[Detroit-announce] A Call for May Day in Windsor

[lwallace at uwindsor.ca]

TIME TO TAKE A STAND - A NEW BEGINNING 
an OPEN CALL FOR MAY DAY 2009
The current economic crisis is tearing apart our community. Workers are 
losing their jobs, their incomes, their savings, their homes. Almost every 
individual worker feels the pressure. People are afraid of the future. 
Union jobs are no longer secure as plants slow production, services are 
cutback and layoffs are the order of the day. Corporate and government 
management demand concessions of  wages, benefits,  even the hard won 
pensions of union retirees. Non-union workers bid against each other for 
lower and lower wages at longer and longer hours. Young workers are 
expected to only hope for part-time, temp work, contract work and to hold 
down two or three jobs just to get by. 
Students see their tuition fees increasing while services to them are cut 
back. They work harder to increase skills they may never use in a future 
that holds no assurance for them. Unemployed workers, those on social 
assistance are hemmed in with few chances of finding work while 
governments cut back payments and resources. 
The crisis is global. The system has failed. That system is capitalism, 
whether "free enterprise" or "state controlled". And it is not the future 
we want.. Solutions will not be found in stop-gap economic incentives to 
industry. They will not come from the boss. They will not come from 
politicians, no matter how well intentioned. It depends on us alone. 
Workers - those who build, teach, plan, use their brain and muscle power 
to create all of the wealth around us - have a choice. We can remain 
silent and quietly accept this sorry state of affairs or we can rise and 
take a stand against it. 
On Friday, May 1, 2009, the Windsor Branch of the Industrial Workers of 
the World (IWW) is calling upon all workers individually and colelctively 
to join  us to reawaken the vision for a fundamentally different and 
better world. 
The Windsor IWW Branch is extending a call to plan a May Day rally and 
celebration - a mass rally followed by a march through downtown Windsor to 
the area of Pelissier St. and University Ave. W.  At that end point of the 
march we hope to have arranged an outdoor series of activities and indoor 
events including speakers, live music, art display, room for groups and 
organisations to publicise and discuss their work. 
We call upon union workers and their elected representatives in the 
private and public sector; non-union workers, part-time workers and 
independent workers;  women's organisations; unemployed workers, 
unemployed worker associations, poverty action groups, community 
organisations, workers' rights and advocacy groups; all cultural workers - 
artists, musicians, singers, poets, writers, journalists; Canadian born 
and immigrant workers; women workers and male workers from every branch of 
home and industry because 
an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us. 
On May 1, we can begin to come together as workers to define our problems 
and define the solutions on our own. We can build an alliance for a mass 
movement to not only preserve what we have won; we can build a movement to 
create a society fit for human beings and not for the profit of a few. On 
May 1 we call for a new beginning to reawaken our traditions and our 
vision. 
We ask organisations and individuals to endorse this May Day call and for 
your active support. Please contact us. 
IWW May Day Organising Committee: 
Len Wallace, email: lwallace at mnsi.net 
Ron Drouillard, email: drouillardr at gmail.com 
and mayday09 at gmail.com 
  
_______________________ 
MAY DAY IS OUR HISTORY 
No right, benefit or freedom has ever been given to people because of  the 

benevolence and good wishes of employers, politicians or governments. 
Better wages and working conditions, health and safety laws, health care, 
pensions, the right to vote, universal suffrage, free speech and freedom 
of association were all won as the result of the demands and direct action 
taken by workers. 
May Day, a day of solidarity of all workers all over the world, is rooted 
in Canadian and U.S. working class history  and the struggle to shorten 
the working day. In Canada laws were once in place making it illegal to 
leave one?s employment and until 1872 it was even considered criminal to 
organise and join a union. Even then those who dared to join could legally 
be fired by their employer. In the 19th century it was not uncommon for 
working men, women and young children being forced to work 12, 13, even 14 
hours a day, six days a week for starvation wages. The struggle for a 
shorter work week was a struggle for survival. 
In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United 
States and Canada  resolved that May 1st become the day to press forward 
the demand for an Eight Hour working day under the slogan ?Eight Hours For 
Work; Eight Hours For Rest; Eight Hours For what We Will!? 
On May 1, 1886, 80,000 Chicago workers in the city of Chicago downed their 
tools in a series of strikes. Two days later in the Haymarket area a much 
smaller group of 2,500 workers held a peaceful rally to protest the 
brutality and intimidation of emplpyers and police against the movement. 
As the meeting dispersed 180 armed police prepared to assault 200 
remaining workers. Suddenly, a bomb was thrown (by someone unknown to this 
day) killing one officer. Police indiscriminately fired into the crowd and 
on fellow officers, clubbing anyone in their way. The event became known 
as the Haymarket Affair. 
Martial law was declared. Hundreds of trade union activists and political 
dissidents were hunted down and jailed. Eight innocent union activists 
were charged with conspiracy to murder. In a sham trial full of fabricated 
evidence five of them were sentenced to death by hanging. The press loudly 
applauded. Their only crimes were holding dissident political views and 
trying to organise workers. 
In 1889 North American trade unionists travelled to Paris, France to 
attend the 
congress of the Labour and Socialist International. Delegates heard about 
the struggle for the 8-hour day and resolved to organize worldwide 
demonstrations on May 1st so that in all countries on one appointed day 
workers would demand the legal reduction of the working day. In 1891 
International added that it must also serve as a demonstration on behalf 
of the demands to improve working conditions, and to ensure peace among 
the nations. 
May Day is a part of our history, a day for new beginnings and a the day 
to show that we workers have more in common with each other than we do 
with those who would rule over us. 
WHAT IS THE IWW? 
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was formed in 1905 as a militant 

alternative to the conservative craft unions of the day. The IWW believed 
in organising all workers regardless of sex, colour, religious belief, 
national background, personal political beliefs, employed or unemployed, 
skilled or unskilled, into one industrial body. Millions of workers 
organised into one powerful union body could not only achieve immediate 
goals; it would have the revolutionary potential to establish a new 
democracy in which the producers of the world?s wealth could run industry 
for the needs and interests of humanity instead of the profits of a few. 
Hundreds of thousands of workers in the U.S. and Canada joined the IWW. 
The idea spread to other countries. The union was behind some of the most 
significant strikes of the past century. The IWW??s success was met with 
waves of government repression. Activists, organisers and members were 
jailed and deported. Employers waged a brutal, violent war against the 
union; its members beaten and murdered by hired thugs and vigilantes. By 
the 1950s it seemed that the decimated IWW was a spent force. 
The 1970s witnessed an influx of young members committed to its 
principles. 
Branches formed across Canada and the U.S. Workplaces have been organised, 
solidarity work continues with other labour organisations, social justice 
and community groups. In 2005 hundreds of IWW activists once again 
convened in Chicago on the 100th anniversary of its founding to reaffirm 
its principles and continue the work of the union. In the past year a 
nucleus of young workers has formed an IWW Windsor branch. 
______________________________________ 
ARTISTS ARE WORKERS TOO! 
A Special Call to Artists for May Day 
At a time of global economic crisis art in all its forms is needed more 
than ever. Yet the very system based on the sale of art and the labour of 
cultural work limits it more and more in a shrinking "market". The artist 
is like any worker forced to survive by selling his or her labour energy 
for a wage. 
As an independent worker artists are too often unprotected. Most do not 
belong to an organised collective, a union. Too many cannot depend on 
their creative work alone to survive. They work at other employment, hold 
down a number of jobs in order to be able to continue to do the work they 
love. Many are dependant upon the existence of government support and 
grants with all the strings attached. Those grants themselves are cut back 
as the crisis deepens. Art is considered a mere adjunct to "real life" 
rather than a necessary, intrinsic part of life. It is considered a costly 
luxury or an entertainment that can be easily eliminated. 
The cultural/artistic community of this community has made great strides 
in bringing people together to keep the arts alive. It shows that 
collectively we are stronger than when we are alone. The economic crisis 
now confronting our communities is one that is one that will be severe and 
long lasting. Solutions cannot be found at an individual level or through 
the work of the artistic community alone. They will not be found with the 
hope of government aid. What is needed now, more than ever, is a broad 
movement of workers to define the solutions. And artists are workers. 
Artists have always been in part of and often taken the lead in the path 
for social change. They have created the images, symbols; given expression 
of desires; provided critique and criticism; expressed new visions and 
perceptions. 
The Windsor Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) hopes to 
make that new beginning and we ask all artists to join us. 
We need your input and creativity - your art, banners, props, decorations, 
skills, poetry, music, imagination to bring to life a new beginning and a 
new vision for a different kind of future than the ones envisioned by 
corporate execs, bosses, politicians, governments and their ideologues.
 
 
 
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