Call to Support Organized Labor, Free Mumia and Stand Up for Black/Brown/Asian Unity

After 71 years of living in my hometown of San Francisco, you can rest assured that May Day marches do not occur annually in San Francisco. They occur occasionally, usually on weekends, and have only started appearing once in a while starting the 1970s, and with somewhat greater frequency since 2000 as the young have no future without a labor movement, which must be rebuilt by handing out the union cards at every job site. It was unthinkable to celebrate May Day openly in the 1950s and 1960s as it was considered a communist holiday, despite the fact that it originated in this country in 1886 in the struggle for the 8 hour day. The anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950s, used to smash organized labor as it was communists who organized the labor unions in the 1930s, made it difficult to build a peace movement against nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s, much less promote May Day. It was only after the peace movement against the American War Against Vietnam grew to a formidable size after the 1968 Tet Offensive that support for May Day could be done openly. Victory in Vietnam Day, April 30, 1975, was celebrated in Berkeley with dancing in the streets but no formal May Day parade the next day in San Francisco, Berkeley or anywhere else in the Bay Area. In the rest of the world, of course, May Day, also known as International Workers Day, is celebrated with labor parades.

Labor, especially since World War 2, has always emphasized workingclass unity. After all, the leaders of the struggle for the 8-hour day were immigrants, and since WW2 was an anti-colonial, anti-racist struggle, the labor movement embraced those principles as well better than ever before. All of the photos of this year's May Day celebration clearly demonstrated workingclass unity. After all, we are:

Black, brown, yellow, red and white,
Same enemy, same fight,
Workers of the world, unite!

I will correct that first line based on this exquisitely detailed history you have provided. Thank you for taking the time.