Tomorrow is May Day. Projections by the International Labour Organization (ILO) will be a sobering thought on that day. May Day serves as a reminder of the challenge facing workers. The ILO warned that austerity measures are hurting job markets worldwide, and predicted global unemployment of 202 million people in 2012, up six million (6.1%) from last year. The ILO report also forecast that a further five million people would join the world's unemployed in 2013. The ILO's World of Work Report 2012 said fiscal austerity and labor market reforms had had "devastating consequences" for employment. Unemployment is on the rise in most of the world and will continue rising in the short-term.
According to ILO, the world is facing a worsening youth employment crisis, wherein, “young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and over 75 million youth worldwide are looking for work.” This had led to a higher chance of social unrest in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, advanced economies and Central and South Eastern Europe. "This is not surprising given that good jobs remain scarce and income inequality is rising," lead author of the report Raymond Torres said. Unemployment in Spain reached record highs of almost one-in-four last month, with over half of 18-25 year-olds out of work.
Unlike most of the rest of the world the United States doesn't celebrate May Day as an official national holiday. Outside the U.S., May 1st is International Workers' Day, observed with speeches, rallies, and demonstrations. Yet, ironically, this celebration of working-class solidarity originated from the American labor movement. The original May Day was born of the movement for an eight-hour workday.
After the Civil War, unregulated capitalism ran rampant in America. As the gap between the rich and other Americans widened dramatically, workers began to resist. To make their voices heard, workers had to resort to massive strikes, typically put down with brutal violence by government troops. The first major wave of labor unions pushed employers to limit the workday to ten, then eight, hours. The 1877 strike by tens of thousands of railroad, factory and mine workers -- which shut down the nation's major industries and was brutally suppressed by the corporations and their friends in government -- was the first of many mass actions to demand living wages and humane working conditions. By 1884, the campaign had gained enough momentum that the predecessor to the American Federation of Labor adopted a resolution at its annual meeting, "that eight hours shall constitute legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886."
On the appointed date, unions and radical groups orchestrated strikes and large-scale demonstrations in cities across the country. More than 500,000 workers went on strike or marched in solidarity and many more people protested in the streets. In Chicago, a labor stronghold, at least 30,000 workers struck. Rallies and parades across the city more than doubled that number, and the May 1 demonstrations continued for several days. The protests were mostly nonviolent, but they included skirmishes with strikebreakers, company-hired thugs and police. On May 3, at a rally outside the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company factory, police fired on the crowd, killing at least two workers. The next day, at a rally at Haymarket Square to protest the shootings, police moved in to clear the crowd. Someone threw a bomb at the police, killing at least one officer. Another seven policemen were killed during the ensuing riot, and police gunfire killed at least four protesters and injured many others. After a controversial investigation, seven anarchists were sentenced to death for murder, while another was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. The anarchists won global notoriety, being seen as martyrs by many radicals and reformers, who viewed the trial and executions as politically motivated. Within a few years, unions and radical groups around the world had established May Day as an international holiday to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs and continue the struggle for the eight-hour day, workers' rights and social justice.
In 1894, the American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, went on strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company to demand lower rents (Pullman was a company town that owned its employees' homes) and higher pay following huge layoffs and wage cuts. In solidarity with the Pullman workers, railroad workers across the country boycotted the trains with Pullman cars, paralyzing the nation's economy. President Grover Cleveland declared the strike a federal crime and called out 12,000 soldiers to break the strike. They crushed the walk-out and killed at least two protesters. Six days later, Cleveland -- facing worker protests for his repression of the Pullman strikers -- signed a bill creating Labor Day as an official national holiday in September. He hoped that giving the working class a day off to celebrate one Monday a year might pacify them. For most of the twentieth century, Labor Day was reserved for festive parades, picnics and speeches sponsored by unions. In 1958, in the midst of the cold war, President Dwight Eisenhower proclaimed May 1 as Loyalty Day.
May the 1st had faded away as a day of protest but this year feeling a new wave of anger and activism among their rank-and-file, many American unions will be taking to the streets once again this May Day. The Occupy movement will relaunch its protest actions with May Day actions and have called for a May Day "general strike".
Taken from here
According to ILO, the world is facing a worsening youth employment crisis, wherein, “young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and over 75 million youth worldwide are looking for work.” This had led to a higher chance of social unrest in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, advanced economies and Central and South Eastern Europe. "This is not surprising given that good jobs remain scarce and income inequality is rising," lead author of the report Raymond Torres said. Unemployment in Spain reached record highs of almost one-in-four last month, with over half of 18-25 year-olds out of work.
Unlike most of the rest of the world the United States doesn't celebrate May Day as an official national holiday. Outside the U.S., May 1st is International Workers' Day, observed with speeches, rallies, and demonstrations. Yet, ironically, this celebration of working-class solidarity originated from the American labor movement. The original May Day was born of the movement for an eight-hour workday.
After the Civil War, unregulated capitalism ran rampant in America. As the gap between the rich and other Americans widened dramatically, workers began to resist. To make their voices heard, workers had to resort to massive strikes, typically put down with brutal violence by government troops. The first major wave of labor unions pushed employers to limit the workday to ten, then eight, hours. The 1877 strike by tens of thousands of railroad, factory and mine workers -- which shut down the nation's major industries and was brutally suppressed by the corporations and their friends in government -- was the first of many mass actions to demand living wages and humane working conditions. By 1884, the campaign had gained enough momentum that the predecessor to the American Federation of Labor adopted a resolution at its annual meeting, "that eight hours shall constitute legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886."
On the appointed date, unions and radical groups orchestrated strikes and large-scale demonstrations in cities across the country. More than 500,000 workers went on strike or marched in solidarity and many more people protested in the streets. In Chicago, a labor stronghold, at least 30,000 workers struck. Rallies and parades across the city more than doubled that number, and the May 1 demonstrations continued for several days. The protests were mostly nonviolent, but they included skirmishes with strikebreakers, company-hired thugs and police. On May 3, at a rally outside the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company factory, police fired on the crowd, killing at least two workers. The next day, at a rally at Haymarket Square to protest the shootings, police moved in to clear the crowd. Someone threw a bomb at the police, killing at least one officer. Another seven policemen were killed during the ensuing riot, and police gunfire killed at least four protesters and injured many others. After a controversial investigation, seven anarchists were sentenced to death for murder, while another was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. The anarchists won global notoriety, being seen as martyrs by many radicals and reformers, who viewed the trial and executions as politically motivated. Within a few years, unions and radical groups around the world had established May Day as an international holiday to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs and continue the struggle for the eight-hour day, workers' rights and social justice.
In 1894, the American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, went on strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company to demand lower rents (Pullman was a company town that owned its employees' homes) and higher pay following huge layoffs and wage cuts. In solidarity with the Pullman workers, railroad workers across the country boycotted the trains with Pullman cars, paralyzing the nation's economy. President Grover Cleveland declared the strike a federal crime and called out 12,000 soldiers to break the strike. They crushed the walk-out and killed at least two protesters. Six days later, Cleveland -- facing worker protests for his repression of the Pullman strikers -- signed a bill creating Labor Day as an official national holiday in September. He hoped that giving the working class a day off to celebrate one Monday a year might pacify them. For most of the twentieth century, Labor Day was reserved for festive parades, picnics and speeches sponsored by unions. In 1958, in the midst of the cold war, President Dwight Eisenhower proclaimed May 1 as Loyalty Day.
May the 1st had faded away as a day of protest but this year feeling a new wave of anger and activism among their rank-and-file, many American unions will be taking to the streets once again this May Day. The Occupy movement will relaunch its protest actions with May Day actions and have called for a May Day "general strike".
Taken from here
1 comment:
On May day the left-winger will spend the whole day just requesting reforms, spreading nationalists slogans, rejecting one dictator and supporting another dictator, and nothing related to the real international unity of the working class. Bosses are going to be also celebrating May day
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