A Jewish Worker’s May Day Speech

Gentlemen! Although I do not for a minute doubt that the majority of those present here know of the great worldwide workers’ holiday of “May 1st,” I nevertheless do not consider it redundant to remind you of it. Perhaps there are some among you for whom the thought of celebrating “May 1st” is altogether new; therefore, I will address this holiday’s origin.

In 1889, during the Paris exhibition, there was a congress in Paris of representatives from workers’ parties from all countries, in other words, of “Social Democrats.” There, the Social Democrats decided that workers everywhere (consequently, not excluding Russian Jews) should celebrate May 1st. The goal of this workers’ holiday was primarily to demand from capitalists an eight-hour workday, as well as to show the entire bourgeois world what a force the working class had made of itself.

I am not going to go into a detailed explanation of the tremendous significance for workers of shortening the workday. I think that each of us knows quite well how much better for the worker it is to be liberated sooner from the stifling atmosphere of the workshop and hard, excessive labor, to come home earlier to rest, read a good book, and do something useful for himself, rather than work for some idle bourgeois or for a master until his strength is sapped, for which he receives as reward from these benefactors, besides the meager wages themselves, nothing but curses. It is not unknown to us all as well that if work time is reduced in one branch of production, then manufacturing the same quantity of goods will require more workdays than before, and as a result people who had been sitting idle will now get work.

I will dwell primarily on two questions. First, why was May 1st specifically chosen for the workers’ holiday and not some other time? Second, what goals and commonalities exist among workers of all faiths, nations, and territories, and what exactly will serve as the chief stimulus, so to speak, for a one-day universal work stoppage? [ . . . ]

Therefore, if we see that socialism is the direct consequence of the capitalist means of production, or the simple class struggle, then the statement by many that it is sinful and criminal for Russian Jews to take part in this revolutionary class struggle is utterly inappropriate. One could agree with such an opinion only if all Jewry were a separate nation standing outside capitalist conditions, or if all Jewry consisted of only the bourgeois.

But is such an opinion really valid? Doesn’t the long-suffering body of the poor Jewish proletariat feel the full weight of capitalism upon it? Isn’t capitalism sucking all the vital juices out of the poor Jewish worker on a par with all [other] workers? Doesn’t capitalism sort and classify human blood? Doesn’t the Jewish worker freeze in the same poverty as any other worker? Is the Jew spared and not exploited by factory owners and foremen? To these questions there is only one answer. Any sane and honest person, no matter his faith or nation, would reply that the Jewish worker in no way differs from his other brothers in his situation.

Let us suppose that among the Jews there is in fact a small percentage of moneylenders, factory owners, merchants, foremen, and similar exploiters, but then what a tremendous number of proletarians there are among them. The statistics speak quite eloquently to the fact that there is scarcely a trade in which Jews are not engaged; therefore, if according to all reports we see that the Jewish worker is the same kind of slave to capitalism as is the worker of any other faith, then the question arises of whether some individuals’ above-cited opinion is fair.

There seems not to be the slightest doubt that this opinion is just as foolish and clumsy as if someone were to say that it is sinful and criminal for a man to defend himself from attack or danger. If the Jewish worker faces the same struggle as do all others, then who is going to fight for him if not he himself? [ . . . ]

As a means of salvation from such an unpleasant situation for the Jews, a place of refuge has been found: “Holy Palestine,” where Jews consider it their right to live, since their ancestors, who spent several happy years there, are buried there. It is understandable and unsurprising that the poor Jewish people have taken this bait: in them lives the desire to be free at least once from millennia of maltreatment; they believe that the “Messiah” will come one day and lead all the Jews to Palestine and that only then will they begin to live a bearable, human life. And here suitable leaders have in fact been found for them, specifically, the “Palestinians.”¹

However, if the poor Jewish people could take a closer look at the terrible life that is being readied for them there, then they would probably stop dreaming of it. [ . . . ]

Now there remains only to decide one question: If things are bad in Palestine as well as in Russia, then what remains for the poor Jewish people to do? How are they to be liberated from this intolerable situation? The answer is simple: If we Jews have the same capitalist system as do other states, if we have the same proletariat as everywhere else, then the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie should be the same among the Jews.

Western Europe might serve as an example for us in this. There, workers began to join together earlier than they did in Russia, forming circles—smaller at first, but then, as industry has developed in the country and the propaganda among workers increased—that grew to larger proportions; then entire unions came out of these circles, unions that today have their own representatives in parliament.

The Jews should fight by the same means. In view of the capitalist struggle we face, each of us should first of all clarify for himself that the sacred and vital mission of each and every conscious worker is not how to stuff his own belly as full as possible but that each of us should, to the extent of his forces, do something for the good of humanity. No matter what we do in this regard, we will render a tremendous service to future generations.

We cannot sit with our hands in our laps waiting for help from above. Our liberation and salvation depend on us alone. As much as possible, each person should try to teach both himself and others, and, in this way, facilitate the formation, to begin with, of even small circles. In the future, these circles will give us every opportunity to unite and become members of the workers’ great global party that, acting as one, will win their human rights. Then true liberty, fraternity, and equality will come to pass for all humanity, not excluding the Jews.

No longer is there any doubt of the workers’ future victory. History is proving to us how unstable an order is, under which people can starve to death on the doorstep of luxury. We Jews must not lose heart or be ashamed that we belong to the “ignominious” Jewish race. The history of the Jews gives us the right to this; it is a history that has its own brilliant pages, too. Never in the world has there been a single nation that, like the Jewish nation, could die so steadfastly for its faith. May we, too—the younger generation—taking an example from our ancestors, show our steadfastness in the fight for mankind’s liberation!