The First of May
It irritates me, every year, that May Day isn’t an official holiday here. It irritates me further that US Labor day is tucked far away at the other end of the year. It just seems petty. And today I discovered that, indeed, the US Labor Day was a deliberate attempt to gain distance from the “radical left”.
It’s all the more annoying considering that apparently the selection of May Day as International Workers’ Day was heavily influenced by the Haymarket Affair, the 1886 rally that ended in lethal clashes between police and civilians—and resulted in a miscarriage of justice that saw seven anarchist activists condemned to death.
I probably should have written the review of The Dispossessed today, as that would have been appropriate, but didn’t think of it in time.
Oh, the Haymarket Affair reading reminded me once again of what a despicable history The New York Times has, as that august institution, in an article titled “Anarchy’s Red Hand”, described the incident as the “bloody fruit” of “the villainous teachings of the Anarchists”.
Fuck ’em. To those who aren’t busy defending the establishment, however: Happy May Day!