CPSMayDayStatement2012

PartTwoTheGeneralCrisisofCapitalism

DonCurrie,EditorFocusOnSocialism,ChairCPS
April28,2012

www.FocusOnSocialism.ca

CanadiansforPeace&Socialism
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Box168SlocanBCV0G2C0 Canada 12503552669 CPS May Day statement Part One 1 drew attention to the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) New Union ProjectcallingforanewkindofCanadianunionism. The trade union militants in these unions who initiated the project will arrive at their own conclusions as to what they believe must be done to restructure organized labour for the strugglesthatlieahead. Howevertheobjectiveconditionsthatpromptedtheirreappraisalconcernallworkers.

TheGeneralCrisisofCapitalism
Humankindislivingthroughtheeraofthegeneralcrisiscapitalism,thelastandfinalstageof the system, state monopoly capitalism, imperialism. The system is characterized by the domination of bankindustrial capital over all of economic development. The export of capitalprevailsovertheexportofgoodsastheprimarysourceofprofit. Themaindriversofglobalimperialistprofiteeringincludebutarenotlimitedto: The export of capital by the leading G7 imperialist states to seize and control markets,exploitresourcesandthelabourofotherlessercountries. Globalconcentrationandcentralizationofbankcorporatefinancialpoweramongthe leading imperialist states determining at high level secret meetings, its planning, management,controlanddivisionofspoils. Secrettradedealsamongleadingimperialiststatestocarveupentirezonesofjoint capitalistexploitationwithoutregardforpeoplessovereignty.

http://focusonsocialism.ca/random.asp?ID=652
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NATO Imperialist wars to seize and control global energy, water and mineral resources. Deep integration of state monopoly governments and hitech aero space and communications systems companies to control all information traffic to enhance governmentcorporate control over society and to militarize the functions of the state. State corporate profiteering from the export, procurement and supply of war materialtoforeignmilitarybasestoconductNATOwarsofregimechange. Central bank manipulation of the supply of capital affecting speculative real estate profiteeringinallcapitalistcountries. Massive bank credit to profiteer from increasing personal consumer and mortgage indebtedness. Bankcorporateinterestexploitationofthemassofpettyowners,smallfarmersand theselfemployedworkersrequiringsmallloancapitaltosurvive. State monopoly fiscal, monetary and taxation policies, crafted at secret meetings that relieve corporations of tax obligations and supply them with generous state subsidiesandservices. Mass consumer marketing by box store chains flogging useless commodities (the trinketeconomy). Mass marketing and franchising of bad food, sports spectacles and cheap entertainment. The corporate ownership, domination and control of agriculture at all stages of its production. Thedegradationofwomen,menandyouthandevenchildreninthemassmarketing ofpornography. Privatization of the full range of state capitalist social programs providing health, seniors,childcare,educationsubsidiestostudentsandtradesandtechnicaltraining toyouth.

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Adebasedmediaacademe,wellpaidfortheirefforts,floodtheglobalcorporatecontrolled mass media networks with a glossy image of a dying system as 21st century freedom. Pundits, media hacks and selfpromoting academic celebrities advise labour to confine its roletoassistingstatemonopolycapitalistgovernmentsmakeitallworkandkeepitgoing becauseweareallinthistogether. The ruling finance capitalist elites of Canada have no interest in the vital needs of the working class. Capitalists are deeply involved in the global melee to promote their profit goals.Anythingworkersmightgetiscoincidental. Banks and corporate investors seeking maximum quick profit take it wherever it can be foundregardlessoftheconsequencesonthelaboringmassesandthenaturalenvironment.

Prime Minister Harper, Finance Minister Flaherty, Bank of Canada Governor MarkCarneyPromoteCapitalism.WhyShouldOrganizedLabour?
PrimeMinisterHarper,FinanceMinisterFlaherty,BankofCanadaGovernorMarkCarneyand their secret big business advisors, crafted the March 2012 federal budget to ensure that wage earners and salary earners get less andbanks and corporations will get moreout of Canadasenormouswealthcreationpotential. Wages have been essentially frozen as bank profits soar. Front line federal employees are thrown on the bread line as the needs of general population for better health care and publicservicesrise.Womenworkersremaininasecondclasswageearningstatusaschild care costs increase. Highly educated youth cant find jobs and tuition fees for post secondaryeducationaresoaring.Pensionersinneedofdecenthousingandbetternutrition and special health care needs are denied. Workers planning to retire are forced to work longer to get a meagre old age pension. Poverty is growing and the racist denial of the needsofFirstNationspeopleisanationaldisgrace. Full employment without inflation, job security and improved working conditions and povertyreductionareconsideredbyHarper,FlahertyandCarneytobeobsoleteconcepts. Mass unemployment is a business opportunity to suppress wages, increase labour competitionandforcehigherpercapitaproductivitythroughlongerhoursofwork. Thedivisionofopinionwithinorganizedlaboursranksisaboutwhethertheworkingclass should help finance capitalists manage their system, or begin to act as a class for itself,

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oppose monopoly and struggle for an entirely new system where labor, representing the majority,hasthepoliticalpowertomakeitssocietalinterestsprimary. Laborapologistsforcapitalismpeddlethecapitalistlinethatperiodicdepressionsandmass unemployment are part of the price Canadian workers have to pay to live in the best countryintheworld.Thatpresumesthesystemissimplygoingthroughabadpatchand will spontaneously correct itself. Capitalism does self correct for capitalists! Not for workers!

OrganizedLabourPosestheQuestionCorrectly
TheCAWCEPDiscussionPaperisimportantbecauseitasserts;Globalcapitalismisproving itself incapable of righting itself and we are likely at the beginning of a long period of economic turmoil and stagnation. That correct assessment has led the authors to assert thatthelabourmovementneedsanewstrategyofstruggle. It is undeniable that the global capitalist system is in a chronic general crisis of overproduction resulting in uneven economic development of its member states. Mass povertyforbillionsdeprivedofmeansexistsidebysidewithunprecedentedwealthinthe hands of powerful banks and monopolies. Cyclical boom and bust expansion and contractionofcapitalistmarketscreateanarchicdemandsforlabourfollowedbyperiodsof massunemployment.Millionsaredriventoleavehomelandsinsearchofworkindeveloped statesgivingnewmeaningtoMarxswellknownadagethatworkershavenocountry.Inter capitalistcompetitionforresourcesandmarketsisexpressedinrisingmilitarismandNATO wars.Nuclearweaponsstockpilesandenvironmentaldegradationthreatenalllife. Theirreconcilableinterestoftheworkingclassversusfinancecapitalhasneverbeenmore starkorclearasitistoday.Bigwageandjobsecuritystrugglesareintheoffingandcannot beavoided.Itisthisrealitythatisdrivingthesearchforanewlabourstrategyforthe21st Century.

WhatShouldLaboursNewStrategyBe? WorldFederationofTradeUnions(WFTU)AthensPact
TheCAWCEPstatementisascloseastheorganizedlabourmovementinCanadahascome thus far to what the delegates to the 16th World Trade Union Congress of the World

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Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) concluded a year ago in its Athens Pact Statement of April6102011. 2 TheWFTUdelegatesaffirmed:The16thCongressoftheWorldFederationofTradeUnions is taking place at a time when the global capitalist system is in the middle of a deep and multifacetedeconomiccrisisofthesystemitself. TheWFTUincontrasttothesocialreformistInternationalTradeUnionConfederation(ITUC) basesitsassessmentofwhatthemaindirectionfortheinternationalclassorientedtrade unionmovementshouldbe,onMarxism. QuotingMarxtheWFTUdocumentassertsthatthetheeconomiccrisisexposesthebasic contradiction of capitalism the contradictionbetween the social character of production andthecapitalistformofownershipofthemeansofproductionandtheappropriationofits results. TheWFTUquotesacogentobservationofMarxsclosecollaboratorFrederickEngelswho said: The productive forces rebel against the relations of production which theyve surpassed, theyleftbehind()Meansofproduction,meansofmaintenance,availableworkers,thatis tosayallfactorsofproductionandsocialwealtharesuperabounding. Capitalisminthe21stcenturyhasnotovercomethatfundamentalcontradiction.Capitalism in Canada has evolved from its early 17th century colonial mercantile roots to 21st century state monopoly capitalism, imperialism, fully integrated in the international system of capitalistexploitation,militarismandwar.

After400yearsofCapitalismWantIntheMidstofWealth
Canadainthe21stcenturyisafinancecapitalistG7NATOstatesuperaboundinginwealth, well trained people willing to work, technologically advanced, science and technology at hand,unimaginablenaturalwealthinparticularvitalenergyandminerals,ahighlydeveloped manufacturingandindustrialpotentialandanagriculturesectorcapableofmakingCanada completely food self sufficient. In addition to having everything that is required to ensure the rising needs of allCanadians, the country is capable of developing its export potential acrossthefullrangeofcommoditiesitproduces.

http://www.wftucentral.org/?cat=139&language=en
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WhythendoestheApril26,2012StatsCanreportonwagesandinflationshowthatworkers wageshavefallenbehindtherateofinflation. 3 Thetrendhasbeenevidentforsometime. PrimeMinisterHarper,FinanceMinisterFlahertyandBankofCanadaGovernorMarkCarney, claiming to be experts on managing the capitalist system, cant explain why an economic system with a labour force of 17.5 million creating a GDP of more than $1.5 trillion cant providefullemploymentwithoutinflationforworkersandtheirfamilies.Theycantexplain why Canada after nearly two centuries of capitalism is still a boom and bust economy characterizedbyunevendevelopment,itsmanufacturingsectorindeclineandtheeconomy in near total reliance on energy resource extraction and export, bank speculation and wastefularmsspending. ParliamentisembroiledinabitterdebateovertheConservativegovernmentsplantospend billionsonF35fighterjetstofightfutureNATOwarsatatimewhenthefederalbudgetis freezing government transfers for health, planning large scale layoffs of front line public employees, contracting and liquidating vital government services and forcing any worker undertheageof54toworkuntilage67beforereceivingandoldagepension. 4

TheCorporatePlantoScuttleParliament EndSecrecyRestoreDemocracy!
WhydoesntParliamentactandworkfortheworkersandfarmersofCanada? There is much press speculation about the Harper government budget cuts to foreign embassies, international trade offices, food inspection services and even government oversightofCSISintelligencefunctions. Part of the answer is that vital functions of the Canadian state are being privatized, internationalizedandcontractedouttothefinancecapitalistmandarinsattheIMF,OECD, EU, World Bank and NATO. More vital decisions affecting Canadians are decided in secret meetingsinBrussels,NewYorkandLondonthaninParliamentofCanada. PrimeMinisterStephenHarper,FinanceMinisterJimFlahertyandBankofCanadaGovernor MarkCarneyareintegratedinthissecretsocietyofinternationalbankersandfinanciersand routinely participate in deciding major economic, diplomatic, foreign and military policy

3 4

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dailyquotidien/120426/dq120426aeng.htm http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/04/26/polf35auditorgeneralpublicaccounts.html?cmp=rss
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outside Parliament at secret meetings with unelected private sector advisors and G7IMF WorldBankOECDEUmandarins. After making decisionswith international finance capital, they present them to Parliament forrubberstamping.Byandlarge,theoppositionpartiesletthemgetawaywithit. Bigcapitaldoesntneedbourgeoisparliaments.Evencapitalistdemocracyhasbecometoo cumbersome for profiteering. When everything is predecided in secret meetings abroad ParliamentaryapprovalinCanadaislargelyanuisanceasfarasbiginvestorsareconcerned. Hence the Harper Governments plan to scuttle environmental review assessment procedures,cutbackonfood,pharmaceuticalandhealthandsafetystandards. The HarperFlahertyCarney budget means in practice less democracy resulting in less employed wage and salary earners compelled to work harder, longer for less in more dangerous environments to assist banks and corporations prop up the profit system until thenextdepression. Workers ousted from manufacturing jobs during this depression, instantly forgotten, are nowfreetolookforworkintherecoveringeconomyandstartalloveragain.Frontline public employees about to be laid off will join them. Another wave of unemployment, beforethelastonehasabatedisinthemaking.

TheCorporateBamboozleSharingEquallyinRestoringCapitalism!
Harper, Flaherty and Carney assert that banks, corporations, big private investors and the workingclassshareequallyinthetaskofdiggingCanadaoutoftheholethatcapitalismgot usallintoin2008. Thiscorporatebamboozleispromotedbyadebasedmediaacademeasfreedomforall. Governmentcorporatefundedthinktanksareintheforefrontofthisdisinformationscam. The Conference Board of Canada, the C.D. Howe Institute, the Fraser Institute, the ConferenceofDefenceAssociations 5 andtheCanadianCouncilofCorporateExecutivesto nameafewallpromotethephonyequalityofsacrificeline. The 2008 global depression did not fall with equal severity on workers and bankers. Bank and corporate profits continued to rise throughout the depression. Workers wages

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/article668796.ece
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stagnatedandhavenotrisenabovetherateofinflation.Thehardshipsimposedonworking class families by large scale layoffs remain. The 2008 depression deprived many working classfamiliesoftheirhomes,savings,pensionbenefits,andhopesforhighereducationfor their children. Unemployment remains approximately the same as four years ago. Underemploymentamongtheyouthcontinues.Workingclassindebtednesshasrisen. Howmanybankers,corporateexecutives,governmenthacksandMPscantpaytheirbills, losttheirhomesorforcedtowaitforpensionsuntiltheyare67?

TheSystemisInCrisisandtheCrisisisNotGoingAway!
The G20 capitalist states have been compelled by global depression, to mobilize all of its resourcestopreventtotalcollapse.Itssuccessisfarfromassured.Therecentlyconcluded G20 meeting admitted in its final communiqu that global recovery from the 2008 global depressionisfarfromover. 6 TheOrganizationforEconomicCooperationandDevelopment (OECD)initsMarchmeetingwasglum,predictingfurthershrinkingoftheGDPofGermany, FranceandItaly. 7 ThegovernmentsoftheG7NATOstateswithintheG20aretheaggressivedrivingforce,in collusion with the OECD, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) attempting to reassert dominanceandcontrolovercrisisriddencapitalisteconomies. CompliantrightwingG7governmentsactingforthelargestprivatebanksandcorporations have agreed to use a combination of reduced corporate taxation, plunder of state treasuries,massivemilitaryspendingandattacksonthesocialgainsoftheworkingpeople as the principle means to recoup profit losses during the depression. These antiworking class attacks utilize state legislative power and compliant courts, to suppress strikes, de certify unions, abrogate collective bargaining rights and by state violence suppress mass protest demonstrations of workers and students. In Canada at both federaland provincial levels,statemonopolyattacksonorganizedlabourandstudentsareintensifying. PrimeMinisterStephenHarper,FinanceMinisterJimFlahertyandGovernoroftheCanada and Bank of Canada Mark Carney are the main architects of imposing IMF austerity on Canadian workers. Dutifully they concocted a federal budget that has reduced federal

6 7

http://www.fin.gc.ca/n12/12044eng.asp http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/44/58/49995435.pdf
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transfers to the provinces, cut funding to the public broadcaster, underfunded environmentalist review procedures, reduced old age pensions and dismissed front line publicserviceworkers.AllofthiswasdoneasFinanceMinisterFlahertytravelledtheworld boasting of his Governments success in reducing the impact of capitalist depression in Canada. AlloftheprogressiveforcesinCanadahavecondemnedthefederalbudgetasacorporate profit recovery on the backs of the Canadian working class. Harper, Flaherty and Carney simplyagreethatisjustwhatitis.Theyboastofattendingsecretmeetingsofbigbusiness advisorswhoapprovedtheirplans. Ifexposurecouldmakethingsbetterforworkers,thatwouldhavehappenedbynowsince theexposuresarethoroughandwelldocumented. Thediscussionneedstogodeeperandgotothepasttogoforwardintothefuture.

WhatDidColdWarClassCollaborationLeadTo?
The chronic and general economic crisis of capitalism continues after the countries comprisingworldsocialismhavebeenconvertedbacktoprofitsystems.Twentyyearsago imperialismaidedbyanticommunistsinsidethesocialiststates,overthrewtheSovietUnion and the European system of socialist states. Capitalist theorists predicted a new era of globalexpansionthatwouldliftallboats. ThecounterrevolutionaryoverthrowoftheSovietUnionandtheEuropeansocialiststates was supposed to have ushered in a new era of unbridled capitalist expansion that would destroy forever the revolutionary trend in the international working class, and free of communistinfluence,reintegratetheworkingclassintoadutifulandrewardingpartnerrole withincapitalism. AccordinglytheEBRDwassetupin1991toacceleratethepenetrationofforeigninvestment capital in collusion with rogue anticommunist capitalist interests inside the former Soviet Union and the former European Socialist states. The Canadian Government was an active player in the EBRD from its inception and is its eighth highest investor country today. Canadian governments both Liberal and Conservative were heavily involved in bankrolling therisetopowerofthecapitalistclassesoftheformersocialiststates. 8

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The western imperialist governments and the international finance organizations that do their bidding, counted heavily on the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and theInternationalLabourOrganization(ILO)toassistthemtoframeeconomicpoliciesthat would pacify and relegate labour in both the former socialist states, the EU and North America, to the tail of state monopoly capitalist plans. The ITUC outdid itself in providing internationalfinancecapitalismwithadviceonhowtorestorecapitalismtosocialiststates withtheexpectationtheywouldberewarded. 9 It is undeniable that the right wing social democratic leadership of the Canadian labour movementwasactivelyinvolvedinthatcoldwarenterprise. Itdidnthappenthatway. The revolutionary trend in organized labour was not destroyed with the overthrow of the SovietUnion.Ithasrevivedandreasserteditsclassstruggleroleinothercontinentsandin othercountries,ledbytheWorldFederationofTradeUnions(WFTU).Theclassstruggleline oftheWFTUwasreaffirmedinAthensGreecein2011intheAthensPactDocument. 10 The WFTU in the Athens Pact elaborated its world view of the struggle of the international workingclassanditsstandpointontheclasscollaborationistlineoftheInternationalTrade UnionConfederation(ITUC). 11 ThetopleadershipoftheCanadianLabourCongress(CLC)isunlikelytorepudiateoreven mildlycriticizetheclasscollaborationiststanceoftheITUCsinceithasbeenactivelyinvolved in implementing its line in Canada. However not even the CLC leadership, can now ignore what is happening in the ranks of organized labour internationally and in Canada where dissatisfactionwithbusinessasusualtradeunionismisbeingcriticizedfornotmeasuringup tothenewdemandsoforganizingeffectiveresistancetotheattacksoftheemployerand bigbusinessinvestorclassesonworkingclassgains. Somethingnewisstirringintheranksoforganizedlabouranditwillgrow,matureandbreak out of the constraints imposed on independent trade union political action by the deeply ingrainedhabitsofcoldwaranticommunism. Thatisalongwayfromassertingthatthetheories,ideologyandpracticeofsocialreformism arestillnotdominantintheCanadiantradeunionmovement.Whathasbeenposedbythe

http://www.ituccsi.org/IMG/pdf/statement.imfwb.0412.pdf http://www.scribd.com/wftupress/d/49838897WFTUREPORTOFACTION20062010EN 11 http://www.scribd.com/wftupress/d/50946955WFTUCONGRESSDOCUMENTSATHENSPACTEN

10

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CAW/CEP New Union Project is the necessity of reviewing business unionism that arose during the cold war with new labour practices of a new type that measure up to the demandsof21stcenturyclassstruggles. At the root of that process of reassessment are profound differences over what the capitalistsystemisandwhetheritcanbemadetoworkforwageearners.Morecorrectly:Is the global system of capitalism and its component parts, capable of reform, and should organized labour work within the system to affect that reform or is state monopoly capitalismincapableoffurtherprogressivedevelopmentonbehalfofthelaboringmassesof theworldandalllabourstrategyshouldbebasedontheopposingit,overthrowingit,and consideringinthegreatestdetailwhatshouldreplaceit. The WFTU takes the latter standpoint. Their world view merits respect and consideration. TheWFTUpredatestheITUCandtheICFTU.TheWFTUwascreatedintheaftermathofthe defeat offascism and has demonstrated itspartisanship for the cause of the international workingclassthroughoutitshistory.

MayDay2012BenchMarkforNewStruggles!
MayDay2012willbeabenchmarkevent.Hundredsofmillionsofworkersonallcontinents will demonstrate their rejection of capitalistgovernment edicts that labour rights must be surrendered, wages reduced, living standards lowered, so banks and corporations can recoverandincreaseprofitslostduringthe2008globalcapitalistdepression. Thenecessityofabiggercounterattackonstatemonopolycapitalsattempttoburdenthe working class with the consequences of the 2008 global capitalist depression is clear to everyawareworkingclassmilitant. Withoutexception,theoppositionpartiesinParliamentsharetheviewofHarper,Flaherty andCarneythatcapitalismiscapableoffurtherprogressivedevelopmentforthecommon good. Their only difference with the Conservatives is that they have a better plan. All political parties seek electoral support to be better managers of the capitalist system and fleefromthesuggestionthatitneedstobereplaced. Everything that is happening in our country proves the opposite. Unless the system is changed the ruination and despoliation of Canada for the majority of its people is a certainty.

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Labourhasabetterplan.Thebeginningsofadiscussionaboutwhatthatplanshouldbehas beeninitiatedbytheCAW/CEPcallforanewstrategyforlabour. ThisMayDayisagoodtimetojointhatdiscussioninearnest. TheNDPandCanadianLabourCongress(CLC)topstrategistshavemissedopportunityafter opportunity to proclaim a labour program for Canada. The NDPCLC strategists base their politicaltacticsonanunreasoningtrustinanidealofParliamentarydemocracythatdoesnot exist in practice and delegating their independent political action to the NDP. The CLC strategistspersistinthisfollyevenwhentheHarpergovernmentdemonstrablyistheworst enemyofpeaceandthewellbeingofworkingCanadiansandtheirfamilies. Telling Canadian workers that the Harper Government is inimical totheir interests is not a policyitisalamentthatdoesntchangeanythingwiththetelling. The NDPCLC strategists may be incapable, because of their social reformist beliefs to drill down through the media hype to where the problem of the chronic and unrelieved exploitedstatusofCanadiansworkerslies,inthesystemofstatemonopolycapitalismitself. That is what must be discussed this May Day. How to change the system and what is requiredtotakeitsplace. MayDay2012isthetimetoproclaimCanadianlaborsprogramforCanada.MayDayisthe opportunitytoadvancetheslogansandorganizemassactionto: Fullemploymentwithoutinflation. Increasewagesforall. Close the gap between the purchasing power of wages and rising cost of food, housingandtransportation. Demand insurance coverage equivalent to union wages for the full duration of unemployment. Removeandredressallwageinequalitiesbetweenwomenandmenworkers. Defend,restoreandexpandfullessentialhealthandpensionbenefitsforallworkers, organizedorunorganized,working,planningtoretireandretired.

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Expandlabourrights.Removerestrictionsontherighttostrike,picket,organizeand bargaincollectively Endstrikebreakingbacktoworklegislation. Endstateviolenceagainststudents ImplementFirstNationsantipovertydemands. OpposeNATOwarsandcutthearmsbudget. Struggletoplacelaborinthepoliticalleadershipofthecountry.

TheaboveisapartiallistofdemandsthattheInternationalMovementofCommunistand Workers Parties (IMCWP) has called upon the workers of all countries to demonstrate for thisMayDay. Regardlessofwhereworkersareatintheirpoliticalunderstandingoftheirclassinterests, whattheCommunistsaresayingmustbetakenseriously.Thecapitalistarelisteningtobe sure. In Europe fascist laws are being revived to suppress the communist leadership of unions. CommunistsrepresentingCommunistandWorkerspartiesfromallcontinentsoftheglobe met together in Athens Greece on December 811, 2011 in the midst of a global capitalist depression and NATO wars. The IMCWP statement was addressed to the workers and laboringmassesofallcountriestouniteinstruggleintheirownclassinterest,rejectingall attempts of finance capital and social democratic apologists, to integrate the organized labourmovementincapitalistsolutionstothecrisis. 12 The statement was a succinct and profound summing up of the critical tasks facing the international working class in the period of state monopoly capitalism, imperialism. It deservestobereadandstudied.

12 http://www.solidnet.org/13internationalmeeting/228913imcwpfinalstatementen
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The statement adopted unanimously by the representatives of all parties attending was more than summation of principles it was a declaration for action summarized in a documententitledMainAxisofJointActionsfortheComingPeriod. 13 ThehistoryoforganizedlabourinCanadacanrecordmanyMayDaymanifestationswithin whichworkersregardlessofwheretheywereatintheirideologicalunderstandingofwhat neededtobedoneunitedtoasserttheirrightsandjusteconomicdemands. DuringthecoldwarsuchMayDaymobilizationsbyorganizedlabourwereabandoned.That was because rightwing social democracy aligned itself with cold war anticommunism to defeat the militant leaderships of many unions, many of whom were communists, and succeeded in formally aligning organized labour in Canada with the anticommunist International Confederation of Trade Unions (ICFTU) and its successor the International TradeUnionConfederation(ITUC). The militant revolutionary traditions of May Day in our country were for a time subsumed intoclasscollaborationisttradeunionism.Thatischangingbecauseitsoutmodedconcepts thenandnowareinimicaltotheinterestsoftheworkingclass. Lifeisdeterminingwhatmustbedone.Itislatebutnottoolate.

13 http://www.solidnet.org/13internationalmeeting/2297mainaxesofjointactionsforthecoming period
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