May Day Greetings

May Day has come again. Let it be an occasion of fresh resolve. The First of May is traditionally the workers’ day, the day on which working people of all countries express solidarity with each other. The Socialist Party of Great Britain, and our companion parties within the World Socialist Movement , celebrate the day in those terms and send our fraternal greetings to fellow workers everywhere.

It remains a day of protest, a continual reminder of exploitation and subjection. The working class is international and so is its cause. Among the chants and slogans of May Day, one has more meaning: “Workers of all countries unite”. Nationalism is not in our interests but only our rulers. Attempts to build political movements based upon national prejudice and fear are a stain on May Day. Capitalism overshadows all our lives with fear and restrictions. All workers share an international unity of interest to abolish capitalism and replace it with socialism.

Capitalism pollutes and perverts almost every institution with which it comes into contact. May Day is unfortuately no exception and has little of its original character left. It is no longer taken seriously by many workers. The Labour Party and trade union leaders have assisted this decline and helped to ensure that May Day shall not embarrass the capitalist class by providing an opportunity for international working class activity. For if the workers can act to-gether in world wide co-operation on just one day in the year, there is no reason to suppose that we will not do so on the other 364 days of the year.

 Class consciousness is never more needed than now. To the socialist, class-consciousness is the breaking-down of all barriers to understanding. Without it, militancy means nothing. Throughout its history,  the Socialist Party has addressed its case to the working class on May Day, demanding not support but understanding. Socialism is not a benevolently-administered capitalism but a different social system. Reform is no answer (although, admittedly, at times – rare times – it benefits working people.) Working class action must be revolutionary.

 As class consciousness grows amongst the workers in all lands, collective action will be planned. It will not stop at the organisation of marches and demonstrations. It will be co-ordinated co-operation to put a speedy end to the capitalist economic system and construct a new society which the wealth of the community: the land and the means of production, distribution and transport are held in common, production being for use and not for profit. It entails the total abolition of money, buying and selling, and the wages system. It means the community must set itself the task of providing things that  people require and desire. That is the real message for May Day.