May Day: A Day For Everyone
We had considered having an article on the history of May Day, or perhaps an explanation of why May Day is still important to our movement and to working people around the world. But then we thought: why not ask ourselves as well as a few friends what May Day means to us? What better way to get a sense of what it means to celebrate May Day than to ask the people it celebrates directly. So we print here the following answers to that question, "What does May Day mean to you,' and hope that it will show in some way why May Day is a day for everyone.

'To me it's the day where you're meant to remember how far we've come and how much further we have to go as working people in defence of our rights. I mean, my father and his father before him were a coal miner, and I was the first in my family to go up to university and do something different. To me that's because of the struggles waged by the working classes of Britain to get us our standing and our fair share in society. And May Day is a day when I think about those things a bit more, and think about the future and what I might be able to do in my time to change things.'

'For some reason I always, always think of May Day as the day that people rise up en masse to create a revolution... or if they don't, then perhaps it's the day they should. When I was a child, I remember seeing the news on the telly about Paris in May of 1968, and while I didn't understand too much of it at the time, I did understand that my mum and dad were very happy about those people on the telly, and that it had something to do with May Day. Today I don't really celebrate it as such, but I always look at the telly more closely, just in case anything happens. '

'Well of course, it's the workers' holiday, the people's holiday, and for my part, me and my friends have invested it with a bit of kitschy nonsense like you'd find with some other holidays... we have red balloons and banners, and sing the Internationale... we have red beer like they do green beer on St. Patrick's Day, and of course we talk socialist politics. I'd like to see more people doing that sort of thing, you know, making it more of a fun holiday so that more people can get into it.'

'May Day is when we think about the contributions that working people have made to build our world; when we honour those contributions and the workers responsible for them. It's a time to think about where we go from here, especially now when unemployment is so high in Europe, and how we can raise our voices to stop global capitalism from destroying everything we've gained. May Day this year will be a day when I think about what the working class has to do to assert its strength in the way we have done before, to protect our rights.'

'May Day is parades... political parades, trade union parades, students' parades. For me this was always the case, because in Italy it is quite a big thing to have May Day. It is also quite a big thing to have vigourous discussions about the future of the world and what we must do to build socialism. We celebrate the working people, we celebrate ourselves and our abilities. We are also celebrating the fact that we are the ones who make the world operate every day, for better or for worse. Knowing that is important, because then we also know that it is we who are the ones to change it.'

'You know, there's a misconception with May Day... that it is somehow a day for the Russian military to have a parade... but actually the whole thing was brought about by the Haymarket riots in the United States. I think of May Day as a socialist holiday, and by that I mean a holiday of democratic socialism. I think we have to somehow erase the image of Soviet tanks in connection with May Day and return it to its roots as a holiday for everyone who cares about putting food on the table and having a good education and a job. A holiday of democracy.'

'May Day is the day when workers should be thinking about organising for more control over their lives and their society. It's a day when we should be teaching our children about their rights, and emphasising the idea of people democratically controlling their own destiny as something we can accomplish, in the same way that those before us accomplished things like the basic right to vote, an eight hour day, and national health care, not to mention the right to form trade unions, which this year is all the more important to me when I see what is being argued in Britain over union recognition, and what is being done to the Wharfies in Australia. This May Day will be a day when I'm thinking not just of what workers have done over the years, but how hard we now have to work to keep our basic rights.'

'May Day? Isn't that like labour day or something? What is it supposed to mean to me... that I should be happy about working? I don't know... if I thought about it, I guess I'd be grateful that I have the job I do, and that there are regulations governing what goes on in the workplace so we don't get totally screwed. I've just never really thought about what May Day was...'

'When May Day comes round I get together with my mates from work and we have a few drinks up the pub. We talk a lot about revolution and all that, but it's mostly just talk. We're quite serious about the union, and what's happening to unions now, and I think that things could well become much worse if we don't find a way to do more to stand up for ourselves today. But on the whole, we take May Day just to celebrate a bit... after all, it is the workers' holiday, right?'

'On May Day I will start the day by playing the Internationale on my CD player. The Internationale is one of the most beautiful songs ever written, in my opinion, and it's especially beautiful on May Day. Then I'll go about the day as I would any other, which in itself is a reminder that there is much work to be done towards the creation of a socialist society.'

'May Day means human rights to me. It means that this is a day for all those who suffer and have suffered, and a day to raise your voice against suffering. That ties in with what socialism means to me as well... the end of human suffering. I don't expect things to be radically changed overnight, but socialism is certainly a means to that end. Of course when I think of May Day I think of socialism... it's rather hard not to. And I'm glad that so many people still celebrate it, and remember it, and still care about what it is supposed to mean.'

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