Happy May Day, part II

Of course, I can't let this day go by without saluting its history.

You can read more about it here, here, and here.

But today I want to conjure in our imaginations is the spectacle of eighty thousand people marching down Michigan Avenue on May 1, 1886, on strike and proclaiming (not demanding) an eight-hour workday from that day forward.

That's one-sixth the population of Chicago at that time!

Imagine them marching. It is reported as a beautiful spring day. The street is lined with police, national guardsmen, and anyone willing to wield a weapon to protect the ruling class, because rumors have been circulated that murder and mayhem are planned.

I like to think that these folks felt pretty silly as they stood there "protecting" the trembling, cowering wealthy folk of Chicago...protecting them from a crowd of families and children, reportedly in holiday spirit, dressed in their best, singing songs and enjoying themselves.

The eighty thousand won—the eight-hour day went into effect immediately—not because they smashed things or killed people, and not because they moved the cold hearts of "the bosses" to pity and benevolence.

They won because eighty thousand people with a single goal are uncontrollable.*

The eight-hour day had been signed into law years before in many states, but the law was ignored. In contrast, unions and strikes were illegal. None of this had any bearing on the struggle or the victory. When hundreds of thousands of people across the country (estimated 400,000 total went on strike) announced that they would no longer be working more than eight hours a day, what could "the bosses" do but agree?

This power is what has been forgotten.

My point is that creating the world we want is not about the ballot box or the law. It's not about getting someone else (a president, a senator, a judge) to do what we want them to do. It's not about waiting for a great leader to take us to the promised land.

It's about organizing ourselves collectively to create the future we want to see.

¡La lucha continua - unidos venceremos!

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*n.b. Eighty thousand, or eight hundred thousand, or eight million people who just gather with signs or candles... can be comfortably ignored, as we saw on Feb. 15, 2003 (although the pictures still make me cry...). This is why I don't put a lot of energy into protesting anymore.

Angela Davis visited here last year and she said something like, "When we used to protest, it was a demonstration of how much power we had, of how many people we had organized, who were determined to get something accomplished. The 'powers that be' knew we were unstoppable and they better not get in the way. But now, the protest is the goal in itself, and it's nothing more than street theater."

Sheep:	"We need a permit to protest the fact that you keep eating us."
Shepherd:	"Be my guest, protest all you like."
Sheep:	"See how many of us are here, begging you, to please stop eating us."
Shepherd:	"Make me."
Sheep:	"But you're supposed to love and protect us!"
Shepherd:	"You obviously don't understand the point of my existence."

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And just for fun...

Happy May Day from some dead white men!

(But who's the guy in the middle?)