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Articles by Harvey Schwartz
Labor Under Siege: Big Bob McEllrath and the ILWU’s Fight for Organized Labor in an Anti-Union Era. By Harvey Schwartz with Ronald E. Magden
Labor Under Siege charts the development of Robert McEllrath, known as Big Bob, from longshore worker to venerated president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), a position he held from 2007 to 2018. The book comprises oral histories conducted by oral historian Harvey Schwartz and labor historian Ronald E. Magden, testifying to their extensive engagement with the ILWU and its members.
‘I’m a 74-year-old College Student’
One morning, while I was on a two-and-a-half-mile hike around a lake near my house in Bellingham, Washington, I came across Marie, a musician and professor at Western Washington University. I knew her from going to live music events. Marie told me that she was giving a lecture two weeks from then, and invited me to attend. And so, in 2011, when I was 62 years old, I attended Western Washington University for the first time since I received a teaching certificate in 1972.
Five Book Friday: Books That Honor the Working Class by Tove
Books and labor are two of my favorite topics to talk effusively about, so I’m delighted to be able to combine them in this blog post, and sorry that you won’t get the full IRL experience, which includes wide eyes, occasional swears, and lots of gesticulating.
Legally Reasonable? Who Says So?
Facebook0Tweet0Pin0LinkedIn0Email0 — ANALYSIS — Years ago, I represented a young man who robbed a milkman face-to-face at dawn, holding a .45 to the trembling man’s head and demanding cash. The milkman happened to regularly deliver to the robber’s house, however, and recognized him, saying, “Jeffrey, what are you doing to me?” I tried that case three times, first with two hung juries and finally to a not-guilty verdict.
Why Can't the U.S. Build Anymore?
America: We’re a land of constant progress. With each passing generation, we get wealthier, more creative, and more dynamic. Sometimes it seems like there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. That’s what we told ourselves anyway... And then a freaking bridge in Massachusetts had to ruin the whole thing. This is the Anderson Memorial Bridge. It connects Cambridge, Massachusetts with Boston.
NAM - Litro Magazine
Hannah Meek (Meekmediahouse@gmail.com) Al and I had nothing in common. He grew up in Omaha. His dad was a postman and decorated Second World War veteran. His mom stayed home to raise three kids. Al was the oldest and made his family proud when he signed up for Nam. My father was a gynaecologist and my mother a psychotherapist in New Haven. They didn’t have time for more kids than me. Pissed the hell out of them when I signed up for Nam. Al and I stand next to each other once a year.
Notes from a Coronavirus Contact Tracer
Reading Time: 14 minutes If you lived in Massachusetts the past three months you really did not want to get a phone call from me. My caller ID said “MA COVID TEAM.” I worked as a case investigator in the first-in-the-nation statewide COVID-19 contact tracing program. Our initial cohort of 84 people quickly expanded into about 1,400 people making over 350,000 telephone calls to every person in the state who tested positive for COVID-19.
Notes from a Coronavirus Contact Tracer
Facebook0Tweet0Pin0LinkedIn0Email0 If you lived in Massachusetts the past three months you really did not want to get a phone call from me. My caller ID said “MA COVID TEAM.” I worked as a case investigator in the first-in-the-nation statewide COVID-19 contact tracing program. Our initial cohort of 84 people quickly expanded into about 1,400 people making over 350,000 telephone calls to every person in the state who tested positive for COVID-19.
Blog Posts Archives - WhoWhatWhy
Who Thinks About Nuclear War in a Time of Plague? Reading Time: 6 minutes Even if the plague takes up all our head space now, the possibility of nuclear Armageddon was with us before the virus arrived and will remain with us after. Trump’s Primary Concern Is Trump, Tweets Show Reading Time: 3 minutes President Donald Trump will have you believe that he is laser-focused on dealing with the coronavirus crisis. His tweets tell a very different story.
Death Panels Are Real, Thanks to the Coronavirus
Reading Time: 7 minutes Opinion — Sarah Palin, the Republican 2010 vice presidential candidate, whined about Obamacare“death panels” — and predicted that bureaucrats would soon decide who gets lifesaving medical care and who doesn’t. Palin’s creation of the term was named by PolitiFact as its “Lie of the Year” for 2009. Death panels were inconceivable. Until 2020 and the coronavirus. Until hospitals become faced with too many deathly ill patients and not enough ventilators to save them all.
The Electoral College: Rubber Stamp or Kingmaker?
Reading Time: 6 minutes When the Electoral College convened following the 2016 election, Peter Chiafalo, Levi Guerra, and Esther John decided not to vote for Hillary Clinton. They voted for Colin Powell instead. The state of Washington fined them $1,000 each for that decision and they went to court.
Civil Liberties Archives - WhoWhatWhy
Will Civil Liberties Be Another COVID-19 Victim? Reading Time: 7 minutes As US courts grow more politically conservative, they may be less likely to ensure that efforts to fight a pandemic don’t trample on civil rights. MLK: What He Meant to the US and What the US Did to Him Reading Time: 3 minutes Today Americans honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who gave so much for a country that gave him so little in return.
Is Bernie Just George McGovern Déjà Vu or Déjà New?
Reading Time: 5 minutes This is one in an occasional series of viewpoint pieces on the candidates. At WhoWhatWhy, we’re especially interested in hearing from those who have had documentable personal experiences with candidates that may provide insight into their priorities, manner, and character. To pitch pieces, write us at submissions@whowhatwhy.org.
It's “Treason” Season: Trump's Latest Rant Cycle
Reading Time: 6 minutes President Donald Trump has a new favorite word: TREASON! Everybody from Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff to the New York Times and Google should be charged with TREASON! And he knows the penalty for treason. He has even developed a schtick at campaign rallies for his adoring base in which he raises an imaginary rifle and pulls the trigger, declaring: “It’s ‘bing’ and it goes quickly, right? It’s called, it’s called — you’re dead.
Who Is Trump Fooling with MAGA?
Reading Time: 4 minutes So who is Trump fooling with MAGA — Make America Great Again — the semites or the anti-semites? The Jews or the Jew-haters? Or both?
What If the US, Like Germany, Bans Hate Speech in the Future?
Which do you agree with: America has too much online hate speech? Or, America has too much online free speech? Both complaints can apply to the same words. The difference depends on no more than whether you are the speaker or the listener. What comes from my mouth is free speech that deserves legal protection. You protest that what enters your ears is hate speech that must be prohibited. Hate speech is a byproduct of free speech. Lose one and you lose the other.
Field notes on fascism: why four American novels are being revived
There seems to be an important shift happening in pop culture. Remember when every click of your TV remote brought a different permutation of zombies? “Walking Dead” zombies. Teen zombies. Zombie nation. Zombie apocalypse. Even my favorite: zombie beavers. For a while it seemed as if Vikings would replace zombies but, as with the real Vikings, they didn’t last. The latest shift, strangely, is not coming from the laptops of today’s fiction writers.
Field notes on fascism: why four American novels are being revived
There seems to be an important shift happening in pop culture. Remember when every click of your TV remote brought a different permutation of zombies? “Walking Dead” zombies. Teen zombies. Zombie nation. Zombie apocalypse. Even my favorite: zombie beavers. For a while it seemed as if Vikings would replace zombies but, as with the real Vikings, they didn’t last. The latest shift, strangely, is not coming from the laptops of today’s fiction writers.
Are We One ‘Trigger Event’ Away From the Next Holocaust?
The touchy-feely phrase “What you believe becomes your reality” is making the rounds of pop psychology. People who claim uncommon wisdom promote this insight as the road to everything — from financial well-being to a fulfilling and pleasurable sex life. Here’s an ominous thought: What if you believe, as many folks now do, that with anti-Semitism on the rise, something akin to the Holocaust could happen in the United States? Simply reading the newspaper can compel us to think the unthinkable.
NEVER AGAIN by Harvey A. Schwartz
America’s refusal to take in thousands of Israeli refugees incites national tumult in Schwartz’s (On a Barge in France, 2016) thriller. After an atomic bomb devastates Tel Aviv, two ships filled with Israeli refugees arrive at Boston Harbor. But the U.S. bars their entrance, partly due to the more recent bombing in Damascus, which most presume was Israel’s retaliation to Tel Aviv. Tensions escalate when rocket-propelled grenades—from both ships—hit Coast Guard vessels and result in casualties.
Op-ed: Are We One “Trigger Event” Away From the Next Holocaust?
The touchy-feely phrase “What you believe becomes your reality” is making the rounds of pop psychology. People who claim uncommon wisdom promote this phrase as the road to everything —from financial wellbeing to a fulfilling and pleasurable sex life. Here’s an ominous thought. What if you believe, as many folks now do, that with anti-Semitism on the rise, something akin to the Holocaust could happen in the United States?
Guest opinion
The phrase “What you believe becomes your reality” is making the rounds of pop psychology. Here’s an ominous thought. What if you believe, as many do, that with anti-Semitism on the rise, something akin to the Holocaust could happen in the United States? A recent survey by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany showed 58 percent of Americans believe the Holocaust could happen again.
Are We One “Trigger Event” Away From the Next Holocaust?
The touchy feely phrase “What you believe becomes your reality” is making the rounds of pop psychology. People who claim uncommon wisdom promote this phrase as the road to everything--from financial wellbeing to a fulfilling and pleasurable sex life. Here’s an ominous thought. What if you believe, as many folks now do, that with anti-Semitism on the rise, something akin to the Holocaust could happen in the United States?
Civil Rights lawyer asks 'Could Holocaust happen here?
By Harvey A. Schwartz The touchy feely phrase “What you believe becomes your reality” is making the rounds of pop psychology. People who claim uncommon wisdom promote this phrase as the road to everything – from financial well-being to a fulfilling sex life. Here’s an ominous thought. What if you believe, as many folks now do, that with anti-Semitism on the rise, something akin to the Holocaust could happen in the United States?
Harvey Schwartz Lays Down His Knives And Abdicates The Goldman Sachs Throne To A 55-Year-Old EDM DJ
The game of thrones at Goldman Sachs just ended with a whimper. After sleeping off Friday’s Lloyd Blankfein retirement bombshell drama that ended with El Lloyd himself taking to Twitter to deny reports that he would step down at the end of this year, Goldmanites started this week with another piece of executive news. Here is the email that Goldman rank and file received this morning After 20 years of distinguished service, Harvey M.
WSJ: Lloyd Blankfein Will Step Down In 2018 To Spend More Time Making His Family Compete To Replace Him
There are few sure things in the wild and crazy world of high finance, but we have long been able to wake up every morning in the cozy reality that Lloyd Blankfein was in charge at Goldman Sachs. For 12 years, Lloyd has held the most coveted throne on Wall Street and maintained that power with a quiet vice grip. He has steered Goldman through the crisis, seen heir apparents come and go, and beaten back cancer.
Lloyd Blankfein Now Taking Obvious Delight In Publicly Trolling His Potential Replacements
The King Lear of 200 West Street went on Bloomberg TV this morning to talk tax cuts (pro!) and Bitcoin (he doesn’t get all the fuss), but also indulged himself with a little passive aggressive torture of the men “battling” to succeed him. When asked about all the fun speculation about whether Goldman Sachs will be run by hipster frat boy David Solomon or “Gary Cohn 2.0,” aka Harvey Schwartz, Lloyd Blankfein played it as close to coy as Lloyd Blankfein is capable.
NYT: David Solomon Will Be Goldman Sachs’ First Ever Hipster CEO, Unless Knife Expert Harvey Schwartz Stabs Him First
Last week, The New York Times published a fun little story about the adorable cagematch of death that is the CEO succession plan at Goldman Sachs. Sure, the narrative of Harvey Schwartz and David (DJ D-SOL) Solomon competing for the crown while also executing the duties of Co-COOs in the large shadow cast by the death of Gary Cohn’s career is somewhat old news, but The Times’ Kate Kelly weaves quite a yarn.
The ILWU History Project
In the February-March 2016 issue of Labor, under LAWCHA Watch, John W. McKerley and Jennifer Sherer write that multiple generations of labor scholars, labor educators, unionists, students, and others have benefited greatly from the recordings collected by the Iowa Labor History Oral Project (ILHOP). Their detailed essay about the Iowa undertaking since its beginning in the late 1970s has inspired us to describe a project on the West Coast that shares many of the ILHOP’s characteristics.
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