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This morning, the AFL-CIO of New Hampshire held its annual Labour Day breakfast at St George Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Manchester NH. More than 300 working men and women gathered to hear Governor Lynch, Employment Security commissioner George Copadis, and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and others. The event’s featured guest and keynote speaker was AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, who says she came to New Hampshire not just to recognise New Hampshire’s workers, but also to encourage them to get involved in the upcoming presidential and local elections, saying, “We have working family heroes running for all different offices here in New Hampshire, we’ve got right to work legislation that we’re concerned about, so, we want to make sure that working people get out to vote, and that that message is loud and clear”. The most visible guests were those running for office… including gubernatorial candidates Jackie Cilley and Maggie Hassan, and candidate for Congress, Annie Kuster, whose campaign yard signs covered the church lawn.
3 September 2012
New Hampshire Public Radio
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It’s not just in Europe and Russia that the Church blesses the Left! Here in the USA, most ethnic Orthodox were, and remain, Democrats. In particular, the group most front-and-centre in the labour struggle were the po-nashemu Carpatho-Russian miners and steel workers (as well as the Ukie farmers on the Canadian Prairies). Go in the old Orthodox graveyards… you’ll find tombstones with IWW symbols. We stood tall in the Wyoming Valley and at the Rocks… we stood tall in the sit-down strikes… we stood tall in the United Farmers… we faced down the crapitalists and their affluent effluent lickspittles… and we WON. Those who’re trying to link us with Rightwing “evangelicals” are at odds with all that. On top of that, the rightwing konvertsy teach heresy (in particular, imiaslavie and indifferentism) in the religious sphere, it’s not just their rightwing fantasies that are at variance with grounded Orthodox Christians in the USA and Canada. We’re PROUD to be what we are and we need no “bridges” to Hard Right lunatics, thank you very much!
After all, this is LABOUR DAY… NOT Bosses’ Day.
BMD
Voices from Russia 
1 September 2013. On the Eve of Labour Day… Remember Our REAL Heritage…
Tags: Eastern Catholic Churches, Industrial Workers of the World, IWW, John Ireland, Labour Day, Mother Jones, National Review, organised labour, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, political commentary, politics, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Rod Dreher, Rush Limbaugh, Russian Orthodox Church, Trade union, trade unions, trades unions, Unia, unions, United States, USA, Working class
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Look at the old tombstones in the Orthodox cemeteries in the Valley. You’d see TONS of union logos, especially, those of the Wobblies (IWW). The owners treated the Russians, Rusniaks, Poles, Hunkies, Slovaks, Ukies, Serbs, and Lithuanians who worked in the mines and mills worse than animals, like pigs and cattle. The Anglos and the Irish looked down on us. Even the Irish-dominated unions treated us like dirt. However, the IWW came, stood up for ALL the working people, but the Irish-controlled Uniates “excommunicated” anybody that joined it. That’s because they served the rich man… that’s where they got their money from, dontcha know. Because of that, many of the po-nashemu people “went Orthodox”… it was one of the reasons for people leaving the Unia. In the old country, the Unia was a creature of the Polish and Magyar landlords… in America, it was a tool of the Irish politicos (who were puppets of the Anglo bosses). St Aleksei Toth ENCOURAGED our people to join the IWW, to FIGHT the bosses with every means possible. So, when you joined John Ireland‘s arrogance with the Uniate clergy’s subservience, many of the Rusniak people chose to go back to the Church (along with the fact that many were Russophiles in the Old Country, but couldn’t leave the Unia because of Habsburg laws). When they came “back home”, they also found the courage to stand up and fight for their rights in the workplace, too.
Don’t listen to National Review, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, Rod Dreher, and all the other apologists for the Moneyed Class. They’re all well above the average in income… no wonder that they defend the present set-up! Keep the faith. This era won’t last forever… it’ll just seem that way. HONOUR OUR LABOUR HERITAGE… they who forget their past, forget who they are. Keep it focused…
BMD