Revolutionary Worker #904, May 1, 1997, International Workers Day
"We happen to live in the homeland of these imperialists, directly under their boot. And yes, we have to make revolution in this country, but not just for ourselves and not with our heads down and our vision narrow. We have to make revolution in unity with and together with and for the cause of the whole international proletariat."
Revolution--all over the world. This is the spirit of May First, International Workers Day. Ever since workers were gunned down by police in Chicago over 100 years ago--just for fighting to be treated like human beings--May Day has been a day for revolutionary action all over the world.
May Day is the day of the proletariat, the modern-day wage slaves who work on modern-day plantations and factories of the capitalists. Some of us have slave jobs and some of us are jobless, surviving however we can. At a time when technology and the capacity to produce have reached previously unimaginable heights, it is criminal that billions of people remain poor. All over the world, peasants are land-poor and starving in the countryside. People are uprooted, tossed into shantytown slums. Millions are forced to leave their countries just to find work. More than ever, the world is treated as a huge sweatshop--enforced by U.S.-supplied guns-- where millions of men, women and children work for a few dollars to make Nike shoes, Barbie dolls, and new-age computers under inhuman conditions.
May Day is a day when workers and peasants all over the world dedicate their lives to getting rid of this bloodsucking system once and for all. We dare to dream of a world without this system of rich nations exploiting and feeding on the people and resources of poorer nations, a world where no one is forced to a desparate scramble for work, where there is no oppression or racism or male domination or elite classes--a world where common people work and struggle in common for a better life for all: COMMUNISM.
And May Day is a day we raise our red flag and declare straight-up: Our struggle is a profoundly international struggle, we are part of the world revolution. We speak many languages, our dress and culture is varied, and our complexions and features are beautifully diverse. But what we share is deep. We share the same enemy and many of the same forms of oppression with millions of exploited and oppressed around the world. And we share a burning desire to end this hell on earth. A blow struck in one country against imperialism weakens our common enemy and inspires and incites our sisters and brothers in every corner of the globe.
We Maoist revolutionaries support every act of resistance to imperialism around the world, every uprising of the people against reactionaries and oppressors. But we especially support and cherish those struggles led by a Maoist vanguard party because that is the path of all-the-way revolution which will lead to true liberation.
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM) is a living science. We learn from our greatest advances and temporary defeats so our cause can become stronger and we can win. The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) is an international movement which today joins together revolutionary parties in different countries on the basis of MLM. It is resolutely opposed to all imperialists and all traitors and betrayers of revolution.
The Central Committee of the RCP,USA on this occasion of May 1, 1997 calls on all proletarians and allies in the U.S. to salute and support the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), which our party proudly participates in. We call on you to honor all the struggling masses worldwide--especially those in the front lines carrying out people's war against the imperialists and local reactionaries.
In Peru, this May marks the 17th anniversary of the initiation of the people's war. The Communist Party of Peru (PCP, known in the media as "Shining Path") is a participating party in the RIM. It is leading the masses in this war, centered in the countryside of Peru. This has been, and remains, a front line battle of the world proletarian revolution. Led by the PCP Central Committee, the PCP is determined to advance--not only in the face of the counterrevolutionary assaults of the hated U.S.-backed Fujimori regime, but also in defiance of a line that emerged from within their party calling for negotiations and abandoning the people's war. We salute our comrades in Peru, who are fighting to carry forward the battle and bring forward greater victories.
In February 1996 a people's war was begun in the mountainous country of Nepal in Asia. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), another RIM participant, has led the masses to initiate this war and they have begun to forge another advanced outpost of the world proletarian revolution. From the heights of a subcontinent with a billion oppressed people, the initiation of this war has sounded the Maoist call, "It's Right to Rebel!" We give our firm support to the people of Nepal in the long struggle that lies ahead.
In the Philippines a people's war was begun in 1968 led by another Maoist party, the Communist Party of the Philippines. We welcome the blows this struggle continues to strike at our U.S. imperialist rulers, who have oppressed the Philippines for 100 years. The CPP is not part of the RIM, though we share much in common. In the last few years the CPP has been in the midst of a rectification campaign to uproot serious errors which had steered that party off course--away from Mao's revolutionary line. We continue to support and learn from this crucial campaign; we encourage its deepening and hope that through this struggle the CPP and its New People's Army will make further new advances on Mao's revolutionary road.
Worldwide, our struggles support each other, but more is needed--we need revolutionary Maoist vanguard parties in every part of the world. And we need these parties to be part of international organization devoted to revolution. In this way we can concentrate our knowledge, focus our energies, and make bigger breakthroughs for the liberation of our class and all oppressed worldwide. Eventually, this needs to take the form of a new, Maoist communist international. Today, the RIM is the embryonic center of our international movement, helping us to move toward our goal.
This May First, the RCP, USA renews this clear commitment and calls on people in the U.S. to join us:
We are prepared to carry out our internationalist responsibility--to lead the people in the U.S. to make revolution here at the soonest possible opportunity, and to do our all to suppport the world revolution.
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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