Surviving Capitalism (Not) : History of the Machine Gun

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, April 25, 2013

History of the Machine Gun

Click here if you wish to access the source of following 3:08m video from Real News Network.

Here you will view actual film footage of an historical incident not likely covered in your eduction, or if it was, it was a highly sanitized version. This is only one incident illustrating a common practice throughout US history: the use of the machine guns and other weapons to intimidate working people who used the only weapon they had against oppressive company policies and practices: withholding their labor. This occurred in the Columbine Mine massacre in 1927, and in many general strikes such as those which occurred in Seattle in 1919, in the 1930s in San Francisco and Minneapolis, and many other places.