What we need to do is bring Mayday back in America with style -- to eventually make it a working-class Mardi Gras! It's time to ring in the next century with gusto!
So, whether you're a worker or a student, you should do yourself a favor and take May 1 off. Nobody should work on Mayday! What you should do, instead, is celebrate!
And because Mayday is about human solidarity, it shouldn't be celebrated alone or in isolation -- solidarity is about human togetherness -- so you should take the opportunity to celebrate the holiday with others. Use your imagination for how to celebrate Mayday -- maybe dancing around a Maypole isn't your thing; so do something else -- but do something!
Personally, I think a Mayday parade would be pretty cool tradition to start, because it gets people out there and allows opportunities for public interaction. It's light-hearted and fun, and offers people the opportunity to work together creatively to create something nice.
I think the satirical angle of Mayday is certainly a tradition that should be rekindled. The ruling class dominates our society, they have more money than ever, they own the media, they own the government -- but they don't own us! Express your resistance to their rule by thumbing your nose at them, by making fun of them. Use your imagination on this!
If you're having trouble thinking up ideas, do some researching about Mardi Gras and see what kind of things are done in New Orleans, and then put a working-class spin on it. You could pursue historical themes (e.g., working class heroes, the IWW, etc.), satirical themes (e.g., the Almighty Dollar; mocking the media or lampooning beauty pageants, etc.), or mythical themes (e.g., Uncle Scam, Lady Libertine, etc.)
You might want to do some researching your community's radical people's history -- this may take some digging, but you'd be surprised what you can uncover in your own community. In Chicago, for example, was the martyrdom of the Haymarket Anarchists, the founding of the IWW, Waldheim Cemetery, the DNC riots of 1968, and so on. Your own community has its own history, and you should bring that to life.
You get the idea -- just make it fun! Of course, given that you're an everyday person, and not a tycoon, your means are limited, so it'll likely take a few years to get things rolling in earnest -- people power instead of bucks. But stick to it -- in the meantime, be creative. Think of imaginative ways of expressing your resistance to the ruling class and the status quo. The best way for the poor and weak to lambast the rich and powerful is to laugh at them -- they just hate that!
The May Queen and the Green Man (aka, Robin Goodfellow or Robin Hood) are the "royalty" of Mayday -- think of the fun you could have with that! The May Queen could be a woman or a man, when you think about it -- which would certainly scandalize the uptight authorities! And the Green Man, or the "Lord of Misrule", offers all kinds of opportunities.
Be flamboyant, be brash, bold, and funny -- let Mayday be a vibrant working person's holiday people will remember and treasure, rather than the usual generic spend-a-thons that are typical of American holidays.
After you have your parade, get a bunch of your Mayday comrades together and have a party somewhere local -- local is important, after all. Party at somebody's house. Whatever works out for you.
Just don't let corporations hijack the holiday -- if you do it right, they ought to avoid it like the plague, but they're insidious in the way they try to co-opt popular celebrations. The way to do it right is to keep it satirically political -- corporations take themselves very seriously; that's they're weak spot. Moreover, they shun appearing political -- particularly left-of-center political, which, of course, they aren't. So just make sure they don't derail your holiday!
But some will "get it" and if you keep to your celebration, year after year, it will grow, especially if you make it fun and welcome all everyday people to participate -- that's key; get the community involved and Mayday will grow.
A few years of this will make for a special holiday, and above all, a people's holiday. This is empowering and beautiful, and is just the kind of thing the movement needs.
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