MAY DAY Red Rosa ay Day gained a new kind of sig- nificance in the early 20th century, when it be- came a symbol of international working-class solidarity in times of tense national division and an ascendant reactionary right. In.an article written before May Day in 1913, Rosa Luxemburg hailed the holiday as an occasion for workers around the world to act in unison, beyond their local state structures and above the artificial borders that divide them: “The brilliant main idea of the May Day celebration is the inde- pendent action of the proletarian masses...the political mass action of the millions of workers, who otherwise can give expression to their own will only through petty parliamentary action, separated by State boundaries and consist- ing for the most part only in vot- ing for representatives.” —Evan Malmgren