May Day, 2008

As todays May Day celebrations, worldwide, draw to a close, I cant help but think how far this country has diverged from the country that made the phrase synonomous with workers rights protests in 1886 with the Haymarket Affair of Chicago.

How far we have come from a nation that remembers that we were not always sitting on top, and that to get there, a few battles had to be won. A nation that remembered who fought those battles. Today is a commemoration of many of those valliant struggles, and a day of solidarity across many ideals and movements. Its true that a few groups of communists and anarchists still commemorate the date here in the US, (for which they earn my commendation) but for the most part, it has all but been forgotten. Gone are the girls in white dresses lined up to see the parades, and gone is the idea that workers, everywere, had to stand up for themselves and take responsibility for the conditions they subjected themselves to on a daily basis, just to make ends meet. Times were tough, but those men and women understood that if there was any chance to change the machinery they were caught in, the mechanism of that change would have to be them.


Its true, the workers movement, and May Day as a whole was hijacked by unions and communists, and all sorts of organisations, The same organizations so many of us, look up to to make the world better for us but i think, its important to remember, The celebration of may day began with the workers themselves. Individual, sovereign beings campaigning for a better world, taking responsibility, and accepting sacrifice to acheive the world they thought they deserved. It, like this country, began with the people.

And it will end, with the people.


Here are a few links to pictures of celebrations around the world, for a picture knows no language barrier.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7378305.stm


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24405337/displaymode/1107/s/2/


http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1810&galleryName=All%20Collections#a=1


We Must be the Change We Wish to See in the World.