Shunpiking Online Vo.6 No.4

THE Halifax May Day Committee (HMDC) extends its warm appreciation to everyone who contributed to the successful day of action on May First. More than 125 people vigorously participated from different walks of life, trades, political affiliations and ideological orientations, especially including trade unionists and large numbers of youth and women. This was a concrete demonstration of unity in action, and a living embodiment of the May Day slogan - Unity, Resistance and Dignity.

It was on the basis of this principle of unity in action that we were able to successfully neutralize any attempts to create conflict, division or paralysis. The rally held at the Grande Parade was addressed by representatives of areas of struggle in this society. What was resoundingly clear is that May Day is organized for the unity of the people.

The joyful and colourful rally was addressed by Tony Seed on behalf of the Halifax May Day Committee (HMDC), Tony Tracy of the Canadian Labour Congress, Prof. Isaac Saney of the Nova Scotia Cuba Friendship Association, Elizabeth McCormick of the Dalhousie Womens' Centre, and Devine Moore, a grandmother, who came forward to relate how she and her fellow workers had organized the Vancouver office of Young Drivers of Canada: "if we can do it, you can do," she declared to applause. Two musicians, The Nobodies, enthusiastically performed working class songs.

The participants included trade unionists with large flags of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Nova Scotia Union of Public Employees. Participants also carried Palestinian, Venezulean and Cuban flags honouring the workers and oppressed peoples of the world standing up to imperialism and aggression, as well as anti-capitalist and anti-war placards and banners such as "No Harbour for War." The rally closed with the Internationale.

From the Grand Parade the rally proceeded on a militant march through the North End working class community to the North End Library, the venue for the evening forum and cultural-social program. The march was led off by an anti-capitalist bloc of young people and students with their banner "Resistance is Global," the May Day banner of the HMDC, and the banner of the NSCUBA.

At the library, the HMDC statement/speech was delivered by Aaron Doncaster, a food services worker, and received with enthusiasm.

This was followed by the 1978 documentary film, Work and Wages, which depicts the conditions and struggles of the workers of Halifax at that time, and which was personally introduced by film-maker Bill MacKeiggan. As one participant commented, the film really brought out the "living heart" of the workers and youth. Several youth who appeared in the documentary came to the showing.

Professor Michael Earl, in a concise but focused presentation, highlighted features of the struggles of the coal miners of Cape Breton for their rights at the turn of the last century, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. He then elaborated on the collapse of the post Second World War social contract, which has led to concerted attacks on labour law and labour rights by government at all levels in the service of big capital.

Throughout the May Day Forum an atmosphere of mutual respect and optimism prevailed, with many lively discussions taking place.

The Day of Action of May First, 2008, has made a modest contribution to: (1) re-establishing May Day; (2) preserving and strengthening the principle of unity in action; (3) restoring collective memory; and (4) renewing the working class movement.

This is the deed of all those who contributed and participated.

HMDC's immediate future goal is to build a broad programme for the event of May First, 2009 - the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the General Strike of 1919. We call on everyone to begin immediate preparations for May Day, 2009. HMDC is also developing a concrete practical program to develop its life as an organized force. All those fighting to defend workers' rights and the dignity of labour will have our unconditional support. We warmly invite all those interested in these goals to join in.

Tony Seed, Co-Chair
Halifax May Day Committee
Tel: 902-477-0720
E-mail: mayday.halifax@gmail.com

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Unity, Resistance and Dignity

Speech by the
Halifax May Day Committee
May Day Forum, North End Branch Library
1st May 2008

Delivered by Aaron Doncaster (pictured)
Edited for publication

Dear sisters and brothers,

MAY DAY is here -- the day the workers and the oppressed all over the world mark advances in the struggle for unity, rights and dignity.

Last year workers and youth of Halifax made a start in restoring the commemoration of MAY DAY. This year, matters have already advanced a step over last year: we have rallied with joy and enthusiasm, we have marched, we have raised determined and united voices for workers' and people's rights, and we will hear important information tonight from the guest speakers and the realist documentary film, Work and Wages.

This is an affirmation of the determination of workers and their allies to renew the working class movement in the spirit and memory of all that has been achieved since the modern working class came into existence some two hundred years ago. To turn the situation around within the present conditions.

To this end, we have established the Halifax May Day Committee to ensure its commemoration as an annual event in our calendar.

This is now a reality. This reality is a victory, however small.

What is this achievement, what is this advance?

Firstly. Throughout the city, the province, the Maritimes and the nation workers and the oppressed are courageously resisting the anti-social offensive of big capital and its state. All kinds of forces are striving to eliminate the social consciousness, co-operation and the scientific ability of the working class to think independently for itself. The rich and their pundits preach 24/7: "every man for himself", "dog eat dog", the only alternative is to "make Nova Scotia competitive", "history has ended", "workers have accomplished nothing", and so forth.

One aspect of this pressure was the elimination of MAY DAY, the International Workers Day, the day of labour, from our calendar as part of the negation of the workers and the oppressed, their history, culture and their thought material - their right-to-be, their future.

Let us illustrate the negation by a poignant question: Is it accidental that there is not a single monument to labour in Halifax, a city littered with colonial and war monuments?

Halifax May Day has brought to the fore in action the social consciousness of the working people against this anti-social offensive and consciousness.

Secondly. The Halifax May Day Committee has been organized on the basis of unity in action. Some people ask: "Who are you?" Or: "We know nothing of your group." All legitimate questions. Well, the answer, in very brief, is that we are nobodies.

But, wait a second! I am an unorganized worker in the capitalist food services sector. I have a consciousness. I have a conscience. I am a somebody. I am May Day.

Then others have accused it of being a "front." Yes, we confess that we are guilty of this charge! We proudly confess: the Halifax May Day Committee is a front for May Day! It is a front for the resistance, unity and dignity of workers and oppressed, of all those who hold these principles dear.

Then there are others who sit on the sidelines and present some dogmatic catechisms and preconceptions that we allegedly did not follow, or on the basis of which we should agree to the division and split of our collective forces. Again we plead guilty! We proudly follow the principle that May Day is no-one's private property.

So we nobodies are somebodies who stand for organizing on the basis of this life and conscience, our reality and our city. Thus our call: Join In! Let everyone participate, investigate for themselves, and acquire their own experience through action and organizing.

On this basis, we came together regardless of our individual political or ideological or religious affiliation to organize this day of action, to restore May Day to its rightful place in our calendar, and establish one organization based on unity in action. We took a stand. When you take a stand, change takes place, motion develops.

Unity does not fall from heaven nor is it cooked up in a back room or lifestyle cafe. At the centre of our unity is the fight to defend the rights of the workers and oppressed. This unity is not based on going around and tapping people on the shoulder and asking, "can we discuss 'unity'?" This unity is not based on looking for, as the Internationale proclaims, some condescending saviour from the ruling elite or the middle strata of the society to shelter and protect us from the storms. It is based on going to the broadest section of the society. The all-inclusive spirit of our call for May Day illustrates this. Despite our small force, we distributed, we postered, and we e-mailed as much and as far as we could.

So here is our perspective: the defence of the rights of all -- to economic, personal and national security and for a Canadian standard livelihood -- is not something separate. It is an integral part of the working class movement. We belive this must be organized as grassroots initiatives in every workplace and community.

Workers produce the material blessings and services of this province and the nation. All workers, regardless of whether they are immigrant, legal or illegal, status or no status, have rights on this basis. Our security does not lie with some phoney "war on terror" but on the defence of the rights of all. We say: "an injury to one is an injury to all". That is the basis of unity. We say: "All for one, and one for all."

Thirdly. Halifax May Day is based on Halifax and our region. Halifax was built on the basis of colonial dispossession, by labour, including slave labour. Our responsibility begins with our home, the most heavily militarized city in Canada, integral to the Atlantica project of annexation. We call on the workers to take up the cause of peace and the nation.

The same question comes to the fore. The United States is such an "ally" that it does not even deign to inform the sycophantic Canadian government as to which of its "visiting" warships carries nuclear weapons of mass destruction! If we are organizing to stop the imperialist and nuclear-armed warships from using our harbour, to stay the deployment of Canadian warships to menace peoples of far-off lands, what social force do we look to? A war government -- or the port and other workers who are on the front lines and are being stripped in the name of "security" of their rights by the state -- which gives the lie to the disinformation that militarization of the economy and the port brings "jobs", "boom times" and "prosperity." One banner in our demonstration says it all: "No Harbour for War!"

Halifax Labour Day March, 1949

Fourthly. Our May Day Project aims to restore the collective memory of the working people embodied in May Day -- such as the infamous Halifax Explosion, a war crime, and the ensuing Halifax General Strike of May 1st, 1919, the strike that began one day before the famous Winnipeg General Strike; the great mass actions of the Cape Breton miners and steelworkers; of the Canadian seamen shot in cold blood in the port of Halifax in 1946, not by Al-Qada but by the CPR police; and of innumerable other battles in the factories and mines; the ports and hospitals and schools; the woods and seas and farms; and of the valiant struggles of the African Nova Scotian, Acadian, Gaelic-speaking and First Nations' communities for their democratic rights. Important changes are taking place: the post war social contract, the whole corpus of labour law, is being thrown out. The law of the jungle rules the roost. Surely it is now time to analyse and re-evaluate over a century of the labour movement. There is a need to analyse the experience of over a century of struggle in Nova Scotia and throughout the world. The international experience is valuable. Basing ourselves on understanding our own experience, as well as the experience of others, will enable us to develop a politics of resistance, liberation and empowerment for the 21st century.

To this end, we invite everyone to join in with us and prepare for HALIFAX MAY DAY 2009 - the 90th anniversary of Halifax May Day 1919.

We invite everyone to join with us as we develop ongoing initiatives and a concrete program to renew the working class movement. Participate in the act of finding out. Help restore the living history of the workers and oppressed of Halifax, of Nova Scotia and the Maritimes to its rightful place, a place of honour and dignity in the global resistance of one humanity to achieve a new world -- a world without constant war, imperialist plunder and the tyranny of exploitation by private property.

Long Live May Day, the Day of International Working Class Unity, Resistance and Dignity!

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Restoring the freedom to choose

CLC May Day Statement delivered by Tony Tracy, CLC Representative, Atlantic Canada, Halifax NS

Around the world, working people and their unions take the first day in May to celebrate.

As workers, we celebrate the accomplishments of our labour and how, through our work and our abilities, we have made our communities better places to live.

As unions, we celebrate because so many of these accomplishments have only been possible through the strength and solidarity that workers find when they bring us into their workplaces.

Canadians know that having a union and a collective agreement at work results in higher wages and better working conditions. Most of us would say that unions are a necessary part of a balanced economy and a vibrant society.

For proof, look no further than a survey produced last summer by Angus-Reid Strategies.

Nearly three quarters (72 per cent) of Canadians agreed that unions improve wages and working conditions. Well over half (59 per cent) agreed that unions are necessary and important entities in society.

So, if having a union and a collective agreement at work makes such a difference, and we all have the right to join in, why aren't more of us doing it? A relevant question because the right to join and participate in a union has been written into the Constitution and protected as part of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

To a large degree, the answer can be found in our labour laws. When laws are changed to make it easier for workers to exercise their right to bring in a union and negotiate a collective agreement, there is a marked growth in the number of workers covered by collective agreements as well as union membership. Sadly, today's labour laws leave many workers vulnerable to intimidation and at risk of losing their jobs for taking advantage of their constitutional rights.

It used to be, in some provinces, that when a majority of people in a workplace signed a union card, that was enough to trigger the establishment of a bargaining committee with the legal authority to negotiate a collective agreement and bring it to a vote. It was an open, fair and democratic way for people to make use of their constitutional right to choose.

Returning to card-based certification means more Canadians can freely choose to invite a union into their workplace and have a collective agreement - or not. Changing labour laws to restore this freedom is a challenge the labour movement must work together to accomplish. The best way Canadians can guarantee that more of the new jobs we create are good jobs - jobs that last and can provide a family with a decent standard of living - is to have more workplaces with collective agreements. That means supporting businesses where there's a union, ahead of the others, and actively avoiding businesses that don't support their workers' right to choose. It means choosing to work where there is a good collective agreement and a strong union to police it first. Finally, it means choosing a union and bringing it into your workplace.

Despite the best efforts of employers to skew labour laws in their favour, it is still possible to bring a union into your workplace. Yes, it can (and it should!) be easier. That's why it's important to elect people to the federal parliament and to provincial legislatures who support working people and their rights. That's why, before they vote, working people need to figure out who's on their side.

Given what Canadians already know about the advantages of having a collective agreement at work and a union in their corner, more would make use of their right to choose if they had the freedom to do it, out in the open and without fear.

Happy May Day!

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Additional reports

by Asaf Rashid, CKDU Radio

NS-Cuba Friendship Association -Professor Issac Saney

Professor Issac Saney spoke on behalf of the NS-Cuba Friendship Association. He made reference to the fact that millions were marching in Cuba on May Day to celebrate the International Day of the Worker and the continuation of the Cuban Revolution. Cuba was described as an example of perserverence of a struggle for social justice and the rights of all workers, despite unrelenting U.S hostility. He alluded to the fact that as other examples of independence and socialism are unfolding in Latin America, such as Venezuela and Bolivia, the example of Cuba provides context.

Prof Saney also highlighted the food riots taking place all over the world in the poorer reaches, and the connection of these points of conflict with the capitalist and imperialist commodification of food into fuel, causing food prices to soar. He echoed the words of Fidel Castro, calling this food - fuel transition the "internationalization of genocide."

'If I can do it, you can do it' - Devine Moore

Moore spoke about her struggles to form a union in British Columbia several years ago. She worked for the Young Drivers of Canada and, along with her co-workers, decided to organize a union to respond to workplace concerns. They unionized with the CAW in 2000.

Moore described how when her employer found out she was involved in trying to organize a union, she was fired; however, her employer was forced to re-hire her through an assertion of her labour rights. She made the pitch to the May Day rally to struggle for better conditions in the workplace and commented on how every worker has the right form a union, and it is a very possible task.

Dalhousie Women's Centre - Elizabeth McCormick

McCormick spoke on behalf of the Dalhousie Women's Centre. After giving her solidarity for May Day, her following message was to pay homage to all the female workers who experience differential treatment on a daily basis. She made a call to the rally to recognize patriarchy, unmask it and dismantle it in our everyday routines.

Halifax May Day Committee - Aaron Doncaster

On behalf of the Halifax May Day Committee, food Service worker Aaron Doncaster gave a passionate speech at the Halifax North Branch Library. It was a rallying call for May Day, making reference to the fact that May Day is the real Labour Day. He gave some historical context to the organizing in the last two years to bring May Day and working class struggles back into the popular conscience. Doncaster gave notice that next year is the 90th anniversary of the Halifax General Strike and how it was important to further galvanize the

spirit of May Day for the historical day. He strongly emphasized that all workers, regardless of their citizenship status, must have their rights defended, for "an injury to one is an injury to all."