MAY DAY! ..... May Day

When you are in a tailspin -- your airplane is crashing, you shout MAY DAY!, MAYDAY !, into the microphone before you bail out. This is the ultimate distress call. The other May Day celebrates a left wing parade of the working class masses, annually performed on the 1st of May -- it is a world-wide phenomena in many Socialist countries that proclaims internationally, WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE. As I watched events unfold this past 1st of May in the streets of the US cities, began to wonder whether these parades also signaled a distress call for the USA.

If you believe the grand scale marches throughout US cities by the so called illegal immigrants was only coincidental to have occurred the 1st of May, you probably have the gullibility to believe that the war in Iraq is fought for democracy of the people of Iraq. So if you fit that category, stop reading now.

GW Bush is a capitalist's capitalist. You will never catch him taking a salute as a workers parade passes. What a strange twist of history that our president delivered his MISSION ACCOMPLISHED speech off an aircraft carrier deck on the 1st of May three years ago -- the US media reminded him of this as it taunted him over his failure by citing mounting US casualties since his misguided statement -- like Caesar and his Ides of March, GW Bush may want to stay clear of the 1st of May for his momentous announcements -- it is as if he did not learn -- this May 1st he foolishly announced that the US has reached a TURNING POINT in Iraq.

At least two of my military assignments took me to places where I attended May Day ceremonies as an official observer -- in Communist Moscow and Belgrade. These were all day parades; planned for a year as Party organizations came to the Communist capitals from all over the country to express their fealty to the regime. Manifestations were big bang, high budget affairs used as a propaganda tool -- definitely festive as the workers and peasants came to the big city for a good time -- lots of music, red bunting, flags, flowers and folks dressed in their best proletarian clothes -- few were sober at the end of the day.

There were many differences between the illegal immigrant march in the US and those in the streets of Moscow and Belgrade, but the one that struck me the most was that the Communist regimes directed everything from the center to the center, while the planners for the US May Day successfully decentralized the marches to major cities of the US -- they managed to cross time zones, so they presented a continuum projecting an almost seamless march that the local and national TV gobbled up -- had the March been in just one city, it would have been local. But involving many cities, it had a national impact. Lenin, Marx and Engels must have smiled from hell at the organizers in appreciation of their improved agitation and propaganda techniques.

The marches should have been a call to arms for the average American as they viewed their country flooded with uninvited illegal impoverished third world people who proclaim WORK MAKES YOU FREE, apparently to break the law..... that must be an appealing, tested slogan -- the Nazis painted it over the entrance to their death camps, but for different reasons... Too early to conclude how the marches will affect the drafting of new immigration laws -- one thing it should do it is to force protection of US borders sooner than later. The marches, in the main, were largely peaceful except a ruckus along the border, and in Los Angeles in the evening when demonstrators threw bottles and rocks at police... These marches will continue until the lawmakers surrender or the marchers are confronted by force -- the white shirts will turn to red -- as will the flags -- like it or not, America is facing an internal revolutionary movement -- it should be addressed by the government as such. Expect the Marches to continue as long they scare the politicians, gain media focus, and are supported by corporations -- some corporations are actually financing the movement and the politicians that support the illegals -- I call it short sighted, mercantile morality -- shorted sighted, because today these workers who are cheap labor -- tomorrow, once organized by unions, will morph into exploited labor -- and that is a basis of future social and political unrest -- Instead of Perdue and Tyson chickens being plucked by illegals, the owners could end up without their feathers.

Evo Morales, the new democratically elected Marxist leader of Bolivia, made a special point to honor May Day by announcing his intention to nationalize the natural gas and oil fields, as well as the refineries of Bolivia... Plans to send his army into the fields to take control and force renegotiation of contracts with foreign oil companies. This is just the first step in the nationalization of his country's means of production as Castro and Chavez hold his hand. Morales also is supported by the Chinese who are prepared to come to his rescue if things spin out of control.

On this past May Day the Puerto Rican government ran out money -- it was short about 532 million dollars to finish this fiscal year. Its credit exhausted due to its bloated level of government employees, the government needed two more months of financing for this fiscal year, but could not continue with existing funds -- laid off about 95,000 people that included public school teachers. There were massive protest demonstrations -- even violence at banks as demonstrators believed banks should bail them out -- the island remains gripped in the crisis as of this writing -- things just seem to come to a head on May Day. Despite the fact the US provides over 11 billion dollars annually in aid, the self governing Puerto Rican government still cannot balance a budget... Hopelessly incompetent -- No US statehood there this year for sure. Let us hope US Congressional Representatives Seranno, Velasquez, Gutierrez, all Puerto Rican Americans and strong advocates of the May Day march, do not promote the current Puerto Rican government as an enlightened model for all Latinos.

In all my days as a former Cold War pistolero, never did I believe that the streets of America would be filled with demonstrators on May Day. These Latino marchers carry with them a rolling thunder that if left unchecked will cause havoc in the US. The guys who organized these marches are talented pros -- the American politicians who let immigration get out of hand are feckless chumps and have failed the American people. Maybe we should hire these Latino organizers to head our war on terror -- at least they have focus and an ability to set up cells and networks that perform -- How does the Latino American anthem go ?..... only heard the first line -- OH SAY CAN YOU SEE THAT GRINGO BORDER GUARD BY DAWNS EARLY LIGHT -- Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret