HAPPY MAY DAY FROM THE LOUISVILLE WORKERS BRIGADE & THE CLASS STRUGGLE CHRONICLE
The Co-Founders of The Louisville Workers Brigade & the Editors of The Class Struggle Chronicle
5/1/2024
Happy May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day or Labor Day (with the exception of the U.S. which will be explained soon)! Today is an opportunity to celebrate the Working Class, the majority of the population who produces everything in society, to highlight current Labor struggles, and to renew our resolve, as workers, to fighting for a society that benefits those who produce, as opposed to the current society we live in which benefits those who exploit.
THE ORIGIN OF MAY DAY
May Day has its origins in the mid-nineteenth century when, in 1856, a group of Australian stonemasons launched a mass work stoppage in demand of an eight-hour workday. Thirty years later, May 1st was universally recognized as International Workers’ Day to commemorate the Haymarket Affair in Chicago, a watershed moment in Labor history in the United States.
On May 1, 1886, workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago went on strike in support of the eight-hour workday, raising high the famous slogan: “Eight hours for work. Eight hours for rest. Eight hours for what we will.” This strike in Chicago coincided with a mass general strike occurring across the country. On the third day of the McCormick factory strike, police fired into the crowd, killing two workers. Outraged by the murders, labor organizers called for a rally the following day, on May 4th, at Haymarket Square. At that demonstration, police again moved in aggressively against the strikers, despite the peaceful conduct of participants and speakers. In response to the mass of advancing cops, someone (and to this day, no one knows who the perpetrator was) threw a bomb into the formation of police, killing one officer and injuring a few others. Police again opened fire onto the crowd and the ensuing exchange resulted in several more deaths and injuries.
The legal proceedings that followed the Haymarket Affair go down in history as some of the most absurd miscarriages of justice to date. Eight labor organizers were summarily arrested and charged. Despite ample evidence that the defendants were either not even present at the demonstration, had left the rally prior to the violence, or were known actors in trying to maintain peace, all eight organizers were declared guilty by the jury. One defendant, Louis Lingg, died by suicide in his jail cell, and four others—George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Albert Parsons, and August Spies—were executed by hanging on November 11, 1887.
At his trial, August Spies addressed the court in one of the most famous statements given in support of the Labor Movement:
“…If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement—the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil and live in want and misery, the wage slaves, expect salvation—if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there, and behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out. The ground is on fire upon which you stand…”
On May Day, International Workers’ Day, we commemorate the sacrifice and example of the workers and organizers at Haymarket. Despite the international recognition of this workers’ holiday, the United States chose to recognize “Labor Day” on the first Monday of September, worried that selecting May 1st (as all other countries have done) would solidify the Haymarket Affair in the consciousnesses of American workers and would strengthen anarchist and socialist movements.
THE WORKING CLASS TODAY
In the century and a half since the Haymarket Affair and the murder of the courageous Haymarket Martyrs, that subterranean fire that August Spies spoke of has gone through various stages, at times blazing up for the whole world to see, other times remaining so dormant beneath the ground that it appeared extinguished. We remember the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, the great UAW Sit-Down Strike of the 1930’s, the Delano Grape Strike of the 60’s; we also acknowledge the tremendous beating the Labor Movement took (and is still taking), beginning in the 1950’s, culminating in today’s record low union membership rates—we recognize the various tactics the owning class has employed to destroy class solidarity and, even worse, the betrayal many Labor “leaders” have committed in weakening the Movement by collaborating with, instead of struggling against, that owning class.
But the Subterranean Fire has not been extinguished.
Today, the Labor Movement is experiencing a resurgence in energy, radicalism, and influence. Led primarily by young workers, most of whom work in the food service industry, new independent unions are being established, seeking a class struggle approach to fighting exploitation and oppression; within the already established unions, the same type of organizers are pushing Labor leadership and, even more importantly, their fellow rank-and-files along the same lines. Countering the record low union membership numbers are the record number of strikes and other related Labor actions of agitation. For the first time in decades, thousands of workers are gathering across the country to discuss issues of class, exploitation, Labor history, and what it means to be Working Class.
THE LOUISVILLE WORKERS BRIGADE
Today, on May Day 2024, we are proud to announce the official launch and establishment of THE LOUISVILLE WORKERS BRIGADE, a workers’ association dedicated to the cause of furthering the interests of the Working Class, and its publication, THE CLASS STRUGGLE CHRONICLE.
The Preamble to our Constitution is published here, in this first edition of The Class Struggle Chronicle, along with our Purpose and Objectives for those interested in learning what the aims and goals of this organization are. We look forward to struggling alongside our fellow workers, educating, supporting, organizing, and pushing for the day when the exploitation of one person over another is finally abolished. Together, as a united Working Class, we shall fan the flames of the Subterranean Fire until the blaze of Labor power and worker liberation envelopes this city and brings light, peace, security, and compassion into our communities.
Solidarity Forever, Fellow Workers!
-The Co-Founders of The Louisville Workers Brigade & the Editors of The Class Struggle Chronicle
