*********************************PLEASE FORWARD******************************* Come reclaim our holiday and celebrate May Day, the world holiday for the working class! We'll celebrate with food, drinks, discussion, and readings of labor and radical history. Please bring your favorite quote, speach, poem, song, or other piece of labor history to share. Parima Thai Restauraunt at 185 Pearl St, Burlington Saturday April 30th (May Day Eve!), 8-? Will include a large raffle of books, posters, t-shirts, and other labor history items and a full literature table with new arrivals from Haymarket Books. A fundraiser for Socialism 2005 Conference in Chicago Sponsored by the International Socialist Organization http://www.socialismconference.org/ Some May Day History: The effort to win "eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for what we will" became a crusade for U.S. labor in the years after the Civil War of 1861-65. On May 1, 1882, about 200,000 workers went on strike across the United States, and nearly that number won shorter hours just by threatening to strike. While rallying for an eight hour day in Chicago the police opened fire on demonstrators and killed 4 people and injured many more. In response organizers called a demonstration for the next day in Haymarket Spuare. At that demonstration bomb was thrown and people were killed. A group of 8 organizers for the eight hour day movement, many who wern't even at the demonstration, were framed up on charges, held as political prisoners, and executed by the state of Illinois. One of the organizers, August Spies made this statement during his trial on the eve of his execution. "If you think that by hanging us, you can stamp out the labor movement...the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in want and misery expect salvation--if this is your opinion, then hang us!" Spies said. "Here you will tread upon a spark, but there and there, behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out." *********************************PLEASE FORWARD******************************* ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. Fund a student project in NYC/NC today! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EHLuJD/.WnJAA/cUmLAA/MknplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VTJP/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
