INTERNATIONAL Workers’ Day — May Day — is a celebration truly shared by the working and oppressed people of the whole world. 

It is a day to reflect on the achievements of our movement here in Britain and around the world. It is a day to remember and pay tribute to all of those comrades who have given their all in the struggle for a new and better world.

It is also a day to remember the fundamental goals of our movement and the task that history has laid before us. It can happen that in fighting the thousands of fights our movement faces day and daily, in fighting for the needs of the hour, we can lose sight of our final goal.

Here in Britain in 2024 the daily tasks we face are indeed demanding and the stakes for working people could not be higher. 

Working people continue to face stagnant wages and grinding austerity at the hands of the Tories and the ruling class — all the while, profits in the City of London skyrocket. Our NHS and public services are on the brink and councils are going bankrupt. For working people, the trajectory under capitalism in Britain is grim.  

The scourge of war is spreading across the planet with a rapidity and a danger not seen for generations. After having been promised a Europe of peace with the destruction of the Soviet Union, we see a bloody proxy war ground out in Ukraine. The people of Palestine continue to resist a genocidal offensive at the hands of Israel, imperialism’s bastion in the Middle East.

The work is also being done by the United States, Britain and the other imperialist powers to lay the groundwork, if they can, for a conflict with China over Taiwan — desperate to turn their new cold war into a hot one. 

Other conflicts and tensions continue to erupt across the Middle East and Africa, almost always prompted by the machinations of the imperialist powers. Always and everywhere the real winners are the profiteering arms manufacturers. 

And while all of this unfolds, our planet continues to burn and slide towards permanent environmental degradation, leaving it poisoned and unfit for human civilisation as we know it.

It would be incorrect to think these ruling class attacks and plans have gone unchallenged. The trade union, Palestine solidarity and environmental movements in particular have all stood up to face down the government on these respective attacks. 

This resistance has in turn led to the biggest attack on civil liberties, trade union rights and the right to protest that we have seen in living memory.

Capitalism aims to masquerade as a free and democratic system — but it is in the face of resistance like this that the mask begins to slip and its true, brutal and oppressive face is exposed.

If we continue to resist and deepen our resistance, as we must, we can only expect these attacks to intensify.

For our part, Britain’s communists have been present in all of these many struggles, fighting the many battles on the many fronts our class is forced to contend with in 2024.

In a context like this, where the left and labour movement are weak in historical terms and constantly on the defensive, it can be difficult to maintain our own line of march. 

But it is essential that we do. It is not enough to oppose ruling class attacks, austerity or involvement in certain wars on an individual or piecemeal basis. 

Our goal is and must be nothing less than sweeping away the whole rotten and inhumane system that has made our world as it is today: capitalism. 

Our goal is to replace it with a new system, free from exploitation and oppression of human by human and war: socialism. 
That is the spirit of May Day, both here in Britain and around the world.

In the struggles of today it is our task to fight and win these battles in a way that builds the strength, size and level of organisation of the left, progressive and labour movements in such a way that we build a mass movement ultimately capable of ending capitalism itself. 

History has shown us in the clearest possible terms that when the Communist Party is strong, Britain’s labour movement, left and working class are strong. Strong both in terms of our ability to fight the battles of the present but also in our vision of and determination to reach the future. 

Around the world, the unique record of communist parties for challenging the ruling class, raising the political consciousness of working people, winning and holding working-class state power and building socialism speaks for itself.

One of the many negative forces, but one of the most fundamental, facing the working class in Britain on May 1 2024 is the absence of a Communist Party with this critical mass, strength and influence.

Our party and Young Communist League have experienced an exciting period of growth and activity across Britain over the recent period. But there is much work to be done if we are to be the force that working people in Britain and history need us to be. 

You can play your part and take up the the vision, the challenge and the spirit of May Day by joining us today. 

Johnnie Hunter is Communist Party director of communications. Visit the communist party website at www.communistparty.org.uk.