The History of the LABOR Movement is being erased from our nation's History Books.

[bvar22]

I went to Elementary School in the 50s, and High School in the early 60s.
The Labor Movement & The New Deal was an important CHAPTER of "American History".

I had a conversation with a young, intelligent, "Straight A" High School Junior who claimed "History" as her "2nd Favorite Subject" last Labor Day, at a Labor Day Picnic.
She had no clue about the Labor Movement. She had never heard of it, and didn't know WHAT I was talking about.
She had been taught in her school that it was the "Entrepreneurial Spirit" that built America, and that UNIONS were bad, though she didn't know exactly why they were bad.
I was stunned.

New Report Finds High School Textbooks Ignore Or Distort The Role Of Labor Unions In American History

On Monday, America celebrated Labor Day, which is set aside to honor American laborers and their unions. Yet a new report from the American Federation of Teachers’ (AFT) Albert Shanker Institute titled “American Labor in U.S. History Textbooks: How Labor’s Story is Distorted in High School History Textbooks” finds that America’s high school students are not being properly taught about the contributions of organized labor to American history."

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/07/313270/history-textbooks-labor-unions/

Not too long ago, The Labor Movement was Honored & Cherished as a proud tradition of the modern Democratic Party, and was credited with the tremendous advancements of the American Working Class over the last century.
Sadly, this is no longer true, and the history of The Labor Movement hardly get a mention from today's Party Leadership as the memory of these heroes fade along with those Hard Earned Worker's Rights.


Our grandfathers and their Fathers shed BLOOD to gain these rights for ALL Working Americans.
I was taught to honor and protect these hard earned RIGHTS.
It hurts to see these RIGHTS denigrated and thrown away,
and the history of their hard fought battles flushed "down the Memory Hole",
replaced with the myth of an "Invisible Hand" and rumors of something called a "Free Market".
[font size=1](How did they EVER pull off THAT scam?)[/font]

I am ashamed of the World we are leaving to our young.
They WILL have to fight these same battles all over again.



You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS.[/font]

[liberal_at_heart]

1. human beings have a natural sense of when they are being treated badly. They can try and erase the

history of the labor movement, but that will not stop another one from happening.

[theHandpuppet]

7. It's coming

I don't think the American worker can take much more.

[awoke_in_2003]

58. What saddens me...

is my grandchildren will have to fight the same battles my grandparents did.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Thom Hartmann has been saying this for years....

It's getting so bad one really has to dig to find any history at all about the labor riots and outright massacres perpetrated by owners and managment, using even National Guard troops to break up strikes.

It's a sordid chapter in our history, and it's being played out again. Not much violence yet, but I fear that might be coming.

[theHandpuppet]

5. The Battle of Blair Mountain

How many folks on DU even know who "Mother Jones" was?

http://www.wvculture.org/history/minewars.html

[Brigid]

19. I am furious that I only heard of Blair Mountain . . .

For the first time about five years ago, on a History Channel doc about Appalachia. I got the DVD just for that story. I also learned about Henry Frick and the Homestead strike on History in "The Men Who Built America." I have also picked up bits and pieces elsewhere. But for a systematic study of labor history, you are on your own. I bet there isn't a history department in the country that offers a proper course on it.

[theHandpuppet]

24. Part of the reason for that...

... sorry to say, is that it's a story of Appalachian people who wrote one of the greatest labor stories in American history. When it comes to Appalachia, the only stories that seem to interest people have to do with moonshine or the Hatfield-McCoy feud. Outright prejudice and insults against mountain people are still in acceptable use here.

[TransitJohn]

50. .....

http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/

[SunSeeker]

69. A great program at Berkeley. Wish more people were going into the labor field. nt

[mrmpa]

60. I took my then 8 year old niece.............

to the Clayton (Frick's mansion in Pittsburgh) for a tour. This was in1892, the 100th anniversary of the Homestead Strike. The Docent showed us Frick's bedroom and remarked that "this was the room Frick recovered in after being shot by Berkman." I then said, to my niece, Frick was shot because of the Homestead Strike, and this year is the 100th anniversary of that strike, and that Frick was a very mean and bad person. The about 8 people along with us for the tour listened as I spoke. One man looked at the Docent & said "you should try to integrate that story somehow."

We went to the Clayton, because I thought she should see how people (mainly) the rich lived in the 1890's, and she should learn that their wealth came from the blood, sweat and deaths of employees. She as well her 7 cousins know about the labor movement. Their parents and grandparent were all union members. They have been told about their grandmother on strike at the Post Office in the early '70's & how their grandpap sat the family around the dining room table and explained how mom might not have a job. What saddens me is that none of my nieces and nephews as of right now union members.

The story has to come from those in the labor movement, past or present and told to the youth of today.

[theHandpuppet]

77. Good on ya!

Have you considered volunteering to share these kinds of stories at the local schools?

[BlueManFan]

39. Molly Maguires IWW, UMW, Knights of Labor? Anyone, anyone.

[Blue_Tires]

82. along with the era when government used to bust monopolies instead of enable them...

[Brigid]

88. Yep. We need a modern-day TR.

Perhaps Elizabeth Warren?

[Blanks]

107. We definitely need to return to the monopoly busting practice. eom

[robbob]

106. There are many sordid chapters in the history of the USA

The extermination of native Americans, slavery, expansionism into the Caribbean and central/south america in the name of "spreading democracy" (really just a cover for protecting United Fruit and acquiring resources), the Vietnam war (which I hope will someday be viewed by historians as on a par with Nazi Germany in it's brutality and slaughter of literally millions).

How much of this is taught in schools? Or is it all American "exceptional-ism" and spreading peace and democracy throughout the world?

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Labor itself does not know it's own history

so what is new? I wish I were kidding.

[Dustlawyer]

84. Our firm represents dozens of Unions nationally, yet I find many of the rank and file vote

Republican. They have fallen for the Fox News, Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly bull shit! Unions gave us the 40 hour work week, except now the workers are either part time or salary, with salary workers working 60-80 hours a week!

[theHandpuppet]

4. Thanks for this post.

Parents, don't let your kids' education exclude the history of the labor movement. If their school textbooks omit it, provide them with a series of links they can explore online. Let them know, for instance, what coal miners and garment workers went through in order to unionize. Ask your local teachers union what is being done to include the history of the union movement in the classroom.

[Newest Reality]

6. I hear that

the victors right the "official" history, not the vanquished.

[napoleon_in_rags]

8. Well, maybe that's a good thing.

After all, you know what Santayana said:

""Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it""

Maybe that's not so bad in this case.

[SalviaBlue]

44. Ha ha

Now that is looking at the bright side.

[awoke_in_2003]

59. People lost their lives...

fighting for the rights of workers. It is sad that it will have to happen again.

[HumansAndResources]

64. Maybe This Time We Won't Settle for "Better Treatment" and Continue to Cede Ownership ...

... to a gang of Earth-thieves. After all, there is no lawful or moral basis for some Cartel seizing the "rights" to mineral-resources and land which they did not "make." The entire system is 'Fruit of a Poison Tree" - and needs to be scrapped.

If we all "own" our birthright-shares of the planet, we won't have to come back to this point, again, a few decades after the next "New Deal," begging for "better working conditions" from our "masters," yet again.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

72. +1000

[HumansAndResources]

109. Thanks - just read your DU Profile

My general philosophy could also be described as "Mutualist" - though I have developed my own strain which could be described as Geo-Mutualist, adding Earth-Access-Rights and a proposed system of allocation. You can read about it on humansandresources.org.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

110. Thanks! Commenting to check later.

Really badly hungover right now.

[BlueJazz]

9. We need to go after the "History Liars" with everything we have.

[rhett o rick]

63. I agree. nm

[theHandpuppet]

10. Host a Labor Day movie fest

Labor Day Weekend Movie Fest

Silkwood
Roger & Me
Harlan County, USA
Norma Rae
The Grapes of Wrath

For a film and reading list, follow the links at this site:
http://www.afscme.org/
Here’s a shortcut; the first link there is to a pdf of a list of movies and books about unions and working people. A great reference!
http://www.afscme.org/search-results?cx=002815250263393764720%3Afve8ldn-4ee&cof=FORID%3A11%3BNB%3A1&ie=UTF-8&q=movies&Submit=

[navarth]

22. You forgot Matewan...

Matewan

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093509/

and leave us not forget the excellent documentary about the murder of Frank Little 'An Injury To One'

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342570/synopsis?ref_=tt_stry_pl

...just sayin'.

[theHandpuppet]

28. Didn't forget

I could have posted a really long list of movies but I provided a short one just to get things started. Hope others will contribute titles of some of their favorites.

[navarth]

32. Ah! I grok.

Well done.

[xocet]

91. +1 for the Heinlein reference. n/t

[jtuck004]

49. Post it anyway. It's important enough.

But public movie events is a pretty good idea.

Would probably have to crowd fund it, but that seems do-able. Dangerous, of course, given the polarization of the country. It would probably be outright banned in a few places, probably using zoning ordinances, which would make for some interesting public education in and of itself.

Security from right-wing demonstrators would be a concern, but that would also provide a good object lesson as to why this needs to be done.

The Wobblies took on Spokane after the city council outlawed free speech and won, at the cost of a few lives. 'Course, that was back in the days before the unions and government killed off the labor movement and subsumed them into what it is today.

I have asked and asked, and I have never found a native Spokanite or anyone else that has even heard of it, though there are a couple of good books in the library about it. I heard something about a group that did a public presentation on it, but didn't find any info.

[theHandpuppet]

52. I thought families could do it in their own homes

Bring out the snacks, have the kids step away from the video games and have a Labor Day movie marathon.

[jtuck004]

53. A LOT of people won't have access to them, people who need to be aware of them.

Some will, of course, but by putting out a list, (partly why I would like to see a longer one) maybe we can figure out a way to get them to a wider audience. I do like your idea, but it is somewhat like preaching to the choir. We have to educate the 2 or 3 generations that exist now for this to have any impact.

People say the kids are the future, but that's not true, The adults we have now are the future, and if they screw it up the kids won't have one, though they will have plenty of excuses by just pointing at the people that failed to teach them. Not that it will do them much good.

But this might get people to questioning why and how and who those people fought and struggled. And that might be the most valuable thing along, because there is little to no questioning going on now, just polarization.

[theHandpuppet]

78. Hmmm....

Maybe we should brainstorm a way to get these kinds of movies and documentaries into wider circulation. Most public libraries have a collection of DVDs anyone can check out with a simple library card. Donating copies of these films to the local libraries might be a start. Then there's always the adult summer education programs offered many places. I'm sure we could come up with ways to seed labor education across the country.

[jtuck004]

96. When the free speech fights were going on, and in other places, the Wobblies used

to write their messages on cigarette wrappers and stick them on telephone poles, to help people understand how they were being exploited.

We have a lot more avenues available to us today, and a concerted effort...web sites are ok, but it seems to be mostly the choir that clicks on them.

I am thinking more along the lines of the lights that people in Wisconsin used to string messages across bridges, public showings in a park, or in a housing project, that sort of thing.

Might even address racism, other issues.

We have some GREAT books from the labor leaders like Mother Jones, Bill Haywood, lots of others, in the university library near here. I checked one out the other day, hadn't been touched in some time, I think. I have wondered how I might get their thoughts back out into circulation...

[Maynar]

65. Just watched Matewan

last month. Very powerful story, deserves its place at the table. Thanks for mentioning it.

[Eleanors38]

36. The Inheritance (1964). The grand master documentary.

[AZ Progressive]

11. Umm, what do you expect when Textbooks are now mostly being made by Big Corporations?

Big Corporations of course hate labor.

BTW when I went to school decades ago, I never learned about the New Deal nor the Labor Movement.

[theHandpuppet]

13. I wonder how many parents...

... have even taken a look through their kids' textbooks. Mine didn't.

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. You might find this family interesting. They took over Texas and Texas all but

dictates what textbooks are used across the nation.

The Gablers

[BlueManFan]

40. Sorry I didn't mean to step on your post. Texas is ground zero for the problem!!!!!

[Egalitarian Thug]

48. You stepped on nothing. You might have replied to the wrong reply?

Either way, thank you and no problem at all.

[BlueManFan]

55. You had already pointed out that Texas has national implications for textbooks

and I try not to repeat something that has already been well said.

[Egalitarian Thug]

62. Wow, how very super kind of you. Well, it's still no problem and any opportubity to both

educate anyone who doesn't know about this and kick an excellent thread is welcomed.

[Brigid]

12. That is why . . .

I had to learn what labor history I do know from -- wait for it -- History Channel and PBS. And I know there's much more.

[leftstreet]

14. DURec

[LuckyLib]

16. There was never much there to begin with. When the labor movement was linked with communism, and

later Hoover and the boys ran with that, it sealed opportunity for the real stories to come out.

[warrprayer]

17. even if they erase it

the next generation will figure out what 2+2 is. Too bad the battles will have to be fought over again.

[Brigid]

21. There will be another Blair Mountain.

I don't know what will finally spark it, or when, or where, but I do know this: It will be staged by people who never heard of the first one.

[Starry Messenger]

18. K&R

All true.

[Lugnut]

20. My uncle was a union organizer.

He is rolling in his grave.

[sulphurdunn]

23. Good education

in a society dominated by the worship of money becomes a subversive activity. Many of the most patriotic educators, those who teach the real history of America, use the cover of literature to do it in English classes.

[Generic Other]

61. Yes this is so true

They can't rewrite the literature as easily. Only burn or censor.

And thanks for saying it is an act of patriotism to practice small acts of subversion..

[Hydra]

25. They don't send us to school to learn how to think

They send us there to learn how to conform, obey and produce.

I've learned so much more out of school than I ever did in, even working full time. So much they don't want us to see or think about.

A quote that haunts me more with time was the end of the first Matrix movie:

"I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries; a world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

That's what they don't want us to see. Where we would be without the 1% "job creators."

I think that their biggest fear is that we'll see that we don't need them at all.

[99th_Monkey]

26. What do you expect? .. with all the textbooks being published in Texas, of all places? eom

[PrestonLocke]

27. I remember learning about the new deal and labor movement in civics class sometime in the late 90's

WTF happened?

[G_j]

29. K&R

what a disturbing story..

[Eleanors38]

31. One film: The Inheritance. Google it. Watch it. nt

[SunSeeker]

41. Are you talking about the 42-min. documentary from 1964? nt

[Eleanors38]

57. That's the one.

[starroute]

33. It's not just labor that's been erased

A few years ago, as an extension of researching Bush family history, I started looking into various right-wing figures of the late 30s and early 40s, and I found that there were a lot of apologists for them online and very few websites offering left-wing assessments -- either from the period or more currently.

I finally concluded that the same funding sources and organizations that make sure that the Heritage Foundation's viewpoints are widely distributed, while progressive alternatives are barely visible, were doing their best to maintain a right-wing take on American history.

The copyright laws haven't helped either. The crucial books of that period are available only if someone has found it worth keeping them in print. This means that left-wind works have generally vanished. There's a lot of good work that could be done digging stuff out and putting it on line, if anybody cared.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

73. There are a lot of free socialist, anarchist, and ...

... Labor movement online and audio books out there. I'll see if I can post a list of some.

Also, if you join the Socialist Progressive group, we have a ton of resources pinned. You're more than welcome to peruse at will.

[starroute]

79. How many of them are historical?

It's easy enough to come up with theoretical materials, from Kropotkin to the present day. But it's the lost history from the Wobblies to the end of the 1940s that seems to have vanished.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

83. I put up info on the IWW.

Also stuff on Haymarket. Lots of historical stuff. Ex. Voltairine de Cleyre and others.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

86. Also, if you are referring to Audio Books

Google has audio books, too, but can't get to them right now (problem loading information at work for some fucking reason).

I also have the LibriVox Audio Books app for Android. Some titles I have include (no specific order):

Anarchism and Other Essays - Emma Goldman
Beyond Good and Evil - Friedrich Nietzshe
Das Kapital - Karl Marx
Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau
Bill of Rights - James Madison
Comic History of the United states - Bill Nye
Comic History of England - Bill Nye
Common Sense - Thomas Pain
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
God and State - Mikhail Bakunin
Memoirs of a Revolutionist - Peter Kropotkin
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution - Peter Kropotkin
Proposed Roads to Freedom - Bertrand Russell
Selected Essays - Voltairine de Cleyre
The Anti-Federalist Papers - Patrick Henry
The Age of Reason - Thomas Paine
The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx
The Conquest of Bread - Peter Kropotkin
The Social Contract - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Soul of Man - Oscar Wilde
The Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith
Two Treatises of Civil Government - John Locke
Wage-Labour and Capital - Karl Marx
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
Vices are not Crimes - Lysander Spooner

I wasn't able to find much on Proudhon, but again, I haven't checked recently. Above all, these were all free.

[wtmusic]

34. So true.

I went to high school in the 70s and it's faded much since then. I doubt if one person in ten knows what Labor Day is named for.

[Jacoby365]

46. According to Eric Cantor's Labor Day tweet:

Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.

[Journeyman]

35. Never let your schooling get in the way of your education. . .

[jtuck004]

47. In a culture where schooling has largely replaced education...mostly to keep us docile

and controllable, since it's more efficient that way.

I agree with the sentiment, however.

[BlueManFan]

37. I Like to think of this as the Texas effect. Since Texas is such a huge textbook market

a lot of the shit that gets put in Texas texts goes nation wide. As a progressive trapped in a deep red state, please accept my apology.

[Omaha Steve]

38. K&R!

[Crow73]

42. The winners write the history.

[PowerToThePeople]

43. As a parent, you have to take care of things things yourself

I know that public schools just teach you to be a good worker bee. It was that way when I was a child. History is written by the winners. Currently the Oligarchs and Capitalists are winning, by a large margin. We will have to supply the history for our children.

I have quite a good left library built up for my child, including "The People's History." I am always looking for more.

[femmocrat]

45. I swear all they teach is from the Pilgrims to the Civil War. Every damn year.

That is all I can remember and it is what I still see in on display in the schools. History class is still about the history of US wars. Forget social movements!

[jtuck004]

51. "They WILL have to fight these same battles all over again." Don't think so.

I agree with you, but...

We are in a fundamentally different era.

No longer do we have tens of thousands of people to organize and shut down production, because there isn't shit for production left here. (And it would take perhaps $20 to $40 trillion or more to bring it back in any meaningful fashion, and the other countries now have their own facilities, so we would have far less of a market to sell it to). Now we get a few hundred or thousand to shut down, what, McDonalds? To get a wage that still won't send the kids to school or pay for retirement?

We are about to be awash in old people like me, and we will be seeing bigger fights over social security and food stamps and health care. Smart kids are getting training that will let a few work internationally in ways we never dreamed of, even while we pull the rug out from under research that would solve some of the problems we are about to face.. There will be over a trillion in student loan debt that has no hope of every being paid back, we are replacing full-time jobs with part-time jobs in wholesale numbers, and home ownership is now down to the levels not seen since 1996, but with 50 million more people. Oh yeah, and a few people want an immigration bill which the CBO says will make us better off, but everyone skips the two paragraphs where it says it will increase unemployment for the next 10-15+ years before it gets better. (Because a lot of old folks will die off in those next 10-20 years).

Finance has replaced manufacturing, and it's tough to organize people who make a living by taking advantage of others.

I think when today's unions, government, and business conspired to kill off the labor movement in the 20's, their success paved the way for exactly what we have today. Until we can get people to consider doing what is needed to take control, they best many will ever be able to hope for puts them in a position of being what Malcom X termed the "house negro", and many, many more won't even have those "advantages". Here.

One can disagree with that, but, ironically, they can't even turn on their TV or pick up a copy of Time magazine without getting only what the corporatists WANT them to see. Harriet Tubman said "I saved a thousand slaves. I could have saved a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves". We are living those words.

Unless we consider where all that is taking us, we will be just running around in circles wondering where the cheese is, when the facts are that it is gone.

I agree that for a strong, secure, and independent people we need to not lose the spirit of what they fought for and taught us. Their actions were appropriate for the time, and unless we are together we will fail. But what does that mean in this very different world from theirs going forward?

[bvar22]

98. While I agree with much of what you say,

and your assessment supplied much of our motivation for moving to the Woods and growing our own food in 2006,
the prospects for the future aren't quite as gloomy as you suggest.
There IS some hope.

Our neighbors in Latin America have given us a Blue Print for "change".
Over the last 10 years, many Latin American countries have taken their governments from the hands of the Global 1%,
and redirected their nation's wealth to improving the living & working conditions of their 99%. They have achieved near bloodless Ballot Box Revolutions.

That CAN happen here too,
as soon as America's Working Class & Poor realize we have more in common with each other than we have in common with our ruling 1% elite and their Mouth Pieces in Washington. The "favorability" ratings of Congress indicates that more Americans are waking up to that fact every day.

Spread the WORD.
VIVA Democracy!
I pray we get some here soon.

[jtuck004]

101. I'll work toward it, and be pleasantly surprised if it happens.

But I ain't gonna hope no more.

[DonCoquixote]

105. If I may humbly chime in

The one percent may have advantages, but there is one flaw built into their plan, one they could remedy, but do not. They do not realize that, even with China and India auditioning to be the new "middle class" that they are running out of people to exploit, and that for every one person trying to be the next toady, there will be three ready to thrash them. Think of ten thousand ed snowdens, not needing to be heroes or idealists, just pissed off at their boss. That is what gives me hope, the fact that this time, the powers that be will not be smart enough to stand back and offer some crumbs, but finally make that one outburst that reveals they need to be thropwn into history's ditch.

[CatholicEdHead]

54. I did not know the history until early 2011

until I got a old copy of Rayback's book "A History of American Labor" from the library for 25cents. It only goes to 1957 but covers all the dark days before the high point almost a century ago. If you want a good history that goes up to present times try this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Labor-America-History-Melvyn-Dubofsky/dp/0882952730/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376615970&sr=8-2&keywords=history+american+labor

Labor in America: A History by Melvyn DUbofsky. It continues Rayback's model and the current version goes until 2010.

[formercia]

93. Better buy it before the Boys do

There are people who buy up such books, in order to destroy them.

[Thinkingabout]

56. Many benefits which are being enjoyed by workers is the result of unions fighting to make work place

Safe, to get a,decent wage for its members and also worked for minimal wages for others. Health insurance and pensions was also a part of doing what an individual was unable to do alone.

I heard lots of arguments from those never associated with unions, who got their "union" education from the likes of the National Review who said unions was bad. After pointing for 25 years to my spouse why unions was good finally an admission I was right, that unions helped me and my co workers, that I also spoke to my fellow union members headed in the wrong directions and as a job steward I would not be able to erase disciplinary actions which might be dealt them. Yes, unions was important in work career and it hurts to see the gains we worked for disappear.

Some years back, Joe Beirne who was president of CWA passed away on Labor Day, what an appropriate day for one who worked tireless for Unions.

[idwiyo]

66. K&R

[nikto]

67. Someday, maybe in about 30 to 50 years...

An entire generation of wealthy Elites and their families will cry out in fear and anguish to
the cruel mob that has captured them, and ask: "Why are you doing this to us?" How can you be so cruel and vicious?"

And the answer, ofcourse will be:

How the hell did you think you could systematically abuse an entire society of families for your own gain,
and keep on doing it forever?

And then, someone will release a rope, pull a trigger, or light a match, or bring down a machete or club,
and the accountability will begin in earnest.

This doesn't have to happen.

Why are the Elites so persistent in their greed and blindness?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

68. Psst...

Google "Spitfire Free Market" without quotes.

First result:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1022162

[WCGreen]

70. High School came along to sop up a lot of the children and teens out of

the work force so the older men could have steady work and since they were older and the labor pool shrunk, the could demand a better wage....

The labor movement created the middle class by demanding a living wage and, as a by-product, to have enough left over to increase the demands for luxury merchandise.

[blkmusclmachine]

71. Neoliberalism/@ home in the DLC.

[B Calm]

74. K&R

[Lee-Lee]

75. Nothing new- I grew up in Gastonia, in the shadow of the Loray Mill

And didn't have a clue what happened there until I got to college. A professor asked if anyone was from that area, then he asked me if I knew anyone who was involved in the strike- and I didn't have a clue what he was talking about.

Even in the 80's, in a mill town with huge connections to the movement, the schools were silent. We may have mentioned labor movements one day in the year we ha NC history, but no more.

I never even knew the Lorary mill by that name, it was just the Firestone Mill to me any everyone I grew up with- literally going to visit friends and playing on the very streets the strikers fought and bled on, we had no clue about that, or the fact that had we been born 2-3 generations earlier we would be working in the mill at 9-10 years of age.

[Brigid]

87. Whoa. Never heard of this one.

I checked out wikipedia, and

[Lee-Lee]

102. Yeah

You would think that at least in the very same town, just a few miles away, students might learn at least something about it.


Nope.

[zbdent]

76. Whaddaya expect from the publishers who

contributed so much $$$$ to George W. Bush's campaigns (and, coincidentally and in a totally unrelated move, won the exclusive publishing contract for school textbooks in the U.S.)???

[Octafish]

80. Wayne State University

The DeVos and Koch fortunes have yet to destroy WSU:

http://www.clas.wayne.edu/lsc/

Their hired goons, however, work night and day...

[WinkyDink]

81. Texas controls what is in our public-school textbooks. All about its purchasing power.

[knitter4democracy]

85. I made sure to cover it when I subbed in history for a couple of days.

They were on the Progressive Movement, and the history textbook was so slanted to the right that it was disgusting. I made sure to tell the other side, and the kids had no idea about any of it.

[malthaussen]

89. Hope you didn't put it in a quiz...

... I can hear the screams now. "That wasn't in the book!"

-- Mal

[knitter4democracy]

108. No, but the history teacher teased me about it later.

He's a Republican but an actually decent guy, the old-style Republican who's disgusted with his own party these days. Anyway, the kids started in on him when he got back, asking why the real stories weren't told in the book, so he found out pretty quickly what I'd done and made me come back in to deal with it a little. I was the writing coach, so it was all good.

Damn, I miss that school. *sighs*

[ConcernedCanuk]

90. USA has been "purifying" it's history for over a century.

.
.
.

Same old,

same old

(sigh)

CC

[Jakes Progress]

92. We're Number One.

Here is a link to research about how the US has the worst income inequality of all developed nations. There is a chart to show relative positions for this dubious distinction. Of course the US is of the charts, but one astute reader pointed out that the nations near the bottom of the chart (top being worst) were countries with strong unions.

The rich must have planned this for a long time. First kill the unions. Then the middle class follows. It helps to have the government (both parties) in your payroll. When the rich could consolidate control of the media, they got the millionaire "news reporters" to keep sending out the message. Of course they not only had the government and media on their side, the rich also had people's greed and ignorance to help them.

[duhneece]

94. I think SOME of the move toward homeschooling was really about this

There are many who don't want young people to know about organizing as labor, giving that 1% the edge.
This is huge, this is incredibly important. So glad to see it here...again!

[niyad]

95. k and r--that is appalling--but not surprising.

[Stainless]

97. Lost History of the Labor Movement

I went to public school in the 1950's and early 60's in Utah. My maternal grandfather was a member of the UAW working for General Motors in Michigan and my father was a tradesman and a union member in Utah. I was a member of the Steel Workers union for a time until I became ineligible by working as a Drafter and Designer in an office setting. The labor movement was never mentioned by any of my teachers in school. I learned everything I know about labor through my own efforts. Joe Hill was a labor leader for the IWW who was framed for murder and executed by the State of Utah. No discussion of labor is complete without mentioning Henry Ford's thuggish anti-labor enforcer Harry Bennett. I won't own a Ford product to this day since I found out about Ford's anti-labor and anti-Semitic activity. Most people who whine and bitch about unions and labor are ignorant fools who don't have a clue as to how others suffered and died for workers rights.

[bvar22]

103. Not only do they not have a clue about the History and the Heroes,

they have no idea how MUCH they OWE to the LABOR Movement
whether they have ever held a UNION job or not.

[theHandpuppet]

99. Just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed and appreciated this thread.

Thanks, bvar22.

[ProSense]

100. Great tributes to labor:

A Labor Day tribute to work and workers

by Denise Oliver Velez

Each year on Labor Day, I have a soundtrack in my head. Songs about working people, and labor, and unions. Many of the images that accompany that soundtrack are from WPA Federal Art Project murals that fascinated me as a child. I grew up listening to a lot of folk music, and songs that celebrated struggle. The man whose voice I can still hear is Paul Robeson. So I'll open with his version of Joe Hill.

I hear echoes of Joe Hill's music in John Lennon's Working Class Hero.

Though for many, labor day weekend means the last gasp of summer, or a time to cash in on sales, for me it will always be about work—whether in the fields, or factories, on chain gangs or in cafeterias and offices.

So join me today in celebrating work and workers, and feel free to post your favorite songs that epitomize this day for you.

Alert: This post will be very video heavy. Most will be below the fold.

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/03/1126694/-A-Labor-Day-tribute-to-work-and-workers

Presidential Proclamation -- 100th Anniversary of the United States Department of Labor

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

On March 4, 1913, President William Howard Taft signed a bill establishing the United States Department of Labor -- an agency charged with promoting the welfare of American workers and ensuring their efforts are rewarded with fair wages and real protections. After decades of struggle by labor leaders and ordinary citizens, the Department took up the cause of justice in the workplace and lifted it to the highest halls of government.

Over the course of a century, the Department of Labor has fought to secure strong safeguards for workers and their families. It helped lay the cornerstones of middle class security, from the 40-hour work week and the minimum wage to family leave and pensions. As the agency once led by our Nation's first female Cabinet Secretary, the Department has broken down barriers to equal opportunity in the workplace. And for decades, it has improved worker safety and health and aggressively combated child labor at home and abroad.

Today, the Department of Labor is working to restore the basic bargain that built our country: that no matter what you look like or where you come from, if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead. It is forging new ladders of opportunity so a generation of workers can get the 21st century skills and training they need. And to preserve a century's progress in labor rights, the Department will continue to ensure hardworking Americans always have a voice in government and on the job.

On this centennial, we recognize the dedicated public servants at the Department of Labor who have helped move our country forward, and we reaffirm our commitment to giving America's workers the chance to build a brighter future for themselves and their families.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 4, 2013, as the 100th Anniversary of the United States Department of Labor. I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities that recognize the United States Department of Labor for upholding dignity in our workplaces and our way of life. 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

BARACK OBAMA

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/03/02/100th-anniversary-united-states-department-labor

U.S. Department of Labor Celebrates 100 Years of Helping American Workers

Today, the U.S. Department of Labor is celebrating its centennial anniversary. For the past 100 years, the Department of Labor has worked to promote and advance the interests of families, workers, job seekers and retirees of the United States. While protecting the dignity of American workers, the Department has ensured workers have received safety protections and fair wages for their work. The Department of Labor is proud of its many important achievements, from providing the framework for the 40-hour work week to allowing parents to take leave for family emergencies. American workers have always been the backbone of our country and as another century stretches ahead, the Department remains committed to ensuring workers have more opportunities to build a better future.

<...>

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/03/04/us-department-labors-centennial-celebration

The U.S. Department of Labor Historical Timeline
http://www.dol.gov/100/timeline/

[Dawson Leery]

104. Things have changed for the worst in the past 20 years.

I learned about the importance of the Labor movement in middle school.

[woo me with science]

111. kick

[woo me with science]

112. kick