The Significance of Labor Unions and the Red Scare

Throughout the early 20th century, manual labor workers pursued better treatment from the companies they worked for due to having to deal with long working hours, low wages, and dangerous working conditions. However, after World War 1 where the government had surprisingly sided with the labor unions over corporations in order to prevent strikes that would hurt the nation's war effort, the government stopped paying attention to how companies treated their workers as such rebellions weren't as detrimental to the government as they were during WW1. And as a result of being exposed to the freedoms of workers rights and then immediately having them taken away from them by corporations, these workers were extremely angered by the mistreatment that they would have to endure, influencing them to commit many strikes and public demonstrations against the capitalist system. Such strikes include the massive Seattle strike where 60,000 workers struck and caused a nationwide panic, the Boston police strike that led people to believe that "the Reds," or communists had taken control over Boston, and several anarchist bomb plots against politicians which had began to unfold. Because patriotism had become such a major aspect of American society at the time due to government influences from WW1 as well as general hatred towards non-American culture, there was an extremely exaggerated response to the rebellions of workers against corporations all over the country, which led to the Red Scare. As explained by the textbook, the Red Scare was the "postwar fear of radicals" which had become popular throughout the entire country, usually associating strikers, anarchists, and extremist immigrants with Communists or "Reds." As a result of this major distrust for Communism and the foreign ideas associated with it, patriots all-across the country tried to weaken anti-government sentiments and persecute minorities/radicals for their views, which led to drastic legislation and social oppression towards non-WASP and unpatriotic individuals. This is significant, because it ties directly to the escalation of social tensions between the millions of new immigrants living in the US and the white Americans who had lived there before them, since labor workers and immigrants wanted to pursue their ideas without being persecuted by the whites who had strongly disliked them. Also, the Red Scare was extremely important because it weakened nationwide pushes for civil liberties for minorities and workers and caused American distrust towards Russia and Communism due to associating radicalism with them and their beliefs. However, was it necessarily just for Americans to pursue such patriotism and suddenly support the oppression of new immigrants seeking the freedoms promised by the US and its Constitution? It is arguable that the Constitution and American legislation at the time was to be interpreted by society and its judicial system to whatever capacity they chose to see it, however I believe that this way of thinking is what allowed American society and governments at the time to actively oppress immigrants and radicals with no ramifications other than slight decreases in corporate revenues. And because the effects of the Red Scare and general hatred towards labor unions had such a big impact on minorities and non-patriots, I don't think that the law can necessarily excuse the ignoring of civil liberties in favor of Americanism. So overall, I think there is a major question that needs to be asked of the labor unions, Red Scare, and their effects, which is: Were the actions taken by politicians and society against labor unions and immigrants "American," in terms of morality, legality, and the ideas associated with Americanism at the time?