Archive
and time line
Danny de Vries, devries@email.unc.edu
Archive
and time line
Danny de Vries, devries@email.unc.edu
The term "Internationalist" dates from the large Marxist labor movements in the early 1900s. Labor workers of the world united in this movement, which was internationally oriented and motivated by the ideas of a proletarian revolution. In the interwar period, especially the 1930s, communist ideals were brewing, and the communist party was the dominant paradigm in the United States. Increasing resistance to lead to the party going underground and eventually a large scale repression of followed during the 1950s McCarthyism. In the 1960s and 1970s the term “Internationalist” had fallen out of vocabulary.
"Only a minority of the party, made up of the most advanced and educated part of the industrial proletariat, did not change its communist and internationalist viewpoint; was not demoralized by what was occurring daily; and did not allow itself to be taken in by the bourgeois State's apparent strength and energy. Thus the Communist Party was born, first autonomous and independent organization of the industrial proletariat - the only class of the people that is essentially and permanently revolutionary." Text from Antonio Gramsci "Selections from political writings (1921-1926)".Current Internationalist movements are still linked to Marxist thought and the communist party, based on principles of justice and proletarian revolution.. See for example the New Internationalist online or The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. The Internationalist Books and Community Center has it roots in this historical leftist movement.
Bob Sheldon, a registered nurse, had lead recognized student organization at the University of Chapel Hill since 1980.
In 1981, the organization managed to pull of The Internationalist bookstore, which opened its doors to the public on Henderson Street in 1981. Bob Sheldon was the official storeowner, helped by 12 volunteer workers. The main purpose was the distribution of Marxist literature. The store also sold textbooks to students, supported by progressive UNC-Chapel Hill faculty.
In 1983 the store moved to 408 Rosemary Street. The Internationalist mission, as quoted from the 1983 Daily Tarheel by Joel Katzenstein, stated
"We have no country, we just live here.Due to its radical positioning, the store encountered prejudice and controversy from UNC students and the teaching community, because the idea had taken root that the Internationalist only embraced one political theory: Marxism. However, as the group charged, the store had always been multifaceted, focusing on gay rights, women's rights, racial prejudice, atheism, communism, black nationalism, etc.
We neither own nor control the land, the factories, the banks or the giant multinationals.
These belong to a small numbers of US imperialists who rule of ver the large majority of people who live in the US.
We have no interest in keeping America #1.
And we do not support pleas of national unit
in fact we clearly recognize the criminal nature of the U.S. and welcome each and every defeat it suffers."
The Reagan years were conservative times and the Internationalist crowd experienced financial hardship. What pulled the store through these times were the textbook orders from UNC progressive faculty, with whom they had exclusive distribution deals. The store drew a diverse clientele
On the night of February 21, at the height of the Gulf War, Bob Sheldon
was mortally wounded when he was closing the store. He died the next afternoon.
Some cash was taken from the register, but if his death was murder or not
remained unresolved. Two committees were set up to further manage the store;
one picked up the ongoing death investigation, and the other daily business.
When the investigation lead to nothing, the committees merged. Community
support for the store was large, and a collective was formed based on 30
volunteers, and two co-managers. Decision-making was suggested to work
by consensus ideal. This was the starts of a transitional period.
One-year anniversary of Sheldon's murder still gained much support from the surrounding community. The collective continued being active in various issues.
The property for sale on Rosemary Street came to be for sale, and the
store could not afford to buy it. Headlines announces a “bookstore caught
in suspense,” because they had nowhere to move. The ideal was to move into
the African community, to create connections between the African American
community and in addition to the mostly white, progressive crowd the store
seemed to have served so far. Eventually, a new location was found on 405
Franklin Street, and the idea became to attract more by passers and creating
a “bookstore row."
Exclusive deals with progressive faculty were without notice undermined by UNC Student Stores, who sent in their people to write down the titles and authors of the textbooks. In defense of this “spy action”, student stores argued that these book lists were public documents. They argued that handicapped students who could not get to off-campus stores as well as financial aid recipients whose book money was directly credited to Student Stores could not obtain the books otherwise. The Internationalist defended its position stating that professors could easily make arrangements with these particular student populations.
The Internationalist finally decided to stop selling textbooks with a large debt. The financial crisis had lured for a while because of the competition with Student Stores and corporate giants like Barnes and Nobles leading to stagnant sales. In addition, there were complications of dealing with textbooks publishers with a collectively run bookstore. The loss of textbooks eliminated 50% of the income. There was not enough money to survive, and the store had to raise at least $10,000 for a loan to stay open by May 1 or close. At this time the membership cooperative was introduced, and this initiative saved the store, raising $8,500 by May Day and an additional $2000 by the end of the year, covering the shortfall exactly. The New Year started off with 50 supporters buying memberships after a mailing to 400 people. Fundraising also came from the many bands that donated their talents in three benefit shows in 1999.
The student sweatshop protest movement and the popularity of the Seattle
Anti-Globalization movement helped get the store become more known and
central among activists. Efforts were made to channel the energy of post-SEATTLE
anti-globalization activists into crucial local, and often neglected issues.
This has been one of the healthiest periods of the store in which many events were pulled off, such as prison teach ins, wage cap bake sales, skill-shares, a nude photo shoot, etc. The Seattle protest had made the store connected to larger activist networks, and the store functioned as support for the Washington D.C. and Philadelphia protests. The store received the Independent Citizen Award and held a Buy Nothing Day (empty shelves the day after thanksgiving) which provided much media attention.
