Cinco de Mayo, more than just a Mexican holiday, is also the birthday of Karl Marx, notorious political economist and Evil Santa Look-a-like. When I was in the 10th grade, we had to read the Communist Manifesto for an English class. At the time, I was also working in retail and a member of a union, UFCW Local Chapter 555, so it was an exciting time to be a budding communist.
Then I took 11th grade Economics and promptly forgot about class struggles and command economies. Looking back, I wonder how communist economics would be taught in a true econ class using models and mathematics instead of just rhetoric. It's too bad Oregon State doesn't offer a course on heterodoxical economic models.
May is an important month for working people. May 1st is International Workers' Day, when unions and left-wing political groups take to the streets and protest for better living standards for the working class. Even though May Day started in Chicago, it has lost popularity. in America. Labor demonstrations remain very aggressive in the rest of the world, with protests turning violent in cities such as Athens, Macau, and Berlin.
Karl's grim specter of Communism hasn't completely left the world even after the end of the USSR. Workers around the world have yet to buy into free market liberalism and remain skeptical of its promises. Although I haven't been an active member of my union in years, I'm going to make an effort to wear red this month to show at least superficial camaraderie for my working brothers and sisters.
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