WE ARE THE REBELS OF THE SACRED EARTH

THE FACTS/HISTORY OF THE PROLETARIAT’S PLIGHT.

The Full Story

   “Indeed, if there were no prior convention, where, unless the election were unanimous, would be the obligation on the minority to submit to the choice of the majority? How have a hundred men who wish for a master the right to vote on behalf of ten who do not? The law of majority voting is itself something established by convention, and presupposes unanimity, on one occasion at least.” The Social Contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

   The system enforced by the oppressive regime we label as our government is an affront to our intelligence. It operates to diminish us into absolute despotism, using legislation that impacts our rights without our consent. The history of the proletariat's struggle for improved working conditions in America is a continuous string of abuses and usurpations, all pointing towards a deliberate design to subjugate the working class under absolute despotism.

   The plight of the proletariat commenced in 1886, over a century ago, when a courageous group sought to organize Chicago's working class for improved conditions. Despite the entire city going on strike for four days, the outcome was tragic—movement leaders were framed and murdered at the behest of the capitalist class, manipulating the government.

   The following is part of an interview by Albert R. Parsons printed in the Chicago Daily News, March 13, 1886 “The movement to reduce the work-hours is intended by its projectors to give a peaceful solution to the difficulties between the capitalists and laborers. I have always held that there were two ways to settle this trouble, either by peaceable means or violent methods. Reduced hours, or eight-hours, is the peace-offering. Fewer hours mean more pay. Reduced hours is the only measure of economic reform which consults the interests of the laborers as consumers. Now, this means a higher standard of living for the producers, which can only be acquired by possessing and consuming a larger share of their own product. This would diminish the profits of the labor exploiters.” 

   Our elders extended a generous offer to the capitalist class for a peaceful resolution to their labor exploitation. In response, the capitalist class chose violence, murdering and framing our elders, and suppressing any support for improved conditions through any means necessary. Under such circumstances, justice falters, but the point remains.

   “The movement for the eight-hour workday started in Chicago, on May 1, 1886, gradually spreading throughout the country. Its beginning was marked by strikes declared in most of the large industrial centers. Twenty-five thousand workers laid down their tools in Chicago on the first day of the strike, and within two days their number was doubled. By the 4th of May almost all unionized labor in the city was on strike.

   The armed fist of the law immediately hastened to the aid of the employers. The capitalist press raved against the strikers and called for the use of lead against them. There followed immediately assaults by police upon the strikers’ meetings. The most vicious attack took place at the McCormick works, where the conditions of employment were so unbearable that the men were compelled to go on strike already in February. At this place the police and Pinkertons deliberately shot a volley into the assembled workers, killing four and wounding a score of others.

To protest against the outrage a meeting was called at Haymarket Square on the 4th of May, 1886.

   It was an orderly gathering, such as were daily taking place in Chicago at the time. The Mayor of the city, Carter Harrison, was present; he listened to several speeches and then — according to his own sworn testimony later on in court — he returned to police headquarters to inform the Chief of Police that the meeting was all right. It was growing late — about ten in the evening, heavy clouds overcast the sky; it looked like rain. The audience began to disperse till only about two hundred were left. Then suddenly a detachment of a hundred policemen rushed upon the scene, commanded by Police Inspector Bonfield. They halted at the speakers’ wagon, from which Samuel Fielden was addressing the remnant of the audience. The Inspector ordered the meeting to disperse. Fielden replied: ‘This is a peaceful assembly.’ Without further warning the police threw themselves upon the people, mercilessly clubbing and beating men and women. At that moment something whizzed through the air. There was an explosion, as of a bomb. Seven policemen were killed and about sixty wounded.

   It was never ascertained who threw the bomb, and even to this day the identity of the man has not been established.

There had been so much brutality by the police and Pinkertons against the strikers that it was not surprising that some one should express his protest by such an act. Who was he? The industrial masters of Chicago were not interested in this detail. They were determined to crush rebellious labor, to down the eight-hour movement, and to stifle the voice of the spokesmen of the workers. They openly declared their determination to ‘teach the men a lesson’.

Among the most active and intelligent leaders of the labor movement at the time was Albert Parsons, a man of old American stock, whose forebears had fought in the American Revolution. Associated with him in the agitation for the shorter workday were August Spies, Adolf Fischer, George Engel, and Louis Lingg. The money interests of Chicago and of the State of Illinois determined to ‘get’ them. Their object was to punish and terrorize labor by murdering their most devoted leaders. The trial of those men was the most hellish conspiracy of capital against labor in the history of America. Perjured evidence, bribed jurymen, and police revenge combined to bring about their doom.

   Parsons, Spies, Fischer, Engel, and Lingg were condemned to death, Lingg committing suicide in jail; Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab were sentenced to prison for life, while Oscar Neebe received 15 years. No greater travesty of justice was ever staged than the trial of these men known as the Chicago Anarchists.

What a legal outrage the verdict was you can judge from the action of John P. Altgeld, later Governor of Illinois, who carefully reviewed the trial proceedings and declared that the executed and imprisoned men had been victims of a plot of the manufacturers, the courts, and the police. He could not undo the judicial murders, but most courageously he liberated the still imprisoned Anarchists, stating that he was merely making good, so far as was in his power, the terrible crime that had been committed against them.

   The vengeance of the exploiters went so far that they punished Altgeld for his brave stand by eliminating him from the political life of America.

   The Haymarket tragedy, as the case is known, is a striking illustration of the kind of ‘justice’ labor may expect from the masters. It is a demonstration of its class character and of the means to which capital and government will resort to crush the workers.” What is communist anarchism by Alexander Berkman. (Read for free: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/alexander-berkman-what-is-communist-anarchism#toc10)

   The failed attempt by our elders to enhance working conditions for themselves and future generations underscores the refusal of the capitalist class to accept peaceful solutions to labor exploitation. The capitalist class is willing to employ any means—violence, cheating, lying—to maintain control. Our forefathers fought against tyranny, not to see the future proletariat enslaved by capitalist wage slavery. Recognizing the futility of peaceable approaches, our forefathers understood the imperative to hold tyrants accountable through all available means.

   By 1912, again over one-hundred years ago, the proletariat advocated for a five hour work day. “Of course the eight-hour day is as antiquated as the craft unions themselves. Today, we should be agitating for a five-hour work day, or six at the most, but the IWW, I presume, has taken up the eight-hour cause on the principle that we must not get too far away from those we wish to influence or our labors are wasted.” The Eight-Hour Strike of 1886 by Lucy E. Parsons. 

   The example left behind by our ancestors is disgraced by the lack of recognition we have given them, how dare we allow such brave men and women to have died in vain? The memory of these brave people must be honored and preserved by our gratitude and respect. We must not allow the domestication of the proletariat to continue. As early as 1929, nearly one-hundred years ago, the proletariat were justifiably agitating for a work day no longer than 3 hours. It was statistically proven in 1929 that the proletariat should only be working 3 hours a day or less.

   “It can be statistically proven that three hours’ work a day, at most, is sufficient to feed, shelter, and clothe the world and supply it not only with necessities but also with all modern comforts of life. The point is that not one man in five is to-day doing any productive work. The entire world is supported by a small minority of toilers.

First of all, consider the amount of work done in present-day society that would become unnecessary under Anarchist conditions. Take the armies and navies of the world, and think how many millions of men would be released for useful and productive effort once war is abolished, as would of course be the case under Anarchy.

In every country to-day labor supports the millions who contribute nothing to the welfare of the country, who create nothing, and perform no useful work whatever. Those millions are only consumers, without being producers. In the United States, for instance, out of a population of 120 millions there are less than 30 million workers, farmers included.[16] A similar situation is the rule in every land.

Is it any wonder that labor has to toil long hours, since there are only 30 workers to every 120 persons? The large business classes with their clerks, assistants, agents, and commercial travelers; the courts with their judges, record keepers, bailiffs, etc.; the legion of attorneys with their staffs; the militia and police forces; the churches and monasteries; the charity institutions and poorhouses; the prisons with their wardens, officers, keepers, and the non-productive convict population; the army of advertisers and their helpers, whose business it is to persuade you to buy what you don’t want or need, not to speak of the numerous elements that live luxuriously in entire idleness. All these mount into the millions in every country.

Now, if all those millions would apply themselves to useful labor, would the worker have to drudge eight hours a day? If 30 men have to put in eight hours to perform a certain task, how much less time would it ‘take 120 men to accomplish the same thing? I don’t want to burden you with statistics, but there are enough data to prove that less than 3 hours of daily physical effort would be sufficient to do the world’s work.

Can you doubt that even the hardest toil would become a pleasure instead of the cursed slavery it is at present, if only three hours a day were required, and that under the most sanitary and hygienic conditions, in an atmosphere of brotherhood and respect for labor?

But it is not difficult to foresee the day when even those short hours would be still further reduced. For we are constantly improving our technical methods, and new labor saving machinery is being invented all the time. Mechanical progress means less work and greater comforts, as you can see by comparing life in the United States with that in China or India. In the latter countries they toil long hours to secure the barest necessities of existence, while in America even the average laborer enjoys a much higher standard of living with fewer hours of work. The advance of science and invention signifies more leisure for the pursuits we love.” What is communist anarchism by Alexander Berkman. Published in 1929 (read for free: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/alexander-berkman-what-is-communist-anarchism#toc24)

   Nearly a hundred years ago the proletariat should have seen a 70% reduction of the hours of their daily toil. This reality is intentional ignored as it totally destroys the fiction that the capitalist class uses to domesticate the proletariat. This reality proves that Capitalism is, in fact, not a success to say the least. 

   Remember “Fewer hours mean more pay. Reduced hours is the only measure of economic reform which consults the interests of the laborers as consumers.” To give you a frame of reference of what this really means take into consideration the self checkout system recently instituted in Walmart. Two employees are responsible ensuring that 15 self check out stations function properly and smoothly or in other words due to the advancement of labor saving technological development two people can now produce what it once took 15 to produce. Why are those employees not receiving a greater portion of what they produce? Why are these employees not paid the wages of 15 people when their labor is responsible for producing what once took 15 people? 

“Learned men have figured out that the worker receives as his wage only about one-tenth of what he produces. The other nine-tenths are divided among the landlord, the manufacturer, the railroad company, the wholesaler, the jobber, and other middlemen.

It means this:

Though the workers, as a class, have built the factories, a slice of their daily labor is taken from them for the privilege of using those factories. That’s the landlord’s profit.

Though the workers have made the tools and the machinery, another slice of their daily labor is taken from them for the privilege of using those tools and machinery. That’s the manufacturer’s profit.

Though the workers built the railroads and are running them, another slice of their daily labor is taken from them for the transportation of the goods they make. That’s the railroad’s profit.

And so on, including the banker who lends the manufacturer other people’s money, the wholesaler, the jobber, and other middlemen, all of whom get their slice of the worker’s toil.

What is left then — one-tenth of the real worth of the worker’s labor — is his share, his wage.

Can you guess now why the wise Proudhon said that the possessions of the rich are stolen property?Stolen from the producer, the worker.” What is communist anarchism by Alexander Berkman. Published in 1929 (read for free: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/alexander-berkman-what-is-communist-anarchism#toc24)

   Today the proletariat are compelled to provide for themselves solely through means of employment by the capitalist class under inhumane working conditions. Should one attempt to follow in the footsteps of our forefathers recognizing their right and opportunity for self-employment by utilizing their fair share of this planet's nature resources in order to produce a cash crop, men with guns employed by the government will be sent to cage the innocent man or to end his life for simply refusing to go quietly under arrest. We do not need permission to exercise our God given rights and we have a duty as patriots of a free country to hold those accountable who violate the rights of the innocent. 

   There is no doubt in my mind that the proletariat of today receive far less than 1/10 of what they produce as their wage. As the current corrupt tyrannically oppressive regime we call a government legislated law that effectively stole millions (if not billions) from innocent proletariat between 1971-present day by converting our gold and silver backed currency into a fiat currency, without consent from the governed, the proletariat receive nothing in return for producing valuables with their labor. Today the proletariat receive nothing more than Monopoly money as payment for their labor. Our labor is worth more than worthless paper!

   Considering we have not only a larger population to divide our labor between but also nearly one hundred years of labor saving technological development at our disposal there can be no doubt that our daily toil, should we work together like brothers and sisters, would easily be less than three hours.