We got up at 7 this Sunday morning because we were meeting one of Chizzy’s coworkers, Shane, at the airport. He’s staying for a couple months to help out. The sun was already shining when we woke and it was really nice the day before so I decided I was just going to wear my khaki shorts out. Not particularly Euro-stylish and very rare here, but I’m starting to care even less. Chizzy correctly noted last night that the fashion sense here took a serious nosedive when the sun came out. Oh sure, give these guys some winter cold to throw on the layers and scarves and walk around all fancy, but give them the sun with the opportunity to dress down and all bets are off. The best look going is the dudes who roll their jeans up to right underneath their knees. No. Even a clueless guy like me knows where the line should be drawn. I feel like I’ve been transported to a surreal high school production of Grease.
Anywhoo, it’s another holiday here in Zurich. Labor Day/May Day. I just found this out a couple days ago because the tram stops had notices posted that service would be stopped for several hours due to the parade. Wow. I thought this would be such a great day for this dude to show up. First time in Europe and here is a great sunny day and a parade down the middle of town. Well, it turned out that the parade was less of a celebration and more like a massive Communist march. The parade was just getting going as we got into town and we saw lot of hammer and sickle flags and thought we were just seeing the Russian contingent of the parade. It only took a couple minutes to realize what we were actually watching was a huge socialist/communist political march of which we were probably not welcome. Indeed, it became more and more apparent that the number of people out in the streets was conspicuously small for such a nice day. Whatever the Swiss equivalent of the SWAT team is was out in full force and some shops had actually boarded up their storefronts. There was obviously some tension there and a worry that the march would take a physical turn for the worse. It really was strange but the march was pretty peaceful. We moved along and showed Shane some more of the city and explained the Commie march was not an everyday occurrence. We didn't have the camera on us to caputure the event.
Wikipedia (a great online encyclopedia resource if you’ve never heard of it) came to the rescue about what was going on. It appears May Day has an international reputation as being “a focal point for demonstrations by various communist, socialist, and anarchist groups.”
So I asked about this "holiday" at work today and found that most Zurichers actually stay inside until the demonstration is over since there is usually a fair amount of car-burning and violence. That explains the bare streets. The message clearly was anti-capitalism. At lunch today we walked toward the lake and my Austrian co-worker explained to me that one of the businesses we walked by was splattered in paint and had broken front windows due to the commie rioters. Apparently this was one of the most peaceful May 1sts in Zurich history.
Big P, May 2, 2005 09:02 PM:Come on now, surely a right winger like you Klisch would know about the the international day of the Commies. I heard the cooks went on strike at Nectar and Bern busted them. He's become The Man in true capitalist pig sense.
Evan Iylanova, May 4, 2005 01:15 AM:Comrades,
One can't be a true capitalist stooge without clubbing at least one baby seal.