May 1st Declaration:

For a Class Independence way out against the Attacks of Capital!

STATEMENT of IWL(FI) Written by IWL-FI – International Secretariat   Tuesday, 29 April 2014 18:21 Despite all attempts by the international bourgeoisie and the trade unions bureaucracy to clear its meaning, May Day remains valid as ever as an international day of struggle of the working class and all the oppressed of the world.   It is the date when workers remember the heroic martyrs of Chicago, who gave their lives for the the working class to achieve the eight-hour workday 128 years ago. It’s time to join ranks and honor all those who died in the workers’ struggle against capitalist exploitation and oppression, which gives us more strength to face the current clashes.   May Day is synonymous with working class organization and struggle worldwide. It is the day  the exploited claim their struggle against the exploiters in all countries; a day of struggle against the bosses, their governments, & the Trade Union bureaucracies, & in defense of the political independence of the working class and of proletarian internationalism.

The deeper meaning of May Day is currently more relevant than ever

This year, May Day meets the working class and the oppressed of the world before one of the most troubled political situations that has occurred in many decades.   To exit the structural crisis in which the entire world capitalist system is immersed, the national bourgeoisies and imperialism continue to attack the historical rights and living standards of the working class and the people. They do this through very hurtful “austerity plans” dictated by the imperialist governments and applied by the various capitalist governments.   These attacks, which in many cases are combined with the increasing difficulty of the trade unions’ bureaucratic apparatus attempt to control the actions of the working class, have unleashed an explosion of countless struggles in several countries and continents. The peoples of the world have decided not to march to degradation and barbarism without fighting back.   This is the social and political basis for an international reality that is marked by great popular demonstrations, general strikes, insurrections, revolutions, civil wars, fall of governments and regimes, etc.   The epicenter of this world scene are still the heroic revolutions that, with ups and downs, are shaking the strategic region of North Africa and the Middle East. The civil war in Syria and the revolutionary process in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia are distinguished features in that part of the world. Furthermore, the European continent is boiling, especially in the southern countries (Greece, Spain, Portugal). This struggle of the working class and the European masses gave a step forward in recent months after the social explosion in Eastern Europe due to the Ukrainian Revolution and the Bulgarian and Bosnian processes.   This growing economic and political instability is also going on in Latin America, where the massive popular demonstrations and general strikes (Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Paraguay) reappear after several years without them. Many of them face class collaborationist governments that are related to the alleged “socialism of the XXI century” that had succeeded to curb the people’s fights in the early twenty-first century.   The revolutions in the Arab world, the struggles against structural adjustment (i.e. austerity) in Europe, the Ukrainian Revolution, and the process of demonstrations and strikes in several Latin American countries show the urgent need for the working class to intervene with its traditional methods of organization and struggle to lead these processes, because it is the only social class that can hold a consistent struggle against imperialist capitalism & offer a revolutionary solution to the problems of humanity.

Unite the struggles and build a class independence way out!

In this context of crisis and clashes between social classes, there is no more urgent task than to unite all these struggles in each country and worldwide to defeat the capitalist and imperialist policy of making the working class and the people pay for their crisis.   In this May Day it is necessary to express the unconditional solidarity with the ongoing struggles and raise the necessary international unity of workers.   For example, in Europe, the unity of all workers in the continent is necessary to defeat the imperialist European Union and the plans of the “Troika”. The active international solidarity is urgent and would be decisive for the military victory of the Syrian people against the dictator al-Assad.   The same is true for every mobilization, strike or revolutionary process happening in the world. It is essential to resume and advance the internationalist consciousness of the working class, which was an initial feature during the emergence of the workers movement.   To achieve this, it’s necessary to overcome the main obstacle: the leaderships of the trade unions and traditional parties of the working class that are fully aligned to governments and exploiters, who refuse to push for plans of unified struggle and a world fighting day against the bankers, multinationals and governments.   Therefore, it is essential to demand that these leaders break their agreements with governments and national bourgeoisies, and that they propose all kinds of unitary actions on the most pressing demands of the working class and the people.   But this call is not enough. While we demand the old leaders to convene unified struggles, we must move forward “from below” to build new class independence, democratic and militant leaderships to lead the workers struggles.   The working class should open their own path and fight for their working class program, & remain independent and in opposition to all governments and bourgeois variants involved in the political process.   The construction of this class independent stronghold is essential for preventing large protests and revolutions from being aborted or diverted towards bourgeois leaderships. In this sense, the working class must lead the way and provide a clear solution to the economic crisis and the revolutionary processes underway, guiding other exploited and oppressed sectors in the fight against the governments and their austerity plans.   The IWL-FI employs all its efforts for this working class way out, & faces this task from a strategic and clear position: we are beside the oppressed and exploited against the exploiters and oppressors, in the struggle for a world socialist revolution.   Therefore, we are with the workers, the youth and the Arab peoples against their dictators, their bourgeoisies and the imperialism; we are with the Syrian people against Assad; we are with the working class and the Egyptian people against the military dictatorship of al-Sisi; we are beside the Palestinian people against Israel; beside the Ukrainian people struggling for unity and their complete independence against the great-Russian oppressor and the colonial plans of U.S. and European imperialism; we are with the European workers against their governments and the European Union and the “Troika”; we are for the immigrants’ struggles for full political, labor and trade union rights in all countries; we support women, youth, Blacks and LGBT struggles against all forms of oppression, discrimination and persecution suffered by these sectors in the capitalism system.

The need for a world revolutionary leadership

In this context, the IWL-FI also points out the need to build an international revolutionary leadership – one that is able to guide and unify these struggles and lead them to their final victory (the complete defeat of imperialism) – is urgent.   The crisis of the revolutionary leadership of the proletariat as an essential feature of the crisis of humanity is being proved dramatically in each of the current revolutionary processes. So, this is the “mother of all tasks” that the IWL-FI places to every fighting worker and activist in the world. For us, this task is identified with the reconstruction of the Fourth International and its national revolutionary parties. It is in this task that IWL-FI concentrates all its efforts.   At the same time, we argue that the construction of this world revolutionary leadership can only be carried out by a permanent political and ideological struggle against all bureaucratic, conciliatory, front-populist, bourgeois nationalist, reformist and neo-reformist leaderships. This is because they try to divert the struggles of workers and the masses into dead ends & , while using any argument, capitulate to imperialism and the national bourgeoisies of their countries.   The IWL-FI is continually and fully dedicated to build the international “staff” that is missing in the heroic actions of the peoples of the world.   It is essential that all these struggles and revolutions are represented in this May Day and that we fight together, as part of the same working class. It’s time to be more than ever convinced that “the emancipation of the workers is the task of the workers themselves.” International Secretariat April 28, 2014