May Day 1927

It's May Day again. The ninth day of May in the capitalist twilight of the gods after the collapse of the world war, the ninth day of May in the era of the proletarian revolution. Once again the workers of all countries are marching out en masse to celebrate the world “holiday” under the slogans of the first May Day 38 years ago, not realizing that the iron tread of historical development has crushed the social demands of the epoch of capitalist advancement into illusions; that today the imposing May Day celebration with its splendid historical reliquary must be laid to rest so that May Day can rise again as a fiery proclamation of the modern class struggle. For the May Day of the present can only live as a symbol of the revolutionary liberation struggle of the working class or, despite its bright red costume, it is a historical necromancy. It is the duty of the proletariat not to cling to the broken planks of the past, but to step onto the solid ground of social reality, if the form and content of May Day is to be the concrete expression of its revolutionary class struggle program.

“Raise the call for peace in the world with millions of voices,” the Social Democratic May Day musicians blast with full cheeks and point the working masses on the way to the protective hut of the ‘League of Nations’. But the sweet melody of those apostles of world peace, who swapped their peace flute for the imperialist war trumpet in 1914 at the command of their capitalist quartermasters general, is once again being drowned out by the noise of war. The imperialist lull, which the bloodletting of the world war naturally enforced, is coming to an end with giant strides. The energetic support of the “capitalist reconstruction” by the reformist workers' organizations has put the bourgeoisies in a position to start the imperialist race again. The increase in production achieved through rationalization is once again driving the capital groups beyond national borders into the struggle for the vital sales areas, and thus the imperialist antagonisms between the capitalist states are inevitably coming into sharper focus again, mercilessly mocking all pacifist phrases. The position of the world powers on the war of independence of the awakened Chinese bourgeoisie and the latest conflict in the Balkans already clearly reflect the new hopelessness of the imperialist states. The old rift between England and France in particular has reopened and is widening, despite the “League of Nations” in Geneva. The British world power, already weakened by the ongoing industrialization of its colonies, sought to make up for its recent loss of prestige in China by supporting Italy's expansionist policy in the Middle East, which was directed against its French rival. Russia, whose need for economic aid and power-political alliances increased with the progress of its NEP capitalist development, sided with the Chinese Canton government and thus came into sharper conflict with England. Thus, in the ninth year after the end of the war, imperialist antagonisms are systematically coming to a head; they must be piling up the fuel for a new world war, because the capitalist powers are once again encountering more and more of the same insoluble problems that led to military conflict in 1914.

Peace is sitting on a powder keg, a new imperialist storm is looming in the distance on the horizon. The 2nd International cannot prevent the new world conflagration; according to its theoretician Kautsky, it is only an instrument for peace. Nor can the 3rd International; according to its theoretician Bukharin, it must call for the defense of the fatherland in the “subjugated” bourgeois states in the interests of NEP Russia, i.e., it must go to war for the bourgeoisies fighting for a place in the imperialist sun. For the proletariat demonstrating for peace on May Day, however, the slogan can only be: If you want peace, then wage war, revolutionary class war to overthrow your own bourgeoisie!

“Fight for freedom on a democratic basis”, the reformist leaders call out to the working masses on May Day, demanding that they swear allegiance to the existing republic. What class-conscious proletarian would want his class to be a pariah of society forever? None of them. But the workers' struggle for their liberation from the capitalist yoke is not a struggle for “eternal human rights”, is not a struggle for freedom in the bourgeois sense. This “freedom” had already fallen into the lap of the proletariat in 1918 as overripe fruit: there is the right to vote and eligibility for both sexes, and thus an important old May demand has been fulfilled. But despite all the progressive features of the republic compared to the monarchy, political equality within the capitalist social order is not the hammer with which the working class can forge its future. There is no freedom for the proletariat in an order based on economic inequality. Every proletarian feels for himself that he is not free despite all the achievements of the November Revolution. The bourgeoisie continues to rule unrestrictedly by virtue of its private ownership of the means of production, it holds state power, it keeps the propertyless masses of millions in check with the police, judiciary and military, it exercises an iron dictatorship over the proletariat in the name of the same formal democracy that the social-democratic-unionist “class fighters” worship as a panacea. For the lentil dish of the democratization of state life, the working masses, through the mouths of their reformist organizations, have championed “capitalist reconstruction” and the receipt for this is a bag of political gagging laws. The barbaric arbitration dictatorship is enshrined in the Weimar constitution, the distribution of revolutionary literature is punished with draconian penalties, a restriction on the freedom of assembly and association is in preparation - legalized fascism rears its head ever more violently.

The freedom which the capitalist class grants the proletariat in formal democracy is only a miserable chimera. It is the freedom of unrestricted exploitation: it is the freedom of the bourgeoisie to brutally hold down the working class. Those reformist. Politicians who sing the praises of the bourgeois republic and its democracy on May Day must therefore be told: To hell with freedom by the grace of capital. The proletariat must liberate itself by no longer chasing democratic illusions, but by embarking on the path of struggle for its revolutionary council dictatorship!

Bread and work for the million-strong army of unemployed proletarians is what the trade union-parliamentary authorities demand from the trustees of bourgeois society. But the cry of the starving masses goes unheard. Work more and consume less is the slogan of the capitalist rulers. And the reformist. Through their policies, the reformist organizations have themselves helped to prepare the ground on which social misery can grow unhindered. For one cannot promote “capitalist reconstruction” on the one hand and abolish the social consequences of this policy on the other. One cannot subsequently reject responsibility for the consequences of capitalist rationalization, which is supported in principle, but which has the very purpose of completely releasing the superfluous labour force in the profit economy. The instinct for self-preservation in the competitive struggle on a narrowed world market basis forces the capitalist class to reject the reintroduction of the eight-hour day and the incorporation of the unemployed army into the production process; forces it to slowly dismantle the so-called “social policy” through unemployment insurance. The cause of unemployment lies in the capitalist system itself, in the economic constitution of existing society. Despite formal democracy, the proletarians do not own the means of production and therefore have no decisive influence on the course of the economy; they are wage slaves who have to sell their labor power as a commodity by the piece or by the hour, and this labor power is subject to the laws of capitalist market relations: it is attracted by industry when the demand for goods increases, and it is pushed off onto the stamp market when the goods do not find sufficient sales. The interest of entrepreneurs in production declines with the disappearance of profit opportunities, because in the capitalist order no factory chimney smokes without profit.

Capitalism, which has become an obstacle to social development, can no longer feed all its wage slaves, cannot provide bread and work for the starving battalions of the unemployed. On the contrary, it can only perpetuate its existence if it pushes every superfluous proletarian worker down into misery. It is therefore pointless, as it once was in May, to make demands of the bourgeoisie that it simply cannot fulfill in the present period of economic crisis. To look this iron fact openly in the face and recognize the resulting historical limitations of all reformist politics means, in the practice of the class struggle, to celebrate May Day under the revolutionary slogan: Political power and the means of production into the hands of the proletarian class! All power to the workers' councils!