Correction/Addendum:
Actually the harassment against my family continued right up to July
23, 1991 the day my father died--and even after, with notes
celebrating my father's death.
The night before my father decided he was going to cross the line he
and I sat up late to talk about it. My father said to me and I'll
never forget it, "You know, I used to tell you to work inside the
system and you used to tell me that some systems are so rotten and
corrupt that working inside them, even for a good cause, will cause
you to become corrupt or weak to the point that the 'good cause' will
be lost or not possible; you were correct." He said, "It is like nazi
Germany, the ones who remained silent and failed to stand up, were in
many ways worse than the ones who did the terrorism because the ones
who did the terrorism were diseased organism whereas the ones who
knew better but said and did nothing, made Faustian bargains that
allowed the diseased organisms to do what they did." He said I have
no choice but to cross but the shit will come down on all of us. I
told my father to do what had to be done.
Later, when all of it came down and we knew who was directing it, I
wanted to go after the ones directing it. My father said no, we'll
get them with the law and we are not like them. I'm still sorry I
didn't get a chance to put a bullet through the head of at least one
of them--almost did--when they came to raid the house. (They slashed
the tires on my car also; they did it on the inside walls of the
tires so the tires would blow at high speed).
On 28 Aug 98 at 9:20, James Michael Craven wrote:
> On the eve of the possible Northwest Airlines Strike tonight, I
> thought I would re-issue this letter to Dateline sent June 29, 1995.
> There are some lessons here. I have added some comments [in brackets]
> to the original letter for clarification based on iquiries I received
> at the time. I must admit, as I see all the posturing going on [on
> both sides] it gives some painful flashbacks.
>
>
>
> ------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
> From: "James Michael Craven" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Organization: Clark College, Vancouver WA, USA
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Thu, 29 Jun 1995 17:06:16 PST8PDT
> Subject: Sanctioned terrorism at Northwest Airlines
> Priority: normal
>
> Dear Dateline,
>
> I commend you for your thorough report on the tragic terror faced by
> and death of Susan Tosakawiecz(?) at Northwest Airlines. If it turns
> out that she was murdered by someone at NWA and that her death can be
> partially blamed on complacency and inaction by NWA management, then
> her death will not be the first that can be traced partially back to
> the postures and inaction of NWA management; you can also add the
> name of my mother Mary Kathleen Craven who committed suicide on
> February 23, 1985 as a result of a seven-year campaign of terror
> directed and conducted by some members of ALPA (Airline Pilot's
> Association) against my father, mother and the whole family.
>
> In late 1979, the NWA pilots went out on strike for 112 days. My
> father, a NWA pilot who retired after 33 years on NWA as a 747
> captain, remained out on strike for 102 of the 112 days; he didn't
> believe in crossing picket lines. There were however, some pilots who
> crossed the line. At one union meeting at which over 400 pilots were
> in attendance, the leadership announced that they would go after not
> only "scabs"--non-striking pilots--but their families as well. They
> said that they would go after the "weak links" in the families and
> would even "produce suicides". [along with stress, pilots busting
> their physicals, social isolation of families, divorces etc]
>
>
> My father, Homer Henry Craven Jr. stood up and protested this saying
> that pilots have no place conducting terrorism against anyone and
> especially against women and children. Immediately following that
> meeting my mother who had just suffered a heart attack began to
> receive phone calls at 3 O' Clock in the morning calling her a "scab
> bitch" and saying "how does it feel to fuck a scab?"--eventhough my
> father had not even crossed the picket line.
>
> [My Grandfather on my father's side was a member of the IWW and was a
> Socialist. All my life up to that point my father had taught me not
> to cross picket lines. Over the course of the strike, I heard my
> father over and over urge people not to cross. After the open ALPA
> meeting when they called for going after wives and children (the weak
> links) and my father openly protested, the calls came for my mother.
> My father, enraged, posted a note at ALPA that he would meet anyone
> anytime (no cops understood and no filing of charges by the loser)
> and they could go after a real "scab" rather than a sick woman--there
> were not takers. My father refused all pay for crossing as he did not
> want to benefit materially from crossing the picket line. NWA wanted
> the "scabs" to be flown in around the picket lines but my father
> called up the union and told them he was crossing, when and where and
> that it was an acto of protest against a corrupt union run by gutless
> terrorists who go after the weak and vulnerable.]
>
>
> As an act of protest against ALPA terrorism, my father crossed the
> picket line; it was clear that he was not crossing for economic
> reasons but rather as a protest and he was therefore regarded as
> particularly dangerous by ALPA.
>
> During that strike some of the following acts of terror were
> conducted by ALPA members (some photographed in the act) and known by
> management at NWA who did nothing to sanction or fire those members
> even when they were caught committing terroroist acts: 1) tires on
> numerous cars of non-striking pilots were repeatedly slashed; one
> pilot and Naval Reserve Officer photographed in the act was not
> dismissed by NWA management eventhough they had ample grounds for his
> removal and suspension of license as Federal regulations require that
> an Airline Transport Pilot be "of good moral character"; 2) a
> "Mistress List" was passed around and wives of non-striking pilots
> were called by women purporting to be the "mistresses" of non-
> striking pilots; 3) cars, boats and private aircraft were sabotaged
> in subtle ways so as to cause accidents and fatalities; in one case,
> mud was put in the pitot tube of a private aircraft with the result
> that the 16-year-old daughter of one of the pilots found herself in
> the air solo with no airspeed indication; 4) current and vital
> revisions to aeronautical charts were lifted out of mailboxes of non-
> striking pilots with the results that some crews were flying without
> current charts; 5) the wife of one of the non-striking pilots was
> driven off the road at 70 miles-an-hour in Minneapolis; 6) a pipe-
> bomb was placed under the car of one of the non-striking pilots; this
> bomb was found and played with by two small children; 7) my parents
> suffered firebomb attempts, a large tree chopped down to fall on the
> house of my parents, tires repeatedly slashed and death threats
> against the whole family.
>
> My father retired on January 30, 1985. My mother thought that the
> terror campaign would stop. Instead it escalated and continued 8
> years after the 1979 strike was over--hatred builds phony unity. On
> Feb. 21, 1985 my mother told my sister to "get the silver and
> valuables out of the house, they are going to burn us out." "I guess
> that I am the weak link"--my mother had suffered another heart attack
> after the continued harassment. On Feb. 23, 1985 my mother committed
> suicide. My father called up the union and told them "well, you got
> your suicide". While we were at my mother's funeral, they came and
> poured ash into the engine of the father's car as an act of contempt
> that only the lowest kind of scum could do--imagine, these creatures
> are not just loading aircraft, they are flying them. I was forced to
> leave my job in Puerto Rico and move back to Seattle where I slept
> with a gun next to me as the campaign of terror continued for another
> two years.
>
> [a post-mortum examination of my mother revealed that she had a brain
> tumor; she had been complaining of severe headaches that she said
> were exacerbated by the continuous harassing phone calls,
> death-threat letters, threats of firebombing etc that continued
> continuously from the time of the strike until well after my mother's
> death--up to 1990]
>
> During all this time, my father repeatedly asked for help and
> sanctions against union members who had been identified with terror
> activities; NWA management did nothing to help to protect our family
> or the families of others who were being terrorized. My father was a
> personal friend of Mr. Donald Nyrop former president of NWA and my
> father was listed in many publications and given many honors for his
> aerodynamic research and innovation from which NWA benefited; yet
> even his standing did not get him any help from the management at NWA.
>
> [I should note here that Donald Nyrop never asked my father to cross
> the picket line; early in the strike, Nyrop said to my father: "Of
> course management wants to end this strike and of course those who
> are crossing help, but I would never ask you and I know better not
> to, to cross the line."]
>
> I can well fell the pain of the family of the lady who was brutalized
> at Northwest Airlines while the management (bent on cutting deals
> with compliant union leadership) failed to fire or sanction those
> union members who were obviously protected by union leadership that
> had done a few favors to get a few favors.
>
> Again, I thank you for your report although it was very painful to
> watch. There are more and equally or even more dramatic stories beyond
> what you reported on the machinations at NWA.
>
> Sincerley,
>
> James M. Craven
> *---------------------------*----------------------------------------*
> * James Craven * "All things have inner meaning and *
> * Dept of Economics * form and power." (Hopi) *
> * Clark College * "In this world the unseen has power." *
> * 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. * (Apache) *
> * Vancouver, Wa. 98663 * "Be satisfied with needs instead of *
> * (360) 992-2283 * wants." (Tenton Lakota) *
> * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * "The Great Spirit is always angry *
> * * with men who shed innocent blood." *
> * * (Iowa) *
> * * "It is no longer good enough to cry *
> * * peace, we must act peace, live peace, *
> * * and live in peace."(Shenandoah) *
> * * "A people without a history is like *
> * the wind over buffalo grass."(Lakota) *
> * *
> * "There are many paths to a meaningful sense of the natural world." *
> * (Blackfeet); "A shady lane breeds mud." (Hopi); *
> * "Strive to be a person who is never absent from an important act." *
> * (Osage); "Men in search of a myth will usually find one."(Pueblo) *
> * "Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way." *
> * (Blackfeet); "Some are smart but they are not wise."(Shoshone); *
> * "The one who tells the stories rules the world." (Hopi); *
> * "Force, no matter how concealed, begets resistance." (Lakota); *
> * "The only things that need the protection of men are the things of *
> * men, not the things of the spirit." (Crow); "When the legends *
> * die, the dreams end; there is no more greatness."( Shawnee ); *
> * "I love a people who do not live for the love of money."(Dwamish) *
> * "Stolen food never satisfies hunger." (Omaha); "Man's law changes *
> * with his understanding of man. Only the laws of the spirit always *
> * remain the same." (Crow); "It takes a whole village to raise a *
> * child." (Omaha); "Everything the Power does, it does in a circle."*
> * (Lakota); "Man has responsibility, not power."(Tuscarora) *
> * "With all things and in all things, we are relatives." (Lakota) *
> * MY EMPLOYER HAS NO ASSOCIATION WITH MY PRIVATE/PROTECTED OPINION *
>
> James Craven
> Dept. of Economics,Clark College
> 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Tel: (360) 992-2283 Fax: 992-2863
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> "The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards Indians; their land and
> property shall never be taken from them without their consent."
> (Northwest Ordinance, 1787, Ratified by Congress 1789)
>
> "...but this letter being unofficial and private, I may with safety give you a more
> extensive view of our policy respecting the Indians, that you may better comprehend
> the parts dealt to to you in detail through the official channel, and observing the
> system of which they make a part, conduct yourself in unison with it in cases where
> you are obliged to act without instruction...When they withdraw themselves to the
> culture of a small piece of land, they will perceive how useless to them are their
> extensive forests, and will be willing to pare them off from time to time in
>exchange
> for necessaries for their farms and families. To promote this disposition to exchange
> lands, which they have to spare and we want, for necessaries which we have to spare
> and they want,we shall push our trading houses, and be glad to see the good and
> influencial individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these
> debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off
> by cession of lands...In this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe and
> approach the Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens
> of the United States, or remove beyond the Mississippi.The former is certainly the
> termination of their history most happy for themselves; but, in the whole course
> of this, it is essential to cultivate their love. As to their fear, we presume that
> our strength and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to
> shut our hand to crush them..."
> (Classified Letter of President Thomas Jefferson ("libertarian"--for propertied white
> people) to William Henry Harrison, Feb. 27, 1803)
>
> *My Employer has no association with My Private and Protected Opinion*
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James Craven
Dept. of Economics,Clark College
1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; Tel: (360) 992-2283 Fax: 992-2863
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards Indians; their land and
property shall never be taken from them without their consent."
(Northwest Ordinance, 1787, Ratified by Congress 1789)
"...but this letter being unofficial and private, I may with safety give you a more
extensive view of our policy respecting the Indians, that you may better comprehend
the parts dealt to to you in detail through the official channel, and observing the
system of which they make a part, conduct yourself in unison with it in cases where
you are obliged to act without instruction...When they withdraw themselves to the
culture of a small piece of land, they will perceive how useless to them are their
extensive forests, and will be willing to pare them off from time to time in exchange
for necessaries for their farms and families. To promote this disposition to exchange
lands, which they have to spare and we want, for necessaries which we have to spare
and they want,we shall push our trading houses, and be glad to see the good and
influencial individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these
debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off
by cession of lands...In this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe and
approach the Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens
of the United States, or remove beyond the Mississippi.The former is certainly the
termination of their history most happy for themselves; but, in the whole course
of this, it is essential to cultivate their love. As to their fear, we presume that
our strength and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to
shut our hand to crush them..."
(Classified Letter of President Thomas Jefferson ("libertarian"--for propertied white
people) to William Henry Harrison, Feb. 27, 1803)
*My Employer has no association with My Private and Protected Opinion*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
