LaRouche Takes Over Vive le Canada

There has been a disturbing trend over at Vive le Canada lately, it seems to have lost it's moderators for there can be no other explanation for the right wing conspiracy theorists that are now spamming it with their nut bar posts.

Here is the latest one from followers of the former Trotskyist turned conspiracy noodle head; Lyndon LaRouche. This appeared also on Progressive Bloggers because Vive le Canada is a member of the PB aggregator.

GOD DAMN THE PUSHERMAN, part two

This article appears in the December 14, 2001 issue of Executive Intelligence Review. Dope, Inc. Is $600 Billion and Growing by Jeffrey Steinberg In the Summer of 1996, EIR conducted an exhaustive study of the worldwide illegal drug trade,

EIR is one of LaRouche's major publications. LaRoucheites came up with the slogan Nuke the Whales, since they are proponents of nuclear power and have used their private intelligence to attack the anti-nuke movement.

They are racists, LaRouche spent years attacking black culture, believing in a banking conspiracy they are Anti-Semites, they are homophobic AIDs deniers, they believe in the Anglo-American conspiracy theories, etc. etc. in other words they are a violent proto-fascist movement

evidence shows 'suicide' student was beaten to death
Duggan, from Golders Green, north-west London, had become involved with the Wiesbaden followers of Lyndon LaRouche, an American millionaire with virulent anti-Semitic views. Unaware of the group's leanings, the former Christ's Hospital pupil told followers that he was Jewish. At 4.20am on 27 March, 2003, Duggan rang his mother. His voice was hushed: 'Mum, I am in deep trouble.'

Worldwide LaRouche Youth Movement

Of course it doesn't help when anti-globalization publications like Michel Chossudovsky's Global Research.ca publish LaRouche sourced materials giving them undeserved legitimacy.


The LaRouche organization was also described by Norman Bailey, a former senior staffer of the National Security Council, as "one of the best private intelligence services in the world."

Global Research refuses to publish neo-fascist white racists who oppose globalization but will publish LaRouche via his followers. It shows that Chossudovsky's conspiracy theory laden analysis of globalization is far closer to LaRouche than he cares to admit.

In that same vein the proto-nationalism of Vive le Canada with its opposition to Deep Integration allows it to fall into the same ideological trap as the anti-globalizationists, accepting conspiracy theories from the left and the right as long as they appear reasonable.

Folks get your act together and start monitoring those posts!

DISCREDITED former MP Ken Aldred was last night dumped as a Liberal candidate in the federal election over his links to far-right groups and his attacks on a prominent Jewish lawyer. Mr Aldred appeared before a specially convened meeting of the Liberal Party's administrative committee in Melbourne after he issued a legal threat to the party demanding the right to attend.

He tried to justify his past conduct in a statement that he read at the meeting, but the committee members - including Peter Costello and state Liberal leader Ted Baillieu - voted unanimously to dump him as the preselected candidate in the seat of Holt.

Liberal Party state director Julian Sheezel confirmed the result last night saying: "The administrative committee considered that he was an unsuitable candidate to receive endorsement."

John Howard had earlier written to members saying he did not think Mr Aldred - who has been linked to the far-Right US-based LaRouche organisation and its Australian arm, the Citizens Electoral Council - was a suitable person to stand for the Liberal Party.

Prominent Jewish lawyer Mark Leibler, who has led calls for the party to dump Mr Aldred, yesterday described Mr Aldred's preselection last weekend as an "embarrassment".

Mr Leibler, who was falsely accused by Mr Aldred in 1995 of being involved in a money-laundering scam run by Israeli spy agency Mossad, said yesterday: "It's not half the embarrassment it is to me as it is to the Liberal Party.

"This guy is a racist, an anti-Semite, he's presented fraudulent documents to the parliament. He is not the sort of person who would be supported by the Prime Minister or the Treasurer or any Liberal of standing."

The LaRouche Movement: American 'fascism' or something else?

The LaRouche movement is a clever organization: clever because it operates several independent divisions that are hard to connect with each other. The Schiller Institute, the Fusion Energy Forum, the Executive Intelligence Review, the Campaign to Explore Human Rights Violations in the U.S. (whose main interests seem to be the rights of Larouchians), Bread for the World, the Human Life Committee, the New Federalist , and 21st Century Science & Technology magazine are all part of the LaRouche organization. Currently, LaRouche is also connected to the ' Productive Triangle Program" (the 'Paris-Berlin-Vienna' axis) promoted by the International Progress Organization (IPO) in Central Europe, intended to promote economic development. Lyndon H. LaRouche has run (as a Democrat, no less) for president several times; in 1992 he is running from a jail cell, with the Rev. James Bevel (a SCLC founder and associate of Rev. King) as his vice presidential running mate. One might note, incidentally, that several LaRouchians do hold various offices around the country, and many LaRouchian groups have sprung up in Europe.

LaRouche is one of those political trippers that has managed to take the bend all the way around from the Far Left to the Far Right, without breaking his neck. In the 60s and 70s, he was "Lyn Marcus," head of the International Caucus of Labor Committees, an ultra-doctrinaire Marxist group with some strange disciplinary practices. Even back in the late 70s he was warning of impending financial crisis and cultural ruin. Today, Lyn(don) is a big promoter of the Strategic Defense Initiative, an implacable foe of world communism, a big supporter of a united Germany, and a borderline anti-Semite, who has attacked a whole bunch of Jews - particularly Roy Cohn, Henry Kissinger, and the heads of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith - by saying they are really "Zionists," i.e. a particularly wicked bunch of Jews... anyone remember the Protocols of the Elders of Zion? (One might note that LaRouche has, on several occasions, attacked the Nazi-hunting branch of the Department of Justice (the OSI) as "witch hunters persecuting upright German citizens," some of those upright citizens being V2 rocket engineers smuggled into this country through Project Paperclip.) It is clear that his trip into the Far Right has left him with some discredited Far Left ideas.

LaRouche's main thesis is that the 'Anglo-American cabal,' which involves George Bush, the English monarchy, and some other ingredients, has decided to undertake a programme of genocidal IMF/World Bank-financed de-industrialization to deplete the population of the Third World. The cabal's plan includes "narcotrafficking"; environmental policies to prevent those countries from developing economically; 'Malthusian' population policies which incorporate birth control, abortion, and allowing disease and hunger free rein; profiteering through 'neo-colonial' resource control; the "lab-created" AIDs virus; and promotion of 'antifamily' ideals such as feminism, homosexuality, Satanism, and "the sex-drugs-rock and roll counterculture." This conspiracy theory, needless to say, is a grab bag of far right and far left nut worries. LaRouche believes that only massive industrial projects - nuclear power, huge irrigation canals dug with atomic bombs (!) in the Middle East, and similar high-tech developments - can free the Third World from the sinister grasp of the oligarchs' cabal.

See:

Conspiracy Theory or Ruling Class Studies

Bilderberg

Conspiracy Theory

Conspiracy

Ruling Class



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Trilateral Commission, CFR, Bilderberg, LaRouche, Secret Societies, NWO, New World Order, Globalization, Conspiracy, Conspiracy theory, Bohemian Grove, Conspiracy Theories, Ruling Class, Anglo-American Conspiracy, Michel Chossudovsky, EIR, fascist

Elizabeth May and Red Tories

Nice to see confirmation of my post about Elizabeth May choosing to run against MacKay.

“As a former Progressive Conservative, I am delighted that Elizabeth will be running in Central Nova, against the person who destroyed the party of Confederation.”

And as I said; Red Tories can be progressives too.


See:

Green Party

Elizabeth May

Peter MacKay


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, Nova Scotia, Elizabet hMay, Peter MacKay, Green Party, politics, election, Conservatives
SocialCredit, producerism, distributism, Antigonish, Dr.Coady, cooperatives, economics,
Harper, Canada, Progressive Conservatives, Joe Clark, Red Tories, PM, politics

Abolishing Slavery In Canada

Stephen Harper's statement on the 200th Anniversary of the British Abolition of Slavery. Once again engaging in historical revisionism.

On this day we should also recall the important role that Canadians played in the struggle against slavery, most notably the leadership of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe who persuaded the Legislature of Upper Canada to adopt the first meaningful restrictions on slavery within the British Empire in 1793; and those who made Canada the North Star of the Underground Railroad for thousands of escaped slaves.

Slaves were freed in Quebec, 1736, these included blacks, Irish, French and native slaves as well as indentured servants. Slaves in British/Tory controlled Canada were not freed until 1799.

In fact despite the degree of 1793, the Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia who had been promised freedom by the British found the conditions so bad that many had already left for Sierra Leone in 1792, see below.

While slavery was in effect abolished its function was replaced with indentured servitude for debt.

References:

JSTOR: The Slave in Upper Canada 1

JSTOR: The Slave in Upper Canada 2

Who were the Black Loyalists?

he Black Loyalists arrived in Nova Scotia between 1783 and 1785, as a result of the American Revolution. They were the largest group of people of African birth and of African descent to come to Nova Scotia at any one time.

	Regimental buttons for military uniforms Photo by Richard Plander, Learning Resources & Technology. Nova Scotia Museum.

In 1775, some people in the British North American colonies were arguing with the British government about how much control Great Britain should have over taxes and life in the colonies. The colonists wanted to influence decisions about laws and taxes but had no representation in the British Parliament. They declared themselves independent of Britain when they weren't able to come to an agreement. The American Revolution, also called the American War of Independence, was the result.

People of African birth, who were brought forcibly to the colonies to provide slave labour, and their descendants, were caught in this war. In the late 1600s and 1700s, the British had established rice, indigo, and tobacco plantations in the southern part of North America. Plantation owners required lots of labourers to do field work and other jobs. To reduce costs, they used slaves. At first they enslaved the native Indians but then used mostly African slaves.

In the northern colonies, slaves worked as farm hands or at various jobs as domestic workers or at semi-specialized trades, such as lumbering, mining, road-making, black smithing, shoemaking, weaving and spinning.

When Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia, lost control of that colony to the rebels in the summer of 1775, the economy of Virginia was based on slave labor. Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation that any slave or indentured person would be given their freedom if they took up arms with the British against the rebels. As a result, 2,000 slaves and indentured persons joined his forces. Later, other British supporters in the colonies issued similar proclamations.

Then the British Commander-in-chief at New York, Sir Henry Clinton, issued the Philipsburg proclamation when the British realized they were losing the war. It stated that any Negro to desert the rebel cause would receive full protection, freedom, and land. It is estimated that many thousands of people of African descent joined the British and became British supporters.

When the Americans won the war and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, British forces and their supporters had to leave the new United States. They gathered at New York, waiting to be evacuated. In the meantime, the Americans wanted their lost property returned. Sir Guy Carleton, the new British Commander- in-chief, refused General George Washington's demand for the return of those slaves who had joined the British before November 30, 1782. The two men agreed that the Americans would receive money instead.

	Certificate of freedom, 1783 Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management.

The British-American Commission identified the Black people in New York who had joined the British before the surrender, and issued "certificates of freedom" signed by General Birch or General Musgrave. Those who chose to emigrate were evacuated by ship. To make sure no one attempted to leave who did not have a certificate of freedom, the name of any Black person on board a vessel, whether slave, indentured servant, or free, was recorded, along with the details of enslavement, escape, and military service, in a document called the Book of Negroes.

Between April and November, 1783, 114 ships were inspected in New York harbour. An unknown number of ships left New York and other ports before and after these dates. Over 3,000 Black Loyalists were enrolled in the Book of Negroes, but perhaps as many as 5,000 Black people left New York for Nova Scotia, the West Indies, Quebec, England, Germany, and Belgium.

A Difficult Life for Black Loyalists

Most Black Loyalists couldn't make a living from farming because either they had no land, or their land was unsuitable for growing crops. Black Loyalists with skills as blacksmiths, bakers, shoemakers, carpenters, teachers, ministers, coopers, boatbuilders, laundresses, seamstresses, tailors, military persons, midwives, domestics, cooks, waiters, sailors, a doctor, pilots of boats, and navigators were in a better position to make some kind of a living.

But Black workers were not paid as much as White workers. In July 1784, a group of disbanded White soldiers destroyed 20 houses of free Black Loyalists in Shelburne in what was Canada's first race riot, because the Black Loyalists who worked for a cheaper rate took work away from the White settlers.

Many of those who did not have a trade had to indenture themselves or their children to survive. Indentured Black Loyalists were treated no better than enslaved persons. Slavery was still legal and enforced in Nova Scotia at this time. People could still be bought and sold until 1834, when slavery was abolished in the British Empire. One of the biggest fears of Black Loyalists was to be kidnapped and sold in the United States or the West Indies by slave traders, who sometimes sailed along the coast of Nova Scotia. At the same time, since Nova Scotia did not have a climate to support the plantation system, many White Loyalists abandoned their slaves because they could not afford to feed them.

y 1791, Black Loyalists realized that the dream of a Promised Land, with freedom and security for their families, was not being fulfilled. Some of the Black Loyalists of Brindley Town, outside Digby, met and decided to send a representative to England with a petition asking the British government for the land they had been promised. While in England, their representative, Thomas Peters, a member of the Black Pioneers corps, was approached by a business group that had established a colony in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Peters was told that the Black Loyalists would receive free land if they were to settle there. He returned to Nova Scotia with Lieutenant John Clarkson of the Royal Navy, to convince Black Loyalists to leave Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

On January 15,1792, 1196 Black Loyalists, including the notable leaders David George, Boston King, and Moses Wilkinson, left Halifax in fifteen ships, for Sierra Leone. This was slightly less than one third of the number of Black Loyalists who had arrived in Nova Scotia in 1783. It seems that neither John Clarkson nor Thomas Peters recruited in northeastern Nova Scotia, so none of the Black Loyalists from Tracadie went to Sierra Leone.

See:

The Truth Shall Set Ye Free

Slavery

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
capitalism,, history,, slavery,, primitive, accumulation, of, capital,, Atlantic, History,, Britain,, workers,, proletariat,, socialism,, labour, history,, labor, history,, Nova Scotia, Black Loyalists,, colonialism,, American, colonies,,

The Truth Shall Set Ye Free

William Wilberforce was a classic liberal for his day who saw the abolition of the slave trade as producing 'free labour' and thus reducing costs for business. The end of slavery was required to end mercantilism and create the conditions for capitalism.

It is one of history’s enigmas that William Wilberforce, honoured in today’s bicentenary commemoration of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, did not share the same sense of outrage about the repression of British workers. The MP played a part in outlawing unions, introducing imprisonment without trial and reducing freedom of speech.

Wilberforce’s home town and political seat was Hull. Unlike many British ports, Hull was not dependent on slavery but on the Baltic trade that had made his family rich. So his campaign neither offended his family nor upset his constituents. And his wealth allowed him to follow his instincts as an independent Whig.

Wilberforce disarmingly argued that the owners of slave ships and plantations were not to blame for pursuing their lawful business, of which cruelty and inhumanity were the inevitable byproducts. Nation and parliament were to blame for making it lawful. Plantation owners had nothing to fear from abolition, he claimed, citing the death rate among slaves — and sailors — engaged in the trade.

After spending nearly £9,000 securing the goodwill of Hull, paying local merchants the standard 10 guineas each for their votes (other voters got £2), he was duly elected at the age of 21. Drink and the roulette tables began to pall and he fretted that he was wasting his life. Under the influence of Newton, now a rector in London, at 25 he became an evangelical, resolved to combat the evils of the day — sabbath-breaking, swearing, drunkenness and indecent books. The result was a Society for the Reformation of Manners that got books censored and moral reforms passed.

He was opposed to extending the vote to the working class, whose political aspirations he tried to curb through the Society for the Suppression of Vice and Encouragement of Religion.

This was the same reasoning used sixty years later to end slavery in America, by the Free Labour President; Lincoln.

"Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope. The power of hope upon human exertion, and happiness, is wonderful. The slave-master himself has a conception of it; and hence the system of tasks among slaves. The slave whom you can not drive with the lash to break seventy-five pounds of hemp in a day, if you will task him to break a hundred, and promise him pay for all he does over, he will break you a hundred and fifty. You have substituted hope, for the rod." Abraham Lincoln

Which is why to this day Free Labour is called wage slavery.

H/T to the Monarchist.

SEE

Slavery

Black History Month; P.B. Randolph

The Era Of The Common Man

Black Like Me

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
capitalism,, history,, slavery,, primitive, accumulation, of, capital,, Atlantic History, History,, Lincoln,, workers,, proletariat,, socialism,, labour, history,, labor, history,, Free Labour, William Wilberforce,, colonialism,, Britain, colonies,,

If Wishes Were Horses

If wishes were horses; Odds are Black will go free

It seems the Black Lord has a cheering section in Canada, of course it comes from the right. Surprise, surprise. Or perhaps it is less sympathy for him than for Lady MacBeth his wife and outspoken fellow traveler of the right.

Also See:


Conrad Black

Criminal Capitalism


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Conrad Black, Lord Black, Barbara Amiel, crime, fraud, Canada, Chicago, Hollinger
racketeering, Radler, newspapers.

Look In Your Own Backyard

The recent American propaganda campaign about Iran providing IED weapons to Iraqi insurgents must be seen as suspect in light of last weeks revelations by the Government Accounting Office (GAO).

"Not securing these conventional munitions storage site has been costly, as government reports indicated that looted munitions are being used to make improvised explosive devices (IED) that have killed or maimed many people, and will likely continue to support terrorist attacks in the region," the GAO report summary reads.

Reports says the U.S. military does not know the scope of theft from prewar stockpiles and how many caches are at risk.

WASHINGTON — Four years after invading Iraq, the U.S. military still does not know how many tons of explosives were stolen from the country's massive prewar stockpiles or how many weapons caches remain unsecured, according to a government audit made public Thursday.

Many of the looted munitions have since made their way into the roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices responsible for the bulk of U.S. troop deaths in Iraq.

The Government Accountability Office report cites a lack of manpower, inadequate planning and misplaced priorities in the military's failure to account for and immediately secure weapons during and after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The number of unaccounted-for munitions "could range significantly from thousands to millions of tons," says an unclassified version of the report released at a congressional hearing.

The report warns that some weapons stockpiles still may be vulnerable to looting and could fall into the hands of insurgents and terrorists. As recently as October, government investigators could not confirm that all weapons sites had been physically secured, and said that there apparently had been no nationwide tally by the Defense Department.

WASHINGTON -- A newly declassified government report says that half of American troop deaths in Iraq have been caused by explosives left over from Saddam Hussein's regime and that even four years after the war began the US military has failed to conduct an adequate inventory of Hussein's weapons depots.

The assessment by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found that Iraq remains awash in unsecured mortar rounds, shells, and grenades left over from the former regime and that "the looted munitions will likely continue to support terrorist attacks throughout the region."

In one case, insurgents repeatedly stole explosives from a well-known depot while the Iraqi government was supposed to be disposing of the arms, according to the report, which was written in December and based on field reports and secret intelligence.

See:

Iraq Inspector General

Another Privatization Failure

Conservative Nanny State

Another Privatization Myth Busted

Halliburton

Privatization of War

Privatization

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Inspector-General, USA, Iraq, insurgency, Iran, IED, GAO, crony-capitalism, subsidies, war-profiteering, taxpayers,

Thank the Conservatives

Canada ranks "dead last" among developed nations in its spending on early childhood education – despite overwhelming evidence of how crucial the first six years of life are, says a new study by the country's foremost expert in the field.

See

Daycare

Childcare



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Stephen Harper, biotechnology, baby sitting, private daycare, childcare, daycare, Canada, Harper, Conservatives, baby bonus, government, women, families,

Cherniak Apologizes Sort Of

Jason Cherniak just cannot say; I am sorry, I was wrong, I won't do it again. Jason tries to use weasel words to justify what he did, even when he says he was wrong.

In a convoluted legalistic manner he does apologize sort of, after a whirlwind of protests from Progressive Bloggers of all political stripes. But first he whined about the protests;

For the record, I never expected this sort of reaction. The purpose of the post was to argue for a good compromise on the hijab issue. I only mentioned the Chow rumour because I thought it was the best example of why the hijab thing is about voter fraud and not about religion. In hindsight, I wish I had used a less controversial example because the real point was lost in all the yelling. Frankly, though, I didn't realize that so many bloggers were so clueless about the rumours out there.

Then he decided to publish a sort of retraction. And it took him till 11 pm EDT today to finally do it.

However he only links to his apology in a link in his original article and in his second article. Which is not identified as his apology, and is one link amongst many.

He has not removed the offending article perse, nor struck through, nor removed the offending statements about Olivia Chow. Nor has he attached a correction apology statement link at the beginning of the offending article. All these are the proper journalistic procedures to be done to avoid charges of libel and defamation in Canadian law. And as a lawyer and media consultant he should know that.

Instead he posted this;

UPDATE

I'm sorry if you read this and don't like me reporting the rumour about Trinity-Spadina, but it IS a real rumour. It is not the same as accusing her of having relations with sheep, because that is not a real rumour that is circulating in Toronto. Further, I am not demanding that she deny it.

And as you can see below he says in his post I Was Wrong that he made a mistake, but still no; I am sorry I was wrong. Because of course Jason can never be wrong.

Jason there is no such thing as good faith when you rumour monger.

I initially used the Chow rumour as an example because I have heard it a few times from reliable people and thought it was a fair example to give. As a partisan, I think I was too quick to just assume that the rumour was reasonable to believe. The people I have spoken too probably made the same mistake.

So, to be clear, I am sorry for using Trinity-Spadina as an example in my initial post. However, that does not change the fact that I made the mistake in good faith.

My error here was in failing to look more closely at the rumour before assuming that it was believable. The truth is that if the rumour were about a Liberal, I would have done more research and figured out that it was bogus before posting it.

Yes you would have and that shows your intolerance towards other progressive political competitors in the body politic . But the point is you posted it and still have not removed the offending post. So lets get with it and do the right thing, re- write your article and re-post it without the references to Olivia Chow.

See

Cherniak


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
politics, Cherniak, blogs, bloggers, Canada, progressives, Liberals, NDP,

Tories Health Plan Kills Albertan

Yes you read that headline right. The hospital in Vegreville, under an appointed board, ruled over by another appointed board, and all those appointments are by the government, has an outbreak of super bug. And it resulted in one death at least.

Alberta hospital superbug scandal raises fears of Walkerton claim of 1 Death.

Because they failed to follow government health procedures and because they lack proper staffing, and have since the cutbacks under King Ralph. But the Premier and government steps in and assigns the review to another government appointed board, rejecting any independent review. Stelmach rejects calls for public inquiry

Only in Alberta. Home of the right wingers who bitch about federal accountability while at home they give it the old boot up the bum while covering their asses.


See:

Medicare

Healthcare


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
health care, medicare, Canada, Conservatives, politics, health, superbug, Vegreville, Stelmach, Alberta

Farmer John Exploits Mexican Workers

Back in the early days of the IWW, Wobblies organized farm workers, since many workers in Canada and the U.S. found interim work on the farm before finding work in mills, mines, in lumber and on the railroads. Their term for a farmer who exploited farm workers was Farmer John.

Farmers in the West in Canada and the U.S. relied upon itinerant workers, hobos, to bring in the grain. Paying them 'bum' wages, treating them like slaves, charging them for room and board, led to the I.W.W. to organize farmworkers on a large scale industrial basis.

Today Farmer John relies upon temporary workers from Mexico and in Alberta, over a century later nothing has changed. Farm workers brought in from Mexico and the Caribbean to work for Farmer John in Alberta remain indentured servants, slaves by any other name.

Farm workers cannot bargain collectively in Ontario and Alberta and there is no independent voice for the workers in the program. In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that farmworkers enjoy the same rights as other workers to associate without intimidation, coercion or discrimination by their employers.

And for that reason Farmworkers need a union.

***

A Mexican farm worker who had a bad experience working on a farm near Provost has gone back home.

Armando Garcia flew back to his wife and two children Wednesday after parishioners at the Catholic Church in Provost raised money for his plane ticket.

His friend in Edmonton, Miguel Herrero, said he's appalled Alberta's labour code provides no protection for farm workers. He's trying to raise additional money for Garcia to help him get back on his feet after his bad experience in Canada.

Alberta Employment is investigating claims that the temporary foreign worker didn't get the medical coverage he was promised, wasn't paid extra for overtime and had so many deductions from his paycheque that he was getting paid less than $1 an hour.

***

Harvest War Song

(Tune: "Tipperary")

We are coming home, John Farmer, we are coming back
to stay.
For nigh on fifty years or more, we've gathered up your
hay.
We have slept out in your hayfields, we have heard your
morning shout;
We've heard you wondering where in hell's them pesky
go-abouts?
CHORUS
It's a long way, now understand me; it's a long way to
town;
It's a long way across the prairie, and to hell with Farmer
John.
Up goes machine or wages, and the hours must come
down;
For we're out for a winter's stake this summer, and we
want no scabs around.
You've paid the going wages, that's what kept us on the
bum,
You say you've done your duty, you chin-whiskered son
of a gun.
We have sent your kids to college, but still you must rave
and shout,
And call us tramps and hoboes, and pesky go-abouts.

But now the wintry breezes are a-shaking our poor frames,
And the long drawn days of hunger try to drive us boes
insane.
It is driving us to action--we are organized today;
Us pesky tramps and hoboes are coming back to stay.

IWW Little Red Song Book

The early Wobblies were above all famous for their Westerners: the part-Indians and the Yankees, sons and daughters of pony express drivers and gold prospectors whose families had kept going west but never escaped poverty. But even in these early years, many of the militants were fresh from Europe or the children of immigrants, radicalized on the other side of the ocean or in their first years of American life. They remained in the IWW when native-born “Americans” mostly came and left, published magazines and newspapers that lasted decades, and kept the Wobbly spirit alive for later generations.

The Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO) planted itself in the work-life culture of the mostly white, male, mobile harvest workers of the plains states. Like the Wobs in the mines and sawmills, they epitomized the Western (and “American”) spirit of the organization. Notoriously rebellious and restless, their effective control of box car-riding (“show your red card”) was legendary. The capability of Wobbly organizers to create miniature egalitarian communities among the transient workers testified to their adeptness but also their belief in the lowest ranks of workers.

The larger AWO could also grow strong in the face of repression, peaking in 1918, for a seemingly unlikely reason. The First World War created a labor shortage: it was easier to quit or get fired and move on, because more jobs were available everywhere. Not that AWO organizing drives necessarily succeeded. The racial diversity of many California farms was difficult to overcome (although they tried). The repression of labor during wartime meant suppression of Wob newspapers, arrests of organizers, and threats of vigilante violence. In the longer run, the mechanization of farming would dramatically reduce the numbers of agricultural workers and their bargaining power.

Wobblies also learned that organizing in fields was more complicated than in factories. They could not rely on family or ethnic ties, and so had to rely on sudden job actions, slowdowns, and similar tactics to attract and hold members. Thus in April 1915, Frank Little called a conference to organize casual workers (hoboes), creating a job delegate system within the IWW, with Wobs setting wage and hour demands before the harvest, selecting an individual or committee to negotiate with a farmer, and then having all the Wobs ratify the agreement. This way, the AWO built quickly and successfully. Dues were a two dollar initiation, then fifty cents per month. By 1915, many had won immediate Wob goals: the ten hour day, three dollar minimum, overtime, good board, clean beds; all realizable because war raised the price of wheat.

Thus, Wobs would arrive outside town, establish a “jungle” near a stream, then call a meeting and elect committees to keep the camp clean. A “spud and gump brigade” foraged or begged for food and did the cooking, while some got jobs in town to build up a common fund. This was the IWW world in miniature, a workers’ society run by itself—although organizing it and keeping it going sometimes distracted from actual organizing in the fields.

IWW strike leadership would naturally be blamed for causing deaths and injuries handed out by police and private thugs. Huge defense fights exposed terrible conditions while leaders were handed long sentences. Yet, the IWW’s reputation spread most amazingly. Japanese and Chinese workers had their own labor organizations that worked with the IWW, although not usually affiliating directly. The Fresno branch chartered the Japanese Labor League in 1908 with a thousand members. Mexicans formed their own Wobbly locals (especially in San Diego and Los Angeles) and published Wobbly pamphlets, leaflets, and papers in Spanish. All this activity was unknown and indeed unwanted by the mainstream AFL.

» Zane Grey » The Desert of Wheat

Hard? It sure is hard. But it'll be the makin' of a great country. It'll weed out the riffraff.... See here, Kurt, I'm goin' to give you a hunch. Have you had any dealin's with the I.W.W.?"

"Yes, last harvest we had trouble, but nothing serious. When I was in Spokane last month I heard a good deal. Strangers have approached us here, too--mostly aliens. I have no use for them, but they always get father's ear. And now!... To tell the truth, I'm worried."

"Boy, you need to be," replied Anderson, earnestly. "We're all worried. I'm goin' to let you read over the laws of that I.W.W. organization. You're to keep mum now, mind you. I belong to the Chamber of Commerce in Spokane. Somebody got hold of these by-laws of this so-called labor union. We've had copies made, an' every honest farmer in the Northwest is goin' to read them. But carryin' one around is dangerous, I reckon, these days. Here."

Anderson hesitated a moment, peered cautiously around, and then, slipping folded sheets of paper from his inside coat pocket, he evidently made ready to hand them to Kurt.

"Lenore, where's the driver?" he asked.

"He's under the car," replied the girl

Kurt thrilled at the soft sound of her voice. It was something to have been haunted by a girl's face for a year and then suddenly hear her voice.

"He's new to me--that driver--an' I ain't trustin' any new men these days," went on Anderson. "Here now, Dorn. Read that. An' if you don't get red-headed--"

Without finishing his last muttered remark, he opened the sheets of manuscript and spread them out to the young man.

Curiously, and with a little rush of excitement, Kurt began to read. The very first rule of the I.W.W. aimed to abolish capital. Kurt read on with slowly growing amaze, consternation, and anger. When he had finished, his look, without speech, was a question Anderson hastened to answer.

"It's straight goods," he declared. "Them's the sure-enough rules of that gang. We made certain before we acted. Now how do they strike you?"

"Why, that's no labor union!" replied Kurt, hotly. "They're outlaws, thieves, blackmailers, pirates. I--I don't know what!"

"Dorn, we're up against a bad outfit an' the Northwest will see hell this summer. There's trouble in Montana and Idaho. Strangers are driftin' into Washington from all over. We must organize to meet them--to prevent them gettin' a hold out here. It's a labor union, mostly aliens, with dishonest an' unscrupulous leaders, some of them Americans. They aim to take advantage of the war situation. In the newspapers they rave about shorter hours, more pay, acknowledgment of the union. But any fool would see, if he read them laws I showed you, that this I.W.W. is not straight."

"Mr. Anderson, what steps have you taken down in your country?" queried Kurt.

"So far all I've done was to hire my hands for a year, give them high wages, an' caution them when strangers come round to feed them an' be civil an' send them on."

"But we can't do that up here in the Bend," said Dorn, seriously. "We need, say, a hundred thousand men in harvest-time, and not ten thousand all the rest of the year."

"Sure you can't. But you'll have to organize somethin'. Up here in this desert you could have a heap of trouble if that outfit got here strong enough. You'd better tell every farmer you can trust about this I.W.W."

"I've only one American neighbor, and he lives six miles from here," replied Dorn. "Olsen over there is a Swede, and not a naturalized citizen, but I believe he's for the U.S. And there's--"

"Dad," interrupted the girl, "I believe our driver is listening to your very uninteresting conversation."

She spoke demurely, with laughter in her low voice. It made Dorn dare to look at her, and he met a blue blaze that was instantly averted.

Anderson growled, evidently some very hard names, under his breath; his look just then was full of characteristic Western spirit. Then he got up.

See:

Slavery in Canada

Monte Solberg

temporary workers


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
migrant workers, Canada, immigrants, temporary workers, farm workers, Alberta, labour, labor, employment, slavery,