Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group: May Day

The only way to end the crises of capitalism is to abolish capitalism itself. And the only way to abolish capitalism is for the working class to seize the means of production which are the foundation of the power of capital. In the immortal words of Lucy Parsons, widow of one of the Haymarket Martrys and a labour activist in her own right, "Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth". In short, we must make a revolution. We will abolish the capitalist State and replace it with the free federation of workplaces and communities worldwide. We will establish libertarian communism, a classless society where the freedom and equality of each is the condition of the freedom and equality of all.

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MAY DAY

May Day 1886 In the United States in 1886, Anarchist union organisers in Chicago called a general strike on 1 May to win the 8 hour day. At a protest a few days later, a bomb killed 7 police and 4 others. Eight Anarchist union organisers were arrested and convicted in a farcical trial. Four were executed. The protests for the exoneration of the Haymarket Martyrs spread around the world, establishing May Day as International Workers' Day. May Day is when we celebrate the existence and strength of the labour movement and we link the burning needs of the daily struggle with the ultimate goal of abolishing capitalism.

GFC Round II

Round II of the Global Financial Crisis has begun. Financial markets decree imperiously that governments in Europe owe too much money, demand unprecedented austerity measures and impose usurious interest rates on new loans. But the austerity measures are self-defeating, because they drag each country's national economy into recession and cause debt ratios, the centre of financial concern, to deteriorate further. The alternative capitalist policy, of abandoning the Euro and seeking salvation in devaluation, would establish a repeat of the "beggar thy neighbour" policies of the 1930s that put Europe on the road to World War II. The only hope is in the workers' protests which have been growing in Greece and now Spain and threaten to spread much further.

Australia - What Boom?

Here in Australia, the mining boom is supposed to be sheltering us from the troubles of Europe and the still-unresolved problems of the US. The benefits of this boom, however, resolutely refuse to trickle down to the rest of us. Unemployment has begun increasing agan, while both manufacturing and retailing are in dire straits. Government tax revenue refuses to recover from the effects of GFC Round I and most of the capitalist media are baying for massive spending cuts. As an unpopular Labor Government flounders, having cut itself adrift from the working class, the conservative parties ready themselves for power and promise to undo everything Labor has done. Meanwhile, business lobbies for even more draconian anti-union laws and for attacks on the so-called "entitlement mentality" that workers are entitled to a decent standard of living.

Only One Way Out

The only way to end the crises of capitalism is to abolish capitalism itself. And the only way to abolish capitalism is for the working class to seize the means of production which are the foundation of the power of capital. In the immortal words of Lucy Parsons, widow of one of the Haymarket Martrys and a labour activist in her own right, "Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth". In short, we must make a revolution. We will abolish the capitalist State and replace it with the free federation of workplaces and communities worldwide. We will establish libertarian communism, a classless society where the freedom and equality of each is the condition of the freedom and equality of all.

WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group

1 May 2012