The Occupy Movement has revived May Day. For far too many years, this holiday, which was of course also a solidarity-building occasion, has been ignored by the US labor movement. Ironic, given the fact that May Day actually began in the US. >>

It was and remains a great inspiration to have participated in yesterday's Labor Day rally in Manila. Along with the electrifying militancy of a large number of leftist organizations including unions, political parties, campus activists, national activists, women's advocacy groups and many many others, came that welling feeling of solidarity, goodwill, humility and love. There is so much to respect in peoples' lives and struggles! And so much Power in the mobilizations called forth by the compelling dignity of the seemingly endless fights for justice. Not Power in the simplistic sense, or in the mechanistic, bio-political sense. The mobilization synthesized and indeed materialized a libidinal and moreover an aesthetic experience -- a reality of our own making -- at once... >>

Snapshot from May Day demonstration in New York's Union Square. >>

Today I walked through Union Square, which is filled with tables distributing information for Occupy May Day. There's a very exciting series of events planned, as well as an immense amount of wonderful cultural production. The radicalism of the various booklets I picked up was so inspiring, with articles about the ecological crisis, resistance to foreclosure, the international military industrial complex, etc. >>

Why do we strike on May Day? What is that strike? We strike in solidarity with global labor, our own histories and with each other. The action of striking is not just a withdrawal of labor but what Marina Sitrin calls "striking new relationships." The actions of refusal to play the part expected of us, in whatever way we can, and imagining other ways of relating to each other are what will constitute a day of generally striking, a striking day. >>