There are some holidays which are at the forefront of everybody’s mind - celebrations where we’re all familiar with the rituals and the customs of the ceremonies. Sometimes this is due to how much cultural significance they have, or how long we’ve been celebrating them for; like Halloween, a holiday which has existed in Europe for hundreds and hundreds of years. When it comes to other holidays then it's down to the fact that they might hold some kind of spiritual or religious significance, like Hanukkah or Christmas.

But there is another type of holiday; the type of holiday where no one really knows why they’ve got the day off work, but they shrug off the mystery and lay back to enjoy. One of the lesser-known holidays in the United States is the Labor Day holiday. Yes, every September we celebrate this holiday and usually get a day off for it … and yet if you to ask your average chump just exactly what the whole fiasco was all about then they probably wouldn’t be able to tell you. They’d mutter something vague about unions and then shuffle off. So what exactly is the importance or Labor Day? When was it invented, and for what purpose? Most prudent of all is this question: should we be taking it more seriously?

Labor Day is considered to be the official end of summer in the United States, but it actually finds its origins in the 19th century and was the invention of trade unionists. In September of the year 1882, a worker’s union with the grandiose name of “The Knights of Labour”, made the decision to stage a publicity-geared gala.

The group, which campaigned and negotiated with factory owners to promote an eight-hour work day and establish workers’ rights, convened together in the ninth month in New York City, and organised a large parade for workers and their families in Manhattan. The surprising success of this secular celebration prompted other states to propose adopting their own parade on the first Monday of month. In 1887, the state of Oregon became the first to make Labor Day an official public holiday. But it wasn’t until tragedy struck that it became an official public holiday.

In 1894 the Pullman Strike occurred, and the initial protests soon escalated, after 4,000 factory employees of the Pullman Company in Chicago began striking in response to a wage reduction. The factory workers were forced to live within an artificial community entirely geared towards production; industrialist George Pullman designed the factory town ostensibly as a model community, but a number of harsh rules made it unbearable for the factory workers who lived there. There was no democratic process within the town of Pullman, excessive water and gas rates, and a refusal by the company to allow workers to purchase homes elsewhere.

The strike in Illinois soon captured the public’s imagination, and soon the strikes had gone nationwide. Violence erupted across Americans railroads and boxcars, and many people were killed or else badly injured. Once the strikes had dissolved, President Grover Cleveland hoped that, by instigating a nationwide Labor Day celebration, it would placate disgruntled plebs and repair his administration’s reputation, as well as halt the rise of many socialist movements. So there you have it; turns out that the whole reason we have a celebration in the first place is because a bunch of guys from the age of cravats and steam trains got ticked off about their paycheque. Who knew?

That’s fine and dandy for all the history buffs out there, but it begs the question: what relevance does this so-called holiday have in the modern world? How important is it really in 2017? Is it more than just a day of barbecues, picnics, and a bittersweet tribute to the summer-that-was?

Back in the 19th century, when the Western world was experiencing an unprecedented economic boom as a result of the factory-driven mass production brought about by the industrial revolution, it was easy for people to look around and see the fruits of their own industry; technological developments and the mobilisation of the working classes meant that the landscape had literally transformed. Cities were huge and sprawling, trains and boats were mechanised, and whole suburbs were springing up on the outskirts of the metropolis to accommodate the swelling ranks of labourers. Nowadays, when we’re still feeling the effects of the 2008 housing crisis and resulting economic crash, it can be hard to muster any enthusiasm for the modern economy, or the results of all our hard work. It’s a pretty major buzzkill when most economists are still talking like the apocalypse is due any minute now.     

And yet those same issues which the Knights of Labour campaigned for have never been more relevant: they championed fair pay and an eight-hour work day, two necessary issues which seem to have been neglected over a century hence. A recent study conducted by economic ThinkTank, The Washington Centre for Equitable Growth, found that nearly 30% of management and legal workers claim to be working more than 45 hours per week on average, as well as 20% of those in the farming, fishing and forestry industries.

The report concluded, “working excessive hours can be detrimental to families, businesses, and the U.S. economy. While there are federal laws that govern work hours, these legal protections have slowly eroded, and some Americans are putting in more time at work than ever before. What's more, the United States has seen a polarisation in working time, meaning that some segments of the labor market have seen a rise in work hours and others are working much less.” Clearly, overwork is as much of a hot-button topic in the 21st century as it was in the 19th, which means that we should fight just as hard as our ancestors to protect our free time.

On the issue of fair wages … well, wouldn’t we all like to be paid a little more? I know I would. But ultimately, one thing in particular has changed the way we work: women. Since the 1890s millions of women have entered the workforce, and now contribute just as many hours and as much effort as their male colleagues. Yet when the issue of salaries is raised nowadays, the biggest controversy is the wage gap.

Time and time again we have seen evidence, not just in America but across the world, of women being paid significantly less than men even though they perform the same job. The wage gap is more glaring than ever; so isn’t our struggle for equality a part of those same values of fairness and egalitarianism that the knights first stood up for?

It’s easy to lose sight of the significance of these holidays, but the truth is that they’re still politically and culturally significant, particularly now when global corporations hold more and more power to curtail worker’s rights. Maybe we should focus a little bit more on promoting the true meaning of this event, and showing the workforce that there’s more to this occasion than grilled hot dogs and a token parade.

For many Londoners, it is difficult now to imagine August bank holiday weekend without Notting Hill Carnival. The bang of steel drums, the vibrant costumes and the whiff of jerk chicken is what defines this day to a lot of people living in the capital. But the feeling of camaraderie in the air, as revellers - men, women, young, old, many tipsy, most hammered - all dance and eat together, regardless of race, creed or colour, wasn't always present on the streets of west London. In fact, on Friday August 29 1958, the overall feeling was rather one of unadulterated hate as five nights of violence began and five men embarked on what they called a "n****r hunting expedition". According to reports, the Notting Hill race riots all started with a minor domestic dispute between a black man and his white wife. Majbritt Morrison was arguing with her Jamaican husband Raymond Morrison at Latimer Road tube station when a white crowd emerged to defend her and a fight broke out between them and Morrison's Jamaican friends. That first night left five black men lying unconscious on the pavements of Notting Hill and by the next evening, a 200-strong mob were storming through the streets of Notting Hill with butcher's knives and iron bars screaming "Down with the n****rs" and "Go home you black bastards". Over the next five nights, a mob of 300 to 400 people attacked the homes of West Indian residents and ultimately, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner stated that 108 people were charged with crimes including grievous bodily harm, affray, rioting and possessing offensive weapons. Of those charged, 72 were white and 36 were people the police report referred to as "coloured". It was something that had arguably been waiting to happen. The labour shortage at the end of World War II had invited mass immigration to London and the rest of the United Kingdom, meaning that West Indians, Jews, Greeks, Spaniards and the Irish arrived in their thousands, much to the disgust of certain factions of the working-class white people who lived in the poverty-stricken Notting Hill area. Soon enough, residents were accusing foreigners of taking their jobs, their homes, their women, and of playing loud music until the early hours. Racial tension could be found at every turn. The Notting Hill race riots seemed like the inevitable consequence of a neighbourhood ravaged by blind prejudice and racism. But one woman refused to accept the bad taste the riots left in people's mouths. Claudia Jones was a Trinidad-born journalist and activist who had moved to the US with her parents aged nine. Possessing a talent for public speaking and a fierce belief that she should fight for what she believed in, she became a political activist who argued endlessly for the rights of black women. But after being jailed four times for her politics and membership of the Communist Party, she was eventually expelled from America in 1955 and made her way to Britain to continue her activism, helping to mobilise black political action and resistance to racism. Her Caribbean Carnival took place on January 30, 1959, at St Pancras Town Hall and featured calypso music, steel bands and a grand finale jump-up, as well as several other indoor Caribbean cabarets. Although the indoor event was a far cry from the carefree, electrifying carnivals that were held in Trinidad, it was a start and Jones, named by some as "the mother of Notting Hill Carnival", had struck a chord in the community. [[heroimage||http://cdn.junglecreations.com/wp/junglecms/2017/08/People-dance-in-the-crowd-at-notting-hill-carnival-compressor.jpg]][[citation||Credit: Reuters]] The first incarnation of Notting Hill as we know it now happened in 1966 and was the idea of British social worker Rhaune Laslett, who was born in east London to a Native American mother from North Carolina and a Russian father, and who proposed a more diverse event to promote cultural unity. According to a 1989 interview with The Caribbean Times, the idea for the festival came to her in a vision where she dreamed of people of all races dancing and having fun together in the streets. She told them: “I could see the streets thronged with people in brightly coloured costumes, they were dancing and following bands and they were happy. Some faces I recognised, but most were crowds, men, women, children, black, white, brown, but all laughing.” But how could Laslett ensure that all of these people would come to her event and feel welcome enough to stay? According to Ishmahil Blagrove's "A Photographic and Testimonial History of the Notting Hill Carnival", she consulted several people in the community, including Guyanese activist Andre Shervington and Trinidadian musician Russell Henderson, to find out how exactly to get the West Indian community involved. After organising music, decorating house-drawn carts borrowed from traders and inviting an array of local residents coming from places like India, Ghana, Czechoslovakia and elsewhere, Laslett was ready to throw the first carnival. Blagrove wrote of how when Henderson's band began playing “pan”, West Indians flocked onto the street and "the group led a procession that wove up Portobello Road towards Notting Hill Gate and back again, gathering new revellers along the way". The carnival reminded West Indians of the home they had left behind and was a great success. Over the coming years, the carnival pulled in many more guests: musicians, dancers and other performers. It remained diverse, but slowly became more West Indian, and Trinidadian. These days it is a fantastic spectacle which represents both London's multicultural past and present and welcomes two million people into its helms - a far cry from the estimated 500 who attended the first few. Walk down the streets of west London this August bank holiday and they are guaranteed to be jam-packed with technicolour costumed partygoers, all bopping to reggae, dub and salsa. What is now the world's second biggest carnival after Rio is a much-needed bridge between many communities in the area and nowadays welcomes both locals and tourists who travel from all parts of the world to party. That's not to say Notting Hill is without its problems - racial tensions, gang violence and overcrowding are a few of the multitude of issues that have resulted in government threats of ending the carnival or limiting it by ticketing. However, every year when people come together to celebrate, for a few moments Rhaune Laslett's vision of men, women, children, black, white, brown laughing and dancing together becomes a reality. And a rather fabulous one at that. If you can't get enough of summer celebrations, you most definitely need to hit up the annual West Indian Day Parade in New York soon. I'm telling you, you won't regret it.

At the beginning of this year, June meant one thing for LGBT+ people in the US and UK: Pride 2020.

Millions of LGBT+ individuals and allies would have been gearing up for a month of recognition, remembrance, and festivities to celebrate and acknowledge the developments in the Western world since the Stonewall Riots of 1969.

This time last year, World Pride took place in New York City and marked 50 years since a group of trans women and gay men (largely led by a Black trans activist called Marsha P. Johnson) fought back against years of persecution at the hands of police outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in Manhattan.

The 2019 march and celebrations drew a reported 5 million people to the city of New York.

As recent as the 1960s, homosexuality was still illegal in the US, and LGBT+ people faced routine and consistent violence and raids in bars.

The six days of riots in the Summer of 1969 against police brutality sparked a movement in New York that saw two LGBT+ rights organizations - the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance - set up within a few months.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Images]]

Both organizations were supported by white gay men using their privilege to fight for their rights and the rights of other more marginalized and often more brutally persecuted) members of the LGBT+ community (such as trans people, black people, and Latinx people). They called for the community to unite in the fight against LGBT+ persecution.

They also supported many other groups fighting marginalization and persecution, such as the Black Panthers, and they marched against the Women's House of Detention.

Within two years, there were pride marches all over the world, and these riots and protests are largely viewed as the catalyst that gave LGBT+ people the rights we have today.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Images]]

This year, LGBT+ people around the world are rethinking how to celebrate Pride.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, Pride 2020 was always going to be different. But with the current protests against racism in both US and UK continuing to build in strength, Pride this year is a chance for LGBT+ people and allies to reflect and help fight racist and unjust treatment many members of the LGBT+ community still face.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Images]]

Take the current lived experience of trans people - particularly black trans people - in the US and the UK in 2020.

Aside from certain extremely high profile members of society questioning their existence and experiences, below are some other statistics related to trans people - it is tough to compare what these statistics would be for cisgender white people:

• It is reported that the average life expectancy of a Black trans woman is 35. This is a disputed statistic (primarily because not enough data has been collected), but as a widely discussed stat it is hard to ignore (source 1, source 2).
• Nearly HALF (48%) of trans people in Britain have attempted suicide (source).
• In the US last year, there were 26 reports of trans people killed by violent means, of these, 91% of them were black trans women and 81% of those women were under 30 (source).
• In the UK, 70% of trans people avoid certain places and situations for fear of being assaulted, threatened, or harassed (source).

It is also worth drawing attention to some of the black people whose lives have been drawn short already this year. Some of these men and women have been killed since the BLM protests erupted at the end of May.

These are just a few of the people that the news and social media are reporting:

• Dominique Rem'mie Fells
• Riah Minton
• Tony McDade
• Nina Pop
• Monika Diamond

This year, Pride in the UK is probably the most similar it's ever been to the nation's very first Pride march back in 1970, which was organized as a response to the Stonewall riots of the previous year.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Images]]

Like then, the civil unrest that demanded change began in the US and the rest of the world stood in solidarity and eventually enacted that change.

Queer culture and Pride nowadays is full of vibrancy and joy and color, but one should be reminded that a large part of that culture and language has been appropriated from black LGBT+ people and QTIPOC (Drag Race, "Yas Kween", slay, vogueing, shade, sassy, bae etc).

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Images]]

Is it right that people enjoy this culture whilst those people from whom it originated aren't given the same opportunities and protection as those who enjoy it?

It is likely that in the past few weeks you will have seen ways in which you can help the Black Lives Matter movement, however many of those resources totally ignore the struggles faced by many black trans lives that are still heavily persecuted both in the US and UK.

[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Images]]

Their names are not shouted as loud at protests and you do not see as many petitions calling for justice or fundraisers for their legal battles.

Below are some links to some documentaries, articles, and fundraising websites to educate and support those people whose lived experience is not only of being black and not only being queer but also being trans and female.

Their identities exist at the intersectionality of the most persecuted groups in many societies around the globe.

As LGBT+ people and allies, we must be supporting and using our privilege and space to educate ourselves and bolster, protect, and celebrate the Black trans community. 

Pride started as a riot because people were angry.

Pride brought about change that means many queer people can live their lives in the way they want to.

We need to be supporting those who are angry and protesting the constant and systemic oppression now -so that they can also live their lives the way they deserve to.

Please find additional information and material below:

Documentaries, movies, and series:

• Disclosure
• Happy Birthday Marsha!
• Life & Death of Marsha P Johnson
• Tangerine
• Paris Is Burning
• Pose
• Transparent
• The Trans List
• Free Cece

People I follow and value:

•  Indya Moore
• Munroe Bergdorf
• Leyna Bloom
• Travis Alabanza
• Leiomy Maldonado

Charities and GoFundMe pages:

• Mermaids - A Charity that works with families with children who are gender variant and non conforming
• UK Black Pride
• Homeless Black Trans women Donation Fund
• All About Trans
• Black Visions Collective
• G.L.I.T.S
• Trans Women of Color Collective
• The Okra Project
• Snap4Freedom
• Black Aids
• LGBTQ Fund
• House of GG
• Trans Justice Funding Project
• Youth Breakout

Links to further reading and attachments:

• Yes! Magazine: Black Trans Women Are Being Killed. Could Paying Them Help Stop This?
• Stonewall: Trans Key Statistics
• Human Rights Campaign: A National Epidemic: Fatal Anti-Transgender Violence in the United States in 2019
• Wikipedia: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

As residents of Staten Island marched in the New York City borough's annual St. Patrick's parade on Saturday, Miss Staten Island was confined to the sidelines, according to CBS New York.

Madison L'Insalata claims that just hours after she came out as bisexual, organizers banned her from participating. This thwarted her plan to march in support of the LGBTQ+ community - and wear a rainbow-colored scarf while waving from the back of a vehicle along the parade route - after the Pride Center of Staten Island had once again been prohibited from taking part.

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/B9NGMZDByw2/]]

After her announcement made headlines, parade head, Larry Cummings, allegedly placed a call to the pageant director, Jim Smith, to inform him that all pageant winners were banned from the parade for "safety" reasons.

Smith called L'Insalata to break the news, detailing that Cummings had told him that L'Insalata and another pageant queen who supported her were prohibited from participating. "I was stunned by the whole thing. I wasn't prepared. He just said we're worried about her safety, like he's doing us a favor," he told the publication.

"It's really hurtful. Nobody likes to feel rejected from their community," 23-year-old L'Insalata told CBS New York. "I am proud of Staten Island and I am proud of the title that I have because I know that myself and all the other girls involved do a lot of really great things for our community. So it's a shame that this really great community event, we ended up not being allowed to be a part of."

Dwayne Wade speaks about supporting his son at the Miami Pride Parade:

[[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/6k3KKjbG-Q0L14jDU.mp4||6k3KKjbG]]

L'Insalata did show up at the parade regardless, wearing a rainbow scarf and heart sticker, but was only able to watch. "It was hurtful [to see]," her mother said.

"I knew that people would talk about it, and that's all I wanted. Because the more people that know about it, the more likely it is to change," Miss Staten Island continued, adding that many community leaders and spectators applauded her decision to attend.

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/B8DAok6hs7b/]]

Cummings has been widely criticized for continuing to prevent the Pride Center of Staten Island from participating in the parade. Director of the organization, Carol Bullock, told CBS New York that in the past Cummings has said that letting such groups march "promotes the homosexual lifestyle" and "goes against the tenents of the Catholic Church".

Over the recent Bank Holiday weekend in the United Kingdom, thousands made their way down to West London for the Notting Hill Carnival. It's perhaps the biggest celebration of Caribbean culture in the UK, and although this year's carnival took place in the shadow of the Grenfell Tower tragedy (which occurred close by in Kensington), there was plenty of cheer to be had over the two days of festivities. We also had a fair few celebrity appearances at this year's carnival, and one celebrity in particular seemed to have a moderately good time over the weekend. His action, though, have drawn a little bit of criticism online from one user in particular. This is John Boyega. You'll recognise him as the character Finn from Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, but you may also have caught him in the recent film Detroit, which shone an unflinching light on the violence at the Detroit Riots 50 years prior. He's part of the new generation of top-level actors, but he also likes to let loose once in a while, and he certainly did that at this year's Notting Hill carnival. Returning to his native London to enjoy the party, the 25-year-old was captured getting up close and personal with a dancing participant at the West London parade. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JohnBoyega/status/902662289232363520]] We saw John Boyega grinding up on a lady at the Notting Hill Carnival on Instagram. The post has since been deleted, and on Twitter, Boyega himself didn't post the footage; instead, he merely alluded to it in a coy fashion, saying: "Someone try do some acrobatics I wasn't ready for". He was immediately called out by the user @BaymaxSix, who posted footage of Boyega grinding on a woman and criticised the actor for not showing the proper respect to women, saying the entire situation was "not funny". [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/BaymaxSix/status/902684154587963392]] Luckily, not only is John Boyega a talented actor, he also has a bit of a sense of humour about himself. His response shut down the Twitter troll quite emphatically and hilariously. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JohnBoyega/status/902847952187772930]] The critical response to Boyega's having his very own "force awakens" moment, is fairly critical of the post from @BaymaxSix. Most didn't see nothin' wrong with a little bump 'n' grind, while some people alluded to the fact that there were two consenting adults here, just trying to have fun, taking a dim view of @BaymaxSix's definition of "strong females". [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/thebigbadade/status/902713469144670209]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/fauxlandojones/status/902850511988240384]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/lizmossofficial/status/902849516772016128]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/LordSize/status/902868860977733633]] On the one hand, Boyega's status as a star in one of the timeless franchises in pop culture might mean that he's a role model for impressionable young Star Wars fans, but on the other hand, he's a fully-grown adult, and he's perfectly entitled to let loose once in a while. It's also important to note that the Notting Hill Carnival encapsulates a slightly different atmosphere and culture, and if you've attended one, you'll notice that the dancing is usually of a similar nature. All in all, it looks like someone's kind of making a mountain out of a molehill here. If, by any chance, you didn't get to see John Boyega's star turn in the Kathryn Bigelow drama Detroit, then your next chance to catch the 25-year-old actor is in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. That comes out in December of this year, and it looks like it'll be worth the wait. In the meantime, let's let John Boyega dance, shall we? [[heroimage||http://cdn.junglecreations.com/wp/junglecms/2017/08/John-Boyega-hero.jpg]] [[citation||Hero Image Credit: Getty Images]]