More than one decade of unrestrained neoliberalism for the benefit of imperialism, the monopolies and multinationals and their profits bears its own bitter fruit:
One third of the world’s population, more than two billion people, are “surviving” for less than two dollars a day. On the other hand, the three richest persons in the world own more than does half of the world’s population all together. The absolute distress and misery on a mass scale has never been bigger, or affected as many people, as in the twenty-first century, where all the possibilities of a good life for all people are present.
Dark reaction is ruling. During the reign of George Bush, the US has reinforced its fight for absolute world hegemony: With the so-called missile defence shield, the US will be able to “win” a nuclear war and get a real nuclear weapon monopoly. In order to open up all boundaries to the multinationals, the US has intensified its course of confrontation with the peoples.
At the same time, the world-wide economic crisis, which began in East Asia in 1997, is deepening. It is now affecting the US and is starting to do damages everywhere. The ruling classes in all countries know only one way out of the crisis: to throw the burdens on the shoulders of the working people and seek their way out by rearmament, confrontation, and perhaps war. The EU and Denmark are on the way to recession, too.
The workers and peoples of the world have only one thing to do: to rise against the ruling and their policy.
Look at Turkey, for example: Millions of workers have risen in protest against the policy of reduction, which has been forced on them by the IMF. In the prisons, political prisoners are making hunger-strikes until death. The Kurdish people is being repressed, and the Kurdish question is not being solved. Turkey is in a deep crisis, which can lead to mass uprisings. Or take a look at Ecuador where the Ecuadorian people, two times within one year, has risen against the government and the dollarisation, which is impoverishing the population.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a pendant to the “internal market” of the EU, will increase the American exploitation of the rest of the continent, which is in revolt. Or let us go to Palestine where the popular revolt, the intifada, has again burst into flame, protesting Israel’s brutal military repression, which is being backed by the US.
The world is on the road to rebellion against the dictates and real dictatorship of the monopolies. The revolutions are on the way. The big anti-globalisation demonstrations, from Seattle and Nice to Quebec, are just the smoke of a vulcano, which is about to erupt.
In Denmark, we are facing a final battle on the future of the country: as a part of the EU, the federal state with its own constitution ready in 2004, or as a sovereign and independent country outside the EU; as a part of an European super power, which, competing sharply with the US, is pushing the imperialist globalisation forward at the expense of the workers and peoples, or outside this project that only benefits the monopolies.
And the workers and the broad masses are standing in the midst of the struggle of defending hard-won rights that are being attacked by the EU and the monopolies.
Therefore, on this May Day 2001, we are making the following demands:
6 hours working day – 30 hours working week!
Away with flexible working hours – Move forward to the 30 hours working week with full salary and staff compensation!
Real jobs for everybody – Abolish forced labour for receiving social benefits!
Real equal pay, NOW!
No to the EU and the EU constitution – Denmark out of the EU!
No to racism and xenophobia – Ban on Nazism!
No to the US star war – Hands off Greenland!
Solidarity with Palestine – Strengthen international solidarity!
Socialism is the future!
Workers’ Communist Party of Denmark (APK)
Kommunistisk Politik, No. 9 (special issue), May 1, 2001