A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #13-26 - International May Day (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

More than a hundred years have passed since Errico Malatesta lamented in 
these pages that May Day demonstrations no longer aroused the enthusiasm 
of so many years ago. ---- May Day remains a great international day. 
Even its balls, its parties, its concerts have an intrinsically 
revolutionary character, because they are the result of desertion from 
military service in the service of capitalist competitiveness and 
productivity. ---- Desertion must be the watchword of this May Day. 
Desertion from the production and transportation of weapons, desertion 
from every government and their wars. Therefore, solidarity with 
deserters and the fight against militarism: these are the themes for a 
contemporary interpretation of the internationalist character of May Day.

In the article published in Umanità Nova in 1920, Malatesta summarized 
the criticisms that a more "intransigent" segment of the anarchist 
movement, already leveled at the beginning of the last century, 
regarding the "degeneration" of May Day. Pietro Gori also protested 
against these criticisms in his time.

The reasons for these criticisms were manifold: regret for the loss of 
its revolutionary character was compounded, for some, by the refusal to 
prepare for an internationally agreed-upon event. Movements are 
spontaneous, it was said, and cannot be summoned on command, according 
to predetermined deadlines; still others expressed contempt for mass 
participation, which diluted the revolutionary character of minorities 
and individuals. Overshadowing all this, however, loomed one of the main 
obstacles to the anarchist movement's action: the belief that even May 
Day was not revolutionary enough for anarchists.

Errico Malatesta takes up these criticisms and turns them on their head: 
it is not the character of the masses that weakens the revolutionary 
character of May Day, but the insufficient involvement of the anarchist 
movement. It is up to anarchists, Malatesta argues, to characterize May 
Day as revolutionary and enrich it with content, without allowing 
themselves to be influenced by the process of weakening. What would good 
old Errico say, now that May Day is a national holiday? Even the Church, 
concerned about the exploited classes' support for the occasion, decided 
to intervene by dedicating the first day of May to Saint Joseph the Worker.

Yet even today, May Day, with its swarm of picnics, songs, dances, 
parties, and concerts, casts a threatening shadow over the privileged 
classes and governments, who do everything they can to nullify it and 
empty it of meaning.

And May Day remains a major international event. The idea of an 
affirmation of will by the exploited classes and the revolutionary 
forces of all countries on a specific, not random, day; the gesture by 
which, on the same day, workers around the world quit their jobs and 
deserted their workplaces. All of this still represents a threat to 
those who would chain us to the mirage of capitalist competitiveness and 
productivity. The celebration of the labor movement's achievements, 
through celebrations as well as rallies, is a testament to the growing 
awareness of society's class divisions and the solidarity of the 
proletariat beyond the boundaries drawn on paper.

Moreover, the revolutionary nature of the celebration should not be 
underestimated.

Governments envision a future of scarcity and catastrophe, in which war 
once again becomes the instrument for resolving international disputes. 
A bleak future of subjugation to capital's chariot, under the guise of 
co-participation and national solidarity. Modern production is 
unthinkable without the discipline of those who provide labor capacity. 
All energies must be directed toward increasing productivity, 
disciplining and repressing vital instincts and regulating the 
consumption of food, beverages, and any substance that could impair the 
labor force's ability to function. At the same time, the body and mind 
of those who provide the workforce become the field in which discipline 
techniques are tested, along with the administration of substances 
capable of increasing work performance and making individuals more 
disciplined with respect to corporate hierarchy.

Thus, even a party, which interrupts this mechanism of submission to 
production at all costs, takes on a subversive character, and the same 
picnic, which frees people from the concrete of dormitory neighborhoods 
for a day, ends up being more effective than a rally in exemplifying the 
character of the society we want to build.

It is up to the anarchist movement to instill in these moments of 
liberation from the yoke of capitalist exploitation the elements of 
revolutionary intransigence that characterized May Day from the beginning.

Remembering the origins of May Day means remembering the Chicago 
Martyrs. August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, and George Engel 
were hanged for organizing a strike on May 1, 1886, demanding the 
implementation of the eight-hour law. Louis Lingg committed suicide in 
prison the day before his hanging.

Remembering May Day means remembering the universal, cosmopolitan 
solidarity, transcending all homelands, of every person oppressed by 
work and driven by the desire for emancipation.

May Day offers us the example of great days of struggle, built on the 
unity of forces that call themselves the workers' movement. The 
anarchist movement alone would not have been able to bring this 
experience to life. We must therefore be able to build relationships 
with other components, while always remaining ourselves. The history of 
May Day itself demonstrates that thanks to the commitment of part of the 
anarchist movement, this date was successfully defined. Another segment 
of the movement, in the name of a misguided purism, preferred not to 
participate in decision-making. If the entire anarchist movement had 
followed this path, the Social Democratic leaders would have had the 
path paved to transform May Day into a simple propaganda opportunity for 
their electoral aims, to be held on the first Sunday in May. As they 
wanted to do, and as was not done.

"Desert, phalanxes of slaves," exhorts Pietro Gori's May Day anthem. 
Desertion from work is a central element of May Day. Today, desertion 
takes on a more general meaning, given the progressive transformation of 
the economy into a war economy. And alongside the more general desertion 
from work, we must also demand desertion from the production and 
trafficking of weapons, which fuels wars around the world. It's not just 
an individual choice to ease our conscience. Desertion is the first step 
in building a mass movement to influence production and distribution, so 
that the production of death can be transformed into the production of 
goods and services designed to alleviate the misery of the majority of 
humanity.

Above all, desertion from all wars. To those who say there is an 
aggressor and an aggressed, we repeat that all governments, all 
capitalists, are the aggressors. We must desert all wars, we must 
support deserters, opening our borders and organizing all possible forms 
of support.

This is what May Day 2026 calls us to do.

Enough with militarism! The march toward war can only be stopped by 
grassroots action.

Long live May Day! Long live the international unity of the working 
class! Long live anarchy!

Tiziano Antonelli

https://umanitanova.org/primo-maggio-internazionale/
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