Many
working people around the world will be taking to the streets on May
1st for International Workers' Day to fight back against the billionaire
class and their system of capitalism that is depriving working people
of basic healthcare needs and escalating brutal imperialist wars. That
is why for this May Day, Workers Strike Back is demanding: TAX THE RICH AND FUND HEALTHCARE, NOT WAR!
We are supporting Kshama Sawant's independent revolutionary socialist
campaign for Congress, which is calling for free healthcare for all
funded by taxing the rich, and an end to all military aid to Israel and
no weapons or tech for genocide or imperialist war!
Working
people are sick of both parties of Wall Street and war and are
desperately looking for an alternative. Many of the existing May Day
events are correctly geared towards fighting the Trump administration
which has carried out relentless attacks on working people over the last
year and a half, but many of the organizations and individuals leading
these events unfortunately give cover to the thoroughly pro-war
anti-worker Democratic Party.
In December an overwhelming number
of Congressional Democrats, including Kshama's opponent Adam Smith,
voted to finance Trump's attacks on Iran and Venezuela by signing a war
spending bill that handed Trump more than $900 billion for the
bipartisan U.S. war machine. The
Democratic Party and the Republican Party are completely opposed to any
policies that are in the interest of the working class, and they are
both capitalist warmongering parties down to their bones.
Some
of the big May Day protests that Workers Strike Back members will be
tabling at are calling for fighting the billionaires and for “No Work,
No School, No Shopping”. Unfortunately, most of the existing labor
leadership is tied at the hip to the Democratic Party that is funded by
and serves the billionaires, and this means that these same labor
leaders are completely unwilling to call any type of strike or protest
that could damage their cozy relationships with the Democratic Party.
Unfortunately, all the people who participate in the action of not going
to work or school will be doing so on an individual basis, which will
have no significant impact on the profits of the billionaire class.
This
is part of the failed strategy of business unionism that is employed by
the vast majority of labor leaders, who seek mutual agreement with the
bosses and their political parties rather than organizing working people
into a militant fight back. The rotten alliance that business unionist
labor leaders have made with the Democratic Party has led to the major
US unions largely sitting on the sidelines while their members and other
working class people are being abducted by ICE, and while 300,000
Federal public sector workers were laid off by Trump. The Trump
administration has also rammed through massive tax cuts for the rich
while the working class faces an unbearable cost of living crisis due to
catastrophic wars in the Middle East and billionaire greed. Labor
leaders' aversion to class struggle methods has meant that they have
stood by while Trump carried out the wars and while the Democrats funded
the horrific genocide in Gaza.
What we need is organized
mass strike action, mass protests, and mass civil disobedience to stop
the deportation machine and end all imperialist wars, and to go on the
offense for things like free healthcare for all funded by taxing the
rich.
That is why it is important that Workers Strike
Back will be present at May Day events all over the country to talk to
people about the urgent need for fighting class struggle movements and campaigns like Kshama's independent revolutionary socialist campaign for Congress, and for our unions to break from the Democratic Party.
Kshama's
example from her decade on the Seattle City Council is unfortunately
the only example in recent history of anyone using their elected
position to raise working-class demands and then build fighting
movements to win them. Kshama led movements to win the highest minimum
wage in the nation, the Amazon Tax, landmark renters' rights law, and
much more. We need this across the nation. That is why working people
should support Kshama’s campaign and fight to elect the first-ever
revolutionary socialist to Congress.
If you are in the Seattle area join the Kshama for Congress contingent at May Day. Workers
Strike Back will also be hosting a rally in Rochester, Minnesota at
Soldiers Field, and tabling in Detroit, Michigan; Normal, Illinois; and
New York City.
Solidarity,
Workers Strike Back
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