STATEMENT OF THE WORKERS LEAGUE
01-05-2022: This year’s May Day (May 1st or Labour Day) – the international day of the working class – comes at a crucial time in history. The horrors of capitalism have been more than evident since March 2020, when global ruling classes launched an attack on working people under the guise of an alleged “Covid pandemic”. For two years, world governments (unfortunately including the governments of deformed workers’ states such as the People’s Republic of China), to varying degrees, imposed brutal lockdowns, facemask mandates and a dizzying array of “rules”. While some of this repression has been lifted in several countries, many workers are still subject to arguably the worst aspect – vaccine mandates. A vaccine mandate – take an experimental and potentially deadly vaccine or lose your employment – is arguably the largest attack ever on the working class. Without being able to pay bills and put food on the table, a worker and his dependents cannot exist. A worker’s livelihood should not be subject to being forced to undergo several (or more) injections involving serious risk.
Covid
Whether or not the SARS-CoV-2 virus exists, and whether or not Covid-19 is a distinct illness in itself, there is no medical or scientific justification for extraordinary measures. Covid has instead been used by politicians to wage war against working people in a vain attempt to prop up the system of production for private profit. With the excuse of Covid, millions of workers lost their jobs and were hurled into unemployment. Lockdowns subjected working people who committed no crime – to house arrest. Freedom of movement was abolished, and freedom of speech and freedom of assembly was removed on the flimsiest of pretexts. Without basic democratic rights, workers cannot defend themselves and their Unions. Vaccine passports were imposed which initiates a system of fascistic apartheid. It is still the case that some workers can be turned away from hospitals and doctor’s surgeries if they have not been injected with dangerous mRNA “vaccines”. Some workers are still banned from crossing international borders if they are “unvaccinated”. This two-tier society is utterly unacceptable, and is a method used by the capitalist elite to divide the working class against itself.
Workers are not against rational and scientifically justified safety measures. Yet lockdowns, facemask and vaccine mandates have NEVER been justified, or even been allowed to be questioned by dissenting and qualified professionals. The number of serious adverse reactions and deaths from the Covid vaccine cross the threshold of the definition of genocide. For the Covid injection rollout to be halted immediately! Workers should demand the total and permanent abolition of vaccine passports! All Covid restrictions and measures should be removed. Workers must have freedom of movement and the right to employment. The economy should not be shut down for spurious reasons. No lockdowns ever again! All Covid “quarantine centres” (concentration camps) should be dismantled immediately. There should be absolutely no discrimination against any “unvaccinated” worker, inside the workplace or in society. Working people have no rights as long as apartheid like discrimination exists. For full rights across society for vaccine free citizens!
Imperialist war
As an extension of the “Covid” war on workers, the Western powers began a war on Russia using Ukraine as a proxy. The NATO governments, led by the US and EU, are entirely to blame for the current conflict. Russia is conducting a defensive war which it must wage or face being itself overthrown and destroyed. Workers cannot offer political support to the Russian government, but the military actions of Russia against explicitly Nazi regiments and a Ukrainian puppet government animated by Washington and London must be defended by the workers of the world. Otherwise, US and EU imperialism, backed by minor imperialists such as Australia and Canada – will continue to wage regime change war against Russia (via Ukraine), with the next target being the People’s Republic of China (via Taiwan). Either of these Western provoked conflicts risks the extreme danger of the catastrophe of nuclear war. In addition, the Western economic sanctions on Russia is driving up the cost of living especially for European and American workers. Inflation was a dire problem for several years before Covid lockdowns and NATO’s provocations against Russia, but now it is a serious problem. Food shortages in the West could occur. Lift all economic sanctions on Russia!
Capitalism must go
The last two years are the clearest indication – if it was needed – that capitalism (private ownership of the means of production operated for private profit) is not only historically obsolete but is now a dire threat to the existence of workers themselves. “Medical” fascism and imperialist war are but two of its current offensives. In response, there must be a workers’ offensive. To begin, workers should demand and fight for a 10% wage increase across all industries and for all workers regardless of current contracts and agreements. Given the drastic hit to the position of working people after two years of economy destroying lockdowns and now a new imperialist war, such an increase is but a first step towards reversing losses already sustained. This demand should be fought for inside all Unions, in all workplaces, in the public and private sectors – and above all internationally.
We understand that for many workers, “capitalism” and “imperialism” can seem like abstractions. For workers do not confront these labels day to day, but what they deal with constantly are their agents. Principally, the chief agents of capital are conservative Union officials – many of whom have disgraced themselves by openly assisting politicians in imposing vaccine mandates on their own members and workers generally. Such treachery has led in some cases to alternative Unions being established. Where possible, workers need to build these new Unions OR remain in the old Unions and seek to replace the officials for an unspeakable betrayal. These treacherous officials have been aided at each step by many so-called “socialist” parties who have capitulated before the capitalist state to such an extent that some of them demand more Covid repression than the ruling class is willing to do.
Removing and replacing the ossified Union bureaucracy is bound up with the forging of genuine Marxist vanguard parties. A bona-fide pro-worker leadership, one willing to launch a class defence against ALL of the capitalist offensives, will find millions of workers ready to fight for a new society. Capitalism will tremble before workers’ parties leading struggles for publicly owned economies.
WORKERS LEAGUE
E: workersleague@redfireonline.com
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