Irondale Celebrates Vibrant May Day Parade, Honoring Worker Sovereignty and Community Spirit
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Irondale celebrated May Day with a parade, including this hamster wheel float. Photo By Angela Downs. [/caption]
News commentary by Angela Downs
Close to Beltaine, a Gaelic festival marking the beginning of summer, May Day celebrations have themes of blooming, fertility, warmth, and joy. It recognizes the time changing and the necessary creative force of violence. This was especially true in commemorating worker sovereignty in the US labor movement of 1886, when 300,000 workers from 13,000 businesses walked out of work on May 1, and the Chicago riots followed.
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Photo by Angela Downs. [/caption]
For the third annual May Day Parade in Irondale, the marching band played rallying classics like Eye of the Tiger and The Saint Goes Marching In. People dressed as part of a lizard stampede or in their most fabulous and outrageous costumes, such as the dancing tree puppet, the fully rideable two-man unicorn, and the papier-mache stag head.
With a rotating hamster wheel float towed by a grey Toyota Prius decorated to look like a mouse, the Irondale May Day Parade marched, juggled, spun, cruised, and rode through the residential streets towards the beach, where friends and family ate brick-oven sourdough pizza and patriarchally cheered around the fire of a burning lizard boss.
Discussions about finally beginning a home build and 15 years of still looking for housing security passed between carpenters, boat builders, farmers, and artists. The laborers laughed about the irony of having worked two jobs on an internationally recognized day of no work, and jested with elders about retirement.
People gathered to move in solidarity with the community they benefit from, honor those who fought for eight-hour days, minimum wage, overtime pay, and child labor standards, and to consider what this generation, living in late-stage capitalism, can offer to the legacy of laborers and freedom.
The hope for human sovereignty and the gratitude for the working force are core values in the Irondale community, values they shared generously and joyfully on a perfect sunny May Day.
