Lately, I’ve been listening to Chicago, and I focused on what I think was their biggest hit: 25 or 6 to 4. I was always curious about the meaning of the song’s title, so I Googled it and this is what I found: While sharing a house on Sunset strip, LA, with a bunch of hippies, Robert Lamm, who sang and played keyboards for Chicago, was trying to write a song and was in deep concentration, being awake into the wee hours of the morning. When he noticed that the time was 3:35 a.m. or was it 3:36 a.m. Lamm wasn’t sure. So, you see, if it was 3:35, then it would be 25 minutes to 4:00 a.m., But if it were 3:34 then it would be 26 minutes to 4:00 a.m. So, it’s either 25 or ‘6 to four. Pretty neat. Ha. 

Today is Mayday (May 1, 2022)

Although we in America honor the working class and unions on Labor Day, which occurs on the first Monday in September, May 1, Mayday, is a celebration of workers around the world and is celebrated in over seventy countries. I’ve listed several books related to workers struggles and the origins of the union movement in the United States:

Number one is a history of Mayday.

Number Two is Mark Twain's masterful telling of the excesses of the late nineteenth century in America. (See note at the bottom of the page)

Number Three is about the formations of some famous strikes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

Number Four covers the same topics and number 3, but more comprehensively. 

Number Five is about a sad historic event. A group of anarchists and terrorists crashed an otherwise peaceful protest, which resulted in a dozen deaths, including three police officers. Unfortunately, as is often the case, many people had no concept of critical thinking and lumped all union sympathizers with the anarchists, This setback to union movement.

Note: Gilded: Definition—a thin covering of gold on any object. Mark Twain named the historical period of his book The Gilded Age to indicate that the excessive wealth of “Old Money” and the excessive wealth of industrial capitalists (Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt) as a “thin gold covering” of late nineteenth century America. However, under it lay poverty, sickness, and hunger of most of the working class. 

Books about the struggles of the working class

Mayday History

May Day, also known as International Workers' Day, is celebrated in over 80 countries across the world on May 1. The purpose of the day is to commemorate the efforts and victories of the workers' class and the labor movement (Wiki)

1)  https://amzn.to/3vXVXcE

2) The Gilded Age by Mark Twain

https://amzn.to/3kxEVg9

3) Bread and Roses

https://amzn.to/3F2bRa5

4) There is Power in a Union

https://amzn.to/3LLCe6o

5) Haymarket Affair

https://amzn.to/3MZUPMD