Salvador, Brazil— This May Day, in the face of attacks on the working class and the sell out politics from the socialists shilling to get current President Lula re-elected, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members in Brazil brought communist politics to the May Day march.
Every May 1st, it seems to be a tradition for workers’ unions and the mayor’s office to unite to organize large parades instead of militant demonstrations to highlight workers’ protests against the system. But this year, the mayor refused to give the unions access to the usual locations, arguing that the city was losing money by blocking off the waterfront, a major tourist attraction. City Hall organized a “fair” instead. This was a real slap in the face for even the yellow sellout unions who support the government.
However, groups of students from several public universities, community organizers and some workers disregarded the mayor’s decision and, early in the morning of May 1, took to the streets to demand that the State, as a “socialist” state, change course. How can it accept that on May Day, workers are in capitalist enterprises giving their blood to enrich the bosses’ profit system?
Re-electing Lula won’t win the fight
The workers’ demands, since last year, remain the reduction of the work week from 6 days (what they call the ‘6x1” scale) to 5 days (the “5x2” scale). However, when you ask the workers what they want, they say clearly that they want a 36-hour work week, not just fewer days. During the demonstration, government supporters tried to spread propaganda for President Lula, saying that if the workers want the six-day work scale to end, they must vote for Lula this year. Others followed with the same tired old speeches, adding that only socialism can save the workers and rid the country of capitalism.
When a student and Progressive Labor Party (PLP) representative in the march was given the microphone, he made two sharp points about the current situation: first, the struggle is really about reducing the number of hours per week—with no loss in pay—to fight unemployment as well as improve the lives of workers.
Secondly, and more importantly, on the question of socialism: socialism maintains the inequalities of capitalism—racism, sexism, exploitation, and the overall immiseration of the entire working class. While fighting for a shorter work week can unite our class, it will, in the short or long run, be turned into its opposite as the capitalist system sinks further into decline. No where in the world has the so-called two-stage theory led from socialism to communism, the only system that serves the best interests of the international working class. If we want to win as a class, we need to have our eyes now on the goal of real workers’ power. That is what PLP fights for, on this May Day and every day.
One flag and one struggle
In this sense, we tried to demonstrate that only the unity of workers worldwide can consolidate the struggle of our class, and that the struggle doesn’t need multiple flags nor certainly not the support of politicians. The struggle here in Brazil needs an ideological framework to move beyond the discourse on socialism centered on Lula’s election. During the march, we distributed the newspaper “El Defisur” (The Challenge), specifically the April 26th editorial, to highlight that it is the power of workers, not elections, that will change things.
The PLP has a great deal of ground to cover in order to win workers and students to join the struggle for communism. We encourage you to join the PLP.
