This year labor, community, and socialist organizations are working together to bring International Workers Day back to Maine. Maine DSA member Bluebird sets the stage with some of the history behind the most important date on the working class’s calendar.

Every year on May 1, the vast majority of countries around the world celebrate Labor Day, but the United States is not one of them.

Why do so many countries celebrate Labor Day on May 1?

May 1 marks the beginning of a general strike in the United States which occurred in 1886. The strike culminated in what is commonly referred to as the Haymarket Affair.

What is the Haymarket Affair?

The Haymarket Affair was a series of events that transpired on May 4, 1886. During a rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, an anonymous individual threw a bomb, likely in response to the police killing two attendees of a peaceful rally that happened in Chicago’s West Side the previous day. Following the explosion of the bomb at the Haymarket rally, Chicago police fired on workers, killing four and injuring at least 70. The police were so trigger happy that they even managed to kill seven of their own by friendly fire.

Following the Haymarket Square incident, eight anarchists, some of whom were not even present when the aforementioned events transpired, were arrested and charged with conspiracy. The rally’s speakers, August Spies, Albert Parsons, and Samuel Fielden were among those arrested and charged.

At their trial, the Haymarket Eight were sentenced to death by hanging. Illinois Governor Richard James Oglesby commuted the death sentences of the defendants who requested it, but four of the defendants refused to request clemency on the grounds that they had committed no crime and had been wrongfully convicted.

In the aftermath of the Haymarket Affair, May 1 became a common day for workers in the United States to hold rallies and demonstrations commemorating the 1886 strike, honor the Haymarket martyrs, and reaffirm the working class’ struggle for emancipation.

In 1889, when the world’s largest socialist and labor parties founded the Second International, the American Federation of Labor suggested that May 1 be the date when the various constituent organizations of the Second International should hold an international day of protest, in explicit reference to the Chicago protests. When the Second International held its second congress in 1891, May 1 protests were formalized into an annual event known as “International Workers Day”—also commonly called May Day.

In spite of its international recognition and in spite of its American origins, the United States does not officially celebrate International Workers Day, instead celebrating Labor Day on the first Monday of September. This is because the government of the United States was concerned by the example of the Haymarket martyrs and growing radicalism of the US labor movement in the wake of events like the 1894 Pullman Strike. Thus, in 1894, the first Monday of September was made the official “non-political” Labor Day in the US by the decree of the country’s highest political institutions—particularly at the recommendation of then-President Grover Cleveland.

So what purpose is there in making a point of celebrating International Workers Day? While the September Labor Day is still sentimentally important, it is neither the chosen day of the American working class, nor the chosen day of the international working class, who overwhelmingly celebrates International Workers Day rather than a different Labor Day. Whereas the September Labor Day celebrates an abstracted version of the American working class, International Workers Day celebrates the real struggle of the working class and those who have given their lives in the struggle for worker power. And we owe it to our martyrs that we not forget them.

Despite official hostility, the story of May Day has survived and inspired generations of working-class organizers ever since 1886. For instance, on May 1, 2006, several million immigrant workers all over the US walked off their jobs and marched in cities large and small in what was the largest coordinated strike action in more than half a century. This year, Maine DSA is working with a coalition of labor and community organizations to bring the traditions of May Day back to Maine as the working class faces a concerted attack from Trump and his billionaire quislings. 

The post International Workers Day: then and now appeared first on Pine & Roses.

By Lara

Have you ever met eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetitdus)? Now might be a good time to do so! It is one of our first plants to emerge from the ground, frequently blooming before the snow and ice melt, and one of the few plants to produce its own heat via thermogenesis—allowing it to generate an internal temperature that averages ~20 degrees warmer than the air around it, melting any snow in its vicinity. 

Honeybees may take refuge in its warmth and utilize the ample (and early—it may be the first springtime source of) pollen it produces. It is also pollinated by carrion-feeding flies and gnats, who are attracted by its “liver-colored streaks” and putrid smell. This smell hopefully deters humans from eating eastern skunk cabbage raw, who otherwise may be in for an unpleasant time, as it is very rich in calcium oxalate crystals, which may cause kidney stones and an acrid scorching sensation when consumed. Though it may cause pain and problems when ingested improperly, when it is properly treated, eastern skunk cabbage has historically been used medicinally for a variety of ailments.

The eastern skunk cabbage also has contractile roots, which grow and contract, pulling it deeper into the Earth. Once mature, they become deeply rooted and very difficult to displace. It does not, however, spread vegetatively through the roots like many woodland wildflowers do, but rather apparently only through seeds. Perhaps there is something to be learned there, as our organization grows and spreads. What other lessons can we learn from the skunk cabbage?

The eastern skunk cabbage may smell like death (depending on your perspective—some have described it as combinations of skunk, putrid meat, mustard, garlic, and onions), it’s sustaining life. What’s been happening in our country for some time (now coming to a horrible head) feels like death to hopes we may have had for the future and about the motivations of our fellow people. But with the death of these illusions, we can come to terms with reality—which is a necessary step towards changing it. 

When eastern skunk cabbage is utilized improperly, it makes people sick, but in the right conditions, it can be restorative. When the factors motivating change (human rights, inequality, wealth disparity) are improperly addressed by corrupt leadership, people suffer and die. If those factors are addressed properly, we can have a society that is healing and works for all, instead of just a privileged few.

There seems to be a biting cold outside and all around us beyond the literal sense as heartless attitudes toward our fellow folk (immigrants, unhoused, LGBTQ in particular) are amplified by those in power. But despite the cold, like eastern skunk cabbage, we can bloom anyways. We can grow boldly when others would wait for easier climatic conditions. We can generate our own heat and create a protective place for other beings. We can be warm in a cold world.

References: 

The Book of Swamp and Bog, by John Eastman, illustrated by Amelia Hansen

Wisconsin Horticulture, Division of Extension, “Skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus“

https://www.natureinstitute.org/article/craig-holdrege/skunk-cabbage

The post Observing Nature: Eastern Skunk Cabbage first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

As Musk rampages through the federal government, the attacks on the NLRB are almost unmentioned but represent a major challenge for organizers.

The post We can still organize and win under a weakened NLRB appeared first on EWOC.

By Chris Brady

WEST END – More than 300 federal workers, union members, and community supporters rallied in Downtown Boston on Wednesday in front of the Tip O’Neill Federal Building to protest the Trump administration’s DOGE cuts to public services and illegal mass terminations of federal workers. The rally was a part of a national ‘Save Our Services’ day of action with coordinated protests in thirty cities across the country. 

The rallies were coordinated by the Federal Unionists Network, an informal group of federal workers across agencies and unions working together to strengthen federal unions and build solidarity across the labor movement. Boston’s action was sponsored by federal unions including the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the American Federation of Government Employee (AFGE), and the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), as well as the Greater Boston Labor Council, Boston Building Trades Union, and the MA AFL-CIO. It followed immediately after the higher education labor rally against federal funding cuts earlier at Government Center

Protesters formed a picket line outside of the O’Neill building, chanting, “Get up, get down, Boston is a union town!” before consolidating on the steps to listen to speeches from federal unionists, illegally-terminated workers, and Representative Ayanna Pressley.

Claire Bergstresser was illegally terminated from Housing and Urban Development, is a member of AFGE Local 3258, and spoke at the rally. 

“I became a federal worker committed to public service. I worked hard every day to enforce rights, listen to the community, and improve the well-being of our community. Today I am no longer a federal worker, but I am not relieved of my duty to serve the American people.”

Claire worked in the Fair Housing office, ensuring compliance with housing discrimination laws and enabling disadvantaged people to access housing programs.

DOGE front-man and world’s richest man Elon Musk has claimed that federal workers are “getting rich at the expense of the taxpayer”. However, on average federal workers make 24 percent less than their private sector counterparts. Thousands of federal workers have been fired, with hundreds of thousands of workers included in the crosshairs of future proposed cuts. 

Ellen Mei is the chapter president of NTEU 255, and works in the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services, emphasized the vital public services at risk due to staffing cuts.

“At my agency, we are giving money to kids and families so that they have food to eat. We wouldn’t have to do this if companies paid their workers enough to buy three square meals a day. But now, the wealthy are deciding that not only do they want to keep paying workers peanuts, they’re saying that peanuts are all that us workers get to eat.”

DOGE has wrought wanton destruction onto the day to day functioning of the U.S. government. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), a fierce consumer finance watchdog created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, has stopped all work and laid off 95% of its staff. The National Park Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Forest Service, have all hemorrhaged staff, leading to questions regarding the maintenance of American natural resources. 400 staff at the Federal Aviation Administration were fired after the deadliest plane crash in sixteen years. Meanwhile, DOGE is currently trying to rehire employees they fired from the National Nuclear Security Administration because they didn’t realize these workers were essential to keeping the nuclear stockpile safe.

Federal workers are the canary in the coal mine. The name of Wednesday’s national day of action, “Save Our Services” (S.O.S.), is to signal to the broader labor movement – this is not just a crisis of federal employment but a crisis of public services and labor rights. The Trump administration has shown no intent to stop after federal workers, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has already been kneecapped, and the basic compromises labor has won from capital – Medicaid, food stamps, and environmental regulations – are on the precipice of annihilation.

A united labor movement is the only tool the left has available to defend against these attacks on workers rights and public services. It is critical that workers, both public and private, organize and push our unions to think creatively and radically. Boston is demonstrating that we are ready to fight back.

Chris Brady is a member of Boston DSA and a writer for Working Mass. He is also involved in the Federal Unionists Network.

On Wednesday, January 29th, 2025, Connecticut DSA’s Labor Working Group gathered at New Britain’s “Assembly Room” for their first Labor Happy Hour of the year. The Assembly Room looks more upscale at the outset with a chic white façade and a 20s style bar, but the prices are much more modest. Fitting for the working-class muckraker who wants to be ethical while still enjoying life’s comforts.