Against capitalism’s crises and wars, build a united fightback!

May Day Greetings from the Communist Party of Canada

This May Day – the international day of working class solidarity and struggle – working people across Canada and around the world face immense challenges. The systemic crisis of global capitalism has entered a new phase, one that increasingly threatens the very future of humanity and the liveability of our planet.

Contradictions arising from the rapacious drive of international finance capital to amass and concentrate wealth are provoking economic volatility and precariousness on a world scale. The global impact of the deepening U.S. recession is spreading like a prairie fire out of control. The spiralling costs of the current “credit crunch” crisis are now conservatively estimated to have surpassed a trillion dollars, and are still growing. Economic growth is coming to a standstill in many countries including Canada, where it has now reached a 16-year low. Energy and food prices are spiking while the manufacturing base, social programs and the real standards of living for most working people continue to erode.

In the ‘third world’, living conditions for billions have become literally unbearable. Recent food riots in a number of countries stand as undeniable proof that this system cannot satisfactorily meet the most basic necessities – food, clothing and shelter – for the bulk of humanity.

With increasing desperation, ruling circles in the leading imperialist states are resorting to policies of social revenge, attacks on democratic rights, and to militarism and war in order to maintain and extend their rule.

But these latter-day King Canutes cannot hold back the tides of labour and people’s resistance forever. The historic struggles against neoliberalism and imperialist plunder which have been gaining momentum across Latin America are setting a shining example to workers and oppressed peoples everywhere. This May Day we convey our solidarity to all those progressive and anti-imperialist forces – and especially to Cuba and other socialist countries and to the Communist movement internationally – who are struggling to help forge another, better and more just world in the face of such perils.

The working class in our country too must seize the social and political initiative in order to counter the devastating impact of the capitalist offensive. Whether around the struggles to protect jobs, living standards and social programs, or to stop and reverse the erosion of our sovereignty, or to defend labour, equity and democratic rights, or the imperative struggle against aggression and war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti and elsewhere – the decisive step now must be our shared efforts to build a united fight back movement to drive the Harper Tories from office. The coming conventions for the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the Confederation of National Trade-Unions (CNTU) will be crucial opportunities (convention for the Canadian Labour Congress will be a crucial opportunity) for labour, together with its allies in the peoples’ movements, to propel such a counter-offensive forward.

Central Executive Committee,

Communist Party of Canada