Clarence Darrow Knew Workers’ Rights are Civil Rights
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With reactionaries like Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker leading attacks on working people, Andrew Kersten, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay history professor, says famed 19th and 20th century labor lawyer Clarence Darrow would remind us that “labor rights are civil rights” and are “fundamental to the quest for equality, equity and freedom.”
In a Point of View column for the AFL-CIO, Kersten, who has written a biography of Darrow, says the lawyer would have scoffed at and shamed Walker for saying “collective bargaining was a an expensive entitlement.” Says Kersten:
In terms of the law, the idea that workers have rights to organize and collectively bargain is as old as the nation itself.
Such a statement would be fighting words in most of the United States where workers are battling to keep their jobs, to maintain their wages and benefits and to remain connected to politics. Darrow’s message would be particularly poignant in Wisconsin, where we can already see what life is like without the ability to exercise labor rights.
Great Quotes: ‘Only a Fool’ Would Block Workers from Unions
As Labor Day approaches, here are some great quotes reinforcing the value of unions to our nation. A big thumbs-up to Ramona for her blog on TPM, which includes quotes from leaders as diverse as Dwight Eisenhower, Clarence Darrow and Pope John Paul II.
Eisenhower sounds like he is endorsing the Employee Free Choice Act:
Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice.
