by Tom Karlson
3000 BC
Builders of tombs for
Ramses III
Work no pay
They occupy the temple
Ramses reconsiders
Fish, beer, clothing, wheat
For the 99
1730
Stone River Georgia
Slaves and freed blacks rise up
Cato in the lead
60 killed
Occupation crushed
For a while
1871
Paris, France
Workers rise up
Take the streets
For 100 days then
Counterrevolution strikes
100,000 executed
The gutters run red
Occupation crushed
For a while
1877
Martinsville, West Virginia
Rail workers rise
General strike epidemic
50 cities
10 states
Army, militia, police, pinkertons
40 dead
Busted
For a while
1900
Woblies, IWW
Free speech
Fill the jails
One big union
Gandhi listens
1930’s
That red decade
Flint, Toledo,
San Francisco,
Minneapolis
50,000 workers
Strike, sit in, occupy the factories
Teamsters, auto workers, longshoremen
Unemployed League, the YCL
Communist party
The 1 calls
Guardsmen, scabs, thugs, police
Sweet victory for the working class
Collective bargaining, contracts
Solidarity
For a while
Venceremos
A long while 1960
Greensboro, North Carolina
4 sit in, Woolworth
70,000 sit in, jail in, boycott
Winning civil rights
Jim crow ends, Bull Conner weeps
For a while
Today
OWS
The 99 and the 1
Tom Karlson is founder of Poets for Peace, Long Island, NY.
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