Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 19:46:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Gerald Levy <glevy-AT-pratt.edu> Subject: May 1 - International Workers' Day Happy May Day everyone! I just got back from a Squatters Mayday concert in Tompkins Square Park. It featured about 6 of the best punk rock bands in New York City. Mostly, the members of the bands were squatters and their lyrics were very political. The concert was put on by a bunch of anarchist friends of mine and the show cane off without a hitch -- except for a shower in the middle and a deluge shortly after the end (...well, you can't plan everything). It was also the site of the 4th Annual "May Day Pig Roast" (Lisa, dearest: you would have *loved* it!). Near the end of the show there were fire-eaters who were acting like they were attacking each other with flaming batons in every hand (a most impressive sight!). At the end of the last song -- the sky already overcast with dark clouds -- was lit up with lightning! A few minutes later there was even hail! A memorable May Day. Jerry PS: I thought you might be interested in the following: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 17:01:22 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 14:48:50 -0600 (MDT) From: Martha Gimenez <gimenez-AT-csf.colorado.edu> To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK <psn-AT-csf.colorado.edu> Subject: May 1 - International Workers' Day (fwd) Dear PSNers, Today in my Social Stratification Class I asked my students about their understanding of May 1. Only three hands went up; one student said it was an European holiday, another said it was a Celtic holiday and another said it was, in other countries, a holiday for workers. Of course, it is not surprising that they knew so little about the origins of this holiday. I told then about the struggles for the ten hour day and the struggles for the eight hour day which today everyone takes for granted. I know that to even remember May Day may seem quaint today when globalization seems to have put an end to history. But, as Braudel said somewhere, "events are dust" and what counts is what happens in "the long duree." So those of you who think it is important in a day like this to celebrate labor and its struggles and accomplishments can find in a little book by Philip S. Foner, MAY DAY - A Short History of the International Workers' Holiday 1886-1986 (International Publishers, 1986) an excellent source. I am also forwarding a couple of messages that appeared last year in PSN which you might want to keep for future reference. In solidarity, Martha ******************************************************** >From rross-AT-vax.clarku.edu Thu May 1 14:22:03 1997 Date: Fri, 03 May 1996 12:32:58 -0500 (EST) From: "ROBERT J.S. (BOB) ROSS, CHAIR OF SOCIOLOGY" <rross-AT-vax.clarku.edu> To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK <psn-AT-csf.colorado.edu> Subject: Late Mayday (long post) Friends, A few days ago Martha sent us a Mayday remembrance. This jogged my memory of one Berch Berberoglu sent to psn a while ago that had some colorful details. In these Dark Times we cultural workers (as Mills called us) can keep the flame of memory lit with the help of mutual reinforced memories (MRMs for acronymically inclined). Herein, another version. Bob Ross +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From: IN%"berchb-AT-unssun.scs.unr.edu" 2-MAY-1993 02:25:35.41 To: IN%"rross-AT-vax.clarku.edu" CC: Subj: MAY 1 International Workers' Day (fwd) Today is May 1, International Workers' Day. Proletarian greetings to everyone in every continent and every country, especially the workers of the world! Millions of working people around the world are celebrating this important holiday which originated in this imperialist heartland, the USA. May Day is a day when the workers the world over demonstrate their international solidarity. It originated in the United States over a hundred years ago and grew out of the struggle for the 8-hour day. The first May Day was in 1886 as hundreds of thousands of workers across the country paraded for an 8-hour working day. The center of the strike movement was Chicago, where 80,000 workers participated in a general strike and effectively shut down the city. This tremendous demonstration of worker solidarity appalled the U.S. capitalists who saw their downfall in an organized, disciplined working class movement aware of its class interests. So, using the police they framed the militant labor leaders who had helped organize the May Day general strike. A few days following the May Day march, workers held a demonstration in Haymarket Square, Chicago, to protest the murder and beating of strikers at the McCormick Harvester Works. As the meeting was breaking up, the police attacked the gathering and threw a bomb in the crowd. The incident was then pinned on the union leaders and they were hung for it. But this did not kill the 8-hour movement. In 1889 leaders of the organized labor movement in various countries met in Paris for the International Workingmen's Association. They voted to support the 8-hour fight and set up May 1st 1890 for an international 8-hour day struggle. On that day workers all over Europe paraded and demonstrated in show of their international unity for a shorter working day. Ever since 1890 May Day has been a day when workers celebrate their gains and demonstrate their unity with the working people of all countries in their common fight against all forms of exploitation and oppression. ******************* The following moving account of the events at Haymarket Square appears in CARRY IT ON! by Pete Seeger and Bob Riser (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985), pp. 56-57. On May 1, 1886, half a million workers across the country laid down their tools, vowing not to pick them up until they had won the eight-hour workday. It was America's most widespread strike. Men and women and children took to the streets and the parks with picnic baskets and parasols. In Chicago, the mood was different. As the *Tribune* said, "The railroads have stopped, the freight houses have closed, no smoke curls from the factory chimneys. It is like Sabbath." While eighty thousand workers and their families strolled down Michigan Avenue, Pinkerton detectives and city police lined the rooftops and National Guardsmen squatted behind machine guns. The stage was set for riot. For three days the city waited. Then, on Monday, May 3, the tension broke. Near the McCormick Harvesting Company on the South side, police broke up a skirmish with clubs and guns, leaving four workmen dead. Outraged, the trade unionists planned to hold a protest meeting the next evening at Haymarket Square. The next night it rained. Those who attended the meeting waited for hours for the speakers to arrive. By ten o'clock most of the small crowd had drifted away. Samuel Fielden, a preacher, was winding up a long rambling speech. Children were dozing on the laps of their mothers. Men were standing at the edge of the crowd, whispering among themselves, discussing how best to escape for a glass of beer. "In conclusion . . ." Fielden was saying. Suddenly, he stopped. Standing behind the crowd was a column of 180 policemen. "In the name of the State of Illinois, I command that this crowd immediately disperse!" a voice boomed. It was Police Captain John Bonfield, nicknamed "the clubber" by local people. "But we are peaceable!" Fielden answered. The police moved in. There was a flash of red and an explosion. A dynamite bomb exploded on the ground between the crowd and the front ranks of the police. Dozens of people fell to the ground, wounded, killed. Without a moment's hesitation the police opened fire into the crowd. "Suddenly it was chaos, the police firing in every direction, the people running in the darkness, trying to get away, trampling on one another, falling over dead bodies." Before the smell of the bomb had even drifted away, seven policemen and fifteen crowd members lay dead on the pavement. No one new who had thrown the bomb. But that is not what the papers said. "Now it is blood!" they screamed. "The mob of Anarchists, crazed with fanatic desire for blood, poured volley after volley into the police. Justice demands that these foreign assassins be tried for murder!" The floodgates of hysteria opened wide. Even the staid *New York Times* shouted about "Anarchy's red hand!" Under the urging of Chicago employers, local strike leaders were arrested and tried--not for murder, because there was no proof for that, but for "conspiracy." Despite the flimsiest evidence, seven men were sentenced to hang. "These men are guilty of no crime," admitted one juror, "but they must hang. Organized labor will be crushed if they hang." ********************* Proletarian greetings, In solidarity, Berch Berberoglu University of Nevada, Reno berchb-AT-unssun.scs.unr.edu *************************************************************************** ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 4 May 94 10:13 MST From: WASATCH AREA VOICES EXPRESS <WAVE-AT-cc.weber.edu> Subject: WAVE May Day -- The Real Labor Day Wasatch Area Voices Express (W.A.V.E.) WOMEN'S EDITION Volume #1 Issue #5 MAY DAY -- THE REAL LABOR DAY by Heather Harman Sunday, May 1, 1994, marks the 107th celebration of May Day. For many, May Day conjures up visions of flower-baskets and maypole dancing -- certainly valid associations, but there is another important meaning of May Day that is being quickly forgotten. May Day is International Workers' Day, a time for working-class people around the world to reflect on the struggles and accomplishments of workers, remember our martyrs, and recognize that our sweat and blood has built and sustains the societies in which we live. It is also a day for folks to put aside work and thumb our noses at the Bosses. May Day is an opportunity to plan for the time when we will no longer be forced to sell our lives to wage slavery; a time to renew solidarity and celebrate the working-class. The roots of the holiday go back to the United States in 1884, when the Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions passed a resolution declaring that, as of May 1, 1886, eight hours would constitute a full and legal work day. With workers being forced to spend twelve, fourteen, and sometimes up to sixteen hours a day on the job, rank-and file support for the eight-hour day grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders. By April of 1886, the cause had the support of a quarter of a million workers, and the second week of May saw 350,000 workers involved in a general strike for shorter hours. These workers, standing together, were able to win the eight-hour work day, a right that many of us take for granted without realizing the very real and personal sacrifices which were made to secure it. Business and government leaders were acutely aware that solidarity and class consciousness threatened their profitable stranglehold over the lives of workers, and they planned a strong response. The heart of the movement was in Chicago, and it was there that the Bosses retaliated. In the months preceding May Day, military and police forces were beefed up and provided with state-of-the-art weaponry. Chicago's Commercial Club purchased a $2,000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to be used against strikers. On May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd outside the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. In response, workers held a peaceful mass meeting in Chicago's Haymarket Square to protest the brutal murders. The meeting progressed peacefully until 180 police marched in and demanded that the crowd disperse. As the crowd began to leave and the speakers left the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, who responded not by finding and pursuing the assailant, but by shooting randomly into the crowd of protesters. They succeeded in killing one worker and wounding many others. Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to persecute the entire Left and labor movement. Suspected "radicals" were arrested without charge and suffered at the hands of police who ransacked their homes and offices. Anarchists were particulary targeted, and eight of Chicago's most active were framed for the bombing. Only one of the eight men was even present at the meeting, and he was on stage at the time of the incident. The other seven were not even in the area at the time. Nevertheless, despite a gaping lack of evidence to connect them to the crime, all eight were found guilty. George Engel, Augustus Fischer, Albert Parsons, and August Spies were hanged on November 11, 1887. Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison. The othere three were finally pardoned by the governor in 1893. Like Joe Hill, Frank Little, and Sacco and Vanzetti, these men were murdered for their political views and for daring to take a stand against injustice. While the rest of the world celebrates May Day, we in the United States are expected to remember our accomplishments in September, on Labor Day. The Bosses would have us forget the Haymarket martyrs. They would have us forget the victory of the eight-hour day movement, and the power we workers have to change things when we stand together. This helps to divide us. When we celebrate the accomplishments of Labor separately from the rest of the world, we quickly lose sight of the fact that our struggles are the same as those of workers in Guatemala, Thailand, South Africa, and Italy. We must remember this fact and work together with our sisters and brothers throughout the world to put an end to exploitation, environmental destruction, and poverty. There are those of us who remember May Day, and join with the rest of the world in commemoration. The Utah Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) will be hosting a community celebration on Sunday, May 1, 1994, beginning at noon. It will take place at the Liberty Park Bowery, 900 South 700 East, in Salt Lake City. There will be live music by Mark Ross and Faith Petric, discussion by local activists, and free, hot vegetarian meals served by Food Not Bombs of Salt Lake. This event is free and open to the public. Anyone with questions can call 627-3790 in Ogden or 485-1969 in Salt Lake. Set aside May 1st and join us at Liberty Park to celebrate May Day with our brothers and sisters around the world! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ * CopyLeft 1994 by Wasatch Area Voices Express (W.A.V.E.) Please distribute this article freely. W.A.V.E. is produced by a collective of students, staff, and faculty from Weber State University; members of the surrounding Ogden community; and some columnists from other parts of the world. To receive more information about W.A.V.E. (subscriptions, submissions, etc.), send a message to <WAVE-AT-cc.weber.edu> We welcome all input. Thank you! --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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