Raining On History #26
Let's have a moment of silence to listen to the pitter-patter of raindrops and reflect on the poor citizens of Seattle circa 1953. That year holds the record for continuous days of measurable rainfall in Seattle (and thus provides the tenuous basis of this series) but 1953 also witnessed 94 continuous days of zero measurable publication of the Seattle Times. Writers and editors for that paper went on strike on July 16 to protest low wages. At that time a Seattle Times editor pulled down a cool $110 a week.
Ninety-four days of silence from the Times later and the writers had a 6% raise and a shortened week, thank you very much American Newspaper Guild, Local 82. Ah, organized labor...
Your personal memories of 1953 are likely shadowed by the evil menace of communism. Actually, if you have personal memories of 1953 you're probably not reading this, but if you had memories of that year the chances are high that they would be shadowed by the evil menace of communism. Communism, you might have believed if you were alive in 1953, is the natural endpoint of organized labor. We've come a long way. (That or the Soviet Union collapsed and we haven't budged an inch. Either way!) Seattlest would like to offer this document as a glimpse into the intrigue of those times. It's a report from Seattle to the Fourth International signed, "Comradely, George Flint."
In my opinion the underlying cause for the complete change of opinions on the part of Bud and Sylvia lies in their spinelessness in whatever milieu they happened to be. Sylvia on Monday night told me that she first realized how ridiculous Trotskyism was when we urged her, when she was on the grievance committee in her shop, to talk to workers in the shop about socialism and the party. We didn't urge her to this everywhere and indiscriminately, but to single out those who would be more receptive and break down their prejudices against socialism and against the party. This she never did. She enthusiastically supported the Cochranite line of directing our propaganda to the politicals (that is, the Stalinists) and within that milieu didn't want to be 'ridiculous' either.
