Pete died yesterday, but his songs never die.

Joseph McCarthy, your missed. Never been any doubt, dissenters are dangerous. Where is ole Joe today when we really need him?

Everyone (except Pete) knows big business should never be challenged, after all, they spend good money on K Street for those $5000 a plate political fundraisers.

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It was a little more than that I'm afraid. He was an open supporter of the communist party and more:

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywo...ian-Troubadour

And as for Guthrie, he wrote "This Land Is Your Land" as a protest to "God Bless America":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Land_Is_Your_Land

Even the left acknowledges it:

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinion...yactivism.html

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Carol

Wife To One Hardworking Husband
Mom To 3 Amazing Sons!

Ds30, DDIL
Ds27
Ds21
And our first grandchild due in November!

While I think I understand the historical labor movement and US political history over the last hundred years better than most, I'm a long ways from an expert. That would take years of study.
You won't get me into a debate on God blessing this country or not, but with big money/big business controlling the government, I think that at that time we needed to realize that this was our country, each individual.
In my area of the U.P., the Finnish immigrants who hated Russia, formed cooperatives, they all owned a share in a saw mill and held Socialist/Communist meetings. They did it because they were poor and powerless. At the time, communism was offering a Workers Paradise, when big business only offered poverty. Recall the Great Depression where people suffered, people lost their farms, their homes, while many rich just gained great wealth.
Learn about Woody's song, "Dough Ray Me" and learn how the rich drew thousands to California with the promises of jobs, but really only wanted to flood the labor market to drive down wages.
Did you read the links you posted?

Can't say that I admired him, he was a pro-Stalin communist sympathizer. http://www.laweekly.com/westcoastsou...mao-hack-right
But, to each his own.

I wish him well on his journey and hope he has made peace with the Creator but...

When i was a kid in the sixties i really thought i was so supposed to admire all those leftist types like Seeger and Guthrie [and all the long list]. But one little thing saved me from that trap. Even in my young brain full of mush I could see there was something missing. Their stand against evil was so selective. Where was the outrage against the brutality of communism? Nowhere to be seen.

It made them all seem rather phony.

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To have what we want is riches, but to do without is power.

Make a list of every person Seeger converted to communism and then make a list of every song he wrote or sang that you enjoyed. See which is longer.

Is every aspect of capitalism good?

There is no way I could say how many he converted. No doubt they are out there.

I don't like any of his music or singing. But I'm sure not telling anyone else to not like it, enjoy what you want to.

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To have what we want is riches, but to do without is power.

Brutality of American Communism? I'm pretty sure Seeger was a proponent of the ideal of communism, not that practiced in the Soviet Union. Quite a big difference.

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-Northern NYS

Lots of Americans of Pete's generation thought that Communism meant that poor people would get to eat, too. They weren't political in the manner in which many think now, they were PRACTICAL. Had 2 grandmothers like that. His music was welcome in our family!

Its funny/ironic, that this music, woody guthrie/ pete seeger etc etc now sort of helps define america , yet left wing activists like many in the folk and trade union movement in the 1940s were likely to be called un american and hauled up in front of the un american activities witchunt ! Its a strange world.

Whatever you thought of his politics, here he is singing one of my favorite songs:

Certainly appropriate for a homesteading forum.

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"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world" - Thorin Oakenshield to Bilbo Baggins, in JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit"

And control of government is a Capitalist ideology. Fair compensation for your labor is not a Capitalist ideology.

On July 26, 1956, the House of Representatives voted 373 to 9 to cite Pete Seeger and seven others (including playwright Arthur Miller) for contempt, as they failed to cooperate with House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their attempts to investigate alleged subversives and communists. Pete Seeger testified before the HUAC in 1955.
In one of Pete's darkest moments, when his personal freedom, his career, and his safety were in jeopardy, a flash of inspiration ignited this song. The song was stirred by a passage from Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "And Quie Flows the Don". Around the world the song traveled and in 1962 at a UNICEF concert in Germany, Marlene Dietrich, Academy Award-nominated German-born American actress, first performed the song in French, as "Qui peut dire ou vont les fleurs?" Shortly after she sang it in German. The song's impact in Germany just after WWII was shattering. It's universal message, "let there be peace in the world" did not get lost in its translation. To the contrary, the combination of the language, the setting, and the great lyrics has had a profound effect on people all around the world. May it have the same effect today and bring renewed awareness to all that hear it.