PAKISTAN, May 1 — May Day was celebrated in its historic manner but now the working class here is full of fury. The May Day marches sent a loud and clear message to the Pakistani bosses that workers won’t stand for miserable conditions. These demonstrations proved that the working class is the strongest power in the world if it decides to fight.
This year workers’ chants were more radical, their slogans more revolutionary, filled with red ideas, signifying they know who’s responsible for all their hardships. The opportunist, fake-left trade unionists were surprised at this anger and realized they’re losing control. When one May Day procession was transformed into a huge meeting in one town, the sellout union “leaders” rushed to sit on the stage but a group of workers pulled them down, saying you have no right to sit there. These chairs are not for people like you with your expensive cars, homes and clothes; they’re for the workers wearing torn cloths, living in miserable conditions with worn hands from hard work and tiring labor.
Price hikes, unemployment, layoffs, closed plants, shortages of electricity and gas, rising poverty levels, terrorism, anti-worker laws, lack of the free medicines in government hospitals, lousy schools, the increasing gap between poor and rich, privatization, corruption, nepotism, target killings, racism and fascism — all this confirms that the bosses have nothing to offer us as they shift their bank accounts to Switzerland, the UK and the U.S.
Puppet trade unionists tortured airline workers on strike at Pakistan International Airline (PIA) but workers’ actions proved they can win despite this and state oppression, in PIA and on the Railways.
Electricity and gas shortages stem from corrupt government officials getting commissions from private contractors in exchange for privatization. They spend billions to import power plants but no electricity is included in a national grid. In most cities there’s no electricity for 12-18 hours. In villages it barely lasts for the blink of an eye. This affects the daily lives of all wage workers.
The May Day marches also signified that the political parties are just playing a shell game, while they exploit the workers, trying to keep the decaying capitalist system alive. Most are either capitalists or feudalists, both organizing cartels to increase prices; landlords increase rents while never increasing the workers’ wages. From this they reap trillions.
Our Party is still very small but communists are painstakingly committed to revolution, capable of organizing strikes, demonstrations, marches, shut-downs and sit-ins. On May Day, our comrades and friends succeeded in winning more and more workers to these celebrations. We made plans to increase participation, distribution of Party literature and what to discuss. In big and small cities we gave out the pamphlet “Why We Fight for Communism” and leaflets about May Day, related to the workers’ miserable conditions.
In our speeches, our comrade and friends explained our politics and gave reasons why we struggle directly for communism and why we need to build an international communist party. We showed how all other political parties support the imperialist drive for profits and how the politicians are mouthpieces of international fascist capitalism. In Pakistan the ruling class is hiking the electricity tariff, directed by the International Monetary Fund, while the World Bank has recommended termination of all subsidies won by the working class.
Comrades and friends also emphasized that the bosses are living in luxurious homes while workers have no shelter. Even dwellings made of mud and leaves are being demolished; landlords and the government prevent them from occupying the lands “that don’t belong to them.” Police attack workers forced to spend nights in parks and are accused as “terrorists” so accusers can get rewards. The rulers ride in bullet-proof cars under heavy police and army escort while workers are killed in terrorist attacks.
The different racist, nationalist and fundamentalist parties enable target killings of poor workers just because of their language, color or sect, even if they have no tie to any party — all this to create fear and to prove their power!
The bosses need cheap labor for maximum profits so they’re making education more expensive. Therefore, working-class children can’t go to school while bosses force them into child labor. Such children get 35¢ to 47¢ for 12 hours. This child labor helps the phony unionist-led NGOs get money from the International Labor Organization.
These fake trade unionists are a tool of different political parties; they use them to avoid strikes, sustain bad working conditions and low wages. We’ve got to get rid of these “pocket unions” to make any advances. Low wages, no insurance, long working hours, layoffs, no benefits, no security, and no pensions or any other assistance if injured or killed — all pushed by these opportunist and puppet unionists. We must organize ourselves under the true communist leadership of PLP to build a base in these small fights to be able to win workers to see the need for international communist revolution.
Our comrades’ speeches are warmly welcomed by the workers, to huge applause. Many workers rushed to our comrades to obtain their contact numbers soon after they finished the marches and speeches. During all these activities we make good contacts. Now it’s our task to convert these contacts into recruits to the rank-and-file of our Party. We are confident we can win millions of workers to struggle to establish a classless society under the red banner of our international revolutionary communist party — PLP.
NAZARETH — Despite a sweeping downpour and muddy, flooded roads, several thousand workers from Nazareth, and other places in Palestine, marched with red flags to mark May Day. As usual, the rally was conducted one day earlier, on Saturday, in order to allow more workers to participate (the weekend under Israeli law is only Saturday, not Sunday.) The workers brought red flags, drums and a lot of enthusiasm, and defied the harsh weather to commemorate May Day.
The May Day rally here was organized and led by the revisionist Israeli “Communist” Party, which has a strong presence in this city and many supporters there. They raised very mild slogans, in some cases nationalist Palestinian ones and in other cases reformist ones, except for two radical slogans — “Smash Fascism” and “People Arise in Revolt!”
A group of PL’ers attended this rally. Despite the fact that most participants were I”C”P supporters, members and “Communist” Youth members, our materials were received with interest; one demonstrator even came to the rally wearing a PLP t-shirt he bought earlier.
Despite the reformist and nationalist slogans, this was a very powerful rally. It showed the strength of the working class to stand firm despite harsh conditions and raise the red flag. We are looking forward for more activity throughout the year and raising the red flag again next May Day in Jerusalem and Nazareth.
Fifty members, friends of the Progressive Labor Party lifted the communist flag during the demonstrations commemorating May Day in Oaxaca and Mexico City . We distributed about 7,000 local CHALLENGES and hung up about 200 posters, in which we called for the international unity of the working class and for workers to join the Party to fight for a communist society.
The communist slogans and chants echoed in the streets and were heard by thousands of workers, which attentively witnessed the small but militant steps of our contingents, that sang: “¡Que viva, que viva, que viva el comunismo!, ¡que muera, que muera que muera el capitalismo!” (Long live communism, death to capitalism)
Around 50,000 workers from different unions participated in the demonstration, opposing the fascist reformist labor law the government is pushing, which favors temporary contracts, reduces compensation for layoffs and cancels some “working rights.” In the meantime union leaders are trying to win the workers to accept the reforms or to vote for their electoral parties. Our Party put forward a differet solution to the masses: destroy the bosses´ laws with a communist revolution to establish a society run in the interests of workers.
The demonstration motivated young and old members of the Party. Workers joining the demonstration for the first time were impressed by seeing the communist flags and hearing chants amongst the thousands of workers. It was a successful May Day and we will invite more people next year. Communism is the future of humanity; our dedication and determination in the struggle will make it possible. Until Victory! Long Live the PLP
BERLIN — Ten thousand workers and youths, including Kurdish youth, engaged in pitched battles with 6,000 cops ordered out to oppose the May Day march. They marched from Kreuzberg to Neuk, two working-class districts in the German capital. Their main slogan was For Social Revolution Worldwide. Sound trucks denounced racist police violence against immigrants here. The crowd chanted that “everyone in Berlin hates the cops.”
The marchers smashed the windows of several banks in a hail of stones. Then the police waded in with riot clubs, tear gas, pepper spray and water cannon, after which the marchers attacked police station #55 in Rollbergstrasse with stones and bottles. The attacking cops repeatedly halted and broke up the march, but the workers and youth countered with stones, bottles and firecrackers.
When the organizers called an early end to the protest, the cops apparently saw this as a sign of weakness, attacking both marchers and by-standers. Many people had to be treated for pepper spray.
According to a 1998 European Parliament report, the effects of pepper spray are far more severe [than tear gas], including temporary blindness which lasts from 15-30 minutes, a burning sensation of the skin which lasts from 45 to 60 minutes, upper body spasms which force a person to bend forward, and uncontrollable coughing making it difficult to breathe or speak for from three to 15 minutes.
Various groups called for the abolition of temporary work and for equal pay for equal work, attacked high rents and the use of housing as a commodity in capitalist society, as well as the nuclear power industry.
In Hamburg, over 2,000 workers marched in a revolutionary May Day demonstration, an alternative to the official May Day organized by the reformist trade union leaders. At least 14 cops were injured, and over 120 demonstrators were arrested. Already on April 30, 4,000 Hamburg protesters had clashed with 2,500 police. Ten cops were injured there
NEW YORK CITY, May 5 — Over 800 members of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) union and City University students rallied at City Hall today to protest planned budget cuts by billionare Mayor Bloomberg. Chanting “Tax the rich, not the poor, stop the war on CUNY!” they marched across lower Manhattan to the Manhattan Community College (BMCC).
At BMCC union members and students addressed the crowd. The main PSC speaker stated that they would not accept the austerity budgets of Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo, nor an austerity contract. Increased class sizes, shortage of counselors and other staff would severely impact on the quality of CUNY education. “Our working conditions, are your learning conditions,” she told the crowd. We are faced with “not a crisis of capital, but a crisis of capitalism,” meaning that it’s not a crisis of government funding, but of the capitalist system.
Students described how racist tuition increases were affecting them. Some are working longer hours to pay for school and to contribute money to their families because their parents are unemployed. Many fellow classmates have been forced to drop out of school.
20 members from UNITE-HERE, Local 100 arrived to express solidarity with the PSC in its struggle and was warmly welcomed. As reported previously in CHALLENGE, PSC members in the Bronx have been supporting laid-off UNITE cafeteria workers who are fighting to get their jobs back.
As more and more workers are becoming critical of the capitalist system and seeking to build a united working-class movement, PL members on the campuses must step up our efforts to put forth our political line in a mass way. Capitalism can’t be fixed; it must be eliminated once and for all and replaced by communism, a society where the workers are in charge
