People Before Profit blog

Tribute for Fay and Herbert Aptheker

Fri, 31 Oct 2003 08:56:00 +0000

NEW YORK – Hundreds of New York area family, friends, comrades and colleagues of Herbert and Fay Aptheker came together at St. Peter’s Church Oct. 16 to pay tribute to two “outstanding fighters for humanity,” as one speaker put it. Dr. Herbert Aptheker, who died this past spring, and Fay, who died in 1999, were longtime residents of Brooklyn.

The evening celebrated these two remarkable people with speeches, music and poetry, and was hosted by actors of stage and screen, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, and by Dr. Mary Louise Patterson.

Davis began the event, reading a moving passage from one of Aptheker’s writings on slavery. Columbia University historian Dr. Eric Foner gave the opening tribute, citing the unique and pioneering contribution Dr. Aptheker made in the field of African American history. He pointed out how Aptheker’s work, American Negro Slave Revolts, broke new ground, in that it explored the leading role played by the slaves themselves in the defeat of slavery, including as soldiers in the Union Army.

The program was full of wonderful personal remembrances. Sharing the platform were Dr. Johnnetta Cole, president of Bennett College; historian and Hostos Community College professor Gerald Meyer; Robin Kelly, Columbia University professor of American Studies (who also brought greetings from TV personality Gil Noble); Charlene Mitchell, co-chair of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism; Alva Buxenbaum; Barry Cohen; and Jarvis Tyner, executive vice-chair of the Communist Party USA.

All of the speakers described the Apthekers’ commitment and contributions to the struggle for equality and against racism, made through Herbert’s scholarship, in which Fay was a close participant, and in their political activism. For many years Herbert Aptheker was a member of the national committee of the Communist Party USA.

The program included the New York City Labor Chorus, a dramatic poem by Sonia Sanchez, and an audience sing-a-long and poetry reading by David Laibman and Ruby Dee. A soulful rendition of “Amazing Grace” by union activist/singer Saundra Galloway was followed by the saying of the Kaddish, the traditional Jewish mourner’s prayer, by Rabbi Bruce Mark Cohen.

Bettina Aptheker concluded the program with a beautiful tribute. She traced her parents’ histories, and described in moving and humorous detail her experiences growing up in their political household.

A large memorial was also held on the West Coast last spring for Dr. Herbert Aptheker, who died on March 17, 2003, at the age of 87.

Michael Moore stands up for TV show employees

Fri, 31 Oct 2003 08:45:00 +0000

Exclusive interview

MILWAUKEE – In an exclusive interview with the People’s Weekly World, Oct. 11, author and filmmaker Michael Moore said he was hopeful that workers backstage at NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” would win employment benefits long denied them by NBC’s parent corporation, General Electric.

Moore was in Milwaukee to sign copies of his new book, Dude, Where’s My Country, which this week reached the top of the New York Times Bestseller List, bumping off Al Franken’s Lies (And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them). Approximately 700 Milwaukeeans formed a line outside Schwartz Books stretching two city blocks for a brush with the Oscar and Emmy Award-winning documentarian, whose last book was the bestselling nonfiction book of 2002 and had more than 50 printings. Patrons were admitted in small groups to have articles signed by Moore, seated behind a table in a Green Bay Packers cap and a maroon T-shirt. Because of the long queue, conversation time was not permitted.

Still, Moore made time when the World asked him to comment on his Oct. 8 appearance on “Late Night.” While on the show, he confronted his host concerning the working conditions of his staff. In paraphrase, Moore told O’Brien, “I was just talking in back with some of the permanent temps here, people who’ve been here eight years and still have no health benefits because they’re considered temporary.” O’Brien laughed off the matter on air, moving robotically and jesting that GE had “put the chip in years ago” making him spout the company line.

But Moore told the World that offstage, O’Brien appeared to have a genuine concern for the “Late Night” crew. O’Brien had previously intervened with GE to dissuade them from persisting in a demand for concessions from the show’s unionized workers.

Moore said that after the show, he and O’Brien had a meeting with GE executives concerning the issues Moore had raised on air. While nothing was granted the workers immediately, Moore said he felt the meeting was positive. “I left with a very good feeling that things are going to change for the better,” said Moore.

Raising a serious issue of worker rights during a comedy program involved some risk. Moore said that “there was some concern the segment wouldn’t air” as a result. Nevertheless, the segment aired uncut.

Moore cited his advocacy of the “Late Night” crew as part of an obligation that comes with privilege. “It just goes to show what can be done if those few of us who have the opportunity to make a difference just try. It doesn’t take that much effort, but too often, those of us who are in the position to raise these issues just don’t.”

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Trumbo: A valentine to a blacklisted father

Fri, 31 Oct 2003 08:41:00 +0000

Theater review

Dalton Trumbo, with his unique and memorable name, was brought before the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 and asked if he was a Communist. He did not acknowledge that he was, but as he also did not deny membership, he was blacklisted by the motion picture industry. A screenwriter, he was among the first 10 blacklisted – later known as the Hollywood Ten.

His son, Christopher, has lovingly adapted some of his correspondence into a play, Trumbo. Witty, irreverent, irascible and insightful, the letters reflect the struggles of life after being blacklisted.

After being fired by MGM, Trumbo could no longer afford to live in Hollywood. He and his wife Cleo bought a ranch out in the sticks. An early letter to his union explains that he cannot afford dues, as he has no income. Another letter, angry and rather poignant, was sent off to the principal of his daughter’s school. His daughter, initially eager to learn, had stopped wanting to go to school. She was being ostracized.

Because he had not given a direct response to HUAC, he was arrested for contempt of Congress and spent a year in prison. His family went to visit him. The prison was in the South. Christopher, then a child, was made aware of segregation for the first time. He remarks on the irony of his father being in prison for not cooperating with the a committee determined to wipe out “un-American activities,” while in a certain time and place, segregation was “American.”

In the following years, Trumbo’s works either sold for very little or he could not find work. He took the family to Mexico for a while in an experiment to live more frugally (one did not need a passport to travel to Mexico), and he had to resort to selling his work using friends’ names. In this fashion, The Brave One and Roman Holiday were foisted off on studios. They won Oscars.

Finally, in 1960, Trumbo’s name appeared in the credits for Spartacus in spite of industry objection. Otto Preminger then broke the blacklist and hired Trumbo to write the screenplay for Exodus. He was able to return to screenwriting under his own name, and was eventually given a lifetime achievement award by the Screen Writers Guild.

While the situation was grim, the play was enjoyable. Like all good drama, it runs through a gamut of emotions, with a heavy emphasis on laughter through Trumbo’s keen and ascerbic wit.

A wonderful vehicle for actors, several are taking short runs of the lead role. Nathan Lane was the first Trumbo in this production. I saw F. Murray Abraham. Brian Dennehy is scheduled to appear through Nov. 9, followed by a short stint by Gore Vidal. The run is open-ended, and future casting will be announced. Tickets are expensive ($65), but are frequently available at a discount at the TKTS booths at Times Square, and the South Street Seaport, and through TDF (www.tdf.org/indexalt.html). (My own thanks to J.W. for inviting me to see the play.)

In the end, Dalton Trumbo, slightly worse for wear, wins. He has survived the American government’s, and the American movie industry’s, oppression and has not only remained true to his priniciples, but is honored, and as this play shows, loved.

– Karen Moy (kmoy@pww.org)

Chicago banquet salutes Salt of the Earth labor heroes

Thu, 30 Oct 2003 10:38:00 +0000

CHICAGO – This year marks the 50th anniversary of the production of the groundbreaking movie, Salt of the Earth. Celebrations have been taking place across the country. On Saturday, Nov. 15, Chicagoans will have their turn when the annual People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo banquet honors lifelong trade union activists Anita and Lorenzo Torrez, who both played roles in the movie.

The event, held under the theme “Stand together: Fight back. Keep the dream alive,” will be held at UNITE!, 333 South Ashland Ave., beginning at 6 p.m. Also being honored with the Chris Hani/Rudy Lozano award are PWW/NM writer and Editorial Board member Fred Gaboury, the Chicago Community Film Workshop, and the Chicago Student Labor Action Project.

The award is named for Chris Hani, the late general secretary of the South African Communist Party, and Rudy Lozano, a trade union organizer and leader of Chicago’s Mexican American community who was assassinated in 1983.

Participants in the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride and strikers from the Congress Hotel picket line and other local struggles are expected to participate, as well as trade union activists, elected officials and cultural performers.

Gaboury has a long history in the trade union movement, beginning as a rank and file leader of International Woodworkers of American in Washington state. As editor of Labor Today, he gave leadership to Trade Unionists for Action and Democracy, a forum for rank and file activitists in the AFL-CIO during the 1970s and ’80s. Gaboury represented the World Federation of Trade Unions at the UN and has been a prodigious writer for the PWW/NM, especially on labor, economic and health care issues. He is a longtime leader of the Communist Party USA.

The Community Film Workshop of Chicago, led by Margaret Caples, is the oldest and the first media arts center in Chicago. For 31 years it has conducted classes and made documentaries about life in the community, particularly Chicago’s African American and working-class communities.

The Student Labor Action Project, part of Jobs with Justice, has been active in building labor-student unity in Chicago, bringing students to local strike picket lines, building anti-sweatshop committees on area campuses and mobilizing against the Iraq war.

Salt of the Earth, which depicts the Empire Zinc strike in New Mexico, was produced at the height of the McCarthy period by blacklisted Hollywood filmmakers. The film featured striking miners and their wives who played themselves, including Anita and Lorenzo Torrez. The movie, which has received many cinematic awards, was banned in the U.S. for years. Happily it is enjoying a rediscovery by a new generation of viewers.

While they are in Chicago, Anita and Lorenzo Torrez will speak with students at several area universities where the film will also be shown.

Prior to the PWW/NM banquet, the movie will be shown in the Lincoln Room at UNITE! at 4 p.m. Banquet tickets are $45. For reservations and more information call (773) 446-9920 x 208.

Denver pillaged by Vikings, 28-20 Patriots tame the Dolphins, 19-13

Fri, 24 Oct 2003 05:46:00 +0000

The Thrill and the AgonyThis week in sports by Chas Walker

Denver pillaged by Vikings, 28-20

Not even triple-team coverage can stop the Vikings’ creative offense.

With less than two minutes to play in the first half, the Broncos pulled even with the Minnesota Vikings, 7 to 7. Seconds remained on the clock and Vikings QB Dante Culpepper (another one of Rush Limbaugh’s “overrated Black quarterbacks”?) lofted a 44-yard pass to Randy Moss. Moss, running back to catch the pass, dodged three defenders and leapt into the air to bring down the football. He turned to face the swarm of Broncos, who pulled at his legs and torso to bring him down.

Perhaps it was amazing peripheral vision. Perhaps it was blind faith. Perhaps it was planned. But without looking, Moss tossed the ball over his shoulder toward the sideline as he fell. His teammate Moe Williams zoomed past and caught the lateral pass in the air, running the remaining 15 yards to the end zone as time ran out. Minnesota fans were brought to their feet, and the Vikings stayed on top for the rest of the game.

Minnesota’s defense was extremely strong, notching five sacks and three interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown. The Vikings are undefeated as they head into their seventh game.

Patriots tame the Dolphins, 19-13

In a game full of fumbles, weak punts, as well as blocked and botched field goal attempts, it is hard to be proud of a win. The victory seems as much of a fluke as the entire game itself. But after the week’s disappointment on the baseball diamond, New England sports fans took what they could get. So it was that the Pats beat the Dolphins.

Nearly every point of the game occurred after turnovers, but there was plenty of exciting Patriots football to go around. New England’s tough defense held star Miami rusher Ricky Williams to 94 yards on 27 carries. Patriots QB Tom Brady completed 24 of 34 passes for 283 yards, including a 24-yarder to David Givens to tie the game at 13 in the third quarter.

The game was still tied as Miami mounted a late fourth-quarter drive, but Olindo Mare’s field goal was blocked, sending the game into overtime. The Dolphins’ first possession brought them to within field-goal range. With new sudden-death OT rules, a field goal would have clinched the victory – but Mare missed wide right. The Patriots got nowhere on their drive, as Brady fumbled but recovered.

After the punt, Miami fizzled as QB Jay Fielder threw up an interception, setting up the Patriots for their sprint to victory. Brady hit Troy Brown for a monster 82-yard touchdown pass to close the game, and the Patriots claimed first place in the AFC-East with a 5-2 win-loss record.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Franken takes on media monsters

Fri, 24 Oct 2003 05:27:00 +0000

Book review

Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, By Al Franken, E.P. Dutton, 377 pp., hardcover, $24.95

Al Franken is back. The comedian and author of the highly successful Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot and Other Obsevations now takes a broader view of right-wing influence in the media and some of the other personalities involved.

Franken’s portrayal and criticism of the influence and distortions of the right media in the U.S. is the basic theme of the book. He explains, “The members of the right-wing media are not interested in conveying the truth.”

Franken also notes how the right media will first concoct an inflammatory story that serves its political ends, then repeat and embellish the story, finally pushing it into the mainstream media where it often becomes the “official” version. He charges that “They used these tactics to cripple Clinton’s presidency. They used them to discredit Gore and put Bush into office. And they’re using them to silence Bush’s critics.”

Fox News Channel, founded in 1996 by rightist billionaire Rupert Murdoch, is a prime mover of right-wing propaganda in the media. Long-time Republican party activist, Roger Ailes, heads Fox’s news operation. Ailes helped elect Nixon, Reagan and Bush, Sr., and has gained the reputation in various circles as “the Dark Prince of right-wing attack politics.” He has also been known as a creator of the Willie Horton attack ads against Michael Dukakis.

PWW readers who regularly view cable television (which reaches 70 percent of U.S. households) will recognize some of the right-wing talk show hosts made famous by Fox News Channel. One of them, Bill O’Reilly, or “Bill O’Lie-lly” as Franken calls him, is an accomplished artist at verbally bashing, outtalking, interrupting, and putting down many of his liberal and progressive guests.

Franken describes the behind-the-scenes threats O’Reilly made to one of his guests, Jeremy Glick, last February. Franken also discusses the contractual lack of debate on the left/right “debate” show, “Hannity and Colmes.”

Franken’s nearly 30-page description of the memorial service for the late Senator Paul Wellstone is a very moving part of his work. Franken grew up in Minnesota, and.his parents knew Wellstone and worked on his campaigns. Franken describes how two minor events at the service: a single political eulogy and Governor Jesse Ventura’s walkout (after three hours at the service) were turned into a major propaganda story for the right-wing media

Since this review can only touch upon a small part of Franken’s book, I have to adivise readers of some of my concerns. First, is Franken’s admission of support for the invasion of Iraq, and probably worse, was his participation in a pro-war rally sponsored by Clear Channel, a conglomerate of 1,200 radio stations that pushed a strong pro-war agenda. Franken especially regrets the rally participation, which he explains as a family decision that was based on an honest fear of weapons of mass destruction.

Second, Franken also announces his support for free trade, but at times it is hard to determine whether his support is real, facetious, or just plain selfish. He says he is “pro-NAFTA, pro-GATT, and pro-fast track authority” as long as his job is not at risk for exportation. In other words, he’s not worried about being replaced by a comedian from a developing country.

Overall, the book is worth reading, but the progressive readership of this paper will probably take issue with some of Franken’s views. His portrayal of right-wing media influence, personalities, and even institutions (including a guided tour of Bob Jones University), as well as a lot of laughs, make the book worth reading. If you can afford the book, buy it, or ask your local library to order it.

Al Olson(pww@pww.org)

Our grief is not a cry for war

Fri, 24 Oct 2003 05:22:00 +0000

Book review

September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows: Turning Our Grief into Action for Peace, By David Potorti with Peaceful Tomorrows, RDV Books, 246 pp., softcover, $14.95

Of all those who suffered from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, none has stronger grounds to advocate revenge than the next-of-kin of the 3,000 people who died.

Yet David Potorti, who lost his brother Jim in the collapse of World Trade Center, speaks in his eloquent book for the many families who have turned their loss into something positive.

Independently, several of the family members realized within days of the attack that George W. Bush was using the dastardly crime to justify his drive toward preemptive and unilateral war on Afghanistan and later on Iraq. Potorti recounts the angry response of several family members. Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez who lost their son, Greg, in the WTC were interviewed by the New York Daily News in the Sept. 19, 2001, edition.

“I know there is anger. I feel it myself,” Orlando said. “But I don’t want my son used as a pawn to justify the killing of others.”

They wrote a letter to Bush. “It makes us feel that our government is using our son’s memory as a justification to cause suffering for other sons and parents in other lands,” they wrote. “This is not a time for empty gestures to make us feel better. It is not a time to act like bullies.”

Rita Lasar’s younger brother died in the WTC because he would not leave behind a friend who was confined to a wheelchair. She was angered when Bush referred to her brother as a “hero” in a speech calling for war.

“The next thought I had was, my country is going to use my brother’s heroism as a justification to kill people in a place far away from here,” she says. She wrote a letter to The New York Times. (The Times did not print it).

On the eve of the House vote for a resolution authorizing Bush to attack Iraq, Lasar joined scores of Code Pink Women and was arrested at the U.S. Capitol to protest the war.

Potorti explains in the chapters that follow how the individual family members found each other and came together in the September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. It now unites 80 family members and thousands of supporters. They have become familiar to millions as speakers at peace demonstrations, rallies and marches with their slogan, “Our grief is not a cry for war.”

In many ways, they are the peace movement’s most eloquent voice, along with the anti-war protests of wives and parents of U.S. soldiers serving in occupied Iraq. They speak as no one else can for the people.

Potorti includes in this book the letters, op-ed columns, and speeches by many members of Peaceful Tomorrows. Derrill Bodley, a music professor at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., lost his daughter Deora in the crash of Flight 93 in Somerset County, Penn. He wrote a song in her memory. “It expressed my longing to know where my daughter was,” Bodley said. “But at the same time, it was an answer, saying that there’s no need to wallow in sorrow … The answer I heard when I finished, and I started crying was, ‘Don’t worry, Dad, I’m alright, its O.K., just do the right thing.’”

Invited to the White House with other Sept. 11 families, Bodley handed George W. Bush a copy of the song, “Steps to Peace.” Then he boldly stepped to a White House piano, sat down and played it. Afterwards, many of the mourners came up and told him, “It really helped a lot for you to do that.”

The book has the qualities of a diary, of chapters yet to be written. This is an unfinished project with people mourning their dead and fighting for the living. Everyone should read it.

Tim Wheeler(greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com)

History The month of October

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 08:28:00 +0000

Oct. 1, 1949. 500,000 steel workers in 29 states struck for pensions and wage increases.

Oct. 11, 1987. National Coming Out Day established at National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay rights.

Oct. 12, 1492, Native Americans discovered Columbus. . Oct. 14, 1949. Eleven member of the Communist Party USA National Board convicted under the Smith Act; ten sentenced to 5 years. In the next few years, 138 other CPUSA leaders arrested for their political beliefs and organizing work.

Oct. 14, 1964. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. received Nobel Peace Prize.

Oct. 15, 1969. 2 million demonstrated nationwide against the Vietnam war

Oct. 16, 1859. John Brown and 21 African American and white abolitionists seized U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, W. Va.

Oct. 16, 1916. Margaret Sanger opened first public clinic in U.S. offering birth control.

Oct, 17, 1950. Copper miners, mostly Mexican American, struck in Silver City, N.M. Strikers wives walked picket line because of injunction against strikers; struggle immortalized in film “Salt of the Earth.”

Oct. 19, 1980. J.P. Stevens & Co., textile giant in the Carolinas and Alabama, forced to sign first union contract with ACTWU after 17 year battle and boycott.

Oct. 20, 1835. Gold discovered on Georgia Cherokee land; state demanded they cede land; they refused, after 3 years of struggle forced march to Oklahoma; 1000 Cherokee died on “Trail of Tears.”

Oct. 22, 1962. Pres. Kennedy ordered blockade of socialist Cuba . [continues to this day.]

Oct. 23, 1971. Conference of 1500, sponsored by 4 Mexican American and Puerto Rican Congressmen, passed resolution condemning colonial status of Puerto Rico and called for UN review.

Oct. 26, 1968. The Fort Hood Three were freed: James Johnson, Dennis Mora, and David Samas; the first G.I.s to refuse to fight in Vietnam.

Oct. 28, 1886. Dedication of Statue of Liberty; gift of people of France; foundation paid for by contributions of U.S. workers.

Oct. 29, 1966. National Organization of Women (NOW) founded in Chicago.

The Thrill and the Agony This week in sports by Chas Walker

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 08:01:00 +0000

Rushing the quarterback

What did ESPN expect? On their “Sunday NFL Countdown” pre-game show on Sept. 28, newly-hired commentator Rush Limbaugh offered his “analysis” of Philadelphia Eagles star quarterback Donovan McNabb, who is Black.

“Sorry to say this, I don’t think he’s been that good from the get-go,” said Limbaugh. “I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a Black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn’t deserve. The defense carried this team.”

Say what?

McNabb has led his team to two consecutive NFC championship games, been selected for three straight Pro Bowls, and was runner-up for the NFL’s MVP award in his rookie year. And though he may not be having the greatest season this year – in part due to a broken thumb on his throwing hand – Rush’s racist paranoia can’t help but see a vast conspiracy aligned to place McNabb on a pedestal.

His use of the word “desirous” sounds almost holier-than-thou biblical. It is easy to imagine scenarios where Rush accuses a Black player of being “covetous” of the football, or a Black running back of being “adulterous” by looking to be traded to other NFL teams, or even a Black coach of being “idolatrous” of the Super Bowl trophy.

As if he had heard Limbaugh’s comments on the Sunday in question, McNabb threw a 29-yard pass on the Eagles’ first offensive play against the Buffalo Bills. Two plays later, he rushed for 25 yards himself, in a drive that eventually put the Eagles on top with a touchdown. The game finished with McNabb rushing and passing for over 200 yards to lead Philadelphia to a 23-13 victory.

Would Limbaugh argue that other teams are in cahoots with the liberal media to help a Black quarterback succeed so that the NFL’s “social concern” can be resolved? If so, it’s certainly not true – the Dallas Cowboys squeaked past the Eagles this past Sunday 23-21. Cowboys coach Bill Parcells, a week earlier, argued that Limbaugh’s comments do not represent how “a high majority” of people involved in football think.

Other players, coaches, and public figures agreed.

“Who’s Rush Limbaugh to make a statement like that?” said Washington linebacker LaVar Arrington. “He needs to stay in his area of expertise because clearly he’s out of it. That’s one of the most asinine comments a person can make. It shows his IQ level in football.”

“It is not true and it is demeaning to the Black athlete,” Rev. Jesse Jackson told the Associated Press, saying it is wrong to suggest that hardworking of Black coaches and Black quarterbacks are succeeding only because of the media.

McNabb, for his part, is not waiting for an apology. “He said what he said. ... I’m sure he’s not the only one that feels that way, but it’s somewhat shocking to actually hear that on national TV. An apology would do no good because he obviously thought about it before he said it.”

Thankfully, social and political pressures forced Limbaugh to resign from ESPN. He remains the most popular radio talk show host in the United States – some figures estimate that he has 20 million listeners. While on a month-long hiatus to rehabilitate himself and break his addiction to prescription painkillers, he would do well to watch plenty of football.

As for his “area of expertise,” there are plenty of more asinine comments to go around. In 1995, Limbaugh said, “Too many whites are getting away with drug use. The answer is to ... find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them, and send them up the river.” The maximum penalty in Florida for the illegal purchase of prescription painkillers is five years.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Elizabeth Hall dies at 94

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 07:52:00 +0000

Elizabeth Hall, a leader in the Communist Party USA and widow of Gus Hall, head of the CPUSA for over four decades, died Oct. 8 at the home of her daughter, Barbara Conway, with whom she had lived in recent years.

Elizabeth Hall was an outstanding Communist leader and community activist all her adult life, in addition to her crucial role working together with her husband of 65 years.

She is remembered by family and friends as a person of great warmth, honesty, directness, and dedication to the working class and people’s movements for peace, justice and socialism.

Born Elizabeth Mary Turner on March 1, 1909, Elizabeth Hall grew up on a farm north of Youngstown, Ohio. Her parents, of Hungarian background, were fervent supporters of the Daily Worker and the progressive Hungarian-language press.

An honor student in high school, Elizabeth won a college scholarship in mathematics, but was unable to accept it because she needed to help support her family. Instead, she became a bookkeeper – a skill on which she later relied as the breadwinner of her own young family.

As a young woman Elizabeth also played semi-pro basketball, an attribute her family enjoys recalling to this day.

Elizabeth Hall met her future husband when she attended a meeting Gus Hall organized, soon after he was assigned to Youngstown to head the Young Communist League. They were married in 1935, and celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary shortly before his death in October 2000.

As a YCL and Communist Party activist herself, Elizabeth organized unemployed workers, and helped build the Steel Workers Organizing Committee – precursor of today’s United Steelworkers of America – going house to house, signing up members to the union and the Party. She later became one of the first women to enter the steel industry, working as a tool-and-die maker and serving as a shop-floor leader of her union during World War II, while Gus Hall served in the U.S. Navy.

Gus and Elizabeth Hall’s daughter, Barbara, was born in 1938, and son, Arvo, in 1947.

During the McCarthy period in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Communist Party, left organizations and left-led unions were subjected to witch-hunt persecution, and Gus Hall was among those wrongfully convicted under the infamous Smith Act – later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. During the eight years he served in federal prison, Elizabeth Hall not only supported the family and kept them together, but did so in a way that provided the two young children a sense of warmth and security which they treasure to this day.

After Gus Hall was released from prison, he was elected leader of the party’s Ohio District, and in 1959 he was elected general secretary of the CPUSA. During those years – first in Ohio and then in Westchester, New York, Elizabeth Hall was an outstanding local Communist Party leader. As the chair of the New York District’s Southern Westchester club, she played a crucial role in the long struggle to desegregate Yonkers’ schools. This struggle led to the landmark decision integrating Yonkers’ schools and housing. She was also a dedicated and active participant in the peace and disarmament movement.

Elizabeth was an ardent supporter of the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo and its predecessors, compiling an outstanding record as a fundraiser and builder of the paper’s circulation.

She was a member of the CPUSA’s National Committee for many years, and was an active member of the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR).

Though in later years she had to reduce her activities, Elizabeth Hall continued her avid interest in current developments, enthusiastically and astutely analyzing domestic and international happenings with friends and family. Elizabeth Hall is survived by her brother, John Turner; her daughter, Barbara Conway; her son, Arvo Hall; five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. At a future date, her ashes will be interred alongside those of her husband at Chicago’s Waldheim Cemetery, where the Haymarket Martyrs are buried as well as many other Communist Party leaders. Donations may be made to the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo.

Mellencamps Trouble No More targets Bush

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 07:43:00 +0000

Music review

Trouble No More, by John Cougar Mellencamp, Sony, $18.98

“And he wants to fight with Many; And he say it’s not for oil.” Those are the words in “To Washington,” a song written by John Mellencamp in his new CD titled Trouble No More.

Mellencamp followers have been waiting for him to weigh in on the effect of the Bush administration on the American people; and he has, big time. Mellencamp, still living in his home state of Indiana, is well known for his leadership in the Farm Aid that fights for farmer’s economic and political rights.

In a recent feature on the “CBS Sunday Morning” television show, Mellencamp made it clear that he is totally opposed to the Bush administration. He doesn’t keep his views to himself. The television feature played a recent on-stage performance where he said that the billions of dollars being asked by the Bush administration for Iraq would best be used in the United States to help people with lost mortgages, health services, college education and other social goods. He was careful not to sound like an isolationist, but someone deeply concerned about the welfare of people in desperate need of help in the U.S.

Unlike some rock fans, Mellencamp fans listen carefully to his lyrics and sometimes voice their disagreement. In the television segment shown on the CBS show, he clearly knew that would happen, but he said these things need to be said and he hoped that those who disagree with him would reconsider their viewpoints. Far and away the majority of his followers at this concert agreed with him.

“He sent out the National Guard, to police the world, from Baghdad to Washington,” the song continues. Clearly a politically-alert artist, Mellencamp in this same song decries the year 2000 elections by pointing back to the “eight years of peace and prosperity.” “But it’s worse now since he came,” pointing to the Bush years. The album has some other great songs. He does a Lucinda Williams song, “ Lafayette” and his own version to “Teardrops will fall.”

Not one to hide his viewpoints, the Mellencamp website features a short video of the song, “To Washington,” and the full lyrics are printed there.

He now joins other mega stars such as Neil Young, Dixie Chicks, and Steve Earle in opposing the Bush administration’s policies. Can a 2004 Original CD and Madison Square Garden “Music for Peace and Justice” concert be far behind? Let’s hope not!

– Eric Green (pww@pww.org)

Confession of a union buster

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 07:37:00 +0000

Book review

Confessions of a Union Buster, by Martin Jay Levitt, Crown Publishers Inc., 302 pp., hardcover, $25.

Martin Jay Levitt joined the union-busting business in 1969. He was 25 years old, divorced, living with his parents, and in need of fast cash. The seduction was too much. Besides, like his first union-busting boss told him, “We do the Lord’s work.”

Even though Levitt wasn’t sure what was meant by the “Lord’s work,” he learned quickly and found out early on that the Lord’s servants were paid handsomely. After all, union busters weren’t “anti-union.” They were “pro-company and pro-employee.” So at age 25 Levitt began making $500 dollars a day and billed the client company for “every single expenditure ... for the duration” of a union-busting campaign.

Levitt’s first union-busting campaigns introduced him to the most “common strateg[ies] among management lawyers.” First, Levitt tells us, “Challenge everything ... then take every challenge to a full hearing ... then prolong each hearing” as long as possible, then “appeal every unfavorable decision.”

According to Levitt there was method to the madness. “If you [can] make the union fight drag on long enough, workers...lose faith, lose interest, lose hope.” Taking away people’s hopes, their aspirations for a better future – that was Levitt’s job.

While Levitt understood the strategies of union busting, his understanding of why union busting is such a lucrative profession jelled later on. As Levitt chatted one night with a dinner guest, John Rogers, the “top industrial relations man at Cleveland Trust Bank,” he found out what the union-busting business was all about. “Control,” Rogers told him.

“After that night,” Levitt writes, “I began to see that the business was all about control. I realized that control was both the objective and the method in union busting.” According to Levitt, corporations want to learn the “secrets of staying in control ... during an organizing drive.”

Confessions really hits home when Levitt gives the details of how a union-busting campaign is waged. In the late seventies, Levitt worked for a firm called Modern Management Methods (Three M). Three M was hired to consult management at Harper Grace hospital, where (what has since become) the Service Employees International Union 1199 was in the middle of a organizing drive.

According to Robert Muehlenkamp, an 1199 organizer, “Union busters wield great power through their program of terror and manipulation – people don’t, can’t possible know what’s going on and who’s telling the truth. You have to appreciate that most of the people [at a work site] are just ordinary people. They have no experience … with violence, with being lied to, with manipulation, with being harassed in open, gross, insulting ways. The first time this happens to regular people, they’re terrified.” And terror is the goal. The union buster hopes to control employees by employing terror.

But it isn’t just about breaking an organizing drive at one single location. Levitt quotes Muehlenkamp again to emphasize the point: “If they [hospital workers] watched all the workers at the only other hospital ... try to organize and saw what happened to them, only to lose, they weren’t going to attempt the same.”

One of the most striking things about Confessions is its brutal honesty, its brutal portrayal of the union buster and his awareness of the conditions of the would-be union members he was paid to manipulate, confuse and eventually defeat.

Throughout Confessions we are also introduced to Levitt’s wife and children. We are told of Levitt’s on-again, off-again, romances and affairs, the thirst for more and more material wealth – luxury cars and huge houses – and the unquenchable drinking. Levitt repeatedly tells us that drinking became the only way he could accept the reality of what he did.

In the mid-eighties he decided to seek alcoholic treatment and change his profession. He called the AFL-CIO and told the leadership of his decision. While skeptical at first, the AFL-CIO realized that insider knowledge of the union-busting business was valuable and that Martin Jay Levitt wanted to try to make amends.

At the beginning of Confessions, Levitt tells of a speech he gave at the 1988 Western Conference of the Brotherhood of Carpenters. At the end of the speech many in the audience had tears in their eyes, Levitt writes. He then adds, “It was not joy, but an overwhelming feeling of relief that filled the men who heard me that day: relief to know that the war they had suspected was being waged on them had been a real one all along and not just a creation of a unions paranoid imagination, as so many corporate bosses had told them.”

The war Levitt speaks of has intensified since Bush took office. Confessions should be read widely.

– Tony Pecinovsky (tonpec2000@yahoo.com)

PWW in big demand at Freedom Ride rally

Thu, 16 Oct 2003 09:44:00 +0000

QUEENS, N.Y – “This is really excellent,” a woman in attendance at the closing rally of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride said about the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo. “I’m gonna make my kids read it and write a paper on this stuff for their school.”

With a crowd of over 100,000 people, a park is not likely to stay clean. Such was the case at Flushing Meadow Park, where all sorts of flyers, cups and other litter were scattered everywhere. However, discarded copies of the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo were largely absent, even though 10,000 copies were distributed. Those lucky enough to receive a copy – there were only enough copies for one out of every ten people – generally carried theirs around for hours.

The papers were distributed quickly, even though distributors were often stopped by people wanting to offer their praise.

Jessica Marshall, who helped distribute the PWW/NM, said, “A friend of mine was the captain on the Miami bus, and he said that in Charleston someone was passing out papers and the Freedom Riders on his bus read it with enthusiasm … most of them read it cover to cover and said that really was talking about stuff that was important to them. A lot of them didn’t speak English and thought it was so wonderful that there was a section in Spanish.”

The riders in one of the buses coming from Los Angeles were not lucky enough to have papers for everyone. “There were only two copies of the paper on the bus, and the freedom riders were vying for who got to read them!” one of the riders said.

Luckily, no one has to wait for a demonstration of 100,000 people to get their next issue of the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo. Of course, the PWW and its supporters plan to get the paper out everywhere possible, including at smaller demonstrations, union halls, street corners, but people who want to read it regularly can subscribe, for only $30 a year.

Readers, both new and long-time, recognize the importance of the PWW/NM, the only newspaper so closely linked with the struggles of labor and the community for peace, democracy, and all the other important struggles. Because the paper is so important, we need to keep it running. To do that, we need to fund it, and that is exactly why it is so vital that everyone who cares about the PWW/NM donate as much as they can to the paper’s fund drive. The PWW/NM is on its way to reaching the more than $200,000 that we need, but there is still a long way to go – donate today!

The author can be reached at dmargolis@cpusa.org

A tribute to Toinie Mackie

Fri, 10 Oct 2003 05:26:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The ranks of Minnesota working-class activists suffered a loss recently, when the long life of Toinie Mackie ended. The story of her life is a chapter in the history of left politics and labor organizing in the upper Midwest over much of the 20th century. She learned her politics young, and her radical beliefs were still strong at the age of 93.

Toinie was born on the Iron Range, where Finnish immigrants like her father did the hard work in the dangerous mines. When Toinie was nine, a mine accident left her father seriously incapacitated and with only a scanty pension. It was a struggle for the family financially, but the social environment was rich in valuable experience.

Toinie was an active member of the Young Communist League, and met her future husband, Martin Mackie, an organizer for the Timber Workers’ union, at a YCL dance. Gus Hall (just her age), later the longtime head of the Communist Party, was a neighbor in the small town of Cherry, where the family spent summers. In 1929, the year she graduated from high school in Virginia, Minn., she went on a Hunger March to Duluth, demonstrating for jobs and farm relief. Martin Mackie became a full-time union organizer, and Toinie brought in a regular paycheck as a legal secretary – a job she lost when Martin ran for governor as a Communist.

Late in her life, Toinie recalled with pleasure the thirties, peak days for radical politics in Minnesota – the days of Governor Floyd B. Olsen and the Farmer Labor Party, of progressive reforms in Minnesota and then in the nation with the New Deal. And she recalled sadly the five years in the fifties, during the worst of the McCarthy period, when repression drove her husband underground. She remembered also the seventies, when she became friends with Matt and Helvi Savola, Minnesota CPUSA district organizers in Minneapolis, and worked with them for many years.

Toinie Mackie was a member of the Minneapolis Club of the Communist Party at the time of her death, and plans are underway to dedicate an event to her memory.

(Material for this article was drawn from “Life of the Party” by Katy Reckdahl, which appeared in the Minneapolis/St. Paul publication City Pages, Oct. 6, 1999.)

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

The Cultural Worker: Matt Jones: still singing for freedom

Fri, 10 Oct 2003 05:21:00 +0000

It’s another Monday night in Manhattan. Uptown shimmers with the glow of lights and the blur of street traffic. People rushing to points south and north may have a hard time noticing the proud structure that is the Advent Lutheran Church high up on 93rd Street and Broadway. As he has since 1986, Matt Jones is organizing the evening’s proceedings of the Open House Coffeehouse, a weekly performance series at the church. This is not just any vehicle for folksingers and poets, but a venue that encourages original music with a message.

Matthew Jones was already a schooled, experienced musician when he became active in the fight for civil rights by joining the Nashville Student Movement in 1960. He also became an outspoken participant in the struggle in Danville, Va., for which he organized a vocal group, the Danville Freedom Voices, in 1963.

Shortly thereafter, Matt relocated to Atlanta, Ga., with his brother Marshall and the two became affiliated with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and their powerful music ensemble, the Freedom Singers. This legendary group was actually born via a series of meetings held between Cordell Reagon, SNCC Executive Secretary Jim Foreman and Pete Seeger, already viewed as an elder of the protest song. In 1964, Matt, a SNCC field secretary, became a member and then its director.

That year, the Freedom Singers toured the country as part of the wide organizing drive to build the Friends of SNCC, initially focusing on northern states to build the movement’s momentum. Of the Freedom Singers, Matt has said, “We were organizers first, singers second.”

During such tumultuous times, the fight for equality in the Jim Crow South could often be terrifying. Matt faced down the Klan on many occasions and endured 29 arrests. His experiences developed him into a “freedom singer” in the most visceral manner.

“I don’t think of myself as a cultural worker,” Matt said. “I am a freedom singer; a freedom fighter. I’ve always been a freedom fighter; I’ll probably go down that way, too. Freedom songs are different than other protest songs because they are really a mantra. The use of repetition allows for the message to be understood. If we sing a powerful statement enough times in a song, like ‘This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine,’ then we can internalize it”.

Matt maintained his role as an artist-activist even as SNCC broke apart, performing his radical repertoire around the world, including alongside freedom fighters in Northern Ireland.

During the struggle against the Vietnam War, he recorded a 45 that has become quite legendary, “Hell No, We Ain’t Gonna Go” backed with “Super Sam.” For this occasion, Matt worked in collaboration with lyricist Elaine Laron to produce two powerful selections accompanied by a muscular rock band complete with a horn section. It stands out as an exciting moment and its antiwar message is still relevant today.

Matt’s experiences included performances alongside such luminaries as Seeger and the Reverend F.D. Kirkpatrick. He became a frequent contributor to Broadside during that magazine’s far-too-brief run, working closely with its founder, legendary protest singer Sis Cunningham. He’s been a participant in the annual Phil Ochs Song Nights and his music has been heard in such lasting films as The Ghosts of Mississippi.

He continues to perform for numerous rallies including the annual May Day concerts in New York City and he was a featured performer at the 1998 Hanns Eisler Centenary Festival.

At each performance, Matt includes “The Freedom Chant,” an affirmation he based on a famous quote by Fannie Lou Hamer and his own many years of direct action. It, more than anything else, speaks volumes about this musician of the people who refuses to tire and continues to be a force to be reckoned with.

“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I will not allow anybody At any time To violate my mind or my body In any shape, form or fashion. If they do They’ll have to deal with ME immediately! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!”

– John Pietaro (leftmus@aol.com)

Important contribution against the right

Fri, 10 Oct 2003 05:17:00 +0000

Book Review

The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century, by Paul Krugman, W. W. Norton and Company, 426 pp., $25.95

* * *

For the past three years, Paul Krugman, a liberal economics professor at Princeton, has written a twice-weekly op-ed column for The New York Times. With these articles, Krugman has emerged as one of the most prominent mainstream critics of radical right economics and politics in the U.S.

Krugman’s latest book, The Great Unraveling, is a collection of over 100 of his articles, mostly from the Times. Krugman explains, “If I have ended up, more often than not, writing pieces that attack the right wing, it’s because the right now rules, and rules badly. It’s not just the policies are bad and irresponsible; our leaders lie about what they are up to.” He later refers to the “outrageous dishonesty of the Bush administration.”

Krugman’s writings are an important contribution to the struggle against the radical right. The fact that his columns appear in one of the most prestigious daily newspapers in the U.S. may also be a sign of increasing concern among ruling circles over the deepening influence of the right.

In his preface and various chapter introductions in the book, Krugman expands on concerns expressed in his columns, and his political criticism of the right is a key aspect of the work. He warns that the right “is a movement whose leaders do not accept the legitimacy of our current political system.” In short, the right “doesn’t feel obliged to play by the rules.”

He further notes that the Heritage Foundation, which is the driving force for the economic ideology of the Bush administration, doesn’t seek to simply scale back New Deal and Social Security programs. “It regards the very existence of such programs as a violation of basic principles,” he says, adding that this radicalism extends to all areas of public policy in the Bush administration.

Krugman examines how we got to where we are now – the polarization of American politics. Underlying this is a growing inequality of income which has resulted in “a form of class warfare” driven “by the efforts of an economic elite to expand its privileges.”

He observes that discredited ideas such as “inherited privilege is good” have worked their way back into political discourse. The present crusade by the right against the “welfare state” rests on “an ideology that denigrates almost everything, other than national defense, that the government does.”

The right’s slander of the government’s role was extended even to the Bush administration’s shameful exploitation of the aftermath of the tragic events of 9/11. During that time, the right attempted to prevent the government takeover of airport security, and privatization reached its ultimate absurdity with the Bush administration proposal “for the public to protect itself with duct tape and plastic screening.”

Krugman’s portrayal of “Crony Capitalism, U.S.A.” looks at the overwhelming corporate domination of the Bush administration as well as the serious corporate scandals. The chapter “2-1= 4” describes the relentless drive by the Bush administration to privatize Social Security and the catastrophic consequences that would result. And finally, “California Crisis” shows how energy corporations made massive profits through deregulation, market manipulation, and price gouging.

Krugman’s arguments against the right are the highlight of the book, but a word of caution is still in order. Although Krugman is an ally of progressive forces in the struggle against the right, he is not our ally in the fight against globalization. Krugman defends globalization because he believes that it has aided poorer nations, though they certainly didn’t think so at the recent trade talks in Cancun.

He also sidesteps the all important issue of the massive loss of American manufacturing jobs that have been shifted to lower wage markets abroad. The losses are now even spreading to office jobs, with estimates of 3.3 million service jobs being shifted abroad during the next 15 years.

Taking the above into consideration, The Great Unraveling is still worth the read, and it provides valuable ammunition for the struggle against the radical right. Some of Krugman’s columns are truly outstanding for their understanding and criticism of the right.

– Al Olson (pww@pww.org)

N. Calif. banquet to honor Freedom Riders

Thu, 09 Oct 2003 07:49:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. – Struggles for democracy, civil and workers’ rights, equality and peace will be celebrated at this year’s Northern California People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo banquet on Sunday, Nov. 9.

Immigrant Workers Freedom Riders from HERE Locals 2 and 2850 – whose international union, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees, helped spark the historic multi-union cross-country journey – will be among this year’s honorees. Joining them will be longshore workers of ILWU Local 10 who helped win last year’s epic contract battle against the giant shipping transnationals, and who played a leading role against the Iraq war. Standing with them will be the janitors of Service Employees International Union Local 1877 in the Bay Area and Sacramento, whose recent contract victories are bringing better conditions to working families, including many immigrant families, throughout the region.

The 50th anniversary of the historic film, “Salt of the Earth,” will be celebrated in a tribute to Lorenzo and Anita Torrez. The two will be honored for their continuing dedication to the people’s movements for democracy, equality, workers’ and immigrant rights, as well as their participation in the miners’ strike and the making of the film under the very difficult conditions of the McCarthy era.

Also honored will be Asian Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership (AYPAL), KidsFirst, and Youth of Oakland United (YOU). These organizations are in the frontlines of crucial struggles for better education, services and jobs for youth, as well as urgent youth and student issues including equal rights for students of color and immigrant youth.

Initiating sponsors for the event are Berkeley Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek; Judy Goff, executive secretary treasurer of the Alameda County Central Labor Federation; Walter Johnson, secretary-treasurer, San Francisco Labor Federation; and Juan Lopez of Northern California Friends of the People’s Weekly World.

An exciting cultural program will feature song, dance and poetry by outstanding young Bay Area artists.

As the crucial 2004 election year approaches, the program will emphasize the urgency of defeating the far-right forces whose military measures abroad and attacks on democratic and workers’ rights at home threaten the security of working families everywhere.

The banquet will be held Sunday, Nov. 9, at 1:00 p.m. at Hs Lordships Restaurant on the Berkeley Marina. Reservations are $40. Call (510) 251-1050 for more information.

Remembering Curtis Strong, 1915-2003

Fri, 03 Oct 2003 05:38:00 +0000

Northwest Indiana and the nation as a whole lost one of their greatest labor and civil rights leaders when Curtis Strong died on Sept. 16.

Strong was born in Westpoint, Miss., in 1915 and raised in Dixon, Ill., where he attended the same high school as President Ronald Reagan. Big for his age, he was a star on the track, basketball and football teams. After school, Curtis moved to Gary, Ind., to live with his sister and continue his education in hopes of becoming an Air Force pilot.

In 1937 he hired into U.S. Steel and became a member of Local 1014 of the Steelworkers Union. He was a witness that same year to the police riot against marching steelworkers at Republic Steel in Chicago, which resulted in ten deaths and is referred to as the Memorial Day Massacre. “I ran like hell when the shooting began,” Strong said.

Curtis was a griever in the coke ovens for over 20 years. He built a powerful Black caucus in the plant which was instrumental in changing discriminatory practices and rules not only for workers in the coke ovens, but in the rest of the huge U.S. Steel complex and eventually the entire steel industry. He put an end to everything from segregated locker rooms to “white only” jobs like pipefitters and other maintenance jobs.

Strong recognized that Black workers could not fight discrimination without the support of white workers and saw the building of Black-white unity as a key element in moving the union forward. White workers also benefited from some of the changes like job preferences over new hires.

Ruth Needleman, labor history professor at Indiana University, summarized the situation in her book Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: “You have to remember,” Strong told her, “we’re talking about a time when we had some extreme leftists in the plant. We had some members of the [Communist] Party in the plant, and progressives. Back then we had a saying: ‘Black plus white makes red!’ Because I had a white man as my assistant [griever],” Strong added, “one of us had to be a communist!”

As a leader in the National Ad Hoc Committee of Black Steelworkers, Curtis carried the fight to end discrimination within the union to the convention floor. His outspoken approach almost got him killed when he was thrown out a third storey hotel window by “union goons,” and narrowly missed landing on a spiked wrought iron fence. He was eventually appointed to the staff of the International Union where he continued a struggle for Black representation in the union.

Curtis was also active in the community helping build and lead the local NAACP chapter. His wife Jeannette, who also was a steelworker activist and head of the NAACP, traveled to Mississippi to participate in the voter registration campaigns of the ’60s. He was also a leading figure in the 1968 campaign that elected Richard Hatcher mayor of Gary.

Curtis inspired generations of labor and community activists, including retired steelworker and current Calumet Township Trustee, Mary Elgin. Elgin was a child when she first heard Curtis speaking out on the radio and didn’t meet him until the 1970s. “Curtis and I were on the same page. Being a woman in the mill and an activist in the union, he provided me courage by telling me not to worry about the consequences of speaking out and standing my ground for what I believed in.”

Steelworker Paul Kaczocha, who spent three weeks with Curtis in the Soviet Union in 1983 and who knew him for almost 30 years, said, “He cannot be replaced. Curtis helped shape my workplace, my city and my country. Few people have a resumé like his. The world is a better place because of him.”

He is survived by his brother, Archie, and four children: Curtidean Haynes, Penelope Blackmore, Erica Mason and her husband Demitrious, and a son Lawrence, now living in the Philippines.

New CD releases cover a whole world of music

Fri, 03 Oct 2003 05:07:00 +0000

Music Review

The Oliver Mtukudzi Collection, the Tuku Years, Oliver Mtukudzi (Putumayo World Music)

Oliver Mtukudzi’s newest release is a vibrant collection of songs that address everyday concerns in his home country of Zimbabwe. Mtukudzi is a talented musician who is capable of crafting melodic, uplifting tunes that are pleasing to the ear. The Tuku Years is a nice mixture of slow and danceable African rhythms.

Futuro Flamenco, Vol. 2, Various Artists (Outcaste Records)

This release demonstrates that flamenco is percolating with new life. Spanish musicians continue to innovate in this classic genre, mixing flamenco with contemporary melodies.

While some flamenco purists might object to this, the artists on this CD demonstrate that they can maintain flamenco’s integrity without overwhelming it with other musical styles and also take the genre in a new direction.

Futuro Flamenco has an irresistible, dance inflected groove, enough to quench the thirst of old fans and draw new ones. Ojos De Brujo’s “Ventilator R-80” and Toro’s “Amigo” are worthy hip-hop driven flamenco numbers. Even more irresistible is SUV’s “Colores,” which lays ambient synthesizers over a torid, staccato flamenco rhythm.

With other songs, such as Willie Colon’s “Gitana,” the link with flamenco is pretty tenuous, as this song is a salsa tune.

Futuro Flamenco is a marvelous release.

Brazilian Grooves, Various artists (Putumayo World Music)

Since Brazilian musicians brought Bossa Nova and Samba to the world, they have not been resting on their laurels. In recent years, Brazilian artists have been busy in their sound studios successfully fusing modern tunes with samba, Bossa Nova, and other traditional musical forms.

Brazilian Grooves is a tasteful sample of the nouveau Brazilian music that is animating dance floors across the world. In particular, the release shines in showcasing artists who have artfully combined Bossa Nova with contemporary club beats such as Rosalia de Souza’s silky “Maria Moita.” There are also old familiars such as BossaCuca Nova’s funky “Consolacao.”

Brazilian Grooves also moves beyond traditional genres to give listeners a taste of the very good funk inspired dance music coming from Brazil. Brazilian Grooves is an irresistible, dazzling collection of contemporary Brazilian music.

Essential Asian Flavas, Vol.2, Various Artists (Outcaste Records Ltd.)

This terrific new CD provides a glimpse of the British Asian music scene. Young Indian musicians and DJs residing in Britain and elsewhere in Europe have mixed punjabi rhythms with contemporary club music – hip-hop, lounge, funk, electronica – creating lively, ensnaring melodies.

A wide range of material can be found on this release. There are danceable hits such as DJ Vix’s hipped hopped “Lakh De Hulare” and Panjabi MC’s driving “Jogi.” However there are also beautiful dreamy liquid tones like Shazia Manzur’s “Aoja Sohneja.”

While most of the cuts are vocal driven, there are enticing instrumentals such as Zeb’s “Bombay Mix,” a fusion of Indian sitar with deep emotive ambient melodies.

Essential Asian Flavas successfully demonstrates the wide possibilities that exist when it comes to the fusion of contemporary western music with Indian beats.

– Tim Pelzer (tpelzer@sprint.ca)

The Responsive Eye

Fri, 03 Oct 2003 05:01:00 +0000

Review

“The Responsive Eye: Ralph T. Coe and the Collecting of American Indian Art,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, Sept. 9 - Dec. 14

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has made an important step in promoting the art of cultures from around the world. “The Responsive Eye: Ralph T. Coe and the Collecting of American Indian Art” shows a diverse selection of art and artifacts from various North American native cultures.

Coe, who studied art history and became a curator, and later, director of a museum, had a personal interest in American Indian art. Over the past half-century, he collected items, some 200 of which are being shown.

His collection surveys American Indian design both regionally and historically. There are a few prehistoric items, and some items made by contemporary artists.

Works from northern tribes are a prominent part of the collection. One carved mask from the Northwest Coast, that of a bird, has a mechanism by which the beak can be opened and closed for use in ritual drama. There are also small totem poles, kayak models and large blankets with buttons made of shell that form an animal design.

It is well known that Europeans traded beads with Indians and that Indians used the beads in traditional patterns, creating its most commonly associated body of decorative art. Coe’s collection from the northeast includes not only traditional floral beadwork, but some very unique items showing the influence of European design. A small cushion was beaded in a Victorian floral pattern. A dollhouse chair has a seat made of porcupine quills forming a design.

Beadwork, of the sort that usually comes to mind, can be found on pipe bags in the Plains section. One pipe bag is by the contemporary artist Joyce Growing Thunder Fogarty. The beadwork depicts a warrior carrying an upside down American flag – a distress signal. This section also has some parfleche (rawhide suitcases) and a man’s shirt, unusual in the depth of color of its paint and fur decoration. A pair of moccasins beaded on the soles, indicates they were ceremonial moccasins.

The Southwestern section also has a work by a contemporary artist. It is one of my favorite pieces in the show – a bowl by Diego Romero. Decorated around the sides with traditional Cochiti patterns, in the center are two men. Under the left man is written:

“Name: Dan Yei-Bachata Census #: 704-74-6574 Occupation: Painter Life Long Ambition: To be the next Indian Market poster boy!”

The guy on the right is a casino worker who wants to be “the next Don Trump of Indian gaming.”

One of Nampeyo’s bowls is on display. Nampeyo was a very renowned Hopi potter. There is also a bowl attributed to Maria and Julian Martinez, however it is not the black pottery typical of their work, and may be one of their earlier pieces. Maria Martinez is considered one of the world’s greatest potters. She would create a bowl, or platter, and her husband Julian would decorate it.

The Southwest section has some Kachina dolls (Kachinas are the sacred, called forth during ceremonies, the dolls are representations) and top-quality baskets.

There are also some spectacular baskets created by the Pomo, from California. One is simply huge. Another is small with delicate bird feathers interwoven with the reed.

One of the loveliest objects is a pre-European contact ceramic bottle unearthed in Arkansas. An intricate interlocking linear design is etched on the surface.

Coe’s educated and perceptive eye allowed him to select objects of extraordinary quality, beauty and uniqueness. However, several of the items, such as the Victoriana pieces, while extremely well done, and very interesting, were made for non-Indians and reflect a more Western aesthetic. That is a key difference between this exhibit and other showings of American Indian art held around the country. It is Indian art from a collector’s viewpoint – the responsive eye.

As a first exhibit of American Indian art, it is a magnificent collection for the Metropolitan Museum to present. In addition, the museum brought in Native artists to lecture and perform. Nadema Agard, a Lakota-Cherokee-Powhatan artist, spoke on the compelling need for Indians to create art. Her lecture encompassed both traditional and contemporary Native North American art. Agard told the World, “We create art that embraces the contemporary global community, but also reflects a deeply rooted tradition that allows for both individual and collective indigenous identities simultaneously.”

Lloyd Oxendine, another Indian artist, and former director of the American Indian Community House art gallery, spoke of his hope for future exhibits featuring American Indian artists at this prestigious museum, possibly one of contemporary works.

Some images from the exhibit can be seen on-line at www.metmuseum.org/special/Coe/responsive_images.htm

– Karen Moy The author is part Lakota and can be reached at kmoy@pww.org