Happy May Day, International Workers' Day!

Tommorow, or actually today, as I prepare to post this at midnight, I plan on attending Tucson's May Day March and Rally for Immigrant and Workers' Rights, sponsored by the Tucson's May 1st Coalition and Coalicion de Derechos Humanos. Glad I had found out about this. For years now I have been pretty isolated from peoples' popular movements, and this should give me a chance to at least connect a little with people in the streets, fighting the good fight. I will try to remember my ancient digital camera (yes, really, I have 1st generation digital camera thats kind of shitty) and post some photos. That would be cool!

I really wanted to write something myself for this May 1st on the history of the holiday, but I am kind of short on time, moving and all, so instead I am going to "steal", or more appropriately quote at length an article from Tucson's May 1st Coalition web site, and attributed to M.L. Gaylord. Lest we forget the struggles of those who came before us, so that we forget to fight for a decent future for working people.

"In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had already failed. With workers being forced to work ten, twelve, and fourteen hours a day, rank-and-file support for the eight-hour movement grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders. By April 1886, 250,000 workers were involved in the May Day movement.

The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People's Association. Businesses and the state were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly. The police and militia were increased in size and received new and powerful weapons financed by local business leaders. Chicago's Commercial Club purchased a $2000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to be used against strikers. Nevertheless, by May 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters, shoemakers, and packing-house workers. But on May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality.

The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.

Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement. Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected radicals, and hundreds were arrested without charge. Anarchists in particular were harassed, and eight of Chicago's most active were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and he was on the speakers' platform), and they were sentenced to die. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolf Fischer, and George Engel were hanged on November 11, 1887. Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison; the remaining three were finally pardoned in 1893.

It is not surprising that the state, business leaders, mainstream union officials, and the media
would want to hide the true history of May Day, portraying it as a holiday celebrated only in
Moscow's Red Square. In its attempt to erase the history and significance of May Day, the
United States government declared May 1st to be "Law Day", and gave us instead Labor Day - a holiday devoid of any historical significance other than its importance as a day to swill beer and sit in traffic jams.

snip

By covering up the history of May Day, the state, business, mainstream unions and the media
have covered up an entire legacy of dissent in this country. They are terrified of what a similarly militant and organized movement could accomplish today, and they suppress the seeds of such organization whenever and wherever they can. As workers, we must recognize and commemorate May Day not only for it's historical significance, but also as a time to organize around issues of vital importance to working-class people today."

M.L. Gaylord

Soldier Mathew Chiroux Defends his Position, And Does it Well!

Mathew Chiroux, IVAW member, makes an excellent case for GI resistance based on the constitution against hostile questioning from TV anchors (link to video from TV station). Well done soldier!

Criticism of Obama from the Left I

The conventional idiocy of America's right-wing is of course that Obama is "far to the left", and a socialist. To many independent leftists and progressives this is simply not the case. So just to get myself in a posting habit, I thought I would start linking to some critical articles of Obama from the left. There are many out there, but they rarely get any mainstream attention. This is actually quite revealing in that the criticism of Obama one hears on the radio and other mainstream sources help shape the perception that Obama is more progressive than he is.

Anyway, I liked this article by Mike Whitney at Dissident Voice for several reasons. First it addresses the appeal of Obama both nationally and internationally as a symbol of a potentially different kind of American president. But it also suggests quite correctly in my opinion that Obama is in a sense trapped by the power structure of corporate elites that guide both domestic and international policies of the United States. Anyway here is an excerpt.

"For leftists, Obama has been a total bust. He’s escalated the war in Afghanistan, increased the cross-border bombings of Pakistan, hemmed and hawed about prosecuting war crimes, refused to actively lobby House members to make it easier for workers to organize (EFCA), and surrounded himself with bank industry reps who’ve committed $12.8 trillion to sinking financial institutions with no assurance that the money would be repaid. Apart from a trifling bill on stem cells, Obama has done absolutely zero to confirm his bone fides as a liberal. The truth is, Obama is neither liberal nor conservative; he’s simply an inspiring orator and a skillful politician who has no strong convictions about anything. If he achieves greatness, it will be because he was thrust into a crisis he couldn’t avoid and reluctantly acted in the best interests of the American people. That possibility still exists, although it seems more unlikely by the day."

Introducing My Left-Wing Wacko Blog

Greetings. This is my opening entry into my new web and blogging persona. Previously I had been surfing the blogosphere with my own real identity, signing my real name to comments etc., and I previously had a blog with a "humanist" and "atheist" theme, and that I posted to rarely. It seems as though I always had some rather lengthy essay type post I was putting together and never was able to finish. Plus life with my five year old boy and my nagging wife to never left me any time to do much but leave a comment on somebody else's blog. But now that I have had them exiled to Peru, I might have some time.

But now I am going to try to keep my efforts on this blog short, sweet, and regular on blog and news items of the day. And I am going to focus my commentary on politics and economics, or better said "political-economy".

But why now, (besides some free time) and why the name "Left-Wing Wacko"? Well, why not? First, I always did love that edition of This Modern World, "Are You a Left Wing Wacko?" by Tom Tommorow, first published on August 8th of 2001. Left-wing positions that are so obviously common sense are marginalized as "wacko" while the real insanity comes from un-regulated capitalism and so-called consevatives. Tom Tommorow so often hits the nail on the head in exposing our backwards political culture in this country.

Besides, the righties are gonna call anybody that for being a moderately progressive Democrat anyway, let alone a self-identifying socialist with a Marxist orientation. So why not embrace and appropriate the term? Just as gays and lesbians appropriate the terms "queer" and "fag", and African-American's appropriate the term "nigger" for their own subversive uses.

Speaking of which, recent political discourse has been somewhat aggravating lately. All this bullshit about calling President Obama a socialist and a Marxist is just absurd. Obama's policies are really only a slight move to the center on most fronts. But hopefully the right-wing in this country, by mis-directing the term, are also de-stigmatizing it. Now more than ever a genuine socialist-left is needed in this country. There are many signs of a more radical left resurgence in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Lets hope the swinging pendulum to the left can continue and infect the USA. Anywhoo, I short and sweet....that's enough for an introduction.