A-Infos (en) UK, ACG, The Anarchist Origins of 1st May (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

"The first of May is the symbol of a new era in the life and struggle of 
the toilers, an era that each year offers the toilers fresh, 
increasingly tough and decisive battles against the bourgeoisie, for the 
freedom and independence wrested from them, for their social ideal." -- 
Nestor Makhno ---- The idea of turning the 1st of May into a day of 
action for workers was first proposed at the 4th congress of the 
American Federation of Labor (AFL). It was decided to launch, starting 
from the 1st of May 1886, a wide campaign of agitation and struggle 
focused on limiting the working week to forty hours. The most radical 
actions took place in Chicago. At that time, Chicago had the most 
developed workers movement in the USA with a strong anarchist presence.
Following the 1st of May 1886, strikes were still ongoing as the fight 
with employers became tougher. On the 4th of May, a meeting gathering 
around 15,000 people was attacked by police. By the end of the day, both 
sides had suffered numerous dead and wounded. It was a perfect occasion 
to muzzle the protest. Eight of the main organisers, all anarchists, 
were arrested and sentenced to death. The sentence was turned to life 
imprisonment for three of them.
On 11 November 1887, Albert Parsons, Adolphe Fischer, George Engel and 
August Spies were hanged. Their comrade Louis Lingg committed suicide 
the day before to avoid execution. A few years later, they were 
acquitted of all charges and the court admitted that the police and 
justice system set up the case to criminalise and break down the 
workers' movement. The eight accused were declared innocent and the 
three survivors set free.
The 1st of May is definitely a page of workers' history stained with 
anarchist blood.
State, Police and Capital
THE 1st of May is an occasion to remind us that the fight against 
capitalism is still going on. Nowadays in Europe, strikes and social 
struggles are seriously discredited. Yet, the difference between rich 
and poor keeps growing, the financial markets are back in the saddle and 
traders are still handling billions of dollars. Are we wrong to ask for 
more when half of the world's wealth is owned by 1% of the population? 
Meanwhile, workers are asked to make more and more effort to "save" the 
economy and put the State back on its feet with its batch of new taxes 
(such as the bedroom tax) and cuts in public services. We are heading 
toward a neo-liberal capitalist system in which the State's main purpose 
is to maintain social control so capitalism can develop without constraint.
Workers are producing everything and yet they own very little.
Revolutionary politics
Over a century after that first May Day demonstration in Chicago, where 
are we? We stroll through town with our banners. Then we stand around 
listening to boring (and usually pretty meaningless) speeches by equally 
boring union bureaucrats. You have to keep reminding yourself that May 
Day was once a day when workers all over the world displayed their 
strength, proclaimed their ideals and celebrated their successes.
It is important that "once upon a time" it was like that. We can do it 
again. We need independent working class politics. No collaboration with 
government and bosses. Real solidarity with fellow workers in struggle, 
not a blinkered sectional outlook.
We need revolutionary politics. That means politics that can lead us 
towards a new society based on equality, social justice and freedom. A 
society where production is to satisfy needs, not to make profits for a 
privileged few. Anarchist communism.
As anarchist communists, we think that human beings shouldn't be defined 
by the surplus value they bring to capitalism. Work should be the way to 
produce by necessity and not to create new needs. Work must be organised 
so everyone can work less, and for means other than profitability. No 
capitalist society will ever achieve full employment because it needs a 
pool of unemployed people so the necessity to work can make us accept 
bad working conditions. In order to reorganise work, we need a society 
free from class and leaders, and in which society is managed in a 
self-organised way. This is what the Anarchist Communist Group is 
fighting for.
Direct action gets the goods, not waiting for an election in 2029, which 
just might deliver another Labour government that will continue with 
business as usual.

JackDaw May Day special:
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