WOBBLING AROUND THE WORLD

Many years ago circa 1982 Warren Beatty took a short break from working his way through the entire female species to make a rather wonderful film called Reds. The three-hour epic focussed on pro-Soviet American revolutionary John Reed, author of and starred his then girlfriend Diane Keaton as early feminist Louise Bryant. More interestingly, it also featured interviews with the ( now long dead) real-life socialists and revolutionaries who populated the US in the 1920'as and 1930's. They included Emma Goldman and other luminaries and "Wobblies" - members of the Industrial Workers Of The World.
I thought the organisation was a mere relic of history so was intrigued to learn this week not only is it still extant - there are branches in the UK as well as the US - there is even a website http://www.iww.org/
Just rather a shame that 100 years after they began their struggle most of Middle America still seems to think Obama's modest plans for healthcare are a communist conspiracy......

WOMEN WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE.......

What a pampered age we live in..... have just been doing some research for a piece on International Women's Day for Labour Briefing. Inspiring stuff about the women garment workers in New York and the IWW. A fascinating piece of American socialist history and one I would love to know more about.

One of the sad things about getting older is the realisation that you are running out of time to read all the books you want to. But I shall definitely be mugging up on a particularly intriguing woman called Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the "Rebel Girl" commemorated in a song by Joe Hill. She was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, a place I visited on a whim 18 years ago (on the rather vacuous basis that I had also been born in Manchester !) so there is definitely a bit of a connection there......