THE ANNUAL May Day march took place on Thursday on the hottest day of the year so far.
The march wended its way from Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square with bands playing and multiple banners aloft from the different unions and socialist organisations.
The Young Socialists and Workers Revolutionary Party held a May Day meeting at 2pm calling for: ‘End Israel’s war on Gaza. Recognise Palestinian state now. Workers will not pay for the capitalist crisis. For a general strike to kick out this rotten Labour government. For world socialist revolution!’
The first speaker was Aabhinav Tyagi, the editor of the Young Socialist paper.
He said: ‘We are in a unique historical moment. The countries of the West offer no future for young people.
‘Donald Trump’s tariff war on all nations, has signed the death warrant of capitalism.
‘With the reduction of imports due to rising prices, the shelves of the US supermarkets will soon be empty.
‘American workers will have seen nothing like this. Ultimately this inflation will have to be paid for by the working class.
‘Workers will find themselves with less money, working harder and paying the price for the economic crisis of capitalism.
‘This system cannot be reformed.
‘The only way forward for the human race is to build a system which scientifically organises to address human needs.
‘This most right-wing Labour government insists that sticking to fiscal rules is more important than providing heating for the elderly and funding benefits.
‘They insist that the Chancellor must be forced to cut public services or raise taxes, as if this is inevitable, while meanwhile energy companies like BP make billions in profits.
‘This government is making the final attempt to save capitalism. It is Labour Party only in name.
‘The trade union leaders give funds to the Labour party, which does not do anything for the workers.
‘We must organise to change the leadership of these unions.
‘Who kept the country going during Covid? It was the train drivers, the post-men, the bin-men, the nurses and doctors etc, i.e. the working class who generate the value.
‘The working class has the power to withdraw its labour. It is the most powerful class if it is organised and led by a revolutionary party.’
Moiz Ibrahim, spoke about the genocide in Sudan. He said: ‘Sudan has been at war since April 2023.
‘The UK state, sponsors and profits from the genocide in Sudan. From 2021 to 2024, the UK has sold millions of pounds worth of arms to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which some people regard as sort of Arab Zionists.
‘The UAE passes on these arms to the Rapid Support Forces, which carry out many crimes against humanity. Ukrainian and Colombian mercenaries have also been used in these skirmishes.
‘It appears that wars such as these proxy wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine could stretch into a third world war. This is a very turbulent era.
‘There is hope in terms of Sudan. The Sudanese Armed Forces liberated Khartoum, but they too have performed war crimes.
‘In 2019 there was a popular revolution when General Bashir was ousted.
‘El Fasher is a modern day Stalingrad, in terms of resolve to hold out. Time will tell.’
Aisha Jung from the Community Camp4Palestine, explained how a group of six people set up this Camp for one week last April outside the American embassy. They then realised that it needed to be sustained continuously.
She said: ‘The Palestinian struggle represents resistance to settler colonialism and imperialism.’
She remembered in her youth how a camp was set up outside the South African embassy for Nelson Mandela until his release. ‘There was a non-stop picket for 4 years from 1986 to 1990 in all seasons. I used to join them.
‘When the US upped its commitment to support Israel’s plan to annihilate the Palestinians we decided to make the picket permanent outside the US embassy.’
She reminded the audience that ‘President Ronald Reagan stopped the bombing of Beirut in 1982 by messaging the Israeli leader: “I told him it had to stop.”
‘The symbol of the war was a seven months old baby with its arms blown off. Twenty minutes later he ordered an end to the barrage.
‘The US have been dragged back to the darkest days of settler colonialism with 19 months of unrelenting horror. We cannot be free until Palestine is free. We are all implicated and all at risk … Gaza is the flashpoint of all the different struggles.
‘We are witnessing the total collapse of their post-war order.
‘There are 50 million tons of rubble in Gaza. One million children are being deliberately starved in this concentration camp.
‘All it would take is one phone call from the US.
‘Power lies in the masses, not the elite. There is a real sense that people are joining the dots. Last week at the camp, so many grass roots organisations came together. It is a hub of community action.
‘Please come. The camp is open 24/7 – the kettle is always on and we have a film and food is served on Fridays.’
She ended by saying: ‘The News Line is a fantastic paper that always tells the truth.’
Frank Sweeney, WRP Central Committee, then addressed the audience saying: ‘It is essential all the struggles of peoples against imperialism are united – from the Palestinians to the heroic people of Yemen, to the peasants in Sudan who have suffered years of displacement, to workers in Africa, Asia and Russia and Ukraine.
‘Capitalism worldwide is now in a terminal crisis.
‘Trump represents a section of the capitalist class, that has taken a political decision to render the US bankrupt and restore US domination.
‘In 1945, the dollar was the reserve currency as set up by the Bretton Woods Agreement, World Bank, the IMF etc. This role of the dollar benefitted US imperialism for 70 years.
‘The US elite are now ripping up the playbook. And turning the world upside down. Might is right! Never mind about national rights!
‘The building of a revolutionary leadership is the decisive issue today.
‘We need a general strike to get a socialist system of government which can come to the aid of the Palestinians. We must build the revolutionary party here in Britain and without our paper we would not have a party.’