MAY DAY: HAITI

The working class needs a revolutionary communist leadership. Members and friends of PLP participated in a May Day demonstration. We distributed 250 copies of DEFI (Creole edition of CHALLENGE), calling for workers in the factories, fields and public sector, and students to build a mass PLP and end the misery of capitalism and imperialism.
We passed out 600 flers exposing the role of union hacks, reformists pseudo leftists in trying to deliver workers and their unions in Haiti to the local and international bosses. Increasingly, PLP is giving revolutionary leadership to the workers’ struggles here.

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MAY DAY: MEXICO

PL’ers and friends marched carrying red flags and singing the “Internationale” and “Bella Ciao,” while groups of electricians, teachers, and students who were marching close to us picked up our slogans and chants.
Seeing the energy of our small but daring group, a couple of youth joined our contingent and took one of our banners. We called on workers to get organized in a non-electoral party to fight for a communist revolution to destroy capitalism and its crises and imperialist wars.
The parade of the trade unions, which mostly control production industries, was at 8 am. Around 10 am was the march of the thirty thousand members of dissident unions, which mostly represent teachers, electricians, university workers and service industries. In total we distributed ten thousand flyers amongst the two contingents.

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MAY DAY: TEL AVIV

Thousands of workers, including PL’ers and friends, marched here with red flags and banners that read “Workers of the World Unite!” to commemorate May Day. We stood in defiance of the increasingly fascist Israeli ruling class and its virulent anti-communist rhetoric. Slogans called for a revolution and the overthrow of the government. Thousands called for social justice, freedom, and equality. While the leadership of this march was, as in the last few decades, in the hands of pseudo leftists, this year huge masses of workers came to celebrate the ideas of May Day.

MAY DAY: CHICAGO

“It comes down to: who do I trust with my life? It sure isn’t the capitalists. I trust you all.”
This closing sentiment from a young comrade at our annual May Day dinner received a round of applause.
As everyone clapped in the colorfully decorated hall, one could see why he would put his life in our hands. The room was filled with women and men workers of all backgrounds, united in a common goal. It was an inspiring sight!
The love and camaraderie people showed for one another made it obvious that we should trust each other and trust the working class as a whole to create a better society for everyone. 

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MAY DAY: OAKLAND, CA

PLP members and friends joined the May Day Immigrant Rights March of 500-600 people.  We struggled to bring class consciousness that unites both immigrants and citizens to reject all divisions.
A friend said, “PLP stood out due to its organization, the chants, the amazing banner and red flags. Our contingent energized the march.”
As we rallied, the banner helped us to distribute our flyers and CHALLENGEs. We chanted in English and Spanish for the whole march and sang “Bella Ciao” and the “Internationale.” We chanted for all workers’ power, not just immigrant power. We shared the sound system and chanted together with others.
We connected the racist murders of black youth and the mass deportations of immigrants:
“OPD, KKK: how many kids did you shoot today?”
“Working people have no nation, smash racist deportations!”
The march circled though the Mi Pueblo lot, the site of on-going struggle in Oakland. Its formerly “illegal” Mexican owner decorates his store with the colors of the Mexican flag. Recently he volunteered for I-9 Audits (a fascist program conducted by the Immigration Customs and Enforcements that checks the immigration status of all workers) and fired immigrant workers. A new comrade said it was powerful to have a specific target as we chanted and marched for revolution in the future. 
As the march ended, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan showed up in a red dress, looking for a photo op. A comrade spotted her while another announced on the bullhorn: “There’s Jean Quan.  She sent OPD to attack Occupy Oakland.” Someone near her booed, and the crowd took it up. The boos changed to the chant  “Jean Quan go home.” A young black man asked to use our bullhorn and marched towards her announcing: “Jean Quan supports S-Comm!” (Secure communities, a police program.) She left! 
After the march, we ate and toasted revolution and communism. From a friend: “It was sooo good to celebrate May Day with my red friends. The food was yummy and the conversation is always rich and lively.”  The future is bright!
Workers worldwide continue to fight for a better life. However, if we see ourselves only as immigrants, we lose. If we see ourselves only as citizens, we lose. We belong to only one class — we are the producers of the entire world’s riches — the working class.  When we unite as one class, which dismantles the rulers’ emphasis on borders, ethnicity, gender, “race,” nationality or heritage, WE WIN.

Mass Murder of Garment Workers in Bangladesh; Burn the Bosses

The Obama administration has rationalized its threat to punish Syria for using chemical weapons on “humanitarian” grounds (see page 2). Yet the “humanitarian” U.S. bosses — Walmart, Sears, J.C. Penney, GAP, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, among others — have reaped billions in profits from the super-exploitation and killing of garment workers in Bangladesh. The latest atrocity is the sexist, racist murder of over 800 mainly-women workers (and counting) in Dhaka in a building collapse in which threatening cracks had been discovered the day before — follows two fires which killed hundreds more when the bosses blocked exits. And it’s one and the same with the attack on workers that killed ten residents of West, Texas, where a hazard-prone fertilizer factory fire virtually destroyed the entire town.

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MAY DAY: WASHINGTON, DC

Over 150 marchers — workers and students, white, black, Latino and Iranian — rallied with a banner and brought the message of class struggle, anti-racism, internationalism and revolution to thousands of workers in D.C.
The march ended on a bold note — a Howard University student grabbed the South African Apartheid flag out of the hands of a racist in front of the White House and burned it on the ground.
We began at Malcolm X Park and marched through working-class neighborhoods and commercial areas, ending at the White House to tell the U.S. government that the working class is on the move against capitalism!

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MAY DAY: LOS ANGELES

This year’s PLP May Day activities focused on the importance of building our party to organize the revolutionary communist movement. Comrades and friends reviewed the PL-led struggles of the past year, from organizing in Occupy LA to fighting police brutality in Anaheim to mobilizing high school students against LA Unified School District’s fascist conditions.
High school teachers from LA and Oakland detailed the school campaigns against those conditions, from locked bathrooms and random student searches to exposing the tying of teacher evaluations to test scores. Another comrade noted their struggles in opposing police brutality and repression in Anaheim which mobilized many young working-class people throughout the area. A healthcare worker revealed the development of the international work in Haiti.

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MAY DAY: FRANCE

Nearly 160,000 workers protested the bosses’ austerity attacks in 286 May Day marches and rallies in cities across France. They also marched against the ANI — a national agreement giving the bosses extended rights to fix workers’ wages, hours, and work locations.
The main demonstrations were organized by the “class struggle” trade union confederations which which oppose the ANI. They continually steer workers into the arms of the “lesser-evil” Socialist Party. They repeatedly call for supposedly neutral government mediation in the Peugeot strike.
In Paris, Peugeot factory workers who are beginning their 16th week on strike formed one of the most militant contingents, chanting “Workers’ strength is in striking!”
Many workers in the Paris May Day march attacked the Socialist Party. Jean-Michel, 44, noted that Socialist president “Hollande said [during the presidential election campaign] ‘I want to be the enemy of finance’ but he has given the bosses 20 billion euros [in tax breaks].”
Ten thousand workers marched in Marseilles, many chanting “no, no to austerity!”
In Bordeaux, (6,000) and in Toulouse (5,700) workers blasted Hollande’s austerity attacks. In Lyons, 4,000 marched despite a heavy shower with signs reading “We won’t pay for capitalism’s crisis,” and in Rouen, 2,000 workers, led by oil workers from the bankrupt Petroplus refinery, chanted “death to austerity!”

1,000 Students Defy School Bosses in Walkout

NEWARK, NJ, April 30 — On April 9, over 1,000 students walked out of Newark’s schools to protest the bosses’ budget cuts. The action was organized by the newly formed Newark Student Union (NSU), whose courage and organization demonstrated its ability to lead masses of students.
As Newark experiences attacks on education similar to many other cities, this new voice — the NSU — is making itself heard. Consisting of high school students citywide, the NSU has not only given leadership to other students but also to everyone fighting back against the racist attacks.

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