Where have all the militants gone?
This year’s Haymarket Riot commemoration celebrations (some call it May Day) are taking place in Berlin today without any riots at all, it appears, and hold-on-come- to-think-of-it there were hardly any riots to speak of last year, either, so like what’s the deal, folks? Have you finally been co-opted or something doch?
“Historically, there have been many attempts around the world to permanently co-opt or subvert May Day's origin and Radical Left ideology, but only a few such efforts have survived to the present day. Perhaps the most notable among the attempts that have survived is in the United States, where instead of May Day, a special "Labor Day" is celebrated on the first Monday in September. This Labor Day is a specific creation of the modern U.S. labor movement which expunged communists from its leading ranks after the Red Scare periods. The day constitutes a patriotic yearly national tribute to the contributions American workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of the country, and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of these workers.
It was the Nazis, not the social democratic parties of the Weimar Republic, who made May Day a holiday in Germany, calling it the "day of work", which is its official name in the country. Through this co-opting the Nazis tried to take up the connotations of International Workers' Day, but did not permit socialist demonstrations on this day. Instead, they adapted it to fascist purposes. Then, on May 2, 1933, the Nazis outlawed all free labor unions and other independent workers' organizations in Germany, which subsequently formed their own secret amalgamation.
In a separate attempt to co-opt May Day, the Roman Catholic Church added another Saint Joseph’s Day in 1955 that Christianized 1 May as the day of “Saint Joseph, the Worker”. It is perhaps surprising that the Church did not take this step earlier, to distract attention from the traditionally virile pagan celebrations of May Day.”
Personally, I’m very old fashioned and have always had a warm spot in my heart for those more virile pagan celebration traditions of May Day and the sun actually seems to be shining right now and the birds are chirping or whatever it is they do (despite the Bird Flu threat) so I’m going to commemorate this May 1st out on the balcony with some Weizenbier. Have a nice (May) Day.