I’m excited for May Day!
I was excited to see the announcement for May Day in the April 13 issue of the paper and hear workers’ voices extolling its importance to them.
I went to my first May Day march in 1986. I was 22 years old. It was my first real political demonstration and it blew my mind. Never before had I seen people from so many different backgrounds united in common struggle. We marched as one force: militant, resolute, enthusiastic! It was thrilling and invigorating, a taste of workers’ power.
I met people who came from many different countries, spoke different languages and had different customs, but who all realized that our world is gripped by a system that has utterly failed, and were unafraid to say, “Capitalism’s gotta go!”
This year May Day is more important than ever as we confront yet another major imperialist war that threatens to erupt into world war. Bosses worldwide spend so much time and effort sowing nationalist divisions among the working class. But International Workers’ Day is OUR day! It’s our time to announce our presence throughout the world. WE ARE THE MIGHTY, UNITED WORKING CLASS!
Thank you, CHALLENGE, for continuing, in every issue, to hammer home the reality that capitalism cannot serve the needs of the world’s workers and that the only true solution is communism. We have a lot to learn on this road, but we truly have A WHOLE WORLD TO WIN. March on May Day!
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We exposed imperialist drive in Ukraine war
My comrades and I in the DC-Baltimore area recently held a Progressive Labor Party (PLP) cadre school. Three of us led it, although it was a full Party effort. Because of the current Ukraine conflict, we discussed imperialism, militarism, and racism. While I tend to get nervous with public speaking, I know it is important to practice speaking. The audience consisted of about 30 people, 10 of whom were friends of PL. We were able to record all the presentations to share with workers who couldn’t make it. PL’ers and friends alike were receptive to our message, offered great feedback, and asked engaging questions.
My presentation on imperialism showed how it is the logical extension of finance capitalism. Another comrade showed how the military industrial complex was self-perpetuating and how the capitalist U.S. military is oppressive. The last presentation demonstrated how racism played an integral role in propaganda, justifying war and attempting to convince people how wars are or are not justified, based on a given boss’s interest.
Then, we broke into small discussion groups. We discussed how, while it may appear that workers in the imperial core benefit from imperialism, it ultimately hurts all workers because it divides the working class and prevents communist revolution.
Finally, we applied our knowledge to the conflict in Ukraine in a discussion. The conflict is due to a variety of rival capitalist pursuits, fueled by NATO expansion, Ukrainian International Monetary Fund debt, and the 2014 coup in Ukraine (facilitated by the U.S.).
Meanwhile Russia is still an imperialist power that escalated the conflict. We also talked about the importance to the U.S. imperialists of the strength of the U.S. dollar and how this conflict is undermining it.
There is not a workers’ side in this conflict. We need to build the working-class voice through communist revolution.
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World war is coming
The war in Ukraine shows that U.S. imperialism is declining relative to Russian and Chinese imperialism. In Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin pointed out that wars to divide and redivide the world are inevitable so long as capitalism exists. At the moment, the U.S. is the preeminent imperialist power, and the dollar reigns supreme. Any country that dares to deviate from subservience to U.S. domination is bombed to total destruction or starved with sanctions. But the U.S. has not won a war since WWII and now it has to prepare for war with China and it must have allies.
The U.S. depends on NATO members, all without exception dependent on Russian energy and raw materials. Now imperialist bosses in Russia have required the bosses in Europe to pay for fuel with rubles (see editorial, page 2). The sanctions imposed on Russia have resulted in a major threat to the dollar’s hegemony [dominance].
U.S. imperialism needs the war in Ukraine in preparation for WWIII. The longer they can prolong this war, the more false flag Russian “atrocities” they and their NAZI allies can create, and the better their chance to pry the Europeans free from Russian dependence.
Our Party must focus on the relationship between the war in Ukraine and the preparation for world war by the imperialist powers, especially the declining imperialist power, the U.S., a paper tiger with nuclear teeth, a giant with feet of clay.
We must emphasize the colossal racism underlying the news media response to the war in Ukraine and the Ukrainian refugees being welcomed in Poland while refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq freeze in the forests of Belarus. We must point out to our friends the incredible subservience of the mainstream media to U.S. imperialist lies and propaganda. And we must build the Party, the only hope for the working class to emerge victoriously.
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