From Workers' Herald
September 1996
New Orleans, Louisiana
The following article was reprinted from Labor's Champion, May 1994.
Energetic May Day events were carried out in New Orleans, on Sunday May 1. A cultural event was held at A.L. Davis Park from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. in which two brass bands entertained over 200 people who came out to show their solidarity with the revolutionary proletariat throughout the world. Several large red flags adorned the stage and speakers from the Revolutionary Political Organization (Marxist-Leninist) greeted those in attendance with the international salutation, "Workers of all Countries, Unite!" The main presentation was given by Al Johnson representing the Central Committee. In his comments he analyzed the world and national situation confronting the working class.
"The growing impoverishment of the working class, the spread of war, imperialist aggression, and the increase in state repression against the laboring masses is a direct result of the crisis of the world capitalist, imperialist system. The big rich, the capitalist blood suckers are responsible for the suffering of the laboring masses. On this May Day, we the class conscious workers and true Marxist-Leninists must renew our efforts to put an end to this decadent capitalist system. But this cannot be done unless there are created, in this country and around the world, genuine Marxist-Leninist parties that have defeated opportunism, and won for themselves a leading position among the working class. Such parties must base their activities on a genuine Marxist-Leninist program which prepares the working class for the seizure of power, for the overthrow of the rich and for the breakup and smashing of the oppressive capitalist machine. In the USA we must prepare the workers to bring down the dictatorship of the rich and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat which is the embodiment and expression of democracy for the workers and no democracy for the rich, the exploiters, the parasites. The dictatorship of the working class is the state power of the working class; one of its principle tasks in the socialist revolution is to crush the resistance of the rich, break up their ability to resist the will of the working class. The dictatorship of the working class is impossible without an armed proletariat."
"Our organization, the RPO(ML), is working tirelessly to bring into being such a party in the United States and we ask all class conscious workers and genuine Marxist-Leninists to join us in carrying out this task."
"There are many who call themselves socialist, Marxist-Leninist and communist parties in this country, but these groups are in reality impostors, frauds, put up and supported by the bourgeoisie in order to stop the revolution. They are fakes because they do not prepare the proletariat to fight for its dictatorship. For example the so-called Communist Party USA and the so-called Workers World Party openly and avowedly renounce the dictatorship of the proletariat in principle and are consequently doing absolutely nothing to prepare the working class to fight for it. These fakes are nothing but bourgeois agents, agents of the exploiter camouflaged as socialists. I call upon all class conscious workers, especially those within the range of my voice today: carefully study the line of Marxism-Leninism on the dictatorship of the proletariat and compare it with the pacifist, anti-revolutionary utterances of these revisionist parties. I am convinced that you will come to the same conclusion, that there must be a complete break with these opportunist parties and no effort should be spared to defeat the influence of these parties among the working class as a pre-condition for the preparation of the working class for revolutionary struggle for power."
"In capitalist society the working class is the only class that is revolutionary through to the end. This is because it is stripped of the means of production and has only one thing to sell, its labor power. When the working class is called into action in the factories, mills, farms, and mines, it creates all the wealth of this land. It creates a value greater than the value of its labor power. From this surplus, the capitalists derive their wealth in the form of profits, interest, dividends and rent. The hands and brains of the working class create the good life for the parasitic and privileged classes in this society. The labor of the working class does not create wealth for itself, but for others. This is the heart of the contradiction in our society between labor and capital, between rich and poor, between the worker and the boss. It is the tasks of the socialist revolution to put an end to this situation and to free the working class from exploitation by overthrowing the rich, taking the means of production out of the hands of the rich by force and making these means of production the property of the working class state."
"On a world scale we see how the working class benefited in Russia when they took power in 1917 and, under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, organized genuine socialism. We also see what catastrophe has befallen the working class of Russia since the revisionists, such as Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev and Yeltsin took power and brought back capitalism. Now the proletariat of Russia is laboring under a terrible yoke and they are now organizing for the second socialist revolution."
"And we, who stand here today, representatives of the class conscious proletariat of the U.S. and this city in particular, stand shoulder to should with the true Marxist-Leninists in Russia who today are fighting to restore their working class to power. We proudly stand on the principles of genuine socialism embodied in the teachings of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, V.I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin."
"We are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with all the proletarian and national democratic movements around the world which are fighting to throw off the capitalist, imperialist oppressors; alongside the workers and peasants in Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Colombia; alongside the workers and peasants in South Africa, Palestine, South Korea and so forth: alongside the revolutionary struggle of workers in Canada, Europe and Japan."
"On this May Day we reaffirm our stand in support of the struggle of women for complete liberation, for complete social, economic and political equality and for the defeat of bourgeois doctrine of male supremacy."
"Within the borders of the USA we support the struggle of the oppressed and captive nations (African American, Chicano, Native, Puerto Rican) for self determination, up to and including state independence."
"In the USA, as elsewhere in the world, the working class is the vehicle of its own emancipation. But it allies to itself other non-exploiting strata of the population, known as the semi-proletariat, such as small vendors and farmers who do not hire labor. The working class leads these forces in the fight for socialism where the working class is in sole possession of state power."
"We say to all of you who are able to hear my voice:
If you are tired of being without work, without decent housing, without real rights in the state;
If you are tired of being used as a pawn in the imperialist wars conducted by the U.S. government;
If you desire to devote your energies, your mind and your skills toward the revolutionary struggle to put an end to these ulcers of capitalism;
then get in touch with the RPO(ML) and give it your undivided political support. "
"Thank you, comrades:
Down with the dictatorship of the rich.
Victory to the dictatorship of the proletariat."
This excerpt has been edited slightly for clarification.
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