Anarchic update news all over the world - 4.05.2017

Today's Topics:

   
1.  anarkismo.net: Beyond May Day Parades: Building a
      Counter-Movement in Malaysia and Worldwide by Muttaqa Yushau
      Abdulra'uf, Sian Byrne, Warren McGregor and L 
     (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Britain, solfed: Brighton: Precarious Mayday
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  First of May Anarchist Alliance: Mayday and Pikeville, KY by
      BD - 1M Detroit Collective (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Czech,   afed track the May Day tradition in 1886 [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  anarsist faaliyet: On Referendum-2 (tr) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Slovania afed: Alternative Anarchist 1.Máj by Johny(J)
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  iww org: Industrial Worker-Spring 2017 #1779 Vol. 114, No. 2
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1



Let us learn from our past struggles, in the USA and in Malaysia. May Day should be an 
occasion to reflect not jubilate, to engage not agonize, to demand not relent, and to 
organise, not complain. We need systemic change that can guarantee equality, fraternity, 
self-management and socialisation of the commonwealth, guided by a bottom-up approach to 
decision making. We need a labour movement that is multicultural and international, 
feminist, active in urban and rural struggles, and that prizes reason over superstition, 
justice over hierarchy, self-management over state power, international solidarity over 
nationalism. We need to fight for a universal human community, not parochialism and 
separatism. The organisational power and strategic location of the Malaysian union 
movement provides an excellent point of departure for building this counter-movement. This 
is our appeal and message as we celebrate this May Day, on the eve of dark days in which 
the storm clouds gather over humanity - but in which the light of hope of a better future 
can break through, if we arm ourselves with the correct ideas and approaches. May Day 
began as an example of globalisation-from-below. Let us rally to it. Let us take back its 
original vision: liberty, equality, unity.

May Day, popularly known as international workers day, started with a historic fight for 
decent working hours that culminated in the execution of four trade unionists in Chicago, 
United States, in November 1887. This was a decisive moment in the struggle for a just 
society through militant trade unionism. May Day was globalised from 1889 by the workers' 
movement, being held in China from 1919, and in Malaysia from 1921. Today it remains a key 
day of reference - but its roots and aims are often forgotten.

May Day commemorations can be a platform to harness the power of the working class and 
poor into a counter-movement for social protection and changed society. Ordinary people 
worldwide face ecological problems, economic crisis, massive unemployment, low wages, 
denials of right to freedom of association, vulnerable, informal work and sub-contracting, 
suffering as immigrants- all in the context of destructive market competition and the rule 
of self-serving politicians and bosses.

Solutions do not lie in reformed capitalism or in the free market: the problems humanity 
faces have gotten worse. Capitalism adversely affects working class communities and their 
livelihoods; states act to enforce these horrors with laws and guns.

In Malaysia, this destruction is manifested in an ecological crisis expressed in disasters 
such as flooding that displaces tens of thousands, police brutality against picketing 
workers (like the National Union of Tobacco Industry), and a massive gap between rich and 
poor, powerful and powerless. Unions need to be central to the fight to win social 
protection floors, decent conditions and a better future for the Malaysian working family.

This article draws attention to the alternative: the "anarchist" ethos of firstly, 
building a working and poor people's counter-culture to unravel the dominant class culture 
in society; and secondly, building a counter-power from below, that draws its energy from 
the trade unions and workers, the unemployed, the poor and the peasantry (small farmers), 
to fight to change the world for the better.

Let us start by looking at what the "Chicago Martyrs" died for - and then at the 
historical role and the future potential of Malaysian trade unions in the fight for 
justice and equality.

ANARCHISM, CHICAGO AND MAY DAY

What the "Chicago Martyrs" died for in 1887 is often forgotten. These comrades were, in 
truth, proudly part of the global anarchist movement.

The term "anarchism" is often misunderstood. We still see this today, when the anarchist 
movement is growing everywhere. Anarchists and syndicalists like the "Chicago Martyrs" 
simply stand for a society run from the bottom-up by ordinary workers and farmers and 
their families - and not by capitalists and not by politicians. In place of the working 
and poor masses being ruled and exploited from above, they argue communities and 
workplaces should be run through federated people's councils and assemblies, based on 
participatory democracy, self-management, participatory planning.

This new society would emerge from the creation of a transformative counter-culture and 
counter-power among the working and poor masses, which would enable them to fight for 
improvements in the here and now - but eventually provide the framework for a whole new 
society. The new society would emerge in the womb of the old, through struggle. In this 
way, tomorrow is built in today's movements.

Anarchism developed as a global mass movement from the 1870s onwards, including in the 
United States, and in parts of Africa and Asia; its stress on struggle from below for a 
radically democratic socialist society and for individual freedom appealed to the 
oppressed in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas.

MAY DAY: GLOBAL STRIKE OR RITUAL PARADE?

This was the movement of the "Chicago martyrs". Workers around the world were shocked by 
their brutal executions: they wanted to show their solidarity, worldwide, to fight 
worldwide, together. May Day was adopted as an international working class day of 
struggle, firstly, for remembrance of the "Chicago Martyrs" and secondly, to continue to 
wage the fight for justice and freedom.

While some political currents saw this as meaning basically street processions and 
speeches, the anarchists aimed to use May Day as a mighty tool for organising the working 
class into a global general strike. When anarchists and other socialists formed the Labour 
and Socialist International in 1889, they jointly agreed to proclaim May Day as 
international workers day, to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs, to fight for the 8 hour 
day, and to build the global unity of the working class, the peasantry and the poor.

TAKING UNIONISM FORWARD

So, we need to move beyond the usual May Day pattern of declaring work-free days, and, as 
workers, engage proactively in grappling with the challenges facing the working classes in 
Malaysia and elsewhere. These challenges include the rights of migrant workers, the right 
to organise and bargain collectively, and the fights against occupational hazards and for 
decent working hours.

We must admit that much needs to be done to make the union movement relevant to the 
larger, struggling, oppressed sector of society, to push for real improvements in the 
conditions of the working and poor masses.

But unions have responsibilities that go far beyond simple bread-and-butter issues like 
wages. They provide a space to mobilise and educate people in large numbers, to overcome 
divisions of race, language, sex and migrant/ local. They also have an ummatched strategic 
power at the point of production that makes them a very powerful force and ally for other 
segments of the masses. They can provide powerful muscles for all progressive struggles.

Labour creates wealth. This means the masses have great structural power, and that unions 
are especially well-placed to wield this power.

WHERE TO NEXT?

But the burning questions remains: how can this strategic power be used to empower all the 
masses who toil to make the wealth? And, when that power is wielded, what steps can be 
taken to ensure that those who toil will have control over this wealth?

At present, it is not the masses, who toil to create wealth, that benefit. It is the elite 
economic and political minorities who enjoying the lion's share - without doing the lion's 
work.

The answer to these questions, which can be learnt from the "Chicago Martyrs", is in 
building a working and poor people's counter-culture and counter power, with the anarchist 
ethos. This building can start from the strong foundations laid by many years of union 
struggle.

The "Chicago Martyrs" were part of a powerful movement, which produced its own popular 
newspapers, ran theatres, held rallies, organised the unemployed, fought against women's 
oppression, racism and the hatred of foreigners, and that educated and mobilised the 
masses on a positive programme for an anarchist world. They actively built the ideas and 
structures needed for that world to emerge: they built counter-culture and counter-power. 
It was this mass movement for which they gave their lives. We need to build similar 
capacities.

MAY DAY, ANARCHISM AND UNIONISM IN MALAYSIA

Why should Malaysian labour not learn from this, and thereby use May Day as a moment to 
reflect on - and champion - a radical unionism that will place unions at the heart of the 
people's struggle for justice and freedom, anchored in the current challenges facing 
migrant workers' right to social protection and decent working hours in Malaysia?

Unionism in Malaysia has a proud history of fighting for justice and freedom. In 1919, May 
Day was celebrated in Beijing and Shanghai, and in 1921, it was celebrated for the first 
time - clandestinely - in Ipo, Malaysia. The country was then a British colony, and the 
workers fought colonialism too. And it was the anarchists who started May Day and the 
union movement in Malaysia. They were part of a radical network stretching across China, 
to Indonesia, to Japan, as well as into the West: anarchists, mainly Chinese, started May 
Day in Singapore.

In 1922, printers, fearful of colonial repression, refused to print the anarchist 
materials for May Day. But many anarchist materials entered the country from outside, like 
"Anarchist Morality" by Piotr Kropotkin, local materials, like Tai Yeung ("Sun") of Kuala 
Lumpur and Yan Kheun ("Power of the Proletariat") of Gopeng, near Ipoh. Attacks by a few 
anarchists on high-ranking colonial officials in Kuala Lumpur led to repression and 
meanwhile, the anarchists faced growing rivals from the rising Communist movement. And 
leftists in the unions were heavily repressed by the British in the 1920s and 1930s.

After World War 2, the colonial government changed its stance on unions, allowing some 
rights, but was determined to push leftists like anarchists out and to divide Indians and 
Chinese. The Malaysian Trade Union Council (MTUC) is a federation of trade unions 
registered in 1955. The oldest national centre representing the Malaysian workers, its 
affiliated unions represent all major industries and sectors, with approximately 500,000 
members.

The organizational strength of MTUC should be harnessed to agitate for the just and humane 
working conditions that May Day demands. This should include work amongst the migrant 
workers, about whose debilitating working conditions horrifying stories are known. To 
unions like MTUC falls the duty of uniting all workers, against oppressive economic and 
political elites.

MAY DAY TODAY: GLOBALISE FROM BELOW

The working class in Malayasia is part of the global proletariat and shares its pain and 
power. Working class challenges become ever more global the more capital and states 
globalize. Hence, labour internationalism and transnational solidarities become inevitable 
for meeting the challenges of building a counter-hegemonic bloc that taps its energy both 
from the shop floor, in the working class districts, and among the peasantry, poor and 
unemployed.

The MTUC together with civil society groups in Malaysia need to form a formidable 
organisation (a counter-power) for addressing the social holocaust. As capital and states 
globalise, popular organisations must globalise, with a programme for democratic unions, 
unity among the people, social justice and struggle against the bosses and politicians. 
The alternative is grim, deeper inequality, and deep national and racial divisions in the 
class of the dispossessed.

Economic growth should only be celebrated if embedded in rights protection, a shifting 
balance of power to ordinary people, environmental sustainability, improved conditions, 
and the creation from below of a new and better order.

NEO-LIBERALISM AT THE CROSSROADS - WHAT NEXT?

Despite the global crisis of neo-liberal capitalism, what alternatives are being proposed? 
This is the question that must be faced.

Neo-liberalism is not a solution for the working and poor masses. It has forced labour 
into retreat through flexible labour markets characterised by outsourcing, subcontracting, 
labour brokerage and mass firings. It has weakened the organisational power of the working 
class, and promoted the proliferation of unorganised, vulnerable employment and an 
expanding informal sector. Meanwhile the commodification of welfare, the removal of 
subsidies, and rising taxes and prices, have hit the masses hard.

In the face of the challenges, the MTUC and the Malaysian labour movement need to revise 
its organising and political strategy. It is important to build a counter-movement that 
can replace the existing rentier and predatory state system with a participatory democracy 
from the bottom-up, based on the principles of equality and social justice as envisioned 
by the anarchists and the "Chicago Martyrs."

CONCLUSION: WORKING CLASS POWER FOR A BETTER WORLD

The organisational power and strategic location of the Malaysian union movement provides 
an excellent point of departure for building a counter-movement. The strength of the 
Malaysian working class, both in white and blue collar jobs, can and should be translated 
into a viable political and social movement that has a clear agenda for change - and 
provide an alternative to the current, ruinous state system. A movement that should 
exemplify a counter-culture, counter-power and practice that is bottom-up, democratic, 
based on solidarity, participation and accountability, that refuses to rely on politicians 
and leaders and that fights for a world that goes beyond both capitalism and 
neo-liberalism and statism and parliaments.

To struggle to fix the current state system would be an exercise in futility: even the 
best politicians are powerless to change the state. We dare not tinker with reform that 
always fails. Rather, we need systemic change that can guarantee equality, fraternity, 
self-management and socialisation of the commonwealth, guided by a bottom-up approach to 
decision making. We need a labour movement that is multicultural and international, 
feminist, active in urban and rural struggles, and that prizes reason over superstition, 
justice over hierarchy, self-management over state power, international solidarity over 
nationalism. We need to fight for a universal human community, not parochialism and 
separatism.

This is our appeal and message as we celebrate this May Day, on the eve of dark days in 
which the storm clouds gather over humanity - but in which the light of hope of a better 
future can break through, if we arm ourselves with the correct ideas and approaches.

May Day began as an example of globalisation-from-below. And it continues to be a rallying 
point for workers everywhere, 120 years on. Let us rally to it. Let us take back its 
original vision: liberty, equality, unity.

Hence, May Day should be an occasion to reflect not jubilate, to engage not agonize, to 
demand not relent, and to organise, not complain.

REFERENCES

On Malaysian anarchist history: Datuk Khoo Kay Kim and Ranjit Singh Malhl, "Malaysia: 
Chinese anarchists started trade unions", 'The Sunday Star,' 12 September 1993.

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/30221

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Message: 2




We've been holding Mayday events for the past few years, trying to bring International 
Workers Day back to its roots in worker militancy and anarchist organising. This year, 
we're joining in the call from a coalition of local grassroots initiatives organising 
against casualised working conditions and the housing crisis. Meet 7pm Jubilee Square - A 
critical mass bike block will lead the (walking) demonstration - if you want to take part 
in that block, just bring a bike. ---- We are couriers, educators, shelf stackers, and 
students - and we've had enough. This mayday precarious workers in Brighton will bring 
together our common demands and campaigns. For a living wage and union recognition, 
against wage cuts, high rents and precarity. The only way we'll make our lives better is 
by fighting together.

Called by a coalition of grassroots unions, rank and file campaigns and social movement 
groups, including: Brighton Solfed, Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB), Brighton 
Uni Alternative Students Union and Precarious workers, Brighton Plan C, Sussex Uni Cut the 
Rent and the Supermarket Anti-Work Brigade.

http://www.solfed.org.uk/brighton/brighton-precarious-mayday

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Message: 3




May Day is International Workers' Day ---- May Day, first of May, is International 
Workers' Day. Fighting workers the world over stand together and in solidarity on May Day. 
We remember May 1, 1886, the day workers across the U.S. went on general strike to demand 
and to implement the 8 hour day. Hundreds of thousands of workers struck on that day. 
Labor unions and central labor councils in many cities supported the strikes, and the 
movement was strongest in Chicago. ---- Anarchists around the country, but especially in 
Chicago, were in the forefront of this strike and the struggle for the 8 hour day. In 
1881, workers from many countries had formed the International Working People's 
Association (IWPA), known as the Black international, the anarchist international

Workers and anarchists from the U.S. joined the IWPA, but there were two currents or 
approaches within the IWPA in the U.S. and other countries. One wing was Individualist 
anarchists, who believed in propaganda by the deed and opposed participation in what they 
described as reformist struggles. Another wing, including the Chicago anarchists, did 
believe in participating in workers' struggles, in the developing labor movement and in 
the struggle for the 8 hour day. Albert Parsons, Lucy Parsons, August Spies and others had 
to convince some of their fellow anarchists that it was necessary for the developing 
anarchist movement to be based in the working class and the struggles of the working 
class. As a result, anarchists were in the forefront of the struggle for the 8 hour day in 
Chicago and elsewhere. These anarchists, who we remember every May Day, urged workers to 
organize, to strike, to use the general strike and direct action to win the 8 hour day, 
and they urged workers to arm themselves and to defend themselves against police, employer 
and scab attacks.

Chicago anarchists Albert and Lucy Parsons.

In Chicago, on May 1, Lucy Parsons and Albert Parsons and other anarchists marched with 
40,000 striking workers to demand the 8 hour day. On May 2, Chicago anarchists joined with 
the McCormick Harvester strikers. August Spies, an anarchist, spoke at the rally urging 
the strikers and supporters to fight back and defend themselves against scabs and police 
who were mobilizing to attack the strikers. The police and strikebreakers did attack the 
rally, killing two striking workers and injuring many more. On the next day, anarchists 
called a meeting at Haymarket Square in Chicago to protest against the police murders of 
striking workers. Albert Parsons, August Spies and other Chicago anarchists spoke at the 
rally. Toward the end of the rally, police charged the protest to break it up. A bomb was 
thrown into the police; one policeman was killed, others were injured, and six more police 
died from injuries.

No one was ever charged with throwing the bomb, but Albert Parsons, August Spies and six 
other Chicago anarchists were charged with conspiracy and put on trial for murder. The 
state didn't claim that the Chicago anarchists had thrown the bomb; they put anarchism and 
anarchist organizers on trial for being revolutionaries. All eight anarchists were 
convicted and five were sentenced to death. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, 
George Engel were hanged by state of Illinois in 1887. Louis Lingg, also sentenced to 
hang, committed suicide on the night before the scheduled executions.

The ruling class killed the Chicago anarchists and attacked anarchists' offices and 
newspapers and organizations. The rulers feared anarchism and the influence of the 
anarchists and the revolutionary approach of the anarchists as part of the working class 
movement, the growing union movement and the struggle for the 8 hour day. The ruling class 
killed the Chicago anarchists, because these anarchists were dangerous. The anarchists 
understood that revolutionaries could not stand aside from the workers' struggles, could 
not stand aside from the movement for the 8 hour day. The anarchists understood that the 
way to build the revolutionary movement and the international anarchist movement was 
through direct participation in the struggles of working people. They understood that 
anarchists could not look down at reformist struggles, but instead should build and 
participate in these struggles and convince workers of the need for anarchism and 
revolution by the lessons learned in these joint struggles. The anarchists were in the 
forefront of the fight and the strikes for the 8 hour day. The anarchists were in the 
forefront of the growing union movement and were urging workers to defend themselves and 
to prepare for revolution. This is why the ruling class killed them.

Louis Lingg, 21 year old Haymarket Martyr, said this in his final statement to the court 
which had ordered his execution: " I repeat that I am the enemy of the ‘order' of today, 
and I repeat that, with all my powers, so long as breath remains in me, I shall combat it 
... I despise you. I despise your order; your laws, your force-propped authority. Hang me 
for it!"

The rulers killed the Haymarket anarchists in 1887, 130 years ago. It's important that we 
understand, today, the lessons that Haymarket teaches us. Revolutionary anarchists should 
participate in and be in the forefront of the struggles of working people and in defense 
of communities under attack, whether these struggles are revolutionary or reformist, 
whether it's a general strike for shorter hours or the struggles to build unions and 
workers' organizations or the defense of a Mosque or to oppose a deportation raid or join 
in struggles against police attacks. As working people and as revolutionary anarchists, we 
must organize to defend ourselves and our communities.

There is another important lesson we learn from the Haymarket martyrs. The anarchists in 
Chicago and in the International Working People's Association (IWPA) organized all 
workers: skilled and unskilled, women and men, Black and white, recent immigrants and all 
nationalities. They opposed white supremacy and urged a united working class struggle and 
built united working class organizations and unions. The Chicago anarchists were active 
members of the IWPA, the anarchist international, which united workers and anarchists 
across all borders. This, too, is why the rulers killed them. These were dangerous and 
effective ideas, and broader sections of the working classes were taking up these ideas 
around the country and throughout the world.

Pikeville

There is today a fascist named Matthew Heimbach, , of the "Traditionalist Workers Party," 
who is calling for fascists and white supremacists to gather in Pikeville, Kentucky the 
weekend of April 28 and for "white workers to take back May Day." Heimbach has no 
knowledge of or denies the actual history of May Day as International Workers Day. He 
claims white workers should support white supremacy and beg the rulers for blessings 
because they are white. Heimbach also claims white workers should look out only for 
themselves and attack Muslims, Jews, immigrants, Black workers, Latinx workers, Indigenous 
peoples and Asians. These fascists say women are inferior to men and that being gay is an 
abomination and white people cannot date or marry anyone other than another white person. 
These fascists oppose freedom and believe they have the right to impose their vision of 
white supremacy and patriarchy on the rest of us.

We support anarchists and revolutionaries going to Pikeville at the end of April to oppose 
these fascists and to commemorate May Day, International Workers' Day. And we go to 
Pikeville to organize with working people in Pikeville and from surrounding communities to 
oppose fascism and to build a united working class struggle for freedom and revolution. We 
honor the heroic struggles of coal miners and their families in Pikeville and Harlan 
County and Mingo and Logan counties in West Virginia and throughout the region. From the 
1890's through the early 1900's through the battle of Matewan and the struggle of 
thousands of armed miners at Blair Mountain in 1921, through the battles to build the 
union in the 1930's and up through the Harlan County strike in the 1970's and beyond, 
miners and miners' families throughout the coal fields of Eastern Kentucky and West 
Virginia have participated in some of the most militant struggles in the history of 
workers in this country.

Cops attack West Virginia miners strike 1975
The ruling class, the capitalists, and their agents are attacking the entire working class 
in the search for more profits and to defend and protect their power and wealth. These are 
attacks on working people around the world. Austerity, growing fascist movements, attacks 
on "the other," are not just in the U.S. but are worldwide. And in the U.S. cities are 
under attack, schools are under attack, poor people are under attack. There are attacks on 
Muslims and immigrants and Latinx communities. There are increased police attacks on Black 
communities. And for all us, it's fewer jobs and lower wages and cuts in benefits and 
failing health care and ongoing attacks on the planet. These attacks hit all working 
people in the U.S., including white working people and all poor people.

These attacks also hit folks who considered themselves to be middle class or who had 
skilled jobs and earned enough to live what was considered a "middle class' lifestyle. 
These folks, many of them white, also are under attack and losing ground and worried about 
the future. The ruling class hits the middle class and better off workers and grinds us 
all down. Trump tells these folks to stick with him and make America great again by making 
America white again and attacking the "other." Heimbach says these white folks should join 
the fascists and present themselves to the rulers as a force to oppose and attack the 
working class and to divide the working class and to attack the fighting organizations of 
the working class and the oppressed. Heimbach says white workers should be loyal to the 
rulers and the system and put their lives on the line to protect the wealth and the power 
of the ruling class, protect the very system which grinds them down and act as the 
ultimate scabs on the rest of the working class.

We say white workers and all workers should face reality. There is one working class, and 
we are all in it. We are under attack by the rulers and the capitalist class and their 
system. They are moving to broader wars and more dangerous confrontations. They are moving 
to increasing nationalism and patriotism and authoritarianism. The rulers and the 
corporations double down on destruction of the environment and the planet in order to 
protect and increase their power and privilege and profits. And the rulers use their 
government to deflect anger away from the billionaires and their system by scapegoating 
and attacking Muslims, the Latinx community, immigrants, refugees, the Black community and 
poor people and marginalized communities. It's deportation raids, and attempts at Muslim 
bans, and build the wall and militarized, multi-jurisdictional police attacks which bring 
armored personnel carriers to the streets of our cities. And it's more jails and more 
prisons and more detention centers and more prisoners and detainees.

In this atmosphere and in this time, the fascists and the base for fascism are growing. 
Fascists and white supremacists move in and around the Trump supporters and call 
themselves patriotic and defenders of free speech and nationalists. Fascist movements are 
gaining strength in Europe, the U.S., in Canada and in many areas of the world. The danger 
is real. The fascists urge white folks to join with them to defend the system of white 
supremacy and patriarchy and capitalism and to direct their fear and anger against other 
workers and people of color and anyone who is not white and is not a racist and to attack. 
The fascists want power and control and domination. They stand for death and genocide.

Are you on the side of the wealthy few and their government and the fascists or on the 
side of the working people, the international working class and all oppressed people? 
"Which Side Are You On?" Florence Reece wrote that song in nearby Harlan County in the 
bitter struggles for the union and against the coal operators and their thugs in the 
1930's. That's the question of Pikeville. That's the question of May Day.

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

My dady was a miner,
And I'm a miner's son,
And I'll stick with the union
‘Til every battle's won.

They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there.
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J. H. Blair.

Oh workers can you stand it?
Oh tell me how you can?
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?

Don't scab for the bosses,
Don't listen to their lies.
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize!

http://m1aa.org/?p=1433

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Message: 4




In 1886, there were numerous in the United States and the Czech anarchist labor movement, 
which was added to the campaign for the enforcement of the eight-hour working day. ---- 
Czech immigrants were involved in various workers' associations and trade unions, for 
example. The anarchist International Working People's Association, under which functioned 
Czech section of the International Workers Unity. Its main character became a veteran of 
the workers' struggle and anarchist Jakub Mikolanda. Czech anarchists distributed 
leaflets, printed Future (Chicago) and proletarian (New York), written in German newspaper 
Arbeiter-Zeitung and English-language Alarm . They participated in demonstrations, strikes 
and struggles in the workplace, which began to erupt from 1885 to uphold the requirement 
of an eight-hour working day. The center of their movement became Chicago and closest 
cooperation is governed the German-speaking colleagues. Many are so well known is later 
haymarketskými judicial victims, German anarchists Lingg, Fisher and Schwab. Lingg even 
said that he has great respect and affection for the Czech participants in the movement, 
because at that time belonged to the most combative in the strikes and demonstrations in 
Chicago proletariat.

When he broke out May 1, 1886 general strike, there were also Czech anarchists. Third of 
May, participated in a demonstration at the McCormick factory. Assembly workers at the end 
of the shift decided to take action against scabs. To help employers and protect scabs 
police intervened, after which there was a conflict. Finally, police opened fire on 
demonstrators, prompting the dead and wounded. The fact that the conflict also attended by 
Czech workers, documented case arrested Hynka Dejmka, whose arrest was actively helping to 
get out of the clutches of the police already mentioned Mikolanda. During the events of 
May 1886 were arrested in Chicago and other Czech anarchists, for example. Václav Dejmek, 
Jan Hronek, František Capek, František Chleboun, František Dvorák and the Czech Republic 
yet known songwriter work Josef Boleslav Pecka.

After the Haymarket tragedy the next day sparked the Chicago police in terror and the hunt 
for anarchists. In the working-class apartments, offices and printers raid took place, 
many people were beated and arrested. Mikolanda was arrested May 8 at night in one of the 
salons, where he was taken to his apartment, where police carried out a violent and 
indiscriminate searched, regardless of sleeping wife and children.

 From the testimony Mikolanda and brothers Dejmkových know about the practice when the 
police tried to convince the earliest after a good cooperation. He promised them a good 
job and money if they give false evidence against his colleagues. Czech anarchists but 
showed his pure character, and refused to betray even their ideals or their friends. 
Because of his attitude to the police station experienced hell. Torture and beatings 
lasted for several days, even they were threatened to be shot without trial, and their 
bodies will be lost. Police, however, did not break and must ultimately dismiss, even if 
Jakub Mikolanda was deported and held in a labor camp for almost half a year.

After the execution haymarketských martyrs, Czech anarchists and other workers 
participated in the funeral procession, which numbered almost half a million people, and 
some as Jan Hronek and František Capek, along with other 25 thousand people participated 
directly to the funeral, where the graves of his anarchist friends promised that this 
judicial murder revenge.

So far only managed to reveal fragments of events and names (eg. Josef Pondelícek Václav 
Turek, Josef Pavlícek, Jan and Jan Hlávka Vodák). Yet we can say that Czech "economic 
migrants" who have stayed in the 80s of the 19th century in the United States, stood in 
formation May Day tradition. Although fled z Cech from poverty and unrelenting political 
persecution, they not abandon their beliefs and remained faithful to him to enforce 
workers' rights and the desire for a fairer world order.

Czech anarchists in the United States commemorating 130 years also because they have 
become an important means penetration of the ideas of freedom and solidarity between 
Czech-speaking part of the Austro-Hungarian workers. False nationalism was foreign to 
them, which proved their migration as well as engaging in internationalist workers' 
structures. In addition, examples of immigrants who do not hold in the host country and 
step up, but to actively fight for their rights.

https://www.afed.cz
https://www.afed.cz/text/6657/ceska-stopa-prvomajove-tradice-v-roce-1886

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Message: 5




On winning or losing; ---- For the last three elections, nearly one sixth of the voters do 
not participate in elections. This shows us that 10,000,000 of the nearly 60,000,000 
voters will not participate in the referendum. 25,000,001 of the 50,000,000 voters will 
give yes vote or no vote. 24,999,999 voters will have lost with the difference of a single 
vote. It's that easy to win or lose in this system. ---- Research companies say that the 
difference between yes and no is less than 1%, or even less than 0.5%. Who will win by a 
half point margin on April 16, and who will lose? ---- Whoever wins, whoever loses; ---- 
Yes side doesn't consider the possibility of losing. Yes side enjoys the convenience of 
being in power. They are relying on their dominance in street and square propaganda; 
because they are creating this dominance themselves. Preventing the no campaign with 
partisans locally, and generally with its police, i.e. the law enforcement . While there 
is yes propaganda in mainstream media from children's programs to magazine programs, from 
TV series to feature films, from news reports to discussion-commentary programs; 
opposition media has a shy criticism of yes along with timid praise for no. Beyond this 
convenience created by the "unjust" practice they established during the campaign, yes 
side also knows other "emergency" practices at the election day will "protect" the votes, 
the boxes and the election results.

Even in the case of the most negative result for yes side, they also have the convenience 
of being able to call a new referendum by launching a new internal or external war or 
aggravating an existing one. AKP has experienced this repetition technique when it made 
the November 1 elections to replace June 7 elections and took what it wanted.

If yes side loses;

If the yes side still lost despite the odds of all this "no losing no matter what" they 
will lose their motivation. This loss is also a loss of legitimacy among its mass and this 
is the end of yes side.

If the no wins, the opposition will make various maneuvers to prevent the power from 
playing the moves "to not lose even if lost", which we wrote about. They will bring the 
early elections agenda and want to have similar gains in the elections process. Having won 
the upper hand of motivation, the opposition will try not to lose advantage by taking it 
to the streets, square and the parliament.

No side is considering the possibility of losing, because they are used to it. This habit 
also carries an intolerance for loss. The injustice during the campaign which was built in 
a state of emergency and the injustice during election day will increase this intolerance. 
Such intolerance will result either in a social uprising or a social cringe. We are 
telling -that the yes side has anticipated these results- from {related or unrelated 
individuals' statements such as "So we do this, we do that, we put to the sword ... 
allowed, not allowed on sharia". In fact, they do not expect uprising in the society 
cowered by State of Emergency though, but uprising is one of the possibilities. In case of 
losing, particularly because the referendum that will be voted by this society, which has 
been cowered by State of Emergency, was reduced to an existential question by the 
opposition, the cower effect that is desired by power, will increase. This cowering will 
be tried to be broken down by some fight back related to identity; State of Emergency 
experience of Kurdish and Alevi peoples revolutionaries over many years and their 
resistance reflexes despite the state of emergency, may decrease the effect of this 
cowering that was increased. But whether this resistance will be enough in this process, 
is controversial.

Not To Lose, To Win;

For opposition in the parliament, winning or losing has only one meaning. That is to win 
or lose the elections. This is the aim of the parliamentary opposition. The understanding 
of the referendum as being separate from general or local elections, is a fallacy. Because 
in every referendum, as in the case of this referendum, the sides are the sides of the 
other elections. It is usual for parliamentary opposition to present every election to 
society and to its own voters in society as an existential false dilemma. What is not 
usual is for revolutionary opposition to present this "to exist-not to exist" false 
dilemma to society. For the ones whose claim is revolution, revolutionary organizations 
and individuals, using such a dilemma as a campaigning tool, calls the discussion of means 
becoming the ends. In the discussion of means becoming the ends, to understand what is 
right and what is wrong, one needs to see if the socialism propaganda was more than the 
electoral agenda during the elections. Socialist organization that do not make propaganda 
for socialism are accused of trying to "grab seats" in the parliament . In history, this 
discussion in socialist organizing is surpassed by using the adjectives democrat and 
revolutionary, as well as other polite-impolite adjectives.

As for anarchism such discussions did not take place. Anarchists, as a principle, do not 
establish relations of power. Fighting back an authoritarian behavior of someone else, of 
society, of administration, will start with not acting authoritarian to someone else. 
Create relationships of freedom while destroying authoritarian relationships is another 
anarchist principle. Resisting the manager-managed adjectives in governing relations of 
society, objecting the submission of individual's will to another individual or to the 
community, are ends for every anarchist. And the political counterpart of this objection 
is non-participation in the for elections. Therefore, it is an objection by principle, not 
participating in elections. Anarchists can not use elections as a means like socialists 
do. Using such means amounts to using authority, which one has to destroy in order to 
create relationships of freedom, as a means. For anarchists, principle is an idea that is 
not based on indisputable dogma, but on experience that can be discussed.

Parliamentary opposition and socialist opposition are similar with respect to winning the 
power. Anarchists do not want to win the power; but to destroy the power to create a world 
without power. Among tides of win and lose, "April 16th Referendum" is now presented an 
existential slogan by both sides. For nearly 15 years, the organization of society for 
justice and freedom is being formed by anti-AKP-ism. The days of Taksim Revolt were the 
most positive days of social opposition which rose again in every election period and then 
declined. Every banned May 1, March 8, Newroz, ecologic resistance, resistances in docks 
and factories, actions in high schools and universities organized one by one, each were 
important on their own before these days. The Kobanê process which had strategic 
importance for Rojava, were at least as important as Taksim. In all these processes, in 
revolutionary solidarity with organizations; in the platforms that we were part of; we 
discussed and argued that the declarations, actions, resistance, revolts should not be 
narrowed down to opposing AKP. Our argument was that through AKP opposition, the 
oppressor/oppressed contradiction, which was the source of inequity and captivity lived by 
our society, was being ignored. This was a popularity centric opposition structure which 
overrated quantity, and therefore dismissed quality. This democrat revolutionary 
opposition structure, together with the parliamentary opposition, is doing again, as it 
does in every election, AKP opposition. In the referendum process, we are again in the 
false dilemma of "to exist or not to exist" created by this structure. This opposition may 
win in this referendum. But this win, will not be a win for the oppressed peoples, 
workers, women, LGBTI, youth, rivers, trees, animals in the oppressor/oppressed 
contradiction. For the oppressed, winning is never a win in elections.

Now the votes cast by 25,000,001 voters, will win in the referendum for constitutional 
amendment. And the votes cast by 24,999,999 voters will lose.

Now we must ask ourselves a numeric question; Does, over 50% always win? What if 
35,000,000 voters of the 60,000,000, had not participated in the referendum, instead of 
the 10,000,000, and all of the 25,000,000 which participated in the referendum had given 
yes votes, "yes" would have won by 100%. Considering the rate of participation in this 
referendum, would the "yes" win be legitimate?

Not to lose justice and freedom, to win revolution; Not to be 1 number of the election, 
but be an individual of revolution; Long Live Revolution, Long Live Anarchism.

Revolutionary Anarchist Action

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Message: 6



Friends, friends, comrades. ---- None of us probably did not expect to get into a 
situation where on 1.Máje there will be two different rally attended by anarchists. ---- 
Unfortunately, it is increasingly those who disagree with the conduct of the Anarchist 
Federation in organizing May Day events. Some of us bothers cooperation with the Young 
Greens and Trotskyists of the Socialist solidarity , others that the action will perform 
the political elite, the other (especially collectives) bothers method (non) 
communication, failure to comply with agreed procedures and standing in front of a thing 
without the possibility to do whatever express. ---- We have always opposed the 
fragmentation of our forces, but this time we do not see another option. ---- We decided 
to organize an alternative anarchist rally right on an island before the arrival of the 
aforementioned coalition.

Recall the past struggle for the eight hour day, Haymarket Affair in 1886, the first May 
Day rally in Prague in 1890 and look how well it turned out in the past collaborative 
efforts between authoritarians and anarchists.

But above all remember our fallen brothers and sisters, all murdered, tortured or fallen 
in the fight for freedom!

At the end we would like perhaps to add that we do not want schazovat efforts of members 
of AF at other events and activities, we do not intend nor (as we have also been told) 
with AF war on "leadership" within the anarchist movement.

End of the event will be at approximately the same time will be at Shooter's Island near 
the march of Palacky square, so who will want to participate in both events, will not 
suffer a long delay.

Spread the word, invite, share.
Stop and flags with them.

https://safed.noblogs.org/post/2017/04/30/alternativni-anarchisticky-1-maj/

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Message: 7




Organize and Mobilize! ---- In this issue: ---- May Day mass action-'Strike from Below': 
Service workers in the U.S. South united in a general strike for the rights of workers, 
immigrants, Black Lives, Muslims, and all the other targets of the Trump Administration. 
---- Look to the past to escape Trump's present: 1946 was the last year of the great 
general strikes. Trump plans to undo every workers' gain since the 19th century. We need 
to look back to the lessons from Oakland. ---- Coat-hanger direct action: The best action 
is direct action. Sometimes keeping things simple works best in a complicated society. 
---- Momentum builds for May Day strikes: All around the U.S., workers are responding to 
assaults on rights-not from the bosses but from the government. ---- . . . and more! ---- 
Download a free PDF of this issue here. 
http://www.iww.org/PDF/IndustrialWorker/Spring2017IW.pdf

https://iww.org/content/industrial-worker%E2%80%94spring-2017-1779-vol-114-no-2-0