kasama-rl
30th April 2010, 17:55
The following is a discussion of an episode from the history of the U.S. New
Communist Movement....
It was sparked by an important new documentary covering the Textbook Wars of
West Virginia in 1974.
Links to the documentary can be found here:
http://kasamaproject.org/2010/04/30/the-great-textbook-war-opening-shots-in-the-\
culture-wars/ (http://kasamaproject.org/2010/04/30/the-great-textbook-war-opening-shots-in-the-culture-wars/)
* * * * * *
Here are some of my own recollections of that event (where i participated as a
communist activist in the coalfields):
[http://kasamaproject.org/2010/04/30/textbook-protests-when-the-poet-said-burn-o\
ur-churches/ (http://kasamaproject.org/2010/04/30/textbook-protests-when-the-poet-said-burn-our-churches/)]
People were mobilized -- in mine strikes, school boycotts and mass rallies -- to
oppose new progressive textbooks entering the public schools. It was a rearguard
action for fundamentalist and racist views -- and was an early battleground of
the Religious Right in the U.S.
The episode also shows (as I argued in my piece of "Ambush at Keystone") that
the militant activism of workers does not automatically produce a progressive or
radical movement -- that the active workers are not always the advanced, and
that there is a deep struggle over politics and ideas that has to unfold.
Communist Militants Against the Strike
Not only are these Textbook Protests largely unknown -- but so is the role
played by communist organizers in West Virginia -- in stopping the spread of the
Textbook strike among coal miners. I have discussed this briefly before -- and
want to add a little more now.
This strike broke out in 1974.. not long after we had created the Miners Right
to Strike committee, and were trying to develop a pole of organizing among the
more militant miners. We had, for the first time, contact with several networks
of militants across the southern part of West Virginia. So it was a paradox that
one of our first serious tasks was to use those connections to help suppress and
constrain a reactionary rightwing strike -- and convince the militants not to
take it up.
The communists of the early Revolutionary Union worked with a circle of militant
anti-racist Black Vietnam veterans in Beckley, W.Va. to produce and circulate an
exposure of the rightwing Textbook protesters -- to expose their lies about the
Black literature and progressive textbooks being introduced in West Virginia
schools.
We all worked (day and night for a while) to reach the core active miners of
southern West Virginia (in Districts 29 and 17) to prevent the spread of the
wildcat -- outside of the Kanawha Valley and onto the national stage. (In some
ways, our work prevented this Textbook Protest from becoming a bigger and more
nationally influential event that it was... since shutting down the whole
state's coal production would have catapulted these ridiculous
red-white-and-blue fools wearing three-cornered hats and coonskin caps-- these
ugly precursors of the Tea Party types -- into national prominence.)
This was a highly political task -- and complex, because for many miners are
both fundamentalist and have a deep tradition of simply "helping a brother." And
if the miners of Kanawha Valley were out on strike for a grievance -- it was
often thought we should simply support them (not debate whether or not their
grievance was just.)
In fact, of course, the grievances of these preachers and their followers were
bitterly UN-just (they were uninformed, racist and anti-scientific). This was an
attempt to mobilize a wave of fundamentalist activism against the advances of
the 1960s --- including the advances of Black people toward equality, and the
inroads made against Biblical fundamentalism and its values.
And (of course) this was often not a grievance picked by the miners themselves
(in the striking area of the central Kanawha valley) but often a case of lunatic
religious nuts themselves shutting down mines, and whipping up confusion with
cascades of lies about the textbooks. (And there were, literally, hard-core
rightwing operatives and Klansmen hard at work in the shadows.)
In one case, we also mobilized to attend one of the strike rallies and speak out
forcefully against the strike, and against the preachers -- and it played (i
believe) a role in weakening their hold on public opinion.
This episode (and the role of communists in fighting this early manifestation of
the religious right) is discussed in at least one account of its history. And I
have written about some of the vigilante attacks we faced and interesting
positive developments in our work within McDowell County in the aftermath -- as
rightwing preachers were whipped up to attach the communists from the pulpit and
the radio, and as others stepped up to help us beat them back.
One personal anecdote to give a sense of the times:
As the Textbook strike broke out in Kanawha Valley, the head of my local came to
me. Buck Wise was a Black man in his forties -- very deeply respected among the
workers and in the larger community, and (in my opinion) a very thoughtful man.
He sought me out because he was wrestling with the meaning of this, and thought
I would have some thoughts and opinions to factor into his own calculations. He
-- and the larger circle of middle-aged Black workers that he lead and
represented -- wanted to know what to think and do about this strike (happening
three hours drive north of us in the center of the state.)
He passed over to me a poem that was circulating in the Black community of
Keystone. It had been taken from one of the new textbooks, and was being
reprinted and handed out in churches to incite people against the textbooks.
The poem said in part (and i'm writing from memory):
Yes, burn our churches
Yes, rape our women
Yes, hang us from your trees,
Yes....[and so on]
You get the drift: it was a militant piece by a Black poet -- using irony to
expose and denounce the horrific abuse of Black people.
But the irony was lost on many people reading it in southern West Virginia --
precisely because they had not been exposed to such literature in their own
previous schooling and because the surrounding culture of the Bible Belt had
trained even literate people in a kind of very mechanical Biblical literalism --
where every word means what it says and nothing else. I would guess that a
quarter of the men where I worked, concentrated among the older world war 2
generation couldn't read at all.
I said to Buck that my opinion was that we should oppose this strike actively
and hard, that it was racist at its core and opposed to the advances that were
being forced into public education by the struggle of Black people. And that
alone was surprising, because I had a reputation of supporting all strikes -- in
a way that was very controversial within the rather un-militant local at
Keystone. It was not what anyone expected.
And, thoughtful as always, Buck turned that over in his mind, looked back over
the poem, he came back again: "OK... but really, people want to know if it isn't
wrong to have kids reading poems that support lynching and burning our
churches?"
There were four or five workers standing around us, by this time, as we were
getting close to shift change. Folks were showing up for work. And obviously,
this whole strike, and the textbook controversy was being widely discussed, and
was provoking interest -- and some of the workers, both Black and white, were
influenced by the "traditional values" arguments being promoted by the
anti-Textbook preachers in their TV appearances.
And I said, "Ok, Buck, let's do it like this... Let me speak this poem out loud.
And then decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing for our kids to read."
He handed me the poem again, and I shouted out to the guys in the parking lot to
come over if they were interested. And we talked briefly about our conversation,
and the controversy over this poem.
And then I read it, loud, a "spoken word" moment without a mike, adopting the
bitter and ironic voice that was intended. With the sarcasm and anger of the
author. And, it became clear (to a lot of those listening, and certainly to Buck
Wise and his usual circle) that this piece was not some sick and defeated
invitation to white racists, to come burn churches or lynch Black men, but a
defiant dare, a scream of never again.
Buck said, "That's something our kids should hear. Good poem." And we climbed
into the mantrip to go to work.
Communist Movement....
It was sparked by an important new documentary covering the Textbook Wars of
West Virginia in 1974.
Links to the documentary can be found here:
http://kasamaproject.org/2010/04/30/the-great-textbook-war-opening-shots-in-the-\
culture-wars/ (http://kasamaproject.org/2010/04/30/the-great-textbook-war-opening-shots-in-the-culture-wars/)
* * * * * *
Here are some of my own recollections of that event (where i participated as a
communist activist in the coalfields):
[http://kasamaproject.org/2010/04/30/textbook-protests-when-the-poet-said-burn-o\
ur-churches/ (http://kasamaproject.org/2010/04/30/textbook-protests-when-the-poet-said-burn-our-churches/)]
People were mobilized -- in mine strikes, school boycotts and mass rallies -- to
oppose new progressive textbooks entering the public schools. It was a rearguard
action for fundamentalist and racist views -- and was an early battleground of
the Religious Right in the U.S.
The episode also shows (as I argued in my piece of "Ambush at Keystone") that
the militant activism of workers does not automatically produce a progressive or
radical movement -- that the active workers are not always the advanced, and
that there is a deep struggle over politics and ideas that has to unfold.
Communist Militants Against the Strike
Not only are these Textbook Protests largely unknown -- but so is the role
played by communist organizers in West Virginia -- in stopping the spread of the
Textbook strike among coal miners. I have discussed this briefly before -- and
want to add a little more now.
This strike broke out in 1974.. not long after we had created the Miners Right
to Strike committee, and were trying to develop a pole of organizing among the
more militant miners. We had, for the first time, contact with several networks
of militants across the southern part of West Virginia. So it was a paradox that
one of our first serious tasks was to use those connections to help suppress and
constrain a reactionary rightwing strike -- and convince the militants not to
take it up.
The communists of the early Revolutionary Union worked with a circle of militant
anti-racist Black Vietnam veterans in Beckley, W.Va. to produce and circulate an
exposure of the rightwing Textbook protesters -- to expose their lies about the
Black literature and progressive textbooks being introduced in West Virginia
schools.
We all worked (day and night for a while) to reach the core active miners of
southern West Virginia (in Districts 29 and 17) to prevent the spread of the
wildcat -- outside of the Kanawha Valley and onto the national stage. (In some
ways, our work prevented this Textbook Protest from becoming a bigger and more
nationally influential event that it was... since shutting down the whole
state's coal production would have catapulted these ridiculous
red-white-and-blue fools wearing three-cornered hats and coonskin caps-- these
ugly precursors of the Tea Party types -- into national prominence.)
This was a highly political task -- and complex, because for many miners are
both fundamentalist and have a deep tradition of simply "helping a brother." And
if the miners of Kanawha Valley were out on strike for a grievance -- it was
often thought we should simply support them (not debate whether or not their
grievance was just.)
In fact, of course, the grievances of these preachers and their followers were
bitterly UN-just (they were uninformed, racist and anti-scientific). This was an
attempt to mobilize a wave of fundamentalist activism against the advances of
the 1960s --- including the advances of Black people toward equality, and the
inroads made against Biblical fundamentalism and its values.
And (of course) this was often not a grievance picked by the miners themselves
(in the striking area of the central Kanawha valley) but often a case of lunatic
religious nuts themselves shutting down mines, and whipping up confusion with
cascades of lies about the textbooks. (And there were, literally, hard-core
rightwing operatives and Klansmen hard at work in the shadows.)
In one case, we also mobilized to attend one of the strike rallies and speak out
forcefully against the strike, and against the preachers -- and it played (i
believe) a role in weakening their hold on public opinion.
This episode (and the role of communists in fighting this early manifestation of
the religious right) is discussed in at least one account of its history. And I
have written about some of the vigilante attacks we faced and interesting
positive developments in our work within McDowell County in the aftermath -- as
rightwing preachers were whipped up to attach the communists from the pulpit and
the radio, and as others stepped up to help us beat them back.
One personal anecdote to give a sense of the times:
As the Textbook strike broke out in Kanawha Valley, the head of my local came to
me. Buck Wise was a Black man in his forties -- very deeply respected among the
workers and in the larger community, and (in my opinion) a very thoughtful man.
He sought me out because he was wrestling with the meaning of this, and thought
I would have some thoughts and opinions to factor into his own calculations. He
-- and the larger circle of middle-aged Black workers that he lead and
represented -- wanted to know what to think and do about this strike (happening
three hours drive north of us in the center of the state.)
He passed over to me a poem that was circulating in the Black community of
Keystone. It had been taken from one of the new textbooks, and was being
reprinted and handed out in churches to incite people against the textbooks.
The poem said in part (and i'm writing from memory):
Yes, burn our churches
Yes, rape our women
Yes, hang us from your trees,
Yes....[and so on]
You get the drift: it was a militant piece by a Black poet -- using irony to
expose and denounce the horrific abuse of Black people.
But the irony was lost on many people reading it in southern West Virginia --
precisely because they had not been exposed to such literature in their own
previous schooling and because the surrounding culture of the Bible Belt had
trained even literate people in a kind of very mechanical Biblical literalism --
where every word means what it says and nothing else. I would guess that a
quarter of the men where I worked, concentrated among the older world war 2
generation couldn't read at all.
I said to Buck that my opinion was that we should oppose this strike actively
and hard, that it was racist at its core and opposed to the advances that were
being forced into public education by the struggle of Black people. And that
alone was surprising, because I had a reputation of supporting all strikes -- in
a way that was very controversial within the rather un-militant local at
Keystone. It was not what anyone expected.
And, thoughtful as always, Buck turned that over in his mind, looked back over
the poem, he came back again: "OK... but really, people want to know if it isn't
wrong to have kids reading poems that support lynching and burning our
churches?"
There were four or five workers standing around us, by this time, as we were
getting close to shift change. Folks were showing up for work. And obviously,
this whole strike, and the textbook controversy was being widely discussed, and
was provoking interest -- and some of the workers, both Black and white, were
influenced by the "traditional values" arguments being promoted by the
anti-Textbook preachers in their TV appearances.
And I said, "Ok, Buck, let's do it like this... Let me speak this poem out loud.
And then decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing for our kids to read."
He handed me the poem again, and I shouted out to the guys in the parking lot to
come over if they were interested. And we talked briefly about our conversation,
and the controversy over this poem.
And then I read it, loud, a "spoken word" moment without a mike, adopting the
bitter and ironic voice that was intended. With the sarcasm and anger of the
author. And, it became clear (to a lot of those listening, and certainly to Buck
Wise and his usual circle) that this piece was not some sick and defeated
invitation to white racists, to come burn churches or lynch Black men, but a
defiant dare, a scream of never again.
Buck said, "That's something our kids should hear. Good poem." And we climbed
into the mantrip to go to work.