Anarchist, Socialist, & Anti-Fascist Writings of David Van Deusen 1995-2018 — Chapter 12 : Coda/Sports & Politics

By David Van Deusen (2018)

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Untitled Anarchism Anarchist, Socialist, & Anti-Fascist Writings of David Van Deusen 1995-2018 Chapter 12

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Dave was elected President of the Vermont AFL-CIO on September 15th, 2019. He is a union rep for Vermont AFSCME members, previously a VSEA Union Rep, and still a Writer, and Harley Rider. (From: AFLCIO.org.)


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Chapter 12

Chapter XII: Coda/Sports & Politics

THE RHYTHM OF BASEBALL - REFLECTIONS FROM A CABIN (1999)

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David Van Deusen, Vermont, 1999

Personal Journal Entry - July 13, 1999, Northeast Kingdom, Vermont: It’s been some time now since I called that 10x10 cabin deep in the woods my home. [161] But while I sit here, in this old Northeast Kingdom farmhouse listening to the All-Star Game on the radio, I think of the simple and brilliant pleasure of being back in the cabin in the autumn and listening to a ballgame on my ragged little AM/FM/Shortwave.

Cold winds blowing outside and a fire in my woodstove. Baseball! –Never quite coming in real good, but always adequate. –The transmission fading in and out, like a thought in the back of your mind. Sometimes I’d fall asleep by the 7th. Sometimes I’d boil some creek water, make coffee, take tobacco from the tin, roll a cigarette or two, and finish it out even if into extra innings.

As I write, this season’s All-Star Game just ended. American League won 4-1.

But the Cabin… You know with baseball, with me, it’s not always about who wins and sometimes it’s not even about what happens. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve gone through those games where I’m at the edge of my seat focused on my team like the fate of the world depends on it. But sometimes it’s just the fact of it being there that matters; an anchor of continuity; a familiar ritual; a certain rhythm as indicative of summer as blinking of fireflies. Sometimes it’s just nice in and of itself.

This time last year I was camped under a small canvas tarp at 9000 feet outside the tiny town of Ward Colorado (population: 300?). Ward, you must understand is a strange town for Babylon – carrying a torch for 1968. They say the Weathermen and Black Panthers were hid up there back in the day. And on the edge of town now are junked-painted cars that folks say stand there like post-modern sentinels; as barriers in waiting for when the shit final does go down. In short, Ward doesn’t really like outsiders (or so it kinda feels on first impression, or so you are told in Boulder or Nederland). Anyway, it was in the forest outside of Ward, not knowing anyone within miles, that I made camp.

That night I hiked to their tavern on the outskirts of town. The All-Star Game was on the TV behind the bar. Beer in hand, it was not long before I got talking baseball with the guys next to me. As we drank and watched we began to reminisce about the clutch hits of Nettles, wall like defense of Fisk, and of other greats from days now past. I spent nearly the last of my money drinking cheap beer and watching the game with these previously unknown and supposedly unwelcoming folks. And there it was… WE were experiencing the game together; the chasms of insider/outsider were bridged. That game was played in Denver.

Tonight I sit in our hopeful commune in northern New England and drink and smoke cigarettes while the game was played in Boston.

Someone once said that baseball is our national pastime because all of us are failed baseball players… In some ways that may be true. But I have doubts as to how much we really failed.

-From Mudville

B-Hop’s Claim Racist? (2013)

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Irish writer James Joyce & Black American boxer Bernard Hopkins

In an October 17th [2013] article in Ring Magazine’s online publication (Hopkins on Boxing and Black Fighters by Lem Satterfield), Philadelphia boxing legend and reigning IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins stated:

“The great Sugar Ray Leonard, right now, if he was boxing, the way that they want you to fight, the people that pull the strings of the puppet, he would be boring today. Ray Robinson – the great Robinson – would be boring today…Because the feeders of the people that buy entertainment. They’re being fed that if they duck, don’t buy it. If they’re slick, and they beat [their opponent] nine out of the 12 rounds, and the guy just can’t hit him because they were slick and smart enough to hit and not get hit, ‘He’s not crowd-pleasing, he don’t sell tickets.’ Because they done fed the followers and they done fed [that] to the customers. The customers will drink anything that you give them if it’s promoted right…But when you take away the skill and you take away the slick, and you take away the boxing ability and say that’s not entertaining, or that’s not entertainment, then, to me, it’s like trying to erase a culture that you know has dominated the sport way back then where you were slick. And I’m talking about black fighters. Yes, I said it.”

The above quotes, and more found in the article, have led some boxing fans to charge Bernard Hopkins, who is an African American, with being racist.[162] Hence, the question remains, is racism a legitimate concern here?

No.

It is not racist to recognize that different cultures, different subcultures, produce different styles and different ways of approaching the arts, society, and boxing as well. The Irish, for example, have a certain literary history based on their experience of English oppression and subsequent material poverty that produced a very specific trajectory of poetry and fiction. Now of course that does not mean only the Irish can write poetry and fiction, it is just to say that they have developed those arts in a way which is particular to them, and a great treasure for the entire world. It is not racist to say this. Likewise, it is far from racist to say that it was American Black culture (including its more immediate three-century back-story of Euro-American oppression) that produced the Blues and then Jazz. That said, some white guys, here and there, got good at these forms of music (“Take Five” anyone?), but that does not negate the fact that these art forms (these types of music) are a contribution from American Black culture. And again, the Irish do not exceed at literature because they are Irish, and the Blacks do not exceed at Jazz because they are Black. Rather, granting a similar cultural starting point, you could give any ethnicity or nationality some centuries of the same experience they went through (and go through) as a people and smart money would be you find the same basic result. If the Irish occupied England for 800 years, I have 20 down that the English would have their own James Joyce. Of course this is not to say that only the Irish can write, or only the Blacks can compose music; it’s just to recognize that these cultures developed their own special forms that most would agree is something genius to behold. And boxing is no different.

One culture produces one way of approaching the subject, while another produces something different. Hopkins is right that a case can be made that Blacks have developed an American boxing form which is both slick and effective (hit, move, avoid two punches, move and hit again). On the other hand, Mexican culture has tended to produce fighters which are huge on heart, bravado, and balls, but less interested in the slick aspect. Not that there are not exceptions to the rule (the great George Foreman after all was not exactly slick), but it is more true than not. Making a statement of this sort is no different than recognizing that different cultures have developed different types of music, measures of beauty, etc. There is nothing racist in this assertion. The one difference is that in poetry or music we, together, can only come to general agreements (or disagreements) about what we feel is the more interesting or developed style. In boxing, we pit those styles, and, by extension, cultures of boxing against each other in the ring, and at the end of the night, one hand is raised, one remains lowered, and often there is blood.

So I offer Bernard a “cheers” and (as a Dutch American who had the pleasure of spending a little time in a boxing gym years ago) I give him that the Black, slick, style of hitting and not being hit (from Robinson, to Leonard, to Mayweather, to Roy Jones, to Hopkins) often (all else being equal) rises above those competing styles that it faces in the squared circle. I also give him that for the capitalists, the marketing executives, and big media heads they employ (who are all upper-class, and mostly White) are in fact trying to sell us a reality in which those Blacks who are winning, those most often from the forgotten America, are in fact the enemy of our passive viewing pleasures; even if they know only victory in the ring, they are in fact an enemy we should consider lost; that is what The Market would have us believe. When real life cannot be obliterated by fact, the sophist’s plausible retreat is denial wrapped in the fog of repetition. So Hopkins wins again, Mayweather wins again, but they really lost because they did not stand in the center of the ring and get their heads smashed in so we can see more blood. And HBO would rather play a decade old rebroadcast of a bloodbath than give you the Cuban Master, Guillermo Rigondeaux, in the actual here and now. Not that Gatti vs. Ward was not great in its own way, but really, we did see what happened when Gatti stepped into the ring with Mayweather. But here I digress.

The above, of course, is a little black and white. As I said before, there are exceptions, shades of gray and sometimes good reason for divergence. Wladimir Klitschko is a very defensive boxer; he doesn’t like to get hit, he’s Ukrainian, and was trained into this form by Emanuel Steward who was a Black man from Detroit. Canelo Alvarez is, in all likelihood, ultimately of Irish heritage, but learned to box in Mexico where he was immersed and assimilated into a proud Mexican culture. So no surprise he fights like a Mexican. Joe Calzaghe? Slick as hell, fast, combo puncher, and didn’t get hit much. His trainer was his old man. His old man was a Jazz musician. And you know what, getting back to music, the Stones were pretty fucking badass, and they were importing Black R&B back to America from the American Muddy Waters records they heard in England. Just because the Stones were White does not make R&B a product of European culture, and Calzaghe (who is Welsh—don’t know if the English historically consider the Welsh White) does not make slick boxing a Welsh art form. But at the end of the day, slick boxing is largely a Black contribution to the sport, and the fact is the corporate machines that feed us our likes and dislikes according to what they perceive as in their self-interest, does not like it and, presumably, does not like that the slick boxer often emerges with the win. Back in the day they didn’t like it when Jack Johnson or Muhammad Ali was champion either; but back in the day their reasons were often a little more blunt. Slick boxing a Black achievement? It could be argued. Slick boxing as a more effective form of the art? More than not. Racist? Nah. Just the opposite man.

Ali: The Peoples’ Champ Is Gone (2016)

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Ali

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”

-Muhammad Ali

Cabot VT 2016- Very sad news… We have lost the Greatest Of All-Time: Muhammad Ali.[163]

Such a brave brave man in and out of the ring. He conquered Liston (twice), Frazier (two out of three), and Foreman. And we never even saw him fight in his prime… In those years he was barred from boxing and had his passport taken away for his refusal to fight in the unjust Vietnam War (a stance he took out of principle alone; if he did allow himself to be drafted, he would have had a cake walk of PR appearances and exhibition matches). In short he was a true Peoples' Champ; one who stood up for the underdog, the working man, against imperialism, and for Black Liberation. He himself was the underdog when he first challenged Sonny Liston for the belt in 1964 (Ali won by TKO & won the rematch by KO), and later when fought George Foreman in Zaire at the Rumble In The Jungle in 1974. Prior to the Foreman fight, pundits expressed concern that he would not only lose, but be killed at the hands of Foreman’s awesome power. Not only to did he face this challenge like a man, but he knocked Foreman out in round 8 to regain the Heavy Weight Championship of the World.

He was the Greatest, no doubt, and he will be missed by hundreds-of-millions (myself first among them). RIP champ.

SPACEMAN: Of Roadkill & Governors (2016)

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Spaceman Bill Lee

Bill Lee Seeks To Be Labor’s Anti-Candidate In 2016 Vermont Governors’ Race

Montpelier, Vermont, 8/23/16- Anyone who grew up in New England or Quebec in the 1970s, any baseball fan really, knows tales of the Spaceman.[164] Pitching for the Boston Red Sox from 1969-1978 and the Montreal Expos from 1979-1982, yarns of Bill sprinkling “marijuana dust” on his pancakes to help him cope with big city bus fumes abound. We Vermonters know him as an adoptive (and eccentric) favorite son, involving himself politically in support of single payer healthcare and endorsing Anthony Pollina’s own 2008 run for governor. Now the Spaceman is running for Governor in his own right; as the candidate of the Vermont Liberty Union Party. To his right is Republican Phil Scott. Also to his right is Democrat Sue Minter. Bill may be one part conservative but he is also two parts socialist (and three parts tell-it-like-it-is or should be maverick). His name recognition is strong enough to cause concern among some Democratic Party insiders (will he draw votes from Minter?), and his policy positions are out-side-the-box enough to, perhaps, gain interest among working class voters who may otherwise lean towards racecar driving Scott. With a campaign war chest of 20 bucks (American –not Canadian), he may be something greater than long shot to win, but what he lacks in traditional political advantages he makes up for in candor. All told, he is the curveball in this year’s election. And oh, he also wants the vote of the union worker.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Bill, by phone, while he was in in New Brunswick, Canada, doing a community fund raiser with former ball player Matt Stairs.

Dave Van Deusen: Bill, I appreciate your out-spokeness on issues, and your time with the Sox, and somewhat with the Expos (I’m more of a Sox guy myself). I understand you are running for Governor of Vermont and would welcome the vote of union workers.

Spaceman Bill Lee: [Look,] I have created more millionaires [out of working people] than anybody in the history of unions. I took the money from the billionaires [owners] and gave it to [Major League Baseball] players.

Van Deusen: let’s talk about that. You were playing during the 81’ strike, right?

Spaceman: Yes, I was elected Player Rep [for the players union] in 70’ for the American League, after Gary Peters was going to be released, and then in two years I was the head Rep for the American League [serving with Marvin] Miller, & Dick Moss; Joe Torre was the rep for the National League. [Together] we started arbitration, we started free agency with the Sykes decision and basically opened up [pay] from [a minimum of] $9500 a year pay to $502,000 [a year] where they are right now.

Van Deusen: Perhaps many people don’t understand that before the MLB Players Association really got strong, under Marvin Miller, the average pay was something like nine thousand bucks a year. Is that accurate? I remember reading Ball Four [by Jim Bouton], great book, where he talks about that; same kind of wages guys were getting working at a nonunion warehouse.

Spaceman: Yes. And eventually we [MLB ball players] got to be where we made 8 times more the average worker. Then it jumped highly after free agency. I got very upset that they were making too much money. That’s my socialist views under Eugene Debs. I kinda wanted to give some of the money back, or redistribute it through the minor league/AAA, but the major leagues would have nothing to do with that. Then I got up to the 81’ strike, and I was basically gone cause the 82’ season came and I got released in May from Montreal for sticking up for Rodney Scott. But the amazing thing is I lead the team in ERA at 2.94 and I hit a 348 BA; I lead the team in hitting and I got released.

Van Deusen: Wait a second.. You’re telling me you lead the team in hitting?!

Spaceman: Hitting AND ERA and I got released.

Van Deusen: That’s impressive. I did not know you had a history as a batting-pitcher (excuse my ignorance of baseball history).

Spaceman: Yeah, I was a good hitter at the end. Donald Corrin gave me really good contact lenses. My vision got better. I got really good at hitting. [More recently] I lead the Vermont league in hitting one year and I also won the VT State championship two years ago with [Burlington Mayor] Miro Weinberger behind the plate. I am still playing, I continue to play.

Van Deusen: But wait, can you go back to why you were fired from the Expos? Do I understand right that you were sticking up for a coworker and management did not like that?

Spaceman: Rodney Scott. That was our second basemen. Before Dick Williams was fired he called him our most valuable player, our most unsung hero; he was a great defensive second baseman ; he played D, knocked the ball down, kept a lot of runs from scoring, and he was a good base runner and he could sacrifice. In the three years we put him at second base, we almost won the National League pennant [each of those years]. Now Fanny comes in, gets rid of him and I just went nuts; I snapped. I agree I snapped. [Fanny] tried to fight me, and I wanted to fight him, and he wouldn’t and he ran away. Then I went to [this area in Montreal] and wrote him a note ‘you meet me there and I’ll kick your ass…’ They made a movie about it, called “Spaceman.”. It just came out. There will be showings in Waitsfield, Warren, and Burlington sometime coming up pretty soon. It’s amazing. I didn’t plan the movie and I didn’t plan running for Governor. I was told to run by Peter Dimondstone. And when Peter Diamondstone says I’m the solution, then you know we got a really good problem. (hahaha)

Van Deusen: So you have played ball since the 1960s, before that really, going back to little league.

Spaceman: I only missed one year when I had my shoulder surgery in 1994. I rehabbed it good and came back and played in Venezuela; I played all over Cuba; I have played all around. I have probably won more games than Satchel Paige. I’m blessed.

Van Deusen: That’s awesome… Getting back to Marvin Miller, didn’t he come from the Steel Workers before he represented MLB Players?

Spaceman: Yes he did. He worked under John L Lewis. FDR anointed Lewis as head of the Steel Workers [Lewis was head of the United Coal Miners of America, was a founder of the CIO, and played a key role in the formation of the United Steel Workers of America], and Marvin learned from him then came to us and basically said ‘you guys gotta get together.’ When he saw the contract discrepancies and the fact that the Reserve Clause kept you in perpetuity with one organization, and that if you had a bad season the owners could cut your pay by 20%... [For example] there was a great player… He led the league in home runs (although his team came in last place) and the owner cut his pay by 20%. He asked ‘why –I lead the league in home runs’ and the owner said, ‘yeah but we could have finished last without that.’ So that’s basically the way the owners ‘respected’ labor back then, and Marvin jumped on it, and I jumped on it with him and the rest is history.

Union Arbitration & Labor Board Appointees

Van Deusen: Let’s bring that up to the present… I have been a union officer and/or a union rep for many years. As such I know that in past years State employes, tried to establish third party, traditional, binding arbitration and the State was very resistant to that. Right now final resolve to settle disputes means going to the Labor Board. The Labor Board process is very legalistic, very much like going to court; it’s not geared towards a regular person being able to go to advocate for themselves. The process also takes lots of time. So: 1.) As Governor, would you support State employes having the right to third party arbitration; and 2.) What role would you see organized labor playing in regards to your appointments to the Labor Board?

Spaceman: Well, third party [arbitration] is a great idea. I don’t know why they don’t do that. As for the Labor Relation Board that we [MLB Players] had, they put in Sykes for us (he was the third person). You had someone from the owners, someone from the union, and Sykes. Sykes agreed with us on arbitration and on the Reserve Clause. So appointing the right people to get them into the right position, you guys [organized labor] need to stick together and really be firm on that. I’ll help you anyway I can. ‘Workers of the world unite’ –that’s what I’ve always been about; I’ve been a Samuel Gompers [American Federation of Labor supporter and a] Wobblie and I’ve even gone further than that being a Eugene Debs [socialist].

US Senator Bernie Sanders

Van Deusen: Debs of course is somebody that Senator Bernie Sanders is a huge proponent of. What’s your opinion about the recent Bernie Sanders campaign for US President?

Spaceman: I was for him and not against Hilary… I am a Bernie guy. I [helped] get him elected as a Congressman when he was petitioning in Hardwick a long time ago. I’ve been with Bernie for a long time. I believe he’s always had his heart in the right place. But now he is [working in] the Democratic Party and that’s just a tough party to deal with… [Bernie] could have stayed Independent. I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if [he] ran as a third party candidate. I believe Trump would have blown away, faded away, and his supporters would have gone with Bernie. I thought in my heart that they are not that dumb, to stick with Donald Trump. Maybe I ‘underestimate the gullibility of the American public’, [to quote] PT Barnum.

[In my campaign for Governor] I don’t take any money. I have only received $20 and that was from a 91 year old from Wisconsin Rapids who wrote me a check and said ‘I want you to cash this because I have a friend who after you [do] will buy it from me for $40.’ That’s my only campaign contribution. I don’t want money from anybody. My [policy] decisions are based on what’s good for the planet first and what’s good for the workers on the planet second (as far as humankind goes)… [We need to protect] endangered species. You know there is a Madagascar periwinkle endangered that has the highest alkaloid composition of any plant on earth and it reduces cancer. If that plant goes extinct, we go extinct. I am pro-labor, but not at the expense of [being] pro-earth.

The Working Class & The Economy

Van Deusen: Well, speaking of endangered species, what about the middle class?

Spaceman: Exactly. We gotta create more jobs in Vermont that are based on our natural resources which is our woods, our maple syrup. You know we can raise more sheep. We can create a wood product unlike the particle board that causes cancer. Why can’t we invent and design for the real world? I am a [advocate] of Buckminster Fuller and Victor Papanek. Papanek says we need to design for the real world. We don’t design for the real world. We design for the petroleum industry; we design for the big companies; we design for the things that are gonna give the 2% [the richest of the rich] more money. If we designed differently, for the workers, the jobs would stay in America… We [the workers] will be a dominate force in the future. And the death of the Republican Party will be good for us. I hope it comes quicker than not….

My theory is that the workers are responsible for making the goods and providing the services and therefore they should have a bigger piece of the pie… In baseball [the bosses] never opened their books. They never put the money on the table and that is what got them wrong. When you get the owners and these people to put the money on the table you realize the discrepancy between the worker and the owner is larger than you think. That money [should] go to the worker and that is what I have always believed... When the middle class gets more money, they spend more money and everybody’s happy. I’m not a trickle down economist. I never believed in Reagan. I only believed in McCarthy actually a long time before that and I believed in a guy named Ferd Harris from Oklahoma. Those are the only guys I really liked (and Ralph Nader).

Van Deusen: I assume you mean Eugene McCarthy and not Joe McCarthy?

Spaceman: Oh, for sure. Eugene McCarthy. (haha)

Van Deusen: So I suppose then that you support fair raises for union workers?

Spaceman: Yes. Most definitely. You produce the goods, you produce the services… Thomas Malthus was wrong. The Malthusian notion that all the economists and all the right-wingers and all the conservatives use was wrong. Population does not grow exponentially and goods and services don’t grow arithmetically. His theory is the theory of most of the economic models that we see and it’s wrong. With the advent of new technology we are going to be able to feed all the people all the time [so to speak]. That’s what I’ve always believed.

On The Democratic & Republican Parties

Van Deusen: Let’s talk about the Democratic & Republican Parties. Of course we have two other major party candidates for Governor. We have Sue Minter who has said her top priority as Governor will be gun control, and for the Republican Party we have Phil Scott, who I understand is for (so called) right-to-work anti-union legislation.

Spaceman: Both are bad. Sue Minter is gonna lose if she keeps the gun thing as her priority [as opposed to] jobs and keeping people in the State of Vermont… She has got to be a little more flexible when it comes to guns in Vermont. Guns are not our problem in Vermont. Guns are a problem in inner-cities, guns are a problem in the south, guns are a problem in a lot of places, but guns are not a problem in Vermont… I have tons of guns. I’m a responsible hunter. I eat road kill and pick up hitch hikers. When I get on the debates I am gonna show that I am more conservative than the Republican and more liberal than the Democrat. I am both. In other words I represent both ends of the spectrum. I will prove it. I pick up all my cans, I harvest all my potatoes by hand, I don’t use machinery… I am very much pro-worker, but I’m kinda anti-technology which is a funny combination…

Tax The Rich Or Open The Contracts?

Van Deusen: Let’s talk about some of the workers represented by public sector unions in Vermont. I know for a fact that one of the things union members very much care about is making sure ‘a deal is a deal.’ A couple years ago State employes settled their contracts, and a couple months later Governor Shumlin wanted them to reopen them to give back money to the State. Shumlin, of course, refused to endorse any raising of revenue by taxing rich folk or out-of-staters. As Governor, how would you deal with a financial situation where revenues were falling short? Would you ask the State workers to give back their hard earned raises or would you be willing to consider increasing taxes on those who could afford it [i.e. the wealthy]?

Spaceman: I’m a big proponent of raising taxes on the [richest] 2%... I think there are five Saudi Arabian princes living in Stowe and they use that airport over there (the Morrisville-Stowe Airport). How [else] we gonna get more money? We’re gonna make sure we all buy from Vermont; we [need to] buy in Vermont; make sure things stay in Vermont; we don’t go to the Walmart across [the river] in New Hampshire. [But if you do] you should pay a percentage of that back to the State. I believe in supporting the little guy through buying Vermont products and keeping the money within the State.

Privatization

Van Deusen: Fair enough. Another issue the VT Democrats have supported in recent years is privatization. Governor Shumlin and the other Democrats in power, for example, supported the privatization of Workers Comp. Workers Comp historically is administered by State employes who are union members. Yet the Governor has taken bids from out-of-state corporations to do this work. As Governor would you continue to push for privatization?

Spaceman: No. I won’t privatize anything. I am a collectivist. I believe we will get it done within [a collectivist] system… I would [also] keep everything within the State. We’re all in this boat together. [In addition] we need to find a way to get [more] outside revenue from outside the State. I believe the Vermont label is golden. I know a lady in Morrisville who opened a “Vermont” peanut butter company. She couldn’t do that in the State of New York [“New York Peanut Butter Company” doesn’t have the same ring], and now she is making money right here. We need to keep more jobs in Vermont and gain more revenue.

Healthcare

Van Deusen: Healthcare… How do you envision a healthcare system under your Governorship?

Spaceman: Wow. You know I want the Canadian plan. My theory is if we can’t do it in the State [because of the Democratic & Republican legislators] were gonna do what Bernie did earlier [rent busses] and we can all go up and get our x-ray for $18 in Sherbrook Quebec. Why not? If it’s better on one side of the boarder or the other, we’ll erase that northern border and [develop] a relationship [with Provence Québec]. I don’t know how the Federal Government is gonna like it, but I want Vermonters to have free access to Quebec healthcare. I use it. My doctor, my dermatologist, my dentist, my orthopedic surgeon, all my x-rays, [I have] everything done in Quebec. I don’t do anything in the State of Vermont because I can do it in Quebec. I played for the [Montreal] Expos, and I know how their system works. And if they say it doesn’t work, it’s [just] the Republicans using that fear mongering tactic.

Van Deusen: You are saying that until we fix our healthcare system it makes sense for us to cultivate a government to government understanding, concerning healthcare access, between Vermont and Quebec? And until we get this fixed, this is the one place where we should break the ‘buy Vermont’ rule?

Spaceman: Yes. [And right now we all should] get [our] pharmaceuticals up there. Get everything you need. But look in a healthier environment you won’t need as much. Get the kids out there, get them running at an early age. Get them in track, in gymnastics, you put physical education back into things, and people will not become sedentary. And, I’m gonna ban Bud-Lite if elected too. –I’m a bottle bill guy; a buy-local drink-local beer guy; pay a little extra and put the money back in your own economy and don’t give it to someone else; don’t give it to outside corporations.

Renewable Energy

Van Deusen: Earlier you said that the environment is a priority for you. What is your position on wind power?

Spaceman: Those windmills up in the Northeast Kingdom weren’t put there for the benefit of Albany [Vermont]; they weren’t put there for the benefit of Montpelier; they were put there for the benefit of the big money guys down in Connecticut and for Metro Gas up in Montreal. We’re not reaping the benefits of that wind generated power. I want little, redesigned windmills on everybody’s house that will spin around and make it so you don’t have to pay for energy ever again.

Van Deusen: If, for sake of discussion, we do consider there to be a need for large energy producing plants, should they be owned by the public as opposed to a private for profit corporation?

Spaceman: Oh, for sure. JP Morgan Chase owns the grid. Every system that you see is [intended] to keep the little guy out. Like Bernie said, it’s a rigged system.

Town Meeting

Van Deusen: Town Meeting? What role do you see Town Meeting playing in the future of Vermont?

Spaceman: I like everyone getting up… Most the people in Vermont are very conservative but they have a very liberal heart and they always take care of their neighbors. [For example] the hay on my field was gonna be brush-hogged and the guy that was gonna do it said ‘Bill this hay’s too good. Give it to one of your neighbors.’ And I said, ‘Your right. The Stoddard’s need that hay, therefore the hay goes to the Stoddard’s... and that’s how Vermont works, and that’s how its gonna work for forever, and that’s part of your ‘Town Meeting.’ I think reason always comes out and those loud mouths that are out there [you know them], the right-wingers always get talked down by the normal people.

Support From Union Workers

Van Deusen: When union members vote, tell me why they should vote for you and not Phil Scott and not Sue Minter?

Spaceman: Those two are vestiges of the past and not the future and we gotta move into the future. It’s gonna be painful at stops, but I’m the only guy to get you into the future and to get the model differently. The model is flawed; thereby you gotta change the model… The Republican and Democratic Party are of the past. You got to be progressive, you got to move forward. I’m the only guy that can out-conservative the right-wingers because I drive a 96’ Buick (it my father’s car), I repair it down at Denton’s Auto all the time, (by the Craftsbury Garage) and everything I do stays within the State of Vermont.

Van Deusen: So you say you are the future. So for the average working class man or woman, what does that future look like with you as Governor?

Spaceman: You’re gonna be happy to go to work. You’re gonna be happy to see your paycheck. You’re gonna be happy and you’re gonna be content. You’re gonna be healthy. You’re just gonna be better off. As long as everyone makes more money and everybody is more equal, the world is healthier and happier. When you have divisions between a tool and dye maker in India making so much, and a guy in Detroit making so much, well Buckminster Fuller says that model does not work in the future. And you cannot tie yourself to fossil fuels. You have to tie yourself to the future… [Right now America] is not willing to do that. We keep sucking our thumbs and looking back.

Montreal Vs. Vermont

Van Deusen: One thing I absolutely have to take issue with you on.. This will be a tough question.. But I understand that you advocate in favor of bringing back the Montreal Expos. But as a candidate for Governor of the State of Vermont, would it not be more appropriate advocate for the creation of a Vermont MLB team, perhaps using the Green Bay Packers model whereby the team is owned by a city or, in this case, the State?

Spaceman: Haha. The trouble with Vermont is that the people of the north can’t [often enough] get to the south, and the people of the south cant [often enough] get to the north. [But the thing is] I’m an Expos guy and I don’t believe in boarders. I do not see a border between Burlington and Montreal. I do not see it. I see it as another American League team that would draw Red Sox fans through the State of Vermont, and we would pick them up by the heals and we would shake the change out of their pockets.

Van Deusen: Hahaha. I like it.

Spaceman: It will pay for everything (haha)! Think of it, you would have 17 ball games. You gonna get 30,000 Red Sox fans a game. That’s 510,000 people passing through our state. And that’s only one direction. They gotta go back home too!

Van Deusen: Well maybe we can put tolls at the entrances to New Hampshire and Massachusetts?

Spaceman: Exactly, all the way. I am a firm believer that if we put an American League team there it will benefit us exponentially.

Last Word

Van Deusen: Well Bill, I have very much enjoyed this interview. Are there any last words you would like to provide to Vermont’s union members about your run for Vermont Governor?

Spaceman: I ask that you provide them with a letter I wrote to my younger self that was published in the Players Tribune. It will give them an idea of who I am… Also, I am the only candidate that hasn’t taken a dime from anybody [except that 20 bucks from the 91 year old in Wisconsin]. I’m the only guy whose pockets are clean and whose hands are clean; I am the only one who has no [obligations] to fulfill. The fact is I have always been on the worker’s side. As Cassy Stengel once said, ‘you can look it up.’

Van Deusen: Will do. Give um’ hell and good luck Bill.

Letter To My Younger Self:

www.theplayerstribune.com

[1] 2017 Note From The Author: This essay was written in 2001, and was first published in The Black Bloc Papers (first edition), Insubordinate Editions, Baltimore MD, 2002. The first draft of this essay, and the entire first draft of The Black Bloc Papers was edited by Mike Auerbach of Putney Vermont. Mike is now a public school teacher and member of the National Educators Association.

[2] During that action, approximately 600 committed communist youth converged upon the city of Chicago in order to protest the trial of the Chicago 8, as well as the continuing war in Vietnam. Their method of confrontation was that of direct physical conflict with the forces of the state (in this case the police). They organized themselves into small affinity groups, and showed up equipped with clubs, helmets, bricks and other means of low tech hand to hand combat. Once assembled they actively attacked the forming police lines and fought the cops with ferocity. Although the first day was the most effective (in terms of enemy injuries and material destruction of capitalist private property), a total of three more days of limited conflict ensued. While this action clearly represents a link between the present Bloc and past militant tactics, it differs in many regards. First of all, the Weather contingent organized themselves by strictly hierarchical means. They employed a chain of command that was not congruent with directly democratic processes. Second, their action occurred without the benefit of being part of a larger, more tactically diverse protest action. In this the police were able to focus their superior resources solely upon them. Third, following the action the Weather leadership did not believe such forms of protest could be maintained without resulting in a negative bloodbath (during the first night of fighting 10 Weather members received wounds from shotguns, and another by pistol).
To paraphrase Weatherman Central Coordinating Committee member Jeff Jones, ‘we felt that we achieved a level of militancy which we could not surpass using aboveground tactics. Furthermore, the lack of public mobilization following the assassination of Black Panther, Ferd Hampton, convicted us that our political role would only be sustainable and effective if we operated as a sort of guerrilla force, underground, behind enemy lines.’ [Info gathered by a private interview I conducted with him during the winter of 1997.] Hence the organization soon decided to move its operation underground as an urban guerrilla organization. For these reasons, the Days Of Rage must be understood as no more than a primitive prototype of contemporary Black Bloc actions and no more.
For a decent firsthand account of this action see Albert (ed.), The Sixties Papers. Shin’ya ono: You Don’t Need A Weatherman, Pages 254-263, Praeger, New York, 1984.

[3] Such activity at the local level is 100% necessary in the on-going movement towards social revolution. In such, the relative limelight placed on Black Blocs must be subjectively diluted with this fact.

[4] Here it is necessary to understand that at this stage of the struggle, the tactics employed by the Bloc are most effective when performed in conjunction with others. This includes nonviolent lockdowns, street theater, ‘legal’ marches, etc.. In addition, it also must be clarified that such action, when used in conjunction with more militant tactics, are effective and legitimate. Lastly, it should be noted that many anarchists are involved in these actions as well.

[5] This is not to say that we should not be concerned with achieving certain objective goals regarding the action at hand. We should seek optimal effectiveness by refining our tactical abilities and subjective dedication. However, even when certain objectives are not met, we can often claim ‘victory’ in that this form of direct action translates into subjective advances. A good example of this is the A16 action: we failed to shut down the capitalist meetings, but made psychological advances by virtue of our demonstrated abilities in struggle against the forces of the state. In short, each action involving the revolutionary anarchist movement carries with it a plethora of potential victories and defeats beyond the single major stated objective at hand. As revolutionaries against boredom and alienation, our means and ends become intermingled in one continues organic demonstration of direct democratic process and struggle.
This section is not to imply that every Black Bloc must be violent or destructive by definition. In fact, there are times when the Bloc consciously decides not to conduct itself in this manner unless circumstances demand. At these times, the Bloc is present simply to show movement solidarity within a certain social situation. However, even without the actual practice of such violence, the Bloc still acts as the representation of a certain threat, possibility, and idea. The Bloc, through its person to person composition, is freedom and the unfettered human spirit embodied in a situational social form.

[6] This is not to say that debate, organizational meetings and other like activities are not necessary. In the contrary, they are. However, they are not desirable or required when they begin to become an end in themselves. This is a tendency which is often played out in leftist organizations by virtue of its liberal constituencies desiring of a means to feel better about their dominated lives and tacitly oppressive lifestyles without actually putting their position as a well fed consumer (i.e. their relative social stability) in jeopardy by advocating or taking part in direct revolutionary action. It should be remembered that it is always such left hesitation and status quo fetishism that is called on by the state to stabilize revolutionary situation (i.e. the French Communist Party in France 1968, the NAACP during the Black Revolt in urban America of that same year).

[7] Two recent examples can be found in the Prague actions directed against the WB/IMF meetings starting on September 26, 00’, and the actions in Nice against the European Union meetings on December 6-7th, 00’.

[8] Protest against the meeting of the World Trade Organization, Seattle, November, 1999.

[9] To protest the meeting of the World Bank, Washington DC, April 16th and 17th, 2000.

[10] The Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles, California, August 14-17, 2000.
The Republican National Convention was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 1-3, 2000.

[11] Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 3, 2000.

[12] Washington DC, January 20, 2001.

[13] Of course it is not here intended that it is the only, or even most important of such political expressions. It is only one, out of a multitude, of such developing trends.

[14] To name but a two: Mikhail Bakunin and Karl Marx.

[15] Also for the record... Bakunin spent many years in prison, including some time chained up in a tower in St. Petersburg ware he lost all his teeth due to scurvy.

[16] Here I use the term ‘socialist’ in its older and more accurate meaning. It is used simply to denote a more cooperative means of organizing society.

[17] This is different than colonialism in that these regimes are no longer exploited for their raw materials alone. Now their indigenous labor is utilized as a means of producing refined goods for general consumption.

[18] As I am editing this section of the work, I’m cold (Vermont winter with no propane), annoyed (my roommates won’t leave me alone), have a sore throat, and am listening to Frank Zappa’s ‘Hot Rats.’ Good fuckin’ album. In all, it reminds me of the Motherfucker saying, “We are as utopian as Detroit."

[19] Here the capitalists must still contend with armed communist guerrilla movements as well as the occasional anti-authoritarian uprisings. These are major aspects of the continuing world social revolution, and in such they deserve a great deal of analysis. However, the scope of this text requires that I omit such commentary and this time.

[20] The state loves to sing “Land of the Free” while sticking it to the common wo/man from the cradle to the grave. The public schools teach obedience and reverence to the status quo; at one’s job one is subjected to constant top down power structure; in the streets, laws written by the ruling class are enforced by armed pigs intent on tossing you in the can if you cross the line. There as many examples as there are bullshit justifications. As for specifics, I’m sure your personal experiences will here suffice (that is if you’re not ruling class scum).

[21] Where under classical capitalism one was coerced into being a wage slave in order to materially survive, under the new capitalism one often becomes a wage slave for both this reason and because one becomes convinced that it is the metaphysically right thing to do. Here work becomes more than a means of survival. It becomes a cornerstone off identity and connectedness with the larger, so-called more meaningful ‘one’ of capital.

[22] Let it be noted that this desire for status quo is for the most part skin deep. It is a symptom of mass indoctrination, and in such it cannot be understood as natural or necessarily permanent. If one scratches the surface, one will often find an underlying desire to sever the social ties to the world of the commodity. This is played out in childhood instincts by the activity of random vandalism. In the adult life, this natural inclination is often demonstrated at the bar where at folks are known to become a bit destructive towards objects and relationships after a bad week and after a fist or two full of whiskey.
In my hometown, the local working class tavern (The Deer Head Inn - where I did a lot of growing up) had a stockade fence lining its back. A favorite Saturday night pastime was punching holes through it. And I’ll tell you what, this aggression was not simply foolish male aggression. If that’s all it represented, I wonder why I never saw such holes punched in fences at the expensive upper class bars... Well, at least not by those fat bastards who could afford to drink there.

[23] See Society of the Spectacle, Section 13, Black & Red Press, Detroit, 1983.

[24] See Society of the Spectacle, Section 63, Black & Red Press, Detroit, 1983.

[25] Psychoactive prescription drugs are a huge factor and should not be overlooked as a tool of social control. The fact is, there is NO normative model for human brain chemistry and any medical attempt to standardize such will inevitably result in a model which is most conducive to the modes of social interaction which are most prominent in the society in which they are formed. In this case, such approaches most often result in the drugging of a person in order to make them ‘happier’ or at least non-combative in their role as a means of production and consumer of capitalist controlled commodities.

[26] For a well-documented historical account of this period within the United States, see, Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of The United States, Harper Perennial, New York, 1999.

[27] Inherent weaknesses are not limited to the domestic scene. For this internationalization has also carried the scope of anti-capitalist struggle to every corner of the globe. However, the form of struggle taken in these less developed regions can be expected to develop differently from that of the domestic regions. There poverty is a more direct driving force than alienation. Hence, differences should be expected.

[28] This sociopathic tendency is a rudimentary reaction against this alienation in the void of no greater hope for a progressive mass paradigm shift and/or a lack of a sufficient social/political vocabulary and underlying understanding. Ostensibly this behavior is often demonstrated by the shooting of ones coworkers, teachers, fellow students, etc.. It is also demonstrated by the fairly common act of mass public shooting sprees.

[29] From Open All Night, ‘Running On Empty’, Black Sparrow Press, Santa Rosa, 2000.

[30] In the United States this regressive tendency is most often politically expressed by the Republican Party. In turn, the political expression of the new capitalism is more often voiced by the Democratic Party. Both suck.

[31] For all those who would like to ramble off arguments that counterculture is primarily an expression of upper class hedonism, or that it is somehow foreign to poor and working class communities, I would like to pointedly remind you that great numbers of cc social facilitators were historically of a working class origin. Take For example: Neil Cassidy (author of The First Third), Jack Kerouac (author of many books including On The Road), Jimi Hendrix (who’s live Woodstock rendition of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ is perhaps the musical embodiment of the 60’s movement), Keith Richards (of the Stones), Janis Joplin (of Big Brother and the Holding Company), writer Charles Bukowski (although if he were still alive, and if he had the right amount of booze and was in a shitty mood, he might just hit me in the head with a bottle for putting him in such a grouping), Ozzy Osbourne (writer/ singer for band Black Sabbath, masterpieces include ‘War Pigs’, a song still barred in the UK during war time), Iggy Pop (of the Stooges), Johnny Rotten (of the band The Sex Pistols), and Shane MacGowan (of the Pogues).

[32] Not that we should give one particular counterculture up to our enemies without a fight. We must constantly struggle for the integrity of our cultural communities in order to allow them the time in which our modes of struggle and creation can become more mature. We will concede nothing.

[33] Here I grant that past incarnations of counterculture, such as the Beats, often failed to adequately develop political modes of expression. In addition, other countercultures, such as during the 60s and early 70s, at least in part, seem to have developed politically along more authoritarian communist lines. These seeming contradictions have more to do with the greater levels of cc immaturity then they did with natural internal inclinations. Hence, the Beats, being the first major example of a mass North American counterculture, were locked in a constant search for self-affirming identity. Here there politics were little more than exercises in possibilities. Likewise, the 60-70s developed as the second functioning example of such. And to their credit, they realized the need to develop political modes. But, being relative pioneers in this capacity, they often failed to develop between anything more than rudimentary lines. More than not they identified an already established means of anti-capitalist expressions and tried to force themselves into the cracks. Hence the general friendliness towards Maoism. This mistake was not without exception (i.e. Black Mask/Up Against The Wall Motherfucker, Free Vermont), and it was not without a certain logic. In this case, Maoism was seen as the primary ideology of a global grassroots opposition to the predominate paradigm. And correctly understanding the struggle against capitalism to be both in their interest and necessarily international in character, they attempted to barrow from this analysis in order to mesh with a perceived revolutionary whole.
All and all, the short-comings and mistakes of these earlier incarnations of cc must be viewed as almost necessary given the dialectical nature of the progress of struggle. Each particular cc tried and failed or succeeded where the next cc would pick up.
Therefore, if one was to define counterculture in a very strict manner, it would be conceivable that one would term the Beats and the 60s-early 70s folk as a ‘proto-counterculture’, rather than that of the full kind. However, that borderlines on semantics, and seems to me to be a waste of time.

[34] See The Rebel, Page 16, Vintage Books, New York, 1956.

[35] Old cc had some hierarchy, especially in politics, however, that was forced and represented a general immaturity, not the developing line of internal progression.

[36] An old Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) saying.

[37] For one reason or another, I’m here reminded of my friend Jon Tobias, who once said, “Sure -when the shit goes down I’ll be on my porch with my shotgun, drinking beer and taking potshots at helicopters."

[38] 2017 Note From The Author: This essay was written in 2005 and was published in The Black Bloc Papers (second edition), Breaking Glass Press, 2010.

[39] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in the Fifth Column Press, Marlboro VT 1996. Fifth Column Press was briefly the leftist publication of a group called The Liberation Movement which I was a member of while attending three semesters at Marlboro College, Vermont (1996-1997). Fellow members/participants of the Liberation Movement included David Croken, Tino Ferraro, Katie Steward, Ariane Burke, and Parisa “Dove” Norouzi, (who went on to co-found Empower DC).

[40] 2017 Note From The Author: This essay was written in 2001 and was first printed in The Black Bloc Papers, Insubordinate Editions, Baltimore MD, 2002. At this protest, myself and comrade Ali M of Detroit (a past writer for The Fifth Estate) was arrested in in downtown Philly, preemptively, after leaving a Black Bloc spokes council meeting and spent three days in jail before being released pending a court hearing on various charges. A day previous to this arrest we had the pleasure of meeting Johnny “Rotten” Lydon (of the Sex Pistols/PIL) at one of the early rallies. –As a side note to a footnote, I continue to be impressed with the fact that Johnny Rotten has publically stated that the most important album is Can’s Tago Mago. Great fucking album. I have Erynn Sarno to thank for turning me on to Can.

[41] 2017 Note From The Author: This communique was first published in We Dare Be Free in 2000. I never did appear for my court date or any time after that. When the communique was written, it was my feeling (and that of other Black Bloc anarchists) that the state was gearing up for a much more oppressive conflict with the domestic left. While that conflict has greatly intensified, it did not reach the levels we expected. As for my political activity post this arrest, since a radical intensification of state oppression did not occur at the levels we were anticipating, since PA does not presently extradite for misdemeanor charges (such as those leveled against me), and since the bulk of my organizing work has since been focused largely in Vermont, it never proved necessary to organize activities in the shadows as a result of this issue (as the contents of this book demonstrate). Even so, I have tried to stay clear of PA because of this pending warrant, and when I have been compelled to be in PA I have sought to keep a low profile. It is also worth mentioning that in 2001 I was also arrested in Columbus Ohio at a demonstration against the prison system. There I was charged with a class IV felony, destruction of government property. While those charges were reduced to misdemeanor levels, I ended up vacating the resulting probation requirements and therefore am wanted in the State of Ohio to this day, where I caught I would owe them three months in prison. Therefore Ohio is another state I seek to avoid, or stay under the radar in if and when I am compelled to step foot in it.

[42] 2017 Note From The Author: This essay was written in 2001 and was first published in The Black Bloc Papers (first edition), Insubordinate Editions, 2002.

[43] 2017 Note From The Author: This essay was written in 2005, and was first published in The Black Bloc Papers (second edition), Breaking Glass Press, 2010. I did not march in this demonstration, But I did have the honor of demonstrating next to AIM leaders and activists in 1994 in Washington DC, and in Salt Lake City Utah in 1996. Both these demonstrations in part demanded the freedom of political prisoner Leonard Peltier and for Native American rights generally. Leonard Peltier continues to rot in prison for the “crime” of being a Native American willing to stand up for his people. It continues to sadden and enrage me that Peltier is yet to find physical freedom.

[44] 2017 Note From The Author: I did not march in this demonstration, But I did have the honor of demonstrating next to AIM leaders and activists in 1994 in Washington DC, and in Salt Lake City Utah in 1996. Both these demonstrations in part demanded the freedom of political prisoner Leonard Peltier and for Native American rights generally. Leonard Peltier continues to rot in prison for the “crime” of being a Native American willing to stand up for his people. It continues to sadden and enrage me that Peltier is yet to find physical freedom.

[45] 2017 Note From The Author: This essay was written in 2005, and was first published in The Black Bloc Papers (second edition), Breaking Glass Press, 2010. At the time I was living in Columbus Ohio and was a member of the local Anti-Racist Action chapter. My comrades mobilized for this action and took place in the street fighting that occurred in York. I did not fight alongside them in this battle as a warrant existed for my arrest in the State of Pennsylvania as a result of the earlier demonstrations against the Republic National Convention (Philadelphia, 2000). My ARA comrades (including Lady) returned to Columbus victories. None suffered arrest and we had no casualties.

[46] 2017 Note From The Author: The essay was written in 2005 and was first published in The Black Bloc Papers (second edition), Breaking Glass Press, 2010.

[47] 2017 Note From The Author: This essay was written in 2005 and was first published in The Black Bloc Papers (second edition), Breaking Glass Press, 2010.

[48] 2017 Note From The Author: This essay was written in 2005 and was first published in The Black Bloc Papers (second edition), Breaking Glass Press, 2010.

[49] 2017 Note From The Author: This essay was written in 2005 and was first published in The Black Bloc Papers (second edition), Breaking Glass Press, 2010.

[50] 2017 Note From The Author: This essay was written in 2005 and was first published in The Black Bloc Papers (second edition), Breaking Glass Press, 2010.

[51] 2018 Note From The Author: This essay was originally published in the Caledonia Record Newspaper in February, 2018.

[52] 2018 Note From The Author: This essay was originally published in Enough is Enough & The Anarchist News in October, 2018

[53] 2017 Note From The Author: This proposal was provided to the still forming Federation of Revolutionary Anarchist Collectives (Great Lakes Region-Midwest) in December, 2001 by the Black Heart Anarchist Collective (Columbus, Ohio). It was not adopted by the federation. It was also sent to the Northeast Federation of Anarcho Communists. I (David Van Deusen) wrote the bulk of this document with assistance from Lady. The proposal was adopted as a position by the Black Heart Anarchist Collective as a whole, whose members also had input into the content. The Black Heart Anarchist Collective was an offshoot of Anti-Racist Action-Columbus. The collective (which included myself, Lady, Dustin, Noah, and others) formed for the primary purpose of engaging in discussions with other regional anarchist collectives about forming the Federation of Revolutionary Anarchist Collectives. The Black Heart Anarchist Collective were participants in a number of meetings leading up to the creation of the federation. However, prior to the official formation of the federation I (along with Lady) moved back to Vermont, the collective disbanded, and was never an official member collective of the federation. I was in Ohio, and a member of Anti-Racist Action, for some time in 2001-2002. The Federation of Revolutionary Anarchist Collectives folded in 2005.

[54] 2017 Note From The Author: Soon after this proposal, in addition to NEFAC and FRAC, the Northwest Anarchist Federation would form, as would also the Great Plains Anarchist Network. For a time there was much potential for building a strong and united anarchist movement in North America. However, these regional federations, while doing good organizing work, never matured to the point of forming a formal alliance or adopting a common strategy. Today, 2017, none of these organizations are still in existence.

[55] Such a point by point program should be taken very seriously and should entail an in-depth analysis of the economic particularities of that federation’s region. It should also seek to project the particular economic and social changes that a working class/anarchist revolution will demand. In addition, all possible intermediary steps should be discussed at length.
The fact of the matter is the capitalist parties, be it the Democrats or Republicans have such economic analysis at their disposal, as well as a platform which describes what they intend to do, how they intend to do it, and how that will effect/change the common experience of the common wo/man. Granted, the rubbish which these parties print, claim, etc. is bullshit. However, the fact that they can point to the particulars of a seemingly realistic and comprehensible platform is a massive psychological lever that they use to separate themselves as relevant from radical anti-capitalists, who often do not produce such point by point programs, as irrelevant.
2017 Note From The Author: It was this thought that motivated me to have interest in eventually crafting the libertarian socialist manifesto Neither Washington Nor Stowe when back with the Green Mountain Anarchist Collective (Catamount Tavern Press, 2004 – reprinted in On Anarchism: Dispatches From The People’s Republic of Vermont, Algora Publishing, 2017).

[56] This proposal is not meant to imply that the various collectives making up regional federations should forgo militant direct social and political actions taken locally, through their own initiative. Collectives must initiate such activity! However, these collectives, through their capacity as members of the broader federation, and even the larger alliance, must also work to solidify the more general efforts of the mass struggle against the status quo.

[57] This is not to say that persons should not hold dual membership in a relatively inactive sense. For example, it would make sense for federated collective members to hold official membership within labor unions such as the IWW. However, this membership should not impede on the work that person performs within their primary collective and within the federation.

[58] Through a concerted and coordinated effort it is reasonable to think that ARA, with the federations’ assistance, could double in size to 100 chapters over the course of the next half decade.

[59] 2017 Note From The Author: For a time I served as ARA-Columbus’s representative to the local Jobs With Justice chapter. ARA-Columbus, for a time, also organized weekly food deliveries to striking Mansfield Steel Workers. There workers were on strike for years. I had the idea of providing support after I read about a recent escalation n of tension whereby a worker sought to fire a homemade rocket at scabs/management/security thugs. Lady largely secured food donations from area businesses. Then then collective members would drive the food to the USWA Union Hall in Mansfield. There we would drop off food and revolutionary literature.

[60] In July of 2001 massive demonstrations occurred in this city in opposition to a G8 meeting. There a large Black Bloc engaged in violent classes with state forces; one Black Bloc participant, Carlos Giuliani, was killed by police gun fire.

[61] Also known as General Membership Branches.

[62] The $6 rate is for those making less than $1000 a month. There is a sub-minimal dues rate of $3 a month, but this is only approved for select cases.

[63] 2017 Note From The Author: This report was first provided to VSEA Union Officers & senior staff in 2016.

[64] These figures include two known AOT Garage workers who were hired in 2015, were recruited to the Union, but later resigned from State employment (for personal reasons). These figures additionally include workers who are known to the AOT Union Rep to have signed Union Cards or filled out the online membership application but who do not yet appear as members in the VSEA database.

[65] An additional result of this Labor Management discussion was a commitment from Management & Labor to look at factual data regarding the wages and salaries of town road crews with thought to how this may create challenges to AOT retention and recruitment. These figures, and possible action items, will be discussed further at future Labor Management Committee meetings in 2016.

[66] One aspect of the March On The Boss that proved to be controversial was the fact that the media did not simply find out about the action, but were directly informed about the action by VSEA staff, although without the apparent knowledge of the Executive Director. A media interview with the AOT spokesman gave an appearance that AOT members in NMU had knowledge of demands being pushed by the State upon the Supervisory Unit. The Supervisory Unit, unlike NMU, was operating under ground rules that prohibited public communication about Bargaining proposals without first providing 24 hours’ notice. VSEA did not anticipate the media asking questions that, depending on the answer, could contribute to the AOT worker/spokesperson giving the appearance of this knowledge, and hence he was not prepped for such questions. Regardless, the State did not take any ULP actions.

[67] Note that AOT Bargaining Team Delegate, Art Aulis, has given his support and encouragement for these updates.

[68] These overall year to year VSEA membership numbers were provided by VSEA Operations Director Ray Stout on 12/16/15.

[69] 2017 Note From The Author: This report was first provided to VSEA Union Officers & senior staff in 2017.

[70] As a Union Rep I am also responsible for the Office of the Defender General Unit. Here there are 8 worksites. As of January 1 2017, all 8 of these worksites have deployed local union contacts and/or other union officers. In addition to the Defender General I am also responsible for the Vermont State Housing Authority Unit. Likewise I am working with that Unit Chair to establish the same system in that Unit.

[71] All union officers in AOT, with the exception of those directly serving on the bargaining team or who are in the Supervisory Unit, serve as NMU contract captains when negotiations are active. Therefore, AOT garages/DMV in effect has 86 NMU contract captains. Not including AOT, NMU has a total of 63 additional contract captains. Therefore, AOT, although composing approximately 20% of NMU, accounts for 54%% of the total number of NMU contract captains.

[72] Having AOT stewards primarily cover only fellow AOT workers in their geographic area increases their effectiveness as they provide representation on issues which they understand in the context of working for AOT, and by providing representation in their geographic area they are able to develop a more consistent relationship with their local management.

[73] The practice of meeting 4 times a year (in perpetuity) and having up to 11 union delegates on it, surpasses the baseline labor rights guaranteed by the contract. This expansion of the rights of this committee were agreed to by both labor and management at their first meeting after the group was reformed in 2013.

[74] At the request of labor, management provides labor with its proposed agenda items prior to this meeting. This allows the AOT stewards/Labor Management delegates to also form a unified position on these agenda items.

[75] AOT Labor Management delegates have not broken this rule, and to date no delegate has been removed for this infraction.

[76] It should also be noted that labor’s internal rules also prevent delegates from bringing personal issues into the meetings with management. Labor Management agenda items cannot be personal in nature, nor should they involve one specific garage. Labor Management is viewed as a forum for issues that are broad in nature and involve multiple AOT Districts. Where issues are specific to one garage or one District, there are other venues for them to be appropriately addressed.

[77] There are 11 branch locations across Vermont. In addition, DMV Law Enforcement constitutes a specific grouping within DMV. These police officers are home based, and for mapping tracking purposes are listed as their own ‘worksite’ within DMV.

[78] In the same way, I find if I let my chainsaw sit too long, it’s a bitch to start up when I finally need it to.

[79] In this section I do not count 5 people in one garage who signed a petition as 5 instances of activism. Rather if people in one garage, be it 2 or 10, signed a petition I count that as one instance. What is recorded here is collective activism attributed to a specific garage, not individual acts as such.

[80] It should also be mentioned that as of December, 17 AOT union women (not teased out by department or division) wrote to their Union Rep (and the BOT point person on the action) expressing strong interest in being part of a union delegation to the January 21 2017 Million Women March (a total of 37 VSEA woman expressed such interest). A number of these women have never been directly involved union activities prior to expressing a desire to attend this historic event. While the VSEA Board of Trustees allocated $5000 to send such a delegation, and while the VSEA Council backed this decision from the Board, no VSEA staff was assigned to coordinate logistics with the BOT member serving as point on this project. Therefore it appears increasingly unlikely that the planning for this delegation will be achieved, and it is unlikely that these women will be able to attend this event on behalf of VSEA or otherwise. This is unfortunate on a number of levels; not only is this an opportunity for VSEA to be part of a historic march, it is also an opportunity for VSEA to begin to develop alliances (through collective action) with potential allies external to VSEA (which will be needed in the looming Trump era), but it was also a porthole through which new activists could begin to engage with their union. The failure for this effort to come off may decrease the credibility of VSEA with these 17 AOT members. Support from VSEA staff, after the BOT voted to support this action, could have and should have prevented this from playing out as it has. A similar failure to follow through also occurred over 2015-16 with the Dignity & Respect petition (36% of the signatures being from AOT) which was never delivered to the state/politicians or utilized in anyway, and the political press conference which two AOT stewards agreed to seek to attend in support of the candidate we endorsed for Governor. Point being: If you say you are going to do something, do it. Failure to do so decreases our credibility with the members and over time decreases our ability to get members to take action next time there is a need.

[81] In the 2016 VT General Election, in seriously contested statewide races, our endorsed candidate for Governor, Sue Minter-Democrat, lost to Phil Scott-Republican. In the LT Governor race, union endorsed candidate David Zuckerman-Progressive, won.

[82] As I have traveled to AOT garages, I have often been asked by AOT members why we tend to endorse the same incumbent politicians we appear to fight against during the legislative session.

[83] Here VSEA Director of Labor Relations, Gary Hoadley deserves much credit.

[84] Early in 2016, Garage Contacts/Union Officers were mailed a hard copy list of names of nonmembers in their Garage. The mailing included reasons why we need to sign up new members, talking points, and Union Cards. Late in the year these Garage Contacts/Union Officers were emailed a broad list of fee payers broken down by Garage. Throughout the year, the Union Rep would encourage said officers to sign up new members in order to build the power of the Union.

[85] Laurie Hassett did a great job keeping this Union Rep informed about new hires, new members, and helped immensely in this on-going effort.

[86] In the 2015-2016 AOT 1 Year Review document, 105 new members we reported as being recruited. This was accurate. However, this number included those that recently filled out a union card and whose membership (in the database) was not yet processed. Therefore, some new members identified here (by searching the “started paying dues” option in the database) for 2016 were actually recruited in 2015.

[87] These new hire recruitment rates do not calculate in new hires that join the union (or did not join the union) but for whatever reason are not still employed with the State as of January 1 2017. In the 2016 AOT annual report, I calculated those into the equation. Thus last year’s numbers reflect that.

[88] From a union point of view, a General Release is a bad thing as it compels the worker to sign away all his/her rights to take legal action against the state for all known and unknown issues that may have occurred with few exceptions (a workers comp related claim being one of said exceptions). A Limited Release, on the other hand, only compels the worker to sign away their legal recourse on things stemming from the specific issue at hand.

[89] These 10 cases are still open.

[90] In both these cases the workers resigned just prior to the holding of a Loudermill Hearing. In one case the allegation was in regards to using state equipment to embezzle public funds. In the other it was a clear cut violation of a Last Chance Agreement.

[91] 2017 Note From The Author: I wrote the first draft of this proposal for the Vermont State Employes’ Association when it became clear that the union’s director was unwilling or conceptually unable to craft an organizational response to the looming reality of the incoming Trump administration. However, internal politics being what they were, I asked the VSEA Brattleboro Chapter President, Robin Rieske, if she would make the work her own and present it to the Chapter Presidents Committee and then the VSEA Board of Trustees. Robin edited my draft and made it stronger, giving her own imprint to it (that is the version that appears here). Despite resistance from the Executive Director, the Chapter Presidents endorsed it, and the Executive Committee and VSEA Council took a favorable view of it. In the end the Executive Director was pressured in to making the goal of recruiting Local Union Contacts in each workplace a strategic aim of the union. This document was first presented to the VSEA on November 15, 2016.

[92] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was provided to a number of Mt. Snow workers. I myself worked there for a period of time during the winter of 1998. The article was also sent to a number of Vermont newspapers as well as some socialist newspapers. Frankly, in the age before the internet was common in Vermont, I do not know where or if it was published. At the time I wrote this article (and while working at Mt. Snow) I was crashing at my friend Christine Linn’s apartment in Wilmington Vermont.

[93] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published anonymously in Barricada magazine, 2001.

[94] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in Barricada magazine, January 2003.

[95] 2017 Note From The Author: Bob South would go on to serve multiple terms as a State Representative in the Vermont General Assembly as a member of the Labor Caucus and as a Democrat. Bob would also go on to become a Union Rep for the Vermont State Employes’ Association.

[96] UE Local 234 has a long history of militancy. During the most recent strike prior to this one, union workers turned over a bus filled with scabs which was attempting to enter the factory grounds.

[97] 2017 Note From The Author: This essay was originally printed as a handbill by the Green Mountain Anarchist Collective and distributed to workers in Montpelier, Vermont. It was also published in Catamount Tavern News, 2003. The essay was written by David Van Deusen but was reviewed, modified, and adopted by the Green Mountain Anarchist Collective. The campaign lasted into 2005, but ultimately the effort was not sustained. To understand some of the factors that contributed to the decline of this effort see, Precarious & Pissed Off, by Sean West, 2006, theanarchistlibrary.org.

[98] 2017 Note From The Author: They did not, and recognition was never achieved there.

[99] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in Catamount Tavern News in 2003.

[100] 2017 Note From The Author: Charlie O’s was and continues to be a working class, biker oriented tavern on Main Street. Recognition would never be achieved there as the owner (unlike his local manager) soon came out firmly against the union. In fact, as time passed, I [David Van Deusen] became a bartender at this tavern. I was eventually fired without cause within 24 hours of being quoted in the local newspaper as being a spokesman for the union (in opposition to a proposed regressive option tax – which was ultimately voted down). While a union efforts failed to get me reinstated, 75 local patrons organized a one night tip-strike against the manager (who also bartended). On this same night, with nearly all patrons wearing ‘Bring Back Dave’ stickers, a fellow bartender names Mo (who recently resigned) also threw a glass at the manager’s head (which missed, smashing behind the bar), and patrons (including KW) poured beer on the pool tables. “Bring Back Dave” was also carved into the wall of the women’s room with a knife.

[101] 2017 Note From The Author: A union contract was soon signed at the Savory theater and Downstairs Video.

[102] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first printed in Z Magazine and Catamount Tavern News, 2006.

[103] 2017 Note From The Author: I wrote this piece as a press release for the Vermont AFL-CIO in April, 2008. However, I was not the primary author of the attached resolution, although I did vocally support the resolution did help craft aspects of it.

[104] 2017 Note From The Author: The South Carolina AFL-CIO soon after also passed a resolution in support of the Longshoremen’s strike against the war.

[105] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first printed in the Rutland Herald in April 2009. The Healthcare Is A Human Right campaign resulted in legislation being passed in the Vermont General Assembly in 2011 which set a mandated road map for achieving this by 2017. However, Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin, who publically supported single payer and made it a major leg of his electoral campaigns, killed the legislation shortly after winning his third term in 2014. Shumlin did not seek reelection in 2016.

[106] 2017 Note From The Author: This letter was first published in VT Digger, October, 2011. While working for the Vermont Sierra Club it was pleasure to help forge a better sense of solidarity between environmentalists and labor. As the Sierra Club we worked with the Iron Workers Local 7 to secure union Iron Worker jobs on major wind farm projects that were then in the works. In return the Iron Workers (and labor in general) supported us in our efforts to build support for new conservation projects such as the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribal Forest.

[107] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first printed in the Times Argus, February, 2014. Legislation mandating that all Vermont workers have the right to accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick leave passed the VT General Assembly and was signed into law by Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin in 2016.

[108] 2017 Note From The Author: This communication was provided to AOT Union Officers and posted in the 60 state highway garages in 2016.

[109] 2017 Note From The Author: This communication was provided to AOT Union Officers and posted in the 60 state highway garages in 2016.

[110] 2017 Note From The Author: This communication was provided to AOT Union Officers and posted in 60 state highway garages in 2016.

[111] 2017 Note From The Author: This communication was provided to AOT Union Officers and posted in the 60 state highway garages in 2017.

[112] 2017 Note From The Author: This communication was provided to AOT Union Officers and posted in the 60 state highway garages in 2017.

[113] 2018 Note From The Author: This op-ed was first published in iBrattleboro in October, 2018.

[114] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in Catamount Tavern News in 2003.

[115] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in Catamount Tavern News in 2003.

[116] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in Catamount Tavern News in 2006.

[117] 2017 Note From The Author: This interview was first printed in Catamount Tavern News and the Valley Reporter in 2006. Today [2017] Peter Sterling serves as Chief of Staff to the Vermont Senate Pro Tem, Tim Ashe-Vermont Progressive Party.

[118] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in Catamount Tavern News, 2006.

[119] 2017 Note From The Author: The Vermont General Assembly passed single payer healthcare legislation in 2011, however the transition to a state-based universal healthcare system was later derailed by Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin-Democrat.

[120] 2017 Note From The Author: The Vermont General Assembly passed a mandatory food GMO labeling law in in 2014. The Federal Government has since trumped this legislation with its own law which provides cover for cooperate interests.

[121] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in Catamount Tavern News in 2007.

[122] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in Catamount Tavern News, 2008. President George W. Bush never stepped foot in Vermont during the eight years of his Presidency.

[123] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first printed in the Valley Reporter in March 2014.

[124] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was posted on community bulletin boards in the Town of Cabot, VT, in October 2016.

[125] 2017 Note From The Author: The article was first published in Catamount Tavern News & the Northeastern Anarchist in 2008.

[126] 2017 Note From The Author: The article was first published in Catamount Tavern News, 2003.

[127] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in Catamount Tavern News, 2006. While this official recognition was historically important, the law was found to be too vague to qualify Vermont Abenaki with certain rights that typically come with state recognition. Therefore, the Vermont Legislature crafted a new bill which created a more formal recognition process which would go through a recommendation process through the Vermont Commission of Native American Affairs, and then sanctioned by the Vermont General Assembly. As a result the all four tribes achieved a higher form of recognition between 2010-2011. I had the pleasure of serving on the Commission, appointed by Governor Peter Shumlin-Democrat, in 2011 when we shepherd through recognition of the Missisquoi.

[128] 2017 Note From The Author: A version of this letter was sent to members of the Vermont Sierra Club in 2012.

[129] 2017 Note From The Author: Chief Willard’s May Day speech was co-written by Willard and Van Deusen.

[130] 2017 Note From The Author: A version of this interview was first printed in The Black Bloc Papers, Breaking Glass Press Shawnee Mission, KS, 2010.

[131] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first printed in Catamount Tavern News, 2006. The title comes from the Green Mountain Boys referring to their armed anti-Yorker operations as “going on a wolf hunt” in the 1770s.

[132] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was fort published in Catamount Tavern News, 2006.

[133] 2017 Note From The Author: Bernie would go on to run for U.S. President in the Democratic Primary in 2016 (receiving more votes than any other self-described socialist in the history of the U.S.).

[134] 2017 Note From The Author: After his election defeat, Tarrant did in fact move back to Florida.

[135] 2017 Note From The Author: As of 2017, the Democrats still control the Vermont Senate & House, but the Progressives now have 3 Senators, 7 State Reps, and the offices of State Auditor (Doug Hoffer) and Lieutenant Governor (David Zuckerman). In addition Bernie Sanders (who founded the Progressive Party after leaving the Liberty Union Party), although officially an independent, remains as one of Vermont’s U.S. Senators.

[136] 2017 Note From The Author: David Zuckerman was elected as a State Senator in 2012 and as Vermont Lieutenant Governor in 2016.

[137] 2017 Note From The Author: Ed Stanak was the Progressive Party candidate for Vermont Attorney General in 2012 receiving 5.5% of the vote.

[138] 2017 Note From The Author: Anthony Pollina ran for Governor in 2008, coming in second to the winning Republican candidate. Pollina received 21.8% of the vote, finishing above the Democratic Party candidate. Pollina was elected as a Vermont State Senator in 2010.

[139] 2017 Note From The Author: Democrat Peter Shumlin was elected Governor after Douglas retired from public office in 2010.

[140] 2017 Note From The Author: In 2008 & 2010 the Vermont Liberty Union Party failed to qualify for major party status, but regained in in 2012 with its candidate for Secretary of State, Mary Alice Herbert, winning 13.1% of the vote. Herbert was the only opposition candidate running against the Democrat.

[141] 2017 Note From The Author: Soon after the 2006 election, the Vermont Green Party diapered from the political scene.

[142] 2017 Note From The Author: Vermont separatists, following a poll stating 13% public support for Vermont leaving the union, ran a slate of candidates in the 2010 General Election but failed to articulate a clear leftist platform. All their candidates lost, with their best candidate finish being for Lieutenant Governor where they received 3.7% of the vote.

[143] 2017 Note From The Author: This interview was first published in Catamount Tavern News in 2007. Pollina ran for Vermont Governor in 2008. He finished second (with more votes than the Democrat) with 21.8% of the vote. In 2010 Pollina ran for the Vermont Senate for Washington County, as a Progressive, and won. He went on to win reelection in 2012, 2014, and 2016.

[144] 2017 Note From The Author: David Zuckerman, future VT State Senator & Lieutenant Governor.

[145] 2017 Note From The Author: Bob Kiss.

[146] 2017 Note From The Author: The Democrats did run a candidate for Governor in 2008; Gay Symington, who was Speaker of the Vermont House. She finished third behind Douglas and Pollina.

[147] 2017 Note From The Author: Shumlin would go on to serve three terms as VT Governor from 2010 on.

[148] 2017 Note From The Author: Following massive public pressure, Vermont Yankee was shuttered for good in 2014.

[149] 2017 Note From The Author: This platform was composed in 2009, and provided to voters in the Town of Moretown. I won this election with the endorsement of the Vermont Progressive Party, Vermont Liberty Union Party, & Vermont AFL-CIO. In my two terms I was not successful in carrying out large portions of my platform. The fact was that I was one vote on a five person board. The other board members, while being good people who cared for the local community, were much more conservative than myself. Even so, we were successful in provide livable wages for all non-elected town employes, doubling property tax relief for disabled military vets, opening up the Town Hall for a free children’s play group, and generally increased public participation in town government. Much of my platform may have been possible over time, but after two terms I decided that my time on political matters was better served working within organized labor and within other aspects of the movement.

[150] 2017 Note From The Author: These questions were provided to all Moretown Select Board candidates in Moretown. The written response was published in the Valley Reporter in 2010. I won this election (with the endorsement of the Vermont Progressive Party, Vermont Liberty Union Party, VT chapter of the Socialist Party USA & Vermont AFL-CIO) receiving the most votes of any candidate running for Select Board that year.

[151] 2017 Note From The Author: This communication was provided to key union officers and leaders within the Vermont AFL-CIO in 2010. In the end I was unable to secure the support of the Vermont AFT. Without the support of the AFT (who decided to run their own candidate) it was not realistically possible to win an election against a more conservative slate likely backed by the IBEW and AFSCME. Therefore I instead ran for Member-At-Large (a position on the on the five person Executive Committee). I won this race (along with the AFT candidate for President Ben Johnson and OPIU candidate Traven Leyshon for Secretary-Treasurer) as part of a pro-reform slate.

[152] 2017 Note From The Author: This communication was sent to Vermont AFL-CIO officers from the 70 +/- union locals in 2011. I won this contested race at the September 2011 VT AFL-CIO convention, receiving more votes than any other candidate in a contested race at that convention. This win situated me as the fourth highest ranking officer in the Vermont AFL-CIO.

[153] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in Green Mountain Daily & on the Vermont Liberty Union Part’s website in 2014. The Vermont Democratic Party and Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin did in fact abandon some of their left leaning policy objectives, killing single payer healthcare legislation in the process. Shumlin suffered increased unaffordability from the public as a result, and did not seek reelection in 2016.

[154] 2017 Note From The Author: This letter was posted to the Moretown community on Front Porch Forum and printed in the Valley Reporter in 2015.

[155] 2018 Note From The Author: This is a personal journal entry from July 21, 1995.

[156] 2017 Note From The Author: This article was first published in Whirlwind, a special Hurricane Katrina publication of the Northeast Federation of Anarcho Communists, 2005.

[157] 2017 Note From The Author: Article first published in the Vermont Guardian, Upside Down World, at Catamount Tavern News, 2006.

[158] 2017 Note From The Author: This interview was first published in Catamount Tavern News, 2006.

[159] 2018 Note From The Author: This resolution was passed by the Green Mountain Central Labor Council of the Vermont AFL-CIO on February 25, 2018. President of the Green Mountain Central Labor Council: Traven Leyshon. The resolution was drafted by David Van Deusen.

[160] 2018 Note From The Author: This op-ed was originally published in The Caledonian Record, ibrattleboro, Enough Is Enough, Anarkismo, The Anarchist News, etc. in December, 2018.

[161] 2018 Note From The Author: This is a personal journal entry from July 13, 1999.

[162] 2017 Note From The Author: Article was first published in Boxing.com, 2013.

[163] 2017 Note From The Author: Article first published in the Times Argus and the Hardwick Gazette, and was read by the station owner (Ken Squier) on WDEV 550 AM in 2016. In addition, due to a request from myself (Van Deusen) Democratic Governor Peter Shumlin issued an official proclamation stating that June 14th, 2016, would be recognized by the State of Vermont as Muhammad Ali Day.

[164] 2017 Note From The Author: Interview first published in Infoshop News, Counter Punch (which I sent it to upon the encouragement of labor writer/organizer Steve Early), and Dissident Voices, 2016. Bill Lee went on to receive 2.83% of the vote (including mine) in the 2016 Vermont General Election.

From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org

Dave was elected President of the Vermont AFL-CIO on September 15th, 2019. He is a union rep for Vermont AFSCME members, previously a VSEA Union Rep, and still a Writer, and Harley Rider. (From: AFLCIO.org.)

Chronology

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2018
Chapter 12 — Publication.

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April 19, 2020; 12:48:28 PM (UTC)
Added to http://revoltlib.com.

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January 16, 2022; 7:48:35 AM (UTC)
Updated on http://revoltlib.com.

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