NYC MAY DAY

NEW YORK CITY—Over three hundred workers, students, friends, and comrades in the Progressive Labor Party rocked the streets of Flatbush this May Day. For three hours, the streets were brushed red, and the working class was boosted with confidence. Indeed, this world is ours to win, ours to safeguard; this working class is ours to serve, ours to lead.
We chanted “Shut It Down” and “What Day? May Day! Whose Day? Our Day!” to reggae beats. In addition to our usual reggae and dancehall, the DJs also played salsa beats this year. Passersby came out of stores and homes to watch PLP marching by. They pumped their fists in the air and danced to the music (see letter, page 6). Some strangers even chanted, “Who are we? PLP!” in unison with the marchers. We distributed over 2,300 CHALLENGE newspapers in English, Spanish, and French Kreole.
People hailed from all five boroughs, as well as from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Baltimore, Boston, and Washington, DC.
May Day is International Workers’ Day. Its origin comes from the struggle for an eight-hour workday in Chicago in 1886. While it is officially celebrated in 80 countries, the U.S. bosses don’t recognize it. PLP has been raising the red flag on May Day for over 30 years. It is a day to celebrate all the gains of revolutions and rebellions of the past, advance the fightback of the present, and build a communist revolution for the future.
This year’s May Day was especially important: it is a centennial celebration of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. One hundred years ago, the working class fought for and eventually ruled one sixth of the whole world.  
We commenced the day with a passionate and haunting song about our sisters and brothers slain by the police, “Too Many Names.” We also heard an inspiring speech about a new comrade of why he joined PLP.
Working-Class Creativity
The beauty of May Day is the show of force and collectivity.
2017 is the first in a long time for us to incorporate artwork as part of the May Day march. Together, we created huge fists of different colors, designs, and slogans. We also brought movement and color to a well-known cartoon (see page 7)—a school of red fish attacks a green capitalist shark. The fish puppets looked formidable with their fang-like teeth and scarlet red bodies painted with slogans in Spanish, English, and Bangla. Many of the fish had names those targeted by police painted on them; the spectres of Shantel Davis, Kiki Gray, Kyam Livingston, Michael Brown, and Tyrone West, each representing the fightback and rebellions that rose from the deaths, have come back to haunt the capitalists.
The main victory of this artwork was the collective nature of the production. Everything, including the politics, was discussed, decided, and produced by a multiracial multigenerational group of women and men. This goes against what capitalism says about what art can be: individual creation of one “genius,” owned by and for the genius.
We look forward to what artwork and collectivity next year will bring.
Proud to Be Working Class, Proud to Be Communist
The keynote speaker of the march gave an emboldening delivery and called on our working-class pride.
We’ve achieved workers’ power in the past, and we can do it again. The numbers are on our side!
We’ve built society from the ground up with blood, sweat, and tears. We built the homes, roads, and the bridges! We are the teachers, the students, soldiers, service workers, healthcare workers, electricians, technicians and engineers. We produce the food, the meds, and the cure.
I’m talking working-class pride y’all!
Whether you are a young student, construction worker, engineer, unemployed worker, soldier, or street vendor—pledge your allegiance to the working class of the world.
Like our enthusiastic keynote speaker said,
If you want this new world without racism, sexism imperialist wars, we must fight for it! Join PLP. When the working class is under attack what do we do! Stand up fight Back!
Revolution vs. Reform
Compared to PLP’s small communist May Day, the mass march in Downtown Manhattan was barely mass, and hardly lively. The uplifting part: all the workers from unions and community organizations who showed up and interested in fighting back. But the relatively low turnout reflected the low level of class struggle at this point in history. All the leadership of the unions and community groups represented the base of the Democratic Party. PLP held a banner that read, “Imperialist Wars Enslave Workers—Communist Revolution Is Our Liberation” and distributed CHALLENGEs.
The system is a growing house of horrors. Our class is facing brutal attacks by the bosses, and the terrors and ravages of world war are soon approaching. The rise of a racist, fascist movement is a real possibility, and both workers and communists have countless challenges and assaults to face by the rulers. Yet, the future is bright, because we are building a new world. PLP is 52 years old, but we are still a young and revitalized Party. Onward to another year of fightback! Happy May Day!