Prairie Fire Journal

The Pullman Strike of 1894 brought the fledgling American Railway Union (ARU) and its leaders, including Eugene V. Debs, into a confrontation that would end in the union's destruction--but not before the workers nearly brought the combined railroad companies to their knees. The conflict began in the town of Pullman, Illinois on May 11 when approximately 3,000 employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company began a wildcat strike in response to recent reductions in wages, bringing railroad traffic west of Chicago to a halt.

The Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages five times – 30 to 70 percent – between September and March. The Company was based in the town of Pullman, Illinois (since 1889 a part of the city of Chicago), named after its owner, millionaire George Pullman. The town of Pullman was his "utopia." He owned the land, homes and stores. Workers had to live in his homes and buy from his stores, thereby ensuring virtually all wages returned directly back into his pockets.

Upon Pullman cutting wages, the workers suffered greatly from this setup as rent and product prices remained the same. The workers formed a committee to express their grievances resulting in three of its members being laid off, resulting in a full stop in production on May 11, 1894. In June, the ARU convened in Chicago to discuss the ongoing Pullman Strike. On June 21, the ARU voted to join in solidarity with the strikers and boycotted Pullman cars.

ARU workers refused to handle trains with Pullman cars and the boycott became a great success, especially along the transcontinental lines going west of Chicago. The strike and boycott grew to involve some 260,000 workers in 27 states at its peak. It was one of the greatest labor actions ever to take place in the the United States.

In response, Pullman ordered Pullman cars be attached to U.S. mail cars creating a backup of the postal service and bringing in the Federal Government. Under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, which ruled it illegal for any business combination to restrain trade or commerce, an injunction was issued on July 2 enjoining the ARU leadership from "compelling or inducing by threats, intimidation, persuasion, force or violence, railway employees to refuse or fail to perform their duties." The next day President Cleveland ordered 20,000 federal troops to crush the strike and run the railways.

Another example of American workers' historical struggle for the right to be human, the power of worker solidarity, and how the government has used extreme violence on behalf of the corporations in response to that solidarity in order to keep workers oppressed.

The Pullman Strike of 1894.

Mexicans come to America because Mexico is a corrupt, wretched, and violent place to live. But then some have the audacity to insist that American students refrain from wearing American flags in an American high school on Cinco de Mayo because that would be considered offensive to the Mexican students.

Administrators at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, near Sacramento, California, banned students from wearing American flags or red, white, and blue clothing on Cinco de Mayo day last Wednesday. The reason being that this would be disrespectful to Mexican students celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Of course, Mexican flags were okay to wear.

Five students were sent home after defying the ban. When did we cede California or any other part of the southwestern United States to Mexico? Did administrators also take down the American flag flying in front of the school?

A Mexican student said, "I think they (the five banned students) should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day. We don't deserve to get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."

This is America, not Mexico. If you don't like people wearing American flags on Cinco de Mayo, then perhaps you're living on the wrong side of the border. In fact, most of Mexico doesn't even really celebrate Cinco de Mayo. In the U.S., it has become mainly a celebration of Mexican heritage. And there's nothing wrong with that ... until you go demanding that people abstain from wearing the flag of the very nation that has given you opportunities you would never have otherwise had in that wretched homeland from which so many Mexicans now flee.

I'm not a racist or xenophobe. I grew up in a large ethnically-diverse metropolitan area and saw all kinds of ethnic celebrations, but I never saw or heard about any of them banning the American flag on their day of celebration or considering the flying of it on that day to be offensive. You might have seen flags from their homeland, but you also saw American flags as well. They were proud of their heritage, but they were even more proud to live in the greatest nation on earth.

The Obama Administration's analysis of the rise in the official April unemployment rate to 9.9 percent is just plain bullshit. There's no other way to describe it.

Instead of addressing the fundamental structural flaws and inequalities of capitalism that continue to inflict global economic destruction on the working class, Obama is more interested in playing with numbers. Just make the number look good and all will be well.

According to the bizarre reasoning being given by Obama for the rise in April unemployment, the increase wasn't due to a loss of jobs, it was due to some of the millions of discouraged workers returning to the job search. But where did these unemployed workers come from? Did they not lose jobs?

Using Obama's logic, if more unemployed workers would just give up looking for a job, there would be a significant decrease in the official unemployment rate and he could say "happy days are here again."

Obama believes that all he has to do is make the number look right and he can proclaim economic recovery. Never mind that millions of workers are still unemployed, just so long as they don't show up in the official statistics. Shame on you Obama!

Republicans aren't the only ones peddling fertilizer.

Connecticut's Zionist Senator Joe Lieberman has proposed legislation that would strip American citizens of their citizenship if the government suspects that they are associating with a terrorist organization. Lieberman wants Americans stripped of their citizenship, not for being found guilty of a terrorist act, but on the mere suspicion of being associated with an alleged terrorist group.

I think one of the first people who should be stripped of their citizenship under this proposed law is none other than Joe Lieberman himself. You see, Joe is a supporter of a Zionist terrorist state that uses the horror of the holocaust to justify it's own war crimes and Nazi-style atrocities committed against the Palestinian people.

Along with revoking Joe's citizenship, maybe the State Department should also more closely scrutinize those American Jews who hold dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship. That is a no-no that the founders of this country frowned upon. You're either a citizen of the United States or you're not. You cannot be a citizen of the Zionist terrorist state and be an American citizen at the same time. And if you are an American citizen supporting the Zionist terrorist state, you will just have to accompany Joe as he exits the United States for his new home in Israel.

Zionist terrorist sympathizer
Joe Lieberman.

Many unemployed Texans have found their way to this blog in search of information about unemployment benefit extensions available to them. Below is a C/P of the latest information available in pdf format at the Texas Workforce Commission website:

Help for UI Claimants Running Out of Benefits
We know many Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants have or will soon run out of benefits and have contacted the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) to ask about additional assistance. Some claimants have heard news reports about Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier 4 benefits. In order for a state to qualify for Tier 4 benefits, its unemployment rate must reach 8.5%.

How would Texas Qualify for Tier 4 Benefits?
As of April 26, 2010, the average three-month unemployment rate in Texas is 8.2%. Should Texas reach 8.5% and become eligible for EUC Tier 4 benefits, we will immediately notify all potentially eligible claimants by mail.
Be sure your address is up to date. You can update your address by logging on to Unemployment Benefits Services and selecting Contact Information from the Change My Profile menu.

Can I Get Other Benefits?
If you have received all of your regular state UI, state Extended Benefits (EB ), and EUC claims for Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 benefits, no further UI benefits are available to you. After EUC Tier 1, we automatically update your claim with the additional benefits when you qualify for the next Tier. If you think you might still qualify for benefits and have not heard from TWC, you can find more information about the benefit extensions by visiting http://www.twc.state.tx.us/ui/bnfts/benefit_extensions.pdf.

Where Else Can I Get Help?
If you have exhausted all benefits, you may be able to find help at the following:
* Call the 2-1-1 system to learn more about human services available in your community, such as food banks, rent, and utility assistance, health insurance programs, medical information lines, Meals on Wheels, home health care, and more. You can contact a specialist 24 hours a day by calling the number 211 or visiting www.211texas.org.
* Your Workforce Solutions office can help with job search and training opportunities. Enter your ZIP code to locate the offices in your area. You may also find extensive job information at www.texasworkforce.org. Click on Job Seekers and Employees.
* The U.S. Department of Labor put together a list of employment Web sites for workers over age 50. You may want to add these sites to those you regularly check for job leads:
o National Older Worker Career Center
o Your Encore www.nowcc.org
o Seniors4Hire www.yourencore.com
www.seniors4hire.org
o Retired Brains
www.retiredbrains.com
o Corporate Gray corporate-gray.com
o Jobs 4.0 jobs4point0.com

Will Congress Extend Benefits Again?
For individuals who have not exhausted all benefit extensions, Congress is currently debating several deadlines. HR 4851 would extend the current emergency programs through May 5, 2010. HR 3404 and S 1647, would allow claimants to qualify for EUC and EB through the end of 2010, but neither bill adds additional weeks of benefits for applicants who have exhausted all benefit extensions.
You may follow the debate and progress of the bills moving through Congress on C-SPAN or at www.thomas.gov.

According to an article yesterday on cbc.ca, A spokesperson for Cameron International Corp., the Houston company that supplied the blowout preventer to the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded April 20, said Friday that he was unable to explain exactly how the equipment works.

Too bad OSHA doesn't enforce workplace safety regulations as well as it builds websites. Here's where you can go on the agency's website to learn about the different types of oil and gas well blowout preventers (BOPs) and their basic functions.

Maybe Cameron International should direct their spokespersons to the OSHA website so they have a clue about what they're supposed to know.

I discovered an excellent educational resource for anybody interested in learning about the safety requirements and hazards associated with oil and gas well drilling. OSHA's Oil and Gas Well Drilling and Servicing eTool will allow you to "explore the potential hazards of this industry." Very well organized tab pages put all the info you need to know right at your fingertips.

Since the late 1880s, May 1st has been recognized around the world as International Workers Day. It commemorates a dark day in American worker history when on May 1, 1886, saboteurs, machine guns and state lynchings were turned loose against workers protesting for the eight-hour workday. After the First Communist International adopted the date as their Labor Day in 1889, the United States moved its labor day to the first Monday in September. Thus obliterating the historical significance of the date in relation to the American labor movement.

In essence, May Day is a day to celebrate, reflect upon, and promote the right to be human. That all persons, regardless of their job status, social status, or immigration status are entitled to be treated with dignity. Many of the workers and their families who rallied for the eight-hour workday back in 1886 were recent immigrants. Then, as now, American business exploited immigrant labor, with the blessings of many of the American people, to do the jobs native-born Americans considered beneath them. As long as they remained docile and subserviant to their menial positions, all was well. But when they tried to raise their living standards, then they became radicals, malcontents, and illegals.

Robert F. Kennedy once said:

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

After 123 years of often bloody struggle, the same old police-state repressions, workplace oppressions, and xenophobic scapegoating continue to be part of the American landscape. The struggle continues! Workers of the world unite! We shall prevail!

The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today. ---August Spies

Not too long ago, the conservative governors of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas were railing against Big Washington Government. They berated the federal government as being socialist, incompetent and intrusive. They threatened to secede from the Union ... again. Texas Governor Rick Perry ran anti-Washington ads during his primary campaign telling folks the federal government oughtta not mess with Texas.

Now, today, these same three stooges are facing a major ecological catastrophe largely of their own making. And who are they turning to in their last desperate hours to divert disaster? THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! That albatross that they claim can't do healthcare or anything else right. Suddenly Big Government is a good thing when it's time to clean up the shitty mess created by Big Oil and supported by conservative ideology.

Well I got news for you, Bobby Jindal. There's nothing in the Constitution that says the United States military or any other part of the federal government is required to clean up the mess created by BP. Your state is a big supporter of offshore drilling, so if BP needs additional assistance, send out the Louisiana Navy to lend a hand. Why do you think the taxpayers in the rest of the country should pay for it? Exercise your states rights instead of burdening the rest of us. If you can't do it alone, ask Texas or Mississippi for help.

Just a week ago, the world was celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. In the U.S., it was noted that, environmentally, things had significantly improved in those 40 years. At least the Cuyahoga River doesn't burn anymore.

It's true, we no longer have burning rivers in America, but today the Coast Guard is lighting the Gulf of Mexico on fire in a vain attempt to stop tens of thousands of barrels of oil from wrecking ecological devastation to parts of the Gulf Coast.

The oil has been gushing from an offshore oil well operated by BP that exploded April 20, and sank two days later on Earth Day. Eleven workers are presumed dead. This is not the first time BP workers have been killed in fiery explosions. Without better government oversight of the petroleum industry, it will happen again.

In the meantime, the families of 29 dead West Virginia coal miners try to pick up their lives after burying their loved ones. That coal mine, operated by Massey Energy, was cited for over 50 major safety violations in a single year. Yet, the government allowed it to continue operation until the day it blew up and killed those miners.

Two miners were killed Wednesday when the roof collapsed in a Kentucky coal mine operated by Alliance Resource Partners. According to the AP, U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration records show the mine was cited 840 times by federal inspectors for safety violations since January 2009, and 11 times closure orders were issued. At least six times this year, the mine was cited for having insufficient roof supports. Yet, the government allowed it to continue opeartion until the day it collapsed and buried those two miners.

Together with all this, we had the spectacle this week of Congress grilling Goldman Sachs execs about their crooked gambling house that robbed millions of Americans. Goldman's doesn't think it did anything wrong. They just did what Congress let them do. Same with the coal companies. Same with the oil companies.

There's a pattern here, and it is this: Congress is in the pockets of the corporations, the bankers, and the big energy companies. Environmental destruction, economic devastation, and deadly workplaces are all linked together. Nothing will change until the people elect a Congress that has not been bought and paid for by big business.