Sunday, September 4, 2011

Happy Yank Labor Day!

We Yanks celebrate Labor Day separately because we don't want the taint of godless socialism that comes with May Day. Never mind that May Day as the international Labor Day was invented in the United States (anyone remember the Haymarket Riot in Chicago?).

Let us first remember the millions of unemployed in this country. The message gets loudly repeated over and over again that everyone is disposable. Worst of all, this notion gets repeated by people who call themselves Christian and endorse all kinds of killing except abortion (go figure). Everyone is indispensable and irreplaceable because each and every one of us is unique without precedent and unrepeatable. The world has never seen our like before, and will never see our kind again after we are gone. No one is disposable. Don't drink that poisoned cocktail that says otherwise.

Here's to all the "takers" from busboys to brain surgeons whose labor, skilled and unskilled, produces all of this nation's wealth and power. Without you, John Galt's wannabees would all be naked and up a tree. While the rentier class persuades itself that it and it alone is necessary to the nation's greatness, and wants to see that notion written into law, just remember that your job, your work, your profession, your vocation is your power.

And I can think of no better way to salute the power and productivity that belongs to all those dismissed as "wage slaves" than with the sounds of Labor Day here in Brooklyn. Labor Day is also Caribbean Day, and the chief glory of Caribbean Festival, apart from the food, is the competition among the steel pan orchestras.

And so, here is what Gustav Mahler would have written if he was happy and lived in the Caribbean instead of miserable and living in Austria-Hungary. This is just absolutely amazing.





Great music to chase away the bad karma created by all the bitter misanthropy that dominates discussions of labor and the poor these days.

A very happy Labor Day to all!


Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

~~Abraham Lincoln, 1861

1 comment:

JCF said...

Solidarity Forever!