Labor Day 2010

The American holiday for labor was originally conceived in Canada and became a national holiday in the U.S. after President Grover Cleveland ordered Federal troops to put down the Pullman strike in Illinois in 1894.It was hoped this would garner support in the upcoming Presidential election that year(he lost). Since then organized labor has waxed and now mostly waned. American industry has been hollowed out, sent overseas, and ceased to be a meaningful part of the economy while financialization has run amuck. The idea of an eight hour day is now a historical anomaly while debt-burdened American workers try to hold onto whatever they can. With this the quaint notion of a single wage earner actually supporting their family is now pretty much unheard of while corporate supported politicians get elected supporting so-called family values. Strange Days indeed.