A-Infos (en) US, Anarchist journal, Nor'easter #5 - The Northeast Anarchist Network.... + May Day: Then and Now By JAKE CARMAN

The Northeast Anarchist Network is: a regional, horizontal organizing network in the 
Northeast, striving to link those committed to anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist and 
anti-oppressive struggles. ---- We recognize that the anarchist movement has a diversity 
of perspectives and priorities. We seek to nurture solidarity and mutual aid among all 
participants of the Network, especially in the face of repression. ---- Started in 
February 2007 by anarchists from across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, NEAN has grown 
through many subsequent meetings around the region. ---- The process of creating this 
Network has connected many groups and individuals and has been a catalyst for the 
formation of new groups and projects. We have reason to be optimistic about the future of 
this Network and region, and we welcome anyone sympathetic to our goals to be a part of it.
www.NeAnarchist.net

     The Nor'easter aims to provide an outlet
for anarchist-related news and events while
simultaneously introducing non-anarchists
to anarchism and plugging them into the
movement.


May Day: Then and Now By JAKE CARMAN

     In the late 1800s, workers in the
United States faced abysmal conditions
on the job. Workers, including children,
could suffer 16 or more hours a day under
dangerous, stifling sweatshop conditions to
earn starvation wages and live in cramped
quarters. Like today, workers poured
in from all over the world to pursue the
American Dream through their own
honest labor. Workers came from Ireland,
Italy, Germany, China, Russia, Japan, Spain,
Mexico, Norway, Syria, Slovakia, Poland
and elsewhere in search of better lives.
When they arrived, however, they faced
blatant racism and hate, just like migrant
workers do today. Eking out hard livings in
tight-knit ethnic communities, most were
considered second-class citizens, regarded
as diseased criminals, untrustworthy
scoundrels and, most importantly, a cheap
and dispensable source of labor.
     Comparing their tortured conditions
to the lives of luxury and leisure that their
labor provided to the factory owners and
bosses, these workers became determined
to organize and win for themselves lives
worthy of humans.

  Many immigrants brought with them
the radical traditions of their native
countries. Anarchists, socialists and other
revolutionaries found eager ears among
their fellow workers, foreign and native-
born alike. Recognizing the injustices of the
United States, they dreamed of a world where
workers controlled the products of their
labor, where all people had access to food
and housing, and where communities ­ not
politicians and bosses ­ made the decisions.
     A movement for an eight-hour day was
gaining momentum across the country.
This struggle, undertaken by reformers and
radicals alike, demanded eight hours for
work, eight for sleep and eight for leisure.
Chicago's strong labor movement won this
right in 1867, to be enacted May 1. However,
when that day came, the bosses refused to
respect it and the government didn't force
them to. Chicago's militant, organized
workers went on strike to protest, but the
police brutally crushed their resistance
within a week and the despondent workers
returned to their jobs.
     In 1886, another, more radical eight-
hour movement gained momentum. Led by
migrant and other workers in the anarchist
International Working People's Association
(IWPA), a general strike was planned for
May 1 to proclaim the power and strength
of Chicago's determined workers. On May
   1, 1886, Chicago saw 400,000 on strike, with
another 350,000 joining them across the nation.
Labor Crucified
     The workers' momentum continued
with strikes and demonstrations. On May
3, the striking "lumber shovers" union
held a public meeting of 6,000 near the
McCormick plant. The police attacked the
meeting with guns and batons, killing one
worker and wounding more. Outraged,
anarchists posted a call in their daily
German-language paper, the Arbeiter-
Zeitung ("Workers' Newspaper"), for a May
4 protest at Haymarket Square.
     That night, thousands gathered at
Haymarket to denounce police violence.
The crowd listened calmly to speeches by
migrant anarchist workers such as August
Spies and Samuel Fielden. Even the mayor
of Chicago, who attended the beginning half
of the rally, said, "Nothing looked likely to
happen to require police interference," and
he advised police captain Bonfield to send
his forces home. Bonfield didn't. Around 10
p.m., after the mayor and many attendees
left, and as Fielden was calling the meeting
to a close, Bonfield's force of 200 officers
marched on the rally, threatening violence
and demanding dispersal. Someone then
threw a bomb at the police, killing one
instantly and injuring many. In the chaos,
    police fired indiscriminately, killing seven
of their own plus numerous demonstrators,
though they never counted the latter.
      "Make the raids first and look up
the law afterwards," the state prosecutor
said. Police arrested all known anarchists
and raided meeting halls, printing offices
and homes. Eight prominent anarchists,
newspaper editors and unionists ­ August
Spies, Sam Fielden, Albert Parsons, Adolph
Fischer, George Engel, Michael Schwab,
Louis Lingg and Oscar Neebe ­ were
charged with the Haymarket bombing. Of
the eight men, seven were immigrants and
only three were at Haymarket that night.
     The state prosecutor handpicked a
biased jury, but presented no evidence
connecting them to the bomb. As the
prosecution argued in court, "Anarchy
is on trial. These men have been selected,
picked out by the Grand Jury and indicted
because they were leaders. They are no more
guilty than the thousands who follow them.
Gentlemen of the jury; convict these men,
make examples of them, hang them and
you save our institutions, our society." And
so they did.
     A massive international campaign
followed, propelled by Lucy Parsons, an
effective labor organizer and wife of Albert
Parsons. In response, the state commuted
the sentences of Schwab and Fielden to life
imprisonment, and Neebe got 15 years. The
gallows awaited the rest. The fiery young
German carpenter, Louis Lingg, cheated
the hangman, committing suicide in his
cell the day before his execution. On Nov.
11, 1887, Albert Parsons, Engel, Spies
and Fischer were hanged. Six-hundred-
thousand people attended their funeral.
     At the time, the murder of these
anarchist organizers was seen as a setback
for the eight-hour movement, but the event
actually radicalized many more, including
influential anarchists Emma Goldman and
Voltairine de Cleyre, whose radical careers
were inspired by the anarchists of Chicago.
     The American Federation of Labor and
the anarchist IWPA took the streets again
on May Day, 1890, and the movement for
the eight-hour day pressed on. Carrying
the legacy of the Haymarket Martyrs,
organized labor began to make headway.
The United Mine Workers achieved the
eight-hour day in 1898, as did the Building
Trades Council of San Francisco in 1900,
printing trades across the United States in
1905, and Ford Motor workers in 1914.
In 1916, threatening a nationwide general
strike, U.S. railroad workers forced the
government to pass the Adamson Act,
which won them an eight-hour day and
additional pay for overtime.

     Finally, in 1938, massive militant
movements of workers and unemployed
forced the Roosevelt government to pass the
Fair Labor Standards Act, establishing for
many the eight-hour day with extra overtime
pay, as well as a national minimum wage and
the abolition of "oppressive child labor."
Repression, Deportation and the
Decline of Labor
     The story doesn't end there. During
the May Day parade in 1919, hundreds
of workers were arrested, hundreds more
were badly beaten and many workers'
headquarters were ransacked. In Roxbury,
Mass., police and nationalists assaulted
parading workers, beating them with clubs,
trampling them with horses and shooting
at them. In the ensuing battle, two workers
and two officers were shot, and a police
chief died of a heart attack.
     Beyond the police violence, the
government also passed a slew of laws
to make the deportation of immigrant
activists easier and to keep foreign radicals
out. In 1903, a new law excluded anarchists
and other revolutionaries from entering the
United States and enabled the government
to deport radicals who had lived in the
United States for three years or less. This law
was broadened in 1917 to make immigrants
deportable for up to five years, with no time
limit for those who advocated anarchism or
revolution. This law was used to target the
strong Jewish and Italian anarchist currents.
In 1918, a new law allowed the deportation
of "aliens who are members of, or affiliated
with, any organization...that writes,
circulates, distributes, prints, publishes or
displays, or causes to be written...or has in its
possession...any written or printed matter"
of an anarchist or revolutionary nature.
     From 1919 until 1921, U.S. Attorney
General Palmer used these laws in a wave
of arrests and deportations, targeting
Italian anarchists and other radicals.
Radicals who were not deported either fled
overseas or went underground. The Palmer
Raids decimated the workers' movement.
During this time, Massachusetts framed
and executed immigrant workers Sacco
and Vanzetti based on their Italian heritage
and anarchist beliefs in what is recognized
worldwide as one of the worst miscarriages
of justice in history.
The Struggle Continues: May Day Today
     In May 2006, it was again the migrant
workers who led the struggle for the rights of
workers worldwide. Reviving the tradition
of International Workers' Day with El Gran
Paro Estadounidense ­ the Great American
Strike ­ migrant workers organized a one-
day strike of work and school and a boycott
of commerce. Millions participated in the
demonstrations, especially in Los Angeles
and Chicago. Everywhere, workers and
student allies joined the immigrants, and
the demonstrations helped to stop HR4437,
a bill that would have made felons of all
undocumented immigrants. Across the
country, workers again marched for migrants'
rights on May Day 2007, 2008 and 2009.
     This year, a thousand workers and
activists marched from Central Square in
East Boston to a rally in Everett, Mass. The
march, organized by an immigrant rights
coalition, proclaimed, "Yesterday We Voted
for Change, Today We Demand Change!"
About 100 anarchists and socialists joined
the march, bringing a message of anti-
capitalism and distributing hundreds
of newsletters featuring the history of
Haymarket and May Day. The groups that
organized the Anti-Capitalist Contingent
included BAAM, the Socialist Party, the
Industrial Workers of the World and the
Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación
Nacional (FMLN-El Salvador).
      More than 1,000 participated in New
York City May Day actions. According
to NYC Indymedia, rallies were held on
Long Island, at Madison Square Park and
in Chintatown, converging for a mass rally
at Union Square. The demonstrators then
marched to the Federal Plaza in Lower
Manhattan. The Industrial Workers of the
World also held an action at a Starbucks in
Union Square to protest the company's union-
busting attempts and bad labor policies.
      At Vassar College in Poughkeepsie,
Ny., students held two rallies in solidarity
with union college staff members and
marched on the campus to draw attention
to administrative issues.
      Maryann Colella, a member of Bread
and Puppet Theater from Vermont, reported
that 300 marched in Richmond, Va. In a
puppet-led parade, people commemorated
the day with flags, signs and a Mother Jones
puppet. According to Colella, they also
protested against "Virginia Commonwealth
University's plans to build a parking lot
over a slave burial ground."
      In Frederick, Md., around 40 anarchists
and their allies held a Reclaim the Streets
action, drawing passers-by into the road to
dance and celebrate May Day. Participants
also educated curious onlookers with
an anti-capitalist `zine put out by
Unconventional Action-Frederick, called
"Refusing the Spectacle." Police eventually
forced the demonstrators off of the street.
      Hours after anarchists rallied in Milwaukee,
according to witnesses, 20-30 masked folks ­
suspected anarchists! ­ smashed windows of
a US Bank Building, Whole Foods Market,
Bruegger's Bagels and Qdoba.
      In the nation's capital, Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers
began International Workers' Day by
making a 6 a.m. raid at an apartment
complex. Later that day, workers responded
with a 1,500 strong march for immigrant
rights, organized by the National Capital
Immigration Coalition. Hours later,
60 anarchists and leftist allies held an
unpermitted street march, leading to minor
skirmishes with the police.
      Tens of thousands of workers also fought
police and attacked corporate and government
property in Berlin; Istanbul; Linz, Austria;
every major Greek city and most major
cities in France and Spain. In Mexico City,
workers defied the ban on public gatherings ­
presumably to combat swine flu ­ and marched
against the real swine. Large demonstrations
also occurred in L'Aquila, Italy; Moscow;
Nigeria; Havana; Tokyo; South Korea;
Cambodia; Japan; the Philippines; Zimbabwe;
Taiwan and England.
_________________________________________
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