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Things had been tense for some time inside the leadership of Communications Workers (CWA) Local 1168, a 4,800-member health care union based near Buffalo, New York. Still, it was a high-functioning local with a busy calendar of events, stewards handling grievances, organizers pursuing leads, and leaders organizing at work.

So it was a surprise to members in June when their parent union, CWA, put the local into trusteeship, at the request of the local’s president and seven of the nineteen executive board members.

Reflections from Budapest I’m in Budapest on the occasion of the 70th anniversary from the 1956 people’s uprising against Soviet despotism. The exact date of the beginning of the insurrection is on 23rd of October. The anniversary has marked the life in the Hungarian capital these days as various commemorations are taking place literally at […]

The post 70 Years from the Hungarian Revolution appeared first on Institute for Social Ecology.

“Our guards, our monitoring, and our own governments protect the best-conserved territories on the planet."

Halloween is nearly here and the ghouls are coming out to haunt us. In Rotorua they are taking the form of Harry and Meghan Windsor. These two visitors and their entourage are about to descend upon us. Who are they? They are pretty masks covering ugly political zombies. In any genuinely progressive and democratic society, these parasites would have no social influence or special place worthy of anybody’s attentions because the institution of hereditary monarchy they represent, wouldn’t exist.

Hereditary monarchy is unfair and elitist. We are expected to defer to someone simply because of their birth. The people in those positions aren’t the most intelligent in society, the hardest working or the most talented in any way. The order of succession in a monarchy specifies a person who will become head of state, regardless of qualifications. You are born into it and that’s the only way you can get there. Hard work or real talent and abilities won’t make you a Prince or Queen. As the teenage philosopher Lorde astutely put it “We will never be royals”.

In some cases it isn’t really clear what they do have going for them. In fact it’s just that their ancestors managed to wrestle power for themselves and made others accept them in that role through control of the military and ideological tools such as religion. Then they spread their influence across the globe, robbing and plundering along the way. Only due to sustained resistance from indigenous people in the colonies (Ireland, India, Aotearoa etc) and ordinary people in the ‘motherland’ have we reached the stage where the monarchy is more of a figurehead than an absolute power. While appearing outwardly strong, this form of rule does not make for a society that is at ease with itself. By maintaining a privileged royal family, society is diminished because it encourages a sense of dependency in people. Instead we should have confidence in ourselves as ordinary working people.

Since it is no longer absolute in its powers, the monarchy has been scrambling to justify its continued existence and there is an entire media industry and various other apologists helping them do this. The result has been a number of arguments that don’t really stack up.

For example, that the monarchy is good for tourism. The visit by Charles Windsor and his wife Camilla to Aotearoa in 2015 cost the tax payer $1.4 million (Stuff NZ 5/5/16). Not a small amount and you have to wonder… why can’t they pay for it themselves, the way the rest of us have to pay for our own holidays? One justification offered for that visit and the upcoming one by Harry Windsor is that they are worthwhile for the tourism spinoffs. Though it’s hard to show whether that has been the case and even if it was, is that really a good enough reason for having them? In the case of Britain itself, research from VisitBritain (the national tourist agency) indicates that people go there to see all sorts of other attractions rather than for example, Windsor Castle, which is way down the list of sites people go to. But so what if it was true anyway? Is selling itself as ‘Better than Disneyland’ the best the monarchy can come up with?

Oh but the Windsors do heaps for charity. Firstly, in many cases they are aligned with some charities on paper and in name only, not doing active work for them. In some cases adding their name might raise the profile of that charity but on the other hand, there are millions of normal people whose names we don’t know, who do tonnes of constructive work day after day, often on a voluntary basis. If the monarchy ceased to exist, would those charities collapse? It’s unlikely.

For those with a financial bent, we sometimes hear that the royals are good value for money. In reality, it has been estimated that the cost of the monarchy is 345million pounds (https://www.republic.org.uk/sites/default/files/Royal-Expenses-Report-2017_0.pdf). In this regard ‘the palace’ is totally unaccountable, as they are completely exempt from The Freedom of Information Act so the public can’t get detailed data on how they spend the money working people provide them via taxes. They can therefore operate with far greater secrecy than other areas of the state. Every now and then a bit of the financial reality gets revealed, as the Paradise Papers which came out a few years ago showed. These documents exposed the fact that Betty and Charles Windsor were tax dodging, with the funds ending up in Carribean tax havens (https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/stories/queen-elizabeth-ii).They can also lobby the government and actually have to give their active consent to any government bill that challenges their hereditary revenues or property.

There are other minor arguments raised from time to time, but the above seem to be the most common.

Some may suggest a series of reforms that they would argue make this parasitic monstrosity palatable. Though this really seems pointless. Surely society can function perfectly well without humans in unmerited and unaccountable positions of wealth and influence? It would seem even these leeches themselves recognise this. Harry Windsor has been quoted as saying “Is there any one of the royal family who wants to be king or queen? I don’t think so, but we will carry out our duties at the right time” (NZ Stuff 23/6/17). Well, perhaps it’s about time we took this arduous burden off their hands.

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Devil’s night is traditionally a time of mischief and subversive activity, striking fear into the forces of order. On this night, the weekend before Halloween, we took the form of mischievous creatures and decided to haunt the Upper Westmount mansion of the real estate boss Stephen Shiller. Stephen is one half of Shiller Lavy, and his son Brandon Shiller runs Hillpark Capital. These firms are responsible for renovicting and pricing out many tenants in the Montreal area in the past decade, putting hundreds of people out on the street.

The action was simple, any trickster could do it: we inserted a garden hose left outside into the mail slot of the front door and turned on the water, before disappearing into the night.

We summon others in the fight against Bill 31 to join the incantations of anti-landlord discourse with nocturnal rituals of anti-landlord action.

While we targeted Stephen Shiller for being an especially horrific landlord, we recognize authority must be washed away wherever it appears.

— some anarchist ghouls

La nuit du démon est traditionnellement un moment de malice et d’activité subversive, saisissant de peur l’ordre des choses et leurs protecteur·ices. Cette nuit là, durant la fin de semaine précédant Halloween, nous avons pris la forme de créatures maléfiques et avons décidé de hanter le manoir du haut Westmount appartenant au patron de l’immobilier Stephen Shiller. Stephen représente la moitié de la compagnie Shiller Lavy et son fils Brandon Shiller dirige Hillpark Capital. Ces firmes sont responsables de la rénoviction et de l’augmentation abusive des loyers pour de nombreux·ses locataires à Montréal ces dernières années, mettant à la rue des centaines de personnes.

L’action était simple, n’importe quel petit fourbe pourrait le faire : nous avons inséré un boyau d’arrosage laissé dehors dans la fente à courrier de la porte avant puis allumé l’eau, avant de disparaître dans la nuit.

Nous invoquons d’autres dans la lutte contre le projet de loi 31 à joindre les incantations des paroles anti-proprios à des rituels nocturnes d’actions contre elleux.

Bien que nous ayons visé Stephen Shiller pour être un proprio particulièrement horrifiant, nous reconnaissons que l’autorité doit être lavée à grande eau partout où elle apparaît.

Des goules anarchistes

Corporate political spending in the 2026 midterm elections has reached approximately $737 million, a 60 percent increase from what was spent on the 2024 presidential election, according to newly filed federal campaign finance data analyzed by Public Citizen. Spending this cycle accounts for 40 percent of the $1.8 billion corporations have spent on federal elections since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision.

Cryptocurrency, online betting, and Big Tech interests — including companies involved in AI and data centers — have collectively contributed $391 million toward the 2026 elections. This accounts for more than half of corporate political spending reported this cycle.

Corporate political spending has grown substantially since Citizens United. Corporations contributed $12.8 million during the 2010 election cycle, $84.9 million in 2012, and $117.9 million in 2016. The current cycle’s $737.3 million total underscores the scale of corporate spending in federal elections.

“Corporations are exploiting Citizens United to drive their political spending to unprecedented levels,” said Robert Weissman, Public Citizen co-president. “These corporations aren’t investing this money because they are civic minded or want to advance a particular viewpoint. They are spending to buy influence, determine outcomes and shape policy. This election cycle shows beyond any doubt that we desperately need a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and put the people, not corporations or the super rich, back in charge of elections.”

As ‘We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years’ this poem is possibly the most widely reprinted item from Freedom.

In September 1893 the London anarchist newspaper Freedom : A Journal of Anarchist Communism published a poem called ‘A Humble Reminder : To the Propertied Classes’, credited to ‘N.’[1] It’s an anti-capitalist protest, lamenting the ‘workers’ dead’ whose deaths enriched those ‘propertied classes’. It rails at the rich ‘We have fed you all for a thousand years, / And you hail us still unfed’. I do not know who ‘N.’ was, though they seem to be connected to the Freedom milieu. Freedom had published another poem by them, ‘The Pet Voter’, in August 1892.[2] Max Nettlau used the same initial when writing in Freedom in June 1891; the Fabian socialist Edith Nesbit had a poem ‘A Word For The Children’ in Freedom in February 1891 (‘The right to give help is your own, / The right to claim it theirs.’) Neither seems a convincing candidate for the authorship of this poem.
The Kipling connection

‘N.’ introduced their poem by saying it was ‘slightly altered from Rudyard Kipling’s Ode in praise of English Enterprise.’ That’s a reference to Kipling’s ‘Song of the Dead’ published four months earlier in The English Illustrated Magazine (May 1893). ‘N.’s address to the propertied classes ‘For if blood be the price of England’s wealth, / Good God, we ha’ paid in full’ rewrites Kipling’s address to the sea ‘If blood be the price of admiralty, / Lord God, we ha’ paid in full!’.[3] The ‘Humble Reminder’ changes Kipling’s poem – but leans heavily upon it. Mark Leier said ‘strictly speaking the poem is not a parody of Kipling’s poem but a re-working of the words based on the original verse and meter.’[4] It reminds me of Utah Philips’ comment on IWW songmaking: ‘The Wobblies liked to steal the hymn tunes ‘cos they were pretty and change the words so they made more sense.’[5]

The connection to Kipling persisted. He was credited in many of the reprints (inevitable, perhaps, given that the author remained unknown and their debt to Kipling was clear). There were even articles discussing what it would mean if the poem were by Kipling.[6]
Reprinted and recited

Once printed, it was always possible for the poem to reappear, and this one spread beyond the anarchist press, becoming a standard of labour movement papers. The title often changed, varying from ‘The Cry of Toil’ to ‘The Capitalist’. Just as the connection to Kipling is sometimes there and sometimes not, the text varies between the poetic ‘ha’’ to the everyday ‘have’.

Apparently a version was published in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1895.[7] The Portland anarchist newspaper The Firebrand reprinted the poem (anonymously) as ‘The Workers Outcry’ in 1897.[8] Changes had been made to Americanise the text: instead of pounds the third line talks of ‘there’s never a dollar of all your wealth’.

Sometimes you can read about the poem’s life off the printed page. In May 1897 Miss Olive Keep recited ‘We have fed you all for a thousand years’ at a gathering of the Socialist Labor Party. [9]. In August 1899, The Carpenter, a union journal for ‘Carpenters, Stair Builders, Machine Wood Workers, Planing Mill Men, and Kindred Interests’ reprinted the ‘Firebrand version’ (with credit).[10] In 1904 the poem reappeared as ‘The Price of England’s Wealth’ in Glasgow’s The Voice of Labour.[11] This version talks of ‘sovereigns’ rather than ‘pounds’ or ‘dollars’ but there are other changes: I can’t tell if it’s rewritten from the Freedom or Firebrand version.

The anarchist journal Mother Earth (‘published every 15th of the month’) reprinted ‘The Cry of Toil’ (credited to Kipling) in April 1908.[12] On April 18, 1908 it appeared in the IWW’s Industrial Union Bulletin (also credited to Kipling).[13] Once the poem was reprinted in the IWW songbook, and was later put to music (‘about 1916’ by Rudolf von Liebich), it was firmly established as a classic of working class protest.

In November 1913 strikers in Auckland used a line from the poem on their banner during the 1913 Waterfront Strike: ‘If blood be the price of your cursed wealth, good God we have bought it fair’.[14] It’s not often we get the names of people who helped circulate the text but ‘Gordon’ suggested it (as ‘The Workers’ Answer’) in the 1917 compilation New songs for Butte Mining Camp.[15]

As ‘We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years’ this poem is possibly the most widely reprinted item from Freedom. In March 1969 it was reprinted (from the IWW songbook, credited to an ‘unknown proletarian’) on the front of the third issue of the Bulletin of the Anarchist Black Cross. The band Palm Ghosts released a version in August 2026. Questions remain: Who was N? How did it get into Mother Earth? If anyone sees any evidence, please let us know.
Notes

1, https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/qrfmk0
2, https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/31zfks
3, See https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_dead.htm
4, ‘Kipling Gets a Red Card,’ Labour/Le Travail n.31 (Spring 1993), 163-8.
5, Utah Phillips, intro to ‘Dump the Bosses Off Your Back’ on his album We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years (1983).
6, See ‘The New Kipling’ in Brisbane’s Daily Standard Saturday 2 May 1914. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/178878885
7, ‘The Cry of Labor’, Mar 24, 1895 in the Sunday News. Not seen, reference from: https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-from-the-spokane-industrial-worker-cry-of-toilwe-have-fed-you-all-for-a-thousand-years/
8, The Firebrand : For Burning Away Of The Cobwebs of Ignorance and Superstition, March 7 1897. https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/v41r69
9, The times (Washington [D.C.]), May 3, 1897 https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85054468/1897-05-03/ed-1/
10, https://archive.org/details/carpenter19unit/mode/2up? Page 7
11, https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/nk9c3s
12, https://archive.org/details/mother-earth/Mother%20Earth%20v03n02%20%281908-04%29%20%28-covers%20Harvard%20DSR%29/
13, https://archive.org/details/v2n08-apr-18-1908-iub/mode/2up?q=%22we+have+fed+you+all+for+a+thousand+years%22
14, https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22878480
15, https://archive.org/details/newsongsforbutte00unse/

Image: A protest march in Auckland during Waterfront Strike; Price Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library by William Archer Price, (1866-1948) https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.125674

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