“Observations”

by: Donald S. Conkey

Date: August28, 2008 - # 8835 - Labor Day Weekend (816)

Monday is Labor Day 2008. Other than a national holiday that anchors our summer how many know how Labor Day evolved or what it represents?  Believe-it-or-not Labor Day was intended to be more than the American holiday to kick off another college football season.

However, it should be remembered for what it was intended — a day to honor the working men and women of America; the workers who built America with their labor and helped America become a free nation.

 The evolution of the labor movement has been filled with opposition, often deadly opposition. Giving laborers rights was unheard of when skilled workers first began to organize in the mid 1800s.  This was radical thinking and was strongly opposed by capitalists. But America was building something no nation had ever built before, a nation of free people, people who wanted to share in the dreams and wealth being made possible by America’s new constitutional government. Workers organized. Management resisted. Government, until the 1880s sided with management. But things began to change, and skilled labor began to organize and the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was born — the beginning of the labor movement in America.

Non-skilled workers tried to organize but without success until Michigan’s Governor Frank Murphy, in 1937, brought in the National Guard to protect the strikers against management’s oppressive thugs. From that event came the United Auto Workers (UAW). Labor had finally won a place at the table and soon, with government help, became powerful, and at times abusive. Sometimes labor misused its power and formidable political clout and America’s industrial management knew labor was at the table.

New laws were passed as labor fought its way to the bargaining table based on America’s unique Constitution. But labor had not been the only group left out. African Americans and Native Americans were still on the outside looking in — looking for recognition and justice. There were still ‘mountains of equality to climb,’ with new unknown equality mountains left for the next generation’s movements to climb.

Those labor leaders understood Jefferson’s words in the Declaration: “that when ever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government ...” Few people fully comprehend these powerful words, and how they should be used when any segment of America’s government becomes too oppressive or unresponsive, as in today’s secular society.

The labor movement since 1937 and the civil rights movement since the Civil War are examples of what can happen, and will happen when people are oppressed for too long. Those oppressed bond together and call upon their God for deliverance trusting in the goodness of humankind - and backed up with strong constitutional and court support, a Constitution raised up by God for the express purpose of ending slavery — in all its ugly forms. These oppressed rose to their feet saying “enough is enough,” and subjected themselves to beatings, water hoses, dog attacks and jail. They won and America changed again.

Each movement has its own leaders. Labor’s was Samuel Gompers, John L. Lewis, and Clarence Darrow, among others. For the Civil Rights movement Martin Luther King was in the right place at the right time with his “I Have A Dream” speech that unified that movement — and later solidified it after his assassination.

Movements have come and gone over the years. Every generation has its own ‘movement’ that require “we the people” to deal with. Self -government has never been easy and unless the people fully comprehend the foundational principles of freedom embedded by Thomas Jefferson in his Declaration of Independence the liberties we all cherish so much can be quickly lost as they have been in times past.

The labor and Civil Rights movements were only two of the many challenges that caused the principles of America’s freedom to stretch – but never break - yet.  However, some believe that breaking point is close at hand with the Constitution now hanging by a slender thread. Historically most of those challenges America faced were external. Today some see America’s primary challenge as internal. In olden times free nations have always self-destructed from within. Ignorance of the source of a nation’s freedoms, pride and greed are the primary culprits that cause nations to self-destruct from within: always has been, always will be.

Many see restoring those principles of freedom deeply embedded in its foundational documents to be the great challenge that will face the current and upcoming generations. If history is a judge this generation will meet that challenge and reinstate those principles that created our nation of freedoms unheard of anywhere in the world. Indeed this will be a work worthy of a free people.

Can America again rise to the challenge and protect their God given freedoms? We all hope so on this Labor Day 2008, a day to remember those who “labor” to protect America’s freedoms.