Anarcho-syndicalist May Day Rally in Moscow

On May 1, 2012 the Russian section of the IWA and other anarchists and social activists held a rally in Moscow and the monument to the revolutionaries of 1905-1907.

The anarchosyndicalists decided not to participate in the so-called "Left March" together with different Stalinist and Leninist groups – in opposition to a number of other Moscow anarchists. The anarchosyndicalists tirned out to be absolutely right, even just because among the speakers at the pseudoleft rally were such nationalist leaders like Limonov and Delyagin, and at the event, without any interference from the organizers, far-right literature was being sold.

Considering that quality, in the given case, was definitely better than a unprincipled quantitu, and in complete resolve not to give up the day of struggle, resistance and solidarity of the workers of the world to the hands of party politicians of different sorts, the anarcho-syndicalists raised a banner with the slogan "Resistance – Self-Organization - Self-Management " and black and red and black flags. They spoke about the anarchist roots of the First of May and the most difficult social problems, about the attack of capital and the state on workers' rights, the destruction of generally accessible education and health care, about attempts to do away with the 8-hour working day (which was won though the blood of thousands of working people, starting with the Haymarket martyrs – workers – anarchists, tried and executed for May events in Chicago in 1886), about the violation of workers' rights in Russia and around the world, about the global attack of capital and the global resistance of the working class from Bolivia and Spain to Russia... There was a call to boycott the Evroset company, which fired a worker for trying to form an independent trade union.

Among the participants in the rally were teachers, medical workers, students and different workers.... The speakers called on people to carry out the daily struggle for human dignity, for the rights of people in the workplace and in the community, for a new, free world without exploitation. The road to this goes through the self-organization of the workers – joined in free trade unions without professional functionaries, bosses and social partners.

The organizers of the rally considered it successful and thank the comrades who came to support it.