Newark, NJ, May 1 — Fifty people, chanting “Power to the working class, kick the bosses in the ass”, “Jobs yes, racism no, police brutality has got to go”, and “Baltimore means, we got to fight back” marched along Broad Street here in the second annual May Day march in this city. The chanting was loud and continuous. Several workers joined in as we passed by. Progressive Labor Party members distributed over 150 CHALLENGEs to the marchers and and passersby.
The period leading up to march saw worsening conditions for the working class in this area. As more and more workers have come under attack by the capitalist system, especially since the financial crash of 2008, we have seen skyrocketing evictions and foreclosures. The end of unemployment benefit extensions, and time limits on emergency assistance for shelter and rent payments have driven unemployed workers into the street. Small “tent cities” have sprung up in numerous urban areas in New Jersey. These tent cities are inhabited by unemployed and employed workers who simply don’t have money to pay rent anywhere.
This past winter in the Northeast was particularly brutal. Because local shelters and warming centers were only open when night-time temperatures were expected to go below 15 degrees, tent city residents were frequently sleeping outside in below-freezing temperatures. One of those residents, who had mental health issues, and been recently cut off Medicaid. One January night, she died.
Wages for workers in many New Jersey jobs are at, or barely above, the minimum wage of $8.38 per hour. The mainly Black and Latin airport workforce, in particular, has been fighting back against these low wages. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions in tax credits have been given to Prudential Insurance company and other corporations who are gentrifying downtown Newark.
The organizers of the march highlighted the connection between low wages, unemployment, racism and homelessness. The themes of the march were, “We are One Paycheck Away From Homelessness” and “We fight to End Racism and All Forms of Oppression.” A tent-city resident spoke at the opening rally and thanked the marchers for coming out in support of their homeless brothers and sisters. He vowed that we would not forget our sister who died, and that we would continue to expose the conditions of homeless people.
Another speaker from a group advocating a $15 per hour minimum wage said the real problem facing workers involved in all of these struggles is the capitalist system itself. He said we should fight back against all the attacks, but also said winning higher wages or other reforms alone will never solve the problems faced by the working class.
Several speakers said that the recent actions to fight police murder in Baltimore, Maryland was rebellion against racism. One said that the charges against the cops involved in the murder of Freddie Gray would not have come without that uprising. One spoke about the growing movement in Newark to fight poverty and racism in the midst of corporate gentrification. The speaker said we had taken one of the punches that the bosses threw at us and redirected that punch “back to them with force”.
The day ended with a song, “The Internationale”, introduced as having been written by a transport worker condemned to death by the bosses after the crushing of what was then the biggest worker uprising in history, the 1871 Paris Commune. Many marchers joined in proudly singing, in both Spanish and English, this anthem to the working class. We in PLP will continue the struggle with our fellow workers to win them to fight for a communist world that would abolish homelessness, wage slavery, racism and poverty.