It gives me a boost to know that across the country people were engaged in mass protests today against the Trump authoritarian regime. May 1—known as May Day—is the perfect opportunity to take to the streets.
May Day has a long association with pagan and spring festivals in Europe dating back to the Roman Empire, and has become synonymous with the labor movement in the last 150 years.
In 1889 an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as a day in support of workers and to commemorate workers who were killed in clashes with police during the Haymarket Riot in Chicago in 1886.
But May Day didn’t stick to honor the labor movement in the United States because President Grover Cleveland had a hissy fit over the socialist origins of the day, so he designated the first Monday in September as Labor Day to honor workers.
Not that workers are especially honored in the U.S. on any day. Corporations have worked relentlessly to discourage union membership, which has dropped from a high of 35 percent of workers in 1954 to less than 10 percent today. The government has been in on putting down labor too, with “right to work” laws allowing employees to take advantage of gains made by unions without having to pay union dues. The result is lower wages, fewer benefits, and less job security; and the conclusion is the same as always: Capital exploits labor.
Today’s protests are not just in support of workers, they are also passionately against the entire spectrum of cruelty the Trump regime is inflicting upon our country. Even lawyers were protesting today outside Manhattan’s federal courthouse as part of a National Law Day of Action. Many of them were holding copies of the Constitution, which Trump and his lackeys believe doesn’t apply to them.
The other May Day, pronounced the same way, is M’aidez. Translated from French, it means “Help me” and is the origin of the international distress call “Mayday,” which was easier to communicate than S.O.S.
The protests today are a cry for help, they are a call for all of us who still feel compassion and empathy to come to the aid of those who are suffering at the hands of the current administration.
M’aidez on May Day. If we can only get the other half of the country to start joining in.
