The “1936: An ‘Army’ Seizes the Capitol” reading gives insight on the “Army of Unoccupation,” a group of unemployed workers who fought for a restoration of payments to jobless laborers. Some relief occurred when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched New Deal programs to help Americans in the fields of labor and economics. More specifically, his Works Progress Administration created public-sector jobs for skilled craftsmen and laborers (Blackwell). Although this was on a large scale, states were still responsible for helping out its people during the Great Depression. The Workers’ Alliance of New Jersey showed bravery and solidarity by fighting for what they believed was right. They debated ideas to pay for relief in the form of a high corporation tax, an income tax, a thirty-hour workweek, and a relief system for unemployment insurance (Blackwell). This relates to other strikes that have been discussed in class such as the Paterson Silk Strike of 1913 where textile workers fought for better wages. The organization and unity of strikes often lead to unions and better conditions of employment.…show more content… The strikers exposed the New Jersey state government for not doing anything to help in the labor market in regards to unemployment (Blackwell). I believe that the pressures from strikers, specifically the strikes of New Jersey, largely contributed to President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. The New Deal was the first regulation of its kind in which it provided immediate support for working class Americans. I studied the New Deal in one of my Political Science classes and it is amazing how this policy controlled the American economy and the American job market for the
