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May 20, 2023
by Frank Arango, Seattle Workers’ Voice
Once again workers around the world took to the streets on May 1, the day of working-class solidarity and struggle.
Most dramatic were the massive demonstrations in France, where the Interior Minister said some 800,000 people filled the streets, while the trade-unions say some 2.3 million people marched. Additionally, some 300 people were arrested and over 100 cops were reported to have been injured in street clashes. Fueling this great outpouring of anger and protest was President Macron's raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 in April.
But May Day marches and rallies were held in other countries that, although much smaller in size, also had significance. Just one example is Myanmar (Burma), where the military seized power in their February 1, 2021 coup d'état. There, from the beginning the workers--especially women working in the garment industry--have played a very important role in the struggle for democracy, and today they're participating in the armed and other forms of struggle aimed at overthrowing military rule. But the democratic movement is a multi-class movement that is led by numerous bourgeois politicians from the old government. Thus, in order to put their stamp on what a future democratic government will look like requires that the workers organize their own political movement, and this year's secretive organization of a rally of 300 workers in a liberated zone of the country and some smaller rural marches seem to be steps in this direction.
There were also May Day rallies, marches and meetings in the United States, with the following being a report on what happened in Seattle.
About 200 people turned out for the march and rally called by El Comité and the May 1st Action Coalition. Present were
a) members of groups that claim to be communist or socialist: the Communist Party USA, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Freedom Socialist Party, International League of Peoples' Struggle, Party of Communists, Puget Sound Revolutionary Study Group, Puget Sound Rifle Association, Red Flag, Seattle Revolutionary Socialists, Socialist Alternative and Workers World Party (missing were the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Revolutionary Communist Party),
b) members of several trade unions as well as a group of young Starbucks workers who are struggling to organize their workplaces,
c) people with no apparent organizational affiliations who wanted to stand up for immigrant and workers rights (the call by the demonstration sponsors) and who wanted to find and talk with like-minded people, and/or who wanted to support or become part of the working-class movement more generally.
Unite Here Local 8 was one of the co-sponsors, while the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) had the largest union contingent (20-30 people). The International League of Peoples' Struggle also had a contingent of 20-30 people, mainly young Filipinos and other Asians.
It was very difficult to hear the rally speakers unless one was near the front of the crowd. I was not, but from what I could hear they varied in quality. Some militantly stood up in defense of immigrants and denounced capitalism, imperialism and racism, but I couldn't hear the specific things that they called for struggles on. Others took the non-class approach that we're all human beings and should act humanely. But I think the main thing about the speeches was that they went on for so long that people began leaving before the march started.
So that said, the most exciting thing about this May Day to me was the number of young people who turned out. And this includes young people who are already in groups. For example, in talking with members of the Puget Sound Revolutionary Study Group I learned that they study classic Marxist works. But while they also study Maoism, they entirely agreed that the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) was once economist, then altogether abandoned working-class organizing in order to float in society, and now for years has worked to steer the masses toward reliance on the liberals with dramatic appeals. (I added that the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines has done this for decades. (1)) Members of the group believed that the RCP followed this opportunist course because it had abandoned Maoism, however, and while I disagreed with this assessment, the fact that they had it didn't bother me because they were quite young and have the potential to learn a lot if they persist. Further, it didn't bother them when I said that the anti-revisionist trend the Communist Voice Organization originates from at one time strongly upheld Mao, Stalin and Enver Hoxha as being Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries, but through putting the Marxist-Leninist theory into practice and more study those then young revolutionaries learned that they had been wrong about Mao, Stalin and Hoxha.
Indeed, no one is born a revolutionary, and to become and remain one constantly requires criticism and abandonment of previously held wrong ideas or methods—which can be difficult. But so many young people turning out for May Day in Seattle this year shows that they're beginning to take this path. I think this should be encouraging to all who are exploited and oppressed by capital, and to all who seek liberation from its chains.
(1) The Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines has actually gone farther than misleading the workers about the nature of the liberals. In 2016 CPP supported the right-wing populist demagogue Rodrigo Duterte's successful campaign for president, calling him a progressive. <>
Picture of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar May Day rally held somewhere in Karen State.
Notice the large number of women present. A lot of women who used to
work in the garment industry have returned to the countryside due to
the big economic crisis.
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