Abednego Rising

My order of the great historical losses in the word:
1) the Library of Alexandria;
2) the Library at Raglan Castle, Wales;
3) the 1890 US Census, and;
4) the 1831 Merthyr Tydfil Petition of 11,000 signatures to save the life of Dic Penderyn.

Some of those 11,000 on the petition to Lord Melbourne may have joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1840s. We think we know one of them.

There's some irony that during the longest federal shutdown, being locked out of work, I've read The Merthyr Rising, by Gwyn A. Williams (University of Wales, Cardiff 1978). The Rising came about because of the Ironmasters conspiring to lower wages and shut-down work making it very difficult for the families of working poor in the ironworks, the coal, ironstone, and limestone mines, and processing mills to feed their families.

"Bara gyda caws!" was the shout of the crowd for "bread and cheese" in front of the Castle Inn when the 93rd Highland Regiment fired on the crowd killing two dozen and wounding dozens more. It only gave the leaders of the town and small contingent of soldiers an opportunity to escape to Penydarren House, which was more easily defended.

The workers held the town for a few days in June 1831. They even held off the Highlanders' relief troops from Brecon at the steep slopes of Cefn Coed just north of Merthyr Tydfil. However, within a few days, the gentry militias and soldiers of the King converged on the town and the workers went back to the mines and furnaces. The British Parliament and the ironmasters were smart enough to establish some reform.

We found a newspaper article from 1833 that Elinor Jenkins Vaughan's son-in-law, Abednego Jones (1811-1890), appears to have participated in the Rising. The book confirmed my source. Here's how Professor Williams lays it out in his Preface about the stories he heard growing up in Merthyr:

It was astounding to me, or to be more accurate, it became astounding tome in retrospect, how often the talk curled back to 1831. One story lodged in my mind like a limpet intruder. They would shriek with laughter as they told of a young boy, Abednego Jones, who went about Merthyr during the Rising carrying a huge white banner as big as himself (by the end of the evening, it would be twice as big) and piping in a shrill, choir-boy treble: 'Death to kings and tyrants! The reign of justice for ever!'
     I did in the end find one 'huge white banner': it was carried by workers on the  march to the Waun Fair which started the rebellion. The young boy I never found. But once, quite by accident, I came across a court case in the Merthyr Guardian for 1833. A miner sued two others for cheating him out of his stall, won, and was then exposed as a man who had 'carried a banner during the Merthyr Riots'. This phrase recurs constantly in obituary and other notices; it evidently marked a man out. The judge read the offender an appropriate sermon. His name was Abednego Jones. [footnote to the same article that I found.] In 1833, he was no boy. Perhaps he was short. The Merthyr Rising, at 14.

Book Report: Border Country, by Raymond Williams

Williams has appeared in the blog before (here and here) which is one reason why I picked up this book in Cardiff. And I'm pleased to find that it's still in print and even available in the US at Amazon Prime.

Telling you it is about a University professor who returns home after his father has a heart attack as we flash back to his growing-up years does not do it justice. The book is a deep psychological and social analysis of relationships in a family and the extended family of a small, Welsh village near the border with England and the edge of the modern world.

Fora Dilma!

Dilma e Lula
Current President of Brazil, Dilma Vana Rousseff, and former President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

I get it now. I've been following the Facebook posts of many friends in Brazil and have been cautious about interfering in their political discussions, not being a citizen of that great nation and all.

Ainda fico muito preocupado com muita fala a favor de golpe militar. Creio que o passo constitutional de "impeachment" será melhor rumo à salvação da nação brasileira. E não tenho problema com as grandes demonstações nas ruas. Esse é o direito de um povo livre.

Dilma Rouseff, Presidenta do Brasil, is under siege for the collapse of the economy - not all her fault, mind you, having failed to recover from the world recession of eight years ago caused by the bankers of North America and Europe and the collapse of Brazilian oil. I still think it was a wise move for Brazilian investment in Cuba before U.S. President Obama began a re-opening and a lifting of sanctions. That will put Brazil right in the middle of increased commerce through the Americas.

Joseph Rising

A while back I saw this rather provocative posting from Wales on the Merthyr Rising Facebook Page:

Merthyr Rising

February 20 at 5:06am · 

8 years on and we're still paying for the greed, arrogance and incompetence of the bankers.

This should be a really interesting talk on alternatives to the banking system as it it.

Why don't we own the banks and make them work for us, instead of the other way around?

Now, that seems like a solidly Socialistic proposal. Imagine, the People in charge of the banks!

It also goes farther than any breaking-up of the banks and Wall Street power that U.S. Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders proposes. Pretty radical, some might say.

Then I read Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith's ideas about a National Bank for the U.S. set forth as he became a candidate for the Presidency in 1844:

"Red, the Blood of Angry Men" - Merthyr Rising 1831

In the category of "I'm-surprised-to-learn-something-new-every-day," the first ever red flag raised as a symbol of social reform in the name of the working man (and woman, even at that time) was in the protest of 1831 when coal miners and iron workers dipped a white flag in goat's blood and waived it as a symbol of their cause against the wealthy mine owners and iron masters of South Wales.

"Fe godwn ni eto" - "We will rise again"

"Merthyr Rising" is the name given for this short-lived movement. The red flag of the nascent unions and social reforms was yet to be associated with Marxism or even Socialism which as an economic/political theory was only just beginning.

Yes, there had been violent revolutions for representative government and "liberty, equality, and fraternity" in the former British Colonies in America and the French Revolution respectively. There had even been workers' protests in South Wales. But this was the first historically documented use of the red flag as part of a social movement.

The Big Lie of "Socialism!"

I got a little snarky on a FB post of a friend with whom I share some political views. In his attempts to promote a little Social Justice from solid, Mormon History, he was met with all the usual screed about the evils of "Socialism." My best comment was:

"Socialism. You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it does."

My point here is to try and explain that when tea-partiers on the Right talk about "Socialism" they are not using the classic, dictionary definition of an economic system in which the state owns and controls the means of production.

(By the way, I am not a Socialist. I believe in property rights and open markets regulated by representative democracy. Sigh!)

Beck Is Either Stupid or Dishonest (Maybe Both!)

The latest from Nazi-memorabilia collector Glenn Beck is his call to impeach the President for "treason." Because he (the President, not Beck) is sending some aid to international groups and "vetted" Syrian rebels. Politico reports today:

“We did not get into bed with Hitler to defeat Japan. We did not do it,” Beck said. “It’s the height of insanity. But I also believe it is impeachable. I believe it is treason.”

Well, he's sorta right. We did not sleep with Hitler to defeat Japan. No, we had another Ally that admittedly came in late against Japan but was pretty heavily involved in our defeat of Hitler.

Soviet Flag on top of the Reichstag at the Capture of Berlin, May 1945

Anti-Communism & Racism II (with Digressions to the Spanish Civil War)

I don't know why I can't get more of my FaceBook friends to comment here on the blog. They have these great discussions going there on my links to the blog that I would like to share. This discussion comes out of the previous post about Anti-Communism & Racism which might serve as some background. Two out of three of the main commenters have granted permission to use their names. I'll call the third "anonymous" for now.

To start off the fun, we have Anonymous:  

this article is a liberal generated, unbalanced, and spurious hypothesis that tries to brand as racists anyone who opposes barrak hussein obama and his socialist agenda. the article is consistently typical of openly hostile and viruently anti-conservative liberal tacticians, especially manifest since the year 2000. class warfare and exploitation of the masses with a persistent disinformation campaign against rule of law and order are well documented tactics of insurgent movements and communist ideologues, who expect that the "unwashed" masses are not educated, intelligent, or remembering enough to know the difference, or to recall that it was the republicans that emancipated slaves and the democrats/dixiecrats of the deep south that ran the klan and perpetuated the racists policies and sympathies (to include anti-communism) in that region. The very same that this artical now tries to lay that at the feet of modern/reaganite conservatives. Because one in infavor rule of law over unbridled illegal immigration does not make them a racist - although this article and the left want you to believe it. the t-party is not racist as a whole (there may be individual cases - as in all movements), but rather it stands for rule of law, accountability, and fiscal integrity - which the left, in order to marginalize their opponents, identifies as racist policies.

Socialism vs. Social Darwinism

That's how some are describing the 2012 Presidential contest now that Paul Ryan shores up the campaign linkage to his proposed budget. It is a bit of an exaggeration on both sides, but that's how they describe each other, so we can freely use it in our considerations.

They, at least, seem to like each other

Musical Socialism

Last night, I went to the annual awards ceremony of the jazz music program my two youngest boys are in. I won't name it here because of the title to this piece and I don't want to unnecessarily politicize the Director. I continue to take responsibility and flak for my passionate moderation seen by some on the right to be as evil as Mau-Mau Marxism.

Anyway, the Director said something interesting last night. In getting a little emotional about how much he respects his students for their talent and their basic goodness even more, he said that music education is so important because it teaches good citizenship as a lesson in civics. My ears perked up.

The Liberal Mormon and the Irony of Romney & Huntsman

I'm not saying that Romney and Huntsman are liberal. That would just be silly. But I am struck by the odd situation that in spite of the very strong political conservatism that runs through cultural Mormonism, when I see Huntsman and Romney in the midst of the Republican field for the presidential nomination, they are the sanest members of crazy-town. And I don't think I''m the only one that has noticed.

Now, both of them certainly have their problems and are unlikely to get my support in a general election. Huntsman just pegged Romney accurately as a "well-oiled weather vane" which also does in Huntsman's promise to run a "positive" campaign. But there is a basis for rational, progressive politics in Mormonism, even if you set aside Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as most Mormons and conservatives tend to do anyway.

Anarchists Occupy and Ron Paul Supporters Come Full Circle

Proving the political continuum is not a line but a circle, the Occupy Wall Street Movement marched through downtown Salt Lake with dispossessed Libertarians. As we watched from the windows of the Federal Building, they were at least smart enough to realize that a branch of the Federal Reserve was across the street and that's where they focused their pass-by march rather than just yelling at us for trying to serve the public. There were over 200 of them which beats out the last tea party tax day protest by a long shot.

Pretty cool design - the whole red revolution-thing going
with the socialist (oops, "industry") beehive 

My Boy Is a Socialist (Making His Dad "Kinda" Proud on Fathers Day)

Another moment in church when you want to slap your forehead hard but hold as still as possible hoping not to be noticed. The funny part is that I know of at least two other Democrats in the room who were looking at me trying to make me crack.

We were in with the Priests Quorum because some guy from the Stake called me to ask if our Teachers Quorum could go in with the Priests at the beginning of our class time so he could take a picture. He thought there might not be enough Priests so the idea was to boost up the numbers with a few Teachers as extras. I'm not sure if this was for Stake purposes or Church Headquarters on North Temple because we have a lot of guys in our Stake who work for Church Magazines and Public Affairs, etc. Our Varsity Scouts were even videoed a couple of years ago by a mission buddy who is on the Young Mens General Board, but so far, we haven't made it into any Church productions on-line or elsewhere, at least that I have seen.

Taxation as Theft. Or Is It "Property Is Theft?"

I'm getting really tired of the arguments from the far right that taxation is somehow stealing from the deserving and giving to the undeserving. It makes as much sense to me as "property is theft" from the leftists. I think that's an anarchist sentiment from Proudhon, but it fits in with Marxist Communism just fine.

Both sayings have some basic logic to them. They really fall apart though, when you use them as a  response to any opposing political or economic theory. I lose respect for argument or discussion when they turn into fights over dogma.

Possible Political Changes

Anything can happen. It is April First, after all.

I've decided that I will become a Republican (again) the day they nominate Jon Huntsman to be their Presidential Candidate. Vice President isn't good enough because sometimes you just need a moderate for supposed balance, like Nixon needed Agnew. It's still amazing to me that Huntsman was ever Governor of Utah. But then he didn't let his moderation slip until he was safely into his second term and then Obama whisked him off to China.

And, I’ll become a Libertarian the day I actually see them using their hoarded gold to “help the poor come out of poverty” and join the “unfettered market.”

And now, for something completely different (and even half serious):