Happy May Day!

We want to feel the sunshine;
We want to smell the flowers;
We're sure God has willed it,
And we mean to have eight hours.

We're summoning our forces,
From shipyard, shop and mill;
Eight hours for work,
Eight hours for rest,
Eight hours for what we will.

It's that time of year again. Sisters and brothers, friends, neighbors, and comrades, workers of all nations and immigrants of all durations, it's May Day, our day, the original labor day, the holiday of the international working class. This is the first time in years that I haven't worked a "real job" on May Day (I'm a grad student who's done teaching for the year) and I feel somewhat out of place without any organizing to do. May Day this year has taken on added significance as "Un día sin inmigrantes", a nationwide boycott and general strike in support of immigrant rights. I'll be marching in Pittsburgh, and I encourage everyone to find an event in your community where you can take part as well. If you can't participate directly, you can show your support by wearing a white t-shirt and not making any purchases for 24 hours.

I also urge everyone to sample one of my very favorite May Day traditions: reading the latest May Day essay from historian Peter Linebaugh. Peter is the co-author (with my advisor, Marcus Rediker) of The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and The Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, the book that convinced be to become a historian. I strongly encourage you all to check out this year's installment, "May Day with Heart: a Strike, a Boycott, a Holiday, a Refusal". Be sure that you keep reading to the end. While I found his writing style a tad quirky at first, I now recognize it as the most brilliantly, beautifully schizophrenic prose I've ever come across.

I still have to read Peter's writing with one page open to the Oxford English Dictionary (here and then here if you're a Pitt student off campus, or use dictionary.com if you're not) and another open to Wikipedia to keep up with his vocabulary and cultural references. How many other writers juxtapose Haymarket, Humpty Dumpty and hobgoblins? Ozymandias, Morris, and Martí? The result is a wildly eclectic collage of words and images. In the tradition of the late Marxist literary critic Walter Benjamin, Peter's every writing is a Passagenwerk of the international working class, a "literary montage".

Even if you can't get out in the streets today, I encourage you to put on a pot of coffee, bake some cookies, and take your time with this wonderful piece of writing. Better yet, print off a copy and cuddle up in an easy chair. Whether you're a veteran labor historian or someone who's never heard of Haymarket, you'll find something for you in this essay. Happy May Day.

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For those who would like to learn more about May Day and read more from Peter Linebaugh in the process, check out the following essays from the CounterPunch archives:

"A May Day Meditation" (2001)
"Against Defeat, Laughter: May Day at Kut and Kienthal" (2003)
"Breaking the Chains of Command: Magna Carta and May Day" (2005)