frualeydis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
frualeydis) wrote2006-05-01 09:56 am
frualeydis) wrote2006-05-01 09:56 am
May day
Today we celebrate the workers' movement and its achievements. Today we protest against the anti-workers, anti-poor and anti-immigrants politics that is seen all over the western world. Yes, even here, though we are in part spared from the worst results oft, having a social democratic government. It's not good, but because of their history and their ties to the unions they can't take away the rights of the workers the way the liberals and conservatives wants to do. And to be honest, I still think they have some ideals and don't want to. But the pressure is hard from the industry and their lobby groups. And it has been very successful. Something happened with the way people think in the 80s, due to very succesful lobbying from the right-wing groups. Politics is no longer seen as a means to make life better for people but as a way to please the industry and the "market" so the stock prices don't fall.
It has looked bad for a long time and it feels like we're only fighting a defensive struggle to stop things proposals that will take away our rights and make it harder for the poor. But I will NOT give up.
Rickard is home and ill so I can go without Maja, which is convenient.
The story behind the date
Translation and summary of a newspaper article about the first 1st of May celebration in Stockholm in 1890
Oh, I know that a lot of you don't agree with me. But this is my journal so I write what I feel and you really don't have to tell me that doing whatever the big industry wants is the only way to run a country or something like that. Because it will only make me mad and ruin one of the most important holidays for me.
And yes, I'm aware of the stalinist terror. 1st of May is not, and has never been, owned by the Soviet union however. It is older and it is everybody's.
It has looked bad for a long time and it feels like we're only fighting a defensive struggle to stop things proposals that will take away our rights and make it harder for the poor. But I will NOT give up.
Rickard is home and ill so I can go without Maja, which is convenient.
The story behind the date
Translation and summary of a newspaper article about the first 1st of May celebration in Stockholm in 1890
Oh, I know that a lot of you don't agree with me. But this is my journal so I write what I feel and you really don't have to tell me that doing whatever the big industry wants is the only way to run a country or something like that. Because it will only make me mad and ruin one of the most important holidays for me.
And yes, I'm aware of the stalinist terror. 1st of May is not, and has never been, owned by the Soviet union however. It is older and it is everybody's.
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Eva
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That goes twice for Israel, which has becoem much more complex in my mind after "meeting"
Eva
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And just as some further information on the aftermath of the riot. When Governor Altgeld pardoned the Haymarket defendants, he committed political suicide. He was not elected to a second term and he basically faded out of politics completely. But he is now regarded as a good and brave man who did what needed to be done to serve the casue of justice. One of the most prominent buildings on my University (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) campus is named for him- Altgeld Hall.
And have a merry, healthy Beltane!
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Eva