Old Commies Live a Long Time - For Longevity, Go Red!

  Nah.  You'd have been fine Pete. Catholics, Jews, genuine labor leaders, working stiffs of every race and color  . . .not so lucky. 



Pete Seeger the privileged WASP New York kid who pretended to come from Appalachia died this week at age 94. Wasn't That a Time?

It is amazing that old Reds and vigorous fellow travellers, now called Progressives,  manage to cheat the Grim Reaper. Chicago has always been a labor town, but the Reds never succeeded in making Chicago their own, until the last forty years or so. Labor kicked out the Reds under John L. Lewis and subsequent labor leaders, until Democrats discovered that Reds help increase the voting rolls - hat tip to Jane Byrne.

Lookee H'yar!  With possible exceptions of the youthful demise of  Saul Alinsky (63 yrs,)and Roger Baldwin (70), Red and Pinkish Lefties tend to reap at least eight score years.

Famous Dead Reds and Past Pinks
Leon Despres (dec,) -99
Pete Seeger(dec,) - 94
Studs Terkel (dec.)- 95
Dawn Clark Netsch(dec.) -86
Frank Marshall Davis (dec.)-82
Clarence Darrow (dec.)- 80

Living the Over Throw of Capitalism
Dr. Quentin Young - 91 and still plotting

When the Reds say "Long Live . . .whatever!"  they really mean it.

Must be eating all those beets.

Stalkin' Union Dues Blues

MSNBC's Face of Labor.

"Some may find them [songs] merely diverting melodies. Others may find them incitements to Red revolution. And who will say if either or both is wrong? Not I." - Pete Seeger, banjo/12 string guitar/vocals CPUSA
Here's Ol' Pete


and acontemprary Young 'un


Ol' Commie (sorta"drifted away") Pete Seeger* had a song called Talkin' Union

TALKING UNION

If you want higher wages, let me tell you what to do;
You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you;
You got to build you a union, got to make it strong,
But if you all stick together, now, ‘twont he long.
You'll get shorter hours,
Better working conditions.
Vacations with pay,
Take your kids to the seashore.

It ain’t quite this simple, so I better explain
Just why you got to ride on the union train;
‘Cause if you wait for the boss to raise your pay,
We’ll all be waiting till Judgment Day;
We’ll all he buried - gone to Heaven -
Saint Peter’ll be the straw boss then.

Now, you know you’re underpaid, hut the boss says you ain’t;
He speeds up the work till you’re ‘bout to faint,
You may he down and out, but you ain’t beaten,
Pass out a leaflet and call a meetin’
Talk it over - speak your mind -
Decide to do something about it.

‘Course, the boss may persuade some poor damn fool
To go to your meeting and act like a stool;
But you can always tell a stool, though - that’s a fact;
He’s got a yellow streak running down his back;
He doesn’t have to stool - he'll always make a good living
On what he takes out of blind men’s cups.

You got a union now; you’re sitting pretty;
Put some of the boys on the steering committee.
The boss won’t listen when one man squawks.
But he’s got to listen when the union talks.
He better -
He’ll be mighty lonely one of these days.

Suppose they’re working you so hard it’s just outrageous,
They’re paying you all starvation wages;
You go to the boss, and the boss would yell,
"Before I'd raise your pay I’d see you all in Hell."
Well, he’s puffing a big see-gar and feeling mighty slick,
He thinks he’s got your union licked.
He looks out the window, and what does he see
But a thousand pickets, and they all agree
He’s a bastard - unfair - slave driver -
Bet he beats his own wife.

Now, boy, you’ve come to the hardest time;
The boss will try to bust your picket line.
He’ll call out the police, the National Guard;
They’ll tell you it’s a crime to have a union card.
They’ll raid your meeting, hit you on the head.
Call every one of you a goddamn Red -
Unpatriotic - Moscow agents -
Bomb throwers, even the kids.

But out in Detroit here’s what they found,
And out in Frisco here’s what they found,
And out in Pittsburgh here’s what they found,
And down in Bethlehem here’s what they found,
That if you don’t let Red-baiting break you up,
If you don’t let stool pigeons break you up,
If you don’t let vigilantes break you up,
And if you don’t let race hatred break you up -
You’ll win. What I mean,
Take it easy - but take it!

'Problem is Old Pete was howling to actual workers about bein' workers, back in the day. Commies were and are dead set against a middle class and that is what American labor built along with a standard of living that was the envy of the free world.

Along abouts the 1960's, lefties gulled Mayor Wagner of New York into padding the tax-rolls and public service employees became the rage. Civil Service was not near enough - a worker needed to qualify for a position.

Private sector union membership declines through the 70's, 89's, and 90's and public sector labor swells with members and dues paid to SEIU and AFSCME and salaries paid through taxes of real labor - carpenters, sheet-metal workers, coal miners, auto workers, pipe fitters, &etc. Pete's team won the battle. Taxes shrunk the American Middle Class and bankrupted local and state economies.

Thus, the war in Wisconsin.

Gov. Walker of Wisconsin looks to be winning the war.

The photo above is what passes for workers these days, kids, lay-abouts, MSNBC's Big Ed and Hunger Striker Michael Moore.

* In 1936, at the age of 17, Pete Seeger joined the Young Communist League (YCL), then at the height of its popularity and influence. In 1942 he became a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) itself. He eventually "drifted away" (his words) from the Party in the late 1940s and 1950s

Newberry Library Book Fair - I am So there!

I am SO evolved and So There!

Saturday, July 25, 2009, from 10 am - 6 pm (Learn about the special festivities planned to celebrate the Newberry Book Fair 25th anniversary!)


I am brushing up my Eccos! This is no south side Pierogi Fest, or Irish beer swill with music. I will dress the part of the 56 year old progressive, hip and still got it baby - man about town! Well, some parts of town.

I want to give off the image that I'm a successful full fledged academic on holiday. Polo shirts with khaki pants won't do and everyone working the stands will be wearing the same thing that gives that Public Television WTTW Pledge Drive but Outdoors impression. Me Too.

First - a trip to John's on 111th to get a near-shave on the noggin - Ala Billy Ayers, Dick Simpson, Moby, Uncle Fester from Smashing Pumpkins and Gay activists. White guys should never shave their heads and Hipsters get close to that but not down to the bone. We middle aged south side close knit ethnic types still tend to the The Princeton or the Boy's Regular haircut. Also, no shave 'til Sunday Mass. You hasta give off the three day growth Old Guy Miami Vice Nubby Stubble Look - Like Billy Ayers and Pete and Peggy Seeger.

Second - Get a stud ear ring. Every fifty-something Hispter that's really with it has one. I might need take a handful of pain killers and couple of Olde English 40's to that. DoooooooooooDe!

Third - Cotton, Cotton Cotton! - Something loose and breezy maybe some sort of faux Tolstoy peasant shirt ( white) belted with a good quality knotted rope from Mount Greenwood True Value. Britches?????? Cargo shorts extra baggy and shin length, or patchwork blue jeans? Hmmmmm. Maybe a standard issue Che T or a Tie-Dyed

Fourth - Footwear - Birkenstocks or Eccos? Sandals or boaters? No socks. Stangkee Feet Caynt Be Beat!

Fifth - Deportment to match the schedule! Yes, yes . . . I have been North of Madison many times and the most important thing to wear is (I agree) a big smile! I'm the customer!!! So Sally and Seth, don't sit behind your table, Duckies, Get off your Lard and come over and be helpful, or I'll get all Catholic school on you! . Stand the whole time and have something to keep you looking busy. "See my smile? I can be passive aggressive too. Don't you think that you might want to have a better attitude and please dont smoke? Did you really wash your hands after handling that Nelson Algren hardcover and you're not going to eat that roasted corn? Is that organic corn? Where's the beer tent?"


Here's the schedule and my expected behavior.

Celebrate 25 years of inexpensive used books at the Newberry's annual Book Fair. We have a record number of books to sell this year! More than 110,000 donated books will be sorted into 70 categories for your browsing convenience. With many books priced under $2, it's easy to replenish your home library's holdings on subjects ranging from antiques to zoology.
Admission is free.

Happy shopping!

Parking: The Newberry Library does not have a visitor parking lot. Limited metered parking is available on area streets. Daytime and evening parking restrictions do apply, so be sure to read the posted signs carefully. Garage parking is also available in the neighborhood. No Hummers; No Buicks; No Lincolns; No Fords and No Chevies.

The following garages offer discounted parking to Newberry patrons ($7 for 0-8 hours; $9 for 8-10 hours). Remember to bring your parking ticket with you so it can be validated by the Newberry security guard. The Sheehan Family at 10857 will let you use their drive way but then you need to take Metra downtown and transfer to the CTA

100 West Chestnut Street (enter on Clark Street)
100 East Walton Street (valet service)

Festivities on Saturday, July 25

9 am – Complimentary yoga presented in Washington Square Park by lululemon athletica - Pass. Where's the beer ticket booth?

10 am – Book Fair opens
10:30 am – Complimentary kids’ yoga presented in Washington Square Park by Get Healthy Chicago
12 pm – Meet the Author: Alex Kotlowitz (book signing) Author of Never a City So Real a wonderful, short study of Chicago. I will leave him alone.

Bughouse Square Debates (1 pm to 4 pm)

1 pm – Rick Kogan Welcome! - " Hey, Kogan, You Bastard! It's Hickey!! Yeah, that's right! You were 'spozed to have me back on your show and talk about my novel! Yeah, I'm heckling! What's the matter? Not so tough when don't have Steve Bertrand to back you up! . . . Terry, in a minute, I . . . no I have not had enough beer. My Mom is in Orland; Okay? Kogan! I'm here allllll Daaaayyyy!!!!!!"

1:15 pm – Presentation of the Altgeld award to High School Teacher Barb Thill - Clap politely.
1:35 pm – Main debate (Abraham Lincoln vs. Stephen Douglas) "Go Douglas! Little Giant Rocks! No Lincoln; No War!"
2:15 pm – Memorial tributes to Studs Terkel, Leon Despres, Franklin Rosemont and Judith Krug - " Hey, . . . why you call the cops on me??????" A wide-eyed Terry Sullivan watches in disgust and mild disbelief. Ms. Sullivan calls Hickey's kids, " I am afriad your father is at Chicago Ave. Police Station. I will post bail, but I am going home. Please, have your Father call me . . . when Hell Freezes!"
2:30 pm – Soapbox Debates ( still in custody)
3:45 pm – Dil Pickle award presented ( still in custody)
6 pm – Book Fair closes for the day


9:45 P.M - Hickey gets released into the custody of his kids. The elegant,polite and beautiful Ms. Terry Sullivan awaits the forth coming apology "Oh, No" Phone call.

The 2009 Book Fair is generously supported by Whole Foods Market, Hallett Movers, and by our media partner, Flavorpill.

Many thanks to the following restaurants for donating lunches to our many wonderful Book Fair volunteers:

Bistro Zinc

Caffe Baci

D'Absolute Caterers

Edwardos

Fox and Obel Food Market

Goddess and Grocer

Go RomaJewell Events Catering

Occasions Chicago Catering

Tri-Star Catering

All kidding aside . . . I am so there! I love books and I love people who love books. I'm a lover.

Newberry Folks! I'll behave . . . Honor Bright!