Like many of my brothers and sister workers I have been thinking a lot lately about how to stop the predator class from feasting further on the workers of the United States and I keep coming back to the same conclusion which is that we have to start organizing to fight back.  The only way workers have ever been able to win anything for themselves is by fighting and winning it on their own.  Politicians won't because they are in the thrall of the predators of the ruling class plain and simple.  They always have been and they always will be except for those times when the people join together and make clear they will not tolerate being treated like serfs and slaves any longer.

For those who say that today "the situation is hopeless, the rich have too much power, they have too much influence and we have nothing" I can only point to history and say to them respectfully but forcefully: you are wrong.

Today I was in a very small town in southern Illinois called Mount Olive.  I visited the grave of the legendary and much loved Mother Jones in the Union Miners Cemetery there.  I want to share with you some of what I saw.

The sign above is over the entrance to the cemetery out on the edge of town

This is the Mother Jones monument.  The oblong slab in front of it is the grave of Mother Jones herself.  There is a small concret kitten someone left on the grave as well as a couple of other small items.

This small bronze plaque is at the base of the monument at her grave and the following similar plaques are to the left and right of it:

Mother Jones was not from Mount Olive but it was her request to be buried in the Union Miners Cemetery there.  The monument makes it clear why that was her wish and serves as a reminder to us of the unheralded patriots who, by winning their own freedom secured ours as well.  It also reminds us that true freedom may be the wish of the creator for all humans, but as the great Frederick Douglass said:

"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."

As you look up from the very bottom of the monument's base there is a large column with a bronze relief portrait of Mother Jones and lifesize bronze miners on either side.

There are five granite tiers leading to the column.  On the top tier before the column there are bronze placques on the sides that remind us of how the freedom and dignity of working people was won in this country.  Here they are:

To the left of the monument is a small bulletin board encased in glass.  Here are some of the things in it:

(Mother Jones was a wobbly)

Follwing are some of the memorials and stones in the cemetery:

Noble C. Harry (above) was a union miner who fought in the West Virginia infantry defending the union in the Civil War.

Mr. Milonovic (above) was a union miner, apparently foreign born.  He died in 1917.

Milich Popovich, union miner.  Died in 1925.

The Berutti's a union mining family.

John Banovic, a local and national union leader

There were hundreds of graves of "good union people" in Mount Olive.  Many of them fought bitterly for the right to organize, for decent wages, and decent hours and benefits for their members.  They helped make the United Mine Workers a strong force that had to be contended with and that could not be pushed around.  Their fight was for themselves but also for us.  You can see from the dates of the killings of union people that the struggle took decades before they were recognized and they secured their dignity and freedom from wage slavery.  All of us have benefited from the literal blood, sweat and tears of these union people and their families and the thousands upon thousands of others who fought in the factories, the shipyards, on the trains, and in every workplace in America.  We owe them.  And we owe them more than simply remembering them though that is a start.  We can honor their memory by emulating their courage and their sacrifice and fighting for ourselves and our children as they did. 

They had nothing but themselves, their own courage and fortitude, but they fought and they won and that inspires me.  The time has come again for the common workers of the United States to fight against the predator class that seeks to destroy the hard won gains of our forefathers and mothers.  We cannot accept any further assault on our families whether it comes from Republicans representing the Predators or Democrats doing the same thing with a friendlier demeanor.  We cannot accept cutting social security and medicare. Period.  We must have passage of the EFCA in order to get our unions back on their feet.  Obama said it would be a top priority when he was running for President but once elected he let it die and didn't lift a finger to prevent that from happening.  We must insist on an end to the endless wars being fought for oil and empire abroad that are weakening our governments, our communities, and our economy.  We must also demand that the fruits of our labor be distributed equitably and that means a bigger share for the little people and a smaller share for the rich for the first time in 40 years!  Together, the workers of the country have tremendous power and we can put a stop to all that has gone wrong for the past several decades.  It won't be easy or quick, but each of us has a part to play and should take every opportunity to contribute to the effort to organize working people against the predator class.

"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!"

---Mother Jones

Above is a letter sent from Mother Jones to the miners of Mount Olive, Il to be buried with the martyrs of the massacre at Verdin. 

Here are  a couple of links for those who are interested:

About the massacre at Virden:

http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/sanjuan.htm

http://www.lib.niu.edu/1997/ihy971202.html

"On October 12, 1898, Illinois miners at Virden Illinois confronted armed guards in a battle that became one of the bloodiest class conflicts in American history. This battle, part of the longer struggle to organize miners into an economic and political force, shaped the views of a generation of workers in Illinois and across the nation. It was the reason that "Mother"Jones, the famous labor heroine, is buried in Mt. Olive, along with the "martyrs" who were killed in what became known as the "Virden Massacre." In making the request to be buried with "her boys," Mother Jones sought to acknowledge that their deaths had helped to establish Illinois as one of the "strongest labor states" in the country. The mineworkers of Illinois became known as some of the most radical and contentious unionists in the country. But the heroic struggle also reinforced deep racial divisions."

Mother Jones in Mount Olive:

http://www.idaillinois.org/cgi-bin/ida/specificCollection.pl?url=mopl

A brief bio of Mother Jones:

http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/majones.htm