Tag: Labor Day

What’s it all about, Alfie et al.?

Posted on by kathiemm

Let’s face it!  There has been a lot of recognition of the degrading and commercializing of Christmas.  The endless Christmas carols crowding into our airwaves, the nonstop commercials for sales and Santas, the constant pressure to buy, buy, for what used to be truly a holy day.

Something similar, though still on a smaller scale, has happened to Labor Day—a day intended to celebrate working people—a celebration proposed by and achieved through the work of labor unionists, many of them immigrants.  Hmmm, labor unionists and immigrants, I wonder why there is such reluctance on the part of media and politicians to remind the public of those roots.

Yes, Virginia,  the “holiday” that provides U.S. citizens with one of those increasingly rare three day weekends, now heralded as signifying the end of summer, back to school, barbecues, and flag-waving parades, originated as a national holiday in the triumph of a labor union protesting inhumane treatment of workers during an economic recession.

Fortunately, there have been several good essays published reminding us of the significance of Labor Day.  Check out the following:

Ron Ashkenas, in Forbes magazine, suggests that to put meaning back into Labor Day, “perhaps Labor Day should recognize the productivity and contributions of office workers, knowledge workers, and those in service industries along with union workers, whether they are steelworkers, hospital workers, or government employees.”

Mary Kay Henry, in The Nation, explains why, for American workers, Labor Day is “a reminder of the struggles we have won—and those that lie ahead.”

In The Monitor, Harrington and Olivares remind us what to celebrate today: “Labor Day is when we should pay respect for the self-sacrifice, jailing, beatings and sometimes death [American workers] endured. Their struggles for justice and dignity brought about the 6-day work week and then the 5-day work week. They helped to narrow standard working hours to 10 hours daily and then eight hours. They brought about the minimum wage and overtime pay and they gave rise to the idea of national health care.”

And, in an article that should really get you up and paying attention, Richard Eskow, on Truthout asks  “How Much Will the War on Unions Cost You This Labor Day?” He provides a detailed and convincing answer. Read the article and learn how important it is to all of us for working people to continue fighting for a better future.

Many obscenely rich, disgustingly greedy, dangerously powerful people and their followers, in and outside the military-industrial complex, with its underpaid (and sometimes slave) workers overseas, have been “laboring” hard (spending fractions of their wealth) to take away those hard-won achievements. Let’s stop rewarding the rich for their greed and honor the people who really did make America great—the working people. Not just today but every day.

Robber barons, redux: Labor Day

Posted on by kathiemm

If you know what a robber baron is, and have noticed them lurking around recently, go to the head of the class.

artoon of child labor supporting robber baron
Cartoon of child labor supporting robber baron. Image in public domain.

As Merriam-Webster reminds us, “robber baron” refers to:

  • “1: an American capitalist of the latter part of the 19th century who became wealthy through exploitation (as of natural resources, governmental influence, or low wage scales)
  • 2: a business owner or executive who acquires wealth through ethically questionable tactics”

The barons are definitely back, and more powerful than ever. Only we call them Wall Street, the Military Industrial Complex, and the Top 1% now.

Check out some of the revealing documentaries:

As history so often shows us, when the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. That has been particularly true for people of color and immigrants following the recent great shift in money from the poorer to the richer.

A recent book from Laura Gottesdiener, A dream foreclosed: Black America and the fight for a place to call home, provides many of the horrendous details:

  • The current unemployment rate for blacks is 13.7%
  • The median net wealth of black families in 2010 was $4,900, compared to $97,000 for white families—a number that is itself inflated by multimillionaire and billionaire whites
  • Since 2007, corporate corruption and loan-sharking have led to at least 4.8 million completed foreclosures, disproportionately to black and Latino families.

Gottesdiener also provides some heartening examples of Occupy movement and other community organizers’ work to stop the plunder of poor.

The labor movement learned long ago that individual and community efforts can bring about important change—although preserving those changes demands constant vigilance.

Most members of American labor have to work this Labor Day “holiday,” but we would all do well to remember the value of activism.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Labor Day 2012 P.S.

Posted on by kathiemm

Who hates organized labor, liberated women, and peace?

The war profiteers. The radical right. The power elite within the 1% who seek wealth over human rights, power over fairness, and profitable wars over global peace.

But they are in the minority. Even though they have frightened millions and lured millions into supporting the agendas that hide their greed, they are in the minority.

The majority of Americans:

  • overwhelming support equal rights for women and believe more needs to be done to ensure those rights
  • support the right of workers to organize (e.g., participate in labor unions)
  • support an international order based on international law, which, they believe, imposes constraints on the use of force and coercion
  • prefer negotiation and nonviolence to armed conflict[1]

This majority is not the “silent majority” enshrined by Ronald Reagan, but nevertheless is too often silent in these frightening times.

Don’t believe the hype of the radical right. Don’t buy into claims that big corporations making millions in profits are forced to “outsource” their work because organized labor in America makes “unreasonable demands.”

Don’t be lulled into ignoring the attacks on women’s rights, including voting rights, taking place in this country today. (See, for example).

Finally, ask yourself whether cutting social services, educational programs, and unemployment entitlements for the working class—and increasingly the middle class—while retaining George Bush’s revolutionary tax benefits for the wealthy makes your life better or makes America more secure.

The Occupy Movement of 2011 raised the right questions and offered some provocative solutions. Let’s not allow their demands to get lost in the shuffles of the 1% power elite.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

[1] See http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/ for more detailed results of relevant polls; also informative are http://www.pewglobal.org/2010/07/01/gender-equality/ and http://www.gallup.com/poll/157025/labor-union-approval-steady.aspx .

War kills workers (Labor Day 2012)

Posted on by kathiemm

You are probably familiar with the names of some Nobel Peace Prize winners—for example, Desmond Tutu, Linus Pauling, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Leon Jouhaux
Nobel Prize portrait of Leon Jouhaux, in public domain.

But can you name the 1969 winner of the Peace Prize?

It was the International Labour Organization (ILO). Yes, a labor organization won a Nobel Peace Prize. This should not be surprising given the historical connection between labor movements and peace movements.

The ILO, like the League of Nations (forerunner to the United Nations), grew out of the deadliness and devastation of World War I. It was the first specialized agency within the U.N.

Included in the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI, the preamble of the ILO constitution says, “Universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice.”  Can anyone fault this belief?

The Treaty of Versailles also included three proposals from American delegates to the peace commission:

  • “that labor should not be treated as a commodity;
  • that all workers had the right to a wage sufficient to live on;
  • and that women should receive equal pay for equal work.”

Have these commitments been achieved? Won and lost? Why?

In their 1969 acceptance speech, the ILO quoted 1951 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leon Jouhaux, who warned that:

“War not only kills workers by thousands and millions, and destroys their homes…but also, by increasing men’s feelings of impotence before the forces of violence, it holds up considerably the progress of humanity toward the age of justice, welfare, and peace.”

On this Labor Day, let’s honor the work of labor on behalf of peace and social justice.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology