The Amateur

Computerist

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/

Winter 2018 A Look at the Start of the Amateur Computerist Volume 31 No. 1

Table of Contents

The Story of the Amateur Computerist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Page 1

The 1984-1987 Battle Over Computer Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4

Lest We Forget: The Flint Sit-Down Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 11

Subversive (Poem) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 22

Were You There? (Poem) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 23

Volume 1 No. 1 (Reproduced). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 26

The Story of the Amateur Computerist*

The Amateur Computerist has been a newsletter covering computers,

the internet, netizens and the world they are imbedded in since 1988. It

grew out of a battle against the cancellation in 1986 of computer program-

ming classes for hourly workers at the Ford Motor Company Rouge

Complex near Detroit, Michigan, USA. The newsletter originally dealt

with computer issues and labor issues. By 2018 there were 60 issues

scanning 30 years covering computer and internet history, the develop-

ment of netizens and netizenship and examples of netizen journalism

reporting on events of international importance.

The founding meetings of the Amateur Computerist were in 1987.

Ronda Hauben, Norman O. Thompson, William Rohler, Michael Hauben,

and Steve Alexander discussed how to start and what to name the new

newsletter. ‘Beginning Computerist’ was a suggested name. It was argued

that the newsletter would be for all lovers of computing not just beginners.

Page 1

An amateur does something for the love of it not for financial gain. The

suggestion of Amateur Computerist was adopted.

The first issue of the newsletter was published February 11, 1988. It

is appended at the end of this issue after page 12 and is available online at

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/ acn/acn1-1.pdf. It was dedicated to the Flint

Sit-Down pioneers. Their 44-day strike (Dec. 30, 1936 to Feb. 11, 1937)

gave impetus to the development of the United Auto Workers (UAW)

union. Articles appeared in the newsletter from Floyd Hoke-Miller, one of

those pioneers who welcomed the newsletter and the computer, saying,

“From the Great Wall to the Great Pyramid, from the hieroglyphics to the

screen of the computer, mankind is still progressing.” (“Dawn of a New

Era,” Vol. 1, No. 1) Hoke-Miller told the editors that the Sit-Down

pioneers who built the UAW believed that the problems of automation had

still to be solved by the upcoming generation.

The newsletter is dedicated to support for grassroots efforts and

movements like the “computers for the people movement” that gave birth

to the personal computer in the 1970s and 1980s. Work of many people

over hundreds of years led to the production of a working computer in the

1940s and then a personal computer that people could afford beginning in

the 1970s. This history was serialized in several issues of the newsletter.

The Amateur Computerist was described by Andrew Ross and

Constance Pawley in their book Technoculture (Univ. of Minnesota Press,

1991, p. 125) as follows:

When worker education classes in computer programming

were discontinued by management at the Ford Rouge Complex

in Dearborn, Michigan, United Auto Workers members began

to publish a newsletter called the ‘Amateur Computerist’ to fill

the gap. Among the columnists and correspondents in the

magazine have been veterans of the Flint sit-down strikes who

see a clear historical continuity between the problem of labor

organization in the thirties and the problem of automation and

deskilling today. Workers’ computer literacy is seen as

essential not only to the demystification of the computer and

the reskilling of workers, but also to labor’s capacity to

intervene in decisions about new technologies that might result

in shorter hours and thus in ‘work efficiency’ rather than

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worker efficiency.

In 1993 Henry Hardy wrote: “Interestingly, it seems that most of the

material treating the Net from the historical perspective has come from

those on the Net itself. Much interesting material has been generated on

Usenet and BITNET. In addition, there are an increasing number of

electronic journals which have made important contributions, such as the

Amateur Computerist, the Electronic Journal of Virtual Culture and

Computer Underground Digest.”

Articles in the Amateur Computerist on the history of the net

chronicled the development and spread of computers and then the Internet.

The history of UNIX, the ARPANET, TCP/IP and the role of JCR

Licklider were highlighted.

More recently, articles in the Amateur Computerist have reported on

the candlelight demonstrations for more democracy in South Korea and

the role played by netizens. In particular, some of these articles are

gathered in “Netizens, South Korea, and Participatory Democracy,” Vol.

29 No. 2 (Summer 2017) at http://www.ais.org/~jrh/ acn/ACn29-2.pdf.

Since its beginning, William Rohler, Norman O. Thompson and

Ronda Hauben have been its founding and sustaining editors. Michael

Hauben was also a founding editor and gave the newsletter its name. He

made substantial contributions during its first 13 years. Jay Hauben joined

the editorial team in the 1990s.

In Feb., 2018, the Amateur Computerist began its 31

year of

continuous publication. The tables of contents and links to all issues can

be seen at:

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/NewIndex.pdf. As the internet and

the netizens continue to mature, the Amateur Computerist evolves with

them as a window on the world of the net and the netizens.

Note:

1. “The History of the Net,” Master’s Thesis, School of Communications, Grand Valley

State University, Allendale, MI v 8.1.2 September 20, 1993 available at:

https://w2.eff.org/Net_culture/net.history.txt

*Based on a short history at the Amateur Computerist website at: http://www.ais.org/

~jrh/acn/acnindex2.html

Page 3

[Editor’s Note: The following article gives some background to explain

the origin of the Amateur Computerist newsletter. The article first

appeared in this newsletter in Vol. 10 No. 2 in Spring 2001.]

The 1984-1987 Battle over

Computer Classes

This is an historical account of the fight that developed over worker

access to computer programming classes at a large auto company in

Michigan in 1984-1987. This story contains valuable lessons about the

problem U.S. workers face in trying to obtain education in the workplace.

These events occurred at the Ford Motor Company’s Dearborn Engine

Plant.

Schoolhouse in the Factory

The story starts with the massive layoffs in the auto industry in the

early 1970s. In response, workers determined that they would fight for

shorter hours of work so that more workers could be employed. From

1973-1979 U.S. auto workers won shorter working hours in their contracts

in the form of individual days off, called ‘paid personal days.’ Together

with the reduction in hours of work, the auto companies undertook major

investment programs to update their technologies. Describing this in a

1994 talk, one Ford management spokesperson explained:

By the end of 1983 the North American auto industry had

spent an estimated $80 billion on retooling and renovating its

manufacturing and assembly plants (more money, by the way,

than it took to put a man on the moon).

The Dearborn Engine Plant has participated fully in this

industry-wide revolution. Over a two and one-half year period,

1978-1981, we spent more than $590 million to transform the

plant from an antiquated producer of V-8 engines into one of

the most modern four-cylinder engine manufacturers in the

Page 4

world. And the improvements continue. Last month we

completed the conversion of our plant from a producer of 1.6

liter to 1.9 liter engines…. In 1980, we installed state-of-the-

art automation that was hard-line, or not easily adapted for new

applications. Since 1980, we have increased dramatically our

deployment of robots and flexible automation units. By 1990,

we expect to have 70 such units….

Along with this new technology, the 1982 UAW-Ford contract

included a paid education benefit for auto workers. Under what was called

the Nickel Fund, workers gave up a raise of five cents per hour to

contribute to an education fund.

Describing this fund, the same Ford official explained:

At the Dearborn Engine Plant our education facility includes

the UAW-Ford Employee Development Center, which teaches

basic literacy skills and high school equivalency courses and

the Learning Center, which provides basic and advanced

technical training.

A basic reference document for this and subsequent contracts was a

University of Michigan evaluation report. The report described the

creation and development of the Employee Development Center at the

Dearborn Engine Plant, or what was called less officially the Schoolhouse

in the Factory. The study explained that Ford workers desired “education”

as opposed to “training” and distinguished between the two. Addressing

workers’ views on education, the report said:

An analysis of their remarks reveals that no matter how stated,

regardless of context, and despite specific topic of conversa-

tion, these individuals believe that education (as distinguished

from ‘training’) can liberate them, can enrich their lives, can

be the vehicle which will allow them to do and accomplish

things they believe are important to them. Education has an

irresistible appeal. While many of the participants spoke of the

‘utilitarian’ implications of education, what was most evident

was how deeply they felt about the ‘meaning’ of education.

Education represents an idea, a touchstone which literally has

become a matter of faith.

(…) In their remarks, these men displayed a very sophisticated

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ability to distinguish between ‘education’ and ‘schooling’….

The single statement which perhaps best conveys this message

came from a man who is rapidly approaching retirement,

‘Overall, I just think it’s one of the best things that’s happened

to Ford’s and I’ve been here 15 years…to have a set-up like

this where you can – right here on the job – you can do any-

thing.’

The report suggests that workers enrolled for both practical reasons

and broader purposes. It explains:

Participants describe their reasons for enrolling in such terms

as ‘I wish to improve myself’…‘I’m looking ahead’…. At the

same time the participants reported that education is essential

for gaining insight into their lives and providing direction for

the future. When discussing reasons for participation, the

participants invariably indicated that the decision to enroll was

a personal choice – an act taken independent of any consider-

ation related to company or union interest in the EDC.’

The fifty percent drop-out rate that occurred at the center was similar

to what occurred in adult education across the U.S., but the report states

“No one reported withdrawing because of unhappiness with the program

or staff or because educational expectations were not being met.” Reasons

given for choosing the DEP program were “the ease and convenience of

continuing their education at an in-plant educational facility. Participants

reiterated the theme constantly. Many participants acknowledged that they

could have gone to their local public school program and received similar

services but it was ‘too much trouble.’ Being able to go to the Center

before or after work or during lunch “was a powerful inducement leading

to enrollment.”

The report also explained “a clear orientation to learning is present

among the participants. While this is not to deny the validity of utilitarian

outcomes, most enrollees hold a broader view of the meaning of their

participation in the program.” Among the reasons for participating was

helping children more readily with their homework. Also, “participants

sense that enrollment in the program will help them become more flexible

regarding future employment and they feel that education is necessary to

help them keep up with the changing technology of their jobs.” The report

Page 6

continues, “Participants constantly expressed concerns about the future,

about the need to be prepared, to be able to cope with an increasingly

complex society and a constantly changing work place. Education was

viewed as the basic means for preparing for the future and for sustaining

an orderly transition into the future.” Referring to the computer classes

offered at the Schoolhouse in the Factory, the report explained that

“participants in the computer classes are primarily skilled trades workers

with at least a high school diploma, and usually some advanced training.”

It said, “Participants in the computer classes, while commenting

favorably on the class, frequently expressed the opinion that too many

enrollees were admitted for the number of computers available....”

Concerning the teaching staff, it found that “Participants believe that staff

members view and treat them as self-reliant, autonomous adults, – an

attitude they frequently contrasted with the way they were viewed and

treated in their roles as workers….”

Among the study’s conclusions were:

* The response to the computer courses was enormous. It

would make sense to have these courses ready to go when a

center opens to attract attention….

* More course offerings for workers with higher educational

skills. Many of the skilled-trades people we interviewed

expressed an interest in further educational programs though

the EDC for the same reasons as production people enrolled –

proximity, convenient hours, pleasant surroundings etc….

Ford received this evaluation in June 1984. A new contract

incorporating these recommendations was prepared to govern the period

of September 1984 – June 1985.

The school established under this contract employed a full-time

program specialist and three certified teachers assigned to the basic skills

program, each working approximately 22 hours per week. Further, a

computer programming teacher offered two courses: Computer Literacy

I and II.

Although the course title emphasized ‘literacy,’ these courses were

at reasonably difficult levels. For example, after requiring familiarity with

BASIC, the course description for Computer Literacy II read: “Topics

covered will be…nested for/next loops, one and two dimension arrays,

Page 7

writing programs, on error statement, trace and no trace, bubble and binary

sorts, flow charting, math functions, string functions and data types,

sequential and random access files, hi resolution graphics and shape

tables, an introduction to the Apple’s Monitor Mode.”

Facilities were small, with one computer room equipped with several

computers.

Rouge workers greeted the computer classes enthusiastically. There

was much interest in computers, and especially in programming. Popular-

ity was such that workers recommended classes to their fellow workers

and the program grew. Interest was sufficient to open summer classes in

1985. Also, workers requested that additional advanced classes be offered,

that there be a time when the computer classroom was open outside of

class time, and that there be an instructor available in a lab setting so they

could come outside of class or if they had to miss a class. Visitors from

around the U.S. and the world frequently visited the Schoolhouse in the

Factory and the computer classes.

Decline, Resistance, and Shutdown

In Fall 1985 the conditions at the Schoolhouse in the Factory

suddenly changed. At first, union and company officials wanted to know

what was being taught in the computer classes. The Schoolhouse director

showed them syllabi and the class text.

Then the director told staff that they would not be allowed to

distribute a brochure she had prepared announcing the computer classes,

along with the other course offerings, throughout the Rouge plants. This

brochure, called “It’s Your Nickel,” was only to be distributed inside the

Dearborn Engine Plant. She was to create a different brochure to distribute

Rouge-wide that could not mention the days and hours when computer

classes were to be offered. Further, the union newspaper would include the

computer listings at the Dearborn Engine Plant when its new issue came

out, at a date uncertain. But the union newspaper appeared with only a

vague notice of the computer classes, and several classes were cancelled

as a result. From then on until classes ended in February 1987, there was

a battle to continue the computer classes.

On May 13, 1986, the following petition was sent to UAW Local

600 office:

Page 8

Chairperson at the Dearborn Engine Plant:

May 13, 1986

We, the students of the computer training classes at the

Dearborn Engine Plant training facility, have been informed

there will be no summer classes and possibly no fall classes.

There are at least 29 people interested in summer computer

classes. And as many interested in fall classes.

We, the students of this computer class, would like to know

why it is so hard to continue education in computers. We have

been experiencing for the past two or three semesters frustra-

tion in continuing education and advancement in computer

training. When polled about advanced classes, we desire them,

but then they are not offered.

We would like to know why they are not offered because we

want to continue and advance. (It was also printed in the union

paper which led us to believe there were summer classes

available to computer students.) We await your answer so that

we may register for summer classes when they are offered.

Concerned students of the computer classes, (signed by over

20 students)

Also, computer students wrote, passed out, and posted a leaflet at the Ford

Rouge Plant. The leaflet said:

UAW members have been fighting for 1-1/2 years against

attempts to cut out the classes in computer programming held

at the DEP. UAW members contribute 17 cents an hour

straight time and 50 cents an hour overtime to have these

classes available. The most critical point for UAW members

is to have training in high technology. How can UAW mem-

bers be trained in high technology by cutting computer classes

Page 9

out?

We contacted the Chairman in the Engine Plant, and he didn’t

give any result. We contacted the management officials in

charge of training in the Engine Plant. We contacted the

President of Local 600, and the officials in charge of the

program at Ford Motor Co., and at the UAW. We sent letters

everywhere. We are tired of being denied benefits we’re

entitled to. We’re tired of being shuffled from one person to

another so as to cover up who we’re fighting. We don’t know

what classes are being offered from one course to the next. We

ask for programming in BASIC and they offer PASCAL. We

ask for PASCAL to be continued, they offer advanced BASIC.

There are no rights to grievance how the monies are being

spent. But the letter of Understanding (in the 1984 UAW-Ford

Contract) says: “In view of the Company’s interest in affording

maximum opportunity for employees to progress with advanc-

ing technology, the Company shall make available appropriate

specialized training programs for employees.” But this is not

being provided….

Despite the efforts of workers to make the problems known to Ford

management and union officials, and despite efforts to protest the ever-

worsening conditions via student and staff letters, those contacted refused

to investigate the problem. Instead, students and staff faced retaliation

threats and job harassment. By February 1987, no further computer classes

were scheduled at the Schoolhouse in the Factory and classes ended.

Realizing that computer classes would no longer be available,

several students and their teacher decided to work on a newsletter, the

genesis of the Amateur Computerist. As our first issue in February 1988

explained:

This newsletter is to inform people of developments in an

effort to advance computer education. Workers at the Ford

Rouge Plant in Dearborn, MI were denied computer program-

ming classes. There was an effort by administrators of the

UAW-Ford program at the Dearborn Engine Plant to kill

Page 10

interest in computers and computer programming. We want to

keep interest alive because computers are the future. We want

to disperse information to users about computers. Since the

computer is still in the early stage of development, the ideas

and experiences of the users need to be shared and built on if

this technology is to advance. To this end, this newsletter is

dedicated to all people interested in learning about computers.

[Editor’s Note: The following brief history of the 1936-1937 Great Flint

Sit-Down Strike was written for the 50

Anniversary of the victory of that

strike. This article first appeared as an introduction to a pamphlet, The

Story of the Searchlight (Spirit of '37 Press, Flint, Mi., 1987). Online at:

ht t p: / / w ww. c ol u mb i a. e d u/ ~h au b en / G rea t _Fl i nt _ S i t - D o wn

_Strike_1936-1937/Story-of-the-Searchlight.pdf.]

Lest We Forget: In Tribute to the Pio-

neers of the Great Flint Sit-down Strike

by Ronda Hauben

[email protected]

Remember when the ‘Sit Down’ came?

And all the papers laid the claim

Against each Union Member’s name?

“SUBVERSIVE!”

(from the poem “Subversive” by Floyd Hoke-Miller)*

Fifty years ago [eighty-one years ago in 2018], on February 11,

1937, auto workers in Flint, Michigan marched triumphantly out of the

factories they had occupied for 44 days. They had endured cold, tear gas,

gunshot wounds, injunctions, etc., but they did indeed “Hold the Fort”

until GM agreed to grant sole bargaining rights to their union, the UAW.

One historian, evaluating the significance of the Sit-Down, writes:

The era of the New Deal was studded with great strikes, many

Page 11

of them signifying an upheaval of unskilled labor in the

nation’s mass production industries. (Thomas Karman, “The

Flint Sit-Down Strike,” Michigan History, June, 1962, p. 98)

The strike wave of the 1930s made it possible, for the first time to

have industry-wide, rather than craft unions in the United States. But to

understand the strike wave of the 1930s, it is necessary to look back to its

roots in the 1880s.

“There has been labor unrest ever since there was a factory system,”

points out one commentator, “but the movement referred to [in the 1930s]

can properly be traced back to 1886-87, a period of open warfare

characterized for the first time by a series of important strikes on the issue

of the right to organize and bargain collectively through nationwide

unions.” (Fortune Magazine, Nov. 1937)

The “right to organize and bargain collectively” was the long-sought

goal of the labor movement through the fifty year period from the 1880s

through the 1930s. That right had been conceded in other industrial

countries, while it was bitterly resisted by employers in the U.S.

American businessmen adamantly opposed this right. 35% of the

workers in Britain were in unions and 70% of the Swedish workers were

unionized in the mid-1930s. But the U.S. nonagricultural labor force had

only 18% of its workers in unions. Now in 1987, once again only 18% of

the U.S. labor force – down from 37% in 1945 – is unionized [less then

11% in 2016].

The period before and after the Depression of 1929 was one of

radical technological change. The auto industry of the 1920s was heralded

as the epitomy of the modern world. It was pointed to as proof that the

“old-fashioned” features of modern industrial life like trade unions had

been “eliminated.”

But for workers, the situation was quite different. Ken Malone, a

1937 sit-downer described what life in the shops was like before the

Depression:

We were a pretty good bunch of guys in those days. No

Seniority. No Union. No Contract. No Committeeman. No

Pay. No Nothing but work, work, work, and more work. There

wasn’t a war on then, but we worked 14 hours a day, 7 days a

week.

Page 12

Absenteeism was unheard of. Failure to report to work cost

you your job.

(“Whadda Yuh Mean, Tough Cookies,” The Searchlight, Jan.

20, 1944, p. 2)

The assembly line had become the definition of modern labor

relations.

With the stock market crash of 1929 came even more intolerable

working conditions. Malone describes the effect of the Depression on his

working conditions at GM:

About this time the depression hit. Thousands...were laid off

without any means of making a living…. I well remember the

boss coming to me and saying, Ken, production has been cut

out two-thirds and we are going to lay off a large number of

men and here is the way we are going to do it. The next two

weeks we are going to watch all men and see who runs the

most production and WE ARE GOING TO KEEP THE MEN

WHO RUN THE MOST…. We all speeded up, so instead of

70% being laid off it was 90%. After the lay off we worked

about two days a week, but in those two days we did about

four days work, for everyday the boss was threatening us if we

didn’t run more stock. (Ibid.)

By the mid 1930s the economy was recovering, but there were still

more than 11 million out of work. The AFL called for a Congressional

Investigation into the new technology that management was using to

displace workers. The headlines of a typical article in an AFL newspaper

during the period read: “Business Recovers, but Millions are Kept

Jobless.” (Flint Weekly Review, Jan. 17, 1936)

Workers were organizing and looking for some mechanism of

fighting their intolerable conditions. In 1936 the newly formed UAW sent

an organizer to Flint, MI the heart of the GM empire. Wyndham Mortimer

wrote a series of articles he sent to workers describing the problems

brought about by the rapid technological change and outlining the UAW

program. In one article he describes the kind of trouble auto workers were

facing:

In Cleveland 1,000 workers have permanently lost their jobs

as a result of the elimination of wood in the all steel bodies. In

Page 13

Norwood, Ohio, 200 men are permanently out of work for the

same reason…. There is the ever increasing productivity of the

improved machinery that produces prodigiously with an ever

decreasing number of workers.

His articles proposed shorter hours, higher wages, and unionization

in the mass production industries. (“Mortimer Points Out the Evils of New

Machinery,” Flint Weekly Review, Sept. 18, 1936)

To combat the growing movement for industry-wide unions,

companies like General Motors introduced company unions, known as

Works Councils. An individual grievance procedure was set up, but

workers found the Works Councils, controlled as they were by the

centralized power of GM management, powerless.

On Dec. 30, 1936, management in the Fisher II plant in Flint, MI

tried to fire three UAW members. Fellow and sister workers stopped work

and occupied the plant. The major daily newspaper in Flint reported:

A sit-down strike in which 22 men are said to have taken part,

halted all operations at the No. 2 plant of the Fisher Body

Division here this morning...throwing 2,200 men out of work.

(“Strike Halts Car Assembly,” Flint Journal, Dec. 30, 1936.)

A sit-downer in the plant remembers the story quite differently. Not

twenty-two workers, but everyone he worked with stopped work to join

the sit-down. “Everyone of those fellows,” he recalls, “had pretty much

the same idea and they weren’t taught by anybody…. The idea was to stay

put and to hold the plant.” (Interview with Roscoe Rich, December 30,

1986)

“We were,” he stressed, “all different people thinking the same.”

Roscoe Rich, who was elected the Sit-downers’ Chief of Police in Fisher

II, explains that before the sit-down strike most of the men working in the

plant didn’t even know each other’s names. But they got to know each

other once the sit-down began.” “A lot,” he explains, “were young guys

since GM usually threw a man out by the time he was 40.” But he and

others felt that working under such bad conditions meant “there were no

tomorrows so what have you got to lose.”

An anonymous sit-downer, writing in his strike diary, describes the

seizure of the Fisher II plant on December 30, 1936 at 6:45 a.m.:

Men waving arms – they have fired some more union men.

Page 14

Stop the lines. Men shouting. Loud talking. The strike is on.

Well here we are Mr. Diary…. This strike has been coming for

years. Speed-up system, seniority, overbearing foremen. You

can go just so far you know, even with working men. So let’s

you and I stick it out with the rest of the boys. We are right and

when you’re right you can’t lose.

(Holding the Fort: A Sit-downer’s Diary, Spirit of '37 Press,

Flint, MI, 1986)

Several hours later, on the afternoon of Dec. 30, workers at the

Standard Cotton Products Co., a supplier for GM, sat down. Then around

10 p.m. that night, workers at the big Fisher I plant in Flint took over their

plant.

“Thus began the first great auto strike, one of the most dramatic

labor conflicts in our history,” comments J. Raymond Walsh in his book

CIO: Industrial Unionism In Action, (New York, 1937) He goes on to

document how the impetus for the Flint Strike came from the ranks of the

auto workers, in opposition to the leadership of the CIO “The CIO high

command,” he explains, “preoccupied with the drive in steel, tried in vain

to prevent the strike; it was fed by deep springs of resentment among

thousands of men against a corporation grossly derelict in its obliga-

tions….” (p. 112)

Then on Jan. 3, 1937, 200 UAW delegates from around the country

met in Flint to create a Board of Strategy. They elected Kermit Johnson,

a rank and file autoworker at the Chevrolet Engine Plant as the head of

their strategy committee. The delegates authorized a formal corporation-

wide strike and they served GM with a set of the following eight demands:

First of all, that the representatives of the United Auto Workers

and General Motors meet for an industry wide conference to

discuss the differences between labor and management;

second, that all piece-work be abolished and straight hourly

rates of pay be adopted; third, that a thirty hour work week and

a six hour workday be established with time and a half for

overtime; fourth, that a minimum rate of pay commensurate

with the American standard of living be established throughout

the corporation’s domestic plants; fifth, that all employees

unjustly discharged be reinstated; sixth, that seniority rights be

Page 15

based upon length of service; seventh, that the UAW be

recognized as the sole bargaining agent between General

Motors and its employees; and , finally, the speed of produc-

tion be mutually agreed upon by management and a union

committee in all General Motors plants.

(Thomas A. Karman, “The Flint Sit-Down Strike,” Michigan

History, June, 1962, pages 105 and 106.)

General Motors responded to the strikes with a back-to-work

movement called the Flint Alliance (The Flint Alliance for the Security of

Our Jobs, Our Homes and Our Community). The Flint Journal was filled

with news of petitions signed by “happy” workers who wanted the strike

ended. (Even in 1987, 50 years later, the Flint Journal is still trying to

rewrite history, claiming that 91% of the workers in Chevrolet signed

back-to-work petitions. See Flint Journal, Jan. 9, 1987, p. D1.)

A union newspaper called The Chevy Worker was started on Jan. 7,

1937 to counter the company back-to-work movement. One article in the

first issue exposed how workers were being forced to sign the Flint

Alliance petitions and were threatened if they did not sign. “A petition is

supposed to be a voluntary expression of opinion,” the article explained,

“How voluntary are these petitions that you have had to sign”

Chevy workers: Glance at a few facts.

1. Thursday morning, January 7

, a petition was circulated in

Plant No. 5 and those refusing to sign were told that their

names would be referred to the office and that they would be

ineligible for loans from the company thereafter.

The article goes on to give other examples of supervisors threatening

workers to solicit their signatures.

While the petitions were being passed around and forced on workers

by supervision, a group of workers meeting outside the Chevy union hall

were attacked by some GM supervisors: “Violence has been started in this

strike by the company,” Chevy workers reported, “We know who the men

were…. We are going to name the dirty rats right here and now, so that

they can be shunned by all honest men.” (“GM Starts Violence,” Chevy

Auto Workers, Vol. 1, No. 2, Jan. 8, 1937)

The police came and arrested not the attackers, but the victims of the

attack. Two union men were taken off to jail. The police charged them

Page 16

with fighting with each other. 200 demonstrators went to the jail protesting

the arrest and demanding the release of the two. In the meantime, a union

member from Fisher I, William Coburn, leaving the demonstration, was

hit by a car and died as a result of his injuries.

On Jan. 11, 1937, police tried to cut off food to the strikers in Fisher

II. A battle ensued when the police shot tear gas and shot-gun bullets at the

strikers and their supporters who surrounded the plant. “At midnight,”

reported Rose Pesotta, a CIO organizer who was sent to the scene, “the

police tried a second time to force their way into the plant, but were met

by a deluge of cold water from a fire-hose and an avalanche of two-pound

steel automobile hinges. The cops’ line broke under this defensive

onslaught. Defeated and shame-faced they left the scene at top speed.”

(Bread Upon the Waters, New York, 1944, p. 241-2)

The victorious battle of Jan. 11 became known as the Battle of Bulls

Run, for the police, who were at that time called “bulls”, had been routed.

Pesota visited the sit-downers inside the occupied plants and

describes how they endured the 44-day ordeal to hold to their goal. She

writes:

Newspapers and periodicals of various political shades, labor

papers and mystery magazines were among the reading matter

in evidence…. Most of these men had worked for Fisher Body

from four to 12 years. They told me it was tough to sit around

and do nothing after the speed-up had got into their blood.

“But I’ll sit here till hell freezes under me,” said one. “I won’t

give up the fight for I know where I’ll land if we don’t win this

time.” (p. 238-239)

Each occupied plant had its own governing body to make decisions

and to carry out discipline. There was a kangaroo court charged with

disciplining violations of the regulations passed. There were sanitation

committees, recreation committees, educational committees, among

others. “Punch Press”, the official strike bulletin of the sit-downers,

provided the following description of how strikers organized themselves

in the plants:

The most astonishing feeling you get in the sit-down plants is

that of ORDER. Every activity is systematized. Communi-

cations are automatic; each striker has his hours of duty, his

Page 17

hours of play and rest; there is an organization set up for every

routine problem, plus a lot of other problems; if you want first-

aid, it is a department, a subdivision of Welfare; Transporta-

tion? That also is a section by itself. Would you beautify

yourself? It has a department. The plant has been re-adminis-

tered. As one striker said, “No matter what happens, this plant

will never be the same again!”

(“Punch Press, Official Strike Bulletin,” No.7 U.A.W.A. Local

#156, p. 1)

By January, 1937 strikes had shut down a large part of GM’s

operations. Almost all of the company’s 200,000 employees were out on

strike or were out of work because of the lack of parts. Eighteen plants in

ten cities were on strike. Besides Flint, the other cities hit by strikes were

Detroit, MI, St. Louis, Mo., Toledo, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio, Janesville,

Wisc., Anderson, Indiana, Norwood, Ohio, Atlanta, Georgia, and Kansas

City, Mo.

GM seemed to be getting desperate. There were growing indications

that the company was willing to try to use violence to break the strike.

Mobs had attacked strikers in Anderson, Ind. on Jan 27, in Bay City, MI

on Jan 27, and in Anderson, Ind. on Jan. 28. The sit-downers felt that it

was important to go on the offensive. But they understood the need to take

into account the presence of company-planted stool pigeons inside the

union, as shown through the LaFollette investigation being conducted by

Congress. Rose Pesota, explains, “As in war, something unexpected and

startling was called for….” (p. 243)

What followed was one of the most skillful strategic plans used by

labor in all of American history. Kermit Johnson, the rank and file

chairman of the ‘37 strike strategy committee describes what was done:

A few of us on the strike committee had met almost constantly

for a week on a plan to shut down the Motor Plant of

Chevrolet…. Plant 4 was huge and sprawling, a most difficult

target, but extremely important to us because the corporation

was running the plant, even though they had to stockpile

motors in anticipation of favorable court action; GM had

already recovered from the first shock of being forced to

surrender four of their largest body shops to sit-down strikes.

Page 18

They already had the legal machinery in motion that would,

within a short time, expel by force if necessary the strikers

from the plants. If that happened, we knew the strike would be

broken.

(from “Lest We Forget,” The Searchlight, Flint, MI, Feb. 11,

1960.)

Kermit Johnson and the rest of the strike strategy committee realized

that if they could get and hold Plant 4, they could stop production

sufficiently to mortally wound GM. But 100 feet from Plant 4 was the

company personnel building which was used as an arsenal for the

company police.

“Even the top leadership in the CIO, including John L. Lewis,”

Kermit wrote, “were seriously worried about the GM situation. When

Lewis’ right-hand man, John Brophy, approved our plan of action, he did

it with great reluctance and a complete lack of confidence. He couldn’t

conceive of a successful strike in a plant that was less than one-fourth

organized.”

The strike strategy committee developed a diversionary plan. They

held a meeting of carefully chosen union men, but insuring that included

was a General Motors’ stool pigeon. They convinced the men at the

meeting that they would take Plant 9, despite the fact that Plant 4 was the

vital plant for Chevrolet production. The stool-pigeon convinced GM that

the strikers planned to seize Plant 9. Thus the strikers lured the plant

guards away from Plant 4. With the guards gone, the thousands of workers

in Plant 4 were able to fight the necessary battles against supervision and

company goons to gain control of their plant. And when the police tried

to enter Plant 4, they were stopped at the gate by the Women’s Emergency

Brigade, a paramilitary group of women wearing red tams and red

armbands who played a crucial role in defending the sit-downers.

Writers in Fortune Magazine in Nov. 1937 were compelled to admit,

“Out of all the sensational news of the auto strike, the seizing of Chevy IV

was the high point.” They saw it as an “illustration of labor’s growing

initiative...it serves as a landmark,” they acknowledged, “measuring how

far labor had traveled in less than three years and through some 4,000

strikes.”

On February 11, 1937, sit-downers emerged from their occupied

Page 19

factories and joined a long parade through the streets of downtown Flint.

General Motors had been forced to sign a one page document conceding

to the UAW the basis to become the sole bargaining agent for the auto

workers.

The sit-downers went back to work by Feb. 18. They found that GM

had not changed. To the contrary, the LaFollette Committee hearings

document how GM management singled out union people and threatened

or tried to fire them when they returned to work after the Feb. 11 victory.

In Chevrolet, Arnold Lenz, the anti-union plant manager, marched 1000

men armed with clubs through the plant. And the workers fought back,

sometimes with slowdowns, sometimes with sit-down strikes as their way

to resolve grievances or settle injustices. For example, later there were sit-

downs at Plant No. 4 and No. 8 in Flint on March 6 when 6500 workers sat

down, and on March 8, 500 workers in Plant 4 sat down. (Sidney Fine, Sit-

Down, Ann Arbor, Mi, 1969, p. 322)

Floyd Hoke-Miller, a sit-downer in Plant 4, sums up the victory of

‘37. “We didn’t win the war, but we developed the unity to fight the

coming battles.”

The sit-downers of `37 went on to lead the fight for the contractual

rights workers have today: seniority, a grievance procedure, vacation pay,

COLA, pensions, 30 and out retirement, medical insurance, etc. The story

of how they won these gains is even less known than the little known story

of the Great Flint Sit-Down Strike. But the story is a tremendously

important one.

The Chevy Worker, the newspaper started by the Chevy workers on

Jan. 7, 1937 to name the “dirty rats...so that they can be shunned by all

honest men” became the precursor of shop papers put out by UAW locals

across the country.

The newspaper put out by the Plant 4 sit-downers, was called The

Searchlight. It was subtitled, “The Voice of the Chevrolet Worker.” In

testimony before the War Labor Board in Washington, GM’s Director of

Labor Relations complained, “We always had a tough bunch of cookies

up at Chevrolet-Flint to deal with. That was the breeding ground for the

sit-down strikes…. It is this same group of people,” he went on, “that we

thought that through the evolution of labor relationship...would probably

be changed and improved.” He lamented, “They are now back in the

Page 20

saddle and one very interesting paper (The Searchlight, official local

publication) they got out recently is directed at ‘Herr Thomas’ [Pres. of the

UAW]. So the worm has turned and they have got their own union

officials, some of whom they dislike, to replace us in the news.” (The Flint

Journal, January 7, 1944)

In response, George Carroll, the first editor of The Searchlight,

explained, “We have criticized (not attacked) R. J. Thomas [Pres. of

UAW] and Phillip Murray [Pres. of CIO] and shall continue to exercise

the right to criticize as long as they pursue a policy we feel to be detrimen-

tal to the best interests of the membership of this Local.”

Floyd Hoke-Miller, co-editor of The Searchlight, replied in verse to

the labeling the Chevy workers as “tough cookies”:

You can’t be nice to human lice

That feed upon your blood,

And boast with pride about their side

A liftin’ you outta the mud.

(from “Tough Cookies: With No Apologies” by Floyd Hoke-

Miller.)

In 1987, all of the gains of the past 50 years won by the hard efforts

of the sit-downers and the workers who followed in their footsteps, are

under attack. And the sit-down pioneers are still being treated as “subver-

sives.” UAW union officials have vetoed any appropriate commemoration

to mark the 50

anniversary of Feb. 11 in Flint or elsewhere in Michigan.

But if the history is known of what was won and how, there will be the

basis to carry on the proud tradition of Feb. 11, 1937.

*Excerpts of poems are from a collection of poems by Floyd Hoke-Miller, A Laborer

Looks at Life: Then and Now, Flint, MI, 1984.

[Editor’s Note: The following two poems about the Flint Sit-Down strike

were composed by autoworker/poet Floyd Hoke-Miller (1898-1990). They

are reproduced from the collection A Laborer Looks at Life: Then & Now

complied by Ronda Hauben (Spirit of '37 Press, Flint, MI, 1984).

Page 21

Available at: http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Great_Flint_ Sit-Down_

Strike_1936-1937/LaborerLooks.pdf ]

Subversive

by Floyd Hoke-Miller

Remember when the “Sit Down” came?

And all the papers laid the claim,

Against each Union Member’s name?

“SUBVERSIVE!”

‘Twas then the ‘Big Shots’ howled with fear,

“The revolution now is here;

The stand they take is naught but sheer.”

“SUBVERSIVE!”

You worked in chains that galled your pride,

And when you tried to save your hide,

The “Bulls” and “Bears” stood up and cried:

“SUBVERSIVE!”

The economic ills you feared

And increased crops of “Stools” appeared

But when you called their hand they jeered:

“SUBVERSIVE!”

Note: “bulls and bears” refers to stock market investors.

Page 22

Were You There?

A Saga of the Flint Sit-Down Strike

by Floyd Hoke-Miller

Were you there when they hung

the GM goose,

When the tear gas rained

and hell broke loose

In gushing blood, in broken bone

and mad mayhem?

Did you hear the toilers scorn

a gallowsed effigy

In heartfelt words about the

sour apple tree

And see a union born all

because of them?

Were you there when slavers ran

like frightened rats

And flounced in the fracus like

blinded bats,

When workers pulled the power

and shut the Chevy down

Did you observe the company’s

strong armed thugs

When they showed their traitorous,

turncoat-mugs

And made the hand-made hickory

stick renown?

Did you hear the shrilling

screams of angry wives

That dared the slugging blue

coats with their lives

And stormed the streets outside

Page 23

the factory gates?

Did you see them break the windows

glass by glass

And let escape the blinding,

strangling force of gas,

In fighting female fury to succor

endangered mates?

Note: During the 1936-37 Sit-down in Flint, there was a song popular among the strikers,

“Hang Old Sloan to the Sour Apple Tree” which was sung to the tune of “The Battle

Hymn of the Republic.” The “goose” in this poem refers to the effigy hung out the

window of their occupied factory by the Sit-Downers. Alfred P. Sloan was the President

and chief executive of GM from 1923, including at the time of the Sit-down strike.

ELECTRONIC EDITION

ACN Webpage: http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/

All issues of the Amateur Computerist are on-line.

All issues can be accessed from the Index at:

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/NewIndex.pdf

The opinions expressed in articles are those of their authors and not neces-

sarily the opinions of the Amateur Computerist newsletter. We welcome

submissions from a spectrum of viewpoints.

Page 24

The following pages reproduce the first issue of the Amateur Computerist,

Vol. 1 No. 1, issued Feb. 11, 1988. It is included here in celebration of 30

years of continuous publication.

EDITORIAL STAFF

Ronda Hauben

William Rohler

Norman O. Thompson

Michael Hauben (1973-2001)

Jay Hauben

The Amateur Computerist invites submissions.

Articles can be submitted via e-mail:

[email protected]

Permission is given to reprint articles from this issue in a non profit publication

provided credit is given, with name of author and source of article cited.

Page 25

The Amateur

Computerist

February 11, 1988 volume 1 no 1

INTRODUCTION

This newsletter is to inform people of develop-

ments in an effort to advance computer education.

Workers at the Ford Rouge Plant in Dearborn, MI.

were denied computer programming classes. There

was an effort by administrators of the UAW-Ford

program at the Dearborn Engine Plant to kill

interest in computers and computer programming. We

want to keep interest alive because computers are

the future. We want to disperse information to

users about computers. Since the computer is still

in the early stage of development, the ideas and

experiences of the users need to be shared and

built on if this technology is to advance. To this

end, this newsletter is dedicated to all people

interested in learning about computers. We welcome

articles, programs, reviews, etc. We want this

newsletter to help people use their computers in

ways that will be useful and fun.

Table of Contents

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1

Dawn of a New Era . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2

Dedication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2

World of Telecommunications . . . . . . . Page 4

Try This (IBM). . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 5

Future Belongs to Programmers . . . . . . Page 6

Why Learning Programming. . . . . . . . . Page 7

Commodore Tips & Tricks . . . . . . . . Page 13

The Amateur Computerist invites contributions of

articles, programs, etc. Send submissions to:

R. Hauben

P.O. Box 4344

Dearborn, MI 48126

Additional copies of this issue are available for

$1.00 each. Send check or money order to above ad-

dress.

DAWN OF A NEW ERA

From the Age of Darkness to the Age of Enlight-

enment — from the Machine Age to the Mind Age,

here we are. Let not any force or forces keep it

under wraps. Let it be free to circulate in the

Public Domain. Let us base it upon principle, not

on price, like Truth or Love. From the Great Wall

to the Great Pyramid, from the hieroglyphics to

the screen of the computer, mankind is still

progressing. So make the new born science that has

given us the computer for the amateur and not as

a prerogative of the professional to be shrouded

in secrecy from humanity, the choice of the

individual, not an election of a minority. From

the falling star to the falling apple, from the

minute to the multitudinous, from secrets to

disclosure, I am pleased to endorse the amateur

method. Therefore I implore all to plan and to

participate even though I have been on disability

for 26 years and have not had the opportunity to

participate in the great sea of knowledge that has

flowed over the Dam of Secrecy since I was acti-

vated physically and mentally — in my advanced

years and state of general debility I still see

the mind of man as the greatest computer of all —

So Let Us Continue to Make Use of It to the

Advantage of the Masses — Come, Let Us Reason

Together. With an open mind and a free spirit, let

me reiterate, there is so much more to know, that

what we do know, is still insignificant. It gives

me great pleasure to endorse this free-for-all

program of a restless mind.

Floyd Hoke-Miller

UAW Retiree and

Flint Sit-Down Striker

DEDICATION

This first issue of the Amateur Computerist is

being published on February 11, 1988. This date

was chosen so that this issue could be dedicated

to the Flint Sit Down pioneers on the victory of

their battle to win industrial unionism 51 years

ago.

Floyd Hoke-Miller, whose article "Dawn of a New

Era" appears elsewhere in this newsletter, was a

sit-downer in Plant 4 in Flint, MI during the

Great Flint Sit-Down Strike. He continues to par-

ticipate in the battle for industrial unionism and

for the progress that industrial unionism has

brought to this land.

Another pioneer of the Flint Sit Down Strike,

Jack Palmer, when he retired, wrote an article in

his union newspaper in which he tried to sum up

the gains and unresolved problems that the

sit-downers had left behind them. He wrote, "Each

generation has to solve its own problems. The

sit-down generation solved the problem of or-

ganization. The postwar generation solved the

problem of pensions and inflation. Not entirely,

but a good start was begun. The present generation

is faced with the greatest problems of all. They

are Automation, Peace and Politics." (From "The

Searchlight"((newspaper of UAW Local 659, Flint,

MI), April 21, 1960, pg. 2).

The Amateur Computerist is an effort to encour-

age discussion on the problem of Automation.

Microcomputers are now an important fact of life.

They are new. The first microcomputer design was

announced to the public only 14 years ago. (It was

the Mark-8 by Jonathan Titus featured on the cover

of the July 1974 issue of Radio Electronics.)

Today, personal computers are everywhere. They are

affecting and changing homes, factories, offices,

etc. They are revolutionizing all fields of

knowledge. Therefore, it is crucial that computers

not be kept from people — that knowledge about

computers is available to amateurs as well as

professionals.

In a book written shortly before the invention

of the personal computer, Ted Nelson warns against

allowing a computer priesthood to develop. He

writes, “Knowledge is power and so it tends to be

hoarded. Experts in any field rarely want people

to understand what they do, and generally enjoy

putting people down.”

"Thus if we say that the use of computers is

dominated by a priesthood, people who splatter you

with unintelligible answers and seem unwilling to

give you straight answers, it is not that they are

different in this respect from any other profes-

sion. Doctors, lawyers and construction engineers

are the same way."

"But," he goes on, "computers are very special,

and we have to deal with them everywhere and this

effectively gives the computer priesthood a

stranglehold on the operation of all large

organizations, of government bureaux, and anything

else that they run…."

"It is imperative," he concludes, "for many

reasons that the appalling gap between public and

computer insider be closed. As the saying goes,

war is too important to be left to the gener-

als.... Guardianship of the computer can no longer

be left to a priesthood.... Indeed, probably any

group of insiders would have hoarded computers

just as much.... But things have gone too far.

People have legitimate complaints about the way

computers are used, and legitimate ideas for ways

they should be used which should no longer be

shunted aside." (From Computer Lib, pg. 1-2.)

Thus to deal with the problem of automation, it

is necessary for people to be familiar with com-

puters, to use them, and to know their capabili-

ties and limitations. To that end, this newsletter

is dedicated to continuing the work begun by the

Flint Sit-Down Pioneers.

The World of

Telecommunications

Do you want advice about which programming

language is worth learning? Are you interested in

a discussion on why the shuttle blew up? These and

many more questions were recently discussed on a

computer bulletin board system (BBS. BBS’s are

part of the world of telecommunications.)

For example, there is an on-line computer

magazine on the BBS "Chess Board." In an article

on "Telecommunications: The Interactive Process,"

the writer explains: A bulletin board system (BBS)

is a privately owned and maintained computer based

communications system. A person, or sometimes a

group of people, have invested computer, data

storage, telephone lines and bills and much time

into giving others a means for communicating with

another with their computers. They each have their

own reasons and goals for investing hundreds or

thousands of dollars and hours to this activity."

Another article on "Chess Board" points out

that each bulletin board has a purpose. It can be

a fun board, with puzzles and games, it can be a

board whose purpose is an exchange of ideas with

discussion formats which include debates on va-

rious issues like current events, world affairs,

etc. It can be a board that will let users ex-

change software through uploading and downloading

programs.

Following are listed just a few of the many

BBSs in the Detroit area - (or if the number has

a one before it, in this case, it is because it is

in the Ann Arbor area.)

Genesis II (291-2520) Has lots of files to down-

load.

PC Playhouse (381-8633) Mostly IBM compatible

information.

Starship Enterprise (843-1581) Can ask for prices

on computer equipment.

Chessie's BBS (291-2160) Good discussion.

Trading Post (882-7104) In general good board.

The Outpost (277-1513) Good for downloading

programs.

General Store (728-2863) Good for downloading.

M-Net (1-994-6333) Lots of lively, informative

discussions, and can have on line conversations.

If you want to call Ann Arbor, you can call

thru MERIT so it isn't a toll call. An article on

using merit will follow in a future issue if there

is interest.

Along with BBS's in one's local area which are

usually available free of charge, there are also

commercial services like Compuserve or the Source.

They bill users a fee for the time on line.

Another user sums up the value of telecom-

munications: "You exchange ideas, you discuss, you

might not see these people, but you have con-

nection with them thru the modem so if you're

stuck at home, you're still out in the world. You

exchange ideas, message programs, etc. You reach

a whole community."

TRY THIS

This is a graphics program for IBM PC & compatible

machines.

5 REM Trythis.bas

10 KEY OFF:CLS:SCREEN 1

20 X=4*RND:Y=4*RND:IF X=Y THEN 20

30 COLOR X,Y

40 FOR A=-120 TO 120 STEP 4

50 FOR B=0 TO 1

60 LINE (160,100)-(A,199*B),RND*4

70 LINE (160,100)-(319-A,199*B)

80 NEXT B

90 NEXT A

100 FOR D= 1 TO 5

110 FOR C=1 TO 23

120 COLOR 4*RND,4*RND

130 CIRCLE (160,100),5*C,4*RND

140 NEXT

150 NEXT

160 FOR E=1 TO 10

170 PAINT(160,100-E*2.5+2),RND*4

180 NEXT

190 LOCATE 13,17:PRINT"THE END"

The Future Belongs to Programmers

An article in the Jan/Feb.1988 issue of

Computer Update, the magazine of the Boston

Computer Society, explained that Microsoft is

recommending that computer users learn to program

in BASIC. Microsoft sponsored a two day seminar in

the state of Washington in October, 1987 for

representatives of big computer clubs. Microsoft

was expected to introduce some of its new prod-

ucts. Instead, to the amazement of many, Microsoft

used the seminar to explain the importance of

learning to program. "Microsoft today is bustling

with activity...Oddly enough, Microsoft chose not

to talk about any of these activities with the

user group community. Instead, it focused all of

the sessions on its work on programming lan-

guages," reported the Boston Computer Society

representative.

The article goes on to explain, "Microsoft

believes the future belongs to programmers.

Although programming languages were once thought

to be relics of the early days of personal comput-

ers, they are enjoying tremendous growth today. As

users become more sophisticated, Microsoft be-

lieves, they will eventually find themselves

needing performance and specialized functions that

only a programming language can provide."

The article quotes a Microsoft engineer, "In

the future, everything should have programmabil-

ity." The User Group Representatives were further

surprised by another development at the confer-

ence. Not only did Microsoft stress the importance

of programming, they also stressed the importance

of the BASIC programming language. The writer

noted, "Most serious programmers consider BASIC an

obsolete language." The writer went on to cite the

slowness and lack of sophistication of BASIC as

the reason. "More and more" programmers "are

opting for C as their language of choice," he

explains.

But not only is BASIC available on more per-

sonal computers than any other language, it is

also easier to learn than any other language. "For

this reason," the article explains, "Microsoft

sees BASIC as "the language of programmability for

the future."

Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, is quoted as

recognizing "the need for a `universal macro

language' for personal computers." The article

goes on to suggest that "This language would allow

users to write procedures that work on all differ-

ent application programs and operating systems.

(It could, for example, permit you to write a

macro in 1-2-3 that called up a program in dBase

III and then transferred information to

PageMaker.)"

The article sums up the conference, "Although

the presenters did not say so directly, they

implied that Microsoft was working to make BASIC

the basis of this universal micro language." The

result would be that BASIC, "then could become the

Esperanto of the applications software world."

WHY LEARN PROGRAMMING

Three years ago there were classes in computer

programming (in BASIC) at Ford's Dearborn Engine

Plant and at Ford UAW Local 600. Also, there were

classes in programming in BASIC at many local

public schools. Now, in 1988, computer programming

classes are gone from the Ford Rouge Factory and

there are fewer or none left in local public

schools. For example, there are no longer classes

in programming in BASIC in the Dearborn Public

Schools. Thus there has been a substantial change

in computer education both at the workplace and in

the public schools. Why has this change occurred?

Also there were public moneys, from both the

Federal and state government allocated to provide

for these and other classes. When public funds are

involved, there are a set of regulations to be

followed so there can be public scrutiny of what

is happening with the money. The money is still

being provided but the classes are gone. What has

happened?

Over the past three years UAW members at the

Ford Rouge Plant made clear that they were

interested in learning computer programming. The

personal computer is a young technology. It's only

beginning to be developed in terms of uses at

home. More people have computers in their homes

now and they want to be able to use them for

Augusta Ada Byron

(1816-1852)

The First

Programmer

Augusta Ada Byron

(1816-1852)

The First Programmer

things they previously had done on paper. Most

software is not customized to the individual. If

you have knowledge of how to program, you can make

the software meet your needs. For example, on IBM

compatible machines, you can write BATCH programs

which will help you use your application programs

more efficiently. You can use the computer even

when there is no commercial software for the task

you want to accomplish. Also, it is much harder to

use store bought software when you are not fami-

liar with programming skills. By learning to

program you learn how the computer works so you

aren't intimidated by it. And personal computers

are being used in more and more workplaces, which

makes it doubly important to be able to get the

computer to do what it is needed to do.

It is not only that people need to know the

computer to be able to do their job. It is also

that the computer needs to be developed in the

workplace. The workers who operate computers will

need to develop the uses of the computer and will

have to be able to get them to work. Our times are

like the early days of the industrial revolution

when machines were first introduced into fac-

tories. Workers needed to know the principles of

physics, mathematics etc. to be able to get the

machines to function properly. But the factory

owners were afraid of educated workers. They want-

ed workers who were obedient and passive and

resigned to their conditions. Thus, it became

necessary to set up special technical schools for

workers called Mechanics Institutes to make this

technical knowledge available to the workers who

needed it. And when those schools finally were set

up, there was a sharp struggle as to whether the

factory owners or the workers would determine the

content of the classes offered.

Herman Goldstine, in his book The Computer from

Pascal to vonNeumann (1972, N.J., p 32) offers an

account of the problem workers faced being denied

technical education. He writes:

"This exclusion was going on just at the time

when the Industrial Revolution was making educa-

tion ever more essential for all members of socie-

ty. In 1823 George Birkbeck (1776-1841) founded

his first Mechanics' Institute in Scotland, and

similar institutes spread into England under the

patronage of Henry Brougham (1778-1868). These

brought to the workingman the advantages of

technological training just when it was most

needed in England...for example, Stephenson, the

inventor of the locomotive, was a poor boy who

taught himself to read when he was seventeen." (p

32)

A similar but more subtle exclusion from

technical education has occurred at the Ford Rouge

Plant. Company and union officials say that the

union is teaching computers at UAW Local 600.

Originally there were computer programming classes

at Local 600. They were taught by teachers from

Henry Ford Community College. But suddenly those

classes were ended, and a private subcontractor

was brought in to teach computers. The new clas-

ses, however, were no longer classes in computer

programming. They were classes in how to use a

certain word processing program, or how to use a

particular spreadsheet program. Why were the

computer programming classes designed by Henry

Ford Community College teachers ended at the union

local? Why were computer applications substituted

for computer programming in the classes at the

union hall? And why were these classes then used

to cut out classes in computer programming at the

Dearborn Engine Plant? The computer programming

classes at the Dearborn Engine Plant were part of

the pilot program set up in early 1984 under the

UAW-Ford contract. Computer literacy classes which

included 60 hours of computer programming instruc-

tion were made available as part of this pilot

program. The classes were supposed to be available

as adult education classes run by a local school

system. And there was State and federal funding

supplementing the class offerings. A Professor

from the University of Michigan who wrote an

evaluation of the program in Spring, 1984 said

that the computer classes were the most important

aspect of the program, and he recommended that

whenever other programs be set up, they include

computer offerings. His evaluation was used to

justify further funding from the State of Michigan

and the federal government. These funds required

all workers at the Rouge be notified of all the

classes that are offered at the Dearborn Engine

Plant. Yet in Fall 1985, the computer classes were

removed from the brochures advertising the classes

available at the Dearborn Engine Plant. And then

some of the computer classes were cut out. When

UAW members tried to inquire about why this was

happening, they were told that there were computer

classes at the union hall.

But the federal funding required that the

contract signed by Ford and the UAW to provide

computer literacy classes at the D.E.P. be main-

tained. And the D.E.P contract also stipulated

that there would be advanced computer classes

offered at the D.E.P. Yet when U.A.W. members

tried to register for these advanced classes, they

were told that they wouldn't be available. They

were told they could take classes in computer

applications at Local 600. Why was such an effort

made, despite federal funding requirements, to cut

out the computer programming classes at the

Dearborn Engine Plant?

First of all, it is said that workers won't

have to program a computer, they will only have to

operate it. Thus computer classes need only teach

how to run a commercial computer program. But the

computer is not a word processor or a spreadsheet

or a data base machine. Almost any personal com-

puter can be used in a variety of ways. It can be

used for word processing, to run a CAD program, to

run a spreadsheet. It can be used to run program-

mable controllers or robots. It can be used to do

typesetting. To learn a particular application is

not necessarily helpful in learning the flexible

nature of the computer. The personal computer is

an all purpose machine. It has only begun to show

its varied potential. But to utilize this machine,

you have to understand how it works and how to get

it to do what you want. Thus you need to know how

to program it.

In the 1930's, some auto workers in Flint, MI,

had lathes in their basements so they could become

familiar with the operation of the machine and be

able, therefore, to get it to do what was needed

at work. The same goes for the personal computer.

The more you use it at home, the more you will be

able to understand how it functions and be able to

use it at work. Some U.S. corporations seem to

believe they can control the computer, so they are

keeping workers and schoolchildren from learning

programming. One company officials told a mother

his company didn't want people learning program-

ming. They would teach whatever someone needed to

know. Also supervisors have said they don't want

workers typing in programs, tying up the machines.

And maybe it is feared that if workers learn to

program they will change the operation of a mach-

ine. But are these fears realistic?

First of all, the computer is new. People using

computers will be running into new, unknown

situations. Management may claim they don't want

workers trying to deal with these situations, they

want PRODUCTION. There are salary programmers. But

they can't write everything that needs to be

written, because they can't do all the customizing

that is needed. To get production, management will

need workers on the shop floor who are able to

solve the day to day problems that occur in the

course of operating the computers that are being

installed on the shop floor.

In the pre-computer era, someone running a

Keller machine needed to know what cutters to use

in what areas, what direction to run in, how to

set the job up, the size of the tracers, which

cutters to use for certain areas, when the job was

done, etc. It was only practical experience that

made it possible to run the machines. Then numeri-

cal control machines were introduced, which run

with paper tapes as programs. They are often

programmed by salary programmers at another loca-

tion. But if the cutter gets dull or hits screws

and dowels, or there's too much stock or no stock

(for example you can't take off 4 inches of stock

at one time as you would break the cutter) then

the operator has to intervene in the program and

override it. Kellers, now, are run by direct num-

erical control, rather than by paper tape. In the

past, there wasn't enough memory storage to store

the whole program at one time to be able to edit

it. Now the operator can load the whole program

into the machine at one time to run it. If the

operator finds something is wrong, it is now pos-

sible to edit the program and correct the error.

Therefore, it increases efficiency for the operat-

or to know how to program the machine. Also, it is

more likely a worker who doesn't know programming

will make some mistake that may interfere with the

program in a machine, while one who knows how the

machine operates and is equipped to solve its

problems may actually improve the situation. It is

workers who keep machines running, and they need

certain necessary knowledge to be able to do their

work.

Learning BASIC can be an easy introduction to

how a computer uses programs. It also makes it

possible for a beginner to write simple programs.

If someone doesn't know BASIC or another program-

ming language, he doesn't know what a computer can

do. He doesn't know if the computer is capable of

adding, subtracting, or how it does it. If he runs

into trouble, he has no idea why. Someone who has

learned a little BASIC programming, however, knows

that a computer can do calculations. He under-

stands how a program can get stuck in a loop. And

if he needs to go for some kind of specific

training, for example, for robotics training, or

numerical control training, he has a background

that helps because he already knows what a program

is. He might be learning another programming

language, but he doesn't have to start from

scratch.

Learning to program a computer can also help to

demystify the computer. It can give someone con-

fidence in using the computer because the person

knows he can control the outcome by changing a few

commands. Also, he has accurate knowledge of how

the computer functions. Thus he can deal with the

unexpected and the problems. One of the pioneers

in the development of the personal computer, David

Ahl, observed that there is great misunderstanding

about the kind training required to develop the

technology of the personal computer. "We are

dealing with one of the most important concepts

and tools developed by man," he says,"and yet some

continue to hope they can check it off as they do

driver education or typing." (Creative Computing,

Nov. 1984, p.16)

The cover of Personal

Computing announced the

Pet Computer, October

1977.

COMMODORE TIPS & TRICKS

BLOCKS FREE

If you would like to know how many blocks are

free on a disk, enter: LOAD"$$",8. Then LIST. The

result will display the blocks free on the disk

but not the directory.

DIRECT MODE DISK-ERROR READER

The next time you need to read the disk error

channel, try this line in direct mode:

OPEN 1,8,15: POKE 58,0: {about 20 spaces} INPUT

#1,A$,B$,C$,D$: PRINT A$,B$,C$,D$ : CLOSE 1

EASY LOAD AND RUN

Type: LOAD"filename",8 {shift and run-stop

keys}

SHORT FILE-READER

Here is a one-liner for reading sequential

files. Change "filename" to the name of your

sequential file and type in RUN:

2 OPEN8,8,8"filename" : FOR I = 0 TO 1 : GET#8, A$

: I = ST : PRINT A$;: NEXT : CLOSE 8 : END

NEW FIRST FILE

This program will let you swap the first file

in a directory with any other file on the disk:

10 INPUT "name of current first program"; F$

20 INPUT "name of program to be first"; P$

30 PRINT "validating disk" : OPEN 15,8,15,"V0"

40 PRINT "swapping files" : F1$ = F$+"." : P1$

P$+"."

50 PRINT#15,"C0:"+F1$+"=0:"+F$ : PRINT#15,

"S0:"+F$

60 PRINT#15,"C0:"+P1$+"=0:"+P$ : PRINT#15

, "S0:"+P$

70 PRINT#15,"R0:"+P$+"=0:"+P1$ : PRINT#15,

"R0:"+F$+"=0:"+F1$

80 CLOSE15 : PRINT"{ 2 curser downs} all done!"

STAFF

Steve Alexander

Ronda Hauben

William Rohler

Norman O. Thompson