workers everywhere—within the centres of capital, and even more so in the peripheries—are overworked. overtime is often forced either through the coercion of job insecurity or through the coercion of poverty. over a hundred years ago, workers were downing tools and taking to the streets to demand limits on the hours they could be forced to work. workers literally fought and died for the 8-hour working day.
over the past few decades, that working class victory—which was paid for with blood—has been betrayed. organized labour, weakened by the petty-bourgeois interests of the labour aristocracy, allowed the bosses to claw back those hard-won limitations.
i dedicate this 8-hour rendition of “the internationale” to my fellow workers everywhere.
mike barber is an experimental composer/artist based in hamilton, canada. for over 20 years he has been recording and performing both as a solo artist and as a collaborator in experimental and avant-garde formations in toronto, montréal, philadelphia, and new york city. he has also composed and performed musical scores to a number of independent documentaries and short films.