Line Rider Press is and has always been committed to sharing socialist, anti-capitalist, pro-working class poetry, art, and reviews. The current pandemic has made clear what we’ve always known to be true – workers make the world run and workers should run the world. We stand in solidarity with all frontline workers who deserve immediate hazard pay and protective equipment. We also stand with working people who are now out of work and still being asked to pay their landlords and student loans all while being denied access to free (or even affordable) medical care and a fair wage. We can no longer afford to live under a capitalist system that steals from the working class and only exists to make profit. We deserve better!
To continue our commitment to celebrating and defending the workers’ struggle for a more just, equitable world through art, we are calling on you to send us your worker focused poetry and art.
This May 1, 2020 marks 134 years since the first International Workers’ Day or May Day demonstration when more than 300,000 workers across the United States refused to work until an 8-hour work day was established. Along with other events, including a violent clash with police and strikers two days later in Chicago, the heart of the 8-hour movement, and the hanging and murder of workers and organizers, many of the events of May 1, 1886 have been removed from public memory and rewritten by capitalist leaders whose hope is that we forget that still today, we are locked in the same struggle for freedom from the capitalist class and system. Now more than ever, we must continue to remember working class history and create a united front against the .1%. The United States government has given over 600 billion dollars in bailouts to large corporations and yet, at this crucial time, we, the working class, which includes those on the frontlines, lack protective equipment and were given outrageously low, one time $1,200 checks, which we know are actually landlord bailouts as there has been no national freeze on rent.
Though the news is heavy and the times testing our very existence, art remains and has again become for many a necessity. And for us at Line Rider, we believe humanistic, grounded poetry is essential to building a socialist future, so join with us! Send us your poems about workers on the frontlines or workers fighting for a just world. As long as workers are the focus, all poems are welcome. We’d also love to feature original artwork and if possible, pair pieces with poems.
To submit a May Day poem and/or art to be featured during the months of May & June, follow our standard submission guidelines but include the words May Day in your subject line i.e. Poetry Submission May Day. We look forward to reading your work! The struggle continues!