Spring 2018 (May Day) Industrial Worker
Submitted on Mon, 04/30/2018 - 1:24pm
May Day!
Long a celebration of renewal, as Spring shows its stuff with abundance in Nature, May 1 was the perfect day for workers to come out in their numbers, celebrating their unity and strength in demanding the eight-hour workday and safe working conditions. It took anarchists and socialists to stand up to the money men and demand what simply should have been a right of Nature, which knows how to take a good rest to gear up for astonishing productivity.
There's a third meaning to "Mayday," but it's just as appropriate to our movement as the connection to Nature is to dignity for all workers. We've heard it in countless war movies: "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" It has to be said three times to work, just like Dorothy's clicking her heels to "There's no place like home!" and "Oyez, oyez, oyez!" (Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye!) to call a court to order.
"M'aidez, m'aidez, m'aidez!" It means "Help me." That's what Wobblies do. It's solidarity, Fellow Workers!
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