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May Day
A friend from Chicago -- a former LJer, in fact -- ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
oblomova, whom I miss quite a lot... anyway, she posted a Happy May Day on Facebook, and talked about the Haymarket anarchists, their graves, and Emma Goldman and Ben Reitman's graves, out at what was, when I was little and went there several times on family outings, Waldheim Cemetery. Apparently now they've translated it, and it's Forest Home Cemetery, or something like that. It's a great cemetery in general, and the anarchists' graves always make me feel proud of their effort to change the world and angry at their executions. They were not lifestyle anarchists.
It feels like May Day, for the first time in a long time. This Depression continues, state and federal budgets have been eviscerated and to pay for that, the sole remaining highly unionized part of the American workforce -- public workers -- is the focus of a vicious attack. Race to the bottom, in superspeed. But there has been motion, among NORMAL, regular, working people. Not the kind of once-yearly demonstration parade held most Springs in San Francisco, not the usual suspects... yeah, students were highly involved in the Wisconsin fightback. But just as the antiwar movement in Madison, Wisconsin, moved from involving students to mobilizing a huge part of the community, the recent struggle in Wisconsin mobilized regular people. Friends and relatives of mine who have never been politically active in any way at all went to the demonstrations and rallies, posted their anger on their FB wall, signed petitions to recall the bastards who voted to gut union rights. They drew the connection to revolutionary anger in Egypt themselves, and it didn't seem like that faraway place was incomprehensible and too different to merit solidarity.
I just got an email that says that my state level teachers' union, the California Teachers Association, has called for an occupation of the State House in Sacramento, May 9 - 13. I don't know if that coincides with a lot of teachers' Spring Breaks, or what. Not mine, sadly. And I don't have any sick days I could use, either, damn it. I don't have a lot of hope that this will take off in a big way. But Wisconsin did show the way.
[ETA: It's not even Sacramento Unified School District's Spring Break. And it IS within the annual testing window for the state standardized tests -- it's the second week of our STAR testing period, for example...]
For May Day, then, I want to link to three moving videos made by a film student.
oblomova, whom I miss quite a lot... anyway, she posted a Happy May Day on Facebook, and talked about the Haymarket anarchists, their graves, and Emma Goldman and Ben Reitman's graves, out at what was, when I was little and went there several times on family outings, Waldheim Cemetery. Apparently now they've translated it, and it's Forest Home Cemetery, or something like that. It's a great cemetery in general, and the anarchists' graves always make me feel proud of their effort to change the world and angry at their executions. They were not lifestyle anarchists.It feels like May Day, for the first time in a long time. This Depression continues, state and federal budgets have been eviscerated and to pay for that, the sole remaining highly unionized part of the American workforce -- public workers -- is the focus of a vicious attack. Race to the bottom, in superspeed. But there has been motion, among NORMAL, regular, working people. Not the kind of once-yearly demonstration parade held most Springs in San Francisco, not the usual suspects... yeah, students were highly involved in the Wisconsin fightback. But just as the antiwar movement in Madison, Wisconsin, moved from involving students to mobilizing a huge part of the community, the recent struggle in Wisconsin mobilized regular people. Friends and relatives of mine who have never been politically active in any way at all went to the demonstrations and rallies, posted their anger on their FB wall, signed petitions to recall the bastards who voted to gut union rights. They drew the connection to revolutionary anger in Egypt themselves, and it didn't seem like that faraway place was incomprehensible and too different to merit solidarity.
I just got an email that says that my state level teachers' union, the California Teachers Association, has called for an occupation of the State House in Sacramento, May 9 - 13. I don't know if that coincides with a lot of teachers' Spring Breaks, or what. Not mine, sadly. And I don't have any sick days I could use, either, damn it. I don't have a lot of hope that this will take off in a big way. But Wisconsin did show the way.
[ETA: It's not even Sacramento Unified School District's Spring Break. And it IS within the annual testing window for the state standardized tests -- it's the second week of our STAR testing period, for example...]
For May Day, then, I want to link to three moving videos made by a film student.
Wisconsin "Budget Repair Bill" Protest from Matt Wisniewski on Vimeo.
Wisconsin "Budget Repair Bill" Protest Pt 2 from Matt Wisniewski on Vimeo.
WI "Budget Repair Bill" Protest (Feb 20-24?) Pt. 3 from Matt Wisniewski on Vimeo.
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It does feel like we're on the edge of something. I'm so used to there being absolutely no large, let alone mass, movement of working people in North America, and Wisconsin—and the elections here—are giving me a faint little spark of hope.
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http://noelcordle.wordpress.com/category/hot-dead-guys/
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