U. S. out of Iraq and Afghanistan NOW!
No more ICE raids and deportations! Full rights for all immigrants NOW!
Organize for struggle against hunger, repression and war!
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March on May Day 2008 in Seattle:
* noon "No Peace - - No Work" demonstration
* 4 pm, demonstration for immigrant rights
. On May 1 workers the world over will be marching in the streets on their holiday -- May Day,
the first day of the 1886 U.S. general strike for the 8-hour work day. Shoulder to shoulder they'll
be protesting today's exploitation and tyranny. They'll be standing up for the unity of their class:
hence in solidarity with immigrant and other workers who are being doubly exploited and
oppressed by the ruling classes, and against imperialist wars and occupations. And they'll be
taking stock of the situation of their class globally in order to draw conclusions about what needs
to be done if the working class is to have a better future. Let's look at this situation:
Mass impoverishment is giving rise to new struggles
. The uncontrollable anarchy of capitalism has resulted in the building up and bursting of the speculative bubble in subprime mortgages, and another recession. Thus, in the U.S. home foreclosures are emptying block after block in major cities, and the employers have begun layoffs in order to salvage their holy profits. And, if this weren't enough, the masses of people are being hit hard by inflation, and fuel and food prices are skyrocketing in much of the world.
. In 2007 there was a global increase in the number of strikes from the historic lows of recent years, with workers counter-attacking against the rapacious neoliberal program that world capitalism has been imposing on the workers and poor everywhere. Through these necessary battles, workers defend themselves from being driven ever downward, build up class organization, and begin to prepare themselves ideologically to lead greater social struggles. For example, last year the Egyptian workers rose in their largest strike wave of the last half century (which continues), and have won important victories. This wouldn't have happened without the women workers defying tradition and becoming an important and sometimes leading component of the movement, nor without their male comrades supporting them.
. This year the upswing in strikes has accelerated in many countries as the workers and poor fight back against spiraling food and fuel prices. Workers in the richer countries are increasingly striking for pay increases, particularly in E.U. countries and Russia. And workers at American Axle and Manufacturing in Michigan and New York have now been on strike for eight weeks in a serious struggle that will affect the position of workers in every industry. They're not only defying threats from the employer, but a treacherous union leadership that last year rammed through unprecedented concession on "Big 3" and other auto workers. And more recently, another auto-workers' strike has now broken out in Michigan. Meanwhile, thousands of U.S. independent truckers (small owners) have begun protest blockades against rising fuel prices, a struggle that is in the interest of all working people.
. In the poorer countries millions of people face starvation because they don't have enough money to buy food. But they're not taking this lying down. In country after country they're rising in protests, seizing food from stores and warehouses, striking for wage increases, building general strikes to demand government action, surrounding and trying to storm presidential palaces (Haiti), and battling troops and police sent to suppress and murder them. In response, the capitalist media runs headlines about "food riots," and U.N. , World Bank and IMF officials worry over "security implications," and "fragile democracies" being toppled. But true democracy for the workers and poor is advanced by this globally-spreading struggle that has already won concessions.
. In response, the capitalist media runs headlines about "food riots," and U.N., World Bank and IMF officials worry over "security implications," and "fragile democracies" being toppled. But true democracy for the workers and poor is advanced by this globally-spreading struggle that has already won concessions.
. Everywhere there is growing realization that the battle is only beginning. Workers are beginning
to see that the dramatic rise in food prices is being caused by a convergence of factors connected
with the capitalists' drive to maximize profits, and that the capitalists are going to viciously fight
to defend these.
Resistance to continuing attacks on immigrants
. On the past two May Days immigrants filled U.S. streets to protest the vicious anti-immigrant legislation then being debated in Washington. Confronted with this mass outpouring--and divisions among themselves -- the ruling-class politicians failed to pass the major congressional bills. But new ones are sure to be proposed after the election is over.
. Meanwhile, the government has unleashed the Department of Homeland Security/Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) thugs in an escalating campaign of raids and deportations that is
meant to intimidate immigrants from putting up any resistance to brutal exploitation that is
increasingly being ratcheted up in the deepening economic crisis. It is also meant to silence
struggles for social rights and equality. This is an attack on all workers, because as long as one
section of the working class is super-exploited and denied rights the conditions of all are dragged
downward. We therefore hail the recent development of groups around the country that are
devoting themselves to stopping ICE raids and deportations. Let every worker and
democratic-minded person join them in standing up to defend our immigrant sisters and brothers!
The movement against imperialist wars and occupations
. The sons and daughters of the working people of this country are being sent to kill and be killed by the sons and daughters of the workers and poor in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite massive opposition, both the Republicans and Democrats promise many more years of bloodshed, with the Democrats camouflaging this with campaign talk about withdrawal--some troops, some day, once (unreachable) goals are met, etc.
. Why? The Republicans and Democrats both represent a ruling class that is driven to monopolize Middle Eastern oil supplies in the face of competition from regional and global competitors. Thus it fights to have an Iraqi regime with favorable oil and gas laws, and to establish a permanent military presence with which to dominate the region. The Afghan war itself was largely an indirect war for control of Middle East oil--U. S. imperialism wanted to smash the growing influence that pan-Islamists like bin-Laden had in Saudi Arabia. Now they're fighting to defend their foothold in strategically located Afghanistan. They also fear the repercussions of defeat on their global empire.
. The working class of this country can aid of the struggling workers and poor of Iraq and
Afghanistan by further building the anti-war movement. This requires agitating among fellow
workers with the class truths about these occupations, and building demonstrations and antiwar
actions of all kinds. It requires struggling to reorient an anti-war movement whose present
leaders are bogged down by their alliances with deceptive pro-imperialists who are ringed around
the Democratic Party. And it requires organizing independently of the top labor officials who
preach dependence on this party of imperialism, war and repression.
May Day--a day to further organize the class struggle
. On May Day 2008 we salute the workers of the world who are battling to resist the effects of the growing capitalist crisis being shifted onto their backs, and who are waging political struggles against attacks on immigrants, and against imperialist wars and occupations. Class struggle on these fronts is essential if the working people are to have a better future, and this requires getting more organized. The world situation is showing more than ever that all capitalism has to offer the people is impoverishment, militarism and growing police states, denial of equality to immigrant and national minority workers, and destruction of the ecosystem. It is therefore necessary to not only fight the effects of this system, but to build the conscious movement to confront and overcome the cause: capitalism. In fact, many of the organizers of the great movement that mounted the general strike of 1886 were inspired with the revolutionary vision of "abolition of the wages system!" The achievement of this vision is even more pressing today. The current situation in much of the world confirms the words of one of the martyrs of the first May Day from his last speech in court:
"If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement . . . the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in want and misery, expect salvation--if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but there and there, behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out."
-- August Spies, German immigrant, 1886.
Excerpted from the leaflet of the Seattle Anti-Imperialist Committee, April 21, 2008.
For more information on the SAIC, visit www.seattleaic.org or email www.seattleaic.org.
Last modified: April 29, 2008.
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