rabble rouser of the month
patrick farves :: york, pennsylvania
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| patrick farves still from the today show (left); nina davuluri photo by desiree navarro (right) |
there have been rabble rouser of the month winners for self-promotion activities, though most have been pretty genuine. i can admit that some of the impetus for the stunt that patrick farves pulled this april had somewhat of a selfish motive, but i still cannot support what susan milligan wrote for u.s. news. what patrick did was a pretty natural thing for a spunky teenager. if he doesn’t deserve attention for it, then she shouldn’t give it to him. regardless of how one feels about his motive, he is still the best rabble rouser this month for his champion move...
patrick asked miss america to his high school prom. central york high school administrators knew of his plan and warned him not to ask before the assembly at which miss america was speaking. patrick asked her to prom anyway because his mind was “already set.” (and i wholeheartedly applaud that ability to stick to a decision.) she said no and he got suspended for asking! double whammy! khloe kardashian offered to go with him, but he shrugged that off. kardashian is no miss america, obviously, but mostly it seems that patrick was saving some cool because she was probably kidding. miss america turned patrick down “due to [her] travel schedule,” but she did request that the school not suspend him. they did anyway.
patrick has mentioned that he has some regret, which is understandable. usually when people are punished, they do have some regret. and, yes, she had a message that was overshadowed a bit, but not through his fault. besides, miss america's message was heard and is now amplified.
obviously, popping the question is not the main part of patrick winning this month's award. defying the stuffy attitudes of school officials is a bigger reason, but still not the biggest.
the school had “to set expectations for student behavior, to communicate those expectations and rules to students and families and to ensure those rules are followed within our schools.” well, no, they didn’t have to, they wanted to have the upper hand, to prove a point, albeit a ridiculous point. maybe if this were something that mattered, such as bringing a gun to school, then it would be worth making much ado. who cares if someone wants to ask miss america to the prom? why did the admin have the need to control an innocuous teenager's little crush on a celebrity?
the biggest reason patrick wins the award is barely of his own doing. the school could have let him have his ten seconds of fun and not made it into a big deal. if the school hadn’t cared, only some people at york high school would have ever known about it. and if hundreds of news outlets hadn’t covered the story, then even more people wouldn’t have known. but they did! thanks to susan milligan and all the others that gave him the attention that he apparently didn’t deserve. maybe if the media would have jumped on the story of michelle obama greeting miss america by saying, "so i hear you got some kid suspended" then miss america would be the rabble rouser! people shouldn't blame patrick for the attention they gave him.
as always, kids rule!
patrick asked miss america to his high school prom. central york high school administrators knew of his plan and warned him not to ask before the assembly at which miss america was speaking. patrick asked her to prom anyway because his mind was “already set.” (and i wholeheartedly applaud that ability to stick to a decision.) she said no and he got suspended for asking! double whammy! khloe kardashian offered to go with him, but he shrugged that off. kardashian is no miss america, obviously, but mostly it seems that patrick was saving some cool because she was probably kidding. miss america turned patrick down “due to [her] travel schedule,” but she did request that the school not suspend him. they did anyway.
patrick has mentioned that he has some regret, which is understandable. usually when people are punished, they do have some regret. and, yes, she had a message that was overshadowed a bit, but not through his fault. besides, miss america's message was heard and is now amplified.
obviously, popping the question is not the main part of patrick winning this month's award. defying the stuffy attitudes of school officials is a bigger reason, but still not the biggest.
the school had “to set expectations for student behavior, to communicate those expectations and rules to students and families and to ensure those rules are followed within our schools.” well, no, they didn’t have to, they wanted to have the upper hand, to prove a point, albeit a ridiculous point. maybe if this were something that mattered, such as bringing a gun to school, then it would be worth making much ado. who cares if someone wants to ask miss america to the prom? why did the admin have the need to control an innocuous teenager's little crush on a celebrity?
the biggest reason patrick wins the award is barely of his own doing. the school could have let him have his ten seconds of fun and not made it into a big deal. if the school hadn’t cared, only some people at york high school would have ever known about it. and if hundreds of news outlets hadn’t covered the story, then even more people wouldn’t have known. but they did! thanks to susan milligan and all the others that gave him the attention that he apparently didn’t deserve. maybe if the media would have jumped on the story of michelle obama greeting miss america by saying, "so i hear you got some kid suspended" then miss america would be the rabble rouser! people shouldn't blame patrick for the attention they gave him.
as always, kids rule!
mother jones (1830-1930)
mary harris, aka “mother” jones, was labor and community organizer, strike coordinator, and co-founder of the IWW. at over sixty years of age, jones was referred to as the “most dangerous woman in america” by west virginia attorney general reese blizzard. on the senate floor, jones was referred to as “the grandmother of all agitators,” to which she replied, “i hope to live long enough to be the great-grandmother of all agitators.”
mother jones immigrated from cork county, ireland in the wake of the potato famine. she was a teacher in michigan and a seamstress in chicago before moving to memphis to marry george jones, an organizer for the national union of iron moulders. in memphis, jones opened a dress shop – on the eve of the civil war. in 1867, her husband and all four children were killed in a yellow fever outbreak. mother jones wore only black for the rest of her life.
jones returned to chicago and opened a dress shop, where she did work for some of the wealthiest women, while seeing up-close the plight of the desperate poor in the city streets. in 1871, jones lost everything in the great chicago fire. from the tragedy, she immediately hit the road in support of union causes. she joined the knights of labor (a precursor to the IWW) and was a staunch advocate for women and children. in 1903, jones led a march of children from philadelphia to the home of president theodore roosevelt. he declined to meet them, but major news was made and attention drawn to the cause of child worker abuse.
though jones fought for women and children, she was not quite a feminist. she opposed abortion and female suffrage. her feeling was that “you don’t need a vote to raise hell.” this was seen as a short-sighted view, but she defended it by saying that suffragists were unwitting agents of class warfare. in 1925, she stated that “the plutocrats have organized their women. they keep them busy with suffrage and prohibition and charity.” jones supported union causes because she thought men should be able to make a family wage so that women could stay home. as such a promoter of women as non-workers, jones was sorely absent from some of the major incidents as the lawrence textile mill “bread and roses” strike in 1912.
jones hero status in american folklore was cemented in “she’ll be coming around the mountain,” a song about mother jones fights for appalachian coal strikers. indeed, mother jones life story follows all the early significant events in labor history. she was present at the pittsburgh rail strike of 1877, the haymarket incident in 1886, the pullman strike of 1894, the founding of the IWW in 1905. she was arrested in west virginia at the paint creek-cabin creek strike of 1913, forced out of colorado at the time of the 1914 ludlow massacre and arrested at homestead in 1919. mother jones had a tribute written by eugene v debs in 1907.
mother jones immigrated from cork county, ireland in the wake of the potato famine. she was a teacher in michigan and a seamstress in chicago before moving to memphis to marry george jones, an organizer for the national union of iron moulders. in memphis, jones opened a dress shop – on the eve of the civil war. in 1867, her husband and all four children were killed in a yellow fever outbreak. mother jones wore only black for the rest of her life.
jones returned to chicago and opened a dress shop, where she did work for some of the wealthiest women, while seeing up-close the plight of the desperate poor in the city streets. in 1871, jones lost everything in the great chicago fire. from the tragedy, she immediately hit the road in support of union causes. she joined the knights of labor (a precursor to the IWW) and was a staunch advocate for women and children. in 1903, jones led a march of children from philadelphia to the home of president theodore roosevelt. he declined to meet them, but major news was made and attention drawn to the cause of child worker abuse.
though jones fought for women and children, she was not quite a feminist. she opposed abortion and female suffrage. her feeling was that “you don’t need a vote to raise hell.” this was seen as a short-sighted view, but she defended it by saying that suffragists were unwitting agents of class warfare. in 1925, she stated that “the plutocrats have organized their women. they keep them busy with suffrage and prohibition and charity.” jones supported union causes because she thought men should be able to make a family wage so that women could stay home. as such a promoter of women as non-workers, jones was sorely absent from some of the major incidents as the lawrence textile mill “bread and roses” strike in 1912.
jones hero status in american folklore was cemented in “she’ll be coming around the mountain,” a song about mother jones fights for appalachian coal strikers. indeed, mother jones life story follows all the early significant events in labor history. she was present at the pittsburgh rail strike of 1877, the haymarket incident in 1886, the pullman strike of 1894, the founding of the IWW in 1905. she was arrested in west virginia at the paint creek-cabin creek strike of 1913, forced out of colorado at the time of the 1914 ludlow massacre and arrested at homestead in 1919. mother jones had a tribute written by eugene v debs in 1907.
harry bridges (1901-1990)
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| harry bridges (photo: life magazine) |
harry bridges’ first job as a teenager was a rent collector for his father, a realtor in melbourne, in which harry often collected from desperately poor people. he became a merchant seaman and sailed around the world to deplorable slums in east asia, india, and london. “the more i saw, the more i knew there was something wrong with the system.”
bridges first met wobblie militants in tasmania, and briefly joined the IWW when migrating to san francisco, where he became a longshoreman. the dock workers “shape-ups” functioned “more or less like a slave market in the old world” by which workers would show up at the docks and be hand-picked for the day. in a time when worker’s activity was recorded in “blue books” for retaliation measures, bridges joined the international longshoremen’s association (ILA) and was soon blacklisted for participating in a 1924 labor day parade. by 1933, bridges was an executive in the ILA, encouraging strikes and slowdowns, rather than reliance on government promised assistance in the national industrial recovery act. when four longshoremen were fired for wearing ILA buttons, bridges led a five-day strike to have the workers re-instated.
bridges’ biggest role came as committee chairman in the 1934 west coast longshore strike. franklin roosevelt offered mediation, but neither side compromised. as the strike drug on throughout the year, bridges could not encourage strikers to continue, particularly after the july 5 “bloody thursday” incident with police aiding waterfront employers in raids on strikers, resulting in two deaths. the strike did result in coast wide bargaining rights as well as joint employer/union hiring rights.
bridges became the ILA pacific coast district president in 1936, and oversaw the chapter evolution into the international longshoremen and warehouse union (ILWU). his work and influence spread to hawaii, where the working class was breaking from a long history of white elite power hold.
bridges graced the cover of time magazine in 1937 and by 1939 the government became addicted to figuring out how to deport the australian. they could not prove allegiance to any group advocating the overthrow of the government, so congress passed the smith act in 1940, named for a virginia democrat and anti-labor leader with an express bias to have bridges deported. the u.s. dredged up some sort of purported communist affiliation in bridges’ past, but by then roosevelt turned attention toward the war and a new soviet-american alliance was fostered. various fights with the federal government ensued over the years, with bridges briefly convicted to prison with revoked citizenship. yet, he continued to fight for more worker’s rights and managed to outsmart every government effort to ban him.
later in life, bridges marriage to noriko sawada resulted in the state of nevada repealing anti-miscegenation laws in 1959. the almanac singers and woody guthrie wrote songs for harry bridges. the university of washington has a department called the harry bridges center for labor studies. according to UW, bridges “demonstrated the ability of rank and file members to organize, take control of unions, win progressive gains, despite overwhelming odds.”
bridges first met wobblie militants in tasmania, and briefly joined the IWW when migrating to san francisco, where he became a longshoreman. the dock workers “shape-ups” functioned “more or less like a slave market in the old world” by which workers would show up at the docks and be hand-picked for the day. in a time when worker’s activity was recorded in “blue books” for retaliation measures, bridges joined the international longshoremen’s association (ILA) and was soon blacklisted for participating in a 1924 labor day parade. by 1933, bridges was an executive in the ILA, encouraging strikes and slowdowns, rather than reliance on government promised assistance in the national industrial recovery act. when four longshoremen were fired for wearing ILA buttons, bridges led a five-day strike to have the workers re-instated.
bridges’ biggest role came as committee chairman in the 1934 west coast longshore strike. franklin roosevelt offered mediation, but neither side compromised. as the strike drug on throughout the year, bridges could not encourage strikers to continue, particularly after the july 5 “bloody thursday” incident with police aiding waterfront employers in raids on strikers, resulting in two deaths. the strike did result in coast wide bargaining rights as well as joint employer/union hiring rights.
bridges became the ILA pacific coast district president in 1936, and oversaw the chapter evolution into the international longshoremen and warehouse union (ILWU). his work and influence spread to hawaii, where the working class was breaking from a long history of white elite power hold.
bridges graced the cover of time magazine in 1937 and by 1939 the government became addicted to figuring out how to deport the australian. they could not prove allegiance to any group advocating the overthrow of the government, so congress passed the smith act in 1940, named for a virginia democrat and anti-labor leader with an express bias to have bridges deported. the u.s. dredged up some sort of purported communist affiliation in bridges’ past, but by then roosevelt turned attention toward the war and a new soviet-american alliance was fostered. various fights with the federal government ensued over the years, with bridges briefly convicted to prison with revoked citizenship. yet, he continued to fight for more worker’s rights and managed to outsmart every government effort to ban him.
later in life, bridges marriage to noriko sawada resulted in the state of nevada repealing anti-miscegenation laws in 1959. the almanac singers and woody guthrie wrote songs for harry bridges. the university of washington has a department called the harry bridges center for labor studies. according to UW, bridges “demonstrated the ability of rank and file members to organize, take control of unions, win progressive gains, despite overwhelming odds.”
haymarket affair (may 4, 1886)
image: library of congress
the 1880s were a particularly tough decade for american labor. the industrial revolution made great use of under paid workers. work hours were long, sixty hours per week was normal. most strikes at the time requested work weeks be reduced from 60 to 55 hours.
mining was arguably the most important profession, as coal was the primary fuel source for trains and electricity. labor jobs paid at the rate of $8 per week in 1880, though children and immigrants made far less than the average worker while comprising the largest part of the workforce. in 1880, there were 1,118,000 children under age 16 in the workforce. chinese immigrants particularly cut into the workforce and as a result became hated and were targeted in frequent attacks. strikers and militia clashed in deadly battles frequently and survivors were usually put into prison by a judicial system that aided the wealthy in a time of extreme social darwinism. in 1885, the knights of labor finally gained enough strength to stand up to railroad baron jay gould. an anarchist congress wrote up a manifesto in chicago in 1886. common laborers and families were desperate for any concession they could get.
by spring of 1886, the movement for an eight-hour work day was blooming. on may 1, the american federation of labor (AFL) called for nationwide strikes for any place that refused to honor an eight-hour work day. 350,000 workers went on strike nationwide. every railway and stockyard in chicago closed, paralyzing industry. authorities were paid by employers to break strikes and as such needed to watch for subversives, sympathizers and scapegoats to make examples of. that was one way to control the workforce, to “keep them in view…make an example of them if trouble occurs.”
on may 3, chicago police fired into a crowd of strikers, wounded many and killed four. on may 4, some 3000 people met at haymarket square in a peaceful demonstration even attended by the mayor. as the evening wore on and the crowd dwindled to a few hundred, 180 policemen arrived to end the meeting. a bomb exploded, wounding sixty-six policemen, seven of which later died. police fired into the crowd, wounding over 200 and killing several more.
some evidence came out that an “anarchist” responsible for the bombing was actually a police agent provocateur, planted to enable arrest of hundreds. eight “anarchists” were arrested, though only one of them had been present at haymarket square that day and he was giving a speech at the time the bomb exploded. the eight were convicted, sentenced to death and had appeals denied by the supreme court. four were hanged, one killed himself in prison and the three others were later exonerated. the incident brought international excitement. george bernard shaw said that “if the world must lose eight of its people, it can better afford to lose the eight members of the illinois supreme court.”
what came from the incident was a short-term crack down on the radical movement. the long-term effect grew a revolutionary movement year by year as may day demonstrations worldwide remembered the struggle for an eight-hour work day. the excitement of haymarket square spawned an unknown number of revolutionaries such as emma goldman and alexander berkman. labor candidates became more common in elections and the year of 1886 became known nationwide as the “year of the great uprising of labor.”
mining was arguably the most important profession, as coal was the primary fuel source for trains and electricity. labor jobs paid at the rate of $8 per week in 1880, though children and immigrants made far less than the average worker while comprising the largest part of the workforce. in 1880, there were 1,118,000 children under age 16 in the workforce. chinese immigrants particularly cut into the workforce and as a result became hated and were targeted in frequent attacks. strikers and militia clashed in deadly battles frequently and survivors were usually put into prison by a judicial system that aided the wealthy in a time of extreme social darwinism. in 1885, the knights of labor finally gained enough strength to stand up to railroad baron jay gould. an anarchist congress wrote up a manifesto in chicago in 1886. common laborers and families were desperate for any concession they could get.
by spring of 1886, the movement for an eight-hour work day was blooming. on may 1, the american federation of labor (AFL) called for nationwide strikes for any place that refused to honor an eight-hour work day. 350,000 workers went on strike nationwide. every railway and stockyard in chicago closed, paralyzing industry. authorities were paid by employers to break strikes and as such needed to watch for subversives, sympathizers and scapegoats to make examples of. that was one way to control the workforce, to “keep them in view…make an example of them if trouble occurs.”
on may 3, chicago police fired into a crowd of strikers, wounded many and killed four. on may 4, some 3000 people met at haymarket square in a peaceful demonstration even attended by the mayor. as the evening wore on and the crowd dwindled to a few hundred, 180 policemen arrived to end the meeting. a bomb exploded, wounding sixty-six policemen, seven of which later died. police fired into the crowd, wounding over 200 and killing several more.
some evidence came out that an “anarchist” responsible for the bombing was actually a police agent provocateur, planted to enable arrest of hundreds. eight “anarchists” were arrested, though only one of them had been present at haymarket square that day and he was giving a speech at the time the bomb exploded. the eight were convicted, sentenced to death and had appeals denied by the supreme court. four were hanged, one killed himself in prison and the three others were later exonerated. the incident brought international excitement. george bernard shaw said that “if the world must lose eight of its people, it can better afford to lose the eight members of the illinois supreme court.”
what came from the incident was a short-term crack down on the radical movement. the long-term effect grew a revolutionary movement year by year as may day demonstrations worldwide remembered the struggle for an eight-hour work day. the excitement of haymarket square spawned an unknown number of revolutionaries such as emma goldman and alexander berkman. labor candidates became more common in elections and the year of 1886 became known nationwide as the “year of the great uprising of labor.”
ludlow massacre (april 20, 1914)
ludlow tent colony prior to the fires.photo: library of congress
in spring of 1914, the southern colorado mining region had been embroiled in strikes since the previous september. at ludlow, many strikers were evicted from their mining shacks and moved into tent colonies. colorado fuel and iron company owner john d. rockefeller jr. hired the baldwin-felts detective agency to raid the tent colonies. several were killed in battles, but the miners held out the strike and the mines stayed closed …until rockefeller talked/paid the governor into employing the national guard.
on april 20, strike leader lou tikas was lured into the hills under pretext of a truce, only to be executed by national guardsmen. there was a machine gun attack and the miners fired back. women and children dug pits to hide from gunfire, in which at least thirteen men were killed. gunmen also set fire to tents and, the next morning, under a single tent the charred remains of two women and eleven children were found.
five thousand people protested at the denver capital to have the national guardsmen tried for murder and the governor tried as an accessory. the united mine workers issued a call to arms and strikers arrived from all over colorado to assist. sixty-six men, women and children died in the colorado mining strikes. zero militamen or mine guards were ever indicted.
always a nation to use external conflict to quell internal conflict, the u.s. invaded vera cruz the morning after ludlow and killed over a hundred mexicans for the sake of retribution and pride. rockefeller eventually met with mother jones about the conditions and visited the mines himself, resulting in some improvement of working conditions.
on april 20, strike leader lou tikas was lured into the hills under pretext of a truce, only to be executed by national guardsmen. there was a machine gun attack and the miners fired back. women and children dug pits to hide from gunfire, in which at least thirteen men were killed. gunmen also set fire to tents and, the next morning, under a single tent the charred remains of two women and eleven children were found.
five thousand people protested at the denver capital to have the national guardsmen tried for murder and the governor tried as an accessory. the united mine workers issued a call to arms and strikers arrived from all over colorado to assist. sixty-six men, women and children died in the colorado mining strikes. zero militamen or mine guards were ever indicted.
always a nation to use external conflict to quell internal conflict, the u.s. invaded vera cruz the morning after ludlow and killed over a hundred mexicans for the sake of retribution and pride. rockefeller eventually met with mother jones about the conditions and visited the mines himself, resulting in some improvement of working conditions.
lucy (1853-1942) and albert parsons (1858-1887)
one of the champion fighters for the plight of the poor and
disenfranchised, lucy parsons was born in texas with african, native american
and mexican ancestry. she was raised in the oppressive industrial revolution
economy and often challenged racist and sexist injustices. lucy married alfred
parsons in 1870, though the marriage was illegal due to miscegenation laws and
dangerous due to the various threats of lynching and gunshots her husband
albert took for helping register black voters.
they were quickly forced out of texas under the new jim crow laws. albert got a job at the chicago times in the most depressed
of economic times. with millions unemployed and the labor class indoctrinated
in socialist and anarchist idealogy, there was support for a cause the parsons’
could fight for. albert was also an active protester, or at least had that sort
of famous image. albert was fired by the times and blacklisted from the
printing trade for speaking to crowds of 25,000 while promoting peaceful means
of negotiation during the great rail strike of 1877. lucy opened a dress shop
to support the family and found a conduit hosting meetings for the
international ladies garment workers union (ILGWU).
in the fantastic haymarket square incident in 1886, albert and seven
other assumed anarchists were tried and sentenced. lucy was a suspect, and
actually present at haymarket square, but was never arrested or tried. no one
believed there was any chance a death sentence could be passed down to a woman,
so it was not worth the pursuit. women
were not in the public eye as being capable of extreme violence.
instead of mourning her husband’s imprisonment, lucy started a campaign
for clemency. she toured the country distributing information and gathering
funds. everywhere she went, police barred her entry to the meeting halls. she
became quite popular and the case had attention, but nothing to persuade the
governor to grant a stay. albert eventually was hanged in 1887. when lucy and
the children attempted to visit him on execution day, she was arrested,
stripped and jailed with the children in a cold cell until after the
hanging. (do you wonder what causes
people to beome militant extremists?)
of the couple, lucy may have been the more intimidating. she was
outspoken in her refusal to assume the role of a homemaker and with her
feelings for violent direct action. she
wrote for radical papers, like “the socialist” and “the alarm.” she was editor of “the liberator” and
“freedom: a revolutionary anarchist-communist monthly.” she was frequently
fined, arrested and forcibly removed from places for handing out her “anarchism”
pamphlets. not only did she face pressure from the authorities, there was also
pressure from the ranks of the labor movement. the knights of labor had a
decidedly negative stance toward the haymarket activists and focused on
non-strike oriented approaches to labor management. by the 1890 elections,
labor organizers had latched on to the democratic party. lucy shunned the
association. she supported syndicalism for voluntary association of workers.
she scoffed at any goverance system that would allow rich to lord over the
poor. she was unwavering in her opposition to any type of class
segregation.
her career was hampered due to the decline of craft unions and the rise
of industrial unionism in the technological advances of scale of operations of
the new era. but her fervor in
establishing a well-organized working class never died. for many years, lucy promoted the cause of
hunger and unemployment through strikes and marches. in 1915, she participated in a demostration
over 10,000 people strong with american federation of labor, hull house and the
socialist party. within weeks, the
government began planning for hunger and unemployment policies.
later in life, lucy worked periodically with the communist party and
pushed for international labor defense causes. she spent her entire life active
in the fight against judicial fascism and the plight of economic oppression.
even into the 1940s, lucy was individualistic and uncompromising in class
consciesness. the establishment tried
for many decades to silence her and when she died in an accidental fire at age
89, her library of books and personal papers were confiscated by the FBI.
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