http://peoplesworld.org/voices-silenced-in-1887-heard-louder-than-ever-this-may-day/by: John Wojcik
CHICAGO - "The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today." Those were the last words from the gallows cried out by August Spies on Nov. 11, 1887.
The execution of Spies and three of his comrades was necessary, the prosecutor had insisted, even though "they are as innocent of killing those policemen as you and me. It is their ideas," he said, "that cannot be permitted to survive another day."
But 123 years later, here at the memorial for Spies and the rest of the Haymarket Martyrs on Saturday, there was ample evidence that their ideas have survived and flourished. The May Day 2010 rally at Haymarket Square amounted to nothing less than a declaration by this city's workers that they were proudly re-claiming as their own a holiday once derided as a day only "the left" celebrated.
Al Martin, field director for the Illinois AFL-CIO, chaired the rally which was sponsored by the Chicago Federation of Labor. He was cheered as he compared the struggle of the Haymarket Martyrs for the eight-hour day and for justice on the job to the struggle today for passage of immigration law reform. "This whole thing is about racism being used to divide and conquer us and we are not going to let that happen," he declared.
Fifty Japanese workers, members of Zenroren, Japan's national labor federation, were applauded as they joined the crowd. Komatsu Tamiko, the federation's international representative, paid homage to those "who died in the struggle for the eight-hour day. Today," she said, "Japanese workers and American workers share the same fight for justice against corporations that are exploiting our brothers and sisters all over the world." Tamiko presented a plaque which will become a permanent part of the memorial.
FULL story at link.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
