The Real Story of Labor Day
Labor Day sounds like the name of a holiday for American workers, but most of us take it just like Monday, which gives us a coveted three-day weekend during which we can give the summer a last hurray.
There has been a long debate over whether Labor Day is really a holiday for the working class, or a cheap ploy by capitalist rulers to make ordinary people think they are valued before returning to their day jobs on Tuesday in hopes that they will be grateful. one day of rest. In any case, you must celebrate it as if it were a workers’ holiday, demanding or returning it in a way that honors the working class. Head to the beach, get ready for fall, take advantage of the rampant Labor Day tied sales to save a few dollars – but first, let’s get a little history.
When and how did Labor Day start?
Here’s what the Department of Labor has to say about the holiday: “Labor Day, celebrated on the first Monday in September, is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers. This holiday has its roots in the late nineteenth century, when union activists pushed for a federal holiday to celebrate the great contributions of workers to the strength, prosperity and well-being of America. “
Then in order. Celebrate the social and economic achievements of your work over the past year. You have worked hard – very hard even – during the pandemic, the busy election season, the relentless national retaliation against systemic racism and police brutality, climate change and your own unique challenges. Through all of this, you generated revenue for your company, interacted closely with your bosses on Slack, and made untold contributions by email or otherwise. Hell, if you’ve spent even a dollar of your hard-earned cash on coffee this year, you’ve contributed to the local economy.
Enjoy your big day, even if some criticize the holiday. (There are some good points, though.)
What is the criticism of Labor Day?
Two years ago, writer and radical organizer Kim Kelly wrote in Teen Vogue that “Labor Day is a government scam.” This may be true even if the last time you light up your grill this weekend or get some sleep on Monday. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging the inherent problems of Labor Day or anything else, especially the one handed out by the government, be it the only day off from seemingly endless work or official statements, say, about our recent withdrawal from Afghanistan. … Question everything. This is good practice.
Did then-President Grover Cleveland sign the Labor Day Act to appeal to working-class voters ahead of the 1896 election, or to suppress leftist dissent? As Kelly explained, Cleveland didn’t even bother getting re-elected, so no one is sure. There is controversy over which organizer came up with this idea, but we know for sure that Cleveland declared the first Monday in September as Workers’ Day.
Kelly also disagreed with the Labor Department statement, pointing out that “celebrating the social and economic achievements of American workers” is only given to American workers who have established schedules and work for companies that allow them to spend Monday. off at all. The existence of beach booms and sales that we associate with the holiday is proof enough that this isn’t for all workers: while you’re on the beach, someone has to work at board game kiosks so you can waste your time trying to win a scarecrow animal. While you are at the dealership, someone has to work for you to take a test drive. It’s not a real holiday for workers if corporate office workers and CEOs are messing around and low-paid employees are still working, is it? Keep these people in mind if you’re lucky enough to have a three-day weekend this year.
Is it still possible to honor handymen if the holiday is feigned?
You should definitely celebrate workers, including yourself, on Labor Day and every day! In 2016, New York-based driver Tim Goulet challenged the classification of Labor Day as a “bosses’ holiday” in the socialist magazine Jacobin .
“Many portray this as a symbolic ‘gift’ from capitalist politicians who wanted to carry out a cleansed May Day that could capture the militancy and disperse it through ‘responsible’ channels. This narrative calls Labor Day a “bosses’ holiday,” marking the historic defeat of the working class, “he wrote. “This not only distorts the story of the day, but it forces us to choose one holiday over the other, as if there was not enough space on the calendar for two days dedicated to workers.”
Gulet pointed out that the same radical thinkers who pushed for and celebrated early Labor Days brought us victories to other hardy workers, such as the eight-hour day.
You see, the first Labor Day was celebrated in New York in 1882 and was planned by the Central Union long before Cleveland officially enshrined it. Gulet explained that the roots of the holiday as a workers-organized event still matter, even if the modern version of the first Monday in September is off course. Think of all the holidays that you celebrate. Which of them, if any of them, really remained true to their origin? Certainly not Halloween! Certainly not Christmas! Holidays evolve, deviate from their intended purpose, and are dragged into the capitalist maelstrom all the time, but it is the way we celebrate them and the value we choose to attribute to them that makes them special.
What else can we do to mark workers?
Every year on May 1, we celebrate May Day or International Workers Day. Labor Day, Gulet noted, preceded the Haymarket events of 1886 that inspired May Day, but both were important to the working class and its people’s history.
We usually think of Labor Day as the end of summer and Memorial Day as the start of the season. Memorial Day is important, of course, but next year try to reimagine the summer between May and Labor Day, and then spend the entire season – and the entire year – celebrating workers and the working class, reading about their history, and finding ways to support them. and the parts of the movement that really appeal to you.
The workers’ rights movement looks different today than it did in the 1800s, but it continues. Activists are now fighting for paid parental leave and paid sick leave. Editorial offices all over the country are organized into trade unions. Workers in various industries are on strike for better treatment, higher wages and higher benefits. Advocates are fighting and winning the $ 15 an hour salary. Labor Day is for them and Labor Day is for you, but just like all other days of the year, so study and do whatever you can to help.
And don’t forget to chill out on Monday if you can. You deserve it, and this is what early Labor Day celebrators would want, even if the story and intentions of the holiday have become muddled over time.