To listen to the build-up you’d have thought the first post-Madison May Day would be apocalyptic. And instead it was another May Day yawner with union staffers and staff wanna-bes marching to demand the usual – higher wages, more jobs, cheaper benefits and an assortment of intangibles including justice, fairness, equality and “workers’ rights.” And, as usual, these demands were made without offer of any coherent plan for actually achieving them beyond taxing the rich, creating more government, reading more Chomsky and chanting really loud.
The AFL-CIO promised/threatened an unprecedented turnout but protests here in the U.S. were dwarfed by those overseas: in Turkey, 200,000 protestors flooded the plaza of Istanbul; in Germany, 420,000 people took to the streets to demand fair wages, better working conditions and sufficient social security; in South Korea, police said 50,000 people rallied in Seoul for better labor protections; and thousands of workers also marched in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Even folks already living in communal bliss got in the act with the Castro government reporting that hundreds of thousands of jubilant Cubans marched through the streets of Havana on Sunday to show their approval of the recent economic changes made by the Castro government.
Meanwhile, back in the US, apparently either there wasn’t that much to protest about or workers were too busy actually working. (Or shopping?) Three thousand made it out to the immigrants’ rights rally in LA and a thousand or so showed up for union rallies in a half dozen other major cities.
Fortunately we have a historical record of events as The Live Twitter Coverage of May Day Workers’ and Immigrants Rights Rallies on the AFL-CIO NOW BLOG has received over 40 tweets in five days, only 300 less than Lady Gaga’s May 3 appearance on Oprah generated in five hours. Viva la revolucion!
