Listen, it’s tough enough being a wage slave in this neo-guilded age, what with Trump and Co. sucking up all the wealth and steadily eroding the distinction between the middle class and the working poor.
So I thought that, before 2025 grinds to an ignominious halt, it is worthwhile pausing to pay homage to the American working man. Not to mention the American working woman.
Which is why, during my recent visit to San Francisco, I made my usual walking pilgrimage up Telegraph Hill to the Coit Tower.
It is approximately 400 huffing-puffing steps from the shores of San Francisco Bay to the base of Coit Tower. It is a further few hundred steps or so to the top of the tower itself.
Or so I’ve been told.
Oddly, I’ve never actually made it to the top of the Coit. Because it’s what covers the walls of the tower’s first two floors that captivates, even enchants, me.
Coit was completed in 1933, as the Great Depression was still gaining steam. And in a stroke of genius, somebody got the idea of turning the tower’s interior decoration into a Works Progress Administration project.
Ultimately, 26 muralists, under the supervision of the great Mexican painter Diego Rivera, conspired to cover Coit’s walls with depictions of – well, working stiffs. From all walks of life. Trying to keep it together in the toughest of times.
“The murals depict California during the Great Depression,” a tower sign explains. “Themes such as agriculture, industry, immigration, politics, capitalism, social class, and urbanism are depicted.”
“The twenty-six project artists worked together to support the unified theme of ‘Aspects of Life in California, 1934′, depicting scenes of agriculture, education, urban and rural life, and New Deal idealism.”
“Inspired by the 1920s public art movement in Mexico…the artist paints directly onto a wet plaster surface; as the colors dry, the picture becomes part of the wall and any changes must be chipped out.”
“The muralists earned an average of $31.22 per week, completing the project in six months’ time.”
Even today, nearly a century later, the murals have something to say to us that seems strikingly relevant to the times we find ourselves in now.
These times in which billionaires get a free pass from politicians, unions are being busted, fair labor standards eaten away and safety nets disappearing, the Coit murals seem like anything but ancient history.
Nor were the murals unveiled without controversy. The ethic of unfettered capitalism still held sway even as the soup lines grew longer and longer.
“Before the Tower opened to the public, during the politically charged atmosphere of the 1934 Maritime Strike, several murals were negatively described in the press as depicting Communist symbols.”
Yeah, even back then they were using the threat of socialism and communism to distract the working poor from their hunger pangs.
Listen, if you ever get to San Francisco, by all means get yourself up Telegraph Hill and check out this wonderous tribute to the working men and woman who always seem to hang in there through thick and thin.
Heck, if you don’t want to hoof it up those steps, just hop a Waymo and experience the ultimate in high-tech transportation – a taxi without an actual human driver.
Because you never know when Trump is gonna decide he wants to put his name on the Coit. As his first official act he will surely cover these colorful murals with gilt paint.
Because he ain’t exactly an all-power-to-the-people kind of guy.
FreeGNV 