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May Day 2006:
The Issue Is that Workers Must Themselves Identify and Fight for their Rights!

Statement of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), May 1, 2006

On this May Day, 2006, workers in all lands, together with all oppressed peoples fighting for their national and social liberation, pledge their unity in struggle to resist oppression and exploitation, and to bring into being a different world. Our Party salutes all the working and oppressed people, the women, the youth and all sections of the people who are fighting to affirm their rights, defend their sovereignty, end the dictate of the monopolies and international finance capital, and, by fighting for their own liberation and strengthening their unity, to give birth to a world fit for human beings to exist and flourish in.

On May Day, the working class in Britain, in common cause with its class sisters and brothers across the world, pledges to build resistance to the dictate of the monopolies, and to begin to establish an alternative to this dictate. The issue for the workers is that, for their own sake and for the sake of the entire society, they cannot afford to conciliate with the programme demanded by the monopolies and its motive force of accumulation of riches by any means in the hands of an elite. This is a motive of production which is wrecking every aspect of society at home, and is enslaving and impoverishing nations and peoples abroad, and which is bringing with it the disasters of war, aggression, annexation and the tearing up of all the norms established through their blood by progressive humanity in the 20th century.

The government and its backers and apologists are trying to insult the workers by suggesting to them that a "level playing field" of justice for the workers and for the capitalists is just around the corner, a matter of removing some legal anomalies. But the workers know that the issue is that they must themselves identify their rights and, in fighting for these rights, provide the problems of society with a solution. The laws of the land have been put place, or removed, to safeguard the interests of the monopolies and their neo-liberal agenda. The working class and people must fight to oppose and restrict monopoly right, the right to decide the fate of billions and attempt to dehumanise them, utilising states and governments to act as their representatives, promote their values and rape society.

In getting together in their collectives to discuss, identify their rights and organise for their interests, workers are taking a stand in defending their industries and social well-being, as well as those of the communities in which they live, the national economy and a world in which the concerns of the people are placed at the centre. They are exposing all the scams, frauds and disinformation which are carried out in the service of the neo-liberal agenda and the programme of privatisation, wrecking social programmes, and taking out everything from the economy and putting nothing back. They are declaring their values of an injury to one is an injury to all, unity is strength, and taking a bold step together in defence of the rights of all are the values of a modern and humane society, in opposition to those who declare that "dog eat dog" and "devil take the hindmost" will benefit the "consumer".

The working class must oppose as unjust those laws which attempt to erase and violate their rights, and must fight with a clear conscience that their collective rights be given a guarantee in law. This is a battle along the line of march for bringing into being a government in which the workers themselves can defend their interests and place the decision-making of society in the hands of its citizens and residents of all national backgrounds; a government which is against war, is pro-social and upholds the interests of the working class, the producers of the national wealth, and celebrates the dignity of labour. These battles and this line of march require for their victory new methods of mass participation and mass mobilisation, for workers themselves to become political and select their best fighters as their representatives.

The working class of England, Scotland and Wales on this May Day 2006 stands shoulder to shoulder with the peoples of the world against fascism, war, exploitation and oppression. It stands with them in fighting for a world of peace, democracy and the well-being of the people. It stands against the chauvinism and colonialist values of the British ruling elite and it stands for strengthening the bonds unity in struggle of the world’s people with its own spirit of proletarian internationalism. Above all, it stands for the new, for a way out of the crisis by implementing its own independent programme, for moving forward in this 21st century by fighting for the rights of all and against the retrogression that reaction is imposing on society, by having as its vision a socialist Britain.

Only the Working Class Can Save the Day!

For the Rights of All Guaranteed in Law!

For An Anti-War Government!

Stop Paying the Rich – Increase Investments in Social Programmes!

Long Live May Day – Day of Unity in Struggle of the Working and Oppressed People of All Lands!