Library Juice 1:16 - April 29, 1998
Quote of the week: "The eternal conflict of good and the best with bad and the worst is on. The librarian must be the librarian militant before he can be the librarian triumphant. At the end of another century, when a conference like this is held, our descendants will look back with wonder to find that we have so long been satisfied to leave the control of the all-pervading, all-influencing newspaper in the hands of people who have behind them no motive better than 'the almighty dollar.'" -Melvil Dewey, in "The Relation of The State to the Public Library," originally reprinted from the _Transactions and Proceedings of the Second International Library Conference, 1889_, and published in _American Library Philosophy: An Anthology_, selected by Barbara McCrimmon, Hamden, CT: The Shoe String Press, 1975. On the web at: http://witloof.sjsu.edu/liss/wbm7.html Contents: 1. American Libraries Online 2. Website/Directory for Alternative Businesses 3. TREEFLESH ZINE 4. The Wonderful World of Trees [frames] 5. Scout Reports for Social Sciences and Business & Economics 6. DOE Information Bridge--DOE, GPO [Frames] 7. New Report Finds E-FOIA Efforts Lacking 8. New Issue of Cultural Resource Management - "Slavery and Resistance" 9. Discussion of Rice v. Paladin (1st Amendment & the Press) 10. Creating and Preserving Digital Resources - UK Study 11. Q & A on Smelly Patrons (includes article by Carol Reid) 12. El Cinco de Mayo (5 Mayo) - History 13. Reclaiming May Day - American History from an anarchist perspective ____________________________________________________________________ 1. American Libraries Online News stories appearing in the April 27 American Libraries Online <http:www.ala.org/alonline/> * Alabama Tornado Devastates Colony Library * Librarians Rescue Children from Nashville Tornado * Will Loudoun Trustees Deselect Internet Filters? * New OCLC Chief Named * Santa Clara Reverses No-Filter Stand * ACLU, Library Groups Fight New Mexico Cybersmut Law * Pearl Jam Gives Boost to Seattle School Library Fund * West Virginia faces June 30 Deadline to Spend $1.2 Million * Man Arrested for Mutilating Materials * British Library Unveils Electronic System That *Turns Pages* * Proposed San Diego Library Derided as Taxpayer Ripoff * Petition against Clinton Library Funding Fails American Libraries* Web site also features the latest *Internet Librarian* columns by Karen Schneider; AL*s *Career Leads* job ads; listings of conferences, continuing-education courses, exhibitions, and other events from AL*s *Datebook*; Tables of Contents for the current year; 1996 and 1997 indexes; and more. ____________________________________________________________________ 2. Website/Directory for Alternative Businesses ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 16:06:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Steve Habib Rose <habib[at]world.std.com> Reply-To: eon[at]world.std.com Hello, folks. I have established a website for the ONE: Organizing a New Economy project at http://www.eapps.com/eenterprise/thegarden/one.nsf This website provides links to Alternative Business Directories, Related Industry Associations, Websites, and Discussion Lists. I've added a few resources under each category, but am hoping that you will add your own through the easy to use Create a New Listing feature. Hey, it ain't exactly Yahoo, but it's a start! Based on feedback from a couple of people, I am probably not going to bother with creating a prototype business directory. There are lots of existing directories (including a huges GreenPages from Coop America). I think we will be best off working to help link up those directories, and perhaps gently pressure them to work together, and be more inclusive as appropriate (e.g. for "green" business directories to include minority owned businesses and vice versa). By the way, I have spoken to someone with the Black Dollar Days Task Force-- http://www.bddtf.com/ -- who is going to discuss with their Board the possibility of including progressive/environmentally oriented businesses in their upcoming business directory. Up till now, it has been strictly an African American Business Directory (for Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland), but they are thinking of including other minority owned businesses, and might be open to expanding in other ways. Yours, Steve Habib Rose Host of The Garden Web: http://www.thegarden.net Email: habib[at]thegarden.net ICQ: 7649155 ____________________________________________________________________ 3. TREEFLESH ZINE Treeflesh is 44 pages of anti-authoritarian thought and action with a strong focus on ecology. The premier issue will be out any day now and included articles on environmentalism in the northeast (USA), police brutality in Plymouth, MA, the victory gardens project, the east coast microbroadcasters conference, political prisoner info and much more. To receive a copy of THIS issue, send 4 stamps before June 1st to: Treeflesh c/o POB 869, Searsport, ME 04974 (NOTE: This address will be changing, mail will be forwarded). Writers needed for issue #2. Send articles, action reports, poetry, graphics, cartoons, etc to: Treeflesh, c/o POB 869, Searsport, ME 04974 ____________________________________________________________________ 4. The Wonderful World of Trees [frames] http://www.domtar.com/arbre/english/ French version: http://www.domtar.com/arbre/index.htm Domtar Inc., a Canadian paper company, in cooperation with the Commission scolaire des Patriotes and the ministere de l'Education du Quebec, provides this entertaining and informative K-12 learning resource about trees. Interested users should first consult the help file (under the question mark) for quick site navigation cues. Content may be accessed through either of the main frames or through the graphic navigation icons; the Teacher's Room offers suggestions for using the site in a curriculum, and the Student's Corner links directly to the main content of the site. Perhaps the easiest access to the site is through the folder icon, which provides an overall site map. Visitors can learn about a year in the life of a tree, and the uses and protection of trees; they can play interactive games, perform experiments, or consult an online glossary and a photo album of selected North American trees, their leaves and seeds. Note that the entire site can be downloaded for later use. [JS] The Scout Report: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/ ____________________________________________________________________ 5. Scout Reports for Social Sciences and Business & Economics Scout Report for Social Sciences http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/socsci/ Scout Report for Business & Economics http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/bus-econ/ The fifteenth issues of the Scout Reports for Social Sciences and Business & Economics are available. Each Report annotates over twenty new and newly-discovered Internet resources. The In the News section of the Social Science Report annotates seven resources on the proposed peace agreement in Northern Ireland. The Business & Economics Report's In the News section annotates ten resources related to bank mergers. [JS] The Scout Report: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/ ____________________________________________________________________ 6. DOE Information Bridge--DOE, GPO [Frames] http://www.doe.gov/bridge/ The US Department of Energy and Government Printing Office have combined to provide this resource, a searchable directory of "full text and bibliographic records of report literature produced by the DOE and DOE contractor research and development community." Reports are available since 1996 at this time and may be searched by three fields in the easy search and fourteen in the advanced search. Boolean AND/OR/NOT searching is available in the advanced search, and up to five fields can be connected this way (note that the Boolean connector choice is a drop down menu at the far right of the frame). Documents may be retrieved page by page or in their entirety (Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] page scans). One of the more useful features of the site is the ability to search within a document once documents are retrieved (bottom frame). Four page image viewers are available. Note that the legibility of publications varies by viewer and publication, and that the site is sometimes down form maintenance between 12:00 and 4:00 AM Eastern time. As the site grows, it will become a magnificent source of DOE sponsored research literature. [JS] The Scout Report: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/ ____________________________________________________________________ 7. New Report Finds E-FOIA Efforts Lacking A new report released on April 20 finds that a majority of federal agencies have failed to meet the requirements of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (EFOIA). EFOIA was enacted in 1996 and went into effect in October 1997. It was designed to make access to electronic government records easier. The study, produced by OMB Watch, found that of the 56 agencies responding to a survey, 23 percent "have no EFOIA presence," 73 percent have "varying degrees of compliance with the requirements," and as of January 31, 1998, "no agency had complied fully with EFOIA." OMB Watch found that the Office of Management and Budget, which is required to provide guidance under the law, has not provided adequate guidance or assistance to agencies during the implementation process. It also faulted Congress for failing to provide adequate funding to implement the Act. The report recommends that OMB provide better guidance and support, that agencies better organize their online records, and that an enforcement mechanism be created to identify and penalize agencies that are not complying with the Act. More information on EFOIA is available at: http://www.epic.org/open_government/ ____________________________________________________________________ 8. New Issue of Cultural Resource Management - Slavery and Resistance From: AFAS-L Cultural Resource Management, vol. 21, no. 4 (1998) entire issue focuses on slavery and resistance. The online issue is accessible at http://www.cr.nps.gov/crm/crm_curr.htm Dorothy Ann Washington dawashin[at]omni.cc.purdue.edu ____________________________________________________________________ 9. Discussion of Rice v. Paladin (1st Amendment & the Press) At 11:49 AM 4/22/98 -0400, Mosley, M. wrote: >I just read that the U.S.Supreme Court has let stand the 4th Circuit's >decision in Rice v. Paladin Enterprises, Inc.,128 F.3d 233. There, >the Court held that the publisher of a hit-man manual is not shielded >by the First Amendment from wrongful death liability to a murder >victim's survivors. > >Please read this case. I wonder if it will force publishers of "out >of the mainstream" materials to think eight or nine times about what >they publish. > >Please share reactions. >Madison Mosley Jr. >Associate Director >Charles A. Dana Law Library >Stetson University College of Law >1401 61st Street South >St. Petersburg, FL 33707 >Phone : 813.562.7827 > > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison, I very much share your concerns, particularly as the case was described in the New York Times. I think it has the potential to impact across many formats, and the language of the case sounded dangerously vague. the case itself is at: http://www.law.emory.edu/4circuit/nov97/962412.p.html "Paladin has stipulated to a set of facts which establish as a matter of law that the publisher is civilly liable for aiding and abetting James Perry in his triple murder..." A publisher, aiding and abeting a murder by publishing a book? Eesh, there went the First Amendment down the terlet! Hello, folks, can we discuss this? Karen G. Schneider | kgs[at]bluehighways.com http://www.bluehighways.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Marc Meola: As I understand it, the court ruled Paladin criminally aided and abetted because they marketed the book specifically to criminals, knew and intended for it to be used by criminals, and admitted to assisting the convicted assassin in a triple murder. The court said that speech that criminal aids and abets is not protected by the first amendment, and distinguished this from mere advocacy, which is. >From IFAN, Dec 1997 http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/actionnews_action12.html In rather extraordinary circumstances, Paladin stipulated that it specifically targeted the market of murderers, would-be murderers, and other criminals for sale of Hit Man. It further stipulated it had knowledge and it intended that the "how to" manual would be used by criminals and would-be criminals in the solicitation, planning, and commission of murder and murder for hire. It also stipulated that, through publishing and selling Hit Man, it "assisted" the convicted assassin in perpetrating the triple murder for which Rice and the other plaintiffs seek to hold the publisher liable. <cut> Long-established case law, the Court held, "provides that speech -- even speech by the press -- that constitutes criminal aiding and abetting does not enjoy the protection of the First Amendment." he Court distinguished this case from Brandenburg v. Ohio, the seminal case wherein the Supreme Court held that mere advocacy of lawlessness is protected speech under the First Amendment. Marc Meola Temple University Libraries - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - But in the real world, with this precedent, how do we distinguish between books that aid and abet, and those that do not? What kind of test will you have to apply to prove that you were not aiding and abeting? >Long-established case law, the Court held, "provides that speech -- >even >speech by the press -- that constitutes criminal aiding and >abetting does >not enjoy the protection of the First Amendment." This is really, really baggy. I think the reality is that this case opens up a giant hole through which censorship can worm its ugly self. Karen G. Schneider ____________________________________________________________________ 10. Creating and Preserving Digital Resources Digital Collections: strategic policy framework for creating and preserving digital resources Version 3.1, 24/4/98 First Public Consultation and Review Draft Neil Beagrie and Daniel Greenstein Arts and Humanities Data Service Executive The public consultation draft of this study is now available on the web at <http://ahds.ac.uk/manage/framework.htm>.A final publication draft is in progress. Comments and additions for incorporation are accordingly welcome and should be mailed to neil.beagrie[at]ahds.ac.uk and daniel.greenstein[at]ahds.ac.uk by 30 June 1998. Background The study is part of a programme funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)of the Higher Education sector in the UK, following a workshop on the Long-term Preservation of Electronic Materials held at Warwick in November 1995. The programme of studies is guided by the Digital Archiving Working Group, composed of members from UK Higher Education Libraries, Data Centres and Services; the British Library; the National Preservation Office; the Research Libraries Group; and the Publishers' Association. The Group reports to the Management Committee of the National Preservation Office in the UK. The programme is administered by the British Library Research and Innovation Centre. The study was based upon traditional desk-based research methods and on fifteen structured interviews. Structured interviews, conducted in person or over the phone or by email, involved senior data managers and specialists working in organisations both in the UK and overseas with experience in digitisation, data management or the long-term preservation of digital information resources. Interviewees were selected to provide a wide cross-section of experience of different media types, and experience in different sectors such as national museums, archives, and libraries; university computer centres and data archives;scientific data centres; and research libraries. Further review and consultation with professional organisations, specialists and institutions with an interest in its contents is now being sought by placing the draft on the AHDS webpages and inviting further input and comments via appropriate email-lists and correspondence. The study has been researched and written by Neil Beagrie (Collections and Standards Development Officer) and Daniel Greenstein(Director) of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) Executive. The AHDS is funded by JISC on behalf of the UK Higher Education community to collect, manage, preserve, and promote the re-use of scholarly digital resources. Further information on the AHDS and its constituent Service Providers is available from the AHDS website <http://ahds.ac.uk>. ____________________________________________________________________ 11. Q & A on Smelly Patrons (includes article by Carol Reid) > FYI. > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 11:34:30 -0500 > From: Jeff Coghill <jcoghill[at]acc.mcneese.edu> > To: member-forum[at]ala.org > Subject: Patrons > > I need some opinions here. We are a medium sized university library > with a public access computer lab. We have a few patrons who are do > not regularly take baths and who are prone to bouts of loud and > extended coughing. This does not seem to bother the students worker > staff much. However, other patrons have complained and asked us to > do something about these people. I am in a quandary. How do we work > with these people? Do you ask them to leave? To take a bath? I > want to preserve our good library environment and keep a positive > working relationship with everyone who comes into the lab. What to > do? What is the policy in your respective libraries? > > Jeff Coghill > McNeese State University > > This can be a problem and I'm not really sure what you should do, but I would venture to say ... nothing. You might want to acquaint yourself with the Kreimer v. Morristown decision and urge some tolerance and fellow-feeling on your patrons. I am attaching a column I wrote on this topic for my library newsletter a few years ago. Carol Reid Kreimer Versus Blamer The Kreimer case has ended ambiguously, on a note of acrid acrimony--the smell of money and moneylessness. (The homeless man won $80,000, plus another similar sum against the police, in an out-of-court settlement that the Morristown library opposed, as an appeal was pending, and for which they were dropped by Traveler's Insurance, resulting in considerable debt. While the first judge found in favor of Kreimer, and decided that the library's regulations were vague, overbroad, discriminatory, and unconstitutional, the second judge overturned that ruling. Kreimer gets to keep his money, the library their rules, and once again banning is banned. But only theoretically.) Smelling, in fact, would seem to be the biggest problem patrons can present. It wafts unmistakably through the legal and procedural deliberations, as does the amorphous Staring (sometimes construed as harassment, other times as daydreaming). One librarian writes of a relative who chose for the most part to live on the streets and frequented the public library. She says that "the problem of 'starers' had become a hot topic among public librarians in North Carolina." She asked her relative about his use of the library and he told her that the main branch had "too many people working in there. They don't have anything to do but sit at their desks and stare at you all day long." "I like," she says, "to remind myself of this story every time I start thinking that I have the one true perspective on something." Speaking of staring down one's fate, Richard Kreimer, homeless advocate and eager litigant, is not the only indigent to have found his calling at the library. Michael Brennan, formerly homeless, now a free-lance writer in Massachusetts, describes his transformation in a beautifully written essay in the January 1992 issue of _American Libraries_. "Ignoring (his) humiliation" (two nearby patrons rising and moving "downwind" of him), he determined that "the library was to be my school; the books my curriculum; and this after-work cramming my 'homeless work.'" Kreimer v. Morristown has prompted important discussion within the library community. Sanford Berman argues eloquently in _Women Library Workers Journal_ for the abolition of fines and fees; some libraries have done this in order to be less prohibitive to the poor. Two years ago the Minnesota Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table submitted a wide-ranging policy resolution to ALA concerning "Poor People's Services" and it was adopted. Last fall ALA's Intellectual Freedom Committee drafted "Guidelines for the development of policies regarding patron behavior and library usage." These two documents taken together illustrate as well as anything the different but compatible perspectives of SRRTs and IFRTs, both commendable efforts on the part of libraries to promote democracy. Although Judge Sarokin's decision was reversed, his advice remains sound: "If we wish to shield our eyes and noses from the homeless, we should revoke their condition, not their library cards." In the meantime, here are some other inspiring notions (from the American Library Association Fact Sheet on the Homeless). In Tulsa and Dallas, libraries have joined with social service agencies to help open shelters (with "a nonjudgmental atmosphere like that found in the library"), networked with other groups, and donated library materials. In Portland and Milwaukee, libraries received federal grants for reading rooms in homeless centers. A new library in Massachusetts will include a Acommunity room for the homeless, with easy chairs, coffee maker, TV, paperbacks, magazines, newspapers, and information on local homelessness organizations. San Francisco is now offering library cards to people without permanent addresses. They and the Philadelphia public library provide children at shelters with story hours and films. The New York Public Library operates five projects for the homeless. Some libraries produce information cards, listing agencies and phone numbers; others operate up-to-date central information and referral services. And many libraries have literacy programs which benefit the homeless. In these days of desperation, libraries that try to maintain the principles of equal access and empowerment will do the most to ultimately tip the scales of economic justice. As the saying goes, and goes for both rich and poor: "Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries." And compassion, imagination, and cooperation may get us through both. May-June 1992 ____________________________________________________________________ 12. El Cinco de Mayo (5 Mayo) - History From: Robert Vazquez <rvazquez[at]inconnect.com> Subject: El Cinco de Mayo - 5th of May, "El Cinco de Mayo," or fifth of May, commemorates the triumphant victory of the Mexican forces over the French interventionists in 1862. The highly outnumbered Mexican force s acquitted themselves in a valiant manner against the highly trained and equipped French Army led by Veteran General Charles Ferdinand Latrille de Lorencz. The over confident French Forces figured they would have an easy march from the port city of Veracruz to Mexico City. However, the Mexican forces commanded by General Ignacio Zaragosa and Brigadier General Diaz, outclassed and outmaneuvered the stunned stunned French Army which was humiliatingly defeated in the fortified city of Puebla. General Zaragosa, managed his troops with rare aplomp. The decisive manuever of the day was carried out by Brigadier General Diaz, who repelled a determined assault on Gen. Zaragosa's right flank. The dejected French invaders, many veterans of more glorio us days, retreated to the city of Orizaba. Hence, May 5 ---"El Cinco de Mayo,"--- was added to the National Calendar of Holidays in honor of this heroic Mexican Victory. About a year later, after receiving 30,000 reinforcements from France, the French forces led by General Elie Forey surrounded the city of Puebla and bombarded it into submission. However, the glorious "Cinco de Mayo," Mexican victory, marked the beginning of the end for the French Intervention in Mexico. "El Cinco de Mayo," is an official holiday in Mexico and is celebrated with a host of festivals, military parades, and formal and official gatherings of elite social and political leaders. In America, the 5th of May, is celebrated by Mexican Americans in a similar fashion, but without all the conventional formality. Hispanics commemorate this day with outdoor folk concerts, picnics, dances, youth parades, and other related festivals and ac tivities. "El Cinco de Mayo," offers Hispanics in the USA, the opportunity to touch base with their cultural heritage, and to take pride in one of Mexico's great military victories. "LaRed Latina" WWW site: http://www.inconnect.com/~rvazquez/sowest.html *********************************************************************** ____________________________________________________________________ 13. Reclaiming May Day - American History from an anarchist perspective RECLAIMING MAY DAY For those of us schooled here in the U.S. the International Workers holiday known as May Day has little or no significance in our lives. Many Americans think it has something to do with the change of seasons and the ancient festivals celebrating nature and the season of fertility and rebirth. To others it brings to mind giant military parades past the Kremlin and the various dictators and bureaucrats that ruled the Marxist states over the years. May Day somehow came to be a communist holiday in the minds of many Americans. In reality May Day is as American as mom and apple pie!! In 1886, a new labor organization was forming as the national center of the emerging labor movement; it was called the American Federation of Labor. It was led by men like Adolph Strasser, Peter Maguire and Samuel Gompers most including Gompers were socialists or marxists or both. The organization adopted the following to the preamble of it's constitution: "A struggle is going on in the nations of the world between the oppressors and the oppressed of all countries, a struggle between capital and labor which must grow in intensity from year to year and work disastrous results to the toiling millions of all nations if not combined for mutual protection and benefit."* Seeing class struggle and the strike as it's most powerful weapons the AFofL sought to use the demand for an eight hour work day as a means of organizing the working people of the country into a fighting force. At it's convention in 1884 it resolved that all labor should come together on May 1, 1886 to demand the establishment of the eight hour work day. Despite the fierce resistance of the industrialists, monopolists, the press and some of the contending forces within the blooming labor movement like Terence V Powderly of the Knights of Labor, the eight hour work day was supported by most working people. A popular song of the workers of the day reflects their sentiments: "We mean to make things over We're tired of toil for nought But bare enough to live on; never An hour for thought. We want to feel the sunshine: we Want to smell the flowers We're sure that God has willed it And we mean to have eight hours. We're summoning our forces from Shipyards, shop and mill Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest Eight hours for what we will!"** In Chicago two anarchist labor organizers worked feverishly to convince the unions to support the May 1 action. In the months leading up to the event Albert Parsons and August Spies addressed crowds of many thousands of working people, to favor the cause. In the process they made themselves the targets of the newspapers that had been calling for a "communist carcass for every lamp post,"* in their headlines and editorial pages. On the morning of May 1, 1886 a crowd of some 80,000 people lined the streets of the city of Chicago ready to march for the eight-hour day. Across the nation 340,000 had not gone to work, about 190,000 of them were on strike for the eight hour day.* In the back streets and alleys and on the roofs and in the armories the Chicago Citizens Committee, made up of the city's most affluent and powerful citizens, had an army made up of the police, Pinkertons, militia, national guard and private military companies. All fully armed and ready to put down what they thought would be a workers insurrection along the lines of the Paris Commune. An editorial in the morning newspaper the Mail read: "There are two dangerous ruffians at large in this city; two skulking cowards who are trying to create trouble. One of them is named Parsons; the other is named Spies. . . "Mark them for today. Keep them in view. Hold them personally responsible for any trouble that occurs. Make an example of them if trouble does occur."** All this preparation for violence was a waste of time; the parade took place without any trouble. After a final speech by Spies, festivities were over and May 1 came to a close. Two days later on Monday the strike was spreading, and some workers were gaining the eight hour day. The police no doubt frustrated by the lack of action on May 1 found some relief by clubbing the locked out workers at the Mc Cormick Harvester Company as they escorted scabs into the plant. At the end of the workday a large crowd of these workers were assembled outside the plant waiting for the scabs to come out. The police charged them with their guns drawn. The workers began to flee and the police opened fire shooting them in the back as they ran and killing six. Outraged by this act of barbarity, which he had witnessed, Spies organized a protest against police violence to be held the next day at Haymarket Square. The crowd for the demonstration was larger than expected and included the mayor of the city. After hearing Parsons declare at the beginning of his speech, "I am not here for the purpose of inciting anybody," he stopped at the near-by police station and informed the police captain John "Clubber" Bonfield, that the meeting was peaceful and he should dismiss the police that had been mobilized for the event. Despite the mayor's instructions the police marched on the crowd, which was disbanding because of a storm that was brewing. As Bonfield demanded the peaceful assembly disperse peacefully someone threw a bomb. One officer was killed outright and seven others were fatally wounded in the chaos that insued as the police fired their weapons indiscriminately and clubbed anyone within reach. The nations press became hysterical, declaring that, "it made no difference whether Parsons, Spies, or Fielden had or had not thrown the bomb. They should be hanged for their political views, for their words and general activities and if more trouble makers were given to the hangman so much the better."* As only two of the indicted men were present and both Schwab and Fielden were on the wagon in full view of the police and the crowd, they were tried for exactly those reasons, their political beliefs, associations and their speech. That all of these are freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution made no difference. In the middle of a virtual police reign of terror where the foreign born and union leaders were randomly arrested and tortured in cities across the country, homes were invaded and doors broken in, and the presses of foreign newspapers were smashed, eight men were indicted. All avowed anarchists, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Samuel Fielden Michael Schwab, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Louis Lingg, and Oscar Neebe would stand trial for conspiracy to murder Mathias J. Degan, the police officer that was slain when the bomb was thrown at the Haymarket. Convicted by a packed jury, perjured testimony, a judge determined to hang, the verdict was a mere formality. Oscar Neebe received fifteen years, all the others were sentenced to death. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to examine the case and the execution date was set for November 11, 1887. The day before the execution Governor Oglesby commuted the death sentences of Fielden and Schwab. The night before the executions Louis Lingg committed suicide using a dynamite cartridge which he placed in his mouth and lit the fuse. Dynamite was the thing that Lingg was most closely associated. As an anarchist he did not recognize the right of the state to take his life. On November 11, 1887, known the world over as Black Friday by anarchists, Parsons, Spies, Fischer and Engles stood on the gallows. From beneath his hood Spies spoke, "The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today." "Hurrah for Anarchy!" Fischer cried out. "Hurrah for Anarchy cried Engles even louder. "This is the happiest moment of my life!" said Fischer. Parsons asked "Will I be allowed to speak, O men of America? Let me speak Sheriff Matson! Let the voice of the people be heard. O---."* The trap doors were sprung and labors greatest martyrs were history. In 1888 the American Federation of Labor set May 1, 1889 as the day of action for the eight-hour day. The following year in Paris the newly formed International Association of Working People, voted to support the eight hour day struggle and set May 1st 1890 to show their support. On that day workers all over Europe and America demonstrated by holding meetings and parades to support the eight-hour workday. Thus was born the International May Day, celebrated all over the world by working people to this day. On June 26, 1893, the Governor of the state of Illinois, John Peter Atgeld, granted an unconditional pardon to Fielden, Schwab and Neeb because they had been wrongfully convicted and were innocent. In a statement he made along with the pardon the governor made clear his feelings concerning the trial. "He,denounced the trial in all its aspects-from the selection of the jurors and the testimony of the witnesses to the behavior of the judge and the prosecutor- as a shameless travesty of justice."*** Most of us educated in the schools of this country do not learn about May Day and it's origins. Even in the colleges and universities labor history is a rarity. People in this country have been given a negative image of Labor Unions and the Unions have long ago abandoned the struggle to replace the system of wage slavery. More than one hundred years since the first May Day the length of the working day is still eight hours. All the social programs won through the struggles of working people are now being taken away and the nations power and wealth is more concentrated than ever before. When Ronald Reagan broke the Air Traffic Controllers Union, the labor unions were unwilling or unable to call a general strike. This demonstrated the weakness of the nationalist oriented business unionism that was started by the AFof L founder Samuel Gompers, a believer in Craft Unionism. This May Day is a Friday, take the day off ask some of your friends at work to do the same. Make a day of it do something fun and most important talk about May Day and the Haymarket Tragedy. If you have children find out what is being taught about labor history in their textbooks and in school. Tell them about May Day encourage them to bring it up in class. Talk to your friends about having a four-hour workday without any reduction in pay. It would be a great way to start to redistribute some of the wealth. Talk to your friends about the need for strong labor organizations that can resist the corporations, which threaten to destroy the entire planet in their greed driven search for profit. Lets reclaim May Day for all working people and let us not forget the struggle and sacrifice of our American labor heroes, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Louis Ling and Oscar Neeb. HURRAH FOR ANARCHY!! HAPPY MAY DAY!! Jay Brophy *Labors Untold Story by Richard O. Boyer & Herbert M. Morais ISBN NUMBER -0-916180-01-8 **----ibid. ***The Haymarket Tragedy by Paul Avert ISBN NUMBER 0-691-04711-1 ____________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ | | | # # ##### ##### ## ##### # # | | # # # # # # # # # # # # | | # # ##### # # # # # # # | | # # # # ##### ###### ##### # | | # # # # # # # # # # # | | ###### # ##### # # # # # # # | | | | | | # # # # #### ###### | | # # # # # # # | | # # # # # ##### | | # # # # # # | | # # # # # # # # | | #### #### # #### ###### | | | | | | http://home.earthlink.net/~rlitwin/juice/ | |__________________________________________________________|
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