Karl Marx made a call for unity: "Workers of All Countries, Unite," although many poor people were not proleterian. Lenin called more broadly still for the peasants and colonized peoples to struggle united under the leadership of the proletariat.
The celebratory date was chosen as homage to the martyrs of Chicago, when on May 1, 1886, they initiated a strike in a capitalist country whose working masses suffered unemployment and other calamities associated with economic crises that are inseparable from the system.
Their rights were not recognized, and the the bourgeoisie regarded the unions as if they were terrorist organizations, enemies of the people of the United States.
Later the capitalists resorted to their best weapons: division and economism to dismantle the revolutionary struggle. The workers’ movement divided, and for many, in the midst of reigning poverty, union demands were the principal objective, more than change in the society.
The United States became the imperialist country with the greatest difference in income between the rich and the poor. In the shadow of its hegemony, Latin America became, for its part, the area of the Third World where the inequalities between rich and poor were more profound. The rich enjoyed levels of life comparable with those of the bourgeoisies of the developed European countries. The notion of Homeland had disappeared in the richest strata of the population.
A collision between the superpower of the North and the Cuban Revolution was inevitable. The heroic resistance of the people of our tiny country was underestimated.
Today they are prepared to pardon us if we resign ourselves to return to the fold as slaves, who after knowing freedom, accept anew the whip and yoke.
Today the planet is debating amidst economic crises, pandemics, climatic changes, dangers of war and other concurrent problems. The political task becomes more complicated, and there are still many who have illusions that the peoples can be manipulated like puppets.
The last word has not been said about the future evolution of the current U.S. administration. There are new elements, both of an objective as well as subjective character. We carefully study and observe each one of its steps. We are neither incendiary as some imagine, nor dumb as to be easily fooled by those who believe that the only thing that matters in the world are the laws of the market and the capitalist system of production. We all have the duty to struggle for peace; there is no other alternative. However, the adversary should never have the illusion that Cuba will surrender.
We hope that every May Day thousands of men and women from all corners of the planet will share with us the International Workers Day that we have celebrated for the last 50 years. Not in vain, long before January 1, 1959, we had proclaimed that our Revolution would be the Revolution of the humble, by the humble, and for the humble. The successes of our Homeland in the sphere of education, health, science, culture and other branches, and especially in the strength and unity of the people, have shown this, in spite of the cruel blockade.
Fidel Castro Ruz
April 30, 2009
(Source : Granma)
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