By JOHN WEIR

May Day is rooted deep in the his-
hi, of the international working
Bile born immediately out of the
Bice’ of the workers of the United
* the fae Canada for the 8-hour day
ton as and adopted as the inter-
. al workers’ day by the founding
nation of the Second (Socialist
fsins g0 back to the early period of
© Workers’ movement. ae
fers vet and a half ago the work-
is ‘ e first capitalist country, Eng-
actin Ose in their majesty and power,
frst i Independently asa class for the
mime in history.
none. 72S the great Chartist Move-
F aat held the centre of the stage
zing ee decade (1838-48), organ-
hindustri ne of as many as 200,000 in
ion (The wo and presenting a pe-
ament Re People’s Charter), to Par-
aNd far. €manding universal suffrage
Signed weerhing reforms, which was
Men 42> 1»280,000 British working
and women,

S Sy ;
tang, 2S the giant first step of the

the eee class. It was met by
~ peace and violence of the state
but eects’ blood was shed again
fight for for the first time in the
‘ic Was pesown cause. Their sacri-
0 cn Shrined in th irri i
the Red Flap in the stirring lines
| She wi ’ 5
It Workers’ flag is deepest red,
} Ang pided oft our martyred dead,
Sas: their limbs grew stiff and

Their he
fol eart's blood dyed its every

But
ag #s the working class of England

t .
‘tant aoe the first groping but mili-
or ¢ we the conquest of democracy
Chins . €n and women who toil, the
Bels ga Karl Marx and Frederick
Vitably .” the road which would. in-
Worker, Ve to be traversed by the
(Classic ee in 1848 their deathless
Par, Manifesto of the Commu-
ae published, closing with
Words that have rung ever
ge Y with each ensuing decade
‘ € and fulfilment:

* their chains, They have a
L coywvit: WORKING MEN OF
NTRIES UNITE!”

The
Tandgyy OD MUnIst League had just a
we lines yt’™bers when those flam-
here ere Written, but soon after
MEN'S Aseo tn, International - Working-
Umbe elation with branches in a
teOYRh sh Countries, and Marxism—
wt kno amp discussion — became
Anceg «edged ideology of the ad-
And ae of the workers.
Pose againe the workers of Paris
0 the besieging Prussian
the ‘Aitors - French reactionaries—
th eavens Versailles. “Storming
oO Se, they .(" Marx’s winged
hig Une iy established the Paris
ae ee first workers’ power in
Thaq ed ie Paris Commune was
W US
Woreye ered an new stage, when the
| scr, Class: uy acted independentl
‘in’ oar Immediate reforms, but
8 Class ; pithest class aim: work-
wer.

Comm
ant 5; unard that wrote
mt 1 w ich tionale,” the workers’
S of t resounds in all the cor-
; Planet today:
tise, ue Prisoners of starvation,
°F fustiog etched of the Earth,

A under: :
bet S:c i
: ‘er world’s in See eeeation

Wo t © de
ie “Shei that followed, the

-MOvement spread _ its

a Ee p25 ON

e pj :
but vletarians have nothing to

& deluge of blood, but it.

a ae 8athered strength, con-
on eslning Badibpebary |

Day of Struggle, Day of Victory

and trade union victories, accumulat-
ing experience and building organiza-
tion.

At this time sharp class battles were
maturing in North America, where the
young American industrial capitalist
class was firmly launched on its ruth-
less road that in ensuing decades was
to transform the United States into
the imperialist bastion of world reac-
tion. The founding convention of the
National Labor Union in 1866 adopted
the following resolution:

“The first and great necessity of the
present, to free labor of this country
from capitalist slavery, is the passing
of a law by which eight hours shall
be the normal working day in all states

in the American union. We are re-.

solved to put forth all our strength un-
til this glorious result is attained.”

The First International went on re-
cord for a worldwide campaign for the
same demand.

The agitation in North America kept
mounting. The National Labor Union
was supplanted by a new and larger
organization, the forerunner of the
AFL, which at its convention in 1884
adopted the following resolution:

“Resolved by the Federation of Or-
ganized Trades and Labor Unions of
the United States and Canada, that
eight hours shall constitute a legal
day’s labor from May First, 1886, and
that we recommend labor organiza-
tions throughout their jurisdiction that
they so direct their laws as to con-
form to this resolution by the time
named.”

Preparations went forward for a
general strike to enforce the eight-
hour workday. More than half a mil-
lion workers did go out on strike, and
industrial Chicago, then a centre of
militant leadership, was the scene of
the strongest effort. The powers that
be decided to “nip revolution in the
bud.”

On May 3 police attacked a meet-
ing of striking workers at the Mc-

Cormick Reaper Works, killing six and .

wounding many more. Next day a de-
monstration was held at Haymarket
Square to protest the police brutality.
The police attacked the peaceful ga-
thering—and at that moment someone
(police agent? terrorist provocateur?)
threw a bomb into the crowd. A bat-
tle ensued in which four workers and
seven policemen were killed. A num-
ber of workers’ leaders were arrested
and hanged (shades of Chicago in our
own day!).

American workers withstood the
frenzy of concentrated terrorism and
doggedly continued the battle, . with
May Day each year being their big day
of mabilization. The American Fede-
ration named May 1, 1890 as the day
for a nation-wide strike and asked for
international labor solidarity to back
the struggle in the U.S.A. and Canada.

The First International had ceased
to exist in 1872; leaders of revolution-
ary workers’ organizations of many
countries gathered at Paris on July 14,
1889—the centenary of-the fall of the
Bastille—to found the Second Interna-
tional. They adopted the following re-
solution:

“The Congress decides to organize
a great international demonstration, so
that in all countries and in all cities
on one appointed day the toiling mas-
ses shall demand of the state autho-
rities the legal reduction of the work-
ing day to eight hours, as well as the
carrying out of other decisions of the
Paris Congress. Since a similar demon-
stration has already been decided upon
for May 1, 1890 by the American Fede-
ration of Labor at its Convention in St.

Louis, december 1888, this day, is ace,

‘ hu,
ad f x ,

cepted for the international demon-
stration. The workers of the various
countries must organize this demon-
stration according to conditions pre-
vailing in each country.”

Thus May Day was born as the day
of worldwide solidarity of the work-
ing class. Workers in many countries
laid down their tools on that day
(some trade unions in Canada still
have May 1 designated as a holiday in
their contracts with employers). They
held parades and meetings, calling not
only for a shorter workday but for

universal suffrage, war against war, —

workers’ rights and other political de-
mands, ‘

In 1896 V. I. Lenin wrote and smug-

gled out of prison a May Day leaflet

in the name of the League of Strug-
gle for the Liberation of the Working
Class, which was mimeographed and

‘distributed at 40 factories in St.

Petersburg.

The Second International in 1904
adopted the following resolution:

“The International Socialist Con-
gress in Amsterdam calls upon all
Social-Democratic Party organizations
and trade unions of all countries to
demonstrate energetically on May
First for the legal establishment of the
8-hour day, for the class demands of
the proletariat, and for universal peace.
The most effective way of demonstrat-
ing on May First is by stoppage of
work. The Congress therefore makes
it mandatory upon the proletarian or-
ganizations of all countries to stop
work on May First, wherever it is pos-
sible without injury to the workers.”

In 1905 the workers of Russia rose
in revolution to overthrow the tsarist
regime, but they were defeated. The

‘centre of the world revolutionary

movement moved to Russia where the
conditions were rotten ripe for change,
and where the working class was led
by Lenin and the Bolshevik Party
which creatively applied the Marxist

_ teaching to the new world situation,

when _ industrial-financial monopoly
had replaced “free competition” capi-
talism, and to the situation that exist-
ed in their own country.

When World War came in 1914, the.
majority of the leaders of the Social-
Democratic Parties betrayed their trust
and jumped on the bandwagon each of
“his own” warmaking imperialists.
Only the Bolsheviks in Russia and the
Left in other countries remained true
to their internationalist anti-war

pledge, events in those years were ac- ~

tions against the war, such as the huge
demonstration organized by Karl Lieb-
knecht in Berlin in 1916, and the great
rallies in St. Petersburg and other Rus-
sian cities in 1917, when the workers,
having overthrown the tsar, were pre-
paring to take power into their own
hands through the Soviets (Councils of
Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ De-
puties). ;

With the victory of the socialist re-
volution in Russia on Nov. 7, 1917,
May Day became a state holiday of

' the first successful workers’ republic

®

in the world, the day when the work-
ing people of the Soviet land demon-
strated in great parades and meetings
their solidarity with the workers and
all who fight for freedom, peace and
friendship among nations throughout
the world, and displayed their achieve-
ments in building the new socialist
order of society, and manifested their
readiness to defend their gains. ©

In place of the Second International,
which betrayed and collapsed during
World War One, the Third. (Commu-
nist) International came into being,

.and May Day became the day of world-.
wide demonstration of the solidarity ”

history of May Day |

of the working class in the fight for
its political rights and economic in-
terests, for peace and democracy, for
socialism.

It was touch-and-go during the
1930’s—the forces of war and fascism
could have been checked—but the
working class proved insufficiently
united, the influence of reformism was
still able to do its fatal work, and
World“War Two broke out. Out of the
blood and ashes of the war, as the re-
sult of the victory over fascist Ger-
many and its allies, to which the peo-
ple of the socialist Soviet Union made
the greatest contribution and paid the
heaviest price, a new world came into
being.

The world transition from capital-
ism to communism took a mighty leap
ahead. One-third. of ‘the human race
took the road to the new society, es-
tablishing the world system of social-
ism, and the liberation of subject peo-
ples assumed sweeping proportions.
The workers’ revolution merged with
the colonial wars of independence.
And today, despite the “cold war” and
open wars, despite all the chicanery,
deceit and trickery of the imperialists,
despite all the difficulties and occa-
tional setbacks suffered by the work-
ers, history is irresistibly moving for-
ward.

The people in the socialist coun-
tries are building the new society, the
Soviet Union is creating the founda-
tions of communism, all attempts to
subvert and destroy the socialist camp
have failed and are doomed.

The . peoples of Africa, Asia and
Latin America are successfully liberat-
ing themselves from the chains of
colonialism, until only a few preserves

‘of colonial rule remain and they are

under’ attack, and they are building
their own economies and finding their
own paths to the socialist future.

The working class of the capitalist
countries is on the offensive, fighting
for its class interests, marching with
allies from other sections of the popu-
lation in the world—shaking struggles

. to end the wars. that the imperialists

are conducting in Indochina, in the
Near East and other spots of the globe,
gathering forces for the looming bat-
tles for socialism.

May Day epitomizes these world-
wide events.

Cznadian workers, even in the dark-
est days of political reaction, have
always celebrated May Day—at times
with large parades and demonstra-
tions embracing tens of thousands, and
at other times with smaller rallies
throughout the country. We have cele-
brated May Day on picket lines and
fighting off police attacks. We are
celebrating it today with all the forc-
es we are able to muster, shoulder to
shoulder with our comrades and fel-
low workers in the socialist lands and
on all the continents.

In the years past we hurled the de-
fiant pledge in the teeth of the weak-
hearts, detractors and turncoats:

Though cowards flinch “and traitors
sneer

We'll keep the Red Flag flying here!

Today as the cause for which gene-
rations of workers labored and fought
the new world of which they dreamed,
is triumphantly moving forward, we
join in wordwide avowal:

No more tradition’s chains shall
bind us,

Arise, ye slaves no more in thrall,
The earth shall rise on new founda-
tions— a
We have been, naught, we shall be
all! cette TSEAASS

5 SSP FES 224 =
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 1970—Page7