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This Mayday we invite all
self-organised workers, migrant workers, non-unionised workers,
agency workers, cash in hand workers, dole claimants, free-lancers,
work rejecters and all of those who fall outside of traditional
union organisation to join our autonomous bloc on the TUC march.
To make Mayday a day where the invisible claim a common voice.
MAYDAY is International workers day, born out of
the struggle for an 8 hour day in 1886. Over 100 years later
our lives are still taken up by the world of work. Even more
so now, as the work imposed by Capitalism has become more
casualised (temporary contracts, flex time, part time, no
time!) forcing us to adapt to the point where it's hard to
tell when, where or even if we are working. This leaves us
in a situation where our lives are always on hold, on call
and at the mercy of the market. May 1st this year falls on
a bank holiday, yet for many it will be just another day at
work. Our leisure time too is filled with anxieties. The anxiety
of not being able to have enough money to pay the rent, go
to the cinema, a nice restaurant, shop for food, clothes,
anything! In reality our work never finishes and when we're
not at work we still end up making some other person even
richer.
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to a nice retirement is set to become a thing of the past, with
us soon to be working ‘til we drop and a pensions’
crisis leaving many of us in fear of an old age of poverty.
Around Europe people call this new working and living condition
"precarity" and over the past few years the “EuroMayday”
parades of casualised workers, temps, part-timers, immigrants
and unemployed have marched through Europe's capitals to demand
new social rights. The riots of marginalised suburban youth,
and the rebellion against new contracts of insecurity for
young workers in France; the massive strike over pensions
by public sector workers, and the mobilisation of agency employed
cleaners to fight for a living wage in the UK are all struggles
against a life of insecurity.
This Mayday we call for freedom of movement across borders
for everyone and the right to stay and work in the country
of their choosing, with access to all the benefits and freedoms
available to that population. We reject an immigration system
which allows the movement of goods but not people, of the
rich but not the poor; which forces migrants, refugees and
asylum seekers into a choice between destitution and illegal,
often dangerous work.
On May 1st we act in solidarity with the many Mayday actions
against precarity and insecurity which are taking place around
the world; and with the French workers refusal of a future
where the only certainty is insecurity. We take action on
May 1st because May Day is a celebration of the struggles
won by workers for a better world. One less day of working
and one day more for us.
>>Statement from London No Borders>>
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A 2 day conference on
the politics, history & ideas of anarchism.
Check the diary listing on www.londonsocialcentre.org.uk
for the full programme of events.
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Sat April 29th
– Well known speakers from 'the anarchist movement', talking
about their experiences, celebrating anarchism as a positive
political force.
Sun April 30th – Discussion day including:
autonomous workers struggles with Gate Gourmet, Laing O'Rourke
workers & tube cleaners; the recent uprisings in France
from French radicals who have been involved; as well as the
recent Broadway Market occupation in Hackney against gentrification;
social centres; the political significance of Mayday. |
::News reports & updates on the situation in Paris >>
::Reports of last year's Mayday 2005>>
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