Maine Governor Has Commie Mural Removed

[Bud Struggle]

No kidding!

Clashes at state capitols over organized labor have become commonplace this year, with protesters throughout the country objecting to proposed limits on collective bargaining and cuts in benefits. Maine’s governor, Paul LePage, has opened a new — and unlikely — front in the battle between some lawmakers and unions: a 36-foot-wide mural in the state’s Department of Labor building in Augusta.

The three-year-old mural has 11 panels showing scenes of Maine workers, including colonial-era shoemaking apprentices, lumberjacks, a “Rosie the Riveter” in a shipyard and a 1986 paper mill strike. Taken together, his administration deems these scenes too one-sided in favor of unions.
A spokeswoman said Mr. LePage, a Republican, ordered the mural removed after several business officials complained about it and after the governor received an anonymous fax saying it was reminiscent of “communist North Korea where they use these murals to brainwash the masses.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/us/24lepage.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Here part of the Mural:

http://mit.zenfs.com/102/2011/03/AP080822054435.jpg


(The guy on the right does look a bit like Mao.:D)

Well to be fair if they show labor victories I guess they should show scenes of victorious company strike breaking.

That rascaly Tea Party again! :)

[RGacky3]

Yeah, a pro-labor Mural .... AT THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.

[PhoenixAsh]

Thats pretty fucked up. Banning street art for being reminiscent about some sort of insane imagined link.

Whats next? Book bans and burnings?


...the proper response is to call for his removal form office as trying to ban unions and/or force conformism is reminiscent of fascism.

[Bud Struggle]

Yeah, a pro-labor Mural .... AT THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.

Well Gack--you are the one that's always saying that Labor Union are essentially Socialist.

But I agree, this is idiotic. Reminds one of the Diego Rivera Mural in Rockefeller Center.

On a sidenote: there are some really interesting Socialist frescos by Oroczo at the New School of Social Research in NYC:

http://www.ericrosenfield.com/orozco.html

[PhoenixAsh]

I think the momentum the anti-workers movement is gaining in the US is worrying. And I am truely afraid this will lead to complete repression.

Yesterday I heard the republicans were pushing for legislation against the poorest workers. That if they go on strike they do not get foodstamps (its a f* crime....a developed society needs such things as foodstamps!)...but what is more nor can anybody in their families get food stamps.

So...yeah...labor camps...its hardly an unimaginable outcome. Its getting more and more likely. In fact I think there is a good argument to make the current prison system in the US (and heading there in the Netherlands) is already functioning as such a camp.

[Catmatic Leftist]

Thats pretty fucked up. Banning street art for being reminiscent about some sort of insane imagined link.

Whats next? Book bans and burnings?


...the proper response is to call for his removal form office as trying to ban unions and/or force conformism is reminiscent of fascism.

Cappie apologists would say 'slippery slope' fallacy :(

[Jimmie Higgins]

They need the space to be able to paint the 10 commandments on that wall.

[gorillafuck]

Lol at the concept of a labor mural that isn't one sided. I guess it's supposed to present both pro-union as well as an anti-union positions....

[Viet Minh]

Why doesn't the Governer just have a mural outside his own office, depicting all his fatcat croneis, with their accumulated wealth, against a backdrop of strike breakers?
Srsly though this only draws attention to the unions strife, and I can't see how he can force the department of labor to remove it..

[Agent Ducky]

Really? "I thought of North Korea when I saw this. Therefore it must die." Stupidest reason to ever do anything. That would be like saying "When I saw this guy he kinda reminded me of Osama bin Laden so I shot him."

[Tim Finnegan]

A spokeswoman said Mr. LePage, a Republican, ordered the mural removed after several business officials complained about it and after the governor received an anonymous fax saying it was reminiscent of “communist North Korea where they use these murals to brainwash the masses.”
Guess we'll being tearing down this old lady, then?

http://www.renamae.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/statue-of-liberty-gift-shop.jpg http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1098/685800718_97ce155eae.jpg

[Viet Minh]

Tell him the Freemasons used to be a workers Union (sort of) he'll go into meltdown

[Drosophila]

Paul LePage and Christie are assholes.

[hatzel]

Paul LePage and Christie are assholes.

Oh, is that so?

[Agent Ducky]

What's funny is that they're talking about how DPRK "brainwashes the masses with murals" implying that USA doesn't 'brainwash' people just as badly with capitalism...

[Amphictyonis]

Rockefeller had one of Diego Riveras murals destroyed (in Rockefeller Plaza-NYC) because of depictions of workers with Marx, Trotsky, Lenin etc.

This one:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.law.upenn.edu/blogs/polk/property/assets_c/2009/10/Diego%2520Rivera%2520Fresco-thumb-587x360-3417.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.law.upenn.edu/blogs/polk/property/2009/10/because-you-cant-own-beauty-the-case-for-a-droit-moral-publique.html&h=360&w=587&sz=52&tbnid=Ld295eHp1uumOM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=135&prev=/search%3Fq%3Drockefeller%2Bplaza%2Bdiego%2Brivera% 26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=rockefeller+plaza+diego+rivera&hl=en&usg=__0Vk8Tg4tY92e5XAWF1bOUQiOpIk=&sa=X&ei=3nGPTe2oM4mksQOYu5SRCQ&sqi=2&ved=0CDoQ9QEwBA

Unlike then we will see no mass protests :(

[Amphictyonis]

Tell him the Freemasons used to be a workers Union (sort of) he'll go into meltdown

Indeed, independently employed 'businessmen' of sorts seeking to set up a system favorable to them. I think they may have succeeded. :)

[RGacky3]

first of all, 90%+ of the population is labor, so no, its not one sided. buisiness men make up a small part of the population.

[Viet Minh]

first of all, 90%+ of the population is labor, so no, its not one sided. buisiness men make up a small part of the population.

Physical labour? I seriously doubt that, if I understood you correctly..

[Ocean Seal]

Thats pretty fucked up. Banning street art for being reminiscent about some sort of insane imagined link.

Whats next? Book bans and burnings?


...the proper response is to call for his removal form office as trying to ban unions and/or force conformism is reminiscent of fascism.
Well you see Cuba is one of the most literate countries in the world and most socialist "Dictators" encouraged reading so therefore reading is what Stalin would want you to do.

Stalin, Castro, and Mao all wanted people to read. Coincidence? I think not. See they wanted everyone to read so that they could brainwash people obviously.

[Tim Finnegan]

first of all, 90%+ of the population is labor, so no, its not one sided. buisiness men make up a small part of the population.
But they own the majority of the property, and, in capitalism, that's what really counts. You didn't think that the Founding Fathers were genuinely interested in old Tom's blether about the "rights of man", did you? ;)


Physical labour? I seriously doubt that, if I understood you correctly..
"Labour", in the economic sense, refers to all productive activity, not just manual labour. What he means is that more than 90% of the population are fundamentally wage workers, and not either capitalists or their various executive cronies; "employees" and not "bosses".

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Yeah,I remember hearing about this one.

Made me laugh and scream at the same time.

Lapage=Republican fuck-head!

[RGacky3]

But they own the majority of the property, and, in capitalism, that's what really counts. You didn't think that the Founding Fathers were genuinely interested in old Tom's blether about the "rights of man", did you? ;)


Nope, but most people do believe that principle, and governments always pretend to believe it.

[B5C]

I love my local cartoonist opinion about this:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/davidhorsey/files/2011/03/LePage-640x197.jpg
http://blog.seattlepi.com/davidhorsey/files/2011/03/Lincoln-640x276.jpg

[ComradeGrant]

My mom is a friend of Horsey's, he's great.

[Che a chara]

No doubt the desk he is sitting at, the building he is working in, and the house he lives in were created by manual labourers. can anyone on the right explain what life or society would be like without worker's rights and working class uprisings/partial liberation in the past ?

[Sasha]

Maine Mural Madness Continues (http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/04/05/maine-mural-madness-continues)

Posted by Paul Constant (http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/ArticleArchives?author=17693) on Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 2:50 PM

So, remember how Maine's new teabagger governor, Paul LePage, ordered a pro-union mural taken down? Eight Maine Republicans have published an open letter in Maine's Portland Press Herald (http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/governors-rhetoric-interferes-with-goals-say-gop-state-senators_2011-04-04.html) newspaper calling him out for being a douchebag:

Last week, the subject was the artwork in the Department of Labor. One could argue that the chief executive's position was right or wrong.
But for him to announce that he would "laugh at the idiots" should they choose to engage in our honored tradition of civil disobedience is another personal attack that only serves to further lower the bar of our public discourse.
...
Belittling comments, whether they come from the governor or his opponents, have no place in Maine public life. By demeaning others, the governor also discourages people from taking part in debating the issues of the day — worrying if not only their ideas, but they themselves as people, will be the subject of scorn.
Meanwhile, the federal government is demanding the return (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/paul-lepages-mural-fight-could-cost-maine-60000.php) of the $60,000 they gave to pay for creation of the mural. Or LePage could just put the mural back up and they'd agree to call it even.


:lol:

[GallowsBird]

If they can ban a workers memorial for being similar to Communist iconography then shouldn't they ban all images of the American Eagle for being similar to the Fascist symbol of an Eagle... I mean can't that be seen as having similarities to the use of "strong imperial symbolism" in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to brainwash the masses into agree with any nationalist and imperialist junk they shoved down the common man's throat?

As usual this is just an attack on the working man using unrelated Anti-American regimes to justify the oppression of the proletariat.

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

Or, on that note, they could remove the two fasces from the senate:

http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/files/images/4698-130105fasces8.jpg


The fasces remind me of fascism.

[Viet Minh]

And they can erase the Boston Tea Party from the history books too, direct action is a bit lefty after all! :D

[Bud Struggle]

And they can erase the Boston Tea Party from the history books too, direct action is a bit lefty after all! :D

The Boston Tea Party was about wanting LESS taxes.

And as far as eagles go:

What about the Dodge Eagle?

http://www.caranddriver.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/buying_guide/dodge/intrepid/1993_dodge_intrepid_2c_eagle_vision_2c_and_chrysle r_concorde_page_2/1085987-1-eng-US/1993_dodge_intrepid_eagle_vision_and_chrysler_conc orde3_cd_articlesmall.jpg

[El Chuncho]

The Dodge Eagle is the most decadent of all reactionary cars. There is no other option than to purge them, comrade!

[Agent Ducky]

In god we trust? That reminds me of theocracy! Make it gtfo my money!

Oh wait, that's actually a good idea.

[El Chuncho]

In god we trust? That reminds me of theocracy! Make it gtfo my money!

Oh wait, that's actually a good idea.

I am all for people having their religion, but secularism is certainly the way to go. ''In God We Trust'' is insensitive to atheists, agnostics and other groups with no god.

[Bud Struggle]

I am all for people having their religion, but secularism is certainly the way to go. ''In God We Trust'' is insensitive to atheists, agnostics and other groups with no god.

Maybe "In Nobody do we Trust"? :D

[El Chuncho]

Maybe "In Nobody do we Trust"? :D
:laugh:

''In Everything We Trust'', we must be all inclusive. ;)

[Pretty Flaco]

"In some things, some of us trust, but others don't."

[Viet Minh]

Maybe "In Nobody do we Trust"? :D

Make absolutely no sign now! :D

[Agent Ducky]

How about just "TRUST NOBODY." :lol:

Why do we have to trust anything on our money?

[Revolution starts with U]

Technically the Boston Tea Party was about representation and taxation... but yeah.

[Pretty Flaco]

Technically the Boston Tea Party was about representation and taxation... but yeah.

No taxation without representation

[GallowsBird]

The Dodge Eagle is the most decadent of all reactionary cars. There is no other option than to purge them, comrade!

A "Fall of Eagles"?

[Tim Finnegan]

I am all for people having their religion, but secularism is certainly the way to go. ''In God We Trust'' is insensitive to atheists, agnostics and other groups with no god.
And to maltheists. ;)

[Bud Struggle]

A "Fall of Eagles"?

A fall of Engles. :D

[El Chuncho]

A fall of Engles. :D

Did he have too much to drink at the Communist party?