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Title: Celebrate MayDay! Author: Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group Date: 1 May 2007 Language: en Topics: May Day Source: Retrieved on 11th October 2021 from http://anarkismo.net/article/5528 Notes: Leaflet distributed on 1st May in a memorial in 8 Hours Monument in Melbourne and will be distributed also tommorow at the MayDay rally
Workers have been celebrating May Day for well over 100 years. From its
origins in a strike for the 8 hour day in Chicago and protests over the
Anarchist trade union organisers behind it being hung on false charges
of murder, it has been a day when workers stood together around the
world. In that time we have won victories and suffered defeats. Many of
us have been led astray for a time by false ideologies of Stalinism or
nationalism. But reality intervenes and the common bond of workers
around the world becomes apparent.
Nowhere is our common bond more deliberately obscured than in Australia.
The Howard Government directly attacks the unions, the organisations in
which working class consciousness is most strongly formed and expressed,
in an attempt to do away with them once and for all. It uses racism and
religious prejudice to divide the working class into warring factions.
And it preaches nationalism and militarism to bind us to “our own”
ruling class. In this it is helped by the media which, with only minor
reservations from some quarters, enthusiastically trumpet the Right-wing
ideology. And finally, the Labor Party, with one part cowardice and two
parts conviction, endorse the ideology while proposing slightly
different means.
Across the world, workers are under attack. In industrialised countries
employers use anti-union laws, corporate deregulation and heightened
international competition to attack jobs and working conditions, while
unions are mostly in retreat. In Third World countries, however,
employer and government attacks are meeting rising resistance from the
rapidly growing working class and an equally rapidly growing independent
labour movement. Our interests lie with these struggling workers and, as
globalisation proceeds, our fate will increasingly be tied to theirs.
Around the world, we face capitalist governments which relentlessly
attack the working class. The only defence is our collective action as
workers. In each country we must refuse to be divided amongst ourselves
with racism, sexism, religious prejudice or homophobia. And, turning our
backs on appeals to patriotism, we must recognise our common bond with
workers in other countries. It is necessary, just to defend what we
still have. But it will also build the basis for a revolution to
eliminate capitalism forever and create a society of liberty, equality
and solidarity.