It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
This weekend is Labor Day. Unfortunately and surprising, there doesn't seem to be a modern, award winning, high quality full length documentary on the history of labor in the United States. It's so bad, it's difficult to find any labor history made past the 1980's. Amazingly enough, people are not being informed how labor gave most Americans the quality of life and employment rights most take for granted today.
With that, the below clip explains where Labor Day came from. No, it wasn't created for mega sales,
Labor Day History
Next up, first up is a playlist (it will play continuously) of the History of Labor in the United States.
Labor History
This next clip will kill you. Most meatpacking jobs are now filled with illegal labor.
Short Documentary from 1986
20/20 from 1985
1987 Nightline 1987 on Reagan & Unions
1990's - "Must be Union Free"
Fast forward to where we are today....9.1% unemployment, high skilled jobs offshore outsourced, factories so moved offshore, so the entire nation looks hollowed, the bringing in cheap labor, illegal or on guest worker Visas, the biggest spike in part time labor, record income inequality, repressed wages, poverty dramatically spiking, all the while huge political forces try to blame labor for the current economic problems of the United States.
With that, this is a labor history film from 1964, The Inheritance. The film was originally made for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and the film producers made it publicly available due to the recent attacks on organized labor and the very important right to collective bargain. Lots of rare stills, clips & photos from working and living conditions before labor became organized.
The Inheritance, Part I
The Inheritance, Part II
The Inheritance, Part III
The Inheritance, Part IV
Honorable mention, the History Channel does have a series of short video clips on labor.
Please share any labor documentaries you have and your thoughts on anything else in the comments.
Happy Labor Day to All!
Comments
Jphnny Paycheck "Take This Job"
Wow! Awesome FMN round-up!
Remembering the 1970s when there still were working-class heroes -- here's the song that inspired a film in 1981, 'Take This Job And Shove It', by David Alan Coe (1977), famously recorded by the late great Johnny Paycheck.
![Johhny Paycheck and friends at Gilley's 1978](https://economicpopulist.org/files/u878/Johnny%20Paycheck%2C%20Gilley%27s.jpg)
Snapshot (right) taken at Gilley's Nightclub, 1 March 1978.
Johnny Paycheck with Johnny Lee (left) and Mickey Gilley (right).
(Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication)
Link to Wiki image file
Link to Wiki article "Johnny Paycheck"
And here's the link -- click here to go to YouTube for 'Take This Job And Shove It' by David Allan Coe, as sung by David Allan Coe in 1983
-- courtesy of DavidAllanCoe.com
Excerpts from the lyrics, used here for educational and review purposes, are from LyricsKeeper.com
And here's commentary by Jim Goad, from the chapter “Playin’ hard” from “The Redneck Manifesto", quoted by way of a CRACKED webzine, at webpage titled "Why Country Music Is Better Than Punk pt.2"
Jim Goad's website
Wiki article on The Redneck Manifesto by Jim Goad (1997)
[All links verified functioning as of posting, 3 September 2011]