Americans don’t fully recognize the importance of labor or the potential combined political power of working people. Or maybe we have simply allowed ourselves to be persuaded that that’s a “far-left” viewpoint.
Somehow it’s only class warfare when workers make their demands known.
Throughout the world, and in Europe particularly, May Day (or International Workers’ Day) is celebrated with displays of unity and power, such as today’s protests in France against President Macron’s decree raising the French retirement age.
Meanwhile, in the US, GOP-controlled states are rolling back worker protections, including those barring child labor.
For the most part it is anathema — or down-right “communist” — to point out the degree of exploitation of workers in America.
A new book by Melissa Hope Ditmore, a scholar who focuses on sex trafficking, makes the observation that sex and human trafficking are not all that different from the routine exploitation of workers. “Trafficking into agricultural, industry, and domestic work has always received scant attention compared with trafficking into sex work, despite its enormous scale and impact on the economy,” Ditmore writes.
Many of these most difficult jobs are still exempted from Social Security benefits created under the New Deal — which incidentally occurred during Jim Crow. Domestic laborers, nannies, lettuce pickers, elder care workers, house cleaners, teacher’s aides, and non-professional workers in the medical industry are all low-paid, mainly female and, more often than not, exploited. This extends to immigrants and the working poor who toil in the so-called “Gig economy” — basically piecework jobs that exclude them from full benefits.
In the worst days of the pandemic, the elderly and immune-compromised, in particular, depended on “gig economy” delivery services. We depended upon checkout clerks who did not have the luxury of working from home. These and the millions of healthcare workers who went to work every day, running the risk of contracting a virus for which there was then no immunization or treatment, were the real heroes of the day.
All over America, often in abysmal and unsafe working conditions, agricultural workers kept supply chains running so that the more privileged could continue to buy meats and vegetables even as the pandemic raged.
And across the country, particularly in Florida, being a teacher has now become a virtually impossible job for those who believe in teaching the truth and protecting vulnerable students. This is a profession that has never been adequately compensated, but is now literally under attack.
We are in the habit of reflexively thanking servicemen for participating in fairly questionable foreign wars and adventures, but we never thank the real heroes for their service. So in the absence of widespread May Day celebrations, I’m raising a toast tonight to the workers of the world and the power and remuneration they so richly deserve.
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