Today we echo the words of Rosa Luxemburg that “May Day this year stands out particularly because it is being celebrated in the midst of the noises of war.” In Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Myanmar, Iran and across the world war is destroying life, communities, the planet and taking us closer towards even greater catastrophes.
We stand in unwavering solidarity with the people of Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran and all those living under bombardment, occupation, and the violence of imperial power. Their struggles are not separate from ours; they are part of the same global fight against exploitation, war, and domination. Internationalism is not optional, it is the lifeblood of socialism.
At home, we face a rising far-right feeding on and amplifying racism, transphobia, and misogyny. We are witnessing an epidemic of violence against women and girls and we have seen repeated violent attacks on our Muslim, Jewish and Trans neighbours, on places of worship, on LGBT+ venues. These forces seek to fracture our class and obscure the real enemy: a system that thrives on inequality and crisis. This May Day we recommit ourselves to building practical unity across workplaces, communities, and movements to resist reaction in all its forms.
The current Labour government, looks to be the most authoritarian in generations, seeking to limit freedom of speech, the right to protest and to organise and make disrupting the machines of war an act of terrorism. The power of the Palestine solidarity movement, a movement that has touched every part of this country, has so far shown great resilience and all attempts to silence the mass movement, to hide the British state’s complicity in genocide have been stridently defeated. This May Day we restate our solidarity with those who have paid a high price for furthering and defending this movement. They truly are the best of us.
We fight for a world beyond war and scarcity, a world of freedom, dignity, and abundance for all. To end, as we started we further echo Luxemburg that now “more than ever, in the presence of war, the specifically proletarian demonstration must also be the expression of this idea, that the realisation of universal peace cannot be conceived of except as linked to the realisation of our socialist final goal.”
That future will not be handed to us; it will be won through struggle, solidarity, and working class power.
Long Live May Day.
We urge everyone to join the Nakba 78: March for Palestine – United against Tommy Robinson & the far right – Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DB on Saturday 16 May @ 12pm.