19 Comments

Thanks for sharing Cindy. There is a film “Salt of the Earth” which is a film that was blacklisted during the 50s which documented the struggle of copper mine workers in Southwest New Mexico. It’s worth watching as it shows how the women and children made a difference. I only learned about this historical event when I moved to the heart of this area where it took place.

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I have seen that movie. Very good.

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Sadly, the Labor Movement seems to have evaporated, along with the Anti War Movement. The so-called leaders turned into collaborators and betrayed the trust of their members. I was a Steelworker for a time in my youth before Reagan began his union busting. I was very hopeful back then that a better society was actually possible. Very naive I guess.🤔

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Yep---workers have definitely been thrown under the partisan political bus---for access to top politicians, and, still, greed.

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Several months ago, I finally got around to reading "The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism" by Upton Sinclair.

For those willing to read e-books, the book is available as a free download at the Gutenberg.org site.

It was published in 1919; it presents a critical view of the state of Amerikan journalism comparable to Sinclair's more famous critique of the meat-packing industry, "The Jungle" (also available at Gutenberg.org, BTW).

As I read it, I thought about the lofty idealism preached in "journalism schools", and piously echoed by well-meaning present-day journalists, e.g. Chris Hedges and Matt Taibbi, who buy into the idealistic rubric and evidently sincerely believe that with rigorous reforms, mainstream (i.e., corporate and capitalist) mass-media institutions could produce reasonably "honest" journalism.

I bring all this up because in the book, Sinclair devotes considerable attention to the Ludlow Massacre. He was personally involved in attempts to intervene with key politicians like Colorado Governor Elias Ammons and President Woodrow Wilson, and challenged the mass-media machine of the day to correct their acutely slanted pro-Rockefeller and pro-government narratives. Sinclair strove to set the record straight in hopes of influencing anti-worker public opinion, and facilitating redress and justice for the extended community of victims.

One bittersweet revelation is that Sinclair scathingly criticizes the Associated Press, still a dedicated source of overclass-toadying propaganda and spin.

It's astonishing, although it shouldn't be, to see how the earlier generation of capitalism-deformed and corrupted "journalism" resembles the bloated, corporatized, commodified technology-jazzed pathological "journalism" of the present day, mutatis mutandis. 🗞 📱 😡

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Thank you. I read Sinclair Lewis at University, but have missed The Brass Check I will check it out. Sinclair Lewis ran for gov of California and his program was End Poverty in California (EPIC) That's the platform I ran on when I ran for gov in 2014.

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I remember studying about the Ludlow Massacre. It was a tragic part of Amerrican history. It was one of many horrid things that happened during Woodrow Wilson''s Administraiton. So were Rosewood, the Palmer Raids and the Espionage Act of 1917. And Wilson got a Nobel Peace Prize.. Sadly, our government continues to use people for false flags, experrimentation and seems to be OK with killing significant numberrs of innocent people and children. And the lies and killing cross party lines. It's as if there is a homocidal disease that overtakes most of our officials once they take office. It's very hypocritical for our government to speak about human rights.

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Absolutely spot on Cindy!! Thank you for trying to inform & educate the indoctrinated American public.

I don't recall ever having been taught any thing about this horrible tragedy.

The root of all evil is the rich white man's love of the mean green & gold.

They'll never have enough to be happy+ content and somehow miraculously become true altruist.

New testament(sermon on the mount, beautitudes)scriptures have no place in their dialectic.

Seems like some things never change.

God bless you 🙏😇 always

Salaam alaikum

Mcgallagher

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I was a US history major with some awesome professors, so we did do units on Labor history and this period in US history. I superficially learned of it. Blessings to you, as well, thank you!

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That's why I see that despite the crazy times today, we did make progress.

We are making progress, even if it looks futile. In the past strikes and civil rights movements, violence against unarmed people was either accepted by people or easily covered up by the media ignoring it. Can't do that with social media, even with their censorship.

The dissolving economic distinction between the lower and middle working class brings empathy for the downtrodden and disdain for the " Rockefellers" of today.

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Their still offing people who's property is inconveniently in their way: witness the disaster predatory capitalist who've had designs on N.O.La., Maui + other special places for decades.

Depopulation has always had a place in their convoluted dark minds. Agenda 2030, the great reset are suspected to include clandestine plans for reducing the great unwashed.

Always remember the owners, rulers, and their puppet politicians, mass media are not like us. We always mistakenly assume that they like us and really care about our optimal health and well being.

Just like their (Hegelian principal) manufactured crisis- -plandemic, and subsequent bioweapon cure all.

The devil's in the dark details and is playing in our backyard's

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The ´labor´ of a CEO (i.e. profiteering for shareholders) is paid THOUSANDS of times more than the average wage of those who provide the goods/services being sold... doG bless ameryucka

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I am sorry to say I never knew this happened. John D. Rockefeller was a special kind of scumbag.

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Yes he was and his legacy is killing some of us today

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Thank you for spotlighting this lurid event in the history of American labor. Unfortunately, there many such violent incidents in the later 19th century and early 20th, like there was a War against Labor going on; the record suggests that there was. The First World War can be seen as a War against Labor as well; I don't have the notes in front of me, but, perhaps ironically, it was a strike in Kiel, Germany that put the kibosh on the German war effort.

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Hi all, I would like to recommend a book I just discovered on C-SPAN 2, Book TV:

'Filthy Rich Politicians'--- Author Matt Lewis. I tuned in to hear Mr. Lewis tell about a form of 'insider trading ' practiced by spouses of ranking members of Congress.

This gentleman was none other than Paul Pelosi. He allegedly had foreknowledge that Sloppy Joe was about to sign a bill that would be hugely advantages to Tesla, and send it's shares over the proverbial rainbow.

Paul, being the selfless guy he is, didn't keep it to himself, he gladly shared the news with a close relative.

Don't wanna give away anymore, but it confirms my belief that our shady potadys gubmint...is nuthin' more than a sleazy Cash casino. Sad. Especially for the children

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Except that the suffragetes were funded by wealthy industrialists.

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that probably made it easier for the ones that got the crap beat out of them and thrown in jail/prison/murdered. Just because they wanted to vote. Also, I have been accused of being supported by people like Soros, and I never got a penny from him. I am leery of always accusing people of that. Not saying it doesn't happen.

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Being the person who wrote the article about real world injury, you possess sufficient courage to call my observation out as patently untrue or concede that it is accurate. Try harder.

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