Friday, January 31, 2014


                            A REASON & A DEAL

When movements are successful they transform the way we think, the way our society and our communities are structured, the way we live, and even who we are.

 
Movements may span years or decades and have periods of low visibility building and consolidation. Sometimes, when the external conditions are ripe, a "movement moment" occurs in which the long-term movement building takes off, becoming a large-scale public manifestation that makes headlines and history books. The tipping point and exact spark of a movement is sometimes unpredictable. Nonetheless a critical mass of people, many who are unconnected to each other, identify with the vision and the movement and take action on their own.

"The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire."

That's how Malcolm Gladwell defines it in his book "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference" but we as union members who understand organizing know it's not magic, it's a lot of hard hidden work that sometimes will go unrecognized, unsupported and under encouraged. The movie nor this blog could cover all those people who took action by becoming tipping points themselves (think of the "U" in union) and turned the tide for suffrage.

How do you put the "U" in union? How do you help others to find their "U" in union? What if their pathway to putting the "U" in union looks different than yours?

As we watch the next clip think about the different pathways that each woman chose. Did they really have to split into two groups? Why or why not? 


To follow along with blog and discussion watch movie from 1:38:34-1:50:27.


The lifeblood of a movement is the relationships and human connections we build with each other.

"Where is she? Tell me where she is!"


Miss Katherine Morey of Brookline , Mass., accompanied Mr. Obrien to the prison this afternoon. She demanded of Superintendant Whittaker to see her mother, Mrs. Agnes Morey, and was refused. She was ordered to leave the grounds. Failing to comply with this request promptly she was escorted to her automobile by a marine.

"I am sorry to do this," the marine told her; "but we are under military orders."

"What would you do if I refuse to obey your orders? Would you shoot?" Miss Morey asked.

"I cannot say what I would do, but I have strict orders, Madam." she quoted the marine as saying. -The New York Times November 17, 1917

"Emily...I want you to come home."

Before the World War I, women typically played the role of the homemaker. Women were judged by their beauty rather than by their ability. Their position and status were directed towards maintaining the annual duties of the family and children. These duties consisted of cleaning and caring for the house, caring for the young, cooking for the family, maintaining a yard, and sewing clothing for all. Women had worked in textile industries and other industries as far back as 1880, but had been kept out of heavy industries and other positions involving any real responsibility. Just before the war, women began to break away from the traditional roles they had played.
 
As men left their jobs to serve their country in war overseas, women replaced their jobs. Women filled many jobs that were brought into existence by wartime needs. As a result, the number of women employed greatly increased in many industries. In the U.S. there were, before the war, over eight million women in paid occupations. After the war began, not only did their numbers increased in common lines of work, but as one newspaper stated, "There has been a sudden influx of women into such unusual occupations as bank clerks, ticket sellers, elevator operator, chauffeur, street car conductor, railroad trackwalker, section hand, locomotive wiper and oiler, locomotive dispatcher, block operator, draw bridge attendant, and employment in machine shops, steel mills, powder and ammunition factories, airplane works, boot blacking and farming."


 
We associate with the people who occupy the same small, physical spaces that we do.


"I'll speak to President Wilson. He can issue a pardon."

By an innovative action that visualized their arguments, the NWP pickets stepped to the doors of power and opened a silent conversation with the President and the nation about the rights of women. It was, as Mabel Vernon soon would relate, a conversation destined to become more heated with the advent of war.

"For what? I haven't broken any laws."

"Your honor, I have a nephew fighting for democracy in France. He is offering his life for his country. I should be ashamed if I did not join these brave women in their fight for democracy in America. I should be proud of the honor to die in prison for the liberty of American women." -73-year-old Mrs. Nolan's words to the judge, as he sentenced her to 6 months for protesting Paul's arrest.

 
"The girls keep asking for you."

Don'ts for Girls: A Manual of Mistakes By Minna Thomas Antrim

"Don't give free rein to your imagination, or before you know it you'll pass the mortal limit.



"They are the only reason I am here."

The stakes grew higher for the suffragists, as they were subject not merely to harsh weather and boredom on the picket line but to physical attacks and arrest, there was an increased need to remain tenacious in the fight. Assured that theirs was a just war, that they reflected "the demand of women in all parts of the country that this question of democracy at home should be settled at a time when we fight for democracy abroad" they strengthened their resolve for further action.


"I'm sorry."

When a movement helps people feel deeply connected to themselves, to each other, to a vision, and to their collective power, it is a strong movement.

"I know."

"New York has voted to enfranchise women."

 
'Thousands of registration fliers and copies of 'What Every Woman Needs to Know About Voting' were sent out,'' one post-election report of that year observed. ''On Election Day, the day of days, it seemed that every woman not suffering from Spanish influenza voted.''

That triumph was achieved despite the fears of antisuffragists that when a woman received the right to vote, ''political gossip would cause her to neglect the home, forget to mend our clothes and burn the biscuits.''

New York quickly became a pivotal state in the suffrage campaign.

"I've never pressed you for a federal amendment Mr. President, New York, that's 232 presidential electors."

Following the state success, Mrs. Catt organized the New York State League of Women Voters, a move that prompted her to say: ''What are we going to do? We know nothing about politics. We've got the vote. Now we must learn to use it.''

In order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first.

"We're at war."

''War today is not the business of a group of fighting men but the affair of a whole people,'' Mrs. Vanderlip said. ''It has revolutionized the curiously antiquated arguments about women's suffrage.'' Although she also said the census effort would be concluded ''without any thought of propaganda,'' she added: ''I can't help feeling that in the end this work and all the work which women may be called on to do in this national crisis will unavoidably influence public opinion in that direction.'' -Narcissa Cox Vanderlip

Mrs. Vanderlip later became the first president of the New York State League of Women Voters.


"Then call it a war measure."

 
World War I was to give women a chance to show a male-dominated society that they could do more than simply bring up children and stay at home. In World War I, women played a vital role in keeping soldiers equipped with ammunition and in many senses they kept the nation moving through their help in various industries. Women found employment in transportation including the railroads and driving cars, ambulances, and trucks, nursing, factories making ammunition, on farms in the Women's Land Army, in shipyards etc. Before the war, these jobs had been for men only with the exception of nursing.

World War I was to prove a turning point for women. Women began to earn a great deal of respect through their active participation in labor and society during the wartime crisis.

 "Congress will never pass it."

March 4, 1917 – Jeannette Rankin becomes first Woman to take a seat in US House of Representatives
Elected to Montana's at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first female member of Congress. During her term in the 65th Congress women did not have universal suffrage, but many were voting in some form. "If I am remembered for no other act," Rankin said, "I want to be remembered as the only woman who ever voted to give women the right to vote."

Just after her term began the House held a vote on whether to enter World War I. Rankin cast one of fifty votes against the resolution, later saying, "I felt the first time the first woman had a chance to say no to war she should say it." Some considered Rankin's vote to be a discredit to the suffragist movement and to Rankin's authority in Congress. But others, including Alice Paul of the National Woman's Party and Representative Fiorello LaGuardia of New York, applauded it.



"If you support it they will."

If you want to bring a fundamental change in people's belief and behavior...you need to create a community around them, where those new beliefs can be practiced, expressed and nurtured.

"I'm sorry. You've been very patient, I know. Be patient a little longer."


The Wartime Policy
Presidential interview granted to one representative of each of the five political parties (including the Woman's Party) on May 14, 1917. This interview with Wilson followed the American entrance on April 7, 1917, into what was then called "The Great War." Intriguingly, Mabel Vernon (the official coordinator of the picket campaign) was chosen to be the NWP representative. After hearing appeals for woman suffrage as a war measure, Wilson (apparently dropping the fiction of his own lack of power) said, "I am free to tell you that this is a matter which is daily pressing upon my mind for reconsideration"


"Who ordered the force feedings?"


By their silent vigil, the suffragists declared the breakdown of their relationship with the administration and their distrust of Wilson's words and goodwill.

The pickets' banners "had been the chief sight which met the President's eyes every time he went out and every time he came in". By appearing at his gate, the picketers hoped to appeal to Wilson's conscience, to stimulate a soul searching that might yield a new awareness and action. It was the silent call to conscience that caused the daily "pressing" upon the President's mind.

 
"Let's not waist time with pleasantries. I'll be blunt, may I? The foreign press will pick this up! You can tell the president he can look like a damn fool or deal me in!"

Speech Before Congress
Carrie Chapman Catt, 1917
Woman suffrage is inevitable. Suffragists knew it before November 4, 1917; opponents afterward. Three distinct causes made it inevitable.

First, the history of our country.

Ours is a nation born of revolution, of rebellion against a system of government so securely entrenched in the customs and traditions of human society that in 1776 it seemed impregnable. From the beginning of things, nations had been ruled by kings and for kings, while the people served and paid the cost. The American Revolutionists boldly proclaimed the heresies: "Taxation without representation is tyranny." "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." The colonists won, and the nation which was established as a result of their victory has held unfailingly that these two fundamental principles of democratic government are not only the spiritual source of our national existence but have been our chief historic pride and at all times the sheet anchor of our liberties.
 
Second, the suffrage for women already established in the United States makes women suffrage for the nation inevitable. When Elihu Root, as president of the American Society of International Law, at the eleventh annual meeting in Washington, April 26, 1917, said, "The world cannot be half democratic and half autocratic. It must be all democratic or all Prussian. There can be no compromise," he voiced a general truth.

It is too obvious to require demonstration that woman suffrage, now covering half our territory, will eventually be ordained in all the nation. No one will deny it. The only question left is when and how will it be completely established.

Third, the leadership of the United States in world democracy compels the enfranchisement of its own women. The maxims of the Declaration were once called "fundamental principles of government." They are now called "American principles" or even "Americanisms." They have become the slogans of every movement toward political liberty the world around, of every effort to widen the suffrage for men or women in any land. Not a people, race, or class striving for freedom is there anywhere in the world that has not made our axioms the chief weapon of the struggle.

Do you realize that in no other country in the world with democratic tendencies is suffrage so completely denied as in a considerable number of our own states?

Do you realize that when you ask women to take their cause to state referendum you compel them to do this: that you drive women of education, refinement, achievement, to beg men who cannot read for their political freedom?

Do you realize that such anomalies as a college president asking her janitor to give her a vote are overstraining the patience and driving women to desperation?

Do you realize that women in increasing numbers indignantly resent the long delay in their enfranchisement?


Your party platforms have pledged women suffrage. Then why not be honest, frank friends of our cause, adopt it in reality as your own, make it a party program, and "fight with us"? As a party measure--a measure of all parties--why not put the amendment through Congress and the legislatures? We shall all be better friends, we shall have a happier nation, we women will be free to support loyally the party of our choice, and we shall be far prouder of our history.
 
"There is one thing mightier than kings and armies"--aye, than Congresses and political parties--"the power of an idea when its time has come to move." The time for woman suffrage has come. The woman's hour has struck. If parties prefer to postpone action longer and thus do battle with this idea, they challenge the inevitable. The idea will not perish; the party which opposes it may. Every delay, every trick, every political dishonesty from now on will antagonize the women of the land more and more, and when the party or parties which have so delayed woman suffrage finally let it come, their sincerity will be doubted and their appeal to the new voters will be met with suspicion. This is the psychology of the situation. Can you afford the risk? Think it over.

Woman suffrage is coming--you know it. Will you, Honorable Senators and Members of the House of Representatives, help or hinder it?

Our fates are bound together; united we stand, divided we fall.

Up next Checkmate! and HERstory is OURstory.



RESOURCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Sentinels
http://books.google.com/books?id=-jQEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA12&dq=%22don&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q=%22don&f=false
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/tipping-point
http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~spage/ONLINECOURSE/R7Tips.pdf
http://www.jffixler.com/capacity-building-part-2-creating-a-tipping-point-change
http://movementbuilding.movementstrategy.org/resources
http://movementbuilding.movementstrategy.org/media/docs/9018_MSCAllianceToolkitPre-ReleaseDraft.pdf
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/kim.shtml
http://archive.vod.umd.edu/citizen/vernon1917int.htm

Friday, January 24, 2014


                        JAILED FOR FREEDOM

Freedom is not something rulers "give" their subjects. It is something achieved in the interaction between society and government.

At one point in 1919, President Wilson was burnt in effigy in front of the White House, pitting the petticoats against the bluecoats. Wildly spewing fire extinguishers were unable to prevent the burning of the four-foot-tall cardboard Wilson. (There were about 50 arrests that day.) The suffragettes used flames again when they set "watchfires" outside the New York City opera house while Wilson was speaking there. Activists transcribed his words as he spoke them and then publicly burned the paper in public fires outside — thus condemning the hypocrisy of his words about international freedom while women were denied suffrage at home. These protests kindled more support for the women, who were steadfast, innovative and organized.

The Watchfire For Freedom stayed right in front of the White House until June 4, 1919, when the 19th Amendment passed the Senate.

As you watch this next clip think about how you overcome obstacles? How do you keep going? How can you help others? 


To follow along with blog and discussion watch movie from 1:28:57-1:38:34.



When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

"I am not here because I obstructed traffic, but because I pointed out to President Wilson that he is obstructing democracy."

Here is a description of Alice Paul by an NWP activist, Doris Stevens. The excerpt is from Ms. Stevens’ book Jailed for Freedom:

I have seen her very presence in headquarters change in the twinkling of an eye the mood of fifty people. It is not through their affections that she moves them, but through a naked force, a vital force which is indefinable but of which one simply cannot be unaware. Aiming primarily at the intellect of an audience or an individual, she almost never fails to win an emotional allegiance.

Referent Power – People who are well-liked and respected.

"In prison or out American women are not free."

"Many self-satisfied women ... were soon awakened to a new consciousness. of their true status wherein they discovered their 'rights'were only 'privileges.": -Lucy Correll

The Watchfire For Freedom urn was set alight, and kept alight, as the focal point for organizing and not merely as an abstract symbol. Wilson had led the US into the war in order, he claimed, to "make the world safe for democracy." Every time he made a speech or issued a statement proclaiming or calling for democracy and freedom in war-torn Europe, Women’s Party leaders would take a copy of Wilson’s words and solemnly burn it in the urn, denouncing any talk of democracy when more than half the population was denied.

Providing a central focus for the suffrage movement when pressure needed to be increased to clear the final blockades of male supremacy in Congress and in state legislatures. It kept the focus concentrated on Wilson, the head of the Democratic Party, rather than dispersing it. It provided regular news to be reported when newspapers were the sole form of information (every big city boasted numerous papers and even small towns had one) and many of those papers were pro-suffrage. It used his weaknesses against him--the hypocrisy of proclaiming a new and democratic Europe while denying democracy to women here was clear and easy to understand.

Informational Power – A person who has access to valuable or important information.

"Can't you see she looks faint! I'm only asking that you open a window."

Reward Power – This is based upon a person’s ability to bestow rewards. Those rewards might come in the form of job assignments, schedules, pay or benefits.

The Watchfire For Freedom drew on the strength of the movement--the mainstream suffrage association had more than a million members and the National Women’s Party over 50.000. While maintaining a permanent vigil at the White House took resources, women were willing to travel from around the country and do their stints--like the Minnesota contingent headed by Berthe Moller, who brought pine boughs from their home state to burn in the urn, and who wound up in the hoosegow, evidently because they also added an effigy of Wilson to the flames!

"Put her in solitary!"

Coercive Power – This is associated with people who are in a position to punish others. People fear the consequences of not doing what has been asked of them.

The worst treatment was reserved for Alice Paul. In addition to placing her in solitary confinement and subjecting her to brutal force feeding when she went on a hunger strike, the government tried to have Miss Paul committed indefinitely to a mental hospital for the insane. She was transferred to a cell in the psychopathic ward of the prison and her solitary confinement continued there. She had no privacy. Once an hour, day and night, a nurse flashed a light in her face making normal sleep impossible. Doctors visited the prisoner and told her that she was in an unstable mental condition.

"I'll have to report this to the warden!"

A Woman’s Crusade: Alice Paul and the Battle for the Ballot
Alice Paul in 1914[From Chapter Sixteen: Night of Terror]

Authorities took steps to ensure that Alice would no longer hold court from her prison window. They transferred her to the jail's psychiatric ward and held her incommunicado. The prison physician, Dr. J.A. Gannon, ordered one of her two windows nailed shut from top to bottom and an iron-barred cell door installed. One morning, through the second window, she spied the face of an old man who was standing atop a ladder. He explained apologetically that he had instructions to cover the opening with boards. As he pounded nails, she watched his face gradually disappear and her room grow darker.


 
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.


"I'm entitled to clean water and an empty slop bucket."

In the first 3 days of a hunger strike, the body is still using energy from glucose. After that, the liver starts processing body fat, in a process called ketosis. After 3 weeks the body enters a "starvation mode". At this point the body "mines" the muscles and vital organs for energy, and loss of bone marrow becomes life-threatening. There are examples of hunger strikers dying after 52 to 74 days of strike


"I'm Dr. White, Alice."

Expert Power – This comes from a person’s expertise. This is commonly a person with an acclaimed skill or accomplishment.

"Do you know where you are?"

Persons who are accused of crimes and are found to be insane are committed to mental hospitals until they are well. The commitment can last far longer than the sentence for the crime of which the prisoner is accused. The threat of committing a woman was especially menacing. In the late 1800s, women who objected to the conditions in their lives and were unwilling to live by the strict conventions of society were sometimes classified as insane and incarcerated in mental hospitals. This was still a real fear in the early 20th century for a "difficult" woman such as Alice Paul. 

"You refuse to eat. Can you tell me why?"

Fasting was used as a method of protesting injustice in pre-Christian Ireland, where it was known as Troscadh or Cealachan. It was detailed in the contemporary civic codes, and had specific rules by which it could be used. The fast was often carried out on the doorstep of the home of the offender. Scholars speculate this was due to the high importance the culture placed on hospitality. Allowing a person to die at one's doorstep, for a wrong of which one was accused, was considered a great dishonor. Others say that the practice was to fast for one whole night, as there is no evidence of people fasting to death in pre-Christian Ireland. The fasts were primarily undertaken to recover debts or get justice for a perceived wrong. There are legends of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, using the hunger strike as well.
 



"We picket the office of the presidency. It has nothing to do with President Wilson and everything to do with the position he holds."



Legitimate Power - This comes from the position a person holds. This is related to a person’s title and job responsibilities. You might also hear this referred to as positional power.



"I just wonder what needs to be explained?"


"Men, their rights and nothing more;  women, their rights and nothing less." - Susan B. Anthony



Seek power that is rooted in the human capacity for cooperation, connection, and compassion.

"She shows no signs of persecution, mania or delusion."

Connection Power – This is based upon who you know. This person knows, and has the ear of, other powerful people within the organization.

As described in the movie, Alice Paul was saved from commitment as insane when the government’s chief psychiatrist, Dr. William A. White, demonstrated his professionalism by stating that she was emotionally healthy; she simply disagreed with Mr. Wilson. Dr. White later said that when he examined Miss Paul, "I felt myself in the presence of an unusually gifted personality" and . . . "she was wonderfully alert and keen . . . possessed of an absolute conviction of her cause . . .with industry and courage sufficient to avail herself of [all diplomatic possibilities]."


"In oranges and women, courage is often mistaken for insanity."

"This town contains scarcely a woman who is opposed to woman suffrage. We know we are a power here!"    -Lucinda Russell

Seek power that unifies rather than threatens.

"Will the circle be unbroken..."


The source of power of social movements lies in two human qualities:

-A strong sense of right and wrong. People have deeply felt beliefs and values, and they react with extreme passion and determination when they realize that these values are violated.

-We understand the world and reality, in large part, through symbolism.

Social movements derive their power from an upset, impassioned, and motivated populace set into motion. This happens when people recognize that their strongly felt beliefs, values, and interests are unjustly violated, and the population is provided with hope that change can happen and a means for them to act. People are specially aroused to action when trusted public leaders, such as the President or Congress people, violate the public's trust to carry out their duties of office in an honest and lawful manner.


The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.







Do you have an hour to spare? Would you like to make a contribution? How about a pledge?

Next up A Reason & A Deal and the tide turns.

RESOURCES:
http://historywired.si.edu/detail.cfm?ID=492
http://connecticuthistory.org/a-feeling-of-solidarity-labor-unions-and-suffragists-team-up/#sthash.qPB5VmsD.dpuf
http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/wlm/notes/
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=1268
http://expertaccess.cincom.com/2012/07/the-seven-types-of-power-in-the-workplace/
http://paceebene.org/nonviolent-change-101/power-nonviolent-change/transforming-power

Wednesday, January 22, 2014


                                                ADD MY NAME!

"I live .... For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance And the good that I can do."   ~Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.

Heads or Tails?

"It is unthinkable that a national government which represents women should ignore the issue of the right of all women to political freedom."     ~Lucy Burns

Institutional Oppression-
The idea that one group is better than another group and has the right to control the
other gets embedded in the institutions of the society--the laws, the legal system and police
practice, the education system and schools, hiring policies, public policies, housing development, media images, political power, etc.


As we watch the next clip think about what freedom means to you. At what points do you say you are not free to do that? Have you ever experienced a situation in which you felt your freedom was being oppressed? What did you do?

To follow along with blog and discussion watch movie from 1:22:04-1:28:57.


Bearing witness is to show by your presence or by the way you act that something is true or right.

 
"We are not guilty of any crime. We are political prisoners. Now I want these women fed and given pen and paper to write to their families and we want our own clothes back! NOW!"

Five hundred suffragists were arrested for picketing and 168 were sentenced to terms in jail for the minor traffic offense of blocking the sidewalk. In court, the suffragists stood on their First Amendment "right of the people peacefully to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." They also denied the authority of the court.

"You're hurting me! You don't have a right!"

On the night of November 15, 1917, according to Barbara Leaming in Katharine Hepburn:

"Under orders from W.H. Whittaker, superintendent of the Occoquan Workhouse, as many as forty guards with clubs went on a rampage, brutalizing thirty-three jailed suffragists. They beat Lucy Burns, who served longer than any other protester, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head, and left her there for the night. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed, and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, who believed Mrs. Lewis to be dead, suffered a heart attack. According to affidavits, other women were grabbed, dragged, beaten, choked, slammed, pinched, twisted, and kicked."

Solidarity Forever!

"Where are the girls?"

Before the 19th Amendment was ratified in the U.S. in 1920,
women already had the right to vote in these countries:
New Zealand . . . . 1893
Australia. . . . . . . . 1902
Finland. . . . . . . . . .1906
Denmark . . . . . . . . 1915
Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . 1917
Russia . . . . . . . . . . . 1917
England . . . . . . . . . 1918
Ireland. . . . . . . . . . . 1918
Scotland . . . . . . . . 1918
Germany . . . . . . . . 1918
Hungary . . . . . . . . . 1918
Canada. . . . . . . . . .1918


"I had Mrs. Quinn take them to my mothers. To free you up. I know how busy you are with all your suffrage activities."

 
From January 1917, the NWP found ways to present its case to the American people on an almost daily basis. The government was unable to stop the picketing of the White House. When thrown into jail, their story could have ceased to exist. The public could have forgotten about them. But the NWP found ways to keep the story in the national media. Women who had been imprisoned made speeches and the NWP organized the "Prison Special", a train in which formerly imprisoned suffragists toured the country.

Resist nonviolently to institutionalized injustice.

"He said I wasn't holding any cards. That I should know when to fold."

Nonviolent mass action forces change in three ways. It changes hearts and minds of the public and of the opponents of the protesters. Second, it hurts the pocketbook of those whose behavior it seeks to change. Third, it prevents those whose behavior it seeks to change from going about business as usual.


"He doesn't know about the ace up your sleeve."

Alice Paul was born in 1885 in Moorestown, New Jersey. She was raised as a Quaker, a Christian sect which is nonviolent, pacifist and active in movements for social reform. The Quakers follow the teachings of George Fox, an Englishman who, beginning in 1647, advocated the doctrine of "inner light" or "Christ within". Quakers believe that following the true path of Jesus means improving the lives of others. They are encouraged to select a "testimony", a life’s work with a goal of reform.
 

The failure of the central power holders to change either their minds or policies is a poor indicator of the movement’s progress.

"Mabel, add my name!"

Executive Producer Lydia Dean Pilcher wrote of the film:

There was a quote I read many years ago: ‘freedom is the sound of opinions clashing.’ And I think that’s something we’ve gotten very far away from in our country, that hopefully our film will help inspire that kind of lively debate, people stepping up and being passionate.

Do you have an hour to spare? Would you like to make a contribution? How about a pledge?

The avenue is misty gray

And here beside the guarded gate

We hold our golden blowing flags

And wait...


 
Up next JAILED FOR FREEDOM and a closer look at power.


RESOURCES:
http://radyananda.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/iron-jawed-angels/
http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/iron-jawed-angels.html
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1678.html
http://www.aeinstein.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/How-Nonviolent-Struggle-Works.pdf


Monday, January 20, 2014


                       BEYOND WORDS!

Have you found yourself in the midst of this unfolding story? In this next clip think about times when you have had to make a difficult decision. What were the consequenses? Have you ever had to have a difficult conversation? How did you prepare yourself?


To follow along with blog and discussion watch movie from 1:09:12-1:22:04.


Mic Check!

"You under estimate your heart."

On Valentines Day, 1916, the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU) delivered valentines to President Wilson and members of Congress. The valentines, which were personally tailored to each politician, use pleasant rhymes and cartoons to advocate for the passage of the Susan B. Anthony amendment, which would grant equal suffrage to women. Though many of the valentines are lost or their specific recipient unknown, the record which remains provides a fascinating example of the persuasive rhetoric employed by the CU to advocate for constitutional change.




This valentine was sent to Robert Lee Henry (1864-1931), Democratic Representative from Texas who worked as a lawyer and a city mayor in Texas before being elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress on March 4th, 1897. Henry served in nine subsequent Congresses, until 1916, when he stepped down to pursue an unsuccessful senate nomination.

Henry was Chairman of the Rules Committee at the time the valentines were sent. The Rules Committee is a committee of the House of Representatives which determines how and if bills proposed by other committees come to the floor. The committee decides under what rule the bill comes to the floor, which includes establishing the amount of speaking time assigned to the bill and setting the number, or type of amendments allowed to the bill.
As Chairman of the Rules Committee, Henry's feelings towards the Susan B. Anthony amendment were crucial towards the success of the bill. The decisions of the committee affected the time given towards discussion of the bill. Because the suffrage cause relied on publicity generated by this discussion, Henry had the power to suppress this publicity by allotting little or no time to the bill. The valentine makes reference to the power of the Rules Committee with the line "R is for Rules - which must bend to the fact." As a Texas democrat, Henry was likely anti-suffrage. The line "Y is for You - with statesmanlike tact" is perhaps advocating for Henry's separation of his own opinions of suffrage from his role as Chairman. An appeal to Henry's "statesmanlike tact" is an appeal to his ability to decide the rules of the Susan B. Anthony amendment when it comes before Congress on its own merits, rather than on Henry's personal feelings towards the bill.

"The war changes everything!"

By the beginning of the 20th century, the efforts of suffragists had begun to bear fruit. Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho had given women full suffrage rights and in many states women were allowed to vote in municipal and school board elections.

During the Progressive Era (1890-1920), women played more active roles in the larger economic, cultural, and political transformation of American society. This growth in women's public roles allowed suffragists to be more aggressive in support of their cause as they developed stronger bases of support in the settlement houses, temperance organizations, labor unions, and reform movements that now sprang up across the country.

Sixteen states, including New York, had given women the right to vote by 1917, but the U.S. Constitution was not amended to enfranchise women until after World War I.


"If we push Wilson now, there's going to be consequences."

No Justice No Peace!

Hariet Stanton Blatch believed that the time had come for suffragists to escalate the pressure on President Woodrow Wilson, whom she supposedly told: "I have worked all my life for suffrage, and I am determined that I will never again stand in the street corners of a great city appealing to every Tom, Dick, and Harry for the right of self-government."

Heads or Tails?

"Land hard, roll left!"

The NWP effectively commanded the attention of politicians and the public through its aggressive agitation, relentless lobbying, creative publicity stunts, repeated acts of nonviolent confrontation, and examples of civil disobedience and other "unladylike" tactics to draw attention to the cause. The NWP forced the more moderate NAWSA toward greater activity.

"I'm sorry Miss you're under arrest."

Nonviolence accrues support and participants.

Nearly 2,000 suffragists traveled from 30 states to take turns on the picket line. Special days were set aside for women representing specific states, schools, organizations, and occupations. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, however, some women resigned from the NWP because they viewed picketing as unpatriotic as well as unwomanly. These departures, however, were offset by new recruits–including many socialists, labor organizers, and average working women–who were attracted to the militancy, justice, and free speech aspects of the campaign.
 

 
 
"Obstructing traffic!"

Banners, emblazoned with thought-provoking messages, were essential elements of the picketing campaign. They were the medium for explaining the picket’s purpose and for embarrassing and pressuring Wilson into action. Many years later Paul still expressed pride, noting, "Our banners were really beautiful."

"We haven't broken the law."

Sacrifice can be widely shared.

The banners also sometimes inflamed onlookers and became targets of vandalism. The first of the famous "Russian" banners lasted less than a day. Pulled away from its bearer, it survived only a few minutes before the crowd shred it to pieces. The same fate befell the "Kaiser Wilson" banners. Many of the most effective banners carried quotes lifted directly from Wilson’s own speeches. Parroting Wilson’s words helped to highlight the government’s hypocrisy in supporting democracy abroad while denying its women citizens the right to vote at home. Also, as one historian noted, the tactic may have helped the suffragists avoid prosecution under federal espionage and sedition laws during a period of unprecedented government repression.

Even if mob violence was the exception rather than the rule, underlying tension and intimidation existed on almost any given day. Suffragist Inez Haynes Irwin wrote of the "slow growth of the crowds; the circle of little boys who gathered about . . . first, spitting at them, calling them names, making personal comments; then the gathering of gangs of young hoodlums who encourage the boys to further insults; then more and more crowds; more and more insults. . . . Sometimes the crowd would edge nearer and nearer, until there was but a foot of smothering, terror-fraught space between them and the pickets." When skirmishes broke out, the police invariably stood and watched, or else they arrested the women on charges of obstructing traffic.

 
"These arrests are purely political. The charge of obstructing traffic is political subterfuge..."

Lucy Burns’s sympathy with labor organizations and the Left helped develop her responses.

Most important among the strategies used in court–and later in detention–in either the District of Columbia jail or Virginia’s Occoquan Workhouse, was the demand that arrested suffragists be treated as political prisoners. Arrested on criminal charges of obstructing traffic, NWP activists emphasized that their assembly on city sidewalks and their silent and peaceable picketing had been conducted entirely within legal grounds. Under the leadership of Paul and Burns they began insisting that the courts acknowledge that the real motivation for their arrests was politically based. They also placed the blame for the repressive response to their actions squarely on the Wilson administration.


"Not one dollar!"

1917 Price List
Eggs, Choice Western, .39/dozen

Lemons, large juicy, .15/dozen

Wash boards, .39/each

Borax, 20 Mule, .08/10 oz box

Women's boots, black, 4.95/pair

 


 
 
 


Because sometimes that is the point – we have to act.

Up next ADD MY NAME! and the personal is political.



RESOURCES:
http://www1.cuny.edu/portal_ur/content/voting_curriculum/women_suffrage.html
http://www.ask.com/question/what-could-you-buy-in-1917-with-5-cents
http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/prices/1917.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/tactics.pdf


 

 

 

 

 


                                       

Friday, January 17, 2014


                                                FINISH THE ROW!


"Not to know what things in life require remedying is a crime… It leaves you at the mercy of events – it lets life manipulate you – instead of training you to manipulate life."  -Inez Milholland


Few people devote their entire lives to one cause as Alice Paul did. She never married, spending her life crusading for women’s rights. When asked why, she replied with a quote of her mother’s, "When you put your hand to the plow, you can’t put it down until you get to the end of the row."

I can imagine her whole life of organizing groups and committees, rallies and demonstrations, dedicating her time, energy, and talent to progressing humanity forward.

As we watch this next clip, think about the decisions Alice had to make, to give up or continue? Have you ever felt like giving up?


To follow along with blog and discussion watch movie from 58:22- 1:09:12.


"We laugh too."

Why We Oppose Votes for Men


Because man’s place is the army. Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it.
Because if men should adopt peaceable methods women will no longer look up to them.
Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms and drums.
Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate  tendency to appeal to force renders them peculiarly unfit for the task of government.

Alice Duer Miller’s sarcastic column was published as a poster by the National Women Suffrage  Association. 1915.


You are making a difference!




"Heads we milk cows, Tails we go and find Wilson's boots."

Special to the New York Times
Washington, Jan. 9, Women Suffragettes, representing all parts of the country, disappointed over the result of an appeal which they made this afternoon to President Wilson in the East Room of the White House, held an indignation meeting and decided to adopt a new plan of campaign. They intend to post pickets hereafter about the White House grounds. Their purpose is to make it impossible for the President to enter of leave the White House without encountering a picket bearing some device pleading the suffrage cause. The pickets will be known as "silent sentinels."

Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who precided over the indignation meeting, coined the title silent sentinels for the White House pickets. These silent sentinels, all young women, commencing at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning will take up their stations near the entrances to the White House.


Develop stronger and deeper opposition to current conditions and policies.

"Sentinels at every gate, dawn until dust."

Special to the New York Times Continued
Washington, Jan. 9, The President expressed his surprise, reminded the spokesmen of the party that he had not been apprised of their full purpose, and was not prepared to say any more than he had on previous occasions. His speech follows:

"I had not been apprised that you were coming here to make any representations that would issue an appeal to me. I had been told that you were coming to present memorial resolutions with regard to the very remarkable woman whom your cause has lost. I therefore am not prepared to say anything further than I have said on previous occasions of this sort. I do not need to tell you where my own convictions and my own personal purpose lie, and I need not tell you by circumscriptions I am bound as a leader of a party."

Bound by Party Commands.
"As the leader of a party, my commands come from the party and not from private personal convictions. My personal action as a citizen, of course, comes from no source but my own conviction, and therefore my position has been so frequently defined and I hope so candidly defined, and it is so impossible for me, until the orders of my party are changed, to do anything other than I am doing, as a party leader, that I think nothing more is necessary to be said.

I do not want to say this. I do not see how anybody can fail to observe from the utterances of the last campaign that the Democratic Party is more inclined than the opposition party to assist in this great cause, and it has been a matter of surprise to me, and a matter of very great regret, that so many of those who were heart and soul for this cause seemed so greatly to misunderstand and misinterpret the attitude of parties. Because in this country, as in every other self-governing country, it is only throught the instrumentality of parties that things can be accomplished. They are not accomplished by the individual voice, but by concerted action, and that action must come only so fast as you can concert it. I have done my best and shall continue to do my best to concert it in the interest of the cause in which I personally believe."


Another world is possible.

"They'll get tired of the cold. It won't last."

Their vigil started January 10, 1917 and lasted until June 1919 when the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed both the House of Representatives and Senate. During those two and a half years, more than a thousand different women picketed every day and night except Sunday, and many were arrested during the vigil.

Maintain discipline.

We shall not, we shall not be moved
We shall not, we shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's standing by the water
We shall not be moved


We shall not, we shall not be moved
We shall not, we shall not be moved
We're fighting for our freedom,
We shall not be moved



"You are a brave girl."

 
"The best protection any woman can have...is courage." -Elizabeth Cady Stanton

"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations...can never effect a reform." -Susan B. Anthony

One day longer. One day stronger.

"This continued picketing by the NWP is the single greatest obsticle to the suffrage amendment!"

The following are examples of banners held by the women:
"Mr. President, what will you do for woman suffrage?"
"Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?"
"We shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments."
"Democracy Should Begin at Home"
"The time has come to conquer or submit, for us there can be but one choice. We have made it." (another quotation from Wilson)

"Kaiser Wilson, have you forgotten your sympathy with the poor Germans because they were not self-governed? 20,000,000 American women are not self-governed. Take the beam out of your own eye." (comparing Wilson to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and to a famous quote of Jesus regarding hypocrisy)


"We do not support it and we have made that clear to the President."

In this tempest-tossed condition of mind I received an invitation to spend the day with Lucretia Mott, at Richard Hunt's, in Waterloo. There I met several members of different families of Friends, earnest, thoughtful women. I poured out the torrent of my long - accumulating discontent with such vehemence and indignation that I stirred myself, as well as the rest of the party, to do and dare anything. My discontent, according to Emerson, must have been healthy, for it moved us all to prompt action, and we decided, then and there, to call a "Woman's Rights Convention." We wrote the call 1 that evening and published it in the Seneca County Courier the next day, the 14th of July, 1848, giving only five days' notice, as the convention was to be held on the 19th and 20th.
 
The call was inserted without signatures — in fact it was a mere announcement of a meeting — but the movers and managers were Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann M'Clin- tock, Jane Hunt, Martha C. Wright, and myself. The convention, which was held two days in the Methodist church, was in every way a success. The house was crowded at every session, the speaking good, and a religious earnestness dignified all the proceedings. At the first session a Declaration of Sentiments, 1 patterned after the Declaration of Independence, was read.
As we had had but five days from the time of calling the convention until the date set for convening, all preparations had to be made with the greatest despatch. The statement of woman's grievances was drawn up the Sunday before July 19th. There was little time for consultation; each one of the rebellious group had to develop some side of the great drama. Beside the Declaration, eleven resolutions covering our aims and demands were prepared. I was wholly responsible for the IX resolution, which proved to be the con- tentious plank of our platform. My revolutionary sentiment read: "Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise." When I spoke to Lucretia Mott about my intention to present this, she amazed me by objecting, "Why, Lizzie, thee will make us ridiculous. " But I persisted, for I saw clearly that the power to make the laws was the right through which all other rights could be secured. In the convention all other resolutions were carried unanimously, but with the help of Frederick Douglass, and after a heated discussion, the IX resolution was finally passed by a small majority, and was embodied in the complete draft signed by one hundred of the persons who were present.
These were the hasty, initiative steps of "the most momentous reform that had yet been launched on the world — the first organized protest against the injustice which had brooded for ages over the character and destiny of one-half of the race."

Elizabeth Cady Stanton writing about the Declaration and Resolutions at Seneca Falls, July 19 and 20, 1848.


Plant seeds and encourage them to grow. Put your hand to the plow and finish the row.

Next up BEYOND WORDS! And the whole world is watching.


  RESOURCES:
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newcentury/4982
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0214.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26323/26323-h/26323-h.htm#Page_147
http://www.dfong.com/nonviol/nda.html
http://www.popularresistance.org/major-social-transformation-is-closer-than-you-may-think/