What is excellence in labor journalism? That is a question that was posed to me, and a fair place to start on a little journey into labor history and politics. First, history gives us a good gauge of the importance of the labor journalist, going back to 1904, when Eugene Debs was editor of the Metal Worker. Debs was a Hoosier, a son of Terre Haute who rose to sit in the Indiana General Assembly, and then rose up further to found the International Workers of the World, the Wobblies, among other labor exploits.
But a year before Debs and Big Bill Haywood rallied in Chicago to declare a new international union – the I.W.W. – and years before he became a perennial candidate for president, running as a Socialist, Debs edited the Metal Worker. What he wrote about the job of the union editor is a profound observation that I keep posted on my bulletin board behind my desk.
“The editor of a labor paper is of far more importance to the union and the movement than the president or any other officer of the union,” Debs wrote.
“He ought to be chosen with special reference to his knowledge upon the labor question and his fitness to advocate and defend the economic interests of the class he represents.”
In recognizing the significance of the ink-stained wretches of the labor press, Debs was pointing to the special role that communications plays in the vitality – and solidarity – of a union. He bowed not to the dynamic labor leaders of the day, and there were many, Debs included, but to those with the knowledge and fitness to advocate and defend the economic interests of the class they represent. To the writers and editors.
(Presented to an Indiana University online course by Tricom's Michael Byrne.)
blog comments powered by Disqus