May Day

All over the world workers and oppressed peoples will scan the horizon of the United States for signs of struggle on May Day.

The revolutionary tradition of May Day—international workers’ day—was established through struggle here, in the citadel of imperialism. The battles by workers in Chicago in 1886 against the bosses and police for the right to receive a full day’s wages for eight hours of labor led to the proclamation of May Day.

The significance of this militant working-class milestone, won in the streets, is recognized more widely outside the U.S. than inside. The unrelenting ideological offensive by the capitalist class here—particularly the steady torrent of anti-communist red-baiting—has tried to replace May Day with a toned-down alternative: Labor Day.

What led to the worker upsurge of 1886? An anti-labor offensive by the capitalist class after the 1873 economic crisis. The bosses tried to make workers bear the burden of that capitalist economic crash. However, this gave rise to a tide of labor resistance and also led to the organization of Black workers. Laboring and oppressed peoples around the world were inspired by the struggle of workers in this country.

Today, the Million Worker Movement—led by militant Black union leaders—has called for a May Day 2005 rally in New York’s Union Square, the place where militant workers in solidarity with their sisters and brothers around the world gathered on this day for so many years. They are joined in this call by the Troops Out Now Coalition, which just organized the successful anti-war march through Harlem and on to Central Park on March 19.

The cost of war for imperial empire is staggering. The cities here are being starved to pay the high cost of attempts to recolonize Iraq. The surplus wealth created by labor is being funneled into the military-industrial complex. And it is workers, disproportionately from oppressed nationalities, who are being ordered to go kill Iraqi workers in a war that benefits only the military contractors and oil companies.

The clarion call to instead “Starve the Pentagon, feed the cities!” coming from Black leadership in the union movement must be heard and heeded.

On Sunday, May 1, be in Union Square, N.Y., at 1 p.m. Help make it a day in which the multinational U.S. working class takes its place alongside the workers of the world.