People
seem to know about May Day everywhere except where it began, here in
the United States of America. That’s because those in power have done
everything they can to erase its real meaning. For example, Ronald
Reagan designated what he called, “Law Day”—a day of jingoist
fanaticism, like an extra twist of the knife in the labor
movement. Today, there is a renewed awareness, energized by the Occupy
movement’s organizing, around May Day, and its relevance for reform
and perhaps eventual revolution.
If
you’re a serious revolutionary, then you are not looking for an
autocratic revolution, but a popular one which will move towards freedom
and democracy. That can take place only if a mass of the population is
implementing it, carrying it out, and solving problems. They’re not
going to undertake that commitment, understandably, unless they have
discovered for themselves that there are limits to reform.
A
sensible revolutionary will try to push reform to the limits, for two
good reasons. First, because the reforms can be valuable in
themselves. People should have an eight-hour day rather than a
twelve-hour day. And in general, we should want to act in accord with
decent ethical values.
Secondly,
on strategic grounds, you have to show that there are limits to reform.
Perhaps sometimes the system will accommodate to needed reforms. If so,
well and good. But if it won’t, then new questions arise. Perhaps that
is a moment when resistance is a necessary step to overcome the barriers
to justified changes. Perhaps the time has come to resort to coercive
measures in defense of rights and justice, a form of
self-defense. Unless the general population recognizes such measures to
be a form of self-defense, they’re not going to take part in them, at
least they shouldn’t.
If you get to a point where the existing institutions will not bend to the popular will, you have to eliminate the institutions.
May
Day started here, but then became an international day in support of
American workers who were being subjected to brutal violence and
judicial punishment.
Today,
the struggle continues to celebrate May Day not as a “law day” as
defined by political leaders, but as a day whose meaning is decided by
the people, a day rooted in organizing and working for a better future
for the whole of society.
