Conrad Bascom

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Template:TOCnestleft Conrad Bascom is a northern Iowa activist.

Education

  • Studies at Waldorf Communications
  • Went to Central Academy
  • Went to Roosevelt High School
  • Studied at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts

Mason City reds

In 1952, an article in the Globe Gazette called the previous year's opening of the Mason City Labor Temple on Pennsylvania Avenue at Fifth Street Southeast the "climax of 57 years of organized labor in Mason City" and C.I. McNutt, a Des Moines-based attorney, dedicated the building to "humanity."

Though Jan Wann wasn't around at the time, she said that a union friend of hers has told her plenty of times about the strength of local unions in Mason City during the period.

"He told me that Mason City was one of the most union towns in the United States. If you went to a barbershop and it wasn’t union, you’d turn around and go to a different one that was union. They stood together. They only supported unions. All these factories were unionized and it made a difference," Wann said.

At age 64, lifelong Mason City resident Tom Willett has been involved with labor and unions for decades now. Not all of that involvement was a roaring success.

Willett can still remember trying to organize Schneider Metal only to see jobs shed entirely and the plant to close its doors. According to him, getting fired is a part of trying to organize when companies aren't willing to cooperate. Even in cases that didn't end in firings, Willett recognized the difficulties with labor-based political action.

Over the course of 2020, Conrad Bascom attempted to start a chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which Wann herself got involved with. Despite that effort somewhat fizzling, he said he still believes that the area is viable for all kinds of labor-based politics in the future.

"I became more and more certain that Northern Iowa has as much potential for socialist or communist organizing as almost any other part of the country," he said.

Dillion Daniels, another Mason City activist, explained part of why he thinks that is.

"North Iowa is a part of the rust belt. Small towns are in decline, factories and businesses and good jobs have long since closed their doors, many have left the Midwest looking for greener pastures, those who remain are left working 2 or 3 jobs to scrape out an even half way decent living," he said.[1]

Comrades

North Iowa DSA Conrad Organizes August 5, 2020.

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With Jan Wann, Dillion Daniels and John Ekstrand.

North Iowa DSA

North Iowa DSA (Organizing Committee) Private Facebook group.

Admin Conrad Bascom

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References

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