MikeK
Gold Member
How Green Was My Valley
The Grapes Of Wrath
Native Land
On The Waterfront
The Pajama Game
Harlan County USA
The Organizer
Norma Rae
Matewan
The Molly Maguires
Hoffa
Each of the excellent movies listed above presents an animated but accurate portrayal of some important element in the rise of the union movement, which in turn gave rise to the American Middle Class.
Until very recently it had been a virtual tradition for those movies to be broadcast on any number of public and cable television channels on or immediately before Labor Day. But I have just finished scanning the listings and not one of these important and celebratory films are running on any channel. Not one.
I don't know whether the utter loss of interest in and concern for the history and importance of the union movement in America is more the result of the growth of corporate dominance of the broadcast industry or a simple matter of apathetic ignorance and complacency on the part of a contemptuously ungrateful working class, many of whom seem to think the 40-hour work week, the paid vacation, the pensions, their worker protections and other benefits are products of their employers' generosity or the benevolence of some thoughtful legislator. But on this Labor Day, 9/2/2013, I wish to remind those who have forgotten, or who simply don't care, that whether or not they are union members their lives would be very different were it not for the blood, sweat, tears, miseries, and pain endured by those whose stories are told in those movies, which, for some contemptuously disrespectful and obviously deliberate reason, are not shown to remind us anymore.
On this Labor Day the absence of those important reminders, along with accompanying indicators, occur as a quiet warning of what our descendants have to look forward to. Which is what our forebears had before the union movement enabled the dignity and Middle Class comforts most of us enjoy today.
The Grapes Of Wrath
Native Land
On The Waterfront
The Pajama Game
Harlan County USA
The Organizer
Norma Rae
Matewan
The Molly Maguires
Hoffa
Each of the excellent movies listed above presents an animated but accurate portrayal of some important element in the rise of the union movement, which in turn gave rise to the American Middle Class.
Until very recently it had been a virtual tradition for those movies to be broadcast on any number of public and cable television channels on or immediately before Labor Day. But I have just finished scanning the listings and not one of these important and celebratory films are running on any channel. Not one.
I don't know whether the utter loss of interest in and concern for the history and importance of the union movement in America is more the result of the growth of corporate dominance of the broadcast industry or a simple matter of apathetic ignorance and complacency on the part of a contemptuously ungrateful working class, many of whom seem to think the 40-hour work week, the paid vacation, the pensions, their worker protections and other benefits are products of their employers' generosity or the benevolence of some thoughtful legislator. But on this Labor Day, 9/2/2013, I wish to remind those who have forgotten, or who simply don't care, that whether or not they are union members their lives would be very different were it not for the blood, sweat, tears, miseries, and pain endured by those whose stories are told in those movies, which, for some contemptuously disrespectful and obviously deliberate reason, are not shown to remind us anymore.
On this Labor Day the absence of those important reminders, along with accompanying indicators, occur as a quiet warning of what our descendants have to look forward to. Which is what our forebears had before the union movement enabled the dignity and Middle Class comforts most of us enjoy today.