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So I have been doing some reading into the history of the Union Movement. Of course that means Samuel Gompers, and the American Federation of Labor... way before the AFL-CIO... as in WAY BEFORE, by about forty years or so. The latter is the successor of the American Federation.
Gompers was writing in the 1880s and writing about the need for ALL unions to work together for a cause, or face defeat... (I could have written this today, since we have quite a bit of splintering).
He also wrote about the needs to create INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS to fight Capital... something I have been advocating...
What is said is that Gompers was writing at a time when the ten hour day was common, as well as the 12 hour day, sun up to sun down... and the dream of the eight hour day was a central organizing principle of American labor. It was also a time when the early efforts to discredit the Unions as socialists and anarchists were well under way.
Well on to the present.
Today the Union movement has been discredited by a RIGHT WING that has even gotten the workers to swallow this labor organizing is bad for you shtick. We even see it here, now that the NEA is in the cross hairs... and I got to wonder, if Gompers is doing more than just somersaults in his grave. Regardless, we are at a point where we need to decide to organize once again, (and for individual unions to stop the infighting) or just give up. I really wonder, but readying Gompers I see how much we are already losing from that fight, and so many folks are on true denial that we are losing ground FAST.
Sad, isn't it?
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