VLVL2 (Chapter 6) - part 3

[Mike Weaver]

74.21 The start of the extended flashback sequence that takes in the story 
of Sasha’s mother and father and her mother’s parents.

74.24 “Not exactly a red-diaper baby” Sasha and Hub weren’t Communist Party 
members, but politically active enough to be seriously affected by the 
anti-communist fever of the 1940s and 50s.

p. 75 "Crocker 'Bud' Scantling" An appropriate name for a logging goon, 
since a scantling is, among other things, a small wooden beam, or a small 
timber. As Pynchon tells the tale, Scantling was hired by "big timber" (the 
Employers Association), to help eradicate the "timber beast" (the IWW). 
Scantling's first name may be a reference to Charles Crocker, a 19th 
Century California tycoon who made a fortune building the Union Pacific 
Railroad. (BoW)

p. 75 "the Employer's Association" of the State of Washington was the 
anti-Wobbly arm of the Lumber Trust. In April, 1918, its hired thugs raided 
the IWW headquarters in Centralia, Washington -- leading, inevitably, to 
yet another massacre in Centralia during the Armistice Day parade, November 
11, 1919. (BoW)

p. 75 "...a local attorney for the damned, sure no George Vandeveer..." 
George F. Vanderveer (either Pynchon, his editor, or his typesetter has 
misspelled the name) was a prominent Seattle attorney in the 'teens, 
popularly known as "counsel for the damned." In 1917 Vanderveer 
successfully defended IWW members in the legal free-for-all following a 
series of violent confrontations in Washington state in which Wobblies were 
slugged, kidnapped, shot, hanged, tarred and feathered, driven out of town 
-- and, when all else failed, jailed and charged with treason for 
endangering the war effort. (BoW)

Subsequently Vanderveer became chief counsel for the IWW, and in 1918 
headed the defense of 101 Wobblies against bogus charges of sabotage, and 
conspiracy to obstruct the war. The trial lasted five months; it was the 
longest criminal trial ever held in the United States to that date. Despite 
Vanderveer's best efforts, all 101 defendants were found guilty, and given 
long sentences by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis (later the first 
Commissioner of Baseball). This was the beginning of the end for the IWW
(BoW)

76.8 “down to the IWW hall” Industrial Workers of the World aka Wobblies

The first trade unions were limited to skilled workers organised by their 
crafts. In 1869 the Knights of Labour formed in secret, coming into the 
open with a published constitution in 1878. This was the first attempt to 
organise unskilled and semi skilled workers across craft lines. This was 
the origin of the idea of One Big Union. The American Federation of Labour 
formed in 1886, a defensive reaction by the craft unions to the KoL’s 
aggressive recruiting campaigns. The AFL covered Mexico, USA and Canada.
The IWW formed in 1905, the impetus driven by the struggles of the Western 
Miners Federation, which had been going on since the 1890s. Originally an 
alliance of socialists and syndicalists the IWW split into those parts in 
1908 and the socialists later left to join the Socialist Party of America. 
The peak of IWW membership and activism was 1912-13 although they remained 
active in some areas up until the Second World War.
http://www.iww.org/culture/chronology/

A very interesting social history I looked at was Wobbly: The Rough and 
Tumble Story of An American Radical, by Harry Chaplin (University of 
Chicago Press, 1948) According to this through the 1930s the IWW was 
spasmodically active in support of a few strikes but the balance of 
activity leaned more towards ‘entertainment’ socials, picnics etc. The IWW 
has never died, its paper Industrial Worker has continued to be published 
and it has been a home for syndicalists in many countries. A small network 
for those who still hope for One Big Union. When I was reading up on them 
at the WCML (www.wcml.org.uk)  on Friday I discovered that another 
volunteer there was a member! He was realistic “They do some great T-shirts”



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