Harry Targ
This year May Day will
continue the historic mass mobilizations for social and economic justice of
recent historic No Kings rallies. The original May Day was designed to remember
the May 1, 1886 rally in Chicago for the 8-hour day. At that rally more than
300,000 workers from 13,000 businesses walked off their jobs to demand justice
for workers.
At a subsequent rally two days later at another rally an unknown person threw a bomb, violence broke out, police and others were killed. Anarchist leaders of the rallies, the Haymarket Martyrs, were charged with the violence, which they had nothing to do with. Subsequently eight martyrs were convicted, four of whom were executed for crimes they did not commit. Three years later, a federation of socialists workers, the Second International, declared May 1 an International Workers Day to remember the Haymarket Martyrs and at the same time to continue to rally for worker rights, from social and economic justice to ending war. Almost 70 countries around the world honor May Day as an official holiday today, and workers in many more countries celebrate the day and workers’ rights even though it is not an “official” holiday.
Today working people,
most of the population of the United States, still need social and economic
rights, labor rights, and would benefit from dramatic cuts in military spending
and increases in social spending. As a result, millions of people in
the United States have marched and rallied for social and economic justice,
defending democratic institutions, and against wars in recent No Kings rallies,
the most recent being March 28. Given the threats of fascism at home and world
war overseas, activists are asking “What do we do now?’ One answer
is to step up the militancy while honoring May Day, the International Workers
Day.
“Coming off the heels
of the massive energy from the No Kings mobilizations, people are ready to take
action and keep fighting for a democracy of, by, and for the people,” says
Indivisible Co-Founder Leah Greenberg, whose organization started the No Kings
protest.
On May 1, Indivisibles
will be joining people across the country with a clear message: we demand a
government that invests in our communities, not one that enriches billionaires,
fuels endless war, or deploys masked agents to intimidate our neighbors.”
https://paydayreport.com/no-kings-organizers-pivot-to-may-day-general-strike/
As Ralph Chapin. the lyricist of the industrial Workers of
the World wrote in 1915 in the workers' anthem, “Solidarity Forever”:
“In our hands is placed a power greater
than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a
thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes
of the old.
For the union makes us strong”
