Poetry: In The IWW battle for Taiwanese Workers

In The IWW battle for Taiwanese Workers

In the IWW battle for Taiwanese workers

skirmishes and aversions like a French & Indian War

rarely has there ever been self-management

an occasional murdered owner

thousands of mom and pop collectives

while Mao agreed to let socialists in Taiwan be

never were collective decisions enjoyed by the progs

while warlord Chiang divvied the land to the KMT

then

on orders of American overseers

martial law was lifted

it seemed a chance for workers duly gifted

but top-down remained

the ruling class gained

Bian was imprisoned and there went the vision

to China in deed America flees

keeping the economy under its thumb

workers who’ve suffered these sixteen years

through dead-end jobs

at part-time convenience stores, my son

China through Cooloud’s communist big shots

workers remain downtrodden and defeated

bosses from China and America keep

workers unorganized falling asleep

in the confusion no revolution

the Industrial Worker solution

nowhere to land

where is the path to indigenous hearts?

like Native Americans who took French and English parts

how can they be armed with power to fight

for neither side but the workers' might?

how can they be moved to reach a new level?

how can One Big Union defeat the devil?

like thread through a needle

a seamstress’s seed will

pull the garment together

it will win better

#347367

11-19-13