If you've ever been to Boston, you've probably seen the numerous small sailboats on the Charles. You know that they represent an egalitarian community sailing operation that teaches youth and adults to sail at low prices. The history, however, represents a miniature picture of class struggle in Boston, with the the addition of a ruling class philanthropist and his family leading the working class revolution.
...based on Sailing for All; Sea History, Spring 2010 by Mari Anne Snow, Gary C. du Moulin and Charles Zechel
Joe Lee, born 1901 is the father of community sailing in Boston. As with other "progressive" scions of ruling class families, he believed in public education and exposure to adventure and the outdoors to remediate some of the class related problems associated with America's industrial revolution. (He is descended from Thomas Hanasyd Perkins, who is reputed to have turned down cabinet post as George Washington's Secretary of the Navy because he reputedly already owned more ships.)
Joe's aunt Helen Storrow had prior created the Charles River Basin with a gift of $1 million, intended as a public water playground. It turned out to be monopolized by wealthy boaters and sailors from MIT. Joe lead a 20 year guerilla campaign to retake the basin for poor immigrant kids. He started a boat club lower on the Charles where the kids built their own boats, and assisted a guerilla campaign to send these kids with their boats into upper class territory. His club also conducted a vigorous political lobbying campaign to release some of aunt storrow's money for a community boat building. The wealthy opposition was lead by Eugene Hultmann. Guerilla theater also played a role with the tenement boys bring a sailboat christened Eugene Hultman to the floor of the state house. Ultimately they got the money released for the boathouse.
As these things go the richies counterattacked, and through a complex set of moves coopted the newly built boathouse and kept out the rifraff by high sailing fees. It was not until many of the young "tenement ratsreturned from war the the old guard faded away and Community Boating Incorporated became what it is today, an egalitarian insitution that welcomes thousands to the adventures of sailing.
I'm trying to draw a lesson here, but besides the cycle of exlusion, guerilla war, lobbying, victory, cooptation, it seems like the poeple's power won out here by dint of sheer persistence....and possibly the fact that there were rich and powerful progressives on their side from the beginning.
What do you think?
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