BAY AREA—This year’s May Day dinner in the Bay Area was multiracial, multi-generational, and inspired working class unity. Over 70 comrades and friends participated. Some travelled from far distances to continue their tradition of celebrating International Worker’s Day with Progressive Labor Party (PLP). The room was filled with posters, banners, and flags that celebrated the power and revolutionary history of communist workers around world. We had two comrades emcee the event, and they did an amazing job setting the tone by telling the history of May Day, leading us in chants, and guiding our “table talk” discussion.
One of the highlights of the event was the table talk. Each table discussed a question like “how do we fight fascism” or “describe a time when you witnessed immigrant labor under attack”. It was inspiring to see so many people, many who didn’t know each other, get immersed into the process of thinking collectively about how we can strategize on fighting growing threats to our class.
At the end, each table shared the highlights of their conversations, allowing folks to see how we have all faced similar oppressions and exploitations as workers under capitalism.
Welcome New Comrade
One comrade gave a speech about why he joined the Progressive Labor Party, and explained his process of political development. This comrade told his story of being a child laborer because his undocumented single mother couldn’t make ends meet, even though she worked day in and day out. He worked for Latinos for Obama because he “truly believed that by working within the system [he] would be able to bring about change in [his] community.”
He soon became disillusioned by the work he was doing, because he saw that the Democratic Party was the same as the Republican Party, and that both feed false promises to the working class. He realized that revolutionary communism was the only way to worker’s liberation. All of his stories of struggle and resilience were stark reminders of why we must continue to fight, and why the PLP is vital to the triumph of all workers trying to survive this age of decaying capitalism.
Turning Despair into Working-Class Rage
Another young comrade spoke about the importance of turning the sadness, something we often feel when looking at the state of the world, into working-class rage. She explained that it’s okay to be distraught by the fact that half of the Syrian population has been turned into refugees by imperialist war. She described the pain that she feels every time she thinks about all the children who are separated from their parents as they await deportation in private prisons.
Her speech challenged us to turn that pain into class anger. Our class anger propels us to take action against the assaults our brothers and sisters face daily. We will liberate ourselves from our capitalist enemies, and we are confident in the capacity of workers to break their chains once and for all.
Whens we looked around the room, we saw the multiracial, multigender, multigenerational unity. People all around the world are overcoming racist, sexist, and nationalist divisions. For this, we have a reason to be confident and joyous on May Day.
Overall, the dinner brought new and veteran comrades together and inspired a fightback spirit to fuel us for the long-term struggle. Many people walked away feeling like they were energized by seeing so many people being unafraid, unapologetic, and about their commitment to communist revolution.
This May Day celebration was a reminder of how important it is to build community as we struggle for communism, and to reflect on how powerful our class truly is. After this May Day dinner, our Bay Area comrades are feeling more energized to continue the struggle.