Today marks the 20th anniversary of The Rick Smith Show, a milestone that fills me with both pride and renewed purpose. When I started this show, I did it because I saw there were virtually no working-class voices represented in our media landscape. Workers like me were, and still are, bombarded with corporate talking points and divisive propaganda—messaging designed to keep us separated and weak.
In 2005, I realized just how deeply anti-union rhetoric and misinformation had infiltrated even union households. I heard union brothers, enjoying all the benefits of their contracts, unknowingly repeat the very messages crafted to undermine their own strength. Having moved from Cleveland, Ohio to rural south-central Pennsylvania, I was amazed by the dominance of conservative talk radio pushing narratives that made working people doubt not just their unions, but each other. That’s when I knew I had to act and launched The Rick Smith Show as a place where workers could finally hear, and speak, the truth from our side of the tracks.
For 20 years, I’ve made it my mission to take listeners and viewers out of their living rooms and onto shop floors, picket lines, state Capitol occupations like Wisconsin, workers’ homes, and into the corridors of power. I’ve spent countless days on the road, talking with people about labor history, civil rights, and the tragic destruction of what was once the most prosperous working class in the world. My goal has always been the same: to give working people an honest alternative, not just another echo of the boss’s point of view.
From day one, The Rick Smith Show wasn’t meant to be just a radio program, it was a rallying point for working-class solidarity. I wanted to build a network where we could share knowledge, challenge anti-worker propaganda, and remind each other that our struggles and victories matter. Over time, this show has become a living archive of labor’s past, present, and future, a place where we tell our stories, learn from our history, and plot a path forward together.
I saw a radicalization of American workers on the horizon from the very beginning. I watched as union density in this country cratered, now below 6% in the private sector and not much higher overall, almost as low as during the days when “Yellow Dog” contracts ruled and striking was illegal. Back then, I heard good union brothers convince themselves there were better opportunities outside the union, only to discover, too late, that those promises were empty.
Today, unions are under an intense assault spearheaded by Donald Trump and his corporate allies. But I see an opportunity, not just a threat. Now is the time for unions to dig deep and invest everything they can into educating, mobilizing, and activating workers. The rallies for “Workers over Billionaires” are a start, but they must signal a bigger, bolder movement to reclaim what is rightfully ours. We must harness lessons from our past if we want to leave a future for our kids that’s worth inheriting.
Labor’s agenda can’t stop at better wages, hours, and working conditions. We must defend democracy itself and empower workers to take back control from the bankers, lawyers, and vultures who have hijacked America for their own gain. We can’t depend on anyone but ourselves to save what’s left of our American dream. It will take honest conversation, courage, and relentless organizing, tools this show has tried to provide since day one.
If you ask me whether there’s anything to celebrate this Labor Day in Trump’s America, I’ll tell you, no, not yet. But what we can do is resolve ourselves to make America great by organizing, by standing together, and by fighting back against continuous attacks on labor rights. We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation to not just complain, but to build the future we want, by spreading a vision of real prosperity, shared power, and democratic control over our workplaces and our country.
For 20 years, I’ve tried to provide more than a talk show, I’ve tried to help build the infrastructure of the labor movement through honest conversation, solidarity, and a refusal to let working-class stories be erased. The corporate war against workers is not over, and neither am I. Today, I celebrate two decades of this fight and invite every listener, every worker, and every union member to join me in recommitting ourselves to the struggle for a fairer, freer, more democratic America.
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Questions or comments? Email Rick@thericksmithshow.com
Thank you, Rick! Really appreciate all your work.
Thanks Rick, you are very appreciated!!!