The John Mason Talk-Walk, April 23, 2026

I speak about Workers Memorial Day, and the study of Labor History. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Hello, hello, hello, how is everybody? This is John Mason. Tomorrow is Mother's Day. And that is the time we pay our respects to all the women in our lives, our mothers and our wives, and our girlfriends, and our sisters, and every other f woman that we come across. Happy Mother's Day, ladies. And if we want the best for the women in our lives, we must protect our reproductive rights. There are all these states going around that places the most onerous restrictions on abortions. Like you only have an abortion after so many weeks before you even know the woman even knows that there's a fetus inside of her. And you remembered uh Katie Brett, the senator from Arkansas, who had this very ham bad case of ham acting after uh after Biden's uh State of the Union address. Is that the best Republicans can do? Well anyway, she has this bright idea of a database. She's proposing a spill that would establish a database for all women who are pregnant. Hello, hello, hello, John Mason. How is everybody? Hope you're all well. Tomorrow, April the 24th, April the 24th, trade unionists from all over the Philadelphia region will converge at sheet at the Sheet Mill Workers Hall on 1301 South Columbus Boulevard to commemorate Workers Memorial Day. It is a day to pay respect to those workers who have been injured or killed on the job, just trying to make a living. They didn't go there to be killed. They just went there to earn their paychecks, go home, take care of their families. It's amazing that when I was growing up in the 70s, there was this crazy ass uh radio host who just raved about OSHA, the occupational safety and health administration, as being kind of this incompetent police, secret police force that was ruining the economy, middle in the in the company business. So does the safety of workers to make sure they go home again alive and in one piece? Is that such a controversy? Is that such a radical idea? Workers Memorial Day is to a way to honor those workers who have been killed on the job. And they have been killed in some horrific manners. And then they and also to demand, insist on those work the enforcement of worker safety laws that would that would make sure that workers get go in and out of the job safely and alive. That guy I told you about the radio renter, it was like he had this one of those that had the whole idea that just let the corporations uh alone, let them do their job, don't police them, don't regulate them. And the and they'll police them will they police themselves? Will they will they personally make sure that workers are safe in their work sites? Can't count on that. Can never count on it. And also and also tomorrow will be a meeting of the Pennsylvania Labor History Society. There's a real society of real scholars devoted to uh learning and discussing uh the great labor events in Pennsylvania, such as the founding in the 1820s of the Trade Unions and Mechanics Association in Philadelphia, which it which was about one of the first ever to unite unions into a federation. And also the Molly McGuire is in my old area around Wilkesbury in the 1870s, and a home and a homestead uh steel strike against the Carnegie Company in the 1890s. Pennsylvania is rich in labor history, and we must learn it. We must learn all labor history, it's very much part of American history, and especially due to the fact that we have a president and a regime and administration that wants to wipe out people's memory of history. Act as if uh black history didn't exist, the history of women, the history of LGBTQ people, the history of workers did not exist. See, if you learn a certain group's history, you would know they they weren't just passive spectators or or even background props in the theater of history. They were frontline actors in it. They contributed to this to this country's history. Oh and and the administration this regime is keeping us from learning it. But let's not let it happen. Let us resist the the efforts by this regime and its minions, their efforts to uh erase uh uh the the his the real history of our country. Like the pretty fight sanitized instead of a pretty fight sanitized uh Hollywoody uh view of history. Let's get to the real reality of our history. Okay. Okay, that's it for now. No advertisements. Oh, this work I do on my on my blog and my this podcast, my YouTube page, poetry, fiction, they're all work. And I should pay out money to get this material on all these platforms. And and and I need to be paid for it. Therefore, please get on the website, johnomason.com, and click either the PayPal button or the Buy Me a Coffee button and see what you can give. I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks. And Hamporific is a lovely little CBD product store located on Snyder Avenue near 15th Street in South Philadelphia. There you will find some of the finest cannabis-infused products. Gummies and candies and drinks and teas and flour and hand sanitizer and lip balm and dog trees. Yeah, dog trees, yep, dog trees. Look them up, please. Hamporific LLC.com. And also, my beloved career and business coach Michelle Snow. Michelle is excellent in helping you develop your professional career or small business. Let you know what you're doing right, where you need work, and help you network with other up-and-coming entrepreneurs or professionals. Please look her up. Growwithsnow.com. Okay. Education is a mighty weapon in our arsenal as we're fighting against the Trump regime. Education into the real situation we're facing, the real history of our country will help us understand how we got to this place and will help us as we dig out of it. So stand fast, Americans. Keep learning, keep uniting, keep organizing, and we will be once more a country we can be proud of. Thanks. Have a good weekend, Shabbat Shalom. Bye.