(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

May Day 2009 statement from the World Federation of Trade Unions

Brothers, sisters, the WFTU sends warm militant greetings to the workers, the unemployed, the immigrants, the women and young people throughout the world and calls you to move forward on a course of a coordinated and dynamic counter‑attack of the class-oriented trade union movement to defend our rights and our achievements.

     The true face of capitalist globalization is now clear. We see it in the injustice existing in the world, an unprecedented concentration of wealth in the hands of a few while the overwhelming majority of people live in poverty. Statistics prove that 1% of the world's population possess 40% of total wealth while 50% of world population lives in poverty, owning 1% of the global wealth. In India, for example, 48 billionaires represent 30% of the national income!

     In the last meeting of UNCTAD, an African delegate described the situation in this continent saying that what is happening now is a real "blood‑transfusion" in the reverse. The blood is taken from the starving Third World countries and flows to the advanced capitalist countries to the benefit of multinationals and monopolies. Today, according to official UN data, the average life expectancy in African countries such as Zimbabwe is 42 years, in Nigeria and Liberia 41 years, 40 years in Zambia and in Angola and Sierra Leone 37 years. This picture shows the cruel exploitation of the Europeans and American imperialists against the Third World.

     Also today, in the period of deep capitalist economic crisis that began in the U.S., passed over into Europe and is spreading worldwide, the ILO estimates that the number of unemployed will increase from 190 million in 2007 to 210 million in 2009. Workers are losing their jobs in all sectors but particularly in the construction industry, banking, car‑manufacture, metal, tourism. Part‑time employment with reduced salaries has become the rule, worsening of working conditions, attacks on trade union rights and freedoms, as well as the dramatic impact on migrants who are forced to return to their countries.

     In this situation, the WFTU and the class oriented trade unions do not stay with crossed arms. In the workplaces, in every country, in every industry, we organize the defence and counter-attack. We promote their just demands. We are in conflict with the policies of the capitalists.

     A very important initiative of the WFTU was the International Day of Action organized on April 1, in 55 countries worldwide with strikes, rallies and many other activities. April 1, the international day of action against exploitation, showed that workers all over the world, wherever they are, have the power to develop common action and to walk with confidence in the fight, to be united and well‑organized to face the exploiters because they have the right on their side.

     Workers, this year's International Labour Day should be a day for better organization of our fight against exploitation. The crisis must be paid by those who have caused it, not by the workers. Lay‑offs must stop and measures taken now for the unemployed and the dismissed. They and their families have also the right to live.

     The WFTU calls the workers and trade unions around the world, to show confidence in their forces. We can succeed. We can follow another way. The example of the Cuban Revolution is bright. Fifty years they have beaten the imperialists, fifty years of a heroic way with principles, values, ideals and superiority. We have experiences and lessons that we cannot ignore and that can guide us. There is a need for an international coordination, international solidarity and militant action.

     Workers, unemployed, immigrants, homeless, poor farmers: on Nay 1, the most important day for the world working class, we feel the need to express our internationalism with the struggle of the Palestinian people. We stand beside the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, struggling to kick foreign troops out of their countries.

     We stand firmly with the people of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, fighting to open new ways for their future. We unite our voice with the peoples of Africa to cancel the debt of African countries. We embrace the working class in Asia and the Pacific living in difficult circumstances. We continue to have common positions with the workers of Arab countries who are fighting against the plans of U.S., NATO, European Union for the so‑called New Middle East.

     Dear colleagues, within such a complicated and difficult international environment we need militant, class‑oriented and active trade unions. We need unions to be in the front line for the lives of the people, for peace, democracy and trade union freedoms. We need trade unions that will raise the consciousness of the working class and pave the way to its liberation from capitalist exploitation. On this difficult but beautiful path marches the WFTU.

     Proletarians of all countries unite!

     (For more information, visit http://www.wftucentral.org)