Posted by Rebel Worker on 3/3/2003, 5:31 pm, in reply to "Re: May Day Thunder Bay" The organizers of the event (myself included) have no affiliation with any political parties, left or right. We celebrate the gains made by common people for workers' rights and social justice, which, as you may or may not be aware, came from bitter struggles and not from some benevolent political leadership. We also recognize that these struggles are still going on, struggles against racism, war, exploitation and injustice in its many forms. Some of the participants in our May Day event last year remember the dangerous working conditions, filthy living conditions and poor pay in the bush camps, and the police/militia violence during strikes, the RCMP surveillance that resulted from belonging to a co-op, or the massive funeral procession for two union organizers whose unsolved murder resulted from a union organizing drive. Some of the participants in our local May Day celebrations have family members that tell the horrible stories of fighting against the Red Army during the Finnish Winter War in World War 2. In fact, had you bothered to look up the history of May Day you would have discovered the fact that May Day has anarchist origins - anarchists being the ones that have suffered severe repression in state communist/state communist backed regimes (I'm thinking of Kronstadt and the Ukraine 1921, Spain 1936-39, the Communist Party sell-out in France 1968). Take a look at "My Disillusionment With Russia" by Emma Goldman, "The Unknown Revolution" by Voline or "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell if you want some background on the authoritarian communist repression of the libertarian left. Of course it's way easier to smear our little community event by associating us with Mao or Pol Pot or associating anything left or labour oriented with the most vile, disgusting elements of Stalinist regimes. But May Day is the REAL labour day, a day worth reclaiming from the authoritarians from the left and right.
24.66.94.140
May Day here in Thunder Bay is a community event, celebrated last year officially for the first time in several years.
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