A-Infos (en) Czech, AFED, A3: Until labor is free - May Day - Labor Day is upon us. What is its anarchist content? (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

May Day, the day officially known as Labor Day, is approaching. Let's 
see where its roots are and if there is really something to celebrate. 
---- Let's start with the history. We could talk about it for a long 
time, but we will summarize it in a few sentences. At the beginning, the 
movement for the eight-hour working day stood in the United States, 
where demonstrations were already held for this demand in 1872-73. 
Unions in the US and Canada decided that starting May 1, 1886, workers 
would only work eight hours. Workers in Chicago were also preparing for 
this date. But it was preceded by large-scale repression in the Mac 
Cormik farm machinery factory with the help of the state and private 
police. On that day, more than 25,000 workers stopped work in Chicago, 
and by May 4, the strike had become almost universal. The leading 
speakers at the meetings were anarchists. On 3 May, police opened fire 
on about 200 strikers outside Mac Cormick's factory, leaving six dead. 
The next day, a demonstration was called at the Haymarket, the police 
took violent action against the peaceful assembly. After a while, there 
was an explosion, followed by police shooting. Thrown by an unknown 
hand, the puma killed seven capital guards. Subsequently, eight 
anarchists were arrested and charged with murder, although only two of 
them were present, and even they were not proven. The prosecutor 
declared: "The workers must be driven into their holes like rats." It 
was decided in advance that the defendants must be executed. This 
happened on November 11, 1887. Two years later, at the International 
Socialist Congress, a proposal was made to hold international workers' 
demonstrations from May 1, 1890, in honor of these events.

The capitalists and the media serving them portrayed the coming event as 
the end of the world (their world). Unfortunately, nothing of the sort 
happened. There were also strikes and demonstrations in the Czech 
Republic, especially in the mining north and in Prague, where thousands 
of people filled Strelecky Island and the adjacent waterfront. Modern 
anarchists commemorate this event every year at this place, and this 
year is no different.

The ruling classes of the individual regimes soon understood that it is 
easier to co-opt this holiday, i.e. to include it in their own 
ideological framework, and thus to suppress its subversive potential, 
than to stand violently against a holiday that the working class has 
adopted as their own. Thus, on May Day, various political parties began 
to take to the streets, and in many places the day became an official 
holiday celebrating work.

But there is a big difference in the ideological conception of the work 
of authoritarian regimes, such as they are or were capitalist, Bolshevik 
or fascist, and in the conception of the work of, for example, the 
Chicago anarchists who stood up for their ideas and desires on the 
gallows. The ideology of work presented by capitalists, fascists and 
Bolsheviks is quite similar. Their main concern is to impose on workers 
the idea that wage labor is a virtue that ennobles them and, according 
to some brutally cynical slogans, even liberates them. This idea is 
always to show the workers where their place is in society - that is, at 
the bottom, in an unprivileged position that belongs to "virtues" such 
as loyalty, obedience, diligence and also national pride. The latter is 
then supposed to ensure the dedication of workers in wars for the 
interests of their ruling class.

Such an approach would undoubtedly be described by the Chicago 
anarchists and their followers as the construction of a slave mentality 
and a great deception that serves only those at the top, whether in 
their pursuit of maximizing profits or consolidating positions of power 
without the risk of resistance from the underprivileged. The anarchist 
ideal of work is quite different.
It is not based on the interests of a narrow minority at the expense of 
the rest of society, but on the interests of both each individual and 
society as a whole. It does not stand on the principle of exploitation 
and abysmal social inequalities like the current regime, but on the 
principles of truly free choice, free agreement, solidarity, mutual 
support and social equality.

On May Day, we anarchists do not celebrate work that does not develop or 
satisfy us, but on the contrary kills, bores and degrades us to mere 
cogs in the profit-generating machine of a narrow elite. We celebrate 
free work on May Day. The kind of work that doesn't reek of slavery, 
serfdom, mercenary or mercenary work. Work that we can decide on 
ourselves in cooperation with others who participate in it in the same 
way. Work that is a joy to do. Work that benefits us and our 
surroundings. Work where we have full control over inputs and outputs. 
Work that emancipates us, bonds communities and heals society and the 
planet. Work that makes the world a better place for everyone.

The eight-hour workday, taken for granted by those of us more fortunate 
than those who don't have to take on more jobs to survive, was a radical 
and supremely heretical demand in its day. And for us to take it for 
granted, it was not without long periods of struggle and sacrifice. 
Equally heretical is our demand for free labor today.

And it looks like he won't be without long fights either.

https://www.afed.cz/text/8156/a3-dokud-nebude-prace-svobodna
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