First, May Day has a long history, having been celebrated in many different ways in communities around the world. In contemporary times, May Day has become synonymous with the politically charged celebration and/or advocacy of workers' rights, and especially the rights of immigrant workers. Chris Mahin wrote a great piece over at Daily Kos discussing the rich history of May Day and its roots in Chicago. Rallies and marches took place in the past few days across the country, including events in L.A., Oakland, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, D.C., Alberta (yes, Canada), and surely others.
Second, Friday was also Blogging Against Disablism Day (BADD) 2009. Organized by Diary of a Goldfish, the page links together nearly 200 bloggers who all took time to post about issues of disability and disability discrimination. Entries are organized into sets of categories that highlight the many intersections between issues of disability and other areas of life, including employment, education, accessibility, parenting, health care, relationships and sexuality, and so forth. I've only begun making my way through the many entries, but they offer a rich gathering of thoughts and advocacy within and for those with disabilities and their allies. Definitely worth checking out.Happy May!
1 comment:
I thought about blogging about the May Labor Day that's celebrated in much of the rest of the world, but I forgot about it until days later. If you go back to 2008's Labor Day post on my blog, I suppose I said a thing or two then. It's an interesting thing that May Day as an international Workers' Day grew out of a commemoration of Chicago's Haymarket protests and massacre, but in the U.S. a Labor Day was intentionally made months later in order to de-politicize the holiday. Judging by our typical observances of Labor Day, I suppose the powers that be succeeded.
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