Letters: Marching on May Day, Organizing in Factories

Fascist Checkpoints and our Communist May Day here ♦ New Job, Same Goal: Build ICWP here ♦

Fascist Checkpoints and our Communist May Day

This May Day March was very special even from its initial planning. The comrades I had invited, asked me, with much anticipation, “Are we going to the May Day March?”

I answered, “Of course we will. Everything is ready.” Everyone participated.

On the trip to the departure point for the march, we were stopped by four separate fascist police-military roadblocks along the highway. The question they asked us was, “Are you all going to the march?”

But a comrade was ready, saying, “What march? We are going to a tourist center in San Salvador.” This was our answer for the whole route of our journey.

At some of the checkpoints, all the men and young people were taken down from the bus. A soldier told a 14-year-old boy, “Get off so that you can learn what you should not do in this country.”  In spite of everything, we arrived at our point of the march.

It was very gratifying, when we unfurled our banner saying, “From Gaza to El Salvador, Let’s Fight for a Communist Society.” This slogan got the attention of the participants and the media. They took many pictures throughout the whole march.

The participation of our comrade men and women workers, together with their children, and with farmworkers and health care workers, all formed a large marching bloc.

But the most impactful thing for me was distributing Red Flag. Several groups of workers called me over saying, “Comrade, share your material with us.”  And in a very friendly way, I approached them and handed out newspapers.

Others followed me and asked, “Do you sell, or give away, the newspaper?”  I told them that I was glad to share it with them. Friends and many others approached me and simply said, “Would you give me one, please?”

The acceptance of our newspaper filled me with joy. A comrade who stayed very close to me (for security) told me, “I liked it very much when the groups called you over and asked for the newspaper. This filled me with satisfaction. We’re moving forward.”

I felt that we were a point of attention in this march. It was the first time that we have marched in this sector and together with unions in this country.

LONG LIVE MAY DAY! LONG LIVE THE WORKING CLASS!

—Communist Teacher in

El Salvador

New Job, Same Goal:  Build ICWP

Revolutionary greetings to all comrades in ICWP!

I have been a member of the International Communist Workers’ Party for some years. Four weeks ago, I changed jobs, aware that the bosses are all the same, exploiting the workers. I wanted to change factories for two important reasons. One is because they don’t work on weekends. That helps me because I had no one to take care of my daughter on Saturdays. Where I am now, we work from Monday to Friday.

The second reason is that we have comrades there who are organized in ICWP, and I hope to consolidate a new collective.

Working in another factory does not change my communist ideas. Even though I have only been working there four weeks, I decided to attend the May Day march with my family.

For me it is important to participate on this day because it commemorates a historic act of the Chicago martyrs.

I plan to make friends in order to recruit new workers for ICWP. I know it is not easy, but as time goes by, I hope to make friends and then tell them about our party. The work environment is different because it is a smaller factory and the organization of the schedules does not allow many opportunities to talk. But I will always look for an opportunity to do the work for communist ideas that we need so much.

It is a difficult challenge, but not impossible. I have all the motivation to be able to achieve it, and I experienced a lot of that encouragement on May Day in the march, seeing that our contingent is growing.

—Red worker in El Salvador

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