The Wake

Photo by Alex Amend

There is much to lament – and praise - in the fusion of social networking with online social networking. Like a newspaper in a bathroom stall, or a simple handshake, however, the conquest of digital technology has its limits, and small niches considered “ways of the old” remain, at least for now, stubbornly irreplaceable.

Enter Mayday Bookstore. Founded in 1975 on the corner of Selby and Western in St. Paul, Mayday was originally a Maoist collective. Today, many ideological splits and much collective infighting later, the bookstore has an expanded and refined range of leftist literature in its home of 17 years on the West Bank.

However, what is most significant about Mayday is not simply the staggering collection of progressive literature, or the fact that the store is cash only, not-for-profit and volunteer run, but in fulfilling that irreplaceable role so essential to social activism: a place to meet, face to face.

Mayday has served as “headquarters” for numerous activist groups. Earl Balfour, a volunteer for over 20 years, recalls the Nicaraguan Solidarity Committee and groups against U.S. involvement in East Timor, Somalia, and up through more recent anti-war groups like the Iraq Peace Action Coalition. The anarchist and anti-authoritarian Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee also meets here.

In addition to supporting these leftist groups, Mayday offers its space to forums and lectures on progressive issues as well as training in areas like civil disobedience. What is the cost for such hosting? Volunteers pass around a donation bucket.

It is difficult to discern, in this symbiosis between the bookstore and the activists, which side is more enabling of the other. It is clear, however, that neither would amount to so much as Mayday’s longevity without an unbending dedication to the issues so central to both.

Craig Palmer has volunteered at Mayday longer than any other current worker. He became involved in 1980 when the store was located on Franklin and Chicago. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Palmer found some help in answering questions about the war he entered so enthusiastically and returned from so disillusioned.

“Most Vietnam Vets back then - and probably a lot still are - were confused about the war,” he said. “Most people have forgotten about the war, a major war, except veterans, and now we have another major war.”

Palmer said the literature he found at Mayday helped him exact the “real story” behind the conflict and define his own involvement. Palmer’s account makes explicit Mayday’s power to offer different perspectives through literature, especially regarding history.

It is appropriate then that the best-selling book at Mayday for over 15 years and the book that Balfour says “pretty well” explains the bookstore’s political position, is Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. For people both unfamiliar with and well versed in progressive literature, Palmer recommends Zinn.

“People who have opposing viewpoints generally have a different sense of history,” he said. “If you don’t understand history, where is your reference point?”

In some ways contributing to this sense of history, most of the volunteers at Mayday are of older generations. Of the 10 to 12 current volunteers, only a few are in their thirties. There is for instance, Tom Dooley - an 82 year-old veteran of “Two” who started volunteering soon after the first Gulf War and joining Veterans for Peace.

The absence of youth is not noticeable per se, considering the makeup of many of the activist groups that frequent Mayday’s space includes many young people. However, the absence of student browsers, particularly University of Minnesota students, is at least notable due to the bookstore’s proximity to the West Bank campus.

Besides the store’s low physical visibility, there is a trend these older radicals and anti-capitalists are, not surprisingly, aware of when comes to students of this generation. We’re simply too taxed.

“The economy is a lot harsher,” said Palmer. “Most students pay an arm and a leg to go to college and take their classes very seriously.”

Palmer recounts how students in the ’70s would take out a loan and go to Europe and spend more of their time engaged in activism.

“Now, all they can do is work and go to school,” he said, laughing. “It’s probably by design.”

Mayday Bookstore is open during the week from noon until 7 p.m., from noon until 6 p.m. on Saturdays, closed on Sundays, and, according to Palmer, offering services as long as the U.S. keeps going to war.