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MAY DAY 2025 NYC-NJ Speeches: ‘Raise those red flags, raise them high against fascism
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- 09 May 2025 1341 hits
The following are excerpts from a tri-part speech given by young PLP veterans: a teacher and community worker, and a young community worker who joined the Party recently on Saturday May 3rd at the New York/New Jersey May Day celebration.
Greetings, comrades! Happy May Day! We are teachers, community organizers and members of the Progressive Labor Party continuing the fight back against this racist, sexist, capitalist system–from Newark to New York, from Palestine, to Mexico!
Today, May Day, is about the U.S. celebrating OUR legacy, OUR power as the working class, OUR fight for a communist future and raising the red flag against fascism! As we march down Flatbush today, we want everyone to raise those red flags! AND Raise them high!!
From every corner of the globe, the spirit of internationalist fightback lives on — here are just a few powerful moments:
In New York City students at Bronx Community College have been denied access to decent food by a racist administration whose only function is to normalize cutbacks that target Black and Latin working class students. But students are fighting both to demand their own access to food and show their classmates the connection between their own hunger and the hunger felt by workers all over the world, and to see that in all cases it is the bosses who are taking the food from our mouths.
In East Los Angeles, students walked out last year to demand bilingual education and the right to organize without punishment. They stood up against racist deportations and fascist detentions, fighting to protect workers of the entire world!
In Palestine, students are bombed in their classrooms, with entire universities being leveled, just so American imperialism can maintain its outposts in the Middle East. But this does not stop students from organizing protests and civil disobedience against Israeli settlements. In just one example of this bravery, students in Palestine demonstrated to open up Shuhada (Sho-ha-dah) street in Hebron where the racist Israeli rulers have denied them access for two decades.
-Teacher & veteran PL’er
*
When the bosses close our hospitals, cut our jobs, and abandon us to deal with the disastrous results of their murderous system, we in PLP build worker, patient unity to care for one another in and out of the medical rooms. We storm the bosses' public health conferences and affinity groups and show our fellow workers how to fight to make a health system that benefits us–under communism!
When the landlords hike up rent prices three fold and make it impossible for us to secure housing, or sicc the murderous cops on us to evict us or exterminate us during a period of endless mental health crises, we as working class fighters house each other, feed each other, show up to court en masse and set up communities based on mutual aid that show the working class that we CAN build a moneyless, antiracist, antisexist society.
Only building for a communist future will heal the wounds of our class. Having comrades — here and around the world — who have your back and fight alongside you will transform your life.
-Community worker & veteran PL’er
*
In the greater sense mutual aid is just one example of the self-organization of our class; that workers can organize society for each other. We must take this a step further— if we arm ourselves with communist ideas we can build a revolutionary movement to run society.
This is working-class solidarity and an act of resistance against the bosses who want us to believe we need them. We don’t need them—we have each other, always. We engage in building relationships and spreading communist ideas because mutual aid alone will never be enough to free us from capitalism. We must continue to care for our fellow workers, to listen, to build friendships, to defend one another, and to love each other.
It was, in fact, an act of love that brought me into the Party just a year ago. I was at a protest for Palestine, standing in the pouring rain—alone, without an umbrella—just chanting, soaked to the bone. A Party member tapped my shoulder and offered to share their umbrella with me.
We began chanting together, then talking. I met other Party members who showed me kindness, and after the protest, I joined them for my first-ever communist study group.
And now I’m super hyped to be here at my first ever May Day march!
We must share the giant, Earth-sized umbrella of communism with one another—so that, at last, we can all be dry and warm together.
As we march forward into a new day, fight for communism! Now more than ever is the time to up the ante!
- A new PL’er and community worker
Praise of Communism
By Bertolt Brecht
It is reasonable.
You can grasp it. It’s simple.
You’re no exploiter,
so you’ll understand.
It is good for you.
Look into it.
Stupid men call it stupid,
and the dirty call it dirty.
It is against dirt
and against stupidity.
The exploiters call it a crime.
But we know:
It is the end of all crime.
It is not madness but
The end of madness.
It is not chaos,
But order.
It is the simple thing
That’s hard to do.
East Africa
Members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), students and some parents at a dinner session will discuss how the capitalist education system affects the lives of the workers as a whole as well as having frequent changes to how education policy is worsening because of a lack of teachers, teaching and learning materials. This system does not prepare a student to be creative and independent but instead becomes a community dependent and unemployed, and while the government pretends that jobs exist and will be provided.
Also, the new education curriculum has not been established based on the need for society but has been established by the impetus for capitalists that want the education policy to have a way that all students in the country can achieve higher education without looking at the environment and the need for society in their areas. The main criterion is that all those who follow this policy will be given low interest loans from the World Bank.
Within the discussion, PLP allows students together with parents to say all the challenges they face as we mentioned above, so through such a situation students and the whole community will continue to suffer professionally and in the lifestyle and even after their training they will remain dependent rather than being saviors in their communities.
PLP will also continue to provide education on how to use the weakness of the capitalist education system throughout the community to use the ideology of the communist system that believes in equality, impartiality to eliminate nationalism, and create one world by smashing the capitalist system with communist revolution.
South Asia
A Message celebrating the International Workers’ Day from the struggling workers of Kolkata, West Bengal, India:On this May Day, when the global imperialist crises are deepening more than ever, we honour the echoes of history - the strikes, the marches, and the unyielding spirit of those who demanded dignity and freedom in the face of exploitation.
From the Haymarket martyrs to today’s gig workers, the fight for revolution pulses through generations.May the chains of inequality shatter, international borders dissolve in solidarity, as global hands unite against exploitation, recognising that no struggle is isolated.
Solidarity forever. The fight continues.
United Kingdom
Comrades, today we gather to celebrate May Day — a day born from the struggle of workers and forever rooted in the ideals of communism. It is a reminder that the working class is the true engine of society. Under capitalism, we are exploited; under communism, we seek a world where labor is honored, wealth is shared, and all stand as equals. Let us carry forward the vision of a classless society, built on solidarity, justice, and collective power.
Workers of the world, unite!
China
Happy May Day Comrades!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in labor. I am a young student from Beijing, China. The International Workers Day is coming. The labor day and May Day is to memorialize the 1886 Chicago Haymarket Strike, which won the eight hour workday for us. But 139 years have passed, and there are still a lot of places that do not follow the eight hour day and will not listen to the worker.
As workers, if we do not act to show our power the capitalists treat us as if we are animals on the farm. My mother for her entire life suffered exploitation and oppression. She was laid off twice. The companies were still not satisfied. They cut the wage substantially so my mother could not take it anymore. She chose to fight and she won. I know it is difficult to fight with the company, but workers united will never be defeated.
Lastly, like Chairman Mao Zedong said: Revolution is not a dinner party nor an essay nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery. It can not be refined leisurely and gentle, kind, temperate, restrained, and so on.
A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another. Solidarity forever. Hope you can taste success.
Workers in Greece celebrate May Day with protests
The National Herald, 5/1–Greece’s growing economy hasn’t convinced workers they are benefiting as labor unions and associations representing workers went on the streets of the capital and other cities on Labor Day to demand higher pay and better conditions…It also brought a strike that shut down ferries and public transportation systems…The country’s international lenders…required big pay cuts, tax hikes, slashed pensions, worker firings, selling off state enterprises and taking away workers rights…the rallies were “ for the unions and the world of labour that they represent, May Day is a day of strike, a symbol of recognition of rights and the struggle for improved working conditions. The vision of the Chicago workers for a better and more dignified life remains relevant…
Workers in Turkey protest despite warlike crackdown
BBC, 5/1–Hundreds of people have been arrested in Istanbul, with 50,000 police officers deployed to the city as authorities attempt to crack down on May Day protests. Public transport was shut down to stop people reaching Taksim Square, where demonstrations have been banned since 2013. Footage showed clashes between riot police and protesters with demonstrators chanting as police forcefully moved detainees onto buses…On Wednesday, 100 people were detained for allegedly planning to protest in the square.
Workers fight to protest despite police oppression
Inquirer.net, 5/1–The scheduled protest by various labor and progressive groups pushed through along Recto Avenue in Manila. The event rolled even as about a hundred police established barricades on roads leading to Mendiola Street— the area where the protesters originally planned to stage their Labor Day demonstration…As of 10:30 a.m., thousands of youth activists and student-led groups arrived in Recto Avenue, trying to penetrate the barricade formed by the Manila Police District (MPD). Aside from their call for a wage hike, they repeatedly shouted: “Tabi! Tabi! Dadaan kami! (Move aside! Move aside! We will pass through!)
Bosses’ analysts explain why war is coming
Foreign Affairs, 4/22–It is every president’s nightmare. The Chinese military is massing troops in Fujian Province and an armada offshore, just across the strait from Taiwan. According to U.S. intelligence, this buildup is no mere feint—Beijing is really preparing for war…
Chinese President Xi Jinping has made clear that retaking Taiwan is essential to what his government calls “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” and Beijing is rapidly expanding its military. It is also just one of many scenarios that would result in a war involving Washington. China is threatening the United States’ treaty allies. Russia is menacing eastern Europe’s NATO members. Iran has accelerated its nuclear program. The odds that the United States might have to fight in a great-power war are higher today than at any point this century.
Israeli-U.S. expansion into Gaza will require more massacres
Al Jazzera, 5/5–Israel’s political and military leaders have approved plans to expand the Gaza offensive and take over aid deliveries to the devastated and starving enclave, according to reports. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet unanimously approved plans to call up reservists and put the Israeli military in charge of food and other vital supplies to the 2.3 million people suffering under its blockade of the Palestinian territory…Israeli officials suggesting that the plans include the “conquest” and occupation of the entire Gaza Strip. The expanded offensive “could go as far as seizing the entire enclave”...
A racist system drives some to embrace racism and kill
The Guardian, 4/21–The gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas…Patrick Crusius was automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole for the massacre near the US-Mexico border. The change of plea comes after local prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. The people who were killed ranged in age from a 15-year-old high school athlete to elderly grandparents. They included immigrants, a retired city bus driver, a teacher, tradesmen including a former ironworker, and several Mexican nationals who had crossed the US border on routine shopping trips. Crusius has acknowledged he targeted Hispanics…when he opened fire…
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Editorial - Capitalism crumbles, workers must rise!
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- 25 April 2025 1258 hits
As the global crisis of capitalism drives the imperialist bosses toward fascism and world war, May Day reminds us of the power workers hold when we unite under the red banner of communist solidarity. On this holiday for the international working class, as Progressive Labor Party mobilizes on five continents , the old U.S.-led world order is collapsing in real time. The struggle for communism has never been more urgent. Communist revolution is the only solution to capitalist exploitation, to poverty and starvation and needless disease—to all the ills of this brutal, rotting profit system.
Despite the turmoil and state terror now facing our class, the revolutionary essence of May Day is a beacon for a working-class future free of racism, sexism, and the rulers’ national borders. This egalitarian world can only be created by masses of workers led by PLP. As the imperialists prepare for their next global bloodbath, let us prepare for communist-led class war that ends their rule forever.
Trade wars lead to shooting wars
In a likely futile move to regain U.S. industrial supremacy, Klansman-in-Chief Donald Trump has escalated a trade war with China by imposing stiff tariffs on U.S. imports. These taxes could spark a deeper recession or depression and devastate the livelihoods of untold millions worldwide. They may also trigger higher inflation, crushing the standard of living for a working class still hurt by the pandemic.
The workers who will suffer most have lived under the boot of imperialism and the liberal bosses’ “free trade” policies for decades. Garment workers in Southeast Asia, toiling for U.S. corporations for dollars a day, will face heightened exploitation and unemployment as the capitalists’ interlocked global economy sinks into chaos (CNBC, 4/8).
Trump’s reckless actions, from the tariffs to wholesale deregulation to wrecking-ball layoffs of federal workers, are meant to serve a group of domestically oriented capitalists within a sharply split U.S. ruling class. They’re also a desperate attempt by U.S. imperialism—once the unquestioned top dog—to reshuffle the deck after years of losing ground to a rising China. The Chinese capitalists are retaliating with their own tariffs and are leveraging their near-monopoly on rare earth minerals, crucial for EVs, fighter jets, and military drones (Christian Science Monitor, 4/18). Despite vague talk of negotiations and de-escalation, the grow-or-die logic of capitalism demands a shooting war as the inevitable outcome.
Bosses unified on racist attacks
The global migrant catastrophe is the product of a sick system that cannot exist without nationalism, racism, and extreme inequality. From Syria to Congo to Sudan to Venezuela, the capitalists’ infighting is making life so unbearable that workers are forced to flee to survive. But their “havens” are Europe and the United States, hotbeds of rising fascism where the bosses use anti-immigrant terror to undercut their rivals and intimidate the working class. Under capitalism, there is no safe place to live or hide.
While the U.S. rulers—Republicans and Democrats alike—are setting the bar for racist scapegoating, it’s a global pathology. Whether it’s Trump buddy Narendra Modi cheering on the lynching of Muslim workers in India, or Israel’s merciless ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank, the bosses are dealing with their latest crisis with even more repression. They can no longer afford the myth of the “rule of law” or their phony constitutional freedoms. They’re slipping the velvet glove of liberal democracy off their fascist iron fist.
Some are suing the Trump administration for its ruthless treatment of migrant workers. After witnessing the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil for the crime of protesting genocide, or Kilmar Abrego Garcia for a trumped-up gang tie, they’re hoping the bosses’ courts will step in and protect them.
But that’s a dangerous illusion.
The only way to combat fascism is to build a mass movement for communism. We know from hard experience that the courts and liberal bosses won’t stop fascism. Sooner than later, they’ll embrace it in a last-ditch effort to preserve their rotting system. In 1994, Bill Clinton signed the crime bill that decimated a generation of Black workers with mass incarceration. In 2011, Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, “codifying indefinite military detention without charge or trial into law for the first time in American history” (ACLU.org). In 2024, Joe Biden broke Trump’s record for deportations (bbc.com, 12/20/24). Counting on “lesser-evil” bosses—including fake leftists like Colombia’s Gustavo Petro or Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum—is a death trap! We must rely instead on the most powerful force of the past, present and future: the international working class.
Liberals are the main danger
The liberal politicians who serve finance capital, the main wing of the U.S. ruling class, will try to use Trump’s vile racist attacks to push workers to vote Democrat in the 2026 midterm elections. These passionate defenders of “free speech” are the same stooges who helped to squash the campus encampments last spring while baby-killer Biden bankrolled Israel’s genocide in Gaza. But not everyone is fooled. The recent anti-Trump rallies by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been disrupted by workers who support our class sisters and brothers in Palestine—and who understand that these reformist phonies are loyal first and last to U.S. imperialism.
Both factions of U.S. rulers agree on backing the Zionist butchers and using racism to exploit and divide workers. Where they disagree is how to prop up their stumbling empire. Trump fronts for the Fortress America wing that’s most focused on domestic profits and control of the Western hemisphere—hence Trump’s threats to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal. They have less interest in being taxed for the soft imperialism of USAID or the military alliance of NATO—or a war in Ukraine.
Finance capital, led by the biggest U.S. banks and multinational oil companies, needs to keep control over Middle East oil and sustain NATO for a likely land war against China. Trump’s camp of rabid dogs is vicious and dangerous, no question. But the liberal bosses are the more expert mass murderers of our class. They’ve shown it through decades of ruthless slaughter, from Vietnam to Iraq to Somalia. They’re also far more skilled in misleading honest anti-racists, the people we need in our movement.
Millions of workers—from the U.S. and Mexico to Europe and the Northern Mariana Islands—are joining anti-Trump demonstrations. Resistance to rising fascism is essential. But if it leads workers back into the liberal bosses’ clutches, it will be a severe setback for the liberation of our class.
Rather than head to the ballot box, workers everywhere must build the fighting PLP.
We need the communist PLP!
The goal of our movement is to destroy the profit system, root and branch—to smash capitalism for all time. The international PLP is organizing for a communist world, where working people collectively run society based on need, where racism and sexism are outlawed. Our main weapon against the bosses is multiracial working-class unity.
Join our Party in raising class consciousness and antiracist ideas in our workplaces and schools and in the streets. Learn with us about the great communist revolutions of the past—and help us write the next chapter of working-class history. Death to the bosses! Power to the working class! March with us on May Day and together let’s build the communist future our class deserves.
