All of the items on this specific page include:
On Friday, May 1st, the St. Louis IWW GMB celebrated the International Workingman’s Holiday by putting on a benefit for the Strawberry Workers of California, United Farm Workers (UFW), AFL-CIO.
The event was coordinated by FWs Bob Rice and Nick Normal. FW Rice handled getting speakers, poets, and musicians to perform, while FW Normal handled publicity, sound, place, etc.
The evening opened up with Carl Fichtenbaum playing some good hearty folk music on an acoustic six-string guitar. Following Carl, FW Rice spoke about the Anarchist Haymarket martyrs, the origin of May Day, the struggle of the Strawberry Workers, and the importance of solidarity within the new epoch of the Labor Movement.
FW Rice then introduced Virginia Ness, a local representative of the UFW Strawberry Workers, and Ginger Harris, a great granddaughter of Adolph Fischer, one of the aforementioned Haymarket martyrs.
Afterwards, poets FW Jim Igoe, Cindy Fehmel, Tom Smith, and others gave very enlightening words on issues mainly concerning working people and the animosity felt towards capitalism.
A spontaneous speaking by FW Ed Fitz was made about an article he found in an old issue of the Post Dispatch (from 1914!) concerning then-local Wobblies and an attempt by local authorities to break up an IWW meeting with "sprinkling carts," or fire trucks.
The evening closed with a singing, by the crowd, of Solidarity Forever, with piano music played by April Heyde.
In all, we raised $282 for the Strawberry Workers. The St. Louis IWW GMB would like to thank all who showed, all who performed, and Killer Shrews Productions for providing sound labor donate.
!Solidaridad Siempre!
X345050
Below is a copy in text of the flyer that we used to promote the May Day event.
There are about 20,000 strawberry workers in California, where about 75% of the fresh strawberries in the U.S. are grown. Workers only earn about $8,500 a season, and the average real wage for a farm worker has fallen 15% in the past fifteen years. Meanwhile, the corporations are making near $650 million a year and have tripled production in the past 25 years. The Workers are receiving less and less though. Workers constantly struggle with chronic back injuries and work in fields treated with pesticides - most notably methyl bromide - and women are often sexually harassed. A worker’s day is often between 10 and 12 hours long. For only 5¢ more per pint of berries, pay rates for workers could increase by nearly 50%. But the strawberry corporations are not interested. Instead, they’re trying to crush the workers.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The benefit will be taking place May Day - May 1st - at 1921 South 9th St, in Soulard. The cost of admission is $5 (all proceeds to go directly to Strawberry Workers) and doors open at 6:00 p.m., and the event will start around 7:30. Snacks will be present, but eat before you come!
For more information, questions, etc., contact Nick Normal @ (314) 772-2470 or write St. Louis IWW GMB - POBox 63211 - St. Louis, MO - 63163.
Loyalty by John Newmark
In history class I was taught
In order to be good Americans
We must seek to address our grievances
By working within the system.
If there are problems with the system...
The system, too, could be changed
from within.
I have ancestors who agreed completely
With this philosophy;
however, in this same history class
I was taught that my ancestors
were wrong. They were loyalists
And sought to address their grievances
Within the system. The British system.
Their neighbors believed in Revolution.
It wasn't Marxist,
but still it was a revolution,
and today our teachers tell us
Revolutions aren't necessary.
That's what my ancestors tried to tell their neighbors.
Their neighbors didn't listen.
Should we?
Cindy Fehmel's poetry
Power of Many
Yeah, money talks,
It says "goodbye"
Two nickels rubbed together
Still just make a dime.
With inflation runnin' rampant
And prices sky high,
Happiness ain't the only thing
Money can't buy.
The kids need shoes,
Much less an education
Just to keep up
With the next generation.
Is it too much to ask
For a decent place to live,
When we're working day and night
And have nothing left to give?
The rich get richer
But I can't be more poor
Society keeps squeezing me for money,
But can't wring no more.
We need to stand together
To get something done.
The power of many
Worth more than the power of one.
I've been seeing the signs,
Dollar signs that is,
And for all my labor
Need a living enough to live.
It's not a matter of greed
Just that I've paid my dues
To get what a family needs
Just to make it through.
The rich may laugh
At the poor's condition,
But when the union comes
They better listen.
We need to stand together
To get something done.
The power of many
Worth more than the power of one.
It's about survival,
It's about life's worth,
It's about what we know is right
From the moment of birth.
People working together
To get something done.
The power of many
Worth more than the power of one.
and also by Cindy Fehmel:
The Fruits of Their Labor
The fruits of their labor
So sweet on the tongue,
The same tongue should ask after
What hands the fruit passed from.
Workers hardened from long hours
For wages insufficient
For a decent home; some insurance
Against sickness or accident.
But the fruit is still tender
Despite callouses on their hands
The juice still sweet
Despite Justice's bitter demands.
The pickers' hope and honor
Run through their veins like the vines,
Their faith sweetens the juice,
As they try to better their lives.
Stay together, united,
For no one knows better than you
A quart or a pint is weightier
Than a handful or a few.
The fruits of your labor
A long time in coming,
Compensation deserved
Has its meter still running.
Tom Smith's speech
When I was younger, I guess I was 22 maybe 23, I went to a crowded noisy tavern in my neighborhood. The guy behind the bar asked if I was interested in playing some cards... maybe winning some money. I followed him through this narrow hallway and there was a big room, and people were in there playing poker.
I sat down and started winning. It was the only winning streak of my life; but I was having it at exactly the wrong time. Two hours later I was ahead about three hundred dollars. I wanted to leave and take my winnings with me, but the other players weren't having any of that.
They said I had to keep playing to give them a chance to get even.
On the next hand, when it was my turn to bet, I threw a ten dollar bill on the table and then the man passing out the cards reached over and tapped the ten; he said, "from now on, every time you use money, it's worth half its face value. You have to put another on the pile." I looked around the table and all the players were nodding their heads in agreement. I put another ten on the pile.
With my money worth half as much as theirs, I experienced the end of my winning streak.
I went home without a penny.
All the way home I kept saying...
If my money kept its value, those guys wouldn't have won.
When money keeps its value, the bad guys don't win.
Money isn't money anymore.
In the movie "Ransom" Mel Gibsom tells the kidnappers he needs time to get the money together. He needs days to gather the cash they want. That was because he was gathering real money. Real money. It would take time to gather real money. In Newsweek recently, I read about two giant banks merging. And Newsweek said one of the CEO's involved, earned $168 Million dollars for the merger. They say he earned all that money with the stroke of a pen. Nobody told the CEO that it would take days to get the money together. Nobody had to stuff $168 million dollars into, god knows, how many suitcases and drive them across town. Nobody had to carry that money up to the guys office and put it on his desk. That's because the money the CEO got; that money was what I call... ATM money. America Today Money.
America Today Money is electronic money... it gets you fifty percent down... it means the mayor has the wrong answer, when a wealthy real estate developer asks, "Why can't the community help finance this shopping center?" America Today Money means a wealthy man can buy a building in the morning, and then in the afternoon sell it to the Postal Service for twice as much, and the man who pocketed the difference spends the next ten years complaining that he had to pay that nasty old capital gains tax. What should the tax rate be on suspicious transactions? I read once that Busch stadium didn't pay any property tax for the first ten years it was in operation. You know all about the money that went to the Rams just to bring them to town. Maybe that's the way the game is played, but it's a game only the rich get to play, and that's not fair.
I watched an interview, and they were talking to Michael Jordan. I like Michael Jordan, hard not to... he is a fine athlete, a gentleman, and I believe him to be humble and human and kind. And then I read that Michael Jordan makes more from Nike than all the Nike factory workers combined. That's not right. I'm sorry to have to say this Michael. That's not right.
I'll bet the company that interviewed Michael had a nice buffet waiting there for him after he talked. Maybe they paid his hotel bill and his air fare and I'm sure they had a car waiting for him to use.
Celebrities don't have to carry wallets, they just have to carry themselves around, and items fall at their fee. And who is it that made politicians celebrities? Has that always been true? I don't know. I do know. Newt Gingrich was in town recently, he made an appearance at The Library Limited. He was selling his new book. It's titled, "Mistakes I've Made". I hear it's 5,000 pages. And he's writing an even bigger books, that ones called "Bad Things I did On Purpose." Do you think Newt pulls his wallet out when the limousine stops for gas? Do you think he pays for dinner when he's on book tours? Do you thinks he knows what a Big Mac costs?
Anyone here remember the movie "It's a Wonderful Life?" Does anyone remember the scene where George Baily's bank has just two dollars left? After the run on his savings and loan, George Baily has just two dollars left to put in the vault. Todays financial question, for those of you who want to play along, is this... If a bank has only two dollars in the vault... how much can it loan out the next day? Do you know how much it can loan out?
The answer is... you can't tell from the deposits.
It depends.
It varies.
If the goal of the administration is economic growth then George Baily might be able to loan out as much as ten dollars.
Wealth can be assumed, and leveraged, and divided, and you will get your share only if your friends are rich... only if your companions are amont the owners of this world. It's only the average man who puts his faith in green paper. If you put your faith in green paper you've already lost half the game.
Bill Gates built himself a wonderful mansion and the first thing his lawyers did, was ask for a reduction in the property taxes.
People who fly first class pay less per cubic foot than people who fly couch. Check it out. Call them up. I did. First calss to New York costs around 17 dollars per cubic foot. Couch pays about twenty dollars a cubic foot. Next time you fly, ask why the rich gets a better deal than the working man. They won't have an answer. There isn't one.
If you gathered up every dollar in America. Every picture of Grant and Jackson and Washington and Lincoln. If you built a giant pile of money. Right here. A mountain of cash. Right here. All the cash from the Casino Queen, and all the cash from McDonalds... and all the cash from the Pay Less shoe store and the money from Sol's deli on Olive Street Road. And all the cash from the bingo game down at the gymnasium... and all the cash from every cash drawer in America... you'd have a big mountain of coins and paper and maybe a slug or two thrown in. If you can picture all the money America owns piled right here. If you can picture that... If you can picture that... ask yourself how is it... that there are individuals who own that much wealth. There are men who own wealth, that of and by itself, equals every piece of real money this country contains.
That's crazy.
If money was money the bad guys wouldn't be winning.
Money is a swift pulse of electronic data bouncing back and forth, and each time it bounces, it bounces higher, and it all eventually lands in the pockets of mean who think they're better than you and I.
Somewhere right now someone has their finger poised over a button that will send millions of dollars somewhere it doesn't need to go.
In the early 60's the oil companies were buying Alaskan North shore leases from the Federal government so they could drill for oil. The US government was charging them almost nothing for the leases. An environmental group came up with an ingenious idea. They were going to purchase oil leases themselves; only they weren't going to drill for oil. It was their intention to let the land stay clean. To save some oil for the future. Maybe Alaska could still have some otters, and elk, and maybe sea birds could land near the shore without 10W30 getting all over them. But the government said no. The environmentalists had their check returned. They weren't allowed to buy an oil lease. No way Exxon was going to let elk stand in the way of progress. Money is just green paper to people with real power. And the Supreme court upheld the denial.
If money was money the bad guys wouldn't be winning.
I remember reading an article about a chain of ice cream shops. They were upscale... trendy... and they claimed to have a social conscious. When they started operation the owners made a pledge that none of the employers would make more than twenty times what the lowest paid employee would make. That doesn't seem like a big concession. That didn't look like it would be hard to maintain. And the rule didn't apply to the owners of the company... they were able to make thousands of times what the workers made. But the company wasn't able to keep that pledge. The last I heard the company was paying its workers as low as possible... and the management was making millions... just like its done in America.
Last summer I drove to Chicago. And I've been there many times... but this was the first time I realized what made Chicago. What makes cities possible. There is around any great city... land... and the people who work the land. Three hundred miles out from the loop and the McCormick Center... in a great unseen circle... there are farms growing corn... and wheat... and there are people tending livestock and mending fences... and other people are putting crops into bushel baskets and barrel-sized bins... and if by cosmic cataclysm or man's thunderous treachery... the city were to disappear one day... with every urban artist and architect eliminated from the hearth of man... the loss would be as hard and soft as time... the city would grow again... as the strength of the land brought forth in its abundance... a place to center its energy and reserves... but if... instead... the land were to dry... or the hands that purposefully partner with the land were to turn idle... until crops were allowed to fail... and orchards stood barren... and livestock wandered down the road un-tended... then the city would memorize the tasts of suffering... and it would perish surely to its roots and die.
Never forget that real wealth is honest labor... done by working women and men... in the clamorous factories and under the bright sun... and all the big offices, and the limousines, and the shopping centers... well that's just the splendid surplus... and its about time they knew it.