THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE Saturday, May 3, 1919 May Day and the Workers Dead a AY Day is the symbol of new life of the ger At this moment, our worker comrades in Germany dead in the revolutionary struggle. And think of the minal sap of Spring preparing to fructify in are dying in the streets, to overthrow Capitalism and dead that Capitalism makes in the piping days of peace all the glory of the summer of joy and happiness. affiliate with Soviet Russia. They, too, are starving; In the days of peace, our worker comrades meet There is a new life symbolized on Socialist May many have not yet seen the glory, but the Spartacans death in the shops, mills and mines. They are mangled Day the new life that is coming when the proletariat the Socialist conscience of the Revolution are de by the machines, they are killed by industrial diseases; conquers Capitalism.
termindly waging the revolutionary struggle. In spite they die from over work and under nourishment; they Our May Day is a day of life. But it is equally a of death, and all!
die by the scores of thousands from industrial accidday of death. The conscious rebel thinks on this day In Bavaria and in Hungary, our worker comrades ents. Our worker comrades in the mills, shops and of the workers dead of the dead in the shops, mills are dying to assure the supremacy of the Soviet Re mines die slowly and they die quickly; but they die.
and mines, of the dead in the social struggle against public.
And their wives and their children die from too much Capitalism. On more than one May Day have the Workers are meeting death in Italy, France, Great work, from starvation, from that evil thing wlrich is armed forces of Capitalism. meted out death to demBritain, everywhere, in the preliminary action that Capitalism.
onstrating workers.
will soon flare up in the final revolutionary strugle Thiese dead are dead in the service of Capitalism.
On this May Day, the thought of our dead is em against Capitalism.
They die to make profits for the capitalists, to assure phatic and bitter, made so. by our comrade workers Death in the workers cause is not death, but life. the supremacy of Capitalisin. It is a miserable, who are at this moment meeting death in Europe and Asia, death imposed by Capitalism in its fierce de Death, the proletariat struggles onward to In agony and in tears, in the shadow of the Valley of tragic death.
finer Capitalisin is terror: Capitalism is death.
termination to retain supremacy.
world of life and love and liberty.
Not satisfied with the dead it makes in industry, In Russia, scores of thousands of our worker comradesmen, women and children have met death in Death is the nraker of life. Death is not death when Capitalism plunges the world into war and accelerates the struggle against the exploiters, in the determination used in the service of life. Life is not life when used the process of killing the men and women of the proto make the world finer for those who are to come in the service of death.
letariat.
after them. They died in the struggle against Czar Capitalism threw our worker comrades into a reThere is revolt against Capitalism. And there is ism, that putrid excresence of centuries, they died actionary war, to meet starvation, death and mangling. death. But it is the death glorious. It is a flaming in the struggle against the compromiser Kerensky and It used life in the service of death the death in life death, not the tortured death of the slave who accepts the compromising Socialists. they died in the great that is Capitalism. It used life against life, death for his slavery.
revolution of November 7, and after in the struggle death.
On May Day, we think of our dead. Our souls against the counter revolution; they died in the strug: Our worker comrades in Europe are using death flame out in joy and glory at the thought of our dead gle against German Imperialism; and they died in the against death, life for life. They know the price, and in the revolutionary struggle against Capitalism.
struggle against the invaders that Allied Imperialism they are paying the price.
Their is the death supreme.
We think of our sent into Russia. And they are dying today, in the other dead, who met death in inclustry and in the holes But there is a world to conquer. There is life and struggle against counter revolution organized and fin love and liberty to gain!
that are the homes of the poor. And our hearts droop anced by the Allies; more, they are starving, a staryin sorrow momentarily; for our hearts on May Day ation deliberately imposed upon Soviet Russia by the It is a flaming, glorious death, this death secured in cannot harbor sorrow, but determination and inspirbrutal blockade of the Allies.
the inspiring struggle against the exploiters. It is a ation to end Capitalism that makes death necessary in But the Russian workers and peasants, who have death that uplifts, that assures life.
order to attain life.
seen the light of the glory of the new society of comIn this struggle, Capitalism is doing its last killOn this May Day, let us resolve to devote all to the munist labor and fraternity, are patiently enduring ing.
revolutionary struggle of the international proletariat, death and starvation, in the flaming resolve to assure There is protest against making death in the great to conquer finally that for which the workers dead.
the world revolution against Capitali social struggle. But it is Capitalism that makes the. have died.
sto permit such The Old Strike and the New THERE are two obvious reasons for the strike By Richard Hansen instance, wouldn it be of tremendous beneficial for wave that is rising up from coast to coast all the cause of the workers of America if the Gompers over the United States two urgent problems that union. When you are broke again, just walk back ridden part of Labor Orgaization didn exist at all?
confront the working class of America and demana as if nothing had happened. And do not forget to Essential as it is, the conscious organization of imnrediate solution, to prevent reduction in wages and fill the treasury of your union anew.
of labor can never embrace the whole class or even the.
to actually better conditions, After this you can begin this merry go round over majority of it. To think of it is topian. To wait Any demands of the workers for something better, and over. again until eternity for it and to postpone the strugle on that account is something worthwhile is considered dangerous, and The high phrases of democracy and of the Ameri a criminal folly. The forces of capitalism are too consequently scores of cities and towns of 100 can standard of living which should not be lowered powerful to union patriots of yesterday turn pro German. foreign to spread peacefully and to absorb a considerable part of the working class.
are forgotten completely. The fakers are willing to and Bolsheviki to day.
let the hundreds of thousands the millions of The process of organization itself of forming class The capitalists are ready to trample their wage working men die from hunger on the streets were conscious fighting unions requires strikes. The slaves in the gutter, they have mobilizezd all their they were thrown in midwinter and where their ranks best unions have been born during the storms of forces and are using them with the sinister determin are still growing. The fakers willing to submit to actual struggles.
ation of clinging to their absolute control over the wage reductions while playing the shrewd game of Pull a strike wherever you can if you want a means of human existence, of maintaining their arbitration although being fully aware of the sterility good oganization. Where the circumstances warrant, bloody supremacy. The publicity agencies flood the of all the various Labor Boards of Arbitra:ion and where there exists sentiment pull a strike. Stir up country with poisonous and disruptive lies, the conciliation.
the existing unrest to open flames if you want an ormilitary and the judiciary institutions work with regular martial savagery in order to nip in the bud The unique and strongest weapon in the prossesion ganization.
working class the strike, has been annulled by the Throw into the waste basket the old concept that a the struggle of the working class. The capitalist old labor leaders. And it is being used to the detri strike, once begun, must be continued for months ridden so called labor organizations, the old fashioned ment of the workers, for instance in the textile in On the contrary let them be brief, let them last just leaders and labor fakers furnish great services to lustry The John Golden clique fomented unrest and as long as is needed to furnish the strikers with some the enemy class. These are most dangerous in their injury to the labor class.
threatened Strikes in order to obtain 12 2 per education in class struggle. Continuous meetings cnt reduction of the royal weekly wages of 13 2 and daily leaflets on the situation are the most essenNo wonder that great confusion is manifested in dollars of the textile workers. Apparently these tial points of the program while the strike lasts.
th ranks of the brave fighters of the working classs.
fakers are working under the direction of the Woolen For men, who cannot spare a nickel a day for dues Their minds are infested with the old ideas, they are Trust and the famous Arkwright Club.
on account of low wags even a week may appear overwhelmed by the capitalist lies and by the follies of the labor fakers, who instead of guiding and orThe real inagnificent strike like the Seattle a fairly long time. This education should make every man understand that in a strike, as in every ganizing strikes are interfering with and obstructing general strike are denounced and damned by the retreats and attacks are used and both are necessary Gompers gang although this strike was led by bonafide bodies of the American Federation of Labor for victory. Every participant in case The old philosphy is: that this is no time for of war must be ready to retreat thát is go back into the shops like striking, that business is slack, and that therefore To postpone strikes until periods of prosperity; an organized army with the grim determination to the workers should wait until the next period of until the bosses begin to look for men instead of come out again, to fall upon the enemy at any moment prosperity and then strike, or rather beg for a job. being annoyed by job seekers folly, because during with new energy and better equipment. If such for an increase in wages, if they are still slaves by the most normal and prosperous periods the labor education is obtained if the eyes of the strikers are that time.
Another opportunist puts it this way: You are employed is always there to furnish a scals in addition opened as much as that then even a so called fost strike is a magnificent victory; not organized, you cannot think of a strike. Get to the organized scabbery of the Gompers gång.
This not an idle theory, but a very practical sugbusy, make your shop 100 per cent. unionized, fill To postpone strikes until the shops are 100 per getion applied with great success under almost is your treasury and then then you will not need to cent organized and until the treasuries are full is bad political conditions as prevail at present here strike then you will get everything without strik another fairy tale. The work of organization has been in America, namely under the regime of the Czar ing.
conducted energetically for decades and where are.
That, in a nutshell, is the whole philosophy. of the we at present? Have we organized 10 per cent of the The American workers are seething with unrest old fashioned strike. There certainly is an appendix workers in America? Where are the remaining 90 can remain uninfluenced by the labor struggles to it, namely: if everything could not be per cent? How many centuries will be needed to bring glorious victories in different countries of Eu obtained by begging and bargaining then go out, them into unions? By that time all of us will have and other parts of the world. The economic but be sure to beware of sympthetic strikes, of general died of starvation and of vile working conditions. ditions in America are over ripe for revolution walk outs and of other such heresies. Just stay Beşides. organzation in itself is an empty word; isolated strikes are bound to become more gener out, you went, and consume the savings of your it can be used for bad as well as good purposes. For more conscious in their means and ends.
war.