 
Welcome friends to another edition of
economic update a weekly program devoted
to the economic dimensions of our lives
our jobs our incomes our debts those
looming down the road and those
confronting our children as they stare
at an economy that must give them
sleepless nights
I'm your host Richard Wolff. I've been a
Professor of Economics all my adult life
and currently I teach at the New School
University in New York City, Before
jumping into today's program which I
think you will find exceptionally
interesting I wanted to mention that we
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okay let's jump into our economic
updates for today and I starting with
the state of Oklahoma
why well Oklahoma is a leader if that's
the term you can describe for something
you wouldn't want to be a leader of it's
a leader in destroying there's really no
nice way to say this it's public schools
let me give you an idea of the
dimensions of this there's been no
increase I'll start with it with the
statistics that I find the most amazing
Oklahoma has not raised teachers
salaries since 2008 okay
that's nearly a decade in which prices
rose every year but the salaries of
those teachers did not Oklahoma ranks
49th in the nation we have 50 states
let's remember 49th in the average
salary of its teachers teachers are
leaving the state in droves for better
paying jobs across the state line and
the number of positions filled by what
are called and you gotta love this term
emergency - certified teachers emergency
they're certified teachers these are
people who have no education training
mmm they are now 35 times as high in
their use in Oklahoma schools as they
were as recently as 2000
eleven but I'm just beginning to tell
you what years of Republican domination
of the governor's and the state
legislature and what has happened in the
rest of the United States what it has
done to the public schools of Oklahoma
they now lead the country in the number
of schools that have gone from a
five-day school week to a four-day
school week over 20% of the school
public schools in Oklahoma are now on a
four day a week schedule why are they
doing this the answer is very clear and
there's no one hiding it they don't have
any money and they can save money this
way and when I inquired how exactly do
you save money since you're paying the
teacher the same the teachers get paid
the same we learned that since 2008 the
teachers are paid the same well you
don't have to heat the building on
Friday you don't have to feed the
children at least that portion of the
children are qualify for food assistance
and so you can save money by keeping the
kids out of the school building that
seems to be the biggest saving so take
let's take a look at that if you have
teachers that are increasingly
unqualified if you have a shorter length
of the workweek what is happening to the
kids what is happening to their
education and what is happening to their
families well let's see the poorer you
are the more you rely for your
children's meals on breakfast and lunch
at school if you go from five to four
days that's one more day that your kids
don't get breakfast or lunch at school
it's also for days when they are
required to stay longer than the regular
number of hours and that puts an extra
strain if you are poor with both
families else in the household working
what are you going to do with your
children on Friday there isn't daycare
and even if there were you can't afford
it to try to deal with this Oklahoma
offers daycare at least in some of these
schools where they've cut it to four
days and they charge $30 a day for the
kids to come to school and do nothing
whereas before they came to school and
get their schoolwork so it cost parents
more to have the kid in school on Friday
it's just they don't get any teaching
done you got to scratch your head in
stunned disbelief that this is called
public education anymore when I looked
into it further I discovered that one of
the great benefits that the folks in
Oklahoma describe to me was that um it's
easier to recruit teachers which you can
understand is difficult for Oklahoma if
you rank 49th out of 50 as being the
second lowest paying state in the Union
for public schoolteachers we can get
teachers now because we offer them a
very low salary but only four days a
week that they have to be in school and
so they can have presumably other jobs
to make up for the low salary something
that will have them focused elsewhere
low on energy depleted who knows in
Oklahoma Elementary class sizes now
hover between 26 and 12
seven try to have a first grade class
with one teacher and 26 or 27 it's far
higher than the 20 student limit set in
a 1990 Oklahoma State law which
apparently is simply ignored in 2016
school started charging to participate
in sports and extracurricular activities
let me say that again your child wants
to learn a musical instrument and play
in the school band your child wants to
be on a sports team you have to pay
extra as a citizen and why did all this
happen because Oklahoma believes like
many states with Republican governments
that their number one priority is to cut
taxes and if you cut taxes you see
you're supposed to believe everything
gets better the economy zooms jobs
appear out of nowhere and everybody's
better off but if you talk to the
students and the parents and the
teachers you will find a huge number of
them understand that they're the four
guys they're the victims of this policy
and now let me weigh in as an economist
by the way before I do let me give
credit where it's due
the story of Oklahoma schools can be
found in the Washington Post dated May
27 in a really fine detailed article by
Emma Brown Washington Post May 27th
here's the economics the United States
is now part of a world economy we're
more integrated into the world economy
than we ever have been as a nation
throughout our history
that means we depend for our future
economic future on how well this economy
functions and that in turn depends more
than anything else on the quality and
the quantity of our labor force the
people who have
to do the work and the single most
important institution and developing the
skills and training and productivity of
our workers is our public education
system that's what educates the vast
majority of our students all the way
through college and university since
most colleges and university students
attend public institutions to cut back
on the number of teachers on the quality
of the teachers of a number of days in
school on the number of programs
available to students that those are all
ways to undermine our economic future
and all that is in the name of cutting
taxes mostly on business and wealthy
folks yes they become richer yes the gap
between rich and poor gets worse but in
terms of a strategy for economic
development it's the worst imaginable
failure and the victims
first and foremost children remarkable
the next economic update I want to talk
to you about was amazing to me to
discover here again let me give you the
source some of you are interested in
pursuing it if you go to a place called
Market Watch that's all one word
marketwatch.com
it's a very good source of economic
analysis that I make yourself from time
to time and this is a story dated March
at may 28 excuse me may 28th 2017 by
Quentin foe trail the personal finance
editor he writes a story that I found
astonishing maybe you all know about it
but if not maybe I can astonish you too
here's the blunt reality the average US
employee who receives a paid vacation as
part of his or her job only takes half
of it per
year this was the result of a survey of
2,200 workers by the career website
glass door or one-word glass door and
this website glass door has been doing
these surveys for a few years now and
the number hovers around fifty percent
fifty percent of American workers don't
take the paid vacation days they have
coming to them that are part of their
job Wow let's look into this a little
bit the United States is very unusual in
advanced industrial countries in not
having laws that mandate that require
paid vacations to give you an idea the
United States leaves the question of a
paid vacation up to the private sector
mostly companies have no obligation to
keep a person hired they can fire at
will it's cold and that has to be kept
in mind as we go through this story only
if you if the worker can prove
discrimination or if there's a written
contract about the job or if there's a
contract with a trade union that covers
the job only then our worker is
protected but in most cases workers keep
their jobs if and only if the employer
wishes them to keep the job why is this
important
because this country again doesn't
require paid vacations at all there's no
law that mandates or requires an
employer in the European Union in those
many countries that have combined in the
European Union workers are legally
guaranteed 20 paid vacation days per
year to
today's folks that's four weeks 20
workdays Monday to Friday four weeks so
let me say it again because I suspect
many of you have never heard this or
have not pondered what it means you must
as an employer whether there's a union
or not whether there's a written
contract or not you must give every
employee a minimum of 20 paid vacation
days in some European countries it's 25
or even 30 paid vacation days Americans
have no such thing they're not even
close and it's the law in Europe not
here an American therefore depend mostly
on the employer and whatever generosity
that employer may or may not have in
regard to paid vacations so Glassdoor
and other researchers have begun to ask
the American worker given that you have
fewer paid vacation days than other
workers why in the world do you not take
half of them and by the way a good
portion of that paid vacation day that
isn't taken is forever lost sometimes
you can roll it over into the next year
sometimes you can take compensation of
some kind but in many many cases you
just lose it gone forever and the answer
is to my mind sad SATA that I can convey
because the answer based on a number of
questionnaires and interestingly the
questionnaires were developed by the US
Travel Association and you can see why
because the more workers don't take
their paid vacation the less travel to a
motel or travel to a resort at a Travel
Association is unhappy that workers
are not taking their paid vacation
because that's their income from workers
becoming at least for a week or two
tourists here's this sadness a breakdown
the survey that was done by Glassdoor
34% of respondents to the questionnaire
say they don't take all their vacation
days because quote they fear getting
behind on their work thirty percent
believe no one else at the company can
do the work while they're away 22
percent simply answer that they are
completely dedicated to their company
it's fear it's fear that if you are away
from your company even for your paid
vacation days you will somehow
jeopardize your job and since American
employers are free to flyer in a way
that people in other countries are not
this fear is rational
this fear makes sense but of course if
the employer agreed to pay you for say a
week that you didn't take that you went
to work you don't get paid any extra you
would have gotten paid for that week
whether you were working or not you
choose to work you're giving your
employer hundreds and depending on how
productive you are thousands of dollars
worth of labor for no extra pay at all
it's a gift you're making your employer
more profitable and here's the saddest
questionnaire result of all 80 percent
of employees asked said that if they
felt fully supported and encouraged by
their boss they would take more time off
Americans don't take half their paid
vacation no one has done the research
that I know of to ask what portion of
the profits earned by American
corporations are attributable to the
fact
that their employees don't take off paid
vacation time it's extraordinary it
means that the level of exploitation of
American workers is higher than we
already knew it was because of this
anxiety because of the labor reforms
that make it possible for an employer to
fire you at will
that makes workers so anxious they don't
even take the paid vacation that is
really part of their pay package the
last short item we'll have time for is
again the comment on the so-called free
market this fantasy utopia that has
never existed doesn't exist now but is
something that conservative folks seem
to want to believe is there or to want
to believe we're on the way there or
we're moving there it's sad it said such
fantasies govern people's consciousness
well how do how does that become
important right now in recent years the
United States government has recognized
as have governments around the world
that there are very severe costs to
having an energy situation where we rely
on oil coal and things which when you
burn them have horrible consequences for
our health for our climate and so forth
and that therefore it's important to
look for new and different sources of
energy that will not have these bad
effects no rocket science here and two
of the most important have emerged solar
energy from the Sun using the sun's rays
and wind power using the natural
movement of air to generate electricity
many of you have seen the huge windmills
that are now appearing across the
countryside around the world in order to
get those new forms of energy up to
speed
even the government has provided various
kinds of subsidies tax breaks and so on
throughout the history of the United
States when things were necessary in the
minds of the people one the country they
would give tax breaks and subsidies
that's how our railroads got built
that's how our canals got built that's
how our I mean you name it that's how it
was done
our computers were invented at
university subsidized by the United
States government to carry out this
research those days it was in order to
to fight World War two but I had all
kinds of secondary consequences so
supporting what is important in their
society with tax breaks and subsidies is
as old as the United States and it's
been done for solar and wind this
however not so surprisingly has made the
oil companies and the coal companies
upset and because they are very big and
very rich they know how to translate
their political upset into political and
economic cash so they go to work on
political parties and politicians and
people running for office and promise
them big bucks if they will come up with
an argument and the argument will do as
long as it flies to stop the subsidies
and to stop the tax breaks for solar and
wind so that we will go back to being
reliant on coal and oil the Koch
brothers and many others whose fortunes
depend on oil or coal or both are of
course leading the charge and now they
have two champions one is Donald Trump
and the other one is Rick Perry who used
to be the governor of Texas where they
hobnob with oil companies for obvious
reasons and who's now the energy czar
and he's now being worked on by the oil
and coal companies to take away the
subsidies and the tax breaks
for solar and wind so that we can go
back to what they make money on and not
help take the country in a new energy
direction the outcome will be whatever
the political strength of these two
sides are the companies that want to
make their future money on solar and
wind one way or another will fight and
buy politicians and the coal and oil
companies and we all we the public the
mass the Democratic majority we will
have to live with the health or not else
that results from however this fight
shapes up the market for energy in this
country is this a free market the answer
is you must be kidding this is market is
anything but free it is the playground
of massive amounts of bribery the cood
kind the more sophisticated kind full of
arguments that expensive economists like
me have to invent to justify what these
two money-making groups are fighting
over we will live with the consequences
of what these tiny groups of wealthy
capitalists what they do not a way to
run a society wouldn't you say okay
we've come to the end of the first half
of this program I want to thank you for
being here with me I want to remind you
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at work dot info and our DeWulf with two
F's com if you're interested in the
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stay with us we'll be
be right back
it's progress okay
so who's gonna do what I'll pack the
dead batteries great I'll only put what
I don't need into a duffle bag perfect
that's totally unhelpful no problem
meanwhile I will try to comfort everyone
by speaking in a calm voice and who is
going to handle supplies I can forget to
do this for us thanks pal we couldn't be
any less prepared
I'm prank you guys talk to your kids
about who to call where to meet what to
pack
visit ready.gov slash kids for tips and
information
welcome back friends to the second half
of economic update today I am very happy
to welcome person whom I've known for
years and who has recently written a
book that led me to say come and join us
and give us the benefit of your long
life and wonderful stories to tell so
before I introduce her formally let me
welcome Lisa Davis a friend to our
program thank you very much for coming
Lisa ok let me tell you about Lisa
E Davis she got a PhD in comparative
literature some years ago she taught
Hispanic language and literature at the
State University of New York in Stony
Brook and at York College of the City
University of New York she also
collaborated with the Center for Puerto
Rican Studies at Hunter College which is
also a part of the City University of
New York and re-eat Oh correct me if I'm
wrong about this a publication of the
new york-based círculo de cultura
Cubano her novel under the mink
published in 2001 we create the 1940s
world of Mafia owned Village nightclubs
that featured drag shows and strip acts
and her recent non-fiction book and
that's the one that caught my eye is
called undercover girl published in 2017
it chronicles the career of a lesbian
FBI informant and prosecution witness at
the 1949 Smith Act trial of the National
Board of the Communist Party USA ok Lisa
you're a novelist you're a specialist in
comparative literature I know you're
fluent and it's not all that many
Romance languages so you have a lot to
bring to this but my first question is
about your book by the way I want to
hold it up so everybody can see it under
cover girl
lisa davis subtitle the lesbian
informant who helped the FBI bring down
the communist party so here it is many
years later the stuff in this book
happens mostly in the late 1940s yes yes
yes and what the book documents is the
concerted effort of the United States
government mostly through the FBI to
destroy the Communist Party a political
party functioning in the United States
as it had for years committed to a
variety of political objectives one of
which was changing the economic system
from capitalism to socialism in one form
or another it destroyed that political
party quite effectively as it turns out
and your book talks about unknown
aspects of that process of destruction
so I have to ask you even before we get
into it why are you now in trance you as
an author buy this story about something
that happened long ago what is it that
made you write a book about it well as
you can well imagine I've been in trance
for a long time because they takes a
long time to do this kind of thing
however that it emerges from the mists
in 2017 seems terrifically timely
because we're facing numerous crises
among them economic and the roots of all
this of course lie lie deep in the past
as part of getting rid of Franklin
Roosevelt's New Deal getting rid of
those pesky labor unions that had
flourished in the 1930s and 40s breaking
up our partnership with the Russians
that had helped defeat the Nazi army of
course Russia seems to come up in our
history periodically as these days to
because it's a big country and we don't
like big countries we don't know what to
but you have to deal with them so it's
turned out to be quite timely hasn't it
in their stories that need that the
young people particularly need to help
them understand what is going on here if
possible if this helps yeah it helps a
great legging let me pick up on one
theme in what you just said the 1930s
was the Great Depression and the mass of
the American people reacted to that
depression by mobilizing they joined the
CIO in record numbers they joined two
socialist parties and the Communist
Party and the Communist Party in the two
socialist parties and the CIO the Labour
you work together in most cases to
create an enormous powerful left in
America that is largely responsible for
putting the pressure on FDR to create
the New Deal there have been people who
have said that when the war was over
when the originator of the New Deal
President Roosevelt was dead that the
people who hated all that who had to pay
the taxes and who had to see the money
that they didn't have anymore be used
for Social Security and unemployment
benefits and public jobs they wanted to
erase what had happened to get rid of it
and to make sure it never happened again
until the argument was they had to break
up that powerful alliance of Communists
socialists and labor unions and that
they picked as the weak link in there
the Communists were the one they could
go after first and destroy does your
research support undercut modify the
story I just told or does it give it
strength how would you react as soon as
they buried Franklin Roosevelt they
started they've been trying ever since
to get rid of Social Security as we know
any benefits the labor unions that were
very strong of course
Truman is elected president Henry
Wallace is eliminated as a progressive
communist linked figure we have to
change our attitude toward the Soviet
Union from being our ally during World
War two they have to become the bad guys
this is all handled very well through
tremendous propaganda campaigns and
inculcating fear in the population so
that the word communism becomes anathema
and probably still is recently the word
socialism has crept back into the
vocabulary without anyone running away
terrified arm I don't know if I covered
all you had so but that would imply
pretty clearly that this political
effort of the FBI to destroy the
Communist Party was a clearly understood
part of this process oh sure well
they've been after of course since the
Palmer Raids in the 1920s after World
War one world wars always stir things up
World War one stirred things up also we
had tremendous emigration which is also
returning to the vocabulary tremendous
immigration from Europe of people who
were accustomed to labor organizations
coming out of Europe as we try to
separate ourselves once again from the
European phenomenon part of the
separation is to avoid all those
benefits that I believe you were
speaking about that have been part of
European civilization for a long time we
will have no socialism here from World
War one with the Palmer Raids and
deporting people who were labor
organizers out of this country one of
those involved of course was J Edgar
Hoover who enters the who enters what
was not then called the FBI but called
something that rapidly becomes the FBI
he was the longest-serving bureaucrat in
the US government from 1924 to 19
72 he did not intend to step down resign
or show weakness in 1939 he sits down
with Franklin Roosevelt and doubtless
other folks and makes a deal that he can
now surveil political enemies as well as
criminal elements like all those
gangsters see they will begin to they
will begin surveillance of political
enemies like the communist socialist
fascist all these are the same thing and
in 42 it picks up a bit more because
we're at war in 1940 we have the Smith
act in parentheses the alien
Registration Act which had also began to
sound very familiar to a contemporary
public to make sure that these people
from outside our country who don't
understand the American Way of life who
are in fact unamerican
because socialism is an American so you
have all these things coming together as
war breaks out in Europe and as war
breaks out in the Pacific but business
is very good in wartime because you're
making lots of money making all those
guns and employment is fabulous people
who were unemployed for decades who
share the WPA also the works project
administration coming out of the
depression the government did something
they set up work programs to keep people
employed even artists and writers got a
couple of bucks but by the night by that
time by the 1940s of course people are
getting jobs because they working for
the war effort and there's a tremendous
boom people are very happy they're
making lots of money when the war comes
to an end oh this is not good for
business not good for business
tremendous cutbacks tremendous lots of
strikes people are very unhappy because
they're losing their jobs what shall we
do well what you have to do is shut them
up
basically and that means coming down on
the
communist socialist parties and the
unions oh yes particularly as you can
see in this trial becoming the
Communists the Communists were active in
a labor union organizing yes I get the
impression that the Communists were
chosen because they were the most
militant the most out there the willing
to take the risks of starting a union in
a factory moving as I know many of them
did to the south and other parts of
Midwest and getting jobs in fact you
know they were kind of advanced
militants he would call them another
country so that it wouldn't be though
that so surprising that the FBI would
surveil them but then actively
apparently move and let's talk about
that moving to a much more aggressive
position where you're not just following
them or looking at them or eavesdropping
on them but you're actively mobilizing
to destroy them tell us a little bit
about how that worked in terms of your
book and what you found after the war
they can put them out of business and
the 1949 jagger who had been wanting to
do this for a long time in 1948 they get
a subpoena - for the National Board of
the American Communist Party under the
Smith act for the the accusation is or
whatever they call it in the legal field
not too good in the legal field except
I've read this entire trial which is a
million plus words and let me tell you
it's a really strange thing to read
however they put them on the the charges
conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of
the US government by force and violence
I repeat conspiracy to advocate to
advocate the Rosenberg trial was also a
conspiracy trial conspiracy is good
because it probably means you didn't do
anything and advocating means you didn't
do anything but you were talking and
reading books which was a no-no and the
book the texts that were taught in
communist groups that books I read you
have
books and they talked about what was in
the books these books the texts are read
into the transcript of this trial at
great length my particular witness there
about eight pages of the transcript they
go on and on that the prosecution lawyer
is reading from something like Lennon's
history of something because if they had
a revolution in the Soviet Union they
could have a revolution here and that's
the show how dangerous that notion would
be so if you're reading a book by
somebody who was active over there this
Lenin fellow yeah he that implied that
you might be getting ready to throw
overthrow the US government by force and
violence yes because they got rid of his
are amazing it would be accused of a
conspiracy to advocate I always thought
growing up in United States advocating
something was something guaranteed to
you by the Constitution right let's
continue um you don't want to talk about
clear and present danger no all right
some other time some other time exactly
let's go let's work on this book yes
your your focus in this book is on a
woman who if I understand you correctly
and please correct me if I if I remember
the details wrong it wrongly this is a
woman who is paid by the FBI for a long
period of time even though my
understanding is that that was not
revealed and not made public they found
this woman because she has certain let's
call them vulnerabilities and so she
could be induced I'm trying to be polite
to do something for the money that the
Federal Bureau of Investigation gives
her tell us about this and tell us what
how you understand what happened here
well this is this is the lady in
question this picture is from the
Library of Congress collection of the
world telegram went out of business in
nineteen six
theory was Pulitzers New York world
along with other folks this is off the
front page you did very well if you were
an informant witness this is sort of
what she looked like
there we did a photo insert for this
book that let me say cost me years of my
young life and they did not do an index
unfortunately but I could not fight any
longer this woman her name was Angela
column Edie's calamara says we say she
was the child of Greek immigrants they
had nothing of course they lived on the
Lower East Side and to top it all off
her father dropped dead when she was
seven years old he was brought over to
as a scab basically for the fur and
leather workers Union which was a strong
leftist Union and you're very strong so
they needed scabs you know the industry
needed somebody when they were on strike
but he didn't last too long mr. Cullum
et's she was sent to an orphanage in the
Bronx she was forever addled however not
part of her addling but just generally
speaking she was a lesbian they did not
it was not that they recruited her as a
punishment or because they could use
that against her because they didn't
care everybody knew she was dating the
sister-in-law of our FBI recruiter
everybody knew Miss J Edgar Hoover did
their stories about Whittaker Chambers
if anybody remembers algae is that
Whitaker was really in love with Alger
and that was the basic problem which is
what Alger Hiss is kid said on in some
conferences in whyyou years ago so you
know it's not quite as simple as it
would appear she did it basically for
the money she was in the New York photo
League she took pictures taking pictures
as we have noticed also lately in the
question of the media is very important
and they don't want you to take pictures
of certain things so the New York photo
League which runs from 1936 to 1951 and
is shut down by McCarthyism but
they do take pictures of four people
even poor black people one of their big
projects was something called the Harlem
document which Angela says in her book
would have caused a riot anywhere
because of course one of the main themes
of this book is race in America which is
the theme of course in America that's
what it's all about so I don't know
fancy Jacob anyway this is Angela Angela
kala Morris and she worked for seven
years how long was she paid from what
your resource he was paid from day one
March 1942 she was recruited I can only
do this and people can only do this sort
of thing thanks to the Freedom of
Information Act of 1967 which I'm sure
that they regret wholeheartedly and a
lot of files you get of course a full of
black marks were they hiding the good
stuff but there's enough stuff and
people share these people have shared
with me Angela's file which is runs from
1942 to the early 60s and various
photographers whose names people would
recognize who had extensive FBI files
because they took pictures it's about
control if they could control the people
fine if they couldn't control them then
they had to find a way to control but
Angie was fine because they paid her
they started paying her $25 a week
doesn't sound like much to us but if you
go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Inflation Calculator she will find the
$25 and today's money is at least ten to
fifteen times 25 so she was doing all
right
rents on Christopher Street she was
living in the village which is where all
the girls went the village really
belonged to the gay girls since the
suffragettes had been there many of whom
were of course who else has time to do
politics but I decide single women
otherwise you have to look after your
husband and the children and the
hats and adults so the village belonged
to the gay girls much more than the gay
men who were uptown somewhere here and
there that's where they all lived that's
where Angie lived on James Street for
years and using using yes and she always
kept an apartment in the village he
testified at the trial was she a member
of the Communist Party bitch oh yes
so she was yeah she was paid by the FBI
to be a member of the Communist Party
and she informed on them for the years
that she did it seven that was all
secret but when when the trial happens
uh she testifies against the party well
of course she's undercover she's
undercover she's a spy for the FBI she
got into the party through nefarious
channels they didn't really want to take
her but but they did because people
helped her out helped her get in the
party Oh regret Oh regret when she's got
up on the witness stand people just
didn't look didn't believe it did not
believe that this person was sitting
there saying these things
she worked undercover for seven years
she testified 1949 about April 1949 in
the middle of the trial she was the only
woman to testify for the prosecution
along with lots of working-class guys
belonging to the United Auto Workers
mostly because the main target of this
trial was really the United Auto Workers
labor unions and the communist influence
they're in you remember Detroit was well
they were after it for a long time and
took him a long time these white or
black auto workers there was some white
guys but basically black guys and the
whole story about black individuals
being recruited or forced into service
by the FBI as undercover people in the
American Communist Party has yet to be
told
a lot of people have hinted at it and
there are lots of names floating around
and they're the names for this trial
what happened to the what was the
outcome of the trial
oh yeah come on a trial was everybody
the 11 defendants were convicted they
went to prison for five federal prison
for five years and they paid a $10,000
fine each that was ten thousand dollars
in 1949 money multiply that by ten or
fifteen and you will find that that was
I helped a lot of money that was a lot
of money it bankrupted the Communist
Party if you were going to get rid of it
we never outlawed the Communist Party
mainly because the Germans had done it
and the Italian fascist has done it we
didn't want to look like that because we
are democratic but they were bankrupted
by this of course their leadership was a
put in prison and they are my noble hair
money was taken basically from this
that's what the National Board so your
research demonstrates in the case of
this woman that the United States
government and you have to assume at the
highest levels understood and pursued
the systematic destruction of a
political party financially in every way
pain informants not telling the public
since obviously her testimony and that
of others would have been handled
differently by a jury one can suppose if
the jury knew that they had been paid
for years to do this that this is a this
is a government that's destroying a
political party that is critical of
capitalism and that they associate as
some agent of a foreign power in the way
that today we read the leadership in
Turkey or dozen other countries is doing
much the same sort of thing is that the
conclusion that we draw from this as J
Edgar Hoover himself said I I maintained
to Communist Party because I paid the
informants who were paying their dues
and I kept everything kept everything
going what they knew up the chain I'm
sure of course they knew but Jay Edgar
Hoover had all the
facts and all the money and all the you
know they kept very careful records of
who was doing what to whom and when it
came time for the trials there was not
only one trial there were fifteen trials
all across the country of the leadership
of the American Communist Party from
Honolulu to Baltimore from Cleveland to
Philadelphia and it basically destroyed
it destroyed the industrial Midwest if
you wonder what happened to the Midwest
this is the beginning of what happened
to the Midwest which is why people can
go into the Midwest and promise the
return of jobs that are not returning
because they went away a long time ago
and they killed off the Communists then
the Socialists and then the unions if
you look at the last 50 years as soon as
they finished with the Communists they
went around the country telling people
that socialism is more or less the same
thing they just spell it differently and
then there was the unions which have
been in atrophy ever since it's hard not
to come away from reading your book
without it the fearful notion of what a
government that decides to destroy a
political opposition what it's able to
do and what in this country it has shown
its willingness to do I mean the
constitutional protections were out the
window many of the civil liberties were
out the window they just went to destroy
this organization well it's important to
say that she perjured herself on the
witness stand when she said she was not
paid because she wanted to look like the
great Patriot she was paid all the other
other witnesses came on the stand and
said they weren't paid and they weren't
paid the only one who says he got 60
dollars a week with some nice black guy
from Tennessee or somewhere who had come
north to work in the war industries all
these people disappeared of course yes
they can do anything they want to
there will be no socialism in America
this is America there will be no
socialism here no matter what it takes
no matter what it takes there will be no
socialism here so this
a cautionary tale for people who want to
make change now to be aware of what they
may be up against we don't know of
course what they're using for
surveillance these days whether they
still need to hire people they were
sending people into mosque and things of
course vacuumed you know a few years ago
they can probably just plug into your
iPhone and see how you doing you know so
we don't really know but we know that we
are surveilled constantly if you don't
know that you're not paying attention
you're not paying attention all right
Lisa we've run out of time this is very
very important it's a wonderful look
folks this book undercover girl Lisa
Davis at the nitty-gritty of how the
government works on a day to day with an
individual to build up this destruction
of a political party a party that was
critical of capitalism it sold reason to
be was about that and it suffered the
consequences it's hard also for me as an
observer who didn't participate not to
also fault the party just to touch for
having been as naive as I suspect all of
us are about what they were up against
and what they had to face and what
ruthlessness would be deployed against
them you even had come away sometimes
thinking that what the FBI concocted as
the horrors of the Communist Party were
something they understood real well
because they were perpetrating those
horrors that they were attributing to
others who didn't have the power or the
money to equal it thank you very much
for coming and let me say to everybody
again under covergirl a remarkable story
about a remarkable page of American
history thank you all for joining us
we've come to the end of this session of
economic update please remember to take
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