Nov 2, 2009
Labor Day:
in honor of
the Green Corn
Socialist Rebellion
[SOURCE]:
Randy Krehbiel
An Okie rebellion forecast Labor Day
libcom.org
US Green Corn rebellion, 1917
Nigel Anthony Sellars
GREEN CORN REBELLION
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The Green Corn Socialist Rebellion took place in my home State of Oklahoma in 1917.
Sooner history
On April 22, 1889, Oklahoma Territory was opened for settlement with its famous land rush. The "early arrivals" were called "Sooners".
People came from all over for free land, and the Sooners were even cheating for the free land.
Just 25 years later, in 1914, Oklahoma had become the Massachusetts of its day -- there were more dues-paying members of the Socialist Party in Oklahoma than in any other state.
The Socialist Party in Oklahoma grew from 6% in 1907 to 16% in 1916. The Socialist Party won 21% of the votes for governor in 1914.
By 1930, these Socialists had wrecked environmental havoc upon the soil, bringing on America's only man-made natural disaster, the Dust Bowl.
And at that the socialists packed up their bags and left for California.
Will Rogers, the famous Oklahoma comedian of the day would remark about
The Grapes of Wrath resettlement from Oklahoma to California that "It raised the IQ of both States."
Oklahoma has since become one of the most rational States in the Union.
But back to 1917 and the Green Corn "Socialist" Rebellion.
The pump was primed when, over the previous two years, 60% of the farms had gone into foreclosure.
Remember -- the land had been given away for free!
But then, you still have to purchase materials for a home, a barn and farming equipment, all the farm land put up as collateral.
The farmers were particularly angered over the growing control of land by small numbers of wealthy landholders who often resorted to rampant land speculation and outright fraud to obtain property.
Speculation and falling crop prices had by 1917 forced over half of Oklahoma's farmers into tenancy.
-- Nigel Anthony Sellars, Oklahoma Historical Society
The former farmers became socialists because their lands had been swindled right out from underneath them.
They were now no better than peasants or sharecroppers tending farms they used to own.
Easy come, easy go.
To light the fuse, Congress declared war on Germany for the sinking of a rich man's boat, the Lusitania.
To fight the Rich man's war, they would need poor men to fight it, so Congress instituted a draft and the implementation of the draft set off the Green Corn Rebellion.
Some sharecroppers and tenant farmers got together and decided it was up to them to put the government of the United States in its place.
Their chief complaints were against the bankers and landlords who kept them barefoot and broke, and a president who wanted to send their sons to far-off battlefields.
-- Randy Krehbiel
Their plan was concocted during the Creek Indian Green Corn Ceremony and called for a march on Washington, gathering support along the way and green corn to eat, until they reached the White House and forced President Wilson, or "Big Slick" as they called him, to resign.
Working Class Union
They were members of the Working Class Union. Of course, after the rebellion was put down, the WCU was also forced to disband.
What were their demands of the WCU?
Very radical..
Their first demand was for the "total abolition of the crime, disease, and death-producing practice of rent, interest, and profit-taking as iniquities that have been and are now being imposed upon the working class of the world."
The implementation was seen as:
- An 8 hour work day
- Child Labor laws
- A Workers Compensation system
- Old-age pensions
- Relief from a loan-sharking banking system
- Schools that operated more than 90 days a year
- Textbooks for kids that could not afford them
As well as,
- Expanding the public domain
- Enacting a graduated Income Tax
- Creating a cooperative marketing system
Defeat the rich man -- J.P. Morgan
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The first hints of who and what the rebels were fighting is in seeing J.P. Morgan demonized by the rebels.
Little did they know that J.P. Morgan, front man for the Rothschilds, was also the front man for the Socialist movement they were a member of.
J.P. Morgan got his power from his money and his ability to trick the poor into doing what he wanted done with socialism -- rebellion of the masses.
Bitterly ironic isn't it?
The wisdom of the Green Corn rebels can be seen in the words on one of their posters, found along the country roads in Marshall and Bryan counties:
"Now is the time to rebel against the war with Germany, boys. Get together, boys, and don't go. Rich man's war. Poor man's fight. If you don't go, J.P. Morgan Co. is lost. Speculation is the only cause of war. Rebel now."
-- libcom.org
Review of the Hows and Whys of the Socialist Movement
The Industrial and Computer Revolutions
Loss of the family farm, with its self-sufficient independence, caused many people during the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution to give up on the family as central focal point of a sound and solid society.
The industrial corporation was the new family and in those days they knew it, therefore like any family, you were a member for life.
The computer revolution upset the apple cart once again, and now the government is rapidly evolving to become the latest family, member for life, until hyper-inflation blows up everything. At which time, a One-World government is planned to become your "family".
Fathers who used to tend farms all day alongside his family, now found themselves on a factory floor all day, separated from his family. The family leader could no longer be counted on to make all necessary decisions.
The irony is that labor saving machinery was supposed to make life easier on society.
And it did in the 50's and early 60's. Mothers could stay at home and take care of the kids, without the tedious farm-work of old.
But as good things go, the government grew to soak up that "extra money" and corporations stopped "sharing the wealth".
Society "grew" to the point that working families were being forced to sustain unrelated, non-working families. Familiar names like Social Security, food stamps, housing assistance, affirmative action, legal aid, Medicare, Medicaid, foreign aid, student loans, public schools, among others, decided how your money was going to be spent.
An army of no less than 18% of society does not earn a living, but lives off of the hard work of others.
Beginning in the 70's, we ironically had yet another labor-saving revolution -- the computer revolution.
Machinery that replaced muscle power, now included computers which are rapidly replacing brain power.
As you would expect with more labor saving devices (joking here), soon, mothers too had to leave the family and start working.
Now, husbands, wives and the kids are all separated from each other for most of the working day.
And that is no way for a family to bond.
Divorces skyrocketed. Abortions abound. Wife and child abuse abound. And government became the new mother and father.
Not all doom and gloom
The twin revolutions could allow most families to work from home again, as they did on the farms.
The home school trend, supplemented with the amazing teaching potential of the Internet, will allow children to stay at home, venturing out only to play with the neighborhood kids and to participate in sports and scouting.
Most fathers and mothers will be able to work from home.
The family can once again become the focal point of society.
Lessons from the Green Corn Socialist Rebellion
One wonders at what they were rebelling against.
President Wilson's Rahm Emanuel was Edward Mandell House. House had written the book "Philip Dru: Administrator". There was no greater socialist than House and he was Wilson's right hand man.
In 1913, we have the Socialist Triumvirate:
- The 16th Amendment brought the Income Tax and with it -- the Progressive tax -- "From each, according to his ability; To each, according to his need"
- The 17th Amendment brought "Democracy" to the Senate. Now the people would vote for Senators, not our state legislatures who used to have a State veto over federal legislation. How can a socialist not like this?
- The Federal Reserve Central Bank that could provide central control over the economy. Again, a socilaist dream to have government control the money supply and not the head of the family.
Certainly the Green Corn Socialist Rebels should have known that the abuses of the Federal Reserve starting to inflate the money supply, by massively printing dollars for WW1, were the root cause of their farm foreclosures.
Certainly the rebels knew that the Socialist Triumvirate gave the Federal government all the tools to carry on this ungodly expensive World War.
Surely the draft was a socialist way to fight a war, where the government decides who goes to war, and not the people deciding to volunteer to protect and defend their homes.
The Socialists were getting everything they wanted.
What was there to rebel against?
J.P. Morgan controlled all the mainstream media of the day and was socialist. If Morgan was to take control over everything, then the poor Okie farmers needed to be shepherded in a Socialist movement where they thought they were in control.
Much is made of red-blooded Americans like Charles Lindberg opposing the entangling alliances of World Wars to "Make the world safe for Democracy".
But while Lindberg used logic and reason to press his case against war, America needs to know of Socialists who attempted a Lenin/Trotsky overthrow of our government to press their case.
Moral of the Story
We must all be careful of misguided Americans being led like sheep into rebellions that would only worsen an already bad situation.
And Labor Day is America's version of a communist May Day.
You can read further at
The Problem.
You can read further at
The Solution.
Article located at:
http://www.thechristiansolution.com/doc2009/273_GreenCornRevolution.html