Anti-war coalition looks to March 19 and May Day

Hundreds of thousands of protesters will hit the streets the weekend of March 19-20 to mark the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The March 19 “Troops Out Now” demonstration in New York City will be at the center of these protests.

Protesters will gather in Central Park at noon for a rally. They will march along Fifth Avenue to billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s house to demand money to rebuild cities instead of for imperialist occupation. They will be joined by demonstrators marching from the 10 a.m. rally at Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park.

The Troops Out Now Coalition, meeting every Wednesday night in Manhattan, has worked hard to involve in the war resistance effort those in this country most affected by the occupation of Iraq: the working class and the oppressed communities of color. Linking the war against Iraq to the struggle for jobs, health care and education inside the United States has been a large part of this effort.

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The combined cost of the Iraqi and Afghani occupations is almost $6 billion a month. Meanwhile, poverty and homelessness skyrocket inside the United States. Most of the 40 million impoverished people living in the United States are women and their children. (CBS News, “Victims of Minimum Wage”, March 13)

The Bush administration’s agenda has intensified the conflict between the working class and the ruling class, whose interests are represented by the government. This heightened conflict shows in the growing number of desertions from the military by working class-soldiers, and in the increasing number of daylight protests at and even nocturnal attacks on military recruiting centers around the country.

As the Troops Out Now Coalition looks beyond the weekend’s demonstrations it will continue the struggle to integrate the class war at home within the context of the war abroad. Black, Latin@, Asian, Arab, Native and white people—members of the multinational working class—make up the leadership of this anti-war coalition and contribute to its progressive character.

The Million Worker March has made reviving May Day one of its principal aims. The MWM-NYC, a key member of the anti-war coalition, is already working on May Day here. There is much discussion about how to revive May Day as a revolutionary day of resistance for workers. During its March 9 coalition meeting, the Troops Out Now Coalition decided to join this effort to revive May Day.

Origins of May Day

Many workers in this country do not know about the origins of May Day. This is because of the capitalists’ largely successful effort to erase working-class history and disassociate today’s workers from their legacy of militant struggle inside this country.

May Day has its origins in the struggle for better working conditions in the United States. The first May Day protests took place in 1886 when the American Federation of Labor called for a national strike to demand an eight-hour workday. Over 350,000 workers answered the call and participated in the strike.

Cities around the country were paralyzed as railroads and manufacturing plants were forced to close. Chicago was particularly affected by the strike. After two days of protest, police attacked striking workers, killing six. When workers protested in Chicago’s Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886, and 180 cops attacked, a bomb was thrown. One cop was killed. Police then fired on the crowd. Two hundred people were wounded and seven cops later died, probably from friendly fire.

Eight radical labor leaders were rounded up and framed on charges of conspiracy. All were found guilty. Seven were sentenced to death.

Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engle and Adolph Fischer were executed. One defendant committed suicide and three others were eventually pardoned.

In 1889, the communist Second International declared May 1 an international working-class holiday in commemoration of the Haymarket martyrs. May Day has lived on for more than a century as an international day of protest for the most class-conscious workers around the world.

What better way to call attention to the international class struggle and demand that U.S. imperialism stop its assault on workers at home and abroad than to use this year’s May Day to highlight the connection between domestic class struggle and foreign occupation?

As protesters around the country gear up for the March 19 actions, anti-war organizers are saying it is important to look ahead. They say the struggle to reinvigorate May Day will help the working class get back in touch with its militant history, and strengthen it for the struggles to come.