Labor Day

Gonzo

Infinitesimally Outrageous
Staff member
Congratulations to us all-

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held
its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, l883.
In l884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example
of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations,
and in l885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
"Labor Day differs in every essential from the other holidays of the year in any country," said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. "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 dead, to no sect, race, or nation."
The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy.
It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership -- the American worker.


shortened from the original-
From: [email protected] (ricardo a gonzalez)
Subject: THE HISTORY OF LABOR DAY
Date: 1999/09/02
Newsgroups: soc.culture.cuba
X-Admin: [email protected]
 

unclehobart

this is my special title
That's all the complete and utter BS textbook lie. Labor Day was created as a wedge against socialist European May Day observances by ...I think, Grover Cleveland as an attempt to buy labor votes for his upcoming presidential election as a matter of sheer appeasement to corrupt union war machines. It didn't help. He lost the election. At least 4 presidents have attempted to change the name and the day since... including Kennedy and FDR. Don't let anyone try to convince you that it was created out of any sense of nobility or pride.
 

unclehobart

this is my special title
Gullibility isn't the word. The real reasons behind anything is lost to the sands of time. It isn't 'profitable' to politicians or retailers to tell anything other than modified lies that portray anything in other than a rosy light. Its just not good business to rock the boat.
 

Gonzo

Infinitesimally Outrageous
Staff member
Being one of the most dis-trustful of government people that you'll ever talk to, concede the fact that there HAS to be more behind anything they "allow" us to do. I also believe that labor unions have run thier course as helpers of the man & are now conglomerates unto themselves, only after the bucks of thier members & whatever cash flow they may finagle from the government.
Unfortunately, with a wealthy nation, comes a degree of laziness & ineptitude. We, as a people, have very little knowledge of our collective past, outside the pap that you learn in history class in jr high, economics and sociology in high school. So, I figured it would be nice to post a very short history lesson on why we have the day off...Full of ideology-yes, does it tell the whole story-of course not, that would be a text book of conflicting ideals. Either way, let's not forget the symbolic reason-US, the workers bee's.
 

unclehobart

this is my special title
...of course this only applies to us yanks in the states. Don't want to alienate our Labatts guzzling bretheren to the north. ;)
 
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