Let’s Put Labor Day to Work for Workers… and Democracy

Jim Hightower's Lowdown

What if Labor Day was not about giving working families one measly Monday off to sleep in, rush to the beach, do some 12-oz elbow bends – then report back first thing Tuesday to start another 364 days of pulling the corporate plow?

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Instead, imagine if working stiffs themselves took hold of this day, putting it to work rallying and reinvigorating a rebellious labor movement to achieve economic fairness and social justice for all in America. This was, after all, the purpose of the original Labor Day, held in 1882. Thousands of bricklayers, machinists, piano makers, longshoremen, and other unionized workers in the New York City area defied corporate bosses to declare their own day off. They were not taking a vacation, but making “a public show of organized strength,” energizing labor’s demand for an end to the tyranny of 12-hour days, 6-day weeks, and $2 a day in pay.

In an audacious affront to the plutocracy, a miles-long parade of common workers marched six abreast, accompanied by union floats, and boisterous bands. They pointedly traversed right in front of the gilded mansions of robber barons living along Fifth Avenue, the most ostentatious corridor of wealth and power in America. The day culminated in a sprawling picnic and festival, with 25,000 union celebrants enjoying food, beer, dancing, each other… and a shared sense that the working class was on the move.

Why not again? Auto workers, flight attendants, fast-food workers, and others are clearly on the move, so why not make a new “public show of organized strength,” directly confronting the corporate greedheads and political boneheads who’re stealing our democracy. Ralph Nader called for this two years ago – to see his ideas for “A Workers Action Day,” go to: nader.org.

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Do something!

In addition to Nader’s article, here are more resources for staying up to date on labor’s resurgence in the US:

• Labor Notes, a media and organizing project that has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement since 1979

• Cornell ILR School’s Labor Action Tracker

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