The struggle is for political power in the hands of the working class!

Thousands of workers associated with different trade unions and workers’ organisations gathered at the historic Ram Lila Maidan in Delhi on the afternoon of May 1, 2008, holding aloft banners of their respective organisations, red flags as well as placards denouncing price rise, violation of workers’ rights, SEZs and other attacks on the people.

As the various contingents of workers arrived, youth activists of the Communist Ghadar Party of India greeted them with the latest issues of Mazdoor Ekta Lehar, the organ of the party, which called upon the workers, on May Day, to build the worker-peasant front to capture political power and squarely blamed the capitalist system for the problem of rising prices. Workers eagerly received the paper and many of them had interesting discussions with the youth comrades.

Activists of the Rangbhoomi Natya Samooh performed a street play depicting the exploitation of workers in different sectors and the increasing use of contract labour to deny the workers their rights won over long years of struggle. The play boldly put forward the need for workers to put an end to the capitalist system and take political power in our hands, in order to reorganize society in the interests of the toiling masses.

The May Day procession, from Ram Lila Maidan to Town Hall in the heart of the old city was a powerful demonstration of the strength of the working class, organized in various contingents bearing their respective banners, amidst a sea of red flags. The air reverberated with slogans condemning the government for its attacks on the rights of labour and calling upon the working class to unite in struggle.

At the Town Hall, a colorful stage had been set up, with a banner of the joint May Day celebration committee, consisting of the AITUC, AICCTU, AIFTU, CITU, Mazdoor Ekta Committee (MEC), TUCC, UTUC, UTUC(LS), AIBEA, AIIEA, NFBE and others. The presidium, consisting of members of the participating trade unions and workers’ organizations, took its place on the stage and representatives of the various organizations addressed the workers. They denounced the governments at the centre and in the states, for working in the interests of the super profits of the Indian and foreign monopolies and attacking the rights of the working class. They called on the workers to unite in defence of their livelihood and rights.     

In his address to the workers on May Day, comrade Prakash Rao, spokesperson of the Communist Ghadar Party of India and general secretary of the Mazdoor Ekta Committee, drew attention to the fact that throughout the world, as in India, workers are fighting against capitalism. Developments over the last century have made it clear that either capitalism is buried and working class liberated or capitalism will flourish, with increasing suffering for the working class and people. In India, he pointed out, the struggle is against capitalism and the colonial legacy.

Elaborating on the colonial legacy, he explained that this includes capitalism and the capitalist class based on private greed against social need. It includes setting the people against each other in the name of caste, religion, region, language etc. The system of multi party democracy in which parties of the ruling class take each other’s place from time to time while the masses are kept out of power, and the police, administration and judicial system which are used to keep the working class and people suppressed, are very much at the heart of the colonial legacy. Parties such as the Congress Party, which are Eurocentric in outlook and impose this outlook on the Indian people, are also part of the colonial legacy. This terrible legacy of multi party representative democracy is glorified as if this is the only form of rule, and we are asked to forget that we have thousands of years of experience of state craft, from the time of the Rig Ved period, down through the ages. The working class and people must and will innovate a form of rule which is suitable for working class and peasantry to be in power, he declared.

He pointed out that communist and workers movement is itself burdened with the colonial legacy, including the slavish attitude towards the system of multi party representative democracy and the practice of tailing behind parties like the Congress and some others.

The solution to our problems lies in overthrowing capitalism and this colonial legacy and developing our own forms of rule, consistent with the aspirations and revolutionary traditions of our people, he said, amidst enthusiastic applause.

With General elections due, workers are being called upon to choose between UPA, NDA or a third front of various other bourgeois parties. Prakash Rao pointed out that this will not open up the real alternative to capitalist rule and hence this is the path of betrayal. Communists and workers organizations must work to forge a front based on a program which will be an alternative to capitalist rule. He called upon the workers to reject the various fronts of the bourgeoisie and build the worker-peasant front, with its own program of coming to power and creating the real alternative to capitalism, namely socialism.

A street play performed by Jan Natya Manch brought the May Day celebrations to a close.