[Marxism] Privacy Protection / Some Grassroots Stuff
-
[known to the tourists as the "snake dance"], the only day when outsiders can
attend. At its conclusion, the snakes [ mostly fanged rattlers] are released to
the four directions to carry the request for rain to the appropriate deities.
And, always, the rain comes down very, very soon indeed. Often within the
hour.
Inevitably. Just as inevitably as the Hopis quite rightly confiscate the
cameras.
And just as inevitably as some of us -- like the black-clothed man of yore --
fight for our privacy.
And should fight for that of all others.
Yours, Hunter [Hunter Bear]
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org
(much social justice material)
See the new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new substantial
introduction by me. This book is a full, very detailed
discussion of the rise and development of the Jackson
Movement of 1962-63 -- external life and internal dynamics.
And this book is also an organizer's how-to manual.
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
("Militant and Radical Organizer": -- and also "Fifty Years:
Remembering Medgar Evers")
http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Many photos.)
Our very large page on Community Organizing:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] A truly subversive subscription for me
==
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==
As a general rule, a fair amount of that which the Federal government and some
others in this country might see as "subversive" would not be viewed as such by
most (if not all) on our discussion lists.
But some way, I have been given a sub to a subversive publication. It's a
slick, physically very attractive and substantive (88 pages) bi-monthly
magazine, and retails at five bucks an issue. Name is EXECUTIVE TRAVEL and it
appears to be aimed mostly at middle-management corporate business types
focused, of course, on upward mobility. And while it advertises some very
attractive and quite expensive items, ranging from watches to hotels, it also
contains, I must admit, some very interesting articles. (However they must be
read with care and caution.)
One is "New Ways To Close A Deal". Another is "How To Negotiate Today /
Neuroscience meets negotiation." And there are other intriguing pieces.
How in Hell did this come to us? Eldri and I surmised it might have something
to do with our American Express Card which we've had since 1969. A little
Google research points somewhat in that direction but I am still not sure.
It does have a Lincoln, Nebraska connection. But I can't see youngest son,
Peter Gray Salter, playing this kind of expensive joke. I wouldn't.
As I told son-in-law Cameron when I showed him the thing, "I haven't lived long
enough to make much money but I do have this to hold in my hand." Said the
same thing to oldest son, John (Beba) via phone. Each laughed and I grinned.
In reality, I had two opportunities to enter the corporate world of business
via attractive arrangements. I obviously chose to go in another direction
entirely -- and to continue in that fashion.
And no regrets on that at all. We like the trail we've taken, a trail on which
we obviously still travel and always will.
Still, I think I'll keep the magazine -- at least this issue. It can reside on
the same shelf which holds T.V.'s classic Theory of the Leisure Class, always
an enduring favorite of mine.
Yours for provocative education,
Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org
(much social justice material)
See the new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new substantial
introduction by me. This book is a full, very detailed
discussion of the rise and development of the Jackson
Movement of 1962-63 -- external life and internal dynamics.
And this book is also an organizer's how-to manual.
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
("Militant and Radical Organizer": -- and also "Fifty Years:
Remembering Medgar Evers")
http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Many photos.)
Our very large page on Community Organizing:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] PUBLICLY REVEALED: FEDERAL SURVEILLANCE OF MUCH/MUCH POSTAL MAIL
d mail covers from the
Postal Service to track her mail. The judge called the investigation into Ms.
Wilcox politically motivated because she had been a frequent critic of Mr.
Arpaio's, objecting to what she considered the targeting of Hispanics in his
immigration sweeps. The case is being appealed.
In the mid-1970s the Church Committee, a Senate panel that documented C.I.A.
abuses, faulted a program created in the 1950s in New York that used mail
covers to trace and sometimes open mail going to the Soviet Union from the
United States.
A suit brought in 1973 by a high school student in New Jersey, whose letter to
the Socialist Workers Party was traced by the F.B.I. as part of an
investigation into the group, led to a rebuke from a federal judge.
Postal officials refused to discuss either mail covers or the Mail Isolation
Control and Tracking program.
Mr. Pickering says he suspects that the F.B.I. requested the mail cover to
monitor his mail because a former associate said the bureau had called with
questions about him. Last month, he filed a lawsuit against the Postal Service,
the F.B.I. and other agencies, saying they were improperly withholding
information.
A spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in Buffalo declined to comment.
Mr. Pickering said that although he was arrested two dozen times for acts of
civil disobedience and convicted of a handful of misdemeanors, he was never
involved in the arson attacks the Earth Liberation Front carried out. He said
he became tired of focusing only on environmental activism and moved back to
Buffalo to finish college, open his bookstore, Burning Books, and start a
family.
"I'm no terrorist," he said. "I'm an activist."
Mr. Pickering has written books sympathetic to the liberation front, but he
said his political views and past association should not make him the target of
a federal investigation. "I'm just a guy who runs a bookstore and has a wife
and a kid," he said.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: July 3, 2013
An earlier version of this article misstated the Justice Department position
once held by Mark Rasch. He started a computer crimes unit in the criminal
division's fraud section, but he was not the head of its computer crimes unit,
which was created after his departure.
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org
(much social justice material)
See the new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new substantial
introduction by me. This book is a full, very detailed
discussion of the rise and development of the Jackson
Movement of 1962-63 -- external life and internal dynamics.
And this book is also an organizer's how-to manual.
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
("Militant and Radical Organizer": -- and also "Fifty Years:
Remembering Medgar Evers")
http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Many photos.)
Our very large page on Community Organizing:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] A little more on Fire Control -- and something on armchair pundits
==
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==
Yesterday came a trenchant note from a very good friend, Susan M. Power who,
with her mother, Susan K. Power, are among our oldest friends. They're
Standing Rock Sioux. "Little" Susan is a writer and "Big" Susan, about ten
years older than I am, is an enduring Native rights activist. "Little" Susan
writes -- and then I have a few comments:
I was so very sad to hear this tragic news yesterday evening and am now upset
with various members of the mainstream media who seem to be pointing a finger
at firefighters, saying that their systems haven't "evolved." What? No talk
about climate change and how the fires are far more catastrophic than they used
to be given more extreme weather conditions of drought, etc...
Thank you for your always eloquent comments!
Much love to you and the family --
Susan
I, too, am very tired of armchair pundits who obviously don't know one damn
thing about the woods, brush country, open ranges -- or fire and fire control.
Human ethnocentrism notwithstanding, forest and brush and range fires are
inevitable. But those of the last generation have often become massive and far
"wilder" than most of their predecessors. Obviously, global warming/climate
change -- with extreme and prolonged heat and drought and increasingly high,
consistent, and wildly fluky winds -- is playing a major role in this string of
hideous disasters which include far more, of course, than just fires. When I
started my fire control career at age 16, I saw and worked on big fires for
those times. In succeeding fire seasons, seen as a fully experienced guy (even
when I was 17), I also, in addition to direct fire control, did fire lookout
and radio work as well -- on 'way up high mountains and in 'way up high
towers. There was some wind up there -- but certainly not the often co
nsistent super strong and erratic winds of today.
Yesterday evening, a newsperson finally asked a veteran Arizona forester about
climate change. "I don't think you'll find anyone around here scoffing at
that," was the response. I said and wrote the same thing a year ago about the
feelings in Idaho.
If the pundits want to fix blame, they'd better muster up some courage on the
global warming situation. Some are, I concede, but they're still a minority.
To blame firefighters and term contemporary fire control methodology as
"archaic" or "non-evolved" as some armchairs have, is pure ungrounded
bull-shooting. Experienced firefighters are tough, committed, courageous --
and they'll always be needed as good ground troops always are -- anywhere.
Planes dropping chemical fire retardants, moderately helpful as that can
sometimes be, are not the first line of defense by any stretch.
In some parts of the Mountain West, human lookouts have been replaced by laser
arrangements. That's true around here but, serious and growing questions about
laser capability, have led to much on going aircraft surveillance by USFS (U.S.
Forest Service) and BLM (U.S. Bureau of Land Management). They're frequently
flying over us right here. Time to replace the laser stuff and go back to
trained human lookouts.
And time to restore the significant fire fighting budget cuts now incurred by
the Forest and Park services and BLM.
Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org
(much social justice material)
See the new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new substantial
introduction by me. This book is a full, very detailed
discussion of the rise and development of the Jackson
Movement of 1962-63 -- external life and internal dynamics.
And this book is also an organizer's how-to manual.
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
("Militant and Radical Organizer": -- and also "Fifty Years:
Remembering Medgar Evers")
http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Many photos.)
Our very large page on Community Organizing:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] HELL FIRES NOW -- HELL FIRES FOREVER?
f lightning strikes. The other day, fire
control people were up here in our far corner for an hour or so scouting the
turf and obviously getting set for possible defensive action. We much
appreciate that kind of sensible and timely forethought. And we all up here
have, of course, our own comparable approaches. (Note: two smaller fires, some
distance from us, did develop from that particular storm. They are now
contained.)
For whatever reasons, I virtually never cry. But that doesn't mean I lack a
very heavy heart. I didn't personally know the 19 martyr firefighters of
yesterday. But I do know who they are and where they come from.
http://hunterbear.org/forest_fires_in_the_west.htm
HUNTER BEAR
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org
(much social justice material)
See the new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new substantial
introduction by me. This book is a full, very detailed
discussion of the rise and development of the Jackson
Movement of 1962-63 -- external life and internal dynamics.
And this book is also an organizer's how-to manual.
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
("Militant and Radical Organizer": -- and also "Fifty Years:
Remembering Medgar Evers")
http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Many photos.)
Our very large page on Community Organizing:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] JUNE 18: THE LAST HOLY DAY IN THE JACKSON MOVEMENT CALENDAR (OR, 50 YEARS OF LIFE I ALMOST DIDN'T GET)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == A few days ago, Eldri and I and our family quietly marked a very personally important anniversary -- the 50th. A couple of days later, very early in the morning, I awoke to find that the right side of my face was completely numb, almost immovable. Everything else was normal. I knew it wasn't a stroke and I attributed it, correctly, to a very old and major injury that I incurred on June 18 1963 at Jackson. That was an extremely close brush with death -- and a companion, riding in my car with me, Rev. Ed King, was likewise almost killed. My car was totaled. After awhile the numbness passed. A day or so later, I found a small piece of bone in my mouth which, upon examination, was completely stained with ancient and faded blood -- blood so ingrained we couldn't scrape it off. It was obviously a remnant from 50 years before. I've put in a very nicely done small Navajo ceramic vase that Maria recently gave me as a gift. (If I ever achieve Sainthood, it might be a valuable "relic." Please -- please --don't take this last comment seriously!) Hunter Bear June 18: The Last Holy Day in the Jackson Movement Calendar [Hunter Gray/John R. Salter, Jr.] UPDATE NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR 6/18/05 "And we ended it then. That's where we ended it. I never again engaged in the luxury of hating those people or trying to relive it." -- H This is a post I made two years ago. The date, as it is now was June 18. And then, as now and as we have for each June 18 since 1963, I mark another year that I've been able to live. I have had, so far, a reasonably adventurous life which has, inevitably, been characterized by a fair number of close brushes with death since I was a Teen. Indeed, shortly after I made the attached post of two years ago, I was struck openly [as many, of course, know] by the most lethal version of SLE Lupus, surviving so far several close calls and a dozen medics and various hospitalizations and about 20 pills per day. "We are just grateful," my good spouse Eldri tells me frequently, "that we have you." Well, it's certainly mutual. And that catches the fact that, 42 years ago, it was, as I put it, "June 18: The Last Holy Day in the Jackson Movement Calendar" -- and a point where I and a friend were well into the Fog that precedes the Spirit World. Yesterday, a long and kind letter arrived from an old friend who Eldri and I had known in the context of an international union and with whom we had, decades ago, lost touch. He had found my Hunterbear website and wrote, " I have been reading your website -- and am continually moved by remembrance and by your amazing accomplishments . . ." Well, that is always good to hear -- and it's certainly good to be back in contact with him -- but he is no slouch himself. For decades he has been involved on behalf of Labor, both out in the field and in academia, with a special focus on worker health and safety. He has kept going, Eldri and I have certainly tried to do so, and so have others. Ed King wrote recently, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland [of our Woolworth Sit-In and much more] called yesterday, and Bruce Hartford of Civil Rights Movement Veterans [ http://www.crmvet.org ] passed along a welcome note from Colia Liddell Lafayette Clark. It is she who, as President of the North Jackson NAACP Youth Council, successfully asked me to become the Advisor of that determined group at the beginning of the Fall term, 1961, at Tougaloo. Colia, of course, fights on, and she wrote Bruce Hartford: "Please have Hunter Bear (John Salter) give me a ring or e-mail at the address below. Tell him that the great great grand children of Ben Grimke are still in battle for the land and the freedom. Please give all John's family my love." A few days ago, we launched our grandson/son, Thomas Gray Salter [half Mississippi Choctaw] and his wife, Mimie [from Zambia] off to Duluth, Minnesota, where Thomas will start Medical School next week with a focus on rural medicine and Indian health. With that move to the North Country successfully accomplished, Eldri and I [and others here] can spend a few minutes thinking about June 18. But we won't brood about it too much. If we had, and especially if we had been trapped by the hatred of our assailants as well as that hatred which, for a time, threatened to envelop me, we would not, with our many friends and colleagues who went successfully through their own tough crucibles, kept moving steadily toward that Better World Over The Mountains Yonder. Late Spring, 2003: About two years ago, the right cheekbone side of my face -- badly smashed eons before in Another Time -- began to hurt significantl
[Marxism] JUNE 18: THE LAST HOLY DAY IN THE JACKSON MOVEMENT CALENDAR (OR, 50 YEARS OF LIFE I ALMOST DIDN'T GET)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == A few days ago, Eldri and I and our family quietly marked a very personally important anniversary -- the 50th. A couple of days later, very early in the morning, I awoke to find that the right side of my face was completely numb, almost immovable. Everything else was normal. I knew it wasn't a stroke and I attributed it, correctly, to a very old and major injury that I incurred on June 18 1963 at Jackson. That was an extremely close brush with death -- and a companion, riding in my car with me, Rev. Ed King, was likewise almost killed. My car was totaled. After awhile the numbness passed. A day or so later, I found a small piece of bone in my mouth which, upon examination, was completely stained with ancient and faded blood -- blood so ingrained we couldn't scrape it off. It was obviously a remnant from 50 years before. I've put in a very nicely done small Navajo ceramic vase that Maria recently gave me as a gift. (If I ever achieve Sainthood, it might be a valuable "relic." Please -- please --don't take this last comment seriously!) Hunter Bear June 18: The Last Holy Day in the Jackson Movement Calendar [Hunter Gray/John R. Salter, Jr.] UPDATE NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR 6/18/05 "And we ended it then. That's where we ended it. I never again engaged in the luxury of hating those people or trying to relive it." -- H This is a post I made two years ago. The date, as it is now was June 18. And then, as now and as we have for each June 18 since 1963, I mark another year that I've been able to live. I have had, so far, a reasonably adventurous life which has, inevitably, been characterized by a fair number of close brushes with death since I was a Teen. Indeed, shortly after I made the attached post of two years ago, I was struck openly [as many, of course, know] by the most lethal version of SLE Lupus, surviving so far several close calls and a dozen medics and various hospitalizations and about 20 pills per day. "We are just grateful," my good spouse Eldri tells me frequently, "that we have you." Well, it's certainly mutual. And that catches the fact that, 42 years ago, it was, as I put it, "June 18: The Last Holy Day in the Jackson Movement Calendar" -- and a point where I and a friend were well into the Fog that precedes the Spirit World. Yesterday, a long and kind letter arrived from an old friend who Eldri and I had known in the context of an international union and with whom we had, decades ago, lost touch. He had found my Hunterbear website and wrote, " I have been reading your website -- and am continually moved by remembrance and by your amazing accomplishments . . ." Well, that is always good to hear -- and it's certainly good to be back in contact with him -- but he is no slouch himself. For decades he has been involved on behalf of Labor, both out in the field and in academia, with a special focus on worker health and safety. He has kept going, Eldri and I have certainly tried to do so, and so have others. Ed King wrote recently, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland [of our Woolworth Sit-In and much more] called yesterday, and Bruce Hartford of Civil Rights Movement Veterans [ http://www.crmvet.org ] passed along a welcome note from Colia Liddell Lafayette Clark. It is she who, as President of the North Jackson NAACP Youth Council, successfully asked me to become the Advisor of that determined group at the beginning of the Fall term, 1961, at Tougaloo. Colia, of course, fights on, and she wrote Bruce Hartford: "Please have Hunter Bear (John Salter) give me a ring or e-mail at the address below. Tell him that the great great grand children of Ben Grimke are still in battle for the land and the freedom. Please give all John's family my love." A few days ago, we launched our grandson/son, Thomas Gray Salter [half Mississippi Choctaw] and his wife, Mimie [from Zambia] off to Duluth, Minnesota, where Thomas will start Medical School next week with a focus on rural medicine and Indian health. With that move to the North Country successfully accomplished, Eldri and I [and others here] can spend a few minutes thinking about June 18. But we won't brood about it too much. If we had, and especially if we had been trapped by the hatred of our assailants as well as that hatred which, for a time, threatened to envelop me, we would not, with our many friends and colleagues who went successfully through their own tough crucibles, kept moving steadily toward that Better World Over The Mountains Yonder. Late Spring, 2003: About two years ago, the right cheekbone side of my face -- badly smashed eons before in Another Time -- began to hurt sign
[Marxism] FOREST FIRES AND FIRE- FIGHTING (WITH PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND OBSERVATION)
==
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==
No special psychic abilities are required to predict yet another horrific
forest / brush fire season in the West -- and in some other settings as well.
Those catastrophes are obviously coming to pass fast and pervasively. Unusual
dryness and high and enduring temperatures, plus extreme winds with wild and
erratic shifts in direction, make up a good part of a great big disaster
formula that may very well exceed even that of last year. On top of that are
significant cuts in fire control budgets for the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Park
Service, and U.S. Bureau of Land Management -- as well as those in many state
and local jurisdictions.
No one I know, including here in Idaho, is scoffing any longer at the reality
of Global Warming / Climate Change.
This page of ours gives a pretty good first-hand feel for the culture of Wild
Fires and Fire-Fighting.
http://hunterbear.org/forest_fires_in_the_west.htm
Hunter (Hunter Bear) in Eastern Idaho
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org
(much social justice material)
For the new and expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial
introduction by me. This is the 50th Anniversary
of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63.
This book is a full, very detailed discussion of the rise and
development of that Movement, including its external life
and internal dynamics. And this book is also an
organizer's how-to manual.
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
("Militant and Radical Organizer": -- and also "Fifty Years:
Remembering Medgar Evers")
http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Many photos.)
Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Brief thoughts on official "propriety"
==
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==
I doubt that many social justice radicals and working activists and genuine --
genuine -- liberals in this country, or even abroad, are at all surprised by
the nature of the scandals now engulfing the Obama administration like a horde
of rapidly proliferating and imperialistic Kudzu vines. The wide scope of some
of these authoritarian affairs may be surprising but, if one looks in
retrospect, it's only what can be expected when The State -- any State under
any flag -- is given carte blanche.
We now hear frequently the official apologists and supporters of these
nefarious policies, with varying degrees of media support, trying desperately
to explain that "everything has been done lawfully."
That conjures up several things in my mind. One of these draws from the
excellent 2001 film, Conspiracy, which depicts the extraordinarily infamous
1942 meeting of Nazi honchos at Wannsee, an "elegant" estate on the outskirts
of Berlin. There, in the context of totally irrational Hitlerism, with SS
General Reinhard Heydrich presiding, assisted by Colonel Adolph Eichmann, the
"Final Solution" to the "Jewish Problem" is calmly created via step by step
pseudo- rationalistic discussion and pseudo-logical policy formulation. All
very "properly handled." (See my mini review of Conspiracy in the second half
of this page: http://hunterbear.org/reminiscence.htm )
And a personal experience comes to mind. On December 12, 1962, my wife, Eldri,
and I and four Black Tougaloo College students of mine, conducted our civil
rights picket demonstration in Mississippi's capital. This was the formal
launch of the downtown Jackson economic boycott. We chose the Woolworth store
as our basic site. It was the coldest day of the year and only a few people
were out and about.
We were arrested very quickly by between 75 and 100 Jackson police. And the
formal charge was "obstructing the sidewalk."
Coincidentally, on that same day, a major FBI official, Cartha "Deke" Deloach,
arrived in Jackson and met with the mayor, Allen C. Thompson. At their news
conference, Deloach congratulated the mayor and the police for having handled
our arrests in a "lawful" fashion via local (Mississippi) law. The media gave
his comments wide coverage -- without, of course, indicating the First
Amendment had been mangled on that cold and relatively empty sidewalk.
(C. Wright Mills covered these kinds of things, "big" and "little," with the
apt term, "Crackpot Realism.")
But the Mississippi newspaper media also carried, without realizing the
implications, a front page photo of our arrests -- with Eldri and her picket
sign at the fore. The sign read, "Negro Shoppers / Don't Buy on Capitol
Street." Couldn't ask for better publicity -- but then we got even more.
The mayor, in a news conference the next day, blasted the now fast developing
boycott as a "conspiracy to restrain trade" and threatened to sue us all for "a
million dollars." That was given very wide and conspicuous coverage in all
Magnolia media.
And the boycott was off and running, very effectively. Within a few months it
had moved into very large-scale nonviolent direct action -- the historic
Jackson Movement. Repression was very bloody.
Federal agents "observed" but didn't comment.
Hunter (Hunter Bear)
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org
(much social justice material)
For the new and expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial
introduction by me. This is the 50th Anniversary
of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63.
This book is a full, very detailed discussion of the rise and
development of that Movement, including its external life
and internal dynamics. And this book is also an
organizer's how-to manual.
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
("Militant and Radical Organizer": -- and also "Fifty Years:
Remembering Medgar Evers")
http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Many photos.)
Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] NATIVE BONES, NATIVE BODIES, "WESTERN SCIENCE"
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == PRELIMINARY NOTE TO INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY ARTICLE (HUNTER GRAY/HUNTER BEAR): In the Native burial situation, the Native view -- always in an explicitly religious context -- is virtually universal: Native remains are extremely important -- are sacrosanct, must be handled with the greatest respect, and must be properly interred or otherwise properly placed. [From Fall 1973 through Fall 1976, I was a professor in the Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Iowa, Iowa City -- and also much involved in Native matters in the region. The protection of Native burials [ an issue throughout Indian country] was an especially burning, very volatile situation in Iowa when I arrived. This was in part due to the offensive practices of the old State Archaeologist [based at the University] whose polarizing impact, vis-a-vis the Native tribes and communities, was of such notoriety that he was singled out for special [and quite justified attack] by the Sioux writer, Vine Deloria, Jr. in his book, Custer Died For Your Sins. The old official was finally pushed into retirement about the time I joined the UI faculty.] In this extremely acrimonious Iowa situation in the early and mid-1970s, we were very fortunate that the new State Archaeologist [who replaced the utterly reactionary dinosaur] was explicitly committed to working with the Native tribes and communities in the state. His Indian Advisory Committee -- myself [Iroquois/Abenaki], Maria Thompson Pearson [Santee], and Don Wanatee [Mesquakie] -- spent a vast amount of time visiting and consulting Native tribes and communities [and very much the elders] not only within Iowa, but in the regions adjacent to Iowa . The resultant legislation, strong and with teeth, has a variety of protections for Native burials -- and, for certain situations in which the specific tribe cannot be identified, set up a closed, state cemetery with appropriate and on-going Native involvement. The Iowa Assembly [legislature] and the governor were constructively responsive. The precedent-setting resolution of this issue in Iowa -- which had been a sometimes violent storm center of Native burial controversy -- provided example and guidelines for other states and played a role in shaping the Federal protective legislation which emerged in 1989 and 1990. In the United States, by the late 1980s, it was clear that over 600,000 Native skeletal remains were in the hands of non-Indian institutions. Quite rightly indeed, the issue boiled. Congress passed, in 1989, the National Museum of the American Indian Act which mandated that the Smithsonian -- which held about 20,000 Native skeletal remains -- set up a special Native American unit within the Museum and, very importantly, began in a variety of ways, the return of the Native remains to their respective tribes. This was followed in 1990 by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act which essentially requires that any Native remains held in the Federal context -- i.e., Federal agencies or any agency receiving Federal funds --will be returned to the respective Native tribe. Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear] Bodies and Bones: What Is Science For? Peter d'Errico June 01, 2013 Berlin's Museum of Medical History has entered the controversy about exhibition and repatriation of human remains. As The New York Times reports, the curators are "re-evaluating the principles that govern their displays as they confront a growing debate over what cultural organizations should be doing to preserve the dignity of the dead." Museums around the world have been grappling with consciences and protests about this for several years. Indigenous peoples bodies in particular have been the object of scientific collection and study, sometimes while they are alive-witness Ishi in the University of California: he was a research subject and assistant at the same time. A truly bizarre chapter of science and bodies was discussed in a letter from Clark Mills, a 19th century American sculptor, in the Times, on May 22, 1882. Mills referred to the then-current debate about whether Indians could be "civilized or Christianized" after they were adults, or only while they were children, at the Hampton Institute. An Indian boarding school/concentration camp of the worst kind. Mills' first attempt to answer the question involved comparing casts of heads of "wild" Indians imprisoned in Fort Marion, Florida, under Captain R.H. Pratt, with casts of heads from "New York Indians, who had been civilized for a hundred years." He made a subsequent effort with casts of "wild Indian children" brought to Hampton
[Marxism] Personal med notes -- and very brief reflections
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR MAY 9 2013 My annual medical ritual has now come and gone -- and all remains just fine. No active Lupus and everything else quite OK. Five vials of blood were taken from me several days ago -- and the doc's wrap-up words to Eldri and myself yesterday were "Enjoy life." To me, he was then a little more specific: "Exercise (and that, as per the owls' visit, is in the works) and drink more water (I had told him I drank more coffee these days) and come back in a year." The background of this now ten year experience with relatively rare and frequently lethal "full blown" Systemic Lupus, which hit almost every part of me, but did spare my brain, is too well known to most readers to reiterate in any detail. But it is worth mentioning that, at the outset in 2003, almost all medics saw little or no survival hope for me. The physician who assumed my situation in the middle of that early most dismal period -- a devout young Mormon -- joined me in my commitment not to pass into the spirit world any time soon -- and, while committed to "western medicine", he also joined me in recognizing the great importance of appropriate diet, the extremely positive influence of family and friends, and the assistance of various forces best summed up here as "things unseen." In 2009, I posted that the Lupus was -- quite unexpectedly -- ebbing. In 2010, it was, for all practical purposes, gone -- but I did not post that tentative observation or make any report that year. In 2011, we could definitely report "no active Lupus", could reiterate that in 2012, and can state it now. This turn of events, given the great severity of my case, has surprised almost everyone. Several things are worth a brief mention: I refused all chemo drugs at every point -- and this has turned out to be a wise decision. Increasing, however slowly, is a build-up of data indicating some SLE cases where chemo meds are involved, have produced Lymphoma. The new and initially much heralded Lupus med -- Benlysta -- has turned out to be disappointing. In addition to its astronomical cost, it is far from universally effective and generates many negative side effects. So there remains no cure for Lupus and, given its genetic base, there may never be one. The Lupus Cause desperately needs much more research monies. Given its predatory preference for men and women who are Native American, African American, Chicano and in certain other "minority groups" -- and for women in general -- it can certainly be seen as a bona fide civil rights issue. In the very early period, one of the dozen docs then involved, asked me if I drank alcohol or smoked. I could say piously that I didn't do either. With a straight face, he then asked, "Just what do you do for fun?" Then he grinned. That was refreshing. I did, of course, return to tobacco smoking via pipe a couple of years after that, but my abstention from any alcohol -- that very long standing indeed -- continues. We have our own large and extended family. All great folks -- but, of course, there are always very conventional and mundane domestic challenges. Early in the dismal period, now almost a decade ago, Eldri looked at me earnestly and said, "Please, please don't go away and leave me with this." Now that for sure was a powerfully good, and very sincere, card to play. I continue to give any assistance I can to other SLE victims scattered about the country. Now on to another potentially very bad forest/brush fire season all around us. There is absolutely no need for anyone to acknowledge this message. I underscore this. Your continuing good thoughts, always important, are quite sufficient -- and very much appreciated. Solidarity/Keep Fighting, Hunter (Hunter Bear) HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (social justice) See the new expanded/updated edition of my "ORGANIZER'S BOOK." It's the inside story of the rise of the massive Jackson Movement -- careful grassroots organizing, bloody repression, sell-out and more. It also covers other organizing campaigns of mine through the decades since Mississippi. It's replete with grass-roots organizing examples and "lessons." And it has my new 10,000 word introduction. Among a myriad of positive comments and reviews: ". . .a local activist's important account of the deleterious effects the involvement of national organizations can have on indigenous protest movements." (Historian David Garrow.) http:
[Marxism] The Owls Speak To Us (three related posts)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == THE OWLS SPEAK TO US May 6 2013 (Hunter Bear) A photo of my father's oil portrait of Nadine is attached. I slept late this morning -- arising at about 4 a.m. Cold water, coffee, pipe and smoking tobacco. Nothing unusual. And then I began to hear Them talking right close to our home -- obviously more than one. Owls -- and they kept it up for almost half an hour. This is very unusual. Owls only rarely come down from the higher rough country that rises immediately above us. Maria, oldest daughter, who arose a little later and took our now one dog out for a few minutes into the pitch-dark, heard them also -- very, very up-close. They were talking to us. But why and what? In some tribes, and I've discussed this before, there is the belief that, when an owl calls your name, it is a signal of your impending passage into the Spirit World. But that is not the case with our Native cultures. We always see the owls as simply very good and learned friends, no more and no less. There are other living entities to which we do attribute very positive supernatural characteristics -- bears and wild felines, for example. So what did these verbose visitors have on their minds? It took me more coffee and pipe-smoking to figure it out. They're saying that it's high time for me to return to the regimen that I faithfully followed for several years before Lupus struck full blast, now almost a decade ago: a daily five mile hike up into the high hills, some of them actually smaller mountains. Initially, I did this day-time, but then switched into the pre-dawn period. And then I used to encounter all sorts of wild entities -- all of them friendly -- and that included owls, one of whom, very large, always waited faithfully for me each very early morn. Never carried a firearm on any of these junkets. All of that ended with the Lupus. But that Horror is now gone -- though it's taken awhile for me to recuperate on several fronts. Quite recently, however, there has been very marked improvement in my leg strength and their resiliency. They were OK in the early post-Lupus period but now they're virtually back to normal. Interestingly, this particular rejuvenation has been accompanied by vivid dreams in which I'm walking just as always in various locations. The Owls are telling me, "Time to start coming again 'way up into our High Country, Hunter Bear." And I think their firm mandate includes Maria as well. Now that's pressure -- real pressure. We'll comply. Here is a relevant post, written not long before the Lupus War: IN THE DARK WILDS WE HAVE MANY FRIENDS By Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear) 2003 It was completely new -- just a few early mornings ago. I jerked to a sharp, abrupt stop on the rough downward trail. I had never heard anything like that in the wilds before. It boomed out in the pre-dawn darkness from a ridge across the valley -- a half mile or so ahead of us -- a howl, deep and heavy and eerie, rising far up and above the very high, steep mountain slopes. The primeval cry flowed in over the dark green junipers and the brown sage and the thick red maples in the canyons. The Great Howl had been preceded by coyote yelps and cries at some distance from it -- and it was followed by a few more of those. But I know coyotes well, have all my life, and had one as my close companion in my native Arizona for two years until he left home and got married on the Apache National Forest. This wasn't Them. Hunter, my faithful Shelty, tensed tightly, peering intently ahead. He's always extremely interested in wild canines but, living with four house cats and my half-bobcat, pays only polite, cursory attention to bobcats and mountain lions. This was a wolf. I had heard they were coming back. For years, now, I've been walking each day for several miles and a few hours in the 'way up steep and rough country that begins almost at our back door. That's all public land -- Bureau of Land Management [BLM] and Caribou National Forest. And more recently -- all winter long -- I've been doing it in the predawn darkness Cold winds, high winds, snow, ice and even mud don't deter me. I don't need much sleep and I do see very well in the dark. But there is considerably more to all of this. Ever since we returned to the Mountain West -- coming here in '97 to Southeastern Idaho and living right on the far up western "frontier" of Pocatello -- we've encountered various kinds of hostility from so-called "lawmen" and racists. Almost all of our neighbors -- of many ethnicities -- are just fine. But last fall, when I was doing my trek in the daytime,
[Marxism] Cynical Thoughts On A Pleasant Rainy Morning In Idaho
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == An interesting and revealing week for sure. The national Democratic Party has yet again emerged -- not as the party of Labor rights, or even civil rights, and certainly not of civil liberties -- but very much of Gun Control. Two young psychotics and their nefarious works succeeded in monopolizing American media for days. Gone from national attention is the hideous and accidental destruction of most of West, Texas. And does the rest of Earth even exist anymore? The actions of the two -- and the flight of the 19 year old survivor -- succeeded in almost totally shutting down one of the major cities of the world. A big bottom line this morn on CNN: "Boston Refused to be Intimidated." All of this trumps even Charles Starkweather -- if anyone remembers him -- and his bloody rampage of 1958 in Nebraska. And Baron Castin (or Castine) and the fine and good old Abenakis (who would have burned Boston a little more than 300 years ago if France hadn't lost its nerve), please do take note. Lots in all of this for our behavioral science colleagues. Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (social justice) See the new expanded/updated edition of my "ORGANIZER'S BOOK." It's the inside story of the rise of the massive Jackson Movement -- careful grassroots organizing, bloody repression, sell-out and more. It also covers other organizing campaigns of mine through the decades since Mississippi. It's replete with grass-roots organizing examples and "lessons." And it has my new 10,000 word introduction. Among a myriad of positive comments and reviews: ". . .a local activist's important account of the deleterious effects the involvement of national organizations can have on indigenous protest movements." (Historian David Garrow.) http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm See the related: http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The Gun Vote of Yesterday
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Note by Hunter Bear: Of course, I'm quite pleased with the rejection of gun control yesterday in the Senate -- and so are a vast number of others concerned with the preservation of civil liberty. I've said quite a number of times in the past few years that the "gun issue" should be left completely alone. I have a few thoughts and observations. The ostensibly "liberal" pundits -- and I don't see them as bona fide liberals -- who reported this gun rights victory struck me as about as objective in their reporting as Holiness preachers who've just seen their flocks partying and dancing in saloons on Saturday night. The Obama et al. news conference that followed the Senate votes was hardly gracious. And it brought to mind something of almost half a century ago on a street in Raleigh, North Carolina following Goldwater's massive defeat in early November 1964. I was, of course, in the Northeastern North Carolina Blackbelt on that election day, based at our headquarters at Klan-ridden Enfield where our phone was ringing continuously. And, to some extent, I was also out in the county. Our successful private voting case in Federal Court the previous May had resulted in several thousand Blacks and some Indians registering and voting for the first time since Reconstruction in Halifax County and the positive ramifications had spread widely in that general region into which we were soon to move our organizing operations. Eldri and I had already voted absentee. The results of that election in, I stayed around for hours, in case there was a racist backlash, before making a fast predawn trip to Raleigh to get Eldri, with Maria and pregnant with John, to the grocery store and to get some cash for the family from the bank before returning to the battle front. The United Klans had scheduled a post-election rally to be held a few nights hence in a timber-surrounded field about a mile from Enfield. We had already pressured the very resistant Governor into providing state highway patrol protection for the Black community before, during, and after that forthcoming affair -- and we had done so by threatening to openly use, if necessary, our Second Amendment rights. (As it turned out, most of us kept firearms handy in any case but, essentially, just out of sight,) Groceries gotten, I headed for the branch bank. As I walked down the street toward it, I saw an older Anglo man walking toward me. His face looked like he'd smiled once a couple of generations back. Suddenly, three older white teen boys rushed across the street to him. One shouted at the man, "Mr , Mr ___, "What happened?!" With a face now darker than the hinges of Hell, he snarled one word: "N__ers." Yes, indeed, African Americans did play a significant role in the 1964 election. But so did a truly vast number of other people. The NRA and other gun rights groups did indeed play a most positive and effective role in yesterday's victory. But so did a truly vast number of other gun rights people committed to civil liberty. Hunter (Hunter Bear) HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (social justice) See the new expanded/updated edition of my "ORGANIZER'S BOOK." It's the inside story of the rise of the massive Jackson Movement -- careful grassroots organizing, bloody repression, sell-out and more. It also covers other organizing campaigns of mine through the decades since Mississippi. It's replete with grass-roots organizing examples and "lessons." And it has my new 10,000 word introduction. Among a myriad of positive comments and reviews: ". . .a local activist's important account of the deleterious effects the involvement of national organizations can have on indigenous protest movements." (Historian David Garrow.) http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm See the related: http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Weather notes -- and serious stuff
mi. There've been other instances where I've risked for good causes. And sometimes I've gotten the last motel in a town. But we basically follow the example my Native father consistently set and expressed when I was little and we traveled much, often in isolated and rural snow country. "If your inner feelings tell you to stop and wait it out, do just that. Don't fight it unless you absolutely have to." And, yes, I do see climate change/global warming playing a key role in many of these recent and contemporary Extremes. H. HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (social justice) See the new expanded/updated edition of my "ORGANIZER'S BOOK." It's the inside story of the rise of the massive Jackson Movement -- careful grassroots organizing, bloody repression, sell-out and more. It also covers other organizing campaigns of mine through the decades since Mississippi. It's replete with grass-roots organizing examples and "lessons." And it has my new 10,000 word introduction. Among a myriad of positive comments and reviews: ". . .a local activist's important account of the deleterious effects the involvement of national organizations can have on indigenous protest movements." (Historian David Garrow.) http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm See the related: http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] THE LABOR CLASS AT TOUGALOO (1962-63 era) -- ACTIVIST TRAINING FOR ACTION
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == THE LABOR CLASS AT TOUGALOO: FALL TERM 1962 [HUNTER BEAR] I do continue to hold, as I wrote earlier, that " . . .the primary weapon of a worker is the withdrawal of labor." From strikes can come -- and often do --a wide variety of tactically nonviolent supportive strategies. "In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoard of gold. . ." ["Solidarity Forever", of course.] Any effective organizer has to be -- to put it bluntly -- something of a propagandist. In every course I've ever taught, I've always been able, some way and some how, to work in two of the several "pet themes" of mine: American Indians and the Labor Movement. I even did that in my one academic year of high school teaching back in the days of dinosaurs. [I have to add that to this day I am always sadly surprised at the dearth of knowledge about those matters with students from non-Indian and non-union family backgrounds.] In late August, 1962, with my second year of teaching at Tougaloo College -- just a few miles north of Jackson -- coming up, and following a few weeks of reflective thinking back home in Northern Arizona, it seemed to me that an effective approach in Jackson, heart of the Missississippi version of police state, would be a widespread economic boycott of the downtown merchants [all of whom were white]. I was the advisor to the slowly growing Jackson NAACP Youth Council which was mostly centered in the city itself. But at Tougaloo College, which in the spring of 1961, had produced a visit by several of its students to the all-white library in town [they were quickly arrested] and which had hosted the Freedom Riders later that summer when they returned to Jackson for court appearances, and which often featured very appropriate speaker/visitors [including Martin King], there was clearly very substantial activist potential. In addition to typing out on mimeograph paper [on a very hot August afternoon] the first of what became the regularly issued "North Jackson Action," I scheduled a course on the Labor Movement. I was well known on the college's small campus and the class drew around 35 students, almost all of them activist oriented. And, as I always had, I made my activist pitch in my other classes. But the Labor Class at Tougaloo was something very well timed -- and special. The basic framework was a history of the American labor movement with emphasis, of course, on its high points of activism -- lots on the Western metal miners [including take-overs of the mines at Cripple Creek], a great deal on the IWW [including its early sit-ins in New York state, the "free speech" fights to win the right to organize in places like Spokane], rise of the CIO [including the San Francisco General Strike] -- into the then current times. We examined picketing and mass march and related approaches. I contacted a good number of international unions which quickly obliged my request for bundles of labor newspapers. At every point, we discussed the applicability of union labor strategies to the situation we faced in the very economic and political heart of the Magnolia State. We used a number of labor films. To convey a sense of the oft-need for enduring, long term "oak wood" durability and effectiveness [as well as innovative strike support tactics], we had the great film, Salt of the Earth -- as always sent obligingly and quickly by always "with it" Juan Chacon, president of the large Mine-Mill district union in southwestern New Mexico and male lead in the movie. [We also showed Salt and other labor films in Jackson itself.] In October, the Jackson Youth Council began planning the economic boycott of Jackson. Members of the Labor Class, as well as other Tougaloo students, began to mobilize fellow students who joined the effort. The boycott of the white Jackson merchants began on December 12, 1962 -- and our slogans, "Put your money on strike" along with "WWW" ["We Will Win"] were written and printed, spoken, and shouted at least a million times. The boycott was extremely effective. Five months after its inception, on May 12, 1963, we threw down the gauntlet to the entire Mississippi political and economic power structure -- and the large scale nonviolent [but bloodily resisted by the Adversary] Jackson Movement took off. Widely supported by the Black community in Jackson and surrounding rural counties, it shook Jackson to its very foundations and its wide ranging ramifications were considerable and extremely positive to the very Four Directions. See: http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm (three consec
[Marxism] TWO POSTS: SCOUNDREL TIME AS CORPORATE LIBERALISM / A BRIEF ORGANIZER'S NOTE
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==
TWO POSTS (HUNTER BEAR)
>From Redbadbear:
Sam Friedman levied a sharp critique of corporate liberalism a day or so ago,
commenting that I (Hunter) knew much about its negative impact in and on the
Southern Movement. He's right -- I do. The National NAACP and the Kennedy
administration did their best to subvert our large and militant Jackson
Movement almost 50 years ago -- and did a great deal of damage. I've recently
passed around a couple of my long and pointed missives regarding present events
in Jackson where 50th Anniversary efforts are underway, in the name of the
Jackson Movement, to whitewash that, along with some of the cruel realities of
Old Mississippi (and probably some of the present ones) -- and present the
National NAACP and the Kennedys as Sterling Knights of the Light.
I'm not known for crudity -- but, B.S. And I could cite many other sorry Dixie
instances involving various versions of corporate liberalism and self-serving
high level "pragmatism" during that sanguinary era.
And I can cite other instances in other times and places.
My correspondence on all of this has picked up considerably and that's why I've
enlarged my signature link regarding my book, Jackson Mississippi. (Here is
that, in case you don't scroll down.)
See the new and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's
Book." It's the inside story of the massive Jackson Movement,
bloody repression and murder, and more -- including a myriad
of organizing "lessons." And with my new and 10,000 word
Introduction. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm (". .a local activist's
important account of the deleterious effects the involvement of
national organizations can have on indigenous protest movements."
David Garrow in "The Age of the Unheralded", Progressive Magazine,
April 1990.
And that's why I've occasionally quoted the concluding line of a speech I gave
at Jackson in 1979 -- condemning
"the subversion by the corporate liberals of New York and the self-styled
"pragmatism" of those splendid scoundrels residing in Camelot on the Potomac."
That drew a thundering and standing ovation from about one thousand people.
Sam's right on all of this stuff. And so am I -- and so are many others. And,
when Sam finished an earlier edition of my book a few years ago, he wrote a
very solid review on just this of which we're writing. Posted that on Amazon
where it certainly remains.
Much changes as years and decades pass. But Scoundrel Times, whatever the
masks of the period, always continue -- with the basic thrust, however openly
or covertly, of keeping the people in their "place". And, of course, that
means Down.
Hunter Bear
It's critical for an organizational thrust or a more transcendent Movement to
always -- always -- continue moving ahead toward its goals/objectives.
Sometimes this has to be done speedily and sometimes it's a matter of
"deliberate dispatch." It should never be done recklessly. And, occasionally,
a momentary pause for reconnoitering purposes is necessary.
But the ethos and its tangible dimensions must be full ahead. And, in doing
so, there are always plenty of dangers levied by the adversary: some are
"legal", some are physical, often the two occur together.
If an organizational thrust or Movement loses the initiative or at least much
of it, matters become vastly more dangerous to the organizers and the people
with and for whom they're working. Retaliatory legal and physical attacks can
be legion. While there are many examples of this, the massive and militant
Jackson Movement situation in 1963, undercut by the National NAACP with the
Kennedy administration in the shadows, is tragically classic in the most
dramatic sense from both legal and physical perspectives.
I am sure others on our lists can cite comparable examples.
Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org
(much social justice material)
See the new and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's
Book." It's the inside story of the massive Jackson Movement,
bloody repression and murder, and more -- including a myriad
of organizing "lessons." And with my new and 10,000 word
Introduction. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm (". .a local activist's
important account of the deleterious effects the involvement of
national organizations can have on indigenous protest movements."
David Garrow in "The Age of the Unheralded", Progress
[Marxism] FIELD REPORT -- AND AN IMPORTANT REQUEST FROM ME
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Posted widely. I have always believed in hitting issues openly. I posted the following piece, On Being A Militant And Radical Organizer -- And An Effective One, almost four months ago. It's increasingly obvious that, at the events commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the great Jackson Movement, I will be "the man who isn't there." No meaningful invitation focused on that Movement and its full sweep has come to me from any quarter in that Jackson setting. No surprise. The sentiments expressed by me in my aforementioned Organizer piece continue to stand in total -- and very strongly so. But my book, Jackson Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Struggle and Schism, can and will represent me very well indeed at Jackson and elsewhere. We have picked up indications of a surreptitious and defamatory "whispering campaign" in certain Jackson, Mississippi circles directed against me personally -- including even some hostile radical-baiting! Well, I was a member for some years of the old-time Industrial Workers of the World (IWW Wobblies) -- and I'm a life long supporter of militant industrial unionism, and left democratic socialism with libertarian trimmings. Usually non-violent in the tactical sense, the IWW was once described in semi-jocular/semi-serious fashion as a "cross between Henry David Thoreau and Wyatt Earp." In any event, there's never been any secret about any social justice doings of mine. In addition, my book, Jackson Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Struggle and Schism, (now newly out via the University Press of Nebraska, and with a very substantive -- 10,000 word -- new introduction by me), has been the target of the same hostile whispering campaign. Its quite sound quality is attested by many very positive reviews from its earlier incarnations, among them, the Journal of Mississippi History, Social Forces, The Journal of Southern History, UMOJA -- A Scholarly Journal of Black Studies, Socialist Monthly Changes, Monthly Review Press, Social Development Issues, Sojourners. You can see these and others via our website book link -- http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm -- and some via University of Nebraska Press http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Jackson-Mississippi,674910.aspx There are other solid reviews of JM at Amazon. It's a 272 page paperback, and it won't cost you an arm and a leg. I pull no punches. There's no pussy-footing. My book provides a very candid, detailed and insider's view of the rise and development of the Jackson Boycott Movement/Jackson Movement of 1962-63 at every step -- AND what very sadly and tragically happened to it. One reviewer referred very favorably to my "demythologizing impulse." You won't find my book at the Lemuria Bookstore in Jackson. But Square Books at Oxford does carry it. If so inclined, you can help immensely by forwarding this entire message widely indeed -- to the very Four Directions. And I am quite certain that any purchaser of my book will find it and its lessons aplenty extremely interesting and most worthwhile. ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (HUNTER GRAY/JOHN OR. SALTER, JR. (NOVEMBER 25, 2012) If you're a militant and radical organizer -- and an effective one who is strong on both tangible grassroots gains and a worthy long range vision of a better world over the mountains yonder -- you do your thing and move on to the next social justice crucible. As you go along, you are remembered fondly and well for a good while by the people for and with whom you've earlier worked. The power structure, of course, will "never forgive and never forget". But, as time passes and those grassroots people and friends fade from the scene, and if -- if -- you continue as a militant and radical activist, you aren't going to be broadly welcome in your earlier battlefields by very many of the newly arrived contemporary people. This is certainly true if you're an independent rebel. And all of this is especially true if you're an "outside agitator" who came from afar. Quite often, in contrast to the openly repressive and brutal and blatantly defamatory Old Guard of yore, contemporary enemies in the old combat fields tend to be covert and surreptitious, frequently hypocritical, and of notably limited courage. If you morph, as time passes, into a kind of respectable and non-challenging brand of "liberal," well -- you might be brought back to various old battlefields to talk superficially about the old days of struggle. A conventional academic who writes about the old civil rights wars and, as many acad
[Marxism] Medina, North Dakota Tragedy (1983) -- Posse Comitatus, Causes, Ramifications
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: We were in North Dakota when the 1983 shootout at Medina occurred. It was a major happening in state and region and briefly caught the eye of the U.S. as a whole. There were several books about it and at least one film. The visible villain in the situation was the very unsavory Posse Comitatus, a far right militia group whose perspectives included strident and sweeping anti-governmental posturing and, in some cases, racism. It was rightly condemned in mainline accounts. But with virtually no exceptions, those respectable accounts ignored a basic root factoring into the rise and spread of the Posse situation and related groups in the Northern Plains: massive loss of land by small farmers and small ranchers unable to meet their taxes and other expenses. Government related auctions were common in those days. In 1989, when I was honored with the state's annual Martin Luther King award, I spoke at the Bismarck ceremony on both the historical dimensions of the civil rights movement -- but also much on contemporary human rights situations and struggles in North Dakota. I was preceded by Governor George Sinner (D) who, among other things, spoke eloquently on the foregoing massive land losses. Much of all of this continues, however quietly -- still largely ignored by the respectables. Hunter Gray (Hunter Bear) Thirty years after Medina, ND, shooting some still worry about 'patriot groups' via Grand Forks Herald February 10 2013 Thirty years after U.S. Marshal Ken Muir and Deputy Marshal Bob Cheshire were shot to death by Gordon Kahl, experts on so-called "patriot groups" - those with extreme anti-government beliefs - are more concerned than ever about their growth. By: Emily Welker, Forum News Service PERHAM, Minn. - Wayne Sorem hadn't read much about Gordon Kahl until recently. And despite holding some views that mirror those of Kahl - a tax dodger who killed two federal agents in a shootout in Medina, N.D., on Feb. 13, 1983 - Sorem is taken aback by the story of one of the region's most infamous crimes. "I'm at peace," said the 57-year-old Perham man. "I don't war with anybody. The ones that are warring are the police. You get pulled over, they're not cordial." Those who study anti-government groups are worried about the prospect of a different kind of war. Thirty years after U.S. Marshal Ken Muir and Deputy Marshal Bob Cheshire were shot to death by Kahl, experts on so-called "patriot groups" - those with extreme anti-government beliefs - are more concerned than ever about their growth, hoping the combination of a weak economy, apocalyptic views and a renewed gun control debate is not a tinder box about to ignite. "Right now we are at an extremely worrying moment," said Mark Potok, a senior fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate and patriot groups in the United States. "It feels like the run-up to the Oklahoma City bombing." Numbers on the rise Statistics from the Southern Poverty Law Center - an Alabama-based civil rights nonprofit that tracks extremist organization - suggest the interest in such patriot groups is taking off in the U.S. In 1996, at their formerly highest point, there were 858, Potok said. For a dozen years, there was a decline down to a low of 149 groups in 2008. In 2009, with the recession taking hold and President Barack Obama entering into office - the number of groups identified by the SPLC went up to 512. They've grown steadily each year since then, with a record high of 1,274 in 2011. Potok said the new numbers for 2012 will come out soon and will show another increase. "Patriot groups always had an idea Obama was going to take their guns away," said Potok. Since the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., and the subsequent debate over potential new gun laws, he said, "there's been an absolutely white-hot reaction." That's a sentiment echoed by Richard Helgeland, a professor of history, philosophy and religious studies at North Dakota State University who has researched the Kahl case. "We are due for a flare-up," he said, along the lines of Ruby Ridge, Waco, or the Kahl shooting. He said the common characteristics of the anti-government groups include an end-of-times religious outlook and heavy gun ownership, although there are numerous variations. "The government is evil. Kahl thought the IRS was Satanic," Helgeland said. "That kind of cosmology, that there are evil people out there - that sells a lot of guns." SPLC's most recent list of active patriot groups includes 11 in Minn
[Marxism] Brokeback Mountain / gay matters / Natives
But yes, also because it is a film about the tendency of love to leap over the accepted borders. What I thought funny was the conflict on the Cattle Dog Discussion list! (The dog in the film was really fascinating to watch - how smart, how fast!). The film, my brother wrote me, was done in Canada, but yes, it could just as easily have been done in your area. Yes, I have known that homosexuality is treated differently in Native American culture (though I assume this would differ from one culture to another - since I don't assume there is "a" Native American culture). All best wishes, David Macdonald Stainsby writes on January 9, 2006: David Mcreynolds wrote: known that homosexuality is treated differently in Native > American culture (though I assume this would > differ from one culture to another - since I don't assume there is "a" > Native American culture). > > All best wishes, > David Yes I actually want to go into this a bit more-- I have found that traditionalists who are not poisoned (my experiences are all in nations colonized by Canada) by the Christian brainwashing efforts of Residential schools speak of the power of the two spirited, but that those communities where resistance to Christian brain washing has been weaker tend to be VERY homophobic. The dichotomy is very stark indeed, in my opinion. cheers to all. yftr -- Macdonald Stainsby __ Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear] writes on January 9 2006: As always, we appreciate David McReynolds' warm and supportive words on a range of quite worthwhile topics -- and his reasonable inquiry about my health [a very, very brief word on that topic in a moment]. And the burgeoning and consistently thoughtful discussions on Redbadbear and elsewhere were and are certainly welcome fare to me -- as I turned in early last night and was awakened as always at 4 a.m. by our good Cats who clearly want my strong coffee drinking ritual in the pre-dawn darkness. [Now joined, I should add, by my welcome resumption of pipe smoking -- my tobacco purchased from the nearby tax free Shoshone Bannock reservation.] In a few weeks, I'll turn 72 and, in those many accumulated decades, I do have, if I say so myself, a great deal of experience as being an Indian and moving easily in the socio-cultural settings of a good number of tribal nations as well as in several major and inter-tribal urban Indian frameworks. Through all of this, I have been consistently impressed by the commendable -- and natural -- fundamentally pervasive Native commitment to family/clan [or the equivalent of clan]/tribe and all of the basics of the specific tribal culture involved. [I should add that there are many key common socio-cultural dimensions across tribal lines.] Only physical genocide through European violence and disease -- and that has been true for many tens of millions of Native people in the Americas since 1500 -- can wipe out a tribe and its culture. But through the blood-dimmed centuries, thousands of inherently sovereign tribal nations and the tangible and non-tangible dimension of their ways of life continue to survive throughout the Western Hemisphere. I agree with Macdonald's thoughtful comments about the frequently corrosive effects of, say, rigid "Christian" residential schools on Native people -- and I would add [and I am sure he would agree], the negative effects of the old Bureau of Indian Affairs educational "missions." In both of those often unhappy settings, matters have now significantly improved -- owing primarily to pressure from our Native people and allies of good will. And instances of tribally-controlled and grass roots- controlled Native schools and other service entities are now rapidly increasing. But however problematic those negative effects from the wrong kind of "Christians" and the Euro-American governments, I do see those as comparatively superficial. Decades ago, late 1940s, in his very moving novel, House Made of Dawn, the Kiowa writer, N. Scott Momaday wrote broadly in scope: "They [we] have assumed the names and gestures of their enemies, but have held on to their own secret souls; and in this there is a resistance and an overcoming, a long outwaiting." A brief health note: Almost two weeks ago, physicians took and carefully evaluated five major blood samples from me -- covering all the key combat zones [e.g., kidneys]. Nothing unusually troubling was noted. Even though our primary medic said yet again, "There is no cure for this," our far-flung family continues to hope that my natural, strong immunity will ultimately prevail into long-term remission. In any event, I feel almost "normal" now in the mornings especially. I am not fixing to fly away into Bliss. As Ever, Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St.
[Marxism] Hunting For Meat -- And A Game Warden Tale
a long abandoned cowpuncher "line shack", in wide and rugged Sycamore Basin, well south of the great basic gorge of the formidable Canyon itself. Following Sycamore Creek down through the Canyon and into the Basin, there was no way I could have missed it. "I did," I told him. "And it was in sorry shape. Caved in and full of rats and probably snakes. I didn't spend the night in that. Camped down creek a ways." "Let me ask you this," he said, very, very deliberately. "How long did it take you to go from Taylor Cabin to right here?" I didn't hesitate. "About an easy day's walk." He grinned and nodded. Half waving, he turned and went back up to his pickup. I'd passed the Test -- honestly, ethically. The Hermits came out of the brush an hour or so later. They'd been exploring around the nearby Verde River. And they were really delighted to get the venison. Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. See my extensive Movement Life Interview, done by Bruce Hartford of Civil Rights Movement Veterans: http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm And see my reflection ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE: http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded in Fall 2012. Photos. Material on our Native background.) And see Personal Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm (Updated into 2012) For the new (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] American Indians and the U.S. Census
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Note by Hunter Bear: December 16 2012 The U.S. Census has always had difficulty dealing the people who are neither Black nor White. Until fairly recently in the historical sense, much of this country operated functionally on a two color view: Black or Colored or Negro -- and White. This was true of Federal census takers who made their own very quick visual racial classifications -- quite frequently within that dichotomy. Native Americans were often thought of as "gone" or at least rapidly "vanishing". Reservation Indians, if the census taker even bothered to spend much time searching them out, would usually be classed as "American Indian." But off reservation Indians -- e.g., Indians in the cities -- frequently wound up being termed "White". This was very often the tag for Chicanos as well. The 1960s and 1970s began to change the census toward more accurate racial classifications. "Information on race was obtained primarily by enumerator observation through 1950, by a combination of direct interview and self-identification in 1960 and 1970, and by self- identification in 1980 and 1990. (US Census Bureau on "Historical Census Statistics." ) But there were still serious problems in counting everyone -- especially in the case of minorities and certainly Natives. The 2000 census, in addition to widely adopted self-identification in racial and some ethnic classifications, also began to hire minority people to do the census -- diligently -- in their communities. That's worked pretty well. >From an article of mine: "The U.S. census of 2000 indicates that 2.4 million people identified themselves as Native Americans: up 25% since 1990. This is a clear and unequivocal statement of basic Indian identity -- although almost all of these would be of some mixed [ Native and non-Native] ancestry, a very common situation throughout Indian country in this day and age. " http://hunterbear.org/nativeamericans.htm The 2010 Census had a wide variety of choices. If a person labeled himself or herself as "American Indian or Alaskan Native," they also had to list their primary tribe. Here's how that turned out. The sharp and substantial increase in the Native population of the U.S. can be attributed in part to large families and a decline in infant mortality. But health care for Native people is still limited on the reservations -- and also very much so in the urban settings. Self-identification is a very key factor in that increase, along with diligent census takers -- often from within the respective Native community setting. Indianz.Com. In Print. http://www.indianz.com/News/2012/007974.asp Census releases 2010 American Indian and Alaska Native file Thursday, December 13, 2012 Filed Under: National More on: census, race The U.S. Census Bureau today released the 2010 American Indian and Alaska Native Summary File, the most detailed look at the data. The 2010 Census counted 2.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. When people of multiple races and are included, the Native American population grows to 5.2 million. The Summary File offers a more detailed look at the largest American Indian and Alaska Native groups. For the first time, it includes data on Central American, South American and Mexican American indigenous groups. Native Americans represent a small but growing segment of the U.S. population. By 2060, the Census Bureau projects an American Indian and Native population of 6.3 million, or 1.5 percent of the entire population. By 2060, racial and ethnic minorities will represent a 57 percent majority, according to the projections. Get the Story: Press Release: Census Bureau Releases 2010 Census American Indian and Alaska Native Summary File (Census Bureau 12/13) Press Release: U.S. Census Bureau Projections Show a Slower Growing, Older, More Diverse Nation a Half Century from Now (Census Bureau 12/12) Now a majority among babies, racial and ethnic minorities in US to outnumber whites by 2043 (AP 12/12) Census Officials, Citing Increasing Diversity, Say U.S. Will Be a 'Plurality Nation' (The New York Times 12/13) Copyright © Indianz.Com __._,_.___ HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Key pieces from our big Jackson Mississippi Movement scrapbook. Three consecutive and full pages beginning with this Link: http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm And see my reflection ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL ORGANIZER
[Marxism] ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (A CONTEMPORARY MISSISSIPPI MATTER)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (This is both a situational report -- and a long-term organizer's reflection. We strongly feel that this should be noted for posterity. Check out the signature links at the bottom. Please feel free to forward this.) ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (HUNTER GRAY/JOHN R. SALTER, JR. (NOVEMBER 25, 2012) If you're a militant and radical organizer -- and an effective one who is strong on both tangible grassroots gains and a worthy long range vision of a better world over the mountains yonder -- you do your thing and move on to the next social justice crucible. As you go along, you are remembered fondly and well for a good while by the people for and with whom you've earlier worked. The power structure, of course, will "never forgive and never forget". But, as time passes and those grassroots people and friends fade from the scene, and if -- if -- you continue as a militant and radical activist, you aren't going to be broadly welcome in your earlier battlefields by very many of the newly arrived contemporary people. This is certainly true if you're an independent rebel. And all of this is especially true if you're an "outside agitator" who came from afar. Quite often, in contrast to the openly repressive and brutal and blatantly defamatory Old Guard of yore, contemporary enemies in the old combat fields tend to be covert and surreptitious, frequently hypocritical, and of notably limited courage. If you morph, as time passes, into a kind of respectable and non-challenging brand of "liberal," well -- you might be brought back to various old battlefields to talk superficially about the old days of struggle. A conventional academic who writes about the old civil rights wars and, as many academics do, does so cautiously, may be welcome. And that person might even get an award of some kind. What brings all of this to my mind is the fact that, in the 50th anniversary of the great Jackson, Mississippi Movement, no one has asked me to return to discuss the movement of which I was the basic and principal organizer, working with a growing number of young people in our NAACP Youth Council and Tougaloo College. I was their Adult Advisor. They were valiantly involved in developing that worthy struggle and, in doing so, running great risks. The State of Mississippi is helping fund and organize a number of celebrations -- climaxing in June 2013 -- -- focused mostly on NAACP Field Secretary Medgar W. Evers who was murdered in the course of the massive campaign. Planning for these has been underway for months and agendas are relatively fixed. I learned this belatedly. Somewhere in the mix of motives for these events, and there are certainly some strains of altruism, may be the wish to somehow assuage the collective guilt for a very long and sanguinary and hideously racist past -- and the raw brutality of a garrison police state. OK -- and redemption can occur in the context of honest admission and tangible and significant redress. Medgar, a good friend and colleague who I knew well, would likely be the first person to disclaim sainthood. And many things -- including the Jackson Airport and a college in Brooklyn, N.Y. as well as a U.S. Naval ship -- have been named for him. I would be among the very last to deny honorable and courageous Medgar any honors of any kind. But it's very clear that any discussion of the Movement itself, and the depth of the cruel and repressive realities of Mississippi that really weren't that long ago, will very likely be handled gingerly and, if mentioned much at all, in very sanitized fashion. Am I surprised, shattered by this omission of any meaningful invitation? Not at all. In the half century that has elapsed since the rise and climax of the Jackson Movement, I have not received one invitation to come there and speak at length. (I have given several impromptu talks when down there over the years.) In 1979, I was asked to come to Jackson, expenses paid, for a relatively small part on a panel at a large civil rights retrospective. I came, with about fifty copies of a 35 page (single spaced) paper on the Jackson Movement, and broadened my small space of time into a short but trenchant speech which, with reference to the National Office of the NAACP and the deepening shadow of the Kennedy administration back then, I concluded with a denunciation of "the subversion by the corporate liberals of New York and the self-styled "pragmatism" of those splendid scoundrels residing in Camelot on the Potomac." That drew a thundering and standing ovation from about one thousand people. I kno
[Marxism] For Tougaloo College, Mississippi
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From: Jim Loewen To: sncc-l...@virginia.edu Sent: Friday, November 09, 2012 7:57 AM Subject: [SNCC-List] Re: Civil Rights Chair at Tougaloo College / John R. Salter Jr., "JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI" Just before Halloween, John Salter/Hunter Gray posted a short essay to this list: WE'RE INTO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT JACKSON MISSISSIPPI MOVEMENT. He included a letter from 1963 signed by Medgar Evers, Doris Allison, and himself, and he included links to other information. Following up on that interesting post, I would like to announce a premium for everyone (well, for the first five people, anyway) who makes a new donation of at least $200 this calendar year (2012) to the campaign to endow a "Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Chair" at Tougaloo College. Hunter has donated five original hardbound copies of his classic account of the movement, Jackson, Mississippi, published by Exposition Press in 1979. Each book is in splendid original condition complete with paper jacket and is signed "With best wishes, John R. Salter Jr." Jackson, Mississippi presents a vivid insider's view of the Jackson boycott movement, the demonstrations that led to mass arrests, the actions of courageous young people, and the murder of Medgar Evers and the incredible tension of his funeral march. As you would expect, given that Salter was and is a sociologist and a radical, it also contains penetrating analyses of the role of each acting group, including the national office of the NAACP, black ministers, the city government and police force, White Citizens Council, etc. And it shows the important role played by Tougaloo, some of its students and faculty members (including Prof. Salter), and its president, A. D. Beittel. As Joyce Ladner put it in her message to this list more than a year ago, "Perhaps no other college in the South played as central a role in the Movement than Tougaloo." She also noted, "Tougaloo paid a heavy price for its involvement. " As a result, the college has always been poor. Today its endowment is just $8,000,000. This endowed chair will make such a difference, both economically, by funding an important faculty position, and also to campus morale. I am helping with this campaign because I feel that a dollar given to Tougaloo makes a real difference. Certainly my alma mater, Carleton College, does not need my support, although I give Carleton $10/year just so it can claim another giving alum. Even less does my graduate school, Harvard, whose endowment is obscenely huge. Tougaloo, on the other hand, does more with less than any other college I know. Then too, as Joyce put it, there is the unfortunate fact that "all that many young people in Mississippi know of the Civil Rights Movement is 'Martin Luther King Jr.' And he played only a minor role in Mississippi! Simply establishing a Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Chair will honor and remember a great cause, a magnificent campaign." Joyce ended her October 24 message, "My hope is that at this point in our lives, many of us who felt civil rights for all as a priority in our youth (and perhaps throughout our lives) would like to revisit that priority once more. This chair offers an important way to do so." This premium offers an additional incentive to you all to get a stimulating read and an important keepsake in return. If you wish to donate, send checks made out to "Tougaloo College," with the "for" blank saying "Civil Rights Chair," to Tougaloo College, Office of Institutional Advancement, 500 W. County Line Rd., Tougaloo, MS, 39174. Or you can give through Tougaloo's website, tougaloo.edu, specifically at http://tougaloo.edu/givetoday/civilrights/index.htm Also please send me an email telling me you have done so and giving me your address. I'll send you the book in time for Christmas. Let me add, Tougaloo does retain some of the idealism of the Civil Rights Movement. Pres. Beverly Hogan and others on campus still refer to (and explain) "the beloved community." Students still choose Tougaloo partly because they think its graduates do more in the community than graduates of other schools. And they are right: its graduates do continue to do important things. I continue to hope that members of this list will contribute repeatedly to the campaign for the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Chair at Tougaloo College. If not us, who? If not now, when? Toward that end, if and when I can come up with additional "premiums" and other ideas, I shall email you all again, seeking your help. As well, anyone
[Marxism] WE'RE INTO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT JACKSON MISSISSIPPI MOVEMENT
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == WE'RE INTO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT JACKSON MISSISSIPPI CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT -- OPPOSED BY ABOUT EVERYTHING RACIST MISSISSIPPI COULD MUSTER: MASS ARRESTS, WIDESPREAD BRUTALITY, MURDER ( THIS IS VERY WIDELY POSTED). Contrary to what some good folks may have quite erroneously heard over the years, I am neither dead nor dying nor infirm. In fact, the only profound disease I've had as an adult has been the genetic Systemic Lupus (SLE) -- which, while striking almost all of my internal organs, spared my mind -- and gave me time to reflect and write extensively. I never succumbed to the depression which often characterizes Lupus. And, in my shootout with that dread disease (2003-2011), I have killed that -- dead. http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm See several very key pieces from our big Scrapbook pak on the massive and historic Jackson Movement of 1962-63. Three consecutive and full pages beginning with this Link: http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm See also my personal reflections and great appreciation of my colleague-in-struggle and good friend indeed, Medgar W. Evers: http://hunterbear.org/medgar_w.htm ONE OF THE SCRAPBOOK PIECES IS OUR LETTER THROWING DOWN THE GAUNTLET: JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 1963 -- SENT TO A WIDE RANGE OF INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENTS OF THE JACKSON AND MISSISSIPPI POWER STRUCTURE. IT IS SIGNED BY MEDGAR W. EVERS, MRS DORIS ALLISON, AND JOHN R SALTER. HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) Key pieces from our big Jackson Mississippi Movement scrapbook. Three consecutive and full pages beginning with this Link: http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm See my personal reflections on Medgar Evers: http://hunterbear.org/medgar_w.htm The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded, and with more photos in Fall 2012. Material on our Native background.) For the new (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Election Thoughts and Related Matters (including The Nation, naysayers, and such)
doing this long residential "sit-in", we've accomplished a number of good things social justice-wise. Keep fighting -- always and forever. But always for The People. The world is big but we can certainly catch a big piece of it. Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) Key pieces from our big Jackson Mississippi Movement scrapbook. Three consecutive and full pages beginning with this Link: http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm See my personal reflections on Medgar Evers: http://hunterbear.org/medgar_w.htm The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded, and with more photos in Fall 2012. Material on our Native background.) For the new (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Extremely high suicide rates among Native American youth (with comment by Hunter)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Suicide is epidemic for American Indian youth: What more can be done? By Stephanie Woodard 100Reporters A youth-suicide epidemic is sweeping Indian country, with Native American teens and young adults killing themselves at more than triple the rate of other young Americans, according to federal government figures. \In pockets of the United States, suicide among Native American youth is 9 to 19 times as frequent as among other youths, and rising. From Arizona to Alaska, tribes are declaring states of emergency and setting up crisis-intervention teams. http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/10/14340090-suicide-is-epidemic-for-american-indian-youth-what-more-can-be-done COMMENT BY HUNTER: (Sam Friedman asks: Hunter, do you think there has been a major increase in suicide among Indian youth? Or has it been a relatively steady rate?) Realizing that the great majority of Native people do not commit suicide, it remains that suicide among younger Native people -- especially early adolescence to, say, early 30s or so -- has been a consistent tragedy through much of the 20th century when life began to be increasingly circumscribed by encroaching Euro American culture. In conjunction with this, patterns of anti-Indian racial and cultural discrimination became closer and sharper. This has continued to the present moment. Some suicides are direct; others occur via alcoholism -- however subconsciously driven. The latter factor is certainly found among "older" Indians as well. I think there has been an increase in youthful Native suicide in the past 20 years or so -- that goes beyond simply more pervasive and accurate reportage of such tragedies. Three factors are deepening economic vicissitudes, including in the cities; lack of perceived worthy challenges; and the relatively "new" [for Indians] matter of "hard" drugs. A key danger is the "cluster/contagious phenomenon" -- exemplified, for example, by about seven youthful suicides in the matter of a very few weeks among a relatively small Maine tribe a generation ago. How fast and how well this is going to be addressed is speculative. There are always good people who do that which they can in these situations -- and then do even more. But much, much more is needed. That's my short answer, Sam. I could give a much longer one -- with case histories. Thanks for commenting -- and asking. Hunter (Sam did a quickie and limited search of articles on Native suicide, coming up immediately with 558. He aptly noted that this "has been studied a fair bit." Sam's certainly right on target.) Studies of "Indian problems" are legion, almost infinite. Sometimes it's been a bad joke in Indian Country. What's frequently missing, obviously, are tangible, substantive and realistic approaches. In the area of potential suicide, these would have to be, among other things, preventative and as curative as possible: economic, socio-cultural, educational, medical -- and certainly deeply sensitive vis-a-vis the respective tribal culture and broad pan-Indian values. Self-determination -- always and forever a key Native goal and always in the context of continuing treaty rights and other formal Federal obligations -- has been taking good "legal" root on virtually all reservations since the latter 20th century. And more and more young Native people are entering a variety of critically needed "professions" -- and, of course, doing so without shedding their tribal cultures and Native identities. I think I mentioned earlier that prevention of Indian suicide, especially that among young people, is a key interest of Thomas. (Thomas Gray Salter, a young MD, is our grandson/son -- presently in his fourth year of residency at University of Iowa Hospital.) In the early '70s, the late Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman, had a great little song about "task forces" from DC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDH4cQvgIyc Hunter HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) Key pieces from our big Jackson Mississippi Movement scrapbook. Three consecutive and full pages beginning with this Link: http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm See my personal reflections on Medgar Evers: http://hunterbear.org/medgar_w.htm The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded, and with more photos in Fall 2012. Material on our Native background.) For the
Re: [Marxism] Unions Doing Things Wrong
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == >From everything I have heard and from the many solid works on the IWW that >I've read, the Wobblies consistently practiced tactical nonviolence. In early >1955, as a brand new IWW member, I was privileged to spend several weeks with >old-time IWWs in Seattle -- ten years before they were "discovered" by the New >Left historians. I heard many accounts of major struggles -- especially in >lumbering, metal mining, and harvest -- and shrewd, well planned tactical >non-violence was a consistent thread. There were scattered instances of >principled, individual self-defense. The IWW, in many ways, presaged the >Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and the 1960s -- and, in my classes at >Tougaloo College, we studied the IWW carefully as we planned and launched what >became the massive Jackson Movement. One of the major slogans of the IWW over >decades was, "Watch The Man Who Advocates Violence." Given the often highly romanticized bull shooting about IWW "violence", I can hardly blame younger people for buying into this nonsense. But I do advise them, or anyone interested, to consult genuinely solid works. (In my opinion, the only thing that's going to bring back the rejuvenating " old revival spirit" in the American labor movement is at least a significant shift away from political action into a greatly increased emphasis on grassroots organizing at "the point of production." That would include organizing the unemployed as well.) Anyway, here is something from our Hunterbear website that includes the IWW and "violent sabotage" etc. Eldridge Dowell's comprehensive work was recommended to me years ago by a good friend indeed, the late Fred Thompson, long time IWW activist and astute editor. "One of the most venomous Western writers was Zane Grey ["no relation" as a prominent Mississippi journalist named Salter always indicates when discussing me]. Grey was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1872 and, in due course, settled in North Central Arizona, under the Tonto Rim. He lived in that general region for a very long time [before returning to the East and dying there in 1939] and wrote a myriad of Western novels -- some dimensions of which reflect capable observation of the cattle culture and the rough country. But, a puritan in the most narrow and rigid sense, he was venomously anti-Mormon and anti-Industrial Workers of the World -- all of these fine folks frequently found in the region where he pitched his tents. [It's also much around the area where I grew up.] In RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, written many years after the LDS church had formally abandoned polygamy, and first published in 1912, Grey provides the full package of anti-Mormon bigotry undergirded and pervaded by massive and sensational falsehoods: e.g., "closed towns," "captive women," Mormon "enforcers." If this was puzzling to the local "Gentiles" [non-Mormons] who failed completely to recognize their pleasant and hospitable Mormon neighbors in these lurid accounts, it played well -- as the poison still sometimes does -- in the East and West coast bastions of Liberal America. Zane Grey's viciously [and I don't use the word lightly], best known anti-IWW novel, THE DESERT OF WHEAT, written and published [1919] during the worst of the Red Scare, depicts the Wobblies as torch-carrying, field-burning saboteurs. Since some members of my mother's family were involved in large wheat acreages and flour mills in Kansas and Oklahoma, I was interested [but not surprised] in their comments after I read this tract when a very young man. None of my kin on that side of the family had the slightest awareness of IWW "sabotage" -- and some of the old-timers, indeed, had been Populists and Debs Socialists, while a well known close cousin of Mother's, Chris Hoffman, who was known as the "millionaire Socialist of Kansas," had dropped dead of a heart attack while addressing an IWW rally in Kansas City. Even the old Republican relatives in Kansas remembered the Wobbly harvest hands as good, dependable workers -- a sentiment shared by other kin in North Dakota. In his classic and highly detailed A HISTORY OF CRIMINAL SYNDICALISM LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1939] -- a good copy of which I have right here -- Professor Eldridge Foster Dowell can find nothing in IWW practice involving destructive sabotage and he states categorically on pages 34-35 that "The three great Federal trials of the I.W.W. and the state criminal syndicalism trials yield, in the writer's opinion, no r
[Marxism] Thoughts while waiting for a fire smoky sunrise
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Despite the array of offerings on our TV dish, things get a little desperate in the very early morning hours, the point I tend to arise. News is stale and films can be mediocre. Sometimes I find it necessary to simply immerse myself in some of the Sirius music channels for an hour or two. Early this morning, though, I came across TCM with an old favorite of mine, Inherit the Wind -- based, of course, on the Scopes/evolution trial in Tennessee, now almost nine decades ago. It's a 1960 film and. although there's been a remake, I don't like remakes (and am also skeptical of most sequels.) At the conclusion of this always timely film, the Clarence Darrow character (played well by Spencer Tracy), standing alone by himself in the courtroom, holds in one of his hands a copy of the Bible and, in the other, Darwin's Origin of the Species -- weighing them. And then he claps them both together and leaves the courthouse. I've always liked that very much. Whether Darrow actually did that or not is, of course, speculative. But, his agnosticism notwithstanding, he easily could have. He comes through history as a cosmopolitan and essentially respectful guy who recognized common humanity, liked most people, thought broadly and deeply. As I've said, I see no conflict between science and religion unless one side wants one. Almost all Native people respect the theologies of others. There are thousands of tribal societies in the Hemisphere and each has its own basic theology. This great pluralistic array certainly lends strongly toward respect for different religious beliefs and this can certainly extend to non-tribal religions, e.g., Christian groups -- if missionaries aren't pushy. Tribal theologies do not seek to convert anyone. This is also true of the pan-Indian [intertribal] Native American Church which, embodying varying degrees of Christian admixture with traditional beliefs depending on the setting, utilizes -- and very carefully so -- sacramental peyote. And it's true of syncretic religious approaches where, say, Catholicism or Anglicanism are mixed with the old tribal religion. I tend to see all theologies in symbolic terms. I tend to respect them all -- with the exception of the institutional television mega-churches with their skimpy spiritual and social offerings and their substantive commitment to personal money-making. And, even there, I respect the grassroots people. It isn't at all unusual for a Native person, while holding true to his or her traditional tribal beliefs, to visit the tribal ceremonies of others or even a few different Christian denominations -- and this can involve membership in a Christian church. (But the old tribal beliefs remain.) In a fascinating book, American Indian Religion and Christianity by Fr. Carl Starkloff, S.J., published in the early '70s, the astute priest, while recognizing certain differences, traces the many parallels between certain traditional tribal theologies on the one hand and Christianity on the other. Back to Inherit the Wind. William Jennings Bryan, who prosecuted in Scopes, was a great man of the grassroots whose positive social justice contributions were many. In the twilight of his life, he found himself mainly in religious fundamentalism and hence in the Tennessee trial. But I always remember my maternal grandmother, whose mind, with one area of exception-- chronology -- was clear and sharp at the end of a very long life. She used to tell me of the absolute importance of always supporting "Mr. Bryan." Given the sorry economic conditions in Western American agriculture which have been building for the past several decades, now compounded by extraordinary drought and other Global Warming-induced ills, and which are far from the higher priorities of both major parties, we could use The Great Commoner out in these parts. Hunter Bear [Idaho] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See Outlaw Trail: The Native as Organizer: http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm [Included in Visions & Voices: Native American Activism [2009] Much expanded with new material in 2012. And see the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th A
[Marxism] PROGRESS
7;s egg blue" AMC Rambler. When we were at the junkyard to take a last fond look at the Champ, we were approached by a man from nearby Rankin County very closely resembling the years-later Boss Hogg of the Dukes of Hazard. He was friendy, interested in the car's history, and I think he took the remains of the Champ for whatever purposes. Quite soon after the Champ died, we had dinner at Tougaloo with good friends, the Zunes family. I recited the events of that night and the small family -- John, Helen, and little Stephen -- listened raptly. They found it all very strange. But actually Eldri and I did not. Soon thereafter, we moved on-campus. The Blue Rambler itself died in a famous wreck -- a few days after Martin King and some of his advisors had ridden in it -- on June 18, 1963, on Hanging Moss Road on the north edge of Jackson. It was totaled. I was severely injured and almost killed, as was my colleague, Ed King. Much happened with us and everyone and everything else in the six years we spent in Dixie -- years forever contained deeply and pervasively within us. Two of our four children were born there; and, almost twenty years later, in early January, 1981, our oldest son, John, was with me when we left the Navajo reservation in our big yellow Chev pickup -- with McKinley County, New Mexico plates -- for Jackson. There I was scheduled to do a very extensive oral history interview with Jon Jones of the State Department of Archives and History. Normally, when coming from the west, we went to the Magnolia State by way of Oklahoma City and Memphis but this time we were taking the original trail that Eldri and I had followed so long before. The conventional two lane had been replaced ages ago by an Interstate. Just inside the Louisiana line, I glimpsed, through a few trees, a service station on the old, original road and pulled into it. It didn't quite register until we were right close -- and I realized it was the same station of long, long ago. It was a little more worn, as was the very same owner, who came, a little more slowly than before, to us. His son and the guitar were obviously long gone. The man was initially not genial, but rather cold. John, closest to him, was 15 and we had a big feather hanging conspicuously from the inside mirror bracket. I don't think he really saw me that well or, at that point, noted my 45/70 Marlin lever action rifle in the cab's gun rack. (I only have very traditional firearms.) It occurred to me that he might think we were Hippies -- not always popular in the rural grassroots anywhere in those days. He went to the back of our vehicle to fill it -- but there he had to see our bumper sticker, "MICMAC INDIANS TRAVEL MORE." When he returned, this time to my window, he was extremely cordial. And he asked, as he had almost twenty years before, where were we headed. And, as per the old script, I said, "Jackson." But there was no joke -- not this time, not now. I gave him a friendly, cursory wave and, smiling, he reciprocated. John and I drove on. There were no guards on the Mississippi end of the long bridge. Progress. HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See Hunter Bear's Movement Life Interview (extensive, detailed.) Done by Bruce Hartford, webmaster of Civil Rights Movement Veterans: http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm And see the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Experience -- and Story Telling
approvingly and publicly of me that "he wears no man's collar." In Solidarity, Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See Hunter Bear's Movement Life Interview (extensive, detailed.) Done by Bruce Hartford, webmaster of Civil Rights Movement Veterans: http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm And see the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The 2012
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == As I've noted, I cannot in good conscience vote again for Barack Obama. I've read several often long and tedious rationalizations about why one must -- must -- vote for Obama. I even picked up somewhere the strange comment to the effect that this is not the time to deal with what Obama has done or not done! Sorry, I didn't grow up that way. More often than not, we've done the third party thing -- Commoner, Nader, write-in for SPUSA et al. But we caucused for Obama, made modest financial contributions, and voted for him. I see his administration, by almost any measure including, certainly, his many campaign promises and commitments, as a failed thing. Early in the summer of 2009, when the Congressional district meetings were emerging en masse, I wrote several times that the concerns being raised at those increasingly problematic gatherings had to be addressed constructively -- pronto. And I pointed out several times that all of the angry people could not be easily dismissed as simply "racists" -- even though those strains were certainly present in a goodly number of cases. When the Congressional district meetings began to morph into the Tea Party, I continued to raise, a number of times, the fact that this was a very dangerous development and that, sans constructive action by the liberal and liberal/left and Labor forces -- and certainly the Obama administration -- we could "inherit the wind." Throughout this, in 2009 and into 2010, I used the term "right wing populism" many times. Others may have been doing so in their bailiwicks. Despite the fact that I could be considered a pretty seasoned radical, having started in early 1955 and continuing to the present moment -- with every expectation of continuing for a very long time to come -- whatever I wrote was essentially ignored beyond a few good souls on our own discussion lists. Later, in the fall of 2009 and into 2010, I wrote again and several times, on the need for Labor and liberals and left liberals et al. to form some sort of coalition, however loose, to pressure the Obama administration to meet its commitments. That, too, seemed to fall on deaf ears. Instead many liberals and left-liberals simply wound up avoiding any criticism of Barack Obama et al. For example, little of critical nature was said when he tripled troop strength in Afghanistan and expanded the war into Pakistan -- or when, in direct contradiction to his promise to dismantle the Bush 2 domestic surveillance operations, he expanded those far beyond the scope of the previous administration. And those are just a couple of the many sad examples. Obviously, people have to weigh matters in accordance with their own values, make their own individual decisions. But I have made mine. We're voting for Rocky Anderson/Luis Rodriguez. And there are certainly other honorable alternatives: Green Party, SPUSA, probably some of which I haven't heard. But there's another dimension -- one much deeper, much higher: the urgent need for extremely intensive and widely pervasive and sensibly pragmatic and long range visionary social justice grassroots community organizing. That, as I often say, is Genesis. Ultimately, if effected well, many of those streams will flow into a mighty River Force. And only very good things can come out of That. In Solidarity, Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See Hunter Bear's Movement Life Interview (extensive, detailed.) Done by Bruce Hartford, webmaster of Civil Rights Movement Veterans: http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm And see the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] An Echo of "Cactus Spines": Where I Stand -- And a Little More
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This piece of mine brings to mind a column I used to write in my early and mid 20s from Tucson and Tempe and occasionally when I was back home in Flagstaff -- strongly human rights and pro-Labor and certainly civil libertarian -- called "Cactus Spines." Its primary home was the Industrial Worker, the weekly and then fortnightly IWW newspaper which sought and published lively and interesting views and doings from the grassroots and thus had a respectable circulation -- even in those dismal 1950s. Pieces of my thinking -- my "spines" -- often got around very nicely into other appropriate print journals, and all of this launched my public writing career which continues to this moment. Not long ago, I had occasion to write a very brief and direct and trenchant statement of Where I Stand. (It's not a "martyr's cry" and it has a specific goal.) That follows immediately -- and it's now placed, among other settings, on the front cover of our massive and well visited Lair of Hunterbear website www.hunterbear.org -- and on the following pages therein: Outlaw Trail http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm Witch Hunt Continues http://www.hunterbear.org/witch_hunt_continuesthe_southern.htm Several of the components -- certainly Bear Medicine and "things unseen" and then some very challenging experiences -- came quite early in my life, before I got out of the Army after a full hitch when I was turning 21. The other pieces, grounded on more life experiences, began to come quickly after that -- and have continued. Briefly, this is where I have always stood from very, very young adulthood onward: My activist life as an independent social justice rebel is always challenging. In the course of things so far, I've survived tough beatings as a kid at school and severe ones in adulthood, a number of very serious efforts to kill me, jail for good causes, no end of smear campaigns and clumsy ridicule by ignorant and covert cowards, the lethal genetic no-cure disease Systemic Lupus, other hostile challenges. But I remain a successful grassroots organizer, teacher, writer, and parent. I have a very strong physique and a very strong mind and much support from Bear Medicine and other "things unseen". And I always find encouragement in the comment given me by a grandmother when, at five years of age, I was near death from Scarlet Fever: "Only the good die young." I continue to hold, as I always have and always will, to the ideal of a full measure of libertarian, material, and spiritual well-being. I always keep going, always keep fighting. Hunter Bear, Summer 2012 On other fronts, we have had no rain of significance for months. It's been extremely hot since May. Fire danger is about as high as it can get and fires are much in our region. When thunderclouds gather and there are a few drops of rain, there is much dry lightning and more fires. Vigilance is the word in these parts and a looming question is, "Will all of this begin to end when Fall (technically) comes?" Other parts of the country and world, of course, have their own very heavy challenges -- some far worse than ours. If you have reason to believe your computer is being monitored, have any sort of a warranty, and can point to a few suspicious indications, try writing to the home office involved and ask for a new computer -- at no cost to you. Things may improve right away -- though the bird-dogs will still be fluttering around in the shadows. Reminds me of the telephone "problems" in many of our Movement situations over many decades. In the Mountains of Eastern Idaho Nialetch/Onen Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See Witch Hunt Continues: (Civil liberties, red-baiting, and smear challenges faced by a successful organizer and teacher -- with new comment, new photo: http://www.hunterbear.org/witch_hunt_continuesthe_southern.htm And see the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxi
[Marxism] "MINORITY ADOPTIONS" AND NATIVE AMERICA
about the official address of apology by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (Labor Party) to indigenous people, re. the "lost generation" issue of aboriginal children taken from their families and raised in forced adoption with white families or in children's homes over a long period from the 1910s to the 1970s . I think it's something of a milestone in that country's history. It won't right the wrongs and it won't improve the lot of indigenous people in any direct sense, but it is an important statement nonetheless. I know rhetoric doesn't cost much, but this might point the way to better policies. The former PM of the Liberal Party (i.e. conservative) flatly refused to do so, and ultimately earning a lot of scorn even from his own supporters. He also lost his seat in Parliament in the last election. . . Best wishes, Jyri, Brian Rice [Mohawk]: Hi Hunter, Don't forget the big scoop in Canada. Soon after Residential Boarding Schools began to close in the 1960's, Canadian Social Services began the process of removing children from their parents and having them adopted out to all parts of the world including the U.S. There is a famous case in your neck of the woods where one of these children was physically and sexually abused to the point that he killed his adoptive male parent and still languishes in prison. Spence was his last name. Some of these children were designated as having mental illness. I believe Buffy Saint Marie is a case of someone picked up and adopted out during the big scoop. There is a repatriation organization for these now adults here in Winnipeg. Brian ___ HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see My Community Organizing Mini-Course -- with much down to earth how-to material and updated into 2012: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] WARS ABROAD AND DOMESTIC HORRORS
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The morning has been filled with prayer talk -- fine. And there's also been the usual talk about guns -- and, too, the possibility of Warner Bros. withdrawing the Batman film. I find those two responses superficial and meaningless. On the gun thing, if the killer hadn't had those, he did have explosives at his home which he'd likely have used. What we never hear is sensible and depthy conjecture about the domestic psychiatric effects of this country's involvement in many years of wars -- proliferating and endless wars -- which have gone on ever expansively since 9/11. The cost in lives has obviously been astronomical and the horrors of technology -- e.g., 120 people, or more, killed by a single explosion -- have been televised consistently to the four directions. If developing psychotics, sometimes inflamed by personal economic vicissitudes, see human life as "cheap," it shouldn't be surprising to see these mass tragedies sprouting and gushing blood across the U.S. H HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see My Community Organizing Mini-Course -- with much down to earth how-to material and updated into 2012: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Louis Freeh
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == If I were giving advice on Louis Freeh, former FBI director, and present author of a burning and broadly indicting report on the Penn State scandal, it would "be cautious" about Freeh and some of his conclusions. He's been known, as the old saying goes, to "shoot with a long bow." I'm not an athletics fan and know little about Penn State. Wherever I've taught, I should add, I've always gotten along pretty well with the athletic dimension But it's obvious that some very bad things occurred under the Penn State aegis. And it's true that some college and university administrations, especially in the state context, can function very problematically, even badly, when under internal and external pressure. This is certainly true where athletics and alumni happen to be involved. And where sex abuse charges are at hand, and especially when these involve young people, there is always the danger of a hysterical and fast widening backlash. A small indication of this at Penn State is a current move to topple the statue of Joe Paterno. I think, in retaining Freeh as their primary investigator of a scandalous tangle, the Penn State trustees have erred badly. Freeh was a major figure in the Clinton anti-gun crusade -- witch-hunt. In that, he worked closely with Janet Reno, the AG, and, in time, Eric Holder, Deputy AG and, across departmental lines into Treasury, with ATF. All of these and others were, genuinely or otherwise, greatly concerned about the presumed citizen militia menace. As I've written at various points, I think that "menace" is frequently much exaggerated and, from my own long-standing involvement with the "gun culture", I've seen most militia situations as small and stupid -- wannabees -- and often existent only in the minds of their relatively few proponents. Some militias were dangerous and some are dangerous but these would be a very, very small number. (It's worth noting that recently all serious Federal charges were dropped against bull-shooting Michigan milita members who had been indicted as a result of a government agent's report that they were plotting violence. I posted on that when the case broke, and questioned the validity of the charges.] As the year 1999 proceeded, Louis Freeh, as FBI director, launched a series of warnings about a militia upheaval in the West when computers might well crash when "turning over" at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2000. Those "in the know" saw this as nonsense but it did play well in some stratospheric liberal and even some leftist quarters in the East Coast -- settings where many knew little or nothing about guns, were frequently opposed to firearms rights, confused the NRA [which has had a long standing anti-paramilitary stance] with militias. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which can do good work especially in its region, fell into this mode and the anti-firearms organizations echoed Freeh's ostensible concerns. January 1, 2000 arrived, computers turned over normally and sans malfunctions -- and there was zero militia upheaval in our "wild West." [Gun rights people now have, happily, the two recent and very significant Supreme Court rulings that clarify the 2nd Amendment as a full individual rights member of the Bill of Rights.] But back to Louis Freeh. He was unapologetic about the collapse of his Menace. When Bush 2 was elected, Freeh continued on for a time as FBI director. But, dropping the "gun issue" immediately, he now had a new Menace. Apropos of the 1999 anti-GTO protests at Seattle, Freeh appeared before Congressional committees, issuing dire warnings about youthful radicals, anarchists, socialists, and Workers World. In time, of course, the Bush 2 people discovered the Muslim Menace en masse. Well, think all of this over. Does it mean Freeh's Penn State report is off-base? Not necessarily -- but I think it would be a great mistake to take it at face value. And I do think the Penn State trustees could have found a much, much more appropriate investigator. Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a ne
[Marxism] HELL FIRES
n forces. If we have no alternative but to leave, we have determined what we'll take in addition to ourselves and the pets, including the turtle. I lined up cat boxes for quick use and the dogs can reside in the Jeep's rear area. We could probably wind up with daughter Josie and her Cameron and the Babies who all reside 'way down below -- out of any fire danger. I do feel that, tallying up our geographical factors, probable wind currents, likely neighborhood solidarity, expected fast response from firefighters, etc, we're fairly safe from home-burnings up here.. But we might well have to fight, and we will. This is, of course, an increasingly dangerous situation all across the Mountain West and, I'm sure, in the some of the West Coast areas. The number and nature of these fires and the attendant climate factors all bespeak of something 'way beyond the "norm" [awful as that can be.] I have to see global warming/climate change as a significant factor. And I also think that National Guardsmen and Federal troops are needed in some of these situations. Best, Hunter http://hunterbear.org/forest_fires_in_the_west.htm HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see My Community Organizing Mini-Course -- with much down to earth how-to material and updated into 2012: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] BAD FIRE CLOSE TO HOME -- POCATELLO IDAHO
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == FIRE NOTES FROM RIGHT HERE AT POCATELLO, IDAHO FROM HUNTERBEAR TO FRIENDS [JUNE 29 2012] There's been a very bad fire close to Pocatello in the Moose Creek/Scout Mountain area. Sixty-six homes have been lost here in less than 24 hours and the basic fire of more than 1,000 acres, although "contained", could still break out again. Best news is that the winds, which can be fierce around here, will be minimal for at least the very near future. In a few minutes we're having a tiny little family meeting, including our animal companions, to decide how we'll handle things if a fire crisis comes here to us. Even up here on the edge, we have good road access and fire trucks and men can get here fairly fast. We who live around here can certainly do protective things as well. The homes in this general area should be fairly safe. But it's obvious we can't take anything for granted. If a fire crisis does come into our setting, it won't come up from down town but will come from other directions. Evacuation orders could be complicating. One thing that's needed now in Western "hot spots" are National Guardsmen and Federal troops. Hunter Gray HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see - My Personal Reflections and Appreciation of Megar W. Evers: http://hunterbear.org/medgar_w.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The Fires of Hell
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == End Times ain't in my personal theology -- but these days it's damn sure trying to get in. I grew up in the Mountain West -- and wherever my migratory trail has taken me, the Real West is always Home in the deepest and highest ways. It's extremely tough to watch the hideous destruction of timber presently underway in a number of the Western states where, in the always dry climes, it takes literally ages -- a few hundred years in most cases -- for yellow and pinon pines, spruce, fir, cedars, and junipers to grow to maturity. Well under the legal age of 18, I became involved in fire control for the U.S. Forest Service out of my home town of Flagstaff, Arizona -- direct fire fighting and later fire lookout/radio work -- and did that for several summers beginning in 1950 and continuing in intermittent fashion into 1960. Some of these horrors of contemporary times are the biggest fires of which I've ever heard. While the standard explanations -- e.g., slow accumulation of ground brush and lumbering slash over many years of "over protection" -- have some merit, there are now obviously extraordinary climate factors: super-hot temperatures, extremely high and forceful winds -- winds unusually consistent in nature; weeks-early dry lightning (lightning without accompanying rain). It's very difficult indeed for me to see how anyone, in this fire context, could dispute the significant involvement of some climate change factors. In situations like this, people are often hired off the streets to fight fire. Some do it well and some don't. In the summer of 1956, I was on a very large fire in yellow pine timber, a "burn" of about 9,000 acres as it turned out, in the Sitgreaves National Forest of Northern Arizona. I was working building fire line with a Pulaski -- axe/hoe combo -- and had a gallon canteen of water for personal drinking. Most of the 20 guys on my crew were "greenhorns" from the streets of Winslow. Suddenly as I worked along, with a huge approaching wall of fire coming fast upon us, I looked around and realized my crew mates had all deserted, leaving me totally alone. Spot fires -- from windblown sparks -- were developing all about me. I had heavy logging boots, Levi pants and shirt, and my trusty Stetson hat, and, somewhat singed for sure, I barely escaped with my life and my Pulaski and canteen. When I saw some of the deserters on a far back logging road, several accusatory terms came to mind, but I settled on calling them all "jelly beans" -- an especially vile term in rural Arizona. Most of them left the fire but I continued with another crew that was rushed in pronto -- and eventually we all stopped the inferno. Anyway, just some inescapable thoughts. Fires are starting here in Idaho and, 'way up where we live right adjacent to Bureau of Land Management and Caribou National Forest lands, we're certainly on high alert. Our firefighting webpage is http://hunterbear.org/forest_fires_in_the_west.htm For my award winning short story, The Destroyers, focusing on virulent racial prejudice in the context of a very large Northern Arizona forest fire, first published in 1960 and reprinted several times since in this country and abroad: http://hunterbear.org/the%20short%20story.htm The story is based on my second forest fire in the summer of 1950. I was on its fire lines and then, when a bull cook was needed in camp, I was shifted into that role where the story events occurred. Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded and with more photos in June, 2012.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see - Elder Recognition Award (Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Story Tellers: http://hunterbear.org/elder_recognition_award_for_2005.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Family Matters and Related Things
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (This post was initially intended for several of our own lists where our family is very well known. However, there may be things of interest to others. For example, William Mackintire Salter -- my Native father's adoptive parent -- was a major advocate for the Haymarket martyrs and their families, eventually winning support from Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld. This took great courage on Salter's part. He was a long time member of the almost all-white Indian Rights Association. William Salter was one of the sixty men and women who signed the Call to Organization of the NAACP in 1909. And he consistently opposed American imperialism and was also a sparkplug in what became the American Civil Liberties Union. He was not, however, especially good as a parent. In fact, quite the contrary.] Today is June 18th, a date I'm always inclined to remember -- since it's the anniversary of the 1963 very interesting auto wreck in Jackson, Mississippi, precipitated by a lunging car from a side street and most timely indeed from the standpoint of the venomous adversaries of our Jackson Movement. My car -- in which Martin King had ridden only a few days earlier -- was destroyed, I was seriously injured and almost killed, and my colleague, Reverend Ed King, was also profoundly injured almost to the point of death. A memorable day for sure which I occasionally refer to as "the last holy day in the Jackson Movement calendar." I had brushes with death before that and some since. But, if I had been "taken away" on that day, I'm not at all sure what would have happened to Eldri and Baby Maria. One thing for certain is that I wouldn't have received the fine Father's Day messages that came yesterday from Maria directly [who also gave me a fine Navajo bowl], and by phone from Josie, John, Peter, and Thomas. (We have a total of ten fine grandchildren.) A day or two earlier came a good, full letter from John's son, Quickbear [Bret]. Eldri produced a truly fine dish: lots of salmon wrapped in spinach and pastry. Maria baked an excellent cake. It's well worth noting that Thomas' spouse, Mimie [Yrengah], from Zambia and UK, received her Physician's Assistant degree on Friday from University of Iowa. Last January, she received her Masters in Public Health from UI. Thomas is now beginning his fourth year of residency at the University's hospital -- psychiatry and internal medicine. Mimie's mother, Mrs. Mutale Chilinda, came from UK for her graduation and Peter came from Lincoln. Afterwards, they all had a hell of a great party. They were joined by a good friend of Thomas' -- a physician resident in neuroscience from Nepal. Diversity. Cosmic people We have a website page dealing with my own Native father's ill-starred adoption by William and Mary Salter. It covers the highlights of his difficult experience. While Mary Salter was kind and loving, William Salter -- a courageous and noted liberal activist on many critical fronts -- was old for his years and brittle. The adoption was tempered for Dad by the personally supportive, oft-presence of the Salters' brother-in-law, the philosopher William James, who encouraged my father's incipient fine art abilities and whose nickname for Dad was "Uncle Jack." Later, since William Salter had cut Dad out of his will, the James estate funded his several years of study at the Chicago Art Institute leading to his B.A. In time he received two grad degrees from the University of Iowa. [Though the Salters had roots and primary residence in the northeastern states, William Salter's own father, the "old" William Salter, had been a pioneer Congregational missionary in Iowa in the very early period and had been a founder of the University of Iowa. In the 1970s, I taught in UI's Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Planning.] In the past few weeks, we have added some photos to that "Stormy Adoption" webpage. One, never before published anywhere, depicts my father at 13 with William and Mary Salter. The photo was taken in August, 1911 at Silver Lake/Chocorua, New Hampshire, in the White Mountains where the Salter and James families had large summer homes. I am interested in the state-of-the-art straw hat sitting by William Salter. I happen to have here in Idaho his obviously very expensive silk top-hat (in mint shape) in a large and heavy leather carrying case, covered with shipping labels -- some involving travel abroad. When the Salters traveled in Europe, my father was left in this country. Anyway, if interested in any of this: http://hunterbear.org/J
[Marxism] Medgar W. Evers
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This is the Time of Year that Medgar Evers was shot and killed in Jackson Mississippi -- in the heat of the Jackson Movement of 1962-63. And I often send around my very long webpage focusing on my personal recollections of Medgar. Now, also carrying as a recent addition, recollections of our fine mutual friend and Movement colleague, the late Cleveland Donald, Jr, that long page is always one of our more consistently and heavily visited ones: http://hunterbear.org/medgar_w.htm Its material is also carried by the excellent Civil Rights Movement Veterans website of which anyone with any interest in social justice Movement matters of any genre, should be well aware: http://crmvet.org/This time, I'm sending this short piece which certainly captures the ethos of a murderous time and place -- and the high courage of many indeed. [H] NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: I'm attaching a short response of mine to an African-American scholar.We consistently practiced tactical non-violence in civil rights demonstrations -- but, more or less quietly, we did support and did indeed sometimes explicitly practice thoughtfully active individual/family self-defense via firearms. It's been almost 50 years since Eldri and I and Baby Maria had a long Christmas dinner and family visit with Medgar and Myrlie Evers and children at the Evers home on Guynes Street. The ethos was somber, especially as night came on. James Meredith was in Ole Miss -- protected by legions of Federal troops and U.S. Marshals. Our economic boycott of Jackson was off and going well. And we were already planning its extension into a vastly broader Movement -- which was precisely what happened. Four nights before, our home on the Tougaloo campus had been shot into -- and several of us had since been standing armed guard on the campus borders. Racist hysteria pervaded Mississippi [and the other recalcitrant sections of the South] and violence and murder were in the air, all around us. Our pleasant Christmas dinner, no matter how much we all attempted to "lighten" things, was grim. Medgar and I knew guns, had guns. Less than six months later, June 11 1963, Medgar was shot in the back and killed by a night-time assassin. And much more in that genre occurred. From Hunter to an African American scholar: Your question is solid. The short answer is that the National Office of NAACP was not concerned about Medgar's being armed. [It was obviously concerned about other things -- but not that.] It was understood in every civil rights organization that field representatives -- and certainly the grassroots people with whom we worked -- would very likely be armed. [Then and now, of course, most people in what's called the United States do have firearms. This is certainly true of African Americans, South and North -- and universally true with Native Americans.] But although many if not most civil rights field people were armed, we were not -- usually -- too public about that. A major reason was the concern that many liberal/left Northern supporters [not all] would be troubled by that. I was probably more open about my firearms than were many civil rights field persons. The NAACP had felt itself to be "burned" by the Rob Williams self-defense situation in Monroe, NC -- where Williams, NAACP local president, and faced with constant and very substantive Klan violence, secured an NRA charter and organized a broad self-defensive structure in the Black community. [He was also a supporter of the Cuban revolution.] When trouble erupted in the Monroe situation, the NAACP attacked Williams, who was forced from the country and several of his colleagues subjected to "criminal" charges. Medgar, during one of our earliest conversations, expressed to me his strong sympathy for Williams and his self-defensive actions. There were "ways of warning" the hostile forces we faced. I and my wife, Eldri, recall vividly Medgar's telling us that a young white utility worker came by his house, somewhat nervously, to check on some outside power lines. When the guy was finished, Medgar invited him into his home, ostensibly to show him "a large fish that I caught, stuffed, and put on my wall." The young man came in but, only glancing at the stuffed fish, stared at a couple of Medgar's rifles that were also racked on the wall. "He couldn't take his eyes off my guns," Medgar told us, chuckling. Hope this has been helpful. All best -- and write again if so inclined. In Solidarity, Hunter [Hunter Bear] __._,_.___ HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Moha
[Marxism] Fire on the Mountain
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == At the rate it's been going, this could be about the worst fire season in this country's recorded history. These "explosions" are pure tragedies in the drier Western settings where it can take a few hundred years for yellow pine or cedar or juniper or pinon -- and other trees -- to grow to full maturity. I feel especially and deeply sad personally about the massive destruction in the Gila National Forest/Wilderness Area in southwestern New Mexico. I know parts of that fairly well and, when I was fire lookout/radio man on very remote Bear Mountain in extreme eastern Arizona, the western "edge" of the Gila -- the Mogollon Mountains [Muh-Ghee-Ohn] were literally my next door neighbors to the immediate east and much in my official viewing purview. The old weather rules are obviously gone at this point. Here in Idaho we've had a warm and dry winter, little moisture this spring, recent days which are intermittently cold with a little snow -- and then abruptly very hot. High, strong winds are frequent. With local variations, this bizarre and unpredictable flukiness is obviously a national pattern. In normal fire season times in the Mountain West, the dry mid-May to early July period involves man-made fires, usually via carelessness. These almost always are in settings with some road access which obviously facilitates relatively fast action by fire control forces. Again, in normal times, as July proceeds, there's the very significant danger of dry lightning -- sans rain -- which can strike in very remote areas that take some time to reach. Given that, a fire can become very widespread. [The air dumping of fire control fluids -- e.g., borate solutions -- is helpful but no panacea.] Effective fire control still requires adequate numbers of ground troops and associated equipment as primary. Later in July, lightning and rain normally come together and fires develop and move much more slowly. Rain often continues into August and then there can be brief dry periods in the early fall where hunting season can pose some fire dangers. In this current situation, it's wild weather roulette -- but with virtually every negative force magnified tremendously. In the West, much dry lightning in the context of extreme dryness and exceptionally high winds is already striking out all over -- and there's no rain at all on the horizon. And that's pure Hell. You don't have to read the Bible these days to get a sense of that. Hunter Bear http://hunterbear.org/forest_fires_in_the_west.htm HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded much in May/June 2012 -- and also some photos.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see - Elder Recognition Award (Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Story Tellers: http://hunterbear.org/elder_recognition_award_for_2005.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Thinking about Wisconsin
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Quite naturally, a great deal of fervent discussion is traveling the high winds on the recent events in Wisconsin, sad indeed from the perspective of many of us. I haven't paid a great deal of intricate attention to the various explanations -- have been doing my own brooding. But I would say that most of the analyses contain some very obviously valuable insights. My own feeling is that a very basic explanation, maybe the most fundamental one from an emotional standpoint, is that we are now, in this country, in a period of increasingly profound cynicism that's translating into "every man [person] for himself." I think that may have played a key role in the surprisingly wide statistical victory of Walker et al. Endless and pointless wars, a deteriorating economy, and a sense for many that the American Dream has come to the end of the trail -- seem to me among the pretty obvious causal factors. A comparable situation, not well known nationally, existed here in Idaho a couple of years ago. Despite a truly heroic effort by the teacher unions, parents, and students and others, a recall effort against the very problematic state superintendent of public instruction failed by a troubling margin. I have always seen the most basic dichotomy in Humanity as being, on the one hand, the people who serve their communities and, on the other, those who serve themselves. Sitting atop a high hill, it seems to me -- as it has throughout my life so far -- that we have in the long flow of human history, and at whatever glacial pace, more and more of the former and less and less of the latter. Despite occasional setbacks of substance, I remain the perennial optimist. And so, cliché it may be, we simply have to dig in, move forward, fight. As an old Labor warrior friend of mine from long ago, Juan Chacon of southwestern New Mexico, used to tell me when I was really very young, "Success will be ours in the long run." And it will. In Solidarity, Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Expanded much in May/June 2012 -- and also some photos.) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. We are now at the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see - Elder Recognition Award (Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Story Tellers: http://hunterbear.org/elder_recognition_award_for_2005.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] "THE DEVIL HIMSELF . . ." (A MAGNOLIA TALE)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I wrote this short piece a number of years ago. But it's very durable and the story it tells is forever engraved in the minds of myself and my good spouse, Eldri. There are some very good reasons why I am running it widely at this point. Among them, we are now into the month of June and quite close indeed to the 50th anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. I should add that I still have -- and always will -- the infamous License Plate. In Solidarity, Hunter Gray (Hunter Bear) ". . .THE DEVIL HIMSELF, COME RIDING DOWN THE DRAW " [A MAGNOLIA TALE] HUNTER GRAY Check this out. Steven McNichols 4/10/05 Like the Canton piece, lots of drama. John Salter 4/11/05 Hunter-- Great story. Can we add this to the "Our Stories" section of the "Civil Rights Movement Veterans" website (http://www.crmvet.org)? If so, how should it be titled? Thanks. Bruce Hartford 4/15/05 Webspinner, Civil Rights Movement Veterans website http://www.crmvet.org HUNTER BEAR: Every now and then, as I did this morning, I catch pieces of the fine Mississippi film, A Time to Kill, based on the John Grisham novel. I saw it when it initially appeared in 1996, intrigued by the fact that it was filmed on location at Canton, Madison County -- a small city just north of Jackson -- and one of the worst racist settings of them all in the Bad Old Days. I have many Canton stories, some as early as '61. I am not known for admitting mistakes, but . . . here is a big one that directly involved me and Eldri. On June 18, 1963, at Jackson, in the heat of our Movement, I was lethally targeted via a most interesting car wreck. I was seriously injured, almost killed as was a friend, Ed King, riding with me. My vehicle, a '61 Rambler, was totaled. Healing fast, I was functionally out of the hospital in a matter of days [my friend was there much longer.] A few days before the wreck, I had sent Eldri and Baby Maria out of state via airplane to her parents in Minnesota because of constant threats -- especially bomb threats. She had not wanted to go but I forced it. [There is a very poignant scene in A Time to Kill in which the young liberal lawyer, defending a Black man in Canton, does the very same thing with his wife and child -- in relatively contemporary times. Can't help but wonder if Grisham read my book!] Anyway, Eldri returned via air as soon as she learned of the wreck and our profound injuries. Maria remained with her grandparents. We had no car. Very soon after I was back at Tougaloo, still obviously quite physically damaged, the car salesman from McKay Motors in Jackson arrived driving a brand-new Rambler. He was accompanied by a colleague in another car [to drive him back, obviously], and he came into our on-campus house with a handful of papers. [McKay Motors was one of the few white firms that we all were not boycotting. Medgar Evers, who knew the scene intricately, had indicated they had repeatedly declined to contribute to white Citizens Council causes.] "I have a car for you," our salesman said cheerfully. "And I have all the papers right here for your signature. All worked out with CIT [credit.]" I didn't even go out to look at the new car. I signed and, when I had finished, our man added, "You understand, of course, that, under the circumstances, I can't give you the CIT life insurance policy that normally goes along with this kind of arrangement." "I understand perfectly," said I -- and then pointed to the old Winchester '73 44/40 that Medgar had loaned me some weeks before. "That's my life insurance policy," I added. He and his friend nodded in understanding fashion, then left. [I had other firearms as well -- and also a life insurance policy from Phoenix Local 1010 of AFT to which I belonged on an at-large basis. That had been arranged by Bill Karnes, its president and a national AFT vice-president.] We now had a car which we drove around with its temporary license sticker. But we needed a regular plate. About one half of Tougaloo College and grounds are in Hinds County [Jackson] and the other half -- the one in which we lived -- is in Madison County [Canton, of course.] One quiet, hot afternoon, that early July, Eldri and I decided to just drive up to Canton in leisurely fashion and get it. In an extraordinary omission, we told no one where we were going. When we got to Canton, we went to the old white courthouse [same one that's in the film] and I parked adjacent to the nice green lawn. Leaving Eldri, I went into the building and down, as I recall, to its rather dim lower level. Seeing the sign for license plates, I wandered o
[Marxism] GOOD REFUGEES: DR BORINSKI AT TOUGALOO AND PHIL RENO AT NAVAJO
and also the quite left Dr Otto Nathan from New York as another; and Pete Seeger came [and many other fine activist and academic movers and shakers. ] And the Forums occasionally drew a few Mississippi white students and a Mississippi white professor or two as visitors -- this enraging the virulently racist Hederman press [Clarion-Ledger and Jackson Daily News] whose tirades had absolutely no inhibiting effect whatsoever on Dr Borinski or anyone else at Tougaloo. [In an interesting commentary on human complexity and evolution of some sort, the somewhat changing South eventually saw the younger Hedermans turn the utterly racist Jackson newspapers into at least fairly reasonable things. But they then sold out to Gannett and moved to New York and bought and still have the New York Review of Books.] Dr Borinski, though never referring to himself as an activist, was always very much indeed a teacher activist. While he never seemed to consider himself a radical -- he certainly always called me one, and always cordially so! -- he was very much indeed a radical in the best "to the roots" socio-economic sense. As we much younger folk moved in 1962 and 1963 to build the massive, non-violent direct-actionist and ultimately blood-dimmed Jackson Movement, Dr Borinski was a very strong and consistently dependable back-up supporter -- as he was of all human rights endeavours, whether in the Closed Society of the Jim Crow South or anywhere else on the planet. Dr Borinski was also an excellent cook, whose luncheons at the Social Science Lab were and are certainly very well remembered by the countless fortunate -- and he channeled all sorts of excellent European food concepts and tangibles directly into Mississippi culture. To the end of his life, he kept up deeply and well with people. He always gave excellent books to many young people; and my son, John, still has all of those he received [the last being just before Dr Borinski's death], now all read by John's own children. Another story to be told is the role of certain of the more courageous private Black colleges in the South -- two examples of several were Tougaloo and Alabama's Talladega College -- both under Northern church auspices and affiliated with the United Negro College Fund -- in providing a teaching/activist base for very explicitly radical professors. And there are other interesting and positive tales in this vein: the first of the Native-controlled tribal colleges in the United States was Navajo Community College [now Dine' College], founded and led -- until his tragic death in '72 -- by a very close friend of our family, Ned A. Hatathli [or Hatathali.] Ned was quick indeed -- and very fortunate -- to hire Philip Reno, a Marxist economist and very well known radical as faculty member and as a general consultant: Phil, a New Deal figure, had been viciously attacked by Whittaker Chambers, had played a major role in the Henry Wallace/Progressive Party campaign in Colorado and New Mexico, served as a key economist for the left Cheddi Jagan administration in Guyana, worked for Mine-Mill, and much much more. I was very privileged to teach with Phil when I, too, wound up at NCC -- in the 1978-81 period. [ I became chair of Social Sciences, based at the main Tsaile campus and Phil was on the Shiprock campus -- but we were always, of course, very closely linked in a variety of endeavours.] Like Dr. Borinski, Phil Reno was a sharp and genuinely practicing multi-cultural entity and a very effective teacher/activist/radical in every fine sense. And like Dr. Borinski at Tougaloo, Phil Reno was very deeply admired and respected in the NCC community. Just before his death [May 1981], Phil presented me with an inscribed copy of his just out work: Mother Earth, Father Sky, and Economic Development: Navajo Resources and Their Use (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1981). [I'm happy to say that this fine classic has since been reissued by UNM Press.] The outdoor memorial service for Phil Reno was held at Shiprock (N.M.). The invocation was given in Navajo and English by Dr Bahe Billy, a close friend of Phil's, Dean of the Shiprock Campus, a traditional Navajo who was also a Mormon. A large number of Native people -- mostly Navajo but from other tribes as well, were present along with academics -- and the most absolutely fascinating collection of old-time Western radicals ever gathered in such a setting. What a reunion! What a time! And the hot wind blew very hot sand thirty to forty miles an hour. H. HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) I have always lived and worked in Borderlands. See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salt
[Marxism] GOOD REFUGEES: DR BORINSKI AT TOUGALOO AND PHIL RENO AT NAVAJO
and also the quite left Dr Otto Nathan from New York as another; and Pete Seeger came [and many other fine activist and academic movers and shakers. ] And the Forums occasionally drew a few Mississippi white students and a Mississippi white professor or two as visitors -- this enraging the virulently racist Hederman press [Clarion-Ledger and Jackson Daily News] whose tirades had absolutely no inhibiting effect whatsoever on Dr Borinski or anyone else at Tougaloo. [In an interesting commentary on human complexity and evolution of some sort, the somewhat changing South eventually saw the younger Hedermans turn the utterly racist Jackson newspapers into at least fairly reasonable things. But they then sold out to Gannett and moved to New York and bought and still have the New York Review of Books.] Dr Borinski, though never referring to himself as an activist, was always very much indeed a teacher activist. While he never seemed to consider himself a radical -- he certainly always called me one, and always cordially so! -- he was very much indeed a radical in the best "to the roots" socio-economic sense. As we much younger folk moved in 1962 and 1963 to build the massive, non-violent direct-actionist and ultimately blood-dimmed Jackson Movement, Dr Borinski was a very strong and consistently dependable back-up supporter -- as he was of all human rights endeavours, whether in the Closed Society of the Jim Crow South or anywhere else on the planet. Dr Borinski was also an excellent cook, whose luncheons at the Social Science Lab were and are certainly very well remembered by the countless fortunate -- and he channeled all sorts of excellent European food concepts and tangibles directly into Mississippi culture. To the end of his life, he kept up deeply and well with people. He always gave excellent books to many young people; and my son, John, still has all of those he received [the last being just before Dr Borinski's death], now all read by John's own children. Another story to be told is the role of certain of the more courageous private Black colleges in the South -- two examples of several were Tougaloo and Alabama's Talladega College -- both under Northern church auspices and affiliated with the United Negro College Fund -- in providing a teaching/activist base for very explicitly radical professors. And there are other interesting and positive tales in this vein: the first of the Native-controlled tribal colleges in the United States was Navajo Community College [now Dine' College], founded and led -- until his tragic death in '72 -- by a very close friend of our family, Ned A. Hatathli [or Hatathali.] Ned was quick indeed -- and very fortunate -- to hire Philip Reno, a Marxist economist and very well known radical as faculty member and as a general consultant: Phil, a New Deal figure, had been viciously attacked by Whittaker Chambers, had played a major role in the Henry Wallace/Progressive Party campaign in Colorado and New Mexico, served as a key economist for the left Cheddi Jagan administration in Guyana, worked for Mine-Mill, and much much more. I was very privileged to teach with Phil when I, too, wound up at NCC -- in the 1978-81 period. [ I became chair of Social Sciences, based at the main Tsaile campus and Phil was on the Shiprock campus -- but we were always, of course, very closely linked in a variety of endeavours.] Like Dr. Borinski, Phil Reno was a sharp and genuinely practicing multi-cultural entity and a very effective teacher/activist/radical in every fine sense. And like Dr. Borinski at Tougaloo, Phil Reno was very deeply admired and respected in the NCC community. Just before his death [May 1981], Phil presented me with an inscribed copy of his just out work: Mother Earth, Father Sky, and Economic Development: Navajo Resources and Their Use (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1981). [I'm happy to say that this fine classic has since been reissued by UNM Press.] The outdoor memorial service for Phil Reno was held at Shiprock (N.M.). The invocation was given in Navajo and English by Dr Bahe Billy, a close friend of Phil's, Dean of the Shiprock Campus, a traditional Navajo who was also a Mormon. A large number of Native people -- mostly Navajo but from other tribes as well, were present along with academics -- and the most absolutely fascinating collection of old-time Western radicals ever gathered in such a setting. What a reunion! What a time! And the hot wind blew very hot sand thirty to forty miles an hour. H. HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) I have always lived and worked in Borderlands. See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salt
[Marxism] Zane Grey, Mormons, and Wobblies (a popular writer's hateful stuff)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This is an excerpt from a much longer website post of ours: One of the most venomous Western writers was Zane Grey ["no relation" as a prominent Mississippi journalist named Salter always indicates when discussing me]. Grey was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1872 and, in due course, settled in North Central Arizona, under the Tonto Rim. He lived in that general region for a very long time [before returning to the East and dying there in 1939] and wrote a myriad of Western novels -- some dimensions of which reflect capable observation of the cattle culture and the rough country. But, a puritan in the most narrow and rigid sense, he was venomously anti-Mormon and anti-Industrial Workers of the World -- all of these fine folks frequently found in the region where he pitched his tents. [It's also much around the area where I grew up.] In RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, written many years after the LDS church had formally abandoned polygamy, and first published in 1912, Grey provides the full package of anti-Mormon bigotry undergirded and pervaded by massive and sensational falsehoods: e.g., "closed towns," "captive women," Mormon "enforcers." If this was puzzling to the local "Gentiles" [non-Mormons] who failed completely to recognize their pleasant and hospitable Mormon neighbors in these lurid accounts, it played well -- as the poison still sometimes does -- in the East and West coast bastions of Liberal America. Zane Grey's viciously [and I don't use the word lightly], best known anti-IWW novel, THE DESERT OF WHEAT, written and published [1919] during the worst of the Red Scare, depicts the Wobblies as torch-carrying, field-burning saboteurs. Since some members of my mother's family were involved in large wheat acreages and flour mills in Kansas and Oklahoma, I was interested [but not surprised] in their comments after I read this tract when a very young man. None of my kin on that side of the family had the slightest awareness of IWW "sabotage" -- and some of the old-timers, indeed, had been Populists and Debs Socialists, while a well known close cousin of Mother's, Chris Hoffman, who was known as the "millionaire Socialist of Kansas," had dropped dead of a heart attack while addressing an IWW rally in Kansas City. Even the old Republican relatives in Kansas remembered the Wobbly harvest hands as good, dependable workers -- a sentiment shared by other kin in North Dakota. In his classic and highly detailed A HISTORY OF CRIMINAL SYNDICALISM LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1939] -- a good copy of which I have right here -- Professor Eldridge Foster Dowell can find nothing in IWW practice involving destructive sabotage and he states categorically on pages 34-35 that "The three great Federal trials of the I.W.W. and the state criminal syndicalism trials yield, in the writer's opinion, no reliable evidence of the commission of sabotage by the I.W.W. . . ." HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) I have always lived and worked in Borderlands. See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (expanded May 2012) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me. We are close upon the 50th anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of1962-63: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] THROWING DOWN THE GAUNTLET: 49 YEARS AGO (MISSISSIPPI)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The genuinely historic "Gauntlet Letter" is attached. (Marxmail does not handle attachments but the letter can be read in full via the "A Piece of the Scrapbook" link at the conclusion of this little narrative.) Throwing down the gauntlet to the Mississippi power structure: May 12, 1963. I made the motion before a special meeting of the Mississippi State Board of NAACP Branches -- of which I was the only non-Black member -- which sought the broadening of the Jackson Boycott into a massive non-violent protest movement. My motion was approved unanimously. Following this, Medgar Evers and I went to my house at Tougaloo College and I then typed this individual letter many times: to Governor Ross R. Barnett, Mayor Allen C. Thompson, City Commission, Bankers Association, Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Jackson Association, Junior Chamber of Commerce, and the Mississippi Economic Council. Medgar and I signed each letter at that point and he left for Jackson to get Mrs. Doris Allison's signature. The power structure, dominated by the powerful White Citizens Council, stonewalled. It brought in thousands of (white) " law enforcement officers " -- the many hundreds of Jackson city police, the thousand member Jackson police auxiliary, sheriffs and deputies and constables from every one of Mississippi's 82 counties, the entire Mississippi Highway Patrol, and finally the National Guard. Turning the State Fairgrounds into a gigantic concentration camp, these nefarious forces arrested several thousand of our people. Repression was bloody. Klan types poured into Jackson from the entire region. Medgar was murdered, I was almost killed, and now -- decades later -- Mrs. Doris Allison and I talk by phone at least once a week. My collected papers are held by the Mississippi State Department of Archives and History (as well as at State Historical Society of Wisconsin) and I am a Life Member of the august Mississippi State Historical Society. (Mrs Doris Allison passed away several years ago. Her good spouse, Ben, died soon after. They remained staunchly committed to the struggle for a full measure of human rights for all throughout the whole of their long lifetimes. We miss them both very much. They are the Godparents of our grandson/son, Thomas, and they will always remain so. H.) See these three consecutive pages: http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) I have always lived and worked in Borderlands. See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (expanded May 2012) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me. We are close upon the 50th anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of1962-63.: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Mix of Ku Klux Klan and Civil Rights Stuff
home base in Florida and related to several Klan units in Georgia and elsewhere. Worth keeping an eye on -- but Idaho really isn't its natural habitat. However, there are some other similar "things" in our region. We always have a couple of loaded firearms in our house -- 'way up high on the far western edge of Pocatello and a stone's throw from BLM lands. In Solidarity, Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me. We are close upon the 50th anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of1962-63.: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Reflections on the Ted Nugent Debacle
d-core section -- and others across the sweep of Dixie. Under the eyes of Klansmen, angry white parents, state and some Federal officials, we had succeeded some time back in securing token school desegregation -- Blacks and one Indian -- into schools in two of the towns. And now I and a few others were meeting at the county courthouse with school administrative officials to work out the integration / transfer of even more "minority" students. It was a low-key meeting involving some discussion of new Federal guidelines, nothing dramatic. Rom Parker was there as County Attorney. Earlier, I had loaned my car to a colleague and, with the meeting adjourned, I suddenly realized as I approached the courthouse door that it was raining very hard outside. My friend had not yet come back with my vehicle. Most people had already left. But, behind me, I heard someone coming down the stairway. It was Rom Parker. He and I looked at one another. Then he said, "I'm heading back to Enfield. Could you use a ride?" I was almost tempted -- but my car was coming. "I've got someone bringing my car here," I said. "Or I would be happy to go with you." And then I added, "I greatly appreciate your offer." And we shook hands. http://hunterbear.org/forces_and_faces_along_the_trail.htm HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me. We are close upon the 50th anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of1962-63.: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Mormons: from the perspective of long standing involvement and experience
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I've had quite a lot to do with Mormons in the course of my life. We get on well with each other. I grew up in Mormon country -- Northern Arizona -- and have Mormon relatives in that state and also here in southeastern Idaho which is about 70% LDS. Our kin here include my youngest daughter and her two happily wild baby sons and by extension her good electrician husband -- and his very large family which has been strongly involved in organized labor for several generations. This isn't surprising. I've seen strong Mormon union participation over many years indeed in the copper country of Arizona and Utah. Much of the old communal spirit continues in interesting and positive ways. During my many years battle with systemic lupus -- now happily driven back into its cave -- our LDS neighbors in this very far up western edge of Pocatello (immediately adjoining BLM lands) were of consistent assistance to us on many fronts. That's a common Mormon reaction, especially at the grassroots level. Here's something I wrote several years ago: GETTING SET FOR NATURAL DISASTERS [PREPAREDNESS HERE IN MORMON COUNTRY] HUNTER GRAY APRIL 9 2006 -- COMMENTS NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: The Snake and Portenuf rivers are brimful and, even with a brief lull, storm clouds are now once again gathering in the Mountains Not-Far-Yonder. The late drought is rapidly becoming a dim, bad memory and regional flood warnings are much to the fore. Forest/grass fires may lie much further on in the summer and some of us do worry a bit about earthquakes. Winds anywhere from 50 mph to 80 are not uncommon and power outages are relatively frequent. Joseph Smith [1805-1844] was the Visionary. His youthful visions/revelations and associated experiences -- and subsequent martyrdom at the hands of lynching bigots -- established him as the initial and key Prophet in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But it was Prophet Brigham Young who was the Organizer. Young guided his folk westward, through always desolate southern Wyoming, to the land of the Great Salt Lake. There is a legend that may well have foundation that Brigham Young, along that most demanding travail, learned of the existence of the Lake and its environs from Mountain Man Jim Bridger who in turn had learned of it from the wandering and feisty band of Iroquois fur hunters led by knife-fighting John Gray [Ignace Hatchiorauquasha.] Brigham Young and his colleagues organized the Faith -- and a major city as its primary base. His style of organization was careful, systematic and, if it wasn't always purely democratic, it was effective and it's been very enduring and expansive indeed. The Mormons held off a venomous Federal government for decades -- and the increasingly Federally-backed Eastern mining corporations as well -- until the time came that the Church could deal with them mostly on its own terms. Young himself was personally prepared. He often carried a revolver and was accompanied by the devout Mormon gunman, Porter Rockwell [who as a still armed venerable, as Bill Haywood indicates in his classic and dramatic autobiography [Bill Haywood's Book, 1929], certainly impressed that future prime mover of the Wobblies and his circle of childhood friends.] On the whole, the LDS church got on well with the Indians -- there were only a few local exceptions to this -- and its historical emissary to the Native nations over a wide piece of the Intermountain West, Jacob Hamblin, usually very well received by the tribes, is known historically as "the Mormon Leatherstocking." The Mormon faith is growing fast -- and globally. It offers an attractive theology, a strong communalistic dimension [which drew heavily from the American Utopian traditions] -- and it pays a lot of attention to the broad well-being of its grassroots [and others as well.] Several hundred families are organized into wards [each with its local Bishop] and the wards are grouped in stakes [each with a President] -- and so on up the chain. At the grassroots, there are always storehouses stocked heavily with food and other necessities for those in need. Some Mormons are Democrats, some are Republicans, and, citing Pocatello as an example, the unions -- craft, industrial, teacher -- are full of LDS members. What this translates into, among other things, in our bailiwick right here is Preparedness -- something that was singularly missing in much of New Orleans and several parts of the Gulf region. Wherever we have gone, our own family has been consistently well stocked with food, water, and guns. [Yesterday, we even filled the gas-tank of our now sometimes-inactive Jeep.] While some folks in the Grand Forks, North Dakota set
[Marxism] The Loving Story [Loving v Virginia]
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Over the weekend, I happened to run across the just released [February 14] HBO film, The Loving Story. Based on the major Loving v Virginia legal struggle which, via a unanimous USSC decision in 1967, ended Virginia's "racial purity/anti miscengation" law -- and by application, any such signal ills wherever they might exist in US jurisdiction, it is well worth viewing. The lead attorney in the case, Phil Hirschkop, represented us -- and myself personally -- in a number of North Carolina civil rights/civil liberties matters. Good to see him -- then and now -- in the well done film. The South, as we all know, has always had very interesting racial situations -- as has the country. This could produce tragedy but also interesting "maneuvers." I recall a family in a Deep Dixie setting where the sire, who had come down from Illinois as a young man, and who looked totally Anglo, was, early on after his arrival in Dixie, a self-described Negro who had fallen in love with a young Negro lady -- and married her, producing a large family. Once, around 1965, a Black clergyman and I stopped at a small and very rural typically Dixie gas station/store. The older man inside was white but there was an older Black lady who was obviously much in charge. The minister and I left in due course and, although I asked no questions, my companion volunteered the fact that, "In the eyes of God, they are married." They'd been thusly married, he told me, for about forty years. Mildred Loving was a Virginian of African and Native descent. Richard Loving was a Virginia white man. They married in DC and, in Virginia prior to the USSC victory, had to be "very careful" whenever they were in their home state and at one point they were arrested. Mr Loving was killed by a drunk driver in 1975 but Mildred Loving lived to 2008 -- and, citing their own personal battle with bigotry, publicly endorsed gay marriage. Hunter [Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] REMEMBERING CLEVELAND DONALD, JR.
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == FEBRUARY 2, 2012 The news of Cleveland Donald, Jr.'s passing comes as a stunning and extremely heavy shock to myself and Eldri. We have corresponded very regularly with Cleveland on a number of social justice matters -- including global issues involving people of color -- for the past several years. We have known him since he was 15 years old and a founding member of the North Jackson NAACP Youth Council to which I was Advisor. He played a major role in the development of our Jackson Boycott in 1962-63 which grew into the massive Jackson Movement of 1963. Along with a great many other people in that epoch of great struggle, he and his parents ran many risks of many kinds. But Cleveland and his family always kept going toward the Sun, steadily and sturdily. Eldri has always recalled giving Cleveland several of her college philosophy books which he devoured -- and always saved. Just two weeks or so ago, he wrote to congratulate me on having been one of four Native civil rights activists honored on Martin Luther King Day. He also gave the basic points of a fine and inspirational sermon he had just composed. Cleveland will always go on fighting and learning for very good causes. A great many of us will always carry him with us. And here is a written account of mine involving a very long telephone coversation Cleveland and I had in 2009: A LONG TALK AND A LONG WALK, BACK AND FORTH THROUGH TIME [HUNTER BEAR/HUNTER GRAY -- SUMMER, 2009] Yesterday around these parts -- as has been the case for weeks -- we've had extremely heavy rain. Record-setting and the whole region is under a serious flash-flood watch. Up here on our Idaho hill we are, of course, "high and dry" with a large blooming green yard area and the ever-imperialistic Russian Olive tree [only one of our many trees] moving again to try to envelop our house. Josie [our youngest] and Cameron and Baby Aiden ["Exit"] were in the nearby small town of Inkom which was inundated with flash flood stuff but were on higher ground at Cameron's aunt's home -- and eventually got back to Pocatello. Last night, my great Cat, the indefatigable Sky Gray awakened me as usual around 2 a.m. There is some question as to whether she sees me as a playmate or a plaything but her singular attention and devotion to me are infinite. [I am sure this strikes a considerable note of resonance with the several Cat people on some of these lists, e.g., David McReynolds, Sam Friedman, and Lois Chaffee.] Intermixed with all of this, was a very long and excellent phone visit with Cleveland Donald, Jr. who called from the East Coast where he's a Black Studies -- and also Caribbean -- professor at a large university. And, at the same time, he's a busy clergyman. It was a time machine kind of conversation -- laced with dramatic Mississippi episodes and the names of old friends, some still with us, some gone, and some -- like murdered Medgar Evers -- long gone. Cleveland was one of the first Jackson kids I met when I assumed the role of "Adult Advisor" of the then tiny -- about nine members -- North Jackson NAACP Youth Council at the end of the summer of 1961 soon after we came to Tougaloo College. At that time, he was 14, a serious guy who, when he visited us at Tougaloo, often became engrossed in Eldri's several books on philosophy -- some of which she subsequently gave him. Meeting in semi-clandestine fashion in an old church in the northern part of Jackson, the Youth Council grew steadily, carried out manageable and effective single-issue civil rights thrusts, and in the early fall of 1962, numbered several dozen stalwarts -- ranging in age from nine years into the early 'twenties. Most were in high school. Early on we ditched and ignored -- with Medgar Evers' [NAACP field secretary] quiet approval the requirement by the National NAACP office that all Youth Council members anywhere had to belong formally to the NAACP. At the same time, the Youth Council began to stimulate student activism at Tougaloo College -- then a few miles north of Jackson. I met regularly with the North Jackson kids at the church and many began coming to our home on the Tougaloo campus. Lots of Tougaloo students also came to our place -- and the Salter home became known to Magnolia friends and foes alike as "Salter's coffee house." The activist dream of a widespread multi-issue economic boycott of downtown Jackson -- with the longer range vision of widespread and massive nonviolent direct action focused on even more issues -- began with the Youth Council but very early on sparked great good fire at Tougaloo. Thus in that fal
[Marxism] The Radical Grassroots Poetry of John Beecher -- Southern Activist and More
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Note by Hunter Bear: January 29 2012 Very recently, I had occasion to say a good word about Robin Kelley's excellent 1990 book, Hammer and Hoe, on the role of Communists, and some other radicals, in groundbreaking civil rights and labor work in Alabama in the 1930s to 1941. (I received the book a few years ago as a gift from an old friend, who had been best man at my wedding in 1961, a sociologist and a retired Marine Corps colonel.] The book has a heavy focus on the struggles of sharecroppers and, from that perspective, I suggested that the great and long epic poem on that very topic by radical poet, John Beecher, In Egypt Land, be read. John was an Alabamian and much of his always strong work has a Southern social justice focus. He also did some great stuff on Arizona and other challenging settings. And that leads me to post this of mine on John Beecher himself. I wrote this piece following John's passing in 1980. We were always very good friends indeed. Eldri and I remain in good contact with his spouse, Barbara, always a very fine friend, who lives in North Carolina -- an excellent artist in her own right. [H] THE NEXT GREAT STEP OF THE WAY: JOHN BEECHER'S GRASSROOTS POETRY [HUNTER BEAR] INTRODUCTORY COMMENT BY HUNTER GRAY/HUNTER BEAR [JOHN R SALTER, JR] January 19 2004. This article of mine -- commemorating the great Southern social justice poet, John Beecher and his wife, Barbara -- appeared initially in SOJOURNERS, the Christian social justice journal, March 1981. In the spring of 1979, the first edition of my own book came out, JACKSON MISSISSIPPI: AN AMERICAN CHRONICLE OF STRUGGLE AND SCHISM. I immediately sent a copy to John and Barbara , and my inscription read: "For John and Barbara Beecher - Old, firm friends -- the kind of people who help make the sun shine on the water. With best wishes, always - John R Salter Jr - May 10 1979." John Beecher died in May, 1980. We maintained close contact with Barbara -- who went back to North Carolina. Eventually their library appeared at a large Asheville bookstore -- and on ABE. My book was there and the price was very hefty. When a few weeks passed with no purchasers, we bought it and it now sits next to the many inscribed books John Beecher sent us over the many years. THE NEXT GREAT STEP OF THE WAY: JOHN BEECHER'S GRASSROOTS POETRY [HUNTER BEAR] A great mountain lifted into the clouds when John Beecher, American poet of social struggle, died last May in San Francisco. The scenery is not the same for many of us for whom he was a major force in connecting hearts and minds with the nonviolent battle for human rights. I met him for the first time in Arizona in the fall of '59. It was a bitter time in my home state. From Butte, Montana to the Mexican border, copper workers were on strike, led by the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. Arizona was a bastion of reaction in those days. Adamant recalcitrance from the huge mining companies backed by anti-labor judges and lawmen, coupled with a sweeping Federal "Communist conspiracy" trial of the top Mine-Mill leadership then in session at Denver, made the hard-rock miners' struggle a flashback to the 1910s. I was a graduate student in sociology then, at Arizona State University on the outskirts of Phoenix. Spending far more time in the field than in classes, I was organizing miners' relief in the metropolitan area. We were using the excellent Mine-Mill film, SALT OF THE EARTH, depicting an earlier strike in southwest New Mexico and matters were getting rough. As soon as we lined up places at which to show the film -- often with the help of Roman Catholic parish priests -- church authorities, "anti-Communist leagues" and the FBI worked in concert to bar us from schools, parish halls, and other facilities. Newspapers refused to run our ads, and cars and houses were mysteriously broken into. We plugged along and eventually found places where we could show SALT, distribute literature, and collect strike relief. At the first showing, hostile police were parked outside, and we studied each incoming person with an eye toward spotting foes. A large man in his mid-50s walked resolutely into our hall and took a seat. He had, for the times, a massive beard. "Who's he?" asked a friend. "Damned if I know," I remember saying, "but he sure isn't from Kennecott or the FBI." He certainly wasn't. He came up afterwards and that's when I met John Beecher, poet and temporary faculty member at Arizona State. We had little chance to talk then, for the strike relief campaign was off
[Marxism] From my Community Organizing Course
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The time for effective community organizing is obviously NOW. This substantial excerpt from our very full page should be helpful. The full course is, http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm (H.) HERE ARE MY RELATED PIECES ON ORGANIZING. FIRST, AMONG OTHER INTEGRAL AND RELATED DIMENSIONS, ARE: 1] Invitations to the Organizer from the grassroots -- spontaneous and wrangled. Some can come to one's own sponsoring organization; some can come directly to you if you are reasonably well known; or you can arrange an invitation. 2] Issues: Some are readily apparent, some not always apparent -- e.g., economic relationships; some are immediately realistic with work and some are futuristic; some are frankly unrealistic in the foreseeable future. 3] Planning philosophies: Top Down, vs Basic Grassroots Up [my preference]. Set forth general overall goals, long-range specific, short range specific. Heavy grassroots involvement here is always critical. 4] Credibility of project: Should be made up and led primarily by the people for whose benefit it is launched: e.g., "those of the fewest alternatives." Careful delineation and evaluation of active and potential leaders is obviously critical. And often things start out with a steering committee of leaders and then, after the organization has grown and more people are actively involved, elections of regular officers. 5] Some people may want to move too fast and others too slowly. The Organizer helps develop the group's tempo and assists grassroots leaders and people in meeting those expectations. 6] Direct action: Always know First Amendment and related rights. Picketing, sit-ins, boycotts, mass marches are extremely useful. And there is always a need for careful organization and tactical nonviolence. Direct action should be accompanied by judicious media coverage. 7] Media use: Has to be used carefully: national wire services; local television, often with national hookups; local radio; local and regional press; specialized press; news releases -- who, what, when, where, why and how; press conferences; leaflets with ALL pertinent information; newsletters; community newspapers; community cable TV; Internet. There is always a need for constantly updated media/contact lists. 8] Lawyers and litigation: Defensive and aggressive legal actions -- "criminal" and civil; local volunteers; paid lawyers; national organizational attorneys -- e.g., ACLU, Lawyers Guild, Native American Rights Fund. Some non-in-court matters can be handled very effectively by good law students. 9] Possible allies and political action: National organizations; and government agencies [be careful]; political -- informal approaches and quiet contacts; formal approaches and lobbying and direct requests; electoral [voting]. DON'T GET CO-OPTED. 10] Power structure analysis: Check out Moody's industrials and Standard and Poor's; and check out lawyers and their big business connections in Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, and see FindLaw. Also see firms in U.S. Lawyer's Directory. City Directory will frequently give the official occupation of people. See corporate profit and not for profit charters at the state secretary of state's office and check out annual registration of organizations from state attorney general or sometimes secretary of state. Data on charitable organizations can be found at state attorney general's office and county tax assessor. There are also various national and regional Who's Who and IRS and U.S. Government Organization Manual and Congressional Directory. DON'T NEGLECT HELPFUL NON-OFFICIAL GOSSIP. 11] Coalitions [tend to be long term] and alliances [often shorter term] are sometimes beneficial and sometimes not. Consider all of this carefully and try to avoid precipitous marriages. 12] Although no Organizer -- whether from the "outside" or the "inside" -- will ever have full consensus from the community, he or she must avoid the temptation to be a "Lone Ranger." That role can be temporarily justified only in cases of extreme grassroots fear or heavy factionalism. [Hunter Bear] ____ JUST WHAT MAKES A DAMN GOOD COMMUNITY ORGANIZER? BASED ON MY 50 YEARS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR] 12/30/03 [Published in the Spring 2004 issue of Independent Politics News And Published In Oregon Socialist, Winter/Spring 2004 -- and much more.] I'm an Organizer, a damn good one. I get and keep people together for social justice action. I've been an Organizer for virtually half a century -- all over much of what's cal
[Marxism] MLK and Native civil rights activists honored by NIGA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thanks very much to Ernie Stevens and NIGA (National Indian Gaming Association) for honoring Dr King and Native civil rights leaders. I'm pleased to be included in this group, some of whom I've met and with whom I've worked at various points. [H] http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/16/ernie-stevens-jr-honor-mlk-and-native-civil-rights-leaders-72722 HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Brief reflections on the Woolworth Sit-In at Jackson, May, 1963
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == >From RBB - And thanks much to you, Kari -- and others -- for the strong interest in human rights and good multi-cultural work. We came out of that Woolworth sit-in initially unaware that, by then, the TV shots and various photos had already gone all over this country and the world. The people -- almost all of them young [but some Klan types and other adults and the ostensibly incognito FBI "observers" with sun glasses] -- had been effectively brainwashed for the whole of their lives via the racist orthodoxy pervading most of the white society in Mississippi and finessed after 1954 by the (white) Citizens Council, whose national headquarters was in Jackson within a stone's throw from the Gov's mansion. This was not, of course, limited to Mississippi by any stretch. But Mississippi was a state-wide segregationist complex, a Closed Society as my friend, Prof Jim Silver [History, Ole Miss] termed it in his classic Mississippi: The Closed Society [Harcourt Brace, 1964 and 1966.] While true racism wears many faces, this was an example of that at about its purest. It's one of the reasons that I resent it when "racism" is tossed about too freely as a politically convenient label. Again, there is plenty of racism, sadly, but using the term too broadly and in cavalier fashion as a "convenience weapon" in matters where, properly speaking, it isn't really racism -- well, that just cheapens the term and makes it less meaningful -- less powerful -- as an accurate definition. I discuss a little of the social psych of the mob in my two WebPages on the "event" -- as well as the fact that the sit-in was a tremendous force in rallying much of the Black community of Jackson and environs right into the middle of the Jackson Movement, http://hunterbear.org/Woolworth%20Sitin%20Jackson.htm Solidarity Forever, H HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] MLK DAY AND RELATED MATTERS
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Comment by Hunter Bear: January 15 2004. This is the season in which Martin King -- and the Movement -- are especially honored. And rightly so indeed. [I always do hope, however, that Dr King's many positive qualities are not exaggerated to the point that no young person feels he/she can emulate them. Great man, for sure -- a saint, no.] More than anything else, we all need to tackle -- with maximum and urgent effectiveness -- the myriad of contemporary social justice issues confronting much suffering Humanity. I knew Martin King -- not deeply and well -- but consistently. I called him on the night of June 13 1963 from Jackson -- two days after Medgar Evers was shot and killed. Our rapidly growing protest demonstrations were being bloodily suppressed. I asked Dr King to come to Jackson for Medgar's funeral on June 15. He readily agreed to do so. We picked him up and several key staff of his -- Ralph Abernathy, Wyatt Walker and others -- at the police-drenched Jackson airport. It was already very hot and the temperature was to go, that day, to 102 super-humid degrees. Martin King and Dr Abernathy rode in my car -- along with Bill Kunstler -- and the others were brought by Ed King. We had a very grudging police escort from the city's all-White police department. The Jackson setting could not have been more lethally dangerous for all of us -- but Dr King visited easily and casually with me, and I with him, as we traveled the very dangerous several miles to the Negro Masonic Temple on Lynch Street. The funeral was huge -- several thousand people, inside and out -- and, following the funeral, six thousand of us marched the two miles or so from the Temple to the Collins Funeral Home on Farish Street. [It was the first "legal" civil rights demonstration in Mississippi's hate-filled, sanguinary history.] Then, there was a second massive demonstration -- which is discussed in my following post on Medgar Evers. I knew Medgar Wiley Evers deeply and well. http://hunterbear.org/medgar_w.htm http://hunterbear.org/an_idaho_mlk_day_gathering.htm [One of my earlier, and typical, King Day talks in this region. Subsequent ones, on King Day and other times on related matters in calmer weather, have drawn much larger audiences. This page also contains some other Mississippi reflections. [Go to the "continue" page immediately following this one if interested in seeing very early photos of Baby Maria with Lois Chaffee and Karin Kunstler [at Tougaloo] and Baby John with neighborhood friends [at Raleigh.] Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] ORGANIZER'S ART AND THE ROMANY TRAIL
ons stimulates and feeds the other. A good and truly effective Organizer absolutely has to show this interconnection." -- My oldest son, John [Beba] made this post last night 9/13/05 -- and it's quite on target. Nothing has much changed for us material possessions-wise -- to this very point -- but we are incredibly rich in family [including animal companions] and friends. Our current house on the far-up edge of Pocatello [Idaho] has proven to be a wise investment from many perspectives. And we do take pride in our extensive collection of Native arts and crafts [including paintings] sprinkled judiciously and often inconspicuously around our house as well as an extensive library. This from Beba and then a bit more from me: "Speaking as the son of a lifelong organizer, I can say this. We never owned a new stick of furniture. We weren't always allowed to answer the phone as children because men would be on the other end saying they were coming to kill us. It was not uncommon to come home from school and learn that we'd be moving across the country in a couple weeks. My point being that we need to separate different kinds of organizers--the light load trail rider Shane vs. those comfortably ensconced in their settings. Great topic, though!" -- John Salter >From Hunter Bear, again: >From the historic and still very much alive Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers film of 1953-54, SALT OF THE EARTH, based on the 1950-52 strike against Empire Zinc in Grant County, New Mexico: Ruth Barnes [Virginia Jencks] on the life of she and her organizer husband, Frank Barnes [Clinton Jencks]: "Me, I'm a camp follower -- following this organizer from one mining camp to another -- Montana, Colorado, Idaho . . ." I can say I've been a working organizer virtually all of my life -- long before I married Eldri in 1961. But since even then, we have lived in 16 different settings all over the 'States. [In a number of those places, I worked in several different specific areas in the region.] A good organizer, sooner or later, works himself/herself out of a job. Presumptuous as this sounds, see my little catechism: http://www.hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm "The Organizers, who at the outset may well play a very key role in the function and affairs of the community organization, must, on a step-by-step and essentially pragmatic basis, shift increasing responsibility to the leaders and membership of the group, to eventually: A] First, insure that the community organization can function effectively with only occasional involvement by Organizers. B] And then, that the community organization can function effectively with no involvement by Organizers to the point that, in addition to conducting its regular affairs, the group can "organize on its own" --bringing in new constituents and/or assisting other grassroots people in adjoining areas in setting up and conducting their own community organizations." For four years, 1969-73, I directed a large-scale grassroots community organizing project on the turbulent and sanguinary South/Southwest side of Chicago -- working primarily with Black, Puerto Rican, Chicano people "of the fewest alternatives". We had a wide range of enemies: e.g., white racists -- organized and otherwise, the Daley Machine, Republicans, many [not all] police. We were also vigorously opposed by the Back of the Yards Council, the first of the Saul Alinsky organizing projects. That dinosaur richly exemplified two major organizing flaws: [1] top down organizing and [2] the fact that some organizers stayed on and refused to relinquish the coalition." For a discussion of all of this, see my: Chicago Organizing: Tough, Cat-Clawing and Bloody http://www.hunterbear.org/chicago_organizing.htm And, one final time lest it's gotten lost in my verbiage: http://www.hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm --- The Internet can help -- help -- mobilize. But it can never accomplish fundamentally real organizing. Real organizing -- the grassroots stuff -- is tough and usually tedious and always the hardest work there is. Keeps the Real Organizer usually thin and always happy. In Solidarity - Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Our community organizing course: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Personal perspective and reflection on the Defense/Detention Act
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == A skeptical non-list friend this morning who wasn't initially concerned about the just signed Obama Defense/Detention Act, re-thought and changed his position after he looked at this Link of mine: http://www.hunterbear.org/fightback_minemill.htm The depicted concentration camp was at Florence, Arizona, on the highway between Tucson and Phoenix. And it was indeed staffed and ready to go. We saw it many times, driving back and forth. After I secured, via FOIA/PA, a huge number of heavily redacted documents from my FBI national and regional files, I realized that I could have easily wound up in that camp, or another, during a Presidentially-deemed period of "National Emergency." I'd been placed on several high priority "subversive/security" lists -- which would have easily been my ticket to the barbed-wire hotel." [Actually, I wasn't surprised at the revelation.] Any dissident who went through the Red Scare era, or anyone who has studied it with reasonable care, isn't going to take this Detention Act at all lightly. It has to be fought, militantly and sensibly, along with all of the other signal violations of civil liberty that have poisoned our democratic well during this current period of spontaneous and concocted fear and hysteria. Solidarity. Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Our community organizing course: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Psychopaths Among Us
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == >From Hunter Bear on RBB discussion: Rationally, I think we've worked the Thickets of Psychopathy to the hilt -- almost, almost. But I can't help this regarding the guy who sees "subliminal psychopathy" lurking everywhere. A job applicant -- any job of "substance" -- goes through the conventional procedure, replete with interview[s] and such background checks as credit, Google, etc. Comes through this like a shining adult Eagle Scout. But then, he or she is told that there is another step in the Process. The applicant has to be interviewed by Dr X, the resident shrink. Dr X, after having surveyed the applicant's body language and eye contact and sweating factors, gently informs the person that there is a final standard step: determination of potentially positive and/or potentially negative subliminal latencies. The applicant is given the choice of "professional" hypnosis, sodium pentothal [also used in executions], or a 33 page written exam [far, far beyond and vastly more intricate than the Old Army testing joke, "Do you like girls?"] Meanwhile, the House and Senate have moved to set up investigating committees to pursue Dangerous Latencies. The President seeks and secures a special Bureau with the power to demand subliminal exams for anyone deemed potentially threatening to National Security. Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Our community organizing course: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Thinking about Occupy -- and the Wobblies
p alternatives "at ready." The stakes were always very high. That Adversary was powerful, cunning, absolutely ruthless, and downright deadly. [H] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Our community organizing course: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] BONA FIDE GRASSROOTS SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZING: TIMELESS, TIMELY
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == As I sometimes note, my primary vocation has always been that of a grassroots social justice organizer. Although I've taught in very solid colleges and universities, almost always organizing concurrently, I've never been based in the ostensibly prestigious academic entities on the East and West coasts. I am not a "conference organizer" -- trotting ostentatiously and pompously from one such affair to another. Although I appreciate some sound theory, I'm certainly not a dry theoretician. But, in conjunction with grassroots people from a wide variety of backgrounds -- racial, ethnic, tribal, age, rural and small town and urban -- all over this country, I can point to a very successful track record over very stormy decades. I wrote the attached piece almost four years ago. At that time, some people were tossing around the term, "community organizer" with little comprehension about what real organizing entails. And some of that superficiality continues. Nowadays, what can be termed "mobilization" (frequently via internet) is often seen as community organization. But mobilization, by itself and however dramatic it may briefly be, is very far from full and bona fide grassroots organizing. Mobilization can be an important flare-up part of an already on-going and enduring oak wood organizing burn for special strategic and tactical purposes. And, with hard and fastly initiated follow-up organizing work, simple mobilization can lead to on-going and enduring community organization. But mobilization, by itself, simply burns itself out -- like fast burning pitchy pine. Bona fide social justice grassroots organizing, depthy and pervasive and, by its inherent nature, sensibly radical and visionary, is about the hardest -- and ultimately the most satisfying -- work of which I know on Earth. (H) THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER -- AS PRACTITIONER, TEACHER, WRITER AND STUDENT [HUNTER GRAY/HUNTER BEAR [FEBRUARY 19 2008] -- LINK TO MY FULL MINI-COURSE FOLLOWS IMMEDIATELY. I think that Community Organizing can only be effectively done and conveyed, to / with grassroots people or formal students, if the organizer is a genuinely experienced -- experienced -- individual. Virtually anyone can call himself / herself a "community organizer." There are not, in this particular field, any formal certification requirements or issued licenses. And it also takes a Real One [of which there are fortunately many] to effectively teach and write about it. To me, a bona fide community organizer is someone who is actively and effectively involved over a substantial period of time in the hard, tedious, and sometimes genuinely dangerous work of getting people together and keeping people together -- for meaningful action. And, as I certainly see it, of course, this has to be within the context of the pursuit of social justice. This has to involve much more than, simply, a few here-and-there, hit-and-miss local endeavors -- or limited "support" activities from a safe and cloistered setting. It has to involve vastly more than simply being a participant in, say, a march. I'm talking about someone who plays a signal role in initiating constructive fires [figuratively] and who, systematically, works to carry that through to relative success as yet another stretch of the trail in the Save the World Business. Sometimes it's a pitchy-pine hot and flaring fire; more likely it's the long oak wood burn with an occasional flare. An organizer can be an altruistic someone who starts as a neophyte and who works with an experienced organizer -- and it can also be someone who arises spontaneously in a social justice crisis and feathers out with dispatch. In both instances, the organizer "learns by doing" and keeps going. And a genuinely good and effective organizer never stops learning from the grassroots people with whom he / she works. Without wasting time on false modesty, I've sometimes referred to an "organizing credential" of mine as my graduate degree in militant organizing. Awarded me in 1963 in the heat of our massive Jackson [Mississippi] Movement was a sheaf of papers with myself as the lead name: City of Jackson vs. John R. Salter, Jr et al. Prepared by Mississippi's top anti-civil rights lawyer [Thomas Watkins] who consulted with a bevy of others including the then state AG, it's considered the most sweeping anti-civil rights "order" issued during the general period. It sought to prohibit us from engaging in any kind of demonstration and boycott, "conspiring" to do such, and doing anything to "consummate conspiracies" t
[Marxism] A few thoughts on Occupy
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == As I've prefaced before, I'm not at Occupy and, beyond a certain point, reluctant to criticize. My inclinations have been supportive. A few weeks ago, I raised the question on RBB about where it might be going and possible goals. While I recognized that its spontaneity and somewhat -- somewhat -- diversity were its considerable strength at that point, I was skeptical about those qualities alone giving it an enduring life in the sense of an "oak wood fire". As I recall, there were very few answers and no definitive ones to the points I briefly made. The other day I, again briefly, opined on a couple of our lists that Occupy could benefit from some intra and inter organization and national/local and short range/longer range goals. I don't think that drew any response. It seems to me that Occupy is a remarkable protest movement which has raised and reinforced general awareness of some very key issues. But, in my opinion, it isn't really a goal-oriented phenomenon, characterized by much internal strategy discussion and resultant discipline -- and its lack of cohesion and organization are sadly striking. In fact, as pieces of it seem to be fading away, its very life appears speculative, maybe questionable. Whatever its future, it has undoubtedly radicalized many people and may -- may -- be a stepping stone to something considerably more effective on several fronts. These shortcoming, as I see them, are in sharp contrast to the almost always well organized Labor actions of yore -- and today. The Bonus Marchers in the twilight of the Herbert Hoover administration had a very clear and specific goal. Occupy is NOT comparable to the old Civil Rights Movement. To be honest, I personally resent that analogy. The Civil Rights Movement occurred in a very obvious on-going historical context, almost always had at all levels effective democratic leadership, and had very clear and specific goals -- local and national and long range and short-range. Its commitment to tactical non-violence was almost pervasive. Virtually every level and facet of that Movement was very well organized -- even to the point that there was usually cognizance of potentially unexpected developments -- say, during demonstrations -- and thus almost always back-up alternatives "at ready." The stakes were always very high. That Adversary was powerful, cunning, absolutely ruthless, and downright deadly. Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial Introduction by me: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Our community organizing course: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm Personal Background Narrative (with many links): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Workingstiff Left and the Silk Stocking Left
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==
My little personal piece of yesterday, "Basic Memoir: An Organizer's Book" --
drew a number of affirmative off-list comments. I responded to them and there
was some interesting follow-up. In a response to a good letter from a
radical Canadian lady -- born, as she put it, "on the wrong side of the tracks"
-- I happened to mention a time when I, and either son John or Mack (I think it
was John) happened to drop in on a left book store in Winnipeg. (That always
interesting city is not far from Grand Forks, ND -- and Manitobans, because of
a Canadian tax set up, frequently shopped in the Forks.)
The bookstore was not large. Its managers appeared to me to be of Ukrainian
background. From the moment we entered, we were watched closely, and with an
at least implicitly hostile attitude. I was wearing my standard Levis and
boots, still looked like a scruffy football player or a cowboy -- and, as I
put it in my letter to this good lady comrade, I really didn't look like a
Radical. My offspring, I'm sure, likely duplicated my appearance.
It was kind of tense, as we wandered about looking at this and that. Then,
fortunately, I saw a copy of Mike Solski's Mine Mill. I held it up and,
ostensibly speaking to my offspring, said very audibly: "Really a great book of
Mike's. Damn glad I was able to get my long and extremely favorable review of
it into Labor History, down in the 'States." (As I've mentioned before, we
probably have more relatives in Canada than in this country.)
Well, that sort of broke the ice. Sort of. I bought a copy of a weighty book,
Canadian Socialism (I'm afraid it turned out to be abysmally dull), and
something else that I can't off-hand recall. And we and the left book store
parted in, I suppose, friendly enough fashion.
My Canadian correspondent thought this tale hilarious:
"I had a good laugh at your description of being looked at oddly in the
left bookstore ... have had that experience myself, but many lefties here are
of the trendy type ("millionaire Marxists," one wag had it). In fact at a
dinner with Mike Solski, a young woman of the left treated him like he was a
redneck! I wonder how many of the old union types would not be considered
"politically correct."
(Note by H: For many, many years indeed, Mike Solski was a major official
of the Canadian Mine Mill. And as reference for Marxmail, my review of Mine
Mill: http://www.hunterbear.org/jrs.htm)
H.
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'
Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now almost 12 years old. It
contains a great deal of primary, first-hand material on Native
Americans, Civil Rights Movement, union labor, and organizing
techniques -- and much more. Check it out and its vast number
of component pieces. The front page itself -- the initial cover
page -- has 40 representative links.
www.hunterbear.org
See our full Community Organizing course (much reprinted) --
with new material and updated into 2011. Lots of practical
stuff -- based on decades of actual experience:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
And see this on the new, expanded and updated edition of my book,
Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of
the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] BASIC MEMOIR: AN ORGANIZER'S BOOK
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == COMMENTS BY HUNTER BEAR: This note does not call for a response from anyone. People are busy. I've already received some fine comments about the the new version of my book, Jackson Mississippi. (Susan Klopfer, a Southern Movement writer, did a most positive review forthwith!) One comment came from Mary Ann, an old friend and former Tougaloo student of mine and a strong and committed worker on behalf of our Jackson Boycott Movement out of which we developed the mass, non-violent Jackson Movement. She writes: Hi Mr. Salter, finally received your book in the mail yesterday. Was anxious to read the new introduction. Initially I was confused as to what this had to do with Jackson, Ms. but as I continued to read , I had an aha moment . It dawned on me. These experiences made you into the person we came to know , love and appreciate in Jackson/Tougaloo, Ms. WWW, MARY ANN Those are very kind words -- and it's certainly mutual. (WWW, I should add, was the slogan of our Jackson struggle: WE WILL WIN.) And Mary Ann's apt comments have led me to write this: I and my good family have been having an interesting life these past many decades. We'd do it all over again. And we're not at the end of the trail by a long stretch. But, interesting and productive as I think it's been, I very much doubt that any autobiography I did -- as per the repeated suggestions and encouragement of good friend Bill Mandel -- would ever find its way into print. By the same token, I doubt that anyone would be interested in doing a biographical book on me. The just now out third version of my book, Jackson Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Struggle and Schism (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011), is, as I indicate in its new and substantial Introduction, "an organizer's book." http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Jackson-Mississippi,674910.aspx Growing up in Northern Arizona, in a setting replete with social justice issues and committed early on to grassroots and activist community organizing, I, personally, have always been especially interested in the lives of effective activists. Two of those, autobiographies, had a very significant and enduring impact on me back in 1955 when I was 21: Bill Haywood's Book: The Autobiography of William D. Haywood (New York: International Publishers, 1929 and subsequent editions) and Ralph Chaplin's Wobbly: The Rough and Tumble Story of an American Radical (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948.) And there followed many other works, from social justice fighters of many ethnicities and cultures. I, my family, and many friends have long felt there should be some sort of widely available account of who I and my family are, where we come from, what we stand for -- and what we've accomplished over many turbulent decades. While my book obviously focuses very heavily on the Jackson Movement of 1962-63, its original epilogue, "Reflections on an Odyssey," covers a number of my subsequent campaigns into 1978. And now, the new Introduction -- well over 9,000 words -- updates organizing and related matters to the present, provides personal and family background, motivational insight, and some of my key reflections as a life-long activist Organizer. Taken in total, and standing alone, this book is my basic memoir. I expect it to be useful to a wide variety of social justice activists of all ages -- and very much younger and developing people of all backgrounds. Hunter Gray (John R. Salter, Jr.) October 25 2011 HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now almost 12 years old. It contains a great deal of primary, first-hand material on Native Americans, Civil Rights Movement, union labor, and organizing techniques -- and much more. Check it out and its vast number of component pieces. The front page itself -- the initial cover page -- has 40 representative links. www.hunterbear.org See our full Community Organizing course (much reprinted) -- with new material and updated into 2011. Lots of practical stuff -- based on decades of actual experience: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm And see this on the new, expanded and updated edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Re Mormon economics
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Just a few word on the "Mormon thing." I don't consider myself an expert on the LDS church -- I'm what some might call a "cafeteria Catholic" -- but I grew up in Mormon country and the town in which I presently live, Pocatello, Idaho, is about 70% LDS. I have a few kin in Arizona who are LDS -- and, via my youngest daughter [a convert], have two little Mormon baby grandsons right here in Poky. In fact, they are right here in our house at this very point -- raising hell. The "cult" allegation is pure b.s. The LDS church grew out of American utopianism more than any other source and is a large faith with strong global sections. Initially, the socio-economic basis of the church was pervasively communalistic -- and some of that survives. I've never heard much, in contemporary times, about God's rewards for hard work -- regardless of the Christian denomination. The LDS church is carefully organized: local wards of a few hundred families (deliberately kept small), wards grouped into stakes. The community feeling is one of very strong mutual support. In every LDS community, there are church warehouses from which needy members can draw significant supplies of food and other necessities. And community support isn't limited to Mormons. During my eight year SLE war (that dread disease now killed), there were many expressions of support from our Mormon neighbors. Some Mormons are Republicans, some aren't. Around here, a majority are Democrats -- as many are in other locales. Labor is strong in this setting. My son-in-law is an active IBEW man and his family has a long background in railroad unionism (Union Pacific.) Apparently, Romney does have millions. But, of course, the UAW built great cars for his father's business. Butch Cassidy was a Mormon boy. On the other hand, I much doubt that the church approved of his particular brand of entrepreneurship. In Solidarity, Hunter Gray (Hunter Bear) HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now almost 12 years old. It contains a great deal of primary, first-hand material on Native Americans, Civil Rights Movement, union labor, and organizing techniques -- and much more. Check it out and its vast number of component pieces. The front page itself -- the initial cover page -- has 40 representative links. www.hunterbear.org See our full Community Organizing course (much reprinted) -- with new material and updated into 2011. Lots of practical stuff -- based on decades of actual experience: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm And see this on the new, expanded and updated edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Remembering Fred Shuttlesworth
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Posted by me 10/5/2011 -- Hunter Gray Fred Shuttlesworth, long identified with Birmingham, has passed away and into the fog. He's one of the Southern civil rights leaders of that long, long struggle that I knew fairly well. Not nearly as well or as long as I knew Ella Baker and certainly not as well as I knew Medgar Evers. But Fred, who became national secretary of SCLC and who earlier organized and led what became its Alabama component, and later and concurrently, was president of the Southern Conference Educational Fund, was a truly fiery personality, an old time preacher and a great activist. I was SCEF Field Organizer and knew him directly in that context. I hadn't seen him in many years -- too many years -- but he was not a person anyone would ever forget. I asked him to speak in a North Carolina demonstration situation and, like all committed activists, he came and delivered a hell of a speech. Somewhere within it, he quoted the Bible thusly: "From he who hath more, more is expected." I've used that quote -- a rough transposition of a Biblical line which isn't quite a blunt as Fred's version -- many times in my own speeches. And I've always credited Fred with providing that nugget. In another instance, again at my request, he came to a remote town in the Northeastern North Carolina Black Belt where we had underway our long, hard-fought county by county grassroots organizing project. The United Klans of America -- headquartered in Alabama -- was a powerful threat in our immediate region. I was to provide Fred's introduction and, as I began to do so, I made a short fiery speech of my own -- and then, sans the expected introduction of the Speaker, I sat down. Everyone, including Fred, laughed cordially. I then introduced Fred -- who, still grinning, allowed that he'd done that himself more than a time or two. (Actually, my little faux paux broke the ice in a situation which, given the dangers of the night, had been tense. Fred was intuitive and I think he knew that.) Yes, he could get carried away. Carried away in a very good way. But his Fire, far from destroying, sowed seeds and built Life and grew many good things indeed. H HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now almost 12 years old. It contains a great deal of primary, first-hand material on Native Americans, Civil Rights Movement, union labor, and organizing techniques -- and much more. Check it out and its vast number of component pieces. The front page itself -- the initial cover page -- has 40 representative links. www.hunterbear.org See our full Community Organizing course (much reprinted) -- with new material and updated into 2011. Lots of practical stuff -- based on decades of actual experience: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm And see this on the new, expanded and updated edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Jackson Mississippi -- the new, enlarged edition of my book -- is now widely available
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == My book, Jackson Mississippi, is now rapidly becoming available via conventional outlets. I received copies Thursday and have checked some major sales places. Publisher's info -- including some reviews -- can be found at http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Jackson-Mississippi,674910.aspx Solidarity, Hunter Gray (John R Salter Jr / Hunter Bear) HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now almost 12 years old. It contains a great deal of primary, first-hand material on Native Americans, Civil Rights Movement, union labor, and organizing techniques -- and much more. Check it out and its vast number of component pieces. The front page itself -- the initial cover page -- has 40 representative links. www.hunterbear.org See our full Community Organizing course (much reprinted) -- with new material and updated into 2011. Lots of practical stuff -- based on decades of actual experience: http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm And see this on the new, expanded and updated edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Cracking A Closed Society (An Older Piece Of Mine But Timely As Hell)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Looking over Google today, I chanced on this piece of mine that I wrote in 2002. It's on our Lair of Hunterbear website, in an older pieces section -- but this copy is on the website of Solidarity which published it in Against the Current in 2002. At that point, the fires of fear and hysteria were burning higher and higher via the Bush administration which was tilting toward a kind of police state ethos -- but healthy dissent was rapidly coming to the fore. Nowadays, I don't see much change in the fear and hysteria piece of it and there are no substantive changes for the better via the Obama administration. In fact, the government spy culture and the war culture as well have proliferated much since Obama took office and are becoming more and more of an institutionalized part of our scenery. Eldri, my good spouse, chanced to hear an interesting radio discussion a few days ago, centered around a new book, Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State, by David Priest and William M. Arkin. Sounds like a worthwhile read, to put it mildly. One more -- sad -- point: the constructive dissent which was mounting rapidly when I wrote this piece waned as Obama moved toward ascendancy. Things are now, finally, stirring somewhat but there's a long way to go. It's a trail that must be taken -- and taken by many numbers. (H) Cracking A Closed Society - Hunter Gray INCREASINGLY AND FINALLY, concerns are being vigorously raised, from many global points and -- however slowly -- from within the United States itself, about the treatment of the obvious prisoners of war held by the United States at Guantanamo. Further, those concerns are also enveloping the many hundreds of persons illegally held by the U.S. government within the United States itself. There's a place and a time that I'll always remember. Its government -- executive, legislative, judicial, and its local subdivisions -- was an almost total complex "of one mind" in its determination to maintain its status quo. That included the undermining and the destruction of due process, and the perversion of the judicial system, and the stifling of dissent by virtually any means possible -- even though its Constitution pledged full civil liberty for all. Increasingly, it used various devices of many nefarious kinds to keep a large portion of its populace powerless. Virtually all of its media -- newspapers, radio, television -- supported, via selective [omission/commission] reporting and by manipulated interpretation, the government and the status quo. Its official educational system at all levels propounded its orthodoxy, punished questioning students, and fired dissenting educators. And when much graft and corruption regularly surfaced, they were immediately covered and cloaked by patriotic oratory and frenetically renewed attention to internal and external threats. As challenges came and mounted, this System became ever more hysterical, adamant, repressive. It developed a formal state secret police agency with wire-tapping and mail tampering and informers. It built up huge armies of lawmen and volunteers. Its flag and comparable variants were widely and ostentatiously displayed in public. Economic reprisals, forced exile, judicial frameups and murder became more and more common. Polls were often conducted by quasi-governmental authorities which -- well, what do you know! -- found that virtually everyone supported the government and its policies on every single point. And it was a System that consistently made much money -- lots and lots and lots of dinero -- for a very few. Breaking Down the System This System was called Mississippi. When Professor James W. Silver, History, Ole Miss, wrote a great and revealing book about it and called it a Closed Society, he was forced out of the state he'd lived and worked in for many decades. (Mississippi: The Closed Society, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964 and 1966.) As History certainly knows, Mississippi's system -- and all of the other very akin great big pieces of Dixie (the Magnolia State was certainly far from alone) -- were challenged with ever increasing effectiveness by the movement: local and mostly Black people, and outside agitators spanning a variety of ethnicities. Those challenges went determinedly right into the very Pits of Hell. I was Advisor to the Jackson Youth Council of NAACP, a member of the Board of Directors of the Mississippi State Conference of NAACP Branches, and Chair of the Strategy Committee of the Jackson Movement. I'm very well versed in what I'm saying -- and I've written much about it (Jackson, Mississippi: An America
[Marxism] Jackson Mississippi -- the new and enlarged edition of my book -- is now available
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Friends: The new enlarged and updated edition of my book, JACKSON MISSISSIPPI: AN AMERICAN CHRONICLE OF STRUGGLE AND SCHISM, is now available for purchase. The publisher is Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press. The publisher's link, a bit further down, discusses the book, provides several reviews, and carries ordering information. The initial Introduction in the two earlier editions has been replaced by one written by me. This is, in many ways, a large, additional chapter [about 9500 words] which up-dates Mississippi, discusses our family's always interesting experiences since the first edition of JM appeared in 1979, and contains supplemental autobiographical material. And, of course, it also contains something of my reflections as a life-long social justice organizer. The dedication: For Eldri and the Family -- truly a Golden Horde And in memory of Doris and Ben Allison and Medgar Wiley Evers Thus this will likely be my basic autobiographical memoir. As a corollary to that, however, I must say that my health is fine. The University of Nebraska Press is one of the largest university presses in the country. Here is their announcement of Jackson, Mississippi: (Click on the photo and it'll get bigger.) http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Jackson-Mississippi,674910.aspx (You may also wish to check out the front page of our very large Lair of Hunterbear website. We have rearranged that and it now carries, among other new dimensions, about three dozen of our representative links. Makes for quick and easy reference. www.hunterbear.org Also, if you know of other people who may be interested in our Jackson Mississippi message, I would be much obliged if you could pass this along. Many thanks.) In the Mountains of Eastern Idaho Nialetch/Onen/Solidarity Hunter Bear (Hunter Gray / John R. Salter, Jr.) HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now almost 12 years old. It contains a great deal of primary, first-hand material on Native Americans, Civil Rights Movement, union labor, and organizing techniques -- and much more. Check it out and its vast number of component pieces. The front page itself -- the initial cover page -- has about 36 representative links. www.hunterbear.org See - Some Basic Pieces in our Jackson Movement "Scrapbook" Three consecutive web pages -- primary documents, photos of beating and demonstrations, oral history components, much more. Begin with http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm And see this on the new, expanded and updated edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] In the Mountains: A Brief Reflection on the Fall Season
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I much like Fall in the West. Here in the higher altitudes of the Mountain States, the air is living-crispy during the days and the nights call for our wolf robe or at least my colorful Pendleton blankets. Occasional rain and some snow slowly bring deer, elk, and moose down into the somewhat lower winter ranges -- not far at all above us right here -- accompanied by lions, bobcats, coyotes, even an occasional wolf. Bears do their final fattening up for their long den-sleep -- which will carry them far feelings-wise from oncoming cold weather with its cutting winds and inevitable snow. But the sky can be as blue as turquoise, the mornings always promising good luck, and the slowly dimming early evenings with their fading sunlight and faint haze and creeping chill have a strangely appealing and mystical feel. The nights can be downright witchy. For me, it's the Time of my Coming of Age Bear. http://hunterbear.org/coming%20of%20age%20[western%20memoir.%20htm.htm HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now almost 12 years old. It contains a great deal of primary, first-hand material on Native Americans, Civil Rights Movement, union labor, and organizing techniques -- and much more. Check it out and its vast number of component pieces. The front page itself -- the initial cover page -- has about 36 representative links. www.hunterbear.org See - Some Basic Pieces in our Jackson Movement "Scrapbook" Three consecutive web pages -- primary documents, photos of beating and demonstrations, oral history components, much more. Begin with http://hunterbear.org/a_piece_of__the_scrapbook.htm And see this on the new, expanded and updated edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The Native View Of Ancestral Remains Should Always Be Fully Repected
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Sam Friedman writes in response to my earlier post on the current dangers posed by construction etc. to Native burials in the Florida Everglades: [H] It is hard to find words for such behavior. Attack, oppress and steal from people when they are alive, then desecrate their remains. Not surprising, but still disgusting. And my -- Hunter Bear's -- response: You're right, Sam. And this situation is found across much of the United States. It's particularly prevalent in the Southwest where, in addition to such matters as construction in roads, buildings, and gas lines which can pose problem for burials, there is also a good deal of digging and looting of ancient graves for pots and crafts and sometimes presumed [but non-existent] gold and silver. Relatively recent laws, Federal and some state, are difficult to enforce in rugged back country -- even when there's some official motivation to enforce. Not far northeastward from Flagstaff and in the lower elevated cedar country and related stretches into the very vast Navajo country, one can find hundreds of ancient Anasazi ruins around 800 years old. Those "old ones", ancestors of the contemporary Hopi, buried their dead to the south and east of their rock building structures. The latter crumbled over the centuries but the ruins and the burials remained, of course, and have been systematically pillaged by Anglo grave robbers for many, many decades. It's not unusual to find scattered skeletal remains along with the broken pieces of clay pots and other artifacts. It's also almost impossible to find a "ruin" in that region that hasn't had its burial area torn up. In my long several days trek down vast and deep Sycamore Canyon southwest of Flagstaff in 1955, [a repeat journey is not totally out of the question by any means], I found some quite intact Native cliff dwellings in side canyons not far "up" from Sycamore Creek. I'd never reveal the location of those to anyone, anymore than I'd reveal the location of what I'm certain are the last surviving Grizzlies in that super rugged setting and in Arizona itself -- or the location of fairly rich gold bearing quartz that I spotted when the Canyon dropped down into the heavily mineralized Great Verde Fault. All of that's pretty safe -- I know of no one else who has ever done that long trek and systematic exploration. (The minerals would now be safe in any case since the eventual Wilderness Act covers Sycamore and prohibits any mining.) The Navajo avoid anything relating to the old ruins in their vast reservation -- bigger than the state of West Virginia -- north and northeastward of Flagstaff and into Utah and New Mexico and a bit of Colorado. I've posted this before long ago but it says that pretty well: HUNTING DEER WITH NED HATATHLI IN THE CINDER HILLS OF NORTHERN ARIZONA -- AND OUR ANASAZI CONCERNS [HUNTER GRAY 1/27/03] Note by Hunter Bear: This is simply another of virtually countless indications that the Native nations and cultures have their own unique, deeply rooted and primary identities. Many Anglos understand and respect this -- but many still do not. Concern about DNA tests and related matters is broadly held in Indian Country. This news story from the Salt Lake Trib quotes a Paiute's view: "Among Brewster's own Northern Paiute tribe, he said, "We're not even supposed to go near burials . . . the whole idea of disturbing a burial is serious business." This concern, for example, is extremely and very, very widely pronounced among the Dine' [Navajo] where the Chindee [a powerful taboo] mandates avoidance of the dead and all things directly related thereto. Violation of Chindee requires extensive cleansing and harmony-restoring ceremonies by Navajo medicine men -- who train rigorously for about 17 years before they are considered full-fledged practitioners in the totally interrelated and pervasively blended spheres of spirit, body, and Cosmos. Our own family's ties with the Navajo are extremely close in the deepest and most personal sense. When hunting -- say, at various points from north/northeast and east of Flagstaff up and away into vast Navajoland -- no Navajo I have ever been with or known would even go close to one of the many hundreds of old [around 800 years old] Anasazi ruins whose burial grounds are always just to the east and south of these ancient pre-Hopi villages. The late Ned A. Hatathli [Hatathali] [1923-1972], who came from a very traditional Navajo sheep-herding family near Coalmine Mesa, was one of my father's top art students ever at Arizona State College, Flagstaff -- having come t
[Marxism] NOTES ON OUR LAIR OF HUNTERBEAR WEBSITE (9/2011)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Notes by Hunter Bear: September 5, 2011 As I've been prone to say, "I was born from the Four Directions and things have always been interesting." When we launched our Lair of Hunterbear website on February 14, 2000, our primary aim at that point was to publicize the blatantly surreal harassment by so-termed "lawmen" and racists and others that greeted us just as soon as we arrived here in Idaho in the summer of 1997 -- and to correct a flood of poisonous canards, many of these stemming from open and covert enemies from my past social justice campaigns. (My conversion to computer technology and the concept of a website took a little time -- but I soon embraced all of that about as fast as Geronimo seized his 1876 Winchester lever action.] A few months after we launched the website, I published this: "In the waning days of 2000 / Eastern Idaho I became a radical activist when I was still very young -- quickly growing into a radical activist/organizer/writer -- and, very early on indeed, I learned the accuracy of the old Native saying, "When you fish for trout, expect to be bitten by mosquitoes." Forthwith, I also learned the great merit in the old-time Wobbly (Industrial Workers of the World) adage, "Better to be called Red than be called Yellow" -- and I've always held very firmly to that and I always will. I could write a very large book about the things I've been called over these many decades -- variants of Red-baiting plus all sorts of other epithets -- sometimes openly by "class enemies" ["goons, ginks, and company finks" etc] but often in surreptitious and clandestine fashion by whispering cowards who scurry about in the shadows -- usually trying to find dupes to carry their skull & crossbones potions. As virtually all of you are aware -- or will be -- this Website carries an enormous amount of data regarding myself, my family background (including genealogy), my radical vision and activities and work and writings, and a hell of a lot more. It also very much involves the hopes and social justice aspirations and the courage of many others. This all puts us in very clear perspective. I learned long ago that accuracy corrects calumny but it usually doesn't bring personal justice. The social justice trail can have more challenges than the Grand Canyon but I have no absolutely no regrets. I've always heeded the Wobbly adage, "Keep Fighting!" -- and I always will. Fortunately, I am, as an adversary once commented, "a pretty big thug." I also firmly believe that most of Humanity is pretty good most of the time. Fraternally/In Solidarity - Hunter Gray " And, in time, our original goals -- fighting harassment and smear stuff -- have largely been accomplished. We are still right here on the 'way up, far western edge of Pocatello, Idaho. But I always have a loaded firearm or two at ready, though discreetly out of sight. As the Hunterbear website developed, I began to heed the advice of many students and others over many years indeed. I commenced to write my many decades of various stories (and accompanying lessons) from my often turbulent experiences -- most of which stem from direct, grassroots activist community organizing. And the website grew far, far beyond its original purposes to the point that it now contains several hundred pages. Its topical range involves Native rights, the Civil Rights Movement, union labor, civil liberties, organizing techniques. There is also much on the American West -- and some other things. Almost all material is first hand primary in nature -- from my own experiences and direct observations -- and much is contemporary. And there are often the informed comments by readers. Native Americans, social justice activists, academics of all sorts, labor organizers, researchers and writers -- all of these and much and many more, nationally and internationally, visit our Site with frequency. We also receive questions which we answer. The website's Directory/Index, which drops like a vertical shaft, is the trail to all of our stuff. (Occasionally, in the Directory/Index, there is some duplication of titles, but just keep going -- down.) Most of the material is found high up on Google and other major search engines. If you can't find what you're looking for, type in the subject and just add Hunterbear -- and odds are you'll get it right away. (Sometimes we ourselves use Google as a quick index.) Because the Directory has grown long and large, we have recently listed, for convenience, three dozen of our representative links on the very front cover
[Marxism] Just thinking a little: Rick Perry -- and Wolves, Grizzlies, and Mountain Lions
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == My impressions of Rick Perry could hardly be more negative. His mannerisms, whether "natural" or put on, strike me as a synthesis of John Wayne and Ronald Reagan. When he speaks, his content and message remind me much of George Wallace. And when he waves a revolver in the air, it turns me -- a life long gun person -- totally off. If, Cosmos forbid, he's going to get anywhere on the national stage, he's going to need the support of vastly more than simply the admittedly too-large hard-right/fundamentalist coven in the Republican party. He'll need lots of independents and plenty of disaffected Democrats. It's hard to see most genuine independents being led around by a demagogic Pied Piper and it seems very doubtful that the now rapidly increasing group of disaffected Demos will see him as any positive beacon. Let's hope I'm right on this. Our almost month long heat wave has ended. Brush and timber fires are still much on the scene. Idaho has just initiated a broad and uninhibited wolf hunt -- thanks to a Congressional mandate (and the Obama administration's earlier efforts to remove wolves from Federal protection). There've been a couple of human deaths via Grizzly attacks -- fortunately the bears involved remain at large -- and mountain lions are becoming more conspicuous in some areas. A group of three showed up the other day in the yard of a rural family south of here. We like all of these animal entities and their behaviorisms and we aren't worried. Solidarity, Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Our Hunterbear website is now almost 12 years old. Check it out and its vast number of links. The initial cover page itself has about 30 representative ones. www.hunterbear.org See - Extensive Personal Background Narrative (updated into 2011): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See this on the new (2011), expanded and updated edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see Shooting Lupus, now expanded July 2011 -- my account of killing a very deadly disease in an eight year war. Systemic Lupus has a predatory preference for Native Americans, Blacks, Chicanos, some Asian groups, and women in general. It's a civil rights issue. http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] DOMESTIC SPYING: BURGEONING, EXPANDING, PROLIFERATING
a condemned the so-called "wireless wiretapping" after The New York Times made it public in 2005. But when he ran for president in 2008, Obama voted for legislation that granted retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that had secretly helped the government eavesdrop. The law also retroactively legalized other forms of surveillance, former intelligence officials say, including "bulk" monitoring that allows the government to intercept all e-mail traffic between America and a range of suspect email addresses in, say, Pakistan. The government's goal is "to find the kind of patterns that maybe will lead them to evidence of some kind of terrorist plot, and maybe thereafter they can then zero in on a suspect," said Joel Margolis, a regulatory consultant for Subsentio, a Colorado firm that helps telecommunications companies comply with law enforcement requests. "It's just the opposite of what we've done in our tradition of law, where you start with a suspect." Privacy advocates say the government should acknowledge how many Americans have had their communications intercepted in recent years. But after Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee requested that information, the Obama administration responded in July that it was "not reasonably possible to identify the number." Tags: september 11, news, updates, nation, security, military HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' Our Hunterbear website is now almost 12 years old. Check it out and its vast number of links. The initial cover page itself has about 30 representative ones. www.hunterbear.org See - Extensive Personal Background Narrative (updated into 2011): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See this on the new (2011), expanded and updated edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see Shooting Lupus, now expanded July 2011 -- my account of killing a very deadly disease in an eight year war. Systemic Lupus has a predatory preference for Native Americans, Blacks, Chicanos, some Asian groups, and women in general. It's a civil rights issue. http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Thoughts on Martin King's Statue and Tributes to Medgar Evers
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (Apparently there's been a little controversy in some quarters about the King statue. Some feel it may symbolize "the burial of a movement.") I've never been a statue person -- most I'll have is an appropriate photo portrait or two on an office wall -- but I see nothing wrong with the statue of Martin King in DC. I'm glad it's there and I think its transcendent spiritual/humanist qualities will defuse any negatives from the corporate money involved. Martin King was personally a modest man -- not a saint -- and I always apprececiated his words, "There go my people; I have to run to catch up." His statue in good company means a great deal to a great many people -- and I think the fight against racism and other anti-people isms and the battle for a full measure of social justice for all, aren't going to be inhibited a bit by a statue of a man who fought, often successfully, for everyone. Jackson abounds these days with tributes of various kinds to Medgar Evers, also a very modest and determined guy who saw an egalitarian and interracial Mississippi, and those symbols of recognition and commitment mean much to many -- and good efforts in the justice vein in that historically bloody setting certainly continue. Best, H HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old. Check it out and its vast number of links: www.hunterbear.org See - Extensive Personal Background Narrative (updated into 2011): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See this on the new (2011), expanded and updated edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see Shooting Lupus, now expanded July 2011 -- my account of killing a very deadly disease in an eight year war. Systemic Lupus has a predatory preference for Native Americans, Blacks, Chicanos, some Asian groups, and women in general. It's a civil rights issue. http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Human Beings and Nuclear Power -- and Earthquakes
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Note by Hunter Bear / August 24 2011 I posted this very short piece on Humans and Nuclear a few months ago. The Event of yesterday in the American East makes it again a timely post. Very quickly after the Quake news was shooting to the Four Directions, some media folk quite appropriately and commendably raised the question of the safety of nuclear power plants. If "canned" reassurances were given in some media instances, there were at least some realistic warnings. A fair number of nuclear plants are in the "earth trembling" reach of the Quake and one at least had to be quickly closed down to avoid very possible meltdown. And while much of this public media concern evaporated quickly, some has continued. Good -- as far as it's gone. And we have matters of this sort in our Gem State region, right here, that merit similar concerns -- and that's certainly the case in the West Coast settings. The Cosmos has the good grace to tender warnings -- but, in this and other veins, I somehow don't feel It likes to be endlessly redundant. [H] It's long struck me that, since the Industrial Revolution, the intellectual and emotional maturity of humanity in that -- industrial -- context has lagged far behind tech devekpments in a very vast number of cases. And it's too often those people devoid of balance and good sense, to say nothing of a lack of sensitivity for humanity, who wind up presiding over the directional management of the technological creations, They often remind me of children who play with firecrackers [usually fairly safe] but then go on to discover dynamite caps, and then dynamite itself -- all the while unaware of the full destructive potential -- and always impressed with their own abilities. And sometimes they happen upon nitroglycerine. (I can say that, as an older pre-teen, I had an unusually sophisticated chemistry arrangement with the necessary chemicals for such exotic blends as hydrogen cyanide and nitro. My not-always-aware parents were inclined to let me do as I wished -- but I had the good sense to avoid certain "experiments.") Sam put it well on a Sycamore post earlier today on nuclear matters.: "These are just a few entries in the chamber of horrors that capitalism is brewing. And which mean that capitalism needs to be brought to an end and a democratic sustainable system built in its place". I agree with that in the general sense and particularly appreciate the term, "democratic." China has had horrendous coal mine disasters and the USSR produced the most profound civilian nuclear horror -- although events in Japan, as they proliferate, could come close to that. But it's my opinion that, even under the "best" of humanist industrial systems, and with a reasonable level of human maturity, nuclear power and its uranium feed can never be safely handled. Too many precarious variables in all of that -- to say nothing of Nature's oft-problematic behaviorisms. H HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old. Check it out and its vast number of links: www.hunterbear.org See - Extensive Personal Background Narrative (updated into 2011): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See this on the new (2011), expanded and updated edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see Shooting Lupus, now expanded July 2011 -- my account of killing a very deadly disease in an eight year war. Systemic Lupus has a predatory preference for Native Americans, Blacks, Chicanos, some Asian groups, and women in general. It's a civil rights issue. http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Sinister Hate Currents in Contemporary Montana
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This is a comparatively full article on the contemporary hate group situation in Montana -- an especially well grounded piece given its regional research and assessment by the Great Falls, MT newspaper. Montana obviously isn't the only setting with a history of these outfits, often going 'way back -- but the Big Sky State does have a surge worth noting. The dismal economic situation in this country certainly feeds these currents of anti-people hatred to the four directions and, in that sense, significant economic improvements can only be helpful in the preventative and de-fusing sense. On the other hand, there are -- and always have been -- individuals who Hate and often violently for reasons that lie deeply in the province of psychiatry. [H] Indianz.Com. In Print. http://www.indianz.com/News/2011/002662.asp State of hate: Montana is home to 13 white supremacist groups Monday, August 15, 2011 Filed Under: National Montana is home to 13 hate groups, and their ranks are growing, The Great Falls Tribune reports. Group like The Creativity Movement are recruiting young people in the state. They are moving into urban areas like Billings, where one of its leaders -- a 19-year-old man who claims he is part Indian -- just pleaded no for an incident in which he allegedly threatened an Indian man with a gun. "We are your neighbors, your best friend, your co-workers, etc.," organizer Westin Adams told the paper. "The only difference is we are loyal to our racial family." Hate groups are also prevalent in nearby Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Get the Story: The state of hate: Some see Montana as last best place for the white race (The Great Falls Tribune 8/14) Related Stories: White supremacist enters a plea after threatening Indian man (7/29) Teen in Montana acquitted of shooting in race related case (5/19) Teen accused in race related shooting says he's part Native (5/18) HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old. Check out www.hunterbear.org See - Extensive Personal Background Narrative (updated into 2011): http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See this on the new (2011), expanded and updated edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic and fully detailed account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see Shooting Lupus, now expanded July 2011 -- my account of killing a very deadly disease in an eight year war. Systemic Lupus has a predatory preference for Native Americans, Blacks, Chicanos, some Asian groups, and women in general. It's a civil rights issue. http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Brief Thoughts: Old Time, Present, Future
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Like a great many, I've spent some time observing the dismal events in DC. (I am spending much of my time now in planning a long future -- in some detail.) My personal and jaundiced position on the current political situation is pretty well known and I see little purpose in going over it at this point. Posting in general appears fairly minimal on most discussion lists. My post the other day involving Loki Mulholland's two blog posts on his mother, Joan; myself and Eldri; and the Woolworth Sit-In did draw a few good comments from our lists. More good comments came from off-list sources. One, from a committed advocate for people: "Hunter, this is great stuff. I don't know if I have ever told you, but when I'm trying to advocate for something or somebody, I try to envision how you would handle the situation. You've been very inspirational for me, and I am very proud to know you. Thank you." Well, I've learned some good things from him. And there were comments from former Tougaloo College students, one of whom -- a hard working young lady in our Jackson Boycott [which led quickly and directly to the massive Jackson Movement] -- wrote: "Thanks for sharing. I agree with Loki's assessment of you and all the others who sat in @ Woolworth's in Jackson 50 yrs. ago. You all were brave & courageous individuals. You're certainly one of greatest story tellers that I have ever had the privilege of knowing. I can still picture and hear you telling stories in Social Science & History classes in the basement of Galloway Hall @ Tougaloo. AND I remember how you chain - smoked those non-filtered cigarettes as you held our attn. when you spoke about Native- Americans, Arizona, bears, etc. (lol). Stay well." Four packs of Pall Malls a day -- and, as the Jackson Movement rose and roiled, five cheeseburgers and a pitcher of ice water whenever time allowed. At Tougaloo, as in many other small college situations, you often found yourself teaching outside your academic field. My M.A. was in Sociology -- but my B.S. was in Social Studies and that included 70 semester hours in several fields and encompassed what amounted to a history major. All of that came in right handy at Tougaloo, a few miles north of Jackson Mississippi, where I found myself in a number of "specialties", including "World Civilization." And it was in "American Government", only a few days after Eldri and I arrived at Tougaloo in the late summer of 1961, that a student [and quickly a fine friend and colleague to this moment], Colia Liddell, and now Colia Liddell Lafayette Clark, asked me to become Advisor to the North Jackson Youth Council of NAACP. Deeply honored, I quickly agreed -- politely brushing aside well meant warnings from some fellow faculty members that I was courting a great deal of personal trouble. Well, there was that for sure -- Big Trouble in many directions -- and we all wouldn't have missed any of it for all the world. It was a challenge teaching World Civilization in Galloway Hall -- especially in the afternoon when the sun came through the windows and, sans any air conditioning, some students, despite their best efforts, grew sleepy. For my part, I tied as much subject matter as I could to the contemporary challenges in Mississippi and the South in general. We tagged The Pharaoh as Governor Ross Barnett, Moses and Jesus as civil rights organizers, and much and many more in that vein. (And, if all else failed, I could always stir up a great discussion around Evolution.) And it wasn't long before we were building a Movement that shook Jackson and environs to their roots -- and contributed mightily to the rapidly growing Civil Rights River that was flooding and nourishing Dixie and much of the Nation. And many of us indeed have traveled "far and away" on that Great Water. That took, from all of us, sensibly altruistic Vision, hard grassroots Work, a great deal of Courage. Those dimensions seem presently in short supply in many quarters of this country. But the Cosmic trails are always firm -- and Spring will come again. Keep Fighting, Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out www.hunterbear.org See - Outlaw Trail: The Native as Organizer: (updated 2011) http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm [Included in Visions & Voices: Native American Activism [2009] See this on the new, expanded and updated ed
[Marxism] This month of July
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Barack Obama isn't my main point in this. But, as he, the give-away artist, grandly places Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, on his deficit reduction"negotiating" table, and prattles about "necessary pain", in a backdrop of three massively expensive wars and dozens of other sins of omission and commission, about all I can say is, if there is any bona fide leftist or committed liberal who can support him -- well I do have, just for you, my rich gold mine in our back yard for speedy sale. Eight years ago this month of July, I came down openly with a profound disease which turned out to be oft-deadly and incurable Systemic Lupus. That is now gone -- a very unexpected development as far as the docs were concerned -- and I'm now planning what I feel to be a very long earthly future indeed. Nine years ago -- and this is the point of this post, 19 year old Russ Turcotte, a Turtle Mountain [N.D.] Ojibwe -- hitch-hiking to his home at Wolf Point, Montana, was murdered somewhere along very lonely Highway 2 in northern North Dakota. His killer has never been caught. We launched a website page and many members of our discussion lists and others acted on our request and sent messages to appropriate public officials. But the killer was never found and the case, still open, has faded. For a time, a few persons [not myself] thought the killer might be Joseph Duncan, a life-long psychopathic sex offender and killer, now facing Federal execution on other charges -- but this theory never stood up in the Turcotte tragedy. Duncan's "preferences" involved much younger children and, although he was "free" and living in Fargo, ND at the time of Russ' murder, distance factors also made him a very unlikely suspect. All of that and more is discussed on our website page. I also have very critical mention of the big mess-up early on precipitated by Tim Miller and his Texas-based EquuSearch [Mounted Search and Recovery]. As an aside, I heard Miller complaining at length on a Fox News interview yesterday that the Casey Anthony family owes him more than $100,000 in that affair. In any event, amidst the swirl of contemporary theoretical and social policy discussions, I am sure many of us can still see individual tragedies as worthy of concern. Russ' killer will likely kill again -- and may, of course, already have done so. Here's that which I wrote two and a half years ago -- with the link to our full web page. [H] THINKING ABOUT RUSSELL TURCOTTE -- MURDERED ALMOST SEVEN (NOW NINE] YEARS AGO [HUNTER GRAY / HUNTER BEAR] JANUARY 18 2009 Published by Edward Pickersgill in My Town http://mytown.ca/hunter/ A native of Northern Arizona, I lived extensively in the Grand Forks, ND region for sixteen years [coming to Idaho in 1997], And from here, I picked up on the murders of the four Native men in the Forks region immediately -- and was probably the first person to put these tragedies and the necessary calls-to-action out widely on the Internet. I have kept up with it all, doing that which I can. [All four victims happened to be Turtle Mountain Ojibwe.] Our very well visited website page on the murders of Native men in the Grand Forks ND setting is certainly one of our most popular. Three of those murders are now solved -- but that of 19 year old Russ Turcotte, murdered in July 2002 at night, remains unsolved. As I understand it, state -- and probably Federal -- investigators are now looking yet again at the case. We can only wish them success. And we can continue to think "good thoughts" on behalf of Russ and justice -- and do whatever else we reasonably can, If justice in all of these Native murders cases has been slow in coming, this has certainly been true in the tragic situation involving Russ Turcotte. Things on that front got off to a poor and ineffective start in North Dakota right from the beginning. Russ, of course, disappeared from Grand Forks on a July 2002 night while hitch-hiking along Highway 2 to his home at Wolf Point, MT -- and this was reported with dispatch by family members. Local law enforcement officers in the Grand Forks setting were laggard in picking up on it. Early on, we received a reliable report that the police -- after some time had passed -- secured a routine surveillance film from the Mini-Mart on the edge of Grand Forks in which Russ was spotted as a customer. Then for some reason, the police apparently told the grocery manager that he could routinely dispose of the film, and the tape went into irreversible oblivion. It's possible it could have shown Russ' assailant [s] or featured other recognizable customers who might have ha
[Marxism] SHARPEN THAT FLINT! AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING FOR REALITY
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now 11 1/2 years old -- and, if you count its trial-balloon predecessor, Red Wobbly, the whole thing is 12 years old. Almost from the very onset of all of this, there have been covert cyber attacks from wherever but we do keep going. Our server provides some daily info about what's being viewed by the always growing number of folks Out There. Recently, there's been a significant spike in visiting pages which, directly and indirectly, relate to me and my perspective and organizing campaigns. One page, giving my thoughts on effective autobiographical writing, was done almost nine years ago, stirred interest, but soon became one of our more obscure and rarely visited offerings. Suddenly, it's very well visited, prompting me to send it out again. Perhaps it might even stir a bit of list discussion in these languid summer days. H. SHARPEN THAT FLINT! AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING FOR REALITY -- HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR] SEPTEMBER 7 2002 http://www.hunterbear.org/AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL%20WRITING%20htm..htm Sure, so maybe this is a little presumptuous, cheeky. That's my Organizer's blood and style. And I've always said, anyone trying to organize anything -- getting and keeping people together for action -- has damn well got to have a healthy ego. If I'm going to expect anyone to listen to me, I'm packing that Ego with all the rest of the tools of my trade -- the Rigging -- that I carry wherever I go. And that happens to be right here, right now. So, first. Everyone's had experiences -- and those all have meaning. Some, whether one knows it or not, have a very special meaning for others -- and, indeed, sometimes for many, many others. I'm talking about Radical Meaning. Meaning that gets down into and cat-claw fights the roots of snarly capitalism and racism and all the other anti-people isms. Meaning that not only helps one fight in the long arena of the day-to-day struggles -- but also sights and steadies one's eye on the Vision -- the Shiny New World Over The Mountains Yonder. Socialist Democracy. Meaning that helps people come together and understand how each of these Rivers -- the Day-to-Day and the Vision -- contributes and strengthens the Other: an earthy, basic dynamic where, by seeking and accomplishing the significant and necessary day-to-day things, people not only help themselves, build confidence, but contribute to the Vision Stream. Red Meaning. Whoever you are: You should certainly try to toss those happenings -- the special ones -- and their radical meaning right off into the Four Directions. And if they have a whole lot to do with you personally -- your own hard-gotten experiences, the stuff that figuratively and literally cuts into your hide and head and mind -- well so much the better. But whatever. Do it. "Even if your writing ain't so hot," an old labor editor used to say. "Send it to us. Tell us what's going on all around you. How you see it all." Take It to the Sun. I've been lucky on that score -- but I've also made my luck. I was 24 when a tough and hostile newspaperman, an adversary to the core -- president of his particular western state press association -- looked at me with slitted eyes and said, with obvious admiration: "I have never, never seen anyone who could use words in the absolutely ruthless, cutting way that you do." We smiled appreciatively at each other. Wickedly. And I was a good deal older when that classic, universal epitome of Machiavellianism -- an Academic Dean -- shuddered and recoiled slightly across the table from me. "You use words just like bullets," said he. It may damn well be Ego on my part -- but I do like those same-fight comments. Much. Anyway, now to a personal Beef of mine. And if you do stick with me on this one -- listen -- I'll really be much appreciative. The setting: Coyotes howl every night now and thunder booms. Heavy rain -- always a good and special personal sign for me has been falling these recent days and nights here in Eastern Idaho. The cool Fall feeling -- which I detected 'way back in early August at a couple of points -- is now very broadly apparent. Everywhere in our 'way up region is the pungent smell of damp sage and cedars and junipers -- a rich perfume that could never even be remotely replicated by any human lab anywhere. In short, it's a good, meditative kind of time in both dimensions: the Seen and the Unseen. Idyllic. And promising. And into this pleasantly reflective ethos, I now toss Big Cactus. Not at everyone or even at many. Just at a few. Every now and then -- neither consistentl
[Marxism] Thoughts From The Idaho Window
za. Some media are placing that on Greece [the obviously tangible factor at this point] and with Israel in the background. Well, they're obviously involved -- but I think most of us would point to DC as the First Cause. Finally, a week ago, Eldri and I very quietly [with Maria] marked our 50th wedding anniversary. Time does run away like a jackrabbit in the sage. Now and then, I've sort of thought I might want to retire as "head of the family." Some time ago, Maria and Josie turned down that job and, a few days ago, I queried John and Peter [Mack.] No takers. [ I haven't bothered Thomas with this since he's too busy with his medical duties but, I suppose, something could be said for a budding psychiatrist as head of this horde.] But yesterday, I sat in my living room chair and looked across to where Sky Gray lay prone in one of her favorite places -- atop the genuinely antique New England Red Dresser. Her head rested comfortably on a smooth and polished and ancient Native axe head and immediately behind her were [as they always are up there] several significant Native antiquities -- very notably our large Toltec stone head [Tezcatlipoca, Lord of Sorcerers and Patron of the Warrior Orders.] While His black obsidian eyes looked directly at me, Sky occasionally opened hers, checked me out, and surveyed the scene. I suddenly realized that there may well be a hitherto unrecognized "collective" leadership of this turbulent family, all consciously alert and all nicely a-throne a-top the Red Dresser. (To those not familiar with our family: Maria is our oldest daughter, Josie our youngest; John is the oldest son and Peter the youngest; and Thomas is our grandson/son. There are ten grandchildren thus far. Sky Gray, of course, is my very faithful Cat.) In Solidarity, Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See - Personal and Detailed Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See this on the new, expanded edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see Shooting Lupus (my killing a deadly disease that did its best to kill me): http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Troubling! -- despite Federal reassurances: Flood berm collapses at Nebraska nuclear plant
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == After observing the various dimensions and facets of the uranium/nuclear Horror since I was a kid in Northern Arizona, Federal [and corporate] reassurances have long sounded like a very unconvincing standard script. My youngest son, Peter, is a journalist with the Lincoln Journal Star and, when he returns in a few days from a group bike trip in southeastern Nebraska, I should hear more on this. Meanwhile, much of Minot, North Dakota is inundated with very high water that's been more forceful than some "normal" floods since the deemed-necessary opening of dams upriver. Minot has some small hills, where more affluent people reside, and, although those homes may escape, thousands of others, and businesses as well, have been hit hard, even to the point of striking the second floor of buildings. The last flood of this size to hit Minot was in the Territorial days, 1880s. The horrific Grand Forks, ND flood of 1997, which our family escaped owing to our far out location, occurred on land which is mostly as flat at the Mississippi Delta. In that catastrophe, which also featured a fire, virtually the whole Grand Forks region was struck and almost 55,000 people were forced into other parts of North Dakota, other states, and Canadian provinces. The Forks waters did not, at least generally, hit the second floors -- and a good deal of eventual renovation was possible. A major problem in any flooding situation is "black mold" -- capable of generating serious medical problems. After helping my daughter, Maria, and other family members, muck out her Grand Forks apartment basement -- a really filthy all day chore -- we threw our work clothes away -- and took very long showers. [Now on an Idaho hill since that '97 flood, we keep an eye open for brush fires and think about earthquakes.] This Nebraska nuclear plant situation comes as warnings sharply increase, in this country and globally, about attendant and very significant safety issues. Official reassurances are fast losing their magic. Flood berm collapses at Nebraska nuclear plant By TIMBERLY ROSS, Associated Press - 2 hours ago OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) - A berm holding the flooded Missouri River back from a Nebraska nuclear power station collapsed early Sunday, but federal regulators said they were monitoring the situation and there was no danger. The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station shut down in early April for refueling, and there is no water inside the plant, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. Also, the river is not expected to rise higher than the level the plant was designed to handle. NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said the plant remains safe. The federal commission had inspectors at the plant 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Omaha when the 2,000-foot (600-meter) berm collapsed about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. Water surrounded the auxiliary and containment buildings at the plant, it said in a statement. The Omaha Public Power District has said the complex will not be reactivated until the flooding subsides. Its spokesman, Jeff Hanson, said the berm wasn't critical to protecting the plant but a crew will look at whether it can be patched. "That was an additional layer of protection we put in," Hanson said. The berm's collapse didn't affect the reactor shutdown cooling or the spent fuel pool cooling, but the power supply was cut after water surrounded the main electrical transformers, the NRC said. Emergency generators powered the plant until an off-site power supply was connected Sunday afternoon, according to OPPD. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko will tour the plant Monday. His visit was scheduled last week. On Sunday, he was touring Nebraska's other nuclear power plant, which sits along the Missouri River near Brownville. Both nuclear plants issued flooding alerts earlier this month, although they were routine as the river's rise has been expected. The Brownville plant has been operating at full capacity. Flooding remains a concern all along the Missouri because of massive amounts of water the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released from upstream reservoirs. The river is expected to rise as much as 5 to 7 feet (1.5 to 2.1 meters) above flood stage in much of Nebraska and Iowa and as much as 10 feet (3 meters) over flood stage in parts of Missouri. The corps expects the river to remain high at least into August because of heavy spring rains in the upper Plains and substantial Rocky Mountain snowpack melting into the river basin. Timberly Ross can be reached at http://twitter.com/timberlysross. Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Franci
[Marxism] TRADITIONAL MEDICINE/WESTERN MEDICINE
e father, who I recall went forty years or more without consulting a "western" physician. [If he, a fine father, excellent artist and teacher, and admirable figure on many significant fronts, had not consulted a new quart of 100 proof Old Crow each day for decades, he would have lived far beyond the 80 years he completed before transition.] When it was clear, a little over five years ago, that I was seriously ill with something, I did, after dragging my feet for a good while, go to a doctor. At that point, ignorance of autoimmune diseases by those particular docs, confused opinions and a botched colonoscopy searching for non-existent cancer -- all of this in the context of severe anemia -- led to near death via cardiac arrest [my heart was fine before that and is just fine now]. And even when, after a dozen medics finally and jointly diagnosed "it" as a full blown case of systemic lupus [genetic and incurable], the initial primary control med -- prednisone -- gave me a severe case of diabetes and a near death coma. [The diabetes ended when that medicine was terminated and replaced.] Now, I go as infrequently as I can to a good and listening doc who honors my concerns and inhibitions, and I take as little western medicine as possible -- avoiding all chemo drugs. Anyway, that's my pitch on that. We have a great deal of faith in traditional medicine [ritual and ceremony and natural remedies] as practiced by bona fide medicine people. A Navajo medicine man often trains for as many as 17 years before he's considered a full-fledged practitioner. There are comparable examples in numerous other Native tribal society/nations in the Americas -- as well as globally. Anyone who observes a trained medicine person practice is genuinely impressed from many perspectives. On the other hand, one can find some good things to say about "western medicine" -- properly used. In several months, our grandson/son, Thomas, will become an M.D. via the University of Minnesota -- but his program also contains, by design and by his own initiative, exposure to inter-cultural [especially vis-a-vis Natives] traditional medical approaches. His spouse, Mimie [Yrengah], from Zambia is in the health field as well. We take their advice quite seriously. [Update note, 2011: Thomas, now an M.D., is into his third year of residency in internal medicine and psychiatry at the University of Iowa Hospital and Mimie is deeply into her own medical studies at UI. Thomas will soon likely go again, as he has for several years, to the bi-cultural medical conference which occurs annually at Santa Fe.] Around 1950, when I was sixteen, my parents and I, traveling from Flagstaff to Window Rock and Fort Defiance and Chinle on the vast Navajo reservation, stopped at nearby Ganado and visited a hospital. The head person, a Dr Clarence Salsbury, complained that few Navajo people came -- and no elders. My parents and I did not find that unusual. That cultural inhibition at Navajo [and many other Native settings] modified a little as subsequent years passed, but it was not until United States Indian Health Service reached out to the medicine people, and indicated a willingness to work jointly in a context of mutual respect, that some things changed for the better. The increasing number of Native people entering the mainline health fields-- M.D.s, R.N.s, the full array -- is a signal and obviously positive development. But Natives into professional western medicine are almost always very cognizant of, and very sensitive to, the critical importance of traditional cultural views and practices. The following article from the Salt Lake Tribune discusses some of this -- with the focus on the Navajo and cancer. It should be emphatically noted that most cancer at Navajo [and Laguna Pueblo] -- and some other serious diseases as well -- stem directly from the mining, milling, and refining of uranium within the Navajo Nation and its environs and some other Western American settings. [Canadian Natives have had their own lethal experiences.] That all began in the late '40s and the '50s and continued for decades, with broadly lethal effects, killing and profoundly impairing thousands of people in many locations -- and wreaking poisonous havoc on livestock, wild animal life, air and water and earth. [The Navajo Nation government has now banned any uranium development in and around the vast reservation. [We have things on our website about the Southwestern uranium tragedy and here is one page with a few related background pieces: http://www.hunterbear.org/a_native_rights_sampling.htm I should add that, around my neck, I wear a Bear Claw -- and an Ignatius Loyola holy medal. Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. R
Re: [Marxism] From the Shadows: Worthy Quests for Labor History
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == If it's broadened horizons, David, my piece was well worth posting. United Mine Workers wasn't very effective at all in the West -- and the NMU, against monumental odds, did a fine job at Gallup -- a really hard-case town to put it mildly. I personally know its setting very well. The positive ramifications of the Galllup strike were considerable across the region. In a far better known situation, the Great Colorado Coal Strike [all three of the state's coal fields], 1927, the IWW -- in the face of great odds, including the "first" Columbine Massacre -- won significant gains. http://www.hunterbear.org/embree.htm Best, H HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See - Personal and Detailed Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See this on the new, expanded edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see Shooting Lupus (my killing a deadly disease that did its best to kill me): http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] From the Shadows: Worthy Quests for Labor History
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Note by Hunter Bear: We receive a number of these queries -- often from the children or grandchildren of Labor activists and frequently involving significant Labor struggles now obscured by the passage of time and often academic indifference. The Gallup Coal Strike of the mid-1930s and the National Miners Union had a profound impact on New Mexico and comprised one of several currents that played a role in the revival of the hard-rock International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in the Southwestern region. We have a large collection of Western labor materials and, when chronologically pertinent, my personal memory remains quite inact. Finally, NRA refers to the National Recovery Act. [H] Hello, I only today became aware of my grandfather Pat Toohey's booklet "N.R.A., Martial Law, 'Insurrection'" from a cousin who found your online site mentioning it & showing a photo of its cover. My mother was born there in those days. Do you know where I could possibly obtain a copy whether hard copy or even better a scan of it? Both my mother & I are very interested to read it & include it in our family records. The months before my grandfather died he destroyed so many of his writings & other written materials & photos to "protect" us after he was gone so we have very little & are trying to recreate an archive of his writings. Thanks for any help. Jeffrey G. >From Hunter: http://www.hunterbear.org/newmexico%20struggles_war%20years.htm Good to hear from you, Jeffrey. Our copy of your grandfather's now very rare first-hand account of the long and very tough Gallup coal strike in the mid-1930s, "NRA, Martial Law, Insurrection", [1934] is, though intact, only in somewhat better shape than fragile -- but I've read it easily. It was not printed on high grade paper, and as you note from our website, sold initially for five cents. We'd rather not handle it physically too much or even try to scan it ourselves [our scanner is fluky.] I think your best bet is to find a copy in a academic collection and arrange for a "professional" copy of it. I am almost certain that Special Collections, University of New Mexico Library, UNM, Albuquerque, NM would have a copy of it and could do the job at a fairly reasonable fee. Here's the Link: http://elibrary.unm.edu/ I'd call them and talk with someone personally. If they, by some remote chance, don't have it, simply Google "Pat Toohey, labor organizer" and you'll pick up one or two other collection possibilities. There's a very good book, a compilation of nicely done pieces, on the labor situation in New Mexico. It's Labor in New Mexico, [Kern, editor], University of New Mexico Press, 1983. It has two chapters on the Gallup coal strike. If it's no longer in print, you could borrow a copy via your nearest college or university -- through Interlibrary Loan if necessary -- and make a copy of the Gallup chapters. There's another pamphlet on the Gallup strike, "Night Riders at Gallup" -- based on the observations and defense actions of International Labor Defense. Among other things, it recites the strenuous adventures of two ILD officials who came to Gallup, were "deported" by "lawmen" and vigilantes and dumped on the adjacent Navajo reservation, and rescued by the friendly Navajos. Our copy is little better than fragile but you could, if you wished, get a copy made from UNM -- which, again, I am pretty certain has it. Finally, I noticed as a result of your query, that ABE Books has The miners' road to freedom, in a soviet America. [1935] Rochester, Anna and Pat Toohey http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=pat+toohey&sts=t&x=85&y=27 Going back to the original question, if all else fails to produce a copy of "NRA, Martial Law, Insurrection", get back to me and we'll try to make a reasonable copy of our copy. We won't charge you for it. Your quest is quite commendable. All best, Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See - Personal and Detailed Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See this on the new, expanded edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org
[Marxism] Medgar W. Evers, murdered June 11 1963 [our very full web page]
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Hunter Bear - June 15 2011 This is about things that should never be forgotten and, indeed, must be remembered forever. This is the time of the year which, almost half a century ago in 1963, saw the climax of our Jackson Movement. That massive and, from us, non-violent struggle was brutally and often bloodily attacked by hordes of Mississippi "lawmen", thugs, vigilantes. The Jackson Movement's examples of martyrdom are many. On the peak of that great mountain of courage and sacrifice is the death of Medgar W. Evers, field secretary of the Mississippi NAACP. [His killer, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith, was eventually convicted in 1994, after two hung white juries in 1964, and died several years ago in the Mississippi State Penitentiary.] I knew Medgar as a close friend and co-worker in struggle from almost the moment of our arrival in Mississippi in the late summer of 1961 right through to his murder on the night of June 11, 1963 [he died shortly after midnight on June 12.] These paragraphs here are excerpts from our very full web page in appreciation of Medgar and the Jackson Movement. The link to that full page and an interesting related link on our violently attacked Jackson Woolworth Sit In are given at the conclusion of this introductory material. >From our full web page: I knew Martin King -- not deeply and well -- but consistently. I called him on the night of June 13 1963 from Jackson -- two days after Medgar Evers was shot and killed. Our rapidly growing protest demonstrations were being bloodily suppressed. I asked Dr King to come to Jackson for Medgar's funeral on June 15. He readily agreed to do so. We picked him up and several key staff of his -- Ralph Abernathy, Wyatt Walker and others -- at the police-drenched Jackson airport. It was already very hot and the temperature was to go, that day, to 102 super-humid degrees. Martin King and Dr Abernathy rode in my car -- along with Bill Kunstler -- and the others were brought by Ed King. We had a very grudging police escort from the city's all-White police department. The Jackson setting could not have been more lethally dangerous for all of us -- but Dr King visited easily and casually with me, and I with him, as we traveled the very dangerous several miles to the Negro Masonic Temple on Lynch Street. The funeral was huge -- several thousand people, inside and out -- and, following the funeral, six thousand of us marched the two miles or so from the Temple to the Collins Funeral Home on Farish Street. [It was the first "legal" civil rights demonstration in Mississippi's hate-filled, sanguinary history.] Then, there was a second massive demonstration -- which is discussed in my following post on Medgar Evers. I knew Medgar Wiley Evers deeply and well. This extensive document focuses heavily and in considerable detail on my personal and direct recollections of Medgar W. Evers. It also deals with the epochal Jackson Movement of 1961- 1963. Written by me [Hunter Gray] on September 27 1966 -- little more than three years after Medgar's death in 1963 -- to Ms. Polly Greenberg, a writer from New York City -- my recollections were fresh, sharp and vivid. [And they certainly still are -- etched forever in my psyche.] Copies of this letter are held in my collected papers at State Historical Society of Wisconsin and Mississippi Department of Archives and History. A copy is also held by a very good and faithful colleague, Mrs. Doris Allison of Jackson, then President of the Jackson Branch of NAACP, and, with Medgar and myself, a signer of our famous letter of May 12, 1963 -- which threw down the gauntlet to the power structure of Jackson and Mississippi. [Mrs. Allison and I talk several times each month.] Very curiously -- surprisingly -- this extensive personal reflection/appreciation with respect to Medgar W. Evers, a major civil rights figure in Mississippi and national martyr, has been ignored by most writers who have had access to it. One of those who did use it -- and quite effectively -- was the New York Times reporter, Adam Nossiter, in his good Of Long Memory: Mississippi and the Murder of Medgar Evers, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994. I now make it quite public. For our full page, my letter to Ms. Greenberg and more, on Medgar W. Evers: http://hunterbear.org/medgar_w.htm And, among our many other pages on the Jackson Civil Rights Movement, see our two consecutive pages on The Woolworth Sit In -- the most violently attacked sit-in of the 1960s: http://hunterbear.org/Woolworth%20Sitin%20Jackson.htm HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Re
[Marxism] FBI even further unleashed -- "publicly"
und in a subject's trash to put pressure on that person to assist the government in the investigation of others. But Ms. Caproni said information gathered that way could also be useful for other reasons, like determining whether the subject might pose a threat to agents. The new manual will also remove a limitation on the use of surveillance squads, which are trained to surreptitiously follow targets. Under current rules, the squads can be used only once during an assessment, but the new rules will allow agents to use them repeatedly. Ms. Caproni said restrictions on the duration of physical surveillance would still apply, and argued that because of limited resources, supervisors would use the squads only rarely during such a low-level investigation. The revisions also clarify what constitutes "undisclosed participation" in an organization by an F.B.I. agent or informant, which is subject to special rules - most of which have not been made public. The new manual says an agent or an informant may surreptitiously attend up to five meetings of a group before those rules would apply - unless the goal is to join the group, in which case the rules apply immediately. At least one change would tighten, rather than relax, the rules. Currently, a special agent in charge of a field office can delegate the authority to approve sending an informant to a religious service. The new manual will require such officials to handle those decisions personally. In addition, the manual clarifies a description of what qualifies as a "sensitive investigative matter" - investigations, at any level, that require greater oversight from supervisors because they involve public officials, members of the news media or academic scholars. The new rules make clear, for example, that if the person with such a role is a victim or a witness rather than a target of an investigation, extra supervision is not necessary. Also excluded from extra supervision will be investigations of low- and midlevel officials for activities unrelated to their position - like drug cases as opposed to corruption, for example. The manual clarifies the definition of who qualifies for extra protection as a legitimate member of the news media in the Internet era: prominent bloggers would count, but not people who have low-profile blogs. And it will limit academic protections only to scholars who work for institutions based in the United States. Since the release of the 2008 manual, the assessment category has drawn scrutiny because it sets a low bar to examine a person or a group. The F.B.I. has opened thousands of such low-level investigations each month, and a vast majority has not generated information that justified opening more intensive investigations. Ms. Caproni said the new manual would adjust the definition of assessments to make clear that they must be based on leads. But she rejected arguments that the F.B.I. should focus only on investigations that begin with a firm reason for suspecting wrongdoing. HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See - Personal and Detailed Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See this on the new, expanded edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see Shooting Lupus (my killing a deadly disease that did its best to kill me): http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Forest fires and a very long conversation
r long phone visit. After the fire piece of it and the always ritualistic recollection of some of our very early adventures, we turned to quantum physics in the context of philosophy. He's an avid reader, more so now that his health -- though not his mind or voice -- has slipped in the last decade. We both damned Richard Dawkins, arch atheist and super skeptic, and then got around to our mutual agreement on reincarnation into a new human form -- making it clear to one another that we're in no rush to leave the present dimension. "But when that does come," Joe said, "I think I'd like to try another planet. This one's too Goddamned full of people and problems." "I think I'll stay on Earth," said I -- "Might do my college work at Chico State [California.] I've heard that's a hell of a great party school." We left it at that -- each of us opining that some way, some how, and wherever, we'd connect in the next Life. "Problems" -- both nature-wise and social -- will always be our vocational forte, I'm sure. And I'll call him again before too long. He'll still be there. Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See - Personal and Detailed Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See this on the new, expanded edition of my book, Jackson Mississippi -- the classic account of the historic and bloody Jackson Movement of almost 50 years ago: http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see Shooting Lupus (my killing a deadly disease that did its best to kill me): http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Woody Guthrie and his habitat -- and mine
a Farmworkers, 1870-1941 [Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1981.] So I first heard of Woody when I was a little kid and we were all humming "Oklahoma Hills" and related epics. ["Way Down Yonder in the Indian nations/Ride my pony on the reservation/Oklahoma hills where I was born. . ."] I have always liked his stuff very much indeed -- along with that of the obviously related Weavers and Almanac Singers. The fine Labor Heritage Foundation has recently issued a CD of "Talking Union and Other Union Songs" [Almanac Singers via Smithsonian/Folkways] which I got as a gift this past Christmas. Labor Heritage [easily found on the Net] offers much more as well, including Guthrie, Robeson, and Joe Glazer. Anyway, this review which Pete sent me -- along with Random House's discussion of Jack Weatherford's very fine work on another hero of mine, Jenghiz [Genghis] Khan and the Mongols -- is interesting, and provocative. [Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.] "Genghis Khan was an innovative leader, the first ruler in many conquered countries to put the power of law above his own power, encourage religious freedom, create public schools, grant diplomatic immunity, abolish torture, and institute free trade. The trade routes he created became lucrativepathways for commerce, but also for ideas, technologies, and expertise that transformed the way people lived. The Mongols introduced the first international paper currency and postal system and developed and spread revolutionary technologies like printing, the cannon, compass, and abacus. They took local foods and products like lemons, carrots, noodles, tea, rugs, playing cards, and pants and turned them into staples of life around the world. The Mongols were the architects of a new way of life at a pivotal time in history." But back to Woody and the Times of Some of Us: Whatever this new book may say, you do have to know the grassroots people -- when Dust Bowl and Depression were both barrels of a hideous weapon of those very tough times -- to really appreciate Woody Guthrie et al. [Louis Proyect of Marxism Discussion/Marxmail comments on my Woody Guthrie post: "Vintage Hunter. So glad you are still hanging in." Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear] ARE YOU COMING, WOODY? [HUNTER GRAY ON THE NEW DUST BOWL -- MAY 4, 2002] Note by Hunter Bear: This concerns a great big piece of turf in what's called the United States: the Great Plains. When we visited some of my mother's relatives back in Kansas and Oklahoma in the late 1930s, I saw -- as a very small child indeed -- the skies filled with gritty dust for days and the blowing soil drifting like high snow along the fence lines. I can remember, in that setting, water-soaked handkerchiefs being placed over my nose and lower face. A good part of my home town of Flagstaff, Arizona -- on Highway 66 -- wound up being populated by refugees from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma, western Arkansas, much of Kansas. Some initially stopped in that cool, high pine timber country and others, blocked by California gunmen on the Colorado River state border well to the west of Flag, turned east again and stopped to live and work in the lumber woods of our Northern Arizona setting. Many of the kids who went to school with me were "Okies" -- a broad term covering multi-state disaster. Looks like it could all being coming again -- via extremely extensive drought and high winds. And it's coming in the wake of years of economic malfunction and corporate greed that have seen many thousands of ranchers and farmers in, say, the Dakotas lose their land in the last twenty years. [I have many of my mother's kin in North Dakota -- as well as many friends there in my own right -- and keep up with that situation pretty well. So far they haven't been that dry -- but anything can happen and much of Eastern Montana is in bad shape.] Here in Idaho, we've had more than two years of really tough drought. Fires have played hell. Game has either been pushed far up into the very high country where it generally rains even if it doesn't anywhere else -- or 'way down and practically into town. However, this past winter -- which started in earnest in early November and saw snow here as recently as two days ago -- was heavy and wet and persistent enough to lead to my very frequent 4WD Jeep use. So, maybe, the weather cards are breaking well for us here in this part of the Inter-Mountain West. Maybe. But the Plains are something else again at this point -- something that's beginning to look as dark and foreboding as the skies I saw when I was five years old. Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven y
[Marxism] Alpine Arizona
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == There's a hell of a big forest fire in northeastern Arizona. It's in turf I know well -- and it's burned at least a quarter of a million acres. While some of that is brush, much is yellow pine, some is spruce and fir. Those trees take ages to grow in the dry Southwest. Reber commented on Redbadbear a couple of days ago that smoke was enveloping Albuquerque, far to the east; and that the fire wasn't getting much media coverage nationally. It wasn't, but it's getting somewhat more now since homes are burning and hundreds of refugees have fled to Springerville, a town to the west of the fire -- as the fire stands now, anyway. Most people on the East and West coasts don't follow the forest fire situations in the West -- unless they happen to be occurring in southern California. It's been my observation that that includes many radicals whose environmental interests can often -- often -- be thin, if existent at all. Unless one can tie something to the lumber companies, there really isn't a class struggle in a forest fire. And, as I've mentioned occasionally, while global warming might, I imagine, exacerbate the fire situation peripherally, it doesn't start fires. People and lightning start those. And known prolonged droughts have occurred in the Southwest for many centuries. This fire, in its initial stages, was on the edges of what used to be the very small town of Alpine -- high up in elevation with some spruce and fir, very close to the New Mexico border [and its Catron County.] In the old days, there were a few ranchers around Alpine and the USFS Alpine Ranger District has always been based there, first as part of the Apache National Forest [in my day] and now, via merger, the Apache/Sitgreaves National Forest. Now, there are a great many people living around there -- affluent people who've moved up into the cool climes from Phoenix or from California or various Eastern parts. It's safe to assume that many of these have no deep feel for "the woods" and fire safety. The Alpine Ranger District was one of the last districts in the USFS' Region 3 to fall into bureaucratic ways. I started my forest fire control career in my mid-teens, far below the legal age of 18. During those years, I was involved in the Coconino National Forest, based at Flagstaff. Things were pretty non-bureaucratic and hang-loose -- and very effective with respect to fire-fighting but, even then, there were signs of "tightening things up." When I returned from the Army, I found that several old and good friends of mine -- including a district ranger -- were gone from the Coconino. The ranger had been transferred to Region 3's "Siberia", the Alpine District of the Apache, largely because of his opposition to the voracious lumber companies based at Flagstaff. Friends of his, and of mine, went with him. When I visited them in '55, everything was hang-loose at Alpine and very effective on all fronts. It remained that way for awhile. In 1959, it took me only one minute to secure a good summer USFS job out of Alpine for a 17 year old student of mine from Nebraska, a sharp guy from a very tough and low-income family situation and for whom I'd secured a good college scholarship in an eastern state. A year after that, I put in my pleasantly very isolated full summer stint on high up Bear Mountain -- the most isolated fire lookout in Arizona -- relating by radio directly to Alpine. [This current fire horror has NOT gotten into the Bear Mountain setting.] But only a few years after that. bureaucratization reached into the Alpine District situation. My ranger friend survived but, in time, passed away. Another good friend, early on, transferred to the U.S. Park Service and finished his government career in that context. Yes, the weather has been fluky -- downright weird and very dangerous. And there are vastly larger numbers of "outside" people in that close-to-my-heart setting than there were when I was a relative kid. And the Forest Service, wedded to chain-of-command rigidities and often saddled with just-out of forestry school "shave tail" assistant rangers, often lacks the knowledge and ability to make quick and eclectic -- and effective -- strategic moves that involve not just airborne tech, but tough and savvy ground crews in substantive numbers. Now, of course, I'm in Idaho, and not in the Alpine, Arizona region. And my thoughts are admittedly speculative. But I do know something about all of this. http://hunterbear.org/forest_fires_in_the_west.htm And my thoughts are very sad. Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUN
[Marxism] Forest Fires: Causes, Prevention, Fire Lookouts, Fighting Strategies -- and more
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == June 4, 2011 / Note by Hunter Bear: Forest fire season is now underway yet again. Whatever the realities of global warming -- and I think there's something to it all -- forest fires are almost always caused by human beings or lightning. Extreme drought, maybe exacerbated by global warming, can certainly feed into forest fire situations. But there have always been droughts, many profound and of lengthy duration -- and long, long before global warming. Scientific tree ring dating analysis -- Dendrochronology -- sometimes on very elderly trees [e.g. several centuries old Alligator Junipers] and even on timber posts retrieved archaeologically from many centuries old "Indian dwelling ruins", certainly indicate that. So, again, we are down to people and lightning. Here is our long and full webpage on the forest fire situation. It is based primarily on my own quite considerable personal experience as a fire-fighter and fire lookout. A recent addition to this page is "The Life of a Fire Lookout." UPDATE NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: [NOVEMBER 3 2007] Given the sad events of this fall and our preceding summer, there is a good deal of broad interest in Western forest/brush fire situations. While a few may have seen our large webpage on the general situation, most probably have not. That Link follows. I personally tend to write primarily -- whatever the topic -- from direct personal experience and observation. Much of my life has been spent in Western mountain country and I do know a good deal first-hand about fighting forest fires. While I don't know much at all about the western California situations, I am aware that extremely rapid expansion of the human population into heavily timbered and/or brushy regions -- almost in a crazy-quilt quasi-checkerboard fashion -- is a part of the problem faced there. But there are others, perhaps more unique to that specific region than, say, Northern Arizona or Idaho or Montana or New Mexico. Some years ago, one of my oldest friends -- and, in the old days, a long-time colleague in direct forest fire fighting -- was sent from Northern Arizona into a California situation. He has described it to me many times as the most chaotic experience he ever had fighting fire -- extremely poor and confused inter-agency coordination and a frequent lack of "outdoors" experience by many of the ostensible fire fighters who often came from purely urban backgrounds. [Of course, a few of these recent California situations have, as they've gone along, become "urban fires" as well.] In the mess of some years ago described by my friend -- yet again as recently as a phone conversation a few weeks ago -- that crisis was solved only when another old friend of both of us from Northern Arizona -- a highly experienced fire dispatcher, fire boss, and fire fighter generally was rushed into that California mess as the top operational commander. In fast due course, that took care of things. Anyway, here is our website page. It is big, very full: http://hunterbear.org/forest_fires_in_the_west.htm HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See - Personal and Detailed Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See Outlaw Trail: The Native as Organizer: http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm [Included in Visions & Voices: Native American Activism [2009] See our substantial Community Organizing course (with new material into 2011): http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] A Little Horror Story: Sixty-eight Pages on a Pleasant Idaho Day
s fighting on two medical fronts. By this time, it was into December. At one point, suddenly in a very near coma in our home, I retained enough of something to walk to our Jeep but soon lost all consciousness well short of the ER door. My blood sugar count was in the 900s. There was a cat scan of my brain which indicated All OK -- about the only organ that was. Back in ICU, it was discovered that I also had lupus pneumonia which proved resistant to conventional anti-biotics but a heavy dose of super stuff, termed "the cobalt bomb", did end that problem. I rejected Rehab and I rejected all chemo drugs. And then I was back home, for good as it turned out -- and the hospital documents end with the formal designation of my already somewhat involved and to-be long term physician, the good and medically conservative Dan Jones. By now, it was cold and bleak weather-wise, well fitting my personal ethos. One night I had a very strange and fascinating dream that I was traveling down my most favorite place in the Universe, the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Area in Northern Arizona. http://hunterbear.org/ghosts.htm The initial Firefight was over and the long, long siege was underway, years of it and most of that in the context of perennial uncertainty. In time, Prednisone was replaced by the much less problematic Plaquenil and the diabetes faded away. Well before that, two visits to my physician per week finally became one visit, then two visits per month became one -- and then a long stretch of a visit every three or four months, and finally a visit each year. I never planned to die and obviously didn't. But while the hospital documents don't exactly say it, it seems clear, from those and my recollections of those extraordinarily grim times, that most physicians were not especially hopeful of my survival chances. Mimie recently heard a lecture from a genuine Authority who indicated that remissions in the case of profound Systemic Lupus virtually never occur. But that's exactly what's happened with me -- full remission -- and I now have nine pages of very, very recent detailed lab reports to prove it. http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm The wizened "old man" is long gone and I look very much as I did in the years before this assault began. When Thomas and Mimie return to Iowa City, they'll be carrying with them the classic massive work on SLE: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Robert G. Lahita, Editor. A gift from me, it's the 2004 edition, 1343 large pages, with dozens and dozens of essays and many photos and much more. In his opening paragraph, Professor Lahita notes of SLE, "Moreover, it is a deadly disease." When I finished the sixty-eight pages, I placed them on top of the very recent lab all-clear "remission" packet. Then, I re-thought that arrangement and placed the Hospital Horror under that of Sunny Remission. I put the Fall 2003 photo of the "old and decrepit man" in a manila envelope for posterity. In the Mountains of Eastern Idaho. Nialetch / Onen Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See our new Somewhat Heretical Thoughts -- a mix of some of our recent, favorite posts (2009 / 2011) -- all with a social justice focus: http://hunterbear.org/absolutely_heretical_thoughts.htm See our substantial Community Organizing course (with new material into 2011): http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm And See Outlaw Trail: The Native as Organizer: (updated 2011) http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm [Included in Visions & Voices: Native American Activism (2009) Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Richard Trumka and AFL-CIO -- Promise?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Note by Hunter Bear: [from RBB discussion] I agree that AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka's recent statements about large-scale funding of grassroots organizing at the points of production are certainly encouraging. And I'm hopeful. But, again, we've heard constant talk of "organizing the unorganized" for decades and, while that's certainly happened to some extent, that trend has been on a downhill slide for a long time. If it's going to take a lot of money from the Labor stratosphere, it's also going to require some basic changes further down. Writing in his classic 1948 autobiography, Wobbly: The Rough and Tumble Story of an American Radical, Ralph Chaplin ["Solidarity Forever"], noted that in the flush Labor times of the 1940s, union organizers and business agents were increasingly gravitating away from "coffee, and" to long lunches and dinners with sirloin steaks. [Coffee, and pie are, I admit, a little thin for me. For years, I subsisted on five cheeseburgers and a pitcher of ice water and black coffee -- and I still love that fare.] If the AFL-CIO's new direction is going to bear really significant fruit, it's got to involve hard-working and visionary grassroots organizers who give heart and soul to their campaigns. Bona fide organizing isn't a 9 to 5 job -- it's a many hours Cause. The human race has always had plenty of fiery and spunky idealists within it -- frequently very young -- and, with appropriate training [often simply via on the job apprenticeship], they can do just fine. And, when they're doing "their own thing," they need dependable backup from, say, a regional director -- but, if they're worth their salt, they don't want or need micro-managing. A good organizer needs plenty of creative space. A kind letter came yesterday from Jesse Howard, going back to our several years of organizing on the Chicago South/Southwest Side. Those were very rough times but we accomplished a lot and, although this wasn't Labor organizing, the parallels were many. Jesse, who we hired from the ghetto grassroots, quickly became a crack young organizer. After we completed our grassroots organizing project in a little more than four years, Jesse stayed on with the parent agency, the Chicago Commons Association, in other capacities. His letter: John, I pray that you remember me, Jesse C Howard, from the Chicago Commons Association Southside (1971 to 1973, I worked there until 1978). Just wanted to say thanks for being such a great boss and Jim Richardson and a few others over the years always ask about you. May the spirit that is in and exposes us all, touch you and your family with peace and joy. My job was that of Southside Director. [I've never used "boss" with respect to myself -- but, in the culture of Chicago, that's a broad and not unusual designation.] Had a staff of about two dozen very good people, some university grads and some community people. It was well integrated racially. My roles were several: contributing to vision and strategies, backing up staff, some direct organizing myself, preparation and administration of financial grants -- and keeping our Central Office -- fortunately far, far away on the North Side -- from intermeddling in our work. I always ensured that staff had plenty of creative space. And things went very well. That spirit and ethos have been my basic style all of my life -- wherever I've been. http://hunterbear.org/chicago_organizing.htm So, if AFL-CIO wants to recapture the "old revival spirit" and carry that productively into the future, it's going to have to put up not only plenty of dinero -- but also make some significant "interior changes" in its essentially bureaucratic ethos. In Solidarity, Hunter Bear [paid-up UAW member] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See our new Somewhat Heretical Thoughts -- a mix of some of our recent, favorite posts (2009 / 2011) -- all with a social justice focus: http://hunterbear.org/absolutely_heretical_thoughts.htm See our substantial Community Organizing course (with new material into 2011): http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm And See Outlaw Trail: The Native as Organizer: (updated 2011) http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm [Included in Visions & Voices: Native American Activism (2009) _
[Marxism] Still Here: Sanguinary Skies and All
ens. [I did, of course, renew my UAW/National Writers Union dues the other day for yet another year.] I don't think the Creator -- and Its many entities such as Jerusalem Slim [Jesus] -- are going to let this human-messed old World off with any smooth and fast and easy exit. The lights of Newcastle and Pocatello still glow. We're going to be around for a long, long time and the urgency and the Call of the Save the World Business remains high in the global skies -- often skies of sanguinary red -- and the New World calls from Beyond the Mountains Yonder. In Solidarity, Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See - Personal and Detailed Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See our substantial Community Organizing course (with new material into 2011): http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm And See Outlaw Trail: The Native as Organizer: (updated 2011) http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm [Included in Visions & Voices: Native American Activism (2009) Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] SEX AND THE ORGANIZER
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Just some early morning coffee thoughts. And, on coffee, it tastes even better right now since the revelations of the past day or so that add up to its medical benefits, including its role as something of bulwark against male prostate cancer. (Not a problem of mine, I'm glad to add.) But coffee, along with the Human Horrors that grace the world, and natural ones as well such as the rejuvenation of Old Man River, has taken something of a back seat to Sex. Specifically, Sex in New York City and Sex on the West Coast. Brings to mind a pleasant dinner of slightly more than half a century ago. The setting was Wasau, Wisconsin, and the dinner was on the nickel of a good guy and developing friend, Elwood Taub, then research and education director of the International Woodworkers of America -- the CIO lumber workers union. He, a seasoned veteran of a good many extremely tough organizing campaigns in Dixie, much of this in Textile before he took the IWA job, and aware of my developing interest in "going South", was trying to maneuver my being hired as an organizer by his international. Though not without influence therein, he -- and I -- were aware that the top leadership, in contrast to the still extant Wobbly spirit that pervaded much of the grassroots in the Pacific Northwest, had grown cautious. In the end, the officialdom balked at me -- and I, of course, found my Dixie door and Destiny at Tougaloo College, just a bit north of Jackson. Elwood and I remained friends and, in time, he found another union. During our leisurely dinner, he looked at me and remarked rather directly, "When you go South, always remember this: Keep your pecker in your pants." Actually, I'd heard that advice a bit earlier, not delivered quite so bluntly, by a Mine-Mill organizer and good friend, a Southerner by origin, who'd been through his share of fire fights. I've followed that advice -- obviously figuratively. Hardly a "tight" personality sort by any remote stretch [and I hate formal suits], I was occasionally tagged cordially by such worthies as my late Dixie [and elsewhere] buddy, some years younger than I, the late J.V. Henry and himself a North Carolinian, as "the Puritan of the Civil Rights Movement." A couple of months after Wasau, Eldri and I married. The world is much the better via our four offspring, and the now ten grandchildren. And, decades later, when I penned my little and subsequently much reprinted piece, "Just What Makes A Damn Good Community Organizer," the second basic dimension of my eleven point catechism, is this: "The Organizer should be relatively "pure" in the moral sense. But not too pure -- because no one, anywhere, wants a sanctimonious conscience hovering about. Set a good personal example. Do your recreational thing away from the project. Wherever you are, avoid all drugs and go easy on alcohol [if you are even into that sensitivity-dulling stuff.] Remember the old labor adage: "You can't fight booze and the boss at the same time." Always a special target, the organizer has to be aware of the consistent danger of frame-ups." http://www.hunterbear.org/just_what_makes_a_damn_good_comm.htm Sometimes, when starting a talk, I hand my Eleven Points out to the audience. Older people read it somberly and younger folk, coming almost immediately to that which I've just quoted, often look up at me, grinning. I always grin back. And no, I am not sanctimonious, But I am very serious. In Solidarity, Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See - Personal and Detailed Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See Outlaw Trail: The Native as Organizer: http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm [Included in Visions & Voices: Native American Activism [2009] And see Forces and Faces Along the Activist Trail: http://hunterbear.org/forces_and_faces_along_the_trail.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Pleasant Opiate
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Hastily done, "stream of consciousness": At some point yesterday afternoon, I'd had enough. Not from List discussions, I assure you, but from the flow of "kept" media news-carrying spin of the last week: Osama's dead and a myriad of conflicting "lines" but his Al Qaeda is finished, documents reveal that He speculated about new terror approaches, then potential terror schemes, finally active new terror plots amidst re-creations of the 9-11 ethos. Bring the troops home, the troops will not be coming home, a smiling Barack Obama at every point. Tornado horrors swept away, likewise impending and record massive flooding in the mid-South heading toward deeper Dixie, hardly anything on rising jobless claims. I felt like a sponge that had absorbed more than the max of dubious waters. I found a flick on Showtime: White Fang 2/The White Wolf -- a sequel to Jack London's White Fang. Aimed most likely at the Middle School through High School crowd and set in Alaska, it moved rapidly with the challenging adventures of a young Anglo man and White Fang -- his wolf companion -- who, occasionally separated, always reunite and then join forces with friendly Indians and especially an attractive young Native woman. Concurrently White Fang and an attractive female white wolf commence a mutually coy back and forth relationship. Scoundrely Anglo gold miners threaten Nature but their schemes are undone by the aforementioned Forces of Good, the chief Anglo villain is trampled to death by angry caribou, the young guy and his Native lady are formally joined as are White Fang and the white wolf -- and the final scene shows them all together -- with a litter of wolf pups. Marxist analysis couldn't make a dent in this complex -- and Freud, who might get a little further, would be knocked out of action by the caribou. Well, it was a better solution than Drink. And, actually, I liked it. Hunter Bear HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See - Personal and Detailed Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See Outlaw Trail: The Native as Organizer: http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm [Included in Visions & Voices: Native American Activism [2009] And see Forces and Faces Along the Activist Trail: http://hunterbear.org/forces_and_faces_along_the_trail.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Grounds -- sometimes -- for suspicion
st a few loose ends thoughts Whether one has a Marxist perspective or not, anyone who scratches the surface objectively has to see the economic basis for a great many of the current social ills plaguing the country [or other countries] This obviously applies to much of crime and usage of genuinely dangerous drugs -- and to various versions of "extremism." But it's much "easier" to think in terms of "law enforcement" than to dig at the roots in a preventative, let along curative, fashion. The "disconnect" between the Government and much of the US population is significant in scope. I think most, if not all of us, on RBB would agree. Going further, the mushrooming human population globally -- I gather we are on the brink of becoming seven billion soon -- raises a myriad of disconnect situations between people and government. Elimination of capitalism, or even its significant modification, is obviously necessary but decentralization of government beyond simply the division of powers [state/local] is critical as well. Large scale and somewhat socialist nations have certainly had their significant problems on many fronts. In any of these challenges, grassroots people action is always a critical necessity. I give the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center B to B- marks. ACLU has dodged certain kinds of "controversial" issues that it should have engaged: 2nd Amendment matters [NRA does a fine job handling those but "liberal" support would always be helpful]; or, as another example, the mass seizure of polygamists' children in Texas a couple of years ago -- an extraordinarily blatant action reversed by the Texas Appellate and Supreme courts which found no grounds for the raids and seizure. ACLU came late to that. If Randy Weaver had been, say, a "minority" separatist, ACLU nationally would have been more concerned. The Southern regional office of ACLU, then headed by people who had had direct experience in the Southern Movement, made an unsuccessful effort to involve the national body in the Waco issues. The Southern Poverty Law Center does a good job in its basic region -- Dixie -- but often errs in its judgments when it comes to other parts of the United States where its direct knowledge is really minimal. Most militia entities are simply talk -- bull shooting by military wannabees. Most are nonviolent and few are racist. And in any of these situations, one does find individual demagogues with their personal self-interest. The militia thing never caught fire in North Dakota, in part because the state's ethos is not especially incendiary in the overt sense -- and because of the Posse tragedy at Medina. [It did catch some organizational fire in surrounding areas.] But in the whole Northern Plains region, including North Dakota and elsewhere, economic marginality [e.g., large-scale loss of land] and a sense of personal powerlessness over one's destiny comprise the major root complex that gives rise to these things. This certainly applies to at least some hate group phenomena -- such as the Southern Klans. I regularly taught a very well attended course at UND -- "Racism and Hate Groups in America." It could easily draw a hundred students. In the early 90s, an interesting film appeared -- "Death and Taxes" -- dealing with farm/ranch discontent in North Dakota and the Posse situation that had occurred at Medina. Senator Byron Dorgan's brother ran the ND state NPR affiliate and blocked the film from showing in that venue. Peter, our youngest son, and then state editor of the Bismarck Tribune, got a copy of it [which I still have somewhere.] After previewing it, I played the film to the Racism class. The normally and usually pretty laid back students became extremely emotional in most cases. Virtually all of them had first hand knowledge of the land loss situation. In one incarnation of that class was the son of a state district judge, based in Grand Forks [our town.] And, during one of those class sessions, a deranged tax protester, Reuben Larson, shot the student's father -- the judge -- in court. Fortunately, the jurist survived but that situation, plus a comparable one at the same time in Texas, led directly to the present [and justified] national courthouse security measures. [Josie, our youngest, still recalls her St Mary's School area being inundated with lawmen searching for Larson, who they did catch.] H HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See - Personal and Detailed Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See -
[Marxism] Enduring Sunlight [Personal Medical Report / SLE]
a. I had taught for several years in its Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Planning. And now, of course, Thomas and Mimie are well established in the River City. Half an hour was spent by the new doc going over my exterior very carefully, plus mouth and eyes. Another physician also came. While my feet, once swollen beyond belief, are still mending, everything was OK. I went to the blood test lady who, although it's been a year, recognized me cordially. Looking at the requested bill of fare, she exclaimed, "My, they want everything!" At my request, she began to read the very long list but, when we got to a series of internal organs, it began to sound a little dreary, and I soon politely disclaimed any wish to hear more. In time, we got back home. I was greeted with unusually fond fervor by our very intuitive Furry Friends. Life went on. And yesterday came the Good News. No active Lupus. Full remission. This is rare. I have seen a solid medical study involving 160 people with severe SLE. Only four achieved remission. Everything else was quite OK -- including my cholesterol which hadn't been checked for seven years. I'll have another blood test in six months or so and another medical conference in a year. So the headwaters of my Lupus and its river are now dry. The Happy Hunting Grounds for me obviously lie far beyond the mountain ranges. I am not surprised. At 77, I have survived a number of serious efforts to do me in physically, all sorts of beatings of various kinds, frequent defamatory campaigns -- some crude, some wickedly creative. But I do have a very thick skull and hide. And, since I have a reasonable amount of human vanity, I am glad to say I now look very much just as I did in the many years prior to this Dragon's assault in 2003. There is still self-healing but that's moving consistently and effectively. The credit for this goes in many directions: the tough and hardy physique provided by my ancestors, the consistent and loyal support by friends and family -- and furry friends [especially my nurse cats, the late Cloudy and the present Sky], fine physicians for the most part. And Things Unseen. Nialetch / Onen Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ and Ohkwari' I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands. Our Hunterbear website is now eleven years old.. Check out http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm See - Personal and Detailed Background Narrative: http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm See - The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child (My Father): http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm And see - Elder Recognition Award (Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Story Tellers: http://hunterbear.org/elder_recognition_award_for_2005.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
