******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
Despite its reputation for small-scale agriculture and green hills, Vermont was one of the largest recipients of Defense Department weapons contracts in the early ’80s, thanks to the production of Gatling guns at the General Electric plant in Burlington.
That summer, a group of peace activists met with Sanders to tell him about their plan to block the gate to Burlington’s General Electric factory. Sanders was upset with them, Guma says in his book, The People’s Republic: Vermont and the Sanders Revolution, for “blaming the workers” and not focusing their attention on the federal centers of strategic thinking on U.S. foreign policy. Sanders accused the activists of pointing “the finger of guilt at working people,” according to the Burlington Free Press. He reportedly came around to opposing the sit-in after meeting with the workers’ union leaders. “Not everyone has the luxury of choosing where they are going to work,” he told the Press. His position flew in the face of increased local activism around war and peace issues, especially in Vermont, where 159 out of 180 towns had passed nuclear freeze resolutions.
Sanders was unmoved by the activists’ arguments and said he would “have no choice but to order their arrest,” according to Guma’s account. Soon after the protest began the morning of June 20, dozens of activists were arrested as, Guma says, “the mayor watched from the side of the road.”
full: https://newrepublic.com/article/154086/bernies-red-vermont _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
