NEW YORK CITY, May 5 — Over 800 members of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) union and City University students rallied at City Hall today to protest planned budget cuts by billionare Mayor Bloomberg. Chanting “Tax the rich, not the poor, stop the war on CUNY!” they marched across lower Manhattan to the Manhattan Community College (BMCC).

At BMCC union members and students addressed the crowd. The main PSC speaker stated that they would not accept the austerity budgets of Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo, nor an austerity contract. Increased class sizes, shortage of counselors and other staff would severely impact on the quality of CUNY education. “Our working conditions, are your learning conditions,” she told the crowd.  We are faced with “not a crisis of capital, but a crisis of capitalism,” meaning that it’s not a crisis of government funding, but of the capitalist system.

Students described how racist tuition increases were affecting them.  Some are working longer hours to pay for school and to contribute money to their families because their parents are unemployed.  Many fellow classmates have been forced to drop out of school. 

20 members from UNITE-HERE, Local 100 arrived to express solidarity with the PSC in its struggle and was warmly welcomed. As reported previously in CHALLENGE, PSC members in the Bronx have been supporting laid-off UNITE cafeteria workers who are fighting to get their jobs back.

As more and more workers are becoming critical of the capitalist system and seeking to build a united working-class movement, PL members on the campuses must step up our efforts to put forth our political line in a mass way. Capitalism can’t be fixed; it must be eliminated once and for all and replaced by communism, a society where the workers are in charge

Los Angeles

Comrades and friends of Progressive Labor Party marched proudly through downtown. Our revolutionary communist group of high school and college students, workers and teachers, made themselves known to the thousands of fellow marchers in the local May Day/Immigrant Rights march. The March organizers wanted workers to focus on voting and immigration reform, but PLP made it loud and clear that May Day is the day for international working-class unity and fight-back. 

We carried our red flags proudly while friends carried signs that attacked capitalism and reformism.  We reached out to the workers and students around us, winning them to chant, “Queremos un Mundo Sin Fronteras; Tendremos un Mundo Sin Fronteras” (We want a world without borders; we will have a world without borders) and “Este Puno Si Se Ve, Los Obreros al Poder” (the fist that you see will bring the workers to power). A group from two churches marched together in our LA May Day march. It was the first time we’ve linked the two churches, both of which pride themselves on their “social justice” efforts. It was an integrated gathering and we were able to get CHALLENGE to our friends during the march.

Friends and Party members discussed aspects of our line in the march. One woman from a church thought that what we needed was a “charismatic leader” to bring the fragmented and reformists politics together. The PL’er argued for the need for a revolutionary communist Party, the Progressive Labor Party, to unite our class. He said “Wasn’t Obama that charismatic leader?” She said “yes,” but he was never “for the workers.” She’s been close to other comrades and her participation reflects our potential to build the Party within mass organizations engaged in some form of class struggle. The struggle continues! Happy May Day and power to the working class!

The Dinner

“I felt a big responsibility to communicate the message of May Day,” said the young Latina emcee for this year’s May Day Dinner. Kicked off by the energy and enthusiasm of our two young emcees, this year’s dinner offered a night filled with communist celebration, songs and speeches.

The evening began with a brief speech about the importance of fighting for communism and joining PLP. Our other new emcee was a young comrade industrial worker. He shared why he decided to join PLP as a high school student, when he realized that racism, exploitation, and imperialism were products of capitalism.

Over 60 comrades and friends celebrated May Day with PLP. One friend performed two poems, one about embracing anti-sexist politics. A comrade recited a poem written especially for May Day that cast the growing crisis of capital and the expanding wars of U.S. imperialism side-by-side with the slowly rising tide of proletarian resistance around the world. Entitled “Within the Dark Night,” the poem stressed the urgency of joining PLP to help build a worldwide communist movement to end capitalism and its racism, sexism, and genocidal wars.

The comrade also spoke about the upcoming Summer Projects, and invited everyone to join PLP this summer in serving the working class and raising communist politics around the world.

Everyone was blown away by the live musical performances. A band made up of longtime friends of PLP performed a number of politically-charged songs, including a rock version of “Bella Ciao” that got everyone in the room clapping and singing along. A recent friend of the Party delivered a stunning performance of the Latin American songs “Sueño con Serpientes” (Sleep with Snakes) and “Todo Cambia” (Everything Changes). 

The songs were punctuated by the speech of an immigrant female worker who spoke about her struggles against sexism, racist exploitation, and the daily hardships of being an undocumented factory worker in Los Angeles. Falling ill to rheumatoid arthritis, she had been fired and left to fend for herself and her children. A collection was started to help her financially.

The night’s main speeches focused on the growing political work PLP is organizing in Los Angeles. A comrade high school teacher shared the struggle on her campus around the cutbacks and the firing of custodial workers and teachers. Under capitalism, profits always come before the basic needs and livelihood of working families, and she stressed it’s no different with education. Her students presented a short “horror-comedy” film about the cutbacks at their high school.

Another comrade spoke about his work within the labor movement and the need to organize for communist politics alongside fellow workers within the mass organizations. “Many of the participants were disillusioned with electoral politics and open to discussing alternatives to elections and capitalism,” he said. Another friend of PLP spoke about his work with community members over issues of affordable housing and racist slumlords. He emphasized the importance of serving the needs of our working-class brothers and sisters by getting directly involved in their day-to-day struggles.

The evening’s main speech discussed the current global crisis of capitalism. While millions of workers are losing their jobs and homes, U.S. corporations and banks enjoy record profits. In the last fiscal quarter, U.S. corporations broke 60-year-old records by making$1.659 trillion in profits. According to the Wall Street Journal, it was estimated that in 2010 a record-high $144 billion would be paid to employees at 35 of the largest banks, hedge funds, money management firms, investment banks, and securities exchanges. Obama’s “Shared Sacrifice” continues to mean workers’ sacrifice so capitalists can continue to profit.

Yet, thousands and thousands of workers from Tunis to Cairo, from London to Wisconsin, from Oaxaca to Athens, are resisting the brutal racism and exploitation of wage slavery and its insatiable need to squeeze ever-more profits out of working families. We urged all present to take CHALLENGE and to join PLP in organizing at our workplaces, at our high schools and college campuses, and in the military to build the needed revolutionary communist movement to smash capitalism. On this May Day, we have nothing to lose but our chains!

“The kkkops, the kkkourts and the minutemen, all a part of the bosses’ plan!” shouted high school students as Progressive Labor Party (PLP) marched to commemorate the 125-year anniversary of May Day. In this immigrants rights march, 3,000 Asian, Latino, black and white workers marched through the streets of the Pilsen neighborhood surrounded by cops. Despite the presence of the bosses’ thugs, hundreds of CHALLENGES and leaflets were distributed to marchers and workers on the street.

Fake leftist groups were there en masse. One young friend of PLP asked, “What’s the difference between those groups and PLP?” They chanted, “The people, united, will never be defeated,” while we chanted, “The workers, united, will never be defeated.” The weakness in their chant is that bosses are also “people,” but they are only interested in exploiting workers, especially super-exploiting others.

Another group opposed federal spending on war in favor of jobs and education. All imperialist wars must be opposed, but the working class needs state power, not temporary jobs or mis-education from the bosses. Yet another group pushed the line of their individualistic leader. The young friend felt more assured that he marched with the party that had the best line.

During a time of rising fascism, it was unfortunate to see so few workers marching on our holiday. This reminds us of the need for PLP. With a communist analysis, we continue to build a base in the working class to fight the onslaught of the murderous bosses.

At our May Day dinner, young comrades took leadership, organizing the event, reciting poetry and re-enacting the pro-communist Langston Hughes play “Scottsboro Limited.” Other speakers highlighted the bosses’ attacks on black and Latino communities citing the deep cuts in Chicago Public Schools and Cook County Hospital. Local mothers spoke about their continued struggle against schools CEO Ron Huberman to keep their community center open. The speakers inspired the audience with descriptions of their PLP-led fight-back against the racist attacks.

Later that night, it was announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed. Obama claimed that terrorism has, therefore, been weakened. However, the biggest terrorists, the capitalists, continue to oppress, exploit, and murder the working class. Only with international working-class solidarity under PLP’s communist leadership of an armed revolution will we ever be able to celebrate May Day with the bosses off our backs.

Working-class internationalism, anti-racism and anti-fascism marked the May Day marches in France this year. The main banner in the Paris demonstration of 30,000 read: “International Solidarity and Social Progress.” In Rennes, where 1,000 rallied in Town Hall Square, workers chanted, “French workers, immigrant workers, same bosses, same struggle!”

Among the 120,000 who marched in 280 cities nation-wide, May Day slogans included equal rights for foreign workers and support for the Arab peoples who are rising up for their dignity and freedom.

Hundreds of North African and Middle Eastern immigrants, particularly recently-arrived Tunisians, participated in this years’ May Day. Support for these workers, who were and are victims of racism going back to French colonial times, reflected the anti-racist feelings of the overall marches. This was their answer to the racism of the fascist National Front .

A group of 200 young Tunisians followed the lead banner in the march here, chanting “Defend the Tunisian Revolution.” Syrians, Libyans and Moroccans chanted other slogans attacking authoritarian and dictatorial regimes. “Bashar Beat it!” proclaimed a banner attacking Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad. In previous years, undocumented workers from sub-Saharan Africa had also joined the May Day celebration.

This working-class internationalism and sharp anti-racist, anti-fascist sentiment contrasted sharply with the simultaneous demonstration staged by the fascist National Front (NF). Three thousand people turned out for their march here. Fascist youth formed the largest contingent. They used foul terms to condem undocumented workers.

FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen attacked all political parties — right and “left” —  for “betraying the workers” in an obvious attempt to benefit from popular disgust with the electoral circus. Questioned about the way the FN is courting the working class, Alain Reiller, a teacher who joined the May Day march in Bordeaux, replied, “I trust in the workers’ capacity to understand that we will advance together and not with a policy of protectionism and discrimination.”

A 32-year-old fork-lift driver who joined the march in Marseilles denounced the press for building up the National Front: “Enough of stigmatizing the workers! I spit on the FN and Sarkozy” [President of France].

In  addition to the 30,000 marchers in Paris, there were 20,000 in Bordeaux, 15,000 in Marseilles, over 6,000 in Toulous and 5,000 in Nantes.

This year’s May Day turnout was smaller than last years’ when 350,000 marched during the fight against decimating retirement and in 2009 when workers were reacting to the beginning of the depression. The defeat over the retirement issue discouraged many workers.

Meanwhile, the union leaders have been jockeying for position, precluding unified demonstrations. Although five confederations managed to issue a May Day call, this disunity discouraged other workers.The reformist leaders hoped to use May Day to pressure the government for an increase in the minimum wage above the inflation rate, which is running at 2%. They are continuing negotiations with the government over the future of the retirement system. While these demands may aim to defend the poorest and oldest workers, they also reflect a sad lack of revolutionary vision.