Jim Hightower: The Rebellious Spirit of the First Labor Day Is Spreading Anew

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The Rebellious Spirit of the First Labor Day Is Spreading Anew

Monday, 07 September 2015 00:00
By Jim Hightower, Truthout | Op-Ed


It's a bit odd that in the United States' thoroughly corporatized culture we have no national day of honor for the "Captains of Industry," and yet we do have one for working stiffs: Labor Day! Where did it come from? Who gave this day off to laboring people? History books that bother mentioning Labor Day at all usually credit former president Grover Cleveland with its creation: He signed a law in July of 1894 that proclaimed a holiday for workers in Washington DC and the federal territories.

But Cleveland? Holy Mother Jones! He was an extreme laissez-faire conservative, a "Bourbon Democrat" who never lifted a presidential pinkie to ameliorate the plight of exploited workers. To the contrary, in that same month of 1894, Cleveland enshrined himself in Labor's Hall of Eternal Infamy: At the behest of robber baron George Pullman and other railroad tycoons, he ordered some 12,000 US Army troops in to crush the historic Pullman Strike, which was being led by union icon Eugene V. Debs. Thirty workers were killed, Debs was arrested on trumped-up charges of conspiracy, and the workers who supported the strike were fired and blacklisted.

Far from being a gift to workers, Cleveland's recognition of Labor Day was a desperate political ploy to mollify the anger of the union movement he had just decimated. He and his Democratic Party rushed the federal holiday into law only days after his military assault on Pullman strikers. In fact, this day was not "given" by anyone in power - it was taken by laborers themselves. In a bottom-up act of democratic audacity, this was our first national holiday to be put on the calendar by ordinary people. And they were not doing it just to get a day at the beach, but to get into the faces of power.

Matthew Maguire, a 19th-century New York machinist and an unrelenting activist for higher wages and shorter hours, was the one who first proposed a day-long solidarity rally to focus the forces of labor on reclaiming the democratic rights of workers and gaining a fair share of the wealth they create. Known as "The dauntless Maguire," he was secretary of the fledgling New York Central Labor Union (CLU), and in May 1882, he called for all 56 unions in the vicinity to make "a public show of organized strength." The CLU agreed and set the date of Tuesday, September 5, for a "Mammoth Festival, Parade and Pic-Nic." Adding to the audacity, the union council unilaterally declared that the day was to be a holiday for all workers who wanted to leave their jobs and join the action. Doing so was beyond bold, for it could get them fired - the bosses ruled workplaces with iron hands, compelling 12-hour days, six days a week, for $2 a day. ................(more)

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/32648-the-rebellious-spirit-of-the-first-labor-day-is-spreading-anew