Mayday greetings to all the masses in struggle around the globe
The central question of today lies in defeating the genocide by imperialism against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
The media and mainstream capitalist forces try to erase the essence of the day.
The May 1 1886 international general strike for an 8 hour day was a political strike against the oppressive capitalist system that was forcing the working class to spend unlimited hours at work, in wage slavery and that used child labour in abundance. The call for the international general strike arose from the First International (also known as the International Workingmen's Association) who made the demand for an 8 hour day. The First International was a political organisation of the working class, uniting revolutionary trade union, socialists and anarchists around the world, mainly from Europe and North America. It was the leadership of 300 000 strikers across the USA on 1 May 1886 that was decisive in forcing acceptance of the 8-hour day. One by one the capitalists gave in to the demands of the workers. Can the youth and working class in the USA once again play a leadership role, this time in forcing an end to the genocide against the Palestinians by imperialism?
Today the imperialists control the means of production, the factories and mines on an international scale in a global production chain. The arms industry is intertwined with the banks and they require perpetual war for their profits to grow. Genocide is part of the rotten core of modern capitalism. They depend on the divisions among the working class and on the absence of a revolutionary International organisation of the working class. International organizations of the working class exist but are either too small or those that have the numbers are corrupted and bought off to be toothless agencies that hold back the working class.
Today the united mass of the working class in Gaza is what gives the struggle against genocide its solidity. They have endured the pain of carpet bombing by imperialism for over 7 months after 75 years of oppression and exploitation. For months millions have protested almost daily against the genocide. There has been the start of a split in the armed forces of the US and the start of a split in the US regime. However the US regime, the Congress and Senate have been captured by the banks and arms industry.
The latest to take to the field of protest is the wave of student encampments sweeping across the US and starting to spread to France and Spain and is likely to go global in the next few days and weeks. Magnificent as this development is, it needs to spread to the rest of the working class across the USA and the rest of the world, uniting the working class in the imperialist centres with those of us in the colonies and semi-colonies.
We call on the students to set up a joint committee with the involvement of UAW Labor for Palestine and calling for all workers to set up labor for Palestine committees at their workplaces and in their residential areas. This process should rapidly agree on a minimum set of demands. This has a strong basis for making a call for the calling of an international general strike against the genocide. A call should be made to the US soldiers and the israeli resistors to refuse to carry out the orders of your commanders. Rebel against the genocidal generals and politicians.
Let us once again take steps to set up a new revolutionary International of the working class. This would be a great way to commemorate Mayday, international day of revolt against the dictatorship of the banks and military industrial complex.
Workers of the World Unite, we have nothing to lose but our chains. We have a world to win. Forward to Socialism!
1 May 2024
issued by Workers International Vanguard League (South Africa)
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