May Day is Loyalty Day in the US?

[panopticon]

I never knew that May Day was co-opted by the US establishment and renamed Loyalty Day when all good little US citizens declare they are the most bestus country in the world and they are super dandy and wonderful...

May Day is a celebration of workers rights and remembrance of the attack by 176 police carrying rifles on a peaceful gathering in Chicago 1886 known as the Haymarket Massacre. After the police arrived someone (many believed to have been an agent provocateur) threw some dynamite and the police started shooting (4 workers and 7 police were killed -- by police).

A group of Anarchists (many of whom were speaking at the event) were blamed for the attack and imprisoned. This even though the Mayor of Chicago was standing there and said they weren't involved stating that prior to police action "nothing had occurred yet, or looked likely to occur to require interference."

4 of them were hanged.

So, America.

About May 1st...

It's bloody May Day.

Celebrate that people once spoke up for you and remember that the establishment had them killed.

-- Pan

[Snowflower]

I never knew that. I remember as a child, dancing around a tether ball pole as if it were a Maypole in "celebration" of May Day, and remember a vague thought that it had something to do with pagan religion or something.

[Blacklight43]

Thank you Pan for the American history lesson. Something I didn't know about until now and I too thought it was some sort of pagan ritual.

[Selkie]

...I too thought it was some sort of pagan ritual.

It used to be, and in some places they still celebrate it that way.

http://frankroche.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/maypole.jpg

p.s. May Day is the first day of summer, the day when the earth goddess "marries" the King of the Year (the sun) :sun::flower:

Btw, at dawn on May 1 every year, the sun rises in the constellation of the Ram, which could be one meaning of the "golden fleece", perhaps. I know there are other meanings, too, but strangely, this one (sun in the constellation of the Ram) is never mentioned (to my knowledge).

an addition For all I know, the sun may also be in the astrological sign Aries on this day every year. But I am referring to the constellation, not the sign.

[Fellow Aspirant]

Where did Loyalty Day come from? The Koch brothers?

Apparently now, in the U.S. at least, to be a (loyal) patriot, one must forget about unions.

Appalling.

B.

[Selkie]

Where did Loyalty Day come from?...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalty_Day

[Kryztian]

Well, I feel loyal to the U.S. Constitution and many of the values it is supposed to embody - the freedom of speech and expression, equal justice for all, the freedom for tyrannical parasitic powers, etc. I will express my Loyalty, on this day and every day, to these values, by denouncing the faux patriots, the hypocrites and tyrants, who surround themselves with red, white and blue and a phoney language of patriotism, while they work to subjugate the average citizen into slavery while killing them with carcinogenic foods, toxic medicines and sending their children off to fight phoney wars.

Happy Loyalty Day, today and every day, in the U.S. and throughout the Universe.

[Heartsong]

64 Years an American Citizen and I had never heard of May 1st as anything other than "May Day" - a day when the teachers allowed grade school students extra time in recess and maybe a treat in the afternoon. Sometimes it involved making "May Baskets" of colored paper spring flowers. No adults that I new or know recognize the first of May as anything but payday, just like the first of any month.

[Cidersomerset]

America is going thru turmoil at the moment with an identity crises
and vision of the future. This is not all America by a long way , but
there seems to be many conflicting factions within the country.
David Icke put up an article this morning which I posted on the
Jade Helm thread which shows the growing police state within
the paranoia of the 'war on Terror' etc...

David Icke in 2011 – Police State U.S. (America Wake Up!)

Friday 1st May 2015 at 11:05 By David Icke


http://www.davidicke.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/get-attachment-185-587x391.jpg


uqtmPfE75PQ

Published on 9 Jan 2012


Wake up,wake up,wake up.
http://www.davidicke.com
song Cui Bono,by Sun House visit - http://www.flamingpie.net/joshgarey/

[panopticon]

Imagine my horror to discover that Loyalty Day wasn't enough for your lords and masters.

They also named May 1st, traditionally known as May Day, as Law Day...

Now if that isn't bloody irony I don't know what is.

Loyalty Day (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalty_Day)
Law Day (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_Day_%28United_States%29)

Chicago History site on the Haymarket Massacre:
http://www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/index.html

For those who might be interested in the Haymarket Massacre the full archive from the trial is available here:
Haymarket Affair Digital Collection (http://www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/hadctoc.htm)

At least 150,000 people attended the funeral of those loyal Anarchists hanged by the State for standing up against their masters and Anarchism was forever linked in the MSM with the caricatured mustachioed, cloak covered assassin. That's what you get for standing up against the elite.

Below is an Excerpt from the speech given by Mr August Spies prior to the massacre and he is referencing the killing of a number of workers the day before at the hands of police. The police and militia mentioned all worked, much as they do today, for the elite.

Just as relevant today as then.

###

You have no doubt heard of the, killing and wounding of a number of your brothers at McCormick's, yesterday. Mr. McCormick told a Times reporter that Spies was responsible for that massacre committed by the most noble Chicago police. I reply to this that McCormick is, an infamous liar. (Cries of "Hang him.") No, make no idle threats. There will be a time, and we are rapidly approaching it, when such men as McCormick will be hanged; there will be a time when monsters who destroy the lives and happiness of the citizens (for their own aggrandizement) will be dealt with like wild beasts. But that time has not yet come. When it has come you will no longer make threats, but you will go and "do it."

The capitalistic press, like the "respectable gentleman" McCormick, howls that the anarchists are responsible for the deeds of violence now committed all over this country. If that were true one would have to conclude that the country was full of anarchists, yet the same press informs us that the anarchists are very few in number. Were the "unlawful" acts in the Southwestern strike committed by anarchists? No, they were committed by Knights of Labor, men who never fail to declare, whenever there is an opportunity, that they are law and order abiding citizens. The attack upon McCormick's yesterday -- Was it made by anarchists? Let us see. I had been invited by the Central Labor Union to address a meeting of lumber yard laborers, on the Black road. I went out there yesterday at the appointed time, about three o'clock in the afternoon. There were at least 10,000 persons assembled. When I was introduced to address them a few Poles or Bohemians in the crowd cried out: "He's a socialist." These cries were followed by a general commotion and derision -- "We want no socialist; down with him." These and other exclamations I was treated to. Of course, I spoke anyway; the crowd became calm and quiet and fifteen minutes later, elected me unanimously a delegate to see their bosses. Nevertheless, you can see that these people are not socialists or anarchists, but "good, honest, law-abiding church-going Christians and citizens." Such were the persons who left the meeting, as I afterwards learned, to "make the scabs at McCormick's quit work." In my speech I never mentioned McCormick. Now you may judge for yourselves whether the anarchists were responsible for the bloodshed yesterday or not.

Who is responsible for these many "lawless" acts, you ask me? I have told you that they are generally committed by the most lawful and Christian citizens -- in other words, the people are by necessity driven to violence, they can't carry the burden heaped upon them any longer. They try to cast it off, and in so doing break the laws. The law says they must not cast it off, for such an act would alter, yea, revolutionize the existing order of society! These acts of violence are the natural outgrowth of the present industrial system, and everyone is responsible for them who supports and upholds that system.

What does it mean when the police of this city, on this evening, rattle along in their patrol wagons?

What does it mean when the militia stands warlike and ready for bloody work at our armories?

What are the gatling guns and cannons for?

Is this military display of barbarism arranged for your entertainment?

Ail these preparations, my friends, ARE made in your behalf!!

Your masters have perceived your discontent.

They do not like discontented slaves.

They want to make you contented at all hazards, and if you are stubborn they will force or kill you.

Look at the killing of your brothers at McCormick's yesterday. What did they do? The police tell you that they were a most dangerous crowd, armed to their teeth. The fact is, they, like ignorant children, indulged in the harmless sport of bombarding McCormick's slaughterhouse with stones. They paid the penalty of this folly with their blood.

The lesson I draw from this occurrence is, that working men must arm themselves for defense, so that they may be able to cope with the government hirelings of their masters.

Source (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/haymarket/greatanarchisttrial.html)

[Fellow Aspirant]

Where did Loyalty Day come from? The Koch brothers?

Apparently now, in the U.S. at least, to be a (loyal) patriot, one must forget about unions.

Appalling.

B.

Like I said ...

"The holiday was first observed in 1921, during the First Red Scare.[2] It was originally called "Americanization Day,"[3] and it was intended to replace the May 1 ("May Day") celebration of the International Workers' Day,[citation needed] which commemorates the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago.[4]

B.