May Day, and the state of socialism in the world
FirstComradeStalin
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Registered User regular
It's almost over in most parts of the world, but May 1st was May Day, also known as International Workers' Day. It was initially created to commemorate the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago, when Chicago police killed a dozen people who were observing a general strike. Every part of the world celebrates the day, excluding the US and Canada, mainly because of the presence of Labour Day as our own worker's holiday.
May Day has, over time, come to have strong socialist undertones. As a result, many countries have come to either wholly embrace it or have strongly resisted it.
In Turkey, where May Day is outlawed, large protests were broken up violently:
Violence also broke out during German protests (mainly because of a strong Neo-Nazi presence):
However, some "Communist" countries still avidly celebrate the holiday. In Cuba:
In China:
Peaceful demonstrations were held in non-Communist countries, as well, but those pictures are harder to find.
For the most part, this thread is to discuss your own May Day experiences, along with discussion about the state of socialism in the old sense (Bourgeoisie/Proletariat tensions, nothing to lose but your chains, etc.) in countries today.
May Day has, over time, come to have strong socialist undertones. As a result, many countries have come to either wholly embrace it or have strongly resisted it.
In Turkey, where May Day is outlawed, large protests were broken up violently:
Violence also broke out during German protests (mainly because of a strong Neo-Nazi presence):
However, some "Communist" countries still avidly celebrate the holiday. In Cuba:
In China:
Peaceful demonstrations were held in non-Communist countries, as well, but those pictures are harder to find.
For the most part, this thread is to discuss your own May Day experiences, along with discussion about the state of socialism in the old sense (Bourgeoisie/Proletariat tensions, nothing to lose but your chains, etc.) in countries today.
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but they're listening to every word I say
Is a man not entitled to the sweat from his brow?
If you want to look at Socialism look at Northern Europe.
I've never seen anyone celebrate, protest, or otherwise acknowledge it.
Blue collar workers are stupid.
Considering the education system they're stuck with this is often true.
But really everyone's stupid just some have learned how to fuck people over better.
'Course, carpenters can make six figures.
Outside of that, I spent my International Workers' Day working a 14-hour shift.
Hilarious.
The 8 hour work day didn't become the standard. A collection of large labour organizations met and agreed upon a date (May 1, 1886) when they would all define a day's work as eight hours. They went on strike to try and bring about the eight hour work day, not in response to it.
And NOT bought by your girlfriend?
May Pole? Are you, perhaps, Swedish?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PNeGXGd2FI
Man I own a bunch of shirts. Probably a hundred. Frankie's only bought me a few, though they're pretty good by and large. One has a giant half-tone Tom Waits on it. One is grey with a red star on it. One has an imperial Japanese sunburst behind a plane dropping bombs with the letter "F" on them. And one is a geeky math shirt with a parabola bounding an area that says "Master of my Domain".
I don't wear that last one a whole lot.
Yeah we did that too. It was pretty basic, like over, under, over, under while some lame probably Scandinavian music played.
It'd be awesome if the policeman statue commemorating their casualties at Haymarket got vandalised every May 1st. Not least of which because it got moved to the front doors of police headquarters for that very reason.
Myself, I worked my standard 9 hour shift (minus 1-hour lunch). My only show of solidarity was sporting a fetching red tam.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
I want to gut you.
The fact that May Day is ignored here makes me sad. It hides the fact that, contrary to what you learn in grade school, the 40 hour week and the 8 hour day were violently put down by the government. People were killed by Chicago police while securing the labor rights everyone takes for granted today.
Was it really the police? I always thought it was the Pinkerton Detective Agency. /shrug
For paintings in progress, check out canvas and paints
"The power of the weirdness compels me."
I don't labor, I'm a trust fund kid.
The tone in here is pretty facetious for the most part, and its a bit worrying. I don't think people really appreciate the value of the people and organisations who've agitated for decent working hours and conditions (perhaps because their tendency to overdo it in some places discredits the overall movement). I certainly don't think they appreciate the value of those struggling at present in developing countries. Its in the nature of capitalism to demand more and more from its workers, and only by active resistance to the excesses of this demand do we have anything approaching a work/life balance. Its important that we're able to work for a living rather than live to work - its the cornerstone of a healthy society, to my mind. Still, fewer and fewer people, even the highly trained, can do this without vilification. Workers' rights are seen as a blue-collar preoccupation, while so many of us in other industries work for longer, doing more and more for less and less, with no time to ourselves. This isn't ok.
You forgot Lenin and Mao's offspring, LMAO
It would seem I have a new sig.
edit: One which I suspect is too big, but I can't find the size limits.
So, what? Labor Day was a distraction so that we'd still get a day off of work, but we wouldn't be reminded of police brutality? Actually looking over this thread, it seems to have worked.
After someone lobbed a bomb at the Chicago Police dispersing the protestors. Not that they're justified for the massacre, but to ignore the 7 guys who got asploded by someone at the protest which started the whole damn thing strikes me as very sad. You do the hanged anarchists a disservice.
Or get stapled to a tree, so there's still an element of risk.
Being stapled to a tree would probably be the least horrifying construction injury I'd ever hear of.
Some of these guys saw off parts of their arms.
Bombs tend to cause a bit of panic...what with it being a BOMB. That plus the already high tensions probably meant a loud fart would have caused a riot.
That depends on how big the staples/nails are - 9"- and if the Romans throw dice for the said carpenters clothes...
For paintings in progress, check out canvas and paints
"The power of the weirdness compels me."
Oh good, someone got the Jesus reference. Now I don't have to feel overly obscure.
I was shocked that no-one else had, seemed so obvious to me - but then, Lewie has to explain stuff on here/ I google stuff, so I'm quite chuffed about this one!
For paintings in progress, check out canvas and paints
"The power of the weirdness compels me."
the problem is that a lot of times, those organizations you're talking about start out as incredibly valuable and important movements constructed from the ground up, but over time can become as bloated and corrupt as any of the worst capitalist organizations. in the united states there's been a huge dropoff in union enrollment since the 1950's, at least in part because of this.
i think unions and worker's advocacy groups are a critical part of a functioning capitalist society, but their track records are as mixed as any other major political or social group. if we're being facetious, it's because of the overall failure of some of the more extreme political ideologies that are attached to the may day movements, not because most of us don't appreciate the work of worker's advocacy groups.
i mean, the guts that that people had to try and stand up to frick and the pinkertons to fight for their rights as workers... that's impressive. but the total collapse of the soviet union and the ridiculous hypocrisy of china in regards to their stated ideology and the fact that some college kids who haven't had to do a hard day's work in their lives like to parade around in che t-shirts... that's kinda funny.
For the record, there was a -lot- of coverage of the protests on May Day. It was on Headline News every 30 minutes, and CNN every hour...
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/