Sowing Community

Minimum Wage Maximum Freedom

Erik Thompson 10/9/21

*editor's note: all values reflect when this article was researched

In 2012, 200 fast food workers walked of their jobs in New York City. What sorcery could have convinced them to commit such a heinous act? Was it democrats? Al Queda? Communists? None of the above, faithful reader. It was, surprisingly, their poor working conditions. They were demanding 15 dollars an hour and the right to unionize. In the intervening 10 years, the movement has grown from just a few walk-outs to a full-fledged global force in 300 cities across 6 continents. It has become one of the most successful and expansive grass-roots movements in the recent era. It has also become a historical artifact.

In the 10 years since its inception, the FF15 has won sporadic raises for several millions of people. Several states are also in the process of raising their minimum wages. This is an outstanding achievement that should not be dismissed off hand. But, in the 10 years that this fight has been waged, the value of 15 dollars has depreciated, through inflation, into being almost completely worthless to the working class. Beyond that, what will the 15 an hour accomplish in the long run? Are we not still bound to our employers for our survival? If equality be our aim, if economic freedom is our goal, is the fight for 15 not just tilting at windmills?

2009 2012 2021 A 7.25* 7.76 9.23 B 5.70 6.10 7.25* C 14.02 15.00* 17.84 D 11.76 12.61 15.00* E 15.00* 16.05 19.13

Using the graph above we will explore how the buying power of the proposed (15) and current (7.25) minimum wages changes through time. The columns are the three years of interest to this topic: 2009, the year of the 7.25 minimum wage we are attempting to reform; 2012, the year of the introduction of the Fight for 15; 2021, the current year. The rows are the current (7.25) and proposed (15) federal minimum wage rates, marked by *, with their relative buying powers corresponding to their respective years. We will take cells A1 and B3 , or the value of 7.25 in 2009 and 7.25 in 2021, as examples to show how the chart will work.

7.25 in 2009 (A1) has the same buying power that 7.76 did in 2012 (A2), and that 9.23 has in 2021 (A3). That essentially means if you had 7.25 in 2009, you would have been able to purchase the same amount of goods as 9.23 would buy in 2021. Conversely, 7.25 in 2021 (B3) has the same buying power that 6.10 did in 2012 (B2), and 5.70 did in 2009 (B1). Again, if you had 7.25 now, you would only be able to purchase now as much as 5.70 did back in 2009. This is a very basic summation of inflation, and while it may not seem important to the layman, it is of immense importance to capitalists.

Don't imagine, however, that anything we do for our people in the way of profit sharing, or enabling them to acquire stock, or providing meals at low rates, medical attention, recreation grounds, vacations, and so forth is done from philanthropic motives- not in the least. Whatever we do for our employees we do because we think it pays, because it is good business. -Julius Rosenwald, founder Shefferman union-busting firm 1926

Since 2009, the worth of 7.25 has decreased to 6.91 (E1[E2 relative to the buying power of A1), then to 5.70 (B1[B3 relative to the buying power of A1]). The buying power of A1, though, has increased over time, relative of E2 and B3, to A2 and A3 respectively. By simply existing in time, in 2021, anyone still earning minimum wage is losing, in buying power, 3.53 an hour (A3-B1). In 2012, though, the fight was started for 15 an hour. For all intents and purposes, it would have been a substantial increase, in buying power (compared to A1), of 6.26 (C1-A2). Honestly, due to inflation, 7.25 in 2012 was worth 6.91, so the actual potential earnings could have been 7.11 an hour (C1-E1). Unfortunately for the working class, while some sectors did see an increase in their wages, most did not earn the coveted 15 an hour. By demanding 15 an hour in 2012, and not securing it, we have now set our losses at 7.11 an hour. But our losses didn't stay at 7.11 an hour. As you can see, the buying power the proposed 15 of 2012 (C2) has the same buying power as 17.84 in 2021 (C3). Therefore, by the time 2021 rolled around we were losing out on another 2.84 (C3-C2) an hour. That was predicated on us obtaining the 15 in 2012, though. In fact, since the working class is still earning the same (depreciated) 7.25 an hour it was earning in 2009, it stands to reason that we are in actuality losing, per hour, at least 12.14 (C3-B1) in potential buying power. If we secure the 15 minimum in 2021, or even in 2022, we stand to gain, in relation to the start of the Fight for 15, 3.97 an hour (D2-E3). Compared to what the working class was earning in 2009, though, we would have only won 2.53 an hour (D1-A3) in relative buying power. This is only if we secure the 15 an hour minimum wage, right now. As it stands, we aren't gaining anything, and compared to what we could have been gaining, we are losing money every hour worked.

Imagine for a moment you are purchasing a gallon of gasoline. You notice the sign says 3.19 per gallon. Outrageous, it was only 2.99 per gallon yesterday! On your receipt, though, you discover that you only paid 2.99 for your gallon. You saved .20! The next day you go back and pay only 2.99 again. So far you have saved .40 on your two gallons of gasoline, right? As the price of gasoline continues to slowly climb, you continue to pay only 2.99. While you pay the same amount you always have— and therefore aren't really saving anything— the price of gasoline continues to go up, and since you could potentially be paying more, whatever you don't pay for gasoline is extra cash in your pocket. A penny saved is a penny earned, as they say. This is essentially what is happening with employers. The cost of labor has risen, because the cost of living has risen, but they continue to pay us the same. Any penny we don't take for ourselves is a penny in a capitalist's pocket, as they say.

A true conservative corrects injustices to preserve social peace. -FDR 1940-something

May 2020. The pandemic has completely upturned the world. The death toll was already into the hundreds of thousands globally, while the economy was straggling along on the backs of “essential workers.” The unemployment rate was at 13.3%, down slightly from April's 14%. Derek Chauvin murders George Floyd and the nation erupts into protest. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people, in defiance of a deadly pandemic, took to the streets to voice their displeasure of piss-boy Chauvin and all the other racists pigs across the world. It was magnificent. Cops have killed many black people before this moment, though. Why was this reaction so wholly on another level? Was it the clear-cut video evidence? Was it the cruelty of the act itself? Yes and yes. But, we have had clear video evidence before; we have even had crueler acts perpetrated by the police. There is one simple reason for the ferocity of these protests: there were more people to protest.

An idle population is an insurrection. There were millions of extra people in the world at the time of the murder: people laid off from work, people scared at home, people taking care of sick loved ones— millions of people not wasting their energies at work. When people aren't dulled by the drudgery of work, they begin to think. When they begin to think, they start to question. When they begin to question, they might become angry. Angry people tend to band together, burn down police stations, and seize neighborhoods. This anger, this emotion, this action, is anathema to the capitalist scheme. They need us docile and content in our own homes. The elite need us on our phones, playing our little games, and watching our televisions until it is time to produce again. They need us drunk, fat, and lazy. They need us to work in order to keep us dull— to keep us from thinking. While the 15 minimum won't dent their pockets books as much as they would like us to believe, they still don't want to pay us. But, to keep the peace— the status quo— they are willing sacrifice a sliver of their earnings. If they can lure more people out of unemployment with the promise of higher wages, that is less of a chance for insurrection. This is social peace to them.

Not only that, capitalists are beginning to understand that in order for the economy to work, people need money to consume. If all of a person's money is tied up in debt, rent, or other bills, they have no money to go purchase other goods and services. Also, if someone isn't drowned in debt and bills— if they are able to pay for their existence every month— they become happier, and the happier employees tend to produce more, complain less, and aren't drawn to organizing.

Labor is capital, and as such it can be invested and accumulated.

Consequently, the companies that do jump on board with the 15 will have a larger hiring pool to draw from. They will be more competitive in the hiring game: i.e. they will be able to steal current and potential employees from other businesses. As a company invests labor into its business, they begin to accumulate employees and production-capability, which in turn increases profit. The more capital they invest, the more labor they accumulate. The more labor they accumulate, the less labor is available for other companies. And whether we like to admit it or not (whether it is true or not), some of the smaller companies, even name-brands, truly can't afford to pay 15 or more an hour. When they can't compete with the larger corporations, the smaller companies begin to fold, thus giving up their market shares for the bigger businesses to divide. Better pay, better benefits for all (or some), as a handful of companies tighten their grips on the world.

Reform issues encompass what the ruling class is willing to negotiate, which is precisely that which does not threaten its position. -Monsieur Dupont Nihilist Communism pg 186

The argument here isn't that we don't need a pay raise. We do. Desperately. The argument here, is that when we ask the elites to give us more of an allowance, what is the purpose? What is the angle? As shown above, the Fight for 15, while noble in most respects, is at best a relic of another era, and, at worst, class suicide.

15 isn't worth 15 anymore. The capitalists know this, and they are willing to give it to us now, whether on their own account or through their law-creation department (government), because they have already fleeced the American people upwards of 12 an hour for the last ten years! (Not to mention the multi-trillion dollar tax break, and the bank-bailout) The 15 an hour wage is an attempt to quell our revolutionary tendencies as much as it is to line their own pockets with our labor. All of these benefits— the PTO, sick leave, on-site daycare— are all attempts to lure us into the grind: to keep the lights on and the ovens hot. It is to keep the elite in their private jets and penthouses. The average CEO earns 148,709 a year, or 71 an hour. Where does that salary come from? Selling the goods we produce, right? We produced them with our labor. All this profit derives from our labor. Our sweat and suffering pay for their asses to get waxed and their victims to be silenced. It gets worse, though, because we are the ones who purchase the goods we produce. All of our money slinks back into the system. Money doesn't grow on trees, it is sucked from our veins. Our labor pays their salaries as much as it pays for our health-care, wages, and PTO. Who depends on who?

When you watch TV, and I know you do, listen to how these talking heads speak of current labor shortage. They speak of production numbers, government handouts, they speak of better benefits to entice employees back to work; they speak of the economy, they talk of consumer confidence, of how the employers are struggling fill positions, and of the long lines because everyone is too lazy to work. Not one will mention how any of this situation effects workers. They do not ask workers why they don't want to, or can't, return. They don't ask why we need 15 an hour and better benefits. They don't talk about how we are so downtrodden and manipulated that we can't even see that this 15 isn't worth a piss!

We are so deluded and gaslit by the capitalists, that we believe this 15 an hour raise will be sufficient enough to keep our boats afloat. We fought so hard, they resisted so much, why, this 15 must be truly worthwhile for us! No! It is paper tiger, a macguffin, it is the Trojan Horse the capitalists are giving us so we sit down, shut up, and push the buttons. And while we are clamoring over how great the craftsmanship on the horse is, the capitalists are sneaking in, ready to pounce and plunder even more of our lives.

Who controls our wages— our livelihoods? Who controls our means of survival? The capitalists. They control how much they pay us. Who controls the capitalists means of survival? They do. They are their own masters. When the economy takes a dip, they can either raise or lower the prices on the goods they sell to supplement their losses; they can suspend production, lay-off employees to cut cost, and write it all off as a loss on their taxes. We do not control our own survival. When the economy dips we are the first out the door. We starve and die as they wine and dine. This was the beginning of the fight all those years ago. The common pain the working class felt struggling for survival is what bound them together. Bloody battles were fought to get a decent living (it took upwards of 70 years and hundreds of deaths for the 8 hour day). Napoleon said, “A man will march many miles for a single piece of ribbon.” How many miles will we march for 15 pieces of ribbon?

When we strike for the 15, and get it, what happens? We go back to work. Rent goes up, milk goes up, we can't afford the things we used to, we strike for 20 and get it. Then what happens? We go back to work. We strike for health-care, we go back to work. We strike for sick leave, we go back to work. No matter how much we ask for, no matter how much we beg for, the capitalists can just raise the rent, and then we go back to work for them. The minimum wage doesn't address the main exploitation of capital, the minimum wage only enhances it.

All roads lead to Rome.

This is capitalism. Whatever we do we cannot escape. We are slaves, chained to the House of Capital. With every reform, our chains lengthen by a few feet. Sure, we might still be chained, but we have a whole extra foot of freedom! Yes, and the capitalists gain an extra foot of productive capability.

So, what are you going to do about it?

A Battle Cry for Gifford Park: Feed the People Remembers Media Corp.

by Taylor Thornburg 6/7/21

Rest in peace, Media Corp. Long live Media Corp. These nine words are a battle cry for Omaha’s Gifford Park community. The visual artist Jessie Fisher and the poet Amanda Huckins opened Media Corp. in the working-class neighborhood in 2018. Media Corp. was many things, among them an urgent social experiment. What happens when the community takes space and holds it without an agenda? Without revitalizing or incentivizing the use of an all but abandoned building, who comes to use it and how? When Fisher and Huckins invited the community in, the community flourished. They rented the space at 515 N 33rd Street, a large but severely dilapidated house, and opened it up to the community to come in, use and experiment with as the community saw fit. Whether they knew it or not, they opened a space that centered their community, already in dire need of a community center. Feed the People was among the many community-centered projects that flourished after running through Media Corp. The building’s landlord evicted Media Corp. in July 2021 to renovate the building, most likely as a luxury dwelling or commercial property. While this iteration of Media Corp. may be over, the projects that it incubated are not.

Feed the People began a little before this iteration of Media Corp., it will last long after this iteration of Media Corp., but it will never forget this iteration of Media Corp. Feed the People began distributing free food and household goods to Omaha’s communities in Gifford Park in 2017. Literally, Feed the People began in the park. Feed the People settled on this location to serve the people who lived there. Motivation for this location included the nearby Refugee Empowerment Center, which according to its website, resettles refugees in and around the area who have little more than $1,000 to spend over their first 90 days in the United States. Additionally, the median household income in Gifford Park is just $38,000 according to city-data.com, barely half of the median income for the Omaha metro area. Diverse student populations also choose to settle in Gifford Park due to its central location between the two major universities in town, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Creighton. Between 2017 and 2018, Feed the People endured the brutalities of Nebraska’s summer and winter weather to serve the people in the park once a month every month. At the time, it made sense. Where else would a new community-centered program settle other than a central, visible, open, and accessible location?

Sometime in the early months of 2018, Media Corp.’s founders invited Feed the People to share their communal space. Feed the People’s organizers jumped at the chance to distribute food from a dry place in the rain, a warm place in the winter, and a cool place in the summer. The main street style location on North 33rd Street – a commercial artery in the neighborhood – seemed to be as visible and accessible as the park too. As it happened, Media Corp. was the perfect soil for Feed the People’s growing roots. Feed the People invited attendees to commune on the porch in the summer. In the winter, Feed the People invited them inside to warm up and talk between picking up pantry items and other chores. Feed the People grew as the community grew. Dozens of community members began congregating at Media Corp. on distribution days. Some organizers broke off to form a tenant’s union to help with common complaints tenants had about their landlords. Others devised Communism 101 classes to elevate the political and social consciousness of their fellow community members. Through Feed the People, organizers connected the community to Media Corp.’s other programs like the Midtown Mutual Aid Network, Residents are Experts, and the space’s intermittent art and poetry shows. Media Corp. connected the neighborhood, helped feed it, and improved the quality of life for countless numbers of people. Everything was beautiful until suddenly it wasn’t.

The COVID-19 pandemic was the beginning of the end for Media Corp. After March 2020, Media Corp. could no longer offer the range of programs it offered even days before, but Feed the People and the Midtown Mutual Aid Network continued operating out of its space, meeting the needs of an already stressed and newly beleaguered neighborhood. Fortunately, as the pandemic wore on, these programs thrived, serving more people better than ever. Unfortunately, as the pandemic ended, the real estate market also thrived. In the booming real estate market that closed out the darkest chapters of the pandemic, Media Corp.’s landlord serendipitously decided to clean up the property and renovate it for more mainstreamed use at a more mainstreamed premium. Unable to remain in the building during renovations and overlooked by the landlord as potential tenants when it reopened, Media Corp.’s current iteration closed for good after July 2021. Fortunately, Feed the People still lives. Although Feed the People no longer operates in Media Corp., its organizers serve the people and remember Media Corp. Feed the People remembers the value in community space and the limitless potential of connected community members. Without revitalizing or incentivizing the use of an all but abandoned building, the community came together to build power, meet its own needs, and thrive where it once only survived. When the community took the space Media Corp. provided and held it, the community found its center. Larger and better connected than ever with roots that run deep in the community, Feed the People stands behind Media Corp. and what it represented. Feed the People stands for a united community. Feed the People stands for a centered community. Feed the People stands against the irresponsible and irredeemable mismanagement of Media Corp.’s former space at 515 N 33rd Street. Feed the People stands against landlords and the ways in which they recklessly winnow away the public good for private profit. Rest in peace, Media Corp. Long live Media Corp. These nine words are a battle cry for Omaha’s Gifford Park community.

Critiquing the Capitalist Coronavirus Crisis

A critical review of the state of the pandemic in Nebraska and US

Roughly a year after the world fell victim to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 disease, we can now begin to see a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. That light, however, came at the cost of over 500,000 lives in the United States alone, and over two million around the world. And still, we are not yet out of the woods. How did we get here? Why have so many had to suffer, and how do we recover?

First, let us cover some of the basics so as to dispel myths and reinforce a material understanding of the world. Nature operates in a dialectical way; that is to say that the natural world is the result of a multitude of interconnected relationships, be they biological, ecological or physical. Applying this understanding helps us to understand the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. Contrary to popular conspiracy theories that may suggest that the virus was engineered in a laboratory or purposefully disseminated by the Chinese Communist Party, we understand the virus to be the product of the encroachment of industrialized human life into the biosphere. The appearance of this novel coronavirus in China is merely coincidental – it has no relationship to the Chinese diet (i.e. we ought not tolerate racist and sinophobic implications about the consumption of bats being responsible for SARS-CoV-2, etc.), nor does it have any relation to the structure or composition of Chinese society.

Instead, the virus is the product of unregulated human activity arrogantly intruding further and further into natural ecosystems, leading to their disruption and the intermingling of previously segregated species of animals. It is through this process that such a virus can find an evolutionary pathway to becoming a human pathogen. In fact, we would be wise to take seriously the risks that stem from our own agricultural industry, where we amass thousands of genetically identical animals into so-called factory farms where they live out their lives under horrific sanitary conditions – a literal breeding ground for diseases that could make the jump from farm animal to human. Indeed, diseases such as tuberculosis and smallpox likely emerged as significant human pathogens only once humans began farming and raising livestock, which in turn allowed for denser communities and the adaptation of pathogens to infect humans. While many specific details about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 remain to be uncovered, we should accept that this pandemic is not a freak accident, but a warning of things to come.

These ideas are not new: that the next pandemic lurks in the shadows of the ignorance of human activity and industrialization has been illustrated time and time again. Why then were we so unprepared, and why were we unable to stop the pandemic in its tracks? The answer to both questions lies in the operational logic of capitalism, the totalizing system which we all currently live under. As a point of departure, we should see our unpreparedness as the consequence of the organization of our society. An organization which ties healthcare to employment, which consolidates (and physically confines) work to maximize efficiency (and therefore profit), which favors the liberty of the bourgeois individual over the collective well-being of all people. Our precarious and fragmented society was at a serious disadvantage to address a crisis that required collective, solidaristic solutions. Moreover, organizing society around such highly individualized principles has led to the degeneration of institutions that could have more aptly prepared us for an unexpected pandemic (such as the EPA, the FDA, and the CDC). Such institutions are not economically profitable, and therefore are comfortably disregarded by the wealthy, for whom the consequences do not matter to begin with.

We can address our inability to stop the spread of the virus simply by acknowledging that any widespread halt to economic activity is an unsavory option for capitalists. Thus, a nation-wide lockdown was always a bridge too far for those that aimed to profit off of our collective suffering. While the rich could easily work from home, they sent the working class of America into the grocery stores, meat packing plants, shipping centers, etc. to possibly die from COVID-19. Even the best case scenario would have meant the unmitigated spread of the virus throughout the country (which we of course observed contemporaneously with the horrifying, sky-rocketing death count). Our hospitals therefore became over-burdened with sick and dying workers and senior citizens because their death was an acceptable cost to sustain the accumulation of profit among the wealthy elite. Unlike countries such as China, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan where a strict lockdown, mask-mandate and contact-tracing policy was enforced, the US decided the best path forward was through, not around. The consequence is half a million dead, while all the aforementioned countries have long since returned to relatively normal daily activity.

In the US and Europe, capital accumulation was prioritized over public safety. Therefore, the best approach was to wait for a therapeutic (which pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies could charge an exorbitant price for) or a vaccine. We are fortunate that we now have many viable vaccine candidates ready to be administered to people, but we should also acknowledge that these vaccines could have been developed and administered while also sparing the lives of so many victims of this pandemic. Regardless, the vaccines cannot solve all of our problems.

First, there is the problem of access, which is itself a problem of supply. It would be conceivable that in the most wealthy country in the world, we could manufacture a vaccine at break-neck speeds. However, the companies that have developed these vaccines have endeavored to keep their manufacturing proprietary and not share the formulation with others who have the capacity to produce the vaccine. Therefore, instead of one highly effective vaccine that has been vetted much more thoroughly, we have three quite similar vaccines that all had to be assessed for safety and quality independently, and which are all being produced independently. The consequence is that for most working people without an outstanding health condition, a vaccine remains out of reach for at least the next few months, (editor's note: this was written before the rollout of vaccines to other groups besides the 65 and over crowd) despite the fact that our inability to stay home has contributed so dramatically to the spread of the virus. This is made worse by insufferable cretins such as our own Governor Pete Ricketts, who decided that undocumented immigrants in Nebraska would not be able to register for the vaccine, despite making up as much as 40% of the state’s immigrant population. The combination of market logic and white nationalist rhetoric make for a noxious cocktail that will only prolong the suffering of us all.

Second, there is the problem of efficacy. While the two mRNA-based vaccines from Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna are roughly 95% effective at preventing severe COVID-19 symptoms and hospitalizations, the Johnson & Johnson lipid nanoparticle vaccine is only about 85% effective. Moreover, none of the vaccines have been clearly demonstrated to completely protect you from being infected or transmitting the virus to someone who is not vaccinated. Again, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine seems less efficacious in this regard. Despite this, it is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that will be distributed to rural health care clinics to be administered more frequently to the general public because it only requires one dose and does not need to be stored at -80˚ celsius. This is not to say that anyone should avoid receiving a vaccination when they are able, but to emphasize that the development and roll-out of these vaccines has been an objective disaster if for no other reason than the prioritization of intellectual property and private profit. This is further emphasized by the reluctance of the US, UK and EU – among others – to support a motion through the WTO to waive intellectual property rights for the vaccine so that countries in the global South could produce vaccines in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Thus, many around the world will be without a vaccine for many months and years to come, leading to the inevitable emergence of more virulent strains of SARS-CoV-2.

Despite the gloomy picture that has been painted here, we can also acknowledge the way in which the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the promise of a brighter future. To begin, the pandemic made clear that “essential work” is not work that makes one rich, but that benefits society as a whole. Jeff Bezos, the outgoing CEO of Amazon, did little (if anything) to help people suffering through sickness, death and isolation. In contrast, Amazon was actually caught red-handed in price-gouging schemes to exploit poor and working people attempting to access essential goods. No – instead of CEOs and hedge fund managers coming to save us, it was working people who kept shelves stocked, maintained supply chains and administered our medicine if we got sick. Today it is less difficult than it was a year ago to imagine what a world organized collectively for the benefit of all people might look like. Additionally, the pandemic has revealed the insanity of our healthcare system better than any political orator ever could. While capital worked tirelessly to externalize costs by laying off workers, they simultaneously created a massive population of uninsured Americans during the greatest pandemic in 100 years. Even if a miracle therapeutic had been developed for the treatment of COVID-19, how could any of the recently unemployed Americans receive it without health insurance? It is more clear than ever that health care needs to be universalized so that all people, regardless of income, employment or citizenship status can see a doctor when they need to.

We must now ask how we achieve these goals. How do we reorganize society so that we can all benefit from the fruits of our labor and build a world that reduces the risks of new pandemics, new crises and new horrors? We have but one answer: mass organization of the working class of the US – and the world – towards a revolutionary upheaval of the capitalist world order. Feed the People – Omaha has been working throughout the pandemic to continue to provide free food to those in need without barriers to access. We provide but a small glimpse of what a mass organization of working people could accomplish to build a brighter future for us all.

Nick P. 5/1/21

A Not-So-Brief Introduction to the Origins of May Day

The working week to some is considered to be a 9 to 5, Monday through Friday: 40 hours a week and two days of relaxation. Other things considered to be “granted” by employment: health, dental, vision insurance (which are all separate because of reasons); overtime pay; sick leave; maternity leave; vacation; paternity leave; PTO; breaks (lunch or otherwise); OSHA; short term disability, long term disability (which are separate because of reasons); 401k; retirement plans; pensions; general pleasantness at work. All of these “perks” given to you by your boss and company were bought in blood.

You see, working conditions in the first few thousand years of modern history were less than ideal for the people who were considered to be less than “elite.” It started with slavery, then feudalism, wound its way through guildism, into marketism, back to slavery, and then- the area we are concerned with- industrialism. Specifically, we are going to focus this discussion on America during the gilded age.

The average work day was about 10-16 hours. The average work week was usually 6 days, with Sundays being the lord's day (except when it wasn't because even God can't stop production). This, of course, was during the boom periods. Production cycles in the gilded age consisted of: hiring as many people as cheaply as possible then working them as hard possible to produce as many products as possible. Once the items were produced, the markets were considered “over saturated” and production stopped when the items wouldn't sell. People were laid off until such a time where the excess inventory was finally sold and production could start again. Well, laid off is a general term. They were fired. Their jobs were never secured. They were fired and once production started again, if they weren't there at the factory gates, someone else would get their job. Loyalty and dedication are top qualities for employees, though, right?

During this period of time, safety was not really a concern of these companies. Shocking, I know. People were regularly subjugated to horrific conditions. Brutal environments, dangerous equipment, and little to no regard for human life. I refer the reader to read “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair for contemporary accounts of these conditions, and “Capital” by Karl Marx if they have fortitude. I cannot recite everything myself: it would be a useless endeavor and push this simple zine far beyond its already stretched limits.

This brief introduction is turning into something else entirely. Sorry.

Also, I am not going to recite all the different names of all the different iterations of all the different labor unions that started forming around the mid 1800s. It is tedious and not useful to the layman. Let it be known, that during the early half of the 1860s people started organizing. They were banding together in unions to fight this “boom bust” economy and all the other egregious offenses against humanity that were perpetrated by the companies in this era. And it needs to be known that these unions were primarily lead by Anarchist, Socialist, and Communist forces.

The main effort of these unions was for the reduction of the working day to only eight hours. Anarchists, Communists, and Socialists alike organized all facets of the industrial workforce towards this effort. They would plan picnics, concerts, conventions, lectures, and any other social events to further the cause. Years were spent building a movement for the eight hour day. Repression was brutal and strikes were often broken up by police firing upon innocent workers. Union halls were subject to raids, and homes of strike leaders were illegally ransacked by both police and privately hired goons known as “Pinkertons.” Regardless, the organizers pushed on. A strike was called for the 1st of May, 1886. In Chicago alone 40,000 people went on strike, and in the United States somewhere between 300,000 to 500,000 workers struck.

On May 3rd, 1886, striking workers met at the McCormick Harvester Machine Company, where the union had been locked out since February for trying to procure the eight hour day. Police fired into the crowd, killing two to six workers, and wounding many more. Anarchists, including the world's first Anarchist daily newspaper (the Arbeiter-Zeitung), called for a rally the next day at Chicago's Haymarket Square to protest the brutality.

A sparsely attended meeting in a light drizzle, the Mayor, who was spectating, declared that nothing appeared to be happening and informed the police to let the demonstrators go peacefully home. As the final speaker was climbing down from the makeshift stage, a column of 180 police officers descended upon the crowd and ordered them to disperse. A bomb was thrown at the advancing officers. It exploded killing one and mortally wounding 6 others. Shots rang out between the crowd and police.

Over the next several weeks, police raided the homes and businesses of anarchist organizers. Dozens of arrests were made without warrants or explanation. Bomb making equipment was found in one anarchist space. Labor organizations and unions quickly tried to distance themselves from any anarchist activist or tendencies. Eight labor leaders were put on trial for their supposed connections to the bombing. The following trial can be generously described as a “miscarriage of justice:” police stories didn't match up, evidence was brought in or taken away at will, the judge dismissed witnesses he didn't like. The trial began in June and ended in August with all eight defendants found guilty even though no evidence pointed to any of them being the bomber. The whole episode has been dubbed the “Haymarket Affair” and it culminated in the hanging death of four of the defendants.

The Eight Hour Movement was shattered and peace was brought to the capitalist class— for a moment.

The labor unions were still a force, though. In 1890, an international conference called for a strike on May 1st and to recognize it as “International Workers' Day” in honor of the Chicago Martyrs and the fight for the Eight Hour Day.

Fighting continued for many more decades. Sporadic victories gained the eight hour day for separate industries, but many more were still subject to long hours. Finally, in 1937, the federal government realized the eight hour day for a majority of the workers, but only by guaranteeing them overtime benefits. Since those faithful days, May Day has become a flashpoint: a day where both struggles and celebrations have coalesced into outbreaks of joyous rebellion.

The limits of this zine keep me from describing the entirety of the bloody history of the US labor movement, and especially of the global labor movement. The imperialists are right when they say our freedom isn't free. Our freedom, though, isn't found overseas in the towns and villages of foreign nations. Our freedom is here, in the moments we steal from the tyranny of work—there is a reason it is called free-time after all. So, on this May Day, remember not only the Haymarket Martyrs, but all the efforts and sacrifices made by regular workers like you and me. They fought the forces of capital to guarantee us our freedom— our free-time— and frankly, I could use a little more.

Erik Thompson 5/1/21

An Open Letter to the Community

Happy May Day, everyone. Welcome to the first, but hopefully not last, issue of Sowing Community.

Well, a brief introduction feels appropriate. This is the community outreach project of Feed the People Omaha. It is an attempt to collect and disseminate information about resources that already exist within Omaha. On top of that, we are also hoping to include pieces by thoughtful writers- both within and outside of the Feed the People organization- to aid in the creation of a robust leftist current in the political and social culture of Omaha. The ultimate goal of this endeavor being, obviously, revolution.

Now, revolution does not happen overnight, and a zine will not be the downfall of capitalism— capitalism will be its own hangman. Revolutions happen only when class consciousness has evolved beyond our simple political identities (just a democrat, just a republican, just an American). The tricky part is that a revolution can cut in either direction: egalitarian or dictatorial. What shape a revolution takes cannot be determined by us or anyone else. We can only provide the framework and inspirations for our idea of a better world.

With that in mind, this zine, in all its ramshackle glory, is an attempt to expound the benefits of mutual aid and solidarity— to illustrate that a society built upon these ideals is not only viable, but potentially beneficial to all of humanity and not just a select few. To badly paraphrase a metaphor by Éliseé Reclus: the seed of revolutionary thought is planted in each one of us. It may seem dormant, but it is constantly evolving, growing, even when it can't be seen. The seed is oppressed by the soil, but that oppression feeds the seed. Though it is being fed, the dirt cannot provide everything the seed needs to thrive. Water trickles down to the seed, and the warmth of sunlight can be felt even under the layers of repression. The seed grows stronger through their nourishment. Eventually the seed erupts from the earth, breaking through the oppression in a glorious revolution. The seed then declares its presence to the world; ready to soak in all its pleasures.

Feed the People hopes that Sowing Community, along with our food distribution efforts, will be the warmth of the sunshine and the droplets of water to our revolution: a guide to help the seeds along the egalitarian path and into a harmonious communist future.

So, here we go. Should be fun.

Erik Thompson 5/1/21