On both sides of the front, the « real May Day »

Despite war, despite repression, both in Putin’s Russia and Zelensky’s Ukraine… on both sides of the front, workers’ activists expressed the best internationalist traditions of May 1st.

In Kharkiv (Ukraine), the anarchist organization Assambleia declared, on the occasion of International Workers’ Day: « Today, May 1st, we commemorate the martyrdom of the anarchist workers executed in Chicago in 1886, who were fighting for the 8-hour workday. » Assambleia claims to be « an internationalist movement which considers that no government has the right to decide for Ukrainian workers how they should live and how they should die ». And that’s because « those making millions of dollars from this war are not the ones trying to swim across the Tisza (1) ». These activists claim to be organizing resistance to the raids on military recruitment centres, and conclude: « To get us out of this shithole, we need to rely only on ourselves! »

In Novosibirsk (Russia), a rally entitled « Real May Day » was held on the initiative of the Krasnyï Povorot information centre and the International Communists Organization. The « real » as opposed to the « fake »: the one organized elsewhere in the city by the pro-Putin « Communist » Party, whose leaders were described as « social-chauvinists » in speeches delivered to around a hundred participants. The rally’s main slogan was: « Peace between peoples! Yes to the fraternity of workers! Yes to socialism! No to fascism! No to capitalism! » The placards read: « Timur Ivanov (2) is the true face of this government! », « Worker: are you ready to die for the people of Rubliovka (3)? », « No to political terror! », « Free the political prisoners! » Importantly, a delegation from Pout’ Damoï, a movement of soldiers’ wives for the return of their mobilized husbands, was present.

With our correspondents

(1) To escape mobilization, hundreds of young Ukrainians swam across the Tisza River, the natural border between Ukraine and Romania.
(2) Former Russian Deputy Defence Minister arrested on corruption charges.
(3) Moscow’s equivalent of Neuilly-sur-Seine in the outskirts of Paris, i.e., a wealthy bourgeois neighbourhood