From: Alan L. Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 2:17 PM
To: 'SALYND@aol.com'; Michael Munk (lastmarx@comcast.net)
Subject: RE: Harry Bridges 20 years later
Mr. Staughton Lynd,
You engage in the same kind of anti-communism that Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn engage in--- you fail to educate about the real role of the Communist Party even though you are well aware of its role. While this kind of anti-communism may seem different than its more pernicious counterpart; for the working class it is just as deadly.
It is nice you write about Communists; but, the real story is about how those Communists worked through their Communist Clubs which makes the activities of these Clubs the central question needing to be articulated when it comes to what kind of grassroots and rank-and-file organizations are needed to create real change.
If one reads the books, “The Many and the Few” by Henry Kraus, “Organize” by Wyndham Mortimer, etc. the role of the Communist Party Clubs is demonstrated. Phil Raymond, who
you are aware of who built the very foundation of the UAW along with Nadia Barkan (the Communist whose name has been virtually wiped from history--- as has Phil Raymond’ for that matter) told me that he a Nadia traveled all over Michigan organizing all the Communist Party Clubs they could as a prelude to initiating the unionization drives in auto. The book, “Brother Bill McKie” also teaches about the role of Communist Party Clubs. The book that was the most widely read book of the 1930’s was, “The People’s Front” by Earl Browder which historians and writers like you, Chomsky and Zinn don’t even seem to want to acknowledge although the Communist Party itself is largely to blame for this lack of recognition of this book which would be so vital for people to read today in order to avoid many of the pitfalls you provide for people to fall into as you provided only part of the story as you seek to “explain” this dispute with Harry Bridges.
And, how is it that the work and writings of someone of such an important stature and standing in the left and progressive movements like Frank Marshall Davis has been ignored? And almost everything written about Paul Robeson these days is intentionally tinged with anti-communism yet, perhaps, Robeson’s greatest accomplishments were the hand he lent to building Communist Party Clubs all over this country.
These Communist Party Clubs have been central to all the work in labor and civil rights struggles in this country from 1919 on-ward.
It is not enough to tell the stories of these Communists without telling how they worked through their Communist Party Clubs--- even the Communist Party has largely not told this story but this does not excuse others like yourself from not telling this most important story.
I don’t say any of this to in any way demean the good work you have done; but, since you feel your point needs to be raised about Harry Bridges, I think the role of CPUSA Clubs needs to be broached, too--- since it is rather common knowledge, in spite of his denial for legal reasons, Harry Bridges was a member of the CPUSA, held a Party card and worked in a Party club… so, any problems you have with Harry Bridges is in fact a criticism of the CPUSA and his association/membership in it. Now, here you come, you want one side of a complex issue told… an issue that a book should be written about that gives well-rounded views from all sides. You want us to believe Stan Weir was merely a voice for the rank-and-file against union bureaucracy when this is far from the truth--- Weir was an opponent of “the people’s front” which gave Harry Bridges and others good reason not to work with him as he worked with Norman Thomas--- and this needs to be very clear… not only was Norman Thomas and his Socialist Party invited to participate in “the people’s front;” but, he was offered a shared leadership role in it--- as equals. Weir and Thomas CHOSE to work with the America Firsters which was nothing but a bunch of Hitler-loving fascists.
As for Finland… Hitler intended to use Finland in his plans to destroy the Soviet Union--- I’m glad Stalin was smart enough to understand what you and Zinn don’t/didn’t. Harry Bridges understood what Stalin understood, too.
There are any number of stories you could tell which would demonstrate the important role played by Communist Clubs which created the leaders of labor with untold stories--- from auto to steel to transportation to the docks to the raids against UE in communities like Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, Michigan to the foundries of Muskegon, Michigan to the hard-rock miners of Mine-Mill.
Let’s tell the real story of Stan Weir which is the story of his opposition to Communist Party Clubs and the working-class heroes like Harry Bridges who were able to lead these Clubs in a way that built strong rank-and-file led unions while defending his right to remain in the United States--- there might not have been any other worker in this country who has ever been singled out for a campaign of hate intended to silence him than Harry Bridges.
I’m glad to see you at least took a little poke at that worthless Trotskyite little pip squeak Emil Mazey… Stan Weir deserves the same.
Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell Phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Please check out my blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
From: SALYND@aol.com [mailto:SALYND@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 1:52 AM
To: amaki000@centurytel.net; lastmarx@comcast.net
Subject: Re: Harry Bridges 20 years later
Dear Alan, Michael and all,
In the book Rank and File, my wife and I included interviews with three rank-and-file women -- Katherine Hyndman, Vicki Starr, and Sylvia Woods -- all of whom had been members of the Communst Party. At my suggestion, these three were then made the subject of the documentary "Union Maids." They have now all passed on, Vicki only a few months ago.
Howard Zinn, who also passed on recently, had been perhaps my closest friend for almost fifty years since we were together at Spelman College in the early Sixties. Howard grew up in Brooklyn. He was a teenager in the late 1930s. He came out of precisely the political culture of "a popular Front led by the Communist Party." But as he describes in his autobiography You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train, step by step he developed an independent position. He opposed the Soviet invasion of Finland before World War II. He came to repudiate his own role as a bombardier in the Allied saturation bombing that was rationalized by uncritical support for World War II because it was viewed as defense of the Soviet Union.
So I don't think it works to attack me as a Trotskyist. I didn't criticize Bridges because of an alleged relationship to the Communist Party but on the merits. And as long as I can remember -- going back at least to 1950 -- I have criticized the Trotsky who told the Kronstadt rebels, "I will shoot you down like pheasants."
Staughton Lynd
----- Original Message -----
From: SALYND@aol.com
To: lastmarx@comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: Harry Bridges 20 years later
Dear lastmarx/Michael Munk,
I dissent from an unequivocally positive assessment of Harry Bridges.
1. Are you familiar with the protest of a number of African American longshoremen and Stan Weir to their exclusion from the union as so-called B men?
2. I was myself present at a national conference of "Labor For Peace" at the local union hall of Harold Gibbons' Teamsters local in St. Louis, in about 1970. A rank-and-file caucus presented a motion that there be a national day of protest against the war in Vietnam, each group of workers doing what made their sense in their locality: staying home from work, an extended lunch hour, a leaflet distribution, wearing anti-war buttons, whatever. I had the honor of seconding the motion. The conference sessions were chaired by a succession of national union bureaucrats. The gentleman in the chair when we made our motion (Emil Mazey) sneeringly said, "Let's take a vote on this ridiculous motion!" The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the motion. Over the lunch hour the various honchos present got together with Bridges and persuaded him to make a motion after lunch to rescind the motion approved that morning. Sadly, intimidated by Bridges' radical reputation, the delegates complied.
Let's put aside the habit of looking for some national union leader (John L. Lewis, Philip Murray, Walter Reuther, Harry Bridges, Arnold Miller, Eddie Sadlowski, Ron Carey, John Sweeney, Andrew Stern, Richard Trumka) to lead us out of the wilderness. Gene Debs knew what to say about that unfortunate strategy: If I could lead you into the Promised Land, someone else could lead you out
May I ask that you circulate this response to your list?
Staughton Lynd
Dear Staughton,
Thanks for your comments. On the issue of exclusion of Blacks: that's what my paper is about. As I wrote:
I'm working on a paper about an exception to the ILWU's record on "equal
opportunity" the lilly white (until 1964) longshore local 8 in Portland. It
will be the subject of a panel at the Pacific NW Labor History Assn
conference in Portland June 11-13. Details available...Mike
But Harry himself busted his ass against racists who used the ILWU's local autonomy constitution to keep out blacks.His International was arguably the most militantly anti racist union.
On the Vietnam war: The unions ILWU's own history celebrates its opposition:: "In the early 1960s the ILWU was the first union to stand up in opposition to US military intervention in Vietnam in 1964. Over the next decade, the union joined with a host of regional and national anti-war coalitions and demonstrations--and, led by Lou Goldblatt, helped organize Labor for Peace. The union's policy called for an end to bombing of civilian populations, the withdrawal of US military forces and a negotiated settlement of the civil war." The ILWU Story (1977) . So what was that St Louis episode about?
Although not "unequivocally positive" [some aspects of the M&M agreement, etc], I'd still consider Harry one of our most effective and principled union champions of the working class.
Per your request, circulating our exchange to my Labor list, which got the original post.
Cheers, Mike
visit my website www.michaelmunk.com
Friday, March 26, 2010
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