The Real History of Labor Day and the War on American Workers

By Brynne VanHettinga

Today's headlines focus on the loss of decent jobs, stagnating real wages, and Supreme Court split decisions that are bad for working people. We might think this is due to a post-Great Recession economy or to decades of downsizing and offshoring, and the job market will eventually get better. Yet, even many economists say this jobless and wageless "recovery" is likely to represent a new normal. What no one talks about is that a more subtle, but effective, war against workers has been going on for over a century.

 

In the early days of industrialization, striking workers were shot by corporate-sponsored vigilantes or rounded up at gunpoint and deported. Once beaten into submission, workers were easier to control and armed forces were only necessary to break the occasional strike. The "law" took care of the rest. 

Today, the submission of workers is accomplished more easily because we have been propagandized to see each other as the enemy. No matter who you are--white or black, man or women, native or immigrant--or even who wins the next election--most of us are going to be working harder for less.

 

The War on American Workers tells  the REAL history of Labor Day and working Americans that is conveniently left out of our history books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brynne VanHettinga
• Release date: Jun 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781732285620

Book preview

The REAL History of Labor Day and the War on American Workers

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Brynne Vanhettinga, J.D., M.P.A., Ph.D.

Copyright © 2018 by Brynne VanHettinga

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All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-7322856-2-0 

Questions, comments or requests to the author for speaking engagements, email: [e-mail]

Educational and non-profit organizations seeking multiple copies may contact the author for discounted pricing.

For more by this author visit https://www.books4thinkers.com

Other Books by this Author

Full Length Books

The Great Jobs Deception: Why More Workforce Education Will Not Solve the Problem of Inadequate Jobs  (2018)

Why Assholes Rule the World (2019)

Good People, Evil Society: A Philosophical and Moral Inquiry (2021)

EBooks

Campaign Finance Reform: The Shifting and Ambiguous Line Between Where Money Talks and Speech is Free

Survival in the Gig Economy  or get it Free by visiting www.books4thinkers.com

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Mike Konopacki, Bob Englehart, and the friendly folks at Cagle Cartoons, who provided reprint permissions for the insightful graphic editorials.

"The property which every man has in his own labor, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable."

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Why We Recognize Labor Day

Citizens Become Workers

The War on Workers Begins

Lawmen and Presidents Chose Sides in the War on Workers

The Rule of Law: Another Casualty of the War on Workers

Decreasing Standard of Living and Worker Well-Being

Modern Tactics in the War on Workers

We Have Met the Enemy and It is Us

What’s Next for Working Americans?

Also by this Author

Why We Recognize Labor Day

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LABOR DAY!  Summer is defined by such uniquely American holidays—a season which unofficially begins with Memorial Day, is marked in the approximate middle by the Fourth of July and unofficially ends with Labor Day. The Fourth of July celebrates our victory in the war for independence as a nation. Memorial Day honors citizens who have given their lives while serving in our armed forces.  Labor Day, however, is not generally associated with images of war, strife and revolution.

According to Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor, "Labor Day differs in every essential way from other holidays of the year in any country...All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is devoted to no man, living or