The First May Day

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In each new period of the struggle of the working class movement it becomes sacrifices which have been needed to set up our organisations and establish our rights:

It came as a surprise to one of our members in his union i branch the other week to discover that nobody seemed to know why May Day is cele brated as International Workers Day. The general opinion was that it might have something to - do with fertility rites, Morris Dancing and the beginning of Spring, so it seemed a good idea to explain that its origins really lie in a particular struggle to improve workers conditions and to express solidarity with those who have suffered to maintain them.

In 1884 an obscure American workers organisation by the name of the Federation of Organised Trade and Labour Unions issued a call for a legal eight hour day and for a general strike if this was not obtained within two years.

Many actions were initiated on this call in. the following period throughout the United States, and though individual employers were forced to concede shorter hours, there was no general legal change.

When the two-year period came to an end on 1 May 1886 workers in every part of America were on strike or were preparing to do so to obtain the eight hour day.

Shot dead

In Chicago at least four workers were shot dead as they tried to prevent the entry of scabs into a factory.

On the evening of 4 May about 3,000 people gathered in the Haymarket Square in the centre of town to protest. As they were dispersing, the police, suddenly charged into the crowd, and a bomb went off killing seven policemen.

To this day it is uncertain who let off the bomb, but the most likely explanation is that the explosion was the work of an agent provocateur or an Docherty attempt to pay off a personal grudge.

However, any careful consideration of the case was impossible at the time in an atmosphere of witch-hunt and hysteria built up by the press and exploited by the legal system."

After numerous raids and arrests eight men were found guilty of "conspiracy'-not because they could have played any part in the incident, but. because they advocated policies which according to the police: misht have led to it.

these one committed suicide and four others were hanged in 1887. With the rope around his neck, one of them, August Spies, declared:

"There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today."

Not forgotten The stepping up of the struggle for the eight hour day ensured that the Haymarket martyrs were not forgotten. The American Federation of Labour, to which most unions were affiliated at the time, took up the call for further action if there were no concessions by 1 In 1889 when the Socialist (Second) International was set up, one of the first motions it passed called for action in every country on that day aiming "to réduce the working day by law to eight hours'.

Stoppages

Thus on May Day 1890 there were stoppages of work and demonstrations throughout Europe and North America on this demand, and many gains were reported from France, the United States and •, elsewhere.

Only in Britain did the conservative trade union leaders refuse to initiate any action on May Day itself, but called instead for demonstrations over the following weekend.

This rather shame-faced practice is no doubt partly responsible, for the fact that few British workers now seem to know that May Day began in militant action and solidarity with those throughout the world who have lost their lives and livelihoods in the struggle for the emancipation of their class.

Karl Marx - put forward call for legal 8-hr day: able.

This, garnished with a little 'left rhetoric about resisting closures, and under a barrage of demands for import controls to protect BL against foreign competition, was essentially the line put forward by Derek Robinson and the Stalinist-led Combine Committee in the ill-fated booklet that provided the pretext for his victimisation.

This same bankrupt strategy has now led the CP to emerge as a crucial prop for Moss Evans at a point where his betrayai has been widely recognised by'shop floor workers.

Offensive

In the current capitalist crisis there is no way in which there can be a "peaceful coexistence" between employers and workforce-as the continued offensive of BL management confirms.

The continues existence of capitalism can be ensured only at the expense of the working class.

-This is why Trotskyists reject the policy and perspectives of the reformist leaders and Communist Party, and fight for a programme which mobilises the working class in the struggle to defend jobs, wages and working conditions and the building of organisations that can prepare the ground for the overthrow of the Tories and capitalist rule and the taking of power.

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INDUSE REAL NENTS The NUJ conference, a report of which appeared last week, took an important decision to withdraw immediately from the Press This body is roughly speaking to the newspaper proprietors what the police complaints committee is to the police.

The Press Council from time to time admonishes papers for 'errors' but consistently upholds attacks on the working class (however malicious and untrue). ignore the decision to withdraw. from the Press Council (as they have consistently ignored the decision to refuse to use police LAST WEEK'S report of the a mistake in transmissión from Ireland as Socialist Press was going to press.

The resolution calling for the withdrawal of troops wat replacing if delete general cal • a general ca on the union to oppose repres

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necessary to remind the rising generation of the

NUJ conference in Portrush contained a serious error, due to