This Sunday, May 1, 9 p.m. French time, the online gathering of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) will celebrate International Workers’ Day in Extraordinary Conditions of Crisis.
The war between NATO against Russia in Ukraine has pushed the world to the brink of global war and nuclear catastrophe. NATO forces sabotage any attempt to negotiate. Biden’s government dramatically escalates the conflict. He intends to inject weapons worth tens of billions of dollars into Ukraine and declares that his goal is to impose a strategic defeat on Russia.
The Covid-19 pandemic in two years has already killed 20 million people worldwide. New variables are emerging, but the capitalist countries say the epidemic is over and end measures to stop infection. Banks and companies around the world are putting enormous pressure on China to abandon its “Zero Covid” policy, which would lead to the deaths of millions more. The uncontrolled spread of the virus may lead to the emergence of new, more lethal variants, rendering vaccines ineffective.
During the pandemic, the global bourgeoisie made a massive transfer of wealth, plunging billions into poverty while accumulating unprecedented sums. Paralyzed by debt, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are calling for ruthless austerity in the Third World, which will exacerbate crises and intensify the class struggle. Markets are unstable, commodity prices are rising, and supply chains are in shock.
The sanctions imposed on Russia by the imperialist powers of NATO are driving hundreds of millions of people to starvation. The loss of grain and fertilizer exports from Eastern Europe means that mass starvation is looming in poor countries. In imperialist countries, the explosion of prices means that hundreds of millions of people are struggling to survive or to avoid misery. Inflation undermines the purchasing power of billions of workers around the world.
300 million people find themselves driven from their home countries by imperialist war, poverty, dictatorship and climate change. Those who flee death en route to Europe and North America face brutal repression, arrest and deportation to these supposedly “democratic” countries.
In country after country, powerful sections of the ruling class are turning to fascism and dictatorship to suppress dissent in the working class. In the US, Donald Trump remains at large despite his undeniable involvement in an attempted coup. In France, Marine Le Pen received the highest number of votes for a fascist candidate in the country’s history. The growth of the extreme right and the development of the ruling class towards dictatorship are international phenomena from which no region is immune.
The same contradictions that lead to war and reaction also show the possibility and necessity of a revolutionary transformation in society.
All over the world, millions of workers of all origins are demonstrating, protesting and striking against the intolerable living conditions of capitalism. This growing movement has the power to stop the war and remove the power of the financial aristocracy that threatens the world with destruction.
In Sri Lanka, Iran, South Africa, Peru, Iraq, Vietnam, Argentina, Sudan, Indonesia, Brazil, Spain, Turkey, Finland and other countries, demonstrations and strikes erupted against the price explosion caused by imperialist sanctions targeting Russia. Strike action is now emerging in countries whose governments planned war, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
This emerging movement needs political leadership. The Online Labor Day March brings together workers from all over the world to celebrate International Labor Day and to discuss a revolutionary socialist solution to the crisis of the capitalist system.
We invite all readers of the World Socialist Web site to register for this important event and to promote it widely on social media and to your co-workers.
Onward to the 1st May 2022 Rally Online!