Makes me proud to be Minnesotan. It's in our blood to be radical and progressive, it's a shame the range has lost its way. We all do better when we all do better!
Makes me cry. Knowing lots of people u know have died now. My home town is is not much left to it any more. People try and sell but no buyers. The asking price is way to high for outdated homes with no work around. They stay for sale for years now.
Wonderful documentary. The interviewee is a charming glimpse into a bygone era. The contrast with today's immigration story is striking. In the era of this story, the Industrial Revolution and the settlement of the great Western frontier meant virtually unlimited opportunities for anyone, from anywhere, who was willing to work. The reward was freedom and prosperity. It attracted people who were bold, adventurous, aggressive, and hardworking. It wasn't perfect but it was better than where they came from. Lots of them sent word back home, to friends and relatives, about the abundance of opportunities here in America. Work, though, is the operative concept. There was no safety net in those days. No welfare state. You might find a family from your homeland to help you along in the early going, but aside from that charity was local and limited. You came here with the understanding that you were going to roll up your sleeves and get to work. You understood that freedom isn't free, and you were willing to work for it. With the proliferation of the welfare state, lots of people come to the U.S. not for the freedom, but merely for the free stuff.
Its was sad when Erie left then LTV came and left. Hoyt Lakes is turning into a ghost town more and more. Bad ore makes no money and no work. People need work. Makes me wonder if the mine will ever open back up for any kind of mining again.
MN Congressman John Bernard, (Farm-Labor party) mentioned above, may have been a helpful supporter of much needed unionization at this time, but he was not "unfairly branded" as a communist or communist leaning, which he finally made clear in the 1970's. What I find incredible is that such a publicly aware man would welcome that after it was widely known what the communists did to Poland in WWII, what they did to their own people and the Ukraine in the 20's and 30's, and what they did to Eastern Europe (millions of murders), until their own system self-destructed from its own moral and material failures.
I think people have forgotten we all do better when we all do better. Now everything set up so only rich people do better. I will never understand why someone would vote for someone that wants to keep you down instead of lifting you up. I think it is because people only listen to words, but pay no attention to actions.
This is the kind of extreme suffering that happens when big business/large corporations have more rights than their workforce does! The very same thing is happening today! Wages for blue collar workers here are lower than even 100 years ago! Power to the people! We must absolutely destroy the far right, pro fascist, pro MAGA movement who believes in protecting large corporate business interests, over its people! If you don't agree with this simple truth, then YOU are a supporter of fascism!
Your argument lacks any semblance of knowledge of what fascism is economically, ie, almost entirely state controlled enterprises. Large conglomerates oppressing people is what market liberals do, not fascists. Please touch grass and read some nice long books.
