The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 2, 1933, Page 10

{ i i i i | “speaking stand, Daily Worker—May Day Supplemont, 1933 Workers Packed Union Square in May Day Demonstration in 1890 By NATHANIEL WEYL In 1886, twenty thousand New York workers, fresh from militant strike struggles in the sugar re- | fineries and on the “Third Avenue | The Communist Party ink reuah Str foslek Inherits Revolutionary Traditions Elevated’ lines, held a tremendous | May Day meeting in Union Square. | | tung,” makes an eloquent defense of They had come at the call of four-' class war. “If these parasites, the teen unions. The Cigarmakers, the | press, grand juries, and the police Sugar House Workers’ Union, and} the Empire Protective Association (leader of the Elevated strike) were each represenied by contingents of 700 workers or more. The Square was packed with thousands of work- | ; ers, bearing banners and placards. A reformist spirit was entrenched | in the New York unions which saci the demonstration on the paths of order and good citizenship. The N. ¥. Tribune reports: “The speak- ers were all in the interests of law and order, and as a rule deprecated strikes. It was understood by the Chairmen at the different platforms || that if any incendiary speeches were iF attempted, the speakers would im-| mediately be stopped by the police. There were two platforms, one | [ for the English speakers, another for German. On the English the speakers kept | up a running fire against the con- |i. spiracy laws which the courts were]; using to outlaw and break prac- |} tically every strike struggle in the |; nation. They attacked monopolies, corruption in politics, and demand- ed the right to boycott “unfair” employers. Thus Samuel Gompers in his speech indignantly repudiates Ps the sugestion that the boycott is | 5. un-American. “Was it foreign or American,” he asks, “when the tea was thrown into Boston Harbor, and the citizens would not hold com- munion with anyone who wore! English manufacture?” The speakers’ on the German]: : stand had participated in the|™ Struggles of the European working * class. They showed a higher poli- |... tical development, a revolutionary Spirit, a familiarity with many of ‘ the ideas of Marx. ‘Thus Sergius : Shevitch, Editor of the “Volkszei- |‘, ” ‘MOVEMENT FOR 8-HOUR DAY STRUCK FEAR INTO BOSSES Over Half the Laboring Population of Milwaukee Was On Strike in 1886 In Milwaukee, in 1886, the pain ment in Milwaukee strongly political movement was under full swing | features, Thousands of workers were organ- The Strike Movement ized inte the Knights of Labor; On April 29, some of the largest strikes were occurring daily up till) factories in the city locked out their the May Days, particularly amongst} men, saying they could not profit- the brewery workers, cigar makers, ably keep going if the 8-hour da; clothing workers, and foundry work-| were put into effect. Notices were ers. The slogan was “8 hours work! printed in the paper that for the ae Deer gag May 1 demonstration “Police and Strikes of 800 to 1,500 workers) mijitia are ready in case trouble is were daily occurrences in the last) caused by Communists. It is not ex- weeks of April. For some time the pected by anyone that the laboring newspapers had shown &® benevo-| men will unite in an outbreak, but lently “neutral” attitude towards the | trom the fact that a number of struggles of labor, helping to main-| communists are interested in the tain the bourgeois. democratic illu- sions. But towards the last of April, the signs of the capitalist prepara- tions for forcible suppression of the 8-hr. movement became apparent in the belligerent tone of the newspa- per articles. at the last moment; but neverthe- Political Character of Movement | less the rank and file turned out tc The Socialists of Milwaukee were | the call of the Socialists (or Com- has been deemed advisable to pre- pare.” all their men from the dmonstration playing a prominent part In the 8-} Munists, as the Journal called hour struggle, There were not so| them). Over 4,000 men marched in many workers organized under their | the first May Day demonstration in lJeadership as under the Knights of | Milwaukee. In the next two days, Labor; but thousands of the K. of L. members were under their influence. largely Germans and had a daily paper, the “Arbelter Zeitung,” edit- ed by Paul Grottkau. Grottkau was an able Socialist leader, who had served time tn German prisons for his cctivines, Whe nad beew 2~re- porter under Johann Most on the “Berlin Frete Presse”; and after} sands lived on laboring population. the coming to America had been editor! were active in the factory closing of the “Chicago Arbeiter Zeitung” | movement. until he broke with Spies. There| shops were closed, were also about 40 anarchists In/ 1,600 mem te the strikers. Milwaukee. fights took The Knights of Labor leadership, | at the E. P. Powderly on a national at ifn if hour day. Grottkau and the Social. ists were strong in their denuncia- tion of. these reformist and ve first, were giving. the 8-hour day move-| were. fired—over the heads of : i throw law aside in the continuance | This struggle is a class struggle, of this persecution, they will find | land. if capital continues to arraign out that we Gan throw law aside. | itself against labor, it will find out | | that the people have a million fists |and know how to use them.” | | First International May Day—1890 At the 1890 Convention of the A. F. of L., reformist elements | gained control and sabotaged the }general strike proposals. It was | decided to begin the eight hour strike in only one union, and after a victory had been obtained there to spread the struggle to other trades. Finally the Carpenters’ | Union was selected to begin the struggle, and the Federation as a/ whole voted to support it = special | | donations and leaves. The then revolutionary Socialist ; Labor Party issued the call for the |May Day demonstration in New * | York. The action received the un-| poms support of the strongest | New York unions, and in spite of lithe fact that there was a heavy rairffall day, thousands of workers | ; came to Union Square continuously, | singing the Marseillaise. | Seventy-three organizations par- ticipated and sent contingents to} the demonstration. Three thousand workers came from the Hebrew Trades; the carpenters and cigar | |makers sent 2,400 each. The Soci-| eight hour day is not the final end of the movement, but only its first step. The goal is the revolutionary transformation of society, and the rule of the working class. At this point, a Socialist Labor Party re- solution was submitted which read in part: “Resolved: that in order to make the eicht hour day attainable for all, and @ permanent organization, the same must be legally enacted and the economic struggle must be supported by political action in order to attain such deeisin tions: “Resolved: that in the battle for the eight hour day, we do not lose sight of the final goal of the work- ing class movement, the abolition of wage slavery and that we there- fore call upon all workers to mass themselves under the banners of the SLP in order to achieve this final | overturn.” While the crowds were going back from the demonstration, the disgruntled anarchist leader, Johann Most imterviewed reporters at his home. He regarded the eight hour day struggle as “lunacy on the part of the workers and a little scheme on the part of the capitalists and politicians in order to defer again the final settlement they fear—the | social revolution.” The 1890 demonstration showed very strongly the influence of the German Socialist movement. There | was more of an emphasis on soci- |alism, but less stress on the hard struggle necessary if we wish to get it. There were traces of that alist Labor Party sent a contingent |Same rotten reformism which led of 700, but it gave the demonstra-|the German Sotial Democracy to | tion much of its revolutionary back-| betray the workers in 1914 and 1919, bone. In all, thirty thousand work- | and which makes them abandon the ers demonstrated. | working class to the fascist execu- A group of Socialist speakers who" tioners today. jhad just Yeturned from agitation| Nevertheless, the 1890 May Day work in Europe sat in the pavilion. | demonstrations represented also a Crowds pressed around them eager | beginning, a beginning of the Inter- to-hear of the struggles of the | national May Day struggles of the demonstration, who are outspoken in their denunciation of capital, it The Knights of Labor called off thousands of men struck in Milwau- kee, till by May 3, 16,000 were on There were about 140 Socialist | strike. The population of the city members in Milwaukee. They were | then was about 160,000, and these ,| Slons given by the capitalists, with 3 | Buropean proletariat:and the satin | | of the Socialist movement. speakers in 180 wefe must Fsbo definitely socialist than they were four years before. Wakemann, for instance, begins by stating that the world proletariat. A beginning of | the revolutionary May demonstra- |tions of the American workers which are being carried forward to- day under the leadership of the Communist Party. so that many had to leave, and thousands were on the edge of star- vation. Grottkau, and other leading Socialists were held responsible for the struggles of the workers, and served prison terms after the May Day events. But the Socialist movement in | Milwaukee was given an impetus ° which stimulated its growth. It re- quired years of treachery on the part of later union leaders and lead- workers by the Kosciuszko Guard. | ers of the Socialist Party to liquid- In return they received stones, j ate the organizational and political sticks, dead. cats, and other evi- victories of the workers of this first dences of the workers’ love for ofti-| May Day. cial strikebreakers. Now, in Milwaukee, the present On May 5, a‘'monster march of protest to the Bay View Rolling Mills, organized by the Polish work- men, started from St. Stanislaus Church, at 8 a.m. Women and chil- dren were in the liné of march, which, because of the democratic il- | lusions of the. workers, was intended | to be a peaceful protest only. Shoot Down Workers When the line of march came within a few blocks of the milis, the commander of the Sheridan Guards issued the order to fire. The in- structions had been given several days before: “When you are ordered to fire, pick out your man, and shoot to kill.” The capitalists were deter- mined to shed blood in order to keep the 10-hour day. ‘The fusillade killed or fatally wounded at least 8 per- sons; and crippled an unknown number besides. The workers scat- tered hastily, but took their wound- ed with them, and perhaps some dead as well. The full number of fatalities was never known. The papers hushed up all news about the killings within a few days. The bloody suppression of the | strikers, along with certain conces- the treachery of the Knights of La- bor leaders, and the immediate ar- rest and imprisonment, of the So- cialist leaders, defeated the 8-hour day movement in Milwaukee. The workers went back to their jobs. But they remembered the power that they had possessed when they were organized, and there later were many great strikes in the city. The members of the Kosciuszko guard were boycotted, waylaid, and otherwise made so miserable that they were driven out of town. The Socialist leaders have done their best to bury the militancy and class- struggle character of the early days of the Party. The Socialist leaders are celebrating May Day this year— on April 30, “President’s Day.” The Communists and the militant rank and file members of the So- clalist Party and A. F..of L. in Mile waukee are keeping up the fighting traditions of May Day, 1886. They are demonstrating on May 1, and they will bring to the workers of ‘Milwaukee the events which inau- gurated May Day in Milwaukee, and honor the memory of those who were killed at that time. Re ee