May Day 2008
From SP Boston
For the third consecutive year, May Day 2008 in Boston mixed anti-capitalist militance with celebration and unity for a day of protest that is becoming a tradition. Throughout the year the Boston Socialist Party has been breaking down sectarian barriers on the anti-capitalist left by building working relationships with both anarchists and Trotskyists.
For May Day we joined the Industrial Workers of the World and the Northeast Anarchist Network in a spirited feeder march from Kenmore Square to the Boston Common, singing traditional labor songs and waving a mix of red and black flags. On the Boston Common we joined with a broader range of radicals and progressives brought together by the Boston May Day Coalition.
Solidarity with immigrant workers and the global south headlined the rally's message. Then we marched and rallied again at Copley Square as has become the tradition for May Day. Our own Chris Persampieri drew applause from the crowd by calling for immigrant rights, union organizing, and left unity. Afterwards, our red and black block regrouped one more time for a spontaneous march through the bourgeois playground known as Newbury Street.
A copy of Chris's speech is below. Media coverage of May Day mentioning the Socialist Party appeared in both the Weekly Dig and the MetroWest Daily News.
[edit] You Are My Comrades: May Day 2008
- Chris Persampieri, Socialist Party of Boston
I am honored to be here today to speak at such a historic holiday that sadly goes overlooked by many American workers who don't see that the struggle for a fair day's wage goes beyond borders.
The working class is suffering. We suffer because we can no longer make ends meet. They (and we all know who "they" are) cut our pay and benefits then tell us that it's not them; it's the undocumented workers who are responsible for our hardships. Their goal is to keep us distracted from the truth. The truth is that we have more in common with our immigrant brothers and sisters than our "American" corporate masters.
In case you don't know who the Walton family is; they are the owners of Wal-Mart whose combined personal wealth is worth over 100 BILLION dollars. Somehow in our capitalist system we have we allowed one person to acquire twenty billion dollars, while the average worker at their company is being paid below the federal poverty wage. At that rate, it would take one Wal-Mart associate over 192,000 years to achieve the personal wealth of one Walton who acquired it off the backs of its non-union workers.
I read yesterday in an AP article that Americans are now selling off their family heirlooms to make ends meet. Americans now have to choose between passing down its heritage or not being evicted.
How did this happen? It wasn't always like this, just ask your grandparents. Why were wages good enough that only one person had to work? Why do you think the 50s were considered the good old days? Before I continue please keep in mind this time wasn't the "good old days" for some Americans due to the color of their skin. But for the rest it was a good time because they could buy a home, raise a family, and still have money left over for the extras on forty hours a week. How was that possible for people who did not have college degrees? It was possible because over 50% of the work force was unionized and because there was a collective spirit of unity after the World War II when we defeated fascism.
Sadly, today only 9% of the workforce is unionized and Americans lack a spirit of unity.
But there is one good thing I see here today; all of us here have that spirit of unity and we didn't need a war to have it. We refuse to believe Fox News's propaganda and their message of intolerance to our brothers and sisters who struggle for the same goals as we do, regardless of where they were born.
My grandparents immigrated to this country from and because this was a nation that said; "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free". When they came to this country they were able to prosper because of their unions and during the Depression my grandfather worked for the WPA, a government program thanks to the New Deal.
The power to change things right never came because we politely asked management for a better wage. It is because we organized and demanded to be treated like human beings, not just simple machines. And if our demands were met with deaf ears, we elected to have a strike to show management how important we were to them. Then what did they do? Well, if you know about American labor history, they imprisoned us, they shot at us and on this day 122 years ago they murdered us in. They had the National Guard set fire to strikers' tents where 14 of our mothers and children burned to death while hiding in in 1914. They died because they demanded an eight hour work day and a safe work place.
We stand to lose ALL of their sacrifices paid in blood, if we don't continue their fight for a fair day's wage. We need to stop this fighting over undocumented workers and unite ALL the workers against the unelected few in power.
I know a lot of people hear the word "comrade" and get anxious. But calling someone a comrade means we share a common cause. We all have a common cause; we all want to be able to feed our families, to teach our children, to be able to see a doctor even if you don't have two cents to your name and most importantly to be able to achieve the American Dream.
We can't wait on the failed two-party system to fix they problem they created. The struggle won't be fixed over night, the struggle will be continuous. The wealthy are going to continue to slander, scare and lie about our movement of peace, solidarity and fairness. To all of you brave, hard working people here with me today; you are my comrades and we the Socialist Party will always stand beside you and as long as I draw breath I will never forget the dream that my grandparents called America.