ALL OUT FOR MAY DAY!

On May 1 workers the world over will again march on May Day, the day of international working-class solidarity. It arrives when the workers of Europe have mounted a big strike wave, with the Greek workers turning out in millions for one-day general strikes against government austerity measures. Meanwhile, militant mass struggles continue to boil in Nepal and India; over the past period workers of Iran, Thailand, Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere have also shed blood in broad popular struggles against tyranny. Yet wherever they live and struggle this May Day, the need for the workers to organize themselves into an independent class force is being driven home. Take the situation in the United States:

The Obama-led attacks on immigrants

While the racist Tea Party and others are working to stir an ugly anti-immigrant mass movement and must be fought; it is the Obama government which has power, and it is brutally using this power against undocumented immigrants. For example, last year the number of deportations was a record 387,790, more than under Bush.

But this is not all. Obama also supports the reactionary Schumer-Graham “comprehensive immigration reform” framework, a framework designed to increase the exploitation of immigrant workers, and which will increase the number of families torn apart by ICE raids. This proposal includes: 1) Bolstering “border security and interior enforcement,” which would include requiring a police-state biometric Social Security card for all legal U.S. workers, citizen and immigrant. 2) Planning for “circular migration,” or “creating a process for admitting temporary workers”---in other words they want to bring back something like the notorious bracero program. 3) Awarding green cards to highly educated immigrants in certain fields, but treating other undocumented people as criminals. They would have to “admit they broke the law,” perform unpaid “community service,” and pay fines in order to get a green card, after years of waiting. And Shumer and Graham unite with the anti-democratic demagogues in demanding that “these people (their words!) be proficient in English.”

The Obama Administration's deportations policy already drives undocumented workers into the shadows, and if his immigration reform ideas are turned into law this will worsen. The capitalist class loves this because they can treat the migrant workers as semi-slaves, which acts to drive down the conditions of all workers.

Imperialist war

The workers and poor of Afghanistan and Iraq are being murdered and oppressed by U.S. troops, as well as by reactionary, undemocratic governments, and right-wing oppositions like the Taliban. And after a million Iraqis have died as the result of a blatantly imperialist war to dominate Middle Eastern oil resources, “our” government has now escalated the slaughter in Afghanistan, and expanded it into Pakistan. With the summer offensive not yet started, the murders of innocent Afghans are more than double that of this time last year; while Obama has become the world’s chief assassin with his drone attacks. The fact that the U.S. has installed and props up an Afghan government of fundamentalists, warlords, and other anti-democratic scoundrels gives lie to the claim that this is some kind of “good war.” Instead, it’s part of U.S. imperialism’s maneuvering for power and influence in Central Asia.

Mass impoverishment

At the beginning of this Great Recession the Democrats and Republicans united to hand Wall Street trillions of dollars, but they plead poverty when it came to relieving the plight of the masses. And today, with 30 million workers either unemployed or underemployed, 40 million people on food stamps, and the number of home foreclosures continuing to rise, Obama still has no serious program for jobs and relief. Furthermore, he's “color blind” about the fact that Black and other national minorities are being most economically devastated of all.

Meanwhile, the employers have been recovering their profits by slashing wages and benefits, speeding up their reduced workforces, and ignoring safety. The latter combination is exhausting and injury-causing, and inevitably becomes capitalist-organized murder: On April 5, 29 West Virginia coal miners were murdered in this way; while over 5000 workers are killed on the job yearly, with Latino construction workers being the most disproportionate victims.

Organize the resistance struggles!

A quarter million people have marched and rallied for immigrant rights so far this spring. The Tea Partiers and neo-Nazis have been confronted by strong counter-protests. Mass protests against Arizona's new racist “brown code” law have erupted. Anti-war protests continue. Temple University nurses and others walked out on strike March 31, which has been followed by several other strikes. There have been demonstrations of students and workers against tuition hikes and budget cuts. And struggles against the worsening conditions in workplaces, homelessness, foreclosures, and environmental ruin continue.

On May Day we hail all of these necessary, self-sacrificing, and often exciting struggles. Yet we also know that they remain modest. A more powerful movement against the Obama-led assault on immigrants must be built. With the working people of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, being decimated by “our” government, the anti-war movement must be built further. And with millions of workers wanting to fight back against economic ruin but most of them without organization (while those in trade unions are continually betrayed by leaders who oppose a class struggle policy) the need to organize is again obvious.

As we march on May Day, let us commit ourselves to further organizing all of these present struggles of the oppressed, and to forging them into a united struggle against the capitalist class enemy. Let us carry forward the class movement that gave rise to the great U.S. general strike for the 8-hour day that began May 1,1886.

Stop Obama’s ICE raids and deportations!

Full rights for all immigrants now!

U.S. imperialism get out of Afghanistan and Iraq!

Make the rich pay for the capitalist economic crisis!

Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite!

Seattle Anti-Imperialist Committee, April 27, 2010

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March on May Day, fighting holiday of the world’s workers!

Meet Saturday, noon, May1 at Judkins Playfield, behind St. Mary’s Church, 611 20th Ave. So.

March sponsored by El Comite Pro-Reforma-Migratoria y Justicia Social & Washington Immigrant Rights Action Coalition.