Norm Diamond hosts this episode of the Old Mole, which includes the following segments:
Anti-oppressive Holidays: Bill Resnick interviews Alexandra Holmstrom-Smith who wrote an excellent much needed article “Leftists Need Holidays Too. Let’s Imagine Anti-Oppressive Ones.’’ Alex and Bill discuss how radicals are reinterpreting traditional holidays (like Columbus Day, July 4th, or even Christmas) and also creating new holidays and celebrations (like Kwanza and unions proposing an Essential Worker Day). The interview concludes with an examination of how this reinterpretation and creation can embed the ideas and understandings fundamental to radically democratic left commitments. Those fundamental understandings include the lability of human nature and the Wobbly proverb: the bosses brains are under the workers’ hats, with those in-born capacities brutally stultified by the coercion and tedium of modern work and consumer culture. Holmstrom-Smith’s article was first published online in Truthout on Christmas Eve of 2018.
Justice—No Hate: When jobs and small businesses in a hard-working white community were being destroyed by corporate pollution, many residents blamed recent immigrants instead – even bringing in the Ku Klux Klan who provoked a campaign of violence against the new arrivals. Writer and photographer Matt Witt reviews The Fishermen and the Dragon, by Kirk Wallace Johnson, a new book that tells the true story of a woman who united local residents and immigrants to take on the real cause of their economic insecurity.
Unions and Social Change: A crucial set of questions toward the possibility of a very much better society revolve around the potential role of unions. Questions like can unions mobilize their members on issues that go beyond the workplace? How should we as workers relate to the constraints of labor law and the conventions of contracts? Should radicals now aim at leadership positions in unions? To approach these questions on today’s episode of Another World Is Possible, Norm Diamond looks at the history of a rebel union in the U.S. led by members of the Communist Party, the United Farm Equipment Workers of America, and a recent book on the union by the daughter of one of its leaders.
The Long Deep Grudge by Toni Gilpin can be found at Haymarket Books https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1383-the-long-deep-grudge
In Memoriam: Today’s program also includes a memorial tribute to two recently deceased members of our world-wide community, Julia Reichert, path-breaking documentary filmmaker, and Pablo Milanés, Cuban songwriter and performer.
Music for this morning’s show comes from Bruce Springsteen and Pablo Milanés.
- KBOO