Slate's got an interesting bit up from UC Santa Barbara professor Nelson Lichtenstein about the roots of May Day and the changing face of activism since the 1930s. Down at the bodega this afternoon, the immigrants were on the job, watching white people on TV report on the masses of brown people clogging the streets of Los Angeles.
It's hard to say, in our minds, what will come of today's demostrations, but Lichtenstein holds the UAW demo of 1947 as a key point in labor's relationship to government and business. It's worth checking out, if only for the reminder that the auto industry in this country once set the pace for the world, and the current era's problems with labor are a result of both parties getting too complacent.
The roots of May Day [Slate]
Related:
The Phoenix: "No" Flight or "Go" Flight? [Internal]