Monday, November 11, 2013

The ongoing struggle

  On Haymarket November 11, 1887 four anarchists were executed after being convicted on triumphed up charges. One of them Albert Parsons proclaimed in his closing speech at his trial - «Your ballot – what is it good for? Can a man vote himself bread, or clothes, or shelter, or work? In what does American wage-slaves' freedom consist? The poor are the slaves of the rich everywhere. The ballot is neither a protection against hunger nor against the bullets of the military. Bread is freedom; freedom bread. The ballot is no protection against the bullets of those who are practicing the street-riot drills in Chicago. The ballot is worthless to the industrial slave under these conditions. The palaces of the rich overshadow the homes or huts of the poor, and we say with Victor Hugo, that the paradise of the rich is made out of the hells of the poor. The whole force of the organized power of the government is thrown against the workers, whom the so-called better class denominate a mob».


No comments:

Post a Comment