Happy May Day to all DUers! The Real Labor Day!

[Cascadian]

“Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most - that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least.” - Eugene Debs





John

[Cleita]

1. Saw a lady in Lisbon, Portugal on the news at their May Day rally

being interviewed and she said that labor activists are trying to get unions to be global. What a concept. End sweat shops around the world. That would be a wonderful thing.

[Cascadian]

2. It's about time don't you think?

It should have been done years ago but then again it is easier now with the internet and modern communication technology. Something past activists would have not imagined. It's time!


John

[Odin2005]

5. Global Capitalism requires Global Unions to fight it.

[jwirr]

16. Absolutely. It is the only way we can counter the effects of globalization.

[socialist_n_TN]

6. And once again, Trotsky is vindicated!......

:) OK, not to get into an internal socialist brouhaha, but it WAS his position. Worldwide solidarity, regardless of country.

[Cascadian]

8. It doesn't have to be a Communist thing.

I don't see it as such but it is an international network of people who only want a better life and yet must fight for it. Nothing Trotskyist about it really.


John

[socialist_n_TN]

9. Yes like it or not, it IS a Trotskyist thing.........

It's not only Marxist true, but this WAS his position all along. Which means it IS Trotskyist.

And it's even more so now that capitalism is more worldwide than ever.

[Cascadian]

11. I agree that Trotsky was an Internationalist but....

I do not see the governance of a new international union of workers being Communist in scope is all I am saying.


John

[socialist_n_TN]

12. OK, we don't really disagree..........

As I said, it doesn't even have to be Marxist. BUT if you are militant, international socialist, you're going to be closer to Trotsky's view than any other. Probably.

Anyway, I've been rereading a lot of books by and about LD lately and it's informing most of my political thinking. And of course, the big THEORETICAL difference between him and the Stalinists (and hence the rest and majority of the Communist movement in the 30s) WAS on the issue of internationalism vs socialism in one country.

[Cascadian]

13. Stalin was what I would like to call a "red fascist".

He is the one mainly responsible for destroying the image and the potential of Communism. In reality, he made it more ultra-nationalist than internationalist in scope. Then again the late West German socialist leader Kurt Schumacher summed it up correctly when he considered Communism as "red-varnished fascism".


John

[socialist_n_TN]

15. Also Trotsky's position on Stalin and the bureaucracy

Mostly anyway. He did see quite a few paralells between Stalin's bureaucracy and the fascists. The only place he was with the Stalinists was in the defense of the USSR from OURSIDE attack. He felt that since the USSR WAS still a worker's state (people's ownership of the means of production rather than capitalist ownership) albeit deformed, then it deserved to be defended from outside threats.

Although, towards the end of his life he was beginning to consider the possibility that the bureaucracy constituted a "new exploiting CLASS". Not that he actually BELIEVED it, but he did begin to CONSIDER it.

One of his articles showed exactly what he was all about. He had been a classic Marxist for 45 years of his life and, although he doubted that the bureaucracy was a new CLASS of exploiters, he said that IF history showed that it WAS a new exploiting class, then he wanted his followers on the side of the exploited. That showed how strongly he identified with the masses, rather than ANY exploiter OF those masses.

[Odin2005]

3. Yup. And May Day as a labor holiday started in the US.

[patrice]

4. Kick! For doesn't this seem to be the way we should go in order to end Human Rights abuses that we

currently go to WAR against???

[Hannah Bell]

7. kr

[Starry Messenger]

10. k&r

[Cascadian]

14. Another great quote to share.....

"Never forget, people DIED for the eight hour workday."
~Rebecca Gordon



John

[malaise]

17. Labor Day around the world

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/139969/20110501/may-day-march-rally-2011-beltane.htm

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-01/thousands-march-in-hong-kong-on-labor-day-for-pay-benefits.html
Hong Kong

http://www.wdtimes.com/news/national/image_d67295bb-130e-5d33-8a90-f9ffef60ea21.html
Taiwan
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1636287.php/Tracing-the-roots-of-Berlin-s-May-Day-violence
Berlin

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=681638&publicationSubCategoryId=63
Philippines

http://oddanchatram.in/may-day-labours-day-wishes-2011.html
India

http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&cf=all&ncl=dvF-xKtscNLbiXMHMmdvxW5A5OX3M

[Taverner]

18. +100000 for the Eugene Debs quote

[Cascadian]

19. He should have been our President.

Eugene Debs would have been great! IMHO! It would have given socialism a different meaning than it does now for most Americans. Not even Joe McCarthy would have been able to touch it!

John

[Taverner]

20. Yes he should have been

Eugene Debs was the rare breed of vision, charisma and morality

The man had the heart of a Gandhi or an MLK, yet he died in a sanitarium

He understood what a Socialist America would look like - not like the European Socialists but distinctly American, where both collective and individual good were rewarded

I would love it if someone made a 4+ hour biopic on him