Solidarity

In Scandinavia, May 1st is still a day to remember and to celebrate and in Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden it is a holiday. In Denmark some have the afternoon off.

It is first and foremost the International Worker's Day. Through many decades, the social democrats have been the party of the working classes here and have dominated the worker’s unions. That has changed a bit now, but they are still very visible during May 1^st activities. I have been a part of a union all my working life; it’s a sign of solidarity in Europe, not necessarily communism or socialism.

There are parades/protests, there are speeches. I live very close to the big park, were the meetings are held here in Copenhagen and there were many people there yesterday, a huge crowd. For the younger generation, it is a day to get drunk. But in all media, there are political articles, discussions and debate concerning wages, men and women (not) getting the same wages for the same jobs and talks about the welfare society and where we are headed.

In Iceland, the feminists take part in the parades/marches in a huge way. And this year feminists in Iceland, men and women, made it their business to point out how little many Icelandic women are earning. The Feminist Group that was established 3 years ago was rewarded yesterday. They got the Reykjavik Equality prize for outstanding work toward equality for men and women. In the speech that was given, it was mentioned that this group has made a new women’s krona, it is called a ¾ krona, because that is what Icelandic women get paid, compared to what men get. Last time we got a new prime minister, the group filled pink wheelbarrows with feminist literature and gave to him. They give advice to advertising agencies, trying to get all the soft porn out of advertisements. They have a formidable website that I take part in, with lively discussions at all times. There are very many men that are members and they are very active. I am very proud of one of my nephews, he takes part in all they do, and is in the front line of their anti-rape activities.

Apart from the countries I mentioned earlier, May 1^st is a holiday in most European countries; Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Austria and all the countries of the old Eastern Block. Not sure about the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

I might be highly educated and not a member of the working classes, but solidarity with those that are less fortunate is important. We can do a lot of good in the world on our own, but together we can change it.

While astronomical amounts of money are being spent on war in the world, at all times, Iraq is our best example, people are starving. If this money was spent on food for the starving and on developing other fuel systems for cars, there would not have to be any oil-wars, with or without weapons.

Seeing the news from Darfur these past few days is really, really infuriating. And May 1^st is a reminder that all is not well in our world.

Peace to all.

Guðrún

I thought you might want to see the park after the festivites so I went there this afternoon where workers were cleaning up and birds enjoying the leftovers. There is food for all of us and all of them.