Martin Halpern has written UAW Politics in the Cold War Era" and "Unions, Radicals, and Democratic Presidents: Seeking Social Change in the Twentieth Century." He at work completing a new book on the unionization of the Ford Motor Company. At the History News Network, he writes—75 Years Ago Workers Successfully Defeated Henry Ford:
Seventy-five years ago today, in 1941, workers at the Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan, launched a successful strike for union recognition. The Rouge was the largest industrial complex in the world, created as an impregnable anti-union fortress. The company’s Service Department spied on and committed violent acts against workers and trade union advocates who approached the factory gates.
The Rouge gates were the site of two of the most notorious anti-union episodes in U.S. labor history. In the 1932 Ford Hunger March, Ford service members and Dearborn police opened fire on unemployed demonstrators, killing four immediately. In the 1937 Battle of the Overpass, Ford service members beat UAW officials Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen and a dozen union supporters, mostly women, seeking to pass out flyers.
The company’s violent proclivities were made especially dangerous by the media-savvy popularity of the company’s founder and principal owner, Henry Ford. The iconic billionaire was the recipient of millions of dollars of free publicity for his advocacy of a high-wage, high-productivity, high-consumption society. His philosophy also included opposition to unions, to the New Deal, and to women working outside the home. Most disturbing was his publication and distribution of the anti-Semitic forgery, The International Jew, and his acceptance of a medal in 1938 from the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler.
Ford was one of the most well-known individuals in the world in 1941. Opposed by unionists, liberals, and leftists, he nevertheless was viewed by many as a “friend of labor.” The majority of Ford workers at the Rouge complex thought otherwise. They overcame not only violence and the Ford media halo but also the company’s attempt to break their strike by dividing them along racial lines and charging their strike was a Communist plot.
Today the public hears daily about another iconic media-savvy violence-advocating billionaire, Donald Trump. Just as Ford was defeated by a mass mobilization of a racially integrated and well-organized movement of workers, Trump can be defeated by a democratic, integrated mass movement of anti-fascists. Grass roots activism against fascists and proto-fascists was an important feature of the progressive movements of the New Deal and World War II eras. Civil rights, feminist, and peace activists, trade unionists, Sanders and Clinton supporters should en masse join the pioneering protesters at Trump rallies to say as the anti-fascists of the 1930s declared: "They shall not pass!"
The mass action of Ford workers begun on April 1, 1941 led to the establishment of a strong union throughout the Ford plants in the United States and ended Ford's role as the leading anti-unionist and sympathizer with fascism in the country. Massing at Trump rallies everywhere can defeat his fascist demagoguery and launch a united movement of U.S. working people, female and male, immigrant and native-born of all colors. Jobs, health care, equality for all, peace, and a sustainable relationship with nature: that is the world we can win.
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University backs off claim new brand of chocolate milk treats impact of concussions
Back in December, a University of Maryland research program caught a good deal of grief for accepting money from a beverage company and issuing a press release backed up by no peer-reviewed research that the company’s chocolate milk was valuable for improving cognitive skills in athletes who had suffered concussions. Now the university has backtracked, returned the $228,910 it received from the company and scrubbed related press releases from the program’s website.
The Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) links university researchers with local companies. In December, MIPS issued a press release asserting that a study had shown a new brand of chocolate milk “helped high school football players improve their cognitive and motor function over the course of a season, even after experiencing concussions.” That sparked immediate criticism from a wide range of people.
A university ad hoc investigative committee has concluded that no rules were broken by the company when the press release was sent out, but said it was “troubling” that a tenured faculty member, the lead researcher in the study, included endorsements in company press releases, saying “Our data suggest that athletes may be ready faster and better for the next game or practice if they drink [this brand of] chocolate milk.” The press releases also openly noted: “Having research underway at the University of Maryland gives our business and its product credibility.”
The university committee also questioned why the lead researcher—a biomechanics expert—was picked since he did “not have any experience in nutritional/supplementation research.”
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TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—Finding a way out:
When the Democrats take the White House in 2004, they will face a daunting task—a government in DEEP red, starved of tax revenues by the irresponsible borrow and spend Republicans. They will face a hostile word, uniting in opposition to US interests, regardless of their legitimacy. They will need to deal with joblessness, a double-dip recession, and corporate scandals.
But most daunting of all, they will need a solution to the Iraq mess.
For purposes of this thought experiment let’s assume the most probable outcome—a relatively quick takeover of Baghdad and Basra, 2-6 weeks from now. A restive population, suicide attacks against our forces, a massive army of occupation, unrest in the Arab street, and skyrocketing costs to hold and rebuild Iraq.
So what's the solution? I have given this some thought, and am in the process of formulating my "solution" (in other words, the best of a series of bad options). But I want to hear what you guys have to say.
So pretend you are a presidential candidate. It is November of this year. Iowa is a few short months away and Iraq is the issue dominating the news. You are asked: "What's your plan for Iraq?"
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On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: The Republicans must show they can govern. April Fools! Trump smashes Overton Window, could break Electoral College. MI update: elections have consequences. Speaking of which, downballot races matter, as do the people who make them go.
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