Thread by @rahaeli

if you have off from work today, btw, thank a "violent" "leftist" protesting the "wrong way": en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_S…

Labor Day exists because Pullman rail workers got fed up of high housing & living costs in the company town they were forced to live in.

If you don't know what a company town is, it's hard to find a good overview today. Why? Because history is written by the ruling class...

that built those towns. I went looking for a good overview. I found sites describing them as "planned utopias", "marvels of urban design"

Imagine your employer owns your house. Your grocery store. Your utility providers. Your transportation. Your kids' schools. Everything.

Imagine they don't pay you in money. They pay you in "scrip": fake money you can only use at their stores, for their housing, etc

Imagine the only food you can buy is overpriced, terrible quality slop that might not even be available at any given time.

Imagine that if you complain about how your boss treats you, you'll not only get fired, you'll be homeless and broke and starving.

Imagine that your boss is the only employer in your town, where your whole social support network is, and getting fired means you lose it...

as well as having no chance to get another job (because the company controls every single employment option where you are)

Imagine you can't save up money to move and get a better job, because you're paid in scrip that's worthless anywhere else.

"Saint Peter, don't you call me cause I can't go; I owe my soul to the company store". Ever really think about the lyrics to 16 Tons?

Now imagine that when you ask your boss to change things, they ignore you. Then they fire you. Then they bring in people who they treat...

worse than you, whose side you should be on, and tell you it's all their fault, they took your jobs. (Hmm. Sounds familiar...)

You get upset. You get angry. You're hungry, homeless, and don't know what you're doing next. You get madder. You break a few windows...

...and set a few fires, because your boss has all the power here and if you can't make them change, you can at least make them pay.

You say, if the railroad won't stop exploiting your body for its profits, you'll shut the railroad down, with that body if necessary.

So they send the Army and the US Marshalls to kill you, in defense of the property and profit of the railroad. And -- guess what?

The public is on the side of the railroad and the government. How dare those unamerican traitors disrupt American commerce?

Why don't they just ask peacefully? Why don't they just get a new job? What good is violence going to do? It's just alienating people.

Grover Cleveland named Labor Day a federal holiday in hopes of getting the labor movement to shut up & stop reminding ppl of its martyrs.

It wasn't to honor the dead of the Pullman strike. Not really. It was to try to pacify growing demand for economic justice & worker rights.

It worked, long term, really. How many of you ever heard of the Pullman strike, much less knew it was the origins of Labor Day?

"reading my US history textbook I got history of the ruling class [...] generals & the industrialists & Presidents who didn't get caught."

(That's from Utah Phillips; longer quote is in synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/685580.html . The long memory is the most radical idea in America.)

Today, while you're grilling burgers and relaxing, take a moment to honor those killed by their country for wanting economic justice.

Even -- especially -- if they set a few things on fire in the process. Then read Eugene Debs on the matter: marxists.org/history/usa/pa…

Then call your reps & ask them to #FightFor15 and protect DREAMers by passing the DREAM act. Because the past didn't go anywhere.

And if you've ever complained about #BlackLivesMatter blocking highways or antifa blocking speeches, you'd better not have taken today off.

Because you wouldn't have the day off of it weren't for the 1894 equivalent.

& don't forget the people who have off today are not the working class. Treat your service workers well if you go out today. And overtip.