Thoughts of the Day by Fremdfirma

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Thoughts of the Day

POSTED BY: FREMDFIRMA
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 04:09
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VIEWED: 1005
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Tuesday, August 7, 2007 11:35 AM

Excerpt from "Direct Action"

The Trade Unions grew strong as the Knights of Labor subsided, and have continued slowly but persistently to increase in power. It is true the increase has fluctuated; that there have been set-backs; that great single organizations have been formed and again dispersed. But on the whole trade unions have been a growing power. They have been so because, poor as they are, they have been a means whereby a certain section of the workers have been able to bring their united force to bear directly upon their masters, and so get for themselves some portion of what they wanted -- of what their conditions dictated to them they must try to get. The strike is their natural weapon, that which they themselves have forged. It is the direct blow of the strike which nine times out of ten the boss is afraid of. (Of course there are occasions when he is glad of one, but that's unusual.) And the reason he dreads a strike is not so much because he thinks he cannot win out against it, but simply and solely because he does not want an interruption of his business. The ordinary boss isn't in much dread of a "class- conscious vote;" there are plenty of shops where you can talk Socialism or any other political program all day long; but if you begin to talk Unionism you may forthwith expect to be discharged or at best warned to shut up. Why? Not because the boss is so wise as to know that political action is a swamp in which the workingman gets mired, or because he understands that political Socialism is fast becoming a middle-class movement; not at all. He thinks Socialism is a very bad thing; but it's a good way off! But he knows that if his shop is unionized, he will have trouble right away. His hands will be rebellious, he will be put to expense to improve his factory conditions, he will have to keep workingmen that he doesn't like, and in case of strike he may expect injury to his machinery or his buildings.

It is often said, and parrot-like repeated, that the bosses are "class-conscious," that they stick together for their class interest, and are willing to undergo any sort of personal loss rather than be false to those interests. It isn't so at all. The majority of business people are just like the majority of workingmen; they care a whole lot more about their individual loss or gain than about the gain or loss of their class. And it is his individual loss the boss sees, when threatened by a union.

Now everybody knows that a strike of any size means violence. No matter what any one's ethical preference for peace may be, he knows it will not be peaceful. If it's a telegraph strike, it means cutting wires and poles, and getting fake scabs in to spoil the instruments. If it is a steel rolling mill strike, it means beating up the scabs, breaking the windows, setting the gauges wrong, and ruining the expensive rollers together with tons and tons of material. IF it's a miners' strike, it means destroying tracks and bridges, and blowing up mills. If it is a garment workers' strike, it means having an unaccountable fire, getting a volley of stones through an apparently inaccessible window, or possibly a brickbat on the manufacturer's own head. If it's a street-car strike, it means tracks torn up or barricaded with the contents of ash-carts and slop-carts, with overturned wagons or stolen fences, it means smashed or incinerated cars and turned switches. If it is a system federation strike, it means "dead" engines, wild engines, derailed freights, and stalled trains. If it is a building trades strike, it means dynamited structures. And always, everywhere, all the time, fights between strike-breakers and scabs against strikers and strike-sympathizers, between People and Police.

On the side of the bosses, it means search-lights, electric wires, stockades, bull-pens, detectives and provocative agents, violent kidnapping and deportation, and every device they can conceive for direct protection, besides the ultimate invocation of police, militia, State constabulary, and federal troops.

Everybody knows this; everybody smiles when union officials protest their organizations to be peaceable and law-abiding, because everybody knows they are lying. They know that violence is used, both secretly and openly; and they know it is used because the strikers cannot do any other way, without giving up the fight at once. Nor to they mistake those who thus resort to violence under stress for destructive miscreants who do what they do out of innate cussedness. The people in general understand that they do these things through the harsh logic of a situation which they did not create, but which forces them to these attacks in order to make good in their struggle to live or else go down the bottomless descent into poverty, that lets Death find them in the poorhouse hospital, the city street, or the river-slime. This is the awful alternative that the workers are facing; and this is what makes the most kindly disposed human beings -- men who would go out of their way to help a wounded dog, or bring home a stray kitten and nurse it, or step aside to avoid walking on a worm -- resort to violence against their fellow men. They know, for the facts have taught them, that this is the only way to win, if they can win at all. And it has always appeared to me one of the most utterly ludicrous, absolutely irrelevant things that a person can do or say, when approached for relief or assistance by a striker who is dealing with an immediate situation, to respond with "Vote yourself into power!" when the next election is six months, a year, or two years away.

Unfortunately the people who know best how violence is used in union warfare cannot come forward and say: "On such a day, at such a place, such and such specific action was done, and as a result such and such concession was made, or such and such boss capitulated." To do so would imperil their liberty and their power to go on fighting. Therefore those that know best must keep silent and sneer in their sleeves, while those that know little prate. Events, not tongues, must make their position clear.

-Voltairine de Cleyre, 1912
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltairine_de_Cleyre

Consider, and consider well, the effectiveness of Unions then, and now.

Any Strike, Any Protest, is utterly laughable and in fact downright silly, without force or at least threat of force behind it - and the idea of begging for a permit in order to have "permission" to protest... from the very state who's actions you are against, is ludicrous in the extreme.

Historical Fact - pitchforks and torches get the job done, signs get you laughed at.

Don't believe me, organize a protest of several dozen people, each carrying, instead of a sign, one brick... just carrying, mind you, and watch how fast the local officials shit themselves trying to smash it down, and why, because they FEAR you.

Does your puny little sign scare them ? nope, because you have by that action admitted to consigning yourself to deliberate helplessness and thus are no threat to them.

So in the future you might consider a different protest sign, there's room for a slogan on several sides, depending on the make and model.
[IMG]

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Just offerin thoughts on stuff, and while doing so, lemme offer ya Libertarians something to think about too.
http://www.strike-the-root.com/72/awuku/awuku3.html

-Frem

It cannot be said enough, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to endlessly repeat it

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007 12:30 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

You call THAT a thought? Looks more like a manifesto!

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007 12:31 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Huh.

When I started reading, I tried to guess ahead to the author. i thought it was marx, much to my surprise it was voltairine

Back in 1979 or thereabouts there was a huge demonstration in Washington for the Equal Rights Ammendment (ERA). For you youngsters, consider that the USA has not yet officially granted equal rights to 52% of the population. What kind of moronic statment does that make about us????But back to our story... Somewhere in the realm of a million marchers- mostly women but also men- showed up to support the ERA. They waved signs, sang songs, listened to speeches, cooled their feet in a fountain, and pciked up their trash before they left.

And what do you supose happened as a result?

Yep, that's right... nothing.

Compare that to the anti-globalization riots in Seattle. Now that woke up a lot of people in a hurry!

---------------------------------
Always look upstream.

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007 2:18 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
You call THAT a thought? Looks more like a manifesto!

Not everyone has a koolaid drinking, faux news soundbite, propaganda-chuggin, american idol ADD/ADHD six second attention span, you bonehead.

Some people, yanno, actually THINK - try not to go into shock from abject horror at the concept.

-F

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007 2:43 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Some people, yanno, actually THINK - try not to go into shock from abject horror at the concept

But grokking that some people actually think would require... er... thinking.

Now, here's a question. Are goverments- even democracies- inevitably on the side of the wealthy? If so, why? Or has anyone ever heard of an instance where the gummint has stepped in on the side of the workers to press their demands forward... even if no "legal" basis existed for those demands? (example, the 40-hour week) I'd be very curious about the answer.
---------------------------------
Always look upstream.

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007 3:46 PM

MALBADINLATIN

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
Not everyone has a koolaid drinking, faux news soundbite, propaganda-chuggin, american idol ADD/ADHD six second attention span, you bonehead.
Some people, yanno, actually THINK - try not to go into shock from abject horror at the concept.

You left out considering differing opinions....oh! and....looking for the truth regardless of which political party might look stoopid in the finding of it.

And you can't change that by gettin' all bendy.

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007 4:04 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Hugo Chavez

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
Now, here's a question. Are goverments- even democracies- inevitably on the side of the wealthy? If so, why? Or has anyone ever heard of an instance where the gummint has stepped in on the side of the workers to press their demands forward... even if no "legal" basis existed for those demands?(example, the 40-hour week) I'd be very curious about the answer.

***************************************************************
"Global warming - it's not just a fact, it's a choice."

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007 5:01 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

But he's... but he's... a ... uh.. socialist! *hisses*

---------------------------------
Always look upstream.

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007 5:15 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

It's even worse - he's democratically elected - with internationally observed elections (unlike the US I might add).

***************************************************************
"Global warming - it's not just a fact, it's a choice."

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Tuesday, August 7, 2007 11:05 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Jeez Frem, relax....

Why don't you just sit down and keep your Marxist views to yourself? You don't have to wait much more than another year now before you can vote Clinton or Guiliani into office.

Why don't you just join the rest of us in continually bending over for our Masters faster than Bob Allen for cops in the men's room?

What's the matter Frem?

The lesser of two evils isn't good enough for you?

"Give me Liberty.... or give me cake.... drooool" ~ zombie jack

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack

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Wednesday, August 8, 2007 12:44 AM

FREMDFIRMA

LoL, Jack - at least *I* can comprehend sarcasm, unlike some folks.

Imma vote for Ron even if I gotta write him in, and as for Conyers and Dingell, fekk em, it's time for a write-in for Mickey Mouse, cause we ain't voting for them, nor any of the laughable rethugs offered up as competition around here.
Hell, DeVos was so pathetic a candidate even the two blatantly rightwingnut newspapers here turned on him pretty quick - both of which, as shown in another thread, are rather passionately anti-union, and thus laughingstocks themselves, being based smack in the middle of UAW turf.

I figure it for a faster slide if a Dem gets in, cause what's the spark that always, always sets things off ?

From the Boston Tea Party to the Whiskey Rebellion, to the Civil War, it's always and ever been taxes that light the fuse, you see.

And what will happen if they put a Dem on the throne ? they'll try to pay down some of that massive debt that shrub and cronies left us, and you know what that means, taxes, and lots of em, with the right wing screaming all the while about tax-n-spend dems, never mentioning who ran up that debt in the first place...

And from that point it's just tick, tick, tick.

There's a couple states who've been desperately trying to eliminate dependance on federal funding as of late, which is the first step towards telling the fedgov to piss off, but I don't see that happenin realistically - what's far more likely is a clash between local law enforcement and the federales, resulting in tensions and lots of jaw wagging, till the elite lose patience and bring down the jackboot, and then all hell will break loose.

Siggy, as shown when I posted that timeline of Union Strikes, since at least 1860, the answer is no, Gov't always sides with the corps, always has, and prolly always will, government is a disease masquerading as it's own cure, much like big pharma in that they invent problems then offer themselves as the solution.

-Frem

It cannot be said enough, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to endlessly repeat it

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Wednesday, August 8, 2007 2:04 AM

JONGSSTRAW

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
Huh.

When I started reading, I tried to guess ahead to the author. i thought it was marx, much to my surprise it was voltairine

Back in 1979 or thereabouts there was a huge demonstration in Washington for the Equal Rights Ammendment (ERA). For you youngsters, consider that the USA has not yet officially granted equal rights to 52% of the population. What kind of moronic statment does that make about us????But back to our story... Somewhere in the realm of a million marchers- mostly women but also men- showed up to support the ERA. They waved signs, sang songs, listened to speeches, cooled their feet in a fountain, and pciked up their trash before they left.

And what do you supose happened as a result?

Yep, that's right... nothing.

Compare that to the anti-globalization riots in Seattle. Now that woke up a lot of people in a hurry!

---------------------------------
Always look upstream.

I believe if you do your homework on this, perhaps something away from the revisionist bullshit that permeates Wikipedia, you'd discover that the majority of American women were AGAINST the ERA for many reasons, and that ultimately was the death of it. Most women in America stood up and said they don't go along with the Feminist radicalisms. Also, in reference to the Seattle disgusting display of animalistic hatred, anarchy & violence...I think great men like Ghandi & Martin Luther King have shown the world that peaceful, non-violent actions can lead to societal changes for the better.

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Wednesday, August 8, 2007 4:09 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Aww, is someone upset that the mass influx of right wing cockroaches intent on misusing wiki to rewrite history is getting a little stomped on ?

Did you dittohead trolls really think you could spin wiki into the new "Ministry of Truth" unopposed ?

Get real

And of course you rightwingnuts want folks who'll lay down and let you walk all over em, the same way folk who live by begging think people should be generous - don't think you're fooling anyone at all, sockpuppet, cause you ain't.

The Watts Riots did more for civil rights in six days than MLK did in his entire existence, although one endlessly sandbagged and likely ended by the very government entities that shills and cheerleaders like you, with a corrupt, cowardly and complicit congress, have allowed off the leash again.

As for hatred, anarchy and violence, what better response to a threat to someones person, property and livelyhood - it doesn't matter whether the mugger or rapist brings a gun, a knife, or a briefcase and negotiating team, the end result intended is still the same.

And of course let's mention in passing the caught and admitted Agents Provocateur, along with handily pirated footage from Delta Forces own radio transmissions, since our glorious SpecForce rocketjocks didn't think they needed to use secure communications against us rabble.
(I'm sure said tapes are available online, if you look hard enough.)

Oh, yeah, and the FremGirl volunteered educate your chauvanist ass with an axe handle, but I convinced her it'd just be a waste of good wood.

-Frem
It cannot be said enough, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to endlessly repeat it

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