Tag: workers

May Day!

Vote for Democrary #56

While May 1st is observed around the world as International Workers’ Day, it’s usually not a big thing in the United States, which observes Labor Day the first Monday in September.

This year is different.

Indivisible and other organizations are spearheading May Day Strong, calling for no work, no school, and no shopping today. There will be rallies in some places for those who are able with others, like me, participating from home. I’m wearing my “Presidents are not Kings” shirt and refraining from shopping today. (No work and no school are every day things for me.)

One of the messages today is “Workers over Billionaires.” The hope is that a show of economic power will draw attention to the unfair tax structure in the United States and the undue influence that wealthy individuals and corporations have over our government. This is also tied to current abuses of power by the government, trying to strip rights and protections under the law and interfere with elections.

As it happens, May 1st is also observed as Law Day in the United States. The Amercian Bar Association explains this year’s theme:

The 2026 Law Day theme is “The Rule of Law and the American Dream.” The rule of law—the idea that no person is above the law—is what ensures the rights of the people to live their lives as freely as possible and to pursue their dreams. The ABA encourages all Americans to recognize Law Day on May 1, 2026, and to reflect on how the rule of law ensures all Americans have the ability to fulfill their dreams.

This dovetails well with the May Day actions and No Kings, Hands Off, and other rallies that have been happening during Trump’s second term. Law Day seems even more urgent this year with the lawlessness of immigration enforcement and detention/deportation without due process, election interference, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and the decisions of the Supreme Court that fly in the face of precedence and the Constitution.

I don’t know what the impact of this May Day and Law Day will bring but I am looking at it as another step in the movement to restore the rights and freedoms of the American people, taking back the power from the corrupting influence of autocrats and oligarchs.

There is a third thing about May 1st that is important to me. It’s the first day of EDS & HSD Awareness Month. (EDS is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome; HSD is the related diagnosis of Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder.) I was diagnosed with hypermobile EDS (hEDS) in January, although as a genetic connective tissue disorder, it has always been there. I hope to do several posts this month to continue to raise awareness and to update my readers about my current treatment trajectory.

Of course, there will be more posts in my Vote for Democracy series, too. The caveat is that there will never be as many posts as I would like, unless/until I can clear the brain fog and get more energy back. There will be other topics popping up, as well. You can never tell what might be at the top of JC’s Mind!

Or maybe you can….

Labor Day

Today, the United States and a number of other countries celebrate Labor Day. Most of the media say that it is a day to celebrate workers, which it is, but this masks the actual history of the observance which grew out of the organized labor movement.

Organized labor, such as unions, in the US has fallen on hard times, with the lowest percentage of workers represented by a union in decades.

Many Republican politicians are especially hostile to organized labor. The most infamous example among the current crop of presidential nomination contenders is Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who spearheaded and signed legislation limiting collective bargaining rights for public sector unions and now touts it on the campaign trail.

On the other end of the spectrum is independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who is pursuing the nomination of the Democratic party.  Bernie is actually a democratic socialist and a big backer of labor rights. He recently joined a picket line in Iowa, something he has done many times during his career in public office, going all the way back to when he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont in the 1980s.

To honor Labor Day today, I wore my Bernie Sanders for President T-shirt. His campaign has made remarkable progress and, even if he is not an eventual nominee, he has done a lot to move the conversation in the country toward issues that matter in the lives of the everyday folks, not just corporations and political insiders who usually command all the attention.

Feel the Bern!