Labor Day

I must be getting old.

I remember Labor Day Parades, all sorts of folks doing the soap box thing in Union Square in N.Y., all the dusty, old, used book stores on 4th Ave.

I even remember May Day celebrations that had working class connections.

Of course a lot of that became "unacceptable" during the cold war. Some folks claimed it smacked of "Communism".

The following is from 2002:


By Dorothy Fennell and Katie Briggs

The cast and director of Women's Voices from Union Square are, from left: Twinkle Burke, Deanne Lorette, Katie O'Shaughnessey, director Mahayana Landowne, Arthur French and Rashmi. Credit: Dorothy Fennell

What do feisty soapbox orators, anti-lynching activists, bluestocking suffragists, labor agitators and birth control advocates have in common? Union Square. That was where, in the era of the 1911 Triangle shirtwaist factory fire, people with a cause gathered to add their voices to the public debate over the big political issues of the day. For two weeks in May, you can hear them again in a new production of Women's Voices from Union Square, an original musical play. Performances begin May Day (May 1) at the Tenement Museum Theater on Orchard Street in Lower Manhattan and continue there and at other venues in New York City through Mother's Day (May 12)"

In today's world, rabblerousers are not welcome. I guess they never were -- but for a while they were tolerated.

Time to wake up, folks.