From Guelph Peak
Introduction from Magazine:
May Day represents many things to many people. It is internationally recognized as a day where the working class mobilizes against the rich, appropriately named the ‘real’ labour day. It is a time to remember the Haymarket martyrs who died at the hands of the state. It also represents a time of change, as plants begin to produce their first fruits. May first is also known as beltane, a pagan holiday celebrating renewed fertility and life.
If due to climate change or just a freak cyclical weather pattern, Spring has come early this year, bringing with it new growth and actions targeting domination and capital across the globe. Perhaps this is why it brought us so much joy, here at the Peak, when general assemblies associated with the occupy movement started to call for an International general strike against capitalism on May 1st. We have tried to amplify this call at the Peak.
Throughout the issue, we have included posters collected by the occuprint.org collective, check out their website for print quality versions of these posters to litter your city with. In this issue, we start off with two pieces on the importance of our collective memory of struggle (pg. 5) & comrades lost struggling against capitalism(pg. 7). Then we telling the story of May Day with the speeches (pg. 19) and history of the Haymarket martyrs (pg. 11). Next, we present analysis from May Day in Barcelona (pg. 31) and last years successful General Strike in Oakland, California (pg. 36), which both give us insight into the possibilities we have before us this coming May 1st. We follow that with analysis of the working conditions of migrant labours in North America (pg.41, 53), whose precarious labour drives capitalism forward, and who without them, capital would falter. And finally, we end our magazine with calls for actions on May Day in Toronto, Hamilton & Internationally, as well as days of insurrection (pg. 63) to target capital in the lead up to May Day.
As the Federal and Provincial governments announce new austerity cuts to the sound of the labour movements funeral procession, we find our new hope in autonomous actions and wild cat strikes. The days of tired marches through the streets will come to an end as we recognize the power we hold by targeting capital where it gains its strength, from the sweat of our labour and the commodities we produce. Heed the call and on May 1st, phone in sick, walk out of school, get your shop floor to strike and/or in the evening after work, join us in the streets for economic disruption to show the rich that we have not lost our fighting spirit and remember the fertility of revolt.
Resist // Occupy // General Strike
– The Peak Collective
Table of Contents:
- The First of May and the General Strike…by Mother Earth (Mag.)
- Memory as a Weapon…by Anonymous
- Fallen Comrades…by Anonymous
- Hugs for Thugs: Support the Asheville 11…Compiled by Bryan Hill
- Hurray for Anarchy! May Day as Celebrated by the Anarchists…by Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness & Eberhardt Press
- The Great Anarchist Trial: The Haymarket Speeches as Delivered on the Evening of the Throwing of the Bomb, at Haymarket Square, Chicago, May 4, 1886…By August Spies & Albert R. Parsons
- Barcelona: A Combative May Day Regained…By Anonymous
- Cracks in the Glass…By Bay of Rage
- Migration, Movements, Wages and War in the Americas: Reasons for Unity on May Day 2006 – and After…by Midnight Notes and Friends
- #MAY1TO: May Day of Action…By No One Is Illegal
- Migrant Worker Advocacy in Guelph and May Day…by Erica
- Oakland Call for Global General Strike…by Occupy Oakland General Assembly
- Strike as a Strategy Against Control…by Strike Everywhere
- Call for Insurrection Days…by Anonymous