Dora B. Montefiore 1920

May Day 1920


Source: The Call, 29 April 1920, p. 9
Transcription: Ted Crawford
HTML Markup: Brian Reid
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2007). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.


Russia has risen! Hail the happy Day
When all her workers speak through Soviet Power,
When all her children feel the kindly sway
Of those who in harshest, darkest hour
Gather them in the school, or lead them forth to play.

Russia has risen! Her Red Armies sweep
North, South, West, East, to hold her frontiers clear
From capitalist hordes who fain would keep
Their hold upon her vastness …. Lo, they hear,
These newly-freed wage slaves, their lusting, stealthy creep!

Russia has risen! Proletaires dictate
In factory, workshop, bank; they edit news,
Administer decrees, and where, but late,
Ruled chaos, now their commissars infuse
The new and higher ethic of the Commune State.

Russia has risen! And in every land
The wage-slave rises, casts his chains aside,
And stands a man! — assailed on every hand
By “leaders,” traitors, dupes, and those who lied
To keep him chained as masters and financiers planned.

Russia has risen! When will England rise?
When shall her workers speak through Soviet Power?
When shall her children greet through happy eyes
The symbol of the New World’s Day and Hour,
The celebration of a free world-linked May Day?
D.B.M.