We Mean to Make Things Over: A History of May Day is a new half-hour documentary video exploring how May Day became a worker’s holiday all over the world except in the United States despite the fact that the events that inspired the holiday occurred here. At a time when celebrating May Day is making a comeback, the American labor movement is showing renewed militancy, and public support for labor is at a half century peak, the appearance of We Mean to Make Things Over is extremely timely.
Using historical images, contemporary illustrations by Berkeley artist Jos Sances, and animation by L.A.-based animator Paul Zappia, We Mean to Make Things Over is an educational and entertaining tour of a long-suppressed story from American working-class history, highlighting the fraught connections between the struggle for the eight-hour day, general strikes, immigrant worker rights and a holiday that symbolizes the aspirations of the working class for a more just society.