(From the June 2005 issue of the Industrial Worker)
For the first time in a long time, local activists in Pensacola, Florida held major demonstrations on May Day, the international labor holiday and historic day of protest. Like many demonstrations, the story told most often is what happened at the rally, how many people were arrested, and who got beat up by the cops. While obviously that is important, the story least told is the one of how an event came to happen, who made it happen, and the background of the place where it happened.
For those unfamiliar with Pensacola, it is a small town in the Panhandle of Florida with a generally conservative political slant. More like Alabama than Miami, as the local phrase goes. While that may be generally known, what is less known is that Pensacola has consistantly had a fairly strong resistance to that "slant". From the days of first invaders of the city, to the abolition movement, to the red scare, to the anti-war movements, Civil Rights, Gay Rights, the fight for reproductive freedoms, etcetera. Pensacola was even the site of one of the largest industrial strikes in Florida history. For many of the actions taken by the power structure, there have almost always been counter-reactions, resistance, and strikes. This is true all over, I'm certain, it's just that people rarely hear about this because "we" don't own the press that writes most of small town history. Or American history, for that matter.
But from my research, outside of celebrations surrounding the Pagan holiday of Beltane, there had not been a political May Day demonstration here in Pensacola, Florida in some time. Which meant, however May Day 2005 turned out, this would be an event of some importance to local "People's History."
I would be remiss if I didn't remind the reader that nearly a year ago, Pensacola was hit by one of the worst hurricanes in recent history. Almost a year after Hurricane Ivan hit this city, the area is still in recovery. Workers are still pouring into town to fix the roofs of those who can afford it, or put blue tarps over the homes of those who can't. Vistors to Pensacola still remark about how devestating the destruction looks nine months later.
Where the level of catastrophe is most evident is along class and racial lines.
While the storm showed no favoritism, indiscriminately destroying mansion and shotgun shack alike, it wouldn't take much sense to know which would be repaired first. The "haves" are not only rebuilding their lives, but rebuilding the entire city with new condos, new houses, and high rise apartments on the beach. The "have nots" are living in beat up houses with tarps, trailers rented by FEMA, on their friends couches, jail for some, and the streets for many.
The class war has been declared in Pensacola, and right now we aren't doing so hot.
Those who can make a buck off the devestation are doing it. Lower working class homeowners who can't afford to rebuild are selling their homes for cheap to companies that will rebuild them and resell them for double the pre-hurricane worth. Sometimes triple. People who had good jobs before the storm, find that those good jobs were blown away with the roofs of their employers. Unemployment insurance only lasts so long. When the workers have to go back to work, they find that the "descent wages" (a relative term) they used to enjoy wages have dropped to minimum. Cheap housing is gone because of the inflation in the housing market (due to the lack of suitable housing because of the storm and the influx of workers to the area) and the temporary FEMA assistance has dried up. With nearly every aspect of Pensacolians lives still defined in some way to the terms that the hurricane set for the community, community activists have had their work cut out for them.
Soon after it was announced by a local peace group that there would be May Day anti-war demonstrations in Pensacola an anonymous flier hit the streets calling for resistance to the "society that was killing and expoiting" us all.
The flier read:
"On May First, 1886, passionate and committed workers and revolutionaries demanded and expected transformation of the society that was killing and exploiting them.
Around the world that struggle is continued and re-invented by small groups and mass organizations, non-violent activists, freedom fighters, socialists, communists, anarchists, people with eyes open to the pain of the world, ready to act and learn. Whole cities and nations have stood up and demanded change!
The U.S. military is extracting and destroying the best parts of our lives for profit and in vain, leaving behind nuclear wastelands, graveyards, broken minds, broken hearts, and broken bodies, from Eglin to Iraq, Vieques to Guantanamo, Hawaii to Micronesia, from Harlem to Afghanistan.
It will take more than government grants, blue tarps, and new roofs, houses, and condos for the rich to make this city whole. The elites must answer for the anger, pain, and suffering they have caused, for all that they have stolen. Make them answer! 'It's now or never.'"
In a matter of days, this flier was all over the streets of the city and the surrounding county. Pensacola has a city ordinance against fliers in public spaces, but like most similar ordinances it is selectively enforced. Anti-war fliers are torn down by the city, while yard sale and lost dog fliers are left alone.
Ten days before the rally, a young woman (and former Wobbly) was hassled by the police late at night for posting these fliers downtown. She was told that she would be arrested if she didn't get in the back of the police car and point out where every single May Day flier was and tear them down. She refused, stating that the officers had no right to arrest her for violation of city ordinance. They could ticket her but she could not otherwise be legally arrested. After some intimidation tactics and an illegal search of her property, the officers backed down and released the young woman without arrest or fine.
The next day, a note appeared at the cafe where the local IWW meets (and several Wobblies work) retelling the incident and asking for help in this "free speech fight." Soon, other Wobblies took up the fight and posted the fliers in public spaces, risking further police harassment. The flier was then translated by two Spanish speaking members of the local branch and posted throughout the surrounding county and in various spots downtown.
Another flier was made to ridicule the "post no bills" selective enforcement of the law that read "LOST CAT (with the IWW's 'Sabot Kitty' pictured below), goes by the name 'MAY DAY', if found please bring to ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATION on MAY 1st at NOON."
On the day of the rally, another Pensacola Wobbly brought several giant sized red and black flags for people to carry in the demonstration. These were quickly picked up by Wobbly and anti-war activists alike, along with dozens of signs. Another person brought little cardboard Sabot Kitties with IWW-type slogans, which were later posted around town.
May Day in downtown Pensacola went very well. For all their hassles, intimidations, and searches, there were no further incidents caused by the police. Local anti-war activists held signs for over an hour decrying war and the President, some made pitches for peace, and some passed out fliers on what the true meaning of May Day was. Someone even brought vegetable soup, free for all the protesters. It was a beautiful day.
People stood around with anti-war signs, red and black flags, some people even brought their own flags, and talked about their life and their thoughts with the person standing next to them. While some people drove by bewildered at the sea of red and black flags in downtown Pensacola, a small few hurled insults (nothing new, just the same recycled bumper sticker-speak "Freedom isn't free", followed by the middle finger). But the great majority of people honked their horns in support of the May Day demonstration. They gave the large crowd that gathered the "thumbs up", thanked us for being there, some thanked us for remembering May Day, and a few people even got out of their cars and joined the protest.
Pensacola's first May Day demonstration in some time lasted for a little over two hours, with participation by several activits, social justice organizations, anti-war groups, Vets for Peace, and the newly chartered IWW Pensacola General Membership Branch.
Over a dozen Pensacola Wobblies participated in the historic event. As the bosses and landlords tighten their screws on the workers here, the workers are geting more organized. Our numbers are growing. As the Curtis Mayfield song goes, "People Get Ready."
Scott Satterwhite is a member of IU 640 and the IWW Pensacola GMB, as well as other social justice and community organizations.
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