The labor movement has suffered constant attacks and a demoralizing decline. But labor unions were in bad shape in the 1920s and came back. What can we learn from history?
U.S. workers have not given up on unions-a survey of the workforce found interest in joining unions to be at a four-decade high. But few workers who don’t belong to unions will get to join one, since fewer than 1% will experience an organizing drive.
Since the early 1900s and before, Black workers have not viewed labor unions and labor organizing as separate from the rest of their lives and have fought for union politics that reflect that understanding.
This “constant campaign” carried into the community as well, with Local 236 at the forefront of battles in the late 1940s and early 1950s to desegregate Louisville. But to Jim Wright, perhaps the FE’s biggest impact came at the personal level, as those whites who had come into the Harvester plant as “real racists” became friends with black workers there.
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Impatient hedge-fund billionaires do not attempt to conceal their contempt for the rest of us. They are used to making money—fast. Witness what they have done to large segments of the overall economy. Education does not thrive in those conditions, because there is no standard of perfection in any schoolhouse that can survive brutal suppression of uniformity imposed by clumsy testing. A successful school not only makes room for dissent. It constantly nourishes it.
What is Labor Day about? Dignity. Equality. Solidarity. These five videos talk about those ideals in 2014. Dolly Parton: 9 to 5. The Wage Gap. Walmart: Standing Up Together. Race / Off. Forward Together: A Week of Action. Documentary: The One Percent. Watch, and strengthen your resolve to dream and struggle for another year. -- moderator
Understanding the turbulent, complicated beginning of the “Labor Day” holiday can help us to rethink the significance of this holiday today.
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