Posies and Politics

May 1st is one of my favorite French holidays. It’s the first of the spring holidays -- bringing hope (not always realized) for warmer weather and sun we have missed for months. As I have mentioned previously it is also a quirky blend of several different commemorations and traditions. All French people can unite behind the giving of sprigs of lily of the valley(“muguet”)to friends and family members for good luck today. This, after all, has been going on since the Middle Ages.

But May 1st is also Labor Day in France, as it is in many other countries.(It was a great shock to me when I first came here to discover that the choice of this date commemorated an American strike. It was a great shock to my French friends that I didn’t know this.) On May 1st 1886, in Chicago, four hundred thousand workers marched in favor of the 8 hour work week. Several days later the protest turned violent and police and strikers were killed. Three years after that, the International Socialists, holding their meeting in Paris that year in honor of the Centenary of the French Revolution, declared May 1st a “day of struggle” for the 8 hour work week. In 1941 the Vichy Government declared it a public holiday called Labor Day in an attempt to gain the support of union leaders. After the war, the holiday was confirmed. No one ever refuses a day off but only the Unions maintained their tradition of marching for Social Justice on this day. In Paris, they march from the Latin Quarter to the Bastille -- as befits idealists who want to change the world. For nearly 25 years, the far right, not to be outdone, has had their march on May 1st in Paris -- to celebrate Joan of Arc. Their route is shorter – from the Place de l’Opéra to her golden statue on rue de Rivoli near the Tuilleries Gardens. The reasons and choice of date are convoluted. Joan of Arc was first celebrated by the left – as a girl of the people “betrayed by her king and burned by her church” They lost interest in her when she was made a Saint by the same Church in 1920. After this, the Royalists adopted her ( since she had been a faithful servant of the King). The far right adopted her, too, as a symbol of French nationalism against the foreign (read European) enemy. For years, they commemorated their different visions of the young peasant girl together on the second Sunday of May. But in 1988, the second Sunday of May was the Second Round of the Presidential election. Jean Marie Le Pen, leader of the Far Right political party decided Joan of Arc should be commemorated on May 1st instead so as not to interfere with the election. His party has continued to do so ever since. Would I be cynical in thinking that this ensures that the unions and the leftist political leaders don’t get all the media coverage that evening? Nicolas Sarkozy may have thought so. Those who support him and his party have never had anything special to do on May 1st -- except giving muguet to their friends and families. At the end of April this year, M. Sarkozy declared he was calling the “real workers” to assemble at the Place de Trocadéro He later apologized for his “unfortunate phrase” but maintained his meeting. In a spirit of political ecumenism, I attended all these events for you. Each had numerous enthusiastic supporters and each had its own flavor. If you have read my text carefully, you’ll know which pictures came from which event, I’m sure.