or around the Communist
Party. Their failures were mostly exogenous, the results of
Taft-Hartley oaths, CIO purges, and McCarthyism in general.
Others operated in less favorable terrain, without the decided
advantages of an indigenous, working-class background. The most
characteristic Party labor organizer was a young, educated,
second-generation Jewish-American sent to "dig roots into the
working-class." The efforts of such organizers were prodigious; their
accomplishments, however, were more problematic.
/al schwartz/
Al Schwartz's father was a 1905er, a Party organizer in the garment
industry who had to open a small shop after he was blacklisted. Al, a
classic "red-diaper baby," went through all of the Party developmental
steps, from Young Pioneers through YCL to full Party involvement. Most
of all he wanted to be a radical journalist. For a few years he was
able to work on the Pennsylvania supplement to the/Worker/, but when
it folded, his journalism career seemed over. Over the next half-dozen
years, Schwartz, now in his late twenties, went into the shops as a
"colonizer." He remembers the sense of adventure and mission he felt
working at a few of the larger heavy industrial plants in the area.
Yet he also speaks of his sense of loss and defeat in having to
aban hopes of writing. Schwartz's response to colonizing was
painfully ambivalent: a college graduate and a Jew, born and bred
within the Yiddish-Left subculture, he both relished the contact with
blue-collar workers and remained distant from them. They were not like
him, he stresses; they were mired in back-breaking labor, poor
educations, and plebian forms of leisure. For a time he enjoyed the
camaraderie of the local taverns, but ultimately he was an outsider, a
Jewish family man and a struggling intellectual. Schwartz most fondly
recalls the hardness and fitness of his body, the feeling that he was
young and strong and physically a worker. But the successes were few,
and later the McCarthy period made such Party efforts even more
marginal. Schwartz found himself a family man in his mid-thirties
without a career or a profession; frustrated and drifting out of Party
life without drama or flourish, he moved to reorganize his life. His
political values held, but his colonizing days were over.
/sol davis/
Sol Davis grew up in a poor, working-class, immigrant household. He
was a bright young boy, and like many other upwardly aspiring Jewish
males, he flourished at the elite Central High School andbegan moving
toward a professional career. At this point, in the early years of the
Depression, he was swept off his feet, as he puts it, by the Communist
Party. After completing his schooling, he worked lackadaisically at
his profession while seeking an opportunity to go into the shops as a
Communist Party organizer; he was "determined to be shop worker."
His first attempts allowed him to learn something about machinery,
although in each instance he was fired for his inexperience and
incompetence. Finally he caught on. "I was in my element," he asserts,
describing the war years in heavy industry. For Davis, the good
organizer had to have a commitment to "the principles of Communism,"
"a talent for leadership," and a willingness to listen. A confident
speaker, whose words are clipped and terse, he worked twenty-nine
years in the shops, twenty-six of them at one plant. Located within
the city, the plant was staffed mostly by Catholic workers (Polish or
Irish), initially few blacks, and even fewer Jews.
Davis's recollections are filled with bitter refrains about
red-baiting and "turn-coat ex-CPers," sell-outs and "social
democrats." He is proud of his successes, which include chairing the
grievance committee and serving as shop steward during most of his
union years. Davis presents his life as devoted to organizing in the
shops; he never got involved in his neighborhood and tended to leave
Party electoral work to others. A hard-line orthodox Communist still,
Davis argues that those who abandoned the Party were "petty-bourgeois
with petty-bourgeois ideas," whereas he "was nursed out of the
trade-union movement." In the fifties, he admits, "life became
unpleasant," both in his largely Jewish lower-middle-class
neighborhood and in the shop, where "a certain resistance developed to
my activity" among people he calls anti-Communist socialists.
Davis believes that most American workers have been bought off in
"discrete and discernible fashion" by imperialist profits, manipulated
by the mass media, and blinded by nationalism, religion, and racism.
After spending almost thirty years in theindustrial heartland, Davis
remains "dedicated to an idea," an "unquestioned belief" in communism.
Yet when asked about his ability to convert workers to class
consciousness, a saddened Sol Davis replies, "Never—the shop was a
desert for me." He did not convert a single worker and was "in that
respect an utter failure." The shops, to the stoical Davis, were "a
cultural, political, and philosophical wasteland despite having made
so many friends." Sol Davis has kept the faith since he was "baptized"
in the movement; his singular lack of organizing success rests, in his
mind, on factors beyond his control—repression, cowardice,
self-interest. He is a confident man.
/ caldwell/
Other colonizers had more mixed results. Caldwell, a college
graduate with a middle-class WASP heritage, recalls that in his
initial colonizing effort, "I wasn't very smart and made a lot of
stupid mistakes—talked to people, became known as a troublemaker." He
was fired. Fortunately for Caldwell, his firing made him a "celebrated
case," and the predominantly Irish and Italian Catholic workers, and
even the conservative union officials, rallied to his support.
Caldwell says that whereas other Party organizers had their best
contact in their own departments, he touched bases throughout the
plant and often socialized at the local bar to maintain and develop
relationships. "A fair number knew I was a Communist," he says. "I
never denied it." But most did not. In most plants to admit membership
in the Party meant probable firing and certain harassment. For
organizers like Caldwell, discretion was the rule.
His efforts paid off against the union's local establishment. The
national, a left-wing union, sent in an organizer to help fashion a
local coalition to defeat the established group, and Caldwell worked
with him as elections chairman. The progressive slate was successful.
Caldwell, a leader of a left-wing veterans' group, participated in the
1946 strike surge. When mounted police chased people ontoporches in
Southwest Philadelphia to break up injunction-defying demonstrations,
the local CIO was able to bring out 25,000 workers to protest against
police brutality in front of City Hall. But such Popular Front-style
unified efforts were shattered by the developing Cold War consensus,
which began to drive radicals, particularly Party members, out of the
unions.
Caldwell shifted jobs in this period, finally taking a full-time
organizing job in a nearby industrial town. The plant had some IWO
members and a few Party members, but no organization. Caldwell, who
observes that "it really became difficult after the Korean War"
started, found some success in putting out a small paper and handing
it out at the main gates. He worked to develop contacts mainly by
distributing the Party paper, first for free, then by subscription.
Caldwell remembers proudly that he won a district drive with eighty
subscriptions in his area. Gains were modest: a Hungarian sympathizer
sent him two black shop stewards; then a few Irish Catholics made
contact. Caldwell recalls going into Philadelphia to see prize fights
with the latter workers, mixing pleasure with discussions of possible
articles about their area for the Party press.
But the times wrecked any chance Caldwell had of developing a Party
group. The FBI scared off possible sympathizers; he was arrested for
circulating antiwar petitions, and the venture finally ended in the
heyday of the McCarthy period when Caldwell was sent to join the
Party's underground.
Caldwell and Al Schwartz experienced the ebb of the progressive union
movement in the late forties and early fifties. Most Party labor
organizers and colonizers, however, joined the fray during the
extraordinary upsurge of the late thirties that established industrial
unionism through the CIO.
/milt goldberg/
Milt Goldberg, despite winning a Mayor's Scholarship, was unable to
continue his education after graduating from Central High School.
Instead, he scratched to make a living at odd jobs, gradually becoming
interested in radical politics. While he wasworking a pre-Christmas
job at Sears, the department store warehousemen went out on strike.
Clerks refused to cross the picket lines. Goldberg recalls that the
increasingly anxious owners persuaded the clerks to return to work
with promises of improved conditions and wage increases that were
never fulfilled; meanwhile, the warehousemen settled. In the
aftermath, the strike leaders were all fired. Goldberg says that many
of them were Communists and that he began to notice how often that was
the case: "I respected the Party people; they were able, talented people."
Goldberg became an organizer for a white-collar union dominated by
mobsters who made deals with management at the expense of the
membership. He describes his early efforts as "naive, inexperienced."
Goldberg played a key role in leading his membership out of the
corrupt union into a new CIO local, whose Philadelphia office staff
was dominated by Party organizers. In those days, the late thirties,
the era of sit-downs and a crescendo of collective bargaining
agreements, organizing was remarkably fluid. Goldberg says that
charters were granted easily and with little need for substantiation
or the apparatus of negotiation soon to appear under the NLRB. In
those days, he asserts with some nostalgia, one could go in and
organize a place in one or two days, present demands to the employer,
and make a deal. Such rapid victories were, of course, exceptions;
Goldberg also recalls the often brutal resistance of management,
particularly in heavy industry.
After serving in the war, Goldberg returned to his union efforts,
despite family advice that he try something more prestigious and
lucrative. The union was his life, so he stayed. He never formally
rejoined the Party, although he remained in close contact. The
Taft-Harley anti-Communist oath soon reinforced this decision.
Nevertheless, Goldberg and his small union were red-baited and
constantly under McCarthyite attack.
How did he survive? Goldberg argues that he "was very close to the
membership" and had solid support from his fellow leaders. He
emphasizes that the union provided real benefits and servicesto
membership and sustained their loyalty despite the attacks. In
addition, he notes that by this time the small union did not have a
Party group, only him. One of the more damaging policies of
Party-dominated unions was what Goldberg calls "the resolution
bit"—the passing of Party-sponsored resolutions on every issue from
Scottsboro to Spain. Too many left-wing unions manipulated such
resolutions without making any effort to educate the membership; all
that mattered was that local such-and-such of the so-and-so workers
sent a resolution attacking Franco's dictatorship in Spain. Goldberg
dropped such tactics in the postwar period, instead working with his
local's officers and servicing the practical needs of the membership.
By the mid-fifties, still a socialist, Milt Goldberg had become
estranged from the Communist Party.
As is true of most arts, the qualities that make for a successful
organizer are uncertain and descriptions are inevitably cliche-ridden.
As the experiences of ny Tisa and Jack Ryan indicate, having roots
in the work force being organized gives one a decided advantage. But
the Party could use only the troops it had available, and these were
for the most part educated, urban, Jewish Americans, most of whom had
no experience in the heavy industries that were their "colonies." Most
of them experienced frustration; one cadre estimates that 95 percent
of all Party colonizers failed. Too often colonizers were unable to
operate in a sea of Gentile proletarians. Fred Garst, stillry at
the Party for its insensitivity to context, charges that "the Left
didn't have any organizing skills." But some organizers, remarkably,
succeeded.
/ike samuels/
Ike Samuels still speaks with an accent that reveals the years he
spent in Eastern Europe before his mother, taking the remains of the
family silver, arrived in the United States. No red-diaper baby,
Samuels describes his youth as "street-wise" and his ambition as
making it in America. Like many others, however, "the whole thing
burst into flame" when the Depression forced him to dropout of school
and hunger marches, bonus marches, and unemployed council protests
acted on his emerging social conscience. Soon he was moving toward the
Party and engaging in union organizing.
Samuels, a gruff, self-deprecating man who often refers to his "big
mouth," rose to leadership within a small craft union and served on
the city CIO council. His CIO union was dominated by a Popular Front
coalition of the Party and a progressive Catholic group. The union
president, a leader of the latter, was incompetent; on several
occasions Samuels had to bail him out of collective-bargaining
disasters. Finally the Catholic faction and the Party faction sought
to replace the president with Samuels. The national Party leadership,
however, afraid of upsetting the delicate coalition, said no. Samuels
recalls that he "didn't even question" the decision, but he was
frustrated and soon left the union to become an organizer for a
larger, industrial union.
Samuels agrees with Milt Goldberg that it was relatively easy to be a
good organizer in that period. Labor was in an upswing, workers were
clamoring to be organized, NLRB cards were easy to accumulate. In
heavy industry, Samuels stresses, the key was to seek out the pockets
of old radical workers—not colonizers, he emphasizes—who had broken
down the old ethnic barriers. Many such organizers were members of the
IWO foreign-language federations. Next, one needed the "pie-cards,"
the full-time organizers supplied by the CIO itself, many of whom were
veteran radicals. Along with and sometimes among the pie-cards were
the younger Communists going into the shops, supported by a growing
and confident Party organization. A "highly developed structure,"
Samuels recalls, was essential to organizing success. One had to
develop shop committees and day-to-day contacts in each department.
The sense of strength provided by the union itself and, crucially, by
its CIO sponsor, allowed workers to imagine that the employers could
be successfully challenged. In the automobile, steel, rubber, mining,
and electrical equipment industries, workers facedmammoth corporations
willing to use any means necessary to throw back the unionist surge.
The New Deal, by encouraging a more neutral judiciary and law
enforcement role, made it easier for the coordinated CIO drives to
gain concessions from corporate heads. Samuels suggests that the
workers, some of whom had backed decades of unsuccessful rank-and-file
efforts, needed the sense that they were a part of a powerful
coalition. L. Lewis appealed to this sense when he proclaimed,
"The President want you to join a union." Such a coalition advanced
unionization at the same time that it necessitated concessions and
strictures that limited the leverage of the newly legitimized
unions.^16
Samuels argues that it was imperative for organizers to have knowledge
of their industries. He deliberately worked in a craft shop to learn
the trade and later carefully studied one heavy industry before going
out to organize its workers. He was not typical. Hodee Edwards, a
thirties organizer, stresses "our consistent failure to investigate
the neighborhoods and factories where we tried to work, thus applying
a generalized, sectarian plan usually incomprehensible to those we
wanted to reach."^17
And Sam Katz suggests that the Party did not always recognize the
tension between the leadership and the activist/organizer over the
pace and nature of organizing. The functionaries often pushed for the
most advanced positions, including the "resolutions bit," whereas the
organizers focused on the issues that confronted their constituents.
Conflict was inevitable between broad policy and local needs and
variations, and between policy planners and functionaries and field
organizers and the rank and file. It is clear that the Communist Party
suffered chronically from top-heavy decision making, which often left
local organizers and members with policy directives that made little
sense in local circumstances.
In addition to organizational strength and preparation, Samuels feels
that leadership ability and, at times, personal courage must be
demonstrated. On several occasions he had to take risks or lose the
confidence of his membership. In one local the workers affectionately
referred to him as "R.R.J.B.," Red Russian JewBastard. He tells of
organizing workers in a small Georgia company town. Fifteen hundred
were on strike, and the patriarchal owners were negotiating only under
pressure from the NLRB. They were stalling, however, so Samuels called
on the work force to increase the pressure by massing outside the
building where the negotiations were taking place. The next day, in
the midst of bargaining, Samuels noticed the face of the company's
attorney turning an ash white as he glanced out the window. What he
saw were about three hundred workers marching toward the building
carrying a rope; lynching was on their agenda. Samuels went out and
calmed them down, "modified" their demands, and then wrapped up
negotiations. His early organizing days also included maritime
struggles with gangster elements who were not beyond "bumping off"
militants. Samuels implies that the Left elements fought back,
sometimes resorting to their own brand of physical intimidation.^18
Peggy Dennis describes the Bolshevik ideal as "soldiers in a
revolutionary army at permanent war with a powerful class enemy." And
"in permanent war, doubts or questions are treason."^19
Yet as Joseph Starobin asks, "How could the Leninist equilibrium be
sustained in a country so different from Lenin's?"^20
In fact, it was sustained unevenly and at a price. In a society with a
tradition of civil liberties (albeit inconsistently applied and
occasionally suspended in moments of stress) and a remarkably
resilient political democracy, the Leninist model, hardened and
distorted by Stalinism, mixed uncomfortably with American
realities.^21
At its best the Leninist ideal encouraged the incredible levels of
hard work and perseverance that even critics of Communism grant to its
cadres; it also evoked such personal qualities as integrity, courage,
honesty, and militancy. Yet the ideal seemed to degenerate too easily
into a model of behavior appropriately labeled Stalinist. Communist
cadres accepted deceptive tactics and strategies that inevitably
backfired and undermined theirintegrity and reputations—for example,
the front groups that "flip-flopped" at Party command after years of
denying Party domination. The intolerance and viciousness with which
Communists often attacked adversaries, including liberals, socialists,
and their own heretics, remains inexcusable.^22
As organizers, Communist activists suffered from a tendency toward a
special kind of elitism that often made them incapable of working with
diverse groups sharing common goals. In some periods they turned this
streak of inhumanity against themselves, engaging in ugly campaigns of
smear and character assassination to eliminate "Titoists,"
"Browderites," "revisionists," "left-wing adventurists," or "white
chauvinists."
Moreover, the secrecy within which Communists often operated, while
sometimes justified by the danger of job loss or prosecution, served
to undermine the Party's moral legitimacy. An organizer's relationship
with his constituents depends on their belief in his integrity, and
this is especially true when the organizer is an outsider. Too often,
Communists undermined their own integrity by covering manipulative and
cynical acts with the quite plausible explanation that survival
required secrecy. The tendency of Communists to resort to First and
Fifth Amendment protection during the McCarthy period falls under
similar challenges. As Joseph Starobin asks:
Should left-wingers and Communists have gone to jail in large numbers?
Might they have been better off/politically/, in terms of
their/image/, to assert their affiliations, to proclaim them instead
of asserting their right to keep them private, to explain the issues
as they saw them, and to take the consequences?^23
Communist activists certainly did not lack courage or commitment to a
protracted struggle. Many risked prison, and some served prison
sentences; perhaps as many as one-third of the cadres painfully
accepted assignments to go underground in the early fifties. Their
Leninism had to navigate contradictory currents of Stalinism and
Americanization, militancy and opportunism.
Local Communist activists often lived a somewhat schizophrenic life,
alternately internationalist and indigenous, Bolshevik and
"progressive," admiring the Leninist model of cadre and yet falling
into more settled, familial patterns of activism. There was a clear if
often ignored sexual division of labor: men were more likely to be the
cadres, women performed auxiliary clerical functions and unnoticed but
essential neighborhood organizing.
The Party was also divided between theorists and intellectuals on the
one hand and field workers and activists on the other. As one field
worker proclaimed, "I couldn't be spending hours on ideological
conflicts; I'm an activist, not an intellectual." Many agree that the
bulk of an organizer's time went into local actions and much less went
into discussions and considerations of important theoretical or
programmatic matters.^24
Only a small proportion received the type of ideological and
intellectual training suggested by the Leninist ideal, an ideal that
formally sought the obliteration of the distinctions between thought
and action, intellectual and activist.
In fact, Party intellectuals faced chronic and ingrained suspicion,
even contempt, from Party leaders. Abe Shapiro sardonically charges
that the function of Party intellectuals was "to sell the/Daily
Worker/at the waterfront." He remembers checking on a new Party
document on the economy: "I actually read the document. I wanted to
know what the Hell it was." He found it infantile and far below what
well-trained but never used Party intellectuals and social scientists
could have produced. The Party rarely, except for showcase purposes,
relied on its trained intellectual or academic members; instead, it
called on Party functionaries, often of very narrow training, to write
about complex sociological, economic, and scientific matters. Theory
suffered as a result, and the Party, particularly after 1939, included
very few intellectuals.
Until the mid-fifties crisis, the Party, strangled by Stalinist dogma
and intolerance, was closed to intellectual discourse. Abe Shapiro
finally left the Party because his intellectual training hadgiven him
a commitment to intellectual honesty that he could not shake. Among
organizers, Party arrogance cut off messages from the grass roots.
Orders from what one veteran calls "the Cave of Winds"—Party
headquarters in New York—often contradicted practical organizing
experience.
The Party also suffered from insularity. Mark Greenly brought
interested fellow workers to a Party-dominated union meeting. They
were curious and "antiboss" but quite unsophisticated and not at all
ready to make any commitments. Unfortunately, the Party organizer
immediately started to discuss class struggle and a variety of
abstract political matters. The workers were quickly alienated and
frightened away, never to return. Ethel Paine recalls such
"inappropriate behavior" as the sectarian conversations Party people
would carry on in the presence of non-Communist acquaintances and
neighbors. Although chronically secretive about membership, Communists
could be remarkably insensitive to their audience in revealing ways. A
successful organizer learned when and how to introduce more
controversial ideas to nonmembers. Training, including the Party
schools, helped to some extent, but most Communists agree with the
veteran organizer who feels that such learning has to be done on the
job, by trial and error. Many Communists, like Sam Katz and
Caldwell, tell painful if sometimes hilarious tales of their own and
others' ineptitude as beginning organizers. Some discovered that they
simply were not suited for the job and would never develop the
personal qualities that make for a competent organizer. Several
veterans insist that organizers are born, not made. Yet relatively
introverted and socially awkward young people, inspired by the
idealism and the comradeship of the Communist movement, did transform
themselves into effective organizers. Vivian Gornick points out that
such transformations did not always survive the collapse of
association with the Party.^25
I did not, however, discover total or near total personality changes
caused either by joining or abandoning the Party.
Although most of the literature about radical organizers deals with
men, it is increasingly apparent that some of the mostsignificant and
consistently ignored organizing within the Communist Party involved
women. The ten women interviewed performed a rich variety of Party
tasks, but perhaps the most important were those not officially
designated, like the informal neighborhood activities organized by
Edith Samuels, described inChapter Five
.
Sarah Levy was also involved in such efforts. Sarah and her two
children joined her colonizer husband, Moe, in leaving the comfortable
Party concentration in the Strawberry Mansion section to live in a
nearby industrial town. She refers to the next three and a half years
as "not the easiest times and, yet to me, personally, one of the best
growing experiences—and I have never regretted it." (Moe's wry
rejoinder was "She didn't have to work the blast furnaces.")
There were only three Party families in the town, quite a difference
from the thirty or forty Party friends they left behind in Strawberry
Mansion. While Moe worked the furnaces and tried to develop contacts
with plant workers, Sarah joined a folk dance group at the local "Y,"
where she got to know Greek, Yugoslav, Italian, and other immigrant
women. Moe, limited in the plant to a small Party circle of colonizers
and sympathizers, was able to socialize with the husbands of Sarah's
folk dancing partners.
Colonizers often ended up working with a local Party apparatus while
their wives, working through neighborhood networks, reached into the
community through its women, older people, and children. Asie
Repice casually but proudly concluded about her work with a community
center during the war years; "I am an organizer, so I organized a
nursery." Her husband was in the service. Moving around to stay close
to his base, she put her organizing abilities and political values to
work. Such efforts remain an unwritten chapter in the history of
radical organizing.^26
*/functionaries/*
Few district functionaries other than Sam Darcy achieved any national
stature or had much leverage outside the district. Dave Davis, the
business manager of UE Local 155 and an importantPhiladelphia-area
labor leader, was often elected to the Party's national committee but
never entered the inner decision-making group. Other district
leaders—like Pat Toohey, Phil Bart, Phil Frankfeld, and Ed Strong—were
D.O.s sent into the district and then moved out again to other
assignments.
Most district functionaries played dominant roles within the district
committee and ran such important Party operations as the local
Progressive Party and the Civil Rights Congress. They drew meager
salaries, which were sometimes supplemented by Party-related
employment. The Party network, at least during the late thirties and
forties, could place members in some union jobs.^27
Possibly several dozen members depended on the Party for their
livelihood in this way.
*/nonmembers/*
One often encounters Communists who, for very specific reasons, were
not formal Party members. One former Progressive Party leader never
joined the Party but worked closely with district Communist leaders to
map strategy and coordinate activity. Some union leaders stayed out of
the Party to deny employers the red-baiting weapon, and a number
dropped out after the Taft-Hartley Act made a union officer liable to
prosecution for perjury if he lied about current Party membership.^28
*/professionals/*
Some professionals who joined the Party operated at a rank-and-file
level, belonging to a professional branch or club, attending meetings,
and fulfilling subscription quotas. Several recall being highly
impressed with the other professionals they met at Party functions.
But such members—often doctors, dentists, and architects—were on the
margins of Party life.
Many professionals, especially lawyers associated with Party causes,
found membership problematic and chose not to formalize their
relationships with the Party, though they might be members of a
professional club. "I fought against loose tongues," one states."I
never asked a soul whether they were Communists or not." Several
left-wing attorneys stress that they did not want to be in a position
to betray anyone or risk a perjury charge if questioned about their
own affiliations and associations. The law in America is a
conservative profession, and several Left lawyers paid a high price
for their efforts.^29
Another consideration was that the Party sometimes pressured lawyers
to use a particular legal strategy in Party-related cases, and such
pressure was more effectively applied to members.^30
One attorney notes that the Party itself seemed ambivalent about
requiring formal membership. A few district leaders pressured him to
join, while others understood that it was not particularly useful or
necessary.
Some lawyers, whether members or not, found their services very much
in demand. They were needed in labor negotiations, electoral
activities, and civil rights and civil liberties cases. In the late
forties and early fifties, Party-affiliated lawyers found it less easy
than it had been to earn a living through Party-based clients, such as
left-wing unions. Instead they were called upon to deal with the
titanic task of defending Party members indicted under the Smith Act
and other pieces of repressive legislation. Thanks to this demand, as
one attorney suggests, they received special treatment from the
district leadership. They mixed with labor leaders, politicians,
judges, and, at times, the national Party leadership. Several had more
contact with the non-Communist local authorities than district
functionaries had. One left-wing attorney recalls that he had the
luxury of criticizing Party policies and decisions, within limits,
because "I was needed, I was special, a lawyer."
More significant than membership was the degree of autonomy a member
had, and this was based on his importance to the Party or his
institutional leverage. A professional could get away with criticism
of the Nazi-Soviet Pact that would not be tolerated from
rank-and-filers or most cadres. A union leader could ignore Party
instructions, aware that his own organization was his power base. A
former Communist, George Charney, criticizes in his memoirsthe
"left-wing aristocracy of labor that rarely mingled with the herd of
party members or the middle functionaries."^31
Such trade-unions "influentials" often had contempt for functionaries
and would go over their heads to top leadership.
Those who entered the Party, at whatever level, in whatever role,
operated within a well-defined organization and lived within a
somewhat insular and often nurturing subculture that provided them
with formal and informal relationships. These relationships eased the
often lonely organizing work. One veteran unashamedly calls his fellow
Communist organizers "the most dedicated, most selfless people in the
struggle." Many would share Jessica Mitford's feelings:
I had regarded joining the Party as one of the most important
decisions of my adult life. I loved and admired the people in it, and
was more than willing to accept the leadership of those far more
experienced than I. Furthermore, the principle of democratic
centralism seemed to me essential to the functioning of a
revolutionary organization in a hostile world.^32
Any tendency to romanticize such activists must be tempered by an
awareness of their mistakes, limitations, and weaknesses, and it is
true that many non-Communists made similar commitments to organizing
the oppressed and the weak. They too merit consideration. These
Philadelphia veterans of the Communist Party are very human actors who
worked on a particular historical stage. Some conclude that their
years of effort never really brought any of their factory and shop
constituents into the movement. Like Sol Davis, they admit that they
were utter failures in that "cultural, political, and philosophical
wasteland" of blue-collar America. Others share the pride, perhaps the
arrogance, of one of Vivian Gornick's subjects:
We're everywhere, everywhere. We/saved/this fucking country. We went
to Spain, and because we did America understood fascism. We made
Vietnam come to an end, we're in there inWatergate. We built the CIO,
we got Roosevelt elected, we started black civil rights, we forced
this shitty country into every piece of action and legislation it has
ever taken. We did the dirty work and the Labor and Capital
establishments got the rewards. The Party helped make democracy
work.^33
The road from Spain to Watergate is a long one. Communists, euphoric
at their prospects in the heyday of CIO sit-downs and Popular Front
triumphs, later needed remarkable inner resources to sustain political
activity. They sensed the first tremors from the purge trials,
received a severe jolt from the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of
1939, and in the postwar years faced first political repression and
then, more painfully, internal disintegration and demoralization.
NEXT CHAPTER
seven: problems and crises, 1939–1956
Trump Claims He Could Easily Be Israeli PM
by admin - 2022-10-18 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Trump is a moron
"Former US President Donald Trump stated today that he is so popular in Israel, that he could easily be the Prime Minister there.And while he claims he is so popular in Israel, he acknowledged that Evangelical Christians are far more appreciative for what he has done for Israel,..."
Who's More in Lockstep, Republicans with Trump or Democrats with Biden?
by admin - 2022-10-20 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Neither. Most of us realize our (mis)leaders are idiots.
"There was an extraordinary Senate debate this week in Orem, Utah, between Sen. Mike Lee and challenger Evan McMullin. It was extraordinary in part because McMullin, who is running as an independent and says that if elected he will not caucus with either Democrats or Republicans, agreed with Lee in many policy areas, like federal spending and regulatory overreach. "I think our difference is in approach," McMullin said at one point..."
Kevin McCarthy: We're Not Going to Impeach Joe Biden
by bill - 2022-10-21 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
[Updated: 2023-01-11 05:14:31]
If anyone has EVER deserved impeachment, it's Joe Biden
.
UPDATE: But now we know why the establishment was insistent on McCarthy being named Speaker.
"Weak GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures back in April 2022 from Poland. The Republican House leader called for arming Ukraine with billions in US taxpayer dollars. Kevin McCarthy then discussed the GOP plan if the take control of Congress..."
Hunter Biden for President in 2024
by admin - 2022-10-25 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Good article!
"Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable, the art of the next best." -- Otto von Bismarck"Hunter Biden [is] a tool of China. That is his best [quality], and China will tell him to peacefully transition to a multi-polar world where everyone has their interest represented, not just Wall Street Banks, Israel and the Military Industrial Complex."
30 US Senators are Marxists
by doug - 2022-10-26 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Excellent interview about how deep Marxism has infiltrated America.
Includes a new book. And the author will have something similar about the House of Representatives.
Many names given.
He also has a book about church leaders going woke which means they're Marxists.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/nksLGPyeYS1e/
Thirty U.S. Senators are Marxists
by staff - 2022-10-26 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Excellent interview about how deep Marxism has infiltrated America. Includes a new book. And the author will have something similar about the House of Representatives. Many names given. He also has a book about church leaders going woke which means they're Marxists.
Election/Selection in Brazil
by don - 2022-11-03 ( education / news / politics / fraud ) [html version]
Today's selection results in Brazil are being called into question. Shades of 2020 have hit again?!! Let's hope the criminals in this scam don't get away with this. FYI, Bolsonaro was questioning the vax, so allegedly "not fit for the job." Puppet he was not, so the globalists decided he must go (election scammed out).
Australian in Brazil says:
"Not the slightest possibility it was legit, I would not call it an 'election.'
Alexandre de Morais, chief of the Supreme Court, appointed himself chief of the electoral court, and was the one dictator of the entire process. He ordered all media and social media outlets to extreme levels of censorship, blocking and, in some cases, jailing the best journalists. He refused to have auditable counting machines, which are so primitive a school child could hack them. He un-condemned Lula, not on the basis of innocence, but saying the crimes were tried in a state instead of in federal territory. In theory, that would mean another court would have to make the judgment.
Morais has suspended criminal cases against almost all Left politicians; as long as they support his corruption, he won't finish processing theirs.
Lula appointed 9 of the 11 Supreme Court judges. They invent legislation, which capacity does not exist in the Constitution. Morais said he would fine the Federal Police $20,000 per hour if they do not give lists of the thousands of protesting truck drivers to him. He also wanted to fine the police for stopping buses of people going to vote. Police seized about $10 million in bribes for vote rigging from those buses.
The crimes of Lula's conviction 'only' involved a few million $ for himself, but a fortune for Cuba and to install dictators in South American countries.
I think the idea is to have one government for Canada, USA and all of South America.
Hopefully the USA mid-terms will punch a hole in the idea, and the Brazilian military will intervene. The military was ordered by Morais to analyze the voting machines and announce to the public whether they were legit. The military responded with 70 different serious flaws which could compromise election integrity. He ordered them to release their report on last month's election, but they refused, saying it will take another month to make a full report on both elections.
I have studied the Brazilian constitution as part of a university course. I would say it is one of the best in the world. Nothing in it permits anything that is happening. Same madness the world over."
About the video linked herein, Australian says...
"The Bitchute guy was accurate except on one detail. Bolsonaro has not announced he is asking for a military audit of the election. The military is already doing that without him asking. If the military decides it is proven fake, they can legally remove the Supreme Court.
The only way Lula got crowds was to bring them on buses and pay them to come. The similarity to crowd sizes to Biden was a valid comparison."
Senator Says Free Speech Doesn't Protect Misinformation that Downplays Political Violence
by admin - 2022-11-03 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
You mean, like mainstream media calling left-wing rioters mostly peaceful?
"The statement itself is misinformation..."
Democracy is on the Ballot
by don - 2022-11-07 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Per Mussolini, the definition of fascism is the merger of authoritarian government and big business (like Big Tech, Big Pharma for starters), as well as such niceties as media censorship. The Democrats say "Democracy is on the ballot". After 2-1/2 years of textbook fascism, including the attempted Nuremberg crime of forced injection of the entire population, especially those of fragile health, they are telling us that they will save us from fascism. Only Republicans, who they are now (with Orwellian doublespeak) calling fascists, have the audacity to stand in their way. So yes, democracy IS on the ballot!
My Voting Process, FYI
by bill - 2022-11-10 ( education / civics / politics / voting ) [html version]
In my voting district in Williamson County, Tennessee, you show an approved state-issued photo ID; get a long, blank piece of paper; the helper person does something that tells the touch-screen computer/voting system (didn't notice the maker) which specific ballot should show up on the screen; you insert your piece of paper; make your choices (preferably, anyone but a Democrat); it prints out your choices onto that piece of paper; you take that to another machine manned by another helper; and, finally, insert it into that tabulating machine.
It's a combination of paper and electronic, so cheating can still happen on the electronic end, unfortunately.
Biden Regime Won't Say If They Will Try to Shut Twitter Down for Posts It Doesn't Like
by admin - 2022-12-01 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
They'll ask China what THEY would do.
"White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday refused to answer when asked if the Biden Regime will try to shut Twitter down for posts it doesn't like. The Biden Regime this week said they are monitoring Twitter after Elon Musk promised to allow free speech. WATCH: The..."
Tulsi Gabbard Shows Her True Colors
by doug - 2022-12-06 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
She's saying what supporters want to hear but trying to do something very bad -- chip away at the 2nd amendment.
W.H.O. Tightens Screws of Global Medical Dictatorship
by staff - 2022-12-06 ( education / research / politics ) [html version]
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
https://www.brighteon.com/embed/4690d7cd-64f5-4467-b3ce-8457f43cf5c4/
On 12/6/22 01:14:
This explains how it's happening and how to fight it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iuEctFEspuPQ/
Evangelical Christian Dr. Francis Collins and Advisor to President Biden Says 300,000 People Have Died Due to Covid Shot Misinformation
by admin - 2022-12-08 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Contrary information is not always misinformation
Dr. Francis Collins, the former head of the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Anthony Fauci's boss, is now the current science advisor to President Biden. In an interview with Shannon Firth published on MedPage Today, Collins stated that: An estimated300,000 people died because..."
Ari Emanuel: Blacks Must Reject Divisive Politics and Unite with Jews Against Whites
by admin - 2022-12-11 ( education / news / rss ) [html version]
That'd just be MORE divisive politics.
"Hollywood big wig Ari Emanuel, who together with the Anti-Defamation League led the charge to cancel Kanye Ye West, wrote a column on Friday calling on Blacks to reject the virus of antisemitism and hate and division and instead unite with Jews..."
Jimmy John's Founder GOES OFF on Democrats and Criminal Deep State Attacks on Trump
by admin - 2023-01-03 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Jimmy John's founder used to kill elephants for fun.
"Jimmy John's restaurant chain founder Jimmy John Liautaud spoke with Breitbart News recently at TPUSA's annual AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona. Liautaud, who Liautaud founded his famous sandwich chain at age 19 with a $25,000 loan from his father. was a major Trump donor in the 2020..."
Message to Kevin Kiley
by steve - 2023-01-08 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
I sent this just now to Kevin Kiley, the new California congressman in my area whom I donated to.
I didn't see your name on the list of 20 constitutional conservatives opposing this traitorous scum. I sure hope there's a great reason for you voting for him as speaker. Are you getting some important concession from this scumbag? I've got high expectations for you in Congress. Don't let all your supporters down!!
America First -- not Israel, the WEF, etc.
On Saturday, January 7, 2023 at 11:28:42 AM PST:
Pelosi was involved in the Jan 6 "insurrection" as has been brought out this last week. I have info on the others' anti-USA doings on my computer and I can't think of specific things at the moment. Any chance you need proof of the treason of Pelosi, Pedo Joe, Schumer, Kerry and others while you're asking?
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2023 8:51 AM
An assertion without an argument -- or do you have a picture of him sucking scum? Kiley will probably put you in his spam list
Lara Logan on Fire
by staff - 2023-01-09 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Wow, she is great.
This interview gets very deep. She's so good at clearly articulating her thoughts.
Don't miss this one.
In case you don't know, she became famous as a correspondent on 60 Minutes, which used to be the cutting edge of TV reporting for decades. Then she worked at several other mainstream news outfits.
She tells it like she sees it and it could challenge your belief system, but that's a good thing.
Here's what Google says about her:
"Logan has been honored with nearly every top award in the industry, including multiple Emmys, Edward R. Murrow Awards, the Overseas Press Club Award, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, widely considered broadcast journalism's equivalent of the Pulitzer.Apr 9, 2019"
With credentials like that, you might think she's a media darling. But she's now hated. So what went wrong?!
Here's part 2 where she describes what's wrong with journalism today:
Sent: Sunday, January 8, 2023 8:48 AM
Congressman Byron Donalds Reveals Impeaching Biden is on the Table
by admin - 2023-01-10 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Here's hoping!
"Looks like the ultimate form of accountability, impeaching Joe Biden, may happen after all. Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL) told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo Sunday morning that he would support impeaching Biden if the House investigations into Biden and his Regime found..."
New Church Committee
by staff - 2023-01-11 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Sometimes I wonder about this authoer, Cliff Kincaid but here's a link to his article anyhow:
Is Document-Gate a Democrat Effort to Kneecap Biden's Re-Election Plans?
by admin - 2023-01-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Even they are tired of this bumbling fool.
"As weve reported, classified documents keep popping up in President Joe Bidens think tank, his garage, and now the personal library at his residence and suddenly the president is in potentially big trouble, both legally and politically. Thursday afternoon Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of Robert Hur as special prosecutor to investigate the ..."
Who Planted the Biden Documents?
by admin - 2023-01-16 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
It was his butler, in the conservatory, with the candlestick!
"The question of discovery, or timing, is more important than who planted them, since they were discovered as Biden was about to launch a 2024 election bid and was already the subject of a progressive push to step down from the race. This is just too coincidental...."
MLK was a Marxist
by staff - 2023-01-17 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Very interesting discussion
https://www.bitchute.com/video/s11CIQ9ALLc/
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2023 9:35 PM
I thought that MLK was a conservative
where is info that he was a marxist?
On Monday, January 16, 2023 at 09:20:56 PM PST:
Just learned that.
Interesting that the USA celebrates at the national level such a person.
But since the modern Democrat party leans that direction (if not open Communist), it sure fits nicely in today's politics.
Lara Trump: Looks Like Somebody at Top Said 'We're Done with Biden'
by admin - 2023-01-18 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Great, but they'll just find a younger idiot to take his place.
"Click here to join the Association of Mature American Citizens a group 2 million strong fighting for our freedom. Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of former President Trump, told the Todd Starnes Show audience President Biden and the media hypocritically accused Trump of doing what Biden had done all along. He knew those documents ..."
Delusional Trump
by staff - 2023-01-21 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
but millions of others fell for it, too:
"Fear of Freedom" Video
by staff - 2023-01-24 ( education / news / politics / movies-tv-video ) [html version]
Yeah, this just amazes me but so many seem to prefer the lack of freedom under socialism/communismTHE FEAR OF FREEDOM
THE FEAR OF FREEDOM
Why is freedom hated and feared by so many in the world today? Why are there so many advocates for totalitariani...
Thomas Sowell Quote
by bill - 2023-02-01 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
-- Thomas Sowell"It doesn't matter what rights you have under the Constitution of the U.S. if the government can punish you for exercising those rights. And it doesn't matter what limits the Constitution puts on government officials' power if they can exceed those limits without any adverse consequences."
A Message to Germans
by doug - 2023-02-13 ( education / research / politics / europe ) [html version]
Share with anyone in Germany or with German ancestry or just interested in it.
From Gonzalo Lira, a Chilean American of Chilean German descent, living in Ukraine.
Seymour Hersh referenced this article: how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream
Geo Politics and Pyramids
by steve - 2023-02-28 ( education / research / emails / conspiracies ) [html version]
'pyramid a weapon"?
geez, that said right away makes me figure the video is questionablethen again, I've questioned if Farrell ever was anything bu a useful idiot
On Sunday, February 26, 2023 at 09:21:56 PM PST:
Very interesting discussion by Joseph Farrell.
https://youtu.be/YWoeniSKm80
They're discussing interesting theories that are rarely mentioned but fascinating and very ancient.
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2023 9:55 AM
;
a couple chuckeleheads
you don't need evidence if you laugh loudly enough after everything you say
On 2/26/23 23:21: nk
Very interesting discussion by Joseph Farrell.
https://youtu.be/YWoeniSKm80
They're discussing interesting theories that are rarely mentioned but fascinating and very ancient.
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2023 9:55 AM
; Re:
a couple chuckeleheads
you don't need evidence if you laugh loudly enough after everything you say
On 2/26/23 23:21: nk
Very interesting discussion by Joseph Farrell.
https://youtu.be/YWoeniSKm80
They're discussing interesting theories that are rarely mentioned but fascinating and very ancient.
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2023 9:55 AM
; Re:
a couple chuckeleheads
you don't need evidence if you laugh loudly enough after everything you say
On 2/26/23 23:21: nk
Very interesting discussion by Joseph Farrell.
https://youtu.be/YWoeniSKm80
They're discussing interesting theories that are rarely mentioned but fascinating and very ancient.
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2023 9:55 AM
; Re:
a couple chuckeleheads
you don't need evidence if you laugh loudly enough after everything you say
On 2/26/23 23:21: nk
Very interesting discussion by Joseph Farrell.
https://youtu.be/YWoeniSKm80
a couple chuckeleheads
you don't need evidence if you laugh loudly enough after everything you say
On 2/26/23 23:21: nk
Very interesting discussion by Joseph Farrell.
https://youtu.be/YWoeniSKm80
Trump's Call for 'Freedom Cities' Plays Right into Globalists' Plan for Control Grid
by admin - 2023-03-07 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Trump's a useful idiot. And, if there's a catch phrase like "freedom cities," you know it's b.s.
"March 6, 2023 For several years now, myself and others with an eye toward the future have been warning people to get out of the cities or risk becoming a ward of the burgeoning technocratic beast system. Through their smart city technology and various engineered emergencies, the globalists hope to lure us into stack and … Continue reading Trump's call for building Freedom Cities plays right into globalists' plan for Fourth Industrial Revolution control grid..."
Canadian Politics
by doug - 2023-03-14 ( education / news / emails / conspiracies ) [html version]
It's the first I heard of that term.
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2023 10:58 AM
--
yeah, as Whitney Webb said in her two books "one nation under blackmail" volumes 1 & 2.
the mafia gets BILLIONS of dollars through drugs and human trafficking (which Clinton and the CIA were caught doing, which led to the term "Arkancide")
On Monday, March 13, 2023 at 10:52:31 AM
:
Very interesting information by a former 15 year member of politics there.
It's a mafia system. Utterly controlled and corrupt. He says it's the same in every country.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/TeSUMrcuXXFJ/
Biden's Destructive Russia Sanctions Are Destroying Decades-Long Dominance of Dollar as World's Reserve Currency
by admin - 2023-04-04 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
All part of the great reset whose goal all along was to destroy U.S. dominance.
"Former Defense Secretary Roberts Gates has famously said on more than one occasion that though he liked Joe Biden personally, Biden has been wrong on every major foreign policy issue throughout his entire half-century political career. And he and his handlers are handling the war between Russia and Ukraine exactly the wrong way as well. ..."
RFK Jr. Running Against Biden in 2024
by doug - 2023-04-06 ( education / civics / politics / voting ) [html version]
Very good news.
Sent: Wednesday, April 5, 2023 6:09 PM
RFK Jr. running against Biden in 2024
if he brings out the insanity of the vax to the leftists, that in itself will be good
On Wednesday, April 5, 2023 at 05:57:34 PM
:
Good news! He's a Democrat, but nobody's perfect.
BREAKING: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Announces 2024 Democratic Presidential Campaign -- Discern Report
Kamala and Many of Biden's Folks Were Not Lawfully Appointed
by doug - 2023-04-18 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Ask them for their signed and notorized oath of office.
Sent: Monday, April 17, 2023 10:41 AM
Kamala and many of Biden's folks are NOT LAWFULLY appointed
I'm wondering if the local politicians (mayor and leftist congressman) are legal. I need to watch the video again to see what particular document to ask to see. (is gavin legal?)
On Monday, April 17, 2023 at 10:00:04 AM
:
I considered sharing this video when I saw it. Maybe I did. It's a very interesting situation.
The biggest question is whether any court will care and do what's right. But if they don't then our banana republic is even more obvious to people still very naive to our political disaster we have already.
Sent: Monday, April 17, 2023 9:50 AM
Kamala and many of Biden's folks are NOT LAWFULLY appointed
BREAKING: SMOKING GUN PROOF OF BIDEN'S TREASON? -- Todd Callender
BREAKING: SMOKING GUN PROOF OF BIDEN'S TREASON? -- Todd Callender
Protect Your Retirement W/ A Gold. IRA
https://www.sgtreportgold.com/ Noble Gold is Who I Trust == Attorne...
Your Public Records Request Has Been Opened
by steve - 2023-04-22 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
To go along with the video, "SMOKING GUN PROOF OF BIDEN'S TREASON?" I made a request for the Mayor of Sacramento's oath of office document.
City of Sacramento Records DepartmentSent: Friday, April 21, 2023 at 06:13:23 PM
Your City of Sacramento public records request #23-1472 has been opened.
Your record request #23-1472 has been submitted successfully.
The City of Sacramento has received your public record request and will begin processing on the next business day. Within 10 days of processing, we will determine whether your request seeks disclosable records and release those records or if we require additional time to gather information and review records.
Office of the City Clerk
As the requester, you can always see the status of your request by signing into the City of Sacramento portal. If you haven't already signed in, you may need to activate or setup your account to get started. Once your account is activated, you can communicate directly with the City of Sacramento through NextRequest.
Your City of Sacramento public records request has been opened
by steve - 2023-04-22 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2023 6:24 PM
Fw: Your City of Sacramento public records request #23-1472 has been opened.
To go along with the video:
SMOKING GUN PROOF OF BIDEN'S TREASON? -- Todd Callender. Protect Your Retirement. Noble Gold is Who I Trust
I made a request for the Mayor of Sacto oath office document
From: City of Sacramento Records Department
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2023 at 06:13:23 PM
Your City of Sacramento public records request #23-1472 has been opened.
Attach a non-image file and/or reply ABOVE THIS LINE with a message, and it will be sent to staff on this request.
The City of Sacramento has received your public record request and will begin processing on the next business day.
Within 10 days of processing, we will determine whether your request seeks disclosable records and release those records or if we require additional time to gather information and review records.
Thank you, Office of the City Clerk
As the requester, you can always see the status of your request by signing into the City of Sacramento portal. If you haven't already signed in, you may need to activate or setup your account to get started. Once your account is activated, you can communicate directly with the City of Sacramento through NextRequest.
Restrict Act
by doug - 2023-04-24 ( education / civics / politics / conspiracies ) [html version]
Of course, people won't investigate it, figuring it's just to "protect our kids" from TikTok and not look at the video.
On Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 10:08:52 AM
:
If you have not yet heard of it, watch this power grab proposed legislation.
It's misleadingly nicknamed the TikTok Restrict Act. It's similar to the Patriot Act but far worse.
How does this proposed protect freedoms of Americans? It gives incredible powers to unelected people we never should give any power.
And who is supporting it? In this case it's left and right who've been lobbied, so they're taking money. Both sides are criminal and corrupt.
But with our current administration we see countless examples the push for destruction of America coming from the left because it's obvious they can't stand freedom of anyone who has a different opinion about anything. They claim the exact opposite, of course. That's the insanity of their satanic actions.
They're brainwashed and will never allow an open debate because then a different viewpoint would be revealed and people will see it's logical and the left will lose control.
If we actually had free speech and they don't censor or attack someone financially or imprison someone, they'd allow and welcome alternative media which is the ONLY place free speech still exists. But it must be crushed because then they can't control the people who want to be left alone.
Sent: Tuesday, April 4, 2023 1:04 AM
You may have been hearing about this senate proposed recently. But I really doubt it was mentioned on TV since that would be actual reporting.
This video has many comments about what it would mean if passed, maybe wiping out crypto and ramping up the police state we are seeing more and more.
It would outlaw "wrong think" -- any objections to what the criminals in government are doing. It appears to amplify the police state powers far beyond what the Patriot Act did to us after 9/11.
As far as I can tell, it has very little to do with TikTok.
Sounds good?
School District Approves Curriculum Accusing Israel of Ethnic Cleansing and War Crimes
by admin - 2023-04-29 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Good, so long as it shows both sides' crimes.
"A California school district board voted to approve two new ethnic studies courses this week that would teach high school students that Israel has committed war crimes and ethnically cleansed Palestinians, according to the curriculum...."
Trump's Attacks on DeSantis Are Insane
by admin - 2023-05-01 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Larry Elder, Desantis and RFK Jr. are better alternatives.
"Attempting to define our problem as a nation, President Trump was right on target, telling Greg Kelly of Newsmax, There's a little group, a small group of people that are very smart, very radical left, probably Marxists, and they're running our country into the ground..."
Biden Renews Funding of Wuhan Institute
by admin - 2023-05-12 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Because he misses 2020-21?
The Chinese Communists are notorious for militarizing everything that remotely relates to its army and making deadly viruses is as military as you can get. The collaboration provides China with our latest gain-of-function technology. That directly bolsters their biological warfare program, which many predict will play an increasingly critical role in their strategy to rule the world..."
RFK Jr Wants to Ban Fertilizer
by admin - 2023-05-15 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Misleading headline. He actually says, "...we can't just ban fertilizers..."
"It is not as if the Democratic Party offers no alternative to the corrupt and senile Joe Biden, who is so beholden to radical leftists that he is trying to price electricity beyond the reach of normal Americans. Their next most popular 2024 candidate, Robert Kennedy, is polling at 19% among Democrat primary voters..."
Absolutely Terrific Ukraine Article
by doug - 2023-05-22 ( education / civics / politics / war ) [html version]
By the famous Martin Armstrong. He speaks so much truth that the criminal Zelensky has threatened his life.
There is so much information packed into this article that you may want to take your time to absorb it.
Zelensky is desperate to start WW 3 and is begging for money from everyone.
why-ukraine-must-lose-to-save-the-world
On Sunday, May 21, 2023 at 10:00:50 AM
:
I'll watch it later since Armstrong has LOTS of good info but Zelensky doesn't care about WWIII. He just cares about getting idiots like Biden to send BILLIONS to the Ukraine so he and Biden can siphon off part of it. (It's their demonic puppeteers who hate humanity and want a techie Transhuman world with slaves to tend to the real work who want to destroy the rest of humanity with WWIII.)
2nd Amendment in Tennessee
by doug - 2023-06-10 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Happened in Franklin county. Might find it interesting.
Who is in Control?
by steve - 2023-06-12 ( education / research / conspiracies / politics ) [html version]
Excellent. I didn't know he's running for president. And I stopped watching him after I got off Fascistbook and YouTube where he seems to spend most of his time.
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2023 9:27 AMwho is in Kontrol
Dr SHIVA Exposes The System of the Elites -- HOW the Few Control the Many -- What WE Do to Break Free
Dr SHIVA Exposes The System of the Elites -- HOW the Few Control the Many
European Union
by doug - 2023-06-14 ( education / civics / politics / europe ) [html version]
This is a great explanation of the background of the EU. Gets into the history and symbolism it uses.
It's important to understand.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Fdu6e4BpQ3OM/
War is Good for Business
by doug - 2023-06-22 ( education / civics / politics / war ) [html version]
And in case that's a surprise to you, ever wonder who controls politicians or how much money it takes to buy a senator?
OMG's new undercover recording includes this and way more. James O'Keefe is back and letting criminals describe their own crimes.
BlackRock Recruiter Who Decides People's Fate Says War is Good for Business
Russian Civil War?
by steve - 2023-06-25 ( education / civics / politics / war ) [html version]
I read opposite things about the "war", but I figure the one from leftist Yahoo "news" is the wrong one: Anyhow, here's a related article that I'm NOT bothering to read: Epoch Times
On Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 10:45:42 AM
:
Of course, whatever the gaslight media is saying about this is propaganda. Scott Ritter is someone I think can be trusted.
Sent: Saturday, June 24, 2023 9:00 AM
Remember, don't believe anything you read or see online (including this). Be cynical. We are in unstable times. I hope we all get through it without a major incident.
Best Information About RFK Jr
by doug - 2023-06-30 ( education / research / civics / politics ) [html version]
New book. And this guy is interviewed about it.
I think he'd (RFK JR.) make a very good president and plan to donate to his campaign by tomorrow, which is the deadline at this stage.
Col. MacGregor: U.S. Will Implode. No 2024 Elections
by admin - 2023-07-02 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Somebody says that every 4 years. They keep hoping.
"Colonel Douglas Macgregor is probably one of the most astute military observers in America. He just said America might not even have elections in November of 2024. There are 2 short videos I want to share today. The first is ..."
Former Clinton Adviser Warns Biden Might Not Have the Votes to Win in 2024
by admin - 2023-07-18 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
That didn't stop him last time.
"Former Clinton adviser Doug Schoen voiced his apprehension about President Joe Biden's prospects in the 2024 election during a recent segment on Fox News. The interview touched on Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' odds in the forthcoming race, his prospective challenges in resonating with voters, and his fundraising obstacles due to the enduring popularity of ..."
Caitlin Johnstone Quote
by bill - 2023-07-28 ( culture / quotes / politics ) [html version]
I love this quote!
"Capitol Hill is an assisted living facility for psychopaths"
Read the article here: capitol-hill-is-an-assisted-living-facility-for-psychopaths
Adam Schiff, Top Democrats Demand That Trump's Trials Be Televised
by admin - 2023-08-05 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Because of the strikes, Hollywood needs more free content.
"A group of House Democrats led by Rep. Adam Schiff of California have demanded that the federal trials of former President Donald Trump be televised, according to a letter they wrote on Thursday...."
Arizona Dirty Politics
by doug - 2023-08-16 ( education / research ) [html version]
In case of interest. An elected official was expelled because she wanted to clean up all the fraud.
It's a uniparty with scumbags on all sides who just want to hold onto their power.
She says it's more than just AZ.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/pc8NcxTW1UlM/
kind of related:
I saw a GREAT interview that Tucker Carlson did of Marjorie Taylor Greene that everybody ought to watch but I saw it posted on FB and couldn't find it elsewhere (maybe unless I signed up for his podcasts) and it's really long.The most disgusting thing in that video is how Congress is essentially made up of LOSERS who couldn't make a living otherwise and didn't care about anything other than being repeatedly elected.
On Monday, August 14, 2023 at 09:33:08 PM
In case of interest. An elected official was expelled because she wanted to clean up all the fraud.
It's a uniparty with scumbags on all sides who just want to hold onto their power.
She says it's more than just AZ.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/pc8NcxTW1UlM/
kind of related:
I saw a GREAT interview that Tucker Carlson did of Marjorie Taylor Greene that everybody ought to watch but I saw it posted on FB and couldn't find it elsewhere (maybe unless I signed up for his podcasts) and it's really long.The most disgusting thing in that video is how Congress is essentially made up of LOSERS who couldn't make a living otherwise and didn't care about anything other than being repeatedly elected.
On Monday, August 14, 2023 at 09:33:08 PM
In case of interest. An elected official was expelled because she wanted to clean up all the fraud.
It's a uniparty with scumbags on all sides who just want to hold onto their power.
She says it's more than just AZ.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/pc8NcxTW1UlM/
How Trump's Latest Indictment Could Signal the End of Free Speech
by jeff dornik - 2023-08-18 ( education / news / politics / legal ) [html version]
The America First Movement is up in arms over the latest Trump indictments, and rightly so. We’ve seen the Deep State and the Swamp Creatures of the Uniparty throw everything they have at him to ensure he does not get into office. They’ve impeached him twice, smeared him in the media, held show trials over January 6th (which was also a setup) and are now throwing dozens of indictments at him, just praying (hoping, not praying… they don’t believe in God) that something sticks.
The latest indictments involving both Trump and his attorneys are an entirely new beast, altogether. This has far-reaching implications well beyond just whether Donald Trump can become president or not. If this results in a guilty verdict, we are witnessing the end of the First Amendment altogether.
Read the rest here: how-trumps-latest-indictment-could-signal-the-end-of-free-speech
Putin Says Trump Charges Are Politically Motivated
by admin - 2023-09-13 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
In Russian accent: "Reminds me of old Soviet days"
"Russian President Vladimir Putin weighed in on the criminal charges faced by former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, saying the cases demonstrate political revenge and corruption..."
70% of Americans Want Term Limits for Congressmen
by admin - 2023-09-13 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
No more than two consecutive terms for any political position, elected or appointed, including judges.
"More than two-thirds of Americans from across the political spectrum 70 percent would support introducing term limits for Members of Congress, including 68 percent of Democrats and over three-quarters of Republicans at 76 percent,according to a recent survey from Rasmussen Reports. Only 15 percent of Americans would oppose such a step, comprised of 18 percen ..."
'Turning Into Jello': Glenn Greenwald Says Some Dems Are Looking To 'Sabotage' Biden
by admin - 2023-09-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Simple solution, let the GOP impeach and REMOVE him ASAP.
"Journalist Glenn Greenwald said Wednesday some Democrats were looking to sabotage President Joe Biden due to his age and mounting scandals surrounding his family's business dealings. ..."
Israel, October 7 Attack: Foreknowledge in Financial Markets. Massive Short-selling
by admin - 2023-12-05 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Just like 9/11. Total coincidence, I'm sure.
"Days before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, stock traders magically began anticipating events to come. Research by law professors Robert Jackson Jr from NYU and Joshua Mitts of Columbia reveals MASSIVE short-selling leading up to the attacks..."
FBI Couldn't Admit Hunter Biden Laptop Was Real Because It Was 'An Election Season'
by admin - 2023-12-06 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
They had to be sure Biden was inserted as president.
"By Libby Emmons – The Post Millennial Senator John Kennedy grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray in the Senate on Tuesday, demanding to know why the..."
Chinese Shipping Giant COSCO to Stop Visiting Israeli Ports
by admin - 2024-01-10 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
You know you're a pariah when even China won't do business with you.
"Chinese state-supported shipping giant COSCO Shipping has stopped visiting Israeli ports, "Globes" has learned. The company, the fourth largest container shipping line in the world, with about 11% of world trade, decided on this step even though it is not much threatened in the Red Sea, because of the very fact that it is Chinese, and because of China's ties with Iran, the patron of the Houthi rebels in Yemen...."
Shiva Double Header
by doug - 2024-01-13 ( education / civics / politics / fraud ) [html version]
On 1/12/2024 11:39 PM:
It's your lucky day if you like Dr Shiva.
He reveals that Trump was selected as president in 2016, placed there by Zionists.
He shows how the election process is manipulated. And has a story of how one of his volunteers in KY was arrested for collecting signatures to place Dr Shiva on the ballot in that state.
Watch Adams on Bitchute Watch SGT Report on Bitchute
On Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 04:40:11 AM PST,
I wouldn't be surprised if Trump's one and only job for the Zionists was to move our embassy to Jerusalem, which he did. They think very long term. Four years putting up with the jackass Trump was worth that one move for them.
On 1/13/2024 7:41 AM, wrote:
but why did that matter to them?
On 1/14/2024 6:41 AM, wrote:
I don't pretend to understand those idiots, other than they're like spoiled children who need to get their way, at all costs. 
Some Fear Trump Will Use Military in Dictatorial Ways If Reelected
by admin - 2024-01-14 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
He's the only recent president (or candidate) who isn't trigger-happy.
"Donald Trump is sparking fears among those who understand the inner workings of the Pentagon...."
There Is No Such Thing as "Representative" Government, and Never Has Been
by admin - 2024-01-20 ( education / civics / politics ) [html version]
Sadly, true. Only the monied interests are represented.
"Since mankind's dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away..."
Interesting Story of Democrat Stronghold in Connecticut
by steve - 2024-01-23 ( education / research / politics / corruption ) [html version]
More liberal criminality. Yeah, conservatives also do plenty of crime, but it seems election fraud is a liberal specialty.
On Monday, January 22, 2024 at 01:33:07 PM PST:
Gomes, I'm guessing of Portuguese from Cabo Verde descent, tells really interesting details about what happened to him when he ran against the Democrat incumbent. A judge has invalidated the election and ordered a new one. Hope this link works:
Biden Regime Slams Political Targeting of Banned Venezuela Opposition Leader
by admin - 2024-01-28 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Only U.S. Democrats are allowed to ban their opposition.
"The U.S. government has condemned the decision of Venezuela's highest court to block the presidential candidacy of opposition leader Mara Corina Machado...."
More Voters Are, In Hindsight, Rating Trump's Presidency as 'Better than Expected'
by admin - 2024-02-09 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Not bad. But then, compared to our current idiot, anyone would look good.
"Voters are delivering a poor assessment of President Joe Bidens job performance. They are also looking back more fondly than before on Donald Trumps tenure...."
Biden's memory struggles imperil national security: 'Not only weak, but confused'
by admin - 2024-02-11 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Put him out to pasture.
"A report that described Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," has led some to question how he may react in a time of crisis...."
Justice Jackson Says It's Time To Abolish the First Amendment
by admin - 2024-03-19 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
We need term limits for the Supremes
"Supreme Court JusticeKetanji Brown Jackson has declared that America needs to abolish the First Amendment in order to allow the government to use its power more effectively. Jackson addressed Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiaga, whose..."
Oscar-Winning "Zone of Interest" Director Villified for Speaking the Truth
by admin - 2024-03-19 ( education / news / entertainment / politics ) [html version]
Brave man!
"Glazer was accepting the Oscar for Best International Film for The Zone of Interest, his movie about an Auschwitz commandant and his wife who try to build a dream life next to the camp. "
7 in 10 Dems Fear Trump Return
by admin - 2024-03-28 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
7 in 10 watch too much mainstream news
"New data suggests Democrats are more likely to say theyre fearful or angry that former President Donald Trump might return to the White House than Republicans are at the chance Joe Biden serves four more years in office. Despite the Democrat angst regarding Trump, theyre as equally unenthused about voting for the 81-year-old Biden. The ...
The National Pulse.
..."
Conspiracy Theory No More? Tennessee Senate Passes Bill Banning Chemtrails-Geoengineering
by admin - 2024-04-01 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Good news!
"Recent legislation targeting geoengineering projects sparks a fresh debate about the long controversial topic of weather modification. Here we dive into the history of such projects to expose the truth. (By Don Via , Jr. | Republished from The Rundown Live) A bill has passed the Tennessee state legislature which aims to target the controversial..."
Israel bombs World Central Kitchen convoy killing foreign aid workers
by admin - 2024-04-02 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
But don't you dare criticize Israel. They are above reproach.
"Seven aid workers with the charity World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli strike...."
Mass Layoffs Begin At California Fast Food Chains As $20 Minimum Wage Law Takes Effect
by admin - 2024-04-02 ( life / money / employment / politics ) [html version]
I am shocked. Shocked!
"This result shouldn't surprise anyone. Inflation has driven up operational costs for businesses across the US and shrunk profit margins for major..."
Biden and Xi hold first discussions since November, talk Taiwan and tech
by admin - 2024-04-02 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
...and Biden to receive his marching orders?
"Call comes ahead of flurry of diplomatic engagement, with both US and China maintaining they want to reduce friction. ..."
RFK Apologizes After Briefly Appearing to Back J6 Defendants
by admin - 2024-04-05 ( education / news / politics ) [html version]
Apologizing for ever-so-briefly having a spine?
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says a fundraising email from a third-party vendor on behalf of his campaign referencing participants in the January 6 Capitol riot as activists was an error. The email, titled We Must Free Assange!, stated, This is the reality that every American Citizen faces from Ed Snowden, to Julian ..."
how to solve the budget problem in the USA and Kalifornia
by steve - 2024-04-24 ( education / news / politics / americas ) [html version]
Argentina did it. Are they smarter than the US? (Nah, they're just not owned by the Deep State demonic people)
Milei says Argentina just had its first budget surplus in 16 years after gutting government bloat.
blog version — similar posts here — ... and elsewhere