I was asked recently, What does Labor Day mean to me, and does it still have significance in 2020?
What a question.
What we are watching today is precisely what Labor Day calls upon us to remember: The Great Struggle.
Whose struggle?
Everyone's struggle. The Great Rainbow of Struggle embraces all colors, and shines brightest when pushing the edge of a thunderstorm. There, too, one finds the Lightning and Thunder.
The Reverend Dr. King spoke of the Great Intersection of Race and Economics. We have since seen many intersections crop up, anywhere people combine the various flavors of humanity into their self-identification, and anytime others choose to judge those identities. Indeed, it is intersections all the way down, but the Great Intersection of Race and Economics is one we all must navigate.
Labor Day? Labor Day celebrates the crossing guards patrolling this perilous environment. Labor Day honors those who did not survive the crossing. Labor Day retells the tales of those who blocked the traffic. Labor Day recalls what lies across the street: a better world, made possible if only we can survive this intersection. Cross it we must!
Rules have been written to clearly mark the crosswalk, who has the right of way, and make sure it is sufficiently well lit during the darkest hours of our lives. Those rules get forgotten or ignored. The lights burn out. We pay the price.
And in 2020, we are watching the same forces, Race and Economics, play out with the same violence it always chooses. Not along party lines, though it looks that way if you are incurious. This breaks clearly along class lines. They don't want us to see the class lines, they want us only to see the color lines. Or to argue the party lines. Don't be fooled, it is all about class. Don't be fooled, the violence comes to us.
There are many movements in Labor, historic and contemporary, that are non-violent, and honorable they are in their intent, but our history tells a darker tale. Our progress and victories can be measured in obituaries and in families (and communities) torn apart. We exercise our rights, we pay the price, and we get the blame. They remind us they would not have to hit us, if we would just remember our place.
Everything we have gained in the Labor Movement involved violence; including property damage, and economic interruptions. Everything was secured through a promise to end the violence. But the violence returns every time this lesson is forgotten. Watch closely where the violence starts. N'oublie pas l'agent provocateur.
For Labor Day 2020, we are watching the marginalized communities remind the System that they, too, are struggling. That they, too, have rights. We would be wise to support those in the throes of their moment in the Great Struggle. Because it is our Struggle too, and the violence will be close to follow; violence to remind the rest of us to stay quiet. For violence is the only thing the Dogs of Racism know.
It is up to the rest of us to mind the rules of the crosswalk, to ensure we are not the reason others fall in the Great Intersection of Race and Economics. Their turn to cross the Great Intersection does not diminish our share, we must help them pass safely, and not be the reason they fall short. There is more than enough to go around and we are all in this together.
