Where we are coming from

[nadinbrzezinski]

Introduction

Labor History is integral to US History. It is part of who we are and tells us where we've come from and where we are going. Labor is also a mostly ignored alien country. Yet, it is essential to understanding the US as a country since labor and labor relations have marked the country from well before the Virginia Plantation came to be.

Most historians tend to ignore labor and to concentrate on the great political events in our history. In fact, we also tend to ignore major events in the history of labor such as the Haymarket Affair in Chicago on May 1st, 1881. In fact, labor is seen as a minor area of study, and this is a symptom of a long history, and long trends. There are major aspects of labor that influence social relations in this country to this day that started in both the Home Country and moved here. Chiefly things like White Slavery, regardless of what politically correct term we may want to use, Indentured Servitude was a form of slavery.

There are other less than tasty bits that are also ignored regularly, such as labor unrest and the formation of unions. This is part of the rightward turn in the political environment in this country. Yet we rarely talk about the events that shaped the middle class, and it is time to change that. This General History of Labor is an effort to add to this discussion from the point of view of the 2010s, and in an effort to teach this history to Americans who have no idea how much these distant events have influenced their lives.

The Long View of History

American History does not start in 1776. It started in the Midlands of England in the 14th and 15th century, when a social contract started to break down. That is when the traditional rights of the peasants and yeoman class to common lands started to break down. This was the beginning of the Enclosure Acts. These Acts were to change the society and force people off the land.

This had a pernicious effect on the society, which saw a break down of the traditional relations between Master and Servant. This break down was slow, and pernicious. The process was a break down of the social contract, and social expectations. The social structure where people knew their place and obeyed their betters started to break down. England saw this break down by the 16th century, when crime and highway robbery increased to levels not seen before, that was the point of alarm. Thankfully, from their point of view, there was a new world discovered beyond the ocean sea. Those colonies were a place where to dump the poor, the shiftless and criminal elements. It was a place to get rid of people which led to a new society built on the backs of white slaves that came to a new world as members of a caste society.

Social Attitudes.

We have social attitudes that go back a long time on things like work, taxation, and poverty. These social attitudes go back to well before John Calvin and the Protestant Ethic. In some ways the meaning of knowing their place goes to the Medieval Period, and early Tudor Society. For the citizens of the age finding a master and serving him was the objective in life. Master-Servant relationships ranged from the Guilds, to the army, to the fields. Peasants served the Lord of the Manor in exchange for protection in case of need. Apprentices served their Masters in exchange for new skills, so one day they could become Masters themselves. Knights served their kings in exchange for lands. That was the social order, and it was an efficient social order, confirmed by faith and religion.

The Protestant Revolution led to new views of the poor, and by extension the laboring classes. We saw the rise of a mythology that the chosen were those of wealth and that the wealthy were better than the poor. The poor were to be seen as leeches of society, instead of images of Jesus Christ, and were treated as such. Whether we are talking of the deserving poor who were to wear badges to mark their place, or welfare queens. There is a definite continuity in this thinking. There is also a definite continuity in the attitudes of master and worker, where workers should be thankful for work, and not question their lot or make waves.

The Present

Workers face the worst times since the Great Depression with one party that wishes to return the country to the 1920s, gutting all social safety nets and all worker legislation. This religion of free trade and people knowing their place stated a long time ago, and it is still ongoing. Social betters should never be questioned and democracy is a thing of the rabble. Why Unions are so hated. They are democratic organizations at their heart.

This makes social change almost impossible, as we are standing against centuries of social attitudes. This also makes organizing hard since we have been trained to believe it does not work. This is our present, and it has deep roots in the past. These deep roots have made it difficult to change and to do things. But sooner or later we will have to change our way. Labor needs to learn it’s history first, and this is where this present work comes in.


(My own work, very rough intro) In a second need to get to my chapter one.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. kick

[DemReadingDU]

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