I have always admired strong women, beginning with my mother and grandmother. Strong women form the bedrock of any civilization, and men would be foolish to dispute this. Perhaps the strongest woman who ever lived was Mary Harris “Mother” Jones.
Born in Ireland not long before the Irish Potato Famine, Jones was forced to emigrate to the United States, where she lost her husband and children to an outbreak of yellow fever in 1867. As if this were not enough, she lost her home to the Chicago Fire of 1871.
But this did not stop her from becoming one of the most radical and effective labor organizers of her time: in fact, it likely shaped her into the woman she would become. Since she lost her own children, she adopted downtrodden workers as their surrogates, attempting to liberate them from the throes of Gilded Age of capitalism. She supported striking workers, suffered multiple prison stints, gave fiery speeches, pressured politicians, and co-founded both the Social Democratic Party and the Industrial Workers of the World.
Some context is important for non-historians. When American workers go on strike nowadays for better wages and working conditions, they might be lambasted in the press, see their demands rejected, or fired en masse in certain cases. By contrast, when workers went on strike in the Gilded Age, they were murdered.
The steadfast Jones inspired a brilliant one-woman show entitled Can’t Scare Me: The Story of Mother Jones. I saw it live almost ten years ago and still get goosebumps when I think about it. I can imagine that it’s hard to be scared when you have already lost almost everything important to you. Anyone would be lucky to have half the amount of bravado. No offense to the federal employees affected by the latest Trump temper tantrum—otherwise known as the government shutdown of 2018-19—but their reactions (along with ours, as supporters) lacked even a modicum of Jones’s militancy.
During a coal miner strike in 1912, Jones told the workers: “… we have got to put out the fellows who stand with the robbing class, and we have got to put them out of business, we have got to make an honest nation. … The whole machinery of capitalism is rotten to the core. … You will not be serfs, you will march, march, march on from milestone to milestone of human freedom, you will rise like men in the new day and slavery will get its death blow. It has got to die.”
Instead, in 2019 we cling to what little benefit capitalism gives us at the expense of leisure time, our families, our health, and even our soul. Leaders like Nancy Pelosi are afraid of even trying to put Trump out of business (by way of impeachment) because of the perceived consequences of failure, and as a result of the rapacious actions of modern day robber barons like Trump, most of us have been reduced to worker bees with little hope of Horatio Alger-like advancement. If only Mother Jones were still alive today to fight back.
—
◊♦◊
Here are more ways to become a part of The Good Men Project community:
Request to join our private Facebook Group for Writers—it’s like our virtual newsroom where you connect with editors and other writers about issues and ideas.
Click here to become a Premium Member of The Good Men Project Community. Have access to these benefits:
- Get access to an exclusive “Members Only” Group on Facebook
- Join our Social Interest Groups—weekly calls about topics of interest in today’s world
- View the website with no ads
- Get free access to classes, workshops, and exclusive events
- Be invited to an exclusive weekly “Call with the Publisher” with other Premium Members
- Commenting badge.
Are you stuck on what to write? Sign up for our Writing Prompts emails, you’ll get ideas directly from our editors every Monday and Thursday. If you already have a final draft, then click below to send your post through our submission system.
If you are already working with an editor at GMP, please be sure to name that person. If you are not currently working with a GMP editor, one will be assigned to you.
◊♦◊
Are you a first-time contributor to The Good Men Project? Submit here:
◊♦◊
Have you contributed before and have a Submittable account? Use our Quick Submit link here:
◊♦◊
Do you have previously published work that you would like to syndicate on The Good Men Project? Click here:
Join our exclusive weekly “Call with the Publisher” — where community members are encouraged to discuss the issues of the week, get story ideas, meet other members and get known for their ideas? To get the call-in information, either join as a member or wait until you get a post published with us. Here are some examples of what we talk about on the calls.
Want to learn practical skills about how to be a better Writer, Editor or Platform Builder? Want to be a Rising Star in Media? Want to learn how to Create Social Change? We have classes in all of those areas.
While you’re at it, get connected with our social media:
- To join our Facebook Page, go here.
- To sign up for our email newsletter, go here.
- To follow The Good Men Project on Twitter, go here.
◊♦◊
However, you engage with The Good Men Project—you can help lead this conversation about the changing roles of men in the 21st century. Join us!
◊♦◊
We have pioneered the largest worldwide conversation about what it means to be a good man in the 21st century. Your support of our work is inspiring and invaluable.
—
Shutterstock ID: 238813948