“Most
people living in the United States know little about the
International Workers' Day of May Day. For many others there is an
assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist
countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don't
realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as
'American' as baseball and apple pie, and stemmed from the
pre-Christian holiday of Beltane, a celebration of rebirth and
fertility.”
“At its
national convention in Chicago, held in 1884, the Federation of
Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which later became the American
Federation of Labor), proclaimed that 'eight hours shall constitute a
legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886.'”
“On May
1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the
United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration
in history. In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day agitators,
40,000 went out on strike with the anarchists in the forefront of the
public's eye. With their fiery speeches and revolutionary ideology of
direct action, anarchists and anarchism became respected and embraced
by the working people and despised by the capitalists.”
“For
six months, armed Pinkerton agents and the police harassed and beat
locked-out steelworkers as they picketed. Most of these workers
belonged to the 'anarchist-dominated' Metal Workers' Union. During a
speech near the McCormick plant, some two hundred demonstrators
joined the steelworkers on the picket line. Beatings with police
clubs escalated into rock throwing by the strikers which the police
responded to with gunfire. At least two strikers were killed and an
unknown number were wounded.”
“The
remaining organizers, Fielden, Neebe and Schwab, were pardoned six
years later by Governor Altgeld, who publicly lambasted the judge on
a travesty of justice. Immediately after the Haymarket Massacre, big
business and government conducted what some say was the very first
'Red Scare' in this country. Spun by mainstream media, anarchism
became synonymous with bomb throwing and socialism became
un-American. The common image of an anarchist became a bearded,
eastern European immigrant with a bomb in one hand and a dagger in
the other.”
“Over
one hundred years have passed since that first May Day. In the
earlier part of the 20th century, the US government tried to curb the
celebration and further wipe it from the public's memory by
establishing 'Law and Order Day' on May 1. We can draw many parallels
between the events of 1886 and today. We still have locked out
steelworkers struggling for justice. We still have voices of freedom
behind bars as in the cases of Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier.”
“Truly,
history has a lot to teach us about the roots of our radicalism. When
we remember that people were shot so we could have the 8-hour day; if
we acknowledge that homes with families in them were burned to the
ground so we could have Saturday as part of the weekend; when we
recall 8-year old victims of industrial accidents who marched in the
streets protesting working conditions and child labor only to be beat
down by the police and company thugs, we understand that our current
condition cannot be taken for granted - people fought for the rights
and dignities we enjoy today, and there is still a lot more to fight
for. The sacrifices of so many people can not be forgotten or we'll
end up fighting for those same gains all over again. This is why we
celebrate May Day.”
Related
Today:
“In
America, the 'McCarthic' terror of the Soviet Communism is brought
back, together with a systematicaly planned propaganda, in order to
stigmatize the welfare state and labor rights as a consequence of
this type of Communism, which of course is completely false, since,
the conquest of the welfare state and the labor rights, derived
through social struggles of decades from the people primarily in
western countries. The 'communistophobia' is also brought back in
Greece from various mouthpieces, in order the welfare state and labor
rights to be targeted through a similar way, while extreme
nationalism exploits this fact in order to be promoted as the only
voice of truth against the systemic propaganda, and gain greater
slice of the electoral pie.”
“Through
this way, the door opens to private companies which will undertake
managing - with humiliating salaries workers under the already
dissolved labor rights - and will burden state budget by setting up
cartels and gaining big profits.”
“If
someone thinks that these are science fiction scenarios we should
remember that just four years ago, or less, massive layoffs, worker
availabilities, dissolved labor rights, closing public organizations
in one day, and many other things, were out of question and no one
dared to say that may would become reality one day. Neoliberal
dictatorship is shaping the suitable conditions for the new Middle
Ages and only the massive and dynamic resistance of peoples can
prevent it.”
“This
explains the recent statement by the U.S. Secretary of Treasury,
speaking about growth through consumption, criticizing indirectly the
austerity policies in Europe, and the expected reaction of Schaeuble,
as the U.S. rely heavily on consuming power, and they do not want for
the moment to cut wages and labor rights in extent. They see that
Europe is moving rapidly to the degradation of welfare state and
dissolution of labor rights, which means that it will quickly become
more "attractive", even for big companies based in their
territory.”
“Renzi's
debut in the political arena with specific proposals, satisfies the
most crazy dreams of IGIF, as these proposals contain, substantially,
the abolition of elementary labor rights, for workers who have not
completed three years of work in a company.”
“European
institutions for the support of labor rights will be overridden since
workers are pushed to their new jobs with short-term contracts, under
fully "flexible" conditions, which lead faster to the new
labor middle ages, not only in private sector, but also in public
sector eventually.”
“A
brutal system takes back its promises for peace, prosperity and
stability, through destructive capitalism. Labor rights, civil
liberties and social benefits dismantled violently by nation-states
which are self-destructed to give their sovereignty to the
dictatorship of the markets.”
“The
more the welfare state, human and labor rights retreat, the more
difficult the 'recovery' of Vision becomes. Situation becomes worse
in front of the attack of neoliberalism. Vision becomes not only a
utopia, but also a luxury because the top priority of people is to
survive. The concept of Liberty itself tends to disappear permanently
inside increasingly militarized societies of private armies.”
“The
base of the pyramid will be consisted by the majority of workers in
global level, with restricted wages, zero labor rights, and nearly
zero opportunities for activities other than consumption.”
“It is
a fact that, the more the democracy decreases, as well as human
rights in various levels (labor rights, atomic freedoms, personal
data etc.), the more we are passing in a vicious circle, a
non-returning point, which downgrades democracy and institutions.
Neoliberalism is a transition phase to what the economic elites are
dreaming: anarcho-capitalism.”
“This
means that, the German government will be forced to proceed in huge
cuts in wages and dissolve labor rights - as a gift to the German
economic elite - so that production and products exports to retain
their percentage on GDP and therefore, avoid the loss of jobs and
keep unemployment percentage at current level.”
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