WORCESTER, MA—The May Day celebrations organized by the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), and co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Human Rights Commission, Tenants and Housing Alliance of Worcester (THAW) and others reflected our on the ground organizing in these groups, and was a protest involving three main issues:
For this first PLP led May Day in Worcester, we were happy that 70 people came out to fight for justice. Since killer-cop Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, police have developed new tactics to justify racist murders. With the exception of the PLP, no other group in Worcester has held a public rally against racist police murders this year. Racist attacks and terrorism against Asian workers have increased. We joined with an organizer from the Asian community to oppose openly and in public these racist hate crimes and call them out as a symptom of this racist capitalist system (see page 4).
Capitalism the main virus
One speaker called racist police killing a systemic health issue and he has worked with the Board of Health to set policies for police accountability. Health care is systemically racist. The main strike issue for the nurses at St. Vincent’s is increased staffing and patient safety. These goals are in effect a model for a partial mitigation of racist health care. It is clear why the bosses want to break the nurses’ mostly women worker-led, strike.
The PLP speaker raised the issue that capitalism is the foundation of racism, racist killings by police, and systemic racist/sexist healthcare. Communism and the end of resource inequalities is needed to end racist police killings and an end to systemic racist/sexist healthcare.
International revolution is the only solution
Our PL speaker pointed out that demonstrations are good but not enough. This racist, sexist, capitalist system cannot be reformed and it must be smashed with communist revolution. The inter-imperialist rivalries of the U.S. with China and Russia are beating the war drums over trade issues. Vaccine apartheid/imperialism is laying bare the murderous system of capitalism.
Our literature table with CHALLENGE was well received. Our rally and march were well received, too. Some folks, upon driving by, and seeing our red flags and hearing our chants, stopped to join our rally and march.
Progressive Labor Party then led a spirited march to join the St. Vincent nurses’ picket line. The chants were spirited and our speakers were multiracial. As we marched to the nurses’ picket line, we chanted:
At the nurses’ line, our PLP member was invited to speak. We walked the picket line in solidarity with the nurses’ antiracist goals of improved patient care.