Also, I need a source about other countries enacting this before the US. In the 1880s, there wasn’t exactly a plethora of Democratic governments anywhere. Germany was a brand new idea and so was Italy. France encompassed parts of Spain and Sweden, which was itself an empire with a military dictator.
The UK is still a monarchy with colonies that want to secede (namely Jamaica) and the Netherlands is too.
Swedish people didn’t have surnames yet–they adopted the last name of their employer.
Eastern Europe had serfdom and antisemitic laws were the norm.
I would totally believe the UK got it first, but not without a mass mobilization of working class people.
Right. So it was a 50 year long struggle led by the working class and groups like the Wobblies and your solution is to vote harder?
To what extent can we credit colonial nations like Portugal and the UK and the Netherlands for extending this right exclusively to white people with political capital?
Is it really a “pass” if the comfort of the homeland was predicated on slavery and/or empire elsewhere?
Not ‘harder’. Smarter, better and more consistently.
And yeah the US is the only country that never meddled in or abused other countries for economic gain, or benefitted from slavery in any way, so that’s the only one in the world where workers’ rights really count. Right
I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying that crediting the the UK for progressive politics while they enslaved half the world is a weird take.
I would make the exact same claim about the US, considering that neo-slavery (indentured servitude/whites only towns) wasn’t abolished until after world war 2.
In fact, one of the most violent events in US history was a white mob that murdered an entire town of black people for trying to unionize.
Those white folks sure understood the power of working class solidarity and it’s fundamental threat to capital.
That’s also probably why MLKJ was assassinated during the poor people’s campaign that sought to unite the grievances of the civil rights movement with the concerns of poor whites.
You sound more concerned about the extremely racist history of the US than how many other nations were able to cement many a workers’ right in their legislation through voting for the right policies
You have failed to list a single example of legislative change that didn’t have the backing of a mass mobilization and credible threats to capital. I have presented several instances that support the claim that legislative change is dependent on working class organization.
Lots of legislative changes are enacted without mass mobilization, bomb attacks, ‘threats to capital’
You can study the evolution of paternal and maternal leave in Sweden as a nice example. The Swedes didn’t have to bomb any Ikeas - they just consistently voted for the right politicians.
And do you think it was the bombers that wrote this into law, or elected politicians?
edit: and why did other countries manage to get it into law a lot faster than the US?
I think the law is irrelevant without a mass movement. You simply won’t get the law without the mass movement.
You can’t get from where we are to working class liberation without passing through working class struggle.
Sure. Mass movement, politicians, pen, paper, law
Leave one of those out and it probably won’t work
Also, I need a source about other countries enacting this before the US. In the 1880s, there wasn’t exactly a plethora of Democratic governments anywhere. Germany was a brand new idea and so was Italy. France encompassed parts of Spain and Sweden, which was itself an empire with a military dictator. The UK is still a monarchy with colonies that want to secede (namely Jamaica) and the Netherlands is too. Swedish people didn’t have surnames yet–they adopted the last name of their employer.
Eastern Europe had serfdom and antisemitic laws were the norm.
I would totally believe the UK got it first, but not without a mass mobilization of working class people.
Seriously, what are you talking about?
Well, the US only enacted it in 1937
So I only have basically all of Europe off the top of my head
Right. So it was a 50 year long struggle led by the working class and groups like the Wobblies and your solution is to vote harder?
To what extent can we credit colonial nations like Portugal and the UK and the Netherlands for extending this right exclusively to white people with political capital?
Is it really a “pass” if the comfort of the homeland was predicated on slavery and/or empire elsewhere?
Not ‘harder’. Smarter, better and more consistently.
And yeah the US is the only country that never meddled in or abused other countries for economic gain, or benefitted from slavery in any way, so that’s the only one in the world where workers’ rights really count. Right
I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying that crediting the the UK for progressive politics while they enslaved half the world is a weird take.
I would make the exact same claim about the US, considering that neo-slavery (indentured servitude/whites only towns) wasn’t abolished until after world war 2.
In fact, one of the most violent events in US history was a white mob that murdered an entire town of black people for trying to unionize.
Those white folks sure understood the power of working class solidarity and it’s fundamental threat to capital.
That’s also probably why MLKJ was assassinated during the poor people’s campaign that sought to unite the grievances of the civil rights movement with the concerns of poor whites.
You sound more concerned about the extremely racist history of the US than how many other nations were able to cement many a workers’ right in their legislation through voting for the right policies
You have failed to list a single example of legislative change that didn’t have the backing of a mass mobilization and credible threats to capital. I have presented several instances that support the claim that legislative change is dependent on working class organization.
Lots of legislative changes are enacted without mass mobilization, bomb attacks, ‘threats to capital’
You can study the evolution of paternal and maternal leave in Sweden as a nice example. The Swedes didn’t have to bomb any Ikeas - they just consistently voted for the right politicians.