You're History

Think Progress: Maine Tea Party Gov. Paul LePage (R) has ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural depicting Maine's labor history from the lobby of the state's Department of Labor offices, claiming they received "some complaints" from business owners. The Governor has also directed that eight conference rooms named after labor leaders — including Cesar Chavez — be renamed "after mountains, counties or something."

The directive comes amidst rising tensions between the LePage Administration and organized labor over the governor's support for a right-to-work bill and efforts to roll back the state's child labor laws.

While the state's AFL-CIO called the removal "mean-spirited", a spokesman for the governor has said that the removal was not meant to "antagonize" labor, but rather to correct the office's "one-sided decor."

...The mural was funded by a $600,000 grant from the federal government and includes depictions of Rosie the Riveter at Bath Iron works, a 1937 shoe worker's strike, and a 1986 paper mill strike. "There was never any intention to be pro-labor or anti-labor," the mural's artist, Judy Taylor, told the Sun-Journal. "It was a pure depiction of the facts."

Meanwhile, Chavez, FDR Labor Secretary Frances Perkins — the nation's first female cabinet secretary — and William Looney, a 19th-century lawmaker who sponsored a 10-hour workday law, would all have their names removed under the order.

This country was built on the backs of men of color, women of color and their white sisters, queer folks, and poor folks (not mutually exclusive groups nor an exhaustive list), whom conservatives have endeavored to erase from the history books. Now they want to obliterate unions and erase the entire working class.

By the time they're done rewriting US history, the nation will have been hand-built by the Founding Fathers, John Pierpont Morgan, Ronald Reagan, and Jesus.

"And they built it out of nothing but bootstraps and gumption!"