International Labour Day has been celebrated by various manifestations of the left of capital in recent years. At the same time, different manifestations of the ruling class, with some groups of the left – who, in the real life, represent capitalism, mislead and fly a false flag – have shown that they are defending the interests of the proletariat by putting make-up on the face of the barbarity known as capitalism. In the meantime, those who have been hiding themselves behind radical slogans have used the “red flag” in order to cover up the modern slavery of capital. They, in this pitiful play, have tried to nullify the real history of this day. They have intentionally distorted the roots of the emergence of political class acts of this momentous event.

In metropolitan countries, the leaders of unions or social democrats on the front line of the 1 May demonstration (Labour Day) are going to sing the International song although they have approved the most anti-worker laws. Left parties, who are representing capital in real life, as before, will be trying to subvert the struggle of working class.

In peripheral countries, the left of capital will act as a radical force and, with slogans such as ‘demand the right to strike’ and ‘create trade’, will capture streets. The fact is that, with the development of the class struggle, the unions are the first rampart that the proletariat is forced to conquer. Workers’ heroic resistance of Tekel against unions and government has proven this.[1] The Tekel workers’ independent struggle, which was not led by unions, was a source of inspiration for other workers in the world. As a result, the ghost of this class struggle is what the bourgeoisie fears the most.

After revolutionary wave failure that shook the world between 1917 and 1923, Stalinism rose from the ruins of the October Revolution, from the blood and bones of the communists that had been shafted, and was consolidated. Thousands of communists and workers who had supported the October Revolution were deported, imprisoned or massacred. All those who were the life force of the revolution became the avant-garde of the global proletariat . This enabled the bourgeoisie to physically crush the avant-garde of the proletariat. This attack disarmed the proletariat and allowed the bourgeoisie to mobilize the working class for the terrible slaughter of World War II.

Once, Labour Day was the day when the proletariat fought for the communist revolution, when the hoisting of the red flag causing the body of the bourgeois class to tremble. Unfortunately, with the failure of the revolutionary wave, Labour Day has been captured by the bourgeoisie, which uses it as a tool to pursue its own interests and poison the consciousness of the working class. The dark period of counterrevolution began and this was a sign that the proletariat was defeated, albeit temporarily. In the 1930s, only the communist left faction of Italy was capable of defending proletarian and communist positions against the degeneration of the Third International.

After World War II, the bourgeoisie believed that it had subdued the proletariat for always. Drunk and blinded by their victories and post-war prosperity, which was based on the slaughter of millions of workers during the war, the bourgeoisie considered itself to be indestructible.

It was during this time that millions of workers began their protests in May 1968, at an international level, but especially in France. The bourgeoisie tried to justify itself and called the événements of May 1968 a general strike and even a “student revolt”; however, the real power that challenged the bourgeoisie were not students, but the working class.

This wave of class struggle proved that the working class had returned from the counterrevolution’s powerlessness and entered a new era, a period of growing class confrontation. The consequence is that we see the development of the class struggle in the 1970s and 1980s worldwide. The proletariat had no choice but to fight for its class interests and take the fight forward and make advancements.

The working class showed that it had re-emerged as a real threat to the capitalist system. This was the clearest sign of the end of the myth that the working class was disappearing or had been purchased, that the proletariat did not exist.

Marxist doctrine and methodology, such as the theory of the proletariat, are alive, making it impossible for revolutionaries to get caught up in the sterile view held by the modernists or councilists of the working class as a bourgeois class. “It is not a question of what this or that proletarian, or even the whole proletariat, at the moment regards as its aim. It is a question of what the proletariat is, and what, in accordance with this, it is historically compelled to do.”[2]

The Eastern bloc (Stalinism) was unable to compete with the Western bloc and collapsed because of its own crises. Given that Stalinism was not drawn to that situation by the proletariat, but instead competed with a dismantled democracy, democratic illusions were sparked within the working class, which led to confusion in the class consciousness of this class. The democratic bourgeois victory over Stalinism was particularly aimed at convincing the working class that any revolutionary attempts, any ideas about turning the world upside down, are doomed to fail. The bourgeoisie thus began its massive anti-communist propaganda and campaign. The fact is that communism is not dead; it is capitalism that is in its death throes.

Capitalism smells blood and dirt. Capitalism means crisis, war and misery. Capitalism is in the deepest crisis of its history and the working class is paying the price. If, in the past, free-market economists and ideologues used the term “recession” for the crisis of capitalism, today, they confess to the bankruptcy of capitalism.

The bourgeoisie tries to divide the working class and break up its class unity, to exploit the proletariat better. Native workers against “immigrant” workers, black against white, Asians against Europeans, Hispanics against Americans, and so on. Nevertheless, no matter what colour our skin is or what language we speak, we have a common characteristic that we belong to the working class, and the nation is foreign to us. Therefore, we are raising our voice and saying, class against class. Internationalists have declared before that “the working class is a class of immigrants”.[3]

The left movement claims to have a right to strike, to create trade, to stop privatization and so on, but the main tasks of unions are controlling the working class and undermining its class struggle. In contrast to the leftists’ preaching, we must establish itself as an independent social force which is fighting for its own interests and our slogans must be against wage slavery, exploitation, unemployment, dismissal and inflation; in other words, the basis of capitalism must be attacked.

Internationalists revolutionary responsibilities are contributing to the class struggle and building of the minority revolutionary organisation with aim to contribute to the creation a International and Internationalist Communist Party, the indispensable weapon for the victory of the communist revolution.

The working class is the only social class that can put an end to capitalist barbarism and misery. Never before has a social class had such a responsibility as the proletariat does today. More than ever, the working class, in its struggle, has the future of humanity in its own hands. There is only one solution: destroying the capitalist system before it destroys humanity. This alternative which communists proposed in the past is more valid today than ever:

“Communist Revolution or the Destruction of Humanity!”

Internationalist Voice

21 April 2010

Notes:

[1] To read all the story of what happened so far in the Tekel struggle, please visit the following link:

Solidarity with Tekel workers’ resistance against government and unions!

http://en.internationalism.org/icconline/2010/01/tekel-turkey

[2] Marx, The Holy Family, Chapter IV

[3] http://en.internationalism.org/wr/300/a-class-of-immigrants

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