online exclusive: sparrow on union organizers

April 3rd, 2009 by roseanne Posted in ascent

Sparrow, long-time ascent contributor and one of the world’s most original thinkers, opens up the idea of “union” beyond yoga…

sparrow!

My father was a union organizer for the UE (Union of Electrical Workers). He met my mother while he was organizing the RCA plant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1947. My mother first noticed my father as they were taking a bus to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to protest the Taft-Hartley Act. This law prohibited wildcat strikes, secondary boycotts and closed shops. In short, it weakened American labor. On her way to the bus, my mother saw my father. “I saw Jack crossing the street,” she told me. “He’s very tall, had a short raincoat on, and he looked like his pants weren’t long enough!” She laughed.

My parents, now 90 and 85, remain committed to unions. My mother still belongs to the UFT (United Federation of Teachers).

The noblest American union was the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). They were strong a hundred years ago, until they were broken by the Palmer Raids at the beginning of World War I. (One of the reasons nations have wars is to silence unions.) The members of the IWW were “Wobblies,” an insult they adopted as their name. Wobblies believed in the One Big Union, which sounds like a metaphysical concept — and it is. Here are some lines from the Wobblies’ songbook, Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent, expressing the theory. It’s from “Stand Up! Ye Workers” by Ethel Comer (to the tune of “Stand Up For Jesus”):

Stand up! Stand up! Ye workers;
Stand up in every land.
Unite, and fight for freedom,
In One Big Union grand.
Put on the workers’ armor,
Which is the card of Red,
Then all the greedy tyrants
Will have to earn their bread.

The union movement has one simple idea. The workers of the earth — those who plant the seeds, build the walls, wash the trucks — create earthly wealth. All gold and power should belong to them. No woman should fear her boss, no man flinch at the sight of his foreman. The Chief Executive Officers and the Chief Financial Officers should take orders from the workers, not fly in private jets.

We honor the “heroes” of war, who shoot guns and throw grenades to attack the enemy. But what of the heroes of labor, who wake each day as the sun rises, and rise on sore knees to return to work? Great soldiers simply kill, while great workers create.

We poets and choreographers live off of the workers’ surplus. It is only right that we praise them.

The Industrial Workers of the World still exists, in Cincinnati – and you can join! Find them on the World Wide Web at www.iww.org or write: Industrial Workers of the World, P.O. Box 23085, Cincinnati, OH 45223.

Sparrow lives in a suburb of New York City, with his wife and daughter. He plays ocarina in the anti-snorkeling band Foamola: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDUvCICER1Y Sometimes, Sparrow runs for President: www.sparrowforprez.com Sparrow is a member of the Ananda Marga Society: www. anandamarga.org

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