The Thunderbolt 230119 - Heroes Part 1 - Our Wobbly History
Dana Walker
The Thunderbolt
News — Commentary — Calendar of Activist Events — Dumb Jokes
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1) Wobbly Monument Proposed
2) Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation Calendar
3) Workshops on Abolishing Nuclear Weapons
4) Bonus Tip
A detailed description of all events is located after the News and Commentary section
To go directly to an event description just type the index entry above into a search box
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Heroes Part 1: Our Wobbly History
230119
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When the Right Gets It Right
Concerning the circus surrounding the election of the Speaker of the House, everyone on the left and a lot of people on the right leveled serious criticism towards the Republican representatives who held up the nomination.
It probably will not surprise regular readers to know that I take a contrary view. What those representatives were doing was exactly what their constituents elected them to do, which is their job after all. In addition, most of the demands that they were making concern limiting the power of the Speaker of the House. Since the Speaker of the House might as well be called the Dictator of the House, and since I think there is entirely too much power resting in a single pair of hands in that case, I fully supported the Republicans effort to limit the power of the Speaker.
And here is another thing to consider: Level all the criticisms you may wish, the fact remains that the renegade Republicans got everything they demanded. The power of the Speaker of the House has now been seriously diminished thanks to their efforts.
Meanwhile, the Squad Sells Out
And here is yet another thing to consider: the Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives is now the largest caucus in the House. Would that they were to start pushing their weight around in a similar manner? They claim to be there to bring humanitarian progressive values to our government, and they now have the power to be able to actually start doing that.
In 2021 the Progressive Caucus could have insisted upon anything they wanted. Instead, they insisted upon absolutely nothing. Since then, they have continued their practice of not doing anything except talking a lot.
While the Squad made some token noise upon first taking office, almost immediately they began falling right in line with whatever edicts were coming down from the War Machine. Note that in the time Democrats have been in charge of both houses of Congress and the presidency, no one has even talked about the public option much less Medicare for All. There are no longer any questions about how Nancy Pelosi became a multimillionaire on her congressional salary. No one called out Nancy Pelosi when she recently killed a bill that would have made it illegal for Congress members to profit from their inside knowledge to conduct stock trades.
In 2021 it was suggested that the Progressive Caucus should withhold their vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker without the promise of a House vote on Medicare for All. The Squad explained they couldn't do that because Medicare for all did not have enough votes to win. They completely ignored the fact that a vote for Medicare for All would have put everyone in Congress on the record as voting either for or against medical care for everyone — a policy favored by 70% of the public — right in the middle of a pandemic. It would have also triggered several days of debate and extensive media coverage concerning Medicare for All.
It was also explained at the time that if they didn’t vote for Nancy Pelosi then Kevin McCarthy would win the Speakership.
Thus, the left proves that they are also capable of pushing Big Lies. Kevin McCarthy would have needed a majority, which would have meant several Democrats voting for him — and I can guarantee you that would have never happened. It was a lie pushed by several major pundits on the left, including especially David Sirota, Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks, and Ryan Grimm of The Intercept; and you may remember that when The Intercept was purchased by Pierre Omidyar a few years ago, I feared that The Intercept would become merely another outlet for corporate propaganda.
Once again: Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I could be generous and assume that all of these very knowledgeable pundits were simply misinformed or mistaken — but they pushed this lie everywhere including to a lot of people who would have known better — yet to this day nobody has ever corrected this lie much less apologized for it.
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Evidently, the Squad and Nancy Pelosi have bonded.
The German Coast Rebellion of 1811
The central purpose of a hero is to provide a role model for change makers. To inspire us to live up to their example, so, this week’s Thunderbolt begins a series of stories about some historical heroes that will continue in the next edition.
Here are a few role models I thought that everyone should be aware of…
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The Haitian revolution of 1803 was the only successful slave rebellion in recorded history. Haiti has never been forgiven for that. One of the central reasons that Haiti is such a hellhole today is due to centuries-long payback for that outrage.
Meanwhile, before slavery was outlawed there were over 300 documented slave rebellions within the territory of the United States.
(Actually, only de jure slavery was outlawed — and only for people who weren’t convicted of any crimes — but whatever…)
Anyway, I find it interesting that the slave revolt led by Nat Turner in 1831 has become so famous whilst the much larger and much more significant slave revolt of 1811 led by Charles Deslonde is largely forgotten.
Both men, however, claimed the Haitian Revolution as inspiration for their own rebellions.
Mr. Deslonde not only led the German Coast Rebellion of 1811 but he came up with a plan that almost succeeded in taking New Orleans. He visualized a two-pronged attack; he and his 200-500 men (accounts vary) would move along the Mississippi River and attack plantations to seize arms and recruit rebels while at the same time slaves within New Orleans would attack and seize the arsenal there and establish a beachhead inside the city.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Deslondes#cite_note-6
However — white militiamen, who had also been highly influenced by the Haitian revolution and already had well established protocols in place should such a happenstance occur —managed to mobilize in time and defeated Deslonde’s forces just short of New Orleans.
A man named Samuel Hambleton described Deslonde's fate: "Charles [Deslonde] had his hands chopped off then shot in one thigh & then the other until they were both broken — then shot in the body and before he had expired was put into a bundle of straw and roasted. His dying cries on January 11, 181, sent a message to the other escaped slaves in the marshes.”
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Before the assault, Mr. Deslonde reportedly said that his goal was either freedom or death.
Therefore, Mr. Deslonde achieved his stated goal in the end.
https://aaregistry.org/story/charles-deslondes-born/
https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/teaching-about-unsung-heroes/
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/louisianas-slave-revolt/
The Legend of John Scott
Next, I have a story concerning a rather unlikely hero…
There is an old joke that goes, “Do you want to talk to the boss, or do you want to talk to somebody who knows what is going on?”
I am often amazed at how incredibly many things there are that people who are in positions of great power don’t know – especially since their ignorance often produces such profoundly dire consequences.
This happens because people at the top of large organizations and/or large governments almost always have most if not all of their information filtered through a small army of lackeys. Thus, it is these lackeys who determine what the person at the top knows and/or doesn’t know. Thus, what that person at the top knows and/or doesn’t know is often subject to the personal agendas of these lackeys.
I forget all the details, but Greenpeace was once organizing a campaign against Japanese whaling, and they invited members to name a whale that they had tagged and that they were going to track through the Japanese slaughter.
The name the members came up with was “Mr. Splashy Pants”.
High up muckety mucks within the Greenpeace organization objected to this name. They said this was a serious issue that required a serious response.
Obviously, the management at Greenpeace do not follow the Thunderbolt maxim that some things are far too important to be taken too seriously, and that you should joke them if they can't take a #uc%.
However, evidently there was at least one person within Greenpeace management who convinced the rest to just go with the flow since that was indeed the name the members had chosen.
(I will also conjecture the possibility that this person was guilty of having a sense of humor – a trait often absent in upper management types.)
Then, of course, the name went viral and exploded in the press and online media thus achieving its goal of promoting awareness of Japanese whaling.
Anyway, again I am forgetting irrelevant details, but evidently fans of professional hockey get a vote on who plays in the All Star game every year. Then, one year the owners angered the fans in some manner and the fans decided to get their revenge by using their vote to put the most hated player in the league on the All-Star team. The players name was John Scott. John Scott was what in hockey world is called a ‘goon’. He was not very good at skating, he was not very good at shooting, he was not very good at passing.
What he was good at was causing injuries to players on the other team.
Mr. Scott would not normally win any popularity contests. Therefore, when John Scott received more votes than any other player in the league the muckety mucks threw a conniption fit and did everything they could to prevent John Scott from playing in the All-Star game. They even had him traded to another team, who instantly demoted him to a minor league team. However, there was no rule against a minor league player playing in the All-Star game, and the owners did have enough wherewithal to understand that the fans would not stand for Mr. Scott’s exclusion anyway.
They even begged John Scott to simply refuse to play, going so far as to asking him what he thought his father and his children would think of this?
John Scott, though, stood firmly and boldly against all entreaties, and he thus appeared in the All-Star game.
https://thehockeywriters.com/the-john-scott-all-star-game-story/
Very soon after the game started, John Scott got control of the puck while the goaltender was out of position, thus giving Mr. Scott a wide-open shot. He took the shot, and just as he realized that his easy wide-open shot was going to miss, the goalie, who was diving to block his shot, did indeed block the shot — but ended up deflecting the puck at just the right angle to send it into the net.
Thus, John Scott, who had previously scored only one goal for the entire season —and who was literally playing against the best of the best that the game had to offer — and whose presence in this game was literally meant as a joke — scored the first goal.
Then — he scored a second goal — this time shooting around the goalie and hitting the corner — and thus led his team to victory.
After the game Mr. Scott was carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates.
Then, he was voted the MVP of the All Star series even though the managers and owners had somehow failed to include his name on the ballot.
https://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/john-scott-wins-all-star-game-mvp-award-takes-home-new-car/
Mr. Scott had also obviously been having the time of his life all during this game — and the fans had absolutely loved it.
According to one pundit, “He made the All-Star game fun. He brought life to a game that was so bad a year ago in Columbus that people were actually suggesting that the league just flat out stop holding it [the All Star game] because nobody cared anymore.”
https://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/for-one-year-john-scott-saved-the-nhl-all-star-game/
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Bottom Up almost always works better. We should try it sometime.
Our Wobbly History
Labor unions have become the most powerful voice that working people have had in this country.That is why right wingers hate them so much. Pretty much every legal right that working people have in their workplaces these days were brought to you by labor unions. The 40 hour work week, the weekend, sick leave, paid vacations, pensions; all of these were not only brought to you by labor unions. Thanks to labor unions, it is now illegal to send small children to work for 60 hours per week in mines or on other dangerous jobs.
In addition, the members of those unions often went to truly extraordinary lengths to fight for every one of those rights, up to and including sacrificing their lives.
It is pretty much axiomatic that you can gauge the effectiveness of your organizing techniques by how much effort the Machine puts into silencing you.
Founded in 1905, the International Workers of the World [IWW] — or the ‘Wobblys’ — are often noted for their revolutionary organizing efforts during the opening decades of the 20th Century. This amazing union brought together skilled and unskilled workers across the country and beyond US borders. They were overtly revolutionary and committed to bringing down the practice of wage labor. They were apolitical in that they considered the entire system to be a servant of the elites and only the elites.
(Does that sound like anyone else that you know?)
And unlike other unions at the time, the Wobblys organized the unskilled, the minorities, and women.
Their effectiveness can be gauged by the fact that they were eventually crushed by a combination of organized and systemic state violence combined with a good deal of state sanctioned vigilantism — and in fact the suppression of the Wobblys was probably the most severe breach of civil liberties in American history. After campaigning and winning reelection on the slogan, “He kept us out of the war” the Woodrow Wilson administration did an immediate 180 and hired Edward Bernays to spearhead a massive pubic relations campaign to turn American public opinion around and support entering the war. Part of this effort was a massive campaign to silence all critics of entering the war and they passed special legislation making it much easier to oppress all opposition to the war — and after the entry into the war they passed legislation literally making it illegal to criticize the war effort.
A lot of newspaper publishers went to prison based upon this law.
While they were indeed overtly anti-war, what the Wobblys were actually guilty of was leading a large number of highly successful strikes during the lead up to America’s entry into World War I. They had thereby painted a large target on their backs and the Machine took advantage of the widespread oppression happening at the time to make a serious attempt at completely destroying the Wobblys — an end that they eventually achieved. Yes, many other organizations were also subjected to brutal oppression during this period — the Socialists, the pacifists, black nationalists, and pretty much all dissident organizations — but none suffered nearly the grief that was piled upon the IWW. This oppression went from the White House all the way down to local sheriffs and prosecutors. The suppression of the Wobblys also led directly to the first ‘Red scare’ that lasted from the Russian Revolution in 1917 well into the 1920’s. The Russians had not only overthrown a dynasty that had lasted for 900 years, but they had murdered every member of the royal family they could get their hands on, including the entire Romanov family along with their five children and all their maids and wait staff.
This obviously terrified elites the world over, and when after their many alarming successes the Wobblys began organizing ‘soviets’ all over the United States the suppression of the Wobblys took on even more urgency. (Ironically, the Wobblys and the Communist Party of America didn’t get along very well, but that is another story..)
This brutal campaign of oppression and suppression against the left in general and the Wobblys in particular also had the wholehearted support of such ‘liberal’ luminaries as President Woodrow Wilson and Supreme Court Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis. The tactics included numerous federal prosecutions under the then newly minted and now newly infamous again ‘Espionage Act’, which represented the first widespread use of ‘conspiracy’ laws to prosecute people. Under ‘conspiracy’ theory, they would say that such and such crime was a conspiracy and that everyone involved in this ‘conspiracy’ were equally guilty of violating the law even if they had not themselves broken any laws and even if they had been unaware of the activities of their cohorts. They sentenced hundreds of union members to lengthy prison terms using this method.
Meanwhile, also starting in 1917, a total of 20 states passed a bunch of ‘Syndicalism Laws’ — and these laws were enacted for the express purpose of criminalizing the IWW. These laws stated that it was not only illegal to advocate bringing about political or industrial change through ‘illegal’ methods, but it was also illegal to belong to any organization that advocated bringing about political or industrial change through ‘illegal’ methods.
Thus, all they needed to do was prove you were a member of the IWW and you were sent off to a lengthy prison term. Hundreds of union members suffered this fate.
By far the most common method, though, was through local ‘vagrancy’ laws. Though the sentences were significantly shorter than Espionage Act or Syndicalism prosecutions, they were cheap, easy, and quick. Thousands of such prosecutions happened and they effectively disrupted organizing efforts, removed offending union organizers from the field for a few weeks, and punished people for daring to speak out.
It soon became a common joke amongst the members that their red union cards represented a free ticket to jail.
They were often physically attacked, and their offices were routinely burned down. In 1916 a ship-full of Wobblys attempting to dock in Everett were met with a mob of 200 rioters led by the local sheriff and around a dozen of the union men were shot dead.
The Wobblys were not pacifists. While they eschewed violence as an organizing tactic, they felt they had every right to defend themselves when violently attacked by others. In addition, the IWW often seemed to invite such violent confrontations with their detractors. Throughout 1919, for instance, the Centralia office of the IWW had been repeatedly attacked, and so when the union hall was once again attacked during an Armistice Day celebration this time the Wobblys inside shot back, killing several of the American Legionnaires who had been participating in the assault.
As a result of daring to defend themselves, one Wobblys was lynched whilst several others were subsequently convicted of 2nd Degree Murder and subjected to lengthy prison sentences.
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520382404/under-the-iron-heel
https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-january-4-2023/
Another instance wherein the Wobblys demonstrated their courage and dedication came in 1911, when hundreds of them boarded trains in Portland Oregon heading south to Sacramento to join in a labor action there. When a violent mob kicked them off the train in Ashland (my new abode) several hundred Wobblys took off and crossed the Siskiyou Mountains on foot during the middle of the winter. For those of you unfamiliar, the Siskiyou Mountains are very tall, they're heavily forested, and in the winter it is very cold and very snowy. They walked in these conditions for over 150 miles.
On a side note: There are some people here in Ashland who are currently trying to erect a monument to those workers and their epic journey. You can find the details in the calendar section of this week’s newsletter. Since labor history in this country has been systematically suppressed, I think that a monument to the Wobblys would be a very good thing.
The legacy of the Wobblys is one of undaunted courage in the face of brutal oppression of a kind not seen since. Thousands of workers were knowingly willing to risk their very lives for their cause, and that kind of courage just doesn’t seem to exist in the United States any longer.
Whatever. It would be better if we could figure out how to organize in a manner that doesn’t involve having our organization subsequently destroyed by forces both from without and within. Ideas on this subject would be welcome.
In the meanwhile — it’s time to get to work…
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The Cascadia Action Alert
January 19th, 2023
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1) Wobbly Monument Proposed
I got this information from Wes:
There is a move here in Ashland to erect a monument to the Wobblys that walked over the Siskiyous during the winter that I described in this week’s feature piece. If you think American labor history is seriously under covered, this would help with that.
If you wish to contribute to this effort in any manner:
Jobs With Justice Education Fund
1325 Massachusetts Ave NW Ste 200
Washington DC 20005
For more information you can also contact Wes Brain:
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2) Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation Calendar
I got this information from Frederic:
Welcome to a year of purpose and action:
We are planning a
sidewalk vigil on Sunday, January 22nd, to celebrate and inform the
community about the second anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons! Please help us publicize this event (flyer attached),
and join us!
OlyFOR has some materials for sign making, remaining from the Poor People's
Campaign Vigil last June. Joanne Dufour and I talked about having a
simple sign-making party the week before January 22nd, the Treaty commemoration
day. If there are just a few of us, we could meet at Joanne's house at
Panorama. If more people want to do this, Joanne says she could arrange
for a meeting room there to use. Let me know if you're interested, and when
you're available that week, and we'll set a date. This should be a fun, social
way to get people involved in the demonstration to follow.
Please contact me if you are interested in sign making.
Jean Gant Delastrada (206) 501-9494
SUN JAN 22: Join our street-corner vigil to celebrate the 2nd
Anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons going
into effect: The Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (OCANW) is
one of many organizations worldwide celebrating the 2nd anniversary of when the
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons went into effect on Jan. 22,
2021. We’ll gather at the intersection of West Harrison & Division in
Olympia’s west side from 2:00 to 3:00 pm. We’ll provide signs, or you may
bring your own. We invite people to bring bells to ring. The global
organization that promoted the Treaty is the International Campaign to Abolish
Nuclear Weapons, www.icanw.org.
They won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. See information about the treaty at
ICAN’s website and at the “Nuclear Weapons” part of Glen Anderson’s blog, www.parallaxperspectives.org For
information about today’s activities – and other activities about the TPNW’s
second anniversary, contact Glen at glenan...@integra.net (360)
491-9093
SAT JAN 28: “What’s Happening with Nuclear Weapons” –
Four members of the Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Mark Fleming,
Joanne Dufour, Jim Manista and Glen Anderson) will each present brief
information in a Zoom meeting with plenty of Q&A. To be held
in-person at the Lacey Public Library, at 2 pm Saturday. Info: glenan...@integra.net (360)
491-9093 or Joanne Dufour jdufo...@gmail.com (206) 550-1841
Environmental Action
Quarterly Speaker Series
Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation
January 29; 11:30 am 2315 Division St. NW, Olympia
Topic: Carbon Fee and Dividend
Legislation
Speaker: Jim Lazar, Citizen Climate Lobby
The Environmental Action Team at OUUC is proud
to announce that our quarterly presenter on Environmental Action will be Jim
Lazar, representing the Olympia Chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL). (https://citizensclimatelobby.org/).
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3) Workshops on Abolishing Nuclear Weapons
I got this message from Glen:
We who work for peace are always the underdogs, but these FREE ONLINE WORKSHOPS really can strengthen our skills and strategies so we can make much more progress toward abolishing nuclear weapons!
Nonviolent grassroots organizing has been proven to be effective, but people – including experienced activists – could make much more progress by strengthening our skills and strategies. This series of workshops really can help us build a stronger, savvier, more effective grassroots movement to abolish nuclear weapons!
People who have taken my workshops appreciate how interesting, informative, inspiring and practical they are.
SIGN UP NOW for my next series of FREE ONLINE WORKSHOPS – with SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS! They’ll run every Wednesday from 3:00 to 5:00 pm Pacific Time from February 1 through March 8, 2023. (If you live in a different time zone, please mark your calendars accordingly.)
These workshops are FREE and user-friendly. They are good for people of ALL ages and ALL levels of experience.
People who have taken these workshops have found them informative, inspiring, practical, and empowering.
à See the flyer I’ve attached to this e-mail.
à The second attachment summarizes the many powerful, practical and effective topics my workshops cover.
I posted the attached
FLYER and the attached TOPIC SUMMARY to my blog:
https://parallaxperspectives.org/free-online-workshops-will-strengthen-your-skills-for-abolishing-nuclear-weapons
To sign up now, simply e-mail me at glenan...@integra.net or phone me at (360) 491-9093.
à Please share this opportunity with other people who oppose nuclear weapons!
Nuclear weapons are horribly dangerous, unnecessary, and expensive.
But Congress keeps wasting about $60 billion of our money on them every year.
Now is the time to THROW NUCLEAR WEAPONS OFF THE "FISCAL CLIFF."
Let's slash funding for nuclear weapons and fully fund programs that actually help people.
Glen Anderson (360) 491-9093 glenan...@integra.net
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4) Bonus Tip:
Honor a hero today.
Peace.
Dana
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