At the time of the Hard Hat Riots, construction was one of the most heavily unionized industries in the entire United States, and also in New York City. It was a bastion of labor unionism. What no one realized at the time was that it was on the edge of a cliff. The World Trade Center rises as New York City is sinking. And at the core of that decline is blue-collar New York. The '70s were kind of bad, you know, for construction. We had 1,300 members and only 650 were working. Construction workers would never earn again what they earned in 1973. And the average working man, would 45 years later, also not be earning more. Wages did not rise with the explosion of corporate wealth. Corporate America has been trying to destroy us, you know, since, really the beginning of things. Only elites have all the money, and they don't want to share it with nobody. It's not going to be good for the working class today. The United States conceived of a new kind of world economy. And the World Trade Center ended up being the manifestation of the command and finance center of a new American century. The World Trade Center, which, in its name, becomes an icon of free trade, is built by the very class of people that will in time be decimated by globalization and free trade. These men built an America that will leave them behind. But see, this is what Nixon saw. They were performing a function that was essential to the survival of a society. They wrapped themselves in that flag, because that flag was the whole history of their country wrapped up. It's a different culture. And the culture is, you defend the things you love.
On May 8th 1970 in NYC on Wall Street, young people were protesting the Vietnam war. Many construction workers were opposed to the demonstration because they felt it was un-American, decided to show up there to counter-protest .
A riot broke out. #HardHatRiot #PBS #AmericanExperience
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