When I was a kid, I had probably two favorite songs: "Solidarity Forever" and "Sit Down." I listened to them both over and over again on a record of union songs recorded by a friend of my family. Thinking back, I believe I really did learn something about labor history and solidarity and unions listening to those songs, because of the explanations my parents gave me for them - what a sit down strike is, what solidarity is, who Joe Hill was, stories of protests or actions that they had participated in to the sound of one or another of the songs on the record.
Complaints periodically surface that not enough about labor is written at Daily Kos or doesn't get enough attention when it is, and there's significant reason for those complaints, but at the same time, some great stuff has been written here, both in diaries and on the front page. So I've ripped off SusanG and done a sort of labor diary rescue, looking through many, though not all, of the pieces on labor and unions written here over the past couple of years and picking some that I thought were outstanding.
Anyway, I may never be a member of a union myself, like too many Americans (though for less troubling reasons than most people's non-membership). But I believe deeply in the necessity of organized labor, though just at the moment I'm finding myself tongue-tied as I try to think of the three most important things to say about it. So these diaries say it better than I could right now, as do those two old favorite songs of mine.
When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one,
But the union makes us strong.
CHORUS:
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union makes us strong.
Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong.
It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid;
Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made;
But the union makes us strong.
All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own.
While the union makes us strong.
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong.
In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
For the union makes us strong.
CHORUS:
Sit down, just keep your seat
Sit down and rest your feet
Sit down, you got 'em beat
Sit down, sit down!
(Repeat after each verse)
When they tie the hands of the union man - sit down, sit down
When they give 'em a pact they'll take them back - sit down, sit down
When they tie a can to the union man - sit down, sit down
When they give them the pact that will take them back - sit down, sit down
When they smile and say, "No raise in pay!" - sit down, sit down
When you want the boss to come across - sit down, sit down
When your feet are numb just twiddle your thumb - sit down, sit down
When you want 'em to know they'd better go slow - sit down, sit down
When the boss won't talk go and take a walk - sit down, sit down
When the boss see that he'll want a little chat - sit down, sit down
Shirah shows How Unions Bring Low Wage Workers Out of Poverty - it's not just the people in the unions, and it's not "just" money. Elsewhere, she asks What Have Unions Done for Us?
Nathan Newman lays out recent campaigns for workers' rights in Beyond the Minimum Wage - links to an amazing amount of information on things happening in many states.
mole333 remembers the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in Today in Labor History: They Died for Us, Let's Not Forget Them
Tula Connell reports on the "Kentucky River" decision, and gives some labor history along the way, in American Workers' Freedom to Form Unions Threatened Under Bush NLRB. Orangeclouds115 follows up on Kentucky River.
Tula Connell gives a little more labor history in Unions, the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend focusing on the 8-hour workday as well; and some history of Labor Day itself in Labor Day--A Poor Cousin to May Day?
DHinMI's Screw the Culture War; Go Meet Voters Instead isn't about organized labor, but class is obviously an important part of the picture.
The Loose Cannon tries to think through The Commandments of Labor
I wrote on on the Hotel Workers Rising campaign and on how we can support union campaigns generally.
JR Monsterfodder with Proof that Wal-Mart Targets Pro-Union Employees
Just over a year ago several unions left the AFL-CIO to form the Change to Win coalition. That split, and the run-up to it, prompted a number of diaries, a few of which are
The Battle of Bally's: What to Expect at This Week's AFL-CIO Executive Council by Trapper John
Should He Stay or Should He Go: Daily Kos Interview with SEIU President Andy Stern by DHinMI
The SEIU/UNITE HERE/Teamster/Laborer Blueprint for a New AFL-CIO: A point-by-point analysis by jre
For Democrats, the Weekend's Most Important Story by DHinMI
Wal-Mart and the Breakup of the AFL-CIO by JR Monsterfodder