Parvati
15th April 2012, 17:32
MAY 1ST, INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’ DAY
Down With Capitalism! Long Live Socialism!
(also available in French, Spanish, Farsi and Arabic)
http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/RedFlag_and_Fist_small.jpg
International Workers’ Day is without doubt the most significant political event for the proletariat and revolutionary activists in Canada and elsewhere.
Capitalists and their government stooges are busy offloading the burden of their own economic crisis onto the backs of workers across the world, and Canada is no exception; the conditions of the proletariat here are worsening by the day. Just look at all the plant closures that have happened recently —be it Cascades (Burnaby, BC), Caterpillar (London, ON), White Paper Birch (Quebec City, QC) or most recently, Aveos (Montreal, QC)— or those already announced for the coming months, like Mabe Canada in Montreal (700 layoffs). All these are the result of a system in which the interests of the capitalist class are paramount, to the exclusion of everything else.
And this is not about to stop! In Canada, class contradictions are intensifying. Workers’ exploitation, especially of women, youth, immigrants and First Nations, is becoming more sharper. In order for capital investments to remain profitable, we have to work more hours at the lowest possible wage; it also requires that the social and welfare programs we won through bitter struggles in the past be systematically gutted or abolished. Job insecurity is becoming a daily reality for a growing number of workers... All this while the bosses enjoy the giant profits thus generated.
Right now, millions of people are struggling against capitalism in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, America and Africa. In Canada too, popular discontent is growing. We saw this all across the country in the tremendous mobilization generated by the “Occupy” movement. Indigenous communities are also mobilizing themselves against the destruction of their land and the practical genocide they face at the hands of capitalist development on their territories. Women continue to rally to denounce the oppression they suffer. In Quebec, the student movement dramatically rose up against the offensive of the bourgeoisie, who launched a full-frontal attacked on people’s right to education. Each in their own way, these resistance struggles express the will of the working class and the popular masses to end the old system of exploitation and oppression.
Everywhere, the bourgeoisie is responding with an unprecedented crackdown. The “rights and freedoms” veneer that the capitalist system used to carry in the last century is now gone. The masses who are spontaneously rebelling today must organize to defeat this rotten system! It is time to organize to move from resistance to revolution and express our will to achieve a true people’s democracy —the only guarantee of justice for the majority.
While worldwide May 1st is a time to struggle against the bourgeois system, in Canada, historically, this date has been targeted for co-optation by the bourgeois-ified left and the dominant social democratic trade unions. In Quebec, the trade unions, who still celebrate it, have made it a day of harmless parades where any critique of capitalism is excluded. In general, the major trade unions are busy colluding with management to “preserve industrial peace.” Instead, May 1st should be a day where workers stand up to express their rejection of capitalism and their will to conquer power and put an end to this decaying old system.
Let’s celebrate International Workers’ Day as it was meant to be celebrated! Let’s make of May 1st a great day of struggle and resistance —a chance to come together, to gather our forces and express our desire for a genuine liberation and socialist revolution! On May 1st 2012, proletarian internationalism should live!
Supporters of this newspaper join with the Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR-RCP Canada) in calling on you to participate in the various activities announced in these pages and proudly carry the red flag —the flag of the proletariat in struggle— on May Day.
May Day: A History
http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/HaymarketRiot-Harpers_small.jpg
On the night of May 4th, 1886, Chicago police ordered striking workers rallying in Haymarket Square to disperse. Union leaders within the United States had set the first of May as the date upon which the eight-hour work day would become standard and had organized a fairly substantial general strike in support of this demand. Although the actions organized by the strikers had been peaceful, the police responded with gunfire.
The rally at Haymarket Square was called in order to condemn the violence unleashed upon the striking workers—violence used to protect the capitalists against increasing proletarian solidarity. The police, having ordered an end to the demonstration, began advancing upon the workers; when a bomb was hurled at the police, these agents proceeded to open fire upon the crowd, reloading to execute those that could not flee as quickly as others. It remains unknown how many striking workers were wounded or murdered that day.
Three years after the massacre, Raymond Lavigne and Jean Dormoy of the Second International proposed that “The Congress decides to organize a great international demonstration.” These demonstrations would serve not only to commemorate the struggle of the strikers in Haymarket Square but also as a call for the proletariat to continue the fight for the eight-hour day. Massive rallies, parades and festivals were held in cities throughout Europe and the United States, strengthening the will of the working class to fight for its interests.
In 1891, the Second International added to its initial resolution regarding May Day in order to broaden the class-consciousness of the demonstrators, stressing the “class character of the May First demonstrations” and the “deepening of the class struggle.” The demonstrators would continue to demand of their bosses an eight-hour day, but would also fight for the abolition of the class structure through a social revolution that would transfer power from the hands of the bourgeoisie into the hands of the international proletariat.
May Day soon became a celebration of the growing solidarity among the proletariat and the real possibility of revolution. The bourgeoisie and its agents serving in state legislatures saw the need to harness this energy into a passive outlet for the working class of North America —an outlet that would not challenge their power. The state of Oregon created a ‘Labor Day’ that would attempt to make workers feel proud about the productive power they could provide instead of their growing strength as a revolutionary class. Although Labor Day activities could be seen as similar to May Day demonstrations (parades, barbeques, rallies, etc.), these celebrations were stripped of any revolutionary characteristics.
We created May Day for ourselves —for the proletariat of all nations to rally against a system that can only survive upon our exploitation. They created Labor Day for us to thank our bosses for the extra day off, to watch football and to ignore the trade union bureaucrats begging for reforms instead of demanding revolution.
They might have co-opted our celebration for a time, but the proletariat of North America is starting to realize that our comrades around the world have not forgotten the importance of May Day in our protracted struggle against the bourgeoisie. We are starting to rally on the first of May once more —not only alongside our unions but in anti-capitalist contingents calling for the end of exploitation. We are reclaiming our celebrations, our workplaces, our consciousness as a class. We are reclaiming May Day.
The Partisan Fundraiser • Target: 5,000$
http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/difus%20part_ALONE%20120pixz.jpg
orking class. Across the board, both nationally and internationally, Partisan condemns the dominant ideology and takes a solid stand in favor of socialism and revolution. It supports acts of resistance from the proletariat and oppressed peoples and popularizes revolutionary actions that attack the very heart of the exploitative capitalist system.
The Partisan was launched by the Revolutionary Communist Party (http://pcr-rcp.ca/) (PCR-RCP Canada) —a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party that fights for a genuine revolutionary change. It is supported and widely circulated by activists who uphold the revolution, including comrades from Proletarian Revolutionary Action Committees of both Toronto (http://practoronto.wordpress.com/) and Ottawa. Distributed widely and free of charge, the Partisan is part of a conscious effort to reach out to and organize the proletarian masses in the workplaces and neighborhoods where they are too often ignored by the traditional and institutionalized left.
With the release of this 20th issue, we invite our readers as well as those who support this initiative to contribute financially to Partisan’s expansion. We aim to raise some $5,000 in order to increase and expand our circulation. We want more people to have the chance to read and distribute it. While expanding its distribution in Quebec and Ontario, we want to send thousands of copies to the Maritimes and Western Canada. Day after day, fight after fight, the Partisan must become an organizational tool for regrouping proletarians who hope for the revolution.
You can contribute to this fundraising campaign in various ways:
• by giving your contribution in person to the distributors of this newspaper;
• by sending a check or money order by mail (payable to the “Bureau d’information politique”): PO Box 1004, Stn. C, Montreal QC H2L 4V2;
• by depositing your donation at the Maison Norman Bethune (http://maisonnormanbethune.ca/) —a communist bookstore located at 1918 Frontenac Street in Montreal;
• by using the payment button that appears on www.maisonnormanbethune.ca (http://www.maisonnormanbethune.ca/) or www.theredflag/partisan (http://www.theredflag/partisan).
Want to help with circulating the Partisan? Contact us right now!
And thank you for your support.
A CALL TO JOIN THE MAY 1ST ANTI-CAPITALIST DEMONSTRATION IN MONTREAL
The People Will Defeat Imperialism!
http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/1%20mai%202006%20032_small.jpg
The capitalist crisis of the last few years opened up a new era of attack against the living conditions of the working class around the world. The CEOs, the bankers and bourgeois politicians launched a large offensive on many fronts:
• Layoffs and pay cuts creating massive unemployment;
• Budget cuts in social services and privatization of government owned companies;
• Increases in taxes and overall cost of living for households;
• Cuts to pension plans;
• State control by finance capital of bankrupt governments, like in Greece;
• Tighter control of immigration policies and a rise in anti-immigrant propaganda.
Everywhere the crisis is an opportunity to deepen conditions of exploitation. The prosperity of the capitalist minority directly translates to the impoverishment of the majority: workers, the unemployed, workers with no status, aboriginals, vast numbers of oppressed peoples of which women constitute the majority.
The other side of the coin is that this era is also the era of rising revolts. In Asia, the Indian and Filipino people are waging revolutionary war. In the Arab world, people are rising up against tyrannical regimes. In Afghanistan, imperialism is losing footing despite 10 years of aggression. In the West, the youth found a momentum of fighting spirit and increasingly confront the police. The First Nations are struggling against the pillaging of their territories.
The blind aggression that world powers are seeking to bail out their system will have run its course. The growing contradiction between the people and the exploiters will escalate into major clashes until the defeat of the imperialists.
Here in Montreal, all forces determined to end oppression and exploitation are joining on May 1st for an anti-capitalist offensive protest.
Let’s join together to overthrow capitalism!
Forge a unity of people’s struggle all over the world!
Let’s march together behind the anti-imperialist banner in the May 1st anti-capitalist demonstration!
Meeting point and time of the demonstration:
Tuesday, May 1st at 4:30 pm at Champ-de-Mars metro station
A call endorsed by:
Revolutionary Communist Party of Canada (RCP)
Kabataang Montreal
Support Committee for the February 20 Movement of Morocco
To join this call, please contact us: 1er.mai.2012 ... gmail.com ([email protected])
Down With Capitalism! Long Live Socialism!
(also available in French, Spanish, Farsi and Arabic)
http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/RedFlag_and_Fist_small.jpg
International Workers’ Day is without doubt the most significant political event for the proletariat and revolutionary activists in Canada and elsewhere.
Capitalists and their government stooges are busy offloading the burden of their own economic crisis onto the backs of workers across the world, and Canada is no exception; the conditions of the proletariat here are worsening by the day. Just look at all the plant closures that have happened recently —be it Cascades (Burnaby, BC), Caterpillar (London, ON), White Paper Birch (Quebec City, QC) or most recently, Aveos (Montreal, QC)— or those already announced for the coming months, like Mabe Canada in Montreal (700 layoffs). All these are the result of a system in which the interests of the capitalist class are paramount, to the exclusion of everything else.
And this is not about to stop! In Canada, class contradictions are intensifying. Workers’ exploitation, especially of women, youth, immigrants and First Nations, is becoming more sharper. In order for capital investments to remain profitable, we have to work more hours at the lowest possible wage; it also requires that the social and welfare programs we won through bitter struggles in the past be systematically gutted or abolished. Job insecurity is becoming a daily reality for a growing number of workers... All this while the bosses enjoy the giant profits thus generated.
Right now, millions of people are struggling against capitalism in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, America and Africa. In Canada too, popular discontent is growing. We saw this all across the country in the tremendous mobilization generated by the “Occupy” movement. Indigenous communities are also mobilizing themselves against the destruction of their land and the practical genocide they face at the hands of capitalist development on their territories. Women continue to rally to denounce the oppression they suffer. In Quebec, the student movement dramatically rose up against the offensive of the bourgeoisie, who launched a full-frontal attacked on people’s right to education. Each in their own way, these resistance struggles express the will of the working class and the popular masses to end the old system of exploitation and oppression.
Everywhere, the bourgeoisie is responding with an unprecedented crackdown. The “rights and freedoms” veneer that the capitalist system used to carry in the last century is now gone. The masses who are spontaneously rebelling today must organize to defeat this rotten system! It is time to organize to move from resistance to revolution and express our will to achieve a true people’s democracy —the only guarantee of justice for the majority.
While worldwide May 1st is a time to struggle against the bourgeois system, in Canada, historically, this date has been targeted for co-optation by the bourgeois-ified left and the dominant social democratic trade unions. In Quebec, the trade unions, who still celebrate it, have made it a day of harmless parades where any critique of capitalism is excluded. In general, the major trade unions are busy colluding with management to “preserve industrial peace.” Instead, May 1st should be a day where workers stand up to express their rejection of capitalism and their will to conquer power and put an end to this decaying old system.
Let’s celebrate International Workers’ Day as it was meant to be celebrated! Let’s make of May 1st a great day of struggle and resistance —a chance to come together, to gather our forces and express our desire for a genuine liberation and socialist revolution! On May 1st 2012, proletarian internationalism should live!
Supporters of this newspaper join with the Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR-RCP Canada) in calling on you to participate in the various activities announced in these pages and proudly carry the red flag —the flag of the proletariat in struggle— on May Day.
May Day: A History
http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/HaymarketRiot-Harpers_small.jpg
On the night of May 4th, 1886, Chicago police ordered striking workers rallying in Haymarket Square to disperse. Union leaders within the United States had set the first of May as the date upon which the eight-hour work day would become standard and had organized a fairly substantial general strike in support of this demand. Although the actions organized by the strikers had been peaceful, the police responded with gunfire.
The rally at Haymarket Square was called in order to condemn the violence unleashed upon the striking workers—violence used to protect the capitalists against increasing proletarian solidarity. The police, having ordered an end to the demonstration, began advancing upon the workers; when a bomb was hurled at the police, these agents proceeded to open fire upon the crowd, reloading to execute those that could not flee as quickly as others. It remains unknown how many striking workers were wounded or murdered that day.
Three years after the massacre, Raymond Lavigne and Jean Dormoy of the Second International proposed that “The Congress decides to organize a great international demonstration.” These demonstrations would serve not only to commemorate the struggle of the strikers in Haymarket Square but also as a call for the proletariat to continue the fight for the eight-hour day. Massive rallies, parades and festivals were held in cities throughout Europe and the United States, strengthening the will of the working class to fight for its interests.
In 1891, the Second International added to its initial resolution regarding May Day in order to broaden the class-consciousness of the demonstrators, stressing the “class character of the May First demonstrations” and the “deepening of the class struggle.” The demonstrators would continue to demand of their bosses an eight-hour day, but would also fight for the abolition of the class structure through a social revolution that would transfer power from the hands of the bourgeoisie into the hands of the international proletariat.
May Day soon became a celebration of the growing solidarity among the proletariat and the real possibility of revolution. The bourgeoisie and its agents serving in state legislatures saw the need to harness this energy into a passive outlet for the working class of North America —an outlet that would not challenge their power. The state of Oregon created a ‘Labor Day’ that would attempt to make workers feel proud about the productive power they could provide instead of their growing strength as a revolutionary class. Although Labor Day activities could be seen as similar to May Day demonstrations (parades, barbeques, rallies, etc.), these celebrations were stripped of any revolutionary characteristics.
We created May Day for ourselves —for the proletariat of all nations to rally against a system that can only survive upon our exploitation. They created Labor Day for us to thank our bosses for the extra day off, to watch football and to ignore the trade union bureaucrats begging for reforms instead of demanding revolution.
They might have co-opted our celebration for a time, but the proletariat of North America is starting to realize that our comrades around the world have not forgotten the importance of May Day in our protracted struggle against the bourgeoisie. We are starting to rally on the first of May once more —not only alongside our unions but in anti-capitalist contingents calling for the end of exploitation. We are reclaiming our celebrations, our workplaces, our consciousness as a class. We are reclaiming May Day.
The Partisan Fundraiser • Target: 5,000$
http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/difus%20part_ALONE%20120pixz.jpg
orking class. Across the board, both nationally and internationally, Partisan condemns the dominant ideology and takes a solid stand in favor of socialism and revolution. It supports acts of resistance from the proletariat and oppressed peoples and popularizes revolutionary actions that attack the very heart of the exploitative capitalist system.
The Partisan was launched by the Revolutionary Communist Party (http://pcr-rcp.ca/) (PCR-RCP Canada) —a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party that fights for a genuine revolutionary change. It is supported and widely circulated by activists who uphold the revolution, including comrades from Proletarian Revolutionary Action Committees of both Toronto (http://practoronto.wordpress.com/) and Ottawa. Distributed widely and free of charge, the Partisan is part of a conscious effort to reach out to and organize the proletarian masses in the workplaces and neighborhoods where they are too often ignored by the traditional and institutionalized left.
With the release of this 20th issue, we invite our readers as well as those who support this initiative to contribute financially to Partisan’s expansion. We aim to raise some $5,000 in order to increase and expand our circulation. We want more people to have the chance to read and distribute it. While expanding its distribution in Quebec and Ontario, we want to send thousands of copies to the Maritimes and Western Canada. Day after day, fight after fight, the Partisan must become an organizational tool for regrouping proletarians who hope for the revolution.
You can contribute to this fundraising campaign in various ways:
• by giving your contribution in person to the distributors of this newspaper;
• by sending a check or money order by mail (payable to the “Bureau d’information politique”): PO Box 1004, Stn. C, Montreal QC H2L 4V2;
• by depositing your donation at the Maison Norman Bethune (http://maisonnormanbethune.ca/) —a communist bookstore located at 1918 Frontenac Street in Montreal;
• by using the payment button that appears on www.maisonnormanbethune.ca (http://www.maisonnormanbethune.ca/) or www.theredflag/partisan (http://www.theredflag/partisan).
Want to help with circulating the Partisan? Contact us right now!
And thank you for your support.
A CALL TO JOIN THE MAY 1ST ANTI-CAPITALIST DEMONSTRATION IN MONTREAL
The People Will Defeat Imperialism!
http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/1%20mai%202006%20032_small.jpg
The capitalist crisis of the last few years opened up a new era of attack against the living conditions of the working class around the world. The CEOs, the bankers and bourgeois politicians launched a large offensive on many fronts:
• Layoffs and pay cuts creating massive unemployment;
• Budget cuts in social services and privatization of government owned companies;
• Increases in taxes and overall cost of living for households;
• Cuts to pension plans;
• State control by finance capital of bankrupt governments, like in Greece;
• Tighter control of immigration policies and a rise in anti-immigrant propaganda.
Everywhere the crisis is an opportunity to deepen conditions of exploitation. The prosperity of the capitalist minority directly translates to the impoverishment of the majority: workers, the unemployed, workers with no status, aboriginals, vast numbers of oppressed peoples of which women constitute the majority.
The other side of the coin is that this era is also the era of rising revolts. In Asia, the Indian and Filipino people are waging revolutionary war. In the Arab world, people are rising up against tyrannical regimes. In Afghanistan, imperialism is losing footing despite 10 years of aggression. In the West, the youth found a momentum of fighting spirit and increasingly confront the police. The First Nations are struggling against the pillaging of their territories.
The blind aggression that world powers are seeking to bail out their system will have run its course. The growing contradiction between the people and the exploiters will escalate into major clashes until the defeat of the imperialists.
Here in Montreal, all forces determined to end oppression and exploitation are joining on May 1st for an anti-capitalist offensive protest.
Let’s join together to overthrow capitalism!
Forge a unity of people’s struggle all over the world!
Let’s march together behind the anti-imperialist banner in the May 1st anti-capitalist demonstration!
Meeting point and time of the demonstration:
Tuesday, May 1st at 4:30 pm at Champ-de-Mars metro station
A call endorsed by:
Revolutionary Communist Party of Canada (RCP)
Kabataang Montreal
Support Committee for the February 20 Movement of Morocco
To join this call, please contact us: 1er.mai.2012 ... gmail.com ([email protected])