MEXICO CITY—For May Day celebrations, the collective decided to organize a dinner for our friends and family members, many of whom who have participated with us in rallies, marches, and study groups, in order to invite them to join Progressive Labor Party and march with us on May Day.
The dinner
The dinner’s events were moderated by a comrade who has worked with us for less than a year, and who shows great interest in understanding and carrying out the Party’s line. We began by introducing everyone so that all were acknowledged and known. This system separates us such that knowing each other allows us to recognize that we all suffer the same exploitation, racism, and sexism.
A comrade then gave a brief report on the international situation in a communist context, which allowed us to discuss the national situation in the midst of elections.
The next talk was by a woman comrade who explained why from a class perspective electoral democracy did not represent the working class, and only becomes a trick to allow the national oligarchy to recycle itself and to make fascism legitimate national policy.
The next talk was by another woman comrade who recounted the origins of May Day, and how it has always served as the beacon for the working class to ensure it stays the course of class struggle.
Finally, another comrade discussed the line of our party, why we are organized in a communist party, why we struggle, how we organize, and what we struggle for. Everyone was invited to join us and march with us.
The event turned out to be very sociable and our ideas were well received, we were able to commit several attendees to agree to meet in study groups to better understand the line and the reality of the situation faced by the working class.
The march
Like every year, we met in front of the “Palacio de Bellas Artes” to have a rally at the meeting point of the few independent unions that still exist in the city. They no longer have the same influence due to the violence and the electoral climate in the country. We then withdrew to meet up with the various other collectives and march as a contingent. By 10 am, a collection of 40 PL’ers, family members, and sympathizers. We distributed 1,500 flyers.
We joined the march toward the Zocalo, our red flags high, with a banner and three megaphones that announced our presence. We exposed the disastrous effects of capitalism on the working class while laying out the connections between capitalists and politicians who serve one another to extract maximum profits from workers (see page 5). We sang communist the songs of Bella Ciao and the International and chanted our slogans.
We have a long way to go to build working-class unity. We will continue to raise consciousness and organize a mass movement of workers under the leadership of PLP.
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Gearing up for May Day with young workers
A few days before May Day, the Party collectives from Mexico City and Mexico State united in a celebration of the coming May Day. We had three dinners in different neighborhoods where the workers we are organizing, for a a communist revolution, live.
Around 60 people participated, we talked about the crisis, oppression, and the need for a party and communism. The main topics of discussion were the political climate with the current elections and the origins of May Day. Most of the attendees went on to march with us on May Day.
The meeting focused on the role played by Mexican politicians in obeying the capitalist class. Compared to other capitalist nations in the U.S.-aligned Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Mexico is one of the most corrupt and unequal with the Mexican political class earning salaries far higher than those earning minimum wages. The working class gets endlessly poorer as the basics such as fuel, among the most consumed products, become more expensive. On a daily basis it gets harder to receive basic health and social services since salaries are constantly getting cut.
We spoke about how the same politicians also own factories and are invested in the big industries, while their own family members profit and inherit wealth from the same. The negligence and nepotism by the political parties, the violent attacks against working class movements in the country, and the “structural reforms” that only serve the interests of the bosses all reflect the total lack of democracy for our class. We understand that the vote is a farce that only allows us to decide which party watches out for the interests of the competing imperialists.
We in the PLP in Mexico have deepened our understanding of communism by having discussions that develop consciousness and allow better understanding of how the capitalist system functions. We understand how the media are an instrument of capitalist manipulation, and that the electoral process is a form of control and merely an illusion for workers looking to better their condition. The political parties claim they are on the side of the working class despite their opulent lifestyles, and they use their bourgeois democracy to maintain their elite status while workers have no real say in how their society is run. We understand the political class are lying parasites, and voting for the lesser evil only breathes life into capitalism keeping it from being destroyed.
We live under a capitalist regime where constitutional instruments, like periodic elections, only serve the dominant class to elect which of their sectors will rule. Given the complete capitalist control from the get go over these elections through various instruments of manipulation (the media, academics, religion, and electoral justice system) it is clear the working class will remain in the same oppressed condition. The only difference is some bosses may be willing to offer us crumbs. Some politicians may be a servant for a competing ruler or imperialist.
In countries like Mexico, where economic inequality exists, and the dictatorship of capital gets bloodier by the day, elections only serve to manipulate and maintain control over the working classes by achieving the appearance of democracy.
