A Different Kind of Labor Day

To the Editor: 
For most of us, Labor Day is part of the three-day weekend that ends our summer vacations. For many, it is a day of barbecues, baseball, beaches, and boats. For others, it is shopping, packing, and getting kids ready for school.
Labor Day today is exactly what most mainstream American labor unions like the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had in mind when they created this new American holiday in the 1880’s. They wanted American workers to have another day off between July 4 and Thanksgiving. It was to celebrate and enjoy the incredible prosperity and leisure most workers had in America.
However, a minority of radical Chicago based unions wanted American workers to observe a much different kind of holiday May 1. They wanted workers to remember the deadly “Haymarket” riots of May 1886 with marches, protests, and demands for political action.
That was part of much bigger disputes within the American labor movement between 1880 and 1930.
The Chicago radicals later became known as socialists. They saw themselves as part of a worldwide movement to organize workers.
As with most unions in Europe, their goal was to take over the government and all major industries. European socialists succeeded in Russia in 1918 (Lenin’s communists), Italy in 1922 (Mussolini’s fascists), and Germany in 1933 (Hitler’s “National Socialists”).
Mainstream American labor unions, like the AFL, took an opposite approach. They did not want to run the industries they worked for. They wanted private owners to grow, expand, and make large profits. They wanted workers to share those profits in the form of higher wages and more time off.
The main political goal of American labor unions between 1880 and 1920 was to put limits on the number of new immigrants coming to America. Unions blamed too many immigrants for keeping wages down. In 1920, they won that battle.
From 1920 to 1965, new laws limited legal immigration to roughly 300,000 per year, and those laws were enforced. Fewer immigrants caused American industries to use new inventions to boost production. This gave American workers better skills and the biggest increase in income and living standards in history.
Ironically, many radical Democrats today are demanding the same things that mainstream American unions rejected during the past 130 years. One of those things is the international Labor Day May 1.
ED. NOTE: Grossman is the Republican candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District.