A-Infos (en) RALPH CHAPLIN HANGING OUT WITH CHIEF LESCHI IN TACOMA

["Arthur J. Miller" <bayou@blarg.net>]

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    With a little time on my hands, and nothing better to do, I went =
over to the Washington State History Museum here in Tacoma. I had heard =
that they had an exhibit on one time Wobbly Ralph Chaplin, so I though I =
would see how "history" records a guy who was once one hell of a man, =
and wrote "Solidarity Forever".

=20

"In our hands is placed a power greater than their

hoarded gold,

Greater than the might of armies,

Magnified a thousand-fold.

We can bring to birth the new world

>From the ashes of the old,

For the Union makes us strong.

Solidarity Forever!"

Ralph Chaplin

=20

    The exhibit was small and it had as much to do with Chaplin's later =
life when he

was a right-wing republican as it did about his days as a Wobbly. The =
only thing that caught my eye was an old publication of an epic poem =
Chaplin wrote about Chief Leschi.

Next to the publication was a picture of Chief Leschi and a few words =
saying that Chaplin was inspired by him. Of course the words of the poem =
were not out to be read and I had to hold back my desire to take the =
publication off the wall and open it up and read it.=20

    Here in the Northwest, few outside of the Native communities know =
much of anything about the real history of this land. The more =
"enlighten" non-Natives will tell you that Chief Leschi is the name of a =
school run by the Puyallup Nation. But who was Chief Leschi? Few of them =
could give you any answer to that question.=20

    Among the "enlightened" ones there are those who know of Chief =
Sealth of the Duwamish and the famous speech that he is reported having =
given (though there are some who say the famous speech was written by a =
white man after Sealth died). Most call            =20

Chief Sealth, Chief Seattle, for whom the city was name. But it is =
common in these parts not to get names correct, nor to care much about =
that. The city I live in is named after Mt. Tahoma which some how came =
out as Tacoma. The mountain was later renamed Mt. Rainier by =
non-Natives, for a white man that never even saw the mountain.=20

    Chief Sealth was a man who wanted peace with the invaders at all =
costs. Today his people, the Duwamish have no land for that is what =
peace came to mean. Chief Leschi of the Nisquallys, on the other hand =
after realizing that there was no honor in the invaders words, organized =
an armed resistance. After the Battle of Seattle (no not the WTO =
protests) where the resisters were bombarded by navy ships, Chief Leschi =
was captured

and hung for the great "crime" of defending his people.=20

    It is an historical fact, something that the good-hearted liberals =
never speak of, that those First Nations that fought back were left with =
a greater land base than those who did not fight back. Many of those =
that cooperated were left with no land at all like the Duwamish. The =
invaders did not respect noble words, they respected, or you may say =
they feared, direct actions of resistance. As long as the invaders knew =
that there were some who would back up their talk with action there =
would be some gains to be made.

    This is as true in modern history as it from days long ago. The =
struggle over Fort Lawton in Seattle is one good example. Down here in =
the South Sound there were the fishing struggles, and the seizure and =
occupation of Cascadia by the Puyallups. These are things that the =
museum will not tell you about.

    If you go down on the first floor of the museum you will find more =
Wobbly stuff on display, but you will not find anything that deals with =
Wobblies of today. In that way, we

Wobblies are dealt with in the same manner as are the First Nations. We =
are museum pieces of days gone by. Yes, we were good dreamers of noble =
things, but progress over took our dreams, or so they would have you =
believe.=20

    The museum also has an exhibit on Woody Guthrie. Though there are =
many things to like about Woody Guthrie, but his legacy here in the =
Northwest is not one of them. For up here he was a pimp for BPA, "Roll =
On Columbia, Roll On". But his songs for the BPA did not speak of the =
many workers who died for BPA, neither do they speak of the land stolen =
from the First Nations, they lost of fishing grounds of the River People =
and of the salmon. But who am I to point out reality in the face of a =
myth?=20

    One of the events promoting the Guthrie exhibit is an event called =
"Hard-hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People: Joe Hill, Southern =
Working-class Heroes, and Woody Guthrie. The music of working-class =
people by scholars and performers."  I wonder, how does one become a =
scholar of "Hard-Hit People"? Are there college courses you can take =
that will teach how to become an "authority" on poor people? Like all =
other such eurocentic authority, this is another case when we must =
"question authority." For how to you explain=20

what hungry feels like? Or what is it like to have the "Man" exploit  =
your working years then cast you aside like needless waste when you =
grown to old to work?

    I was once asked to speak at a college where the movie, "The =
Wobblies" was being shown. They wanted a real live Wobbly to show off, I =
guess like some type of museum piece, for a school  room "show and =
tell." After the movie a college professor, an authority on labor, got =
up and rambled on about Wobblies and how we were idealistic dreamers of =
the past. Then he told me that I had five minutes to speak. I did not =
use up even half of that time. I got up and said, "Labor historians are =
to workers as anthropologists are to Indians. Don't believe a word they =
say." Then I walked out with the audience in shocked silence.=20

    How could I tell them, in five minutes, the reality of toil? That =
Wobblies were not dreamers, but realists dealing with the reality of =
working people? And that we, Wobblies continue to this day to organize =
and speak out around the realities of our class? We are not dinosaurs =
that grew extinct, for they will always be Wobblies, of some short, as =
long=20

as there are parasites exploiting the labor of working folks.=20

    I hope that someday I will be able to read Ralph Chaplin's poem =
honoring Chief Leschi, for it seems to me that such a poem written by a =
Wobbly is most fitting. There in that museum both Wobblies and the First =
Nations are simplified into exhibits of the past

without much of a present nor future, I guess that is the only safe way =
for them to look upon both of us. But if I am a dreamer, my dream vision =
is of the time when the past clashes into the present to remake the =
future.=20

                                                               In The =
Spirit Of Total Resistance

                                                                      =
Arthur J. Miller   =20


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