PsyWar

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http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/psywar/

This documentary shows how the propaganda machine is the Glue that secures fascist power in the USA and the rest of the globe since WWI. It also shows in history where the government has murdered U.S. workers in massacres to end strikes, and then used propaganda to cover them up. The more I read history, the more I realize; The U.S. government makes Hitler look like a boyscout.

PsyWar

This film explores the evolution of propaganda and public relations in the United States, with an emphasis on the elitist theory of democracy and the relationship between war, propaganda and class.

Includes original interviews with a number of dissident scholars including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Peter Phillips (Project Censored), John Stauber (PR Watch), Christopher Simpson (The Science of Coercion) and others.

A deep, richly illustrated study of the nature and history of propaganda, featuring some of the world’s most insightful critics, Psywar exposes the propaganda system, providing crucial background and insight into the control of information and thought.

 

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The Ludlow Massacre

The Ludlow Massacre

The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914.

The massacre resulted in the violent deaths of between 19 and 25 people; sources vary but all sources include two women and eleven children, asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent. The deaths occurred after a daylong fight between militia and camp guards against striking workers. Ludlow was the deadliest single incident in the southern Colorado Coal Strike, lasting from September 1913 through December 1914. The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against coal mining companies in Colorado. The three largest companies involved were the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I), the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (RMF), and the Victor-American Fuel Company (VAF).

In retaliation for Ludlow, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines over the next ten days, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard along a 40-mile front from Trinidad to Walsenburg.[1] The entire strike would cost between 69 and 199 lives. Thomas G. Andrews described it as the "deadliest strike in the history of the United States".[2]

The Ludlow Massacre was a watershed moment in American labor relations. Historian Howard Zinn described the Ludlow Massacre as "the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history".[3] Congress responded to public outcry by directing the House Committee on Mines and Mining to investigate the incident.[4] Its report, published in 1915, was influential in promoting child labor laws and an eight-hour work day.

The Ludlow site, 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Trinidad, Colorado, is now a ghost town. The massacre site is owned by the UMWA, which erected a granite monument in memory of the miners and their families who died that day.[5] The Ludlow Tent Colony Site was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 16, 2009, and dedicated on June 28, 2009.[5] Modern archeological investigation largely supports the strikers' reports of the event.[6]

here ya go. original sources from back then.

A lot more than 2,000 miles separated the Rockefeller estate from Southern Colorado when on Monday April 20, 1914, the first shot was fired at Ludlow. One of history's most dramatic confrontations between capital and labor — the so-called Ludlow massacre — took place at the mines of the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I).

The face-off raged for fourteen hours, during which the miners' tent colony was pelted with machine gun fire and ultimately torched by the state militia. A number of people were killed, among them two women and eleven children who suffocated in a pit they had dug under their tent. The deaths were blamed on John D. Rockefeller Jr. For years, he would struggle to redress the situation - and strengthen the Rockefeller social conscience in the process.

Contemporary voices provide a rare window into the divide that separated the Rockefellers from some of the harsh realities tied to their business decisions. They powerfully illustrate the clashing viewpoints that were at the heart of the crisis and shed light on Rockefeller's ultimate transformation.

Official call to go on strike - September 17, 1913

All mineworkers are hereby notified that a strike of all the coal miners and coke oven workers in Colorado will begin on Tuesday, September 23, 1913 … We are striking for improved conditions, better wages, and union recognition. We are sure to win.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. to CF&I vice president Lamont Bowers after beginning of strike - October 1913

We feel that what you have done is right and fair and that the position you have taken in regard to the unionizing of the mines is in the interest of the employees of the company. Whatever the outcome, we will stand by you to the end.

Lamont Bowers to Rockefeller - October 21, 1913

Our net earnings would have been the largest in the history of the company by $200,000 but for the increase in wages paid the employees during the last few months. With everything running so smoothly and with an excellent outlook for 1914, it is mighty discouraging to have this vicious gang come into our state and not only destroy our profit but eat into that which has heretofore been saved.

Federal mediator Ethelbert Stewart comments on the situation - October 1913

Theoretically, perhaps, the case of having nothing to do in this world but work, ought to have made these men of many tongues, as happy and contented as the managers claim … To have a house assigned you to live in … to have a store furnished you by your employer where you are to buy of him such foodstuffs as he has, at a price he fixes … to have churches, schools … and public halls free for you to use for any purpose except to discuss politics, religion, trade-unionism or industrial conditions; in other words, to have everything handed down to you from the top; to be … prohibited from having any thought, voice or care in anything in life but work, and to be assisted in this by gunmen whose function it was, principally, to see that you did not talk labor conditions with another man who might accidentally know your language — this was the contented, happy, prosperous condition out of which this strike grew … That men have rebelled grows out of the fact that they are men.

Rockefeller to Lamont Bowers - Dec. 8, 1913

You are fighting a good fight, which is not only in the interest of your own company but of other companies of Colorado and of the business interests of the entire country and of the laboring classes quite as much. I feel hopeful the worst is over and that the situation will improve daily. Take care of yourself, and as soon as it is possible, get a little let-up and rest.

Rockefeller defends "open shop" before Congressional committee - April 6, 1914

"These men have not expressed any dissatisfaction with their conditions. The records show that the conditions have been admirable … A strike has been imposed upon the company from the outside …

"There is just one thing that can be done to settle this strike, and that is to unionize the camps, and our interest in labor is so profound and we believe so sincerely that that interest demands that the camps shall be open camps, that we expect to stand by the officers at any cost."

"And you will do that if it costs all your property and kills all your employees?"

"It is a great principle."

New York Times' account of the massacre - April 21, 1914

Ludlow protestersThe Ludlow camp is a mass of charred debris, and buried beneath it is a story of horror imparalleled [sic] in the history of industrial warfare. In the holes which had been dug for their protection against the rifles' fire the women and children died like trapped rats when the flames swept over them. One pit, uncovered [the day after the massacre] disclosed the bodies of ten children and two women.

Rockefeller to Lamont Bowers - April 21, 1914

Telegram received … We profoundly regret this further outbreak of lawlessness with accompanying loss of life.

Socialist writer Upton Sinclair's open letter to Rockefeller - April 28, 1914

Ludlow campI intend to indict you for murder before the people of this country. The charges will be pressed, and I think the verdict will be "Guilty".

I cannot believe that a man who dares to lead a service in a Christian church can be cognizant and therefore guilty of the crimes that have been committed under your authority.

We ask nothing but a friendly talk with you. We ask that in the name of the tens of thousands of men, women and children who are this minute suffering the most dreadful wrongs, directly because of the authority which you personally have given.

Rockefeller's version of the events - June 10, 1914

Miners with John D. Rockefeller Jr.

There was no Ludlow massacre. The engagement started as a desperate fight for life by two small squads of militia against the entire tent colony … There were no women or children shot by the authorities of the State or representatives of the operators … While this loss of life is profoundly to be regretted, it is unjust in the extreme to lay it at the door of the defenders of law and property, who were in no slightest way responsible for it.

Abby Rockefeller to John D. Rockefeller Jr. - September 1914

MinersI am writing more and more to urge you to leave to me the petty details of the houses, places, etc. even though I realize they will not be as well or as inexpensively done; and throw the full force of your thought and time into the big, vital questions that come before you.

Rockefeller's testimony before the United States Commission on Industrial Relations - January 26, 1915

"I should hope that I could never reach the point where I would not be constantly progressing to something higher, better — both with reference to my own acts and… to the general situation in the company. My hope is that I am progressing. It is my desire to."

"You are, like the church says, 'growing in grace'?"

"I hope so. I hope the growth is in that direction."

Rockefeller speaks to the miners - September 20, 1915

We are all partners in a way. Capital can't get along without you men, and you men can't get along without capital. When anybody comes along and tells you that capital and labor can't get along together that man is your worst enemy. We are getting along friendly enough here in this mine right now, and there is no reason why you men cannot get along with the managers of my company when I am back in New York.

United Mine Workers' leader John Lawson comments on Junior's visit to Colorado - September, 1915

I believe Mr. Rockefeller is sincere… I believe he is honestly trying to improve conditions among the men in the mines. His efforts probably will result in some betterments which I hope may prove to be permanent.

However, Mr. Rockefeller has missed the fundamental trouble in the coal camps. Democracy has never existed among the men who toil under the ground — the coal companies have stamped it out. Now, Mr. Rockefeller is not restoring democracy; he is trying to substitute paternalism for it.

 

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Pullman Strike

Pullman Strike

another massacre.

Federal intervention

Under direction from President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, the US Attorney General Richard Olney (formerly a lawyer for a railroad) dealt with the strike. Olney obtained an injunction in federal court barring union leaders from supporting the strike and demanding that the strikers cease their activities or face being fired. Debs and other leaders of the ARU ignored the injunction, and federal troops were called up to enforce it.[9] While Debs had been reluctant to start the strike, he threw his energies into organizing it. He called a general strike of all union members in Chicago, but this was opposed by Samuel Gompers, head of the AFL, and other established unions, and it failed.[10]

City by city the federal forces broke the ARU efforts to shut down the national transportation system. Thousands of United States Marshals and some 12,000 United States Army troops, commanded by Nelson Miles, took action. President Cleveland wanted the trains moving again, based on his legal, constitutional responsibility for the mails. His lawyers argued that the boycott violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, and represented a threat to public safety. The arrival of the military and the subsequent deaths of workers in violence led to further outbreaks of violence. During the course of the strike, a total of 30 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded. Property damage exceeded $80 million

 

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Burson-Marsteller

Burson-Marsteller

http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=395

Burson-Marsteller

4.1 Working for Repressive Regimes

Nigeria
B-M flacked for both the Nigerian Government and Royal Dutch/Shell during and after the Biafran war. Reports of instability and genocide at the time had hurt Nigeria’s international image, they hired B-M to discredit these reports[24].
The relationship continued long after the Biafran war. From 1991-2 the Nigerian military junta paid B-M’s lobbying subsidiary, Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly (acquired in 1991) over $1m in fees[25].

Indonesia
After the invasion of East Timor around 200,000 people, one third of the population were murdered, the Indonesian government has also been accused of genocidal policies against the peoples of Irian Jaya, amongst many other human rights abuses. In 1996, BM was hired by the Indonesian government to clean up its image[26]. B-M does however deny handling the issue of genocide in East Timor.

Argentina
BM worked for the Argentinian military junta led by General Jorge Videla, which seized power in a coup d'_tat in 1976. B-M’s job was to improve the country's international image and create the impression of stability to attract foreign investment. During Videla's reign, 35,000 people 'disappeared' and thousands of political prisoners were tortured. Videla is now serving a life sentence for murder.
Harold Burson commented that, "We regard ourselves as working in the business sector for clear-cut business and economic objectives. So we had nothing to do with a lot of the things that one reads in the paper about Argentina as regards human rights and other activities."[27]

Saudi Arabia, et al.
B-M has worked for a host of regimes with appalling human rights records including the notoriously repressive and corrupt government of Saudi Arabia, the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, and the governments of Sri Lanka and Singapore[28]. Three days after the September 11th attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, in which 13 of the 16 alleged suicide bombers were Saudis, Saudi Arabia again hired B-M to ensure that its national image remains untarnished[29].

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4.2 Greenwashing Biotech

rBGH/BST
In the 1980s recombinant bovine growth hormone or bovine somatatrophin (rBGH/BST) was Monsanto’s flagship biotechnology product. A genetically engineered substitute for the cows’ growth hormone, rBGH was developed to increase the milk yield of dairy cows, a market that Monsanto’s CEO R.J. Mahoney estimated in 1985 to be worth $1bn a year. It was also one of the first biotech products to be readied for the market and as such the whole biotech industry had an interest. The only problems were gaining approval for its commercial use and some unfavourable scientific opinions of the artificial hormone. Monsanto’s own tests showed an increased risk of mastitis in rBGH treated cattle, that the milk went off quicker and that it contained higher levels of pus. FDA scientist, Dr Richard Burroughs concluded from analysing test data that Monsanto was manipulating the figures. In 1989 he was sacked after complaining to Congress that his superiors were suppressing his accusations.

To deal with the expected controversy Monsanto assembled an army of PR companies to aid them of which B-M was one. Pro-rBGH information was rapidly distributed to the dairy industry, the press and the general public. In this way a ‘grass-roots’ coalition was formed and extensive lobbying of legislators began[30].

B-M employees were twice exposed working covertly during the rBGH campaign.

Michael Hansen of the Consumers Union was the author of a report on rBGH. Before the report was published, he was contacted by a B-M employee claiming to be a scheduler for ABC Television’s show, “Nightline”. She asked for a preview of the report and Hansen’s CV, under the pretext of researching rBGH for a “Nightline” program on the issue. Hansen was suspicious however and inquiries at ABC revealed that no one from Nightline had called Hansen. The fax number she gave turned out to belong to B-M[31].

B-M also tried to infiltrate the campaign against rBGH, run by academic, author and environmental campaigner Jeremy Rifkin. A B-M employee claiming to represent a non-existent group called Maryland Citizen Consumers Council, attended anti-rBGH meetings, but her manner aroused suspicions amongst the activists who quickly exposed her. Burson-Marsteller disavowed all knowledge of her activities, suggesting that she was attending in her free time[32].

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Europabio
Burson-Marsteller also devised the PR strategy for Europabio, the European industry association for biotech companies. They famously advised the industry to stay off the “communications killing fields” that are the “public issues of environmental and human health risk”, i.e. to avoid participating in any public debate on these issues. The strategy recommended leaving it to regulatory bodies and other third parties to deal with these issues, and to communicate through symbols and stories, not logic. A positive image of biotechnology may be created through highlighting new products and potential beneficiaries, and developing a very close relationship with the media; “EuropaBio must turn itself into the journalist's best and most reliable continuing source of biotechnology/bioindustries inspiration and information - the first-stop help desk where they get no industry propaganda but practical, editor-pleasing, deadline-beating, connect to interesting stories and personalities - even adversarial - relevant to their readerships.”[33]

Monsanto
Details of further lobbying and PR operations conducted by B-M client, Monsanto can be found here.

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4.3 Climate Change

In July 2001 B-M issued a denial that it had set up the Global Climate Coalition, a controversial lobbying group for the fossil fuels industry that works toward voluntary codes of conduct and market based solutions to climate change and against mandatory emissions limits. The allegation, which has been quoted in many other sources, originated with PR Watch who, after much fact checking, had to admit that they had made a mistake[34]. Although it remains a mystery why B-M, an industry leader in ‘perceptions management’, should have taken so long to refute the claim.

Despite this B-M has worked hard to oppose emissions capping legislation. They helped to set up the Business Council on Sustainable Development [see below] which successfully prevented the 1992 Rio Earth from dealing with climate change, and have orchestrated many other anti-emissions control campaigns.

Foundation for Clean Air Progress
Burson-Marsteller is behind a deceptively-named group called the "Foundation for Clean Air Progress" (FCAP), which was founded in 1995. Describing itself as “Your source for public information and education about improving air quality in America”[35], you might think that the FCAP supports measures to control air pollution. In fact, it was formed specifically to pressure the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) not to adopt tougher air pollution controls. The Washington Post reported on June 17, 1997 that FCAP participates in a "multimillion-dollar campaign to turn back EPA regulations for smog and soot. ... The nerve centre behind the attack is a coalition of more than 500 businesses and trade groups that calls itself the Air Quality Standards Coalition. Created specifically to battle the clean air proposals, the coalition operates out of the offices of the National Association of Manufacturers, a Washington-based trade group. Its leadership includes top managers of petroleum, automotive and utility companies as well as long-time Washington insiders such as C. Boyden Gray, a counsel to former president George Bush. The same industries would likely bear the brunt of the costs for the new regulations, which the EPA estimates at more than $ 6 billion a year.”[36]

BTU Tax
In 1993 Burson-Marsteller led a $1.8 million campaign to defeat a proposed tax on fossil fuels. President Clinton’s BTU Tax was the most ambitious measure to combat climate change yet proposed by an American government. The BTU Tax was to be levied on fossil fuels, specifically on the heat generating capacity of fossil fuels – a BTU (British Thermal unit) is a measure of how much heat will be released by a given mass of fuel. The tax would have added 25 cents to the price of a gallon of petrol.

The tax was at the centre of Clinton’s plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which he aimed to reduce to 1990 levels by 2000.

Big business was unhappy with the plans however. The National Association of Manufacturers (a sponsor of the Global Climate Coalition), the American Petroleum Institute, over 1,600 companies, large and small, and farmers organised themselves to create the American Energy Alliance (AEA), specifically to derail the BTU tax[37].

The AEA hired B-M to orchestrate the campaign. Deploying around 45 staff in 23 states, B-M organised a ‘grass roots’ letter writing and phone-in campaign. They placed anti-BTU articles and editorials in the press, commissioned sceptical economists to write reports and obtained media access for businessmen to express their views. Naturally they also lobbied against the Tax in Washington D.C.[38]

Congressional support for the BTU tax quickly withered away and Clinton’s plan was defeated. Congress voted for the tax to be kept below the five cents level. Treasury Secretary Lloyd-Bentsen described the campaign as “one of the most sophisticated jobs I've seen by lobbyists in a long time.”

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4.4 Stuffing Rio

In the early '90s, Burson-Marsteller was instrumental in setting up, and subsequently flacked for, the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD), whose members include Chevron, Volkswagen, Ciba-Geigy, Mitsubishi, Dow Chemicals, Du Pont and Shell. B-M’s mission was to greenwash the image of big business in the run-up to the Earth Summit and to ensure that no binding regulations were passed to control the activities of TNCs.

The BCSD was headed by Stephen Schmidheiny, a Swiss billionaire industrialist; and also a close friend of the Secretary-General of the UN Council on Environment and Development (UNCED). Substantial representations were made by the BCSD at UNCED, the 1992 Rio ‘Earth Summit’; with the result that proposals drawn up by the UN's own Centre for Transnational Corporations - concerning the environmental impact of these large companies, and issues of corporate responsibility and accountability - were not discussed or even circulated to delegates. The best hope for imposing accountability on the activities of TNCs was lost[39]. Furthermore, climate change was left off the agenda due to
lobbying.

In 1994 the BCSD merged with the World Industry Council for the Environment, [ Europe Inc., p151; WICE was another industry front group created by the International Chamber of Commerce to promote the industry agenda at Rio] and became the World Business Council on Sustainable Development which continues to oppose enforceable environmental legislation and pushes for voluntary corporate action on environmental issues. The WBCSD is now gearing up for ‘Rio + 10’ the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg[40].

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4.5 Organising anti-environmental action

The Wise Use Movement
The Wise Use movement is a loose network of groups within the USA that are held together by a common loathing of environmental pressure groups and environmental legislation and an agenda stressing the rights of private property owners to make their own decisions as to how best to exploit natural resources. The movement is a broad church uniting workers in the extractive industries, libertarian free marketers, and the extreme right. Many commentators believe that B-M was instrumental in setting up the Wise Use movement. Many of B-M’s more unsavoury clients have sponsored Wise Use groups, and in the 1980s when the movement began 36 of the companies known to be sponsoring Wise Use groups were clients of B-M[41]. Direct proof of B-M’s involvement has so far remained elusive.

British Columbia Forest Alliance
An anti-environmental group that B-M certainly did create is the British Columbia Forest Alliance. In late 1990 B-M was hired to re-engineer the public image of Canada’s forest industries. The cornerstone of its campaign was a new front group, the British Columbia Forest Alliance. Environmental researcher, Andy Rowell described it thus “The Alliance was designed as the industry’s stealth bomber, packed with influential people and fuelled with industry dollars, to blast holes in the environmentalists’ forestry campaigns. However, it came packaged as a dove of concern and conciliation”.[42]

The BC Forest Alliance was launched in April 1991 under the leadership of Jack Munro, formerly the Chairperson of the International Wood Workers of America Union. Gary Ley, of B-M, was appointed executive director. In its first year it received $1m from corporate sponsors[43].

The Vancouver Sun, the biggest newspaper in British Columbia, with a daily circulation of 260,000, soon fell under the influence of the Alliance. Forest company officials and Alliance members were soon visiting its offices. Before the launch of the BC Forest Alliance, the Sun had five full-time reporters covering forestry, native affairs, and other environmental issues. Soon only one environment journalist remained. The rest were assigned to a category called "resources" in the business section.

Reporters who wrote critically about the forest industry, and those who probed the workings of the Forest Alliance and Burson-Marsteller itself, say they were subjected to pressure. The Sun's forestry reporter, Ben Parfitt, was pulled from environmental issues after writing about Burson-Marsteller and the Forest Alliance, and reporter Mark Hume was grilled by a logging company official and an industry consultant, in the editor’s office, about columns he had written about a pro-logging coalition, while the editor, Hume says, stood by in silence[44].

Ken Rietz of Burson Marsteller produced a seven- part TV series, entitled “The Forest and the People” to spread pro-industry propaganda[45].

The BC Forest Alliance now claims a membership of 10,000 individuals and 300 companies and industry groups[46].
Forest Protection Society (Australia)

Throughout the 1980s the Australian timber industry was targeted by ecological campaigns and direct action. In response the industry spawned a new front group, the Forest protection Society, with start-up money from the Forest Industry Campaign Association[47].

Employing Wise Use-style rhetoric, the FPS got itself listed as an environmental protection organisation in the Directory of Australian Associations. It promotes a “balanced use” of Australia’s forests and claims that the best way to protect forests is to extract the wood and sell it. From the start the FPS aimed to build a large ‘grass-roots’ membership to suggest an independent standpoint[48]. The FPS involves itself in as many forest campaigns as it can, fighting for the rights of local communities to exploit the forests, and of course the for the timber industry. By April 1998 the FPS had 56 local branches across Australia[49].

Amongst other tactics the FPS has used include taking over local environmentalist meetings, with the result that they became distracted from their ongoing campaign[50]. Like many groups associated with the American Wise Use movement, the FPS is a client of Burson-Marsteller.

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4.6 Defending Big Tobacco

National Smokers Alliance
The National Smokers Alliance is a front group, formed by B-M, which mobilised the support of smokers around the US to oppose new anti-smoking legislation. Members are recruited through direct marketing, free phone hotlines, and on-the-street canvassing. By 1995 the NSA claimed a membership of 3 million. The NSA encourages its members to oppose smoking bans and other restrictions on smoking[51].

4.7 Fighting for Environmental Pollution

Crisis management for Union Carbide following Bhopal Disaster
In India in 1984, B-M handled crisis management for US company Union Carbide when its pesticide plant in Bhopal leaked more than 40 tonnes of toxic gas. 2000 people were killed instantly and after three days 5000 had died; at least 20,000 have died since, as a result of the disaster, and hundreds of thousands are suffering lung, eye and gastric complaints. Tuberculosis incidence in Bhopal is 3 times the Indian average. Following B-M’s PR and lobbying work, in 1989, as part of a court settlement, Union Carbide paid US$470 million on the condition that it could not be held liable in any future criminal or civil proceedings, and the Indian Supreme Court dropped all charges of manslaughter against Union Carbide, although safety mechanisms at the plant were appallingly inadequate. The company has now left India, leaving most of the responsibility with the Indian government[52].

Crisis management for Exxon Valdez oil spill
In the wake of the Unabomber’s allegations that Burson-Marsteller was hired to manage Exxon’s PR crisis over the Exxon Valdez oil spill, B-M has officially denied conducting crisis management over the issue. It does, however, admit to conducting a study of the case for Exxon after the event.

Californians for Realistic Vehicle Standards
Burson-Marsteller is also behind a front group called "Californians for Realistic Vehicle Standards," formed to oppose restrictions on automobile emissions of nitrogen oxide and other polluting gases. "The address of the month-old lobbying group is the Sacramento headquarters of the California Chamber of Commerce, while the group's phone number is that of the Sacramento office of Burson-Marsteller, an international public relations firm often used by the auto industry. Detroit auto makers provided the bulk of the money for the new group”[53].

Three Mile Island
Whilst Hill & Knowlton flacked for Metropolitan Edison, the plant’s operators, B-M conducted crisis PR for Babcock & Wilcox, the company that built the reactor at Three Mile Island[54].

Keep America Beautiful
B-M works for the best-known anti-littering campaign in the USA, Keep America Beautiful (KAB). KAB attempts to educate and motivate the American public to reduce littering and is funded by many corporate interests. While superficially it appears to promote a worthy cause, the corporate interest is in its implicit message that littering, amongst other environmental issues, is the responsibility of the individual citizen.
In the 1970s and 1980s, environmental and consumer groups accused it of opposing various state and national efforts to establish mandatory bottle and can recycling. The proposed legislation would have helped the litter problem, but offended the interests of some of KAB's corporate sponsors including Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch and the Reynolds Metal Company[55]. Its long term ignoring the of the issue of cigarette butt littering, is best explained by its funding from the four largest U.S. tobacco companies, Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson and Lorillard.

Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment
In Europe, BM set up the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment, in 'defence of the beverage carton against environmental and regulatory pressures'. Its purpose is to make disposable cartons look environmentally friendly, and is sponsored by packaging interests such as Tetra Pak, Elopak, Bowater (now called REXAM) and Weyerhauser[56].

BP’s Torrey Canyon oil spill
B-M handled crisis management for, long-standing client, BP in the wake of the 1967 Torrey Canyon oil spill that devastated wildlife along the Cornish coastline[57].

Czech Mining
B-M conducted a PR campaign in the Czech Republic on behalf of TVX Gold, a Canadian mining corporation. TVX needed help in renewing its exploration license for a gold deposit near the town of Kaperske Hory and countering local opposition. The project posed a substantial threat to the unique environment of the Sumava Mountains and became a major controversy in the Czech Republic.

In January 1997, TVX halted pre-mining exploration in Kasperske Hory when authorities would not renew its drilling license.

B-M’s campaign began as a relatively modest attempt to allay fears about the environmental impact of the project but later became a blatant attempt to replace Frantisek Stibal, the mayor of Kapserske Hory. Along the way they hired Czech celebrities to promote the project and published a free local newsletter in the area. Vojtech Kotecky, of Friends of the Earth Czech Republic, described the campaign as unscrupulous, full of dirty personal attacks, sophisticated and well-directed propaganda, combined with offers of financial support to the local community.

Ultimately it was to no avail. After two years of campaigning on either side, the Czech government cancelled TVX’s concession after Stibal was re-elected in landslide victory. "Fortunately the Czech people remember methods of Communist propaganda and therefore are rather immune to TVX's similar ones," says Stibal[58].

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4.8 Other

Breast Implants
In 1991 B-M began a crisis PR campaign for Dow-Corning to handle the growing public health controversy over silicone breast implants. B-M had been retained by Dow Corning for years previously, but as the controversy exploded in late 1990 and early 1991 so did B-M’s account fees. In 1990 B-M billed Dow-Corning just $6000, but from May 1991 to Feb 1992 that fee rose to nearly $3.8m[59].

Whilst Dow-corning and the wider medical industry had known about the problems of breast implants since the 1970s, they and the multi-million dollar cosmetic surgery industry had managed to ignore it until it gained significant TV coverage in Dec 1990.

B-M organised an astro-turf campaign to save silicone breast implants, organising women who were victims of breast cancer and had implants for reconstruction, into an effective and very public campaign. Ultimately, in 1992, the FDA banned them except for use with cancer victims.

NAFTA
Hired by the Salinas administration in 1990 to promote Mexico's NAFTA agenda, Burson-Marsteller spearheaded a successful campaign to sell NAFTA in the USA. The Center for Public Integrity estimates that overall the PRI govt of Mexico spent in excess of $25m on the NAFTA campaign, in the USA alone. To secure passage of the agreement, Burson- Marsteller prepared numerous reports, press releases and video news releases. Generally, their public relations work focused on the themes of jobs, the environment and support for NAFTA among Latin Americans. Burson-Marsteller targeted newspapers, radio and TV stations, civic groups, public officials, press services, educational institutions and industry groups for dissemination of pro-NAFTA information. B-M also sidelined opposition to NAFTA from groups concerned with economic justice and human rights issues in Mexico, portraying their objections as idle "Mexico-bashing." This spin was later refined to combat the Zapatista PR crisis by portraying the rebellion and the trade deal as two separate issues.
B-M picked up plenty of work from the Mexican govt before and after the NAFTA campaign. When Mexico’s challenge to the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, under the rules of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was upheld in August 1991, sparking public outrage in the US, Burson-Marsteller immediately issued press and video releases proclaiming Mexico’s commitment to dolphin protection. By the mid 90s Young & Rubicam, B-M’s parent company was making over $100m a year from contracts in Mexico[60].

Animal Industry Foundation
In response to mounting criticism from animal rights and environmental activists, the agricultural industry in the USA has fought back with SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), using libel and defamation laws in order to try to gag their critics. They have also lobbied successfully for ‘food disparagement laws’, which strengthen the corporate legal position against public criticism.

One group that conducted much of the campaign for food disparagement laws and other protections for the agricultural industry was the B-M funded Animal Industry Foundation[61], replaced in 2001 by the Animal Agriculture Alliance[62].

CTN
The Corporate TV Network began life as a joint venture between B-M and ITN, making extra profits for ITN by using its staff and equipment to make videos for the corporate market. There have been allegations that the link between ITN and CTN may effect the reporting of stories about CTN clients on ITN News, particularly regarding ITN’s reporting of Shell’s involvement in the repression of the Ogoni people in Nigeria[63]. Bruce Whitehead of ITN felt that his investigation of the Ogoni controversy may have been dropped due to a conflict of interests in ITN as CTN was also making a film on the same subject on behalf of Shell, to put across the oil company’s side of the story.

Back to top

References
[24] Guardian 8 Jan 2002
[25] Stauber J and Rampton S, 1995, ‘Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry’ pp150, 209
[26] Observer, 8 Dec 96
[27] Carmelo Ruiz, “Burson-Marsteller: PR for the New World Order”, http://home.intekom.com/tm_info/ge_bm.htm
[28] ibid.
[29] O’Dwyers PR Daily, Nov 12 2001
[30] Stauber J and Rampton S, 1995, ‘Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry’p56-7; Rowell A, 1996, ‘Green Backlash:Global Subversion of ther Environment Movement’ pp113-4
[31] John Dillon, “Poisoning the Grassroots”, Covert Action Quarterly 44, Spring 1993
[32] ibid.
[33] Communications Programmes For EUROPABIO Prepared by Burson-Marsteller Government & Public Affairs, January 1997, Organic Consumers Association web site, www.organicconsumers.org/bmplan.html
[34] PR Watch vol 8 no 3, <www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2001Q3/cx.html>
[35] www.cleanairprogress.org/
[36] PRWatch vol 8, no 3, <www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2001Q3/cx.html>
[37] Time, 21-6-1993
[38] PR Watch vol.8 no.3
[39] Ecologist, vol.22, no.4, 1992
[40] WBCSD Annual review 2001, www.wbcsd.com
[41] Rowell A, 1996, ‘Green Backlash: Global Subversion of the Environment Movement’ p115
[42] Rowell A, 1996, ‘Green Backlash: Global Subversion of the Environment Movement’ p195
[43] Kim Goldberg, Columbia Journalism Review, Nov/Dec 1993, <www.cjr.org/year/93/6/logging.asp>, date viewed 20-6-2002
[44] ibid.
[45] Rowell A, 1996, ‘Green Backlash: Global Subversion of the Environment Movement’ p196
[46] <www.forest.org/>, date viewed 3-5-2002
[47] Beder S, 'Ecological Double Agents', Australian Science, Vol. 19, no 1, February 1998, pp19-22
[48] Beder S, 1997, ‘Global Spin: the Corporate assault on Environmentalism’, p238-40
[49] Waranga News, April 23, 1998
[50] Boycott Woodchipping Campaign, ‘PR and the Timber Industry’, www.green.net.au/boycott/timber.htm <www.green.net.au/boycott/timber.htm>, date viewed 3-5-2002
[51] Stauber J and Rampton S, 1995, ‘Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry’pp29-31
[52] Pesticide Action Network Update Services, Dec 5 2001, www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/bhopal120601.cfm <www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/bhopal120601.cfm>, date viewed 2-5-2002
[53] New York Times, Nov 3 1998; PR Watch Vol.8 no.3
[54] S Elsworth, 1990, ‘A Dictionary of the Environment’
[55] PR Watch vol.8 no.3
[56] www.ace.be
[57] Guardian, Jan 8 2002
[58] Drillbits & Tailings, September 21, 1997 and July 7, 1998
[59] PR Watch vol.3 no.1, <www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1996Q1/index.html>, date viewed 20-6-2002
[60] Stauber J and Rampton S, 1995, ‘Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry’pp175-6; Multinational Monitor
[61] PR Watch vol.4 no.2, www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q2/slapp.html <www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q2/slapp.html>, date viewed 20-6-2002
[62] www.soundagscience.org/q-a.html <www.soundagscience.org/q-a.html>, date viewed 20-6-2002
[63] Bruce Whitehead, Feb 3 2000, ‘A Shell over the Truth’, <www.mediachannel.org/views/whistleblower/whitehead.shtml>, date viewed 20-6-2002

Burson-Marsteller

Overview
Who, Where, How Much?
Influence / Lobbying
Corporate Crimes
Links, contacts & resources

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

Ivy Lee

Ivy Lee

Ivy Lee

Ivy Ledbetter Lee (July 16, 1877 – November 9, 1934) is considered by some to be the founder of modern public relations. The term Public Relations is to be found for the first time in the preface of the 1897 Yearbook of Railway Literature.

Sometimes good intentions pave the road to hell.

Lee's legacy includes his Declaration of Principles.
Excerpts from
Ivy Lee's Declarations of Principles

"This is not a secret press bureau. All our work is done in the open. We aim to supply news.

"This is not an advertising agency. If you think any of our matter ought properly to go to your business office, do not use it.

"Our matter is accurate. Further details on any subject treated will be supplied promptly, and any editor will be assisted most carefully in verifying directly any statement of fact. ...

"In brief, our plan is frankly, and openly, on behalf of business concerns and public institutions, to supply the press and public of the United States prompt and accurate information concerning subjects which it is of value and interest to the public to know about."

Ivy Lee's longest lasting contribution to the profession may have been the Declaration of Principles he distributed to the media in 1906 when he and his then-partner George Parker began advising anthracite coal operators on how they could respond to a strike. They issued the declaration in hopes of countering the rising hostility which journalists were expressing for ghost-written press releases, ads disguised as news stories, and other efforts to manipulate news coverage.

At the time, Lee's views were revolutionary. In fact, Eric Goldman's 1948 history of public relations claims they marked the start of the second stage of public relations' development.

Interestingly enough, it wasn't the coal strike that gave Lee a chance to prove the value of openness and honest communication with the press and the public. It was the accident on the Pennsylvania Railroad described in the linked discussion of public relations' explanatory phase.

In the eyes of fervent supporters, Lee's impact on public relations was almost messianic. Fraser Seitel wrote, "Lee, more than anyone before him, lifted the field from a questionable pursuit (that is, seeking positive publicity at any cost) to a professional discipline designed to win public confidence and trust through communications based on candor and truth."
Lee even prefigured the mutual satisfaction phase.

At a time when other cutting edge practitioners were trying to explain their clients' activities in ways that were palatable to their publics, Lee was realizing some things just couldn't be explained in a palatable yet honest way.

When Lee went to work for the Rockefeller family, John D. Rockefeller had a long and well-deserved reputation as a robber baron because he was one. He and several other well-known tycoons had achieved success and wealth by being ruthless, profit-driven businessmen whose actions were often harsh, arrogant, and uncaring. Some of what they did could be explained away, but much of it was beyond any hope of gift-wrapping. The public would never approve of such behavior.

Faced with this realization, Lee came up with a suggestion that was totally contrary to the robber barons' prevailing philosophy of the public be damned. He concluded that changing Rockefeller's behavior -- or at least his companies' actions -- might be the best public relations of all. Initially, Rockefeller resisted, but Lee's persistence and persuasiveness wore him down.

Instead of limiting his role to writing press releases and public statements and arranging special appearances for Rockefeller, Lee was soon advising Rockefeller on the public relations advantages of a broad range of business decisions and management policy that included mechanisms to redress workers' grievances, the selection of new plant sites, setting employee wages and working conditions, and negotiating contracts with suppliers and vendors. In many ways this presaged the interactive adjustment and mutual satisfaction approaches to public relations that weren't fully articulated until 70 years later.

But, whatever you call his approach, Lee had clearly -- Some would say miraculously. -- transformed John D. Rockefeller's public image from that of an uncaring and reclusive tyrant to a warm, paternalistic employer and an incredibly generous philanthropist.
Was Ivy Lee a hero or a villain?

Lee's publicity work for the American Red Cross during World War I was universally acclaimed. He helped raised $400 million in contributions, recruited millions of volunteers, and established the Red Cross in Americans' minds as the place to turn for disaster relief.

But, Lee was also involved in some questionable activities. His successful efforts at calming the turmoil that followed the "Ludlow Massacre" at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, for instance, embittered labor supporters who saw him as being anti-union and committed to strike-breaking.

More serious criticism arose about his work for I.G. Farben Industrie of Germany in the early 1930s. Although he insisted he never advised any members of the German government, only I.G. Farben managers and only about business matters, Lee was called to testify before a 1934 Congressional hearing where he was accused of being anti-Semitic and of doing propaganda work for the Nazi government.

In the midst of this turmoil and before his role could be settled in the public eye, the 57-year-old Lee died of a brain tumor and the complete details of his work in Germany were never publicly revealed, a fact that some public relations historians see as a black cloud hanging over his reputation.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

the creel commission propaganda machine

the creel commission propaganda machine

http://www.authentichistory.com/1914-1920/2-homefront/1-propaganda/index.html

Manipulating Minds: The War Propaganda Machine
Until the advent of the Cold War in the 1950s, America traditionally maintained a relatively small standing army. Whenever war broke out, it was necessary for the country to mobilize—to recruit (and sometimes draft) troops, to train them, and to produce the arms, equipment, and supplies needed to fight. In other words, the US needed bodies, money, and time. When Congress and the President declared war on Germany in April, mobilization took on extreme urgency. The government’s overarching task was to persuade Americans to invest in the war, both financially and emotionally. The financial contributions would be made by purchasing war bonds—loans to the federal government to be repaid at some future date, with modest interest. The emotional investment meant believing in the cause and demonstrating that belief through volunteer service (men for the military, women for
Liberty Loan Glass Slide
Glass slide to be projected at movie theaters promoting war bond sales (4 versions) Liberty Loan Bond certificate
Liberty Loan Bond certificate (2 versions)
the nurse corps), displays of patriotism, and through shared sacrifice. To accomplish this feat, the U.S. government in 1917 felt compelled to promote a singular message, and to stifle any opposing message. The latter was done through new laws that put constitutionally questionable limits on free expression, and is discussed in another next section. The former—putting out a singular message, was done primarily through new government organizations, especially the Committee on Public Information, and the U.S. Food Administration.

George Creel & the Committee on Public Information

President Wilson created the Committee on Public Information, an organization that became, under the direction of a journalist named George Creel, unlike any before conceived in warfare. Wilson’s choice of Creel was made in part on a letter Creel had written the President in which he expressed his opinion about an ongoing internal debate in Washington: how much censorship to impose on the media. Creel was against censorship, other than what the newspapers would impose on themselves after they had been convinced of the need for it. He expressed a desire for “unparalleled openness”. Paradoxically, however, he was strictly against the publication of anything he considered to be enemy propaganda. No “lies” of any kind would be allowed, no lies to deceive the enemy peoples, or to negatively impact the public’s opinion about the war. Creel saw in his selective openness an
opportunity to create, in his own words, “a publicity proposition, a vast enterprise in salesmanship, the world’s greatest adventure in advertising.” Wilson sent for Creel and put him in charge of the whole censorship-propaganda question.

George Creel was by all accounts a man of two faces. In private, he was personable, funny, and gregarious, one of the best story-tellers of his day, a truly likeable personality. In public, however, Creel was something of a berserker. His public speeches were so bellicose and bitter that once he was said to have been shocked to read in the newspaper the next day what he had said. Too outspoken and tactless, even his critics had to admit that Creel had energy and imagination. Although Congress authorized a budget of $1,250,000, Creel was heavily subsidized by the chief executive’s “President’s fund”. With near limitless cash at his disposal, Creel soon cranked up a massive propaganda machine.
Since the Great War took place before the advent of electronic mass media (which started with radio only a few years after the war), Creel relied heavily on visual forms of media. Posters were especially effective. An army of artists “rallied to the colors,” as Creel put it, and were put to work under the “Division of Pictorial Publicity”. Artists such as James Montgomery Flagg, Charles Dana Gibson, Harrison Fisher, and Joseph Pennell churned out patriotic works that even today are artistically stunning. (The patriotic efforts of artists were also evident on the huge catalog of songs published by private music companies during the war in the form of sheet music). Flagg’s iconic Uncle Sam “I Want You” poster remains today one of the most recognized patriotic images in America.

Creel also mobilized America’s advertising industry, including newspapers, magazines, and public advertising. Although the country had just absorbed some 13 million immigrants during the previous two decades, Creel’s campaign was calculated to reach anyone who could understand a picture. And they were everywhere—on billboards, the walls of subway stations, the sides of barns, anywhere an American might travel. Creel referred to his ad campaign as the “battle of the fences.” Creel also made effective use of the presses. Millions of pro-war, pro-Wilson leaflets, pamphlets, and propaganda booklets found their way into American homes, often written by historians and college professors.

Creel’s use of visuals extended to photographic media. He organized a motion picture division and created propaganda films with titles like, “Pershing’s Crusaders,” “America’s Answer,” and “Under Four Flags.” Hollywood took up the cause and was soon producing its own propaganda, and some of the biggest stars of the silent era promoted the Liberty Loan drives at huge public rallies. Creel expanded into still images and eventually sent thousands of photographs to newspapers and companies that made stereoview cards.

In an era when audiences still highly prized public oratorical skills, Creel created an army of 75,000 “four-minute” men (presumably an allusion to the minutemen of the American revolution), who delivered hundreds of patriotic speeches. Initially, these speakers performed at the new mass media phenomenon of the movie theater, where a still slide was shown on the curtain announcing the performance. Soon the service was expanded to reach audiences at lodge meetings, union halls, grange-meetings, churches, Sunday schools, synagogues, even lumber camps. Native American reservations, according to Creel, provided some of the most receptive audiences. The 4-minute men speeches often focused on a specific need. In the spring of 1917, When the bill to create the
military draft was in jeopardy, the minute men focused their energies on “Universal Service by Selective Draft”. At other times it was the Red Cross, the Farm and Garden initiative, Food Conservation, and selling Liberty Bonds. Once, Treasury Secretary McAdoo had President Wilson buy a $50 bond, and then Creel sent the 4-minute men around the country to challenge each American to match it. According to Creel’s own statistics, the 4-minute men delivered 7,555,190 speeches to a total audience of 314,454,514. Given that the total population of the country was around 103,000,000, each American heard an average of 3 speeches during the 19-month war effort.

Creel also marshaled the country's musical talent. He personally prepared a list of songs designed to incite patriotism, and appointed a corps of band-leaders to take charge of motion picture theater orchestras (which, during the era of silent film, often played the film’s score “live” with each viewing of the film) and audiences. Finally, recognizing the need to promote the war effort as an Allied cause, Creel enlisted public speakers from France and England, including war heroes, to tour the country and give speeches to their American brethren.

And Creel’s propaganda did not end at ocean’s shore. His apparatus reached out to encompass all of Europe in what some of his subordinates called “selling America to the World.” He did so by inundating the continent with the speeches and ideas of his boss, President Woodrow Wilson. He specifically targeted the German people, overcoming efforts by the Kaiser to restrict the flow of ideas coming out of America.

By the end of the war 150,000 workers were engaged in Creel’s formidable “enterprise in salesmanship”. Was all of this propaganda effective? To answer the question, consider the words of Secretary of War Newton Baker. Speaking in retrospect after the war, Baker described the overall effect of the Committee on Public Information as “mobilizing the mind of the world.”

 

[trichrider]

brutal reminder of the times.
are we desensitzed by constant exposure,
or is it we just forget this shit so quickly because of all the current crisis presented?

it's infuriating, but thanx hash for the read...was there a link to that vid? 1st post?

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

Reminder: Saddam Statue Was Toppled by Psy-Ops

Reminder: Saddam Statue Was Toppled by Psy-Ops

....

April 09, 2008 7:00 AM

Five(now 10) years ago, Baghdad fell to forces led by the United States. But according to an oft-forgotten L.A. Times report, the crystallizing moment — when a statue of Saddam Hussein came down in Baghdad — was not the spontaneous event it appeared to be.



Copyright © 2008 National Public Radio. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

RACHEL MARTIN, host:

Five years ago today, Baghdad fell to the invading forces led by the United States. For many people, the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square crystallized the end of his rule, and it's an image that's been broadcast many times in the last five years, over and over. You'll probably see it again today as people remember this grim anniversary. But next time you watch it, bear this in mind.

Nearly four years ago, a Los Angeles Times writer revealed that according to a study of the invasion published by the U.S. Army, the statue toppling was not necessarily the spontaneous event that it appeared to be. David Zucchino is the national correspondent for the LA Times. He first reported that story back in 2004 and he's on the line with us now. Hey, David. Thanks for being with us.

Mr. DAVID ZUCCHINO: (Journalist, Los Angeles Times) Good morning.

MARTIN: Good morning. So David, you were in Baghdad on this day five years ago, but not in Firdos Square. When and how did you hear about that big Saddam Hussein statue falling?

Mr. ZUCCHINO: Well, actually, even though I was in Baghdad that day, I was across the river about a mile or two away and had no idea that was going on, and in fact, the Army troops I was with also had no idea, and I didn't find out about it until several weeks later when I got back to the U.S.

MARTIN: When you found out about it, what was the narrative attached to it?

Mr. ZUCCHINO: My impression was that there was a spontaneous rally by Iraqis and they jumped on the statue and basically pulled it down. I knew there was some U.S. soldiers or Marines in the area, but I was not clear on exactly what their role was, whether they were just providing security or were taking part. It was fairly nebulous.

MARTIN: So you dug up more specifics that cast light on those circumstances surrounding the toppling of the statue. Explain what you found out.

Mr. ZUCCHINO: This was part of a five-hundred-and-some page review, or report, by the Army on the entire invasion, what went wrong and what went right. It was sort of an After Action Report, and this was just sort of a one or two page sideline, almost a footnote.

They had interviewed an Army psychological operations' team leader and he described how a Marine colonel - the Marines were in charge of that area and had just come in, and this Marine colonel had been looking for a target of opportunity, and seized on that statue.

And according to this interview with the psy-ops commander, there were Iraqis milling around the statue, and in fact, had been beating it with sledgehammers and apparently thinking about trying to bring it down, but it was a huge statue and they had no way to do that. So the Marines came up with the idea of bringing in a big recovery vehicle, like a wrecker, and trying to bring it down that way.

But the psychological operations commander noticed that the Marines had put an American flag on the statue and he thought that was a terrible idea, because it looked like an occupation and he didn't want - the psychological ops didn't want that, so they replaced it with an Iraqi flag, hooked a cable up to it and started pulling it down.

But somebody had the bright idea of getting a bunch of Iraqis and a lot of kids and pile them on the wrecker to make it look like a spontaneous Iraqi event, rather than, you know, the Marines sort of stage-managing this entire dramatic fall of the statue.

MARTIN: So we can't say that it was the idea of this Marine colonel. He basically was surveying the circumstances, saw that there were Iraqis who were already kind of attacking the statue, and so the U.S. military, according to this report, just facilitated something.

Mr. ZUCCHINO: Correct. They took advantage of an opportunity. As he said, it was a target of opportunity, and they just sort of stage-managed it and made it happen in a way that it would not have happened if the Marines had not intervened.

MARTIN: And is it possible - is there any way that that particular psy-ops team leader, whose testimony ended up in the Army report, was exaggerating his team's role?

Mr. ZUCCHINO: It's possible. I mean, you have to take him at his word, but he does clearly say, in his interview, that the Iraqis were there and attempting to take it down. So he doesn't make it sound like it was the Marines idea totally. It's just that they took advantage of the situation.

MARTIN: And even if the Army psy-ops was involved, were they - what was the message that they were trying to drive home by seizing this so-called opportunity?

Mr. ZUCCHINO: Oh, their message was clearly that the Iraqis were welcoming the Americans. They were thanking the Americans for - literally for toppling Saddam Hussein, and this was a very dramatic moment, and they wanted to push across the message that the U.S. was liberating Iraq. They weren't occupiers. It wasn't a conquest. It was liberating the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein.

MARTIN: Now, you first reported that information four years ago, and some news organizations though have repeatedly showed that image without including that particular context. Here's an example. It's part of a British television report that was broadcast on CNN last year. Let's listen.

(Soundbite of CNN broadcast)

(Soundbite of idling motor)

Unidentified Reporter: You won't remember his name, but across the world they remember what Kazeem Al-Jaburi(ph) did that day in April, four years ago. Elated at the overthrow of the tyrant he hated, Kazeem used his considerable strength, leading his neighbors in a symbolic attack on a statue of Saddam Hussein in the Firdos Square in Central Baghdad, near to where he lived. This act, these images, broadcast around the globe, came to represent the end of a cruel dictatorship.

(Soundbite of crowd cheering)

MARTIN: Now, that was a report from CNN. We should mention that, even on NPR, there have been several reports about the statue toppling that didn't take into account the Army's version of events. Do you think that there should be that disclaimer, some kind of context every time it's mentioned or aired? Or is it OK to air it as something that happened and let other people draw the conclusions?

Mr. ZUCCHINO: No, I mean, I don't think they're giving the full story. Their stories are not incorrect. They're just incomplete. As he talks about that one man, you know, bashing the statue, that did indeed happen, but then he skips from that small event and then jumps to the statue collapsing, as if that was one seamless event, and left out the huge part of the Marines' intervention.

But I can see how that happened. If you look at photos of event, you'll see that it was a very crowded, chaotic scene with people everywhere. Even if a reporter were actually there, he or she might not get the full impact of it if they weren't standing right next to that recovery vehicle.

MARTIN: And I just want to close by asking you, David, you were embedded with U.S. forces during the invasion, and you actually witnessed another Saddam statue go down. Can you tell us that story briefly?

Mr. ZUCCHINO: Right, yeah, to me, the symbol of the American taking of Baghdad happened two days before on April 7th. I was with the third infantry division, and they charged in that day, and took the Republican Palace and the Parade Field with the famous cross sabers.

And on that field, there was a very similar situation, where the Army commander was looking for a very symbolic toppling of the regime to prove to the world that American troops were in Baghdad because the Iraqi propaganda - or minister of information had been saying there were no American troops.

So they found a statue of Saddam on horseback and blasted it with a tank with an embedded TV crew there, and the pictures were shown live. But it was the middle of the night in the United States, so it didn't have nearly the impact of the statue toppling two days later.

MARTIN: Both powerful images, I'm sure we'll see them again today, and take on new significance, as we remember that day five years ago when Baghdad fell. David Zucchino is the national correspondent for the LA Times. Hey, thanks, David. We appreciate you sharing your reporting with us.

Mr. ZUCCHINO: Thank you.

Copyright © 2008 National Public Radio. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

brutal reminder of the times.
are we desensitzed by constant exposure,
or is it we just forget this shit so quickly because of all the current crisis presented?

it's infuriating, but thanx hash for the read...was there a link to that vid? 1st post?

oh yes, I just added a link to the full length film. ty.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

Industrial workers of the world

Industrial workers of the world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Workers_of_the_World

Industrial Workers of the World

"Wobbly" redirects here. For the musician, see Wobbly (musician).
IWW Industrial Workers of the World (union label).svg
Full name Industrial Workers of the World
Founded June 27, 1905[1][2]
Country International
Key people #Notable members
Office location Chicago, Illinois
Website IWW.org

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after severe government repression as part of the first Red Scare and a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict. IWW membership does not require that one work in a represented workplace,[3] nor does it exclude membership in another labor union.[4]

The IWW contends that all workers should be united as a class and that the wage system should be abolished.[5] They are known for the Wobbly Shop model of workplace democracy, in which workers elect their managers[6] and other forms of grassroots democracy (self-management) are implemented.

In 2012 the IWW moved its General Headquarters offices to 2036 West Montrose, Chicago.[7]

The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain.[8]

History 1905-1950

Founding
The IWW was founded in Chicago in June 1905 at a convention of two hundred socialists, anarchists, and radical trade unionists from all over the United States (mainly the Western Federation of Miners) who were opposed to the policies of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
An injury to one is an injury to all.

The convention, which took place on June 24, 1905, was then referred to as the "Industrial Congress" or the "Industrial Union Convention"—it would later be known as the First Annual Convention of the IWW.[9] It is considered one of the most important events in the history of industrial unionism.[9]

The IWW's first organizers included William D. ("Big Bill") Haywood, Daniel De Leon, Eugene V. Debs, Thomas J Hagerty, Lucy Parsons, "Mother" Mary Harris Jones, Frank Bohn, William Trautmann, Vincent Saint John, Ralph Chaplin, and many others.

The IWW's goal was to promote worker solidarity in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the employing class; its motto was "an injury to one is an injury to all", which improved upon the 19th century Knights of Labor's creed, "an injury to one is the concern of all." In particular, the IWW was organized because of the belief among many unionists, socialists, anarchists and radicals that the AFL not only had failed to effectively organize the U.S. working class, as only about 5% of all workers belonged to unions in 1905, but also was organizing according to narrow craft principles which divided groups of workers. The Wobblies believed that all workers should organize as a class, a philosophy which is still reflected in the Preamble to the current IWW Constitution:

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth. We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all. Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system." It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.[10]

The first IWW charter in Canada, Vancouver Industrial Mixed Union no.322, May 5, 1906.

The Wobblies differed from other union movements of the time by its promotion of industrial unionism, as opposed to the craft unionism of the American Federation of Labor. The IWW emphasized rank-and-file organization, as opposed to empowering leaders who would bargain with employers on behalf of workers. This manifested itself in the early IWW's consistent refusal to sign contracts, which they felt would restrict workers' abilities to aid each other when called upon. Though never developed in any detail, Wobblies envisioned the general strike as the means by which the wage system would be overthrown and a new economic system ushered in, one which emphasized people over profit, cooperation over competition.

One of the IWW's most important contributions to the labor movement and broader push towards social justice was that, when founded, it was the only American union (besides the Knights of Labor) to welcome all workers including women, immigrants, African Americans and Asians into the same organization. Indeed, many of its early members were immigrants, and some, like Carlo Tresca, Joe Hill and Mary Jones, rose to prominence in the leadership. Finns formed a sizeable portion of the immigrant IWW membership. "Conceivably, the number of Finns belonging to the I.W.W. was somewhere between five and ten thousand."[11] The Finnish-language newspaper of the IWW, Industrialisti, published out of Duluth, Minnesota, was the union's only daily paper. At its peak, it ran 10,000 copies per issue. Another Finnish-language Wobbly publication was the monthly Tie Vapauteen ("Road to Freedom"). Also of note was the Finnish IWW educational institute, the Work People's College in Duluth, and the Finnish Labour Temple in Port Arthur, Ontario which served as the IWW Canadian administration for several years. One example of the union's commitment to equality was Local 8, a longshoremen's branch in Philadelphia, one of the largest ports in the nation in the WWI era. Led by the African American Ben Fletcher, Local 8 had over 5,000 members, the majority of whom were African American, along with more than a thousand immigrants (primarily Lithuanians and Poles), Irish Americans, and numerous others.

The IWW was condemned by politicians and the press, who saw them as a threat to the market systems as well as an effort to monopolize labor at a time when efforts to monopolize industries were being fought as anti-market. Factory owners would employ means both non-violent (sending in Salvation Army bands to drown out speakers) and violent means to disrupt their meetings. Members were often arrested and sometimes killed for making public speeches, but this persecution only inspired further militancy.

Political action or direct action?

Main article: Industrial Workers of the World philosophy and tactics

In 1908 a group led by Daniel DeLeon argued that political action through DeLeon's Socialist Labor Party (SLP) was the best way to attain the IWW's goals. The other faction, led by Vincent Saint John, William Trautmann, and Big Bill Haywood, believed that direct action in the form of strikes, propaganda, and boycotts was more likely to accomplish sustainable gains for working people; they were opposed to arbitration and to political affiliation. Haywood's faction prevailed, and De Leon and his supporters left the organization, forming their own version of the IWW. The SLP's "Yellow IWW" eventually took the name Workers' International Industrial Union, which was disbanded in 1924.

Organizing

The IWW first attracted attention in Goldfield, Nevada in 1906 and during the Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909[13] at McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. Further fame was gained later that year, when they took their stand on free speech. The town of Spokane, Washington had outlawed street meetings, and arrested Elizabeth Gurley Flynn,[14] a Wobbly organizer, for breaking this ordinance. The response was simple but effective: when a fellow member was arrested for speaking, large numbers of people descended on the location and invited the authorities to arrest all of them, until it became too expensive for the town. In Spokane, over 500 people went to jail and four people died. The tactic of fighting for free speech to popularize the cause and preserve the right to organize openly was used effectively in Fresno, Aberdeen, and other locations. In San Diego, although there was no particular organizing campaign at stake, vigilantes supported by local officials and powerful businessmen mounted a particularly brutal counter-offensive.
1914 IWW demonstration in New York City

By 1912 the organization had around 25,000 members,[15] concentrated in the Northwest, among dock workers, agricultural workers in the central states, and in textile and mining areas. The IWW was involved in over 150 strikes, including the Lawrence textile strike (1912), the Paterson silk strike (1913) and the Mesabi range (1916). They were also involved in what came to be known as the Wheatland Hop Riot on August 3, 1913.

Between 1915 and 1917, the IWW's Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO) organized more than a hundred thousand migratory farm workers throughout the Midwest and western United States,[16] often signing up and organizing members in the field, in rail yards and in hobo jungles. During this time, the IWW member became synonymous with the hobo riding the rails; migratory farmworkers could scarcely afford any other means of transportation to get to the next jobsite. Railroad boxcars, called "side door coaches" by the hobos, were frequently plastered with silent agitators from the IWW.

Building on the success of the AWO, the IWW's Lumber Workers Industrial Union (LWIU) used similar tactics to organize lumberjacks and other timber workers, both in the deep South and the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada, between 1917 and 1924. The IWW lumber strike of 1917 led to the eight-hour day and vastly improved working conditions in the Pacific Northwest. Even though mid-century historians would give credit to the US Government and "forward thinking lumber magnates" for agreeing to such reforms, an IWW strike forced these concessions.[17]

From 1913 through the mid-1930s, the IWW's Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union (MTWIU), proved a force to be reckoned with and competed with AFL unions for ascendance in the industry. Given the union's commitment to international solidarity, its efforts and success in the field come as no surprise. Local 8 of the Marine Transport Workers was led by Ben Fletcher, who organized predominantly African-American longshoremen on the Philadelphia and Baltimore waterfronts, but other leaders included the Swiss immigrant Walter Nef, Jack Walsh, E.F. Doree, and the Spanish sailor Manuel Rey. The IWW also had a presence among waterfront workers in Boston, New York City, New Orleans, Houston, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Eureka, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver as well as in ports in the Caribbean, Mexico, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and other nations. IWW members played a role in the 1934 San Francisco general strike and the other organizing efforts by rank-and-filers within the International Longshoremen's Association up and down the West Coast.

Wobblies also played a role in the sit-down strikes and other organizing efforts by the United Auto Workers in the 1930s, particularly in Detroit, though they never established a strong union presence there.

Where the IWW did win strikes, such as in Lawrence, they often found it hard to hold onto their gains. The IWW of 1912 disdained collective bargaining agreements and preached instead the need for constant struggle against the boss on the shop floor. It proved difficult, however, to maintain that sort of revolutionary elán against employers. In Lawrence, the IWW lost nearly all of its membership in the years after the strike, as the employers wore down their employees' resistance and eliminated many of the strongest union supporters. In 1938, the IWW voted to allow contracts with employers,[18] so long as they would not undermine any strike.

Government suppression

The IWW's efforts were met with violent reactions from all levels of government, from company management and their agents, and from groups of citizens functioning as vigilantes. In 1914, Joe Hill (Joel Hägglund) was accused of murder and, despite only circumstantial evidence, was executed by the state of Utah in 1915. On November 5, 1916 at Everett, Washington a group of deputized businessmen led by Sheriff Donald McRae attacked Wobblies on the steamer Verona, killing at least five union members (six more were never accounted for and probably were lost in Puget Sound). Two members of the police force — one a regular officer and another a deputized citizen from the National Guard Reserve — were killed, probably by "friendly fire".[19]

Many IWW members opposed United States participation in World War I. The organization passed a resolution against the war at its convention in November 1916.[20] This echoed the view, expressed at the IWW's founding convention, that war represents struggles among capitalists in which the rich become richer, and the working poor all too often die at the hands of other workers.

An IWW newspaper, the Industrial Worker, wrote just before the U.S. declaration of war: "Capitalists of America, we will fight against you, not for you! There is not a power in the world that can make the working class fight if they refuse." Yet when a declaration of war was passed by the U.S. Congress in April 1917, the IWW's general secretary-treasurer Bill Haywood became determined that the organization should adopt a low profile in order to avoid perceived threats to its existence. The printing of anti-war stickers was discontinued, stockpiles of existing anti-war documents were put into storage, and anti-war propagandizing ceased as official union policy. After much debate on the General Executive Board, with Haywood advocating a low profile and GEB member Frank Little championing continued agitation, Ralph Chaplin brokered a compromise agreement. A statement was issued that denounced the war, but IWW members were advised to channel their opposition through the legal mechanisms of conscription. They were advised to register for the draft, marking their claims for exemption "IWW, opposed to war."[21]

In spite of the IWW moderating its vocal opposition, the mainstream press and the U.S. Government were able to turn public opinion against the IWW. Frank Little, the IWW's most outspoken war opponent, was lynched in Butte, Montana in August 1917, just four months after war had been declared.

The government used World War I as an opportunity to crush the IWW. In September 1917, U.S. Department of Justice agents made simultaneous raids on forty-eight IWW meeting halls across the country. In 1917, one hundred and sixty-five IWW leaders were arrested for conspiring to hinder the draft, encourage desertion, and intimidate others in connection with labor disputes, under the new Espionage Act; one hundred and one went on trial before Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis in 1918.

In 1917, during an incident known as the Tulsa Outrage, a group of black-robed Knights of Liberty, a short-lived faction of the Ku Klux Klan, tarred and feathered seventeen members of the IWW in Oklahoma. The IWW members had been turned over to the Knights of Liberty by local authorities after they were convicted of the crime of not owning war bonds. Five other men who testified in defense of the Wobblies were also fined by the court and subjected to the same torture and humiliations at the hands of the Knights of Liberty.[22]
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Why the IWW Is Not Patriotic to the United States

They were all convicted — even those who had not been members of the union for years — and given prison terms of up to twenty years. Sentenced to prison by Judge Landis and released on bail, Haywood fled to the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic where he remained until his death.

A wave of such incitement led to vigilante mobs attacking the IWW in many places, and after the war the repression continued. In Centralia, Washington on November 11, 1919, IWW member and army veteran Wesley Everest was turned over to the lynch mob by jail guards and lynched. Although a myth was created six months after the events that Everest was castrated, the historical record does not support it.[23]

Members of the IWW were prosecuted under various State and federal laws and the 1920 Palmer Raids singled out the foreign-born members of the organization. By the mid-1920s membership was already declining due to government repression and it decreased again substantially during a contentious organizational schism in 1924 when the organization split between the "Westerners" and the "Easterners" over a number of issues, including the role of the General Administration (often oversimplified as a struggle between "centralists" and "decentralists") and attempts by the Communist Party to dominate the organization. By 1930 membership was down to around 10,000.

At the beginning of the 1949 Smith Act trials, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was disappointed when prosecutors indicted fewer CPUSA members than he had hoped, and – recalling the arrests and convictions of over one hundred IWW leaders in 1917 – complained to the Justice Department, stating, "the IWW was crushed and never revived, similar action at this time would have been as effective against the Communist Party."

Activity after World War II

1949-2000

The Wobblies continued to organize workers and were a major presence in the metal shops of Cleveland, Ohio until the 1950s. After the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1946 by Congress, which called for the removal of Communist union leadership, the IWW experienced a loss of membership as differences of opinion occurred over how to respond to the challenge. In 1949, Tom C. Clark[24] placed the IWW on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations[25] in the category of "organizations seeking to change the government by unconstitutional means" under Executive Order 9835 (revoked in 1953), which offers no means of appeal, and which excludes all IWW members from Federal employment and even federally subsidized housing. The Cleveland IWW metal and machine workers wound up leaving the union, resulting in a major decline in membership once again.

The IWW membership fell to its lowest level in the 1950s during the Second Red Scare. In 1955, the IWW was listed by the US government as one of many Communist-led groups. Australian historian David McKnight wrote that the IWW was controlled by the Comintern.[26][dubious – discuss] However, British lecturer Peter Knight in his scholarly encyclopedia of conspiracy theories connects the Comintern with the Communist Party USA, based on Venona project decrypts released in 1995, but Knight does not make the same connection between IWW and the Comintern.[27]

The 1960s Civil Rights Movement, anti-war protests, and various university student movements brought new life to the IWW, albeit with many fewer new members than the great organizing drives of the early part of the 20th Century.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the IWW had various small organizing drives. Membership included a number of cooperatively owned and collectively run enterprises especially in the printing industry: Black & Red (Detroit), Lakeside (Madison, Wisconsin), and Harbinger (Columbia, South Carolina). The University Cellar, a non-profit campus bookstore formed by University of Michigan students, was for several years the largest organized IWW shop with about 100 workers. Ann Arbor was also home to the Peoples Wherehouse which was believed to be the largest shop at the time (1980s).

In the 1960s, Rebel Worker was published in Chicago by the surrealists Franklin and Penelope Rosemont. One edition was published in London with Charles Radcliffe who went on to become involved with the Situationist International. By the 1980s, the "Rebel Worker" was being published as an official organ again, from the IWW's headquarters in Chicago, and the New York area was publishing a newsletter as well; a record album of Wobbly music, "Rebel Voices", was also released.

In the 1990s, the IWW was involved in many labor struggles and free speech fights, including Redwood Summer, and the picketing of the Neptune Jade in the port of Oakland in late 1997.
Three IWW General Secretary-Treasurers: Mark Kaufman, Jeff Ditz, and Fred Chase, at a funeral for a friend.
Memorial service

IWW organizing drives in recent years have included a major campaign to organize Borders Books in 1996, a strike at the Lincoln Park Mini Mall in Seattle that same year, organizing drives at Wherehouse Music, Keystone Job Corps, the community organization ACORN, various homeless and youth centers in Portland, Oregon, sex industry workers, and recycling shops in Berkeley, California. IWW members have been active in the building trades, marine transport, ship yards, high tech industries, hotels and restaurants, public interest organizations, schools and universities, recycling centers, railroads, bike messengers, and lumber yards.

The IWW has stepped in several times to help the rank and file in mainstream unions, including saw mill workers in Fort Bragg in California in 1989, concession stand workers in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1990s, and most recently at shipyards along the Mississippi River

Outside the US

In Australia

Australia encountered the IWW tradition early. In part this was due to the local De Leonist SLP following the industrial turn of the US SLP. The SLP formed an IWW Club in Sydney in October 1907. Members of other socialist groups also joined it, and the special relationship with the SLP soon proved to be a problem. The 1908 split between the Chicago and Detroit factions in the United States was echoed by internal unrest in the Australian IWW from late 1908, resulting in the formation of a pro-Chicago local in Adelaide in May 1911 and another in Sydney six months later. By mid 1913 the "Chicago" IWW was flourishing and the SLP-associated pro-Detroit IWW Club in decline.[37] In 1916 the "Detroit" IWW in Australia followed the lead of the US body and renamed itself the Workers' International Industrial Union.[38]

The early Australian IWW used a number of tactics from the US, including free speech fights. However, there early appeared significant differences of practice between the Australian IWW and its US parent; the Australian IWW tended to co-operate where possible with existing unions rather than forming its own, and in contrast with the US body took an extremely open and forthright stand against involvement in World War One. The IWW cooperated with many other unions, encouraging industrial unionism and militancy. In particular, the IWW's strategies had a large effect on the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union. The AMIEU established closed shops and workers councils and effectively regulated management behaviour toward the end of the 1910s.
Australian anti-conscription poster, 1916

The IWW was well known for opposing the First World War from 1914 onwards, and in many ways was at the front of the anti-conscription fight. A narrow majority of Australians voted against conscription in a very bitter hard-fought referendum in October 1916, and then again in December 1917, Australia being the only belligerent in World War One without conscription. In very significant part this was due to the agitation of the IWW, a group which probably never had as many as 500 members in Australia at its peak. The IWW founded the Anti-Conscription League (ACL) in which IWW members worked with the broader labour and peace movement, and also carried on an aggressive propaganda campaign in its own name; leading to the imprisonment of Tom Barker (1887–1970) the editor of the IWW paper Direct Action, sentenced to twelve months in March 1916. A series of arson attacks on commercial properties in Sydney was widely attributed to the IWW campaign to have Tom Barker released. He was indeed released in August 1916, but twelve mostly prominent IWW activists, the so-called Sydney Twelve were arrested in NSW in September 1916 for arson and other offences. (Their trial and eventual imprisonment would become a cause célèbre of the Australian labour movement on the basis that there was no convincing evidence that any of them had been involved in the arson attacks.) A number of other scandals were associated with the IWW, a five pound note forgery scandal, the so-called Tottenham tragedy in which the murder of a police officer was blamed on the IWW, and above all the IWW was blamed for the defeat of the October 1916 conscription referendum. In December 1916 the Commonwealth government led by Labour Party renegade Billy Hughes declared the IWW an illegal organization under the Unlawful Associations Act. Eighty six IWW members immediately defied the law and were sentenced to six months imprisonment, this was certainly a high percentage of the Australian IWW's active membership but it is not known how high. Direct Action was suppressed, its circulation was at its peak of something over 12,000.[39] During the war over 100 IWW members Australia-wide were sentenced to imprisonment on political charges,[40] including the veteran activist and icon of the labour, socialist and anarchist movements Monty Miller.

The IWW continued illegally operating with the aim of freeing its class war prisoners and briefly fused with two other radical tendencies – from the old Socialist parties and Trades Halls – to form a larval communist party at the suggestion of the militant revolutionist and Council Communist Adela Pankhurst. The IWW, however, left the CPA shortly after its formation.

By the 1930s the IWW in Australia had declined significantly, and took part in unemployed workers movements which were led largely by the CPA. The poet Harry Hooton became involved with it around this time. In 1939 the Australian IWW had four members, according to surveillance by government authorities, and these members were consistently opposed to the Second World War.[citation needed] After the Second World War, the IWW would become one of the influences on the Sydney Libertarians who were in turn a significant cultural and political influence
IWW members picket in Sydney, June 1981

Today the IWW still exists in Australia, in larger numbers than the 1940s, but due to the nature of the Australian industrial relations system, it is unlikely to win union representation in any workplaces in the immediate future. More significant is its continuing place in the mythology of the militant end of the Australian labour movement.[41] As an extreme example of the integration of ex-IWW militants into the mainstream labour movement one might instance the career of Donald Grant, one of the Sydney Twelve sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment for conspiracy to commit arson and other crimes. Released unbowed from prison in August 1920 he would soon break with the IWW over its anti-political stand, standing for the NSW Parliament for the Industrial Socialist Labour Party unsuccessfully in 1922 and then in 1925 for the mainstream Australian Labor Party (ALP) also unsuccessfully. But this reconciliation with the ALP and the electoral system did not prevent him being imprisoned again in 1927 for street demonstrations supporting Sacco and Vanzetti. He would eventually represent the ALP in the NSW Legislative Council in 1931-1940 and the Australian Senate 1943-1956.[42] No other member of the Australian IWW actually entered Parliament but Grants career is emblematic in the sense that the ex-IWW militants by and large remained in the broader labour movement, bringing some greater or lesser part of their heritage with them.

"Bump Me Into Parliament"[43] is the most notable Australian IWW song, and is still current. It was written by ship's fireman William "Bill" Casey, later Secretary of the Seaman's Union in Queensland.[39]

In the UK

Although much smaller than their North American counterparts, the BIROC (British Isles Regional Organising Committee) reported in 2006 that there were nearly 200 members in the UK and Ireland out of a total membership of around 5,000.[36]

The British Advocates of Industrial Unionism, founded in 1906, supported the IWW. This group split in 1908, with the majority supporting DeLeon and a minority around E. J. B. Allen founding the Industrialist Union and developing links with the Chicago-based IWW. Allen's group soon disappeared, but the first IWW group in Britain was founded by members of the Industrial Syndicalist Education League around Guy Bowman in 1913.

The IWW was present to varying extents in many of the struggles in the early decades of the 20th century, including the UK General Strike of 1926, and the dockers' strike of 1947. A Neath Wobbly who had been IWW active in Mexico trained volunteers who went to the International Brigade to fight against Franco but did not return.

During the decade after World War II, the IWW had two active branches in London and Glasgow. These soon died off, before a modest resurgence in North-West England during the 1970s. More recently, IWW members were involved in the Liverpool dockers' strike that took place between 1995 and 1998, and numerous other events and struggles throughout the 1990s and 2000s (decade), including the successful unionising of several workplaces, such as support workers for the Scottish Socialist Party. Between 2001 and 2003, there was a marked increase in UK membership, with the creation of the Hull GMB. During this time the Hull branch had 27 members of good standing, being at that time the largest branch outside of the US. In 2005, the IWW's centenary year, a stone was laid (51°41'598N 4°17.135W Geocacher), in a public access forest in Wales, commemorating the centenary of the union. As well, Sequoias were planted as a memorial to US IWW and Earth First! activist Judi Bari. 2006 saw the IWW formally registered by the UK government as a recognised trade union.

The IWW has branches in a number of major cities and several organizing groups around the UK alongside two growing industrial networks for health and education workers. The largest branches are found in Glasgow, Leicester, London and the West Midlands conurbation (largely Birmingham). The IWW publishes a magazine aimed at the British and Irish members, Bread and Roses, a national industrial newsletter for health workers and a specific bulletin for workers in the National Blood Service. In 2007 it launched a campaign alongside the anti-capitalist group No Sweat which attempts to replicate some of the successes of the US IWW's organising drives amongst Starbucks workers. In the same year its health-workers' network launched a national campaign against cuts in the National Blood Service, which is ongoing.

In 2007, IWW branches in Glasgow and Dumfries were a key driving force in a successful campaign to prevent the closure of one of Glasgow University's campuses, (The Crichton) in Dumfries, Dumfriesshire.[44] The campaign united IWW members, other unions, students and the local community to build a powerful coalition. Its success, coupled with the ongoing Blood Service campaign, has raised the IWW's profile significantly since early 2007.

In 2011, the IWW representing cleaners at the Guildhall won back pay and the right to collective negotiation with their employers, Ocean. Also in 2011, branches of the IWW were set up in Lincoln, Manchester & Sheffield (notably workers employed by Pizza Hut).

In Canada

The IWW was active in Canada from a very early point in the organization's history, especially in Western Canada, primarily in British Columbia. The union was active in organizing large swaths of the lumber and mining industry along the coast, in the Interior of BC, and Vancouver Island. Joe Hill wrote the song "Where the Fraser River Flows" during this period when the IWW was organizing in British Columbia. Some members of the IWW had relatively close links with the Socialist Party of Canada.[45]

Arthur "Slim" Evans, organizer in the Relief Camp Workers' Union and the On-to-Ottawa Trek was once a Wobbly, although during the On-to-Ottawa Trek he was with the One Big Union. He was also a friend of another well-known Canadian, Ginger Goodwin, who was shot in Cumberland, British Columbia by a Dominion Police constable when he was resisting the First World War. The impact of Ginger Goodwin influenced various left and progressive groups in Canada, including a progressive group of MPs in the House of Commons called the Ginger Group.

Today the IWW remains active in the country with numerous branches in Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Windsor and Montréal. The largest branch is currently in Edmonton.

Among current and more notable IWW shops in Canada is the Ottawa Panhandlers' Union, which continues a tradition in the IWW of organizing disenfranchised workers on relief or in work camps started during the Great Depression. In the spirit of organizing industrially, any who make their living in the street, such as buskers, street vendors, or panhandlers are welcome to join the Ottawa Panhandlers' Union.

In Germany, Switzerland, Austria

A Regional Organizing Committee has recently been formed for the German speaking countries of Europe, with many translated IWW documents and 16 city contacts in Germany, Switzerland and Austria as of May 2009.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

The Anti-Federalists and the Bill of Rights

The Anti-Federalists and the Bill of Rights

http://www.cas.unt.edu/~jryan/AntiFeds.html

The Anti-Federalists and the Bill of Rights

During the Constitutional Convention, two general groups emerged during the debate: the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The Federalists, led by none other than future President George Washington, favored this new Constitution. They argued (most prominently in The Federalist Papers) that the Article of Confederation did not have sufficient power to govern the nation. Furthermore, they believed the Constitution was created and adopted by citizens (not states).

The Anti-Federalists, led by Thomas Jefferson, took a different approach to government and politics. In their view, state government is not in and of itself a bad thing. Because the Constitution (according to them) was created and ratified by the states (and not citizens), the states have certain rights as states. The Anti-Federalists certainly recognized a need for a stronger central government than that provided by the Articles of Confederation; they simply placed less faith than their Federalist counterparts in centralized government. Why, you might ask? They outlined four general concerns. First, they feared that this new centralized government would make state governments obsolete. What would be the purpose of having both national and state governments, leading to confusion over responsibility for governmental programs? Second, they believed that too much power given to people too far removed from citizens is dangerous. A representative from Georgia living in the nation's capital would be surrounded not by fellow Georgians but by members of Washington, D.C., making it easier to forget the concerns of people living in their district back home. To the Anti-Federalists, state governments are closer to the people (much closer than a national government located hundreds or thousands of miles away from many states); thus, they are more likely to enact unique solutions in response to unique state problems. Third, the Anti-Federalists feared the expansion of governmental authority. A centralized government, thus, would expand and come to rule not by consent but by force! Didn't countless revolutionaries fight against such tyranny?

Most importantly, the Anti-Federalists argued the new Constitution provided no guarantees of liberties to its citizens! Should government not provide some guidance as to the rights of people, and guarantee them? The Anti-Federalists thus pushed strongly for direct assurances that the people have certain rights. It is important to note that the Constitution had been ratified by nine state governments already; yet both sides recognized that unanimity was a political necessity (especially from states like New York) for this new government to take effect. As a result of the efforts of the Anti-Federalists, the Constitution now includes the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution). An initial list of over 200 potential amendments (designed by James Madison) was narrowed down to seventeen. Of these seventeen, twelve passed the proposal stage, and ten of the proposed twelve were passed by the states.

The Bill of Rights outlines the rights that people have, to be guarded against encroachment by the federal government. (Note: the Constitution did not protect against violations by state governments until after the 14th Amendment.) Within the context of political history up to that time, the list is quite extensive:

First Amendment
Freedom of speech
Free Exercise clause (freedom of religion)
Establishment Clause ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...")
Freedom of the press
Freedom to assemble peacefully (e.g. town hall meetings, interest groups)
Freedom to petition the government

Second Amendment
The "right of the people to keep and bear Arms"

Third Amendment
Prohibiting the quartering of soldiers without consent

Fourth Amendment
Protections against "unreasonable searches and seizures"
Need a warrant:
Probable cause "supported by Oath or affirmation"
Describing "place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized"

Fifth Amendment
Requires indictment by a grand jury for "a capital, or otherwise infamous crime"
Guarantee against double jeopardy
Right against self-incrimination
Due process required in order to take "life, liberty, or property"
Eminent domain: government may not take away property "without just compensation"

Sixth Amendment
Right to speedy and public trial
Right to impartial jury, in area where crime committed
Right to know the charges against you
Right to confront witnesses who testify against you
Right to compel people to testify on your behalf
Right to assistance of counsel

Seventh Amendment
Right to trial by jury in civil suits

Eighth Amendment
Guarantees against excessive bails or fines
Protection against cruel and unusual punishment

Ninth Amendment
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others
retained by the people"
The list of rights in the Constitution is not all-inclusive

Tenth Amendment
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
If a power:
Not delegated to federal government by Constitution--reserved to states
Not prohibited by Constitution to the states--reserved to the people

 

[Stoner4Life]

and exactly what flavor Kool-Aid would you be enjoying HZ.......

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^well that's just the thing. I dont drink any of the kool-aid, or buy into the b.s. so to speak. lol

 

[Drift13]

I have never been a follower of politics be it USA or world. But I can tell you first hand what the US goverment does to motorcycle club patch holders and 1%er in paticular. I have never been a part of a 1% club but I sure as hell was a Patch Holder in a multi chapter M.C. The US goverment will lie, steal, cheat, kill and just about anything you can think of to get a conviction. I will not go into detail on a public board, but there is a reason I'm retired from my club and it had very little to do with me or my club but for the saftey of both. Next time you hear a repeator(miss-spelled on purpose)on the Idiot box going on about a 1%er MotorcycleClub you can figure 1/2 to 3/4 of what you hear is BS.
LOVE MY COUNTRY BUT FEAR IT'S GOVERMENT

 

[THE PABLOS]

Remember the scene from A Clockwork Orange? The one where his eyes are pinned open?

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

no why? lol

 

[THE PABLOS]

Yup...that's the one. You're on fire Hash....a relentless seeker

 

[Max Headroom]

those documentaries by metanoia are all EXCELLENT (and free!).

Human Resources, Lifting The Veil, The Power Principle (all done by one dude AFAIK!)

watch and learn.

http://metanoia-films.org/films/

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^thanks for the link bro!