Haiti: May Day builds class consciousness

HAITI—While a small number of organizations and unions are aware of what May Day, International Workers Day means, a larger number buy into the bourgeois propaganda of the “festival of work and agriculture.” Thus, in order to build for revolution, we must still fight to build working class-consciousness. That’s the job of our Party, the Progressive Labor Party.
This May Day, PLP continued to draw lessons and build class consciousness based on the history of struggles that workers and students have been involved in, starting with the history of May Day. It was interesting for some, disappointing for others. But it was enriching for our Party, given the contradictions that emerged.
Rural workers, young and old, and members of women’s organizations joined us in solidarity. We had planned with our comrades to present a history of workers’ struggles in order to reinforce the idea of working-class unity in changing, in fact, transforming society.
We also wanted an opportunity to think about the situations that workers face today, especially here in Haiti. There has been a wave of arbitrary firings, repression and sexism in various work sites,. This is combined with below-poverty rate salaries, an ever growing rate of unemployment, and forced migration to countries like Brazil and Chili, where there is a need for low-wage workers.
Unfortunately, despite our efforts, some people were still blinded by the bosses’ lies, and fell into the trap of believing May Day to be a festival. Some participated in the bosses’ celebration of Haitian cooking—mainly for the rich and powerful locals and imperialist bloodsuckers in the capital.
The bosses’ festival provoked a discussion among our friends and comrades about what is the underlying politics of workers’ struggles. It was communist leader Vladimir Lenin who said that there is no revolutionary struggle without revolutionary consciousness. And for us, that means that revolutionary consciousness must be built in our struggles, in the contradictions that we face, and through criticism and self-criticism. Our Party in Haiti is growing in quality with each experience we gain in struggle.
On the other hand, in the evening we met for a dinner-debate with some of our friends, some of whom work in the public sector. We reviewed the experience of the day and evaluated it together. This allowed us to see that, despite the seeming strength of bosses, the workers we are beginning to understand the fight that we need to wage in the coming period.
One person expressed it in these terms: “Finally, I understand what we need to fight for and I agree with you in favor of revolution.”
This evening was an opportunity for our comrades to see how we have begun to inspire confidence in the masses, although we still have a long way to go in order for more workers to understand our line and lead the fight for communist revolution.
PLP is building revolutionary class consciousness wherever we are. We fight to annihilate capitalism in all its forms. Join us to build a new world without exploitation, racism, sexism, and slavery.