Opinion Editorials, May 2009

May Day Greetings, 2009

By the US Freedom Socialist Party

ccun.org, May 3, 2009

The Freedom Socialist Party, U.S. sends solidarity greetings to all working folk on this international workers' holiday, rooted in the fierce nineteenth century struggle in the U.S. to reduce the working day. After decades of strikes, protests, and union pressure, the eight-hour day was finally won in 1938 in the midst of the Depression.

Massive mobilizations like these are needed again today. Working people in the U.S. are contending with terrible wars, lost jobs, foreclosed homes, undernourished and under-educated children and lack of medical services. Civil liberties are denied in the name of "homeland security" and attacks on immigrants, people of color and queers portend a nascent fascism that must be countered quickly. In all of this, women are hit the hardest.

There are localized pockets of resistance but not yet many instances of large-scale actions. Most union leaders, who gave millions in dues-payers' money to elect President Obama, are waiting for his largesse. Many workers are stunned by the real fear that their next paycheck may be their last, at a time when social safety nets are also disappearing. But just as workers led a huge resurgence of militant organizing in 1933 after relative quiet at the outset of the Great Depression, today's generation of workers will have an opportunity to take the offensive. By fighting back, workers will build the confidence to rid the world of the profit system and institute socialism.

This is a time for the international Left to build united fronts with union members and community activists to push the labor movement to protect workers on and off the job. In a fruitful instance of collaboration, members of Radical Women and the Socialist Party are among the leadership of the Stop the Checkpoints Committee to protect immigrant and civil rights on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. FSP is also working with the multi-union, rank-and-file caucus Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity (OWLS@riseup.net) to demand that the rich be heavily taxed and to resist cuts in services. Melbourne FSP is building coalitions within unions to fight austerity programs. And the U.S. party is also engaged in joint organizing to defeat free trade agreements in Latin America and the U.S.

There is a real opportunity today for conscious militants and political radicals. We can prepare our organizations and the international working class with an understanding of labor history and the shortcomings of capitalism so that the uprising, when it comes, can be conclusive. The immediate task is to build a mass movement by arming ourselves with Marxist analysis and taking part in protests, demonstrations, hearings, labor stoppages and any of the many other activities aimed at stopping budget cuts, layoffs, and handouts to capitalists.

With diligence and good luck, by next May Day we could be on the road to taking it all back from the bankers, and then some!

Freedom Socialist Party

U.S. Section 4710 University Way NE, #100 Seattle, WA 98105 USA

Australian Section PO Box 266 Brunswick, VIC 3055 Australia