Labor Day: The Unknown Holiday by Walter Brasch (repost)

by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
Originally published September 7, 2009
Sept. 3, 2012

Image by Kheel Center, Cornell University via Flickr

It’s Labor Day, and that means millions of Americans are celebrating. Most Americans have no idea what Labor Day is, other than self-serving political speeches, hot dogs, burgers, a pool party, and the last day of a three-day holiday. Few even know that Labor Day exists to allow people to remember and honor the struggles for respect, dignity, and acceptable wages and working conditions for the rank-and-file employees.

May Day Protests Around the World + Thousands join May Day march for workers rights in New York

Image by d*unit via Flickr

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May 1, 2012 by TheRealNews

Workers take to the streets on International Workers’ Day in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe

Noam Chomsky on May Day, 2009: Labor History and Anarchism (repost) + May Day Started Here

Chomsky at the World Social Forum (Porto Alegre) in 2003 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Posted previously. Updated below.

with Noam Chomsky

Chomskyan
June 29, 2009

David Buccola (Buddhagem) interviews Noam Chomsky on May Day about labor history and anarchism.

May 1st, 2009, at his MIT office, Cambridge, Mass.

Obama’s Laborious Labor Day By Ralph Nader

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by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
September 2, 2011

Dear President Obama:

Image by Shira Golding via Flickr

Happy Labor Day! This is your third opportunity as President to go beyond your past tepid Labor Day proclamations.

You could convey to 150 million workers that you’re going to start doing something about your 2008 campaign promises to labor. Recall that you clearly promised to press for a $9.50 federal minimum wage by 2011. Arguing that having millions of Walmart type workers make the leap from the present $7.25 per hour will pump nearly $200 billion in consumer demand for our recessionary economy.

Corporate America Sends a Labor Day Message by Walter Brasch

by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
Sept. 4, 2011

Image by rstrawser via Flickr

For most Americans, the only significance of Labor Day is that it concludes a three day weekend.

For Kirk Artley, it means he has about six weeks left of employment.

On Aug. 24, RR Donnelley, a Chicago-based megacorporation that claims to be “the world’s premier full-service provider of print and related services,” told Artley and the other 283 workers at the Bloomsburg, Pa., plant that “economic conditions” forced the closing of the book printing facility. The workers said they would take significant pay cuts if that would save the plant. RR Donnelley rejected the offer.

Jobs Report Shows Urgent Need for Bold Action by Dennis J. Kucinich

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Image by seiuhealthcare775nw via Flickr

by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
Washington, Sept. 2, 2011

Congressman Dennis Kucinich D-OH today released the following statement in response to the latest report by the Department of Labor that the U.S. economy added no jobs in the month of August.

“The grim numbers reported by the Labor Department are a warning that budget cuts and talk of austerity will not revive our economy and bring down unemployment,” said Kucinich.  “On the eve of Labor Day, we must recognize the lasting hardship that American families continue to endure as a consequence of the lack of available jobs.”

The ‘Great Moderation’ and the International Assault on Labor by Noam Chomsky + Kucinich at May Day Parade

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Image by SEIU International via Flickr

by Noam Chomsky
In These Times
May 2, 2011

In most of the world, May Day is an international workers’ holiday, bound up with the bitter 19th-century struggle of American workers for an eight-hour day. The May Day just past leads to somber reflection.

A decade ago, a useful word was coined in honor of May Day by radical Italian labor activists: “precarity.” It referred at first to the increasingly precarious existence of working people “at the margins”—women, youth, migrants. Then it expanded to apply to the growing “precariat” of the core labor force, the “precarious proletariat” suffering from the programs of deunionization, flexibilization and deregulation that are part of the assault on labor throughout the world.

Buddhagem Speaks with Noam Chomsky on May Day, 2009: Labor history and anarchism (repost)

Happy Labor Day, everyone!

Dandelion Salad Chomskyan June 29, 2009 David Buccola (Buddhagem) interviews Noam Chomsky on May Day About labor history and anarchism. May 1st, 2009, at his MIT office, Cambridge, Mass. Recorded by David Buccola, Charngchi Way Edited by Charngchi Way  … Read More

via Dandelion Salad

Honoring Those Who Toil by Ralph Nader + Domestic Workers Win Bill of Rights Law in NY

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

The Nader Page
Sept 3, 2010

What does Labor Day mean anymore other than another day off, another store sale and, in some cities, parades ever smaller and more devoid of passion for elevating the well-being of working people?

Philosopher/mechanic Matthew B. Crawford, in his recent, embracing book, Shop Craft as Soulcraft has a thoughtful consideration. He deflates the high-prestige workplace and makes the case for millions of Americans who still make and fix things with their hands.

Buddhagem Speaks with Noam Chomsky on May Day, 2009: Labor history and anarchism

Chomsky at the World Social Forum (Porto Alegre) in 2003 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dandelion Salad

with Noam Chomsky

Chomskyan
June 29, 2009

David Buccola (Buddhagem) interviews Noam Chomsky on May Day about labor history and anarchism.

May 1st, 2009, at his MIT office, Cambridge, Mass.

Recorded by David Buccola, Charngchi Way
Edited by Charngchi Way

Special thanks to Bev Stohl, and Professor Noam Chomsky

Labor Day: The Unknown Holiday by Walter Brasch

by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
September 7, 2009

It’s Labor Day, and that means millions of Americans are celebrating. Most Americans have no idea what Labor Day is, other than self-serving political speeches, hot dogs, burgers, a pool party, and the last day of a three-day holiday. Few even know that Labor Day exists to allow people to remember and honor the struggles for respect, dignity, and acceptable wages and working conditions for the rank-and-file employees.

We don’t know that the Knights of Labor created the first Labor Day in 1882 and that Congress made it a national holiday in 1894.

Almost none of us, including life-long union workers, know the personalities of the labor movement. About Mother Jones (1830-1930), the militant “angel of the coal fields” for more than six decades. About “Big Bill” Haywood (1869-1928) who organized the Industrial Workers of the World, a universal coalition to fight for the rights of all labor. About cigar-chomping Samuel Gompers (1850-1924), the first president of the American Federation of Labor, a job he held for 38 years.

Labor Day, socialist holiday, approaches! By Jerry Mazza

By Jerry Mazza
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Online Journal
www.jerrymazza.com
August 21, 2009

Oh my god, can it really be, a socialist holiday looking to dim our barbecues, to cast the shadow of wild-eyed bomb-throwers over our endless good times, the end of our endless summer and future? Well, perhaps it all has to do more with our real past!

As Wikipedia tells us, Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September (on September 7 in 2009). The holiday originated in 1882 as the Central Labor Union of New York City sought to create “a day off for the working citizens.” Congress made Labor Day a federal holiday on June 28, 1894, two months after the May Day Riots of 1894. May 4 was chosen to remember the Haymarket Affair. All 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday. Traditionally, Labor Day is celebrated by most Americans as the symbolic end of the summer.”