Happy May Day Comrades!

[TBF]

http://www.iww.org/en/history/library/misc/origins_of_mayday

[socialist_n_TN]

1. I'll second this sentiment..........

I'm reclaiming my worker's holiday as of TODAY!

Solidarity!

[Odin2005]

2. Remember, May Day started here in the US!

[TBF]

3. You bet it did - and in Chicago no less

One of my favorite accounts of the Haymarket Massacre -

The Haymarket affair grew out of the campaign for the 8 hour workday. Lucy Parsons, her husband, Albert Parsons, and many other anarchist labor activists were already well known in Chicago and across the United States, and had been actively organizing with the militant labor movement in Chicago. On May 1st, 1886, a series of massive strikes were called and hundreds of thousands of workers poured out of the factories demanding shorter working hours. Lucy and Albert Parsons alone led 80,000 workers up Michigan Avenue. By May 3rd a lockout had occurred by employers at McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago. 1,500 employees were protesting the lockout when scabs arrived and a small skirmish started between scabs and workers. 200 police arrived in response, shooting at protesters leaving 4 workers dead and many more wounded.

The following night, May 4, the Haymarket Square meeting was called to address the police violence and the continuing labor struggles. It was at this meeting that the police arrived and the bomb thrown. Following the bomb at Haymarket the police responded the next day by rounding up several of the city's leading anarchist labor activists, including Lucy & Albert Parsons and several of their associates, none of which had anything to do with the bombing - most were not even at the event ...

http://www.lucyparsonsproject.org/haymarket.html

[Starry Messenger]

4. Here's an Italian socialist punk band I just found this week:

Happy May Day to all the comrades here at DU's Socialist Progressives group!

[limpyhobbler]

5. Happy May Day all

Keep on keepin on.