On Veterans’ Day, Remember James Kutcher, Hero of the Red Scare
When President Donald Trump announced his suspension of collective bargaining rights for federal employees, his reasoning elicited feelings of déjà vu. Trump’s March Executive Order justified busting the unions representing workers at the Veterans Administration, Treasury Department, and several other agencies with a flimsy justification of “national security.” Trump’s actions not only reveal his administration’s conception that organized labor is an enemy within, they also recall one of the most trying times for civil liberties in the United States, and the truly heroic efforts made to fight off a right-wing purge of the federal government. Now, on Veterans’ Day, we ought to look back on that history, and remember one of its principal heroes: a man named James Kutcher.