What does labor want?
James V. Bertolone has an excellent guest essay in today’s D&C on the goals of organized laobr. He begins by quoting 19th century labor leader Samuel Gompers:
“What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and fewer jails. More books and fewer arsenals. More learning and less vice. More constant work and less crime. More leisure and less greed. More justice and less revenge.“
I would be hard-pressed to think of a better summation of what progressives want as well. I was also struck by this quote (mentioned in the piece) from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis on the Wagner Act of 1938, which guaranteed workers the right to form unions:
“We can have a democratic society or we can have great concentrated wealth in the hands of a few. We cannot have both.â€
Read the whole piece. It’s good.
(h/t Comenter army42).
Bertolone is a fantastic leader. I wish he’d run for office.