A Close look

May Day
MSPVT

In the 19th century working conditions in European and Ameri-can factories were worse than in conditions of slavery and serfdom. The workers had to toil in factories for at least 14 hours and at worst for 20 hours a day. Their wages were too meagre to carry on physical existence at even below the subsistence level. Their living conditions in slums were overcrowded, unhygienic and subhuman. There was hardly direct employment, hiring of working men and women through contractors was common in America. Even bringing workers for factories at cheaper rates through contractors was common. Those contractors used to lure half-starved people from the most wretched districts of Hungary, Italy, Denmark etc. telling them stories of fabulous wages in America and upon agreeing them to terms that few could understand, bamboozled them into forced inhuman working conditions at lower wages in mines, factories and on railroads in America turning their dreams into nightmares. The workers were too tired, exhausted, physically ill and mentally fatigued to protest and strike back. When, out of frustration and inability to bear the conditions of human chattel, someone revolted sporadically, he was instantly done to death by specialized companies such as Pinkerton Agency which organized private armies to intimidate and kill protesting workers. Under these circumstances the news of formation of International Working Men's Association in Europe, popularly known as the First International on September 28, 1864, gave solace and succour and hope to the working class in America. Throughout the 19th century Workers' Unions, popularly known as Trade Unions, were secret societies because they were treated as illegal organizations. The Geneva Congress of the First International in 1866 called for unity and solidarity of the working class as one army, under one flag and for one immediate arm. At that time the immediate aim was 8-hour working day. In his speech in the Geneva Congress, Karl Marx called for transforming the 8-hour working day demand into the general platform of the workers of the whole world.

The Paris Commune in 1871 proved for the first time that it is possible for the working class, united as one army under one flag, to dispossess the owning class of capital and money and seize political power! Its failure to keep political power under working class's control proved that the power of organization of the owning class of capital and money was and still is better than that of the working class. The felt need in short was unity and organization of the part of the whole working class as one army. In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada felt the need of reorganization of the working class of the two countries as a single entity and resolved to agitate and hold rallies for the demand "that eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from May First, 1886". More than 500000 workers directly took part in the strikes for the 8-hour day. Strike continued in New York, Baltimore, Washington, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, St Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit and many other cities. But Chicago turned out to be the storm centre. The strike continued. On 3rd May the police fired upon the striking workers at the McCormick Harvester Works killing 6 and wounding many others. On the following day a protest demonstration was organized at the Hay Market Square. The arrogant employers took up the challenge and turned the peaceful demonstration into a battle that killed 7 policemen and 4 workers. Prominent leaders were arrested and put to trial. The workers, not only of the United States and Canada but also of Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Russia and England raised funds for conducting court cases in the US and sending innumerable telegrams for clemency when they heard the news that 7 of the leaders were sentenced to death. Due to the uproar and anguish that was created among workers in England and Europe, the Chamber of Deputies in France as well as men of letters such as George Bernard Shaw appealed for clemency. Ultimately, 4 leaders, Parsons, Spies, Fischer and Engel were executed on November 11, 1887.

"There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today", August Spies cried out loud from the gallows. "This is the happiest moment of my life", announced Adolph Fischer immediately before death in the gallows. "Hurrah for Anarchy", thundered George Engel at the gallows. "Will I be allowed to speak, Oh, men of America! Let me speak...Let the voice of the people be heard!", was the last appeal of Albert Parsons. These are the martyrs of what people around the world now call the May Day Movement. At that time the First International of Working Men's Association did not reach the American continents, but the Anarchists were active in America. Engel's thunder at the gallows proves this phenomenon. Yet the Marxists and Communists, who took control of the International, treated the Anarchists as enemies and thus created the first fissure within the working class movement. The Anarchists have presence in Spain, Italy and America. The workers who recently fought the WTO battle in Seattle against liberalization, privatization and globalization were all Anarchists whereas the Marxists and Communists holding the reigns of political power, wholly or partially, whether in China or in West Bengal, are now found to be in the state of genuflexion before the high and mighty Imperial Finance Capital cooperating with the ruthless exploiters in all possible ways to decimate the revolutionaries, armed or otherwise, fighting expropriation of wealth from everywhere around the world. In 2000, the joint meeting of G-7, IMF and World Economic Forum (WEF) in Melbourne, Australia was disrupted by tens of thousands of Anarchist demonstrators crying that globalization and capitalism has brought more misery and destitution in the world when representatives of the People’s Republic of China, looked upon as a communist government, was and still is forming the highest echelons of these imperialistic capitalist incarnations.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 41, Apr 21- -27, 2013

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