A Woven Past

Kay Broome

Mulberry with Fruit, West Toronto (Photo: Kay Broome)

Although late summer is traditionally vacation time, it is now that some begin seeking better job opportunities. But recently the economy has deteriorated so much that many cannot afford to take holidays. More of us are unemployed or working sporadically now than ever before. Long gone are the days when most people in North America were either self-employed or working for a large company, institution or government agency. I feel very fortunate that I was able to retire at 65 with a decent pension, as well as two universal, if modest, retirement plans that by law, are paid for through salary deductions and general taxation. But even here in Canada, many now cannot afford to retire, even at age 70. And the problem is exacerbated in the US and other countries without public pension plans.

I simply cannot fathom how people find jobs in the 2020’s. Throughout most of my life, I was easily able to get steady work in the secretarial field. But with the coming of the North American Free Trade agreement in the 1990s, employment gradually became harder to find.  And it wasn’t just ageism, which seemingly hits as soon as you enter your forties. Gone were the days when you simply answered an ad in the newspaper, filled out a form and had a single interview. Now, for a basic non-professional position, people must type up the perfect resume, go for two or three job interviews; and after all that, most employers won’t even bother calling you back to say you didn’t get the position. Robotics and artificial intelligence, designed primarily to save the owner class money, only intensifies the problem of job loss. No thought was given to the immense social and personal issues that these changes would bring.

Filling out a Job Application (Photo: Amina Atar)

The present upset in the workforce however is nothing new. It seems workers have always had it rough, save perhaps for a brief golden age between the 1950s to the 1980s, corresponding curiously to the Cold War years. The agricultural age which evolved out of hunter/gatherer societies, gradually become more inequitable for the common worker, until it finally arrived at feudalism. This system came out of the endless squabbles between regional warlords – a result of the chaotic fall of the pre-Christian Roman Empire. Under the noble class, workers, or serfs, were virtually slaves, tied to the land they worked for their feudal lord.

      Reeve with Serfs, English Illus., Queen Mary's Psalter, ca 1310 (Anonymous Open Source)

During the 13th and 14th centuries, feudalism evolved into mercantile capitalism, when the tiny middle class became larger and more influential. During this time as well, the Eurasian trade routes to India, China and other places were made more accessible to European commerce. The 17th & 18th centuries later introduced the agricultural revolution. Such inventions as the seed drill and threshing machine led subsequently to the industrial age of the steam engine, the railroad and other marvels. Each and every one of these innovations caused massive change to the lives of working people. As a result, fewer workers were needed in rural areas, and they were gradually forced to move to the cities. Here they toiled in workhouses and later, factories. Labour became mechanized and more tedious. Exploitative practices such as slavery, child labour and dangerous working conditions was the rule rather than the exception. But workers ultimately fought for their rights. Unions formed and activists strived for better working conditions and for an end to slavery and child labour.

        Support the Miner's March, Camberwell Road, London, UK, 1984 (Photo: Sludgegulper)

Today sadly, we seem to be regressing back to a Dickensian distopia. According to the UN Human Rights Commission, various countries still practice literal slavery. There have been many cases of overseas workers being fooled into moving to work in other countries as personal aids, nannies, etc., only to have their passports confiscated upon arrival. Without proof of identity, they have no legal recourse once the entrapment occurs, and are forced into unpaid slave labour and sex work. A modern form of satanic mills is manifesting in the multitude of massive data centres that various billionaires say are absolutely necessary for our economic wellbeing. But they refuse to explain why these centres need to be thousands of acres in size and why ordinary people living nearby need to suffer from constant noise and light pollution, while paying enormous energy bills to cover the cost of these centres.

Map of USA & southern Canada showing Current Data Centres (Photo: NASA)  

The Times They are Changing Back

One reason we had it so good in the western world after WWII was the concessions handed down by various western governments at this time. Virtually all the soldiers returning from the war were given decent, well-paying jobs. Or if they were farmers, fishermen or otherwise self-employed, they received financial aid to support their businesses. Items such as washing machines, cars and decent housing were affordable, at least for most white people anyway. And post-war economic improvements did help create a larger middle class for blacks and other disadvantaged groups, while incentivising various Civil Rights movements. The unions that had long agitated for workers’ rights only became more powerful.

Western governments did not want a replay of the social unrest and revolutionary zeal that had occurred after WWI and well into the 1930s. Interestingly, there have been very few films about the turbulent times in North America between the wars. The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Bound for Glory (1976), or Oh Brother, Where Art Thou (2000), albeit fictional, are excellent snapshots of the Depression era. And they are more salient now than ever before. It is also worth noting here that upon the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the quality of life for the average person in western countries gradually but steadily declined. At that point, the common dogma was that communism, and therefore socialism didn't work. Western governments no longer needed to placate the citizenry with socialist programs similar to the ones that were employed by the Soviet governments.

Section of a Tent City, Now a Common Sight in North America (Photo: Milan Cobanov)

Although the economy, workers’ rights and citizen freedoms have been eroded, we haven’t gone down without a struggle. Occupy Wall Street was the last big revolt against the new corporatism. When it fizzled out and when future governments failed to remedy the increasingly dire situation, people became disheartened. After the abysmal performance of various recent governments, and with the current alarming behaviour of leaders of all political parties in the west, civilian discontent is again hitting its stride. This, along with wars in various resource rich parts of the world, and the increasing costs of fuel and food is leading to greater civil distrust and unrest.

Occupy Wall Street, Protesters in Zuccotti Park, September 30, 2011 (Photo: David Shankbone)

But Changing Ever Again

Workers throughout history have always risen against their oppressors. Currently, there are ongoing struggles for change in many global south countries. With the present climate (literal and figurative) in North America, we may see yet another Occupy type movement here. Until then, we grapple with our day to day lives. More and more, people cope by working from home and online with their own businesses, websites and video platforms. Many writers choose to self-publish, and some have been successful. Various people have found highly innovative ways to thrive in the community marketplace, a few examples being green landscaping, bicycle courier, alternative medicine, and video game design.

One thing that is certain is that the current corporate style of empire cannot last.  The extreme capitalism of the early 2000s has been too wasteful, too unreasonable and unsustainable to survive any viable future.  Already we see this change happening: in China’s meteoric rise as a communist/capitalist medley. And, even with punishing sanctions, Russia, a vast autarky, is able to manufacture most of what its peoples need to thrive. Brazil and the rest of Latin America, Africa, and the Asian countries have a multitude of resources that will sustain them, once their people wrest control from both external and home-grown profiteers. The new trade alliance of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, allied with various oil-rich and global south nations) has only grown larger as a pushback against Western dominance. The world is rapidly changing – again.

The travels of Marco Polo and other Europeans throughout the 13th and 14th centuries changed the world much as BRICS is doing today. These voyages helped reinvigorate markets that, throughout the Dark Ages, had been difficult to reach. The Silk Road did not start with Polo, however. It had been a trade bridge between Europe, Africa and Asia from before the Christian era. However, the fall of the Roman Empire and consequent wars made it difficult for trade, until the arrival of the Mongols. These “hordes” established order along the routes by ruthlessly annihilating many of the brigands and other hazards that plagued them. Many of us think of Genghis Khan as a brutal and chaotic warmonger. He may have been the former, but he was highly organized and very astute. Furthermore, he had an avid interest in other cultures (as did Kublai, his grandson, host to Marco Polo). In addition to opening up the trade routes, the Mongols acquired numerous customs and inventions from the countries they had invaded, (such as gunpowder and tea from China), introducing many of these items to other lands.

Kublai Khan with Marco Polo, later medieval manuscript by Robert Frescher, ca. 1500, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Photo: Valp)

The Tree that Created a Trade Route

Mulberry, the tree featured in this blog entry, was instrumental since pagan times, in trade between Asia, Europe and Africa.  Silk is made from the cocoon of the silk moth (Bombyx mori) caterpillar, which feeds solely on the leaves of the white mulberry. The cocoon is heated by boiling or steaming, killing the insect within. The resultant filament is unwound onto spools. Lighter and cooler than wool or linen, silk is easier to clean. Its ability to take more vibrant dyes also makes it a very appealing fabric. The introduction of the spinning wheel into Europe in the 13th century launched the lucrative cloth trade there, using native linen and wool and introducing silk from the east. Various goods were sold from Asia to the rest of the “Old World”, but the demand for the silk of the mulberry tree gave the trade route its name.

White Mulberry with Smooth Brown Multiple Trunks, typical of younger trees, West Toronto (Photo: Kay Broome)

According to a very strange Chinese myth, the Mulberry goddess, Canggu was believed to have transformed into a silkworm. She had made a promise to the family horse that she would marry him if he rescued her father who had been kidnapped. When the horse bought back her father, the animal insisted on her hand in marriage. The horrified father subsequently killed the horse and skinned its hide, hanging it from a mulberry tree. The white hide then wrapped itself around the girl and pulled her up into the tree, where she eventually became a cocoon, spinning beautiful thread. Eventually, she transformed into the goddess, Leizu, wife of the Yellow Emperor. 

Court Ladies Measuring Silk, Chang Hsüan, Early 12th Century, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Photo: The Yorck Project)

In yet another tale, Leizu discovered silk when a Bombyx cocoon fell into her tea and began to unravel. Not surprisingly, Leizu was patron goddess of spinning and silk weaving, having taught sericulture or silk making to the Chinese people. Another tale tells of of how the ten children of the sun goddess Xihe lived in a giant cosmic mulberry tree called the Fusang. 

Xihe under the Fusang Tree with Xi the Archer, Illus from John S. Major's Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought (Open Source)

A Tree of Commerce

Both white (Morus alba) and black mulberry, (M. nigra) are introduced species that thrive in North America. The white is native to China, Japan and Korea, but common to all Eurasia. It has become invasive here, either supplanting our native red mulberry (M. rubra) or forming hybrid crosses with it. Black mulberry, originating in the Caucasus and western Asia, is not common to Ontario, but found mostly in the southern and western United States.  All three species have lightly furrowed, light brown trunks. Juvenile tree trunks are often smooth, especially in white mulberries, while black has a more consistently furrowed trunk. Red mulberry usually has a single trunk, but those of white and black often divide into multiple boles. Most of the trees we see in southern Ontario are probably white mulberries or hybrids of red and white.  True silk can only be obtained from the white species, thus it most likely was originally introduced for sericultural purposes.

Invasive White Mulberry Suckers forming at the base of a Linden, West Toronto (Photo: Kay Broome)

All three mulberries have branches that droop somewhat. The oval, asymmetrically lobed leaves are soft and pointed at the tips. White mulberry leaves are glossy on the upper surface, while those of red are hairy, and only the undersides of black mulberry are hairy. The leaves can be quite variable on a single tree, especially those of alba. As all mulberries are capable of having red or purple fruit, each species is probably named for the wood colour rather than that of the fruit.  Berries of alba however are pinkish rather than red, and they are not as tasty as those of other mulberries. Black mulberry fruits, oblong and purple to black when ripe, are apparently quite sweet and pleasant. Mulberries look like small raspberries but they are not related to the brambles.

       Fruiting Mulberry, Ripening from White, through Red to Black, West Toronto (Photo: Kay Broome)

As the only Talking Forest tree cultivated for something other than its fruit, beauty or lumber, mulberry is the tree of commerce and trade. There is an interesting analogy to be found within this plant’s history. The BRICS alliance is alive today because for centuries, too many countries in the global south were treated like so many mulberry caterpillars. Their lands were used to create money for others, and the people cast into poverty when their governments were overthrown and their resources stolen. Don’t be surprised if in twenty years, not only China, Russia and India, but many African and Latin American countries transform into successful democratic states, as if breaking forth from a cocoon.

White Mulberry, West Toronto. Note the Variation of Leaf Shape and Glossy Upper Surfaces (Photo: Kay Broome)