Millions of Americans are joining with family and friends today to bid a fond adieu to summertime. All over our nation grills are burning, kegs are flowing, and squealing children are running through sprinklers. I hope that you all are joining in the festivities.
For those of you who aren't the outdoor type, or are simply so addicted to Daily Kos that you can't tear yourselves away from your computers, I thought it would be a nice idea to bring the party on-line. In honor of those American heroes whose efforts this day is meant to commemorate, I hope you will join me first in remembering the history behind this day.
Don't worry -- there's a sing-along at the end.
So charge your glasses, and join me below the fold.
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
Labor Day Legislation
Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.
Wow -- they left out a lot here, didn't they? The twelve years of legislation, listed so dryly above, was an attempt by our government to address one of the greatest periods of civil unrest in our nation's history. Oppression and misery followed the Industrial Revolution as surely as ash follows fire, and many Americans looked to Socialism for an answer. IWW describes the mood of those times:
At this time, socialism was a new and attractive idea to working people, many of whom were drawn to its ideology of working class control over the production and distribution of all goods and services. Workers had seen first-hand that Capitalism benefited only their bosses, trading workers' lives for profit. Thousands of men, women and children were dying needlessly every year in the workplace, with life expectancy as low as their early twenties in some industries, and little hope but death of rising out of their destitution. Socialism offered another option.
A variety of socialist organizations sprung up throughout the later half of the 19th century, ranging from political parties to choir groups. In fact, many socialists were elected into governmental office by their constituency. But again, many of these socialists were ham-strung by the political process which was so evidently controlled by big business and the bi-partisan political machine. Tens of thousands of socialists broke ranks from their parties, rebuffed the entire political process, which was seen as nothing more than protection for the wealthy, and created anarchist groups throughout the country. Literally thousands of working people embraced the ideals of anarchism, which sought to put an end to all hierarchical structures (including government), emphasized worker controlled industry, and valued direct action over the bureaucratic political process. It is inaccurate to say that labor unions were "taken over" by anarchists and socialists, but rather anarchists and socialist made up the labor unions.
As efforts by American workers to unionize became increasingly militant, so did the attempts by Big Business and their government partners to quell them. Riots became commonplace, with a death toll that makes the war demonstrations of the 1960s look like a garden party.
When the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (more recently known as the AFL) declared in 1884 that the eight-hour work day would become their standard as of May 1st, 1886, and that they were prepared to order strikes if that standard were not honored, the stage was set for one of the most famous days in the history of the Labor Struggle.
Hundreds of thousands of working men and women walked out that day, as part of a nationwide demonstration now commemorated around the world as May Day. On the third day of the strike, police opened fire on a group of rock throwing protesters in Chicago, killing two. The flyer at the right was one of many posted the next morning, calling Chicago strikers to a gathering at Haymarket Square.
The violence on that day would claim the lives of seven policemen and at least four of the strikers. The men who died in Haymarket Square that day became martyrs for the labor movement, and President Grover Cleveland made the September Labor Day celebration a national holiday hoping to divert people from commemorating the May Day anniversary.
The eight hour work day, like many other rights and protections American workers take for granted, were won for us by brave men and women who fought the impossible enemy and often payed with their lives. I hope you will join me in a toast in rememberance of their sacrifice. And please, remind your friends and family today about the true significance of this day. It's more than just another day off from work. It's a chance to honor the working men and women who built our nation. It's an opportunity to express our gratitude to those who risked their lives organizing the unions who fought for the standard of living we enjoy today.
So raise your glasses (or plastic cups of beer) and join me in a sing-along. Then tell us all about how you're celebrating this day. What are you cooking out back? What are you drinking? Have you annoyed your neighbors yet? I want all the details!
Solidarity Forever -- Pete Seeger (lyrics below)
Solidarity Forever
(Tune: John Brown's Body) (by Ralph Chaplin, January 1915 )(9th edition, 1916)
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.
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.
[chorus]
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.
[chorus]
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.
[chorus]
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.
[chorus]
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.
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