From the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (CoRIM)

Long Live Red May First!

Revolutionary Worker #1149, April 1, 2002, posted at http://rwor.org

The First of May 2002 dawns on a world that is different in many ways from what it was only a short time ago. Most importantly, there has been a leap in the world situation--the forces of imperialism and reaction, headed by the U.S., and the forces of the people, although often scattered and under different kinds of leadership, are locked in combat on a world scale more sharply than at any time in recent decades.

With the declaration of its "war on terrorism," the U.S. has gone on a rampage against the world's people for the all but openly avowed purpose of consolidating a global American empire and enforcing what it considers a "favourable environment" in which to squeeze even greater profits out of the labour of the people in the dominated countries. Acting both through their own troops and their puppets who rule these countries, they have launched a global terror campaign to crush anything that could stand in their way.

While the U.S. launched its aerial bombardments and ground special forces killers on Afghanistan, it also unleashed its Zionist guard dogs against the Palestinian people. Operating with American arms and money and U.S. blessings, Israel is carrying out the bloodiest "ethnic cleansing" since the Zionist settlers first stole the land from the Palestinians.

In country after country the ruling classes are trying to stamp out every spark of the people's resistance. But this is only one aspect of what is becoming an increasingly fierce and more globalised battle on both sides. Every act of resistance by the people to the U.S. war machine is a source of strength for the world-wide revolutionary struggle of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples and nations. The Palestinian people, num-bering only a few million and fighting under desperate circumstances, are taking their place on the frontline of resistance to the U.S.-led offensive, and are daring to stand up and stand fast in the most unequal combat. They have given voice and inspiration to people everywhere and become a major, unexpected and for the imperialists and their flunkies most unwelcome factor in the unfolding of world events. If the U.S. & Co. expected their mechanised "war on terrorism" to be able to simply and smoothly roll over the people, the Palestinian people have shown otherwise.

The Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties have been in the forefront in leading the people in their struggles for liberation. The People's War under the leadership of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) has persevered for nearly 22 years, holding high the red flag of revolution and representing the hopes of the downtrodden for a world they rule and completely transform. In the Philippines, Turkey, India and elsewhere the revolutionary armed struggle is continuing and coming into more and more direct conflict with the U.S.-led crusade. In Nepal during the last few months the People's War launched six years ago has reached a critical juncture. On the one hand, great advances of the People's Liberation Army led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) have made it possible for millions of peasants and their allies to overthrow the feudal landlords and bureaucrat capitalists in vast areas of the countryside, set up their own political power and begin to build a whole new society based on the interests of the people. On the other hand the increasingly cornered ruling class is lashing out against the masses, sending its army to kill, rape and terrorise the common people and abolishing elementary rights through a declaration of emergency. On this May First we call on all revolutionary and progressive people to step up support for the People's War in Nepal and to condemn the State of Emergency.

People living in the imperialist countries, including the USA, are increasingly taking a strong and active stand with the peoples of the world against the parasitic imperialist ruling classes who feed on 90% of the world's people and the proletariat of their own countries. The world-shaking movement against the war in Vietnam is a standard to live up to and surpass in an ever more tumultuous world where resolute and enlightened struggle may open up unprecedented possibilities.

In fact, the U.S. led world-wide reactionary offensive is accelerating the awakening of masses of people across the globe to political life and calling forth its opposite: determined resistance in all its many forms, in a rising spiral of confrontation. The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement supports this resistance wholeheartedly, and will strive to link up its various streams and help lead them into a single raging current that can fully and finally emancipate humanity.

(For more information, write BCM RIM / London WC1N 3XX / UK or visit  www.awtw.org)

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