May Day

indonesia / philippines / australia | workplace struggles | press release Thursday May 01, 2008 21:06 by MACG macg1984 at yahoo dot com dot au

Something to celebrate

Leaflet on May Day from Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group (MACG)

* 122 Years of Struggle

On 1 May 1886 in the US city of Chicago, workers struck for an 8 hour day. A bomb went off at a protest meeting afterwards. Seven Anarchist labour organisers were framed for the deaths of several police. Four of them were hung. From this event and the protests over its injustice, May Day has been commemorated around the world as International Workers Day. Whatever the burning issue of the day, May Day has been an occasion for working class mobilisation around it.

* Here and Now

In Australia, we have just seen off the hated Liberal government of John Howard. His legacy of Work Choices remains, however, and the Labor Party is planning to remove only a handful of its provisions. The new government is enjoying strong support, but it has to manage the capitalist economy, which means protecting profits. When the hard choices cannot be evaded, it will choose to side with the capitalists against the workers. This is not news. Labor governments always do this.

* No Country is an Island

Around the world, as workers we find ourselves in conflict with capital and the State. In the United States, we face a gang of warmongers whose economic incompetence beggars belief. In China, we are up against a fraudulent “Communist” government which represses independent trade union and preaches the “glory of getting rich”. In Zimbabwe, we are under the iron heel of a demagogue who sends the economy to wrack and ruin while enriching his cronies and pretending to right historical wrongs. And so on. These capitalists and all the rest are protected by the world economy, which undermines the position of workers who struggle purely on a national basis.

" Workers of the world, unite!

Our only defence is collective action - action that must not stop at any national border. Neo-liberal capitalism has greatly weakened the labour movement because union officials and Labor Party leaders have limited our horizon to a single country. Against a global enemy, we must unite globally. We must put aside national prejudice and defend other workers, wherever they are, for without global solidarity we will be used against each other. If we do not, we will continue to go backwards, to see the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. If we build our solidarity worldwide, however, we will do much more than simply hold back the tide of neo-liberalism. We will also build a movement which can make a revolution. We will end capitalism forever. We will make a society of liberty, equality and solidarity for all. And that's something to celebrate.

Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group

1 May 2008