Advoken's Blog

From the bountiful blessings of our Thanksgiving table, I give thanks to

Terence V. Powderly for founding and leading the Knights of Labor, our earliest and

most sustaining national workers union, for proclaiming the principle of solidarity and inclusiveness that has featured the best of our union movement;

Samuel Gompers, the immigrant cigar maker who founded the American Federation of Labor that bound together so many of our nation’s union and recognized the need to influence our nation’s leaders;

Frank J. Weber, Socialist, union leader, legislator, who helped form coalition with Wisconsin Progressives under “Fighting Bob” La Follette, to build the state’s progressive traditions;

Joe Hill, unfairly convicted of murder in Utah, whose songs and spirit helped give  inspirations to working people for generations to follow;

Eugene V. Debs and Milwaukee’s Victor Berger, two great socialist leaders, whose beliefs in the power of working people to build a greater nation and who served time in jail to serve the purposes of world peace;

Emil Seidel, Dan Hoan and Frank P. Zeidler, three Socialist mayors, who build our city that is known for efficient and corrupt-free government and community spirit;

The sit-down strikers in Flint, Michigan who inspired a nationwide movement that brought labor contracts to millions of workers in the 1930s;

The millions of workers whose courage involved putting their jobs and sometimes their lives on the line to build strong unions and provide decent paying jobs, with benefits and safe and decent workplaces;

The seven workers in Bay View who walked into the guns of the militia, losing their lives in the quest for the eight-hour day;

The workers at Carnegie’s Homestead Mills in 1892, the railroad workers who supported the Pullman Car Company strikers, and to all those whose solidarity led to a better future.

It is for all these men and women of the past that I give thanks, for their foresight, for the selfless courage so that I and my family and millions others can enjoy this Thanksgiving Day in the warmth of our dining room and a too-filling meal.  

Happy Thanksgiving!