Celebrations abound. Around the world countless strikes, marches, and protest, are taking place this May 1st, in what has become the rallying day worldwide for the Left. In America, however, Loyalty Day has supplanted May Day as a federally recognized holiday. In an attempt to forget the trials and tribulations that formed 'the land of the free', May Day, has been swept under the rug in america and relegated to the importance of other outdated holidays such as Flag Day.
The history of May Day as International Workers Day, begins in 1886 with the Haymarket Massacre. The late 19th century was a tumultuous time, with Labor organizations around the country demanding higher wages and better working conditions through strikes, walkouts, and protests. During a demonstration for the 'eight our day', police in chicago where trying to disperse protesters when an unidentified assailant threw an explosive at them. The police responded by opening fire on the demonstration, and in the chaos, fellow policemen. The final result was 7 dead police and four dead protesters.
In the aftermath of the incident, police disregarded suspect's fourth amendment rights, ransacking homes in search of bombs and anarchist literature without regard for search warrants. Local and national newspapers rallied with the police, naming the anarchist as responsible for the attack although no evidence existed, and supporting police crackdowns on far left groups. The police targeted the speakers at the Haymarket protests, and the anarchist newspaper Albeiter-Zeitung as the responsible parties, eventually sentencing eight men to death of which only one was even present at the event and was a speaker.
More centrist labor unions quickly distanced themselves from the anarchist groups and many in the public began suspecting the immigrant communities where the anarchist and socialist movements had gained strength. Some, including renowned historian Howard Zinn, believe that evidence points to an anarchist named Rudolph Schnaubelt as the man who threw the bomb, and that he may actually have been an agent provocateur, hired to attack the police and create a crackdown on anarchist and far left political organizations.
This piece of american history has largely been ignored by our media, and the holiday that started as a anniversary of this event in the US, has been suppressed to obscurity. In 1894 Labor Day was moved to september, and became an official holiday. This move was seen as a way to break solidarity with May Day demonstrations that took place worldwide May 1st each year. In the early 1920's during the first red scare, those afraid of socialism taking power in the US began Loyalty Day on May first as a counterbalance to May Day. In 1961, at the height of red scare hysteria, Dwight Eisenhower officially changed May Day, to Loyalty Day in attempt to undermine a holiday that celebrated class consciousness and worker solidarity, by creating a holiday glorifying the status quo. Today we celebrate neither holiday, and thanks to the persecution of the socialist and anarchist histories in america, we have no vibrant voices from either of these schools of thought to balance american discourse.
-Joe Baskin
1 comment:
I've heard of May Day but I never knew it was International Worker Solidarity Day until this year, thanks to Amy Goodman. And I didn't know about the circumstances of the Haymarket Massacre or the suppression of this show of solidarity until I read this post. Abby Martin did a great Alternative Voices Debate that featured representatives of socialism, libertarianism, and anarchism. After watching it I realized I had never seen anything like it in my life. I think most everyone knows by now that there is really only one party, the Demopublican Party. But most are in denial and the media is happy to encourage that by systematically drowning out any thought that doesn't serve the establishment's narrative. Americans have been truly freed of their ability to relate to the global struggle for human rights, and are now free to live in ignorance and apathy of injustices often directly tied to our habits of consumption. This year, the sickening disconnect is more apparent than ever with the horrific garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, a factory producing goods for western corporations and US markets. But let us not stand in solidarity with the people of Bangladesh who make our clothes, but instead bow in loyalty to the establishment that actively obstructs their struggle for dignity and safe working conditions.
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