Global May Day 2022


Call to Action

[မြန်မာ | বাংলা | Deutsch | português]

Worldwide we, the wage-related workers, are set in competition to support the additional value production. Regardless where we live, our gender / sex, nationality, we are interwoven in the same fight, if we want to or not. Budget cuts in social services, outsourcing, depressing wages, privatization, increasing costs of living as well as tuition fees and the destruction of natural recourses are just a few of the symptoms of the global economic system. A system that is based on exploitation and competition leads to commercialization of all aspects of our lives. We suffer from growing pressure to perform, separation, as well as the alienation of our needs and people, which we are working and living with. Be it at the workplace, university or increasingly even during childhood and youth. The logic of the market economy and the corresponding nation-state structures require that adaption to the dictate of competitiveness and the value-added production take priority over the development of emancipatory capabilities.

The introduction of a Universal Basic Income on the global level can be a first emancipatory step in overcoming wage labor relations.

We do not intend to simply disrupt; we seek to overcome.

This year we draw attention to the ecological crisis we all face. A crisis brought about by the endless search for profit margins by capitalist interests. A crisis which will see wars raging worlwide, making the poorest of us suffer the earliest and most. With the current modes of production and working practices controlled by the capitalist class overcoming this crisis is impossible. The global ecological crisis is an issue for the working class worldwide. There is no Earth 2.0. There is no reset option or escape plan. There is only the future. We have to decide, and it is in our hands as the working class, if that future will be somewhere humans can live or not.

Given the transnational nature of the capitalist system, it is necessary for workers to connect on the global level.

By networking across borders, the global interconnections that shape our local conditions can be made visible. Furthermore it opens up new potentialities and scopes of action within the struggle against exploitation as well as precarious working and living conditions. The bargaining power of workers would increase tremendously, if we were to unite within the same value-added chain.

Especially in times of nationalism and racism, we seek the common struggle and resist being played off against each other.

For a better life for all – across all borders!

#globalmayday2022 #1world1struggle


Extra note on environmental destruction and class struggle

Fossil fuel extraction and exploitation of earth’s natural resources have been instrumental to sustain the frenzy pursuit of endless capitalist growth.
Deforestation, draught, hunger, displacement, disease, poverty, are all consequences of the imperialist and colonial dynamics of land expropiation, prioritising corporation’s intresests over people and ecosystems, and a full scale global militarisation for the control of primary resources.
Such devastation is having a detrimental impact on the planet and the lives of millions of workers worldwide.
Thousands of people have lost their ancestral way of living, thousands of workers need to migrate to earn a living in most precarious conditions, and thousands suffer life-long illnesses from mining extractions working conditions and pollution. This has had a most profound effect on the economies of indigenous and agricultural workers in the Global South, with an increased percentage of women affected. Looking at the patriarchal context women lack equal accessibility to resources such as education, land, water and medical care. They are more dependent on natural resources for their survival, and are often responsible to provide food for their families, usually having to walk miles for water having an increased risk on their health and of suffering sexual violence.

Capitalism is ruining the planet, our livelihoods, and our means of existence. The neoliberal idea of a New Green Deal of ‘alternative ecologic transitions’ is not based on the fact that resources of the planet are finite. Instead it helps to whitewash the complete economic system.
It is an emergency that requires workers to organise globally and fight the class war against capitalist interests leading this climate crisis. A crisis that impacts discriminatorily socio-economic factors like poverty, and systematic racism, on those most socially and economically disadvantaged, with limited access to resources, communities of color, immigrants, and low-income workers.
Grassroot and revolutionary unions are instrumental in organising a workers’ based strategy to reduce the negative impact of industries that disproportionaly affect working class communities, whom they defend and represent.

To combat the fossil model of economic production it’s a necessity to reclaim the land, our livelihood, and to re-establish a balance between human activity and the natural environment based on a just transition to a zero-carbon future.
Since dependence and scarcity of raw material and energetic resources will inevitably unfold in wars and conflicts, the working class, armed with the power to withraw their labour and stop production on a global strike, must organise in an internationalist, anti-militarist and class solidarity stance to overcome capitalism and advance collectively towards ensuring climate justice and food sovereignity for all, placing our future and wellbeing in our hands.

download call as .pdf

Common framework: Three elements

Call to Action:

The call defines the common ground. [download .pdf]

Each union/syndicate/group acts autonomously with their own focal points and types of actions!

Common Symbols:

To visually connect your action with the call, please display at least one of these two symbols.

Communication:

All supporting the call are asked to inform the mailing list [globalmayday@lists.riseup.net] about planned activities and to share reports afterwards!
This way comrades can know about your activities on the international level.
Announcements and reports will also be listed on this website.

For the communication on social media all are asked to use #1world1struggle and #globalmayday2022.

Common Coordinations!

Call of solidarity with workers at Kavala Oil

Comrades of different IWW branches, together with Earth Strike UK and Pan-Helenic Energy Workers Federation (PEF) are currently working on a call for solidarity with the workers at Kavala Oil in northeastern Greece. For details on their ongoing labour dispute: wsws.org.

Dear colleagues, fellow workers and comrades, 

First of all we would like to thank you once again for your solidarity with the illegally dismissed of the unionized workers of Kavala Oil.

The demand of our union member is ONE but multifaceted and inextricably linked and we would like it to be included in the joint statement of solidarity that you are preparing. 

RE-EMPLOYMENT OF THE 185 SKILLED WORKERS WITH MANY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WHO WERE ILLEGALLY DISMISSED TO ENSURE THE SAFE OPERATION OF THE FACILITIES AND THE CONTINUATION OF PRODUCTION AT KAVALA OIL.

Long live international workers Solidarity 

On behalf of the President 
Panagiotis Kontousiadis 
Pan-Hellenic Energy Federation Secretariat

Online event:

Comrades of IWW Ireland and IWW Bristol currently prepare an open online event with speakers focussing on local struggles related to envrionmental destruction and class struggle.
It will probably take place on May 4th.
Details to be announced soon!

Film screening: Fruits of Labor

Join the public film screening of the movie Fruits of Labor. It will be online and accessible free of charge.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the director.

Further details online on globalmayday.net.
Please register here.

The event is scheduled for May 3rd (Tuesday), 6pm UTC.


Materials


Contact

mailing list
facebook group
globalmaydaynetwork@gmail.com

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