Covid-19 can’t stop May Day or revolution

NEWARK, NJ, May 4—Our club celebrated May Day virtually this year. Emboldened by Covid-19’s exposure of capitalism’s total failure for millions of workers — and laying bare the racism of capitalism worldwide— we invited more than 200 people to “march with us” on May Day. An inspiring video made for the event featured May Day marches from around the world, as well as past PLP May Day marches putting the intergenerational and multiracial membership of our Party on display.
50 people from our two study groups, old friends and newer friends we’ve met through our work in mass organizations all learned more about the Party. After May Day, some participated in a PLP caravan protesting racist U.S. immigration policies.
Our lead speaker was a Black comrade who is a NYC transit worker. He described the conditions in the MTA, where more than 100 of his coworkers have died from Covid-19. Thousands have tested positive due to the racist negligence of Cuomo and the bankers toward both transit workers and riders. Transit workers have also died in other cities, and some cities have only recently been providing face masks for workers or requiring passengers to wear them (The Guardian, 4/20).  He showed how workers are the ones who actually make everything run in society – and these mostly Black, immigrant and women workers have responded with mass heroism in healthcare, transit, food production and distribution, and more.
Putting forward the Party’s analysis of the need for a communist revolution, a retired doctor in our club connected the current pandemic to capitalism, as agriculture for profit has spurred deforestation and emerging viruses. Capitalism’s disregard for human life and the environment for profits led to the failure of U.S. capitalist leaders to contain the pandemic, instead of a working class-run communist world that puts workers’ health first.
Another Party member addressed our challenges in winning workers to building a mass PLP because of mass cynicism from the collapse of the old communist movement. This may be the hardest task, because the ruling class has worked overtime to build anticommunist lies and to suppress the accomplishments of the once-revolutionary old movement.
Comrades outside the U.S. also spoke, including a worker from China, who described gains for workers and peasants as a result of the 1949 revolution before it was reversed. A professor from Puerto Rico showed images of masses of college students and workers protesting government policies during the 2017 Hurricane Maria devastation, and more protesting today during Covid-19. These examples along with reports about PLP members’ work in current mass struggles keep alive the reality that building a successful movement is difficult, but possible.
In our club’s evaluation, we discussed how to organize in this period. This included expanding the PLP website and Facebook page; virtual organizing meetings; and finding online ways to discuss work in our areas of concentration on a regional, national, and even international level, not just locally.