DeepL Translation

On May 1, 1886, armed thugs acting on behalf of industrialists brutally attacked striking workers who had gathered at Haymarket in Chicago, USA. The workers demanded an eight-hour workday and, despite this brutal repression, ultimately achieved it.

In 1889, the Second International called on workers to celebrate May 1 each year as a day of worldwide solidarity among the working class. Friedrich Engels explained that on this day, the working class must also vow to “seize political power in order to expropriate capital and transform the means of production into public property.” This is a burning issue today. Only under the leadership of the international working class can a broad united front against fascism and war put a stop to the imperialists and give the struggle the perspective of socialism and communism.

The entire burden of the growing, insoluble crisis inherent in the imperialist world system is being shifted onto the working class and other sections of the working masses. Attacks in the form of layoffs and workforce reductions, closures of businesses and factories, as well as wage cuts and restrictions on workplace safety have become a common feature of all imperialist-capitalist countries. Instead of permanent employment, today we see the promotion of outsourcing, temporary agency work, fixed-term contracts at starvation wages with no job security, deteriorating working conditions, the extension of working hours to over 12 and even 14 hours a day, and the introduction of gig workers paid per assignment on major internet platforms. In addition, hard-won political, economic, and social rights are being systematically curtailed. Under capitalism, the introduction of new technologies is destroying jobs at a rapid pace.

Competition among imperialist countries for control of markets has intensified, leading not only to an intense trade war among them but also to military incursions into markets and imperialist wars of aggression to secure dominance over entire regions and resources such as oil, natural gas, minerals, and precious metals in various countries. “Make America Great Again!” signifies US imperialism’s openly imperialist, colonialist claim to world domination. They ruthlessly sacrifice the foundations of human life to their greed for profit and drive forward the global environmental catastrophe. The danger of a nuclear-led Third World War is intensifying. In current wars worldwide, U.S. imperialism is the main aggressor, perpetrating genocide and ecocide. We oppose all imperialists equally.

At this critical turning point, May Day takes on even greater significance. Historically speaking, the working class is destined to play the leading role in the revolution to abolish the exploitation of man by man once and for all. To this end, the worldwide unity of the working class – proletarian internationalism – must be steadfastly upheld and strengthened today. Modern revisionism and reformism, postmodernism, chauvinism, and anti-communism stand in opposition to this.

The crisis that has gripped the imperialist-capitalist world is not merely economic in nature, but all-encompassing, extending to the political, social, ideological, ethical, and cultural spheres. Karl Marx already stated that workers must transform themselves in order to transform the world.

As a means in the intensifying struggle for dominance and to maintain their power, the imperialist-capitalist rulers resort to fascism. In fact, the tendency toward fascism has now become a common feature in all imperialist-capitalist countries.

On May Day, Lenin stated: “The workers of all lands are fighting … for a system of society where the wealth created by the common labour will go to benefit, not a handful of rich men, but all those who work. They want … the fruits of labour to go to the labourers themselves, and all the achievements of the human mind, all improvements in ways of working, to improve the lot of the man who works, and not serve as a means of oppressing him …” (Lenin, “May Day”, 1904, Collected Works, Volume 7, pages 199-202)

Today, the working class and the oppressed masses worldwide are often engaged in fierce struggles, including large-scale general strikes such as the one in India in February 2026. The political strike by dockworkers in at least six countries in solidarity with Palestine – against arms shipments to Zionist Israel, which is committing genocide against the Palestinian people, in solidarity with Palestine, and in defense of their social and economic rights—points to the prospect of internationally coordinated struggles. The 3,300 demonstrations involving over eight million people in the U.S. on March 28, 2026, many under the slogan “No kings—no fascism,” signal: Fascists are not all-powerful! Ever-broader masses do not want to end up in fascist barbarism.

The rapid succession of political developments – U.S. imperialist warmongering and military aggression, which have led to an unprecedentedly brutal kidnapping operation against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the intensification of the blockade of Cuba, and the imperialist-Zionist war of aggression against Iran and Lebanon – attacks against the women’s movement, plundering of nature, the abolition of social, economic, and democratic gains, and many other related developments – all of these require the strong commitment of the working class in alliance with the oppressed masses of the world.

These struggles need strong Marxist-Leninist leadership. In this spirit, ICOR calls on May Day:

Organize yourselves! Strengthen the class-struggle wing within the trade unions and the transnational international coordination of the labor movement!

Build the proletarian united front against fascism and war as the core of the international anti-imperialist united front!

Strengthen the Marxist-Leninist parties, the ICOR, and its member organizations!

Signatories to date; additional signatories welcome:

1. MMLPL Moroccan Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Line

2. CPSA (ML) Communist Party of South Africa (Marxist-Leninist)

3. NCP (Mashal) Nepal Communist Party (Mashal)

4. RUFN Revolutionary United Front of Nepal

5. NDMLP New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party, Sri Lanka

6. CPA/ML Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)

7. БКП Българска Комунистическа Партия (Bulgarian Communist Party)

8. PR-ByH Partija Rada - ByH (Party of Labor - Bosnia and Herzegovina)

9. MLPD Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany)

10. UPML Union Prolétarienne Marxiste-Léniniste (Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Union), France

11. BP (NK-T) Bolşevik Parti (Kuzey Kürdistan-Türkiye) (Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey))

12. KOL Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburg (Communist Organization of Luxemburg)

13. RM Rode Morgen (Red Dawn), Netherlands

14. UMLP União Marxista-Leninista Portuguesa (Portuguese Marxist-Leninist Union)

15. MLGS Marxistisch-Leninistische Gruppe Schweiz (Marxist-Leninist Group of Switzerland)

16. MLKP Marksist Leninist Komünist Parti Türkiye / Kürdistan (Marxist Leninist Communist Party Turkey / Kurdistan)

17. PCP (independiente) Partido Comunista Paraguayo (independiente) (Paraguayan Communist Party (independent))

18. PC (ML) Partido Comunista (Marxista Leninista) (Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)), Dominican Republic

19. PCR-U Partido Comunista Revolucionario del Uruguay (Revolutionary Communist Party of Uruguay)

20. SUCI (C) Socialist Unity Center of India (Communist)

21. PCPCI Parti Communiste Proletarien de Côte d'Ivoire (Proletarian Communist Party of Ivory Coast)

22. PCT Parti Comuniste du Togo (Communist Party of Togo)

23. UPC-Manidem Union des Populations du Cameroun - Manifeste National pour l’Instauration de la Démocratie (Union of Populations of Cameroon - National Manifesto for the Establishment of Democracy)

24. PPDS Parti Patriotique Démocratique Socialiste (Patriotic Democratic Socialist Party), Tunisia

25. SPB(M) Socialist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist)

26. TKP-ML Türkiye Komünist Partisi – Marksist-Leninist (Communist Party of Turkey – Marxist-Leninist)

Additional Signatories (Non-ICOR):

Trotz Alledem! (Germany)

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