The truth is that labor has to up its game. To do that, we need a mix of the old and lots of innovation. It’s disturbing to admit, but we’ve been out-organized on what should be our home turf. That’s nothing for the nation to celebrate. As goes labor, goes the soul of working America.
The good news is that we have the opportunity for blue-collar families to raise their united voices, and change the agenda of greed. That requires re-awakening a sense among working people that they are working people first. Working people in the full sense of our personhood. The labor movement has been boxed into a role as an economic up lifter. While critically important, that doesn’t do justice to labors role in our society. History tells us that labor succeeded in America because it offered so much more. Prosperity, opportunity, social equality, safe workplaces, old age security, health security and an agenda that legitimized and gave some permanence to our gains through legislation.
The hardest work is re-enthusing working people with the sense that we do, in fact, have the power to change things. That’s frankly a fight with ourselves. Right now, people are looking for short-cuts, scapegoats and finding someone who will fix things for us. The power of labor comes from just the opposite. Labor succeeded because its activists were in for the long-haul. We succeeded because we pulled together lots of different kinds of people and organized into a common cause. We succeeded because we realized no one was going to fix it for us and we had to believe enough in each other to go get the job done right. Labor isn’t about Messiah’s. It’s about building a movement.
