Tag Archives: Industrial Worker

Carlos Cortez (Full Article)

Fellow Worker Carlos Cortez Inducted into Chicago Literary Hall of Fame

By FW Andrew Miller

The IWW has a long tradition of appealing to working class artisans and there’s no better example of that than Carlos Cortez. During Cortez’ life he created many iconic posters memorializing the struggles of fellow workers as well as through his poetry, songs, and contributions to IWW publications like The Industrial Worker. The culmination of his life’s work is being celebrated by the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame where he will be officially inducted on September 19. 

Cortez was born into the struggle. His father, Alfredo Cortez, was an indigenous Mexican of the Yaqui from the Sinaloa region. Alfredo Cortez fought in the free speech riots in San Diego in the early 20th century, ultimately serving as an organizer for the IWW. His mother, Augusta Ungerecht, was a German immigrant working as a socialist party organizer and poet when the two met at a socialist party convention in Minnesota. By 1923 Cortez was born and the family lived in a largely immigrant section of south Milwaukee.

As an only child, Cortez spent a lot of time watching his parents organize within their community, this helped instill in him a class consciousness at an early age. In grade school he learned to turn his drawings into wood and linoleum cut blocks, allowing him to print as many copies as he liked. As he grew, Cortez learned multiple languages from his neighbors, along with the struggles they faced as poor immigrants.

There is a long history of Mexican artists using wood block printing to spread political messages and Cortez was keen to join those ranks. By the time World War II had rolled around Cortez had made up his mind that there was no nation worth fighting for, only the working class struggle. As his mother was devoutly pacifist and neither of his parents believed that the war would benefit the international working class, Cortez chose to become a conscientious objector.

At a time when nationalism was running high in the United States, Cortez’ decision landed him in federal prison for two years. According to his close friend and confidant, poet Carlos Cumpian said, “The conscious expression of his writing and art prior to being in prison was not yet radical, but he had time to read in prison and formulate his own philosophy that lead to the bigger internationalism. [Cortez] really found his politics in prison where he had nothing but time to read and talk about international struggles with other prisoners, many of whom objected to the war for religious beliefs.”

Although Cortez and his family were friends with Dorthy Day (of The Catholic Worker), he himself was not religious. His working class perspective made him question what the churches were doing with their wealth, and even as a pacifist, Cortez believed the Spanish Civil War was necessary to protect the Spanish workers from abuses by the church and fascist state.

“Cortez felt war was generally orchestrated by the rich and he never wanted to fight other workers. He would’ve gone to Germany to kill Hitler but he wasn’t going to go and kill other working class people,” Cumpian said. “He came out of prison and he was shunned by his so called friends. His dad and relatives accepted what he did, but he still felt like an odd guy out.”

After prison Cortez joined the IWW and found his niche for agitation through art and writing. In these post-prison years he began dating a Japanese American women, whose stories of abuse during the war years further radicalized him. It was this woman who introduced him to the haiku form. Cortez was drawn to highly accessible poetry in the same way he was drawn to making easily reproduced art. As an outsider, he was drawn to the beat poets of the time, particularly Kenneth Patchen, for their exploration of non-conformity. Even in short form, Cortez focused on narrative poetry, telling the stories of the daily lives of working people. Eventually these narratives became part of his long-standing Industrial Worker column titled “The Left Side.”

While Cortez never made a living from his writing or art, he certainly left behind a legacy that far overshadowed his life as a wage slave. Cortez’ woodcuts and linoleum cuts were left to the National Museum of Mexican Art with the explicit responsibility of reprinting any of Cortez’ work that becomes too expensive for a worker to afford.

One of those prints, of Joe Hill, remained on the wall of his Chicago apartment until his death in 2005. Cortez loved music and was fond of rebel songs, but had a particular soft spot for the blues. Although he wasn’t a musician himself, he does have song writing credits in the IWW Little Red Songbook for “Out of Work Blues.”

Working at the Topping and Co. International House, prior to leaving Milwaukee for Chicago, is where Cortez met several musicians and ultimately meet his wife Marianna, the sister of Niko Topitzes (Nick Topping). For the sake of work and his love of music, Cortez and his wife moved to Chicago, near DePaul University at 2117 N. Clifton Ave.

In Chicago Cortez continued to work various factory jobs, salting in at some and organizing others outright. Around 1970 was when Cortez and Cumpian became friends after a chance meeting in the apartment building that led to Cortez signing Cumpian up for his red card.

“He invited me to go and hang out with him and his fellow workers, listening to music and such,” Cumpian said. “Eventually the FW’s let me know about a job and a bunch of us signed up – the place made lava lamps and blacklights and distributed them – this ended up being my first strike. We would get locked into the building during shifts, the dock workers were the only ones that could come and go. They did this to prevent theft. Working there was the first time I ever saw a dead person, there was a man frozen to death in our doorway. We were forced to eat our lunch on our work space. There was nothing like a medical kit or anything. So we definitely wanted to organize the shop.

“[Cortez] helped lead it. We were able to get the truckers to respect our picket and we won. He always made sure his circle of friends were all on board with protesting and being public about it, marching with signs and other materials.”

Probably the most famous story about Cortez’ direct action was when he worked at what he called “the bubble factory”, a soap manufacturing plant near his apartment. During a winter storm that prevented the supervisors and managers from getting to the factory from their suburban homes, Cortez and his fellow workers went in to work and ran the production line all day on their own. When asked by management how they did it, Cortez explained that it was easy, and much more productive than if the bosses had been there.

Cumpian said he believes Cortez is being honored because Chicago is a union town, and Cortez understood  that intimately.

“Cortez, was one of the few contemporary writers who wrote about unions, immigrants, and workers of all kinds,” Cumpian said. “He put together ‘Working People’ and ‘Two December Songs’ that tackled the topics of immigration and the working life. ‘Requiem for a Street’ is probably his poem that ties him most to Chicago. It’s a narrative poem and brings about the harmony of Maxwell Street, the shopping district of the poor. This wasn’t just a place for the poor to go to shop, but there were corner performances like blues music, and it was a place where immigrants would find others speaking their native languages. This was before the mall-a-fication of everything. His poems about police brutality and protest put him squarely in the awareness of working class Chicago; in both English and Spanish.”

Cortez would sign his work differently based on topic or audience as well. Sometimes as Cortez, sometimes as Red Cloud, sometimes in Spanish, and sometimes with only his X number: x321826. 

Don Evans, director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, said that while “the poetry was the first and foremost consideration, the selection committee did consider his whole body of work. So not only did he publish significant poetry, but it was connected to his lifelong mission of supporting workers, worker rights, artists, and relentless pursuit of social justice. [Carlos Cumpian] really has done everything he can to help keep the work of Cortez circulating. The poetry landscape is very unforgiving and so having someone like Cumpian grind away for years is a gift.”

Cumpian will present the statue to the National Museum of Mexican Art at City Lit Theater on September 19.

According to Evans, one of primary reasons behind Cortez’ induction is that the committee asked, “what was his resonance? We looked out into the future and felt Cortez’ work will continue to resonate for years to come.”

“There’s a kind of texture to his poems,” Evans said. “What I respond to is the feeling you get that you’re inside his world and you feel it is much different than the world you’ve had described to you. Cortez’ world is a rigged world and for Cortez there’s such passion and intelligence but also it’s more than a vision, you can feel how much ownership he had in this world he’s sharing with you. This is not an idyllic world, which is why he worked so hard to make more just, to fight for justice.”

Electronic Frontier Foundation response to No Evil Foods

As an update to the meritless and fraudulent DMCA claims that resulted in my website (among other things) being censored from the internet, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has jumped in and put No Evil Foods on notice for its evil behavior.

While a more in-depth review is forth coming, below is an open letter to the owners of No Evil Foods on my behalf from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

No Evil Foods Threatening Journalists and Free Speech

No Evil Foods (NEF) has been using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to make false claims to ownership if content that they have no legal right to. Unfortunately, these claims are so easily made that NEF have managed to get several prominent websites which were hosting reportage taken down until the reportage was removed.

This includes audio of the union busting activities the company used to harm their workers, obtained legally through North Carolina law, as well as parody pieces created under Fair Use law. {See next post here}

As of Thursday, August 27, 2020, my website was targeted by NEF and suspended by the hosting company, HostGator, for 14 days. This action has caused me harm and I am looking at all legal options not only to make me whole; but, more importantly to continue to expose the abuses NEF has inflicted upon its workers and now other journalists.

Below is the email from NEF to HostGator claiming I was in violation. As you can see, NEF was not even willing to sign the notice with a legitimate signature – “Birdie Gregson” is not a real person nor are they a legal entity representing the company.


Dear Customer:

Please be advised that we received the enclosed notice of alleged trademark infringement on your website. Please remove the allegedly infringing content within 48 hours and provide written notice to us to that effect when completed. 
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Re: Privacy & Copyright Infringement notice.
http://andrew-miller.com/
It is hosted by: Unified Layer
Organization name: WEBSITEWELCOME.COM
IP addres: 192.185.41.192
AS(autonomous system) number and organization: AS46606 Unified Layer
AS name: UNIFIEDLAYER-AS-1
Reverse DNS of the IP: 192-185-41-192.unifiedlayer.com
City: Burlington
Country: United States

ATTN: Website Welcome Legal Department

No Evil Foods, LLC is the official exclusive holder of the trademark No Evil Foods. It has come to our attention that an account called Andrew-Miller.com is distributing an Unauthorized recording hosted directly on your web servers. This recording is the voice of the No Evil Foods CEO, Michael Woliansky and Michael Woliansky only.
Content can be found here:
http://andrew-miller.com/blog/
and embedded here:
http://andrew-miller.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/NEF.m4a
This is a speech given by one person and a recording distributed of one person only. This person, Michael Woliansky has not authorized this recording, nor signed off on its distribution. This is in no way authorized and we ask that you cease hosting it on your servers immediately.
This content hosted on your servers specifically tracks back to our company name and is also using imagery that infringes on our copyrighted packaging design.

Content can be found here:
http://andrew-miller.com/blog/

screen capture of Andrew Miller’s blog as follows is in the attached PDF

Screen grab from our company website of our products:
https://www.noevilfoods.com/products/

Screen grab of No Evil Foods website are in the attached PDF.

Attached as well in the PDF is a copy of No Evil Foods current trademark certificate.

I hereby state that I have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the copyrighted material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law (e.g., as a fair use). I hereby state that the information in this notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that I am the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of, the owner, of the copyright or of an exclusive right under the copyright that is allegedly infringed.

Please remove this content from your servers. It is unauthorized and should be removed immediately.
If prompt attention to this matter is not made, we reserve the right to explore all options including taking prompt legal action.
Sincerely,
Birdie Gregson

No Evil Foods, LLC
(828) 367-1536<https://www.google.com/search?q=no+evil+foods+mailing+address&oq=no+evil+foods+mailing+address&aqs=chrome..69i57.5095j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8>;
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Failure to comply with this request within 48 hours could result in suspension or termination of your website.

Should you have further questions, please contact us.

Regards,
Hostgator Adherence Team 

Why doesn’t No Evil Foods Want You To Hear This?

DUE TO NO EVIL FOODS ATTEMPTS TO SILENCE JOURNALISTS USING THE DMCA AS A BULLY TACTIC, THIS POST CAUSED MY WEBSITE TO BE TAKEN DOWN FOR 14 DAYS. BECAUSE OF NO EVIL FOODS FALSE CLAIMS AND NON-EXISTANT LEGAL STANDING, MY SITE IS BACK UP AND SO IS THIS POST. PLEASE SHARE WIDELY! FEEL FREE TO TELL NO EVIL FOODS WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THEIR CENSORSHIP ATTEMPTS HERE:

No Evil Foods WebsiteTwitterInstagramFacebookPreach@noevilfoods.com

As a follow up to the ongoing press about No Evil Foods union busting, the management at No Evil Foods has been systematically following those ex-workers they retaliated against for attempting to organize a union, and continued to bully and harass them as the workers seek justice.

Besides bogus copyright and privacy claims that led to some of the workers Instagram posts (and then accounts) being pulled, No Evil Foods is going after this audio where the owners and other management can be clearly heard bullying and cajoling production staff into voting against their own interests for a union.

For a company that steeps itself in solidarity and socialist imagery and language, the owners have shown their true colors as the unrepentant capitalists that they are. Please share this audio widely and, if possible, download and repost it elsewhere so that the management of No Evil Foods can’t hide from their own words.

NEF Management during captive audience meetings.