By Andrew Curry, originally published by thenextwave May 1, 2024
"...The Red and Green May Days can be described in ways that create the kinds of opposites that narratologists get excited by:
Green is a relationship to the earth & what grows there-from. Red is a relationship to other people & the blood spilt there among. Green designates life with only necessary labor; Red designates death with surplus labor. Green is natural appropriation; Red is social expropriation. Green is husbandry & nurturance; Red is proletarianization & prostitution. Green is useful activity; Red is useless toil. Green is creation of desire; Red is class struggle. May Day is both.
The Red May Day has its roots, in particular, in the bloody history of the American labour movement, and in particular in the city of Chicago, which in the late 19th century was an epicentre of both industrialisation & globalisation..."
