May Day

[nadinbrzezinski]

It is ironic what date the Immigrants chose. It is the same date US Workers took to the streets (and people died) in the 1880s in Chicago. It became a day of workers rights across the world... and today... millions of Immigrants, in the spirit of Chicago, (and MLK, and others before them) have taken to the streets. Right at the moment we have Trent Lott saying the same thing they said about MLK... these huge demonstrations will back fire and hurt him... POOR TRENT, them brown people are doing what you fear... flexing them political muscles

Now here is the challenge... most Americans do not remember May Day for its original intent. Our politicos in a great exercise of misdirection, came up with Labor day... and they would love for Muricans to just forget what May day is. We have been given a chance to tell the people... May Day is workers Rights day, and it started in Chicago in the 1880s, and no, it is NOT a Commie holiday, but an American Holiday.

[leftstreet]

1. The Haymarket Riots

Through much of the 1870's and 1880's Chicago was a leading center of labor activism and radical thought. Early in 1886 labor unions were beginning a movement for an eight-hour day. Union activists called a one day general strike in Chicago. On May 1 many Chicago workers struck for shorter hours. An active group of radicals and anarchists became involved in the campaign. Two days later a shooting and one death occurred during a riot at the McCormick Reaper plant when police tangled with the strikers.


On May 4 events reached a tragic climax at Haymarket Square, an open market near Des Plaines Ave. and Randolph St., where a protest meeting was called to denounce the events of the preceding day at the McCormick Works. Speakers exhorted the crowd from a wagon which was used for a makeshift stage.


Commemoration of the Haymarket tragedy has, at times, been as contentious as the event itself. Worldwide appeals for clemency for the condemned Haymarket martyrs led to the establishment of May 1st as an International Workers' Day. Though May Day has been commemorated as a labor holiday in many countries, it was never adopted in the United States.

http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/haymarket.html

In the late 1880s Grover Cleveland made the "US" Labor Day the first Monday in September. Our corporate masters didn't want American workers using May Day to commemorate those Chicago worker riots, nor did they want them to identify or organize with international workers.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. There you go

I was listening to one of the local speakers, and I had to chuckle when she said... and millions have taken to the streets today in support of us... no, not quite kid... but they remember the Haymaker Riots, we don't

[Sequoia]

18. Author talked about the Hay Market Riot on Democracy Now

today.

[cyberpj]

2. MAY DAY - THE LABOR DAY (Thanks for bringing that up!)

May 1st, International Workers' Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in most countries. The United States of America and Canada are among the exceptions. This despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880s in the USA, linked to the battle for the eight-hour day, and the Chicago anarchists.

The struggle for the eight-hour day began in the 1860s. In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada, organized in 1881 (and changing its name in 1886 to American Federation of Labor ) passed a resolution which asserted that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886, and that we recommend to labor organizations throughout this district that they so direct their laws as to conform to this resolution". The following year the Federation repeated the declaration that an eight-hour system was to go into effect on May 1, 1886. With workers being forced to work ten, twelve, and fourteen hours a day, support for the eight-hour movement grew rapidly. In the months prior to May 1, 1886, thousands of workers, organized and unorganized, members of the organization Knights of Labor and of the federation, were drawn into the struggle. Chicago was the main center of the agitation for a shorter day. The anarchists were in the forefront of the Central Labor Union of Chicago , which consisted of 22 unions in 1886, among them the seven largest in the city.

cont'd...
http://www.powertech.no/anarchy/mayday.html

[katinmn]

13. Yes. Iraqi union workers celebrate the day that started in Chicago

as do workers worldwide. Strange that America does not proudly honor en masse the sacrifices of these workers.

[MercutioATC]

3. Actually, May Day is much older than that...

It's a Pagan holiday that predates Christianity. Although the Puritans frowned on it, May Day has been celebrated in America from the time it was first settled.

http://www.theholidayspot.com/mayday/history.htm

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Don't mix apples and oranges here

the International Day of Labor has nothing to do with what you are thinking off... but all to do with the struggle of labor

[MercutioATC]

14. I was referring to this statement in the OP:

"May Day is workers Rights day, and it started in Chicago in the 1880s, and no, it is NOT a Commie holiday, but an American Holiday."

It neither started in the 1880s nor is it an American holiday...

...just for the record.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Ok ask workers around the world

is it Workers Rights Day?

Yes....

Do most remember it for what it started it (outside US Borders that is)

Absolutely

It is not my fault that people choose to misunderstand what was written. May day was at one time a Pagan holiday, and by a coincidence of history those were the crazy days of the haymarket riots... and unofficially it became a Union Holiday in the US... it is rather sad that you have missed this. President Reagan, mission accomplished... you ended what Harding did in the 1900s, in a great act of misdirection gave an OFFICIAL labor day, in September, to try to stamp out the memories of the Chicago Riots. From the posts, this has been accomplished...

[MercutioATC]

23. I didn't "miss" anything...just taking issue with a specific statement.

I tend to associate Easter more with Pagan fertility celebrations than the resurrection of Christ, too, if that helps any...

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Ok. Whatever

me I tend to associate this far ore with workers rights, the union movement and yes Chicago... than dancing around a damn pole... then again the former is far mroe relevant to my life than the latter.

[MADem]

8. Years ago, kids danced around the May Pole

But then, it became a commie thing, so it fell out of favor....

[texastoast]

6. May Day is the Americanized version of the Celtic holiday of Beltane

The germanic pagans celebrated April 30 as May Eve (Walpurgisnacht).

And everyone took to the fields, danced around the Maypole, built needfires to send prayers to the gods, and pretty much had a wonderful time in the fields in symbolic fertilization.

The American way we used to celebrate May Day was to make pretty flower baskets, sneak up on your neighbors, and hang one of the baskets on their doors in celebration of the beginning of summer. We even did this in elementary school in my redneck hometown in West Texas.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Two huge different thigns

look above

[katinmn]

7. It's not ironic. It's intentional. Workers worldwide have adopted May 1

as an international day of solidarity, in honor of the Chicago strikers.

Here's a message from Iraqi workers I posted yesterday:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2597629&mesg_id=2599400

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Trust me, listening to a local demonstrator

organizer, they don't get it either... and in the grassroots it is actually ironic, especially with the kids who have been here for a generation or so. Or do they teach about the Haymarket riots in High School these days?

[katinmn]

21. My daughter's 8th grade social studies class covered it

Mostly Americans have done a horseshit job of honoring the sacrifices of the Chicago strikers, or any union movements for that matter.

Union workers have been demonized in the USA for more than 40 years.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Yep

and this is our oportunity to try to turn this around

I honor union workers, and I do vow, when the company grows beyond the small size it is... I will treat my worksrs right, let me see, maximize profits (what seems to be the American way) or make sure my employees can buy my product...

[katinmn]

24. Exactly! Why are people so myopic?

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. It is the ethos of the new America

the ME generation, an interview today with a person affected by the national strike spoke volumes... yes they have the right to do this, but on the weekend or after hours... aka when it does not affect me... it is I, me and myself that matters to many people any longer

[BooScout]

10. I hate to burst your bubble......

But May Day was celebrated long before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock.

You also give it too much meaning friend. It's pretty much just a Bank Holiday these days.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. And I hate to burst yours

where I came from, yes I am one of them dirty immigrants, May Day IS workers day... and celebrated with marches and family dinners... the unions go down the street, and it IS a national holiday, and people remember it for what it is... and International day of Labor Solidarity. Hey, they even used to mention the Chicago Riots.

[BooScout]

16. Well golly gee........

I'm an immigrant too..although right now I'm pretty clean since I did manage to bathe today........I happen to be sitting in the UK right now where today everyone celebrated a Bank Holiday........which is pretty much all May Day is over here anymore. I know where your coming from about the Chicago Riots..........but May Day was around along time before them. It came from a Pagen Holiday called Beltane.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. that is a coincidence of history

[BooScout]

26. noooooo......

Pretty much it's called a fact of history. BTW.........Australians really started celerating a modern May Day before Americans did......but you don't seem to want to listen to anyone else about how May Day actually started and what it has become.

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. Yes I do,

it started as a pagan holiday, in northern countries. I know that, but insofar as the history of the labor movement the May Pole has nothing to do with cops busting heads at the Haymarket... absolutely nothing to do. And today's demonstrations are far more closely related to the 1960s civil right marches AND the Maymarket affair than they have to do with a damn pole erected in the middle of towns in northern europe for a fertility dance. Capice now?

Yes the fact the cops busted heads on and around the first week of May, and that May First was chosen world wide to celebrate this event is a coincidence with a pagan celebration. In fact, May Day as a workers day is celebrated far more widely today (and espeically outside Advanced Economies) than May day, dancing around the pole.

[BooScout]

52. Well if you are a historian as you claim....

.....you are lacking in your research. It's not a coincidence. May Day was banned in the 18th Century when the Church banned Pagen Rituals......but the peasants pretty much ignored the what the Church wanted and continued the celebrations. The craft guilds organized celebrations in defiance of the state decree to ban the holiday. It was very much a worker's holiday.

If anything.......it's a coincidence that International Worker's Day is on May Day.

[nadinbrzezinski]

54. WOW, it took you this long to see the light

Yes IT IS a coincidence.

As to my credentials, want to go check my credentials? Go on, San Diego State University, I hold a Masters.

By they way, IT IS a coincidence... bingo, you saw the light

[texastoast]

29. Right. It is just a coincidence

The Beltane holiday was around a long time before workers chose May 1 for their marking of workers' rights. The church didn't have a "big" Christian holiday associated with this sacred Celtic cross-quarter day like the church does for many of the other Pagan holidays.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Learn some hsitory

from the fine time line posted bellow

On May 1 many Chicago workers struck for shorter hours. An active group of radicals and anarchists became involved in the campaign. Two days later a shooting and one death occurred during a riot at the McCormick Reaper plant when police tangled with the strikers.

[mondo joe]

33. Ha! You complain people don't know the "original intent" but then

you dismiss the ORIGINAL intent as nothing but coincidence!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. It is coincidence

and it is you who cannot accept it... by the way... I do hold a degree in history and there are other coincidences across history... now explain to me please how INternational Worker's Day is actually related to a pagan holiday...

I will wait...

[mondo joe]

37. There's no such thing as coincidence, some would say. :-)

And it also not a coincidence that it's a traditional day to honor Mary as Queen of the May.

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. If you work for the CIA, or MI-5 you are correct, there

are no coincidences, but as a historian I know there are conicidences. The Hay market rioters were not thinking of the May Pole... and by the way, there are plenty of dates that repeat themselves across national histories.

Hell if I were a stickler for when events occured, we should not celebrate July 4th, the Declaration was signed on the Second, not the Fourth.

[mondo joe]

42. No, as a historian you BELIEVE there are coincidences.

You'd think a historian would know better when addressing the original "intent" of a day to not ignore the precedents.

[nadinbrzezinski]

45. Ok do explain to me very slowy

what cops bustings heads in Chicago on or around the first of May 1886 have to do with... May Day, as in Beltane's Holiday... I will wait.

[mondo joe]

47. This is clearly a time that is charged in the western psyche.

You can find holidays over much of the western world associated with this day - from Beltane to Walpurgis Night to the may pole to the labor marches.

It's the end of winter, the time when we get more charged and feel more energized by the sunlight and growth.

No coincidence there.

We didn't "intend" anything for this day - we respond to this season.

[nadinbrzezinski]

50. That is nice so again

how do workers striking for the eight hour day, and cops busting heads, have to do with it? Again I am very dense here... for what I am dealing wthi is not the Study of Mythology but a cruel historical fact... how exactly do heads being busted connect with Beltaine's... I might add people died, it was not for fertility either

Now if this was a study of Comparative Religions... you would have a point, but May Day, as in labor day, would have no place in that study

[texastoast]

41. C-O-I-N-C-I-D-E-N-C-E

It's sort of like someone's birthday is on May 1. You wouldn't want to tell someone that their birthday is really irrelevant to May 1, now would you? Just because May 1 is important to you as International Workers' Day does not diminish the importance of May 1 being someone's birthday.

If you choose to say International Workers' Day is more important than someone's birthday, that is your prerogative, but it does not change the fact that May 1 is (1) International Workers' Day, (2) an ancient Celtic holiday, and (3) someone's birthday.

And BTW, I'm a lot Irish long before I understood I am also Pagan. Hispanics are not the first people to be exploited by the upper 1%. My grandfather was shot and crippled over work in the early 1900s.

[nadinbrzezinski]

43. It is still coincidence

we only have 365 days in the year... and events will fall on dates that have importance to people for a multiplicity of reasons.. So go celebrate Beltanes day, but i the modern context of WORKERS RIGHTS May first is a Worker's Day... it can be your birthday and... Pole Day... you take this as an insult as you want, but I am sure that over the course of history many events have happened on May First, some of critical importance to nations, others of critical importance to individuals... and you choose to be insulted because that is YOUR CHOICE.

Today's demonstration had absolutely nothing to do with Flag Pole... and by the way, I know people who are Pagan... they get a new year card around Halloween.

Oh wait, I should not do that, after all that is all hallows days... just kidding.

[texastoast]

49. You know what?

Number 1, I'm not insulted.

Number 2, we could have written a letter to the editor to remind them about the modern importance of May Day while we've been discussing Beltane.

Number 3, I'm all for unions (shame we need them--we wouldn't need the cumbersome things if the employers weren't so exploitive) until the unions get as corrupt as the corporations from which they are supposed to protect the workers, and that has certainly happened and is one of the reasons their membership is falling.

[goodhue]

48. It may be coincidence, but in practice the traditions have merged

For example, here in Minneapolis, since 1975, the annual May Day parade is explicitly both a celebration of the international day of workers rights, and a celebration of spring and rebirth, complete with may pole. Workers' rights and may pole, at the same celebration, for over thirty years.

http://www.hobt.org/mayday/index.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

51. In your neck of the woods, but the point I am making

is that the date of May First is coincidental, What has happened after the fact is a whole different kettle of fish

I can bet the workers in 1886 were NOT thinking of Balaine's when they went on strike, and THAT is the point

[goodhue]

53. Pretty interesting account of The Green and The Red of May Day . . .

The Incomplete, True, Authentic and Wonderful History of MAY DAY . . .

http://www.midnightnotes.org/mayday/

[nadinbrzezinski]

55. Yep, pretty much

and our corporate gov'ment also has been obscuring the meaning of the Red Day... hence Labor day

[madinmaryland]

15. I remember celebrating May Day in Ohio during the 60's and

early 70's. Unfortunately, first the communists perverted the holiday for the own use, then the reagan revolution spent years denigrating the union and doing what they could to destroy it. It's a shame.

[davsand]

17. I hit the streets today in support of Organized Labor.

I was out with Jobs With Justice picketing on the U of Illinois Quad. Currently, we have a couple of campus Unions that are trying to get Health Care coverage in the contracts, and by golly, I was out with my sign picketing in support of them.

I celebrate May Day both as an old Pagan holiday as well as a Worker's Rights holiday, and I am proud of it. Today, it was quite appropriate that Immigrants in this nation took to the streets as well, because if you stop to think about it, most of the workers that were the origin of the Labor Movement were immigrant workers. They were fighting for stuff like the right to collective action, a 40 hour work week and workplace safety, and that fight continues today with a few more issues thrown in.

Labor is NOT dead, nor is the spirit of those who were at Haymarket.



Laura

[katinmn]

28. Brief history on the Haymarket Riot

http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/haymarket.html

[Cleita]

32. Thanks for the reminder.

It's also an old medieval fertility rite day. I feel like dancing around a maypole right now.

[LiviaOlivia]

34. The significance and history about May Day is why the oligarchs did this:

http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2006_04_30_patriotboy_archive.html#114642804091401700

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. You are kidding me, King George has now declared it

loyalty day?

This is actually comedic at a certain level

[LiviaOlivia]

38. It's true.

go to the General he has all the links.

The Congress, by Public Law 85-529, as amended, has designated May 1 of each year as "Loyalty Day." I ask all Americans to join me in this day of celebration and in reaffirming our allegiance to our Nation.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2006, as Loyalty Day. I call upon all the people of the United States to join in support of this national observance, and to display the flag of the United States on Loyalty Day.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirtieth.

GEORGE W. BUSH

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/04/20060428-10.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

40. Oh my god I feel that now I am livng truly in Nazi Germany

[goodhue]

44. It is not ironic, it is purposeful

May Day is of course an international holiday, not just an American Holiday. It is particularly a big deal in Latin America.

[nadinbrzezinski]

46. Yes it is HUGE in Latin America

[OxQQme]

56. ski, what makes you think

the original idea of this planned world wide march was accidentally to occur
on this particular day?
This showing to the world of beliefs en-masse (millions by all accounts) had to
have started in one or two heads to make an apropriate statement to the current paradigm.
I personally think it was brilliant placing it thusly on the history timeline.
You needn't be a zealot and thrash all over peeps.