class-struggle-anarchism:

‘Brave men building the Trump tower’

You always see films and photos of this kind of thing presented as this kind of quaint vintage nostalgia, these fearless guys working away up in the sky - often with a subtext of like, this was when men were men and workers were workers, that romanticised proletarian authenticity crap.

But at the end of the day, safety equipment existed in the thirties, they only didn’t have it because the parasite who built Trump tower could replace dead and injured workers more cheaply than he could provide safe working conditions. The only reason it isn’t still like this is that they organised and fought hard for health and safety regulations. There’s just nothing to admire or celebrate about the fact that these people were expected to risk life and limb to put bread on the table.

Pietro di Donato – Christ in Concrete (1937)

can’t find a free version but you commies have a talent