Workers of the World Unite!

May Day represents many things--one is to celebrate workers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day.

It wasn't that long ago--just over 100 years--that police attacked striking workers to keep them in line. One of the ironies of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire http://lynnecoll.blogspot.com/2011/03/sad-anniversary-thetriangle-shirtwaist.html was that the policeman who beat back the 1909 strikers were among those trying to save the same workers two years later from the fire. Perhaps a successful strike would have curbed some of the practices (e.g. locked doors on the factory floors) that contributed to the deaths of many workers.

In an age when politicians are practically rabid in their zeal to blame union workers for economic problems, we need to remember why unions are needed to protect workers. We need to remember the sacrifices made by workers who didn't have protections.

For the workers all over the world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Kxq9uFDes,

A Sad Anniversary: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire in Greenwich Village in New York City.

The building where the fire took place is now part of New York University; a plague commemorates the 146 victims, mostly young women--recent Jewish and Italian immigrants. This catastrophe is credited with leading to legislation requiring new factory safety legislation and the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.

In 2011, many Republican politicians are demonizing unions, scapegoating them as the cause or symbol of our economic problems. They paint school teachers and government workers as overcompensated and greedy.

I have no illusions about unions--they can be as corrupt as any other organization that gains power. But we cannot succumb to the fallacy that deregulating business and industry--putting our well-being in the hands of business owners--is the answer to our economic woes. The short sighted pursuit of profit--even when couched in terms of increasing value for the shareholders--will not cure our problems. It can only lead to devastation of the environment and the ever increasing gap between the super-rich and the rest of the world population.

Too many workplaces around the world are subject to abuses that can lead to disasters similar to The Triangle Fire. The least that we can do is to stop the decimation of unions in our own country and give the working people a fighting chance.