Only the Working Class Can Save the Day!
Not New Labour, but the Workers’ Opposition!

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Only the Working Class Can Save the Day!
Not New Labour, but the Workers’ Opposition!

May Day 2004
South Tyneside, Tyne & Wear, London, Birmingham,

-- May Day 2004 --

Only the Working Class Can Save the Day!
Not New Labour, but the Workers’ Opposition!

On the occasion of May 1, 2004, the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) extends its militant revolutionary greetings to the people’s forces throughout the world in struggle against imperialism, against dictate, aggression, fascism and war, and struggling for a new world in which the imperialists are defeated and the people are the decision makers. RCPB(ML) salutes the movements of the millions upon millions of workers, women, youth in struggle against war, privatisation and neo-liberal globalisation. RCPB(ML) salutes the entire humanity in struggle for their rights, for their complete emancipation and for a different world in which poverty, war, famine, enslavement and exploitation are eliminated once and for all.

The world situation this May Day is one where US-British crimes against the Iraqi people continue to mount, as do all the lies and disinformation designed to cover them over and justify them. US imperialism and the British government are making plans to step up their bloody offensive with the aim of crushing by force the armed resistance of the Iraqi people, and instituting their own style of democracy with the fraudulent "transfer of sovereignty" on June 30. US imperialism, backed by British imperialism, in its drive to impose its will on the whole world, has not just violated international law but has cast it aside, making war its main instrument of policy. Anarchy and chaos have been raised to the level of policy, with no regard for the disasters created by such policy, as can be seen every day now in Iraq, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia.

In Britain, the government has failed to win the masses of the people to support their drive for war, despite all the rhetoric that cloaks its crimes in the garb of high ideals. At the same time, the state is being strengthened to give its forces arbitrary powers. The government is increasingly resorting to racist measures and singling out immigrants and asylum seekers as the target of attack in order to attack the vulnerable and attack the rights of all.

The working class and people must determinedly organise in Britain for an anti-war government to put an end to war, aggression and conquest, by establishing in this country a democracy that takes as its starting point the will of the masses of the people against war and aggression and recognises the rights of the peoples of the world to determine their own affairs free from outside intervention and interference.

The workers themselves cannot afford to voluntarily hand over the initiative to any other force. Historically, the unity of the workers’ movement for its interests and for a society without wage slavery has been split by the chauvinism injected into the movement through its links with the Labour Party as a party which supports the agenda of British monopoly capital, and paid for by the superprofits from imperialism and neo-liberal globalisation. This unity can be forged by rejecting this chauvinism, by affirming the dignity of human labour and by upholding the rights of all human beings.

As the crisis of society deepens, and the need of the times is for the working class to come to the fore in charting the way out of the crisis, building resistance and planting the alternative, the workers must spearhead the fight against the "Third Way" programme which the rich are imposing on society. Workers must fight for the interests of their collectives with a clear conscience, and they must get fully involved in the struggle and debate about the way forward for the economy and society.

The workers must take up the task of fighting for an economy which serves the well-being of the peoples of Britain, and at the same time take up this task in unity with the workers and peoples of all countries who are fighting the same battles, and oppose all attempts to line them up behind the aims of the global monopolies. Workers throughout Britain must take up the aim of building a society based on social responsibility, of respect for all that human beings hold dear, where the wealth that workers produce is under their control and applied for the benefit of the peoples.

On the occasion of May Day, 2004, RCPB(ML) raises the slogan: Not New Labour, but the Workers’ Opposition! Our Party calls on workers to prepare to engage in the next general election on a new basis, the basis of building the Workers’ Opposition, and taking up the task of electing worker politicians. The working class must give rise to its own politicians, fight for its independent programme and begin to turn things around so as to unite the whole society around its programme for a new and just society, a socialist Britain, which defends the rights of all.

Hail May Day!

Victory to the Struggles of the Workers of All Lands!

Stop Paying the Rich! Increase Investments in Social Programmes!

Fight for an Anti-War Government!

Not New Labour, but the Workers’ Opposition!

For the Unity of the Workers, for the Unity of the People! Build the Workers’ Opposition!

Only the Working Class Can Save the Day!