Happy May Day!

[TBF]

Happy May Day to all workers worldwide!

Here is a little background for those of you who may not know the history of the day ...

May Day 2011: Stand up for equality, freedom and peace!

By Freedom Road Socialist Organization
April 28, 2011

May 1 is International Workers Day, a day to celebrate the struggles of the working class and oppressed peoples. On May 1, 1886, hundreds of thousands of workers in the United States walked out on strike for the eight-hour day. Eight organizers in Chicago, six of whom were immigrants, were later framed on charges of killing a policeman and four of them were hanged. The international workers movement adopted May 1 as a day of struggle and it is widely celebrated around the world.

Here in the United States, the tradition of protest on May 1 was revived by the immigrant rights movement. Mega-marches of hundreds of thousands of Chicanos, Mexicanos and others in Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Jose and large marches in big and small cities across the country protested the anti-immigrant Sessenbrenner bill and called for full legalization of the undocumented.

In the 125 years since the first May Day protest, struggle by U.S. workers and their unions has resulted in the eight-hour work day, the 40-hour work week, health and safety rules at work, the right to unionization, unemployment insurance, welfare and social security, just to name a few...

... We must fight back with the spirit of the Wisconsin workers who fought to protect their unions, and follow the example of the Egyptian people and against a 30-year U.S. backed dictatorship."

More here: http://www.fightbacknews.org/2011/4/28/may-day-2011-stand-equality-freedom-and-peace

[xchrom]

1. I'm putting up my May Pole.

Then I will festoon it.

[TBF]

2. Workers demand better jobs, pay on May Day

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and SELCAN HACAOGLU Associated Press © 2011 The Associated Press
May 1, 2011, 7:48AM

ISTANBUL — Activists flooded a central plaza in Turkey's largest city Sunday and marked international workers' day around the world with marches demanding more jobs, better working conditions and higher wages.

About 200,000 workers gathered in Istanbul's Taksim Square in the largest May Day rally there since 1977, when 34 people after shooting triggered a stampede. Turkish unions weren't allowed back until last year.

In South Korea, police said 50,000 rallied in Seoul for better labor protections. They also urged the government to contain rising inflation, a growing concern across much of Asia, where food and oil prices have been spiking and threatening to push millions into poverty.

Thousands of workers also marched in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines to vent their anger over the rising cost of living and growing disparities between the rich and poor.

Chinese holidaymakers flocked to Beijing's Tiananmen Square to watch the daily flag-raising ceremony.

More here: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/7545576.html

[TBF]

5. May Day belongs to workers and their songs -

Happy May Day! Celebrate the way the labor movement always does -- with music! We've gathered some favorites for you here.

Start with Talking Union performed by Pete Seeger, Tom Glazer, Hally Wood Faulk and Ronnie Gilbert in 1947:

Videos to watch here: http://www.care2.com/causes/politics/blog/may-day-belongs-to-the-workers-and-their-songs-come-sing-along/

[oldlib]

18. I remember in the thirties

celebrating May Day. In school we made May baskets and it was considered a national holiday until the Red scare in the fifties.

[TBF]

21. Well as one of today's "reds" I think it's time we re-claimed this day for ourselves.

I have nothing against basket making either, many ways to celebrate! Solidarity my friend.

[oldlib]

24. My older brother was a painter.

He would paint and decorate floats for the union, for the yearly "Salmon Derby Parade". He told me, during the fifties, that he could use every color but red.

[socialist_n_TN]

25. Plus about a billion TBF...........

We DO need to reclaim this as OUR day, even if the September holiday continues to be the "official" one. May Day was ALWAYS the worker's holiday pre cold war. It's OURS, not theirs!

[Chorophyll]

3. Happy May Day to you!

Thanks for posting.

[CanonRay]

4. Woke up to 3" of snow and 23 degrees

so I don't feel very May'ey. Happy Beltane to you as well.

[TBF]

6. German police brace for May Day riots

Protests | 01.05.2011
German police brace for May Day riots


Police across Germany are preparing for the traditional May Day marches on Sunday, with some clashes already reported in Hamburg on Saturday evening.

Police in the northern city arrested 10 leftist vandals on Saturday, saying that one car belonging to the German military was burned during the demonstration. Other minor acts of vandalism were also mentioned.

"A car and waste containers were set on fire. Demonstrators threw stones and paint bombs at the police which used water cannon" to disperse the crowd, a Hamburg police spokesman told the AFP news agency.

In Berlin, the other traditional German home of leftist May Day marches, the situation was relatively quiet overnight. Roughly 1,500 people staged a demonstration in the Prenzlauer Berg district, but the police described it as largely peaceful.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15041778,00.html

[TBF]

7. Portland Jobs for Justice celebrates May Day -

http://www.jwjpdx.org/actionalerts/actionalert-1301350541.32

May 1 has been the traditional day of international worker solidarity since 1890, when American and European workers held mass demonstrations to commemorate the May 1, 1886 U.S. general strike that won American workers the eight-hour day.

Today, from revolutionaries in Cairo, to protesters in Wisconsin, to day laborers in Portland, workers are continuing to struggle for their rights.

On May 1, 2011, join workers around the globe in celebrating International Workers' Day with a march against the attacks on the working class and immigrants.


May Day 2011: International Workers' Day

Sunday, May 1, 2011
2 p.m.--Activities Fair
3 p.m.--Rally
4 p.m.--March

South Park Blocks
SW Park Ave. & SW Salmon St., Portland

[TBF]

8. Happy May Day in Seattle -

Dennis Kucinich will join thousands in Seattle for the 11th Annual May Day March for Workers and Immigrant Rights on Sunday, May 1st 2011.

March to call for a stop to repression of trade unions and call for an immediate end to mass dragnet raids, deportations, and separation of families as part of harsh anti-immigrant DHS Programs.

SEATTLE – As a last minute addition to the program, Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Representative from Ohio's 10th District and former Presidential Candidate will join thousands of demonstrators that are expected to take to the streets of Seattle on Sunday, May 1, 2011 for the 11
th Annual May Day March for Workers and Immigrant Rights. In the spirit of unity and solidarity with other communities across the country, organizers in Seattle will focus on the universal theme of standing together with all workers regardless of race, class, gender, ability and documented status.

Details here: http://www.centraldistrictnews.com/2011/04/30/kucinich-to-join-thousands-expected-at-may-day-march-starting-at-judkins-park

[Siwsan]

9. Happy May Day to you, too

I've always celebrated the traditional May Day, being a hard core Celt. I'll be making up a nice May Basket, today.

But, as a member of the UAW, I'll make it a duo celebration and drink a toast to both traditions.

[TBF]

10. Very nice tradition :) nt

[TBF]

11. Found this via Twitter of all places -

Socialist Ten Commandments

Used in all the Socialist Sunday Schools, and committed to memory by the children.

Love your school companions, who will be your co-workers in life.
Love learning which is the food of the mind; be as grateful to your teachers as to your parents.
Make every day holy by good and useful deeds and kindly actions.
Honour good men and women; be courteous to all; bow down to none.
Do not hate or speak evil of any one; do not be revengeful, but stand up for your rights and resist oppression.
Do not be cowardly. Be a good friend to the weak, and love justice.
Remember that all good things of the earth are produced by labour. Whoever enjoys them without working for them is stealing the bread of the workers.
Observe and think in order to discover the truth. Do not believe what is contrary to reason, and never deceive yourself or others.
Do not think that they who love their own country must hate and despise other nations, or wish for war, which is a remnant of barbarism.
Look forward to the day when all men and women will be free citizens of one community, and live together as equals in peace and righteousness.

Socialist Club, 16 Wood Street, Bolton (circa 1912)

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Socialist_Ten_Commandments

[TBF]

12. Celebrating May Day in Cuba -

Raúl presides over May Day event in Santiago de Cuba

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, May 1 (AIN).—President Raúl Castro, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), is presiding over celebrations for International Workers Day in this heroic city.

The President is accompanied by Lázaro Expósito Canto, member of the Central Committee and first secretary of the PCC in the province, with other leaders of the Party, government and political, youth and mass organizations.



http://www.granma.cu/ingles/

[LiberalLoner]

13. Happy May Day! Today is also GBS awareness day (health thing)! n/t

[TBF]

14. Yes - many holidays today!

May Day occurs on May 1 and refers to several public holidays. In many countries, May Day is synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour Day, a day of political demonstrations and celebrations organised by communists, anarchists, socialists, and activist groups. May Day is also a traditional holiday in many cultures.

May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half of a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and neopagan festivals such as Samhain. May Day marks the end of the unfarmable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.

As Europe became Christianized the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and All Saint's Day. In the twentieth century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival again.

The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the festival of Flora, the Roman Goddess of flowers, and the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane. Many pagan celebrations were abandoned or Christianized during the process of conversion in Europe. A more secular version of May Day continues to be observed in Europe and America. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the Maypole and crowning of the Queen of the May. Various Neopagan groups celebrate reconstructed (to varying degrees) versions of these customs on May the 1st. The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer. In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month, and in these circles May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this connection, in works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers in a May crowning. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of "May baskets," small baskets of sweets and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day

And, last but not least, I have my own personal May Day celebration - the first date my husband and I went out was May 1, 1998. We went to an Orioles baseball game :)

[LiberalLoner]

16. Happy anniversary of your first date! :) n/t

[jillan]

15. Happy May Day!

[marmar]

17. Happy May Day brothers & sisters........

[KittyWampus]

19. May Day/Beltane honors the Divine Feminine. Labor itself is an aspect of her.

The Goddess in her role as Receptivity and Growth and Multiplicity.

[TBF]

20. This is lovely - thank you! nt

[Odin2005]

23. I dunno, that maypole looks awfully phallic.

:-)

[KittyWampus]

28. Yes it does!

Can't have a Mother without a Father.

[Odin2005]

22. K&R

[socialist_n_TN]

26. Thanx for the thread TBF!.......

This is OUR holiday! Secular or mystic or both, it's OUR holiday!

BTW, I've got my red on!

[TBF]

27. Yes, it's a day for workers - however we choose to celebrate it!

Funny how the republican party tries to steal our color ... they can't have it either!

[socialist_n_TN]

29. Yeah, I've taken to calling it "Classic Red".........

to distinguish it from the Republican red. :)