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May Day, 2019 by Jeff vonKaenel
je ffv @ ne wsr e v ie w.c o m
My children certainly did not have that Before the sun rises, cars are already on experience. the freeway heading down to the Bay In 1980, my wife and I bought our first Area. In those cars are drivers who are home in Chico. We paid about the same unable to afford a home in the city where amount that my son now pays for one they work. After putting in a full day of year’s rent for a much smaller place in Los work, they will return to their homes, Angeles. long after the sun has set and their kids Young people entering the workforce have gone to bed. in 2019 do not have the same opportunities May Day, International Workers’ Day, that their parents did. Unfortunately, they commemorates a demonstration in 1886 face a world that looks more like the world that supported workers striking for an of the striking workers in 1886 than the eight-hour work day. The simple goal was world of their parents and grandparents. to be paid the same as the then-standard Home ownership is often not a possi10- to 12-hour day, but to work a more bility. A college education is not humane eight hours. In those always a good investment of days there was massive time or money. And even income inequality, a court Young people starting a small business system that consistently is a gamble with so ruled against working entering the much of our country’s people and a political workforce in 2019 profits going to a system controlled by a do not have the same small number of large small group of wealthy corporations. individuals and large opportunities that What does this corporations. There was their parents did. all mean for May Day a hard, and often violent, 2019? struggle of labor against Just as in 1886, young capital. people can no longer depend But by the end of World War upon their own efforts to secure a future. II, it seemed that those days were behind Working hard will not guarantee success. us. By the time of my birth in 1951, it was What is needed, just as in 1886, is a different America. There was a growing political action to change the rules of the middle class with opportunity for home game. And just as in 1886, it is the labor ownership. It was a time when someone unions that are fighting this battle. It is who worked hard and obeyed the rules the unions that are fighting to eliminate could expect a secure life with a home, rich people’s tax breaks, to increase the enough food, good schools for their kids minimum wage, to change California’s and a reasonable work-life balance. Proposition 13 limiting commercial propBetween 1945 and 1952, thanks to the erty tax rates, to increase environmental GI Bill, my father, who had been workprotections and to raise the standard of ing as an hourly worker at a steel mill, living for the working class. became a doctor and a parent without Like 1886, it is us vs. the one percent. incurring a cent of debt. Or, perhaps, it is now us against an even Between 1969 and 1972, I put myself smaller group—the 1/10 of one percent. Ω through college without a scholarship, student loans or financial support from my parents. I even concluded my four Jeff vonKaenel is the president, CEO and majority years of college with a little money in owner of the News & Review. the bank. 8 | Sn&r | 05.02.19