(en) Mayday. Remembering the past, fighting for tomorrow - Joint statement

The following is a joint statement regarding Mayday achieved through a North American 
collaboration of the following class struggle anarchist groups and organizations: Prairie 
Struggle Organization; Wild Rose Collective; Four Star Anarchist Organization; Common 
Struggle/Lucha Com?n; Workers Solidarity Alliance; Free Association of Anarchists; Miami 
Autonomy & Solidarity. ---- Others Anarkismo's organizations May Day statements --- Latin 
America: ---- ?1? de Mayo: trabajadores a organizarse y vencer! 
http://anarkismo.net/article/25441 ---- Uni?n Socialista Libertaria ---- (Per?) ?Por un 1? 
de mayo de unidad de los que luchan! http://anarkismo.net/article/25440 ---- Uni?n 
Socialista Libertaria --- Europe --- Il Primo Maggio Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici 
http://anarkismo.net/article/25433 ---- Othres May Day statements ---- 1? de mayo de 2013 
Confederaci?n General del Trabajo http://anarkismo.net/article/25424

Primero de Mayo: El movimiento sindical ante sus desaf?os La Batalla de los Trabajadores
http://anarkismo.net/article/25436

Santiago de Chile: Convocatoria a Primero de Mayo clasista y de lucha La Batalla de los 
Trabajadores http://anarkismo.net/article/25412


Mayday. Remembering the past, fighting for tomorrow

A short history of May Day

The first of May is a moment for us to remember the Chicago Haymarket Martyrs of 127 years 
ago. These Chicago anarchists helped to lead the major battle of the day, not only for the 
8 Hour Day, but also for social liberation.

The origins of May Day go back to May 4, 1886, marking the Haymarket Massacre. This 
memorable day began as a rally of striking workers who were demanding an eight-hour work 
day, climaxing with a bomb produced by an unknown individual while the police dispersed 
the peaceful rally. The blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police 
officers and at least four civilians; scores of others were wounded.

Eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy during the legal proceedings that followed. 
Although the evidence was scarce, and it could not be proven that any of the eight 
defendants had thrown the explosive projectile, seven were sentenced to death and one to 
15 years in prison. The death sentences of two of the defendants were commuted to life in 
prison, and another committed suicide before his hanging. The other four were hanged on 
November 11, 1887. In 1893, Illinois' new governor pardoned the remaining defendants and 
criticized the evidence that was used during trial.

Since this day, we honor those who have fought, sacrificed and died for the defense and 
advancement of the working class.
Present conditions

Since the events of Haymarket, we have wrestled much from the capitalist class and the 
state through struggle. During the past 30 years, these forces have attacked our small, 
yet hard-fought-for gains. Continued attacks on working conditions, increasingly 
precarious and low wage work, deindustrialization, and marginalization have become the new 
normal. Governments have imposed round after round of social austerity measures, where 
workers and families have been expected to swallow cuts to public funding of services so 
that the richest can continue to profit from the fruits of our labor.
Today's struggles/Tomorrow's struggles

Despite this grim situation, today we have much to celebrate and look forward to. Over the 
last year, we have seen in Qu?bec the biggest social movements in Canadian history 
spearheaded by combative unions to fight against neoliberal cuts to education and for 
quality free education. The Chicago Teachers Union went on strike and joined with parents 
and community members to protect their bargaining rights and working conditions and fight 
school closures. Workers from various fast food chains, warehouses, car washes and 
superstores, which have historically been near impossible to organize into business 
unions, have been participating in strike actions and various direct action in the demand 
for better working conditions. Unionized longshore workers have been fighting to hold the 
line on additional concessions to the bosses in one of the last bastions of union density 
and shopfloor power. While we celebrate these efforts and whatever small victories gained 
thus far, working class victory can only come from struggles owned and controlled by the 
workers themselves, not from above but from below and built with their own self-activities.

These developments within the broader labor movement are a welcome sight in comparison to 
what is seen by some as a decade of relative inactivity. We see it as important that the 
workers and community partners involved in these campaigns recognize that they are 
confronting head-on the relationship between the ruling and working classes, and that 
successfully challenging this relationship will require more than one-day strikes and 
solidarity rallies. It will require nothing less than workers forcefully overcoming 
barriers of race, migration status, gender, sexuality, and gender identity to unite as one 
class, bound by continuous solidarity, and always pushing forward through escalations of 
action.
The need for a new workers' movement

We hope this new, combative spirit by some workers invigorates a new and militant workers? 
movement in North America?a workers? movement that will no longer wait for politicians and 
bureaucrats to resolve the growing inequalities and oppressions. This spirit might bring a 
new wave of workers to replace the stale unionism with more democratic, combative and 
autonomous labor organizations which realize that laws and political institutions are put 
in place for the defense of the ruling class, and that only our own labor organizations, 
autonomous from the political institutions, can bring about the effective fighting force 
needed to replace the current, and build a new world.

This new workers? movement should be allied with supportive movements, such as those 
against cuts to social services and education, and those movements against all forms of 
oppression and inequality. We see the interconnectedness of various forms of oppression as 
we wage these struggles, along with the fights against the expansion of and brutality of 
police forces and prisons, the criminalization of the poor and undocumented, and the 
continued attacks on reproductive freedoms. As these and many other forms of oppression 
work in conjunction with class exploitation, we must build movements which see common 
interest in these struggles and which actively and mutually oppose the assaults on one 
another.
A new world to build

By engaging in these struggles, we gain necessary experience, initiate needed debates, and 
confront the current austerity agenda of the elite outside of current labor laws. Through 
struggle, we lay the possible foundations of a future world. Through struggle, we can as a 
class start to imagine and organize for a classless society and one completely emancipated 
from all forms of oppression. This May Day, just like every other, is a call for workers 
to organize against the everyday exploitation of capitalism. In the spirit of those who 
fought for the eight hour day, let us continue the fight for the advancement of our class.

We need to look toward building a society without power, profit, and privilege, in which 
working people in workplaces and communities make the decisions about how our work is done 
and what we want from it. We need a movement that fights for real gains within the context 
of this society while using its own organizations as the basis for a new one.

In Struggle & Solidarity,

Prairie Struggle Organization http://www.prairiestruggle.org/
Wild Rose Collective http://wildrosecollective.org/
Four Star Anarchist Organization http://4sao.wordpress.com/
Common Struggle/Lucha Com?n http://commonstruggle.org/
Workers Solidarity Alliance http://workersolidarity.org/
Free Association of Anarchistshttp://theanarchistassociation.wordpress.com/
Miami Autonomy & Solidarityhttp://miamiautonomyandsolidarity.wordpress.com/


Printable version for distribution:
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Mayday Joint Statement (side-2).jpg 
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Other Anarkismo's organizations May Day statements

Latin America:

?1? de Mayo: trabajadores a organizarse y vencer! Uni?n Socialista Libertaria
http://anarkismo.net/article/25433
(Per?) ?Por un 1? de mayo de unidad de los que luchan! Uni?n Socialista Libertaria
http://anarkismo.net/article/25440

Europe

Il Primo Maggio Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchicihttp://anarkismo.net/article/25424

Othres May Day statements

1? de mayo de 2013 Confederaci?n General del Trabajohttp://anarkismo.net/article/25424

Primero de Mayo: El movimiento sindical ante sus desaf?os La Batalla de los Trabajadores
http://anarkismo.net/article/25436

Santiago de Chile: Convocatoria a Primero de Mayo clasista y de lucha La Batalla de los
Trabajadores
http://anarkismo.net/article/25412