May 1, 2008--Marching on in Chicago

We should be demanding a 6-hour day at least, and for the minimum wage to cover basic expenses. After decades of fighting, New Deal signed the 8-hour day into law in the US, which was about 80 years ago. But the current form of capitalism is far from New Deal policies, and workers today have to fight for the right to work, to get paid, and not to be deported, not to go to work intimidated.

I'm on a student visa, and who knows where I'll end up once I'm on the global academic job market. I go to May 1st marches out of solidarity.

This year I was sitting on some bleachers behind a softball field in Union Park early, as marchers were gathering in smaller or larger groups. I sat there for about an hour and 45 minutes soaking up the sun, and got a nice tan on my face, but none of my friends showed up, not even Nick, who was supposed to get there "early." Still, he was nice enough to send the little report I'm including in this post.

Demonstrations here are part-class-part-ethnic-identity-based: the large majority of marchers are Latino workers, and prominent are groups drawing on Native American aspects of their heritage. Most messages are symbolic: "we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us." There is the demand for amnesty for immigrant workers, which is great, but as far as I know it's not backed up, say, by the threat of the general strike in which immigrant and non-immigrant workers in all branches of production would participate. That threat would be untenable, because there is not enough solidarity on the part of non-immigrant workers. And so on, and so forth.

I have to say I didn't feel all that revolutionary that day, but rather distracted and kind of lonely-in-the-crowd. Still, I marched with everybody along Washington, from Union Park to Morgan St (about 20 minutes?), at which point I slipped out of the march and rode my bike to UIC to attend my last writing workshop of the semester.

Well, onward! I'll be there next year for sure.

Here is Nick's account:

"I entered my friends' apartment fairly distracted by the fact that my girlfriend was waiting for me and every passing second was launching me deeper into the dog house. Pajamas hung off Andy and Marybelle as they groggily rolled a blunt and slowly got ready for the march. 'It won't be as big this year, but I'm glad we are going,' Andy said in scratchy voice with a mouth full of smoke. We finished the blunt and started the four-block walk to the pink line. Rosa called and asked if we wanted a ride and we accepted. As we waited for her in front of one of the many corner marts in Pilsen, Sneza called to call us hypocrites for being late. I chewed on her comments in silence as Rosa pulled up in the jeep and took us to Union Park.

"The park was lined with flag and food vendors as the crowd flowed downtown. I got a little pissed that the attendance was half the amount of people from last year, but the amount of people selling shit seemed to double. It was as if people making a buck off of the whole march could be passed of as support. We walked the path as angry Chicagoans blared their horns at us. I was distracted by my angry girlfriend and without realizing it I walked ahead of everyone else and lost the group I was there with.

"The booming drums of the native dancers bounced off the skyscrapers as we marched to Daley Plaza. The smiling faces of proud Pilsenites accompanied by other organizations and supporters flooded the slim city streets. I felt proud to be showing my support for people whose voices are too often unheard. I was interviewed by a couple of film students as the day went on. I'm guessing it was cause of my large sign that read 'America has always had an immigrant problem, just ask the Indians.'

"As we arrived in Daley Plaza I regrouped with Andy, Maribelle, and Rosa. People gave speeches in-between musical performances from Tom Morello and Ben Gibbard. The mayor (fucking asshole) also gave a speech but was met with loud booing. He stepped to the side as the crowd thinned out and returned to their respective city dwellings.

"'See you next year,' I thought as I chased down the torta lady who was now giving her delicious sandwiches away."

James!

In my response to Ceci's comment to my previous post, I forgot the most important thing. So important that it needs its own separate post! That body of water that Silver is sitting by is not "a stream"--it's the gently cascading, beautiful James River in Richmond, VA with its bridges, islands, and hills. Admittedly it looks like a creek in the video. Obviously "my" candidate (he'll be my candidate in case I change my mind and embrace democracy, and somehow obtain citizenship and register to vote, all by November 4) needs to shoot a new video that fully boasts the beauty and power of his native river. Feel free to post some suggestions or screenplays for Silver's future DIY no-budget campaign videos.

The Stupidity of Voting for the "Lesser Evil"

Let me preach here a bit.

If you are voting not because you stand 100% (or even 90, or even 50%) behind your candidate, but because that candidate is less evil than the other one, you must be stupid. I have been stupid on several such occasions.

That "Lesser Evil" is always much, much closer to the "Utter Evil" that you want to oust than it is or ever will be to you, the voter who wants social and economic justice and peace. When it wins, "Lesser Evil" will make convenient deals with the "Utter Evil"--it has to, that’s the basic rule of democracy--and you will be once again broken.

Some voters (not you) are sincerely interested in waging war or watching while someone wages it on their behalf. They are sincerely interested in watching or participating in the big and cruel game of circulating capital by all means necessary. They are sincerely interested in the destruction of the environment--it's all a part of the outlook that sees life as Extreme Olympics. Those voters must be a majority, and the most popular candidates reflect that. "Utter Evil" and "Lesser Evil" compete for their votes.

A minority of people--like you--are truly interested in the above-mentioned social and economic justice and peace, and in saving what could be saved of the environment. Not only on principle: they--you--are fully capable of grasping and are working for these fine, reasonable, basic-survival causes. A large number of those people are however harboring an illusion that voting for the "Lesser Evil" will "make a difference." "Lesser Evil" can always count on these suckers (demagoguery is a crude art, but it works), and sometimes it wins and the “Utter Evil” gladly takes the passenger seat until the next so-called free elections. (They are free for the Extreme Olympics majority, but they are oppressive, constricting and costly for the rest).

If the minority were not stupid and if it were the majority, this guy Silver Persinger, for example, with his Free Party Platform, would stand a fair chance of winning, while the currently most popular candidates would get a handful of hits on their web sites and be regarded as hopeless outsiders. Silver's Free Party, a party of one right now (I am not its offical propagandist, contrary to what this post might imply), would be one of the most numerous and lively parties around.

If today's minority were the totality of people, there would be no need for political parties or for the state itself.

Discuss?

Plzensky Sokol

After living in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago for almost two years, I keep "discovering" Czech inscriptions on old buildings. I took this picture and imagined Czech American gentlemen in shorts with suspenders, at the turn of the last century, exercising: squats, jumps, push-ups, sit-ups, etc. breathing in through the nose, breathing out through the mouth, handlebar mustache quivering in-between.

The New York Dolls in Cleveland

Sadly, I didn't get to go, nor will I go to the Chicago show, because the tickets are sold out (plus they were above the price I'm preprared to pay: I do not want to spend in one hour and a half more than what I make in one hour and a half). However, I got this message from a Cleveland NYD fan: "The NY Dolls were incredible we saw em at the Beachland. Johansen was wearing some sort of quasi glam shirt that showed off his little beer belly to nice effect. He's skinny as a rail, but still has something of a beer gut. Imagine Iggy with a little preggy bulge between his hip bones. He looked like he might give birth to a little rock & roll right there on stage!"

If you got to see The New York Dolls this time around or in 1974 or whenever, send me comments and I'll post them. If you haven't seen them live, but have imagined, describe your fantasy.

Borovo naselje this winter

Packingtown Review: Official Call for Submissions

Dear Writers and Scholars:

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) journal Packingtown Review invites submissions for its inaugural print issue to be released in November 2008. We welcome submissions of scholarly articles, poetry, prose, drama, and literary translation, as well as genre-bending pieces. We also publish reviews, interviews, and cultural commentary dealing with literature, performance, art, music, pop culture, etc. Submissions guidelines are available at http://www.packingtownreview.com/submit.

We are open to all approaches to writing, from the highly experimental to the traditional, by both emerging and established international and U.S. authors. With our inclusive editorial policy, we aim to not only reach a broad audience, but also provide an ever-evolving environment where exceptional texts of all kinds will challenge and bolster one another. Packingtown Review is edited by literature and creative writing Ph.D. candidates at UIC. It will be issued biannually.

If you are interested in collaborating with us now or at a later date, please bookmark packingtownreview.com. We will be rigorously updating our online content.

Snezana Zabic, editor-in-chief
Tasha Fouts, editor-in-chief

Packingtown Review
English Department
UH 2027 MC 162
University of Illinois at Chicago
601 S Morgan
Chicago, IL 60607
editors@packingtownreview.com