posts tagged asculture

Sherwood: The Crimes of Thatcher’s War

by on January 12, 2023

Is there life after coal, what future for the collier?

The scab and the hardliner both, wear the blue scars of the miner

Rising up now from the earth, we’re branded and we’re blinded

The sunlight and the dole queue boast, the blue scars of the miner

Is there anything but drink, drugs and last reminders

A single tear drop rolling down, the blue scars of the miner

–Lyrics from the “Blue Scars of the Miner,” The Freakons, 2022.

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Immigrant Societies and Union Culture

by on December 2, 2021

Bob Rossi is a long-time member of the Slovenska Narodna Podporna Jednota, (SNPJ) who has interviewed and corresponded with dozens of SNPJ members in writing a history of the 1920s coalfield culture and union battles. This post is derived from a presentation he gave to SNPJ Lodge #371 in Cle Elum, Washington in September.

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Betrayal: A Critical View of the Government Takeover of the Teamsters

by on November 4, 2021

Betrayal: When the Government Took Over the Teamsters Union, a recent (2019) documentary by George Bogdanich, asks critical questions about the decades long oversight of the Teamsters by the federal government.  The documentary argues that the 1989 consent decree which put in place the Independent Review Board (IRB) until 2020 was a dramatic case of federal overreach, gutted strong locals, violated free speech and was a self-interested and self-perpetuating power and money machine for the law firms hired to run the board.

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Wishbone of The Good Lord Bird: Historical Fiction and Poetic Truth

by on November 27, 2020

Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird uses the events around John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry to weave a fictional tale incorporating some basic insights and arguments about the nature of race in America.  It did its most impressive work in presenting the wide spectrum of diverse African American responses to slavery and, in the process, offering a better sense of their humanity. 

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Class, Capitalism, and Coronovirus at Disney’s Newest Attraction

by on March 31, 2020

Last week the Coronavirus forced Disney to announce that its American parks are now closed indefinitely, resulting in the longest interruptions of any kind since they opened in 1955 (Disneyland) and 1965 (Walt Disney World). Disney has been on my mind because I made my first ever visit to Walt Disney World in Orlando on January 25th of this year, just as the first COVID 19 cases were being identified in the US.

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