On May 2nd, Progressive Labor Party members in Kentucky held a May Day rally at a local park in celebration of international workers’ day. This was our first ever PLP May Day in Kentucky.
We invited friends and comrades from our local university, workplaces, and communities, as well as from May Day events in the area that we had attended the day prior. As we set up our banner at the park, a passerby noticed and came over to talk to us. She told us she encountered our paper, CHALLENGE, in Chicago! After this more workers who we had invited started showing up one by one and conversations about politics and conditions in Kentucky ensued.
After we shared our experiences and made contacts with new acquaintances, a comrade gave a speech about the history of May Day, connecting it to struggles today and the need to fight for a communist future (see page 6). This was well received. Another comrade had written an english version of the song “Bella Ciao” with an added communist flavor, to which we sang collectively, being led by a comrade who we struggled with to bravely step up and lead us in song. The lyrics’ powerful message sparked inspiration to take to the sidewalks and distribute CHALLENGE to the cars driving by.
Happy International Workers Day
Two women who have been organizing with PLP for over a year led the charge to bring May Day to the streets. We started shouting “Happy International Workers’ Day!” to passing cars and asking them if they’d like to take a newspaper, to which many gladly did. Taking leadership, they told the rest of us to come out to the sidewalk with them and lead chants. While cars passed we chanted “Asian, Latin, Black and White! Workers of the world unite!” and “Who’s day? Our day! What day? May Day!” We got several honks, raised fists, and supportive messages from those driving by. Some even decided to stop by and talk to us. A friend of PLP from an immigrant family showed up and joined our chants after we gave them a Spanish edition of CHALLENGE. “LAS LUCHAS OBRERAS NO TIENEN FRONTERAS!!!”
Many workers were unaware of the significance of May Day, which showed how important it was for us to bring awareness of workers’ history and struggle to a poor rural community that desperately needs it. The park had statues and a plaque dedicated to an abolitionist who founded the first integrated school in the region back in the mid 1800’s. Working-class and anti-racist history is all around us, but workers are not taught about these things in schools, especially in Kentucky where slavery and the civil rights movements are taught reluctantly and often watered-down.
The bosses here try hard to keep workers divided through racism and nationalism, suppressing the history of multiracial solidarity and always avoiding the topic of class.
Democrats and Republicans deadly for the working class
Many workers here associate communism with liberals and the identity politics of the Democratic Party. We try to break through this illusion by bringing militancy to our rallies and calling out both the Democratic and Republican parties as serving the interests of the ruling class. With Donald Trump bringing us closer to WWIII and gas prices skyrocketing, workers who supported Trump as an anti-establishment, anti-war figure are starting to realize that the whole ruling-class is rotten and that it’s not just a few bad eggs. But there’s still a lot of work ahead of us.
Disillusionment with Trump or the current establishment is not enough on its own to lead to communism. It takes educating workers on communist politics and past revolutionary movements to win them to the fight for a better future. We’ve been organizing here for only three years but have grown from just a couple of comrades to over 20 cadre in the state of Kentucky, and we plan to keep struggling with our neighbors, coworkers, friends, and classmates to take the fight from the coal mines, auto plants, and universities to the shutting down of the fascist imperialist war machine that they serve.
Kentucky has a strong history of militant fightback. Starting with “Bloody Harlan,” where Black and white workers went on strike and engaged in skirmishes against the coal bosses for roughly 10 years during the Great Depression, to the several strikes and more sporadic battles throughout the 60s and 70s, to today where workers are fighting for tenants rights throughout central and eastern Kentucky.
We shared sandwiches and fruit with both our comrades and those just passing by. We shared with members of the community the work we had been doing with local free meal programs and told them they should come join us for a free meal again in the future.