Wednesday, April 11, 2018

WHY WAUKESA…FOR THE INTERNATIONAL LABOR DAY MAY 1st MARCH?


    

This year Voces de la Frontera’s May 1st March will be in Waukesha for a good reason.  Waukesha County Sheriff Eric Severson, in an attempt to expand his power, wants his department to function as an immigration agency.  In protest and to publicize this power grab, Voces will stage its May 1st March in Waukesha.



The International Labor Day Marches promote labor rights and are a memorial for those who died in the May 1st  uprisings in 1886 in Chicago and Milwaukee with workers demanding the eight-hour day.  In Chicago several were killed in what has been called a “Police Riot.”  The next day in Bay View, Wisconsin  several were killed by the National Guard in their attempt to break up a march to the Bay View Rolling Mills.  ‘Remembering the past’ is an important animating force in the present struggle.  The experience gained is important in plans for action and a coherent explanation of goals.

Remember the 5th of May - Governor Rusk’s nefarious day
Fire at will he said – and soon 9 workers and a boy were dead
Mark the calendar spot – it’s a tragedy not to be forgot.

   Waukesha has some important connections to the May 1st Labor Day celebrations. In 2006 Waukesha’s congressman, James Sensenbrenner promoted anti-immigrant legislation that caused community outrage.  The response in Wisconsin was the first May 1st March in many years.  It was the largest in the country with an estimated 70,000 participants.  Large May 1st Marches have been held in Milwaukee every year since.

   After the police rioting in Chicago labor leaders were arrested.  Albert Parsons escaped to Waukesha and stayed with the Daniel Hoan family.  (Daniel Hoan Jr. was to become the future mayor of Milwaukee.)  After a few weeks, Parsons turned himself in to face trial with his comrades.  Eight labor leaders were convicted of murder; seven were sentenced to death.  Lucy Parsons (ne: Lucy Eldine Gonzalez) said goodbye to her husband:
My husband, I give you to the cause of liberty. I now go forth to take your place.  I will herald abroad to the American people the foul murder ordered here today at the behest of monopoly.  I, too, expect to mount the scaffold.  I am ready.” LPAR p. 104




Lucy Parsons was evicted from her apartment in Chicago so she left her son with the Hoan family in Waukesha and her daughter with other friends while she traveled to several cities on a speaking tour.  

Ms. Parsons traveled the country advocating workers rights until her death in 1942.  She did talk about her husband’s unfair trial and hanging but she emphasized the rights of working people and pointed to the disgrace of hunger and unemployment. The basis for her talks was the Pittsburg Manifesto of the International Working Peoples Association written by a group including her husband Albert Parsons.  The Manifesto demanded equality of the sexes and:

Establishment of a free society based on cooperative organization of production. LPAR p. 44

Immigrant workers struggling for Justice continues with the International Labor Day parade - May 1st,  2018, 10:00 a.m. starting in Cutler Park in the city of Waukesha, 321 Wisconsin Avenue.




SUGGESTED READINGS

Amazing Grace, William Wilberforce and the heroic campaign to end slavery, Eric Metaxas

The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, ed. Phillip S. Foner AHM

Black against Empire, Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin Jr.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Eric Metaxas

The End of Work, Jeremy Rifkin

Goddess of Anarchy, (Lucy  Parsons) Jacqueline Jones

Laborem Exercens,  John Paul II

The Labor Movement in Wisconsin, Robert W. Ozzane

Labor’s Untold Story, Richard O. Boyer, Herbert M. Morais LUS

Lucy Parsons = American Revolutionarty, Carolyn Ashbaugh LPAR p.104

Martin Luther,  Eric Metaxas ML

The Making of Milwaukee, John Gurda  MM

May Day – A Short History of the International Workers Holiday, Phillip S. Forner S. Forner MD

Movie: The Long Shadow, Frances Causey, film maker and investigative reporter




No comments:

Post a Comment