Greetings from Spain here ♦ Letter from Costa Rica here ♦
May Day Greetings from Spain
A revolutionary communist greeting. In Spain, we are preparing to distribute Red Flag in the May Day march.
I also wish to express my joy upon learning that the rural community in Minitas and Limones—as well as the maquila workers in El Salvador—remain ever-vigilant in their struggle and continue to press forward.
I am glad that you are there, for I know that you constitute a great bastion, and that this May Day you will be carrying forth communist ideas.
I also send my greetings to the comrades in South Africa, who always encourage us to continue building our party and to gather greater strength. And to all comrades throughout the world: may this march be as special as always, and let us step out with all our might to proclaim that we will defeat capitalism.
Letter: Victims and survivors of labor exploitation: Never forgive! Never forget!
2026: One hundred forty years of commemorating the historic struggle where union workers were repressed and executed on May 1,1886. They, who led the struggle for an 8-hour workday, are called “Chicago Martyrs.”
Costa Rica faces the worsening of a so-called democratic system of a capitalist-patriarchal-authoritarian nature.
The main slogans raised by the union sector for May 1, 2026, are totally inadequate for the crisis we face.
“Wage and Labor Defense, which must go beyond administrative matters to guarantee dignified access to social security, including fair pensions.
Institutional Protection: Defense of public education, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and the Social Rule of Law—demands which imply legitimizing a fallacy of democracy based on the bourgeois system, rather than the fight for a dignified life free of discrimination and oppression.
Against the Economic Model: But rather than reducing it to a “neoliberal model that strengthens privatization policies”, it is urgent to visualize it as a core part of the capitalist machinery.
Unity and Struggle: Which must transcend “the unity of the working class in the face of attacks on freedom of association and labor rights.” We require processes of political discussion, under dialectical principles, which allow us to elucidate possible errors of tactics, strategy, and readings of the world.
In Costa Rica, between May 1, 2022 and April 14, 2026, structural violence worsened from the Legislative Assembly. It rejected various bills that defend the right to social protest and sexual and reproductive rights. This undermines the security and freedom of women and sexually diverse populations. It is the product of the dominance of the ultra-right, where conservative Christian fundamentalism plays a vital role.
“Modern” slavery is gaining more strength every day, paradoxically in the face of a legal scenario of supposed initiatives in defense of social justice. In 2021, fifty million people were registered living in conditions of “modern” slavery, an increase of ten million over 2016 (IGE- Global Slavery Index).
Slavery is present in forced labor and/or absence of labor and social guarantees. People are subjected to deception and coercion of all kinds. This, in the face of a world of exacerbated and feminized poverty in a daily and naturalized way. The system conditions us to consume products that are the result of labor exploitation, legitimizing the consumerist culture.
We experience this phenomenon in our countries and beyond Latin America. For example, in the United States, the migrant population is subdued and squeezed out of work. In the maquilas in India, girls are victims in the production of Sara brand clothing and many more. In Africa, with the exploitation of children forced to harvest cocoa in the most inhumane conditions.
Also, on May 1, we cannot ignore the scourge of slavery and the sexual exploitation of children and women of all ages. Capitalism has even assigned reprehensible terms such as “inappropriate relationships” and “child marriages” to what are, in fact, vile acts of rape and all forms of sexual violence.
Without fair work, there can be no dignified life!
Social protest is a vital human right for the working class and communities!
The defense of labor rights and social gains achieved in the face of capitalist tyranny knows no borders!
Down with capitalism!
—Comrade activist, social fighter, Human Rights Defender in Costa Rica