Thoughts on May Day

Some of you may not be aware of the history of May Day. I won't bore you with it, but you should know that in the U.S. it started on May 1, 1886. On that day, people in the American industrial centers of Chicago and Detroit held a strike in protest of their working conditions. These strikers were met with violence from police forces, but as a result of their actions the United States adopted the eight hour workday and other measures to ensure a safe working environment.

Nowadays, May Day is dominated by immigrants who are fighting for equal rights. Many immigrants may not know that they are entitled to a safe work place because they do not know all the details of U.S. labor laws. (Why did the American Bar Association choose May 1 as Law Day?) Many immigrant laborers endure deplorable conditions because they have no other choice. I applaud the efforts of all who participated in the May Day demonstrations. They have one simple message, we are all human and all humans should be treated equally. Yet, the anti-immigration activists see these demonstrations as anti-American because the people marching wave the flags of their homelands beside that of the United States. These activists have an immutable idea of what an American is, rather they know exactly what an American is not.

Throughout the history of the United States, people have been trying to define the American identity. It is a complicated matter, but it can be broken down into simple terms. The battle for independence sought to draw a line between the British and those living in the American colonies: "we are not British." The wars against the tribes of Native Americans sought to draw a line between the savage and benevolent: "we are not savages." (Read, The Name of War for more on the creation of American identity). We are not fascists nor communists and who we are, as Americans, has always been defined by who we are against. You must remember a prominent public figure saying, "you are either with us, or against us."

A digression: Why does anyone define oneself as an American, Russian, Chinese, Brazilian, Japanese, Mexican, Irish, German, or any other nationality. Can our identities, either collective or individual, be contained by borders? The study of nationalism can be exhausting, especially considering the historical fluctuations of borders, the history of tribal networks, and the recent "nation building" efforts in Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia. Understanding how and with whom we identify ourselves can yield some incredible insights into the human experience. As a result of globalization, nationalism is simultaneously fading and becoming more extreme. Therefore, nations will remain a topic of scholastic inquiry for the foreseeable future and in order to understand their current status we must study their histories.