You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Saturday June 27, 1903
From The Appeal to Reason: "Populism and Socialism"
Ernest Untermann, 1902
In the current issue of the
Appeal, Ernest Untermann examines the political differences and shared goals of the People's Party and the Socialist Party of America. We offer a few excerpts from that article:
From the standpoint of the Socialist, the People's party platform aims at symptoms without removing the cause. Changes in the money system will not bring the money into the pockets of the worker, as long as production is for profit under the control of the capitalist class. Prohibition of alien ownership of land will not lessen the exploitation of the farmers by the trusts; a graduated income tax, if it could be enacted and enforced, would not help any working man, because the capitalists can shift the burden of taxation to the shoulders of the working class by increasing the prices of all the products.
The universal eight hour day and a minimum wage can be met by the capitalist in the same way. Universal suffrage and the election of the president, vice president and United States senators, by the direct vote of the people, will be useless, as long as the working men elect capitalist politicians, and leave the political and economic power in the control of the capitalist class. Government ownership of the railroads, telegraphs and telephones, under the control of capitalist parties, is an increase of power for the capitalists. The only really revolutionary statement in the People's party platform is that wealth shall belong to him who produces it; but the framers of that platform forgot to explain how the producer could obtain this wealth and be secured in its possession...
But the populists correctly stated that interests of the rural and urban workers are identical. If they had added that these interests are also distinct from, and opposed to, the interests of all rural and urban capitalists, they would not have consented to a fusion with the very class which they are organized to defeat.
Comrade Untermann goes on to propose that the Populist should become Socialist and vote the Socialist Party ticket.
SOURCE
"Yours for the Revolution"
The Appeal to Reason, 1895-1922
-ed by John Graham
U of NE Press, 1990
See also:
Ernest Untermann
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Friday June 27, 1913
Paterson, New Jersey - "Starvation Stalks Through Paterson"
Thus states the circulars which have been distributed throughout the neighboring cities. The circulars urge workers in these cities to "aid us in our need. We will hold the picket line; we will fill the jails if need be. But you most help us fight starvation. Help us and we will win." Hunger, the great strikebreaker is haunting the Paterson Silk Strikers.
Authorities have also stepped up their arrests of strikers on the picket lines. Prominent New York liberals have sent a petition to President Wilson. They are asking for a Congressional investigation of the flagrant violations of the striker's civil liberties. They cite the hundreds of strikers who have been arrested and "fined and imprisoned for no other offences than walking the streets in a peaceful manner." That petition has come to naught.
SOURCE
History of the Labor Movement in the United States Vol 4
The Industrial Workers of the World 1905-1917
-by Philip S Foner
International Pub, 1965
Thursday June 27, 2013
From Pakistan Daily Times: "Bangladeshi factory shuts down after cracks in walls."
DHAKA: Bangladesh authorities Wednesday shut down an eight-storey factory complex after cracks appeared in a wall, triggering panic among thousands of garment workers who feared the building would collapse, police and officials said...
At least two factories were housed in the Razzaq Plaza complex employing some 5,000 workers, local police chief Mostafa Kamal told AFP.
Read full article here:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/...
Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity
http://www.solidaritycenter.org/...
International Labor Rights Forum/Sweatfree
http://www.laborrights.org/...
Friends of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/...
Solidarity Forever
New verse from the centennial edition
of the Little Red Songbook:
They divide us by our color; they divide us by our tongue,
They divide us men and women; they divide us old and young,
But they'll tremble at our voices, when they hear these verses sung,
For the Union makes us strong!
Solidarity Forever by Ralph Chaplin, 1915
New verse credited to Steve Suffet