By Douglas V. Gibbs
Here we are: Labor Day.
The origin of Labor Day has a fascinating story. It began with an important need and a deceptive strategy. Employers did not necessarily treat their employees as they ought to. In the decades following the downfall of the institution of slavery, cheap labor was becoming harder and harder to come by – but the cost of doing business has always been an important factor in the pursuit of a successful enterprise.
Out of necessity, labor unions emerged upon the scene to better protect the workers, and to encourage government to pass legislation to guarantee those protections. In truth, the whole thing is a very worthy cause. It is a positive thing when our humanity seeks to ensure even those at the bottom are protected from the predatory nature of some human beings.
However, human nature has the ability to raise its destructive head even in what seems to be the best of intentions. Even in charity, the darker side of humanity can raise its ugly head.
The Road to Hell, after all, is paved with good intentions.
In the beginning, labor unions were necessary. But now that legislation has largely caught up, their original purpose has dimmed and now these entities follow a new path. A political path.
Labor Unions during the decades of my lifetime have declared war on conservatism. The two, it seems, don’t often sit in the same camp when it comes to the political, or economic, realm. Labor unions, after all, possess a shared foundation with Marxist socialism. The idea for the working class to organize against the class that owns the means of production is right out of Karl Marx’s playbook. Marx was the inspiration for the labor movement.
Don’t get me wrong. As I’ve already provided, in the beginning the unions were an integral part of changing the laws for the protection of the workforce against corrupt business practices.
The early communist infiltration would be happy with what the labor unions became during the last century. Their evolution into political machines to keep the Democrats in office is an amazing thing to observe. But, it turns out, there is a big difference between American labor unions, and the labor movements around the rest of the world. Despite its collectivist origin, in America the labor unions are still something that the rest of the world can’t proclaim: American.
After decades of being a money laundering operation for corrupt politicians and Democratic loyalists, the recent hard lurch to the left of the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party’s defense of illegal alien workers, has pushed today’s labor unions away from the left and now we are beginning to see support in the labor unions for President Trump. It’s an amazing thing to see.
Labor Day has been since its launch a celebration of the workers, a holiday brought on by the labor union movement. Labor Day continues to be an annual holiday that celebrates the dignity of being a member of the working class. That is a reasonable thing, even if the establishment of Labor Day was a response to the socialistic celebration of Mayday with deeper origins reaching way back into the 19th century.
During the mid-1800s, after continued abuses by manufacturers, labor unions rose up. The inspiration for the first American Labor Day came from an alliance between the American Federation of Labor (AFL), craft unions, and local central labor federations in 1882. Waves of strikes followed lasting through the middle of the 1890s, reaching a crescendo that called out the police, and ultimately the army, to control the situation. The Pullman Strike, led by future Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs in 1894, was crushed, and Debs was imprisoned for his involvement. The problem was being pushed to a breaking point.
In the Northeast the unions and federations had traditions of summer holidays, and the government decided a day for labor where beer drinking and family fun was the plan of the day would help quell the unrest. Shortly after the end of the Pullman Strike, Democrat President Grover Cleveland rushed a bill recognizing Labor Day through Congress. The Democrats had been bruised by the fact that they were largely behind calling in the police and army, and needed a way to mend fences, and create an image that they supported the workers.
Not a single elected official in Congress voted against this measure.
President Cleveland chose the September date in order to set the American holiday off from European Mayday. An AFL resolution of 1909 declared the first Sunday to be the proper Labor Day, and eventually all states and the District of Columbia affirmed the holiday status for their residents. In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The act moved several federal holidays, including Labor Day, to Mondays, and Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday of September ever since. As a day of celebration the laborer is rewarded with, the tradition of Labor Day has emerged as a day of cook-outs, trips to vacation spots, and just about anything else you can throw in the mix. Labor Day even marks the end of summer. For those that are working on the fundamental transformation of America towards socialism, Labor Day is the one day of the year that Marx’s wage slavery is recognized in America.
The right of workers to form unions has been an important part of our history, but as these unions became too progressive, too corrupt, or too authoritarian over their members, it became evident that the primary object of labor day, the labor union, had become something it was not originally intended to be.
After decades of modern labor unions aggressively supporting the political left, and the politicians using their influence with labor leaders to force rank-and-file union members to support leftist causes and candidates financially, things are changing.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
