Portside

Pete Seeger is often described as an icon. This is an apt term for someone who popularized the notion of socially responsible singing in the 20th century, and, along with Harry Belafonte, was among the leading combined cultural figure/activists of his time. Seeger linked Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan, and then added a connection to Bruce Springsteen; the latter revived many of Seeger's songs in his landmark The Seeger Sessions recording.

Millions took to the streets to take part in May 1 demonstrations around the globe. From union rallies to protests and clashes with police, the International Labor Day events drew attention to the issues of austerity, unemployment and workers rights.

May Day started with the demand for the eight-hour day, and struggles over work time are again front and center as workers experience either drought or flood.

The strongest payoff comes with socializing and universalizing health and retirement coverage. Adopting either would erase the bad jobs entirely.

This May Day, we might want to return to the similarities between the acts of violence outside of Dhaka and in Boston, both events resulted in senseless bloodshed of innocent victims. While we might debate how to prevent tragedies like the Boston marathon bombings, it is abundantly clear that enforcement of safety standards and basic regulations would help prevent the sheer scale of terror and violence from being unleashed yet again in Bangladesh.

Though it runs against the grain of our austerity induced pocketbook fiscal politics, it would in fact be laughably inexpensive for the federal government to make public higher education free for all.

Most US union members belong to very large, highly bureaucratized organizations - the 3 million member NEA, the 2 million member SEIU, the 1.3 million member AFSCME and Teamsters, and so on. Change - whether it be to elect a new slate of officers or to change organizational culture - is a daunting challenge: There are often complex hoops that member-activists and local leaders have to jump through to get dissenting or diverging voices heard.

Exciting plans are under way for the Labor Fightback Conference, to be held at the Rutgers University Student Center in New Brunswick, NJ, May 10–12, 2013.