Reflections on the Long March of Socialism: Labor Day, 1894 to 2021

By Dennis Jamison —— Bio and Archives September 7, 2021

Comments | Print This | Subscribe | Email Us

There are diverse views on the Labor Day holiday, but not many Americans today know the turbulent and violent foundation of this federal holiday. Labor Day was not just created as a nice idea by labor union officials to honor the efforts of laborers; it was born from the heat and intense political friction of the summer of 1894. And in 2020, the fruition of over 100 years of plotting, toil, and strife paid off in one of the greatest thefts in history -- and they got away with it.  

Big Labor marches on - despite the destruction of jobs, or the eradication of American values through socialist goals

In November of 2020, Big Labor made a nefarious contribution to the efforts of obtaining the election for Joe Biden. Molly Ball's lengthy article in Time Magazine titled, "The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election," reveals real specifics about the shadow conspirators. While Ball admits that "much of this activity took place on the left…" the primary organizer, or "architect," of the conspiracy was Mike Podhorzer, who serves as the senior adviser to the president of the AFL-CIO, the late Richard Trumka. Today, the AFL-CIO is the largest union federation in America consisting of 55 labor unions, representing 12.5 million members.  It is understandable that Podhorzer would have been trusted with such a mission. At the AFL-CIO, he is the "lead architect for the strategy to expand labor's political reach to all of America's working families, whether or not they are covered by collective bargaining agreements." -- Whether they like it or not, whether thousands of jobs were lost due to Biden's cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office. Big Labor marches on - despite the destruction of jobs, or the eradication of American values through socialist goals. Labor unions in general have had socialist ties dating back to the roots of their growth after our Civil War, and more specifically in the 1880s. The mild and mellow presentation of the history of Labor Day beginning with the first Labor Day parade in New York City on September 5, 1882, is not the beginning of the national holiday that American citizens celebrate today. It is the sanitized version. The national holiday was created by the Democrat Party in 1894 in order to appease big labor and to secure the mutual interdependence between Democrat leaders and Big Labor. It provided voters for the Democrats and the political clout for which Big Labor hungered. In the hot summer months of 1894, in the midst of the worst economic Depression prior to the Great Depression, an American Railway Union strike spread from Chicago to St. Louis and quickly swept through the entire country like a California wildfire in dry summer heat. At its peak, the strike, led by ARU leader Eugene V. Debs, exploded to include 250,000 workers across 27 states. It crippled the nation's rail transportation. The massive and destructive strike was crushed by Grover Cleveland sending Federal troops into the Chicago area. But sadly, before the strike officially ended approximately 30 people, including 13 strikers, had been killed, and in all, 57 people had been injured or wounded. Mobs caused about $340,000 (equivalent to roughly $80 million today) of property damage. Ironically, on Independence Day in 1894, President Cleveland deployed 12,000 U.S. Army troops to end the violent clashes between the strikers and local authorities and to restore order. On July 6th, a violent mob stoned a train, killing the engineer and injuring many passengers. The violence spread to many cities and the public became worried about the chaos. At this time, the AFL and Samuel Gompers, as well as other various railroad brotherhoods, opposed the ARU strike and denounced the sabotage and rioting. Fortunately, it was not long before the Army managed to take control of the unruly mobs. Debs and three additional union leaders   were arrested on July 10th for interfering with the delivery of the U. S. mail. Eventually, the  Army could withdraw by July 19th.

2020 also represents a significant turning point: the sleeping giant of the "Silent Majority" has been awakened. It is unlikely that giant will go back to sleep soon

Yet, within six days of the strike's end, Democrat President Grover Cleveland signed a bill that recognized Labor Day as an official U.S. holiday. The bill had been rushed through Congress and had received bipartisan support. However, President Grover Cleveland had committed a political "cardinal sin." Democrat Cleveland, like Truman, took a strong stand against Big Labor. Democrats in the 53^rd Congress were scared to death they would pay the price for Cleveland's sin. They rushed a bill to the floor that had been languishing in a pile of potential legislation for quite awhile. The bill gained GOP support and was unanimously approved. The date was set  for the first Monday in September although there had been discussion about selecting May 1 because certain Socialist elements in the labor movement preferred to celebrate the holiday on International Workers Day. Cleveland, a good Democrat, went along with his Party's urgency and within a mere six days after the strike ended, he signed the bill. But, he was ostracized by the Democrats for his sin of interfering in the intent and serious efforts of Big Labor. Yet, he succeeded in getting the date separated from the May 1 celebration of International Workers Day because he was concerned that observance of Labor Day on that day would be linked to the more radical Socialist and Communist elements that had rallied together on May 1, 1894 to commemorate the Haymarket Square Riot, which had also taken place in Chicago during his previous administration. He was somewhat aware that in that time, Chicago was a hotbed of Socialist and Communist activity. Ironically, in the aftermath of that turbulent summer of 1894, Cleveland became the goat of his Party. Especially Democrat John Altgeld, the governor of Illinois and Democrat John Hopkins, the mayor of Chicago, were outraged as the President sent troops into Chicagoland. Cleveland, clearly unwilling to allow Big Labor to have its way, was deemed too conservative for his own Party. The two influential Illinois Democrats, along with a majority of Democrats across the country, refused to support any hope Cleveland had for re-election. Cleveland successfully took responsibility to end one of the most violent strikes in U.S. history that had directly affected the welfare of American citizens and had restored order. But in the process, he had angered Big Labor, and his Party. Perhaps the biggest irony was that Eugene Debs was transformed into a Socialist hero. While Cleveland would never again run for president, Debs got to run for president several times. In the aftermath of that turbulent summer of 1894, Debs was arrested and served six months in prison. During his incarceration, he studied the writings of Karl Marx and came to believe that American workers would not get what they deserved until through elections they could eventually gain control of governmental power themselves and then they could begin the process of replacing capitalism with socialism. Indeed, they never gave up their fight in  their long march toward dominion.  This history represents a turning point in U.S. political history, although many would not acknowledge nor teach this. The seeds of socialist dominion were planted in 1894. And via the victory in 2020, they are even more emboldened as Molly Ball's article claims a substantial victory. Yet, socialists still march toward absolute dominion. Nevertheless, the real fight going forward is not between socialism and capitalism. That's a diversion. The real fight is between socialism and freedom. Today, there are plenty of freedom-loving American citizens who realize this on one level or another. They are now diligently starting their own march forward in the long fight to retain freedom, to retain the Republic and the ideals at the nation's foundation. In a very real sense,

2020 also represents a significant turning point: the sleeping giant of the "Silent Majority" has been awakened. It is unlikely that giant will go back to sleep soon

.