16/05/2026
The Ideal of May Day Assumes Greater Relevance Today
Dr. K. Hemalata, Vice-President, CITU
The working class will be observing May Day this year amidst aggravating US imperialist aggression to establish its hegemony over the world and also increasing people’s resistance to imperialist attacks.
Under the second term of Trump’s presidency US imperialism is displaying naked attempts to expand its territorial and strategic influence disregarding international laws and established norms. Trump has talked of acquiring Greenland including using force if necessary, annexing Canada as the 51st State of the USA, controlling the Panama Canal on the pretext of national security because of the involvement of China and about making a ‘regime change’ in Cuba and in Iran. In January this year, USA kidnapped Maduro, the elected president of a sovereign country, Venezuela, along with his wife Cilia Flores who was a member of Venezuelan parliament. They were put in a prison in the USA on the false allegations of drug trafficking. In March Trump boasted that he would have the ‘honour’ of ‘taking’ socialist Cuba.
Trump came to power promising ‘no more wars’ and telling the workers that the money wasted on wars would instead be used to address the problems faced by the working people in the US. But after coming to power, he continued to support Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Palestine in which more than 77,000 people including thousands of women and children were killed. Along with Israel the USA launched the unjust and illegal war on Iran on 28th February this year, even while negotiations on nuclear weapons were going on between the USA and Iran till 27th February and a breakthrough was expected. On the first day of the war Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials were killed. The precision strikes of the USA on a primary school in Minab in Iran killed 165 school children. Trump warned Iran of destroying its entire civilisation in one night if it did not succumb and surrender to his demands.
The real purpose of the attacks on Iran and Venezuela is not controlling drug trafficking or establishing democracy. US imperialist slogan of ‘regime change’ is nothing but a strategy to install its own puppet regime to facilitate its imperialist drive to grab control of their oil and gas resources and the global trade routes. These naked aggressions are being ventured into salvage the acute ongoing crisis of capitalism. Thus, the global leader of capitalism- the USA is resorting to such crude and cruel attacks as an attempt to arrest its declining strength and influence in the world and reestablish its hegemony through another variant of colonisation and geopolitical control in strategic areas of the world.
These are also part of its attempts to defend the dominance of the dollar as the global currency and contain socialist China by cutting down its energy supplies. China mostly depends on Venezuela and Russia for its oil supplies. It is reported that China buys more than 80% of Iran’s oil exports in discounted rates, widely believed to be facilitated in yuan, the Chinese currency. Some countries like Russia, Venezuela and Iran have started trading in non-dollar currencies. Some of the oil producing countries also have decided to diversify to non-dollar currencies. It is reported (Oilprice.com) that in 2023 a fifth of oil trade used non-dollar currencies. All these pose a threat to the dominance of the US dollar.
USA expected that Iran would succumb and it could bring about a ‘regime change.’ That did not happen. Though its military power is no match to that of the US or Israel, Iran resisted the imperialist aggression and inflicted heavy damage onto the US bases in the region. The people of Iran formed a remarkable human chain around its key infrastructures defying the US threat to wipe out the ‘entire civilisation’ that night. Iran announced that it would allow Chinese ships and those of any other country buying oil in Chinese yuan to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under its control. It has forced the US to agree for a cease fire and come for negotiations. It has refused to surrender its interests in the negotiations.
The war has disrupted the transport of oil and gas resulting in their shortage and rise in the fuel prices across the world. It is impacting the entire world economy but it is the poor and the workers who are facing the brunt of the fuel price rise. In India, the government has increased the price of both domestic and commercial cooking gas. Most of the migrant workers do not own the gas card and buy cooking gas in black market. The price of a gas cylinder in the black market has shot up to Rs 10000 in some places. Many dhabas and road side eateries have been forced to close. Hostels have been closed and midday meals for school children have been suspended due to lack of cooking gas.
Thousands of small establishments have stopped operating. The South Gujarat Textile Processors Association has reportedly said that half of Surat’s factories have stopped working due to shortage of gas and the remaining are working for only five days in a week. Around 5 million daily wage workers have reportedly lost their jobs and left the city. The glass manufacturing industry in Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh has also reportedly cut down the number of workers by more than half. Unable to meet the fuel expenses, thousands of migrant workers are going back to their villages, reminding the reverse migration during the Covid pandemic.
The rise in the oil and fertiliser prices are bound to impact food prices and household expenditures across the world jeopardising the food security of the poor and vulnerable sections of society.
The US, the most advanced and powerful capitalist country in the world is now resorting to direct colonisation by forced occupation and control of natural resources across the world. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on 14th February 2026, US Secretary of State Macro Rubio lamented that the West which was expanding for five centuries till the Second World War, building vast empires across the globe faced setback in 1945. He said ‘In 1945 the great Western empires had entered into terminal decline, accelerated by godless communist revolutions and by anti-colonial uprisings that would transform the world and drape the red hammer and sickle across vast swaths of the map in the years to come’. While colonialism suffered a serious setback after the Second World War with the rise of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the socialist block, the USA became the most dominant capitalist country in the world. However, that dominance has been weakening.
Today, the USA wants to regain that dominance by recolonising the world, by using its military and economic might to attack countries and control, loot and plunder their natural resources.
The Soviet Union and the socialist block, which attracted the attention of the working class across the world and compelled the capitalist countries into adopting some welfare measures to prevent the workers from being influenced by the socialist ideology, do not exist today. But, socialist countries, China, Vietnam, Cuba, North Korea and Laos have been providing an example of the socialist system as an alternative to the exploitative capitalist system. China has made tremendous advances, eliminating absolute poverty and improving the living standards of its people. In many fields in science, technology, manufacturing etc it is competing with the US and is in a position to challenge the USA. Socialist Cuba, a small country with limited resources has survived all the attempts so far by US imperialism to crush it through blockades and sanctions, even after the dismantling of the Soviet Union and setback to socialism in Eastern Europe. US imperialism is unable to digest and tolerate these examples of an alternative system in existence. It sees their ideology as a big threat. That is why it attempts to contain China and crush Cuba.
On Cuba
In January 2026, the US issued an executive order on socialist Cuba, a small country with a little over 1 crore population but a strong spine to stand up and resist the inhuman blockade and sanctions by the US for 67 long years, despite the immense hardships. The executive order declared Cuba an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat.’ In February it has unleashed a fierce digital campaign calling for violence and civil disobedience with an objective to prepare the ground for external intervention. In 2019, Trump applied the Title III of the Helms Burton Act for the first time. It threatens and punishes any country or company trading with Cuba with restrictions and sanctions. Companies across the world were forced to give undertakings to the US that they would not trade with Cuba. Trump tightened the blockade further by adopting 243 new measures. Cuba was placed on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. These measures created shortage of food, medicines and essential medical equipment like ventilators, which could not be imported. But despite such cruel blockade, Cuba developed five vaccines for Covid and supplied to many needy countries, not just in Latin America but even to developed countries like Italy. But the US targeted even this medical cooperation forcing many countries to withdraw from such cooperation.
It is to the credit of the socialist system in Cuba, which highly prioritises people’s welfare that despite these measures Cuba has been able to maintain health and educational indicators on par with the developed countries. Cubans are bravely facing this challenging situation through unity and solidarity. They are trying to overcome these difficulties with creativity. To overcome the scarcity of cooking gas, people have developed highly efficient wood-burning stoves. They have set up community kitchens in the neighbourhoods, cooking for several households at once. Many families have set up solar panels letting people to charge their motorcycles, phones and tablets. Electric tricycles are being used, not just for individual use but for transporting passengers, goods etc; they are even being customised for patients who need haemodialysis. When lifts in hospitals do not work due to lack of electricity, doctors and medical personnel carry patients on their arms up even seven flights of stairs.
The revolutionary institutions and community organisations, with people’s involvement and creativity keep Cuba alive. Trump’s dream of having the ‘honour of taking Cuba’ will remain a chimera. Cuba is preparing a plan to enhance the defence readiness of the entire people, to defend the country’s sovereignty and independence with people’s participation. Cuba’s President Diaz Canel announced that Cuba will never surrender. It never will.
The imperialist aggression today reflects the desperation of the capitalist class resulting out of its inability to address the systemic capitalist crisis within the present framework.
The attacks on the basic rights of the working class, including on the eight-hour work day, the struggle and sacrifices for which mainly signifies May Day are also part of the attempts to ensure profit maximisation by the capitalist class. These attacks again have intensified under neoliberal capitalism, which is in systemic crisis.
Many capitalist countries are changing their labour laws to curtail the hard-won rights, wages, social security benefits etc of the workers. These governments that represent the capitalist class meet the demand of their bosses to ensure union free workplaces.
Right wing, retrograde and divisive forces of various hues and colours are promoted to divert the attention of the toiling people, prevent their unity and disrupt united struggles against the neoliberal attacks on their livelihoods and living conditions.
We have been witnessing the adverse impact of neoliberal policies and the communal divisive forces in our country. These have intensified under the Modi led BJP regime representing the corporate communal nexus.
But these attacks are also facing serious resistance from the workers and other sections of the toiling people.
Resentment against the US policies under Trump is growing in many countries including in the USA. The rising prices, the impact of the tariffs imposed by Trump, cuts in health care, the way in which immigration policy is implemented through the ICE and the war on Iran have led to a sharp slump in the popularity ratings of Trump. Around 9 million people have reportedly participated in the third ‘No Kings’ rally held on 29th March 2026. Large numbers of former Trump supporters are also joining the demonstrations. Workers in many countries too are participating in big demonstrations and strikes.
In India, the historic farmers struggle against the three farm laws under the leadership of the SKM forcing the BJP government to repeal them, the series of general strikes under the banner of the joint platform of trade unions, the latest one on 12th February, and the growing solidarity and support of the movements of the workers and farmers are shining examples of such resistance. The last two months have seen serious of wave of spontaneous strikes of the contract and casual workers in several multinational corporations in Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat etc facing police repression reflect the anger of the young workers demanding a rise in the minimum wages, against long working hours and exploitative conditions in which they are forced to work.
Instead of addressing their genuine problems the BJP governments in these states have resorted to suppression. The Modi government has notified the labour codes for implementation. It is utilising the government administration and the autonomous constitutional bodies like the election commission, ED, CBI, etc., to suppress all opposition and is displaying neofascist characteristics.
While strengthening struggles at workplaces intensifying sectoral struggles to resist and defy the attacks, it is necessary to integrate these struggles with anti-imperialist struggles, against imperialist wars, against attacks on Cuba and in defence of socialism.
It is necessary to create an awareness about the unsustainable character of the present neoliberal capitalism and the capitalist system itself. The working class has to be made aware not only the necessity but also the possibility to change society, end exploitation and achieve an exploitation free society, a socialist society and its role in such a transformation.
On this May Day let us take this pledge.
