FUCK "Labor Day"; celebrate the REAL May Day!

[Selatius]

Why should the American working man celebrate Labor Day in September when the workers of the world are celebrating it on May first in commemoration of American Martyrs to the labor movement? This question is clarified by the fact that May first is observed unilaterally by workers (not by management), while the September holiday is enjoyed by all, perpetuating the myth that Labor and Management are both working together. The proclamation of Labor Day in September in the United States can only be interpreted as an effort to isolate the working American from his colleagues around the world, and obscure the history of what Management did to Labor in Chicago in 1886. Labor Day in the United States is better described as mocking than celebrating the working man in America.

http://www.cns.uni.edu/~campbell/gened/labour.html

To be on record, I support all the protests going on nationwide at present. The issue of illegal immigration is really an issue of exploitation of the poor. The only difference is that this is exploitation on an international scale.

The corporate capitalist robber barons have us all fighting each other over this issue. It's classic divide and conquer strategy. While we fight with each other, insult each other, and compete against each other in a race to the bottom, the corporatists at the top win.

This is a new phase in the international corporate agenda to destroy the working classes of the world by forcing them to fight each other in a race to the bottom. As long as workers the world over are tricked into attacking each other, the corporatists have that much fewer workers to fight because they're unintentionally doing all the bloody, dirty work for the greedy bastards.

These bastards must be stopped. They've made so much money on so much human misery. From the jungles of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, they have made money on the bullets and bombs that have slaughtered countless innocent men, women, and children. They have made money through the corporate campaign of outsourcing and the knowing exploitation of illegal immigrants who are desperate to seek a better life. THey have made money by doing business with murderous dictators from Suharto to Pinochet to the totalitarian oligarchy known as the Communist Party of China.

They don't give a damn about freedom. They don't give a damn about human life, and they most certainly don't give a damn about the happiness, dignity, and well-being of all mankind. If they had their way, none of that would exist. Their dream world is our worst nightmare. I celebrate happiness, love, and life. They celebrate hate, misery, and death. They can't celebrate anything else because that is what they profit off of the most. They sold their souls to greed.

This one stanza in this song sums up my feelings for today:

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their shit don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the damn little war
And we can't make it here anymore

-- James McMurtry's song, "We Can't Make It Here"

[intheflow]

1. Hear, hear!!

This IS the real Labor Day. Everyone in the rest of the world knows it, but most US citizens are completely ignorant of the fact. :eyes:

[leftstreet]

2. Right on!

The Haymarket Riots!

May 1 International Workers Rights Day was born out of international labor solidarity and protests over the Haymarket Riots in Chicago. Where workers organized and protested for the right to an 8 hour workday.

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.

[IChing]

3. Damn, What did you do read my post? LOL we wrote almost the same

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1071398

[Selatius]

4. I wasn't aware of your thread, but it's a testament to the strength of...

the message. It's a message that's been repeated for well over a hundred years now by many people such as yourself and me, and it'll continue to be repeated until the exploitation ends.

Have a good May Day. :hi: