Labor Takes a Seat in the Classroom

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• Reader Comments (7)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  Like any subject with emotional or strong opinions this willl be taught from the perspective of the teacher.  Unless closely watched the same kinds of distortions as those involving religion will dominate.

  I recently read a book on the history of history — History in the Making, by Kyle Ward.

  Revisionism is nothing new. He follows well known U.S. events such as slavery, our relations with the native Indian tribes, the Spanish American War. From the earliest texts to the ones ten years ago the accounts move up and down, back and forth with the mood of the country.

  Posted by whattheheck on Sep 3, 2007 at 9:26 AM

  Say no to the 2008 Beijing Olympics北京奥运 我不支持! 

  反对奥运会的过度政治 ;化
  反对锦标主义
  反对个人利益为之做出 ;牺牲
  反对对反对声音的限制

  No excessive politicization
  No gold medal mania
  No sacrificing of personal interests for the games
  No limiting voices of opposition

  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/4/boycott-the-2008-beijing-olympics

  Posted by dspc on Sep 4, 2007 at 4:11 AM

  The role Labor Unions have played in American History needs to be told. That history must include the warts as well.
  Such as the Teamster scam on retirements. Drivers at companies up North would move South and continue working for the same company, but with a different Local, to better prepare for retirement.
  Then, at retirement, he was informed that his retirement was based on the Local. Since he only had a year or two at his current local, he wasn’t eligible for retirement benefits. The benefits he accrued at the first local went up in smoke.
  That was changed, but it is part of the Teamster’s history.
  The UAW has all but priced itself out of business.  I was in Michigan in the 70’s when the shut downs began.
  The State was using National Guard Armories to disburse the Unemployment checks. Not for security, but for the space.
  Unions had their place in the early years.
  But a constant race to gain more benefits and raises has done as much harm as good in some cases.
  Yet,when one sees the obscene salaries and benefits paid to some exec’s it is difficult to say Unions aren’t still needed.
  ‘Course, some of those exec’s are in non union fields.
  Others aren’t even exec’s, but politicians.

  Posted by farmer on Sep 4, 2007 at 2:40 PM

  The only union history worth it’s own name is that taught around the kitchen table.

  The rest is bullshit and paternalism by those who seek to intellectualize experiences they never had or that are too painful to address on an individual level.

  There’s not a union left today worth anything…

  they don’t protect the workers who pay the dues by ensuring they aren’t opposed into extra hours and overtime, and they don’t protest the global enslavement of workers by inserting workers rights and immigration entitlements in the new “Free Trade Agreements”.

  The plantation is global now, and our union reps are the new foremen, because they are too stupid, uncertain and indentured to assert the collective power.

  I hope that gets taught in schools soon.

  Posted by minerva_jones on Sep 12, 2007 at 10:40 PM

  ‘There’s not a union left today worth anything…”

  Then get organizing! A union is only as good as its members.

  Posted by djmagaro on Sep 13, 2007 at 2:53 PM

  I am now the head of PEF via the good advice of djmagaro…

  ( if I think hard enough, and wish it, it can only happen!!!!)

  Can I introduce you to EST?  The Wizard of Oz.? Or any new fangled variation thereof?

  People like me, with a hapless union that can’t pizza lunch anyone out of a bag ( not even themselves) hear that old strident admonition anytime we ask what the hell we pay a union for when everything is still so fucked in spite of our constant cry against the vacuum sucking noise of credit card spending and nothingness

  So I hereby declare myself the fairy angel of remedy to the million of members of my union…

  Stop voting for the relentless media whores who scare you into voting for them out of a sense of nothingness and fear.

  Start paying attention.

  Look at what you’re sacrificing in the name of industry ( whatever industry you may think you belong to...knock knock knock...is anyone home?)

  Think about what you’ve already donated to the void in your quest to scratch out a living.

  Scary.

  Think about what your idealized fantasy fabrication of the best world might look like.

  And put all your energy to it.

  Maybe I should just run for President!

  ...then I might have a voice in the world/corporate labour crap game!

  Yes..just join me in the new union

  Lumpen Offal, Staggering Ever Robustly ,Singing ( maybe an old Woody Guthrey tune eh?)

  Have at it .

  Give’er.

  I’m sick of the facade, and just in the right postion to ignore the needs of millions while I fatalistically try to meet my own. Prime world leader material.

  Good advice, internet, yet again.

  Thanks djmagaro

  Yee Ha!

  Posted by minerva_jones on Sep 29, 2007 at 4:08 PM

  I live in a “right-to-work” (i.e. worker-hostile) state, and spent 3 years as a middle school librarian in a rural town. It once had good jobs working in the coal mines. Now, it has a reservoir where folks from Knoxville float their boats.

  I told the students about their proud history: the 1891 lockout of coal miners in 1891, which resulted in the town being occupied by the state militia for over a year after miners attempted to force an end to the use of unpaid convict labor in the mines. This labor struggle was eventually resolved in the coal miners’ favor with the abolition of Tennessee’s convict labor program. The governor called out the militia, but when they saw what the situation was, they joined the miners.

  The Fraterville Mine disaster of 1902 occurred nearby, in the village of Fraterville. Some of my students’ grandparents are named on the monument. But they are losing that proud history; they show little interest.

  25 miles from Knoxville (it ain’t much, but it’s a lot better than I expected), on an Interstate highway, they neither go to Knoxville nor look beyond the newest fast food restaurant for jobs. Their churches control/limit their vision, and their educational aspirations. These kids have been left behind (multiple puns intended), and it breaks my heart. I, an outsider, am so proud of and for them, but precious few will ever reach beyond the standardized tests and latest consumer fad.

  I’m going to send this article to their 8th grade history teacher; I wonder if she’ll consider it.

  Posted by papermaven on Oct 22, 2007 at 6:59 PM

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