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Call of support for the May 1 Strike Protest
Pre-assembly 15:45 Faneromeni Steps - Finish at Ledra Palace/Çetinkaya

1 MAY International Day of Class Struggle

The first of May is the day that unites the class of the workers in all corners of the world. In 1886 in Chicago, the working class of the so-called United States rose up against the growing and deadly capitalist industry. Their class struggle was reflected in the demand for eight hours of work. The class struggle for this demand was massive, with the participation of over a million workers and multiple strikes. It was militant, with fierce clashes between proletarians and cops, the use of guns and dynamite, and deaths on both sides. The authentic and massive call to the Arcadians is a clear message: "Workingmen, Arm yourselves and Appear in Full Force". For a particular moment in the struggle, in a strike where someone dragged a dynamite to the cops killing and wounding them, 7 anarchists, prominent militants of the union movement of the time, were arrested and sentenced to death, without any evidence against them, in a trial where the only concern of the court was to avenge the militant working class. For us, May Day symbolizes precisely the highest intensity of the ongoing class war between the workers and the bosses and, secondarily, the specific demand for an 8-hour day. For us, anarchists who are committed to social revolution, we want workers to start organizing and struggling for specific demands of immediate need, while realizing that their lives will never be ruined and their society will be left to the system. We need the overthrow of the state and capital, and their replacement by confederations of popular assemblies and cooperative projects.(cont. in comments)
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In order to reach that we need to have a political program as anarchists within the class struggles that our class aims at: To not be guided by religious, national, patriarchal or ideological authorities. To not be assimilated into the state by confining itself to demands, reforms, or by pinning its hopes on elections or dreams of dictatorships. To not lose its militancy by waiting for the cops and state institutions to protect it and impose their goals. To reveal the exploitation and oppression of the reproductive labour that is the basis of all work, highlighting the direct relationship between capitalism and patriarchy.
keep her a protagonist in social change and help her to find the ways she wants to and can live outside and against the system.
Today in Cyprus we see a May Day that has been depoliticized and downgraded to the level of projecting social-individual needs in the context of capitalist consumption. Anarchism can give it meaning again and give birth to many more May Days.
In particular, in Cyprus, May Day is a field of bicommunal unity on a class basis. The shocking strikes of the 40s are a historical example that brightens the future. Today, transcending the pervasive ethnocratic patriotism, the class struggle can finally be a point of multi-ethnic unity again, both with the Turks and Turkish Cypriots and with the expatriated labour force - the immigrants. The latter are the peoples of the world periphery who are exploited by the capitalist centres of the big cities, the overdeveloped capitalist countries and the transnational associations - countries like the Republic of Cyprus, associations like the EU and so on.
We have lived under oppression, disorganized, not being a threat to them for many years. The time has come to change everything. With anarchism and revolutionary trade unionism. As anarchists we want to be the tendency for horizontality, self-management and militancy... so to defend our class we have to defend our movement.

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