LABOR DAY – 2013

I posed some questions and issues to social justice leaders for comment on the Labor Day postings for this year.  There will be three postings: Monday August 26th, Tuesday August 27^th and Wednesday August 28^th.  The responses are interesting and inspiring.

Questions:

August 26^th
What is the political-economic – moral strength of the labor movement at the present time? 

August 27^th
Does Faith have an important role in the Labor Movement?

August 28th
Issues: Income inequality, EFCA. Immigration Reform

The respondents are:

Frank Shansky, Business Manager Local 212 Milwaukee Area Technical College

Jim Lange, retired Steel Worker and labor activist 

Dominique Paul Noth, served as senior editor for all feature coverage at the Milwaukee Journal after decades as its film and drama critic, then was appointed special assistant to the publisher and the company’s first online producer.  For the past decade he was editor of the Milwaukee Labor Press and website, milwaukeelabor.org. He now writes as an independent journalist on culture and politics.

Joan Picard Bleidorn, retired Milwaukee Area Technical College Professor, Co-founder Local 212 part time professors unit, member of St. Benedict the Moor Roman Catholic Parish

August 26^th Question:

What is the political-economic-moral strength of the Labor Movement at the present time?

Frank Shansky

   I’ll let someone else answer the political and economic strength. But the moral strength of the labor movement is its ability to stand up to power, when very few others will. Labor encompasses the vast majority of society, if not in membership, then in principle.

Jim Lange:

   The Labor movement is too weak these days to deal with the onslaught of the companies. That’s why I applaud the AFL-CIO for reaching out and trying to find new ways of doing things.

Dominique Noth:

   Ought to be stronger but is quite weak in public perception despite clear evidence of moral and economic importance.  Some of the wound is inflicted by political excess particularly in Wisconsin and other ideologically right-driven states but some is self-inflicted from naval gazing over protecting its own members.

   Now labor has got to go back to what caused it to grow and vitalize starting a century ago, bringing in workers of like concern whether they hold union cards or not, opening the doors, forming coalitions of like-minded whom, once the issues are explained, may well be a majority. But there also must be an awareness that too many families –
struggling economically and focused on their own children as traditional family units disintegrate geographically, as cultural, educational  and social mores change – require new modes of communication and new tools of information to make them realize the importance of getting off their duffs.
  
Joan Bleidorn:

   Regarding the political strength of the labor movement at the present time, there is a need for a massive awaking to the importance increased political efforts to deal with the unmitigated attack on the rights of workers in this country.  To begin with, the fact that more than 20 or more U.S. states are almost totally controlled by Republican governors, as well as control of the House and Senate, give the extreme right-wing of the Republican party cart blanch opportunities to crush all rights for workers.  The right- wing strongly supports a ‘Righty to Work’ policy, which translates into, “if you don’t like what the job offers, too bad-leave…you are lucky to have a job at all even at slave wages, so don’t complain because we can have you replaced in a minute.”  We must lay the foundations of justice for workers at the political level first, and make sure that we learn from the effective tactics of the far right.  Those of us who believe in a strong unionized work-force , must make every effort to get our candidates in at first of all, the local level, and build a strong foundation from the ground up.  From control and power at the local level, there must be a move upward to higher levels of government, until recapture of the House and Senate can happen as a matter of course.  We also must make every effort to assure that MOVE TO AMEND the constitution to reverse the damage done by Citizens United gets on the ballot of local government all across the country.  Our work is cut out for us, and it will take real determination to undo the damage created by the far right in this country.  We must not fail to mention our rather ineffectual Democratic president who talks a good fight but seldom delivers.

   Regarding the economic strengths of the labor movement at this time, we must put our money where our mouth is.  Money is power, and consumers have great power, even if their resources are somewhat limited.  We have to shop somewhere.
If we choose to buy Palermo’s pizza then we become part and party to injustice, as we do if we take advantage of buying cheap goods from the local mall.  It is so easy to be sucked into the idea that it is better to have ten sweaters on the cheap, rather than one or two which cost you a fair price to cover the cost of just wages for the workers.  There must be a concerted effort to maintain the unions, which represent the only course of action for justice in the work-place.  Union dues are needed to provide union strength.  The police made a mistake in thinking that Governor Walker cared about their interests when he spared their unions.  After using this gullible group of middle-class cops, he is now in the process of attempting to curtail their union, if not wipe it out completely.  Too soon we get old, and too late we get smart! 

   Regarding the moral strength of the labor movement at this time, individual members must take heart and realize that it is time to dig in our heels and work even harder for justice, in whatever way we can. Refusing to shop at Walmart is a start.  Boycotting the many corporations that produce and sell G.M.O. (Genetically Modified Organism) products is a tactic available to everyone.  One thing that is important is to realize that the labor movement must not be divided, and the far right loves to use a ‘divide and conquer’ policy to defeat its enemies.  Workers must be organized and there is strength in numbers.  There is a moral component to the labor movement, as each individual has the obligation to play a part.  I recently watched a DVD entitled ‘I AM’, the story of wealthy and humorous film producer, Steven Shadyec, who was   hospitalized with mental and physical injuries after a motorcycle accident.  When he was released from the hospital, he took a look at his 17,000 square foot estate, with its two 7,000 foot mansions, and decided he was not happy.  He took a trip around the world to interview wise people like the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Tutu, Noam Chomsky and others and asked them the questions: What is wrong with the world, and what can we do about it?  He came home with the conclusions that what is wrong with the world is ‘I AM’ and what can we do about it.?  ‘I CAN’ (and I must.)  He came to the conclusion that we are not wired for continuous consumerism, but rather, we are hard wired for COMPASSION AND COMMUNITY.  He changed his lifestyle and came to the belief that whatever little we can do to make this a better world, we must do.  We must avoid the pathetic question: ‘Why doesn’t somebody do something?’  We are the somebody.

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THE GOOD SAMARITAN STORY – USUALLY DISTORTED, BUT CAN BE SALVAGED

Remember Me

    We were at Milwaukee’s Bastille Days celebration Saturday night sitting with African American strangers who asked us to join them, when the news was relayed by cell phone; George Zimmerman was acquitted.  The mood was that of unbelief.  The young man sitting with us predicted violence all over the country.

   I didn’t look forward to attending Mass the next day even though it was going to be held at a county park. 

   First of all, it was the morning after the Trayvon Martin decision.  The seventeen year old was declared guilty by a Florida Jury of his own murder.   I was sure that the pastor would ignore the event. 

   Secondly, the Gospel for the day was the Good Samaritan story.  The Milwaukee Catholic Herald (July 11, 2013, p. 18) had a recent article by a former Seminary Professor distorting the Gospel and Jewish understanding of the commandment to ‘love God and your neighbor.’  He stated, “Jesus, in featuring the compassionate Samaritan, dared to challenge the Lawyer’s and Israel’s erroneous understanding of one’s duties toward a neighbor.”

This is a common misinterpretation and therefore what I expected to hear on Sunday.

   WRONG -  

   The pastor did mention the Trayvon Martin decision, and at the time of the Prayers of the Faithful, the congregation’s lamentations were moving.  The Pastor’s treatment of the Good Samaritan story skipped the usual; “Jesus  pronounced a ‘new law’ that even the ‘stranger’ is our neighbor.”

   Ironically the National Conference of Catholic Bishops advocates for immigration reform by reference to the Jewish Bible mandate to love God and your neighbor – the stranger.   (Strangers No Longer Together On a Journey Of Hope, U.S.C.C.B. 1-22-2003)  The use of the Good Samaritan story as a story of Christian exceptionalism is a step in the wrong direction.

   Let’s look at the Good Samaritan story in reference to Trayvon Martin.  What about civil rights?  They are now wounded and dying on the street.  Who will notice and advocate for a cure and pay the cost of civil health?  It won’t be easy; for inspiration just remember Treyvon Martin.

   

Credits for the picture belong to Methodist Pastor Bill Mefford, Washington, D.C.

OK, WHO’S INFALLIBLE ?

INTRODUCTION:  VATICAN II - PEACE THROUGH JUSTICE

   

   Vatican II brought dramatic change to the Roman Catholic Church.  An analysis of the Council shows that the purpose of the Council was to promote peace at a time when the world was threatened with annihilation.  As a reminder, we have a fifties style bomb shelter in our Wauwatosa, WI home.  World War II provided a tragic lesson.  The holocaust, the murder and torture of 6 million Jews, could be laid at the feet of the Roman Catholic Church and all Christians.  The anti-Jewish Gospel s set the historical ground work, and the refusal of the Roman Catholic Church to challenge the Nazis during WWII continues to be covered up.   Pope John XXIII saw a possible road to peace.  Faith communities and all those of Faith and good will, including those not of particular religious or faith communities, could come together to “work for justice to achieve peace.”

   Fifty years later we cannot pass final judgment on the Council, but we can comment on where we are today. Vatican II opened a window but the spirit of Gnosticism blew in, took over, and slammed the window shut.  We have to take account of the Neo - Gnostics in post Vatican II considerations. 

   Let’s look at just two issues in Catholic Social Teaching that dramatically changed with Vatican II.  Let’s ask ourselves: 

To whom are the official Vatican messages directed? 

What is the moral status of organized labor in society?

  

PRE VATICAN II – SOCIAL DOGMA PRESENTED TO ROMAN CATHOLICS

   Pre Vatican II encyclicals and official documents were addressed to Roman Catholic clergy and laity; for example Rerum Novarum: 

“To Our Venerable Brethren, All Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and    Bishops of the Catholic World, In Grace and Communion with the Apostolic See.”

Still other faith groups commented.   In 1918 in Great Britain a group called the International Conference of Social Service Unions which included Catholics and other denominations issued a strong social justice statement. Twenty English Quaker employers in Great Britain issued a statement similar to nascent Catholic Social Teaching in 1919. (Documents of American Catholic History, ed. J.T. Ellis, Bruce, Milwaukee, 1955, pp. 614-615)  

Opponents of this social dogma as seen by the Catholic Church were named in Rerum Novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo Anno (1931).  The first of the Social Encyclicals strongly criticized Capitalism (liberalism) and Socialism.  Commentators differed in their interpretation.  Father John Ryan in the U.S. endorsed Capitalism with limits.  Catholic Distributists in England and in the U.S. condemned Capitalism.  Roman Catholic Social Teaching was against socialism but without a precise definition.  Russian Communism was clearly the target of Roman Catholic wrath.  U.S. Bishops in 1919 issued a statement on Catholic Social Teaching written by Father John Ryan.  Steven C. Mason, president of the National Association of Manufacturers complained that it was, “partisan, pro-labor union, socialistic propaganda.”  Ten years later, just before the collapse of the U.S. stock market, a New York State Senate Investigating committee described the work as that of a group of Catholics with leanings toward Socialism. (ibid. p. 611) Fascist countries Spain, Austria, and Portugal found the “corporate economics” of the first two encyclicals to be acceptable. Concordats were made but tensions existed between the Vatican and the fascist countries of Germany and Italy.

POST VATICAN II – TO ALL - A DIALOGUE

   The vision of John XXIII was a move towards peace through justice and dialogue.  On October 20^th , 1962, just at the beginning of the Council and two days before the public was aware of the Cuban missile crisis, the Council issued a document:

MESSAGE TO HUMANITY – Issued at the beginning of the Second Vatican   Council by its Fathers, with the endorsement of the Supreme Pontiff.           THE FATHERS OF THE COUNCIL TO ALL MEN

The next year – 1963 Pope John XXIII addressed his encyclical Pacem in Terris to:

The Venerable Brothers the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops…to    the clergy and faithful of the whole world and to ALL MEN OF GOOD WILL. (The Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott, S.J. General Editor, The America Press 1966, p.3)

   From this time forward encyclicals on Catholic Social teaching are addressed to “all men of good will.”  John XXIII wrote Pacem in Terris, a preview of Vatican II, and emphasized the basis of Catholic Social Teaching as the natural law, not sectarian theology.  Natural law was defined as human reason and according to Thomas Aquinas, “reason is the norm of the human will, according to which its goodness is measured.” ‘All’ then can relate to the encyclicals no matter of their religious orientation or lack of it. (Pacem in Terris, ed. W.J. Gibbons S.J. Paulist Press, para. 38)

   The social encyclicals refer to biblical revelation for support; are those without belief in the Christian Bible – Old Testament and New without connection to God’s revelation?  The Council’s document on Revelation refers to nature.

This sacred Synod affirms, ‘God the beginning and end of all things, can be known with certainty from created reality by the light of human reason.’    cf. Rom. 1:20 (op. cit. Documents of Vatican II, p. 114)

PRE VATICAN II: ON THE STATUS OF LABOR

   A shocker from Rerum Novarum (1891) was that the Roman Catholic Church dogmatically stated that workers had the right to organize.  But questions remained:  

Could Catholics participate with non Catholics in a labor organization?  Does the corporate economics of the encyclicals allow labor unions to strike?                                                                                                              Does corporate economics allow workers to choose their own leaders?

   In the U.S. it was crucial for Catholics to belong to ‘neutral’ labor unions or labor unions that consisted of workers from different denominations or no religious affiliation.  The importance of Catholic membership in ‘neutral’ labor unions was recognized by Archbishop Gibbons of Baltimore.  While in Rome to receive his Cardinal’s hat in 1887, Gibbons expressed in writing that there would be no harm to the faith of U.S. Catholics if they were members of the national ‘neutral’ labor union, the Knights of Labor.  Leo XIII agreed not to condemn the Knights in the U.S. although he had condemned the Knights in Canada and it was the year after the Knights’ eight-hour day struggle and the Haymarket Riot. (Ryan, The Church and Labor, pp. 145 – 158) However Leo XIII appointee Archbishop Messmer (1847-1930) of Milwaukee thought that Catholics should form separate labor unions. (Roman Catholicism and the American Way of Life, U.N.D., Notre Dame, Indiana, pp. 74-75)

Is it morally acceptable for labor unions to strike?

   Pope Pius XI says NO!  He wrote in Quadragesimo Anno (1931):

Strikes and lock-outs are forbidden; if the parties cannot settle their dispute, public authority intervenes. (Q.A. 93)

Detroit priest Father Charles Coughlin followed the Pope’s dictum and advocated for compulsory arbitration.  Coughlin thought that unions should be put under the direction of the Department of Labor.  Some called this the fascist approach. (op. cite. Roman Catholicism and The American Way of Life, p. 83.)

   On the other side of the coin, labor advocate, Father John Cronin, wrote in 1959:

That workers in general have the right to strike is generally conceded…  Moralists are more likely to emphasize the justice of workers’ claims as an excusing circumstance.  (Cronin, John F.,  Social Principles and Economic Life, Bruce, Milwaukee,  p. 185.)

POST VATICAN II ON THE STATUS OF LABOR

Catholic workers participating in mixed labor unions…

   Vatican II was about cooperation for justice to achieve peace so the documents issued emphasized collaboration among Christians, non Christians and Atheists.  Ecumenism came to be known as interfaith dialogue and cooperation, but it was more than that.  Let us consider the positive statement about atheists:

While rejecting atheism, root and branch, the Church sincerely professes that all men, believers and unbelievers alike, ought to work for the rightful   betterment of this world in which all alike live. Such an ideal cannot be   realized, however, apart from sincere and prudent dialogue.             (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,  Part I, 21)

  The challenge to communism was softened and opened the way for Liberation Theology to use Marxist categories.

The morality of a strike…

   Vatican II contradicted Pius XI’s mandate of ‘no strikes.’  The Pastoral Constitution on the Church states:

Even in present day circumstances, however, the strike can still be a   necessary, though ultimate means for the defense of workers’ own rights   and the fulfillment of their just demands. (ibid. Section 2 – 68)

Does the corporate economics of the Roman Catholic Church concede the right of workers to elect union leaders?...

    The Pastoral Constitution on the Church states:

Hence the workers themselves should have a share also in controlling   these institutions, either in person or through freely elected delegates.     (ibid. Section 2 – 68)

A footnote – commentary in The Documents of Vatican II, edited by Walter Abbott states:

Its (The Constitution on the Church) comments on the necessity of   permitting the workers to be represented by ‘freely elected delegates’ have meaning not only for countries where there are no workers associations, but also for countries which have them but, like Spain, do not allow for adequately free choice of representatives by workers themselves. (p. 277)

At the time of the Council, Spain was under the control of the Fascist dictator Franco.

   The principle of subsidiarity now extends to workers choosing their own leaders and having the clear right to strike.  The ‘corporate economics’ of the Roman Catholic Church has dramatically changed.  Perhaps it can no longer be called ‘corporate’ or ‘organic.’

WHERE ARE WE TODAY?

   Catholic Social Teaching is now moribund for both Church liberals and conservatives.  For example, there was no support for the striking Palermo Pizza workers from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.  Only the ‘Nuns on the Bus’ lent encouragement.

   There are many causes for the separation of the hierarchy from the ‘People of God.’  Cutting back to the essentials and working for collaboration with other faith groups as advocated by Vatican II has caused a Roman Catholic identity crisis.  Also the relative economic well being of influential Catholics has pushed the politics of the Church to the extreme right.  The pedophile scandal has put the Church on the defensive, and instead of rethinking the priesthood, the hierarchy attempts to spiritualize the authority position of the clergy-hierarchy more than ever.  Musician and former Capuchin Jerry Danks wrote:

Clericalism IS the root cause and the gift that keeps on giving - the notion that Catholic priests/religious are set apart, super-human, assumed to be well-adjusted, presumed to be innocent, and deserving of special treatment for what they have "given up…"

    Women’s ordination, abortion, contraceptives, gay rights, can’t be discussed, and these issues trump any kind of workers’ rights issues.  The separation of the spiritual from everyday reality is a form of contemporary Gnosticism that has infected the hierarchy and some liberals.  It is fortunate there are other faith groups that provide an example of what Church is about.  We will hear about them in a later blog.  Post Vatican II Roman Catholic Social Teaching is still there with great potential as a guide for all to achieve workers’ rights. 

FATHER’S DAY & SENATOR RON JOHNSON

   The New Sanctuary Movement held a meeting of some of our liaisons to plan an event at Senator Ron Johnson’s office to encourage Johnson to vote for a fair immigration bill.  The liaisons are the representatives of the various faith congregations that work with us on social justice issues. 

   The event was to have a Father’s Day theme.  Latino ‘Evangelicos’ were especially excited about participating.  The difficulty of getting a clergy person came up.  “Why worry about that,” one of the Evangelists said, “As Christians, we are all to preach the word.”  A friar volunteered to try to get someone from his community to show up wearing a habit, but he wasn’t ready to do it himself.  With complete confidence a young woman said, “It doesn’t matter, Christians don’t have to wear special clothes or habits.”  “Fine,” our coordinator Nancy Flores Lopez said, and we went on with the meeting.

    Father’s Day cards were to be given to Senator Johnson expressing good wishes but noting that some children couldn’t celebrate with their fathers because they had been deported.  Johnson was asked to support an immigration bill that would stop the U.S. policy of separating families.  Large cards from various congregations, and cards made by the children would be presented to Johnson.  It was to take place in front of the Federal Building; the location of Senator Johnson’s office.  Prayers would be said, testimony of children would be given, and a Father’s Day poem would be read.  The children would release balloons expressing a hope for freedom from fear - from ICE, the Immigration Customs Enforcement.

  The event drew a large crowd and was emotionally very moving.  Nancy Flores brought a children’s Mariachi group all dressed in native attire, with their string instruments and they gave a memorable performance.

   A reading from the Bible and a commentary was given by Leonardo, one of the children from the Evangelist church:

Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the    kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. (Mt. 19:14)   Senator Johnson, listen to us children…those that are here to deliver cards to you, urging that you think about their dads this Father’s Day. …’It was the worst feeling of my life to see my dad get taken away by ICE’ said my friend Salvador Rojas, a 14year old whose dad was picked up during a raid where ICE was looking for a completely different person  and took him anyway.

 12 year old Alma Nunez read a poem when the balloons were released.

Soaring free across the sky, a free spirit flying high  
I want to be like a balloon 
Ending up wherever, boarders are irrelevant                                                                                      
I want to be like a balloon
Soaring free, no fear of separation, no fear of being taken                                                                          
I want to be like a balloon
Migration is natural, and beautiful like the sunsets in June 
I want to be one day...like a balloon.                                

   The demonstration was a success.  We don’t know how Senator Johnson will vote, but many more became, through faith - CONCIENTIZADO – aware that community action is the means to change unjust political and economic structures.

WHAT MOTIVATED SAM FIELDEN, THE HAYMARKET MARTYR

   There are many reasons for studying history both personal and social.  For me it’s just fun, but more than that, it helps not to repeat the same mistakes again and again.  Also it’s a good feeling to have the sense that history is progressive, and we are all part of the story.  Sometimes it seems as Yogi Berra said, “It’s déjà vu all over again,” however the bigger story seems to show progress.  But is history by necessity progressive?  Dominican Theologian Gustavo Gutierrrez warns,

   To falsify the memory of an oppressed people is to mutilate their ability to

   rebel.  Thereby an effective weapon is acquired for their continued subjugation.

   The manipulation of history has always been a prime resource in the hands of

   dominant groups for the maintenance of their power.  (Gutierrez, Gustavo,

   Las Casas, Orbis Books, New York 1993. p. 415)

    The story of Sam Fielden has precisely this value; it is back to the roots of personal and community identity.   Sam Fielden and his friends did the best they could do to achieve social justice; I would like to say the same of myself and those I accompany on the journey.

 

    ADVICE FROM THE PRESIDENT’S FORMER PASTOR

   Rev. Jeremiah Wright from Chicago gave the keynote speech at a recent M.I.C.A.H.  (Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope) gathering in Milwaukee.  Wright noted that the Prophet Micah said that we are required “to work for justice” (Micah, 6).  Is that my personal mandate?  Rev. Wright trashed enlightened individualism and noted that Descartes (1596-1650) was wrong in his effort to establish personal existence by saying, “I think, therefore I am.”  Jeremiah Wright rephrased the cogito and said, “I am because I know I am part of a community.”  Justice is a community mandate.

   A CONTRADICTION?

   Samuel Fielden (1847-1922), of a Protestant background, worked for justice in the very cruel time of burgeoning industrialism and nascent capitalism.  But Max Weber connected capitalism with the Protestant ethic. (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Reprinted in 1992, Routledge, London & New York)

Also capitalism and the Protestant reformation are part of the ‘age of enlightenment.’  How did Sam Fielden emerge as a labor activist?  Weber conflated such diverse groups as Calvinists, Pietists, Methodists, Lutherans, Unitarians and Quakers with a smattering of Jesuits and Jews.  It was beginning sociology so his work was researched and claimed the credibility of a scientific study.  Of course there were problems and negative criticisms.  Weber’s work was first published in German in 1904 -1905.

   One of the first sociologists, Weber in his research discovered that in a sense capitalism had a long history, but modern capitalism is new.  It is distinguished by, ‘the rationalization of labor,’ (Marx called it turning labor into a commodity) the continual acquisition of wealth for its own sake, and the constant quest for capital for renewal and growth.  Workers must follow God’s calling and fulfill  the required work ethic of duty and honesty.

   Labour must… be performed as it were an absolute end in itself, a calling.  But such an attitude is by no means a product of nature.  It cannot be evoked by low wages or high ones alone, but can only be the product of a long and arduous process of education. (ibid. p.61-62)

   Concern for families led to the condemnation of ‘liberalism’ or capitalism by Leo XIII in his 1891 Encyclical Rerum Novarum, the first of modern encyclicals on Catholic Social Teaching.  The questioning and challenge to capitalism and advocacy for workers’ rights continues to this day by Pope Francis, but is the Pope now alone in his concern? (N.C.R. June 7-20, 2013, p.1&7)  The Archdiocese of Milwaukee refuses to support the striking immigrant Palermo Pizza workers in Milwaukee .  Clergy speaking for the workers have been Protestant.

  

   SAMUEL FIELDEN THE CAPITALIST 

    But what about Samuel Fielden?  He grew up as a Methodist and was a Methodist preacher as a young man.  His family had ties to the Quakers and Unitarians, yet Sam was a social activist fighting for workers.  Sam wrote in his autobiography that he had his own business at the time of the Haymarket incident.

   …I invested what money I had in a team of horses, so that I became what

   the Chicago Tribune calls a capitalist.  I have earned my living by this

   means, that is, hauling stone, from that time to the time of my arrest.

(The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, Phillip S. Foner, ed. Humanities Press, New York, 1969, p. 154)

As a ‘capitalist’ Sam had as a role model, Todmorden Mill founder Honest John Fielden who sided with the plug pullers protest. (blog posting, April 29, 2013)

   THE METHODIST PREACHER

   As a religious person, Samuel Fielden must have been influenced by the town of Todmorden’s religious non conformism.  Sam, following his mother’s example, became a Methodist and a preacher both in England and for a short time in the U.S.  Concern for the working class was a pillar of belief for John Wesley, the founder of the Methodists.   Slavery was stopped in England by Parliament member William Wilberforce, a close friend of John Wesley.  Wesley supported and advised Wilberforce in the successful abolition of the English slave trade in 1807 and slavery itself in the British Empire in 1833.

  

THE PHILOSOPHER

   Sam Fielden was a critical thinker.  As a child he quickly learned to read, but he had very little formal schooling.  In his early years, he was privileged to listen to his father and friends discuss politics.  He knew about the struggle – the politics of the Chartists for universal voting rights.  Sam attended lectures of the Free Thinkers in Chicago.  His break with religion came in a discussion in Chicago with the Moody Bible Institute founder Dwight Moody.  Moody defended the suppression of workers as biblical and moral.

   COMPASSION – HUMAN DECENCY   

   The young Sam Fielden identified with those suffering, with child factory workers, the slaves in the U.S., the freed slaves turned into wage slaves.   He commented on migrant Irish workers:  

 

   I used to manage to get off from the mill for a week in these hay fields with

   the men who came from Ireland to earn, by the hardest labor and the most

   abstemious living, the money to pay for their little holdings in their native

   country and the thatch above the heads of their wives and little ones.  …These

    men are compelled to harvest crops in England for the privilege of living

    in their own country,  … the money they earn in the English harvest… the

    English landlord compels them to give it up again and his lordship brings

    It back again to England.  (Ibid. p.137)

A MAN OF CONSCIENCE BECAME “CONSCIENTIZADO”

   Judging from his autobiography Sam Fielden at an early age had an acute sense of right and wrong.  His Methodist mother and critical thinking father were crucial in developing his social conscience.  Travel and work experience and social action solidified his world view and his role in it.  Gustavo Gutierrez explains Paulo Freire’s process of ‘conscientizacion’ and it is a fitting description of Samuel Fielden.

   By means of an un-alienating and liberating “cultural action,” which links   

   theory with praxis, the oppressed person perceives-and modifies-his relationship

   with the world and other people.  He thus makes the transfer from a “naïve

   awareness”- which does not deal with problems, tends to accept mythical

   explanations, and tends toward debate- to a “critical awareness”- which

   delves into problems, is open to new ideas, replaces magical explanations

   with real causes and tends to dialogue. (Gutierrez, Gustavo, A Theology of   Liberation, Orbis Books, NewYork, 1973, p. 91)

   Samuel Fielden was aware that the suffering of workers – the poor - is due to changeable economic and political structures.  He did his part to effect change.

Pastor Jeremiah Wright said that it is a given for preachers to preach justice.  Sam Fielden did just that not only from the pulpit but with his life.  It is important to remember Sam and the Haymarket martyrs as an inspiration and lesson for participating in the progress of history. 

WHAT ABOUT SAM FIELDEN?

     A brief change of subject:  What was the motivation of Sam Fielden?  Not all contributors have responded so maybe it will be in the next post.

NOTRE DAME POLITICS

      I remember at a Marquette Notre Dame basketball game in Milwaukee a Marquette student making fun of the name ‘Notre Dame.’ I called him on it, and it wasn’t long into the discussion that I realized that he didn’t know what the French words ‘Notre Dame’ meant.  The next day I checked with some Catholic College graduates and students and no one had a clue as to the meaning of, ‘Notre Dame.’

   

   So when a friend commented that Cardinal Dolan gave a meaningless commencement speech at Notre Dame by not saying much more than, - in French ‘Notre Dame’ means Our Lady.  My unspoken internal response was, well what’s so bad about that?...a needed defining of the French for Our Lady and besides the Fighting Irish are probably just trying to make up for inviting the President to give a commencement speech – normal everyday church hierarchical politics;  regrettable but nothing out of the ordinary.  However, I had an annoying feeling that there was something seriously wrong.   I googled the speech.

   After a review of the speech I feel that Dolan’s comments point to the unfortunate irrelevance of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.   ‘Notre Dame’ – Our Lady – dió luz a Jesus (gave birth-light) – a perfect time to launch a ‘Hail Mary’ and advocate for women’s ordination; a perfect time to advocate for women’s rights, including women at U.N.D., a perfect time for reference to a viable myth, ‘Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe,’ and immigration reform, but no – it was cheaper than usual hierarchical politics.  It could be considered a suitable ‘ferverino’ for an eighth grade Catholic school graduating class, but even there Dolan’s address fell short.  It appears that its real purpose was an attempt to coalesce and ‘evangelize’ for the Roman Catholic political right wing.

    

   Could the speech have worked as a sermon in the late forties or fifties?  Not a chance – this is not retro Roman Catholicism; this is the forging of a renewal of Gnosticism and a new right wing political identity for Roman Catholics.  Hierarchical dogma on women’s ordination, birth control, abortion, and gay rights are not subject to nuance or discussion.  As an indication of how far off base he is, Dolan stated, One can make the point that she’s [Mary –Notre Dame] the most important human person ever.”

   What happened to Jesus?  Pius XII would have picked him off.  Dolan might be a Cardinal and from St. Louis, but he’s not Pepper Martin of the invincible gas house gang.  Google the speech – am I correct?

A HOMETOWN TALE, CHICAGO RE-VISITED

The Haymarket Monument

   Our pilgrimage was not complete.  When we returned to the U.S. we made it a point to visit the scene of the Haymarket riot at DesPlaines and Randolph in Chicago.  We also visited the Chicago Historical Society and the Waldheim Cemetery where all of the ‘Haymarket Martyrs’ are buried except Sam Fielden.

   At present there is a monument at the scene of the Haymarket Riot ½ block north of Randolph on the east side of DesPlaines A at Crane’s Alley.  This is just a few blocks from where I worked as a young man.  Paving bricks that form the alley are reminiscent of Chicago streets in 1886.  The monument is considered a work of art, but is still controversial.  It consists of a base with a wagon on top and faceless speakers gesturing to an imaginary crowd.  It is much easier to forget faceless martyrs and that they sacrificed their lives for a goal that has not been achieved.  The tragedy of martyrs, such as the Christian martyrs, is that they can be co-opted by the system they opposed.

   The base of the monument includes plaques that describe the event.  One states that Fielden, Schwab and Neebe were pardoned.  Written graffiti claims that all were pardoned and is signed with the Anarchist symbol of an A within a circle.  A plaque on the street side of the monument is from the labor movement in Columbia.  Translated from Spanish it states:

   The Fight Continues! Let live International Solidarity!  

   In Memory of the Workers and Union Leaders Assassinated

   In Columbia Who Gave Their Lives to Defend Human

   Rights, National Sovereignty, Social Justice and Democracy.

Hundreds of labor union people have been murdered in recent years in the attempts to impose U.S. neo-liberal hegemony in oil rich Columbia.  The Obama administration recently signed a ‘free trade’ deal with Columbia. Joe Shansky, Communications Director at Voces de la Frontera, recently witnessed resistance in Columbia to the Neo-Liberal ‘Free Trade’ policy.  Farmers blocked roadways in and out of a small town near Bogota.  Shansky reported:

Farmers and laborers all frequently speak in anger against ‘TLC’   (‘Free Trade’), the international free trade agreement which has allowed an influx of cheaper agricultural products…  (Joe Shansky. “Upside Down World,” 5-24- 13)

   Nothing new turned up at the Chicago Historical Society although there is a display on the Haymarket Riot.  But across the street from the Historical Society is a reminder of Sam Fielden of the Haymarket’s spiritual journey, the Moody Bible Church.  Haymarket Sam had an encounter with the now famous Dwight L. Moody founder of the Moody Bible Institute and the Moody Bible Church.

   After serving as an itinerant Methodist preacher in Ohio, Sam ‘overhauled’ his ‘religious opinions’ in Chicago and became a Freethinker. Sam describes his meeting with the Evangelist Moody by prefacing the account with a debate he heard at one of Moody’s Bible meetings.  Someone had stated that a Christian, in good conscience, could not be a business man.  The counter argument was classic.  Sam sarcastically wrote,

   I was thoroughly convinced that all a man had to do in this

   world in order to make his calling and election sure in the

   next was to sell for a dollar what only cost fifteen cents.(ibid. p. 150)

Sam then had a discussion with the evangelical which ended in a draw.  Sam kindly stated,

   We parted at the door with the best feeling for each other.

   I am only sorry to say that my opponent has persisted in

   following the wrong path to this day.  I am truly sorry for

   him. (ibid. p. 150)

   Moody’s argument prevails to this day.  Chicagoans have heard of the Moody Bible Institute, but who knows of Sam of Todmorden and his sacrifice for the working people of the world?

THE END OF THE PILGRIMAGE – WALDHEIM CEMETARY, FOREST PARK, ILLINOIS

   Our pilgrimage ended a few miles from my boyhood home at the Waldheim Cemetery in Park Forest just west of Chicago.

At one time the cemetery was a Native American burial ground.  The trumpet-like announcement of a train in the distance reminded me of my dad, grandfather and uncles who were railroad men and knew well the massive Proviso Railroad Yard just to the west.  At one time the Proviso Yards were the largest in the U.S.

   Governor Oglesby commuted the death sentences of Sam Fielden and Michael Schwab to life imprisonment the day before they were to be executed.  Louis Lingg committed suicide, or was murdered while in prison; the court sentenced Oscar Neebe to fifteen years in prison.  Albert R. Parsons refused to appeal for a commutation, not wanting to abandon his foreign born comrades.  August Spies pleaded that the other defendants be released and that he be executed to satisfy the demand for vengeance.  Spies, George Engle, Adolph Fisher and Parsons were executed on November 11, 1887.

   Although Fielden and Parsons spoke at the Haymarket they were called away from another meeting to speak.  The meeting concerned the organizing of women that did sewing in Chicago sweat shops.  A messenger arrived from the Haymarket pleading for Fielden and Parsons to speak.  As many as three thousand people were at the Haymarket; Spies was the only speaker and more were needed.

   The four that were executed, November 11, 1887, and Louis Lingg were buried in the Waldheim cemetery where a monument to Justice marks their graves.  Neebe and Schawb were also buried at Waldheim, but not Sam Fielden, who left Chicago for Colorado after his pardon where he and his family settled on a farm.  He died in 1922.

   Also buried near the martyrs’ monument at Waldheim are three women revolutionaries, Lucy Parsons, the wife of martyred Albert Parsons, Voltairine de Cleyre, an anarchist and feminist who gave speeches around the country about the heroism of the Haymarket Martyrs, and Emma Goldman also an anarchist and pioneer feminist.

   We visited Waldheim on a cold, grey November day, but the monument to Justice inspired hope.  It appeared to me to be a modern ‘Pieta.’  Michelangelo’s Pieta depicts the slain carpenter’s mother as an icon of compassion and love; at Waldheim, mother Justice, inspired by her slain Son, has the Faith to move forward and create a society of compassion and love.

    Was the sacrifice of the martyrs in vain?  Spies’ words at the trial appear on a mural at the office of an independent labor union in Mexico, Frente Autentico de Trabajo.  Spies began by stating, “Your honor, in addressing this court I speak as the representative of one class to the representative of another.” The mural records the next lines:

   Here you will tread upon a spark, but there and there,

   behind you-and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze

   up.  It is a subterranean fire.  You cannot put it out.

The mural emphasizes cross border solidarity.  Today we are witnesses that the subterranean fire still burns and erupts not only in Mexico but in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and major cities throughout the world.

   Gus Hall, in 1951 as National Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States predicted a time when,

   The working class of the U.S.A. will be in a position to

   make this day-May Day-that started in support of the

   struggle for the eight hour day, a legal holiday celebrated

   by all the people of the United States.  (Foner, Philip S. May Day,    International Publishers, New York, p. 160)

In 2006 hundreds of thousands marched for immigrant worker rights on May Day in the U.S.  Milwaukee had 70,000 in the streets and Chicago had one of the largest marches with 300,000 protesters. The revised tradition continues.  In 2013 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headline screamed, “May Day rallies unite workers across the globe.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 2, 2013 p.3A).  Again thousands marched in Milwaukee.  The subterranean fire is still burning. 

(Why do we march and remember on May first?   “OSHA cites Palermo’s for violations”  “ The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued seven ‘serious’ violations and one ‘other than serious’ violation against Palermo Villa Inc. a Milwaukee frozen pizza firm.”  “The NLRB has ruled that Palermo Villa Inc. did not violate labor relations laws when it fired 75 workers last year as part of an immigration audit as retaliation for efforts to unionize the plant.” M.J.S. May 22, 2013, p. 3B.)

   What was the result of these marches?  “Today we march, tomorrow we vote became a reality.” The 2006 November elections produced a dramatic change in U.S. politics that generated hope for social justice and peace.  LCLAA (Labor Council for Latin American Advancement) report stated:

   In effect, exit polls demonstrated that 6.5 million Latinos

   voted in this year’s mid-terms.  Why is that significant?

   Because in comparison with the previous mid term election

   in 2002 when Latino voters represented 5.3 percent of all

   voters, the number of Hispanic voters in 2006 increased

   By 37 percent to a total of 8 percent of all voters!

In 2012,

   The record number of Latinos who cast ballots for president this   

    year are the leading edge of an ascendant voting bloc that is

    likely to double in size within a generation, according to a Pew

   Hispanic Center analysis based on U.S. Census Bureau data,

   Election Day exit polls and a new nationwide survey of Hispanic

   Immigrants. (Pew Research – Hispanic Center, November 14, 2012)

    Power at the ballot box!  Will it result in justice for the working class?  If it is to be, a renewed consciousness of solidarity and identity is essential for the working class.  This is not the not the solution advocated by some anarchists, but terrorism hurts all, including workers and their quest for justice.  Farm worker founders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta taught and demonstrated that violence negates Faith and is clearly counter-productive.  My sense is that Sam the Freethinker with the Chartist, Methodist and Quaker background would give politics a chance.

REMEMBER NOVEMBER