SF Bay Area’s Multi-Racial May Day Celebration

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, April 26 — On April 24, this area had a very successful May Day celebration, especially because PLP’s future is growing from our hands-on activities. We have long-term ties with young adults, family groups and on-the-job fight-backs. This provides the potential for Party growth from a growing circle of people influenced by PLP’s activities and ideas.

This is particularly significant as capitalism intensifies its devastation of the international working class. May Day gives new leadership the opportunity to develop, younger and older Party members working together.

A very integrated group of around 60 people of all ages participated, plus 20 younger children. In a world in which people are divided, isolated and filled with the bosses’ individualism, this was a great accomplishment. Some who attended for the first time remarked about the mix of Latino, black, Asian and white. The speeches were bi-lingual. Friends and comrades collectively prepared the food, set up and cleaned up.

Unionized government workers in general, and transit workers and teachers in particular, are under intense, racist attack here, representing capitalism’s institutional racism. The impact of cuts in transit and education is greatest on black, Latino and immigrant families who depend on these services. This is predominantly true in the make-up of the transit work-force with a concentration of black workers since the 1960s. These are areas where PLP members have been very active in class struggle for years.

The celebration reflected this base of support for PLP; a significant number of those attending were transit workers. Many made a real effort to attend, given rotating shifts, days off and commutes. Party members from AC Transit, East Bay and MUNI-San Francisco described how they’re organizing with coworkers to fight the bosses’ attacks on transit workers and riders, along with their desire to win workers to build a PLP that can destroy capitalism and establish communism.

Another Party member addressed the world situation, stressing that May Day reflects the significance of our movement. He emphasized the intensifying attack on immigrant workers in the U.S. His speech presented both analysis and action. One Party member reported on the support for the physical attack on the Nazis in Los Angeles the previous weekend. The Nazi-style law recently enacted in Arizona is one example of what the ruling class has in store for us. We must develop the tangible anger against this law into a class-conscious one to build PLP.

Immigrants Rage Against
Nazi Arizona Law

Immigrant workers who attended expressed rage and concern about the law while also appreciating the unity of citizens and immigrants at our celebration. After singing the Internationale in English and Spanish, a woman from Central America commented: “This is a very emotional song for us.” She and other families who attended lost relatives in the revolutionary struggles there in  the 1970’s and know first-hand the problems facing immigrant workers in capitalism’s failing economy.

Many families brought their children for whom younger comrades organized activities and a playground. This careful planning made the event family-oriented, enabling parents and grandparents to actively participate.

Class struggle continues in the Bay Area. An Oakland teacher called for solidarity for a one-day strike on April 29. A MUNI operator invited all to attend a solidarity march with passengers on May 5 and to support a planned safety “work-to-rule” campaign in opposition to service cuts.

This organizing prompted one retired transit worker to declare: “This gives me a great sense of optimism. The working class is in motion and communists are in the middle of it. We have a world to win!” The words of The Internationale rang true: “We have been naught, we shall be all!”