Free Republic

May Day originated in the U.S., specifically Chicago, as a commemoration of the Haymarket Riot of 1886. The riot revolved around the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions demanding an eight-hour work day. Because of its leftist overtones, the May Day celebration was later endorsed by socialist, communist and anarchist groups. The Soviet Union’s co-opting of the holiday and the subsequent “Red Scare” in the United States ended up with the U.S. distancing itself from May Day. The U.S. later established a different date – in September – with which to celebrate the efforts of the American worker. It’s...

The Democratic Party: Left Behind By Thomas Lifson Sunday, July 31, 2005 The Democratic Party just took a body blow this week, deepening the crisis of the American Left. The historic split of organized labor which took place Monday will slash the Democrats' cash flow and remove thousands of “volunteer” union workers for the nuts and bolts work of organizing political campaigns and getting out the vote. Even worse is the danger of infighting. With their uneasy coalition of blacks, Jews, gays, and feminists, to name just a few, Democrats do not want to see infighting become a popular mode...

Forgotten Facts of American Labor History by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. [November 22, 2004] Just about everything that people think they know about labor unions and wage rates is wrong. The standard tale that practically every student hears over the course of his education is that before the emergence of labor unions, American workers were terribly exploited and their wages were consistently falling. The improvement in labor's condition was due entirely or at least in large part to labor unionism and favorable federal legislation. In the absence of these, it is widely assumed, people would still be working 80-hour weeks...

<p>The summer is bookended by Memorial and Labor days. During the former we honor those who died to defend the freedoms by which labor can seek its maximum value and reward.</p> <p>Yet, while we will enjoy the holiday, we won't glorify the coercion of closed shops. We will not break out the champagne for the steel tariffs -- that protect the few at the expense of the many as war persists half a world away.</p>

Unions: Now that organized labor has settled into the public sector, it's less of a counterweight to private capital and more of a thorn in the taxpayer's side.A lot of history goes into Labor Day, along with a touch of irony. The holiday was conceived more than a century ago by workers who were fighting to organize for better wages and a better life. But the same labor movement that invented this delightful day off in the fading glow of late summer has itself been fading — with one notable exception.These days, most American workers to whom this day is...

<p>I don't mean at all to be a killjoy here, and mean even less to suggest that the holiday be abolished, but I can't help thinking that Labor Day -- in its origins no better than a kind of blue-collar Kwanzaa -- ought to be regarded with a dash of skepticism.</p>

Union UBy Steven MalangaCity Journal | July 23, 2003 Just when you thought America’s universities—with their multiculti curricula, anti-Americanism, and intolerance of open debate—couldn’t possibly get any more radical and partisan, along comes the next new thing: the labor movement’s successful effort to co-opt academic departments and programs on campuses from coast to coast.For years, universities have offered courses in “labor studies,” often taught by ardent labor movement activists. But ever since the mid-1990s, when the labor movement began to revive under the leadership of AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney, these departments have grown in importance, nurtured by a new generation...

<p>The U.N. International Labor Organization, winner of the 1946 Nobel Peace Prize, was founded in 1919. It is the only surviving major creation of the Treaty of Versailles that brought the League of Nations into being, and it became the first specialized agency of the U.N. in 1946. Its self-described mandate is to promote social justice and internationally recognized human and labor rights.</p>

Rumors of Karl Marx’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Despite the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet communism, the Old Man is alive and kicking. Indeed, among historians of American labor history, Marx is King and Adam Smith has never been heard of. This will not come as a surprise to readers of Frontpage Magazine, who well know that much of the academic world is dominated by militant left-wing apologists for terrorism. These leftists deny the existence of truth or advocate for the study of anything but Western civilization (unless, of course, one proposes to study...