The Final Straw Radio

May Day 2016 with Peter Linebaugh (repodcast)


Listen Later

May Day 2016 with Peter Linebaugh (repodcast)

We're happy to share another past episode, this time from May Day 2016, about 4 months before the start of our rss feed for our podcast. I feel it’s notable that this show approaches it’s 13th birthday on the May 9th of this year.

  • Transcript
  • PDF (Unimposed)
  • Zine (Imposed PDF)

In this show, you'll hear an interview with autonomous Marxist historian, Peter Linebaugh on essay collection The Incomplete, True, Authentic and Wonderful History of May Day plus some music we curated at the time.

To friends we've met, and to those we have yet to meet, I'd like to wish everyone a happy May Day. As we'll hear in the following hour, this day has a long celebrated history. From its many European pagan roots as a celebration of fertility as the fruits of the spring planting season began to... uh, spring forth. Then on to the repressive winter that fell early on May 3rd and 4th of 1886 in Illinois with, first, the killing of workers striking for an 8 hour work day at the McCormick Works and then the repression of anarchist and socialist workers and organizers following the bombing at Haymarket Square in Chicago of that same year. From there to the taking up of May 1st as International Workers Day by struggling groups around the world and the U.S. adoption of a sanctioned Labor Day in September of the year.

To divide an international working class, The U.S. government, oppressors of that May Day 1886 sanctioned a Labor Day to be celebrated in September, declared the first of May both Law Day (an obvious testament to Irony in respect to the Haymarket 8, all jailed and 4 executed) and, for some, it's celebration as Americanism Day. Whatever that means. In 2006 & 2007, immigrants rights marches were seen on and around May Days that, for many, re-sparked the importance of this day. The protests and festivals swelled to numbers nearly unmatched in the history of protest on Turtle Island, and were accompanied by school and work walkouts and boycott days.

Whether you're out there today taking direct action, in repose from the horrors of wage slavery, resisting the carceral state, gardening, dancing around a May Pole or otherwise celebrating the possibilities of this year to come when, hell, we might as well end this system of exclusion and extraction: We wish you a fire on your tongue, love in your heart and free land beneath you.

.. ... . ..

Featured Tracks:
  • The International by Ani DiFranco & Utah Philips
  • The Earth Is Our Mother by Oi Polloi from Fuaim Catha
  • Surrounded by Matador from Taken
  • I Wish That They'd Sack Me by Chumbawamba from The Boy Bands Have Won
  • Addio a Lugano by Pietro Gori (performed by Gruppo Z on Canti Anarchici Italiani)
  • IO Pan by Spiral Bound from Leap Your Lazy Bounds
  • 9-5ers Anthem by Aesop Rock from Labor Days
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Final Straw RadioBy The Final Straw Radio

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

192 ratings


More shows like The Final Straw Radio

View all
The Ex-Worker by CrimethInc. Ex-Workers’ Collective

The Ex-Worker

259 Listeners

The Solecast by Sole

The Solecast

131 Listeners

The Rebel Beat by Firebrand Records

The Rebel Beat

35 Listeners

Resonance: An Anarchist Audio Distro by Resonance

Resonance: An Anarchist Audio Distro

41 Listeners

Upstream by Upstream

Upstream

1,785 Listeners

The Beautiful Idea by The Beautiful Idea

The Beautiful Idea

483 Listeners

Rustbelt Abolition Radio by Rustbelt Abolition Radio

Rustbelt Abolition Radio

71 Listeners

Rev Left Radio by Revolutionary Left Radio

Rev Left Radio

3,237 Listeners

Trouble – SUB.MEDIA by Trouble

Trouble – SUB.MEDIA

37 Listeners

Burning Cop Car – SUB.MEDIA by Burning Cop Car

Burning Cop Car – SUB.MEDIA

54 Listeners

Millennials Are Killing Capitalism by Millennials Are Killing Capitalism

Millennials Are Killing Capitalism

420 Listeners

Working Class History by Working Class History

Working Class History

595 Listeners

The Antifada by Sean KB and AP Andy

The Antifada

927 Listeners

Death Panel by Death Panel

Death Panel

525 Listeners

It Could Happen Here by iHeartPodcasts

It Could Happen Here

6,126 Listeners

The Red Nation Podcast by The Red Nation

The Red Nation Podcast

974 Listeners

Movement Memos by Truthout

Movement Memos

203 Listeners

Live Like the World is Dying by Margaret Killjoy

Live Like the World is Dying

420 Listeners

Guerrilla History by Guerrilla History

Guerrilla History

558 Listeners

Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff by Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts

Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff

735 Listeners

Better Offline by Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts

Better Offline

456 Listeners