First of May activities all over the world

All over the world the working class in millions have taken to the streets on May Day confronting the rotten imperialist system. This year, demonstrations were larger than in years and protested especially the rising costs of living all over the world. Hereby we share some short reports on actions done.

In France, approximately 2.5 million people took the streets according to the unions. Fierce violent clashes erupted between protesters and the police in cities like Paris, Lyon, Nantes and Toulouse. More than 100 police were injured, some heavily by having been set ablaze with petrol bombs. More than 200 protesters were detained. Activists of Partizan joined the revolutionary youth in Paris and participated in protests which clashed intensively with the police.

In the Philippines, 10 000 marched in Manila. The protesters demanded wage increases and denounced the Marcos regime and its pro-Yankee policies. The president Marcos left for US for talks with Joe Biden the day before, with the imperialist superpower vowing to commit more on the ”security” of the Philippines with larger military presence. This just increased the anger of the protesters, who said that instead of listening the demands of the workers, the president sells the country to the US. The same demands were raised in many other cities too. Some demonstrations faced harassment like arbitrary searches from the police, which had mobilized in large numbers to repress protests.

We received the following report from Santiago de Chile: From Santiago de Chile, we share images of the statement of the ICL in the march of the International Day of the Working Class.

The statement of the ICL was distributed among the masses participating to the class conscious march and were put up on the walls.

Red flags and the flags of the Mapuche struggle accompanied the activists that distributed the message of the ICL among the masses, who afterwards confronted strongly the repression launched by the government of the opportunist Boric and revisionism, in the service of Yankee imperialism.

Long live the ICL! Long live the proletarian world revolution!

We have earlier reported on the demonstrations in Istanbul, Dersim and Diyarbakır in Turkey. In Samandağ activists marched among the ruins of the city left by the deadly earthquake, demanding that the State is held accountable for the high death toll and misery caused by the earthquake. The activists carried banners with the silhouette of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, shouting slogans for the communist leader and vowing to follow the path of People’s War shown by him. This month, it will be 50 years since Kaypakkaya withstood torture and was murdered by the old Turkish State.

In Ankara, Partizan took part in the union demonstration, shouting slogans for Ibrahim Kaypakkaya and ”Long live the 1st of May!” in Turkish and Kurdish. The demonstration started with a minute of silence for the victims of the earthquake, and highlighted that the State should be held accountable for the destruction.

Thousands of people attended a rally in Izmir, among them the contingent of Partizan. A minute of silence was held for the martyrs of the revolution and the victims of the earthquake.

Also in various other cities of Turkey large demonstrations took place.

In Europe, many organizations of Turkish immigrants participated in demonstrations. In Vienna, they joined the Austrian revolutionaries in a block which raised slogans like ”IBO is alive, TİKKO is fighting, long live our party TKP/ML!” and “Long live Proletarian Internationalism!” and celebrated the ICL and the legacy of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya.

A lively demonstration also took place in Innsbruck, Austria, where revolutionaries made various speeches and distributed posters and leaflets. Also revolutionary songs and marches were sung in various languages and traditional dance halay was danced.

In Liège, Belgium, the protesters demanded that the bourgeoisie pays their own crisis and showed solidarity with an ongoing strike of Delhaize supermarker chain workers. Slogans for Kaypakkaya and TKP/ML were shouted in Turkish, Kurdish and French.

In Zurich, Switzerland, thousands of people gathered to the May Day demonstration. Turkish revolutionaries participated in the march, especially highlighting the legacy of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya. According to the report, this year the Swiss police displayed an especially hostile attitude towards the march.

Also from Basel there are reports of police harassment. The demonstration there was stopped after a few meters and encircled by repression forces.

Partizan has also issued a statement on the police attack on their contingent in Maltepe, Istanbul. They highlight that the attack shows that still, 50 years of his murder, the reaction fears Ibrahim Kaypakkaya and attacks specifically those who carry his picture. In the statement, Partizan denounces the response of the Organizing Committee of the demonstration and the unions, who conciliated with the police. The Organizing Committee went even so far as to ban the revolutionaries from taking the podium. Partizan highlights that despite this, the revolutionary block, consisting of many organizations, showed good fighting spirit and solidarity in resisting the attack.

2000 people took part in the May Day demonstration in Albacete, Spain. A Red Block marched with the flags of the International Communist League carrying a banner with the lemma ”Proletarians of all countries, unite!”. The block also carried posters and shouted slogans against the mega-project Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico and for the alive presentation of Dr. Ernesto Sernas García, who was made to disappear by the old Mexican state in 2018. Other combative slogans shouted were “Long live Marx! Long live Lenin! Long live Mao Tse-tung! ” and “We want bread, a roof and work! All power to the proletariat!”. The revolutionary newspaper Servir al Pueblo reports that these slogans rang out clearly and loudly, even so, that a yellow union representative got concerned and tried in vain to stop the activists from shouting their slogans.

In Aalborg, Denmark, revolutionaries marched in the union demonstration with a large banner with the slogan ”Down with imperialist war! Long live the Proletarian World Revolution!”. The Internationale and other proletarian songs were sung and slogans like ”Strenghten the international solidarity!”, ”Wave by wave, blow by blow! Against imperialism and patriarchy!”, ”No fascists on our streets!” and ”Combat, resist! Hoist the red flag!”. In the ending point of the demonstration activists distributed flyers against imperialist war, in support of the people’s wars in the world and for the ICL.

We also share the May Day-statement of the Committee for the Reconstitution of the Communist Party of Mexico. It says about the interest of the Mexican government:

“The proletariat and the Mexican workers must observe that the labor politics implemented by 4T, including the so-called “union autonomy” (tutelaged, administrated and supervised by the old State), also the increase of the salaries registered during this four years are not “a social justice act” of the federal government to the working class, but a palliative that serves to demobilize and push the application of the T-MEC and the imposition of the mega projects as the bad-called “Tren Maya” [Maya’s train], the Interoceanic Corridior of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT), the refinery Dos Bocas, the Integral Project Morelos (PIM), the International Airport Felipe Ángeles (AIFA), the pipelines, the super highways, etc. that now are considered works of “public interest and national security” under the vigilance of and administrated by the army and the marine.”

The statement ends:

“Against this terrible scenario we must unify the voice of the command: We need one victory, one for everyone, the price does not stops us! We need to reconstitute the Communist Party of Mexico as a militarized party!”

In Tampere, Finland, activists started the day with an event on the memorial of the martyrs of the revolution of 1918. The event ended in the Internationale and slogans “Long live proletarian internationalism!” and “Death to revisionism!”. After this, the activists formed an anti-imperialist block in the union demonstration in the city. Flyers with the statement of the ICL and a statement of the anti-imperialist block were distributed. Also fascists had organized a march in the city in a heavy police protection, and a contingent of revolutionaries mobilized to protest the march.

In Bremen, Germany, activists participated in the union demonstration, distributing flyers with the founding declaration of the recently founded Red League (Roter Bund).

In Bremerhaven the Red Women’s Committee organized a march under the slogan “Combat and resist the rising prices and militarization!” The residents of the area participated in the demonstration carrying flags and signs with their daily demands. After this there was a festivity with food, drinks and music.

In Hamburg, the Anti-imperialist Alliance participated in the union demonstration. Especially youth marched in the front row with the flags of the ICL and the Red League, united with various organizations.

The newspaper Nueva Democracia from Colombia has released a statement on the occasion of the 1st of May:

“On the occasion of the First of May, international day of the working class and the working people, the newspaper New Democracy wants to express a heartwarming and fraternal greet to the proletariat and the people of the world and particularly from Colombia, reaffirming that our pages will always be part of the people to broaden their struggles, defend their rights, unmask the oppressors and false friends, and to elevate the conscious of our path to the truly freedom and happiness for the people and the nation goes in our country through the New Democratic revolution.”

Also they add one analysis about imperialism in Colombia and how to combat it. They end the statement saying:

“For those who know a little bit about the importance that Yankee imperialism plays in the world, it is evident that it is not possible, as the new government says, to make an agrarian reform “with the United States! Nor the big landowners as Jose Felix Lafaurie; it is also not possible that the United States brings “economical prosperity in the Americas” as Petro stated in his latest travel to the United States. On the other hand, the prosperity of Colombia and of Latin America, their agrarian reforms demand that the people destroys the large estates and to drive out Yankee imperialism from our country by the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolution, one revolution of new democracy.”

Until now it has been reported that red flags with the hammer and sickle were at least put up in the cities of Oslo, Copenhagen, Bremen, Trondheim, Bergen, Hamburg, Aarhus, Bremenhaven, Aalborg and Oldenburg.