The eight hour day movement and the origins of Mayday

Mayday 1886, source

Richard Mellor

Let's hope today, May 1st 2026 will see one of the largest Mayday's since 1886 and that as opposed to passive protests and rallies, millions of workers take strike action. Mayday is about shutting down production. hitting them where it hurts most----profits. 

 

Mayday is International Workers' Day. When I first came to the United States from Britain in the early seventies, most American workers I spoke to thought May Day was a Soviet or Russian holiday. But Mayday is as American as apple pie as they say. It is a workers' holiday officially celebrated throughout the world but not here. 

Mayday has its roots in the history of the American working class movement. During the later half of the 19th century there was an ongoing struggle for the eight hour day and fewer work hours in general. Craft Unions, where workers organized around their individual trades, was the dominant form of organization and the brutality of the employers was widespread. 

At a meeting of the Central Labor Union of New York City on May 18th 1882, P.J. McGuire, a socialist and founder and General Secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, introduced a resolution for a day of festivities and parades in New York commemorating Labor and it proposed the first Monday in September. The first national organization that supported a day of celebration in honor of Labor was the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions at its convention in Chicago in 1884 and it was these developments that led to Labor Day.

“To capitalists, bankers and their hirelings” the Federation announced. As workers, “..drudge and toil your away your lives for a bare existence, these idlers and non-producers live in luxury and debauchery, squandering with a lavish hand that which belongs to you ---that which your labor produces..” (Sound familiar?)

“They have tried to deny us the right to organize---a right guaranteed by the constitution of this government. Therefore we call on you to show that we defy them; that you will organize; that you have organized; that the day of your deliverance is approaching. To do this we ask you to join the our ranks in celebrating the day.”

The Federation went on to proclaim: “The Trades and Labor Assembly proclaims labor’s annual holiday the first Monday of September. Leave your benches, leave your shops….”

The first national observance took place in September 1885 and the US Congress adopted Labor Day, the first Monday in September, as an official holiday on June 28th 1894. The bill was introduced by a member of the Typographical Union.

Alongside these developments, every Labor demonstration at the time, including the Labor Day celebrations, had the eight hour day as a dominant theme, “Eight Hours to Constitute a Days Work” was a prominent slogan and at the same Federation’s 1884 convention where a national Labor Day was proclaimed, another resolution was passed that stated:

“Resolved by the Federation of Organized Trades Labor Unions of the United States and Canada that eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labor from and after May 1st 1886, and that we recommend to labor organizations throughout this district that they so direct their laws as to conform to this resolution by the time named.”

So May Day has began and always been associated with the struggle for the eight-hour day and the movement around this struggle that arose in the 1880’s and culminating in May 1st 1886.

Prior to the Federation’s resolution, struggles had been taking place around the eight-hour day and shorter working hours in general. Some bosses had conceded and some city councils gave public sector workers the eight-hour day. But like today when we sign a contract, the minute the ink is dry the bosses are trying to violate it. In addition, the bosses would often reduce pay by 20% to compensate for the lost time so they actually lost nothing at all.

It became clear then, as it is today that workers cannot rely on legislation, capitalist politicians or their parties to defend our economic and material interests. All the social legislation that came out of the great upsurge of the 1930’s the occupations and the CIO and the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s from sick leave to title 7 were already rights taken in the streets through mass action; they were simply forced to legitimize them on paper and then write history to show that legislation and “responsible” political lobbying is what produces results.

If they wanted the eight-hour day, “The way to get it” Carpenter’s leader P.J. McGuire said, was “….by organization. In 1868, the United States passed an Eight-Hour Law, and that law has been enforced just twice. If you want and Eight-Hour law, make it yourself.” McGuire added, “We want an enactment by the working men themselves that on a given day, eight hours should constitute a day’s work, and they ought to enforce it themselves.” **

So it was the Carpenter’s that introduced the resolution stating May 1st 1986 as the first day for the establishment of eight hours as the legal workday. Another proposal stated that votes be taken in all Labor organizations for a “universal strike” for an eight-hour workday on May 1st. A writer for the well known Labor journal John Swinton’s paper who was covering the convention, wrote:

“It is useless to wait for legislation……A united demand for a shorter working day, backed by thorough organization, would prove vastly more effective than the enactment of a thousand laws depending for enforcement upon the pleasure of aspiring politicians or sycophantic department officials.” ***

“To accede the point that capitalists have the right to eight hours of our labor is more than a compromise, it is a virtual concession that the wages system is right” the anarchist journal wrote.

But the working class took up the idea seriously and revolutionaries of all types, including anarchists joined the movement and played a crucial role in the success of May day, especially in Chicago which was a hotbed of radical activity. Agitation for the eight-hour day was everywhere and rallies and protests, parades and gatherings took place throughout the country prior to Mayday. By mid April, 250,000 industrial workers were involved and in the face of the movement and to head it off, many bosses made concessions on hours.

They responded with the stick and the carrot as they always do and always will. In the mass media that they owned then as now, their propaganda said that society would collapse, the country would go broke, the money not there. The eight-hour day was “communism, lurid and rampant” . they claimed it would encourage “loafing and gambling, rioting, debauchery and drunkenness.” (they think we are like them you see) They wrote that it would bring “lower wages, poverty and degradation for American workers.”

But there was no stopping the movement. Foner points out that workers were smoking eight-hour tobacco, buying eight-hour shoes and sang the following eight-hour song:

We mean to make things over;
we’re tired of toil for nought

We sure don't have this today

But bare enough to live on; never
an hour for thought.
We want to feel the sunshine; we
Want to smell the flowers;
We’re sure that God has willed it,
And we mean to have eight hours.
We’re summoning our forces from
Shipyard shop and mill:
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest
Eight hours for what we will.

On May Day 1886 some 350,000 workers in more than 11,000 workplaces went on strike for the eight-hour day. 40,000 went out in Chicago. These are impressive figures for the time and the conditions and the limited Union organization. 45,000 workers were granted the eight-hour day without striking. The city of Chicago was paralyzed and the meatpacking workers, some of the most abused in the city won the eight-hour day with no reduction in pay, a huge victory. May Day 1886 was also a great organizing tool and thousands of workers joined Labor organizations. The same happened during the great strike upsurge that led to the CIO as millions joined Unions.

The bosses won much of this back but there were permanent gains made as hours were lessened in many industries. But May Day terrified the bosses and they responded with extreme violence attacking gatherings continuously. Then on May 3rd at the McCormick Harvester factory where workers, members of the Knights of Labor were locked out for striking for the eight-hour day, scabs, escorted by hundreds of cops were brought in. As the workers demonstrated against the strikebreaking, the cops shot in to the crowd and killed four strikers. The following day, a meeting was called in Haymarket Square to protest the brutal killings and indiscriminate violence by the police. It was a peaceful rally until the end of the day when it was almost over. A couple of hundred cops waded in to the crowd to force them to disperse despite it being a legal gathering and attended by the mayor who had left earlier.

A bomb was thrown at the cops killing a bunch of them and the cops responded by shooting in to the crowd killing a number of workers and wounding hundreds. In the aftermath of the bombing, hundreds of workers were arrested, tortured and beaten. The cops eventually chose the prominent anarchist workers’ leaders to put on trial. These were among the most successful organizers and were hated by the employers and the cops. They were accused of murder even thought they weren’t at the rally because the “unknown” bomb thrower must have been influenced by their speeches.

Haymarket Martyrs

The accused were found guilty in a rigged trial and sentenced to hang. Protests and support poured in from around the world which did force them to commute some sentences but four of the workers’ leaders, including Albert Parsons, were executed.

Throughout the struggle for Labor rights, and the eight-hour day culminating in May Day, the tendency is for workers to overcome the barriers that the bosses use to divide and weaken us. “Every worker who toiled for a living would be welcome. No distinction of color will be made; race prejudice will be ignored; religious differences will be set aside; but all men will be on an equality provided he earns his daily bread” proclaimed the New York Central Labor Union in its appeal to all Labor bodies to support Labor day. It is a reflection of the times that the mention of women is not as prominent which reflects the terrible legacy of sexism but we learn through struggle.

The reason May Day is ignored by the officials, legislators of laws, and the Democratic and Republican parties, is that it was an independent movement of the working class in this country. As McGuire said, we have to take independent action if we want something. The same applies today. The leaders of the organized working class today are also terrified of independent working class action, either direct action like strikes or political action like a mass workers party as they support capitalism, they have the same world view as the boss. Labor Day is a legislated day that they were forced to approve and they even hide that history but it is the "official" and safe holiday where we eat and drink and support the Democrats.

May Day is a uniquely American creation. May Day began as our day but we share it with the rest of the workers of the world because we are not simply “one” with other workers here in the US,  we are “one” with workers of all countries. The history of US Labor is a rich and militant one. We have faced incredible violence and survived it. Despite the history of racism and sexism that the bosses introduce in to every institution and pore of society in order to divide us, we have come this far.

Back in May 2006, some of the most oppressed and abused sections of the US working class, a couple of million immigrant workers reminded us of the importance of this holiday to our class. We thank them for it. 

Happy Mayday.

* St Paul Globe Democrat, 8-16-1855 Quoted in P Foner, History of the Labor movement of the United States Vol.2 p97
** ibid p 99
*** ibid P99

Jeffrey Pretti Murder Forces Union Heads to Say Something

Source NY Times

Richard Mellor

AFSCME Local 444, retired

The murder of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an AFGE Local 366g member in Minneapolis, by Trump’s neo-fascist militia (ICE) has forced some important figures atop organized labor to speak out. 

 

Pretti was shot some 10 times while helping another person who was shoved to the ground by an ICE Agent. Pretti was in possession of a firearm but never took it from its holster or threatened the ICE officer with it. It should be pointed out, especially for readers abroad, that Minnesota is an open carry state which means Petti had a legal, constitutional, right to carry a firearm.

 

Petti was shot after he was disarmed and as he was pinned to the ground by numerous ICE Agents. He was shot in the back.

 

I don’t need to go in to detail here but we have seen the video’s and this is in my mind murder and it’s not the first murder by these masked thugs.

 

Petti’s murder comes after the murder of Renee Good who was shot three times by an ICE Agent as she was in her car. The third shot that was to the head is the one that killed her.

 

The heroic defense of our democratic rights, of immigrant rights and of the US constitutional right to protest by the people of Minneapolis has been lauded throughout the world not just in the US. If there is anything that makes Americans feel proud to be American it is the people of Minneapolis and Minnesota. What they have faced and are clearly winning is a war against a neo-fascist regime in Washington that is intent on driving the US working class back to an era before the rise of the CIO in the 1930’s. 

 

Lives have been lost in this battle that is being fought for all of us.

 

The people of Minneapolis put the Trump Administration on the defensive and Trump has removed the Head of Border Patrol Greg Bovino apparently not pleased with his handling of the Pretti murder. Trump is also sending border czar Tom Homan who also held the position under Obama who himself  was referred to as the “Deporter in Chief”. There are also calls for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be impeached.

 

As far as the statements from AFL-CIO head Liz Schuler and National Union of Building Trades head  Sean McGarvey goes, we have to take them with a grain of salt and see them within the context of the massive resistance to the Trump Administrations action by the people of Minneapolis. I have included both statements.  McGarvey refers to Nancy Pelosi as a “working-class warrior” and is very closely allied with management in the Team Concept that is such a disaster for working people and all union members which gives us a little insight in to his world view.

 

The state violence, but more importantly, the resistance on the ground in Minneapolis has not only backed off the state somewhat, it has forced these conservative trade union leaders to say something. But for those of us that have spent years active in the trade union movement we are used to weak statements like these from the labor hierarchy. They are crafted in a way they cannot be opposed but will amount to nothing.

 

NABTU Statement

The statement from Sean McGarvey the president of NABTU is very similar to Liz Schuler’s statement as head of the AFL-CIO in that they “mourn the senseless killing” of another Minneapolis resident. “America’s unions join the call for ICE to immediately leave Minnesota before anyone else is hurt or killed. We demand local authorities conduct a full, transparent investigation that will lead to accountability for this tragic and violent act, and for Congress to use its power to hold ICE accountable.”

 

Supporting the demand for independent investigation and accountability from congress is safe and of course we would support it, but it is not enough.

 

Young workers in particular should consider that there are 14 million members in organized labor. The North American Building Trades Unions have three million workers affiliated to it most of them members of the AFL-CIO. These workers alone have the economic power to shut down the US economy.

AFL-CIO Statement

 

It is without doubt true that from the George Floyd murder to the present resistance to ICE the folks on the ground in Minneapolis have learned a great deal and honed their skills in dealing with this type of state repression. They have developed methods of communication, of how and when to appear and how to warn each area of impending danger and so on. I am not there so can only speculate but as a person who has been involved in some serious strikes and community battles, we learn a lot in these struggles. 

 

The need to spread the protests and activity to other cities and other areas of the country is crucial. My guess is they already have them in Minneapolis or they are in formation as the days go on, but community defense committees have to be expanded. As a friend pointed out to me today, many of those activists on the ground in Minneapolis are union members, it is crucial we take this struggle in to our unions and build these defense organizations, community and organized labor together. 

Those of that have been around a while are well aware that the labor hierarchy will not use the resources at their disposal to take this path and help spread the resistance to the present administration's violence beyond the harmless statements included here.They will, as they usually do, temper an independent movement of the working class and direct it in to the Democratic Party. 

 

Regardless of the immediate outcome the Trump Administration has been given a bloody nose and the people of Minneapolis have brought to the fore some of the great radical traditions of the US working class. 

FALKIRK SHOWS TRADE UNIONS URGENTLY NEED TO MOBILISE AGAINST THE RACIST FAR RIGHT

Richie Venton

Scottish Socialist Party

8-16-25

 

FALKIRK SHOWS TRADE UNIONS URGENTLY NEED TO MOBILISE AGAINST THE RACIST FAR RIGHT 

We live in an increasingly volatile and polarised society.

END THE GENOCIDE 

In Glasgow yesterday, the thousands marching against the ongoing genocide and conscious starvation of men, women, children and babies in Gaza was, by all accounts, the biggest in months. 

The SSP were proudly present, as we have been since day one, arguing for an end to the genocide, to Labour's arms sales and SNP arms subsidies, supporting mass struggle for peace through socialism in the Middle East.

FALKIRK 

By stark contrast, those of us in the SSP who joined the peaceful protest - initiated by Falkirk Trades Union Council - outside the Cladhan hotel housing refugees and asylum seekers in Falkirk, were faced with an ugly mass of racist bigotry across the narrow street. 

At a peak, we had around 250-300 anti-racists protecting the "hotel"- its workers and those who've sought sanctuary from wars and civil wars - from attack by a crowd whipped up into a frenzy by fascist and other far-right groups. 

The alarming fact is that at their peak, those screaming "send them home", "stop the boats", and singing "Rule Britannia" numbered 800-1,000. 

It was allegedly called as "a peaceful protest" after an asylum seeker was convicted of rape and jailed. 

This inexcusable, heinous crime was latched onto to brand ALL asylum seekers, refugees and people of colour as rapists and paedophiles by unscrupulous far-right and fascist actors - including 'Tommy Robinson', UKIP's Nick Tenconi, and fascist grouplets like Great Britain National Protest. 

Some of the local people who joined this demo may well have concerns about women's safety, but where were they when Women's Aid and other services were being cut?

Where did they protest against the most common of all crimes against women – r
ape, assault and murder by men in their own family, usually a husband or partner? 

At the very start of the demo, a few shouted about Grangemouth and the threatened closure of Alexander Dennis - issues the SSP has spearheaded campaigning on in the streets of Falkirk, calling for nationalisation under workers' control to build clean electric buses for free public transport - but which the full weight of the trade union movement has yet to take action on, which would answer the genuine concerns some locals were expressing. 

But yesterday, they were part of a baying mob, some of them giving Nazi statues, chanting the fascist National Front's slogan of the 1970s, "there's no black in the union jack". 

 

In amongst this crowd were those holding banners with a skull pierced by a bloodstained dagger, saying "Kill Them All, Let God Sort 'em Out" - hardly a peaceful message! Hardly a message of concern for women and children's safety! 

The lumpenised sections on this demo screamed abuse at women stewards on the entirely peaceful anti racistdemo, calling them "c*nts", and described all of us as "paedos". 

 

It took great courage by all those of us who stood for hours, holding the line against likely attacks on the Cladhan hotel, but we did - despite the paltry police presence, with at first only half a dozen police separating the rival crowds.

If we hadn't held the line, the hotel and people within it would have been attacked, with unthinkable human costs. 

TINDERBOX OF ANGER 

This is a harsh reminder of the deep damage done by capitalist crises - including housing shortages, service cuts, job losses in Grangemouth and Alexander Dennis, and grinding poverty - and the unforgivable scapegoating and racist incitement, not just by Reform UK, UKIP and fascist grouplets, but also Starmer's Labour. 

They've created a tinderbox which flares up with the likes of a horrible rape incident, targeting all those fleeing wars and persecution for racist attacks and potential injury and death, as angry mobs are incited to target the "hotel" they're cooped up in for ages, as the government fails to deal with their asylum applications. 

Yesterday's events in Falkirk were possibly the ugliest I've witnessed since our battles against the fascist street fighters of the 1970s. 

However, the fact yesterday's crowds didn't just overpower the substantially smaller anti-racist demonstrators is further evidence they were overwhelmingly NOT fascist street fighters, but an angry, downtrodden crowd who've had their anger channeled into racist bigotry, blind hatred of people who had nothing to do with shoddy housing, benefits cuts, totally inadequate services and other privations. 

As we chanted a few times, "Profit is the enemy". 

A WARNING TO THE WORKERS' MOVEMENT 

Falkirk should be treated as a wake-up call to all trade unions (the STUC included) and socialists that we need to build a positive, working-class socialist alternative in communities ravaged by capitalist attacks, regardless of which 'mainstream' political party is in office. 

Otherwise they'll be prey to the baying mobs and cheap racist slogans of far-right outfits.

The SSP will continue to help resist the poisonous antics of the far right, and call on the full power of the organised trade union movement to be mobilized in demonstrations in the likes of Falkirk, to build unity against poor housing, service cuts (including those for women and children), against closure of Alexander Dennis, and for a positive socialist alternative, with massive wealth redistribution away from the millionaires who hoard it to the millions who need it.

We need a sharp, socialist, class appeal to people most affected by the crisis of capitalist rule, to break them from the millionaire demagogues of the far right, who want to divide us and rob us of even more wealth. 

UNITE against racism! 

UNITE against poor housing, service cuts, violence against women, job losses and poverty! 

For working-class unity and socialist change!

 

https://membership.scottishsocialistparty.org/join_us/

#falkirk #FarRight #FightRacism #endpoverty #WorkersUnite #solidarity #SSP

Labor History: A lesson for socialists in how not to function in the workers’ organizations.

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

HEO/GED

Note: I found the original and published this July 6th 1996.

A little bit of my personal labor history here that I rediscovered and that I think offers up some useful lessons just as relevant today. I was a member of the socialist organization Labor Militant from 1984 until I was expelled along with the entire Oakland California branch,  and John Throne (Sean O’ Torain) from the Chicago branch. I was expelled for violating Democratic Centralism, more details on that in the text below. It was a crushing blow at first but in the long run it was a good thing; as another comrade, Martin Legassic  described it with his exit from this organization, it unshackled my mind. There’s a nice obituary for Martin Legassick here.

 

My main contention was that this decision, taken by a clique in London and their collaborators here in the US, was that it was a betrayal to my union, Afscme Local 444, that had supported the publication of the opposition newsletter and endorsed it, as well as to my co-workers and fellow members that were supportive of me. In general, it sabotaged an important development, the building of a broad left front in one of the largest unions in the US placing placing the interests of a small socialist organization ahead of the interests of the working class as a whole.  

 

A lesson for socialists in how not to function in the workers’ organizations.

 

The final break with the organization came over a union opposition magazine called the AFSCME Activist. Richard Mellor was a relatively well-known opposition figure within AFSCME and had built a strong base in his own Local, AFSCME 444.  He attended most of the international conventions of AFSCME and I had suggested we test the waters with an opposition newsletter.  We agreed to this with the hope that we might be able to reach out to any activists or layer of activists that were angry at the Union leaderships’ failure to fight back and wanted to fight the employers or were looking for a vehicle to do so. The intention was to connect with those workers that weren’t necessarily socialists, were not ready to join a socialist organization, but were willing to unite around a broader anti-big business program.  With this method, a united front approach, we believed we would eventually win some of the best fighters to socialism and our organization; there was no open disagreement with this approach within the organization.

It was after the AFSCME convention in 1994 that the AFSCME Activist really began to grow through subscriptions from individuals and some unions. Richard, John Reimann who was also on the West Coast and not an AFSCME member, did the bulk of the work including contacts, sales and putting out the newsletter.  We had a difficult time getting other areas, notably New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, and to a lesser extent Chicago where we had a comrade, to take up the work to build the newsletter aggressively enough.  New York and Philadelphia had the two largest councils in AFSCME but comrades in these areas did not take advantage of this situation. The AFSCME comrades there openly opposed the united front approach as the majority faction guided by the IS began to take the position that the AFSCME Activist was a Labor Militant publication not a united front newsletter; the case for expulsion was being crafted. 

This came to a head when, at the AFSCME convention in Chicago in 1996, we called together many of the supporters from other unions in order to form an elected editorial board in an effort to draw these genuine rank and file fighters into playing a more leadership role.  The publication was a publication of AFSCME Members For a Stronger Union, and the rank and file workers that supported it and helped it grow from Wisconsin to Hawaii saw themselves as part of AMSU. It was not a magazine of our organization but of those who supported its basic demands which were related to the union and working conditions for those who were members of that union.

 

This was the embryo of a real caucus developing in one of the fastest growing and most influential unions in the AFL-CIO.  At the time AFCME Activist collapsed we had about nine locals subscribing to 50 or 100 copies and about 250 individual subscribers. We had taken a chance and organized an AMSU caucus meeting at the convention and, after electing an editorial board and hopefully more growth, we could run a candidate(s) at the next convention in 1998. At the AMSU caucus meeting we had two speakers from other locals, one was active in Local 444 and had joined LMV and the other was a supporter, a black woman from a small local in North Carolina.

 

Richard Mellor and Steve Edwards a comrade from Chicago who was also an AFSCME member were delegates from their locals and another comrade, Tom Trottier, an AFSCME member from NYC, was an alternate. These two comrades were hostile to the formation of an editorial board and took the position that the AFSCME Activist was a Labor Militant publication, not a broad front publication; they tried privately to get Richard Mellor to abandon the idea of an editorial board and demanded that the caucus meeting should not have speakers who were not LMV members, that AMSU was a “Labor Militant thing.”  On the speakers, Richard refused, reminding the comrades that this position was contrary to the whole intention of the Activist and AMSU which was an effort to build a broader opposition grouping.  Richard reminded Edwards that we would lose many of the people who had supported the AA and helped build it if they perceived that LM was using it as a Labor Militant front.  

The meeting to elect the editorial board took place in comrade Richard’s hotel room the night before the AFSCME convention began.   Comrades Edwards and Trottier arrived late to the meeting and attempted to persuade Mellor to call the meeting off. Edwards warned him that to form an editorial board was a decision that had to be made by Labor Militant not these workers. Some of the workers there clearly saw that there was some tension in the air. This became clear when the Trottier and Edwards were the only votes against forming an editorial board although their reasons were not clear and not those argued in private.  After voting no, Tom Trottier asked to have his name removed.

Both these comrades refused to sell or distribute the AFSCME Activist at the conference although Steve Edwards, despite opposing non Labor Militant members speaking at the AMSU meeting was willing to speak himself.

 

These comrades behaved in a sectarian and dishonest way with regards to the AFSCME Activist and we refused to participate in trying to take control in a dishonest way of what was a broad united front newsletter that was on the verge of becoming a real functioning caucus, AFSCME Members For a Stronger Union.  Their behavior at the meeting to elect an editorial board was dishonest as they never told the truth and explained that their “no” vote was due to them believing the AFSCME Activist should be controlled by Labor Militant.  The Activists at this meeting saw that all was not above board and it was the beginning of the end of this great opportunity.

 

After the convention, those activists that were closest to us and were the most active in helping build and raise the profile of the Activist within AFSCME asked what was wrong and why our own comrades voted against forming an editorial board.  We told them the truth, that there was an attempt by a section of the organization we were in to take control of the newsletter and its publication as they believed it was a Labor Militant organ. We explained that the Activist was not started as a Labor Militant publication and our opinion was that it was the publication of AMSU and those of them that considered themselves part of that had as much right to determine its fate as LMV members.  We had urged the two LMV members who opposed the editorial board to participate but their objectives were clear.

 

Desperate to expel us, the majority faction in the US advised by the majority of the IS back in Britain, decided to make an official demand for us to hand over all the names and addresses of the locals and individuals that subscribed to the newsletter. Richard Mellor refused. Our position was that these were not Richard’s to give. We maintained the position the organization had all along; the AFSCME Activist was a united front publication of AFSCME Members For a Stronger Union and the names and addresses of subscribers were not ours to give.  

Refusing to hand over the AFSCME Activist subscription list was the “official” reason for Richard’s expulsion.  He was accused of violating democratic centralism by collaborating “…in the dishonest maneuvers to remove AFSCME Activist from the control of LMV” * That the organization, with no open opposition, had from the beginning said the AA was a united front organization mattered not a bit.  The organization had such a dishonest corrupt internal life that it put its own sectarian interests and its determination to expel us above a step forward for the working class.

Not one comrade opposed these statements at the May 1995 National Conference over a year earlier:

John Throne: 
AFSCME Activist is not a Militant front.   We are building a genuine united front type broad left organization.  We have to stress this. Anyone who agrees with the program has full and equal membership.  Hopefully we will elect a national board for AFSCME Activist and Labor Militant will not necessarily be a majority on this and we won’t be the slightest bit worried that we won’t be a majority. 

Richard Mellor:

“We are the leadership of AFSCME Activist.  It is a broad based organization we lead at the present time.  We are trying to formulate a real national caucus.

Rob Rooke
“We are in the process of building a broad left in AFSCME.”

The importance of the AFSCME Activist cannot be underestimated. The sectarian approach of the CWI leadership and the majority faction in the US put an end to what was on the way to becoming a genuine fighting caucus in one of the most important unions in the US.  Not long after their activity wrecked the Activist, AFSCME became engulfed in a series of crises including decertification’s and trusteeships culminating in the financial scandals and ballot stuffing for a yes vote on a concessionary contract at its largest council, DC 37 in New York City. It is a lesson for socialists in how not to function in the workers’ organizations.

* Resolution on Expulsions passed at the Philadelphia Branch of Labor's Militant Voice 1-9-97 

There's more Labor Militant history here.

Afscme Local 444 History From a Participant #2

Richard Mellor

I'm reposting this that I posted a couple years ago as I just noticed the video was private. I've changed it to public and it's a little bit of labor history, my former local Afscme 444 during the early eighties.

As I say in the video, it's not likely I will write about this history so I'll speak it for my own satisfaction and for my grandchildren and anyone else who might find it interesting. As far as workers as union activists go, it's pretty similar to all of them. It is, after all, working class history and that history belongs to the vast majority of us but it is hidden and ignored by the big business media. When we think about it, the 44 day Flint sit down strike should be labor's 4th of July. The regular 4th of July is the celebration instituted by the capitalist class of the British colonies on this continent, in particular the northern industrialists, honoring their break from the semi-feudal British Empire.

The first short I did is here.   https://www.facebook.com/679989067/videos/2039094356431052/

Fighting Oligarchy: Sanders Campaign For Vote Blue in 2028

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

HEO/GED

4-17-25

 

I was out walking the dog a while ago and passed a residence displaying a flag I didn’t recognize. On closer observation I saw the words Fight Oligarchy on it. I Googled the term and I see I can buy a “Fight Oligarchy”, flag which was described as an anti-Trump, or resistance flag for $10.

 

Then I remember watching a couple of clips from Sanders’ rally in Arizona and I see he has a new campaign entitled, “Fight The Oligarchy”.  Oligarchy is one of the terms that liberals like Sanders uses as a substitute for capitalists or capitalism when it comes to describing the system of production in which we live. Plutocrats or plutocracy is another term they often use to avoid the C word. Apparently, this self- described “socialist” fails to recognize that capitalists govern. As for “Our Revolution”, I assume it has entered the history books along with the Dodo.

 

I will give Sanders’ credit as he initially tapped in to the mood for change in US society back in 2016, particularly among the youth; they did not want more of the same and Hilary Clinton was widely despised. Numerous polls revealed that some 36% of Americans supported socialism or socialist policies back then. 

 

At the time, myself and the other co-founder of this blog, Sean O’Torain, figured that Sanders would betray much of his fresh young base and ultimately support the Democratic Party machine and call for a vote for Hillary Clinton which he did. We thought that many of his supporters would turn to the Green Party, the only other party that has significant ballot access.

We were wrong and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) , the left wing of the Democratic Party, or what many people refer to as “progressives” captured many of Sanders’ supporters and saw its membership grow from about 6000 to 70,000 in a matter of months making DSA the largest socialist (in name at least) organization in the US. We then joined DSA. I leave that experience to another time.

Sanders went on to endorse Biden in 2020 and then Kamala Harris in 2024. He is known as the best recruiter for the Democrats. Sanders’ failure to offer an electoral alternative to the Democratic Party, along with his weak stance on Zionism, has cost him and the rest of us.

 

So the Sanders rally in Arizona was part of the national Fighting The Oligarchy Tour starring Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez known as AOC. Cortez first ran for office in 2018 unseating entrenched Democrat Joe Crowley in the Democratic primaries for her district and is one of the leading “progressives” along with Sanders. Like Sanders, AOC has had the opportunity to change the balance of forces electorally and has refused to do so. In my view she has completely gone over and is a bright star in the Democratic Party’s future. 

 

Thousands have attended the rallies which is to be expected as much of Sanders’ reform program is supported among a huge sector of US society. Health care, public services and transportation, housing, climate change, economic inequality, immigrant rights and preserving social security to name a few. In addition, the madness, insecurity and extreme right-wing agenda of the Trump Administration has people scared. 

But appealing for a return to the status quo will not make it.

 

It is heart-warming to see thousands of people at rallies, picket lines, any gathering when the goals are inclusive and are for improvements in living standards and so on. But what are the end goals for Bernie AOC and the Fight Oligarchy Campaign? Well I received this appeal from Sanders yesterday:

 

“Richard, it’s Bernie Sanders.

 

𝑾𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝑻𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒑 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒔.

 

At this particular moment in history, despair is not an option. Let us never forget that real change only happens when ordinary people stand up — by the millions — against oppression and injustice.

 

And as I have traveled all across the country, Americans are fighting back, saying loudly and clearly: NO to oligarchy, NO to authoritarianism, NO to kleptocracy, NO to massive cuts in programs that working people desperately need, NO to huge tax breaks for the richest people in our country.

 

If we are going to solve the problem of oligarchs’ massive influence over our politics, we MUST elect progressives to Congress who have the guts to take on the billionaire class and the rising far-right. Candidates who are prepared to take on the status quo in our political system.

 

But the Progressive Caucus doesn’t take money from Super PACs or max-out checks from billionaires. Instead, they rely on people like you chipping in $27 at a time.

 

Richard, I am humbly asking: Will you give $27 to the Progressive Caucus today? https://secure.actblue.com/donate/cpc-p2p-ga-v-q22025-bernie?refcode=bs-txt-20250416-b2&amount=27&refcode2w=gJscJv

 

Together, we can elect a new generation of progressive leaders to Congress who will fight for working people, not big corporations and the 1%”.

 

So here is Bernie with the same, strategy, limited entirely to the electoral arena. Elect Democrats, the “progressive” ones like him and AOC. As I have pointed out repeatedly; the era of the domination of the two capitalist parties over US society is over. And I wrote in a previous post, “Sixty-three percent of U.S. adults currently agree with the statement that the Republican and Democratic parties do “such a poor job” of representing the American people that “a third major party is needed.”, according to a Gallup poll.

 

Sanders’ misleads people with his comments that people are “fighting back”. They are saying no, but saying no, is not fighting back if it is not accompanied by action; it’s merely expressing discontent. It’s a start, yes, but it will not stop an offensive like that we are facing now. Bernie wants us to say “no” on a ballot slip and elect AOC. 

Millions have opposed the US/Israeli genocide in Gaza and millions opposed the Iraq war but protests alone cannot stop prevent capitalism  heading rapidly toward the abyss.

 

Action would mean an appeal to workers, organized and unnorganized to join him and the campaign in building a movement that can organize strikes, work stoppages and slowdowns; that can encourage and help build self-defence committees in our communities as the militarization of the police and recent events prove very clearly that we need them.  As a socialist he should make it clear that working people can only rely on our own strength our own communities and our own organisations. We cannot look to the courts or the Democratic Party to change the disastrous path the so-called free market is taking us down

 

He can appeal to organized labor’s leadership to get off their asses and join in that campaign and not supress it. Sara Nelson of the Flight Attendants Union has said a General Strike is needed; The Fighting Oligarchy campaign should raise this at its rallies, encourage attendees to support Nelson’s call and help build on it. It is a serious mistake to just make those thousands feel good with the false hope that Democratic Party progressives can bring about health care, affordable housing, improved public education, social services and end to climate change. What sort of socialist ignores workers’ power on the job and our ability to stop the cogs of capitalism from turning?

 

As far as electoral politics goes, Sanders could have led a left split from the Democratic Party and ushered in a left reform alternative years ago; a genuine opposition. Who knows who would have followed him out. Winning is not everything, building sometimes take time. A new formation with already established leaders and a serious base would change the balance of class forces electorally as each election time the two Wall Street parties would have to consider their policies in the light of, “what if they all vote for the opposition”. It will have a huge effect on mass consciousness in the US.

 

I hope that something will arise out of this latest campaign, it’s not always easy to control people when they are called out. But Sanders has had his time and the opportunity to make some real change. He chose instead to maintain then status quo. History won’t be kind to him. 

Labor/Community History. North West Indiana Residents Battle Corporations and Politicians

North West Indiana Residents Battle Corporations and Politicians

 

By: Richard Mellor Retired member, AFSCME Local 444 Oakland CA & John Martinez Local UAW 22

N.W. Lake County Indiana is bordered to the west by Chicago and the north by Lake Michigan. Driving east on Indianapolis Boulevard you pass through historic industrial towns like Hammond, East Chicago and Gary. These towns are home to working people, many of who worked in steel or the oil industry.  Good blue-collar jobs were once to be found here.  The county is also home to British Petroleum and U.S. Steel, global corporations that wield tremendous power in the community and the state as a whole.

 

These two corporations, along with Ispat and Inland, two other steel companies, have wielded that power with disastrous consequences for the working people of North West Indiana. They had Indiana State legislators introduce and pass two bills that lowered their taxes and shifted the tax burden on to homeowners through increased property taxes.  Many residents of Lake County have seen their mortgages triple.  Some have already foreclosed and others are facing the prospect of losing their homes in the immediate future.

 

Dado Rothenberg, and her husband Andy, are two Whiting Indiana homeowners who started the Can’t Pay Won’t Pay campaign.  The CPWP believes that the two bills, 1902 and 1858, that legalized the tax shift should be repealed. The Can’t Pay Won’t Pay Campaign has a very different approach to some of the other groups that are protesting the tax theft. Rather than relying on the courts or appealing to the very politicians that voted for the bills (the corporate sponsored bills were passed unanimously by both Republicans and Democrats) the CPWP Campaign is organizing and mobilizing homeowners, renters and other working class people to act on their own behalf.  The campaign had its first meeting in Hammond on December 14^th and on December 23^rd picketed the home of one of the bill’s authors. 

 

On February 5^th, the campaign organized a successful car caravan through three NW Indiana towns, Hammond, East Chicago, and Whiting, stopping at BP’s information center on the way.  Can’t Pay Won’t Pay is confident that if enough people are willing to come out on the streets, attend rallies, attend legal pickets of politicians homes, offices or leaflet their neighborhoods, then they can get these bills repealed.  BP made over $10 billion dollars in profit last year.  “These politicians and their corporate masters must understand that they cannot take action that destroys people’s lives without hearing from us”, said one CPWP supporter, and she didn’t mean sending a letter.  The campaign is planning more actions and leafleting of politicians communities and has a planned a protest at the home of a bp spokesperson on March 19^th. The campaign also joined with other groups in a protest at the state capitol on March 14^th.

 

The unions have the power and resources to organize direct action campaigns like the cpwp campaign.  Many of these homeowners in NW Indiana are union members or retired union members.  By fighting for housing and renters rights, unions would win tremendous support within our communities but so far, the leadership of many local AFL- CIO unions have been silent. 

The CPWP campaign points demands the repeal of these corporate sponsored tax bills and opposes any cuts in jobs or public services.  Corporation’s share of taxes in the state of Indiana declined  38% between 1989 and 2003 according to Citizens for tax Justice, and that figure for Lake County must be considerably higher by 2005.  Nationally state government income deriving from major corporations has dropped by 40%.  These issues are union issues.  The employers and corporations have many ways of increasing their share of the national wealth beyond just attacking our wages and benefits at work.  They change tax laws and create loopholes for themselves; they can manipulate interests rates and money supply that can affect savings, housing costs and rents.  We must fight them in the community as well as on the job.

 

The Can’t Pay Won’t pay campaign is supporting a rally at the Indiana state capitol being called by the United Citizen’s Alliance, another group against the tax hike.  If you want to know more or contact the CPWP campaign you can e-mail them at: ANDO2@sbcglobal.net