The following statement was written and approved by the Labor Sectoral Committee of Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation.
140 years ago the state hanged anarchist workers, the majority of them migrants, in Chicago for daring to organize and fight. Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel, and Adolph Fischer were killed not for any crime, but for the threat they posed as organizers of a multiracial, internationalist working class capable of shutting down the machinery of capital and state. Through their martyrdom May 1st was remade as May Day, a holiday for the global working class to reflect and recommit ourselves to the struggle for total liberation.
Standing in front of the gravesite of the Haymarket Martyrs, members and supporters of Black Rose/Rosa Negra in Chicago hold a banner that reads “May Day, today, everyday: Honor our martyrs, fight for the living!”
The same logic of domination that sent these men to the gallows fills the state’s migrant concentration camps today. Seventy thousand people are caged by ICE across the country. Our responsibility to our class siblings, regardless of their nationality, is to act in solidarity against our common enemy and for our shared aspiration for freedom. This notion terrifies the state, undermining its ability to pit the working class against itself through the deceit of its self-serving nationalism. A recent episode in North Texas demonstrates this clearly: a group who stood in solidarity with migrants inside of the Prairieland Detention Center have been convicted as criminals and terrorists. Their brave actions speak clearly and forcefully: The working class has no borders. La clase obrera no tiene fronteras.
Elsewhere in the world, state violence takes a different form. Since February 28, U.S. and Israeli bombs have fallen on Iran and Lebanon, on hospitals, schools, cultural sites, and civilians. This is not defense but imperial conquest. The same government terrorizing immigrant workers at home is killing working people abroad. To this horror we say: No war but class war. Ninguna guerra salvo la guerra de clases.
Millions of people have started to recognize what we would need to fight back: a general strike. The mass shutdown in Minneapolis this January shows us we can get there by organizing towards it in our everyday lives. Organize a workplace committee. Build a tenant union. Link arms with your neighbors to blockade ICE. Do not wait for union leadership, elected officials, or a better political moment. Organize with those around you, today. You are the union. A militant minority that acts can help build the popular power that makes larger action possible. Building a critical mass of working class organizations creates the popular power that will bring about social revolution.
Build popular power!
For libertarian socialism!
For a world without borders, bosses, or bombs!
Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation – Labor Committee
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