Peekskill USA - McCarthyism in history

As the political right in the USA gets more rabid and shrill, the ability to conduct any kind of progressive political discourse shrinks. This narrowing of discourse overflows to Canada much to our detriment.  McCarthyism in the US has been, and remains, a key tool of reaction. Here is Howard Fast's account of his experience in Peekskill. Howard Fast was the well known author of Spartacus and many other books until his death in 2003. - NYC

Howard Fast's Eyewitness Account of Fascist Mob's Attack

By Howard Fast

Daily Worker, October 30, 1949

[Howard Fast, famous novelist, had been scheduled to be master of ceremonies at the Robeson concert. He led the group of 42 Negro and white men who held back the gang of hoodlums and protected the women and children from their attacks. -- Ed. Note.]

The following is my own personal account of what happened at the Lakeland Picnic Grounds, outside of Peekskill, on the evening of Saturday, the 27th of August. This includes only what I saw, what I took part in, and therefore I am willing to swear to these facts before any authority or committee. Since I was slated to be chairman of the concert, I arrived at the grounds an hour before the scheduled time, at seven o'clock in the evening. Mine was next to the last car admitted to the grounds by the organized fascist mob. I use the term fascist advisedly.

When I arrived, there were already 40 or 50 carloads of fascists at the spot and several hundred more on foot. When I entered, about 10 young people, boys and girls, representing the Civil Rights Congress, were at the entranceway. I drove a quarter of a mile and parked my car near the bandstand, where some 2,000 seats were already set up. In this part of the picnic grounds, there were about 150 people, many young folks, children and women, As it turned out later, there were not more than 50 men, including teen-age boys, on our side.

THE ATTACK STARTS

A few minutes after I arrived, a boy came running down from the state road and informed us that the fascists had started the attack and that the road was solidly blocked. All the available boys and men--about 25--ran up to the entrance to the grounds. There we discovered that the double entrance had been blocked, one part with a Legion truck, the other with a stone barricade. As we stood there, the fascists launched their first attack, about 300 of them against our handful. There was a brief melee, in which two of our boys were hurt, quite badly. We noticed now that most of the attackers were heavily liquored up; nor were they teen-age boys, as so many stories reported. Most of them were men between 35 and 50--and one of their leaders was identified as a prominent real estate man of Peekskill.

At this point, three sheriffs appeared. They were in plain clothes, with gold badges pinned on. Aside from three other men--who were identified as Justice Department agents, and who stood quietly by--these were the only police we on the inside saw for the next two and a half hours. The three sheriffs argued half-heartedly with the fascists; one of them with sufficient guts could have broken up the thing right there; but all three, in all their actions, were against us and on the side of the fascists.

While the sheriffs argued, we formed ourselves into three lines, sending the girls back to the bandstand [leaving the males] stretched across the road, which was embanked at this point. There were exactly 42 of us, and we organized into seven groups of six, with a squad leader for each group. We were about half Negro and half white, half teen-age boys, and half men. We had eight trade unionists among us, four of them merchant seamen. From here on, for the next two hours, we maintained our discipline.

At 7:30 p.m., the second attack came, by about 300 of the fascists. They used rocks, fenceposts, knives and billies. Their slogan, constantly shrieked at us, was, "No one of you leave here alive." This was the main refrain; they added to it, "You came in--you don't go out." "We're Hitler's boys--out to finish his job." "We're going to get Robeson." In beating off the second attack, four of our people were injured, but they remained in place. We were driven back about 20 years to a narrow part of the road, high and fenced in. We determined to remain here.

ATTACK ON WOMEN

At 7:45, word came up from the bandstand that a dozen fascists had crossed the fields and attacked the women and children. We detached one squad of six and sent them back. We told them to tell the driver of a truck, which had brought a load of children up from Golden's Bridge, to bring his truck up the road to barricade it. A few minutes later, the truck appeared, and we swung it broadside across the road, forming ourselves in three ranks in front of it with arms locked. By now, there were well over 500 of the fascists, and in the next half hour they attacked us twice without breaking our ranks. They had worked themselves into a screaming alcoholic frenzy, and they repeated their threats [that no one] would leave the picnic grounds alive. In the course of these two attacks, they tore up the fence rails and used them as weapons.

A little after eight o'clock, the burned a 12-foot cross on the picnic grounds. A hillock hid the cross, be we saw the glare. Three Negro girls came up and told us that the attack on the group below had been repulsed. We put the girls in the truck and had them lie down. It should be noted that the majority of the threats--and violence too--was directed against the Negro men in our ranks. It was quite evident that death faced any of them who might be caught, yet none of them bolted; no of them broke ranks. They gave a rare and fine display of quiet courage and discipline.

BARRAGE OF ROCKS

At 8:15, the fascists had spread out on either side of us. They did not attack, but started a barrage of heavy rocks, many as large as grapefruits. We stood in line in the gathering dark, arms locked, singing, "Freedom is our struggle, we shall not be moved." Every few seconds, there was a sickening thud as a rock crashed against the skull of one of our boys. Some held their places with the blood pouring from their torn scalps; others went down. Those we carried back and laid in the truck.

By now, we realized that in just a few minutes more, most of us would be out and that the field would be clear for the fascists to attack the women and children. Now only 20 of us were left on our feet; three had been detached to make a run through the fields in the darkness and call Governor Dewey; the rest were injured. So we decided to drive the truck back slowly, using it as a shield, and join the handful at the bandstand below. The truck, however, went off the road but did not crash; the 20 of us stayed together and ran down to the bandstand, pursued by a howling mob of 1,000 or so of the "new Americans."

A short distance from the bandstand, our 20 rallied, and, joined by a dozen more from around the bandstand, we halted the fascist attack. That sounds strange, but it happened that way; the thousand "new Americans" for all their big talk, were not very brave hand to hand in the dark.

It was a little after nine now, and we formed a half-circle against the bandstand, the women and children inside and the men and boys outside. One of the deputy sheriffs had pulled a switch, cutting out the floodlights, as a deliberate move to help the fascists. It boomeranged, however, for in the dark they were afraid to attack us. For the next half-hour, we stood in this tight circle, singing The Star Spangled Banner, God Bless America, and Solidarity [Forever; as accompaniment] to our singing, the fascists, a few yards away, made a bonfire of our books, music and pamphlets. They circled their fire, screaming obscenities, smashing chairs and tossing chairs onto the fire.

We learned later that state police had been on the main road since eight o'clock, but it wasn't until 9:45 that they made their appearance at the scene of the fighting. A little before that, the three immaculate Justice Department men appeared and offered to take our most badly injured to the hospital. There were no barricades for their car. Two of our boys with head wounds went with them.

From 10 o'clock on, order prevailed. The hundreds of fascist melted away like magic. State police took over, polite, non-committal, helpful now. Our people remained disciplined and quiet, and the state police took them out of the grounds in carloads of six. A half hour past midnight, our last car left the picnic grounds.

A few facts in conclusion. Everyone in the fight on the entrance road--of our people--suffered some injury. None of us were exempt. Simply because I was asked to write this, I want to pay my own tribute to the 36 people who held the road for almost two hours. If not for their calm and discipline, there would have been a shameful mass murder that would have echoed across the world as a national disgrace. The nature of what happened was organized fascism, with murder as its intent--directed particularly against the Negro people. It was tacitly approved and helped by every level of state and Westchester County police, and originally fomented in a public fashion by the Peekskill Evening Star.
Peekskill link

Bienfait: The Saskatchewan Miners' Struggle of '31

Stephen L. Endicott, Bienfait: The Saskatchewan Miners' Struggle of '31 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2002)

By Lorne Brown

Regina

CANADA WAS HIT HARDER by the Depression than most industrialized capitalist countries as international prices for agricultural and resource production collapsed. The unemployment rate averaged about 30 per cent in 1933, which was the trough of the depression. The high unemployment destroyed the bargaining power of the entire working class and many sectors suffered repeated wage cuts, deteriorating working conditions, and consistent insecurity.

Most workers entered the cauldron of the Depression virtually defenceless. There was almost no safety net provided by the state. Except for a few pockets, trade unions hardly extended beyond the skilled crafts and not in nearly all of them. And as a percentage of the work force, unions had been in decline since the mid-1920s as the unorganized mass production industries expanded.

By 1930, the One Big Union (OBU), which began with such promise in 1919, was virtually extinct. There were three trade union federations: the international craft unions of the Trades and Labour Congress (TLC), the exclusively national unions of the All-Canadian Congress of Labour (ACCL), and the so-called "confessional" unions of the Canadian Catholic Congress of Labour (CCCL). None of these federations had a strategy for dealing with the Depression. They lost members to the ranks of the unemployed and could hardly hold themselves together, let alone mount an effective resistance or attempt much new organizing.

There would be considerable resistance and even some new trade union organizing between 1930 and 1935. Much of it would be led by the Workers' Unity League (WUL), which was founded in 1930 under Communist auspices as an outgrowth of the "class against class" international strategy adopted by the Comintern. The WUL was intended as a revolutionary alternative to the conventional trade union federation and was affiliated to the Red International of Labour Unions (RILU). It was organized along industrial lines and differed from conventional federations in that unemployed associations, women's associations, and other organizations not meeting the strict definition of trade unions could affiliate. The emphasis was on the unity of all workers within and outside of unions and especially on the common interests of the employed and unemployed.

The WUL led the most effective agitation and organization among the unemployed. Among the employed workers they concentrated on mining, forestry, fishing, and related resource industries, although they were also present in longshoring, processing, and manufacturing in a more modest way. The WUL led most strikes in the resource industries and it has been estimated that they were involved in almost three-quarters of the strikes in Canada between 1930 and 1935. Many were "desperation" strikes, involving attempts to resist wage cuts and/or achieve union recognition. They were invariably met with vicious repression in the form of co-ordinated attacks by employers, police, government officials, the media, occasionally vigilantes, and often the judiciary.

One such strike among coal miners occurred in and around Bienfait, Saskatchewan in autumn 1931. It was led by the Mine Workers' Union of Canada (MWUC), which was affiliated to the WUL. The most dramatic and tragic event of the Bienfait strike was the shooting and killing of Julian Gryshko, Peter Markunas, and Nick Nargan by the RCMP when they attacked a miners' parade in the streets of Estevan on 29 September 1931. This was the single greatest loss of life of any of the hundreds of similar confrontations of the 1930s. It quickly became known throughout Canada and influenced the consciousness of thousands of workers and political activists. It created the erroneous impression, repeated in many subsequent references to these events, that the miners' strike took place in Estevan, the only sizeable town in the district. The only major events occurring in Estevan were the fateful parade and some of the trials and hearings following the strike.

Endicott clears up the geographic misconception and many others in Bienfait. This work is very thoroughly researched and appears to have exhausted the relevant archival and other documentary sources as well as the secondary literature. Endicott also spent considerable time over several years interviewing people in Bienfait and the surrounding district. Some had been activists in the strike itself and others clearly remembered the events of 1931. Some were descendants of strike supporters or people on the other side of the struggle.

The result of Endicott's labour is a magnificent work, not only on the strike and its aftermath but also on the social history of the district. It was an ethnically and religiously mixed community consisting mainly of immigrants from Britain, Scandinavia, and central and eastern Europe. About 30 per cent were from eastern Europe with the majority of these being Ukrainians, who were in turn divided into religious nationalists and secular leftists. Many of these cultural differences influenced events surrounding the conflict of 1931. Endicott is particularly creative in delving into personal and family histories to provide insights into the cultural and social milieu of the district.

Coal mining had begun in the 1890s with numerous small mines to serve a local market. By shortly after the turn of the century there were a few much larger commercial mines selling into the national and international markets as far away as Chicago. Hundreds would be employed during the winter months with seasonal layoffs in the summer when many found casual work on farms.

Class conflict inevitably developed and the miners began looking for unions to represent them. In 1907 they appealed for help to the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), which tried to organize and represent them for a few years but failed. The OBU tried in 1920 but fell victim to vigilante terror and police intimidation. Without union representation the abuses common to mining towns in that era became particularly oppressive in Bienfait. By 1931 the situation was ripe for another serious effort at unionization. Wages had been cut, working conditions deteriorated, and the drought had eliminated most of the summer employment on the farms. That summer 125 of 532 Bienfait residents were on village relief.

In August the miners appealed to the TLC in Regina to help them organize a union, but their request was ignored. The MWUC was approached and it responded with alacrity. Some of the top organizers were sent to Bienfait, including Joe Forkin from the Regina office, Sam Scarlett from Saskatoon, and President James Sloan from Calgary. Within a short period the union claimed to have signed up 100 per cent of the approximately 600 miners, and MWUC Local 27 was born. They were careful to build a community base, and they also chose a local leadership of men who were mainly of British extraction to fend off charges, made invariably when there was labour unrest in that era, that the trouble stemmed from "foreigners" and "un-patriotic" or "anti- British" elements. The union leaders also cautioned the miners to avoid violence at all costs if they were to maintain public support.

The main operators refused to recognize or negotiate with the union, leaving the miners no choice but to strike. The strike began on 8 September and was total except in a new strip mine that was not organized. It was a non-violent strike despite predictions from the corporations that there would be violence, along with their provocations to make their predictions self-fulfilling prophecy. Even before the strike began, they demanded police reinforcements and the arrest of the outside union leaders.

Endicott's analysis of the police response to the pressures brought to bear upon them provides a masterful illumination of the class and political dynamics of the situation. The local Estevan district RCMP detachment was well informed about the grievances of the miners and the positions and motives of the operators and tried to keep the regional headquarters in Regina accurately informed about the situation. They attempted to play a neutral role and to protect life and property without being used as strike breakers. Regina RCMP headquarters at first appeared at least somewhat supportive to this strategy but were soon thereafter overruled by the provincial and federal governments and the national RCMP leadership. Sergeant William Mulhall, of the Estevan detachment, reported that C.C. Morfit, director at the Taylorton mine and leader of the Coal Operators' Association (COA), was attempting to provoke a strike for economic reasons of his own and that the miners were being forced to strike when Morfit and others refused to negotiate. Morfit declared that he would not negotiate with the MWUC because it was affiliated to Moscow through the RILU. Mulhall, however, knew that Morfit, an American, was a principal in a firm of New York consulting engineers that had contracts to operate several mines in the Soviet Union.

RCMP officers sent from Regina at the request of the COA to investigate alleged threats of violence agreed with Mulhall that the miners had justifiable grievances and that the stance of the operators was the main problem. It was also reported that the miners had the solid support of the local community in and around Bienfait. This prompted the provincial Attorney General at first to caution restraint.

The restraint by the RCMP was soon abandoned. The élite within the liberal business and professional class in Estevan, many of whom owned mining shares, mounted a tremendous propaganda campaign against the miners who were denounced as "reds" and "foreigners." This campaign included public criticism of the RCMP as a "rabbit force" and a "disgrace." The campaign demanded that Sergeant Mulhall be replaced as commander of the Estevan detachment. The Regina headquarters at first resisted, but General J.H. MacBrien, national RCMP Commissioner, overruled them and Mulhall was replaced. More reinforcements were sent into the district and the provincial authorities dropped all pretence of neutrality and joined the campaign against the strike. The anti-strike propaganda campaign was made easier by MWUC President James Sloan's insistence on union recognition as the main priority when more emphasis on specific demands and grievances would probably have been a wiser strategy. Sloan was severely criticized for this by WUL National Secretary Tom Ewen after the strike.

The miners' parade to Estevan on 29 September was part of a strategy to rally public support for the cause. The parade was broken up by the RCMP, who killed the three miners and wounded many more despite the fact that it was a peaceful demonstration that included many women and children. This outrage was followed by a virtual reign of terror designed to break the strike and destroy the union. Ninety fully-armed RCMP descended on Bienfait and terrorized the village for two weeks with constant day and night patrols. "All day long, posses went on the rampage, searching homes in the village and in the mining camps looking for wounded miners, making further arrests, and generally spreading an atmosphere of terror." 

The RCMP proceeded to arrest the outside MWUC organizers and many of the local leaders and activists. They were charged with a variety of offences, with the most common being "incitement to riot." Some of the trials stretched into 1933. The Canadian Labour Defence League directed the defence in what were the most important political trials in Saskatchewan in the 20th century. The majority of those charged were convicted but the trials were a mockery of justice, which included jury-tampering, perjury, and biased judges. Annie Buller, who was in Bienfait and not Estevan at the time of the "riot," was tried and convicted though it took two trials and even though W.J. Perkins (the Attorney-General's agent) considered there to be insufficient evidence. General MacBrien insisted Buller be included because she was an important Communist on the national level, and the main Communist Party leadership had already been imprisoned under Section 98. 

Some not convicted were blacklisted from the mines and some of these were deported when they had to go on relief, including an important local leader, Martin Day. Many were not employed again until the labour shortage during World War II.

The MWUC did not achieve recognition, though the miners did achieve an agreement of sorts. The MWUC maintained a shadowy existence and their activists helped organize a local of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in 1938. They would not achieve contracts until after the new CCF government, elected in 1944, forced the operators to recognize and deal with the union.

Today the underground mines are no more but several hundred strip miners are represented by the UMWA. Among other things they negotiated May Day as a paid holiday in the union contract — a rarity in North America. Many in Bienfait call it "Gemby Day" after Peter Gemby, a local strike leader blacklisted for ten years after 1931. He would later serve the community in many capacities including several years on the village council.

The local union has begun to look back on the activists of 1931 as pioneers of the labour movement. This has become more than purely a local memory. Endicott erected a plaque that has a moving description of a ceremony in Estevan that took place at the gravesite of the three martyrs in the Bienfait cemetery in 1997. It was sponsored by the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour and the Estevan Labour Committee and was addressed by local, provincial, and federal labour leaders and politicians. Also participating were Amelia Billis Budris, widow of Peter Markunas, who unveiled a plaque at the gravesite, and Peter Gemby, then 94, who addressed the crowd in Estevan with an optimism that would put cynics to shame. "In the long run, history is on the side of the people. I hope the young people here will feel encouraged by what can be achieved when the union makes you strong." (138)

Endicott's labours have been instrumental in encouraging local people to reclaim their own history. When he first began interviewing people, many were reluctant to talk. Decades of anti- communism and a conservative political culture in the outside society made them embarrassed about the events of 1931. Eventually they did begin to talk and became enthusiastic about redressing the conservative interpretation of their history. The launching of Bienfait in the fall of 2002 in Estevan and Bienfait drew large enthusiastic crowds.

Labour/ Le Travail

WAR

By Edwin Star, 1970

Modena City Ramblers

The Modena City Ramblers were formed in 1991 by a group of friends that wanted to play traditional Irish music.

The first to join were Alberto Morselli, Giovanni Rubbiani and Alberto Cottica (still in Lontano da dove), Chris Dennis (formerly a member of Nomadi), Filippo Chieli, Franco D'Aniello and Luciano Gaetani from 'Abazia dei folli. On Saint Patrick's Day in 1991, during a concert in a pub in Modena, they chose the name Modena City Ramblers.

The name was an homage to Dublin City Ramblers, an Irish band.
MCR website
MCR fan page

Bella Ciao
The song Bella Ciao was sung by the left-wing anti-fascist resistance movement in Italy, a movement by anarchists, communists, socialists and other militant anti-fascist partisans. The author of the lyrics is unknown, and the music seems to come from an earlier folk song sung by riceweeders in the Po Valley.

Tasered

Greek Bank Worker Speaks Out

“I feel an obligation toward my co-workers who have so unjustly died today to speak out and to say some objective truths. I am sending this message to all media outlets. Anyone who still bares some consciousness should publish it. The rest can continue to play the government’s game.

The fire brigade had never issued an operating license to the building in question. The agreement for it to operate was under the table, as it practically happens with all businesses and companies in Greece.

The building in question has no fire safety mechanisms in place, neither planned nor installed ones – that is, it has no ceiling sprinklers, fire exits or fire hoses. There are only some portable fire extinguishers which, of course, cannot help in dealing with extensive fire in a building that is built with long-outdated security standards.

No branch of Marfin bank has had any member of staff trained in dealing with fire, not even in the use of the few fire extinguishers. The management also uses the high costs of such training as a pretext and will not take even the most basic measures to protect its staff.

There has never been a single evacuation exercise in any building by staff members, nor have there been any training sessions by the fire-brigade, to give instructions for situations like this. The only training sessions that have taken place at Marfin Bank concern terrorist action scenarios and specifically planning the escape of the banks’ “big heads” from their offices in such a situation.

The building in question had no special accommodation for the case of fire, even though its construction is very sensitive under such circumstances and even though it was filled with materials from floor to ceiling. Materials which are very inflammable, such as paper, plastics, wires, furniture. The building is objectively unsuitable for use as a bank due to its construction.

No member of security has any knowledge of first aid or fire extinguishing, even though they are every time practically charged with securing the building. The bank employees have to turn into firemen or security staff according to the appetite of Mr Vgenopoulos [owner of Marfin Bank].

The management of the bank strictly barred the employees from leaving today, even though they had persistently asked so themselves from very early this morning – while they also forced the employees to lock up the doors and repeatedly confirmed that the building remained locked up throughout the day, over the phone. They even blocked off their internet access so as to prevent the employees from communicating with the outside world.

For many days now there has been some complete terrorisation of the bank’s employees in regard to the mobilisations of these days, with the verbal “offer”: you either work, or you get fired.

The two undercover police who are dispatched at the branch in question for robbery prevention did not show up today, even though the bank’s management had verbally promised to the employees that they would be there.

At last, gentlemen, make your self-criticism and stop wandering around pretending to be shocked. You are responsible for what happened today and in any rightful state (like the ones you like to use from time to time as leading examples on your TV shows) you would have already been arrested for the above actions. My co-workers lost their lives today by malice: the malice of Marfin Bank and Mr. Vgenopoulos personally who explicitly stated that whoever didin’t come to work today [May 5th, a day of a general strike!] should not bother showing up for work tomorrow [as they would get fired].”
An employee of Marfin bank.

Sexuality and Socialism

History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation
By Sherry Wolf
Haymarket Books

Sexuality and Socialism is a remarkably accessible analysis of many of the most challenging questions for those concerned with full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

Inside are essays on the roots of LGBT oppression, the construction of sexual and gender identities, the history of the gay movement, and how to unite the oppressed and exploited to win sexual liberation for all. Sherry Wolf analyzes different theories about oppression—including those of Marxism, postmodernism, identity politics, and queer theory—and challenges myths about genes, gender, and sexuality.

About the author
Sherry Wolf is the associate editor of the International Socialist Review. She was on the executive committee of the National Equality March Oct. 11, 2009 and has written for publications including the Nation, MRZine, Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, and Socialist Worker and speaks frequently across the country on the struggle for LGBT liberation as well as a wide range of social and economic justice issue.

More information and videos here.
Book reviews here and here.

Cutting Public Debt: Economic Science or Class War?

Hugo Radice
The B u l l e t
Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 350

In The Bullet no.345, Ingo Schmidt showed how the credit rating agencies have sparked an assault by international bondholders on the sovereign debt of Greece, where workers are being made to pay heavily for the fiscal crisis of the state.

The following day, April 28th, the London-based Institute for Fiscal Studies made a major intervention in the British election campaign, publishing a report which called on the three main parties to ‘come clean’ about their plans for dealing with Britain's very own fiscal crisis – a deficit in 2009-10 of £163-billion, or around 12% of GDP. This prompted me to ask the question: why are the three parties, and all the British media, accepting without question the need to cut the deficit?

This week's major intervention in the election campaign has surely been the call by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) for the major parties to ‘come clean’ about their strategies for reducing the public sector debt, if elected. The IFS report has chimed strongly with the overall public attitude in this campaign, which is that politicians are all devious and untrustworthy. The media response to the report has therefore been to pander to this attitude by unthinkingly echoing the IFS position. The Guardian asserts that the IFS is “the leading economics think-tank” in the country, clearly implying that its views must be accepted without question.

But why should the IFS be beyond criticism? Is cutting the public debt really an objective economic necessity, or is it actually a deeply political stance, reflecting the interests of the business and financial élites?
Read the full article here.

Skeptics, Denialists and Conspiracy Theorists

A Division by Zero blog

A conspiracy theorist is someone who has a theory and tries to find data to support it (lets call this “positive data”) while marginalizing and/or ignoring any data which falsifies it (“negative data”). When the evidence used to maintain a theory is falsified, a conspiracy theorist will either deny the evidence (see below) or move on to find new – and usually more and more arcane and obscure – evidence that supports it while retaining a positive belief in his theory based on faith until he finds it. A main characteristic of the conspiracy theorist is that the evidence which falsifies his theory will not make him reconsider the validity of his theory itself but rather make him strive to find new positive data instead.

Example is the 9/11 truther movement which sees various evidence of planned demolition of the twin towers (such as exploding windows, burning steel etc) but refuses to acknowledge the evidence of internal collapse and the information that explains burning steel and so on.

The same tactics are also used by Woo-Woo peddlers as well as the religious.

A denialist is someone who does not like a theory and is thus trying to find data which falsifies it. However he has a conspiracy theorist outlook on selecting them. I.e. In order to prove his falsification theories, he tries to find data to support them while ignoring those that refute them and constantly replaces negative data as previous ones are debunked.

Unlike a skeptic (see below) who considers various ways to falsify a theory as well, a denialist will refuse to acknowledge a theory when it withstands all falsifications. Whereas a skeptic will gladly accept a theory he (or the relevant expert consensus in the field) can’t prove wrong until such time as new evidence comes to light that falsifies it, a denialist will retain that the theory is wrong, no matter the evidence. As such, occasionally a denialist may run out of negative data but retain his denial on faith alone, while constantly trying to discover some shred of evidence, no matter how obscure, to grasp onto.

Example is the Anthropogenic Global Climate Change Denialist movement (that’s a mouthful) who’s been jumping from evidence to evidence to support their denial, while ignoring the mass of positive data for AGCC has accumulated and not considering the significance of all the falsification theories they used to espouse before they were debunked in turn.

A skeptic is someone who sees a theory that does not fit with the current collective knowledge of humankind (i.e. science) and look for ways prove such a theory wrong before accepting it. A theory will only be accepted when it cannot be falsified. However a theory that can bears no falsification (such as an afterlife) can be ignored when it has no corresponding positive data, as it is of no material consequence. For example, “All humans are mortal” is unfalsifiable but also unimportant as is “Some humans are immortal”. Unless one can show who is immortal and why, the validity or not of such a theory is irrelevant as long as we can accept that by overwhelming evidence, all humans are mortal.

Similarly a proposition such as “afterlife exists” or “ghosts exist” are irrelevant to a skeptic unless positive data can be brought to light to show how those proposition might be true. Once such evidence is brought to light, a skeptic will try to falsify them in order to avoid deluding himself. Only if those theories survive falsification will they be accepted.

A skeptic also recognises that it’s impossible to be knowledgeable in all sectors of human knowledge and is content to defer to experts who have studied each scientific area. As long as there is a consensus of scientists in a given area, a skeptic who has neither the knowledge or the time to acquire it, is justified in relying on scientific consensus. However this is only an acceptable practice for skeptics who recognise their limitations, not a way of doing science. As such, a skeptical expert of a scientific area is within her rights to challenge a theory which has the consensus of her peers and attempt to falsify it when new evidence comes to light. In fact, I would say this is her duty.

In short, the primary difference between a skeptic and a conspiracy theorist is that the skeptic gives far more weight to the falsification of a theory rather than the evidence for it. The primary difference between a skeptic and a denialist is that the skeptic accepts a theory he or the scientific community cannot falsify which is also supported by positive data. The difference with both, is that a skeptic will be neutral towards a theory at the start, unlike starting positive to it like the Conspiracy theorist or negative to it like the Denialist based on some kind of gut feeling. A skeptic will become positive to a theory only when there is overwhelming evidence and/or consensus for it and negative to it when there is overwhelming falsification and/or no evidence for it.

On the other hand, the reason why so many denialists are also conspiracy theorists is because their methods complement each other. A conspiracy theorist would have a problem maintaining his theories if he did not consistently deny the evidence against them and a denialist would have a problem sustaining his denial if he did not avoid reconsidering his opposition when his evidence failed. As such, it’s easier for a denialists to be taken in by conspiracy theorists (think of those AGCC denialists who blame the scientific consensus to a global New World Order cabal) and conspiracy theorist or woo-woo peddlers are very likely to turn into denialists against theories which run counter to their conspiracy theories.

Embracing the Equity Agenda

Marion Pollack
Canadian Dimension blog

Movement for equity is disappearing from the labour agenda. Fewer women are in union leadership positions. Acknowledging the issues facing women, lesbian, gay, and trans people, workers of colour, differently abled workers, and Indigenous workers is increasingly becoming lip service. Our issues are not being integrated into labours agenda, and often appear as add-ons in our communications and action strategies.

When we talk about how the economic crisis is affecting workers, we must recognize that it has a different impact on members of equity-seeking groups. If we don’t recognize that fundamental fact we will be developing strategies that are doomed.

The need for the labour movement to fully embrace the equity agenda is based on more than notions of fairness. It is rooted in current demographic changes. If the labour movement does not take on equity in meaningful ways then obituaries will be written.

As a public sector worker, the threat of privatization, deregulation, and contracting out continues to loom large. The state and large corporations have stolen much of our language and are arguing that privatization means “choice.” Many unions are carrying out brilliant anti-privatization campaigns. There is a need to collectively discuss these campaigns and share the lessons from them so we can all be stronger.

Many unions are reluctant to criticize Israel for its occupation on the West Bank and for its actions in Operation Lead Cast. This comes from many sources, but needs to be challenged. The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions was one over 170 civil society organizations that endorsed the non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions. Unions need to begin the process of addressing this instead of ignoring it.

All this said, rigor mortis has not befallen the labour movement. Announcements regarding the death of the trade union movement are greatly exaggerated. The trade union movement has suffered some serious setbacks and has lost density, but it is not dead yet. There are some wonderful signs of life. This can be seen at union education seminars and on the work floor where shop stewards are courageously and smartly taking on the boss.

So my approach to the trade union movement is complicated. On the one hand I am excited by commitment and tenacity of many activists and on the other hand I think change is needed to move the struggle forward.

Climate Change Impacts in Saskatchewan

By Dr. Norman Henderson
Regina Ecoliving

Carbon dioxide, methane, and other atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are rising rapidly. These gas concentrations are rising as a result of emissions from human activities such as deforestation and burning fossil fuels like gasline and coal. When greenhouse gases are meitted into the atmosphere they trap heat and cause the climate to change. Based on estimates of rising greenhouse gas emissions, climate models provide us with projectison of what our climate is likely to be in the future. For Saskatchewan, these models suggest that the climate is turning warmer, participating in winter. Unfortunately, as precipitation is expected to increase only a little, warmer temperatures mean that Saskatchewan is also becoming drier.

In Saskatchewan, we are seeing trends lower summer stream flows, falling lake levels, and increasing soil and surface water moisture deficits. Here are some of the effects we can expect climate change to have on Saskatchewan in the future:

INCREASED DROUGHT AND EXTREME CLIMATE EVENTS

Droughts will occur more frequently and be of longer duration and greater intensity. But while the overall trend is towards a drier Saskatchewan, we can also expect increased climate variability and an increasing frequency of severe or extreme climate events. So within the context of generally increasing dry conditions we can expect to experience flooding events or even an extremely wet year or two.

LESS RIVER FLOW

Rocky Mountain snowpacks and glaciers are the source of most of the river flow across souther Saskatchewan. River flows will decline owing to reduced spring melt in the mountains. A rapidly industrializing Alberta may also retain and consume more river waters, leaving less for Saskatchewan.

SHIFTS IN FARM CROP ZONES
Shifts in crop zones are occuring now and will continue. In theory, higher grassland and crop productivity could result from increased carbon dioxide or from a longer and warmer growing season, but in most cases aridity will more than cancel out any carbon dioxide fertilization effect. New pests and disease vetors will likely survive warmer winters.

ECOSYSTEM DISRUPTIONS
There will be major ecosystem impacts. Aquatic habitats will be stressed: various fish species may disappear from particular lakes and rivers and some waterfolw populations will decline substantially. Change in land ecosystems will be most visible in isolated forests and forest fring areas, where forests will give way to shrub or grassland landscapes. Species that are not native to Saskatchewan may increase, while some native species will decline or disappear entirely. We will see new and unprecented ecosystems develop.

MORE FOREST FIRES

Major loss of forests in the southern boreal forest is very possible. There will be an increase in the frequency and severity of forest fires, and increasing vulnerability to insect or other pathogen attacks. Intensive forest management and the deliberate introduction of non-native tree speecies adapted to drier and warmer conditions might allow for forest retention (albeit with different species).

CHANGES HOW WE LIVE
Everyone is affected by climate change, but rural communtites, especially those dependent on agriculture or forestry, are the most ta risk. Resource-based rural Aboriginal communities will expereince growing threats to traditional lifestyels of hunting, fishing and gathering.

In conclusion, we know that climate change is accelerating. To some degree we can preditc the impacts of climate change on the physical landscape, and by inference, on our economies and societies. But what will be the disorienting and disturbing sprititual impact on us as the earth, waters and sky around us shift and change beyond all experience?

Dorise Nielson: Saskatchewan's Communist MP

Faith Johnston, A Great Restlessness: The Life and Politics of Dorise Nielsen (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press 2006)

By Janice Dickein

University of Calgary

SHE WAS BORN Doris Webber in London, England in 1902 and died, with a longleft husband's surname and an affected "e" added to her christened name, in Beijing, China in 1980. In between, she lived 31 years in Canada (1926–57), filling the roles of rural teacher, farmer, political activist, Member of Parliament, party worker.

What motivates someone like Dorise Nielsen? Certainly her experience as unhappy wife to an unsuccessful dirt farmer in a place (northern Saskatchewan) and time (Depression) guaranteed to leave only the moribund unpoliticized was a defining factor, but I think only in terms of the direction she took, not in terms of the general manner in which she lived her life. Johnston locates Nielsen's modus operandi in a "great restlessness" and provides information that indicates her family found her challenging even before she left England. Her largely uninformed plan to emigrate to remote Saskatchewan evoked distress from her mother, derision from her brother, and stubborn determination from Dorise, once she became aware of their resistance. For someone who spent her life working for that most intellectually identified of international movements – Marxism expressed in the political arena in variously named versions of communism – Dorise always in the end stayed true to her feelings. Hers was a life committed to romantic adventure and when the communist movement in Canada could no longer provide enough excitement to keep up her adrenaline levels, she re-emigrated, upping the ante not only by going yet again to an arena that guaranteed an uncertain future but somewhere where she did not even speak the language.

Indeed, in the 23 years Dorise Nielsen spent in China, she never really mastered the language. She supported herself modeling the speaking of English to party workers being educated for international contact and correcting fractured idioms in documents and communications translated for official purposes. But it is also clear that a major role Dorise played in Beijing was that of a leading member of a showcase of resident and subsidized foreigners, westerners prized for their dedication to the cause and used as public symbols of international support for Mao's regime. The conclusion that she relished this role as a figurehead committed to communist ideals is supported by the fact that she never seriously considered leaving, rolled without great personal angst with the punches of the Cultural Revolution, and handily wrote off long friendships with people who could not keep the faith, at least not without doubts and the asking of awkward questions. At the end, she was given a memorial service at the cemetery for revolutionary heroes. In this, she managed a continuity of acceptance not commonplace to others in her expatriate community.

The Communists, the CCF and the Popular Front

Faith Johnston
Seventh Annual Robert S. Kenny Prize Lecture, May, 2007

In the 1940 federal election a group of Communists in northern Saskatchewan succeeded in getting two of their candidates elected to Parliament. In that election, the Liberal government of Mackenzie King pleaded for unity to fight the war, and the two popular front candidates in Saskatchewan pleaded for unity to fight the Liberals. Nationally, the Liberals government won a landslide victory, but in Saskatchewan it was down four seats, and two of those seats went to popular front candidates in North Battleford and Saskatoon.

The candidate in Saskatoon, who was a Presbyterian minister called Walter Brown, and who wasn't himself a Communist, died shortly after his election. Dorise Nielsen, the candidate in North Battleford, went on to serve a full five years in Parliament. Those were very busy years of travelling the country on behalf of the Communist Party, of making notable speeches in the House on wheat policy and equal pay for women and a number of other issues. In addition to all this, she was in the midst of raising three children, and burdened with addressing the needs of a very large and poor constituency. Despite all the demands on her time, she played her various public roles with great panache. She was a dazzling, charismatic speaker, and no one who heard her speak ever forgot.

But it is not Nielsen's parliamentary career that interests me the most. It is the time before that, in the thirties, when she became a political activist in Saskatchewan, and went on to serve as campaign manager for the CCF in the 1938 provincial election, and then as candidate for the United Progressives in the 1940 federal election. I think that was the most interesting part of her life. The problem is - it's also the part of her life about which I know the least. How and when did she become involved in politics? Was she a Communist from the beginning, or did she join the CCF first and then change her mind? And if she changed her mind how, when and why did that happen?

None of these questions have easy or definitive answers. However, my guess, based on all the evidence I've been able to uncover, is that Nielsen first became active in the CCF, then changed her allegiance to the Communists during the period known as the popular front. This period began with an announcement by the Communist International in 1935 that the primary task for Communists must be building a united front of all progressive groups against fascism. The new popular front policy was a response to the situation in Europe where fascists had already taken over in Italy and Germany and were a growing force in France and Spain. But the policy, designed for Europe, had popular appeal among many Canadians who remembered the Great War only too well, and feared being dragged into another European conflict. In Canada the Communist-led League Against War and Fascism attracted thousands of supporters, and membership in the party itself tripled between 1934 and 1937, making it proportionately larger than either the CP of Great Britain or the CP of the United States.

In Saskatchewan, it is difficult to know if the Communist Party growth in the period was mainly a result of international or Canadian factors. According to my own interpretation of Comintern records, Communist membership in Saskatchewan more than doubled in 1936. I remember reading a cryptic letter in the CCF files, dated Nov. 5, 1936: "The secretary of the CCF Yorkton executive has bolted to the Communist organization and we expect that a lot of other CCF members have followed suit." Was this because of the Spanish civil war, I wondered, or because of some local squabble? Or could the essential legalization of the Communist Party (with the removal of a certain section of the criminal code) have been the cause? Whatever the case in Yorkton, the popular front period was a time of rapid growth in the party, and I believe it was likely in 1936 that Nielsen became one of the many Anglo-Saxon Canadians to join. However, unlike the secretary of the Yorkton CCF, she did not join the party openly. She remained a closed member until 1943.

Nielsen herself wrote very little about the 1930's and what she did write was sometimes deliberately vague, other times contradictory. Her children were too young at that time to know what was going on. And by the time I began my work, most of her colleagues involved in the Saskatchewan campaigns had died.

Greece Bailout: Klein's Shock Doctrine in Action

Geordie's blog
The Dominion

Today the IMF and Europe agreed to a €130 billion bailout package to Greece.

Greece has been under intense pressure recently. The economic crisis plunged Greece, like many other nations, into tough economic times.

As Greece has maintained consistently high levels of debt over many years, the downturns in their shipping and tourism economies have meant that they have required more and more debt in order to keep paying their bills.

However there has been a catch.

American debt-rating agencies (companies which essentially set out how much it will cost to take out a loan) recently said Greece might not pay back its debts.

Greek Prime-Minster George Papandreou has even stated that Greece is being 'attacked' on purpose.

Speaking in the Guardian he said, "This is an attack on the eurozone by certain other interests, political or financial, and often countries are being used as the weak link, if you like, of the eurozone. We are being targeted, particularly with an ulterior motive or agenda, and of course there is speculation in the world markets."

So few people are lending Greece money. This has made it impossible for Greece to get the loans it needs to keep running the country and pay back the loans it has already taken out.

And the 'shock' of the Greece financial situation is being used to destroy Greece's welfare state in what is being reported as "the most drastic overhaul of a European economy ever attempted."

Canadian-writer Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine outlines the process that is currently happening in Greece: free market policies which benefit private businesses are being pushed through while citizens are busy reacting to a rough crisis.

Today, Greece was brought to its knees. Another article by the Guardian reports that the three previous austerity measures by Greece to reduce their debt were not good enough, even though they have caused massive strikes and riots in Greece.

In order to receive the €130 billion bailout from the IMF and Europe, Greece will have to destroy their welfare system:

In return for the lifeline, Papandreou has committed to the most ambitious and draconian reshaping of Greece's welfare state ever attempted. Spending cuts amounting to more than €36bn or 11% of national GDP are to be made over the next three years. Wages, pensions, and benefits in Greece's bloated public sector will be cut, and large VAT and other tax rises will be imposed. The retirement age is to be raised. The savage programme will inevitably deepen Greece's recession and push up unemployment.Faced with strong public hostility and possible threats to the longevity of his government, Papandreou is squeezed between intense opposition at home and the pressure of the Germans, the IMF, and the other Europeans. Scepticism is high as to whether he will be able to deliver on the terms of the pact.

This has come a day after major May Day demonstrations in Greece. A bank in Athens was bombed today.

There has also been fears and speculation that Spain, Ireland and Portugal will also face similar debt problems as Greece.

We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years

By Prairie Fire