International Workers Day: A Call for Workers to Unite and Fight Neoliberal Attacks!
On this International Workers Day, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle - US honors all the workers past and present who have dared to challenge this dying and desperate system of US imperialism and the entire capitalist system. While Biden claims to be the most pro-union president, we must continue to expose this utter hypocrisy. The world is currently in an economic crisis and the financial meltdown is pounding the working class at a time when we are just coming out of an international pandemic.
Under Biden, wages haven’t been rising to meet the higher costs of living and inflation that’s hit all basic needs. Instead of helping workers get back on their feet, cuts to COVID-19 relief meant millions losing Medicaid coverage this April and bills that will sink them further into debt, the end of free school meals will drive up hunger and poverty in households already struggling to get by, school loans coupled with lack of well paying jobs are setting students and their families back. Workers fighting to form unions at Amazon, Starbucks and other workplaces have been hit hard with employer repression, while Biden invoked executive action to shut down the national rail workers strike, falsely claiming their fight for better pay and safety measures was “holding the nation hostage.” In truth, it is the US ruling class embodied in both the Biden administration and repressive state governments that are holding workers and all the masses within the US economically and politically hostage through increasingly authoritarian methods only to line their own pockets. All of this is going to get worse if we don’t build mass movements to stop this.
Since February, ministerial meetings of the the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) have been underway to negotiate highly effective ways for big businesses to turn investments overseas into megaprofits like the new “free” trade agreement called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). How will they do this? By eliminating labor and environmental protections, eliminating tariffs to bring in foreign products & investments, and offering huge incentives like private ownership of public services - neoliberal schemes known as deregulation, liberalization, and privatization.
History shows us who loses under neoliberal frameworks - the huge loss of auto jobs that hit Detroit in the ‘70s when liberalization opened the market to foreign manufacturers, the massive influx of low wage sweatshops with deplorable working conditions popped up in Mexico with the introduction of North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) under Clinton in 1994, the flood of genetically modified seeds, fertilizers and pesticides in India which led to massive crop failure, huge debts and farmer suicides. The lack of national industrialization in historically colonized countries and the shifting of their natural resources for export have created huge gaps in wealth where people are forced to migrate despite dangerous conditions in search of higher paying jobs to support their families at home. In short, neoliberalism spells disaster for the majority of the world and the entire planet!
Who wins while the people and planet suffer? Multinational and transnational corporations - governments throw them huge tax incentives, open access to their natural resources, and opportunities to privatize their public services. In this light, it is no wonder that the Biden administration turned a blind eye to the violation of child labor laws with the influx of unaccompanied migrant children working in facilities producing for well-known corporations like Walmart, Fruit of the Loom and Frito-Lay. While people are fighting for their survival, the U.S. government has prioritized bank bailouts and wasting trillions to feed the massive military industrial complex and protect their economic interests with military interventions in the Middle East, Ukraine, military buildup along the Indo Pacific, and coup d'etats in Latin America - setting off conflicts and bringing the world to the brink of world war to redivide imperialist territories.
It is high time for workers of the world to remember their history - that they are the true makers of this society as everything was built by their toiling hands, blood and sweat, and NOT by the capitalists who exploit their labor power. Workers are the ones who fought and won the 8 hour day, safer working conditions and job security, put an end to child slavery, and even fascist tyranny. We have seen the power of workers when they come together at the picket line and in a unified strike - they have the power to stop production, transportation, shipping, and services to bring the monopoly capitalists to their knees. On this International Workers day, we call on the rank and file workers to form truly genuine and militant trade unions and workers organizations of all types and join us in the anti-imperialist movement to say NO to neoliberal schemes like APEC and IPEF and to Defend People’s Struggles against State Repression here in the U.S. and around the world. Together will we win a new world!
Workers of the world unite to bring imperialism down!
No to neoliberal schemes!
No to APEC and IPEF!
Defend People’s Struggle!