SV-Wolf's Bike Blog

[blues2cruise]

All I have to say about your current weather condition is this.



Excellent blog entry.

[sv-wolf]

All I have to say about your current weather condition is this.



Excellent blog entry.

Friends tell me I always bring out the worst in people!



Thanks blues

[dr_bar]

Just a question...

Who was the D.M. Vancouver that you have quoted in your signature?

[sv-wolf]

Just a question...

Who was the D.M. Vancouver that you have quoted in your signature?

You may regret asking that, Doc.

I would have been more specific, but the avatar wagged its finger and told me I'd reached my word limit. The quote is a bit truncated to make it fit. The original runs like this:

"The poor Scotsman is willing to trot alongside of any old plug that is going his way, but must decline with thanks to be led anywhere by anybody, lead be ever so wisely, and absolutely refuses to be saved by a saviour, any saviour, economic, industrial, ethical, moral or spiritual. It is a case of welcome, earth-born comrade, but to hell with the Heaven-sent"

My sentiments entirely!

It was written by Donald G McKenzie and published in The Western Clarion (Vancouver) on 8th February 1908. The Clarion was the official newspaper of the Socialist Party of Canada and McKenzie was its editor in the early decades of the century. He and another guy, Ginger Goodwin - both early members of the SPC - are heroes of mine (for lots of reasons - let's talk guts for a start! ). Ginger was casually shot in the back (and killed) by a hired cop in the woods behind Cumberland (Vancouver Island) for his union activism and while he was on the run for refusing to fight on behalf of Canadian business interests in the First World War.

Unfortunately, there are no photos of Donald McKenzie, but here's one of Ginger.


Sometimes it's the little guys who are the real heroes.

If anyone is remotely interested in working class heroes, check him out.
http://www.carpentersunionbc.com/Pages/ ... odwin.html

The Socialist Party of Canada still exists and is a member of the World Socialist Movement (WSM) to which I belong, so I feel I have a connection. Another reason to visit.

OK, you can wake up now.

[blues2cruise]

Thanks for the little piece of history. He definitely was a courageous man.

[dr_bar]

A hero of mine as well, didn't know the quote though. My old high school wrote and produced a video of Giger's activism and his death. Every Labour Day there is a celebration of Ginger Goodwins life at the Cumberland cemetery...

[sv-wolf]

Snap!


the photo was taken in 2006 but is a bit rough since it comes from a book on the history of the SP of Canada.

Wow! Doc. I had no idea that Ginger's story was so well known. The WSP has been around for over a hundred years now and during that time most of its members have led fairly difficult and unsung lives. I had assumed his story would only be known within WSM circles. But he was, of course, a union activist for the United Mineworkers of America as well as being a socialist.


I've never seen a close-up of the tombstone before. Is that a hammer and sickle at the top of it? If it is, it shouldn't be there since Ginger was never a Leninist or a Bolshevik. His politics lay firmly in the Anglo-American democratic tradition of socialism. (God! that's always a bloody mouthful to get out.)

Thanks for posting that. Not many socialists I know are into bikes. It's nice to hear that at least one biker knows all about Ginger Goodwin.

Cheers

Richard

[dr_bar]

Yes that's the good ol' hammer and sickle on the grave stone. I don't know if he had any dealings or worked with the, "One Big Union (Canada)" which I think was around when he was alive. It was directly affiliated with the Canadian Communist Party.

Edit: OBU wasn't formed until the year after Ginger's murder...

[sv-wolf]

Hi Doc

Actually no, the One Big Union was set up by the Socialist Party of Canada (the good guys. ) and not by the Communist Party.

When the One Big Union refused to join the Soviet 'profintern' in the 1920s, the Canadian Communist Party started a campain to attack it and disrupt it every way it could. (Or rather, since the Communist Party was illegal in Canada then, the job was done by its front organisation 'The Worker's Party'.) The orders though, came directly from Moscow. It was typical of what happened all over the world at that time. Moscow was determined to control all working class organisations or wipe them out.

They didn't succeed, and the One Big Union remained outside the Communist Movement until its demise after the Second World War. So that leaves me still curious about the hammer and sickle. I''ve written to a contact in the SPC to see if he knows anything about that.

Enough! That was the non-bike bit. The bike bit will follow shortly.

[Johnj]

Pinko jazz freaks.