History and Future of the Working Class

by Paul Le Blanc

In part, the book A Short History of the U.S. Working Class has its origins in my origins. Growing up in the small Pennsylvania town of Clearfield, in the 1950s and early 1960s, I learned from my father and mother, Gaston Le Blanc and Shirley Harris Le Blanc, to have a reverence for the labor movement (the organizations of the working class, especially unions), with which they had identified and which they had been part of for many years. They were mainstays in Clearfield’s central labor council. Among my earliest childhood memories are union meetings, picket lines, and Labor Day parades.

The coherence of the past, the meaning of the present, the hope for the future — for all of these things the labor movement was a central reference point. A union for them, and for me, meant what the word implies: the coming-together, the shared strength, of the workers. I was taught that the workers joined together to struggle against the rich, powerful, selfish employers who exploited them. Through unions they sought dignity, decent wages and working conditions, a better future. I was taught labor songs, such as “Solidarity Forever” and “Union Maid,” which sometimes the whole family (there were also my sisters Patty and Nora) would sing to break the tedium of a long car ride, invariably lifting our spirits with a melodic and poetic vision — expressed with spunk and humor and determination — of labor’s inspiring cause.

There have always been workers who have struggled to build solidarity in spite of the enormous diversity of the working class. These activists believed that the power of the wealthy minority ultimately derives from keeping the working-class majority divided. Solidarity among all workers, they felt, has been our best defense against the power of the privileged, our best hope for making democracy a living reality.

The struggles of the U.S. working class have added up to a general struggle for a better life, for more control over one’s own situation (which is what the word freedom means), and for a general reality characterized by majority rule, or “rule by the people” — which is what democracy means. While the United States is often seen as having that type of government, however, democracy in this country has been profoundly affected by the fact that concentrations of economic power have been in the hands of the wealthy few. Unequal economic power naturally translates into unequal political power, and that undermines a genuine “government by the people.” The top layer of society, no more than a few percent of the population, consists of those who make their living through the ownership of big business corporations that dominate our economic life. But the needs of the majority can only be met through rule by the majority. It seems self-evident that the hope for democracy must, almost by definition, be concentrated in the working-class majority rather than in the rich business minority. A consistent democratic outlook assumes that those whose labor and life-activity have been keeping the country running are precisely the people who should run the country.

This vision has been a vital and creative force in the history of the U.S. working class. It has inspired me all of my life, and in my book I try to show how it has moved forward the history of the working class and of our couintry as a whole. It is a vision which animates tonight’s event — the illuminating presentations, the wonderful art, the fine music. I want to conclude with the last two verses of a wonderful labor song I’m sure we’ll be singing tonight, “Solidarity Forever.” The first verse is good too, but it’s more commonly known, and the last two verses capture the vision that I’ve been talking about.

They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel would turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us strong.

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater then the might of armies magnified a thousandfold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the Ashes of the old,
For the Union makes us strong.

Solidarity Forever!