An Anti-Capitalist Zine on May Day

On May 1, 1884, thousands of workers went on strike demanding an eight hour workday: “Eight hours for work. Eight hours for rest. Eight hours for what we will.” Some estimate that up to half a million workers went on strike. In the days to come, after a bomb went off in Haymarket Square on May 4, eight anarchists would be wrongly accused of planting the bomb and four were hanged. The fight against the hanging created a public outcry, and the struggle for the eight hour workday continued.

May 1 is commemorated as International Workers Day all over the world — a date voted on by the Socialist International to commemorate the Chicago martyrs, the struggle for the eight hour workday, and the May 1 mass strike.

We are launching this zine on May Day with the goal of remembering and reclaiming our history and the struggle of working class and oppressed people, with the goal of strengthening students and workers at CUNY for the struggles that are to come.

We know we are not the first to raise our fist against this system. We remember and honor the mass strike in 1884 that inspired the celebration of May Day around the world. We remember and honor the struggles of enslaved people like Denmark Vessey and Nat Turner, and of abolitionists like John Brown who fought to end this system of slavery, and the Civil Rights and Black power movement that fought for the rights of Black people. We remember and honor the women who stood up against patriarchy and the queer and trans people who stood up in the Stonewall uprising and beyond. We honor the revolutionary socialists who struggled against capitalism, including the workers in Russia, organized in the Bolshevik party that were able to overthrow the whole capitalist system

We honor the movements of the present, which are continuations of deep, decades-long struggles: of Palestinians fighting for their land, of students who built encampments against genocide, of workers at Starbucks, Amazon and more organizing in their workplaces for unions and better working conditions , and of immigrants who are fighting for the right to live and work free from persecution. We honor the teachers organizing defense committees to protect students from ICE, and trans and queer folks organizing and taking the streets for their rights.

As we learn from and honor these struggles, we know we must write a new chapter in the history of class struggle against the Trump administration and the whole racist capitalist system. We know it is possible. As Malcolm X put it, we are not outnumbered; we are out-organized. The working class and oppressed in the United States and the world vastly outnumber the capitalists who profit off of our work, our sweat, and our struggles. We know that the working class runs everything in our society — we make everything run and so if we stop, everything stops. And we know we could make all of society run, not for the bosses, but for us– the vast majority of people who struggle under the boot of this system. This was the principle behind the original May Day strike that we honor through this zine.

And we know that we are stronger when students, faculty and staff, from the janitors to technical staff, unite to fight for all our rights. The goal of this zine is to help us, workers and students at CUNY, understand our own power and discuss how to use it to fight against Trump’s attacks, and fight for a society run by and for working class and oppressed people — for people, not for profit.

This anti-capitalist zine features art, writing, and ideas by CUNY students, faculty, staff, and alumni. It was put together by Left Voice, as well as students who are not members of Left Voice. The ideas expressed here do not necessarily reflect Left Voice’s ideas. We hope this zine can be a site of reflection and also debate of leftist ideas and strategies, and we invite you to respond to any of the ideas in this first issue.

We want this zine to act as an anchor for in-person gatherings, do discuss, debate and stand in solidarity together for the CUNY and the world we want to see. Sign up to stay in touch.

Left Voice is a revolutionary socialist group and publication that is based on the principles of internationalism, the fight against oppression, and the fight for socialism. Left Voice is part of an international organization, the Trotskyist Fraction. In this zine we proudly feature articles from college students in our French, Mexican, and Argentine sections that face similar struggles to us in the United States. We do this with the understanding that the workers and students of the world must unite in order to defeat capitalism, and we must learn from and uplift one another.

We hope that you, reader, will join us in building this zine. We will have a new issue of this anti-capitalist zine in the Fall, so if you want to get involved, contact us on Instagram at left_voice, or sign up on the QR code below. We also invite you to our anti-capitalist summer school– sign up below!

We hope that in the midst of all of Trump’s attacks, this zine can be a moment of clarity. We hope it will fuel your rage, as well as your hope. As Mariame Kaba said, let this radicalize you, not lead you to despair. Let’s fight for the university and society we deserve!

If you would like to donate to the printing of this zine, Venmo @leftvoice or Paypal: LeftVoice.
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