Socialist Action /July 1999
 FIGHTBACK by Sylvia Weinstein
'MEMORIES OF MY MIND'
This is a song written by my friend Jack:
If you see me sitting with a teardrop in my eye, it's just
a memory passing by
And if you see me walking and I don't say hello it's just
a memory that I know
Time goes fast, time goes slow, it's always been that way
Changes come and changes go, and there's really nothing
else to say
Life's been good, life's been sad, life's the best thing
I've ever had
And I'm thankful for the memories of my mind.
Jack is a retired San Francisco "Muni" bus driver who has raised
four sons and nursed his wife, who died of cancer. He would be the first
to say he's no different than millions of other working-class people who
just do what they think is right and necessary-and he is right.
But that is what gives the working class their edge and their will to
struggle. Many workers are artists whose work we will never see or hear.
They do it between going to work, shopping, and cleaning the house. They
do it to take their mind off bills and jobs and to expand the beauty that
is in their mind.
That's why they go to see science fiction movies or to watch Miss Marple
uncover the killer. It gets them away from everyday labor on the job.
Their boss owns their body on the job, but after work their mind is their
own to create music, paint on canvas, photograph scenes that appeal to them,
or tinker around with wood and nails.
The working class also has the ability to create a society where everyone
will be an artist, a scientist, clean up the environment, or create educational
centers for everyone, young and old.
We are coming up on the Fourth of July, the day we celebrate our independence.
It came out of a revolutionary army made up of shipbuilders, iron workers,
shoemakers, farmers, longshoremen, carpenters, etc. Oh yes, and flagmakers.
Unfortunately, that revolution traded the tyranny of the monarchy for
the tyranny of the capitalist class. It was an unfinished revolution as
far as the working class was concerned.
Certainly it was not a step to freedom for the African American slaves
in this country-who remained slaves until the Civil War, and then were forced
into economic slavery.
Workers not only have the ability to make music, poetry, and art; they
also have the remarkable ability to change the course of history, to fling
themselves into battles that bring them closer to freedom.
Garment workers marched in the streets for the eight-hour day and for
safer working conditions. Millions of workers, male and female, marched
to end child slavery in the sweat shops of the capitalist class. Hundreds
of thousands of women marched in the streets for the right to vote.
 In the 1930s, women and men workers joined together
to fight for union rights. In San Francisco and Minneapolis the working
class brought the capitalist class to their knees. The battle cry of "solidarity"
became the lance that pierced the hearts of the ruling class.
In the '50s, it was Black youth who marched against Jim Crow in the South.
The African American struggle cleared a path for Northern civil rights and
for students at colleges throughout the country to fight for free speech
and the right to organize on the campus.
The Vietnam War gathered all of these different groups-young, old, Black,
white, Hispanic, male and female-into a fight which resulted in the end
of that imperialist war. Whenever workers have fought for their rights it
has resulted in the expansion of the rights of everyone.
The next struggle is for workers everywhere to end this system of exploitation
and unjust wars. Only they can create a society where every individual can
bring all of their ability to build a better world for all. Solidarity is
the glue that can make it work.
Socialist Action /July 1999 |