May Day is an international day of celebration to honor the labor movement called the International Worker’s Day. International Workers’ Day is the commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago, which occurred after an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they dispersed a public assembly during a general strike for the eight-hour workday. In response, the Chicago police fired on the workers killing dozens of demonstrators and several of their own officers.
This year there is a call for mass action—the May First General Strike (#M1GS): a day without the 99%. Over 115 US cities have organized in solidarity with this call to action.
A general strike is a way to build and demonstrate the power of the people. It’s a way to show this is a system that only exists because we allow it to. If we can withdraw from the system for one day we can use that day to build community and mutual aid. We can find inspiration and faith—not in any leaders or bosses but in each other and in ourselves.
If you are inspired by the day of action but don’t live near any organized events or fear large crowds of yelling people, you can still take part.
Move Your Money: If you haven’t already, May Day is as good as any to move your money out of a national, corporate bank into a local bank or credit union. Support your local community and break up the “too big to fail” Wall Street banks that threaten our economic system. Learn more about moving your money here: www.moveyourmoneyproject.org
Ride your bike/carpool/walk to work: Ride your bike, walk, or arrange a carpool to work. When you do this you are lessening our country’s dependency on outdated, unclean energies.
Screen a Movie: Invite your friends or neighbors over to watch a documentary. After, have a discussion about how it relates to your values or the ideas of Occupy. You can watch political documentaries online at the following links for free:
http://crimethinc.com/movies/
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/category/politics/
http://www.documentarytube.com/category/political-documentarieshttp://freedocumentaries.org/
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- May Day is not about maypoles: the history of international workers’ day | Richard Seymour (guardian.co.uk)
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