Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Get Law Dogs Without Due Process- Sun Times Takes The Gold Again!
Posted by pathickey at 5:09 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Gold For Thems That Sue Police! The Working Man's Paper Sets Things Right for Working Ambulance Chasers
The Working Man's Paper Helps These Prospectors Find Gold in Lawsuits Against Cops
This is only privy link to the web edition - The Print Edition shows where the Gold waits for a tuck into the purses of Ambulance chasers.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/471138,CST-NWS-police17.article
You see WE ( The majority of dopes who go to work and such - cops, firemen, police, streets and sanitation, tradesmen, school teachers & etc.) are NOT working people - we are PLUTOCRATS - bad guys.
Here's the Working Man! He's part of a network of lawsuit slingers, University Think Tankers and Lefty Journalists, as well as Progressive Hack politicians who can not get elected. Working People!
Like Lawsuit-Smith Loevy:http://www.loevy.com/FirmBios.html
Police Officers who get beefs ( 10 Civilian Complaints or More) would be subject to having MORE cockroach lawyers climbing through their undies in search of Lawsuit Gold! We ( The Working Dopes) are suppossed to get behind this? Make Jon Loevy's work a tad easier? Mr. 40%?
The working man -folks like Jon Loevy - who wades into the creek's chilling ( I love that Lefty Verbal) waters every day panning for gold, coughed up in lawsuits against the City and other Governmental agencies ripe and thick with tax-payer Gold - has a friend in the Working Man's Friend - The Chicago Sun Times: Edgey! Confrontational! Lefty! The New Chicago Sun Times ( tarred and looted by Lord Black) shows this metaphorical gold to one and all on the cover of today's paper - in the form of a Chicago Police Officer's Badge and braid - obviously a General - maybe our next Superintendent. Is this warning to one and all that the next Superintendent MUST needs be a compliant noodle-spine for our Working Man's Friend and its Pals.
The gold sits deep in the governmental creek and must be extracted or panned wherever a working man, like Jon Loevy and fellow prospector G.(gold) Flint Taylor, can roil up enough rippled waters in the Publicly Funded Creek with charges and allegations of Police Abuse. Allege - get a suit!
Now, Son, work on That volume - let's see! - 662 times millions of Tax payer salted dollars; subtract commonsense ( Buck or two here and there 'Can't take it all - YET) and deduct a sweet 40% - Yeow! That's Gold, Son!
Working with a journalist, like University of Chicago incubated Jamie Kalven, and having a solid print pal in the 'The Working Man's Friend: The Chicago Sun Times editorial board beating out this endless theme every day of the week, Working Man Jon Loevy can grab the gold with much less effort.
http://maroon.uchicago.edu/online_edition/viewpoints/2006/11/28/unfinished-business-of-the-kalven-report/
662 Potential Police Prospects for Panning according to the The Working Man's Friend! 'GIMME, GIMME, GIMME! Old Oily Jon no longer might need to hoist up the hip boots and wade in the troubled waters. Them thar nuggets will fly right into his britches! Praise Jesus! A Paper like the Working Man's Friend also wants to scare the gutless and the stupid among our elected officials to 'Do Something to Help Jon!' It's Chilling in Them Thar Cricks!
All the rest of us plutocrats, who pay all the taxes, obey all the laws, drive with insurance, bed-down by 11PM after scaring the kids into the house for ''night-night," and get up at 5AM to work back hoes, ride on Sanitation Trucks, Fire Trucks, Deliver Mail, Drive Buses, Teach School, Manage Businesses and Work the Trades and Serve and Protect the Very People Suing Police Officers, should tremble before the righteous Working Man. Jon Loevy and other ambulance chasers are having the work done for them by the Friend of the Working Man -The Chicago Sun Times!
Posted by pathickey at 5:40 AM 0 comments
Monday, July 16, 2007
James J. Shields - American Hero
Give this link a click and watch Dr. Sean Callan's presentation of an American hero.
Posted by pathickey at 6:20 PM 2 comments
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Back Off, Cop! Judge Ackley Defends Drunk Bullies; Jails Police Officer
I AM DRUNK! I AM A BAR BULLY ! THIS IS IOWA, COPPER! YOU ARE GOING TO JAIL! AND DUBUQUE DISTRICT JUDGE MONICA ACKLEY HAS MY BACK!
Posted by pathickey at 9:13 AM 1 comments
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Amy's Self-Inflicted Ambush Is No "Front Page!"
Posted by pathickey at 6:27 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Pope Pisses Off Progressives!
Here's the Only Pope that would get a pass from SCAM, Kathleen Falsani - the Sun Times Swami, and all of the hip and happening!
Pope Bono I
Semper Hip, Semper Happenin'
Posted by pathickey at 9:02 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
McCain Tree County
A tree loving pal sent me this species of rare American timber that withstands all manner of abuse, set backs, storms and Way Right Republican hissy fits:
The McCain Tree
Today I got me a note from the candidate for the Office of President of the United States - the one candidate who can win America's war on Islamist Terror - Senator John McCain. The Senator talked about the resignation of his Campaign Advisers - singularly gracious and all. But the payoff was at the end.
Here are some notes from the end of his letter:
"Now is not the time to be timid or to shy away from our challenges - now is the time to stand up and say what we believe. I'm fighting to make our nation stronger, our government more effective and our world a safer place - and I hope you will continue to join me in this important journey.
Together, I have every confidence that we will be successful and I am honored by your continued support and friendship. "
Sincerely,
Senator John McCain
He's short on dough but long on courage and political honesty. He is as deeply rooted as the fine and homely American wood above. John McCain is staying!
Posted by pathickey at 4:37 PM 0 comments
Labels: Immigartion, Jim Durkin, John McCain, Sound Judgment, Straight Talk
Friday, July 06, 2007
End of Watch: Fahey and O'Brien
One thing I know for certain - that is that Officer William Fahey and Officer Richard O'Brien were murdered. Their killers murdered and urinated on them. Some people with advanced degrees, City pensions, trust funds and ant-like hearts continue to do the same on their memories.
Posted by pathickey at 5:52 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Template for a Leader: John McCain's Answers to The Daily News
Posted by pathickey at 4:06 PM 0 comments
Labels: Islamist Terror, Jim Durkin, John McCain, Sound Judgment, Straight Talk
Saturday, June 30, 2007
War on Islamist Terror Requires President John McCain
It is time to elect a President who can fight a War on Islamist terror. It is time to work for John McCain. Senator McCain will be in Iraq with our troops during this year's July 4th Celebrations. The candidates of the other Parties will be Poll dogging. It is time to get smart on this long and mismanaged war.
Posted by pathickey at 9:22 AM 0 comments
Friday, June 29, 2007
Barack got Based! Hilary is the Black Candidate! Mary Mitchell Opined!
'Hey, Keep Your Opinion to Yourselves! Get Back Honky Cats!''
Posted by pathickey at 6:33 AM 0 comments
Saturday, June 23, 2007
You are Invited to Keegan's Pub for My Book Signing and These Two Are Not!
'Look Sweetheart, we're banned and I guess that's the end of it with these people - I know you want to go back in there, but you are with me and with me you will stay . . . Right? Look you go to that clown's book signing at Keegan's Pub after I've been turned away and . . . Now, this elephant wants to crowd us off the curb - this day just gets better and better!'
'Hickey's kids do not like you - now, when I put you down . . . take it on the arches . . . and do not try to get back in, Andy - I gotta say Mass at 5:30 today!'
10618 South Western Ave.
Chicago, IL 60643
(773) 233-6829
The Bookies Paperbacks and More
2419 W 103rd St
(773) 239-1110
Posted by pathickey at 1:33 PM 2 comments
Friday, June 22, 2007
Why I am For John McCain
Imagine a good guy leading this country!
This is John McCain on Immigration reform without the Spin:
Later, I will relate some of John McCain's 'effective, just and practical' means of making immigration reform a task Americans can complete. McCain'll do the heavy lifting- the leading. I'll bet that he might even get that poor mope at the end of bar in the neighborhood tavern to Man-Up for this work!
Posted by pathickey at 6:24 AM 1 comments
Labels: Jim Durkin, John McCain, Sound Judgment, Straight Talk
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Nader's Raiders Want to Phone it In Again!
Posted by pathickey at 1:33 PM 0 comments
Monday, June 18, 2007
Chicago Tribune Reports on Guam Strategic Build-up
The Heritage Foundation cavalierly dismissed the Guam Loyalty Recognition Act as a reparations scam and the blogoshere responded in kind - without one bit of thought to the people behind the need for such an Act. Americans ignore Guam - until a time of war.
Here is an excerpt from a great column which appears in tomorrow's Marianas Variety. It is from a 1945 memo by the Commander of the Marianas: 'great attitude' this guy - actually it is not far from that of the Heritage Foundation's point of view:
“The characteristics and nature of the majority of inhabitants on these islands are such that the artificial or forced raising of their standard of living to one approaching that of the United States would be detrimental to their best interest and would contribute little to the safety and welfare of the United States,” Murray said.
Read the whole article:
http://www.mvariety.com/localpage/lnews43.htm
Posted by pathickey at 6:08 AM 0 comments
Saturday, June 16, 2007
What Others Might Think of U.S. (A.)
Immigration Reform is the ugliest blood sport, at the moment. Fences and borders and tons of Hey What About ALL those . . . stories are bandied about as 40 Watt intellects mimick their favorite Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, or Barry Manilow keening - I just threw in Barry for giggle. My thoughts are these:
- Come to America and Welcome!
- Bring Your Work Ethic
- Leave your old Allegiances in the Old Country
- Adopt American Values
- Behave Accordingly
Posted by pathickey at 12:15 PM 0 comments
Friday, June 15, 2007
The Land of Endless Hours, Suicides, Goofy Films and Congestion Taxes Has Something for Chicago
Posted by pathickey at 5:26 AM 0 comments
Monday, June 11, 2007
Support the Guam Loyalty Act - About Time!
Guam was caught in the switches between MacArthur's Consular ambitions over Post-War Japan and the realities of the Cold War.
The People of Guam are the most loyal and pro-miltary Americans; always faithful and always willing to sacrifice their lives for our country - without hesitation. That is our problem - we mainland Americans -that the hesiation has been to recognize Guam's loyalty.
Whoever decided to policy these folks into reparations lotto ticket scammers should do much more study of Guam's history and commitment. The reparations broadbrush was unworthy of what is best about America - our abilty to recognize and give tribute to patriotism. Guam is long over due such a small nod from all Americans.
To date this tiny island of America is in double figures for KIA in the War on Terror and in Vietnam lead the nation in per capita loss of life (74 KIA on the Wall). Guam stands in the sights of North Korean nuclear missles and is pro-active in helping fight terroism out of the P.I.s. At this moment the Americans of Guam are making room for 8,000 more Marines evicted from Okinawa as well as the island's expansion as America's most forward and strategic base in the Pacific Rim.
These Americans are owed more than bumper sticker rhetoric and history. We are better than this.
Posted by pathickey at 7:05 AM 0 comments
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Chump Change from Us Chumps
The story in today's Chicago Tribune concerns the strange fiscal and fiduciary concerns of a tax-payer funded and salaried university President, Elnora Daniel.
Ms. Daniel is under fire for an audit of expenditures in her office - cruises and dinners and what not.
Daniel's biography speaks of her love of cold soup, cruises and travel:
http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=503
The story in the Tribune fleshes out some of the finer points, particularly Madame President's opinion of the source of the 'chump change' $ 75,000 taked on to her annual compensation and her stewardship of this State financed university.
Cold soup and cruises - now, how would the Miller High Life man feel about President Daniel? Would he statrt yanking her metaphorical 'Champagne of Bottled Beers from her shelves? I mean, what the heck -Miller Brewing gave her a plaque according to the posted biography excerpt. That change don't add up to this chump.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070608chi-statejun08,1,1252174.story?coll=chi-newsroom-hed
Posted by pathickey at 5:25 AM 0 comments
Friday, June 08, 2007
John McCain Will Be The Last Man Standing - So Will Hillary.
The next few weeks will see John McCain maintaining the common sense line in this fight. The weak sisters in his Campaign are jumping ship for a cushier berth on other campaigns.
Posted by pathickey at 5:59 AM 0 comments
Labels: Jim Durkin, John McCain, Sound Judgment, Straight Talk
Thursday, June 07, 2007
D-Day Yesterday; Paris Liberated Today!
Posted by pathickey at 7:11 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Quiet Riot? Obama's Malaise?
When our nation was founded over two hundred years ago, we were the world's only democratic republic. Today, there are more than 100 electoral democracies spread all across the globe. We must reaffirm our faith in the principles that our founders declared to be universal, that all people are created equal and possess inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We fought a Revolution, a Civil War, two world wars, and a cold war to vindicate these principles and ensure that freedom could be enjoyed, as Abraham Lincoln promised, by all people of all colors everywhere.' We were right to struggle for democracy then, and we are right to do so now.
This is not idealism, my friends. It is the truest kind of realism. Today as in the past, our interests are inextricably linked to the global progress of our ideals. The vision of a new era of enduring peace based on freedom is not a Republican vision. It is not a Democratic vision. It is an American vision. The American people have known instinctively for two centuries that we are safer when the world is more democratic. Whatever our differences, we all share the same goal: a world of peace and freedom, of prosperity and opportunity, of hope. We have a duty to ourselves to be true to those beliefs, to use our great power wisely on behalf of freedom. As Ronald Reagan proclaimed in his speech to the British Parliament in 1982, Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.'
Posted by pathickey at 6:20 AM 13 comments
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
John McCain - The Paradigm for an American President
This ain't no photo-op shot taken by Karl Rove's Boys and Girls - This guy is the real deal!
Posted by pathickey at 7:33 AM 11 comments
Labels: Jim Durkin, John McCain, Sound Judgment, Straight Talk
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Come to the Signing Party at Keegan's Pub!
Saturday – June 30th 2007 from 2PM -5PM
Hosted by
Keegan's Pub
10618 S. Western Ave.
&
The Bookie Paperbacks
Ph#773-239-1110
2419 W. 103rd StreetChicago Illinois 60655
Pat Hickey will sign copies of The Chorito Hog Leg, Book One a Novel of Guam in Time of War – I have refrigerator magnet book markers for all of the practical and good natured folks who join us!
Posted by pathickey at 5:12 AM 2 comments
Friday, April 06, 2007
SEIU is a threat to the American Standard of Living: OPUS CAVEO!
The name of the man in the center of the old newsprint cartoon is Terrence Powderly -Powderly started the America Labor Movement. You will not read about him or hear of him too much these days. He understood the difference between being an employee and being a Scab. Ironically, enough Powderly's position always was to help move workers into the American Middle Class. Move them to skilled trades and more wages and benefits. Labor gave America the Standard of Living that it had enjoyed and is now being taxed and co-opted out of existence by radicals.
On April 5, 2007 Chicago Sun Times Columnist Lynn Sweet proposed that Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley, who recently was elected by an overwhelming percentage to the Office of Mayor and has enjoyed his victory with a daily litany of howls and attacks on him and his management of Chicago in the Chicago media, chat it up with SEIU leader Andy Stern.
Fair Enough. The Mayor of Big Shoulders should be able to take any criticism to heart and to head. The Mayor should set his own appointments. The same critics want the Mayor to have a sit-down with Andy Stern of Services Employee International Union - the man most responsible for organizing no skill, low skill and public salaried workers.
Andy Stern - according to the media - is an innovative thinker - he thinks outside of box.' He organized the Big Box Ordinance drive that is helping to marginalize the influence of real labor. Denny Gannon, a skilled tradesman, has been put in the unenviable position of 'working with' Andy Stern:
Lynn Sweet wrote, 'Stern, like Daley, is practical and just want to gets things done. '
And then argued for Daley to go along with the Mayors of these Cities - Rubber Stamp?
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa knows Stern. So does Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit, Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston, Mayor Bill White of Houston and Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco. After the runoffs -- no matter the outcomes -- Daley and Stern, if they sat down, would find they share a goal of building a better Chicago' ( Sweet April 5, 2007)
Just because these Mayors drank the Kool-Aid does not mean the Mayor of Chicago should. Chicago still has a significant middle class population - Andy Stern will do away with that and Real Labor will continue to become marginalized politically and organizationally. They have become timid around Purple Andy. The media loves the guy! They have not proven to be too pro labor: Printers Strike at the Tribune; Slams at the Trades Unions are a regular feature in the media.
Labor unions grow strong through the organization of dues paying skilled workers: carpenters, pipefitters, electricians, engineers. People who build and maintain things are paid a good wage because of collective bargaining - not raising taxes on the very Union Women and Men SEIU purports to share Brotherhood. The building of the American Middle Class was Labor's great victory. Labor now appears to be commiting a Jonestown on itself with Andy Stern providing the Purple Kool Aid.
Andy Stern, a Unversity of Pennsylvannia trained Social Worker, is a radical who along with David Wilhelm of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Workers of Las Vegas worked very hard to organize low, low, low wage workers and to capitalize on their conditions with solid Leftist rhetoric. Their goal is not to bargain wage increases for the rank and file and improve their benefits but exact political punishment on elected officials and effect Redistribution of Wealth. The Rich will not be touched by the chipping away of the American Standard of Living, but the middle class - the skilled Union members and their extended families - will disappear.
The Big Box Ordinance was a disaster. It ain't done yet. Lynn Sweet, evidently a huge fan of Andy Stern's radical attempt to whittle away at the standard of living enjoyed by the middle class in Illinois , wants Daley to smoke the pipe with Andy:
SEIU is the second largest tax-payer salaried 'union' in the country with more than 850,000 public service employees.
SEIU does not operate to improve the lives of its membership but to engage in political monster apparitions and threaten elected candidates to 'go along' with them.
SEIU engages in radical redistribution of wealth strategies that force an increase in government ( tax-payer funded) salaries and thus create a greater burden on the middle class - especially real labor unions: the skilled trades unions.
SEIU swells like a tick with its membership drives targeting no-skill, low skill, and tax-paid employees. Membership dues are or were the life's blood of a strong labor force in America. SEIU fights to push for minimum wage increases - but a significant sum of that wage increase will come from taxpayers. SEIU is a great threat to the American Labor Movement that created the American Standard of Living - a middle class standard of living.
SEIU's redistribution of wealth will not chip away at America's rich but it will evaporate the American middle class and that , it seems is it's goal.
Mayor Daley, you do not need friends like Andy Stern; neither did Denny Gannon, nor John Sweeney nor the hundreds of thousands of immigrants, working poor, and unskilled minimum wage earners who wear those Purple T-shirts.
Workers Beware! They're Shearing sheep as big as whales!
Posted by pathickey at 5:22 AM 2 comments
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Two Part Historical Novel Fuses Guam and Chicago History
My novel The Chorito Hog Leg, Book One: A Novel Guam in Time of War concerns the liberation of Guam in World War II and fuses Chicago and Guam history.
The title comes from a place where hundreds of American teenagers died in July 1944 and an antique revolver. The revolver is not that important, but Chorito Cliff was and is to a generation of men and women who are disappearing at too great a rate.
Chorito is the name of a cliff overlooking the Asan beaches on Guam. In 1944, the 3rd Marines assaulted Chorito Cliff and Bundeschu Ridge. A Hog Leg is the nickname for an 1860 Colt .45 Revolver.
While working on the Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story, I was struck by how many members of the Leo Class of 1943 served in the Marine Corps and also in the Guam Campaign. Likewise, it struck me that almost nowhere in popular culture has room enough been made for the most loyal Americans - the People of Guam - The Chamorros. I started doing some homework and the result is a historical novel in two parts. Part One covers the time of April 1944 to August 10, 1944 and introduces some of the fictional and historical characters who figure in this work.
Within the carnage of battle is a war pitting a young man, Tim Cullen Leo High School '43, against his battalion commander over the possession of an 1860 Army Colt .45 Hog leg revolver which can be traced back to Capt. Myles Keogh who died with Custer. The last owner is the doomed Lt. Jack Buck of Giddings, TX. Buck will be killed in the taking of Bundeschu Ridge, but Jack Buck had exacted a promise from Pvt. Tim Cullen of his platoon to keep it from the hands of Major Lucas Opley, an up from the ranks Marine of legend, and return the Colt to his family in Texas.This story also brings in life in Chicago's south side, in particular the people who lived along 79th Street in the 1940's.
Historical personages like some of the great men of Leo High School,Lyndon Johnson, General Roy Geiger, Col. Red Mike Edson, Father Jesus Duenas, Radioman Paul Newman, Ensign Johnny Carson, Edward J. 'Spike' O'Donnell, Mayor Ed Kelly and Brother Francis Finch mingle with fictional characters Tim Cullen, Billy Higgins, Lucas Opley, Dr. Ted Tanaka and Betty Cruz. Life in St. Sabina's Parish and along 79th Street in Chicago is recreated to the best of my powers. My narrative is the intrusive narrator that was used to offer commentary on the action and infuse a moral tone. At the outset, I wish to apologize for any typos that sneaked past my tired old eyes - placing an 'and' where I mean to place ad 'an' - writers are not the best editors.
The story is about a young man who developed a sharp moral sense in his neighborhood and a devotion to his word to others - fashioned in the pews of St. Sabina Church, the halls of Leo High School, the playing surface of Shewbridge Field and along 79th Street. Cullen's values and sense of honor is tested by circumstances and the hidden agenda of an otherwise good man, Maj. Lucas Opley.
Parallel to Cullen’s ordeals with the 3rd Marines and suffering on Japanese occupied Guam are movie house operator Juan Cruz and his family, as well as an exiled Japanese American Dentist and his movie star wife. Exacting the cruelty is the oafish Boson Otayama and the American educated Lt. Kato. Awaiting liberation are also such historical figures of Guam’s history as Father Duenas and Pastor Sablan who heroically protected American George Tweed from the Japanese for two years.
The touchstone Hog-leg revolver, in its shoulder holster, will be taken from Lt. John A. Buck’s body by Cullen at an aid station on Guam’s Red Beach 2 and cause Cullen no end of problems. The Battalion commander wants the Colt Hog-leg. Cullen hangs on to the weapon but never uses it and is repeatedly ordered by Maj. Opley to hand it over. Opley wants it for himself. This through-the ranks career officer will undo himself through his own devices and be sent home under a cloud after years of service to the Corps after the Guam Campaign.
In the Fall of 2007, the second book of The Chorito Hog Leg story will follow the adventures of Tim Cullen through the mopping-up actions on Guam, the Iwo Jima Campaign, the sinking of U.S.S. Indianapolis, the Atomic Bombings of Japan, the beginning of the War Crimes Trials on Guam and return Cullen, through the great Pacific Typhoon of 1945, to Chicago. Again, the author will employ the ‘intrusive narrator’ technique used by William Makepeace Thackeray in his 19th Century historical fictions.
I hope that I do some justice to the generation who served in World War II and to the great people of Guam.
http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail~bookid~44494.aspx
Posted by pathickey at 12:37 PM 0 comments
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Hide - The Root of Chicago Race Relations
Chicago has never recovered from the Meatpackers Strike of 1904. Though engulfed by flames in 1871, Chicago rose from its roots again like an oak forest on steroids. The Pullman Strike, put down by George Custer's replacements, Illinois Yellow-legs and Pinckerton's goons, was as nothing compared to what lay ahead on the tracks.
Chicago's steel tentacles pulled cattle, hogs, sheep and any other hooved hide that could be tanned, eaten, rendered or husbanded to a vast yard owned by sharp men of business. The amalgamation of tanners, packers, renderers, and shippers had cheap, disorganized and willing pool of people to labor, bleed, and exploit - Czech, Irish, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Westphalian, Belgian, Prussian, Bavarian, Norwegian, and Swedish.
Some of those immigrants had skills as carpenters, millwrights, metal workers, coopers, cartwrights, and teamsters; most had no skills other than brute strength. Today they would be called Caucasian, though very few had passed through Caucases to get to America.
On July 12, 1904, a strike was called by the Almagamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen (AMC) whose President Michael Donnelly announced the strike.
The causes of the strike ranged from low wages to the excessive pace required while on the job. The strike lasted for nearly two months and included rioting and murder with few periods of peace. The strikers used tactics such as demonstrations and parades while the packers responded by hiring strikebreakers. Although factory conditions were unchanged, the strike had many far reaching effects on the city of Chicago, the union, and the nation as a whole. . . . The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen played a major role in the strike. It was a giant organization and employed both skilled and unskilled workers, a circumstance often resented by skilled workers.(Halpern 32) Though unity was not one of the union's strong points, the union did give workers some sense of it, which was vital when the strike finally began. The main protagonists of the strike were the common laborers, the skilled and unskilled butchers of the Chicago packing plants. The workers, now somewhat organized, demanded higher pay and an end to the relentless "speeding up" of the packing progress. The typical laborer at the time of the strike was foreign, unskilled, worked long, hard hours, and was paid less than twenty cents an hour. The strikers were also very violent which resulted in numerous murders and riots. ("Strikers Firm" 2)
The murders and riots were in reaction to the bringing of strikebreakers, most African Americans from the South and hired goons to agitate and incite viollence. Chicago Tribune archived articles from the period of the strike - roughly July through September 1904 bear witness to the actions and motives behind those acts.
The violence brought home to the heart of readers the intense frustration felt by the strikers and their families and the malice and greed that Chicago's leading families were willing to orchestrate in the name of profit. 8,750 strikebreakers, mostly miserably poor blacks, were lured with promises of a better life in Chicago and train fare to this abatoir of the human heart. Strikers and their families were in fact starving despite the effort of Strike relief Committes and the sympathy for strikers crossed state lines. However, the need to feed the greed was greater than articulating an agreement with the AMC. The owners intended to break this strike and they succeeded.
After a unanimous vote to maintain the strike, AMC President Michael Donnelly announced the strike ended on Sept. 9 1905 - 59 days after the strike was called.
The resulting antipathy between multi-cultural,lingual, and religious Caucasians and the strikebreaking African Americans would play out for next one hundred and two years in Chicago. The nature of race relations would always be reduced to the simple 'color of a man's skin' equation by people with the luxury of not being close to the conflict.
The descendants of the strikers would recoil from relations with the people who came North in the hope of a better life. They were shoved into combat with people themselves the victims of exploitation and those who profited by that combat. Those same descendants, one hundred and two years later, contine to be at odds with one another. The strikers descendants moved away as the Black Belt expanded to Berwyn, Cicero, Maywood and the southwest sides - places that since the 1904 strike have been branded as single-mindedly racist, unlike neighborhoods far removed from killing floors on the south side. The Armours and the Swifts and their co-industrialists did well by the strike and became clean with wealth, while the strikers and the strikebraekers were set at odds with one another and continue to be.
The horrific race riots of 1919 were confined to battlefields of Back of the Yards and the Black Belt. The fight for fair housing from the 1940's through the new Millenium mirror that combat zone. Dr. King marched in Marquette Park, where the descendants of the strikers lived and not in Highland Park where the people who prospered by that broken strike. Southside white ethnic neighborhoods continue to be referred to as 'racial hotbeds' as recently as last week in the Chicago media. Blacks continue to be pitted against ethnic whites and exploited for political and economic gain.
Maybe, some talk about the causes and consequences of the 1904 Meatpackers Strike should preclude any 'Let's talk Race' challenge.
Sources
Halpern, Rick. Down on the Killing Floor: Black and White Workers in Chicago's Packinghouses, 1904 - 54. Urbana, Illinois : University of Illinois Press, 1997.
Strike is Ended; Men Surrender." Chicago Daily Tribune. 9 Sept. 1904
Posted by pathickey at 7:51 AM 0 comments