[Peace-discuss] FW: Sunday, May 1, 2016 - Happy Mayday: Workers of all Countries Unite

Sun May 1 13:22:42 EDT 2016

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Happy Mayday: Workers of all Countries Unite 

<https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-33oNVyEgO4M/VyYcqP5wpAI/AAAAAAAAMSc/gFH9Grd0c_83
HRjQovVPumWSzFL0X22-wCLcB/s1600/images.jpg> Description:
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-33oNVyEgO4M/VyYcqP5wpAI/AAAAAAAAMSc/gFH9Grd0c_83H
RjQovVPumWSzFL0X22-wCLcB/s1600/images.jpg

By Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired 

May 1st, Mayday,  is International Workers' Day. When I first came to the
United States from Britain in the early seventies, most American workers I
spoke to thought May Day was a Soviet or Russian holiday. But Mayday is as
American as apple pie as they say. It is a workers' holiday officially
celebrated throughout the world but not here. 

Mayday has its roots in the history of the American working class movement.
During the latter half of the 19th century there was an ongoing struggle for
the eight hour day and fewer work hours in general. Craft Unionism, where
workers organized around their individual trades, was the dominant form of
organization and the brutality of the employers was widespread. 

At a meeting of the Central Labor Union of New York City on May 18th 1882,
P.J. McGuire, a socialist and founder and General Secretary of the
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, introduced a resolution for a day of
festivities and parades in New York commemorating Labor and it proposed the
first Monday in September. The first national organization that supported a
day of celebration in honor of Labor was the Federation of Organized Trades
and Labor Unions at its convention in Chicago in 1884 and it was these
developments that led to Labor Day.

"To capitalists, bankers and their hirelings" the Federation announced. As
workers, "..drudge and toil your away your lives for a bare existence, these
idlers and non-producers live in luxury and debauchery, squandering with a
lavish hand that which belongs to you ---that which your labor produces.."
(Sound familiar?)

"They have tried to deny us the right to organize---a right guaranteed by
the constitution of this government. Therefore we call on you to show that
we defy them; that you will organize; that you have organized; that the day
of your deliverance is approaching. To do this we ask you to join the our
ranks in celebrating the day." 

The Federation went on to proclaim: "The Trades and Labor Assembly proclaims
labor's annual holiday the first Monday of September. Leave your benches,
leave your shops.."

The first national observance took place in September 1885 and the US
Congress adopted Labor Day, the first Monday in September, as an official
holiday on June 28th 1894. The bill was introduced by a member of the
Typographical Union.

Alongside these developments, every Labor demonstration at the time,
including the Labor Day celebrations, had the eight hour day as a dominant
theme, "Eight Hours to Constitute a Days Work" was a prominent slogan and at
the same Federation's 1884 convention where a national Labor Day was
proclaimed, another resolution was passed that stated: 

"Resolved by the Federation of Organized Trades Labor Unions of the United
States and Canada that eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from
and after May 1st 1886, and that we recommend to labor organizations
throughout this district that they so direct their laws as to conform to
this resolution by the time named."

So May Day began and has always been associated with the struggle for the
eight-hour day and the movement around this struggle that arose in the
1880's culminating in May 1st 1886.

Some bosses had conceded and some city councils gave public sector workers
the eight-hour day. But like today when we sign a contract, the minute the
ink is dry they are trying to violate it. In addition, the bosses would
often reduce pay by 20% to compensate for the lost time so they actually
lost nothing at all. 

It became clear, as it is today, that workers cannot rely on legislation,
capitalist politicians or their parties to defend our economic and material
interests. All the social legislation that came out of the great upsurge of
the 1930's the occupations and the CIO and the Civil Rights movement of the
60's from sick leave to title 7 were already rights taken in the streets
through mass action; they were simply forced to legitimize them on paper and
then write history to show that legislation and "responsible" political
lobbying is what produces results. 

If they wanted the eight-hour day, "The way to get it" Carpenter's leader
P.J. McGuire said, was "..by organization. In 1868, the United States passed
an Eight-Hour Law, and that law has been enforced just twice. If you want
and Eight-Hour law, make it yourself." McGuire added, "We want an enactment
by the working men themselves that on a given day, eight hours should
constitute a day's work, and they ought to enforce it themselves." **

So it was the Carpenter's that introduced the resolution stating May 1st
1986 as the first day for the establishment of eight hours as the legal
workday. Another proposal stated that votes be taken in all Labor
organizations for a "universal strike" for an eight-hour workday on May 1st.
A writer for the well known Labor journal John Swinton's paper who was
covering the convention, wrote:

"It is useless to wait for legislation..A united demand for a shorter
working day, backed by thorough organization, would prove vastly more
effective than the enactment of a thousand laws depending for enforcement
upon the pleasure of aspiring politicians or sycophantic department
officials." ***

"To accede the point that capitalists have the right to eight hours of our
labor is more than a compromise, it is a virtual concession that the wages
system is right" the anarchist journal wrote.

But the working class took up the idea seriously and revolutionaries of all
types joined the movement and played a crucial role in the success of May
day, especially in Chicago which was a hotbed of radical activity. Agitation
for the eight-hour day was everywhere and rallies and protests, parades and
gatherings took place throughout the country prior to Mayday. By mid April,
250,000 industrial workers were involved and in the face of the movement and
to head it off, many bosses made concessions on hours. 

They responded with the stick and the carrot as they always do and always
will. In the mass media that they owned then as now, their propaganda said
that society would collapse, the country would go broke, the money is not
there. The eight-hour day was "communism, lurid and rampant" . they claimed
it would encourage "loafing and gambling, rioting, debauchery and
drunkenness." (they think we are like them you see) They wrote that it would
bring "lower wages, poverty and degradation for American workers."

But there was no stopping the movement. Foner points out that workers were
smoking eight-hour tobacco, buying eight-hour shoes and sang eight-hour
songs:

We mean to make things over;
we're tired of toil for nought

<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bahyFOwMWYw/Tb3LotF3X1I/AAAAAAAABzQ/Rs2HOrNnStI/s
1600/220px-8hoursday_banner_1856.jpg> Description:
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bahyFOwMWYw/Tb3LotF3X1I/AAAAAAAABzQ/Rs2HOrNnStI/s
320/220px-8hoursday_banner_1856.jpg

We sure don't have this today

But bare enough to live on; never 
an hour for thought.
We want to feel the sunshine; we
Want to smell the flowers;
We're sure that God has willed it,
And we mean to have eight hours.
We're summoning our forces from
Shipyard shop and mill:
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest
Eight hours for what we will.

On May Day 1886 some 350,000 workers in more than 11,000 workplaces went on
strike for the eight-hour day. 40,000 went out in Chicago. These are
impressive figures for the time and the conditions and the limited Union
organization. 45,000 workers were granted the eight-hour day without
striking. The city of Chicago was paralyzed and the meatpacking workers,
some of the most abused in the city won the eight-hour day with no reduction
in pay, a huge victory. May Day 1886 was also a great organizing tool and
thousands of workers joined Labor organizations. The same happened during
the great strike upsurge that led to the CIO as millions joined Unions.

The bosses won much of this back but there were permanent gains made as
hours were lessened in many industries. But May Day terrified the bosses and
they responded with extreme violence attacking gatherings continuously. Then
on May 3rd at the McCormick Harvester factory where workers, members of the
Knights of Labor were locked out for striking for the eight-hour day, scabs,
escorted by hundreds of cops were brought in. As the workers demonstrated
against the strikebreaking, the cops shot in to the crowd and killed four
strikers. The following day, a meeting was called in Haymarket Square to
protest the brutal killings and indiscriminate violence by the police. It
was a peaceful rally until the end of the day when it was almost over. A
couple of hundred cops waded in to the crowd to force them to disperse
despite it being a legal gathering and attended by the mayor who had left
earlier. 

A bomb was thrown at the cops killing a bunch of them and the cops responded
by shooting in to the crowd killing a number of workers and wounding
hundreds. In the aftermath of the bombing, hundreds of workers were
arrested, tortured and beaten. The cops eventually chose the prominent
anarchist workers' leaders to put on trial. These were among the most
successful organizers and were hated by the employers and the cops. They
were accused of murder even thought they weren't at the rally because the
"unknown" bomb thrower must have been influenced by their speeches.

<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b1lztRZ1Xxo/Tb3KTLSa5zI/AAAAAAAABzE/JwMIFtwWX-g/s
1600/HaymarketMartyrs.jpg> Description:
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b1lztRZ1Xxo/Tb3KTLSa5zI/AAAAAAAABzE/JwMIFtwWX-g/s
320/HaymarketMartyrs.jpg

Haymarket Martyrs

The accused were found guilty in a rigged trial and sentenced to hang.
Protests and support poured in from around the world which did force them to
commute some sentences but four of the workers' leaders, including Albert
Parsons, were executed.

Throughout the struggle for Labor rights, and the eight-hour day culminating
in May Day, the tendency is for workers to overcome the barriers that the
bosses use to divide and weaken us. "Every worker who toiled for a living
would be welcome. No distinction of color will be made; race prejudice will
be ignored; religious differences will be set aside; but all men will be on
an equality provided he earns his daily bread" proclaimed the New York
Central Labor Union in its appeal to all Labor bodies to support Labor day.
It is a reflection of the times that the mention of women is not as
prominent which reflects the terrible legacy of sexism but we learn through
struggle.

The reason May Day is ignored by the officials, legislators of laws, and the
Democratic and Republican parties, is that it was an independent movement of
the working class in this country. As McGuire said, we have to take
independent action if we want something. The same applies today. The leaders
of the organized working class today are also terrified of independent
working class action, either direct action like strikes, or political action
like a mass workers party as they support capitalism, they have the same
world view as the boss. Labor Day is a legislated day that they were forced
to approve and they even hide that history but it is the "official" and safe
holiday where we eat and drink and support the Democrats. 

What a combination of the present day heads of organized Labor and the
Democratic politicians did after the Seattle events of 1999,  and in
Wisconsin some years ago is divert a potential independent mass movement of
workers in to a struggle for legislation through reliance on one of the two
parties of Wall Street and the bankers. This same coalition is trying to
direct the campaign for a $15 an hour minimum wage in the same direction.
Bernie Sanders has tapped in to the anger at the austerity agenda of the
bosses and has directed it in to that graveyard of social movements, the
Democratic party. But they won't all follow. These tactics PJ McGuire
learned not to do 150 years ago.

May Day is a uniquely American creation. May Day began as our day but we
share it with the rest of the workers of the world because we are not simply
"one" with workers in our own country, we are "one" with workers of all
countries. The history of US Labor is a rich and militant one. We have faced
incredible violence and survived it. Despite the history of racism and
sexism that the bosses introduce in to every institution and pore of society
in order to divide us, we have come this far.

On May 2006, some of the most oppressed and abused sections of the US
working class, a couple of million immigrant workers reminded us of the
importance of this holiday to our class. We thank them for it. 

Have a happy Mayday and join one of the events planned throughout the
country

* St Paul Globe Democrat, 8-16-1855 Quoted in P Foner, History of the Labor
movement of the United States Vol.2 p97

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20160501/5e896c97/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 12712 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20160501/5e896c97/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 19283 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20160501/5e896c97/attachment-0004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 19634 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20160501/5e896c97/attachment-0005.jpg>