Helen Keller In IWW
May 1 2007
Quote:
Helen Keller also joined the famous labor union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), in 1912 after she felt that parliamentary socialism was "sinking in the political bog." Helen Keller wrote for the IWW between 1916 and 1918. In ([1]) Why I Became an IWW, Keller wrote that her motivation for activism came in part due to her concern about blindness and other disabilities:
I never knew.
May 1 2007
#2
This is way too easy to bother making IWW jokes.
May 1 2007
#3
thugarchist wrote:
This is way too easy to bother making IWW jokes.
I'm guessing even she could see them coming. ho ho ho.
May 1 2007
#4
some wierd ones in here....
Quote:
Notable membersNotable members of the Industrial Workers of the World have included Lucy Parsons, Helen Keller [1], whose life was recounted in several films; Joe Hill; Ralph Chaplin; Ricardo Flores Magon; James P. Cannon; James Connolly; Jim Larkin; Paul Mattick; Big Bill Haywood; Eugene Debs; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn; Sam Dolgoff, Indian Nationalist Lala Hardayal; Frank Little; ACLU founder Roger Nash Baldwin; Harry Bridges; Buddhist beat poet Gary Snyder; anthropologist David Graeber; graphic artist Carlos Cortez; counterculture icon Kenneth Rexroth; Surrealist Franklin Rosemont; Rosie Kane and Carolyn Leckie, Members of the Scottish Parliament; Judi Bari; folk musicians Utah Phillips and David Rovics; mixed martial arts fighter Jeff Monson; Finnish folk music legend Hiski Salomaa; U.S. Green Party politician James M. Branum; Catholic Workers Dorothy Day and Ammon Hennacy; nuclear engineer Susanna Johnson. The former lieutenant governor of Colorado, David C. Coates was a labor militant, and was present at the founding convention,[9] although it is unknown if he became a member. It has long been rumored, but not yet proven, that baseball legend Honus Wagner was also a Wobbly. Senator Joe McCarthy accused Edward R. Murrow of having been an IWW member. The organization's most famous current member is Noam Chomsky.
May 1 2007
#5
Quote:
The organization's most famous current member is Noam Chomsky.
May 1 2007
#6
thugarchist wrote:
Quote:
The organization's most famous current member is Noam Chomsky.
you'll have to explain that one...
May 1 2007
#7
x357997 wrote:
thugarchist wrote:
Quote:
The organization's most famous current member is Noam Chomsky.
you'll have to explain that one...
I find that fact hilariously stupid.
May 1 2007
#8
thugarchist wrote:
x357997 wrote:
thugarchist wrote:
Quote:
The organization's most famous current member is Noam Chomsky.
you'll have to explain that one...
I find that fact hilariously stupid.
yea, i got that bit from the smileys.....
May 1 2007
#9
whats wrong with chommers being a wob?
May 1 2007
#10
Tacks wrote:
whats wrong with chommers being a wob?
Nothing. It makes perfect sense actually.
May 1 2007
#11
Being an open membership organization has its advantages and disadvantages.
May 1 2007
#12
AK press (US) has a book on Helen Keller:
http://akpress.org/2003/items/helenkellerrebellives
Quote:
Helen Keller - Rebel LivesThis unique book presents a collection from the largely unrecognized aspect of Keller's life: her views on women's suffrage, her defense of the IWW, her opposition to both world wars, her support for imprisoned socialist and anarchist leaders as well as her analysis of disability and class. A classic collection of essays. It also includes appreciative texts written about her militant socialism, from Eugene V. Debs and Mark Twain.
"I have entered the fight against the economic system in which we live. It is to be a fight to the finish and I ask no quarter." —Helen Keller
May 1 2007
#13
IWW member in Family Guy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87023Ctb6_s
May 1 2007
#14
revol68 wrote:
thugarchist wrote:
This is way too easy to bother making IWW jokes.I'm guessing even she could see them coming. ho ho ho.
In my original post i wrote "Blimey" as my visceral response... 
Of course i erased said.. Gah! This is one of those situs when, desparate not to offend, you do so through a stress response - all very Mark in Peep Show..
May 2 2007
#15
Tacks wrote:
whats wrong with chommers being a wob?
If I was to nitpick I'd ask: Given that Chomsky is a head Professor of a uni department, dosn't he have the right to hire and fire the staff and students of said department?
May 2 2007
#16
jason wrote:
Tacks wrote:
whats wrong with chommers being a wob?If I was to nitpick I'd ask: Given that Chomsky is a head Professor of a uni department, dosn't he have the right to hire and fire the staff and students of said department?
He's a professor emeritus. He probably could hire and fire grad researchers but he's not head of the department, but does he even do anything anymore? When was the last work on linguistics he produced?
May 11 2007
#17
Does anybody think there is a relationship between "chommer's" politics his views on the acquisition of language and his attributing this to an inherent species capability?By the way I have it on good authority that his name is meant to be pronounced "khomsky".(some Israelis told me!)
May 11 2007
#18
Yeah but who wants to expose themselves to the degree of phlegm involved in non-Hebrew speakers trying to say it the right way.
May 15 2007
#19
re; chomsky. in practice as I understand it, he has stuff all unilateral power to hire and fire either students or staff. all done according to strict process and more or less unilaterally. not sure if he's a running-the-school sort of prof anyway
May 18 2007
#20
James Cannon was a Wob? Didn't realise...
May 18 2007
#21
Asher wrote:
James Cannon was a Wob? Didn't realise...
He had been active in the Mesabi Range. But what he did was always rather unclear. The Trotskyists always promote him as a IWW Organizer, and leading IWWs knew him, but there is no record I've found as to what he organized, did, said, etc as an IWW. He was a left-SPA and left quite early for form the Comm. Labor Party which was the John Reed's pro-IWW communist party.
Here's an interesting article by an American non-Trotskyist left oppositionist, Albert Weisbord:
http://weisbord.org/Record.htm
Weisbord was the main organizer of the CPUSA led textille strikes in North Carolina, Gastonia, etc.
In the late 1930s Weisbord's group offered to aid the IWW organize industrial unions, etc. they had a great deal of experience (Which the IWW had as well).
May 21 2007
#22
The Trot I spoke to made it seem like he really hated the IWW and moved his Alec Baldwinesque-self towards Trostkyism because it was better.
May 21 2007
#23
Some people don't know what to do if there's no one telling them what to do.
May 21 2007
#24
Cannon wrote about some of his IWW experiences, did he not? I do think he was fairly active, and he wrote several dispatches for the Industrial Worker, but I cannot recall their subject matter.
May 21 2007
#25
pghwob wrote:
Cannon wrote about some of his IWW experiences, did he not? I do think he was fairly active, and he wrote several dispatches for the Industrial Worker, but I cannot recall their subject matter.
He wrote about the IWW in 1955
But it really doesn't say anything about his experiences. And he doesn't talk about his IWW activities anywhere else that I've seen. And that's very usual for Cannon. He's always summing up experiences, drawing conclusions, articulating his views, especially from his own experiences.
That's why Weisbord's comments seem true to me. Cannon's always on about himself. Why then no specific reminicences of the IWW - "in the Iron range we went to x, y, z did a/b/c." Never discussed to my knowledge. And I've read lots of Cannon perhaps the entire Canon of Cannon.
May 22 2007
#26
Quote:
And I've read lots of Cannon perhaps the entire Canon of Cannon.
LOL
Might I ask why? Did you, like me, go through a hanging out with the SWP phase?
I've read that bit he wrote about the IWW before but thats about as much as i could ever take. It made me predisposed to respect Saint John and want to know more about him, mostly because he was unmoved by Cannon's missionary zeal..
May 22 2007
#27
David in Atlanta wrote:
Quote:
And I've read lots of Cannon perhaps the entire Canon of Cannon.LOL
Might I ask why? Did you, like me, go through a hanging out with the SWP phase?
I've read that bit he wrote about the IWW before but thats about as much as i could ever take. It made me predisposed to respect Saint John and want to know more about him, mostly because he was unmoved by Cannon's missionary zeal..
Because i like strategy and I always admired the trots for being strategic, even when I disagreed with the politics, principles, etc.
I also figure I have to understand the man to disagree with his followers better.
May 22 2007
#28
tsiatko wrote:
David in Atlanta wrote:
Quote:
And I've read lots of Cannon perhaps the entire Canon of Cannon.LOL
Might I ask why? Did you, like me, go through a hanging out with the SWP phase?
I've read that bit he wrote about the IWW before but thats about as much as i could ever take. It made me predisposed to respect Saint John and want to know more about him, mostly because he was unmoved by Cannon's missionary zeal..Because i like strategy and I always admired the trots for being strategic, even when I disagreed with the politics, principles, etc.
I also figure I have to understand the man to disagree with his followers better.
Fair enough. I plowed through some of Dobbs and the "troops out": thing they published about the anti-war movement for much the same reason.
May 24 2007
#29
streathamite wrote:
re; chomsky. in practice as I understand it, he has stuff all unilateral power to hire and fire either students or staff. all done according to strict process and more or less unilaterally. not sure if he's a running-the-school sort of prof anyway
if you end up in this situation i think you're meant to give this power to your local IWW branch. This is what i was told last w/e.
I don't think you are meant to get into a job with such powers inherent, but if they are imposed on you by your boss.
May 24 2007
#30
Helen Keller was also pro-Bahá'í:
Helen Keller wrote:
The philosophy of Bahá'u'lláh deserves the best thought we can give it. I am returning the book so that other blind people who have more leisure than myself may be "shown a ray of Divinity" and their hearts be "bathed in an inundation of eternal love."I take this opportunity to thank you for your kind thought of me, and for the inspiration which even the most cursory reading of Bahá'u'lláh's life cannot fail to impart. What nobler theme than the "good of the world and the happiness of the nations" can occupy our lives? The message of universal peace will surely prevail. It is useless to combine or conspire against an idea which has in it potency to create a new earth and a new heaven and to quicken human beings with a holy passion of service.
(In a personal letter written to an American Bahá'í after having read something from the Braille edition of "Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era.")
Apparently though Keller supported Ahmad Sohrab's New History Society faction, which fought against the institutionalization of Bahá'í under Shoghi Effendi's leadership, the leaders of which were ultimately expelled for violating the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh.
I'm not entirely sure of the role Esperanto played in the schism. But this is worth noting:
Quote:
Shoghi Effendi subtenis la ideon de internacia helplingvo kiel ilon por la establigo kaj eternigo de la mondpaco. La principo de internacia helplingvo estas unu el la ĉefaj principoj de la Bahaa Kredo. Shoghi Effendi forte kuraĝigis la filinon de Ludoviko Zamenhof, Lidja Zamenhof, en ŝiaj strebadoj disvastigi Esperanton. Shoghi Effendi ne nur volis, ke ŝi promociu la Bahaan Kredon, sed ankaŭ rekte instigis ŝin vojaĝi por instrui kaj disvastigi Esperanton. Shoghi Effendi esperis, ke post ŝia vojaĝo al Usono ŝi povus iri al Irano por instrui la persajn bahaanojn pri Esperanto, sed Lidja Zamenhof mortis post sia reveno al Pollando kiel hebreino.Shoghi Effendi kuraĝigis bahaanojn ne nur kunlabori kun esperantistoj, sed ankaŭ lerni la lingvon. Malgraŭ tio, ne eblis por Shoghi Effendi elekti oficialan lingvon por la Bahaa komunumo. Laŭ la Bahaaj Skriboj, tiu lingvo estos elektita de la mondregistaro de la estonteco. Bahaanoj ne oficiale subtenas Esperanton aŭ eĉ la anglan aŭ persan kiel internaciajn helplingvojn (kvankam la angla kaj persa devas esti uzataj de la Bahaa Mondcentro pro praktikaj kialoj), sed ĉiuj bahaanoj estas kuraĝigitaj de la skriboj de 'Abdu'l-Bahá kaj Shoghi Effendi lerni la lingvon aŭ/kaj kunlabori kun esperantistoj.
La Universala Domo de Justeco ankaŭ promocias la principon de internacia helplingvo kaj menciis ĝin en sia "Promeso de Monda Paco", deklaro sendita al ĉiuj registaroj de la mondo pri la metodoj por establi mondpacon. La Universala Domo de Justeco aprobis la kreon de la Bahaa Esperanto-Ligo (BEL), kiu rekte respondecas al tiu institucio.
I think we should form a committee to investigate this turning point in the history of internationalism.
On another note, does this mean there's now a Wobbly on US currency?
Me neither!!
She really was a bit of an all-rounder wasn't she?? Vey capable woman. 