International Workers' Day has been celebrated for over one hundred years. It was set on May 1st to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs, who were murdered in Chicago for demanding not only an eight hour working day (something which would be a step forward for many of us in the UK today) but the destruction of the capitalist system, which demands ever greater attacks on working class people in the name of profit.

You might ask what this has to do with you, in Bristol, in 2007. But take a look around!

* Luxury flats are being built around the city, by people who could never afford to live in them, while the city's housing list has over 20,000 names on it!
* The Liberal Democrat-run Bristol City Council is planning to privatise home care for some of the city's most vulnerable citizens.
* The NHS is under attack from corporate profiteers.
* If you are fortunate enough to have a job, every day the boss tightens the screw a little more while the government ensure employers are given a free hand to attack wages and conditions by keeping in place the "most draconian anti-union legislation anywhere in western Europe".
* In all the desperation, prozac and smack are everywhere, while the fascist BNP seek to exploit these problems with their prescription of race hate.

Sometimes it all gets a bit too much, and even the most committed activists feel disheartened. We didn't choose this fight, it chose us because of our class position. But together we are strong! Mayday is the time when we look back at the example of those who struggled before us, and forward to struggles in our near future. As one of the martyrs shouted at his execution: "The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today."

In Bristol this week, there are quite a few events as part of the Mayday festivities. On 1st May itself, the Public and Comercial Services Union (PCS) have called a one-day strike across the civil service to say: 'Save our public services'! If you have half an hour to spare today, visit a picket line at Government Office of the South West, Temple Quay. From 11.00 at Jury's Hotel PCS has organised a hustings for candidates in Thursday's local elections.

On the evening of 7 May at The Cube cinema Bristol Solidarity Federation is showing 'Matewan' one of the greatest films of the American labour movement.

Mayday is YOUR day! Make the most of it!