OMNI NEWSLETTER #1 FOR MAY DAY/ /INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY 2011, Compiled by Dick Bennett, April 29, 2011 for a CULTURE OF PEACE, WE, THE PEOPLE
This DAY deserves attention in this Blog on militarism, empire, and wars because May Day appeals to global human solidarity in contrast to nationalistic wars that pit worker against worker. D
Contents
May 1
Bragg’s “The Internationale”
Eco-socialism
May 1, 2011 Events
MAY 1
And now, our annual history lesson for Americans who got the white-washed history lessons in school.
On May 1st, 1886, labor parties went on strike in Chicago for an eight-hour workday (down from the standard 10 to 16). Chicago companies (especially the Chicago Tribune) and the local government found the eight-hour workday idea to be ridiculous, and dangerous for the economy. They conspired to break the strike.
On May 3rd, during a union rally outside the McCormick Harvester plant, the police fired into the protesters to disperse them. With two dirty, little agitators killed, and the rest dispersed, the police called the day a success. The protesters saw it differently.
The labor leaders organized another meeting on the 4th to protest the severe actions of the police at
Randolph Streetand
DesPlaines Avenue . The police moved in again against the 80,000 workers, but then from the sidelines, a bomb was thrown. The blast killed one cop instantly and seven others died later.
Randolph Streetand
DesPlaines Avenue
The eight speakers and union leaders who organized the meetings were rounded up and put on trial for inspiring violence. Seven were sentenced to death and the eighth (because he wasn't present) was given fifteen years. On November 11, 1887, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, and George Engel were hanged. Louis Lingg killed himself in his cell earlier in the morning by biting down on a dynamite blasting cap. Saumel Fielden and Michael Schwab had been commuted to life in prison the previous day.
The five dead were buried together, and a monument was erected at the German Waldheim Cemetery (now Forest Home Cemetery ) to them on June 25, 1893, in a ceremony attended by most of the visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition. The next day, facing great international criticism, Governor Altgeld commuted the sentences of the two lifers and the remaining years of Oscar Neebe's fifteen.
Many (in death) have joined them under the monument, including anarchist Emma Goldman, and singer/unionist Joe Hill.
The eight-hour workday was finally enacted in 1935.
Around the world, except here in America , this incident is taught as one of the watershed events in modern history. Nearly all countries has official observances of this incident on May 1st, the day the struggle began. They call it Labor Day.
Here in America , especially Chicago , we officially observe nothing the first week of May except getting plastered on Cinco de Mayo (this year on a Saturday!). Later, we celebrate the Labor movement in September by sitting on our butts.
Travis J. Cartwright, Rev.
Email: traviscartwright@bigfoot.com
BRAGG’S “THE INTERNATIONALE”
. This is the updated version of the classic workers' anthem "The Internationale", rewritten in 1990 by Billy Bragg.
Stand up, all victims of oppression
For the tyrants fear your might
Don't cling so hard to your possessions
For you have nothing, if you have no rights
Let racist ignorance be ended
For respect makes the empires fall
Freedom is merely privilege extended
Unless enjoyed by one and all.
CHORUS: So come brothers and sisters
For the struggle carries on
The Internationale
Unites the world in song
So comrades come rally
For this is the time and place
The international ideal
Unites the human race
Let no one build walls to divide us
Walls of hatred nor walls of stone
Come greet the dawn and stand beside us
We'll live together or we'll die alone
In our world poisoned by exploitation
Those who have taken, now they must give
And end the vanity of nations
We've but one Earth on which to live
And so begins the final drama
In the streets and in the fields
We stand unbowed before their armor
We defy their guns and shields
When we fight, provoked by their aggression
Let us be inspired by life and love
For though they offer us concessions
Change will not come from above.
__._,_.___
.ANALYSIS OF CAPITALISM: ECOSOCIALISM
Every day, FSTV provides its cutting edge challenges, pushing us to think. For example, reaching back in time a lttle, 6-25-2007, "Ecosocialism or Barbarism" by Joel Kovel, a Marxist analysis of capitalism: Accumulation, competition, creation of surplus value, increasing worker productivity, commodifying everything, overproduction, perpetual expansion of consumption by advertising = inherently unsustainable system. OMNI: for a Culture of Peace through critical thinking. http://www.areallyinconvenienttruth.com/
SOME MAY DAY 2011 EVENTS
May Day 2011
Public Event
Time | Today at 8:00pm - Sunday at 10:00pm |
Location | 1310 Mission Street |
More Info | May Day Festival CounterPULSE's 6th Anniversary Fri.-Sun., April 29 - May 1, 8pm |
Stacy Poulos
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