Here I sit on our phoney Labor Day totally conscious of why we have it today rather than on May 1st when I celebrate it with the rest of the world. After 73 years on the planet I think I have learned quite a lot about this country. I was helped by traveling to Ireland, England and Cuba in the summer of 1954 as an NROTC Midshipman on the first cruise at the end of freshman year in college. We only spent a few days ashore but it opened my eyes to the big bad world out there. Thank you Uncle Sam. I will always be grateful. Later I did my post doctoral training in Israel for a number of years only to learn a version of the beginning of the Vietnam War that was as different from the distorted version fed the American people as the Tea Baggers version of Health Care Reform is from the bill in congress right now. Some things never change it seems. I rushed home to my first faculty job a year early and became a leader in the anti-war movement. Sabbaticals in France twice and Germany one gave me more years abroad. Shorter trips to Poland to teach Eastern Bloc scientists in 10 day schools also helped me see the world as it is. My dad was a worker. Let me tell you what I learned from him below the break.
My dad worked in a "defense plant" during the war and never had to be in the military. He was smart. He had a "hobby" repairing radios and later TVs for people. I made my first short wave set from scratch in high school out of parts he had laying around. I also studied for my "ham" license but never did get to take the exam. While Dad was working as an electrical mainenance person in a big Chicago (actually Cicero) factory he took college level calculus courses. He had gone to a good technical high school in Chicago. My mom, on the other hand, never went to high school. Her immigrant parents were essentially illiterate. When dad urged me to go to college and get an engineering degree she distrusted "education". When the only way I could afford college was through the military she was very unhappy.
My parents were the prototypical walking wounded of the depression era. They worshipped FDR. He died on mom's birthday and we saw the headlines as we walked out of a movie in southside Chicago. She broke into tears and wailed right out on the street. I'll never forget that day!
Guess what? Dad died in 1996 as a "Reagan democrat"! Not only that but he never joined the union in his plant. He voted against them (and lost) every time the vote came up. The union was responsible for his working conditions being pretty good and his salary being enough that he had a nice holding of stocks and bonds.
Yet he never supported them. I never understood why. He was a very frugal man. He socked money away in the market and rode its ups and downs never touching it. We had appliances that he repaired again and again so they lasted 30 years. [Imagine the status of the environment and our energy reserves if everyone had lived like that]. No I am not advocating his life style. Even just before he died he would only take my step mother out to eat at a fast food place if he had cupons for a discount.
Is he typical? I really don't know. I do know that his anti-union and later anti-labor mindset was widespread among folk like him. We see the result now. Whatever FDR taught him it wasn't solidarity with his class.
That brings us to his son-me. I have been a Democratic Socialist since I joined as a Charter Member in 1982 when the late Michael Harrington founded the organization. This will tickle you- I saw it as a step back from the radical stance I took during the Vietnam fiasco.
I want to return to what I mentioned at the start. My world view was shaped by a lot of viewing the world. It also was viewed by actively pursuing the history of my class- the working class- in America. I hate to tell you this folks, but many American workers are willing servants to their masters. They actually believe they were given the wages and working conditions they now can enjoy until the rest of the world catches up. They actually believe that Unions are organizations that will take their hard earned money not even imagining that it was already taken by their bosses.
Living abroad was interesting. French workers could shut down the entire country at a day's notice. Israeli people had health care that included everything. That's right everything! Hospital, inpatient, out patient, dental care, crowns on my teeth, prescription and non prescription drugs. My family of four was charged $10.00 per month. I could go on but who listens but the choir?
So I will stop my annual rant. Happy "Labor?" Day!