First of May against Imperialist War and Increasing Prices

By the Editorial Board

Comrades and friends, workers, women and youth, all anti-imperialists!

The Struggle Committee [Kampkomiteen] will mark First of May with you. We will unite on the reddest day of the year, on the International Day of Struggle of the Working Class. We will raise the red banner for an anti-imperialist First of May. We encourage individuals and organizations to go out on the streets together with us. The First of May of this year is marked by a time of war and crisis.

Down with the Imperialist War!

Russian imperialism’s war of aggression against Ukraine is a world-historical event. We condemn the war of aggression of Russian imperialism. We salute the justified liberation struggle of the Ukrainian nation. US imperialism is guilty of genocide in Iraq, Afghanistan and many other countries, and it is also complicit in the situation in Ukraine. Through its lackey in Kiev, US imperialism has done everything to drag Russian imperialism into a protracted war. The war is draining Russia of tens of thousands of young men, billions of rubles and is weakening its economy. With the help of the blood of the heroic Ukrainian people, the US can weaken Russia without sacrificing a single American soldier. Norwegian media and Norwegian politicians are participating in the propaganda war of the US and NATO. The correct stand today is not to support NATO or Zelenskiy, only the Ukrainian people, and all the peoples of the world, against imperialism.

Russian imperialism is now the main enemy of the Ukrainian People. The superpower the United States is the main enemy of all the peoples of the world. Our main enemy in Norway is Norwegian imperialism. The Norwegian state and capital plunder countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The blood of the masses flows in the rivers Statkraft is damming up in Chile, and the blood of poor peasants of Brazil mixes with the chemicals of Norsk Hydro in the Amazon. The main enemy changes with the situation, but real anti-imperialists are against all imperialism, against all imperialists, and in particular we are against Norwegian imperialism. Only this is true anti-imperialism and internationalism.

Fight against Increased Prices – Strike for Higher Wages!

As stated, we live in a time of war and crisis. The crisis of capitalism swept the world again in 2020. Consumption in Norwegian households fell by around 15 percent that year. The crisis has been followed by economic depression, with major problems for many industries. Now working people will pay for a new economic recovery. We will pay with higher prices for food, clothing and electricity. Electricity prices have risen dramatically and we have an energy price crisis in Europe. Working people will pay with increased interest rates to the banks and increased taxes to the state. At the same time as the state throws money at the capitalists, with crisis packages and tax deductions, the state will also cut our welfare. They are announcing tight budgets and future cuts in the healthcare system.

The only weapons working people have faced with the crisis and rising prices are struggle and organization. The brief major strike in April shows three things. Firstly, it shows that the class struggle is also getting harder in Norway. Secondly, it shows that the leadership of the LO is continuing the hundred years of class treason of social democracy. Thirdly, that the capitalists fear the strike. The strike is our primary means of struggle to slow the decline in real wages. Working people got poorer in 2022 and it continues in 2023. Everything is getting more expensive, without wages keeping up. Hence, we get lower wages. Real wages are falling and we must stop the decline with class struggle.

Long Live the People’s Struggle! Forward for the Popular Protests!

All over the world, people are rising up for struggle again and again. The Iranian people have fought heroically against the reactionary clerical regime. We salute the martyrs, the heroes and the whole Iranian people on this First of May! For the working class, international solidarity is not a mere phrase. For us, international solidarity is the core of everything we stand for and everything we do, because we are an international class. It is our enemies who want to divide us by nationality, skin color and religion. We salute our brothers and sisters in Palestine, who have risen up against Zionism during this year’s Ramadan.

Also in Europe, the people are struggling. We salute our comrades in France, and all the masses in France who have risen up against the pension reform of Macron. The capitalist states are ruled by thieves and bandits, and it is right to rebel against them. Millions have protested in France. The banner of revolt is being raised in Paris, as many times before. The French masses are leading the way! Combat and resistance, popular protests, our own organization, that is our path! The barricades against cuts in welfare and rising prices must be tangible, physical, concrete barricades. Barricades must be built in the streets and the people’s rage must be vented. Only in this way will the capitalists and imperialists fear us enough to meet our demands.

Raise the red banner against repression! The martyrs are alive in the struggle!

Those who struggle face resistance from the rulers. This has always been the case. We know it, we are prepared for it, but we do not accept it! The state is expanding its surveillance of the people. They have introduced a new intelligence law that allows the Norwegian Intelligence Service and the Police Security Service to mass monitor people online. In France, our comrades are being beaten with batons and sprayed with pepper spray. In Ireland, the political police are raiding Irish anti-imperialists, taking computers, phones and political material. Our comrades in Mexico and Brazil, in India, the Philippines, Turkey and Peru, are persecuted, tortured and killed because they fight for land to the tiller. It is the blood of such heroes that has colored the banner red.

The First of May was born in struggle. It commemorates the martyrs of the Haymarket riots in Chicago in 1886. The police attacked the demonstration of workers and the heroes who fought the police were punished. Seven were sentenced to death and four of these were hanged. It is particularly in memory of the Haymarket martyrs that we mark this day on the First of May. We must not forget that when we gather on the First of May, we unite with the generations before us, with all those who have given their lives for this day and for a world free from oppression and exploitation. We must not forget that when we gather on the First of May, we unite with struggling people on every continent. We unite in all countries of the world, across nations and generations, under the same banner. Join us on the First of May and raise this banner with us.

Workers and oppressed of all countries, unite!

Down with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine!

Combat and resist!