• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Digital Dispatch

From NOEBIE.net

  • Home
  • About
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • IG
  • YouTube
  • Kirtan
  • Tarot
  • Spirit

Labor History

The Real Workers’ Holiday

Brian K. Noe · May 2, 2016 ·

Late last week, President Obama issued a proclamation naming May 1st, 2016 as “Loyalty Day” in the United States. The proclamation reads, in part, “On this day, let us reaffirm our allegiance to the United States of America and pay tribute to the heritage of American freedom.”

Loyalty Day was first celebrated in 1921, during the First Red Scare. It was originally called “Americanization Day” and was created purposefully to replace International Workers’ Day, the worldwide celebration of worker solidarity. It was enshrined into law in 1955 by the U.S. Congress during the Second Red Scare, and has been proclaimed each year by every President since Eisenhower.

Throughout history, control of the calendar has been used to set the ideological agenda. One need not look very far into the history of Catholic liturgical calendar to see this. Samhain was transformed into the Feast of All Saints. The Vernal Equinox became the Annunciation. The Summer Solstice became the Nativity of John the Baptist. The list goes on and on.

This practice has not been lost on our own ruling class.

Utah Phillips said “Yes, the long memory is the most radical idea in this country. It is the loss of that long memory which deprives our people of that connective flow of thoughts and events that clarifies our vision, not of where we’re going, but where we want to go.”

In the years of struggle to come, it is more important than ever that we cultivate the long memory. Celebration of International Workers’ Day is the foundation upon which an understanding of what it means to be a true American rests. Our heritage as fighting working class radicals must not be undermined by the false consciousness imposed on us by the One Percent.

Below are a few links, highly recommended for the occasion. For a longer read, I would also recommend Sharon Smith’s excellent history of the labor movement in America, Subterranean Fire.

Today Is Our Day – by Jonah Walters at Jacobin – This May Day, we should celebrate the historic triumphs of the labor movement and the struggles to come.

The legacy of Haymarket – by Sharon Smith at Socialist Worker – Sharon Smith chronicles the hidden history of the Haymarket Martyrs, the movement for the eight-hour day and the origins of May Day.

In celebration of May Day – by Andrea Bauer at Freedom Socialist – A reflection on Karl Marx and the struggle for a shorter workday.

solidarity-of-labor

Filed Under: Curated Links Tagged With: Class Struggles, Haymarket Tragedy, History, Labor Day, Labor History, Law Day, Loyalty Day, Union, Working Class

The Labor Party of America – An Interview With Mark Dudzic

Brian K. Noe · October 12, 2015 ·

labor-party

In 1996, thousands of trade unionists and activists decided to build an independent party. Why did the effort fail? Derek Seidman interviewed Mark Dudzic, who became the national organizer of the Labor Party after the death of Tony Mazzocchi in 2002.

I love this quote.

The fact remains that only the labor movement has the resources and organizing capacity to launch and maintain an independent class-based political movement. The launching of a labor party remains the great unfinished business of the US working class.

Read the Interview: What Happened to the Labor Party? | Jacobin

You can also follow this link to documents of the Labor Party, including their platform. It gives a glimpse into what American politics could (and should) be like.

Filed Under: Curated Links Tagged With: Jacobin, Labor History, Labor Party of America, Organizing, Politics, U.S. Labor Politics

The Story of Labor Day

Brian K. Noe · September 7, 2015 ·

Mayday

Jonah Walters writes.

American workers did contribute at least one lasting legacy to the international movement for working-class liberation — a workers’ holiday, celebrating the ideal of international solidarity, and eagerly anticipating the day when workers might rise together to take control of their own lives and provide for their own well-being.

That holiday is May Day, not Labor Day.

Read More: Labor Day is May 1st | Jacobin

Filed Under: Curated Links Tagged With: Jacobin, Labor Day, Labor History, May Day, U.S. Labor Politics, Union

Solidarity Forever Centennial

Brian K. Noe · January 17, 2015 ·

On a windblown, gray Chicago day 100 years ago, January 17, 1915, Ralph Chaplin left his home on the South Side for a raucous, poor person’s rally at the city’s famous women’s center, Hull House. He asked a visiting friend he’d met organizing coal miners with Mother Jones to listen to the lyrics of a new tune he had been working on. Here’s the story behind one of the most beloved Labor Hymns.

Read the article: ‘Solidarity Forever’ Written 100 Years Ago, Today | Labor Notes.

Filed Under: Curated Links Tagged With: Chicago, Folk Music, Folk Process, Inspiration, IWW, Labor History, Labor Notes, Ralph Chaplin, Union, Wobblies

Working Class History in the New Century

Brian K. Noe · May 12, 2014 ·

Sharon Smith, author of Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States, has written a new introduction for a forthcoming Spanish edition of the book, which expands on the history through the last decade. It appears today on Socialist Worker in English, with the permission of the publisher.

Read it: Taking the fire forward | SocialistWorker.org.

Filed Under: Curated Links Tagged With: Class Struggles, History, Labor History, Sharon Smith, Socialism, Union

Remember Ludlow!

Brian K. Noe · April 24, 2014 ·

From Trish Kahle:

Remembering only the massacre at Ludlow obscures the vital fact that a group of coal miners–most of them immigrants–managed to organize a strike across racial and ethnic lines, and brought southern Colorado to the brink of revolution. It also obscures the tremendous courage with which miners and their families faced down the power of capitalism and the state–and conceals the role socialists and other radicals played in organizing the strike and rebellion. Finally, it sidelines the incredible–and immediate–solidarity expressed by other workers with the strikers in the Colorado coalfields.

Read More: The story of the Ludlow miners | SocialistWorker.org.

Filed Under: Curated Links Tagged With: Class Struggles, Labor History, Ludlow, Union

Primary Sidebar

FREE SPEECH PRACTICED HERE
Linking does not necessarily constitute endorsement.

Categories

  • Audio
  • Commentary
  • Curated Links
  • Essays
  • Events
  • Explaining Socialism to Kids
  • General
  • Interviews
  • Lest We Forget
  • Memes
  • Music
  • News
  • Notes From The Field
  • Other Content
  • Pictures
  • Podcasting
  • Poetry
  • Projects
  • Quotes
  • Reports
  • Resources
  • Video
  • What I'm Reading
NWU Logo
Member
National Writers Union

Copyright © 2025 · Daily Dish Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in