Web References

Church of the Larger Fellowship
Resources for Labor Day
August 28, 2003

Reflections on Labor Day
In 1898, Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, called Labor Day "the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed...that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it."

I, for one forget that this day off has such deep political significance. So along with fun and frolic, let's take a few moments together to reflect.

Social Action
Economic justice was a Study/Action Issue beginning in 1998.
As a result, this Statement of Conscience was adopted at the General Assembly in 2000 by the member congregations of the UUA. http://www.uua.org/csw/soc00.html

Based in part on that statement of Conscience, the UUA has taken an active role in the Justice for Janitors labor dispute over the last year. President Sinkford's public statement: http://www.uua.org/news/2002/021001strike.html

An account of activity in Massachusetts churches: http://www.uua.org/news/2002/021001strikeca.html

And the results there:
http://www.uusc.org/news/jwj100402.html

Sermon: We are the Boat, We are the Sea:
Interdependence and Economic Anti-Calvinism
Background: This sermon won the 2003 UUMA/CSW SAI Sermon Contest. The winner of this contest is awarded a cash prize and has the opportunity to deliver his or her sermon at General Assembly.  Accordingly, Rev. David Herndon 
delivered his sermon at General Assembly on Monday, June 30, 2003. 
http://www.uua.org/csw/uumacswsermonwinner2003.htm

UU Hero for Labor Day : Taking On the System
For many residents of Bhopali, India, Ward Morehouse is a folk hero - the person who has carried the torch of their struggle out of India and into an international network of activism. For activists around the world, he is a high-energy éminence grise for the social justice cause and a deep thinker about the roots of the world's ills. And for the past decade Morehouse, a third-generation Unitarian Universalist who lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts, has been breaking ground for a new citizens' movement pushing for a tectonic shift in the political-economic landscape‹a movement to wrest away the staggering power that global corporations have over individuals' lives and replace it with true democracy. http://www.uua.org/world/2003/03/feature1d.html

Personal Action: Take Back Your Time Day
by John de Graaf, Co-author of Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, National Coordinator for Take Back Your Time Day Help us plan TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY--October 24, 2003. WHAT IS IT? TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY is a nationwide initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over scheduling, and time famine that now threatens our health, our families, our communities, and our environment. http://www.uua.org/families/resources/2003takebackyour.html

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Last updated June 12, 2005