Sing, People, Sing! Which Side Are You On? (Keystone Fall 2019/Winter 2020 Blog Series)

Within Put People First! PA, singing is a growing practice of our organization that deepens our collectivity and solidarity with one another. As we struggle together to end the systems of oppression that we live under, we are creating a collective identity of our class that is rooted in the struggle, and as with all identities, a culture that will reflect it. It warrants our study and attention to think and be intentional about the art and the music that colors this culture as much as the norms and practices we’re making a part of it. And as we draw on a long history of lessons and experiences from the struggles of poor folk who have come before us, we too have a long history of music and art to look back on. 

I’ve had the good fortune to sing ‘Which Side Are You On’ quite a few times now. Probably the most memorable was during the 40 Days of Action, in 2018 on the relaunch of the PPC:NCMR. We chose it for our moral-fusion direct action during the 5th week, focused on the ‘Everybody’s Got A Right To Live,’ week – the right to unionize, to living wage jobs, income and housing. We had to sing for almost forty minutes, thundering through the gaudy halls of the state capitol building, as the cops were hesitant to make arrests that week. But as we hollered on and on, drowning out any other noise, the line of division between us and them became clearer and clearer. As Florence Reese herself said on many occasions, the gun-thugs and scabs were workers too – and they knew damned well which side they chose. 

Florence understood that there was a war on workers, a war on the poor – she saw it firsthand in the hollars of Harlan County, Kentucky. Her husband was a coal miner, Sam Reece – a good union man and a lead organizer throughout his life, and her father and grandfather had both been coal miners. They knew firsthand the horrors of the company bosses, the mines, and the poverty that was forced upon them. From 1931-1939, through the Depression, Harlan County erupted in violence as the United Mine Workers came to assist the miners in their struggle when the company bosses cut their wages. At the height, almost 6,000 men idled on strike, with barely a thousand scabbing – but hundreds of outside gun-thugs were hired on by the company to protect them, each deputized by Sheriff J.H. Blair – who informed them to act with impunity to harass, beat and terrorize the striking men and their families. 

Just as the UMW was setting in, in 1931, Sam stepped up to be one of the first major local organizers. The company ordered J.H. Blair himself, along with a number of deputies to raid Sam’s home and have him killed or beaten so badly he wished he had been. Thankfully, Sam was warned ahead of time, but Florence and their children were at home unawares when Blair and his men broke down the door and ransacked the house, striking her and terrorizing the children.

When they left, she went inside and found the calendar they had ripped down off the wall, on which she wrote the titular song. Sam may have lived, but many other men died in confrontations with the gun-thugs and J.H. Blair, including Harry Simms. After the National Guard was called in, which broke up the long-standing strike and killed dozens of men, the UMW abandoned Harlan county and the National Miner’s Union (the NMU, here out) moved in. Openly a part of the Young Communist League, they revitalized the strikes and established robust soup kitchens and aid programs to sustain the strikers. Harry Simms was only twenty years old when a deputy murdered him in broad daylight. The clergy in the hollar turned on the strikers too, denouncing the NMU as anti-religious communists and the Red Cross, which at this point had been neutral in the affair, began to exclusively provide aid to the scabs. 

The song survived the strikes and the war in Harlan County, as did the Reeces. Florence would end up traveling and singing as a poet and folksinger, recounting the lessons from the strike and highlighting that there is no such thing as neutral in the war between workers and capital.

“My songs always goes to the underdog – to the worker. I’m one of them and I feel like I’ve got to be with them. There’s no such thing as neutral. You have to be on one side or the other. Some people say, ‘I don’t take sides – I’m neutral.’ There’s no such thing. In your mind you’re on one side or the other. In Harlan County there wasn’t no neutral. If you wasn’t a gun thug, you was a union man. You had to be.” -Florence Reese.

The song has gone through what is colloquially called the “folk process,” – a fancy way of saying that folks forgot some of the words after learning it and just wrote up their own verses. If you dig hard enough, you can find all sorts added to it. It’s been made into death metal, jazz and everything in between. Here’s the words that I fiddled with, which frankly I changed to make it focused less on being about chiding the men into being brave, and more about our class. Learn it and sing out, friends!

Which Side Are You On?

Chorus – repeat after verses
Which side are you on, ooh?
Which side are you on? (repeat both lines)

Come all of you good workers
Good news to you I’ll tell
Of how the good old union
Has come in here to dwell.

Oh workers can you stand it?
Oh tell me how you can?
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you take a stand?

My momma was a worker
She’s in the clouds & air
And when I’m with the union
I know that she is there

My daddy was a miner,
And I’m a miner’s child,
And I’ll be with the union
While out enemies run wild!

They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there.
You’ll either be in the union
Or a thug for J.H Blair

Don’t listen to the bosses
Don’t listen to their lives!
Us poor folk don’t have a chance
Unless we organize!

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This content originally appeared in Put People First! PA’s semi-annual newsletter, The Keystone. The Keystone is a great introduction to Put People First! PA, our work, and our community. It’s all written by our members for our own communication and education, and for supporters and new relationships to get to know us better. Each issue features reports from our work, news about our victories, stories about the health care system and the other issues affecting our communities, and poetry and artwork. Check out past and present editions here: Newsletter Archive.

Draft PPF-PA Community Care Fund Policy – July 2019 (Keystone Fall 2019/Winter 2020 Blog Series)

by The Community Care Team

Put People First! PA members struggle daily to meet basic material needs. We choose between paying for prescriptions or our utility bills. We ask ourselves is the priority next month’s rent or putting food on the table this month? PPF-PA’s Community Care Team is developing a Community Care Fund to support members through challenging times. Here’s an excerpt from the DRAFT PPF-PA Community Care Fund Policy. To find out more, contact Farrah at farrahmsamuels@gmail.com.

Purpose: 

The following policy is being developed  in accordance with the PPF-PA Community Care Team’s Mission of coordinating and providing a system of social support and care to PPF-PA members by…

  • Helping members get through stressful and difficult periods in their lives; and
  • Aiding members in meeting their emotional and material needs

This policy is intended to articulate a process by which individual PPF-PA members can solicit requests for material support within the organization to help them meet their material needs. Examples of material needs include but are not limited to: rent/ housing payments, utilities assistance, medical bills, and transportation needs. Material support requests are intended to support the needs of recent or current “active” leaders within the organization as described in PPF-PA’s leadership development path document. More specifically, applicants shall have been active in a PPF-PA leadership role for a minimum of 3 months.

Material support requests should not be regarded as charity but rather as a way of sustaining and advancing leaders within the organization so that they can continue to participate in PPF and make meaningful leadership contributions. In no way, shape or form is Put People First! PA trying to assume the role of a social service provider. Nor do we believe that organizations providing services can or should take the place of the state.

Short and Long Term Strategies for Establishing a Community Care Fund:

In the short term, material support requests should first be channeled through the local Healthcare Rights Committees or HRCs (by way of the HRC’s Community Care Team representatives and/or the HRC coordinators) before being elevated to the statewide Community Care Team. This is designed to build the capacity of local HRCs and to encourage maximum benefit from local relationships and community affiliations and resources. Requests should only be brought to the statewide Community Care Team when it is determined that further promotion and coordination across the organization is necessary to meet the need.

As a longer-term strategy, the PPF-PA Community Care Team is working towards establishing a statewide permanent Community Care Fund that members can draw upon as needed. The PPF-PA Community Care Team is currently identifying individuals outside of PPF-PA who can make significant financial contributions to this fund and share our commitment of supporting and retaining grassroots movement leaders. Once a permanent fund is established, the statewide PPF-PA Community Care Team may assume responsibility for the intake, processing and tracking of material support requests from members across all HRCs.

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This content originally appeared in Put People First! PA’s semi-annual newsletter, The Keystone. The Keystone is a great introduction to Put People First! PA, our work, and our community. It’s all written by our members for our own communication and education, and for supporters and new relationships to get to know us better. Each issue features reports from our work, news about our victories, stories about the health care system and the other issues affecting our communities, and poetry and artwork. Check out past and present editions here: Newsletter Archive.

Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee Timeline: A Roadmap (Keystone Fall 2019/Winter 2020 Blog Series)

The Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee has come a long way over this past year. We have held bi-monthly Committee meetings, contributed to the work on some of the statewide teams, met with state and local representatives, and made base building and outreach a priority. through every action we took or event we attended, we grew in our leadership development.

We strengthened our clarity through research, conversations with other Put People First! PA leaders and political education discussions. We were competent in seeing our tasks through, deciding what is a priority and began to sway the narrative around poverty in our community. We have a core group that have become committed to the work and see the importance in making base building, political education and leadership development priorities going forward. Through all of this work we have become a connected group of leaders that support each other through the tough times and memorialize the time we spend together.

October/November/December 2018

  • Tammy attended a Popular Education Project event in North Carolina with other Put People First! PA leaders where a gathering of organizations from the Poor People’s Campaign a National Call for Moral Revival exchanged organizing ideas. This is where the idea of the “Grassroots Organizing Exchange” was born — the first of which took place seven months later, where PPF-PA hosted organizers from 14 states for a weekend of learning and base building.
  • Lancaster took immediate action against power holders over the announcement of the closing of UPMC Pinnacle Lancaster by rallying the community to attend the final City Council meeting of the year and voiced our concerns throughout the meeting. 
  • Hosted a year HRC timeline in review meeting
  • Tammy spoke at the PPF-PA helped led first PA-PPC Poor People’s Hearing in Harrisburg and other Lancaster HRC leaders attended

January 2019

  • Lancaster HRC leaders attended the HRC Leaders Intensive and Winter Steering Committee Retreat at Camp Sequanota in Jennerstown PA
  • 3 leaders of the Lancaster HRC took part in the Winter Base Building Intensive Group (BBIG) which launched in January and ended right before the Leadership Institutes. 

February 2019

  • Lancaster hosted a “Weekend of Action” and started their “Take Back St. Joseph’s” Campaign on the final weekend the hospital was open. We held a Public Forum Saturday and a Vigil outside the hospital Sunday.
  • 3 Lancaster HRC leaders participated in UPoor Spring 2019 Semester Courses.

March 2019

  • Lancaster held a rally outside the Lancaster County Government Center during a polar vortex & took action again at a City Council meeting to demand a City Resolution for a Public Healthcare Advocate. 
  • 4 Lancaster HRC leaders attended the Moral Agenda Announcement and Demand Delivery with the PA-PPC:NCMR, one Lancaster leader spoke at the Rotunda about the closed hospital and UPMC.
  • California Homeless Union visited and gave presentation in Philly and Lancaster
  • Through researching and taking action against UPMC, Lancaster saw an opportunity & secured a meeting with Lt. Governor John Fetterman.
  • Lancaster held a vigil for Antwon Rose. 

April 2019 

  • The Lancaster HRC was successful in getting the Lancaster City Council to unanimously agree to a City Resolution for a PHA
  • Lancaster HRC leaders, accompanied by new up & coming HRC leaders attended the York Leadership Institute.
  • Lancaster contributed to the Spring/Summer 2019 Edition of Keystone which was released at the Leadership Institute. 
  • Lancaster HRC leaders attended the Fundraising Retreat hosted by the Fundraising Team. 
  • Lancaster HRC leaders met with PA state representative Mike Sturla 

May 2019

  • Lancaster hosted an action outside closed hospital and began building a relationship with local reporter which led to Lancaster Newspapers publishing the “In the Spotlight” piece about the Lancaster HRC and the Poor People’s Campaign a National Call for Moral Revival 
  • Lancaster HRC leaders went to Pittsburgh with other PPF-PA leaders to support the striking workers at UPMC in Pittsburgh, called out UPMC for closing the Lancaster Hospital and demanded a Public Healthcare Advocate for Pennsylvania. 
  • Matthew attends the Launch of the Mother Jones Leadership Program as one of the PPF-PA 2019 Mother Jones leaders. 

June 2019

  • Lancaster hosted an action/march from the closed St. Joseph’s Hospital to Cedar Lawn Cemetery where hospital nurse and grandmother of Lancaster member was buried. 
  • Anne & Tammy join for Base building at Mission of Mercy Dental Clinic in Wilkes Barre.
  • Robin, Matt & Tammy attended the Poor People’s Campaign Moral Action Congress in DC as part of the PPF-PA led PAPPC delegation (80 people total, 24 from PPF-PA)
  • As a MJLP Leader, Matt attended a 6 week study on the Poor People’s Campaign. 
  • Lancaster HRC leaders attended and made their concerns known during a public meeting arranged by local power holders about the possible rezoning of the UPMC Pinnacle Lancaster site. 

July 2019

  • Lancaster HRC took part in a Grassroots organizing exchange hosted by PPF-PA with the Popular Education Project that brought 30 PPC leaders from nine states to PA.
  • PPF-PA sends four leaders, from Johnstown, Lancaster and Philly to the Summer School of Resistance.
  • Anne & Tammy joined the Philly HRC led action on the closure of Hahnemann hospital in Philly, where the reality of losing hospitals rapidly was brought to light by connecting the potential harm of losing Hahnemann to what is happening to the Lancaster community. 
  • Lancaster spoke to community about poverty in Lancaster during Peace Fest with representative from PA Poor People’s Campaign a National Call for Moral Revival. 
  • Lancaster HRC Leaders met with PA state representative Scott Martin.

August 2019

  • Anne attended the yearly “Healthcare is a Human Right Collaborative” which PPF-PA is a part of, this year it was in Portland Maine
  • The Center for Collaborative Engagement with Franklin and Marshall College awarded PPF-PA and the PA-PPC a grant for research leading to the production of A Lancaster Audit and Moral Budget.
  • Lancaster has joined F&M professor and students in classes on Marxism & Social Justice to help bridge the gap between college students and the community in which they reside in.

September

  • Statewide week of action: Lancaster HRC took action on Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital
  • National Homeless Union Leaders from NC, NY, Mass and CA joined the Lancaster HRC for the Medicaid March then met for a meeting to start a Lancaster Homeless Union to begin the rebuilding of the homeless union movement in Pennsylvania!
  • Held our first meeting of the Moral budget and audit for Lancaster County, and PA PPC.

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This content originally appeared in Put People First! PA’s semi-annual newsletter, The Keystone. The Keystone is a great introduction to Put People First! PA, our work, and our community. It’s all written by our members for our own communication and education, and for supporters and new relationships to get to know us better. Each issue features reports from our work, news about our victories, stories about the health care system and the other issues affecting our communities, and poetry and artwork. Check out past and present editions here: Newsletter Archive.

Indigenous Voices of the Poor People’s Campaign (Keystone Fall 2019/Winter 2020 Blog Series)

by Jennina Rose Gorman aka Katsitsioasta and Rachel Ishikawa

Rachel: Could just start by saying a little intro your name who you are?

Jennina: My name is Jennina Rose Gorman in English and Katsitsioasta in Haudenosaunee, which is my father’s language. My father led the first Civil Rights March on Washington for Indigenous People. Dr. King actually became involved with my father and they started writing to each other. Dr. King was killed before my father and him ever got to meet in person.

So when I became involved with Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) and Mr. Willie Baptist came up in front of our Membership Assembly and started talking about the Poor People’s Campaign, I lit up. I went running to him and I was like, “Is this the original Poor People’s campaign? The one that Dr. King was working on before he was assassinated?” And he was like, “Yes,” and I was like, “Sign me up!”

R: Do you feel like the conversation about indigenous people was well incorporated into the conference into the Congress itself?

J: I feel like it’s very important for us moving forward to reach out to the indigenous peoples that were on that land prior to colonization and get permission from them before work can really start.

R: Out of this time the “Indigenous Voices of the Poor People’s Campaign” was formed. Can you tell me about how that happened?

J: We participated in an Indigenous Sovereignty Workshop. I was so excited to be invited to the table because so much of my life, I’ve been denied that access to my identity that is native because I don’t look the part. What I heard was a lot of individuals feeling that we were underrepresented and some discussion about the place of indigenous people in the Poor People’s Campaign.

After that conversation I was talking to national co-chair Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis who asked me how things were going and I told her that some issues came up that need to be addressed. And we managed to arrange for a special meeting after the Congress was over and I just want to say it is amazing how as a national leader she was so accessible and so willing to listen and learn.

What happened out of that was that I set up a Zoom line called the “Indigenous Voices of the Poor People’s Campaign.” Any and all indigenous people who are involved in the Campaign are welcome to participate in it. We meet bi-weekly and at the moment we’re going through line-by-line of the Moral Budget and finding what things need to be changed so that they’re more inclusive of everyone – not just indigenous people, but really so that everyone feels like it is a welcoming place to be.The goal is to stay connected with each other and to support each other through our struggles and support each other through our work and to share resources so that this doesn’t happen again. So the idea is to maintain connection with indigenous people across the country so that we can help each other through this Campaign. If you want to get involved contact Jennina at t.s.gorman88@gmail.com

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This content originally appeared in Put People First! PA’s semi-annual newsletter, The Keystone. The Keystone is a great introduction to Put People First! PA, our work, and our community. It’s all written by our members for our own communication and education, and for supporters and new relationships to get to know us better. Each issue features reports from our work, news about our victories, stories about the health care system and the other issues affecting our communities, and poetry and artwork. Check out past and present editions here: Newsletter Archive.

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