May Day Then and Now: Demanding the Impossible
By Jim Miller
Today is International Workers Day when we should all remember the folks who brought us the weekend. Rather than a legacy of the former Soviet Union, it is a holiday with deep American roots.
In 1886, workers in Chicago called for a General Strike on May 1st, and they vowed not to return to their jobs unless employers agreed to an eight-hour day. While this struggle ended in violence in Haymarket Square and resulted in the unjust execution of several immigrant workers, it must be noted that Americans would never have gotten the basic workplace rights they enjoy today were it not for the radical demands of these early advocates for workers’ rights.
While there is much to be said about the significance of the history of May Day and the Haymarket martyrs, what is particularly noteworthy at this moment in time is that what we now consider basic rights were once radical demands that the robber barons of the first Gilded Age fought with everything they had.
But what the workers in the eight-hour day movement were struggling for was not just the bread and butter demands that took center stage, but the even more daring idea that ordinary working people should have a role to play in American life and the accompanying notion that economic rights were central to a real, thoroughgoing democracy.
During this earlier period of American history, unionists, populists, and others who believed in small “d” democracy were disturbed by the accumulation of vast wealth and political power by the very rich who they compared to King George, while framing their struggle as one of “wealth versus commonwealth.”
The answer to this was to build a union movement and push for a government that represented the people, not just the rich and the emerging corporate lords of the American economy. The kind of concentrated power they saw building was the central obstacle to real democracy and the ability of working people to have any dignity and autonomy in the workplace and/or voice in the political arena.
One does not need to read Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century to see the obvious parallels to our own age in this history. But what, in our new Gilded Age, can workers, unions, and others who are concerned with the current, dangerous level of economic inequality and subsequent failing health of American democracy do to contest it?
One big, very encouraging thing is already happening as support for unions is surging across the country, with American approval of labor unions now at the highest level it has been for decades.
This new enthusiasm for unions, however, will not be sufficient on its own unless it is accompanied by persistent efforts at the local, state, and national levels to break down the legal, economic, and political barriers to organizing. The desire to have a union is not enough if we continue to allow employers to undermine what should be a basic human right.
Another task lies inside the labor movement and the progressive community as a whole: develop and grow a larger sense of solidarity. Just as the old Knights of Labor had a broad view of who a “producer” was, the contemporary labor movement needs to enlarge its circle, support community allies, and commit to a deep social justice unionism that incorporates the concerns of all working people whether they are fortunate enough to be in a union or not.
Those outside the labor movement also need to understand how a progressivism that ignores economics and/or undermines unions is not, in fact, progressive. We also need to think beyond nationalism and realize that since capital has no borders neither should social movements.
Finally, we need to remember, as the folks who struggled for the eight-hour day did, that class matters. The historic level of economic inequality we now face is not just an obstacle to unionization, it is a threat to democracy itself.
Racial, gender, and other forms of inequality intersect with and are exacerbated by deep economic inequities. The rich and the corporate sector are also by far the biggest contributors to catastrophic climate change and can better insulate themselves from its dire effects.
Consequently, if we want to win the future, we need to talk about redistributing wealth openly and honestly through progressive taxation and roll back the top-down class war that has obscenely concentrated wealth at the top over the last several decades.
Progressive labor should also start discussing things like a universal basic income, a shorter work week, and more flexible arrangements on the job. Unions need to include things like housing, transportation, and childcare in negotiations. It’s also important that a more robust social safety net be part of what worker justice means in an era where there may be less work and more unemployment and inequality due to technological disruption of many traditional jobs.
We need a new kind of workplace that puts humans first and moves beyond grind culture to a better quality of life for everyone in every sector of the economy.
In sum, be bold. As the old labor song put it when no one thought it possible, “We mean to make things over.”
For those interested in learning more about the history of May Day stop by the UFCW 135 Hall (2001 Camino del Rio S, San Diego, 92108) on Monday May 1st at 2:30 for this short documentary: