I motion that we postpone this discussion until after the upcoming US Labor Day has passed.
*sigh* Someone has to say that every labor day. When are we going to be able to talk about this?
I get where this comes from (look up why USA and Canada celebrate Labor Day rather than International Worker’s Day) but it’s just symbolism, a frivolous issue. Pushing frivolous issues reinforces one of the negative perceptions of the American left common among both centrist Americans and international leftists. People want healthcare, vacation days, material improvements. Not a debate over when a national holiday is.
Everytime an American on the left does this, they just set back their own cause. It’s enough to make you believe a conspiracy theory of some powers on the right actively encouraging it.
You make it sound like the American left pushes a lot of symbolic issues. Which ones are you thinking of?
Hot take: the American left loses on the material issues because it has lost on solidarity, symbolism, ideology. Don’t you know that healthcare and vacation days will “hurt the economy”? There are many poor working class people who still oppose Obamacare even though they directly benefit from it. The material gains matter a lot less if people reject the ideas behind them.
I’m not sure if the timing of Labor Day is important, but I wouldn’t underestimate the power of symbols.
well its seeming to me that when it comes to things that will actually unite the US left, they fall right back to red-scare.
I’m having a hard time parsing your sentence. Who is the “they” in the main clause?
Why not have two holidays? ‘Labor day’ like we do now on the first Monday in September AND ‘Labour day’ on May 1 like the rest of the world. Workers deserve at least two holidays dedicated to them.
Like May 1? How about April 28?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers’_Memorial_Day
That leaves a huge gap in holidays between July 4th and Thanksgiving. No thanks.
As a warehouse worker in the US, I say it doesn’t matter since Labor Day has gradually become “Work normal hours but earn 1.5x pay for it day”.
