Green Options » organized labor http://greenoptions.com/tag/organized-labor Posts tagged 'organized labor' Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:31:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en Reconfiguring Labor Day: The Convergence of the Labor and Environmental Movements http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/09/01/reconfiguring-labor-day-the-convergence-of-the-labor-and-environmental-movements/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/09/01/reconfiguring-labor-day-the-convergence-of-the-labor-and-environmental-movements/#comments Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:31:03 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/09/01/reconfiguring-labor-day-the-convergence-of-the-labor-and-environmental-movements/ The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a palpable shift in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have given way to scaled-down parades, and neighborhood cookouts. But long before Labor Day symbolized the end of summer, and the closing of the municipal pool, it was a celebration of this country’s backbone - its laborers.

The first governmental recognition of Labor Day came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. In 1894 President Grover Cleveland declared Labor Day a national holiday. Throughout the 20th century, the interests of labor groups were firmly entrenched in the populist vision and the platform of the Democratic Party. But starting in the 1960s and 1970s, a chasm began to grow within the Democratic Party between the established interests of the labor movement and the emerging interests of the environmental movement.

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