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In reply to the discussion: This Chart Should Tell You Why The Rich Are Trying To Kill Off Unions [View all]Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)20. I'll bet you are right.
http://lpa.igc.org/lpv26/lp05.htm
The anti-labor drive in Congress came to focus on two bills: The House bill was introduced by Rep. Fred Hartley (R-NJ), a right-winger who had been friendly to Hitler Germany and imperial Japan right up to the eve of World War 2. A roughly similar bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Robert A. Taft (R-Ohio), the ultraconservative, wealthy son of a U.S. president who had political ambitions of his own. But both bills were written by lobbyists for corporations like General Electric, Allis-Chalmers, Inland Steel, J.I. Case, and Chrysler, and the Rockefeller interests.
<snip>
It was no surprise that corporations were out to get the unions: In a little more than a decade, the number of union members in the U.S. had grown from less than 4 million to some 15 million. Labor had flexed its muscles soon after World War 2 ended in 1945 with a series of strikes aimed at dramatically increasing living standards for industrial workers. Electrical, oil, steel, auto, rubber, and packinghouse workers, among others, went on strike simultaneously, bringing the U.S. to the verge of a general strike in basic industry. Their successful job actions modestly redistributed the corporations' bloated war-time profits.
EMPLOYERS VS. NEW DEAL
In response, corporations were mounting an attack on New Deal legislation that had given workers some of their newfound strength. Big business also employed the Cold War to whip up a "red scare" that wreaked internal havoc in unions across the country. C.E. Wilson, head of General Electric, frankly declared the Cold War had two targets: labor at home, and the Soviet Union abroad.
Wiki sets the end of the formal HUAC period at 1957. Good call!
The anti-labor drive in Congress came to focus on two bills: The House bill was introduced by Rep. Fred Hartley (R-NJ), a right-winger who had been friendly to Hitler Germany and imperial Japan right up to the eve of World War 2. A roughly similar bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Robert A. Taft (R-Ohio), the ultraconservative, wealthy son of a U.S. president who had political ambitions of his own. But both bills were written by lobbyists for corporations like General Electric, Allis-Chalmers, Inland Steel, J.I. Case, and Chrysler, and the Rockefeller interests.
<snip>
It was no surprise that corporations were out to get the unions: In a little more than a decade, the number of union members in the U.S. had grown from less than 4 million to some 15 million. Labor had flexed its muscles soon after World War 2 ended in 1945 with a series of strikes aimed at dramatically increasing living standards for industrial workers. Electrical, oil, steel, auto, rubber, and packinghouse workers, among others, went on strike simultaneously, bringing the U.S. to the verge of a general strike in basic industry. Their successful job actions modestly redistributed the corporations' bloated war-time profits.
EMPLOYERS VS. NEW DEAL
In response, corporations were mounting an attack on New Deal legislation that had given workers some of their newfound strength. Big business also employed the Cold War to whip up a "red scare" that wreaked internal havoc in unions across the country. C.E. Wilson, head of General Electric, frankly declared the Cold War had two targets: labor at home, and the Soviet Union abroad.
Wiki sets the end of the formal HUAC period at 1957. Good call!
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This Chart Should Tell You Why The Rich Are Trying To Kill Off Unions [View all]
Omaha Steve
Jun 2012
OP
Thanks for the confirmation. Now we need to get this info out to the workers that
Egalitarian Thug
Jun 2012
#3
The red-scare between 1919-1921 is the reason for the dip you see in the chart for those years.
Crowman1979
Jun 2012
#25
Might that decline in membership not correspond to larger social/economic trends
tralala
Jun 2012
#18
A "kick" is just a post that pops an OP up back to the top of the forum.
Starry Messenger
Jun 2012
#22
That should be turned into leaflets and left at every super-market and other public places until
sabrina 1
Jun 2012
#31
I think you have to care, the few gobble up the pie intended for 300 million.
TheKentuckian
Jun 2012
#42