National History Day

The theme of revolution, reform and reaction is particularly of interest to the story of working people. Across the span of US history, working people have often been the first to call for “revolution,” and their terms for what justice should look like has triggered a perennial debate about what reforms are “pragmatic” and what reforms are too dramatic. Throughout the span of US history, labor movements have also triggered reactionaries—men and women who defended their hold on power, and resisted any change as a concession to new, untested values and principles.

If we glance across the span of US labor history, we find a number of common themes. Workers often want “control” over the work process—control over their own time and work practices, the right to bargain for the value of their work, and the right to collective representation before their employers. They also want “democracy”—representation in their elected governments on terms of equality with those with much more money and power. When workers have made demands for greater control at work or for greater democracy in the public square, they have had their demands met with a broad range of responses. Sometimes, their demands are labeled “revolutionary” and are met with half-measures aiming at conciliation and reform. At other times, working people’s demands are labeled beyond the realm of reasonable debate, “dangerous” to the body politic, and they are met with violent resistance from both employers and government officials.