Monday, September 04, 2006

Labor Day: Was Abe Lincoln a socialist?

Honest Abe sez: “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 the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration.”
(from his First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861)

Then again, in his Second Annual Message to Congress (December 1, 1862), the Great Emancipator said: “I cannot make it better known than it already is that I strongly favor colonization.”

Oh well...

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A Labor Day Cool Observer re-run:

The Lowell mill workers—some as young as eleven—did something revolutionary: the tight-knit group of girls and women organized a union. They marched and demonstrated against a 15 percent cut in their wages and for better conditions...including the institution of a ten-hour workday. They started newspapers. They proclaimed: “Union is power.” They went on strike.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Happy Labor Day, Expendables

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Posted by Mickey Z on 09/04 at 06:44 AM
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