I went to D.C. this weekend to rally for the rights of the American worker. Not just the rank and file of unionized folks which I am a part of, but the non-union and even undocumented peoples who all combine to help give us a quality of life unlike any other place on this Earth.
What I have come to learn about Americans is that we are all strange and somewhat selfish in our particular ways. There are pundits and politicians who hold rallies designed to break the backs of unions. Without these unions many of us would be without healthcare and retirement benefits. But some of the unions fail to acknowledge the scores of workers who don’t form unions because they lack the leverage with their employer.
The American worker is in crisis. I can’t begin to tell you how much of the manufacturing which occurs in the United States is performed by prison inmates. The only sector which remains for us to work through is the ‘service’ component. We all can’t be waiters and waitresses while others manufacture the goods we consume. Something will have to give sooner than later.
In the meantime, make sure you visit the polls in November and let your voice be heard that you support ALL workers in America.
…..it’s so nice to see dp.com back in action
DP– there’s a new book out by Brooklyn historian Philip Dray that’s… not a light read but a very engaging, important one–
http://www.amazon.com/There-Power-Union-Story-America/dp/0385526296
Civil Rights and black history folks might know Dray’s previous books, like “At The Hands of Persons Unknown” (a history of lynching) and “Capitol Men” (about the first black congressmen) etc.
One of the worst things this country has suffered is highly divisive class warfare, i.e. poor and working class against each other and… for fucking what?
Also, as bad the worst unions are (and of course there’s corruption, & of course some idiots are wrongly protected), they’re better than the bosses and the venal politicians who’ll sell them (us) out at every turn.
A. Philip Randolph FTW!!
WSW,
It always blows my mind how many Americans will fight against things that would increase their own quality of life, like healthcare or education opportunities, simply because they don’t want ‘the other’ to receive the same benefits.
We are divided by class, complexion and complicity all boiled up in a conundrum cook up pot. I don’t know how we have gotten this far.
“We are divided by class, complexion and complicity all boiled up in a conundrum cook up pot.”
Love that.
“We are divided by class, complexion and complicity all boiled up in a conundrum cook up pot. I don’t know how we have gotten this far.”
^ truth.org
I actually see education going back to way it was b4 public funding…u know, cool, if not, FU.
We stay with the “crabs in a barrel” mentality.
speaking labor & education… a little long but worth the reading. part of the history that should be taught and rarely is.
***
Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865
To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee
Sir: I got your letter and was glad to find you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Col. Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.
I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here; I get $25 a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy, —the folks here call her Mrs. Anderson),—and the children—Milly, Jane and Grundy—go to school and are learning well; the teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday- School, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated; sometimes we overhear others saying, “Them colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks, but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Col. Anderson. Many darkies would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now, if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.
As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost- Marshal- General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you are sincerely disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages has been kept back and deduct what you paid for our clothing and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night, but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.
In answering this letter please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve, and die if it comes to that, than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood, the great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.
P.S. —Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.
From your old servant,
Jourdon Anderson
^ It’s remarkable how much things change they invariably remain the same
make weed legal we wouldn’t have half these problems.
Ballplayers – American Worker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otsxWh7fSes