LOS ANGELES, USA—This May Day, we in the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP), demonstrated in the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Workers, students, and soldiers, we raised our fists high, chanting communist chants like “Fight for communism! Power to the Workers!” and “Same enemy! Same fight! Workers of the world unite!” The young comrades led the chants without stopping all along the march.
We waved red flags with the emblem of Mobilize the Masses for Communism and carried two banners with communist slogans.
The ICWP contingent consisted of about fifty comrades and close friends. We made speeches denouncing fascist capitalism and presented the vision of a communist world. We sang revolutionary songs such as Bella Ciao and The International along the march.
A young comrade who will soon join the army spoke on the bullhorn to the crowd about how the youth are the future of our communist world. Another young comrade who recently graduated from the university spoke of the need to not fight for reforms, but directly for communism. Veteran comrades, women and men, made militant, anti-capitalist and communist speeches. New participants, young and older comrades, together distributed about 2,000 Red Flag newspapers.
Overcoming Obstacles
We realized that liberal politicians as well as the unions intentionally planned this march on a weekday morning. They feared that the masses would take to the streets as never before, especially because there is now tremendous resentment against the new president.
Even though there was less of a mass participation we in ICWP broke new ground. In previous May Days we had taken to the streets after school hours or after work hours. This time we managed to mobilize a contingent during the work day which we had not done before.
However, we came up short in certain areas. We did not manage to get as many people out as we wanted. Although more than a dozen high school students came, others could not come because of mandatory examinations. Many workers could not attend because they could not get the day off.
We have concluded that our Red Flag newspaper could have played more of a role in our organizational efforts. The paper must form the center, the marrow, the heart of our organization. We did not do this in the party clubs or cells at a higher level.
In addition, some Party clubs have not been meeting on a regular basis. We have to ensure consistent club meetings in which we elaborate plans and carry them out around Red Flag and the mobilization of the masses for communism. And, even though the students manage to distribute Red Flag widely, they do not manage to read and analyze it collectively on a regular basis.
Fighting for Collectivity
We carried on a struggle before the event to produce and use more communist chants. We produced some, but we need many more.
For the day, we organized a tactical group of four comrades (two men, one woman and one young woman). Although this tactical group discussed and made some decisions at the beginning and throughout the march, in the end it fell short. This group should have been present in the contingent both from the beginning as well as throughout the march. It was not. And this represents the biggest weakness of the day.
The communist movement is sustained not only in the formation of collectives but also in the executions of their plans. Also, it is in these collectives where we struggle over disagreements and come to a consensus. If we do not build them, struggle over our disagreements, and carry out the plans we will not be able to build a communist society.
Finally, young comrades as well as older comrades took a lot of leadership in all aspects of the march. We all worked hard to have the best May Day we could have. In the end, four young people who came for the first time joined the Party. We can be clear that the struggle for the mobilization for communism is in good hands.
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