End dictatorship of big business
Exactly one hundred years ago, the U.S. working class took up one of the most ferocious battles of its entire history – the battle for the eight-hour day. May 1, now celebrated by workers ’round the world, was marked in 1886 by general strikes in almost every major city of the U.S. as tens of thousands of workers struck for a shorter work week with no less pay.
Today, similar battles are brewing once again as the wages and conditions of workers are coming under vigorous assault. First-year raises in union contracts have plummeted from about 10% in the early ’70s to 2.4% in 1984. Real wages have dropped by 14% from 1972 to 1984. The number of “two-tier” contracts almost doubled in 1984, hitting hardest at the younger workers just entering the workforce.
From cradle to grave, poverty is now a way of life for many. Some 20 million Americans go hungry at least part of the time, one in four children under 6 live in poverty, and half of all black children live in poverty. Over 12% of the aged, whose only crime was to have worked hard all their lives, are now in poverty too.
Perhaps the contradictions are best summarized by the plight of 90,000 farmers in the U.S. who are threatened with ruin and can’t sell their produce due to the glut of grain on the world market while millions go hungry in every corner of the globe!
Working class
But today the working class is stronger than ever before and will not give up the gains it has made in the past 50 years without major struggles. The last year has seen general strikes in Bolivia, Denmark, Greece and Spain, the 12-month coal miners’ strike in Britain, and the magnificant movement of the masses of black workers and youth of South Africa.
The U.S. working class is now also starting to take action. The strikes of the cannery workers in Watsonville, CA, and the Hormel workers of Austin, MN, show that opposition to concessions is increasing. In its preparation for the huge tasks ahead, rank and file union members are beginning to develop anew, fighting leadership.
The U.S. working class will return once again to the traditions of the 1930s. The trade unions will be transformed into fighting democratic organizations, and in the process the demand will be raised to break with the politicians of big business. The most powerful working class in the capitalist world will demand that it have its own political party – a labor party, based on the unions.
This will coincide with the rising tide of the working class movement internationally – both East and West. However, the U.S. Labor Party will have to deal with the growing crisis of the world capitalist system.
Through this struggle, through victories and defeats, times of turbulence and lulls, tremendous lessons will be learned. It will become more and more clearly seen that 500 giant corporations constitute a dictatorship over U.S. society.
The call will increasingly grow within the labor movement for the nationalisation of these major corporations under the democratic control and management of the workers – for the masses of workers to take control of their own society, for socialism and workers’ democracy is our time.
This was the struggle which was started 100 years ago on May Day 1886. This is still the struggle today. The time has come to complete this task.