A-Infos (en) Uruguay, FAU: CALA Communiqué / May 1st: (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The struggle of the Chicago martyrs is more relevant than ever!!! ---- 
At the end of the 19th century, working days could last up to 16 hours, 
without franc, in terrible conditions inside the factories. The labor 
movement in the United States demanded 8 hours for work, 8 hours for 
rest and 8 hours for leisure. ---- Thus, on May 1, 1886, a strike was 
launched in different cities in the United States. This mobilization of 
hundreds of workers in the streets was not built overnight, but was the 
product of the effort of years of struggle supporting the claim. Beyond 
8 a.m., decent working conditions were also required in the factories.

On May 4, in Haymarket Square in Chicago, where the workers had 
mobilized, a savage repression was unleashed, leaving hundreds of 
workers injured and murdered. The Justice, harangued by the local press, 
sought to blame union leaders sentenced, even without evidence, to 
hanging and jail.

More than 100 years have passed since that revolt and the demands of the 
Chicago Martyrs are still more valid than ever: 8 hours of work in 
contexts of poverty wages seem like a utopia. Today, as a working class, 
we have to hold down two or three jobs to make ends meet.

Precarious job conditions have become widespread on the continent. Half 
of workers do so informally, real wages have deteriorated even further 
after the pandemic and poverty has increased both among sectors of 
workers and in society as a whole. Of course, there are countries where 
the informality of the working class exceeds 50% by far. It is a 
structural problem in our Latin America, whose economies are oriented, 
primarily, to the production of raw materials.

The governments of the region accompany the request for extreme labor 
flexibility required by sectors of concentrated capital, financial power 
and extractivist transnationals, increasing the looting and 
impoverishment of those below. In this framework we witness the 
individualization of workers, where the idea of entrepreneurship is 
culturally promoted, which conceals a dependency employment relationship 
under fantasy legal figures.

These working conditions also have an impact on the quality of life of 
the working class, since these forms of contracting leave the worker 
unprotected in the face of life's contingencies, such as access to 
health and social security. In the 21st century where technology 
advances by leaps and bounds, we see how far from improving the living 
conditions of the entire population, it proposes to be a substitute for 
the workforce of thousands of workers in industry and services, throwing 
thus to conditions of misery and uncertainty for the majority of the 
population.

It is in this same context where social polarization and the 
concentration of wealth is wreaking havoc on hundreds of working-class 
lives, who are increasingly expelled from the labor system towards total 
marginality. The closure of factories and companies eliminates jobs 
throughout the region: multinational companies that withdraw from one 
second to the next, companies that close due to various crises are part 
of the daily lives of those at the bottom in Latin America.

Likewise, the advance of these neoliberal policies leads to the 
elimination of tens of thousands of jobs in public areas and services, 
with the consequent privatizations of public companies, providing 
multimillion-dollar businesses to multinational capital. On the other 
hand, not only are thousands of workers left on the streets, but 
essential services for the population are deteriorating.

Social fragmentation has increased, as has the loss of class identity. 
Today, state violence and drug trafficking, allies at various levels, 
are gaining ground to impose exceptional measures, heavy-handed measures 
that allow society to be disciplined and, in the process, deepen misery 
and dispossession. Violence that develops against the workers and the 
people. The capitalist system has been needing strong and authoritarian 
governments in the region, which talk about "freedom" or something 
similar, but with the sound of boots. An extreme right-wing concept is 
advancing across the continent.

However, throughout the continent, workers are fighting against this 
advance by those at the top: marches and protests, occupations of 
workplaces, support for popular plebiscites, organization of new sectors 
of workers, intersocial organizations in defense of natural goods and 
work, of education and health, the mobilizations for the distressing 
issue of housing and access to land.

There is a long way to go, a new stage of struggles needs novel 
experiences, anchored in a past of struggle and in a methodology of 
direct action, of massive participation of workers in the resolution of 
their problems and in the construction of a class perspective, from a 
much richer social horizon and not limited to the dynamics of capital.

And although more than a century has passed since that historic feat, 
the plundering of the dominant sectors has increased, trying to 
overwhelm any type of workers' organization; That is why there is a 
constant attack on unions, Collective Labor Agreements and labor 
stability itself from the different governments, with their nuances, in 
the southern cone.

As in the time of the Chicago Martyrs, we find ourselves in an 
international context where imperial powers promote wars and invasions - 
and arms races - and push us, the popular sectors, to engage in 
nationalist initiatives that are foreign to us.

That is why this May 1st it is necessary to remember our history, our 
Chicago Martyrs, knowing that the best tribute we can pay them is to 
raise those historical flags of the labor movement, reinforcing 
internationalism, solidarity between peoples, and the defense of our 
union and popular organizations to stop any attempt to subjugate rights; 
We know that we can expect nothing from the businessmen and politicians 
in power. Their society projects are the ruin of the people. It is only 
with the organization of those from below, maintaining class 
independence, continuing the path of struggle that others marked. With 
the methods they taught us: action and direct democracy, always in 
solidarity with any class brother or sister anywhere in the world.

On our continent there is a stage of struggles that is still open: it 
began in 2019, but the social problems have not been resolved, but have 
become more acute. It is our task as Organized Anarchists to push for 
popular rebellion to once again win the streets, the factories, the 
places of work and study, and the fields. Only in this way will we 
achieve conquests and advances today, moving towards a new society.

FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF POPULAR POWER!!!

LONG LIVE MAY 1ST!!!

LONG LIVE THE MARTYRS OF CHICAGO!!!

UP THOSE WHO FIGHT!!!

LATIN AMERICAN ANARCHIST COORDINATION (CALA)

Anarchist Federation of Rosario (FAR)

Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU)

Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB)

SISTER ORGANIZATIONS:

Santiago Anarchist Federation (FAS)

Libertarian Group Vía Libre (Colombia)

Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation (USA)

Anarchist Organization of Córdoba (OAC)

Anarchist Organization of Tucumán (OAT)

Anarchist Organization of Santa Cruz (OASC)

https://federacionanarquistauruguaya.uy/1o-de-mayo-la-lucha-de-los-martires-de-chicago-mas-vigente-que-nunca/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en