‘”Out of School on May Day”—Call of N.Y. Children’s Conference’ by E.S., New York Pioneer from Young Comrade. Vol. 5 No. 3. May, 1928.

Plans for a big school strike of all working class children on May Day were made at the Children’s May Day Conference held in New York City on Sunday April 15. Over fifty delegates representing the Young Pioneers, the Non-Partisan Jewish Workers Schools, the Miners Relief Scouts, the Friends of Culture, the Finnish Labor Schools, the Ukrainian Labor Schools, the Czeckoslovak Labor Schools, etc., were represented. All voted in favor of the slogan: “Out of school on May Day! To go to School on May Day means to scab!”

There was a little trouble when one of the teachers of the Non-Partisan Workers Schools, a man by the name of Levine, tried to oppose this slogan and the idea of a school strike. But all delegates voted unanimously for it.

The working class children are part of the working class and they want to show their solidarity with the older workers. The school to the children is like the shop to the grownup workers. The slogan “Down tools on May Day!” means for the children: “Down pencils, papers and books! Out of school on May Day!”

The workers quit work as a protest against capitalism in the factory and the children quit school as a protest against capitalism in the schools. These are the reasons for calling the children out of school on the workers holiday. It was also decided to spread leaflets and hold open-air meetings to get thousands of children to come out on strike. The plans for May Day are for the children to parade from Columbus Square to Central Park into Madison Square Garden where they will take part in the huge demonstration of workers.

Out of school on May Day! To go to school means to scab! Protest against the miserable conditions of the working class children!

The Young Comrade was the monthly publication of the Junior Section of the Young Workers League of the Communist Party and orientated to children from 8 to 12 years old. Youth writers, some as young as eight, contributed to The Young Comrade which ran from late 1923 until 1928, published in Chicago when it was replaced by The Young Pioneer. Nat Kaplan was an early editor.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/young-comrade/v5n03-may-1928-yc.pdf