Brooklyn, April 29– In the midst of steady rain, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and friends marched through Brooklyn to commemorate the day that calls for workers to take power around the world: May Day. This year’s theme was a call for the international working class to unite to smash inter-imperialist war in a time of rising capitalist crisis around the world. Rather than die in the bosses’ wars, PLP fights to bring together the strengths of the working class to organize for a world worth fighting for, a communist world. May Day is an expression of our collective efforts to build that egalitarian, just world in which workers will make sure that our entire class is fed, educated, sheltered, and taken care of communally.

Smash racist borders
For this reason, the fight for communism knows no borders. Regardless of where you are, you are a member of the working class—our May Day march is for all of us! This affirmation of unity was front and center at our march. International greetings from Colombia, Pakistan and Haiti helped inspire marchers with the class struggle waged by the Party around the globe. Speeches before the march echoed this call for workers to organize and join PLP so that the working class can seize state power. In the face of the bosses’ rising fascism, our class must turn the guns around and build towards revolution. In line with the party’s internationalism, each speech was translated into Haitian Creole, Spanish, and English, reflecting PLP’s multiracial fight for a communist future. Though many were wet and cold, 200 marchers from numerous places along the East Coast of the United States showed up to express their commitment to the international working class.

Communist optimism drowns out the rain!
Wearing red ponchos to match red flags, we raised our fists to show the unity of workers marching down Flatbush Avenue. Demonstrating that workers have what it takes to adapt to any situation, members of the PLP carefully wrapped CHALLENGE newspapers in plastic grocery bags to keep them dry and to sell. Hundreds of copies of CHALLENGE were distributed to supportive working-class Brooklynites in this way. When chanters on the front truck could not use the onboard sound system because of the rain, comrades took turns making a beat with an umbrella, which energized those at the front of the march to maintain a passionate chanting spirit. Marchers showed their indomitable strength chanting together, “We don’t care about the rain! Flush these bosses down the drain!”

Many workers dared to be soaked as they walked towards the doors of shops, paused to listen, dance, put their fists up, and smile, commemorating the moment by putting their phones up or waving to their class marching by. A lot of others opened their windows and watched with awe and joy from high story buildings and encouraged us when we noticed them. One worker waved two red roses out of her window in a show of solidarity with the march.

Fascism means… Build communist leadership
At the close of May Day, onlookers cheered on as they heard the speech of a new Haitian comrade who spoke about how the party’s dedication to internationalism and antiracist class struggle won her over to communist revolution and to join PLP. Young comrades from Kingsborough Community College also spoke of PLP’s fight against racist police violence within education. They exposed the liberal bosses’ attempts to split the working class by appointing a Black college president to arrest and harass Black students. Though the liberal misleaders attempt to make us treat the openly fascist white supremacists like Trump as the main danger, PLP understands that it is the multicultural face of liberal fascists that is most venomous to our class. We call these liberal capitalists Big Fascists (see Glossary) because they are more capable of building support for imperialist war and convincing our class to make sacrifices to preserve their profit system in crisis. Against the Big and Small fascist bosses’ efforts to divide and conquer, PLP fights to unify all members of the working class towards a communist horizon.

Against the bosses’ dreary, gray world of capitalist exploitation, marchers left with a renewed optimism of revolutionary potential—that though the night is dark, we can be the sun that breaks through. Ending with a recitation of the Internationale, marchers sang with resounding conviction even as rain tore through paper sheets with lyrics. Because rainy days mean… we got to fight back! 

Our event shows PLP’s continued commitment to fostering new leadership within our organization. Most of this year’s May Day planning committee was new to the committee and confronted unforeseen challenges. We want to develop millions of students and workers to become leaders of the international working class in the fight for communism. Join PLP!

BAY AREA, May 6—Today, Progressive Labor Party held a BBQ-social to share May Day history, solidarity, and struggle with our comrades and friends. On May 1, PLP members and friends joined an Immigrant Rights’ May Day March in San Francisco with our Red Flags flying high. There were about 400 participants, immigrants, families and supporters from many countries. We marched with the TPS (Temporary Protected Status) contingent demanding a path to permanent residency, adding our class-oriented chants to the march. We continue to  focus on the international working class as the power that can challenge capitalism in the U.S. and Imperialism around the world.

NEW YORK CITY--Several comrades attended a May Day rally and march on May 1 sponsored by the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), Teamsters and other unions and community organizations. About 800 workers marched from Washington Square Park to Foley Square in NYC. We distributed 300 CHALLENGE/Desafio newspapers to workers who enthusiastically received it, many of whom already know the paper from PLP’s long term work in community organizations.

LOS ANGELES–The 12 months since last May Day have been a hell of a year for the working class of the world. With Covid-19, imperialist wars, continued police murders and terror, unemployment, and lack of housing ravishing working-class communities, especially Black, Latin and Asian, it can be hard to imagine creating a better world for all of us. But May Day reminds us that we have a communist world to win and we can join together with our class brothers and sisters to fight to achieve that goal.

Celebrating struggle
This year in Los Angeles the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) hosted our own dinner in a local park. Our May Day event was organized by a committee made up mostly of students and close base, several of whom were attending their first May Day. On May Day, a multiracial, multi-generational group of 50 workers gathered to celebrate with speeches, songs, poetry, and food. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon filled with the collective efforts of comrades, friends, and family to bring together nourishment for the mind, body, and soul.

The program was emceed by a comrade and an enthusiastic student celebrating her second May Day. Another group of students shared a skit depicting the history of May Day. In between, musician comrades led us in lively renditions of Bella Ciao, Too Many Names, and Deportees. There was the ever popular Table Talk and CHALLENGE Quiz where we discussed what PLP is and fights for and what communism is and how we can achieve it. Even though not everyone agreed, we had lively discussions that will continue as we move forward.

Another highlight was a poetry performance hono
ring the first May Day fighter, Frederick Holder (who was killed by LA County Sheriffs two years ago), and all the impacted families out in the streets. We continue to fight alongside impacted families in Los Angeles and link their struggles to the world-wide fight against police killings.

The struggle continues
PLP has been involved in struggles against police terror for many years. In LA, we have continued to work directly with several victims’ families during the past year. These families have led regular rallies and protests, recently bringing the fight directly to the District Attorney’s neighborhood and very doorstep. Not only do the families speak about their experiences with the racist LAPD and the LA County Sheriffs, but we show our strength by taking over the street and collectively confronting the police. We have also been active in a tenants union campaign organizing in a building where the slumlord is refusing repairs and trying to evict tenants who are leading the struggle. All of these actions continue to be welcomed and supported by workers who live in these areas.

Many attendees were excited to learn more about communism and PLP. Two students are already planning to participate in next year’s May Day program and others are ready to come to the summer project. As a result of our ongoing work, many hundreds of people have been exposed to communist and antiracist politics and more people understand the strength of the working class when we unite. The future here looks bright for the growth of PLP and our movement to rid the earth of the capitalist exploiters and their henchmen in “law enforcement.”

By Langston Hughes (1938)

‘Chant for May Day’
by Langston Hughes (1938)
To be read by a Workman with, for background, the rhythmic waves of rising and re-rising Mass Voices, multiplying like the roar of the sea. WORKER :
The first of May:
When the flowers break through the earth,
When the sap rises in the trees.
When the birds come back from the South.
Workers:
Be like the flowers, 10 VOICES :
Bloom in the strength of your unknown power, 20 VOICES :
Grow out of the passive earth, 40 VOICES :
Grow strong with Union,
All hands together—
To beautify this hour, this spring,
And all the springs to come 50 VOICES :
Forever for the workers! WORKER :
Workers: 10 VOICES :
Be like the sap rising in the trees, 20 VOICES :
Strengthening each branch, 40 VOICES :
No part neglected— 50 VOICES :
Reaching all the world. WORKER :
All workers: 10 VOICES :
White workers, 10 OTHERS :
Black workers, 10 OTHERS :
Yellow workers, 10 OTHERS :
Workers in the islands of the sea— 50 VOICES
Life is everywhere for you, WORKER :
When the sap of your own strength rises 50 VOICES :
Life is everywhere. 10 VOICES :
May Day! 20 VOICES :
May Day! 40 VOICES :
May Day! 50 VOICES :
When the earth is new, WORKER :
Proletarians of all the world: 20 VOICES :
Arise, 40 VOICES :
Grow strong, 60 VOICES :
Take Power, 80 VOICES :
Till the forces of
the earth are yours 100 VOICES :
From this hour