Holiday

The 1889 Congress of the Second Socialist International designated May 1 as the great international labor day. In one way or another proletarians the world over have since celebrated 51 May Days--none quite so extraordinary as last week's.

P: Focus of recent May Days has been Moscow's awesome Red Square. There this year, braving an annoying soap shortage, Russia staged its annual May Day revels, a display of rumbling tanks, massed troops, zooming warplanes, in praise of its successful "struggle for peace." Among the bigwigs who surrounded Man-of-Peace Stalin atop Lenin's tomb were new faces, the representatives of Bessarabia and Bukovina. Slogan of the day was "Strengthen the Red Army and Intelligence Service."

P: France, which remembers well the great May Days of the Popular Front, heard Marshal Petain announce over the radio that his purpose was to end the class struggle. A few parades were staged. In honor of the day--which was also the Marshal's Saint's Day--the Vichy Government freed 700 pacifists, said it would "replace" them in prison with Communists and food speculators.

P: Britain's Labor Minister Ernest Bevin broadcast a special May Day address to the workers of France, assuring them of Britain's sympathy.

P: May Day was not a holiday in Germany, Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's President Getulio Vargas celebrated May Day by treating Good-Will Tourist Douglas Fairbanks Jr. to a 9-c- lunch at a workers' restaurant. While they ate, loudspeakers blared Emily Post slogans. Sample: "Don't wipe your mouth on the tablecloth; use a paper napkin." Goodwillman Fairbanks was lionized by Rio society, cheered by 50,000 football fans. Asked by newspapermen why Hollywood presents so distorted a view of Latin-American life (see p. 34), quick-witted Actor Fairbanks replied that Hollywood often presented a pretty distorted picture of U.S. life.

P: Free Earl Browder was the slogan in the U.S., particularly in Manhattan where 18,000 marched in a circle (see p. 75).

P: There were two May Day parades in Buenos Aires, one Socialist, one pro-Axis. The Socialist parade was larger, less well-drilled.

P: One hundred thousand unionists of the CTM cheered and marched in Mexico City, but there was more excitement in Veracruz, where three paraders tore down and burned the flag in front of the German Consulate.

P: To Adolf Hitler, Popular Front President Pedro Aguirre Cerda of Chile curiously sent a May Day posy of greetings--"best wishes for your personal happiness."

P: President Fulgencio Batista of Cuba reaffirmed Cuba's neutrality to a workers' meeting.

Thus last week the world celebrated its only non-religious international holiday. If the sporadic and varied observances proved anything, it was that class struggles had already been half forgotten in the greater struggle between democracy and dictatorship.

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