‘Capitalism is bankrupt worldwide and has to be brought down. In Britain there is a massive strike wave and the working class is crying out for a general strike to bring down the Tories. Forward to world revolution!’ Workers Revolutionary Party General Secretary Frank Sweeney declared on May Day.
Over 10,000 workers, students and youth marched from Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square on May Day.
Nearly 100 of them attended the Workers Revolutionary Party and the Young Socialists public meeting at the end of the march, in the Hercules Pillars function room in Covent Garden.
Sweeney told the meeting: ‘We’re privileged to live in a period when capitalism can be brought down. Capitalism has reached the point of degeneration where it can’t feed the world. 349 million people are starving. There is enough food, but they can’t make a profit.
‘We send revolutionary greetings to the poor – struggling to feed and clothe themselves.
‘And to the Palestinian people, over a hundred years since the British ‘gifted’ Palestine to the Zionist Federation. Despite the barbarity used against them, they refuse to accept the occupation of their land.
‘The state of Israel is on the brink of civil war, since the Netanyahu right-wing coalition decided to overrule the Supreme Court.
‘We send warm greetings to the Russian working class and army in its military operation in Ukraine. There was a fascist coup in 2014, with the CIA funding £6bn of weapons and other equipment to attack the Donbass.
‘The Ukrainian people are largely anti-fascist and take pride in having driven the fascists out of Ukraine in the Second World War.
‘We send greetings to the working and poor people in Sudan, including women and youths.
‘Four years ago, millions took to the streets to establish democracy. There was a transitional government of civilians and the military, but two years ago the military got rid of the civilians.
‘The media talk about “forever-wars” but the situation is the product of colonial rule by the British empire.
‘We send our greetings to the young people and the peasants in Yemen. The Ansarulla movement has stood up to forces armed by Saudi Arabia for seven years and the situation can only be resolved by world revolution
‘France is in revolutionary upheaval. Since Macron dictated the rise in pension age, the demonstrations have redoubled in strength.
‘The capitalist system has outlived it historic usefulness. In Britain a revolutionary strike wave has developed in the last two years.
‘Capitalism can only deliver poverty. There is talk on picket lines about a general strike, but the trade union leaders are missing in action.
‘There is no reformist way out. We’ve got to overthrow capitalism. There has to be a Marxist leadership to fight for socialism. You can’t fight capitalism with the same ideas as capitalism. Build the WRP and the YS.’
The first speaker at the meeting was Kye Gbangbola, father of Zane, who died at the age of seven from hydrogen cyanide poisoning caused by the escape of gas from the local landfill site which had flooded.
Kye himself was rendered unconscious by it and was only saved because his wife called 999. He subsequently became paraplegic and has to use a wheelchair.
He said: ‘The flood waters infused my home with hydrogen cyanide gas (HCN), in 2014. The flood waters passed through a toxic landfill site – hydrogen cyanide was the gas used to kill millions in the Nazi gas ovens.’
‘Yet there has been no public investigation into Zane’s death. We are almost into the tenth year, and still no truth.
‘At the coroner’s inquest it was stated that Zane died of carbon monoxide poisoning. The coroner was publicly funded with the best lawyers, while Zane was denied legal aid three times.
‘There was no representation of evidence or witnesses or data. The coroner ignored the fact that the house was all electric and could not generate carbon monoxide.
‘The fire service detected evidence of only HCN. The Fire Brigades Union told the truth.
‘The Tories treat us with contempt. There is one law for them and another for others. Like Grenfell and Stephen Lawrence we remain starved of the truth.’
Aaliyah Patel, a young Palestinian student said: ‘The Palestinians suffer injustice, discrimination and violence at the hands of Israel. The brutal Israeli occupation causes the loss of land, homes and lives.
‘Palestinians lack basic rights like proper healthcare and employment. The trade unions must put action into words and fight for boycott and disinvestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel, and for the dismantling of the Separation Wall.
‘They must advance the cause of peace and justice and insist that international laws are respected and that injustice and discrimination is ended. Palestinians must have the right to return to their land.’
Sadia Kokni, speaking on behalf of the Julian Assange Campaign, said: ‘I have been a champion for Julian since day one, when he was in the Ecuadorian Embassy.’
‘This is the fifth year that Julian has been kept in Belmarsh prison, by the British government with no crime and no charge. The British state is a poodle of the US, and illegally dragged him out of the Ecuadorian Embassy and put him in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.
‘He had no visitors at all during Covid. At the time of his trial at the Old Bailey he was not allowed any liaison with his legal team. They encased him in a glass box, so he could not communicate with them properly. He was strip-searched four times a day as he was moved back and forth from prison to court.
‘WikiLeaks is still running and tells the truth. It exposed Guantanamo Bay. It exposed the gunning down of innocent people in Iraq by the US military, but he (Assange) is the one in prison, not the US government or Blair.
‘We were told he would only be 50 weeks in prison, but four and half years later he is still there. His conditions are not good. Drips of water fall on his bed. It is very cold in the winter. It is a High Max prison and he is in solitary. It has affected his health and mental health.
‘He rarely receives his care packages from supporters. He was in his 30s when he went into the Ecuadorian embassy. He is now 52.’
‘He is very lonely. Last year 11,000 people did a human chain for him around Westminster. We campaign outside the Australian embassy every Wednesday 3-5pm, and outside the prison on Saturdays and hope he can hear us, and Saturday 3-5pm at the Eros statue in Piccadilly. You can write to the prison and include a stamped addressed envelope, so he can write back if he gets it.’
Aabhinav Tyagi, Secretary of the Young Socialists said: ‘Thank you for coming, especially those that are new. I was new a year ago. In the course of a year, I have had the privilege of seeing the working class erupt in this country.
‘The nurses, the ambulance men, the transport workers, the teachers, the lecturers say very clearly that it is round-the-world capitalism and imperialism which cannot go on any longer. Something must change.
‘Change can take two forms. The more likely one is that the working class find this the greatest time to be alive, where revolution becomes likely and inevitable. The strength of the working class and the international working class has grown.
‘There is a contradiction within capitalism. It has reached the point where it cannot profiteer enough and has to launch aggression and war. We have seen their wars against Vietnam, Cuba, Iraq, Equador, Yugoslavia, Libya, Yemen and others.
‘They now have a war in Ukraine and are making a new war against China. They are sending weapons to Taiwan, finding militant right-wing supporters in Hong Kong, training their forces with the South Koreans.
‘With regard to the journalist, Seymour Hersch – who exposed the Mai Lai massacre, and the torture of Iraqi prisoners by the US military – they now say he is not credible and just a blogger, when he exposes how the Nord Stream pipeline was blown up by US forces.
‘In Britain, doctors and nurses and ambulance workers, are told, “we don’t have the money” – workers don’t believe them any more. Shell made £30bn profit in one year. Workers will not take it any more. They will do what the workers did who started the Arab Spring.
‘The ruling class need to bring in laws to try and make it illegal to strike. We will not let it happen. This system has no other way out. It is imperative for them to have this system of oppression and extraction.
‘There has to be a new system for workers and their families and for the planet. If you want to know the truth, you are not going to find it in the Guardian. Read the News Line.’
Bill Rogers, from the Chingford Branch of train drivers’ union Aslef, said; ‘This was a good march. YS well done calling for a general strike to smash this government.
‘We got a deal last year as part of London Overground. Last week the Train Operating Companies offered Aslef a 4% pay rise. They keep saying that inflation is getting better, but everything is going up, hitting our living standards.
‘The Aslef leadership has called new strikes for the 12, and 31 of May and 3rd June. They have been slagged off by the Tory press, “we can’t give you a pay rise because it causes inflation”. But Quantitative Easing has electronically produced trillions of dollars, pounds etc. It’s the very nature of capitalism. It can only survive by smashing back at the working class.
‘The working class are crying out for a general strike. Bus and tube workers have conversations about how they can survive by working rest days. The NHS is being smashed up and privatised.
‘Huw Pill (chief economist at the Bank of England) says we’ve got to accept poverty. It’s like something from Dickens.
‘Last week in the High Court, the judge said it was illegal for the nurses to strike tomorrow. If a Labour MP turns up on a picket line, Starmer says they will be kicked out of the Labour Party. He wants to stick with capitalism and sacrifice health and education. A revolutionary YS has got to be built.
‘There have been big votes for strike action, up to 98%. The Tories are criminalising coming out on strike, with this Minimal Services level bill, which can force people to come in to work during a strike. For a general strike! For Socialism! Build the Revolutionary party!’
The meeting concluded with all present standing to deliver an enthusiastic rendering of The Internationale.
