May Day means various things to various people. If you're on a ship's radio, it means "help!" (may have been from the French "m'aidez!" or "help me!"). If you're a pagan, it means spring has sprung, and a fertility festival (come on, what exactly did you think a "May pole" represents?). If you're just about anywhere else on the planet outside the United States, it means Labor Day (we didn't want to celebrate our Labor Day with all those no-good commies, so we picked a different day). Today, in America, it meant the West Coast was closed to shipping.

Or more precisely, unloading. The longshoremen's union called a one-day strike today, meaning they effectively shut down all 29 ports on the West Coast, from the tip of Washington State down to San Diego. The strike was called to protest the war in Iraq. Or maybe not. The longshoremen may have called the strike to flex their power in contract negotiations, but their spokesmen were adamant in public that it was about the war. From the San Diego Union Tribune today:

"Today we are standing for the majority of Americans who are against the Iraq War," Silva [William Silva, president of Local 29 of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union] said in an interview. "We're Democrats, Republicans and independents, and we're sending a signal to our politicians that it's time to get out of Iraq now."

From the Seattle Times today:

"Big foreign corporations that control global shipping aren't loyal or accountable to any country," said Bob McEllrath, the ILWU's international president. "But longshore workers are different. We're loyal to America, and we won't stand by while our country, our troops, and our economy are destroyed by a war."

If you haven't heard about this story, it's not too surprising. East Coast media are largely ignoring it, from what I've seen so far. Which is astonishing, because this one-day strike shut down an entire continental coastline, not just a port or two.

I have written before about how the longshoremen are a linchpin in the entire American economy now, since we buy so much stuff that is made in Pacific Rim countries (China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Malaysia, etc.). Stopping the flow of these goods almost wiped out Christmas a few years back, when the longshoremen struck in the fall, when all the Christmas toys and goodies were streaming in.

So even though it was a temporary, one-day strike, you would think it deserves a little bit more coverage than it is currently getting, especially on the five-year anniversary of President Bush delaying an aircraft carrier's return home by one day so he could fly out to it and give a speech under a banner which read "Mission Accomplished." Shutting down the coast in protest of the war on this anniversary is what I would unequivocally call "news," but you wouldn't know it from the national media so far.

Maybe it'll be on the television news later. But I'm not holding my breath.

What I am going to do instead is post this short column today, and take the rest of the day off in celebration of International Worker's Day.

Happy May Day to all!

-- Chris Weigant