May Day in San Francisco 2017. Photo by Pax Ahimsa Gethen via Wikimedia Commons
Happy May Day, San Francisco! Let’s look at the way this holiday was traditionally celebrated, think about what’s changed, and get ready for the day’s festivities.
From the time The City took off during the Gold Rush to the late 1890s, May Day grew in size, importance, and scope. It was so special that old Chronicle reporters would write articles for weeks in advance of the event, covering everything from the weather outlook to what anticipated festivities would be incorporated.
They wrote about the Parks & Rec superintendent John McLaren preparing a grand stage at the Children’s Playground in Golden Gate; they wrote about how the teachers of The City would be working the event and providing entertainment; they wrote about the pageantry and food and costumes and Woodward’s Gardens.
Some other rumblings were happening internationally. International Workers’ Day was declared. Labor tensions arose. While the rest of the tragic story was unfolding in Milwaukee and Chicago, San Francisco was undergoing its own massive shifts – literally, in the case of the year 1906, when a blip mentioned how afraid Parisians were about a revolution right next to a column about the State allowing us to end our public school year early because 28 schools collapsed and the rest were commandeered by the City to be used as hospitals and housing.
May Day and International Workers’ Day have gone through periods of renewed interest, but to be sure the last few decades have not been kind to the joint holidays. In some circles, there may be a May Pole or a rally, but the holiday largely faded. This author can’t recall learning much about it until adulthood, whereas a hundred years ago it was a whole day off. Local historian Woody LaBounty wrote a fun piece about what the holiday has looked like in years past, and we encourage you to check out the pictures.
Dancing around the maypoles at Children’s Playground, May 1, 1918. Photo courtesy of a private collector via OpenSFHistory.org
By the year 1930, the Great Depression and the march of time (plus the first of the World Wars) made the holiday into something quite different. A March of the Unemployed was planned along Turk, but the Chronicle called it “once-historical,” suggesting it was already fading in the collective memory. And in 1940, one wrote, “from a labor perspective, May Day ain’t what it used to be.”
We’re going to conveniently time-hop to 2006 because we want to share this excellent video from the Party for Socialism and Liberation on an important event twenty years ago.
Today, head to COYOTE for a good reminder of May Day festivities and events, or visit a unionized coffee shop. Since we’ve got momentum from No Kings, it’ll be bigger, better, and hopefully a good sign that the resistance is very much alive in San Francisco.
