Labor Power

ANDREW CARNEGIE was a great and successful man. He was one of those people who did not mind cleaning toilets when he was young, becuase he understood that it would lead to bigger and better things as he got older. And indeed it did.

Oftentimes mundane labor alienates young people from work and success, but not people like andrew carnegie. in carnegie's day the predominant attitude was laissez faire, social darwinism, dog eat dog, every man for himself, work your way up, anyone with authority earned it, and is free to use the authority as he sees fit.

Whatever wage you earned, it was fair, because you accepted the job, you didn't have to.

Working consitions for workers, laborers, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century were, by today's standards, atrocious, (as were working conditions throughout all of history). By the standards of the time, working conditions were only mildy atrocious, but unacceptable, nonetheless.

Labor unions began in mid nineteenth century factory restrooms, and lunchrooms. Workers uniting and working together to communicate with the bosses as a group, discussions of such things, was highly risky, and could involve loss of job, physical abuse, or withholding of pay.

It was no fun forming the first labor unnions, and extremely dangerous. From the beginning unions were regarded by the powers that be, the ruling wealthy corporate oligarchy and their media pawns, as illegal, subsersive, criminal conspiracies.

The history of industrial america is brutal and horrendous, particularly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when labor strikes were endemic, and the corporataions and government used brutal violence to end strikes and destroy labor unions.

That reactionary, twisted attitude persists to this day, and labor unions are weaker than ever, because corporate ownership power is greater than ever. We have shortened the work week, improved working conditions and benefits, to a degree, but corporations own and control america more than ever before.

Labor Day in america can proudly claim that labor conditions have improved, somewhat. May the plague of fair labor conquer the entire world.

Bb

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