May Day 2022

 

Our Blog of the Week takes you back to nationwide demonstrations for an eight-hour work week in 1886 and juxtaposes those demonstrations with what has, and hasn’t changed, for workers today. Much has changed since the first May Day, but building worker power and combating racism and xenophobia remain just as important. May 1 is International Workers’ Day, a day workers around the world mark as Labor Day with marches, demonstrations, and renewed calls for workers’ rights. “May Day” got its start in 1886, when U.S. workers rallied in support of ongoing campaigns for an eight-hour day, setting May 1 as a deadline to begin mass strikes if employers failed to adopt shorter hours. In 1886 Chicago, where tens of thousands joined May Day actions and thousands went on strike, subsequent police shootings of striking workers escalated into the well-known Haymarket Tragedy. Months of state-sanctioned, anti-immigrant repression of labor organizing followed. Police raids of union halls and arrests of organizers culminated in a sham trial, eight guilty verdicts, and public hanging of four prominent immigrant, working-class movement leaders (a fifth died by suicide prior to the execution date). The trial and executions were followed closely by workers across the country and around the world. In memory of the Haymarket Martyrs, labor and socialist organizations declared May Day International Workers’ Day, now an official public holiday in many countries.

The Ukraine War: Dilemma for the U.S. Left

 The Ukraine War: Dilemma for the U.S. Left

APRIL 8, 2022 BY DAVID M. KOTZ. DEMOCRATIC LEFT. 

 

 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was unjustified, and the U.S. Left must condemn it. At the same time, the Left should not buy into the distortions and half-truths in the portrayal of the conflict now being aggressively promoted by the U.S.  government and mass media. Neither should the Left consider looking favorably on Vladimire Putin’s Russia as a purportedly anti-imperialist force in the world, despite Russia’s past opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq and intervention in Libya.  Some background on the rise of Putin’s regime is helpful for working out a left-wing policy regarding the disastrous invasion of Ukraine. 

Origins of the Putin Regime 

 

https://www.dsausa.org/democratic-left/the-ukraine-war-dilemma-for-the-u-s-left/

Well informed observers. 

What Russia Has Done in Ukraine _ Photos

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The Reality Check: AT THE END OF THIS HATED WAR, WE NEED TRUTH

The Reality Check: AT THE END OF THIS HATED WAR, WE NEED TRUTH: AT THE END OF THIS HATED WAR, WE NEED TRUTH By David Bacon Foreign Policy in Focus | August 30, 2021 https://fpif.org/at-the-end-of-this-hat...