Anti-Capitalist Bloc May 1st March

All Out for the Anti-Capitalist Bloc MAY DAY 2009! 

March for Immigrant and Workers Rights

Friday, May 1^st 4pm Lake St. and Bloomington Ave. S. Minneapolis

Look for the red and black flags!

5pm-8pm Street Festival at Nicollet Ave. & 28th St. Minneapolis 

For more than 100 years, May Day has been celebrated as a workers’ holiday.  May Day is a celebration of our strength and struggles, a day to commemorate victories, and a day for international solidarity.  It is a day to honor those who have fought for justice and freedom, and a day to recommit to the fight. 

In the spirit of solidarity, May Day has also come to be a day to fight for the rights of immigrants.  For several years, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition (MIRAC) and others have organized and marched on May Day to demand equal rights for all.  This year, as last, the IWW Twin Cities Branch is calling for an Anti-Capitalist Bloc to march with them. 

The Anti-Capitalist Bloc stands for solidarity, direct action, the general strike and revolution.  We advocate an economic system controlled collectively and democratically, and an end to the racism, sexism and violence of the capitalist system.   

Today we can see clearly the effects of the capitalist system: workers being laid off at the whim of the bosses; bailouts for corporations; foreclosures for workers and the unemployed; a massive increase in poverty and desperation while the bosses get rich on bonuses.   

Immigrants bear a disproportionate share of the burden.  Anti-immigrant attacks, deportations and scapegoating have been a persistent feature of U.S history.  Recent raids against immigrant workers show the insidious connection between racism, and the system’s needs for a low waged precarious workforce. 

The Anti-Capitalist Bloc marched with MIRAC in May, 2008, and was in the streets against the RNC in September.  On May Day, 2009, the Anti-Capitalist Bloc will share the streets with MIRAC and the May Day Coalition to demand an end to the attacks against the immigrant community and all workers, students and unemployed. 

Join us under the red and black flags of the Anti-Capitalist Bloc! 

ANTI-CAPITALIST BLOC PRINCIPLES OF SOLIDARITY 

1.  ABOLITION OF CAPITALISM

We seek to abolish capitalism in favor of a system based on direct and democratic control of the means of production.  The poverty, warfare, oppression and environmental devastation that are inherent in the capitalist system can only be ended by eliminating that system. 

2.  DIRECT ACTION AND DIRECT DEMOCRACY

We believe that the mass direct action of the working class and its allies, working through democratic organizations, can abolish the capitalist system.  We reject the notion that we should wait for politicians, elected or otherwise, to accomplish our goals on our behalf. 

3.  SOLIDARITY WITH ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLE

We honor the struggles and experiences of all oppressed peoples, whether their oppression is based on race, sex, gender, disability, age, sexual identity or other social constructs.  We know that defeating capitalism requires the solidarity of all oppressed peoples, and we commit ourselves to organizing in ways that do not recreate the hierarchies we resist. 

4.  INTERNATIONALISM

We reject national borders and nation-states as artificial barriers.  We support no action or ideology that separates the working classes of the world, encouraging them to ignore each other at best, exploit each other most of the time, and kill each other at worst. 

5.  ORGANIZING

We will build networks of solidarity to organize and effectively support community struggles in our neighborhoods, workplaces and cities.  Protest is not enough.  We participate in the Anti-Capitalist Bloc in order to promote and move toward our goal of a just and democratic world free from the disease of capitalism.

Call issued by the Twin Cities Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

twincities@iww.org 612-339-1266 P.O. Box 14111 Minneapolis MN 55414