Long live Mayday, the day of international workers' solidarity!

Worker Communist Party of Iraq, 20 April 2002

The capitalist world is an inverted world full of inequality and oppression. Not one day passes without an attack by the capitalists and their governments on the workers. Not one day passes without a new attempt to further deprive the producers of humanity's wealth, to deprive those who create humanity's prosperity and development. By closing factories and production enterprises, by laying-off workers, by undermining social security and services, by increasing working hours and reducing wages, by replacing collective contracts with individual contracts, by introducing new laws that undermine the rights of workers to organize, picket, demonstrate and hold public gatherings and by removing workers' rights won during centuries of heroic struggle by the working class, we see the rampant implementation of the agenda of the bourgeoisie.

The word worker has become synonymous with deprivation yet the situation of unemployed workers is much more disastrous and their lot in capitalist society is one of poverty, starvation and deprivation.

Yet it is the workers' toil that provides the excessive riches of society's parasites. Their accumulating wealth, and profits is at the expense of the vast majority of people on our planet. What kind of system is the one, which cannot maintain itself without forty thousand children, starving to death everyday? What kind of system is one which can not stand on its feet without forcing tens of millions of women to work in the sex industry as the only mean to support their children and families? What can we expect from a system, which cannot maintain its ominous life without grinding the tender bodies of tens of millions of children through child labour? What a disastrous system is the one, which makes millions of children, already living in poverty, destitution, ignorance and illiteracy, pawns for nationalist, religious, sectarian and tribal wars in Africa, Asia and Latin America! What system is this which forces millions of youth to drug addiction to escape the hell created by it? What kind of system is the one, which survives only through wars, sanctions and ethnic cleansing, creating new layers of dispossessed people in different parts of the world every year?

But it is obvious that those phenomenons are showing only one part of the reality. The other part is the growing and determined resistance by the workers, despite the pressure and fierce attacks by the ruling class. The most recent examples are the strike of 13 million workers in Italy; the demonstrations of workers in Argentina who through class courage and strong mobilization overthrew one government after the other. The demonstration of workers in Geneva, and Etoboury against the capitalist politicians of the world and before this the protests in Russia, Germany, Turkey and France prove everyday that our class is alive and powerful. This is the force, which will change the world and save humanity from the dark future of capitalist crisis.

Comrades!
Freedom and equality loving masses!

How long should we stay prisoners of capitalist greed? How long should we toil and suffer to swell the pockets of capitalists and then be thrown out with little or no security during the system's crises? This system needs to be consigned to the dustbin of history. This system along with its parties, politicians, governments, parliaments, criminals and dictators (the defenders of capital), oppressive apparatus, clergies, journalists and " neutral" media men and women must be swept away. It is impossible to achieve humanity's happiness and prosperity without removing this system and all its defenders and apologists.

It is obvious for all of humanity that the dignity of individuals in society and the rights, social security and liberties they deserve are linked to the strength and unity of the workers. The degree and access to human rights are directly linked to the status of workers in society and the development of the working class. In contemporary society where workers are divided and deprived of rights and liberties, we hear no discussion of providing any kind of social security and social liberties.

Mayday is the day when the voices of conscious workers are raised. It is a day for all of humanity, all the deprived peoples, all the children who dream of a better life, all women who strive for equality, every young person who seeks a world without reactionary and anti- human ethics, all of us who dream of a world full of prosperity, hope, happiness, freedom and equality. It is a day for us to raise our voices for a new world to be built on the rubble of this rotten system.

Mayday is the day when conscious workers stand against capitalists and their politicians and governments, be they western parliamentary dictatorships or the absolute dictatorships of countries like Iraq, Syria, and Iran. It is the day when conscious workers stand against the capitalists' obedient and submissive media. It is a day when the working class announces that a new era must begin, an era of human dignity, equality, and freedom.

For the workers in Iraq, Mayday is the day to demand the immediate end of inhumane economic sanctions and the immediate end to US militarism against the people in Iraq. It is a day to demand the repeal of the Hussein regime's resolution, which changed the status of all workers in Iraq to public servants. It is the day to demand the introduction of a progressive labour legislation. It is the day to demand the right of workers to organize strikes and hold demonstrations. It is the day to demand the increase of wages and other social and political rights. These rights represent the way forward in advancing their struggle to overthrow the fascist Ba`ath regime and build the socialist alternative.

Long live May Day!
Long live workers' internationalism!
Long live the socialist republic!