The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 30, 1931, Page 13

DAILY WORKER, Page Five May Day~-Then and Now . ~.. APRIL, }, 1981 oe 6¢ HERE AFTER. we Q THe FREE TAN Css 12 To [4 leet = Tee Kern Cece rarion || ARE GOING T PAA AS CHILD HEALTH DAY i [<> OF Ye CLAeR TUmzy, \VEVELO, Wey J THE HISTORY OF MAY DAY By ALEXANDER TRACHTENBERG E ice origin of May Day is indis- solubly bound up with the strug- gle for the shorter workday—a de- mand of major political significance for the working class. This struggle is manifest almost from the begin- ning -of the factory system in the United States. The 8-hour day movement which directly gave birth to May Day, must, however, be traced to the gen- eral movement initiated in the United States in 1884, However, a genevati#en before a national labor orgaiazation, which at first gave a great promise of developing into a militant organizing center of the ‘American working class, took up the question of a shorter workday and proposed to organize a broad move- ment in its behalf, Marx on the Eight-Hour Movement. In the chapter on “The Working Day” in the first volume of Capital, published in 1867, Marx calls atten- tion to the inauguration of the 8- hour movement by the National La- ther Union. In the passage famous ‘especially because it contains Marx’s | telling reference to the solidarity of class interests between the Negro and white workers, he wrote: In the United States of America, any sort of independent labor movement was paralyzed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the republic, Labor with a white skin cannot emancipate itself where labor with a black skin is branded, But out of the death of slavery a new. vigorous life sprang. The first fruit of the Civil War was an agitation for the 8-hour movement which ran with express speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California. May Day Becomes International On July 14, 1880, the hundredth anniversary of the fall of the Bas- tille, there assembled in Paris lead- ers from organized revolutionary proletarian movements of many Jands, to form once more an in- ternational organization of workers, patterned after the one formed 25 years earlier by their great teacher, Karl Marx, Those assembled at the foundation meeting of what was to become the Second International heard from the American delegates about the struggle in America for oF ae ae OF He may All Out On May Day! the 8-hour day during 1884-1886, and the recent rejuvenation of the move- ment, Inspired bythe example of the American workers, the Paris Congress adopted the following res- olution: The Congress decides te organ- . ize a great international demon- stration, so that in all countries and in all cities on one appointed day the toiling masses shall de- mand of the state authoriti¢s the legal reduction of the working day te eight hours, as well as the car- Imperialist Wa (Continued from page 4) herding the masses into the con- script army — those who wish to put an end forever to all warfare will not refuse to accept the arms that are thrust into their hands! Revolutionary workers, when con- scripted, will march together with the masses of conscripted fellow- workers and farmers, firmly resol- ved to transform the war between nations into war between the clas- ses—war against their “own” im- perialist rulers. Fraternization with our fellow- workers of the “enemy” nation who are equally victims of their “own” imperialist governments must become the order of the day as soon as the masses of our fel- low-soldiers can be brought to open their eyes in disillusionment. This will come. It will come to American soldiers. American workers in uniform must be made to learn both before and during the actual fighting in the trenches, the meaning of the imperialist war into which they are forced or cajoled. They can and must be made to sep that the interest of themselves and of the American masses can be served only by the defeat of owr “own” imperialist government! There are those who say (as Trotzky said, against Lenin, in 1914-15) that to work for the de- feat of one’s “own” imperialist government would only mean to work for the victory of the opposite imperialist government. But those who talk that way, overlook one “little” thing—the revolution! When the Russian Bolsheviks, in the last world war, worked for the defeat of their “own” Czarist and capital- ist government, this did not help the Kaiser, but brought about the r and May Day defeat and downfall of their “own” Czarist government and ensured also the downfall of the German Kaiser. The revolutionary workers, under the leadership of the Communist Party, will work for the defeat of our “own” capitalist dictatorship and the transformation of the im- perialist war into revolutionary civil war for the liberation of the American people from capitalist slavery—for the overthrow of the war-makers and the ending of all war by the establishing the dicta- torship of the American workers and farmers in place of the dicta- torship of the Wall Street war- makers, In the war that is now being prepared by the imperialist gov- ernments against the Union of So- Cialist Soviet Republics, the work- ers and “dirt” farmers of all cap- italist countries must see that the Red Army of the Workers’ Soviet Republics is not an imperialist army, fighting for the benefit of workers who have thrown off the rule of their “own” parasites and and farmers of the whole world. The conscripted soldiers in’ Am- erican uniforms will come to see this, and must em masse go over to the side of the Red Army— must transform their own ranks into an American Red Army. In this way we can end all wars and build a world of free workers, enjoying the full fruits of civiliza- ) vying out of other decisions of the | Paris Congress. Since a similar demonstration has already been || Gecided upon for May 1, 1890, by the American Federation of Labor at its Convention in St. Louis, De- cember, 188, this day is accepted for the international demonstra- tion according to conditions pre- vailing in each country. Lenin on May Day. Early in his activity in the Rus- sian revolutionary movement, Lenin contributed to making May Day known to the Russian workers as 4 day of demonstration and struggle. While in prison, in 1896, Lenin wrote a May Day leafiet for the St. Pet- ersburg Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class, one of the first Marxist political groups in Russia. The leaflet was smug- gled out of prison and 2,000 mime- ographed copies distributed among workers in 40 factories. It was very short and written in Lenin’s char- acteristically simple and direct style, so that the least developed among ths workers could understand it. May Day in War Time The betrayal by the Social-pa- triots during the war appeared in bold relief on May Day, 1915. This was a logical outgrowth of the class peace they made with the imper- ialist governments in August, 1914, The German Social-Democracy called upon the workers to remain at work; the French Socialists in a special manifesto assured the au- thorities that they need not fear May First, and the workers were importuned to work for the defense of “their” country. The same atti- tude could be found among the So- cialist majorities of the other war- | ving countries. Only the Bolsheviks ;of Russia and the revolutionary minorities in other countries re- mained true to Socialism and inter- nationalism. The voices of Lenin, Luxemberg, and Liebknecht were raised against the bacchanale of social-chauvinism. Partial strikes and open skirmishes in the streets on May Day, 1916, showed that the workers in all warring countries were freeing themselves from the Poisonous influence of their trai- torous leaders. For Lenin, as for all revolutionists, “the collapse of opportunism (the collapse of the Second International—A. 1.) is beneficial for the labor movement® ahd Lenin’s call for a new Interna< tional, free of the betrayers, was the demand of the hour. In the United States, May Day was not abandoned when war was declared in 1917, The revolutionary elements in the Socialist Party took seriously the anti-war resolution of the party adopted at the Emergency St. Louis Convention early in April and utilized May Day to protest against the imperialist war. The demonstration in Cleveland held on Public Square and organized by Charles E. Ruthenberg, then local secretary of the S. P. and later one of the founders and leaders of the Communist Party, was particularly militant. Over 20,000 workers par- aded the streets to Public Square and were augmented there by many thousands more. The police bru- tally attacked the meeting, killing one worker and fatally wounding another. May Day, 1917, the July Days, and finally the October Days in Russia were but stages in the development of the Russian Revolution to ite fulfillment. May Day, together with other days rich in revolutionary traditions—January 22 (‘Bloody Sunday,” 1905), March 18 (Paris Commune, 1871), November 7 (Setz- ure of Power, 1917)—are today hol- idays in the First Workers’ Repub- lic, while the 8-hour day, the orig- inal demand of May Day, has been superseded in the Soviet Union by the inauguration of the 7-hour day. The Comintern Inherits May Day Traditions The Communist International, inheritor of the best traditions of the revolutionary proletarian movment since Marx and Engels published the Communist Mani- festo in 1848, carries on the tradi- tions of May Day, and the Com- munist parties of the various cap- italist countries call upon the workers each year to stop work on May Day, to go inte the streets, to demonstrate their growing strength and international soli- darity, to demand a shorter work- day—now the 7-hour day—without reduction In pay, to demand so- cial insurance, to fight the war danger and defend the Soviet Union, to fight against imperial- ism and colonial oppression, to struggle against race discrimina- tion and lynching, to denounce the ' social-fascists as part of the capi- talist machine,_to resolve to build their revolutionary unions, to pro- claim their determination and iron will to organize for the overthrow of the capitalist system and for the establishment of a universal Soviet Republic, (The above article is an abridge- ment of a pamphiet on “The History of May Day,” by Alexatider Tracht- enberg, published’ by the Interna- , tlonal ‘Pamphlets, Int., 799 Brozd: way, and can be obtained at 10 cents | &@ cone