HAITI, May 1—Revolutionary greetings to all May Day marchers from PLP and our friends in Haiti! The Progressive Labor Party here has given communist leadership at a march in the capital, organized a workers’ study group in another provincial city, and concluded with the Internationale in Creole and calls to join the fight for communism.
This May Day, PLP continues to create confidence in the working class, strengthening and enlarging our base of communist fighters and friends. Marching in Port-au-Prince, the capital, with several trade unions, we led the marchers with chants such as “Down with capitalism, long live communism!” and “We workers have nothing to lose, let’s march on the bosses!”
The main demand of the unions’ march was to increase the minimum wage to 500 gourdes/day (9$USD). Our leaflet took a sharp look at the conditions workers here and worldwide are facing, concluding that the international working class needs an international revolutionary communist party, the PLP. We said that workers must unite in a single struggle and build the Party that will lead workers to victory, to communist revolution and an egalitarian society that will meet the needs of workers who create all value. “Workers, unite, as one class, we have the same problems and must have the same struggle.”
Elsewhere, in a provincial city, PLP organized a meeting with about 30 people, rural and unemployed workers, students and professionals. Our mission was to see that we are part of a single class. We talked about the history of May Day, showing how the bosses give their watered-down idea about this historic day to try to erase from our memory the long history of struggle—often victorious—of the working class.
Down with Capitalism! Now What?
We talked about different workers’ struggles around the world and showed how capitalism is what links them together: we are all fighting the same enemy. We also unmasked the role of capitalism in underpinning the bourgeois state. The participants criticized the capitalist system and came to the conclusion that it must be overthrown. Of course, once this was agreed upon, the next thought is to question how to do this. A PL’er noted that this was the question Lenin asked in his book What Is To Be Done?
Some friends replied that we need solidarity between workers to struggle against the bourgeoisie. One PL’er went further, calling to build a revolutionary communist party that fights for an egalitarian society, without different social classes, a society based on providing for the needs of workers, a society without money.
Another comrade added that we shouldn’t be fearful of communism and invited the participants to continue to organize activities that will sharpen the contradictions between the bosses and the working class, and to join the PLP! After the meeting, comrades and friends continued the day with a dinner, some sharp discussions and the singing of the Internationale in Creole—the first time for all of us, singing the same words as workers around the world, in our own language.
In all, our modest contribution to May Day has inspired us to keep on fighting and building the PLP.