For May Day in Richmond, we made this poster to supplement another poster portraying workers, students and community leaders as cat people.  We wanted to shed some historical light on the image so people understand the connotations behind the "black cat".  Feel free to spread this poster around.  It's 11x17 and print ready.  Click the image for the .pdf

http://maydayrva.org

 

The image of a black cat arching it’s back, sometimes referred to as ’sabocat’, was utilized by organized labor to represent the prospect of sabotage.  Ralph Chaplin, a labor activist and anarcho-syndicalist, created the image while working with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).  Chaplin intended for employees to place the image around their respective workplaces as a symbolic threat to unethical and unrepentant bosses.

 

“It seems like the Union is afraid that people will find out the truth about what we are trying to accomplish.”  This was FW Kristin’s comment to me the other day and it got me to thinking.  Are we hiding our Revolutionary program, and if we are hiding, then why?

 

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“Springtime for America (Again)” When Ronald Reagan ran for re-election for president in 1984, he declared that it was “springtime for America”. He should have said it was “springtime for Corporate America.” Under his administration and those that followed, Corporate America and the world wide capitalist class increased its domination of the world, seemingly without an equivalent resistance from the working class, especially from the US working class. While this has started to change in recent years, the movement in the US has been lagging far behind.

Now that is starting to change.

To read more, see attached article

There will be an IWW workshop at this years May Day in Richmond, Va.  Fellow Workers, from Virginia, are encouraged to attend, we will be discussinga brief history of the Industrial Workers of the World, solidarity organizing, and why Richmond needs a chapter of the IWW.   

Visit [ http://maydayrva.org ]

 

 

A new phase in capitalism’s global economic crisis appears to be opening up. As is usual, this crisis has first hit the financial sector of capitalism. First, it was in the privately-owned banks and other financial institutions. Now the contagion has spread to public treasuries. The sovereign debt crisis in Dubai was the first warning. Now it is Greece.

Read more: See attachment

In the last week or so, the US media has focused on the assault on Marjah, in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. They have emphasized how very careful the troops are to avoid killing "civilians." When the US troops assaulted Fallujah, Iraq in 2004, they simply declared war against the entire population. That was ignored by mainstream media, of course. What is the meaning behind this new emphasis? See attached document.

I don't know how many have been following the scandal of the murder of a Hamas leader while he was in Qatar. Evidently this was carried out by Mossad agents. Nothing new there, but the scandal comes in in the fact that they entered Qatar on false passports - passports of British and Irish citizens, from those countries. The original names were the same, but the photos and biomeric information was changed. Thus, evidently Israel changed the passports of citizens from those two countries. (Whether or not is was done wioth the individuals' permission is an open question.) In the world of diplomacy, this would cause an uproar had any other nation done this. The British and Irish regimes have tried to brush it off, but they cannot. The great British journalist Robert Fisk has a good interview on al jazeera on this. You can see it here: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/02/2010219104320606581.html

If you can't get there by clicking on the link, then you can copy it and paste it to your browser.