What are the origins of modern conservatism? The failed Goldwater campaign? Or the Cold War era discontent of midwestern small capitalists? Historian Kathryn Olmstead argues that it should be located even earlier, in the intense and massive labor unrest that took place in the fields of California in the 1930s. The response by growers and other elites pioneered methods that have become familiar today, from deploying populist rhetoric in the interests of big business to funding ostensibly grassroots organizations.Unless a student can get access to honest historians like Olmstead, one must acquire accurate historical knowledge about workers from sources like this post and books. Otherwise I advise students to use educational institutions, which are always controlled by ideological capitalists, for skills training only.
in the time remaining, to help us understand how the man-made system of capitalism will lead to the extinction of our human species, and so many others.
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
The New Right’s Origins in the Labor Battles of the 1930s
Click here to access a 44 minute interview with UC Davis historian Kathryn Olmstead conducted by Sasha Lilley on the program Against the Grain broadcast by KPFA, a listener sponsored radio station in Berkeley, California. The interview begins at 6:30m after a news report.