May Day: New York City

BROOKLYN, April 28 — Three young students in red were running towards the junction of Flatbush and Nostrand when workers stopped them and asked, “What’s going on?” They were referring to the thundering presence of hundreds chanting, “The workers, united, will never be defeated!”

One student responded, “It’s May Day — International Workers’ Day. That group you hear is Progressive Labor Party and we fight for communism. Come with me, let me give you a CHALLENGE!” 

In this mainly black and immigrant neighborhood, the waving red flags caught the attention of workers everywhere. At the junction, PL’ers and friends from DC, Boston, New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and throughout New York were led in their chants by young Party members — black, Latino, South Asian, and white. CHALLENGE, with its front page of multi-racial fists breaking the chains of capitalism, was distributed at a feverish pace. 

A group of young, mainly women students and workers began leading the march. Workers rushed out of buildings and markets as they heard the call. “Whose day? Workers’ day! What day? May Day!” The workers raised their fists in the air and took CHALLENGEs. Cars honked in support and children watched in awe.  By the end of the rally, more than 2,700 papers were sold. Altogether, 6,600 were distributed city-wide. 

We fought racism in chants such as “Smash racist deportations; working people have no nations!” and “Racist cops, you can’t hide; we charge you with genocide!” We gave speeches at four intersections about PL-led struggles and the need for a communist revolution. Chants were in English, Spanish, and Kreyòl. Multi-racial unity was alive, and the power of a communist march was felt throughout the neighborhood. 

Our May Day program began with a skit about our holiday’s history, from the Haymarket Massacre of 1886, to the Battle of Berlin and the Soviet Union’s defeat of fascism in 1945, to PLP advancing communist politics and leading worldwide fight-backs today. In one scene, a mass of reds — ranging in age from five to sixty — marched through the crowd and onto the stage with red flags chanting, “Fascism means we got to fight back.” Then they killed the Nazis, sang “Bandiera Rosa” (Italian for “Red Flag”) and called on our friends to join PLP. This skit, led by college students, reflected the enthusiastic young leadership given in every aspect of May Day. It was one of many signs of the Party’s bright future.

The State of the World speech put PLP’s political work in the context of sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry. In a worldwide economic crisis, as the veil of democracy peels away to reveal a looming fascism, there is an increase in racist police brutality and a greater violence against the working class. With a pivot towards Asia in the interests of oil and energy resources, the U.S. is preparing for any armed conflict with China and Russia. 

Driven by this inter-imperialist competition, the ruling class is prepared to kill millions of workers in their profit wars. It will impose more budget cuts in education and healthcare, and raise the prices of food and other necessities even as wages are cut. In its quest to control and intimidate the working class, it will sharpen racist and sexist divisions as it super-exploits and deports more immigrant workers. As workers’ lives under capitalism become more and more intolerable, the bosses will push for phony elections as the solution while feeding anti-communist and nationalist propaganda in the classroom and workplace. 

These capitalist murderers are unrelenting in maintaining their class interests throughout the world. We workers must be equally unrelenting—not just to fight against the war-markers, but also to destroy their profit system.

Stalin once said that if the communist movement failed, the working class would have to live through the worst dark ages humanity has ever known. This is the dark night that PLP must build within. The workers who spoke at our May Day program renewed our confidence that this dark night will end. A woman industrial comrade told of workers embracing CHALLENGE and considering a strike. A student-worker spoke of his experiences in the military and the need — now, more than ever — to build PLP in the bosses’ army. The rulers force guns upon us, but the workers will turn the guns around. 

To combat the bosses, we need the international unity that was so dramatic in the struggle speeches of five high school students against their racist education system. It rang loud and clear in the international greetings from workers who are building PLP in Haiti, El Salvador, and Palestine-Israel. This was the display of real working-class power on this revolutionary communist May Day.

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NEW YORK — In the spirit of May Day, tens of thousands of workers marched from working-class neighborhoods into Manhattan’s financial district, the heart of the capitalist bosses’ power. With millions of young people out of work and angry as they see capitalism placing profits over workers’ needs, there has never been a more important time to be a communist in the Progressive Labor Party. Workers and students eagerly took CHALLENGEs. 

The reformist leadership of the march tried to saturate the event with dead-end ideas. They called for higher taxes on the bosses while maintaining a system to keep the bosses’ profits intact. They espoused nationalist support for countries where national liberation struggles have replaced one set of rulers for another, and any benefits gained by workers are being taken back. But workers deserve everything; we have the power to control it all because we produce it all. That is the difference between reform and revolution. 

The character of the march turned militant wherever PLP was present, as seen in the confrontation we led against fascists with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and others who held racist signs regarding “illegals.” A young multi-racial group threw bottles, cans, and rocks at the racists while chanting, “Burn in hell!” and “These racist pigs have got to go!” The sign was ripped apart and stomped on.

In another part of the march, Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) members took up the Party’s chants, including “The only solution is communist revolution!” Children held a banner that read, “Smash the 1% with communist revolution.” One TWU worker put his young daughter into our section of the march to hold the banner. Another worker gave one of our young marchers a red bandana to wear. Such acts of solidarity show that workers are open to communism and have increasing confidence in PLP. 

May Day brought the working class into the streets, but PLP will put the working class in power. Only a mass movement dedicated to the seizure of state power can give workers what they need. Only a working class dictatorship based upon communist economics can end this hell of capitalism.  PLP is building that movement. In the wake of this powerful May Day, there is no better time to join and help build the Progressive Labor Party.