A father and son were riding along slowly in their horse-drawn cart as they returned home from market-day. The father was expertly flicking a whip to snap flies out of the air to give the horse some relief from being pestered. The boy watched intently as his father skillfully snapped the whip, each time hitting his target perfectly. Flies fell to the ground by the dozens. After some time the boy turned to his father and said, “Dad, can you teach me how to do that?” “Sure, son,” said the father with a smile, handing his son the whip. The boy took some time to learn how to use the whip, then how to control it with a deft flick of the wrist. As the cart trundled along in the late afternoon sun, the boy, after much concentration and many attempts, hit his first fly. Getting the hang of it, the boy improved quickly, becoming quite the scourge of flies. A large bug swung into view and the boy took aim only to feel his father's arm gently block his arm from rising. “Why’d you stop me?” the boy asked.
“Look at that bug, son. It's no fly. It’s a bee.”
“So?” the boy said.
“Son,” the father replied, “those bugs are organized.”
I learned this story before I started keeping good notes about my research and can't recall from whom I learned it. Though I am positive I learned it from a fellow storyteller and attendee of the 1,001 Friday Nights of Storytelling which has been taking place every Friday evening in Toronto, Ontario since 1978. Or maybe I learned it from Utah Phillips who i saw perform a few times in the 80s and was lucky to meet once. Since learning this tale, I have heard it attributed to various famous organizers including Moses Coady of the Antigonish Movement in the early 20th Century (and for whom the Coady Institute is named); Myles Horton who founded Highlander Center in Tennessee, and others. This is one of those stories that has legs and which is subject to the the "folk process" of perpetual re-invention.
Sharing this story, in this moment in which I am on strike with my union, CUPE3903 (for fair wages amongst other things), has made me realize I have a rather large gap in my knowledge: i do not have many tellable tales of labour organizing. As soon as I think this, a bookcase worth of books leaps into my memory - with a thump. Works by Howard Zinn, Jeremy Brecher, Studs Terkel. Gramsci's writings on the Factory Council Movement. Numerous books of scholarship (Learning to Labour, Hidden Injuries of Class, etc.). But no books of tellable tales. I'm sure they exist. I just haven't read them. So this is now a new project for me - though I have a PhD to finish before diving down yet another rabbit hole. I've read lots of histories of labour struggles but what I recall is stories of leaders, institutions, and events. With the exception of Studs Terkel's oral histories (which I adore), there seem few stories of individuals coming together with others to start a union or engage in a union action. And Terkel's stuff, though awesome and wonderfully rich, is unwieldy for telling. Gotta work on that. I do have some good song collections, Joe Hill, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Edith Fowke's and Joe Glazer's Songs of Work and Protest. I've got a lot of the research, now all i need is the time to read. And I barely even know where to begin with Canadian and Quebec struggle. Onwards I go.