It's May Day, the holiday that emerged out of labor's quest for the 8-hour day in the nineteenth century. "Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will," workers sang. We lose sight of the fact that these workers brought us a decent night's sleep as well as the weekend!
I'm lucky enough to be in Santa Cruz, in the midst of the Reelwork festival, a film festival that is celebrating labor. Tonight, at our local Veterans' Hall, veteran labor folklorist and folksinger Archie Green will be leading the audience in songs out of the IWW songbook. I have to bring my son to this--even as labor unions only have eleven percent of the workforce unionized these days, I feel like this is a big and important part of history.
You can admire the Reelwork festival's schedule here:
http://www.reelwork.org/...
How will you commemorate the workers, past and present, today? Will you participate in a May Day event? Will you participate in an anti-deportation march? I'd like to know what, if any, labor-related activities are taking place in your area today.