Resurrection—Some Vintage Murfin Verse for the Vernal Equinox

A newspaper photo in a local weekly paper taken at my job as head custodian of Briargate School in Cary, Illinois when my collection We Build Temples in the Heart was published in 2004.

It was a bitter and blustery day in McHenry County almost 25 years ago when I was walking to the train station to get to work in the next town the line early one cold equinox morning and I was struck with this which was included in my 2004 Skinner House collection We Build Temples in the Heart.

 Resurrection 

     From that frigid morning

                when the fog of humanity

                 hangs palpable before our faces 

                 and that fat red sun 

                 pops before our eyes at the 

                far end of the reaching blacktop, 

    then, when from the highest, barest twig the cardinal sings 

              his whistle in the graveyard, 

             our hearts know resurrection and murmur— 

                 Yes, Yes. 

    We are a cold people in a cold land, 

             and every creeping inch of yellow willow hair, 

             every footprint in newly giving earth, 

             every ratchet tap of woodpecker on lifeless wood 

             resonates with resurrection and nods recollection. 

    It is no wonder that in hot lands,

            perpetual in green, 

           moist and ever fertile, 

          the natives snickered at tales of a hanging god, 

          turned on naked heels, 

          and ran to sensible deities who would not 

          abandon them only to hound them on return 

          with foolish promises. 

    But here, at turning time, 

          our arctic hearts surrender 

          to the sureness of the resurrection that surrounds us, 

          and in the echo of this miracle 

          understand redemption too, 

                in the merciful thaw 

                of our glacial souls. 

    —Patrick Murfin 

Autographed copies are still available from the author for $8.00.  Facebook message me or email me at pmurfin@sbcglobal.net for details.

Quick Note on the Illinois Democratic Party Primary.

Juliana Stratton topped the field for the U.S. Senate and was the big winner Tuesday night.  But so was Governor J.B. Pritzker whose endorsements seem to have been critical in down ballot races as well.  With an eye on a Presidential bid, he has become the undisputed master of a united Democratic Party perhaps surpassing the power of Richard J. Dailey and Michael Madigan.  The results are a (moderately) progressive united party likely to swamp Republicans in the fall.  That trend continues down to McHenry County which has gone from raging MAGA red to blue tinged lilac and may erupt plum in November.  More out-there progressives did well, too, as evidenced by youthful firebrand Kat Abughazaleh who finished a very strong second in the 9th Congressional District.  Now comes the fight to make sure the General Election is honestly and freely conducted and to be ready to respond to possible attempts to restrict or cancel it.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs Sparked British and Australian Trade Unionism

Farm laborers from Dorset may have met under a tree to swear a secret oath to create a combination to raise wages and protect tenants.

The fate of six farm laborers in Dorset and the huge protest and movement that their brutal transportation to Australia stirred are touchstones to the British labor movement.  The Tolpuddle Martyrs are widely celebrated in England as well as in the former penal colony where they were sent and in far off Canada.  Most Americans have never heard of them.  We aim to rectify that.

In 1833 George Loveless, a Methodist lay preacher, and a respected leader among the farm laborers around the village of Tolpuddle in southern England, called a few of his mates together. Legend has it that six of them met under a sycamore tree.  Others say that they squeezed into the tiny hovel of Thomas Standfield.  They had serious business to attend to.

Landlords in the area were putting the arm on their laborers and tenants.  Unlike areas closer to London or the grimy cities of the rapidly industrializing north, farmers in Dorset did not have to keep up wages to compete with the lure of the cities and factory jobs.  In addition, modest changes to age old farming practices were reducing the number of laborers needed on the farms and estates.  Conditions were ripe for wage cutting. 

Local wages had been steady at 10 schillings a week—hardly a fortune, but enough to barely feed and clothe a family.  Landowners had already cut that to 7 and had announced a second cut to 6 was imminent.   No reductions in the rent demanded for their cottages were proposed.

Earlier, in 1830, farm workers had responded to such cuts and the new farm equipment that made them possible with the Swing Rebellion—a Luddite like uprising in which laborers rioted, attacking and burning equipment like threshing machines and menacing landlords.  Frightened farmers suspended their cuts, or sometimes even gave wage boosts, but waited for authorities to act. 

And act they did.  Militia and Army units swept the county rounding up hundreds of suspects.  At trial several were sentenced to hang, although in the end only a handful were swung in public as an object lesson, the rest were torn from their families and transported to Australia.  Conditions returned to what they were before the protests—or worse.

Loveless and his friends knew that violence and disorganized riot was not the answer.  They had to find new ways of organizing a protest.  They had some reasons for hope.  The Combination Acts, passed in 1799 at the height of panic about the possible spread of revolution from France to the English working and agrarian classes and which had outlawed combinations to obtain better wages and working conditions, had been repealed in 1824 and’25.  A modest trade union movement was developing, not without severe opposition, in among skilled tradesmen in cities and in the mines.

Moreover, the Reform Act, passed earlier in 1832, had finally extended the franchise to some without yet granting universal male suffrage.  It was not enough by half, but the Dorset men felt that it might foretell a more liberal age.

Despite these reasons for optimism, the fate of the Swing Rebellion left them no illusions about the dangers of their undertaking.  So that when they agreed to form the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers they did so swearing an oath of secrecy.

Local landlords began to hear certain rumors.  As planting season neared men were refusing to work for less than the old 10 schillings standard.

One landlord, James Frampton, petitioned to Lord Melbourne, the Whig Home Minister for relief.  It was fast in coming.  On February 24, 1834 Loveless and the other men were arrested as they left their homes.  Their families would not see them for a long time.

 Five of the six accused conspirators.

In no time at all they were hauled before an unsympathetic Judge Baron John Williams.  Loveless, Stanfield, James Brine, James Hammett, and James Loveless, George’s brother were charged under an obscure law also dating to the late 18th Century which made the swearing of secret oaths to each other illegal.  On March 18, subsequently celebrated as Tolpuddle Martyrs Day, they were found guilty and sentenced to 7 years transportation to Australia—a sentence few men ever returned from.

Despite rising protests from working people across England, all of the men were quickly bundled off to the ships that carried them away.

From his cell before being shipped out George Loveless had scribbled a note on a scrap of paper that was soon printed all over England:

God is our guide! from field, from wave,

From plough, from anvil, and from loom;

We come, our country’s rights to save,

And speak a tyrant faction’s doom:

We raise the watch-word liberty;

We will, we will, we will be free!

Tens of thousands rallied on Copenhagen Fields near King's Cross, London organized by the Central Committee of the Metropolitan Trade Unions and marched through London to Kennington Common with a wagon carrying a petition with over 200,000 signatures for the remission of the  Tolpuddle Martyrs's sentences.

Inspired by those words an unprecedented protest arose across the country.  More than 80,000 signed petitions to Lord Melbourne himself in April.  And in London more than 25 thousand assembled for the largest public demonstration of its kind ever held in protest to a government action.  In addition to the labor movement, the reform press took up the protest as did the liberal wing of Melbourne’s own Whig party.

In 1836 by then Prime Minister Melbourne’s new Home Secretary Lord John Russell commuted the sentences of all but Hammett who had a previous minor conviction.  Four of the men arrived back in England at Plymouth.  A plaque next to the Mayflower Steps commemorates their return.

Hammett was released a year later and returned to Tolpuddle, where he lived a long life in poverty and want.  He died in the Dorchester workhouse in 1891. 

Tolpuddle Martyrs Monument and cottages in London, Ontario.

The other men realized they could not support their families back home where no landlord would hire them.  They moved together for a time to Essex and then with the help of funds subscribed for their relief, immigrated together to London, Ontario, Canada.  They were greeted in their new home as heroes and are still commemorated there today with a monument and an affordable housing co-op / trade union complex named after them.

Back home, the Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum preserves their story and their deep connection to the trade union movement.  A monument was erected to them in 1934 on the centennial of their sentence and a new statue installed before the museum in 2001.

There are also modest monuments in Australia.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival is held annually in Tolpuddle, usually in the third week of July, organized by the National Union of Agricultural Workers (recently amalgamated with the Transport and General Workers Union) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) featuring a parade of banners from many trade unions, a memorial service, speeches and music. Festivals have featured speakers such as Tony Benn and musicians such as Billy Bragg.   

Forgetting for a moment that as a Methodist, Loveless was likely a teetotaler, I propose all good working men and women raise a toast today to the lads from Tolpuddle.

 

 

The Americanization of St. Patrick's Day—Not a Quiet Catholic Feast Day Any More

This vintage St. Patrick's Day greeting card is emblematic of the adoption and popularization of the holiday in the U.S.  In reality the acceptance by Yankee Uncle Sam--presumably Protestant--of Catholic "bog trotters" was far from smooth or cordial.  

Note:  For those of you unaware, this is my natal anniversary. I Turn 77 today.  Bet you wondered how I got the name.  Anyway, I am rerunning a version of an oft run classic. Meanwhile to the Irish and wan-a-be-Irish, enjoy the day.  Have fun but try not to live down to some unfortunate stereotypes.   And for Christ’s sake don’t drink the damn green beer, an abomination and insult to the soul!  Have a dram of Jameson’s with a Guinness back for me!

Today is the Feast of St. Patrick, originally a low-key religious celebration in the Auld Sod.  In the U.S. it’s St. Patrick’s Day, which is, as they say, a whole other kettle of fish.  For better or worse this quasi-holiday is an Irish American phenomenon.  Let’s trace the metamorphosis from religiosity to ethnic muscle flexing, to Irish nationalism, to partisan political display, to equal opportunity public drinking festival. 

"Everybody's Irish!"  is the new equal opportunity slogan of American St. Patrick's Day promoted by breweries, bars, and bottle peddlers of all sorts.  The message seems to be working.

It all began on March 17, 1762 with the very first St. Patrick’s Day parade anywhere in the world.  Irish soldiers in a British regiment headquartered in New York City marched behind their musicians and drew cheers from the small local Irish minority, both Catholic and Protestant—mostly Protestant in those days.  It became if not an annual event, one which was observed most years.  When the Redcoats left the city at the end of the American Revolution various local Irish mutual aid societies like the Hibernians and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick held often competing events which, if they happened to intersect, sometimes devolved into brawls. 

After the United Irishman Uprising of 1798 was crushed, the British imposed a harsh repression including the banning of the wearing o’ the Green, a new wave of Irish refugees flooded New York, Boston, and other Eastern cities.  They inoculated the annual St. Patrick’s Day observances with a new political significance and wearing green (instead of the traditional Irish colors of blue and gold) became a protest against British rule in the motherland and a call to action to overthrow that rule. 

The Potato Famine unleashed yet another wave of immigration bringing throngs of displaced peasants to the already growing slums of the city. Competing Irish aid societies finally decided to unite behind a single, massive demonstration in New York in 1848.  The theme of independence for Ireland was mixed with an act of aggressive defiance by the now largely Catholic masses against the nativists from Tammany Hall who controlled the city government, the Know Nothings, and street gangs who harassed and bullied them.

In trying to market to Irish Americans, not everyone got it right.  This tonedeaf greeting card featured the pug-nosed Irish stereotypes featured in Know Nothing and anti-immigrant publications.  The figure on the left has a sash identifying him as a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.  The one on the right supposedly is from a competing organization that had frequently brawled with the AOH for supremacy on St. Patrick's Day.

In 1858 the Fenian Brotherhood was organized in the United States in support the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), a secret oath society agitating for the establishment of a “democratic Irish republic.”  The St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York and other cities became powerful recruiting tools for the Fenians. Social events around the day annually raised thousands of dollars, much of it to support fantastic plots and buy arms.  On more than one occasion Fenian plots to attack Canada brought the U.S. and Britain perilously close to war, which, of course was the objective. 

By the second half of the 19th Century New York's St. Patrick's Day parades had become elaborate celebrations of Irish nationalism and a display of raw political power in the city.

The failure of the Easter Rebellion in 1916 in which labor leader James Connolly, fresh from several years in America as an IWW organizer, and an Irish-American unit of Hibernian Rifles were both involved, led to a fresh round of frenzied support for independence back home.  The campaign of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which led to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 and the Irish Civil War between the Free State government and republican rebels were both largely financed by Irish Americans.  Even after the establishment of the Republic in 1937, Irish-Americans continued to fund rebel groups aimed at uniting Ulster to the rest of the island, including support for Sein Fein and the Provisional IRA in their armed struggle through The Troubles.  All of this was reflected in the parades and other celebrations of the day which had become dominated by Rebel songs.

St. Patrick’s Day celebrations also were important displays of Irish culture.  Traditional Irish music and dance was so suppressed at home that both nearly disappeared.  Irish-Americans like Chicago’s Police Chief Francis O’Neill collected and preserved the songs and began schools to teach them and traditional Irish step dancing.  Both were re-introduced into Irish culture because of these efforts and put on display in St. Patrick’s Day parades, banquets, and concerts.

Hizzonor da Mayor, Richard J. Daley steps off with his blackthorn stick and green fedora at the head of the 1963 Chicago St. Patrick's Day joined by officials of the sponsoring Plumbers union, the Irish Consul General, Cardinal Albert Meyer (second from left} and actor Pat O'Brien to the Mayor's left and a bevy of politicians in the second row jockeying for position.  Then Republican Cook County States Attorney James P. Thompson can be spotted just over Daley's shoulder.

The Irish also excelled at political organization in this country.  Unlike other ethnic groups with large concentrations like the Germans, they were able to create viable political organizations with alliances with other ethnic groups that allowed them to control many city governments for decades.  In Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley brought the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, previously a South Side neighborhood event, to the heart of the Loop and dyed the Chicago River green every year in a display of political power.  Politicians of all ethnicities jockeyed to be as close as possible to Hizonor in the front ranks of the parade. 

By the late 20th Century St. Patrick’s Day spread well beyond its ethnic roots.  “Everyone is Irish on St. Paddy’s Day” became a byword pushed by breweries, bars, and distilleries making the day one of the biggest party days of the year.  Green beer and vomiting teenagers have become new symbols of the holiday. 

The semi-legendary Saint whose feast day is the occasion of all of the hoopla.  He wasn't Irish and did not drive the snakes out of the island--they never lived there to begin with.

And what about St. Patrick?  Well, what about him!

Remembering the Blood Sacrifice of Rachel Corrie

 

                                Rachel Corrie as a student at Evergreen State College in her hometown of Olympia, Washington.

It was 23 years ago today on March 16, 2003 that Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was killed by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored bulldozer as it attempted to destroy the home of a Palestinian doctor in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza.  The Palestinians she died protecting are in even greater peril today as an Israeli invasion has turned much of the area into charred rubble, turned most of the populations into internal refugees who continue to suffer under managed starvation. 

Eyewitness members of her ISM team say that Corrie, wearing a bright orange jacket, was clearly visible to the driver of the bulldozer before she fell off the mound of earth it was pushing up and was crushed underneath the debris and the tractor, which they said ran over her twice. 

Corrie defying an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza moments before she was run over.

The IDF and Israeli government disputed that and claimed that her death was an accident in which the driver never saw her and the tractor never touched her.  Despite promises, the official autopsy report and the results of an official investigation were never released. 

While Corrie’s death stirred up international outrage, she was painted by Israeli media as, at best, a naïve dupe of terrorists and more likely an active accomplice who deserved her fate. 

Corrie was born to middle class, politically liberal parents in Olympia Washington.  She attended her hometown school, Evergreen State College, long known as hot bed of activism.  She wanted to be an artist and writer.  She studied and was deeply moved by the writings on non-violence by Gandhi and Martin Luther King.  In her senior year she devised an independent study program that included service with the ISM in Gaza.  She had already organized a pen pal program between children in Rafah and Olympia youngsters. 

She arrived in Israel on January 22 and received two days of training in nonviolent tactics at ISM headquarter on the West Bank before being posted to Rafah.  It was an intense period of the Second Intifada with regular clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians.

Corrie spent much of February at the Canada Well, a water facility built by the Canadians that was been damaged by the Israelis.  She protected Palestinian workers trying to do repair work.  She and they came under fire. 

Corie burned a hand drawn paper American flag protesting U.S, support of Israeli displacement of Palestinians from their homes.

On February 15 she was present at a demonstration and was photographed holding a burning paper replica of the U.S. flag.  American right-wing commentators would use that photo later to claim she was a traitor to her country. 

The IDF was in the midst of a massive campaign to clear hundreds of homes and farms from a new buffer zone by the Egyptian border.  ISM observers routinely interceded by placing themselves in front of bulldozers to prevent demolitions.  Although there had been violent incidents and camps where Corrie and others stayed were subject to harassing arms fire at night, tractor drivers had always stopped before harming the volunteers.  Until the day Corrie died. 

Witnesses and International Solidarity Movement (ISM) comrades surrounded Corrie's crushed body.

In April two other ISM volunteers were severally injured by the IDF.  American Brian Avery was shot in the face while protracting Palestinian medical workers and Briton Thomas Hurndall was shot in the head.  He was declared brain dead and finally died in 2004.  About the same time an experienced British news cameraman was killed by IDF fire despite wearing clearly marked press identification. 

There was speculation, never proven, that Israeli authorities may have decided to target Western witnesses to their activity in Gaza. 

Protesters carried portraits of Corrie in her Palestinian keffiyeh.

After Corie died her family released letters and e-mails she sent from the Gaza.  Articulate and moving they were published posthumously as Let Me Stand Alone in 2008.  The material was also used to create the play My Name is Rachel Corrie which opened in London in 2005 to good reviews and large audiences.  An attempt to mount an American production initially fell through with the British producers alleging interference by pro-Israel forces.  It eventually opened off-Broadway.  The play has been produced successfully around the world, including, finally, in Israel. 

Corrie’s life and death have also been celebrated in a cantata and songs by over 30 artists. 

A playbill for the original London production My Name is Rachel Corrie.  Famed British actor Alan Rickman co-edited the text taken from Corrie's own letters and journals.

Meanwhile a counter industry of anti-Corrie books and magazine articles has sprang up.  As her death is commemorated today by those who knew and loved her and by those who admired her, she will be reviled, in often lurid terms on-line by commentators in the U.S. and in Israel.

All of that—the good and the hateful—will be dredged up again today.

I, for one, just try to remember a lively young woman who dared put her life on the line for others.

Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout Illinois Democratic Primary Endorsements Revisited

 

Democratic candidates in the Illinois U.S. Senate primary dusted it up in a televised debate--Rep. Robin Kelly, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.

Back on February 10, after Early voting began in the Illinois Democratic Party Primary this blog reviewed candidates up and down the ballot in McHenry County and made some early endorsements.  But the unfolding campaigns have caused a reassessment of those endorsements in some critical races.

Evolving, multi-candidate races like these are why I prefer to vote on Election Day rather than cast an early and lock in a premature judgment.

Perhaps the most significant change has occurred in the fierce contest to replace Dick Durbin in the U.S. Senate. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who was on the air and in social media for nearly a year seemed to put himself in an unchallengeable lead.   Despite her endorsement by popular Governor J.D. Pritzker, Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton with a significant disadvantage in fundraising only got on the air just as early voting was getting underway.  Rep. Robin  Kelly was among the top three contenders trailed by a string of nonentities and longshots, but was cash poor and counted out of the race by pundits and political operatives alike.

In an increasingly brutal campaign Krishnamoorthi and Stratton beat each other up badly in escalating negative campaign ads, each charging the other with accepting campaign donations from Trump supporters,  companies involved in an ICE detention facility in Broadview and other contractors.  Raja was also tied to big donations from the so-called crypto bros and Stratton was accused of "alleged" campaign finance offences.  Both of their reputations were tarnished and confused and conflicted voters finally began to open the door to Kelly who had kept mostly out of the mudslinging.

Rep. Robin Kelly for U.S. Senate.

The blog endorsed Krishnamoorthi based mostly on his electability.  Pritzker and establishment Dems rallied to Stratton, but perhaps not enough.  Both of the two leaders have let third-party Pacs run adds with unsubstantiated attacks and fact-checked ads.  Neither candidate distanced themselves from their deep pocket benefactors.  Both could be so damaged that the winner might not be able to unify the Party for the fall or appeal to independents.

Kelly, once Barack Obama's seat mate in the Illinois State Senate, has a solid record in Congress and was popular enough to be elected Democratic State Party Chair in the wake of the Mike Madigan scandal.  She had to vacate that post because of conflicts with her duties as a sitting U,S. Representative, but remained on good terms with most party factions.  She has finally gotten her media campaign going and has picked up some key endorsements.  Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout now endorses her in Tuesday's election.

State Senator Karina Villa (center) with early supporter former Congressman Chuy Garcia (right), has strong support from the Latinx communities, labor, and progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders for her run for State Comptroller.

State Senator Margaret Croke got the strong support of Governor Pritzker but the incumbent State Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who is reportedly eyeing a run for Mayor of Chicago charged that Croke would not have enough independence from the governor to challenge his policies.  Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim picked up the endorsement of both the Lake and McHenry County board chairs as well as Congressman Brad Schnieder.  State Senator Karina Villa got strong support from Cook County, the critical Latinx community, labor unions, and progressive heroes Chuy Garcia and Senator Bernie Sanders.  We gave an early endorsement to Croke but now prefer Villa for Comptroller.

Two usually low interest races for the Democratic Party posts of Congressional District State Central Committee posts are hotly contested.

Chicago 48th Ward Alderman Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth for State Committee Woman for the 9th Congressional District.

In the 9th District, the race mirrors the knock-down drag-out for the Congressional District of retiring Rep. Jan Schakowski.  State Sen. Laura Fine and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss lead their races for State Central Committeeman contest and both appeal to the important Jewish vote in the district.  But Schakowski and other progressive attacked Fine for her support from the American Israel Public Affiars Committe (AIPAC).   Schakowski endorsed and Sen. Tammy Duckworth back Cook County Board Member Josina Morita, an urban planner, community advocate, and working mother for Committeeperson.   Critics of Israeli genocide in Gaza oppose all three leading candidates.  Another candidate, Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth is a veteran community activist, founder of Indivisible Illinois, and 48th Ward Alderwoman in Chicago is a progressive alternative with a low visibility campaign.  The blog endorsed Morita first time out but urges voters to consider Manaa-Hoppenworth.  Voters must cast ballots for both a male and a female Committeeman.  

                          

Peter Janko and State Rep. Anne Stava for Democratic State Central Committee posts from the 11th Congressional District.

In the 11th District two term progressive incumbent Peter Janko, long a burr under the saddle of former McHenry County Democratic Chair and retiring Committee Woman Kristina Zahorik  is probably safe for re-election.  Which is why extraordinary campaign funds are being funneled to Committee Woman candidate Janet Yang Rohr, endorsed by Zahorik and 11th District Congressman Bill Foster.  Democratic voters in the District have been flooded with multiple slick and super-sized campaign mailers unheard of in this usually low-key race against State Rep. Anne Stava, who has done no campaigning for the office as she runs for re-election in Illinois House District 81.  So why the big money surge for Rohr?  Suspicion leads to an endorsement of underdog Stava.

Other endorsements from our original recommendations stand.  View that post here.