In view of the above features of the American Federation “unions,”—and they by no means exhaust the list—it is only natural that when the “hosts of Labor” are marching in Labor Day parades they do not march to the strains of the battle-hymn of the modern revolutionary proletariat,—the “International” or the “Marseillaise”—unless some misguided Socialists disgrace Socialism by participating in such parades. No, it is to the tune of the vulgar rag-time and of the stale, capitalist patriotic hymns that the “organized labor” forces are marching on Labor Day. These rag-time melodies and patriotic hymns send the cheer of joy and hope and triumph to the hearts of capitalists and politicians. But to the ears of awakened class-conscious wage slaves and revolutionists these tunes are worse than a funeral dirge for the hopes and aspirations of the proletariat!
Such is the true character, aim and spirit of the American Federation of Labor under whose auspices Labor Day is celebrated.
How Different the May Day!
It is the awakened, intelligent, class-conscious Working Class of the World that stands back of the May Day. In America May Day is celebrated by the revolutionary Socialists in the political arena and, besides a few progressive locals of the American Federation of Labor, by the Industrial Workers of the World in the economic arena.[[1]]
[1]. The original Industrial Workers of the World, formed in Chicago in 1905, and having at the time of this writing its headquarters in Detroit, and not the Anarcho-industrialist “Chicago I. W. W.”, is meant in this and subsequent paragraphs.
The key-note to May Day is the greatest Truth of the Age, the solidarity of the working class of the world and the struggle for the overthrow of the capitalist class and its wage system.
As the Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World, one of the most compact utterances of a revolutionary workers’ organization, expresses it:
“The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class have all the good things of life.
“Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all the toilers come together on the political, as well as on the industrial field, and take and hold that which they produce by their labor....
“The rapid gathering of wealth and the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands make the trades unions unable to cope with the ever-growing power of the employing class, because the trades unions foster a state of things which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars....