[lbo-talk] "Latterday Wobbly Types" and "An Injury to One"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

2005 marks the centenary of the Industrial Workers of the World.  The  
IWW has many heroes and martyrs who made indelible marks on American  
history, and Frank Little, who was murdered on August 1, 1917, is one  
of them.  Today, MRZine.org commemorates the spirit of Frank Little  
and other Wobblies with articles by two of the finest historians on  
the American left today (as well as a still from Travis Wilkerson's  
"An Injury to One"):

Paul Buhle, "Latterday Wobbly Types: Remembering Stan Weir," <http:// 
mrzine.monthlyreview.org/buhle010805.html>

Peter Rachleff, "An Injury to One: A Film by Travis Wilkerson,"  
<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/rachleff010805.html>

As economy becomes ever more globalized, immigrant workers constitute  
an increasing proportion of the workforce in the United States (e.g.,  
"In recent years, 20 percent of the workers joining the U.S. labor  
force nationwide have been Mexican born" [Richard D. Vogel, "Border  
Vigilantes and Mass Migration," <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/ 
vogel220705.html>]), and US organized labor stands at a crossroads,  
we need Wobbliness more than ever.

Peter's article mentions the IWW Centennial Tour <http:// 
www.wobblyshow.org/>, a traveling IWW exhibit that Paul and Derek  
Seidman helped put together.  I included links to wobblyshow.org in  
both articles.  Be sure to check it out -- here's the tour schedule:  
<http://www.wobblyshow.org/tour.php>.

Peter's article, in addition to discussing Travis Wilkerson's "An  
Injury to One," one of the most moving documentaries ever made (and  
Brechtian, too), includes text of Naomi Wallace's poem about Frank  
LIttle.  I adore her!

The next article by Paul, a review of Richard Bermack's The Front  
Lines of Social Change: Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade" (cf.  
<http://www.rb68.com/frontlines/index.htm> and <http:// 
www.heydaybooks.com/public/books/flsc.html>), should come out shortly.

Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://montages.blogspot.com>
<http://monthlyreview.org>
<http://mrzine.org>
* Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/mahmoud- 
ahmadinejads-face.html>;  <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/chvez- 
congratulates-ahmadinejad.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/ 
2005/06/iranian-working-class-rejects.html>