With unemployment so high and middle class job prospects so low, this Labor Day is overcast by gloom. We can surrender to it. We can rant with Glenn Beck and kick the dog. Alternatively, we can join with our neighbors, employed and unemployed, our foreclosed-on children, our elderly parents and together create a grassroots groundswell that gives government no choice but to respond to our needs, the needs of working people.

Two Chinese companies have agreed to manufacture in America, instead of in China, a significant portion of the wind turbines needed for a Texas wind farm. The deal is a result of white collar Chinese executives negotiating with blue collar union officers to create green collar jobs in the U.S. The agreement defies stereotypes about unions as constantly combative, excessively expensive and environmentally challenged. The United Steelworkers union, which struck the deal, has a track record of engaging with enlightened CEOs for mutual benefit. It has a long green history. And it has worked to return off-shored jobs to the U.S.

Shuttered U.S. factories and off-shored manufacturing are sapping American strength. Late in April, 58 percent of 1,000 likely voters told pollsters they believed America’s economy no longer led the world. They also said they supported enacting a national manufacturing policy to promote resurgence of domestic production — a return to the days of a robust Rosie the Riveter and a country that could secure its independence with dynamic manufacturing capability. Rosie said, “We Can Do It.” Americans believe we can still do it.

Allowing China to devalue its currency devalues American workers and businesses. Chinese currency manipulation is driving American manufacturers out of business and America workers into unemployment. For 110 years, American factories and workers have proved they can compete and win against all comers in the world. They can continue to do that if Congress places tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S. or taxes them to compensate for the 40 percent price break the Chinese government arranges for its manufacturers. This is National Currency Manipulation Call-In Day. Tell Congress to ensure America is not No. 2.

China and America decline to acknowledge what everyone else knows: China suppresses the value of its currency to gain a trade advantage over America. This is costing America untold numbers of manufacturers and millions of jobs. The U.S. Treasury Department, which is required by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 to name foreign currency manipulators in bi-annual reports, must label China in its April 15 account, then sanction China if it doesn’t begin balancing its currency.

The numbers are outrageous, sickening even. How can anyone stand to look at them?

Since 2000, the U.S. has lost 5.5 million manufacturing jobs, with 2.1 million of those jobs being lost in the last two years alone. Since 2001, over 42,400 factories have closed in the U.S., and another 90,000 are considered at severe risk of closing. The last time so few were employed in manufacturing was in 1941, before World War II spending pulled that sector out of its Great Depression slump.

Numbers like these make me want to cry.

So President Obama has come up with a big and bold solution to deal with problem. He’s going to shut down the federal office that counts how many jobs are being shipped overseas.

On the news that Whirlpool plans to move an Indiana factory to Mexico, joining so many other manufacturers abandoning America, the president of the largest manufacturing union in North America spoke to an expert on manufacturing about the crisis this exodus is causing the U.S. economy.

Protecting manufacturing jobs has long been considered an issue that only people in the Midwest or in unions cared about. However, a recent USA Today/ Gallup Poll showed that Americans believe the number one way to solve the jobs crisis is to keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

The gift this country needs most this holiday season is an economy built on a solid foundation, one that will provide middle class, family-supporting jobs now and into the future. Not more fancy derivatives, this economy needs basic manufacturing.

Today, the Campaign for America’s Future is holding a “Building the New Economy” conference. As we build the new economy, it’s important we build one not based on the assets bubbles of the past but on the firm rock of manufacturing.