NEW YORK CITY, May 1 — There were two marches here today. The one in Union Square was dominated by pseudo-left parties and groups and included some immigrant and community organizations. The one at City Hall was led by the NY Central Labor Council and the Democratic Party. On the surface, they appeared to be very different. But in essence, they were similar. Both stripped May Day of its revolutionary content and both reflected their lack of confidence in the working class.
And this is no surprise! These marches were organized by professional misleaders who seek to divide our class and fight for scraps instead workers’ power. A small PLP contingent marched, calling for a communist revolution. Many workers and passersby took the paper. A group of young women joined our chant, “Democrats, Republicans, All the Same. Racist Murder is the Name of the Game.”
Reformist May Day
The rally in Union Square was a May Day marathon, with groups coming and going and speaker after speaker going on and on for more than 5 hours before marching down to Foley Square. There may have been 50 organizations participating, but few had more than two dozen people with them.
Meanwhile, at City Hall, about two dozen of the city’s largest unions had signed on to the May Day Coalition for “Labor Rights — Immigrant Rights — Jobs for All.”  But with the exception of the Laborers’ Union and CUNY Professional Staff Congress, there was little rank-and-file presence. With all the City unions entering contract talks, there was only a handful of transit workers and teachers. Healthcare and city workers’ unions — with more than 350,000 mostly black and Latino workers combined, facing jobs cuts as a result of racist cutbacks — turned out only staff and officers and little else. A painfully long list of union honchos shared the stage with elected officials, sending the message that the future is bright with Mayor DeBlasio in City Hall.
Neither march mentioned racist police terror. Neither march had more than a handful of fast food workers or other low-wage workers. Neither march warned of the threat of growing imperialist wars. Neither march called for an end to racist unemployment. And neither march called for the building of a mass revolutionary communist movement.
Have Confidence in the Working Class
The PLP May Day march in Brooklyn was the exact opposite. It put revolutionary politics up front and for a few hours, took the streets in the black and immigrant neighborhood that on every other day is controlled by the racist police. People on the sidewalks saw themselves in our ranks, joined our chants English, Spanish, and Creole and embraced Challenge, over thousands distributed.
Yes, we have a long way to go. But the contrast in the two days’ events is a testimonial to our confidence in the workers and youth to grasp revolutionary communist ideas and make them their own. It is a testament to the strategy of building a base for communist ideas and for PLP. We have a very long way to go, but we are winning!