I LOVE books ,and here’s a wonderful history of book shelves. My shelves are overflowing, although I think they are failry neat.
Scholars, translators, transcribers and writers have always needed to have multiple books and other resources within easy reach. Illustrated manuscripts give
Source: Early Bookcases, Cupboards & Carousels – Lost Art Press
So I joined the wobblies. You can too. If you sign up and pay your dues (which are sliding scale, based on your income), someone will be in touch with you to talk about what’s happening locally and how you can get involved.The preamble of the constitution of the IWW was written by Thomas Hagerty, an itinerant Catholic preacher who was kicked out of the church for his political organizing and wound up a mystic on the streets of Chicago. How can I not love it? The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the earth. We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the evergrowing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.. Instead of the conservative motto, “A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage system.” It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.
Did you know the May Day is actually two different holidays in one? Well it is.
The tradition of May baskets and May poles come from the celebration of Beltane and Walpurgis, ancient “pagan” holidays to celebrate the beginning of summer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day
It is, also, International Workers Day (ie. Labor Day). The US and other countries don’t celebrate it as such an that stems “from a resistance to emboldening worldwide working-class unity”.
Read more here : https://www.npr.org/2022/04/30/1095729592/what-is-may-day-history
So whether you’re a pagan, or a Wobblie; Happy May Day!
Girl Gangs of New York and the Godmother of Gotham Crime – Inspiration Vault – Messy Nessy Chic
Source: Girl Gangs of New York and the Godmother of Gotham Crime
If you were a late 19th century sex worker, shoplifter, gangster, confidence artist, or petty thief, chances are your path would have crossed with the high priestess of misdemeanour, Old Mother (‘Marm’) AKA the ‘Queen of Fences’ Mandelbaum and her curated network of wickedly skilled criminal hostesses. Each of these crafty operators had carved out a lucrative niche for themselves in the American underworld, especially in New York’s buoyant and duplicitous Lower East Side.
The explosive expansion of New York City from 1820 created the perfect environment for gang culture. Awash with poor disgruntled immigrants, the different ethnic and language groups sought their own in the frenzied urban sprawl. Overcrowding, poverty, protectionism and identity glued this converging mass in the young city. And as ever, in turbulent times there are always those who’d spot a ‘business’ opportunity – and take advantage.
Featuring works by Richard Artschwager, Chakaia Booker, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Julia Fish, George Grosz, David Hartt, Mel Kendrick, Barry Le Va, Jonathan Meese, Rodrigo Moynihan, Ciprian Mureșan, Jim Nutt, Paulo Pasta, Christina Ramberg, Dorothea Rockburne, Eugen Schönebeck, Jorinde Voigt, and Ray Yoshida.
Via: https://hyperallergic.com/872801/a-shameful-us-history-told-through-ledger-drawings/
The long read: Nicholas Saunders was a counterculture pioneer with an endless stream of quixotic schemes and a yearning to spread knowledge – but his true legacy is a total remaking of the way Britain eats
Source: Hippy, capitalist, guru, grocer: the forgotten genius who changed British food | Food | The Guardian
1. All food must be prepared or at least packed on the premises.2. The ingredients must be “wholefoods” ie pure, without any additives, such as flavouring, colouring or preservatives. Highly refined ingredients must be avoided.
3. Prices must be reasonable.4. Descriptions (both verbal and written) must be straightforward, down to earth and objective. Persuasive, enticing or glamorising descriptions must not be used.
5. The size and style of notices must be simple – not attention-seeking, enticing, image-building or making any use of advertising or merchandising techniques.6. “Point of sale aids” must not be used.
7. Information about recipes, ingredients, quality and suppliers must be freely available. 8. The neighbours must be given consideration and cooperation.
9. All staff must be free to see the accounts and attend meetings where they can freely express their views.10. Jobs should be rotated as far as possible, and in particular no one should be left with the unpopular jobs.
11. Outside contractors should be avoided if the work can be done by the regular staff.12. In the event of a business growing, it should not expand or set up branches, but instead assist and encourage some of its staff to split off and start another independent business.
In its 90th year, the radical peace movement is reinvigorating itself by going hyper-local.
Source: The Anarchism of the Catholic Worker | The Nation
In the nine decades since its birth, the Catholic Worker movement has come to be many things: a labor movement, a countercultural commune movement, a back-to-the-land movement, a Luddite arts-and-crafts movement, and a peace movement. Simone Weil House is one of at least six Catholic Worker houses that have opened around the country in the past five years that are turning to Maurin and Day’s original vision of spiritual and economic change to combat the despair of late capitalism and the anomie of a younger generation facing financial devastation and environmental destruction.
10 Libertarian Thoughts on the Civil War
An interesting article on mid 19th century world history and the civil war. The section on Brazil makes me wonder if that may be why Nazis moved there after WWII.
By Brandon Christensen
August 23, 2018
…
2. Brazil and Dom Pedro II. Brazil shares many similarities with the United States, including a long history of slavery. In fact, Brazil was last country to abolish the slave trade (1853) and abolish slavery (1888), and while the country remained neutral during the Civil War, its impact could be felt. Most notably, after the confederacy surrendered to the north, 20,000 slave owners fled the United States and moved to Brazil, where they established new plantations and became known as “Confederados.” Brazil was a monarchy at the time, and its emperor, Dom Pedro II, had sent recruiters to the American south in order to bring skilled tradesmen and farmers to his country. While the emperor himself worked to abolish slavery in his country, he could not pass up the opportunity to invite tens of thousands of skilled migrants into his realm to help spur economic, political, and cultural development. The last monarch of Brazil, Pedro II’s Brazil fought two wars during the American Civil War, one against Paraguay and one in Uruguay as an intervening neighbor. The Paraguayan War, which lasted from 1864-70, was the deadliest interstate war in Latin American history and was fought between Paraguay and an alliance of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Brazil’s role in the Uruguayan War (1864-65) was to bolster the support of the governing party (“Blanco party”) and help it fight a rebellious party (“Colorado party”) that was supported financially and ideologically (but not militarily) by Argentina, Brazil’s ally in the Paraguayan War. Brazil emerged from these series of wars as a regional hegemon and Pedro II is admired domestically for his statesmanship involving these wars….