Friday, May 1, 2009

Happy May Day to workers every where... and gumboils to the rich!




“How many wrathful people, young people, will be with us when the red and black banners wave in the wind of anger! What a tidal wave it will be when the red and black banners rise around the old wreck!

"The red banner, which has always stood for liberty, frightens the executioners because it is so red with our blood. The black flag, with layers of blood upon it from those who wanted to live by working or die by fighting, frightens those who want to live off the work of others. Those red and black banners wave over us mourning our dead and wave over our hopes for the dawn that is breaking.”

5 comments:

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hi Richie :)

Very interesting post.

I would say that the workers who died fighting did a great service to others who are working by ushering in better working conditions and pay. But then labor militancy has become so bad in Kerala that industries cannot function with some disruption or the other over silly things. They go in for lightning strikes, sit in slow downs, manhandling the management staff, demanding more pay with less work and so on. Many good industries closed down because of labor problems.There is practically no industrial development in Kerala. This is a sad state of affairs. Therefore, slogan mongering and fiery speeches to instigate the hard working sincere workforce is an anachronism and lost their relevance in the current day and age.

What ever the workers do, the rich will become richer and poor will become poorer. The workers have to change their attitude if they want to do well in life. There is not point in letting out blood thirsty cries.

As far as economics is concerned labor is only one input. You need other inputs like capital, machinery and material and management. Therefore labor cannot demand undue share for their contribution to production.

Have a nice day Richie:)
Joseph

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Thanks for sharing the video, it's been a long while since seeing the Morris Dancers.

Thanks for your visit to MY World.
and the lovely comment. much appreciated.

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hi Richie:)

I am extremely sorry to read about your wife's sickness and suffering. I have no words to comfort you. All that I feel at the moment a sever pain in my heart. I know you are going through an agonising period. No one on this earth should face a trauma of this severe nature and I earnestly hope your wife gets a miraculous cure.

I remain, your friend,
Joseph

Richie said...

To answer Joseph- the speech was given in the aftermath of the massacre of the Comunards after the fall of Paris. It does not speak of inflicting violence only fighting to further the cause of the people and to mourn the lost. It ends with hope of better times for all. It is anachronistic. Not in its sentiment of anger-only in its message of hope.
The defeat (by capitalism and Bolshevism) of the working class and the death of social democracy has positioned us at the edge of a potential collapse and retraction of civilisation and possible mass extinction for much of humanity.
Since the clearance of the land in the 17-19C my class in Europe have literally have no common ground with the ruling classes. The forced urbanisation is completed in Western Europe but I believe it is still happening apace is India. It is better for those peasants to die on their farms than to give their lives to wage slavery. When they have lost their heritage (language,culture, home)and are forced to live in cities and work for exploiters they are shocked ripped apart communities. You can expect nothing but anger and acts of desperation from them. Industrial development is development for what: the betterment of humanity or the enrichment of the few at what ever environmental or human cost it may cause? Why should workers joyfully embrace the noose that has been placed round their neck?
Money is a made up concept- capital only exists on paper- banks can burn and life continue uninterrupted. Money is a mechanism for distributing the favour of the king. Every thing that has been made is created from the wealth of the planet and the labour of people. The planet is a treasure house for all and I have the same right to it as any living person. Money gives no one rights above me. Wealth does not make a mouth hungrier so wealth should not determine the distribution of food. The status quo is maintained by violence so extreme that workers and peasants know that resistance can and will result in consequences so dire that it will impact on generations of their family.
I do not hold with violence as a means of doing good. Force will not bring people together as equals. My hope is that somehow the spirit of mutual aid can be demonstrated as producing a viable alternative to a collapsing capitalism and social evolution becomes a revolution.
I realise as a Western European worker I have had a relatively privileged life but as a worker I know I am a pen stroke away from destitution and therefore do not feel I have any stake in the present system. I do not crave destruction and violence but maybe fire will bring regrowth but I fear it may just help destroy the little we have.

Richie said...

Thanks for the visits and kind words to Yvonne and to Joseph.
It is tough circumstances for Herrad and I but we share great joy in life and love for the world.