Still important in 2013: Fly your flag for American labor today.
Poster from the Office of War Information, 1942
It’s Labor Day 2013 in the United States, a federal holiday, and one of those days Americans are urged to fly the U.S. flag.
“Free Labor Will Win,” the poster said, encouraging a theme important during World War II, when unions were encouraged to avoid strikes or any action that might interrupt work to build the “arsenal of democracy” believed necessary to win the war. Labor complied, the war was won, and organized labor was the stronger for it. In 2012, some have difficulty remembering when all Americans knew that our future rides on the backs of organized labor.
The poster was issued by the Office of War Information in 1942, in full color. A black-and-white version at the Library of Congress provides a few details for the time:
Labor Day poster. Labor Day poster distributed to war plants and labor organizations. The original is twenty-eight and one-half inches by forty inches and is printed in full color. It was designed by the Office of War Information (OWI) from a photograph especially arranged by Anton Bruehl, well-known photographer. Copies may be obtained by writing the Distribution Section, Office of War Information [alas, you can’t get a copy from the Office of War Information in 2012]
- Digital ID: (intermediary roll film) fsa 8b04027 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b04027
- Reproduction Number: LC-USE6-D-005707 (b&w film neg.)
- Repository: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Even down here in deepest, darkest-right-to-work Texas, patriots fly their flags to honor Labor today. It’s heartening.
Flags fly all around in 1882 at the first Labor Day Parade in New York City’s Union Square; lithograph from USC’s Dornsife History Center, via Wikipedia, artist unidentified
This is partly an encore post, a Labor Day tradition.
More, Other Resources:
- History of Labor Day from the U.S. Department of Labor
- Unions put the “labor” in Labor Day. (unionspeak.wordpress.com)
- The arts of Labor Day (wagingnonviolence.org)
- Biden to speak in Detroit on Labor Day (wxyz.com)
- At Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:
- While you’re celebrating Labor Day . . .
- Labor Day History
- “Here’s to the troublemakers” letter from Linda Chavez-Thompson
- Remembering Labor on Labor Day (with information about the GM sit-down strike)
- Quote of the moment: Abraham Lincoln, labor is the superior to capital
- There once was a Union Maid
- Erie County to Participate in Statewide STOP-DWI Labor Day Crackdown Enforcement Effort (wkbw.com)
- Labor Day in Canada
- Outstanding lesson plans on Labor Day (and labor, generally) from PBS NewsHour (this stuff is good — check it out even if you’re not a teacher)
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 