Humanity today is entering its most disturbed period in living memory. A recession and in all probability a disastrous slump lie ahead. Wars, civil wars and outright genocide are ravaging key flashpoints of our planet: in Gaza and the West Bank, in Ukraine, in Yemen, Sudan and the Congo, and menacing now the billion and three quarters inhabitants of India and Pakistan. The current furious worldwide trade war just starting could well prove just the prelude to a full-scale military world war between the USA and China, threatening the destruction of human civilisation. Even if these catastrophes could be avoided, capitalism has polluted and poisoned and roasted the planet to such an extent that it threatens to render it soon simply unfit for human habitation. That’s why the message of May Day has never been more urgent.
But that is just one side of the story. The world is simmering with discontent. Even the revolutions that followed the first world war were confined to Europe and parts of Asia, whereas in the last few years protest movements have shaken the entire planet. Young people above all have been mobilising worldwide in Me Too, Black Lives Matter, Palestine solidarity and climate protests. A succession of overthrown dictators have had to flee their palace roofs in emergency helicopters to escape the insurgent masses – most recently in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In India, hundreds of thousands of farmers and agricultural workers recently besieged the capital city for months on end, bringing the administration to a standstill, while as many as 250 million workers staged token strikes – the biggest strikes in world history.
In such dangerous times let us not forget that a new working class is emerging, which constitutes today a majority of the world population, based on every continent, with women in the forefront of militant struggle. All that is needed is to link workers’ struggles over capitalism’s artificial national frontiers and across the oceans. Our class comprises a huge massive pent-up power, East and West. Once it rises to its feet, it has the potential to open up a new dawn of history.
The voice of the world working class is yet to be heard. It will not remain silent. Workers of the world, unite!