The Lumber Workers' Struggle for Freedom Chapter 5 http://www.iww.org/en/culture/library/rowan/rowan5.shtml Published by the Lumber Workers Industrial Union Local – 1920 Continued: We will pick up with the barbarity against workers that is unimaginable in America today. But don’t think things can’t get bad again. Thornton was beaten to death or burned alive in the jail, and the authorities who arrested him and put him in that jail, are responsible for his death. To imprison a man in a firetrap of that kind, and leave him without any possible chance of escape in case of fire, is in itself a criminal act, and is absolutely inexcusable. There are thousands of these wooden firetrap jails in this country, and many men have met a fate similar to that of Thornton, but because they are working men without money or influence, little publicity has ever been given these atrocities. Money is usually above the law. For example, some of Enron's management are getting financing from us, our Government, to start another business venture. Are they punished? NO. Are they in jail? NO. If the Union did something like these guys did you know what would happen. Former Enron Executives Slated to Receive Taxpayer Handouts for New Project    Buried in the 700-plus page energy bill currently under debate in the U.S. Senate is a provision that provides hundreds of millions of dollars worth of federal loan guarantees for a power project apparently to be built by four former Enron executives. One of the former executives is Thomas White, former head of Enron's retail and energy trading in California during the energy crisis who later served as President Bush's Secretary of the Army. (In this weeks Politics and News http://www.ibew46.org/Political_Education/politics_and_news.htm and read "The Rage of Days" above this article. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/060705Y.shtml (Public Citizen) In Washington the state of affairs was as bad as that in Idaho and Montana. Troops were brought into the Yakima Valley, and a systematic attempt was made to drive all members of the IWW out of that part of the country. At North Yakima, Wenatchee, Pasco, Leavenworth, Cle Elum, and Ellensburg, hundreds of men were arrested and held in jails and "bull pens" for being members or suspected of membership in the IWW. No one who looked like a working man was safe from arrest. Men were arrested on the streets of these towns, while peaceably attending to their own affairs. If, on being searched, they were found in possession of IWW cards, they were thrown into jail or "bull pen" and there held without trial or "due process of the law," in some cases for months. Passenger trains passing through these towns, were boarded and searched by soldiers, and any passengers suspected of being members of the IWW were taken off and put in jail. This was in the good old US of A. Money superseded our Constitution and Bill of Rights. The super rich ruled as they always do. Holding on to Democracy is not easy. As long as workers are apathetic and disbanded, they can be controlled. The IWW was a tremendous threat to Corporate control of America. It scared the hell out of management. And it also scared our Government. People taking things into their own hands! What next? The history of the Union Card or Dues Receipt is steeped in this history. Some day in the future it may be illegal to carry a Dues Receipt. We know. It can’t happen here. Take a look around. The treatment received by these men in the jails and "bull pens" would disgrace any country in the world having the slightest pretension to civilization. They barely received sufficient food to keep them alive, and what little they did get was totally unfit for human use. For protesting against this treatment meant they were bulldozed, insulted, and in some cases brutally beaten by the soldiers. Many of these men on being released, presented the appearance of living skeletons, and were scarcely recognized by their friends, to such a condition had they been reduced by starvation and abuse. This is America we are talking about. And all this because these workers withheld their work from the ruling Corporate Class. There is a good talk by Bill Moyers about some of this class stuff: CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA’S FUTURE “TAKE BACK AMERICA” SPEAKER:  BILL MOYERS,PRESIDENT,  SCHUMAN CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY  And speaking of those who are really concerned, check out speeches by Bill Moyers and John Edwards at the Taking Back America Conference last week. And while you're at it, check out the other speeches too.http://www.ourfuture.org/docUploads/caf060205moyers.pdf At Pasco the judge turned down the writ on the grounds that the state of Washington was in a "state of insurrection". At North Yakima the two men named in the writ were turned loose just before the case was to come into court, thus preventing the making of a test case. There is reason to believe that this reign of terror in the Yakima Valley was caused partly with the object of preventing any of the striking lumberjacks from obtaining work harvesting in that part of the country. Corporations pay for the Corporate politicians some of us vote for. They work for them that paid the piper. Because we have the votes none of this needed to happen. But advertising, the Corporate press and Corporate politicians convinces people to vote against their own self-interest. Watchdog Culture: Why You Need it, How You Can Build it  "Watchdog journalism is a state of mind for the whole newspaper: Journalism that gives power to people." Watchdog journalism is at the heart of a newspaper's commitment to public service. (This is a great article. This is about what we mean by Free Press. We must regulate Corporations on this issue which means FOX news must tell people it is entertainment and not real news.) http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=34&aid=82985 (Poynter Online) While this industrial war was raging in the short log country, the lumber workers of Western Washington were watching developments, and making active preparations to join the strike. In this section about twenty per cent of the loggers were organized in the LWIU, and the majority of the unorganized were favorably inclined towards the union. A few belonged to an A. F of L. organization known as the International Union of Timberworkers which was closely allied to the shingle weavers union and which, owing to its reactionary character, did not meet with such strong opposition from the lumber companies. Early in July a convention of delegates representing the organized lumber workers in all parts of Western Washington was held in Seattle. A strike was voted, this being the instructions given the delegates by the membership July 16th the strike call was sent out. The result was practically the same as in the Spokane district. Great activity was displayed by the organized minority, and in a short time ninety percent of the lumber industry of Western Washington was at a stand still. The supply of wealth was cut off!! The Corporations went ballistic! Never before had the lumber barons been confronted with such a situation, and to judge by the frantic wails of the press, they were at a loss what to do. . . . They claimed it was impossible to grant the eight hour day owing to competition of the South, where ten hours was the work day in the lumber industry, and wages were much lower than in the Northwest. Have you ever heard arguments like that before? Yet somehow the lumber industry survived. People believe the Corporate bull because they are good and truthful. People, in general, just don’t have the necessary greed and evil in themselves to see how bad these Corporations really are. So they accept their explanations and vote against their own self-interest again, and again, and again. The usual charges of disloyalty and pro-Germanism were made by the newspapers, and it was charged that the object of the strike was to stop production of spruce lumber which was needed for tire manufacture of aeroplanes for the war; Without a free press, how would most citizens know the truth about any of what was going on? That’s the point of the Politics and News postings on our site. It provides insight to the news that is blocked from view by the Corporate press. Bring It Down. Now.  The Downing Street Memo is the gift that just keeps on giving. And well it should. It is the smoking gun which proves that the gravest possible crime was committed by the Bush administration, and among its victims were the American people. So I've come to be tentative and rather pessimistic about the possibilities of ending this national nightmare of reaction, thievery and militarism, and bringing these criminals to justice. http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0607-26.htm (Common Dreams) As an example of the patriotism of the Lumber Trust, it is interesting to note in passing, that according to the figures printed in the Spokane Press, before the United States entered the war, the price of spruce was $16 a thousand feet, while a few months later, owing to the demand for spruce for aeroplanes, the price rose to $116 a thousand feet. Subsequent investigations by Congress throw additional light on the profiteering of the Lumber Trust. The following is from the Seattle Union Record of July 5, 1919: This is war profiteering. That is what is happening now in America with noncompetitive contracts and phony wars for American Corporations to lock up the oil to make money. Read about the Downing Street Memo in this week’s Politics and News postings. This is real-time super bad stuff happening to us and our Country. Someone should do something about it! But who? The Mobility Myth   The war that nobody talks about - the overwhelmingly one-sided class war - is being waged all across America.   Guess who's winning. A recent front-page article in The Los Angeles Times showed that teenagers are faring poorly in a tight job market because of the fierce competition they're getting from older workers and immigrants for entry-level positions. On the same day, in the business section, the paper reported that the chief executives at California's largest 100 companies took home a collective $1.1 billion in 2004, an increase of nearly 20 percent over the previous year. The paper contrasted that with the 2.9 percent raise that the average California worker saw last year. (Corporations convince people to support Corporate Values using religion or guns or what ever it takes to keep control and the bucks flowing in.) http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/060605LC.shtml (New York Times) The rich take from the poor. They always have. It is their nature. Homework   Here is a good example of where things are going in Corporate America: Very Good - 2005 Digest of the E.V. Debs Speech at the 1925 Conference for Progressive Political Action   Humankind needs to ascend above this lunatic free market economy that so restricts any semblance of fair distribution of the benefits of the earth’s resources. Again, the few get most of it, the rest of humanity get what’s left. As long as a people permit a relative few riding the wave of the socio-crippling right to privately own the sources and means of wealth, and the tools of production, the free market capitalist exploiters will be in power, the plebeians will be in servitude, subjugated victims of free market capitalism’s barbarous claptraps.  Under this foolish system the actual workers are regarded by the exploiting class as mere beasts of burden. The proletariat will produce the wealth and the bourgeoisies who are in the minority, will posses it. Wresting the power of monopoly from the hands of these few who hold sway in our affairs is the springboard of revolution. (This language is strong and in the style of 1925. But this provides a good look at our fight and where we came from. Think about what is happening today and how sanitized our news, our union leadership and words are. Our ability to communicate our views has been crippled. The Corporations have done a good job on us.) http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6348 (Bella Ciao) The more things change, the more they remain the same. Take back some of what you learn from this posting to the jobsite. Discuss it. Our power to secure better lives, both now and in the future, lies in our ability to focus commonly understood positions and take action based upon the leadership that forms around those issues. Hiding from the truth only makes it much worse. Hey, if you understand some of this stuff that makes you a prime candidate for a leadership role!

"We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace." George W. Bush UN Speech Sept 2004 http://www.dubyaspeak.com /philosopher.phtml Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so, whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose -- and you allow him to make war at pleasure. If today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us' but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't.'" Abraham Lincoln. http://www.brainyquote.com /quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin169194.html