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September 8, 2021
Elizabeth Gurley-Flynn
Hosea Hudson – Photo: Blackpast.org
Monday, September 6, 2021, marked the 136th anniversary of the observance of the First Monday in September as Labor Day. The first Labor Day on September 7th 1885 was the culmination of a long and arduous road of struggle by workers of all races; struggle which included strikes, demonstrations, the Haymarket massacre of demonstrators in Chicago, and the struggle for an eight-hour workday. Congress in 1868 passed the Law and granted government employees the eight-hour day. From the humble beginning of the Knights of Labor to the founding of the AFL-CIO, the Labor Movement has had a glorious and impressive tradition of struggle and activism.
People such as Elizabeth Gurley-Flynn, Hosea Hudson, and Joe Hill to name a few, were instrumental in shaping and guiding the Movement in its positions and actions. Trade Unions took principled and progressive actions against racial, immigration, and gender discrimination. They also participated in and encouraged workers’ solidarity and demonstrated in opposition to imperialist wars, and were directly involved in everyday issues of social justice in the United States and around the world.
While the significance of the day and its history has been relegated to frivolity and festivities, the role of Labor in the struggle against capitalism and global imperialism is too often lost on the majority of workers who, share in the gains of the Movement’s historical past. The current global crisis of capitalism is marked by the pursuit of expansionism through occupation and war, regime change to ensure super profits, and support for dictatorial and tyrannical regimes in Africa and Latin America for the rape of natural resources. The historically progressive role of labor is imperative to help challenge these agendas. Domestically, civil liberties and constitutional guarantees are challenged and attacked by the ultra-reactionaries of the capitalist class, whether it be voter suppression, archaic and tyrannical abortion laws, gerrymandering of congressional borders, and antagonism to unionization. The capitalist class wants to put the burden and cause of the crisis on the backs of the working class. This calls for pushback, challenge, and reinvigorated activism against the captains of capital and their attacks on workers’ rights.
Labor should recognize the value in a continued struggle against capitalism. Trade Unions provide the most effective weapon against capitalism’s attacks on the working class and seek to prevent capital from taking advantage of labor. As such, unions have the potential of a ‘ready-made’ mass movement that can educate, organize and mobilize the working people in defense of democratic gains achieved over years of struggle.
Labor solidarity between Black and white workers is critical. Wage disparity based on race and the social stratification of trades reconcile the working class to capitalism. It undermines and destroys working-class solidarity and weakens class consciousness.
Joe Hill
The progressive Labor Movement has a history of opposing the warmongering of the capitalists in their pursuit of and carrying out imperialist wars. Indeed, working people are the ones that fight these wars but do not profit from them. One report cited that stocks bought at the beginning of the Afghanistan war are worth more than ten times the value at the war ‘ended’. The people who profit the most from imperialist wars are the capitalists and defense contractors.
Trillions of dollars are spent on these immoral and illegal wars whilst the majority of workers are not able to receive a living wage, to take care of their basic social needs. This became more visible during the current Pandemic. Many who have fought in these imperialist wars came back to homelessness, inadequate access to health care, and mental health counseling and treatment, and other necessary social services.
Though trade Unions are not political organizations, the history of the Labor Movement has demonstrated that while advancing a social justice agenda, they also have the capacity to influence policy. However, the rank and file must be ever vigilant and on guard against Union leadership’s class collaboration with capitalism; by leadership adopting policies and negotiating away workers’ interests, avoiding conflicts, and dulling working-class militancy. Today’s Trade Union Movement was formed and developed in the crucible of working-class militancy and progressive activism; the Movement cannot abandon or deviate from this tradition.
Though Trade Unions are not political organizations. The history of the Labor Movement has demonstrated that they have the capacity to influence policy, furthering members’ needs while advancing a social justice agenda. However, the rank and file must guard against Union leadership’s class collaboration with capitalism. This is done by leadership adopting policies and negotiating away workers’ interests, avoiding conflicts, and dulling working-class militancy. Today’s Trade Union Movement was formed and developed in the crucible of working-class militancy and progressive activism. The Movement cannot abandon or deviate from this tradition. Immigrants are some of the most exploited people in the US workforce. Not surprisingly, immigrants have always played critical roles in US labor struggles.
Trinidad-born civil rights activist and working-class organizer Claudia Jones
Although the Caribbean presence in the US is as old as the nation itself, the first significant wave of large-scale voluntary migration from the Caribbean to the United States began in the first half of the 20th century. Consisting mostly of guest workers from the British West Indies program, they were recruited to work largely in U.S. agriculture in the mid-1940s. Migration to the US accelerated in the 1960s when U.S. companies recruited large numbers of English-speaking workers, including Jamaican nurses. Caribbean migration during this period was also infused by political instability in Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Haiti, overwhelmingly consisting of the elite and skilled professionals. Later inflows consisted mostly of working-class individuals.
Caribbean immigrants in the USA both reflected and were shaped by the US labor struggles outlined above. Caribbean activists in the civil rights and labor movements range from Marcus Garvey and Louise Helen Norton Little to Peter J. Ottley, Claudia Jones, and Roger Toussaint. In this era of a global pandemic when workers around the world continue to serve heroically on the frontlines, including on the medical front, we should not lose sight of decades of working-class heroism as we commemorate Labor Day 2021 and commit to new challenges, grounded in or informed by the labor and civil right’s illustrious tradition of struggles.
Richard S. Dunn is an author, writer, and activist for 50 years. He can be reached at: contact@makingitplain.net