March for Science – April 22, 2017
Street marches, whether protest or demonstration, buoy my heart and enrich my civic spirit, even when the rallies promote causes I do not support. It is a sign of an engaged, active society that the human beings that comprise it will put in the time and effort to get together and let everyone know what they have to say. I took the T.E.A. Party rallies staged during the Obama administration as a mirror image of the marches in which I participated when GW Bush was slouching and shrugging his way toward Cheney’s Neo-Conservative dream of occupying a swathe of the Middle East. Like the popular chant says, “this is what democracy looks like!”
It should be no surprise that I have been in the streets and at many rallies over the last few years. The latest was the March for Science in St. Paul, Minnesota last Saturday. It was more of a rally than a march; more a demonstration than a protest. Still, it got the point across: scientists and the scientifically-minded expressed their concerns that the anti-intellectual, religiously doctrinaire, and irrational approach to governance that has been on the rise for a couple decades is not the way to run this nation, or any other. I don’t want to get bogged down reiterating the numerous ways that Our Dear Leader has exploited these emotions and fundamentalist beliefs to weasel his way into the White House and set the stage for all manner of dirty, unsafe, and inane projects to enrich his cronies and cohorts at the expense of our environment and sustainable human life. You already know that story. I’d rather look ahead to May Day.
May Day celebrations have a long history in the Northern Hemisphere as a Spring Festival. A day to honor the Earth and our human relationship to it. In the late 19th century May 1st was recast as International Workers Day on a date chosen to memorialize the Haymarket Uprising in Chicago, IL that began with a May Day parade on May 1, 1886. Workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company were on strike to demand an 8 hour work day. The company locked them out and hired replacement scab workers. A practice very common at the time and still today. As tensions mounted a public meeting was organized on May 4 at which a number of prominent Anarchist and other radical leaders spoke before a couple thousand people. The Haymarket Square meeting was peaceful until the police arrived and tried to disperse the people that had gathered to express their desire to organize for workers rights. Soon after the cops began to break up the peaceful meeting, a bomb was thrown into the crowd. The police panicked, drew their guns and fired randomly into the crowd, killing at least 4 civilians and 7 police, while wounding more than 100. With the help of the media, the corporate owners along with their political cohorts and associated police whipped up public outrage. The blame settled on the Knights of Labor – the largest labor union at the time – and a number of avowed Anarchists. Eight people were arrested, charged, and put on trial later that Summer. No one was accused of the bombing and no evidence of bomb-making skills among the defendants was presented in court. Many of the strikers and workers pointed the finger at agents from the Pinkerton Agency, the private army-for-hire retained by the McCormick Company. Lacking any real evidence, the prosecution was based on exploiting anti-German bigotry and demonizing Anarchists. By early August 1886, all 8 defendants had been convicted; 7 sentenced to death and 1 to 15 years in prison. Appeals were rejected. Two death sentences were commuted to life in prison, one prisoner committed suicide, and 4 were hung on November 11, 1887. All were Anarchists. This is what I remember when I march on May Day.
Actually, the Haymarket Uprising crosses my mind pretty much every time I join my fellow human beings in the streets, regardless of the motivation or issue. Over the decades I have been in a lot of marches, protests, and rallies. The only bombs I have seen were thrown by the authorities. I have been tear-gassed, attacked with flash-bang bombs, and threatened with billy clubs. So far, thanks to my white skin, quick wit, and innate ability to play dumb, I have not been arrested, beaten, or set upon by dogs. Looking over the huge crowd at the March for Science – about as far as one could get from an “uprising” and still have a sense of “protest” – I remembered the Woman’s March on January 21, 2017. I also thought about the many Black Lives Matter and Resist Trump marches I have joined in recent months. I wondered how many other people gathered on the Minnesota State Capitol lawn that day had also participated in all those marches. As my Anarchist spirit began to swell, I began to imagine how big a march that included everyone that went to each of those individual demonstrations would be. I’d like to find out. How about you?
Probably don’t have to tell you that I will be in the streets on May Day 2017. I urge you to join me – in Minneapolis, in St. Paul, or in your home town. In fact, I’ll go a bit further and call for a General Strike on May 1, 2017 all across the US. Take a day to stand in solidarity with your fellow workers and human beings. Take to the streets, take to the parks, take to your block – share food, drink, and your story with your neighbors, comrades, and strangers. One day to work for the ourselves and our society instead of for money. Stay strong and carry on.