Happy May Day! Today is the International Day of the Worker. Normally there would be big parades in the capitals of Europe, a few smaller ones in North America and even a measly procession or two here in Wild Rose Country. This year, presumably, it’ll be a rather restrained affair
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THE FIFTH COLUMN: Happy International Workers Day #MayDay
Billy Bragg We’ve been experiencing what we refer to as ‘Andy Warhol Weather’ here today: fifteen minutes of rain, fifteen minutes of sun, fifteen minutes of hail etc etc. As a result, I couldn’t take my guitar amp out onto the rubble mound this week for the #ClapForNHS #ClapForCarers #ClapForKeyWorkers
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Friday Musical Interlude – Piano/Vocal Milestones and May Day!
You know what is hard? Playing a song from memory. What’s harder? Singing along with your playing. This is the first song that I can do both on. Full disclosure, the Vocal part still needs work as my fingers want to sing along with the melody instead of accompanying me
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: A Little Bit of Civil Terrorism…
A little bit of civil terrorism keeps the population docile, afraid of irrational and unjust behaviour from law enforcement [sic] but hey, it helps us all live more peacefully because if you’re not a terrorist, you have nothing to fear from police terrorism via unconstitutional and racially discriminatory persecution. Right?
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Photo Gallery: May Day 2014 in Toronto The theme of the 2014…
Photo Gallery: May Day 2014 in Toronto The theme of the 2014 Toronto May Day (International Workers Day) event was Honour Communities: Fight Capitalism. The chilly evening rally started at Alan Gardens, transformed into a march west on Carlton/College, and concluded at Queen’s Park with a few more speeches. Toronto’s
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: May (we struggle to work less during the) Day
The struggle for fewer working hours during the day, and by extension the week and the year, was long a cornerstone of organized workers. Both the struggle and the actual number of hours worked has stalled of late. Annual hours worked in Canada, the US and UK have all followed a similar pattern,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Occupy Canada For May Day, With Bananas
A few days ago, I wrote about picking May Day as a good time for Occupy Vancouver to reboot itself and catch up with the Occupy Movement’s worldwide #WaveOfAction. But I think that idea can be bigger, it can be a day for all of Occupy Canada to reboot. Here’s
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Here’s my final photo from the International Workers Day…
Here’s my final photo from the International Workers Day rally in downtown Toronto on May 1, 2013. I couldn’t resist snapping a pic of this “Bourgeois” tour bus parked near the starting point of the Mayday march. Obviously I wasn’t the only one who saw the dry humour in this,
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 4 These two photos from the 2013…
Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 4 These two photos from the 2013 International Workers Day march in Toronto are of the front and back of a Rebel Time Records “United Colours of Antifa” T-shirt — the black flag of anarchism and the red flag of socialism united against fascism.
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 3 These are various photos of…
Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 3 These are various photos of the International Workers Day march in downtown Toronto during the evening of May 1, 2013. A wide range of groups, individuals, causes and ideologies were represented — under the common banner of working class power.
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 2 Two current issues that were…
Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 2 Two current issues that were emphasized at the 2013 International Workers Day rally in Toronto were the deaths of hundreds of garment workers in a recent factory collapse in Bangladesh (and the continuing systematic exploitation of all sweatshop workers in that country) and
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 1 These pictures are from the…
Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 1 These pictures are from the starting point of the International Workers Day rally in downtown Toronto in the early evening of May 1, 2013. The trees and sunlight in these five photos highlight the other, much older, aspect of Mayday: nature, rebirth and
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