Long Live
Red May First!
By the Committee
of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
This First
of May 2002 dawns on a world that is different in many ways from
what it was only a short time ago. Most importantly, there has been
a leap in the world situation – the forces of imperialism and reaction,
headed by the US, and the forces of the people, although often scattered
and under different kinds of leadership, are locked in combat on
a world scale more sharply than at any time in recent decades.
With the declaration
of its “war on terrorism”, the US has gone on a rampage against
the world’s people for the all but openly avowed purpose of consolidating
a global American empire and enforcing what it considers a “favourable
environment” in which to squeeze even greater profits out of the
labour of the people in the dominated countries. Acting both through
their own troops and their puppets who rule these countries, they
have launched a global terror campaign to crush anything that could
stand in their way.
While the US
launched its aerial bombardments and ground special forces killers
on Afghanistan, it also unleashed its Zionist guard dogs against
the Palestinian people. Operating with American arms and money and
US blessings, Israel is carrying out the bloodiest “ethnic cleansing”
since the Zionist settlers first stole the land from the Palestinians.
In country
after country the ruling classes are trying to stamp out every spark
of the people’s resistance. But this is only one aspect of what
is becoming an increasingly fierce and more globalised battle on
both sides. Every act of resistance by the people to the US war
machine is a source of strength for the world-wide revolutionary
struggle of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples and nations.
The Palestinian people, numbering only a few million and fighting
under desperate circumstances, are taking their place on the front
line of the resistance to the US-led offensive, and are daring to
stand up and stand fast in the most unequal combat. They have given
voice and inspiration to people everywhere and have become a major,
unexpected and for the imperialists and their flunkies most unwelcome
factor in the unfolding of world events. If the US & Co. expected
their mechanised “war on terrorism” to be able to simply and smoothly
roll over the people, the Palestinian people have shown otherwise.
The Marxist-Leninist-Maoist
parties have been in the forefront of leading the people in their
struggles for liberation. The People’s War under the leadership
of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) has persevered for nearly 22
years, holding high the red flag of revolution and representing
the hopes of the downtrodden for a world they rule and completely
transform. In the Philippines, Turkey, India and elsewhere the revolutionary
armed struggle is continuing and coming more and more into direct
conflict with the US-led crusade. In Nepal during the last few months
the People’s War, launched six years ago, has reached a critical
juncture. On the one hand, the great advances of the People’s Liberation
Army led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) have made it possible
for millions of peasants and their allies to overthrow the feudal
landlords and bureaucrat capitalists in vast areas of the countryside,
set up their own political power and begin to build a whole new
society based on the interests of the people. On the other hand,
the increasingly cornered ruling class is lashing out against the
masses, sending its army to kill, rape and terrorise the common
people and abolishing elementary rights through a declaration of
emergency. On this May First we call on all revolutionary and progressive
people to step up support for the People’s War in Nepal and to condemn
the State of Emergency there.
People living
in the imperialist countries, including the US, are increasingly
taking a strong and active stand with the peoples of the world against
the parasitic imperialist ruling classes who feed on 90 per cent
of the world’s people and on the proletariat of their own countries.
The world-shaking movement against the war in Vietnam is a standard
to live up to and surpass in an ever more tumultuous world where
resolute and enlightened struggle may open up unprecedented possibilities.
In fact, the
US-led world-wide reactionary offensive is accelerating the awakening
of masses across the globe to political life and calling forth its
opposite: determined resistance in all its many forms, in a rising
spiral of confrontation. The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
supports this resistance wholeheartedly, and will strive to link
up its various streams and help lead them into a single raging current
that can fully and finally emancipate humanity.
Down with
Imperialism! Stop the US-driven War Machine!
Palestine
Will Win!
Support
the People’s War in Nepal – End the State of Emergency!
Long Live
Proletarian Internationalism!
Build and
Strengthen Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Parties United in RIM!