AMERICAN LABOUR MINNEAPOLIS
TWIN CITIES IWW LABOR DAY RALLY:



Just a bit across the border from Winnipeg. The Twin Cities IWW will be holding a Labor Day rally this September 6. Here's the details.
IWWIWWIWWIWW


LABOR DAY RALLY:
Restaurant workers. Retail workers. All workers. SPEAK OUT
Time
September 6 · 3:00pm - 5:00pm

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Location
University of Minnesota Knoll Area
University and 15th Avenue SE
Minneapolis, MN

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Created By Twin Cities Iww
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More Info
LABOR DAY:
RESTAURANT WORKERS. SERVICE WORKERS. ALL WORKERS. SPEAK OUT!
Featuring Guante and I Self Devine

3pm Monday September 6th
University and Pleasant Ave in Minneapolis
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Since the Recession began in 2008, corporate elites have squeezed all workers with layoffs, pay cuts, reduced staffing, reduced work hours, and demands for more productivity while Corporate America rakes in billions in profit.

As the economy crumbles, good jobs are harder and harder to find. Today, 40% of workers in the US work in the food, retail, and service sector. Workers in these industries typically face poverty wages, inconsistent scheduling, no access to affordable healthcare or time off when we are sick, racial, gender, and other forms of discrimination, no breaks, disrespect from our bosses, and harassment from customers. Everyday bosses seek to take more from us. Every day we struggle to support ourselves and our families.

But we refuse to be powerless. We as workers can organize to confront economic, racial, and gender injustice. The time has come to demand basic economic rights; fair wages, fair treatment in the workplace, sick days, fair scheduling, a voice on the job. Only through a grass-roots, democratic movement can we accomplish these goals and build towards a society where common sense and justice align. We call upon service workers, retail workers, ALL workers; SPEAK OUT on Labor Day!

3:00pm Meet up
3:30pm Speak Out/ Music
4:30pm Mobilize!

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-ONTARIO:

LINCHPIN LABOUR DAY SPECIAL:

The Ontario platformist organization Common Cause has brought out the latest issue of the newspaper Linchpin, just in time for Labour Day. Here's the story and how to read it and download it as well.

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Linchpin #10 - Labour Day Special Edition:

Issue 10 of Linchpin, the newspaper of Common Cause, is now online and available for downloading and printing.

This is a special edition of the paper produced for Labour Day 2009.

In it you can read the reflections of Common Cause member and CUPE 3906 union organizer Peter Marin on the recent successful organizing drive of post-doctorate workers at McMaster University.

There are also ads for upcoming anarchist discussions and conferences in Ottawa, Hamilton, and Toronto.
Download Linchpin now!
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MOLLY NOTE:

Here are the announcements they were talking about above.

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ANARCHIST DISCUSSION GROUP-ANARCHISM 101

To be held Tuesday, September 15, 7pm at the Sky Dragon Center, 27 Kingwilliam St., Hamilton, ON.

Hosted by Hamilton Common Cause.

WORKERS COOPERATIVES;POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS

To be held on Saturday, September 19, 2009 2pm to 4pm at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), Room 8-280, 252 Bloor St. West, Toronto, ON.

Hosted by Common Cause, Pan-African Solidarity Network (U of T) and the Toronto Anarchist Discussion Group.

ORGANIZING 4 JUSTICE CONFERENCE

To be held Oct. 14 to Oct. 17.

Theme: 'Grassroots Responses to the Economic and Environmental Crises'

For Full Details:

www.organizingforjustice.ca

Phone # 613-656-5498

email org4justice@gmail.com

HISTORY:

LABOUR DAY BEGAN IN CANADA:

While anarchists, like most of the world, consider May Day, May 1, as the actual real Labour Day the first Monday in September is the officially delegated one in Canada and the USA. This Labour Day grew out of labour struggles in Ontario during the 19th century. Here's the story as told in the pages of the Vancouver Sun.

HHHHHHHHHHHH
Labour Day originated in Canada:
When asked what Canada is famous for, most people would probably say the Maple Leaf or hockey, or perhaps in a more serious vein, our impressive history of human rights.
Not one in a hundred people, Canadian or otherwise, would likely mention Labour Day. But as it happens, the holiday that celebrates the contributions of workers around the world began right here.

It all started on April 15, 1872, when Canada was just five years old. Although the United Kingdom had repealed a law making membership in a union a criminal offence in 1871, the crime still existed in Canada in 1872, and 24 leaders of the Toronto Typographical Union, who had been striking for a 58-hour work week, had been imprisoned.

That led the Toronto Trades Assembly to call its 27 unions to attend a demonstration, and on April 15, 10,000 people turned out to hear speeches calling for the repeal of the law that made union membership illegal.

Buoyed by that success, on Sept. 3 members of seven Ottawa unions held a parade a mile long, led by the Garrison Artillery Band and flanked by city firefighters. The parade made its way to the home of then prime minister John A. Macdonald, picked up the PM -- literally -- and took him to Ottawa City Hall in a carriage by torchlight.

Ever the savvy politician, and evidently aware that it was best not to rile up a mile-long parade after dark, Macdonald promised that he would "sweep away all such barbarous laws from the statute books."

Macdonald and the Conservative government made good on his promise the following year.

But the trade unions had further work to do, so they continued to hold annual parades and demonstrations.

On July 22, 1882, the Toronto Trades and Labour Council decided to invite New Yorker Peter J. McGuire, the general secretary of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and co-founder of the American Federation of Labour, to speak at the demonstration.

McGuire was duly impressed by the event and, when he returned home, he proposed that the United States celebrate a day in honour of workers. Sure enough, the Americans celebrated their first unofficial Labour Day on Sept. 5, 1882, and McGuire became known as the "father of Labour Day."

Over the next decade, individual states enacted legislation designating the first Monday in September Labour Day, and on June 28, 1894, the U.S. Congress passed a federal law enshrining the holiday. Just four weeks later, the government of then prime minister John Thompson enacted a similar law, and now the first Monday in September is celebrated as Labour Day throughout North America.

So in little more than a century, workers have gone from fighting for 58-hour weeks to expecting the standard 35- or 40-hour week. Strangely, though, despite these advances, recent surveys suggest that people are working harder than ever, and have less free time. Many workers don't even take all of their allotted vacations, and they stay tied to their desks through the "advances" of technology.

The economic meltdown, which began just about a year ago, has only made workers' woes worse, as layoffs have made the overworked the objects of envy.

From this perspective, things can only go up, and, if recent economic prognostications are to be believed, it appears that they will in relatively short order.

That's certainly worth celebrating right now.

IT'S LABOUR/LABOR DAY...MAYBE:

Today is Labour Day in Canada and the USA...but nowhere else. Why ? The reason is hidden in the history of the Canadian and American labour movements.Through most of the world 'Labour Day' is the traditional May 1st festival- Mayday. In Australia and New Zealand today totally different dates are celebrated as "Labour Day". The day to celebrate the accomplishments and needs of working people is set for the fourth Monday in October in New Zealand. There its origin dates back to the eight hours a day struggle, as does May Day in the civilized world and Labour Day in Canada and Australia and Labor Day in the USA. In New Zealand the struggle for the eight hour day dates back to the 1840s when it was initiated by the carpenter Samuel Parnell. On October 28th, 1890 the 50th anniversary of the struggle for an eight hour day was commemorated by a parade. This began to be celebrated each year as either Labour Day or Eight-Hour Demonstration Day. In 1899 the New Zealand government legislated that this day would be a public holiday beginning in 1900. The holiday was "Mondayized" in 1910 due to the complaints of shipowners that seamen were taking more than one day of holidays as the event varied from province to province in NZ. This is sort of the "archetype" for Labour Day in the anglosphere as it was very much a government and business alternative to the more radical Mayday.

In Australia the day of Labour Day is set by state and territorial governments. It is the first Monday in October in the Australian Federal Territory, New South Wales and South Australia. In Victoria and Tasmania it is the second Monday in March. In Western Australia it is the first first Monday in March. In Queensland and the Northern Territory it is the first Monday in May, close to the day when it is celebrated in the rest of the world. In Australia Labour Day was also connected to the eight-hour day struggle. Australian stonemasons and building workers were the first to achieve an eight hour day with no loss of pay when they downed tools on April 21st, 1856 and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House. This inspired the fight for the 8 hour day across the world.

Labour leaders in Canada like to claim Labour Day as a Canadian invention. This may be "mathematically true" as Labour day was declared an official holiday in Canada in 1894, five years before it was so declared in New Zealand. It also became an official holiday in 1894 in the USA. Quite frankly from examining the history Molly cannot see the Canadian priority. Besides...it is nothing to be proud of as it was a move to preempt the regular Labour Day that most workers across the world wanted ie May 1st, May Day.

In Canada the origins of Labour Day date back to April 15th, 1872 when the Toronto Trades Assembly organized the first significant Canadian workers' demonstration. at the time unions in Canada were illegal under laws about "criminal conspiracy". One of the prime reasons fro organizing the demonstration was to demand the release of 24 members of the Toronto Typographical Union who has been imprisoned because of the "crime" of going on strike to demand a 9 hour day. This demonstration too place in the Spring, close to may day, and upwards of 10,000 people marched in the streets of Toronto that day. On Sept 3rd, 1872 seven unions in the Ottawa area organized a parade that stretched for over a mile long. This parade passed the home of the then Prime Minister Sir John A. McDonald, and being drunk as usual he couldn't help but join in. it might have helped that the parade was headed by the Garrison Artillery Band. The parade went on to the Ottawa City Hall where John A., in a fit of drunken generosity, promised to abolish the anti-conspiracy laws. This was actually done before the year was out. Standing proof that it better to have a drunken fool at the head of government rather than a nasty sober fool. Labour Day was declared an official holiday on July 23rd, 1894, under the government of Sir John Thompson and the date was moved to the fall. The first Labour day parade in Winnipeg in 1894 was two miles long!

One of the speakers who was asked to address the first annual Toronto demonstration of 1872 was Peter J. McGuire, Secretary of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters which had been organized just the year before. In 1872 McGuire proposed to the New York Central Labor Union the idea of a festive day set aside to be a celebration of labour.McGuire had originally proposed his idea to the CLU on may 18th, 1882. The first Labor day was celebrated in the USA on September 5th, 1882. Peter McGuire(see left) organized the first Labour Day Parade in 1882 along with the Knights of Labour in New York.Over 10,000 workers marched in the parade despite the opposition of their employers. The next parade was held in 1884, and the Knights of Labor passed a resolution calling for a Labor Day in early September. This was opposed by the affiliates of the International Workingman's' Association (Molly Note- Molly will NOT agree with the 'politically correct' fashion or renaming historical organizations to fit our present politics. This WAS the name of the organization at the time. NOT "The International Workers' Association' nor, more clumsily and more trendy, 'The International Working Peoples Association'. Telling the truth is ONE of the requisites of any real politics, and renaming things is simply...a lie) who argued for May 1st as per the day desired by international labour. The move for a Labor day holiday spread across the USA. The first Labor Day celebration in Detroit was on august 16th, 1884, and it attracted 50,000 people to a rally in Recreation Park.

The origins of Labour Day in the USA also date back to the Pullman strike of 1893. This began in the company town of Pullman in 1893. The Pullman railroad car company laid off hundreds of employees in that year and also cut wages for the remaining employees. The American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs of later Socialist party fame, came to the aid of the striking workers, and railway workers across the country began to boycott cars manufactured by the Pullman Company. President Grover Cleveland responded by declaring the strike illegal and deploying federal troops as strike breakers. The strike was declared over on August 3rd, 1894, and Eugene Debs was sent to jail for his role in it. Debs went to prison on other occasions afterwards, something that it is hard to imagine most of the "leaders of labour" doing today.

In 1892 workers in NYC held a wildcat strike and marched around Union Square in support of an official Labor Day holiday. Cleveland saw his political opportunity, and just six days after he had broken the Pullman Strike in 1894 he signed a bill passed unanimously by both Houses of Congress declaring an official Labor Day in early September. The bill was a sop to the labour movement that he had violently repressed during the Pullman Strike. 1894 was, after all, an election year, and Grover saw his opportunity to play both sides.

Since its inception Labour Day has indeed served its purpose as a diversion from the radical demands of labour. The efforts of labour activists in Canada and the USA to recover May 1st as the "real labour day" have yet to be successful. For a story of the REAL labour day, My 1st see previous posts on this blog on April 30th, 2007 and may 1st, 2007(see our archives for those months). Don't forget to check out mega-blogger Eugene Plawiuk site, Le Revue Gauche, for information on May Day. For other anarchist takes on "the real labour day" see:

May Day:The Real Labor Day

http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/mayday.html

May Day: The Labor Day:

http://www.powertech.no/anarchy/mayday.html

The IWW 'Brief Origins of May Day':

http://www.iww.org/projects/mayday/origins.shtml

LABOUR DAY: STATEMENT OF THE WORKERS' SOLIDARITY ALLIANCE USA:

"LET'S MAKE EVERY DAY LABOR DAY !"

Monday, September 3, 2007 Americans celebrate the Labor Day holiday. Let's Make Every Day Labor Day!...No, we don't mean let's take every day off from work(although it sounds like a nice idea). Nor do we mean that we should have massive traffic jams of returning summer vacationers every day either. But Labor Day is supposed to mean something more than a day off at the end of summer vacation. Labor day, we are told, is a day to recognize the contributions of working men and women here in America. The fact that almost every other country in the world celebrates labor on May 1 has to do with those who, over 100 years ago, worked to split the American labor movement away from the rest of the world labor movement.

But wait a second !. No matter what day we celebrate, didn't working people create all the wealth of this country ? Don't we keep the offices, schools,factories and other workplaces running ? And for that we get one lousy day per year ?

We are also told that Labor Day is a day for the labor movement to show its strength, to flex its political muscle. While too often this means cozying up to politicians(who go ahead and continue to screw us the next day). Still, we couldn't object to any show of strength by workers. But why not show our power every day of the year ?

To make the power of working people in society an everyday matter we need a labor movement not tied down by high-speed bureaucrats or political hacks but free to set its own course based on the needs of all its members. We need a movement without divisions by trade or craft but based on unity of interests. We need a movement that has banished racism, sexism, homophobia and all forms of discrimination and is based on freedom and equality for all. We need a movement that is based on full democracy, not top down bossism. we need a movement which is militant and uncompromising in terms of our needs and interests, not willing to settle for crumbs.

The kind of movement we are taking about can only be rebuilt from the bottom up, starting in our various workplaces and communities. it should not only seek all the goals we have stated above, but should function like the type of society that we want to build. To succeed it needs the participation of all those left out of the ranks of power, profit and privilege, not only the workers of today but those who were and those who will one day be working people.

We call this type of movement 'anarchist unionism'. Even if you don't agree with everything we say if you at least agree that the current state of the labor movement is not to your liking, or even if you just want to discuss the situation further, get in touch.

Workers' Solidarity Alliance

NJ-NY Area Group

339 Lafayette Street- Room 202

New York, NY 10012

wsany@hotmail.com

http://www.workersolidarity.org

TOMORROW IS MAYDAY:

THE REAL LABOUR DAY

Tomorrow is Mayday, and to celebrate the event Blogger ate the post that I had been almost 3 hours in preparing. Anyways, here's the piece of poetry that I hoped to open with. Hopefully I'll have enough time to recreate the planned post tomorrow.

The Workers' Maypole

by Walter Crane

World Workers, whatever may bind ye,

This day let your work be undone;

Cast the clouds of the winter behind ye,

And come forth and be glad in the sun.

Now again while the green earth rejoices

In the bud and the blossom of May

Lift your hearts up again, and your voices,

And keep merry the World's Labour Day.

Let the winds lift your banners from far lands

With a message of strife and of hope;

Raise the maypole aloft with it garlands

That gathers your cause in its scope.

It is writ on each ribbon that flies

That flutters from fair Freedom's heart;

If still far be the crown and the prise

In the winning may each take a part.

Your cause is the hope of the world,

In your strife is the life of the race,

The workers' flag freedom unfurled

Is the veil of the bright future's face.

Be ye many or few drawn together,

Let your message be clear on this day;

Be ye birds of the spring, of one feather

In this--that you sing on May-Day.

Of the new life that lieth hidden,

Though its shadow is cast before;

The new birth of hope that unbidden

Surely comes, as the sea to the shore.

Stand fast, then, Oh Workers, your ground,

Together pull strong and united;

Link your hands like a chain the world round,

If you will that your hopes be requited.

When the Worlds' Workers, sisters and brothers,

Shall build, in the new coming years,

A lair house of life--not for others,

For the earth and its fullness is theirs.