EAU salutes Labor Day
He who swings a mighty hammer,
He who reaps a field of corn,
He who breaks the marshy meadow
To provide for wife, for children,
He who rows against the current,
He who weary at the loom
Weaves with wool and tow and flax
That his fair-haired young may flourish.
Honor that man, praise the worker!
Honor every callous hand!
Honor every drop of sweat
That is shed in mill and foundry!
Honor every dripping forehead
At the plough. And let that man
Who with mind and spirit labors
Hungering ploughs not forget.
Ferdinand FreiligrathFerdinand Freiligrath (1810-1876) was a German poet who expressed pro-labor and nationalist themes. Like Richard Wagner, Freiligrath stood on the barricades in 1848 as a “liberal nationalist” against the rooted parasitical elites, and Wagner’s father-in-law, Hungarian composer Franz Liszt eventually set one of Freiligrath’s poems to music. The connection between nationalism and socially progressive impulses has been obscured, but is being re-asserted by European Americans United and our co-thinkers across the Western world.
In this age of “globalism” working people are being shorn of the gains they earned through decades of struggle. In the United States alone, union membership is at an all-time low, and the forty hour week is a thing of the past. These real-world facts have given rise to a massive wave of opposition to globalist policies like Third World immigration.
By recognizing the likes of Ferdinand Freiligrath and others, EAU seeks to link current struggles for national freedom and social justice to the historical currents which spawned them.