As we approach Labor Day the country faces a president and a Congress hell bent on restoring all of the policies which produced depressions, wars, and spectacular levels of economic and social inequality. Let us use this Labor Day as a time to prepare for in the following months to defeat Trump and his party in the coming elections.

1. Although Americans have long been taught that they live in a  two party “middle class society”, the first labor parties in the world were founded in:

a. Paris and Berlin in the 1840s;
b. London and Liverpool in the 1850s;
c. New York and Philadelphia in the 1830s;
d. Moscow and Warsaw in the 1860s.

2. As the Industrial labor movement developed in the later 19th century, conditions in the U.S. were different than in many European countries because:

a. American corporations accepted trade unions and collective bargaining;
b. American workers wanted to be capitalists and had no interest in unions;
c. The high standard of living workers enjoyed made unions unnecessary;
d. Capitalists could and did use racism, ethnic divisions, industrial espionage, private detective agencies, and military and police forces to subvert unions and break strikes.

3. During the great labor upsurge of the 1930s and 1940s, the working class in the United States won its greatest victories in terms of national legislation and policy.  Which one of these major pieces of legislation in the period was not a victory for labor:

a. The Fair Labor Standards Act,establishing minimum wages and the forty hour week (1938);
b. The National Labor Relations Act , establish workers rights to form unions and engage in collective bargaining (1935);
c. The Taft Hartley Act, giving states the power to enact “right to work” laws (1947);
d. The Norris-Laguardia Act, outlawing anti-union contracts as a condition of employment. (1932)

4. Communist trade unionists were different than many others in the trade union movement because:

a. They sought to broaden the union’s involvement in both larger political issues and community struggles;
b. They saw trade unions as stepping stones for the empowerment of the working class, not simply agents to increase the wages and benefits  of specific  groups of workers;
c. They had the establishment of a socialist society as their longterm goal, which animated their daily activities;
d. All of the above.

5. The long-term effects of the purges of Communist trade unionists and their allies after World War II, defined as the “defense of democracy” against “totalitarianism” in right-wing unionists, corporate leaders and  politicians of both parties  can be seen in:

a.  The huge increase in the real wages of American workers , especially from 1980 to 2018 when the stock market’s Dow Jones Average increased more than ten times;
b. The sharp increase of both income and assets equality for the American people  especially since 1980
c. The establishment of universal health care, paid parental leave, paid four week annual vacations, family allowances, all as essential rights for all Americans;
d. The decline in the number of unionized private sector workers from around 35% before the purges to less than 10% today, along with the loss of millions of jobs, the increase in income and assets inequality for the American people.

Get answers here.

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