WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM MAY 13TH?

words by charles brooks

Mother's Day is just not the same for this working-class community in Philadelphia, where 6221 Osage Avenue sits. The people remember May 13th, 1985. 

The people remember the tragedy of May 13th, 1985, ensuring its place as one of those days that will never be forgotten. May 13th occupies a strong hold on our collective memory because it’s not just another typical reminder of another typical routine episode of police terror and state violence.  

Forty years ago, Philadelphia’s political leadership, Mayor Wilson Goode, Police commissioner Gregore Sambor, Fire Commissioner William Richmond and managing director Leo Brooks collaborated in their decision to orchestrate a destructive military style attack, targeting a group of Black revolutionaries. 

They made a politically calculated decision to not only unleash 500 police officers to fire 10,000 rounds of ammunition, disperse teargas, and forcefully pump thousands of gallons of water into the home where MOVE members lived but to drop powerful C4 explosives there as well. A decision that cost the lives of 11 Black people including 5 children, where over sixty homes were destroyed and over 250 people were now unhoused. A decision to allow the fire to spread as firefighters were relegated to mere spectators, taking no action as they watched the fires burn one house after another.  

The Mother's Day attack was actually the result of recurring episodes of police terror exercised against MOVE, who engaged in a political life and political activities staunchly opposed by both the Mayor and the police. For several years before Mother's Day 1985, there were a series of confrontations between MOVE and the police that led to the August 1978 shooting in Powelton Village. 

The charging of nine MOVE members with the death of one police officer at Powelton, triggered their transformation from Black revolutionaries to the MOVE-9, political prisoners.  All were sentenced 30 years to life; Merle and Phil Africa passed away in prison. The remaining seven collectively served over 280 years in prison before their release; Debbie Sims Africa (over 39 years), Mike Africa Sr,  (40+), Janine Phillips Africa (40+), Janet Holloway Africa,  (40+), Eddie Goodman Africa (41), Delbert Orr Africa, (41+), and Chuck Sims Africa, the last to be released after serving over 41 years.

The contradictions continue. 

Despite two investigations of the Mother's Day attack, no indictments were handed down. No prison time. None. 

Except for Ramona Africa.  She was the only adult survivor from the Mother's Day attack along with her younger brother, Birdie Africa. But it was Ramona who was arrested, charged, and convicted before serving seven years in prison as a political prisoner.  

The Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission, also known as the MOVE Commission, was created less than two weeks after the attack. They investigated, and held televised public hearings before issuing their report, where they stated in part: "…The Mayor abdicated his responsibilities as a leader when, after midday, he permitted a clearly failed operation to continue which posed great risk to life and property. The report outlined 38 suggestions or recommendations for future improvements. 

A year later in 1986, a grand jury was convened to determine whether criminal charges should be levied against any of Philadelphia’s leaders. Two years later in 1988, the grand jury found no evidence of anyone acting with “criminal intent, recklessness or negligence under Pennsylvania law, and therefore no criminal charges could be brought.”

Year after year, for 35 years there would be no apology forthcoming. None. Not from the mayor’s office, the Police Department, Fire Department, or Philadelphia’s City Council. This finally came to an end in November 2020 with the Philadelphia City Council's hollow recognition of May 13th as “annual day of observation, reflection and recommitment.”

But just a few months later in early 2021, new revelations emerged shedding light on what happened to the forensic remains after the MOVE bombing. 

Anthropological collections maintained by the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University contained the forensic remains of one or two MOVE members. The remains were used as a case study in their research and study of forensic anthropology, as well as in their online course, “Real Bones: Adventures in Forensic Anthropology”

The controversial revelations not only raised serious questions and concerns but provided a window to the long history of medical experimentation and exploitation on Black people beyond the likes of Henrietta Lacks and the notorious Tuskegee Experiment. 

The May 13th assault is often seen through a lens that’s particularly focused on the sordid history of policing in Philadelphia - typical of policing in Black working-class communities throughout the nation.  Focused on the manner in which law and order is practiced in Black communities, particularly in their reaction to the pursuit of Black liberation via revolutionary activities.  Through a lens wide enough to observe the menacing intrusion of state surveillance that often resulted in the harassment and political imprisonment of not just men, but women, as well. 

The significance of May 13 continues to grow and resonate with working class Black folk people because they can see the contradictions on public display, the current political conditions shaping their political lives, their political reality.  

Harriet Washington makes this point to think about in her book Medical Apartheid, “It reveals how Blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of Blacks.”

Additional information

West Philadelphia Collaborative History - MOVE

Philadelphia & MOVE - LibGuides at Community College of Philadelphia

What are the conditions facing workers on May Day?

words by Charles Brooks 

The current moment is best described by the experiences of today’s working class. 

This year’s International Workers Day, commonly known as May Day, happens to fall on the day after the popular political benchmark of 100 days.  

The actions taken by Trump during his first 100 days in office have caused widespread chaos, disappointment, confusion, and even anger.  Deregulation, privatization along with budget cuts to Medicaid, and implementing tariffs that will raise prices on everyday goods as the cost of living continues to rise negatively impacting personal economies 

One hundred days of a litany of executive orders, actions, and decisions widely viewed as a war, an assault on the working- and middle-class folks. 

His actions to reduce the federal government by dismantling agency after agency as thousands of federal workers are now facing unemployment, as their collective bargaining and union rights are stripped.  The Institute of Policy Studies made this point, “Through a series of executive orders, Trump has also removed long-standing job protections for federal career employees, making it easier to fire these workers for no reason and taking away the rights of federal workers to collectively bargain.”

While Trump's recent and those pending makes him an easy target, the crisis to the personal economy did not suddenly emerge on January 20th, Trump’s inauguration day. 

May Day in 2025 is yet another reminder that today’s workers suffer from a crisis aggravated by the policies of the incoming president.  

Before January 20th, there was a crisis to the personal economy as the household debt suffers from credit card debt. Medical and health care debt. The rising costs of living as rent, and utilities continue to increase along with increases to the cost of public transportation and local fees and fines that typically rise on Jan 1, with more coming due on July 1. 

This is where the spotlight is cast on the political misleadership that remains unresponsive to the needs of working people. 

Today, there are twenty states that pay a minimum wage of no more than $7.25 an hour; The federal minimum hourly wage is just $7.25 and has not increased since 2009. 

Nearly 30 million are uninsured. 

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that 14 million workers earn less than $15 per hour, accounting for about 10% of all wage and salary workers. As 14% of Black workers compared to 8% of white workers.

Meanwhile, in the legislative graveyard are the Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2025 — commonly known as the “PRO Act” and The Raise the Wage Act of 2025.  The PRO Act expands labor union protections while the Raise the Wage Act, would incrementally raise the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour by 2030. 

Meanwhile, in 2024, corporate profits reached $4 trillion dollars - a 54% increase over the last five years (2019 to 2024). 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has posted solid gains in 2024, rising more than 12%. 

While nationwide protests are scheduled in the US, May Day (International Workers' Day) 

highlight and bring attention to these issues as well as the worker conditions and issues here and across the world.  May Day (International Workers' Day) amplifies the solidarity with workers in other nations of the global south for workers to protest a range of issues. with similar experiences, similar struggles, making similar decisions to their personal economy.

At this political moment, we’re reminded of its socialist beginnings - how International Day came to be, its roots in the struggle for what we know today as the eight-hour workday when the typical workday was from sunrise to sunset.  Socialist and radical beginnings grounded in labor activism, strikes, protest, bloody and violent. 

May 1st was the date set by the International Socialist Conference as a reminder of the events of May 1st, 1886, in what is known as the Haymarket Affair - a union demonstration that was part of the larger blood stained struggle over the 8-hour day.  

Today, two hundred and thirty-six years later, International Workers Day continues to resonate with working people, particularly at this moment as the contradictions on public display become clearer, and sharper.  As working people face increases to their cost of living, as their personal economies confront crisis, they also read the news reports and commentary about the rising corporate profits, along with staggering military and police budgets. At a moment when federal legislation, containing tax cuts, will ensure a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top makes its way through the legislative process in Congress. 

International Workers Day reminds us of the material and political conditions that are shaped and influenced by imperialist forces.  On May Day in 2025, we’re able to witness in real time, not only demonstrations taking place across the world but workers striking in California as well as in Panama, and in Canada.  

On this day, we’re reminded that May Day/International Workers Day 2025 draws our attention to the alignment of capital on a global scale making up the forces of power driving inequality, exploitation, and low wages - here and across the world.