Today is the first of May, a date that may have more holidays than any other. It’s the date when many countries celebrate Labor Day, a tradition with its roots in the 19th-century labor movement in the United States. In 1886, unions around the country went on strike in support of an eight-hour workday. Since many of the organizers of the strikes were communists, socialists, and anarchists, May Day has also come to be associated with communism, and was a big national holiday in the Soviet Union. President Eisenhower tried to take back May Day during the Cold War by declaring it Law Day and Loyalty Day. It remains a day of rallies and protests in many parts of the world, and in 2006, protest returned to the United States on May 1st to call attention to immigrants’ rights.
May Day Protest
When: Friday May 1st, 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Where: Black Mountain Town Square
A community gathering will take place at Black Mt Town Square, from 5-6. This event—part of a national day of action— includes a "Love-in-Action" request for food pantry donations. Dry food products, such as boxes of pasta, are encouraged.
May Day parades used to be full of workers! I did a bit of historic research at one time, finding old photos from New York and other cities of support of workers, much like Labor Day kind of does now.
The laborers used to parade down the streets on May Day...here are a few photos of New York parades.
These laborers in mills, factories, and food processing plants would take the day to display that they were doing the work that kept our world going. They might just do it again today...
Today people have been urging each other to not shop, not work, nor go to school. (Unless of course you're an essential worker.)
So here in Black Mountain, or in nearby Asheville, there will be gatherings. There will be music. There will be justice oriented signs. And schools are closed!
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Recent reading which helps my own attitude:
We are bodies. We do not have bodies... If all our ‘inputs’ are visual and textual, and all we touch is frictionless surfaces, and if we have not reinstated the rich and varied physical life that lockdowns and contemporary electronic habits have stolen from us, then we will, very simply, be somewhat ill. One birth right of humans is a place in the ongoing physical life of earth. Without it, we are without context, (literally - not in the fabric), sullen, and prone to dubious medications peddled by the Machine.Am I asking you to roll on the ground in the sunshine or push your faces into the hands of willing friends? Well, that would be a good start, as it would deliver a life-enhancing dose of the a vitamin we are mostly all deficient in - foolishness. Pioneers such as Moshe Feldenkrais and Thomas Hanna based their lives' work on returning people to natural movement. I would encourage us all to urgently attend to the state of our tactile lives, to touching and being touched, to feeling things under our hands and feet that are not manmade.
SOURCE:
One forgets. It is good to be reminded.
ReplyDeleteI hope that there is a big turnout for the rallies.
DeleteHappy May Day!
ReplyDeleteHappy May Day to you too, Vicki!
Delete...workers need organizing now more than ever.
ReplyDeleteI'll show a few shots of some of the marches tomorrow. I was glad this was the lead story on our local evening news!
DeleteIt was a good day.
ReplyDeleteSo glad people were doing the protest things!
DeleteA belated comment, Barbara, but thank you for all the information and hope there was a good turnout in Blackwood.
ReplyDelete