Today, is May Day, which is commonly celebrated throughout the world as International Workers' Day, except for the United States, who celebrate their Labor Day on May 1 due to avoid the "Communist implications" that come with celebrating it on May 1. Instead, the United States government decided to designate May 1 as "Loyalty Day", a day especially set aside for reaffirming one's loyalty to the United States and decides to instead recognize Labor Day during September, a much separated date from May 1.
Loyalty day started out as "Americanization Day" during the First Red Scare and was then put into place by Dwight D. Eisenhower during the Second Red Scare as Loyalty Day. Ever since then, every President since then, whether they are liberal or conservative, has designated May 1 as "Loyalty Day."
While the rest of the world commemorates workers and the struggles of organized labor on a date selected to commemorate one of the most infamous incidents in AMERICAN Labor History, The Heymarket Affair, the United States will be celebrating a government sanctioned patriotism day conceived as an effort to quell the ideas of organized labor and portray them an un-American. Instead, American workers get Labor Day as compensation, but everyone only celebrates that as the end of summer and of wearing white. The United States dislikes organized labor so much that it can't even properly recognize its great effort to fight for the rights of the people.
I love this country, and I don't need a "loyalty day" to specially declare my loyalty to it. However, the efforts of organized labor are still needed today, and delegating the day that is almost universally recognized internationally as the day for workers as a day that pretty much exists to paint the labor movement as unpatriotic is sickening.
America has had a long history of putting down protests, especially those of the labor movement. The United States has always tried portray fighting for workers' rights as "Communism" and claiming that too much government regulation to protect the working class from the corporations takes away freedom. In the early 1900s, fighting for workers' safety and for ending child labor was condemned as socialist. Now, wanting to increase collective bargaining rights and protections for workers is still condemned as unnecessary regulations that will only stifle the moneymaking ability for corporations. Wanting working people to actually make a livable wage gets you portrayed as a "liberal softie." After all, working people who work two jobs who still live in poverty are totally not working hard enough, right? Additionally, working people are constantly bombarded with the fear of automation, with people constantly stating that workers should be satisfied with the scraps they are paid and their desire to want more money will mean that they will be replaced my machines, despite the fact that automation is inevitable no matter how much workers are paid. Additionally, things like Citizens United and right-to-work laws continue to shut the workers and allows corporations to donate larger amounts of money to get laws passed that serve to detriment workers. Both Democrats and Republicans prefer to serve corporate interests over the interests of ordinary Americans, with Republicans outright attacking organized labor and Democrats only giving platitudes to working Americans. In the case of Trump, he pretends to empathize with problems of working class, despite the fact that he is billionaire who makes money of the backs of his workers.
Take this May 1 to declare solidarity with America's working class and the working class around the world. Protest an administration and a system of government as a whole that has constantly put the well-being of corporations above ordinary people. And remember, even as politicians continue to divide the working class on race, no matter what color you are, Solidarity Forever!
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