Labor Day in the U.S. celebrates the achievements of workers and their unions — including securing the eight-hour work day, the weekend, safer working conditions, ending child labor, the right to organize a union, and the on-going struggle for political and economic democracy for working people.

The first campaigner for Labor Day, Peter J. McGuire, was a socialist carpenter and a founder of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. He began organizing for Labor Day in 1882 and contributed as an editor of The Toiler magazine, a socialist newspaper at the time.

The history of Labor Day, like all events in our country’s historical development, is contradictory. The U.S. government, preferring not to recognize May Day, designated International Workers Day by the Second International in honor of the May 1st strike for the eight-hour workday and the Haymarket incident in 1886 in Chicago. U.S. President Grover Cleveland signed Congressional legislation on June 28, 1894, designating Labor Day as the first Monday in September.

One week later, President Cleveland sent federal troops to Chicago to break the strike of railroad workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company. The major upheaval of railroad workers became known as the Pullman Strike, in which socialist Eugene V. Debs played a significant role.

On the first day of the strike, about 5,000 workers walked off the job and 15 railroads were impacted. By the following day, 40,000 workers had gone on strike, causing rail traffic chaos on all lines west of Chicago. On the third day, the number of strikers had risen to 100,000 and at least 20 lines were either halted or disrupted.

By the end of the strike, 125,000 workers from 29 railroads had left their positions rather than handle Pullman cars. The federal government sent troops to crush the strike and the Pullman corporation only agreed to rehire the striking workers on the condition that they sign a pledge never to join a union.

Much like then, today’s labor movement is presented with significant challenges by the capitalist system. The capitalist class seeks to weaken our labor movement and roll back the gains we’ve won as a result of class struggle. The most reactionary section of the ruling class, represented by the Trump forces, the GOP, and their fascist agenda of Project 2025, seeks to gut the power of our unions altogether. It is imperative that the working class led by the most organized section, the trade union movement, take leadership in the fight against fascism and defend democracy.

Project 2025 intends to make it easier for employers to dissolve workers’ unions during the life of a contract. It will ban public employee unions, including teachers, government employees, and post office workers. It would allow states to prohibit labor unions, eliminate overtime protections, and choose not to comply with the national minimum wage — already egregiously low. Even more concerning, it will eliminate child labor rules that safeguard children from working in dangerous environments like mines and meatpacking plants.

The trade union movement has been sounding the alarm bells on Project 2025 since the document has been released:

“They want to backtrack all the gains we’ve made as working people…. They don’t want us to go back just a few steps,” Kenny Cooper, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said. “They would rather erase us and silence all workers. They want the rules rigged for Corporate America.”

“They want to take away our rights, take our unions away, and make us invisible,” said Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME.

“Project 2025 is the billionaires’ plan to enshrine white supremacy and turn our country into an apartheid state,” declared the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists president, Terrence Melvin. “The MAGA cult has democracy on life support and we say, hell nah — we ain’t standing for that!”

“It’s a moral clarity of standing with working-class people,” United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain said. “That’s the fight. This is our moment, and it boils down to the same question every time I speak: Which side are you on? It’s a very clear picture, there are only two sides in this fight. You’re either with the billionaire class or the working class.”

This Labor Day, workers, our unions, and everyone who works for a living must get out in the streets, in our workplaces, and at the ballot boxes – and fight for the immediate interests of our class. We must defend and expand the democratic right to organize a union, to go on strike, and to bargain collectively on our behalf. Defending these democratic rights is essential to building working class power and improving the living conditions of our working class. We’re not going back!

Images: UAW workers call on their union endorse BDS by UAW (Creative Commons).

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