Woza Friday: Zulus and Populists
Woza (Come) Friday, though Friday has come. It’s actually a better song for Wednesday, Tuesday, or god forbid, for you wage-slaves (and aren’t we all?), who "woza, woza Friday my darling" the minute you walk through your employer’s door every Monday morning.
Here’s a great short talk on culture by Johnny Clegg, a good tune-smith, a well educated, well experienced democrat, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
In the news of the day, it seems Trump’s arting and dealing has created just another American warmongering presidency blowing up the Mid-East. I had such hopes.
My friend Jan, who twenty year ago introduced me to Lawrence Goodwyn’s The Populist Moment, lent me Coming to Terms, a photo history of the Germans who moved into the West Texas Hill Country in the 1840s. It was put out by Texas A&M. Goodwyn, their illustrious alumni, wrote the introduction, classic Goodwyn.
As aside from slavery, we’ve disappeared the 19th century agrarian republic, Goodwyn again documents how democracy did indeed once exist in America. Most interestingly, he shows how the tired, poor, yearning huddled masses of Europe immigrating to the cradle of liberty well favored democracy, thank you very much, and wanted more. Goodwyn writes of the immigrant Germans:
“Despite cultural differences, the Germans wanted to be an active part of the new world. They believed deeply in the ideals of freedom and opportunity which Americans asserted. Writing to relatives in Germany, an immigrant German pastor wrote from the Hill country in 1851: 'there is no trace of this hatred of the rich by the poor here because even the poorest man can become wealthy here and actually does if he works hard.' The Germans of the Hill Country wanted to join the new world as participants, advancing the values of America and not simply accepting what they had found. Within the first 6 years—before they had secured more than a tenuous hold on the Edwards Plateau—the German settlers began forming associations to put forth their ideas of freedom, not only through newspapers but also through 'democratic unions' and 'reform unions.' These associations spring up on the Peternales River and Live Oak Creek, in Fredericksburg, New Braunfels, Sisterdale, San Antonio, and Austin. They soon merged into district-wide monthly meetings for political instruction. Out of these meetings came the ideas that coalesced in 1854 in a far-reaching and highly controversial document—a statement of ‘political and social reform.’”
“The statement opens with the words, ‘...we are convinced that the people of the United States do not enjoy the liberties guaranteed to them by the constitution,' and it went on to call for reforms that the country would not enact for years to come: free public education from first grade to college, progressive income tax, and abolition of the imprisonment for debt. It also called for changes that the country has yet to see: among them abolition of capital punishment and the grand jury system, direct election of the president, and the ‘equality of labor and capital in all laws relating to them.’ With the colonization experience fresh in their minds, they also declared that ‘the soil shall not be an article of speculation but should be regarded as a means of compensating labor.’ The German document was, from end to end, a thorough going assertion of democratic principle. In the words of historian Joe Frantz, it was ‘a combined statement for the freedom of all mankind.’”
“In terms of public perception, however, all other proposals were overshadowed by the stand taken on slavery, described as ‘an evil the abolition of which is a requirement of democratic principles.’ The statement stirred up an immediate vicious counter-attack that was quickly extended toward all Germans in Texas. It marked a high point in early Anglo-German tension. The 'Texas State Times' called the declaration treason and announced that the Germans of Texas had departed ‘from every shadow of that love of their adopted country by which they should have been activated.’ Even German singing societies were condemned as ‘revolutionary’ and ‘subversive.’”
Nothing new under the sun, eh?
“The German platform of 1854 was instantly controversial because of its anti-slavering causes, but the manifesto was actually much more – a far-ranging document that spelled out broad safeguards to protect the rights of farmers and artisans against systematic distortion of democracy by those economic and governmental elite. Its preamable praised the US Constitution as ‘the best now extent’ but lamented the fact that both major parties were not dedicated enough to advancing democratic values.”
You never hear about these 19th century Southerners in the 21st century – they weren’t slaves or slaveholders, not even good racists it appears. In the vote for Texas to secede, “Mason county, 60% German, voted 60% against secession; Fredericksburg and the rest of Gillespie county, 85% German, voted 96% for the Union.”
Goodwyn concludes,
"The German experience in the Hill Country is now approaching a full century and a half. At the heart of this experience are values which seem contradictory: a strong sense of community and a deep belief in self-reliance. Both values are actually integral parts of a powerful 19th century tradition which sought to define a ‘just society’ by careful preservation of individual freedom through cooperative action. It was a system of values which had as its cornerstone the belief that just rewards for hard work and individual achievement would develop best in the framework of a cooperating community of citizens consciously established to protect its participants against organized exploitation and oppression. Such a society demonstrated its respect for human beings and nature by protecting the central ingredient of the self-governing commonwealth: free labor on the land. The threats to free labor were understood to be speculators, land syndicates, standing armies, and banks."
Funnily or not, the threats are many of the same, but it needs to be asked, what is the 21st century equivalent of “free labor on the land?" What gives an individual a certain political economy independence to enable them to democratically cooperate in a self-governing commonwealth?
Reminded of Larry, I looked up a couple things. There’s a book by his students out a couple years ago called People Power. One of the editors is Wesley Hogan, she put out a great book sixteen years ago on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) titled, Many Minds, One Heart. I finally was able to find the review I wrote at the time - here it is.
In tracking down the review, I ran across a note from Bill Greider, who first personally introduced me to "the Professor." The note said, “I liked your appreciation of Wesley Hogan. Do you think people will see why the story is relevant to us?”
Well, the answer is no then and no now, but I'll take all appreciations, even if they're sixteen years old.
Finally, also found a good talk by the Professor from 1996, where he says we are “fighting for the soul of the republic.” Can you imagine someone saying such a thing, thirty years ago, just when Mr. and Mrs. Bill were reelected? The audacity!
God love Sly Stone – I Want to Take You Higher