HAITI, May 1 — PLP organized several events around May Day here to build class-consciousness and PLP . Below is a report of one of the activities in a small town.
PLP members organized a gathering of rural and urban workers and students. They recalled the history of May 1 with a historical overview of slavery and the industrial revolution, up to the mobilizations of striking workers in Chicago in 1886. They described the current situation for the working class and debated how to destroy the misery, poverty and exploitation that capitalism creates. The participants responded with solidarity for PLP — organize our class, prepare the revolution, and march towards communism, the only answer to capitalism!
Raise Hell With Radios
On the eve of May Day, two PL’ers presented a radio show: “May Day is not a festival.” The bosses try to hide what May 1 really means by creating fairs and festivities without political content. But communists organize rallies to present the conditions and interests of the working class. The presenters read a press release heard on radio programs in the capital, Port-au-Prince, before traveling to the provinces.
Callers congratulated the speakers and asked questions about the solution to the problems posed: unemployment and slave wages. The response was to “organize our class to fight back against the ills of capitalism and build a revolutionary party that meets the aspirations of the working class around the world.” The final caller, a youth aged 14, called to say, “Don’t go, you are saying good and true things; my mom and dad are listening to you, too. I like to hear what you say and learn about what you are doing.”
On May Day, PLP organized a public event with more than 50 people. Workers and unemployed, young professionals and students participated. They condemned the system and showed that they understand the bosses’ game. They also pointed out the contradiction that May 1 is seen as Work and Agriculture Day in Haiti. How can workers celebrate Work and Agriculture Day when there is no work and no agriculture?
They also denounced the exploitation the working class suffers. They proclaimed, “Let us unite, we have nothing to lose but our chains!” A public health worker, a secretary, a high school teacher and a primary teacher agreed with a young comrade who advocated organizing into unions to defend the interests of workers. However, as communists, we went straight to the point: the working class must organize itself under the leadership of an international communist party, and go beyond the reform struggle all the way to a revolutionary communist struggle. That is the only way out of the racist capitalist world.
One participant said he liked what they were saying, so why not run for Congress? The comrades made it clear that electing the “right” people will not solve the problems workers are facing because the capitalist system is stacked against our class. Participation in the bosses’ election circus only builds individualism and trust in bourgeois politicians doing something positive for workers. That never happened and it never will happen!
After the public event, PLP and friends enjoyed a dinner together. To carry out these activities, PLP comrades from the U.S. and Haiti raised funds among our friends. A colleague of a local teacher contributed a community center and a generator; a brother provided the sound; other friends and family made coffee and prepared food. Several students did the mobilization work and cleaned up the space before and after. It was a good experience, showing how we can accomplish our tasks by relying on ourselves.
Some students of one teacher criticized her, because they feel that not enough classroom time is given to political debates. They are eager for more opportunities to discuss class struggle, communist revolution and the history of the working class, subjects that are generally hidden from them in the course of bourgeois education.
As communists, we live in harmony with the masses, who have confidence in our communist party. To the final victory!
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May Day Marchers Blast Anti-Immigrant Detention Center
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- 21 May 2015 58 hits
DILLEY, Texas — Over 500 anti-racists from all backgrounds, including PL’ers, marched to protest the horrendous conditions at the South Texas Family Residential Center here which houses immigrant women and children fleeing the dangerous conditions of drug-related violence brought to Central America by U.S. imperialism. The government ruling Honduras in collaboration with wealthy landowners has been cracking down on small farmers, murdering and disappearing those struggling for land rights.
Miguel Facussé, a biofuel boss and cocaine importer known by the U.S. State Department, works closely with the Honduran police and military which receive generous funding from U.S. bosses under the pretext of the “war on drugs.”
Racist Attack on Women and Youth
Most of these immigrants are women workers and youth. Roughly one million migrants have come from Honduras, one of the most dangerous places in the world outside active war zones. While they flee the sexist and racist terror of their home country, more sexism and racism awaits them here. Many stay in the facility only to be deported back to their deaths. The racist detention center is the largest in Texas and can hold up to 2,400 detainees. It is run by the profiteering Corrections Corporation of America, a private company.
We had planned to go to Dilley on May Day to bring our message of communism, anti-racism, class struggle and revolution to the other organizations that had planned the march. While there, we passed out flyers calling for communism to nearly everyone at the march and to those watching, and distributed 50 CHALLENGES. We explained that capitalist-created borders are the problem because they only serve the bosses’ need to exploit workers and keep us ideologically divided.
The protesters were mostly positive in their response. People were curious to find communist literature in a town with a racist detention center.
During the march our contingent was the most vocal. We led militant chants while flying our banner. We had passed by a prison built right next to the detention center. Pointing to both buildings we chanted, “Show us what fascism looks like, this is what fascism looks like!” Many people were on board with our chants. A whole group chanted with us, changing “Si Se Puede” (Yes we can!) and other meaningless lines. We shouted, “Las luchas obreras no tienen fronteras!” (“Workers have no borders!”) We kept the energy high the whole distance.
After the march, we returned to where we met our friends and presented a skit about racist police terror, how it affects the working class, and why we should fight back against all forms of racism. The skit portrayed police murders as efforts by the bosses’ state to keep us in fear in order to divide and weaken us. It also explained that inter-imperialist rivalries compel the bosses to intensify murders by racist cops and mass deportations domestically to discipline the working class into submission.
Near the end some comrades gave emotional testimonials about why they joined the Party, describing the horrors of capitalism in a very personal manner which moved our friends. The skit provoked many conversations about smashing capitalism. In closing we sang Bella Ciao and The Internationale.
This May Day was the most productive in a while. By reaching out to people in other cities as well as our own, we strengthened our forces and helped spread the message of multi-racial unity among the working class. By changing a dull and fruitless march to the tune of anti-racism and pro-communism we promoted a solution to capitalism’s woes. Having an overwhelmingly positive response to the presentation at our May Day celebration from our friends and an effective march has inspired us for the year ahead. From now until the next May Day we plan to work even harder in the fight for multi-racial unity, anti-racism, anti-sexism and communism.
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Colombia: Anti- Capitalist Rule, Pro-Communist Ideas!
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- 21 May 2015 137 hits
Bogota, Colombia, May 1 — We celebrated one more International Workers’ Day on May Day. Early in the morning, close to 40,000 workers from the countryside and the city prepared their banners and got ready to march.
PLP distributed more than 150 Challenges and 3,000 revolutionary flyers that explained our communist line. We carried red flags symbolizing workers’ power and chanted slogans that generated curiosity amongst participants. Our chants included: “Against capitalists’ rule, advance communists’ ideas!” and “Peace between classes only serves criminal bosses!” Many others chants were vocalized by dozens and dozens of enthusiastic comrades, friends, and supporters.
Unlike the chants of reformist groups and politicians, our slogan, “The history of the working class is not a carnival parade,” was well received by the participants. Many trade unions called for peace, social justice and economic reforms, and members of the phony left presented themselves as saviors, to which we responded that “Peace is capitalist rule, we must organize communist revolution!”
There was a strong state military repression to suppress and provoke the participants. They broke the march with tear gas and truncheon blows, and injuried 16 protesters. Many were also arrested. We responded to these attacks by chanting, “Against the fascist state, communist revolution!” We remained together as a group until we reached Bolivar Plaza, where we folded our banners and separated, given that union leaders took over the stage with nationalist and reformist speeches in response to our slogans, “Down with capitalist nationalism, long live communist internationalism!”
We met a good number of people who asked us about the racist fascism against our Black, Latin, Asian and migrants sisters and brothers in the United States and worldwide. We met a group of beer factory workers who, tired of their bosses’ abuses, organized a trade union and gave us their addresses so we could send them our literature.
Afterwards, we evaluated this great experience in order to continue forging the unity of the international working class around the line of PLP and its revolutionary program that aims to to crush the current capitalist dictatorship and build a new communist society.
FAISALABAD, Pakistan, May 6 — Today, thousands of workers were here to welcome home seven power loom workers who were released from the Central Jail after serving four-and-a-half years. The workers led a mass march through the main streets and industrial sections of the city, from 10am to 8pm, ending in a mass rally with militant chants to welcome the freed workers home.
Six others remain in prison. In all, 14 workers were convicted by the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) and sentenced to a total 490 years on various charges. Their only crime was organizing power loom workers to demand a government wage increase in all Faisalabad industries, especially for low-wage power loom workers. One young leader, Raja Arshad, went underground to escape arrest, and experienced many hardships. He died three months ago of a massive heart attack.
The conviction was challenged in Higher Court soon after the ATC draconian order. After a long legal battle, the court ordered the immediate release of the workers but refused to waive the fines against them. So far, we have raised enough money to win the release of these seven. We are on a campaign to collect enough money to pay for the release of the remaining six or they will face another 17 months in jail. We decided to first win their release, and then challenge the fines in the Supreme Court.
This is a significant victory, and shows that workers will not be terrorized into submission. Workers here have been caught in the crossfire of US imperialism’s “War on Terror”, and are about to find themselves in the midst of the inter-imperialist rivalry, as China challenges the US for influence here. The only way for workers to meet the challenges of fascist terror and imperialist war is to build a mass PLP and fight for communism. We will have more news of workers’ struggles in future CHALLENGEs.
OAXACA, MEXICO, May 1 — Among the thousands of workers that participated in the May Day march in Oaxaca today, the presence of our Party, the communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) stood out.
This was because of our militancy and the messages of the communist slogans we chanted as a group and with great energy such as: “For a Communist and Proletariat May Day!” “We Must End Electoral Farce!” “We Struggle, We Win, Power to the Working Class!” “In Our Communist Struggle, Capitalist Criminal, You’re in Our Crossfire!” “The Crisis of the System Has No Solution, the Only Solution is Revolution!” “One Class, One Party, Workers of the World Unite!” and “Long Live Communism, Death to Capitalism!”
We distributed 2,000 flyers to the CNTE teachers that belong to Local 22. A PLP member, with the help of some of his friends, distributed 500 flyers to a group of health care workers. The flyer denounced the fascist policies of the Mexican ruling class oppressing working class under the guise of structural reforms and it exposed the electoral farce. It also invited workers to join PLP and explained the need for a communist revolution to overthrow the capitalist class that controls the world. We are taking advantage of the approaching imperialist war to build a communist society, which is the only answer for the interests and needs of our class.
We carried the red flags that represent the international working class and a banner calling for workers to join PLP to destroy the corrupt and criminal capitalist system with communist revolution.
These activities and the fighting attitude against the policies of the corrupt, oppressive and criminal capitalists motivate and inspire us to continue our revolutionary communist work with full commitment. The current labor stoppage by the health care workers and the strike that some trade unions and organizations are planning, represent opportunities we must use to promote the growth of PLP.
