MAY DAY

MAY 1, 2018

It's springtime. The bears have come out of hibernation. Just this week on a bicycle ride home after work, as I rounded a bend on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a mature black bear came bounding out of the woods and stopped on the pavement. She turned toward me. I could read in her eyes from 80 feet away the question "Is he edible?" Apparently not, for she then scampered on, dropping off into the opposite forest.

Blackie also stirred from his recent rest. He reminded me that in 2016 we had attended a family wedding in Virginia just days into that year's cross-country trip. Afterwards we left the route and came home for a few weeks until son was driving through on his way back to St. Louis. Then we hitched a lift that placed us just west of Kentucky near the Mississippi River. We had missed Kentucky! and the climbs of the Virginia/Kentucky Appalachians!

"We should ride Kentucky," said Blackie.

And to get there "We should ride the Blue Ridge Parkway," said Robbie, from Cherokee to its northern terminus that just happens to be near Charlottesville, VA where we left off and where nephew-in-law Peter lives. 

"It will be our gap year!"

"ROAD TRIP!" think the boys. Lou stretched and agreed.  

Be careful when waking a bear

It was Blackie's idea," says Robbie to Jenny. "It'll only take five weeks. I can mow the lawn when I get back."  

We begin May 1.   

Lou in 2018

Lou hasn't changed too much in the six years we've been together, but he does have new panniers this year. Rich was kind to loan me his for two trips. I wore them out! Rich, just let me know when. You have a certain claim on their use.  


MAY 1


It's difficult to overlook the history of this date, May 1-International Workers Day...but first there was...  

BELTANE
The Celts of the British Isles believed May 1 to be the most important day of the year, when the festival of Beltane was held. This May Day festival was thought to divide the year in half, between the light and the dark. Symbolic fire was one of the main rituals of the festival, helping to celebrate the return of life and fertility to the world.   

FLORALIA
Then the Romans took over the British Isles, and they brought with them their five-day celebration known as Floralia, devoted to the worship of the goddess of flowers, Flora. Taking place between April 20 and May 2, the rituals of this celebration were eventually combined with Beltane.  

MAYPOLE
Another popular tradition of May Day involves the maypole. While the exact origins of the maypole remain unknown, the annual traditions surrounding it can be traced back to medieval times, and some are still celebrated today.  

LABOR
And then some people in the 19th century thought labor conditions were getting out of hand. In the United States at the height of the Industrial Revolution, thousands of men, women, and children were dying every year from poor working conditions and long hours.   

In an attempt to end these inhumane conditions, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which would later become the American Federation of Labor, or AFL) held a convention in Chicago in 1884. The FOTLU proclaimed “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labor from and after May 1, 1886.”  

The following year the Knights of Labor – then America’s largest labor organization – backed the proclamation as both groups encouraged workers to strike and demonstrate.   

On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers (40,000 in Chicago alone) from 13,000 businesses walked out of their jobs across the country. In the following days, more workers joined and the number of strikers grew to almost 100,000.   

 
HAYMARKET RIOT
Overall, the protests were peaceful, but that all changed on May 3 where Chicago police and workers clashed at the McCormick Reaper Works. The next day a rally was planned at Haymarket Square to protest the killing and wounding of several workers by the police.  

The speaker was winding down when a group of officers arrived to disperse the crowd. As the police advanced, an individual who was never identified threw a bomb into their ranks. Chaos ensued, and at least seven police officers and eight civilians died as a result of the violence that day.  

The Haymarket Riot set off a national wave of repression. In August 1886, eight men labeled as anarchists were convicted in a sensational and controversial trial despite there being no solid evidence linking the defendants to the bombing. The jury was considered to be biased, with ties to big business.   

Seven of the convicted men received a death sentence, and the eighth was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In the end, four of the men were hanged, one committed suicide and the remaining three were pardoned six years later.  

A few years after the Haymarket Riot and subsequent trials shocked the world, a newly formed coalition of socialist and labor parties in Europe called for a demonstration to honor the “Haymarket Martyrs.” In 1890, over 300,000 people protested at a May Day rally in London. In that year, the US government began tracking workers' hours. The average workweek for full-time manufacturing employees was a whopping 100 hours.  

It took more than 40 years to get to a final resolution.  

September 3, 1916: Congress passed the Adamson Act, a federal law that established an eight-hour workday for interstate railroad workers.   

September 25, 1926: Ford Motor Companies adopted a five-day, 40-hour workweek.  

June 25, 1938: Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, that limited the workweek to 44 hours. What was good for Ford must be good for the country.  

June 26, 1940: Congress amended the Fair Labor Standards Act, limiting the workweek to 40 hours, taking effect on October 24, 1940.  

The workers’ history of May 1 was eventually embraced by many governments worldwide, not just those with socialist or communist influences.  


Me...I'm going on a bike ride...?  


SOLIDARITY FOREVER
If there ever was a song that symbolized the trade-union campaign, it is certainly Solidarity Forever. Composed in 1915 by American labour activist Ralph Chaplin, the song was adapted in many countries. Nowadays, the song still unites protesters or strikers.   

Think of our West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Arizona teachers. North Carolina may yet join this movement that is for the betterment of our children, and thus country.  

Solidarity forever,

Solidarity forever,

Solidarity forever,

For the union makes us strong.
When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,

There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun;

Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one, 
But the union makes us strong.