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MAY DAY STATEMENT
May 1, 2003
Patricio Ramirez
Spokesperson
Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino
Joint May Day rally is an inspiring event
The Party wholeheartedly welcomes the joint May Day rally and program of
groups and federations such as the Partido ng Manggagawa, Bukluran ng
Manggagawang Pilipino, National Confederation of Labor, NAFLU, NFL,
Makabayan-KPD and Katipunan that erstwhile held separate Labor Day
activities. The "unity of the X-Men," the joint rally of these groups
that split from the KMU augur well for the advance of the militant
workers movement.
If national unity must be forged to face the challenge of the SARS
outbreak, all the more must labor unity be fashioned for workers to
confront the epidemic of contractualization, casualization, mass layoff
and low wages that are the symptoms of globalization. Globalization is a
far more virulent disease that has wrecked more lives than the dreaded
SARS virus.
Labor unity is dream that is now slowly becoming reality. The
unprecedented joint May Day rally is a shining example for the rest of
organized labor and an inspiring event for the lot of unorganized
workers. This germ of labor unity must be nurtured to grow into a united
front of struggle against globalization. This is a mere first step that
must be followed by solidarity in launching labor strikes and unity in
launching labor struggles.
Factionalism and sectarianism has debilitated the labor movement and
weakened labor struggles in the face of the onslaught of globalization.
It is high time that labor unity is now taking shape and all of
organized labor, including KMU and TUCP must rally round the initiative
to strengthen labor power. ###
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Imperialist
globalization is the eve of socialist revolution
The workers of the world will celebrate International Labor Day this
year with militant marches around the globe that is riding on the crest
of an indisputable upsurge in the class struggle. The anti-globalization
and anti-war movements are on course to blend into a powerful
anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist struggle with the working class at
its head.
The world is at a historical juncture with capitalist globalization
writhing in a deep crisis and US imperialism launching wars of
aggression. Since the eruption of the 1997 financial crisis,
international capitalism has slowly but surely tumbled down to a long
recession that is in danger of falling down the ravine of global
depression. Its roots lie in the crisis of overproduction and
overcapacity that is due to capitalism's fundamental contradictions.
With its powerful economy pummeled by the international crisis, US
imperialism is provoking a conflagration of worldwide wars as it asserts
its global domination over imperialist rivals and the Third World. With
its appetite whetted by the occupation and colonization of Iraq, US
imperialism is setting its sights on its next targets possibly in the
Middle East like Iran or in Latin America like Columbia.
After less than a century, the wheels of history are coming round to a
situation akin to the period of the two imperialist wars. Then, economic
crisis and Great Depression led to two imperialist wars that ended with
victorious anti-capitalist revolutions and anti-colonial struggles.
Today, globalization is undoubtedly a period of crisis and war that will
inevitably lead to revolution. The extraordinary rise of the
anti-globalization movement after the Battle in Seattle and the
unprecedented
emergence of the anti-war struggle against the war on Iraq are a just
the sneak preview of the momentous class struggles that will yet erupt
in the first decade of the new millennium.
As sure as the sun rises in the east, so will the crisis mature, the
situation deteriorate and the struggle escalate. History is marching
with a faster beat as developments that were previously marked in years,
now happening in just years, and years into months and months into days.
All that is needed for a qualitative leap in the historical situation is
the inspiring victory of a radical revolution such as the role played by
the Russian Revolution of 1917. The single spark of a workers revolution
will start a prairie fire of class struggle that is bound to end in the
new socialist revolutions in the era of globalization. ###
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