>From: John Percy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> May Day Greetings from the DSP Australia > >Dear Comrades, > >Attached below is a May Day message and greetings for progressive forces >around the world from the Democratic Socialist Party of Australia. > >Also attached is the text of a speech given by DSP Political Committee >member Doug Lorimer at the May Day dinner organised by the Worker >Communist Party of Iraq in Sydney on April 29, 2000. > >With solidarity on May Day, > >Comradely greetings, > >John Percy >National Secretary >Democratic Socialist Party >Australia >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >_______________________________ >DSP May Day Greetings 2000 > >As we celebrate the first May Day of the new Millennium, the glaring >inequalities and injustices and contradictions of global capitalism >appear more acute than ever. The gap between rich and poor continues to >widen. Images of obscene wealth and disgusting luxury and waste contrast >with pictures of starving populations on our nightly TV screens. Can >those bourgeois apologists still claim that capitalism is the best of >all possible worlds? > >Flood, famine, drought and disease ravage countries, even whole >continents such as Africa. But most of the misery, starvation, and >deaths are preventable. These are man-made disasters: deforestation, >global warming, poisoning of our rivers and oceans, and the biggest >man-made disaster of all, the robbing of the wealth of the majority of >the world by a tiny few � capitalism. > >In April the Dow and Nasdaq indices plummeted. The billion dollar >gamblers held their breath, some panicked. The market resumed its roller >coaster ride, but all know the bubble will burst. Can they really think >capitalism is the stable, natural order? > >Increasing numbers of workers, poor farmers, and young people around the >world are deciding no! Capitalism is the problem, and it has to go. The >massive demonstrations in Seattle and Washington showed the way. Similar >demonstrations will confront the World Economic Forum when it meets in >Melbourne September 11-13. > >Neo-liberal capitalism needs to extract ever greater profit from >workers, so we need greater struggles and better organisation to fight >back. The MUA campaign in 1998 was a great fight, in spite of the >outcome. Workers in our region are waging inspiring struggles, in South >Korea, in India, in Pakistan, in the Philippines, in Indonesia. Our task >here in Australia is to rebuild militant trade unions that defend >workers interests, not make peace with capitalism. > >Around the world racism is rampant. In Australia Pauline Hansen's One >Nation Party drew on all the basest prejudices and bigotry. Young >people, especially high school students, mobilised in their thousands >against this racist threat. Resistance can be especially proud of the >role it played in mobilising high school students. We made a difference. > >But Howard has now taken up Pauline Hanson's racist banner. Iraqi and >Afghanistan refugees fleeing terrible repression are locked up in desert >concentration camps. Kosovans promised "safe havens" are forced back to >live in the rubble of Kosova. Aboriginal people are denied decent living >conditions, compensation for past wrongs, denied even their history. Our >task is to wage a continuing struggle against racism, defending >aborigines, migrants, and refugees. > >This May Day we can reflect on some partial successes, and strengthen >our resolve to continue til final victory. > >Reflect on East Timor, now free from Indonesian rule. Devastated yes, >poverty-stricken and still suffering. But free, and its workers and poor >farmers are politically organising more openly. We've seen the >encouraging growth and organisation of the Socialist Party of Timor, >PST. > >We in the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance can be well pleased >with the role we played since last May Day. We stepped up our solidarity >work, which we've been carrying out for many years through ASIET, and >played a leading role in organising large demonstrations around >Australia last September, pressing for Australian government action and >UN intervention, to stay the genocidal attacks of Indonesia's murderous >militia. Our action was able to make an impact. > >Reflect on Indonesia, Suharto is gone, threatened with war crimes >hearings, his ill-gotten billions threatened with investigation and >seizure. Certainly, it's still a very fragile and limited democracy; >sure, it's a government where the IMF and Washington are still pulling >the strings, forcing austerity measures against the mass of the >population. But it's an increasingly aware and mobilised population. The >Peoples Democratic Party has grown, with young activists already steeled >in many battles. > >And Elian Gonzalez is free. He's reunited with his father, out of the >clutches of the Miami mafia. He's not yet back in Cuba, but that is >surely inevitable. The cause of Cuba took a tremendous boost from this >incident, exposing the anti-communist fanatics, making Washington's >blockade and embargo look ridiculous and needing to go. Any long delay >in repatriating Elian would be an even worse defeat for the US ruling >class. Already it's Cuba's biggest propaganda victory in their 41-year >defence against the assaults of US imperialism. > >So we've had some victories, but we've had repeated reminders that the >need to replace this capitalist system with socialism is urgent. > >May Day is not just a day for speeches, for looking back on past glories >and victories, but a day to prepare ourselves for action, to strengthen >our resolve, to ensure our future victories over the capitalist monster, >and the winning of socialism around the world. > >That means organisation, and activity, and commitment, and the building >of a Marxist party to play our part in the international struggle for >socialism by overthrowing the rule of profit and greed here in >Australia, the rule of racism and sexism and exploitation and >environmental destruction. That's our main task here. > >But we also have a duty of extending international moral support, >material support, and mass political support to the struggles of the >workers and oppressed around the world, and especially in our region. > >Increasing attacks by global capitalism are giving rise to growing >consciousness of the oppressed, and growing recognition of the need for >international socialist renewal, discussion, collaboration, regroupment >of the Marxist forces. Especially in the Asia Pacific region, new >parties and movements are emerging, revolutionary parties are growing, >new links are being forged. We saw this new growth and this new dynamic >spirit at the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference in April 1998, and at >the Marxism 2000 conference in January this year. > >On may Day 2000 as we celebrate workers unity and struggle and >international solidarity, we look forward to further collaboration, >discussion and cooperation with revolutionary parties, from many >traditions, in our region and around the world. > >Workers of the World Unite! > >____________________________ > >The Meaning of May Day > >(Text of speech given by DSP Political Committee member Doug Lorimer at >May Day dinner organised by Worker Communist Party of Iraq, Sydney April >29, 2000) > >Tonight we are commemorating May Day � May 1, 1890 � when the socialist >workers in Western Europe staged an internationally coordinated day of >street demonstrations to demand the legislative restriction of work-time >to no more than eight hours a day. > >That first May Day expressed a conception of working-class struggle that >intertwined three cardinal ideas. > >Firstly, that the struggle to free labour from capitalist exploitation >can only be achieved through their own, organised, self-activity. > >Secondly, that for this organised self-activity to even begin to free >labour from capitalist exploitation it must take the form of a movement >that champions the interests of labour as a whole, as a class, against >the interests of the capitalist class. That is, it must be a political >movement, a movement against the political policies and the political >power of the capitalists, against the governments and laws that protect >the capitalist private-profit system. > >And, thirdly, that the struggle to free labour from capitalist >exploitation is not a national, but a social problem, embracing all >countries that are dominated by the capitalist private-profit system, a >system that is by its very nature an international system, and, >therefore requires solidarity between the workers of all nationalities. > >These three crucial ideas, embodied in that first May Day, express the >conception of the working-class movement that Karl Marx first set forth >in the Communist Manifesto of 1848 and again, in more abbreviated form, >in the preamble to the general rules of the first international >organisation of labour, the International Working Men's Association, >founded in London in 1864. > >This, of course, should come as no surprise, because that first May Day >was organised by the Marxist-led workers' parties of Western Europe upon >the initiative of an international labour congress held in Paris in July >1889. > >This congress was convened as one of 69 international congresses held in >connection with the International Exhibition arranged by the French >government to commemorate the centenary of the beginning of the Great >French Revolution. > >In fact there were two labour congresses held in Paris in July 1889. One >was arranged by the British trade unions and the French reformist >socialists, or ``Possibilists'' as they were then called. > >The other was called by the German Marxists and arranged by the French >Marxists, or ``Impossibilists'' as they were called because they >rejected the reformist illusion that labour could be freed from >capitalist exploitation simply through trade-union action or >parliamentary reforms of the legal relations between labour and capital. > >It was the congress of the Marxists which issued the called for May 1, >1890 to be an international day of struggle for an eight- hour day law. > >Ironically, it was also the congress of the Marxists in Paris in July >1889 that later came to be regarded as the founding congress of the >second international labour association, the Labour and Socialist >International. Within a generation of this congress, the conception of >the working-class movement expressed by the ``Possibilists'' � that >labour could be freed from capitalist exploitation by means solely of >gradual and piecemeal reforms � had come to dominate the Socialist >International, an organisation which still exists and which is >officially represented in this country by the Australian Labor Party. > >The choice of May 1, 1890 as the day on which to hold an international >demonstration in favour an eight-hour working day came at the initiative >of the American Federation of Labor. On May 1, 1886 200,000 workers >organised by the AFL staged a one-day strike to demand that their >employers individually agree to an eight-hour working day. Two years >later, the AFL decided to repeat the action on May 1, 1890. > >The four hundred delegates at the international congress of Marxists in >Paris in 1889 decided to designate May 1, 1890 as an international >working-class holiday in solidarity with the American workers' action. > >The AFL later dissociated itself from this international day of >working-class solidarity and instead promoted the idea of a purely >national holiday � Labor Day � to celebrate the achievements of trade >unions through the reformist social partnership of labour and capital. > >The idea behind May Day goes back even further than the international >day of demonstrations for the eight-hour working day on May 1, 1890 or >the American workers' strike on May 1, 1886. > >Rosa Luxemburg, the great German Marxist who was murdered in 1919 by >soldiers acting on the orders of a government headed by the German >``Possibilists''or Social-Democrats as they were officially called, >explained it like this: > >``The inspired thought of introducing a proletarian holiday as a means >of obtaining the eight-hour working day first originated in Australia. >As early as 1856, the workers there resolved to call for one day of >complete work stoppage; the day to be spent in meetings and >entertainment instead � as a demonstration for the eight-hour day. The >21st of April was designated as this holiday. In the beginning, the >Australian workers thought of instituting such a holiday but once, in >the year 1856. But even this celebration made such an impression on the >proletarian masses of Australia that it was decided to repeat the >holiday annually. > >``... the idea of a proletarian holiday was accepted very quickly and >began to spread from Australia to other countries... > >``The first to follow the example of the Australian workers were the >Americans. They designated the first of May as the day of generakl work >stoppage in the year of 1886.'' > >Unfortunately, the Australian labour movement also later followed the >American in abandoning May Day as a day of working-class struggle in >favour of a Labour Day celebration of ``pure'' trade- unionism or, as it >has become today, a capitalist-sanctioned nationalist celebration of >business unionism. > >Throughout the world class-conscious workers observe May Day as a day on >which we commemorate the battles fought and the sufferings endured not >simply in the struggle for the eight-hour working day, but in the >struggle to free labour from capitalist exploitation everywhere in the >world. > >On this coming May Day, class-conscious workers in Australia can take >pride in the fact that since May Day 1999 we have undertaken actions >that embodied each of the three cardinal themes of the original May Day. > >Through the organised self-activity � the trade-union bans and street >demonstrations � that we carried out in September last year in >solidarity with the workers and labouring farmers of East Timor, we >built a political movement that forced the political power of the >Australian capitalists to end its 24-year policy of supporting the >Indonesian capitalist elite's enslavement of East Timor. > >Today, as a result of that political movement, labour in East Timor has >more freedom to struggle against capitalist exploitation. > >Of course, freedom to struggle against exploitation does not guarantee >success in the struggle to be free of exploitation. > >Workers in Australia long ago won the freedom to politically struggle >against capitalist exploitation. They used that freedom to win reforms >that improved their living standards and working conditions far above >those of their forebears and of most people in the world who have had to >labour in offices, factories and fields. > >But they have lacked the class-consciousness and organisation required >to use this freedom to build the sort of political movement needed to >free themselves from capitalist rule and capitalist exploitation. > >And today this is a failing which, saddled with leaders who think that >labour can only achieve what capital says is possible within the >capitalist private-profit system, is leading to the rolling back of >those working conditions and to the steady lowering of their living >standards. > >If the working-class movement in Australia is to reverse this situation >it will have to adopt the conception of working-class struggle that >inspired the first international May Day 110 years ago. > >In 1924, when the NSW Labour Council was, for a brief time, inspired by >that conception, it issued the following appeal, which has lost none of >its relevance as we commemorate May Day 2000: > >``The Australian movement desires not only that the [labour] day >[celebration] be fixed for May 1, but that the whole character and >purpose of the demonstration should be changed. Dinners, sports, picnics >� these are not good enough. The movement is worth more than this. Let >our May Day certainly be a day or rejoicing, but let it also be a day in >which all active elements of the movement take stock of the work of the >last year, of the prospects ahead, and the program required. Let it also >be a day of demonstrations which express a growing class-consciousness >of the working class and a declaration of war upon capitalist society. >We want a labour day which will give the movement a chance to unite for >a real move forward on the basis of all the more pressing interests of >the workers. Forward to a new battle! Forward to world revolution!'' > >_________________________ > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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