How Labor Day Was Hijacked: 5 Reminders of the Day’s Real Purpose

[Hissyspit]

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/02/how_labor_day_was_hijacked_5_reminders_of_the_days_real_purpose

MONDAY, SEP 2, 2013 11:45 AM UTC

How Labor Day was hijacked: 5 reminders of the day’s real purpose

Yes, plenty of holidays amount to just days off and barbecues. But this one has become particularly corrupted

BY DAVID SIROTA

Quite obviously, the transformation of Labor Day from a highly political occasion to specifically honor worker solidarity into an apolitical vacation day has much to do with the larger attack on the labor movement.
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Today, from Wal-Mart to Amazon to fast food chains, the largest and most famous American brands are often the most hostile to unions. That has created a society in which it is standard operating procedure for corporations to regularly engage in the most intense union busting tactics. Meanwhile, from the Democratic president to Republican Party leaders, many of the most influential politicians proudly position themselves as opponents of the labor movement.

To say the least, these moneyed interests, the media outlets they sponsor and the political puppets they own have no interest in venerating a labor movement that challenges plutocracy. And so just like the modern celebration of Martin Luther King Day often ignores Dr. King’s economic justice campaigns, so too does Labor Day typically circumvent a celebration of organized labor.

But that doesn’t mean it has to, or that we have to just accept that reality. There are ways to take back this holiday — especially considering public sentiment.

- Legislation creating Labor Day did not pass the Congress in response to Americans’ demand for yet one more reason to sleep in, fire up the grill, drink beer and watch football. It passed the Congress as an outraged response to the U.S. government helping a rapacious corporation violently crush striking unionists who dared to fight for their economic rights.
Labor Day was not designed to give you a day off to commemorate the end of your summer nor to give parents a special day to hit the chain stores for back-to-school sales. It was designed to give us all a chance to honor and commemorate the American labor movement and all of its achievements for millions of workers — union and non-union alike. These achievements include (among other things) higher wages, healthcare benefits, child labor laws, the eight-hour workday and the weekend.
Labor Day was not created to give you one last day to work on your tan or to get drunk in the park at an annual picnic. Labor Day was created to give you a day to attend or participate in some sort of public event showing your solidarity with the American labor movement. As AFL leader Samuel Gompers said in the years after the holiday was created, it is a day when workers’ “rights and their wrongs would be discussed … (when they) may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it.”

- Labor Day was not designed to be cast as an apolitical holiday that everyone should pretend they honor because they simply support the apolitical notion of work. The “labor” in Labor Day refers not to generic “work” but to organized labor — as in unions. That makes it a deeply political occasion celebrating the ideas of worker solidarity against corporate power and organizing for collective economic rights. It is a day, in other words, to honor what even President Ronald Reagan recognized: namely, that “the right to belong to a free trade union” is “one of the most elemental human rights” and that “where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.”

- Labor Day is not designed to be a day for anti-union politicians and corporations to say “Happy Labor Day” and momentarily pretend they support the rights of American workers. It is a day for Americans to speak out against union-busting activity and vitriolic anti-union rhetoric, whether that abhorrent activity and ugly rhetoric pops up in big box stores, in state legislatures in plutocrats’ campaign ads or in schoolhouses. It is also a day for us to consider new and simple ways to better protect the rights of workers to form unions.

MORE[p]

[gopiscrap]

1. Good article

[AnotherMcIntosh]

2. "Anti-union politicians" like those involved with, approving of, and ready to sign the TPP?

[alarimer]

6. Which is most of them

Even Obama, though he mentioned organizing in his statement today, did not use the word "union". No Democratic politician does, generally.

[Link Speed]

3. And to think that I believed it was about Appliance Sales

Our paper was full of LABOR DAY APPLIANCE SALE! ads, but not Labor Day articles.

[senseandsensibility]

4. I agree with this article.

Labor issues are FORBIDDEN topics in our lovely corporate media. They would rather discuss peace than labor issues. Really.

[madinmaryland]

5. I remember when May Day was still celebrated in my hometown back in the 1960's

That had ended by the early 70's and labor day was becoming more of an end of the summer party rather than a celebration of the men and women who made this country what is was at that time.

[reformist2]

7. Meh, I think it's part of a general decline in seriousness.

Memorial Day, the other bookend of the summer season, has been equally trivialized.

[FreeJoe]

8. People don't care

You hear the same complaints about most holidays. MLK Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, and Christmas have very little to do with their underlying inspirations. I think Independence Day and Thanksgiving are the only two that are somewhat tied to their purposes.