Raise up the Struggles of Working people! Advance the Fight for a Bright Future! International Workers’ Day 2025 - Statement of ILPS US
This International Workers’ Day, ILPS US celebrates the generations of workers’ struggles that have forged the path for a better future and more equitable world.
2025 brings new manifestations of the system of capitalism in crisis, with the inherent instability of the current system on full display. As prices of basic goods and services continue to rise, from housing to groceries to childcare, the working class is barely able to survive. Major tech companies Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Nvidia, Amazon, Meta and Tesla, make up almost one third of the entire US stock market value, leveraging immense control over global communications, data, energy, and infrastructure. Meanwhile, the workers operating the extraction, assembly, logistics and upkeep of these companies’ products and services, stretched out across every corner of the globe to maximize profits, are offered crumbs, many working in subhuman conditions.
As Trump takes extreme measures to secure the power of the ruling class in the US by exacting massive tariffs on the world, pushing through a trillion dollar military budget, and continuing neoliberal policies by cutting social services and gutting government regulations that protect everyday people, he is lashing out against migrants to cover up the crisis of this system and to amass more wealth for the biggest corporations by making migrants more vulnerable to further exploitation. But the more the US strangles the development and sovereignty of other nations, the more the oppressed people of the world will be forced to migrate in search of some way to keep living, and ultimately, to fight back to fend for their livelihood and families.
Heightening tensions and worsening conditions are fertile grounds for the growth of resistance movements, many led by workers around the world. In Argentina, mass protests have rocked the country in opposition to President Millei’s austerity measures and IMF bailout. Similarly, in Belgium hundreds of thousands have been marching against pension cuts and further militarization. In Los Angeles, over 50,000 county employees just led a 2-day strike to protest labor law violations and demand a new contract. Across the US and in countries abroad, Tesla Takedown protests and company boycotts have targeted billionaire Elon Musk for his unbridled overreaches of power through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), causing Tesla’s profits to plunge a whopping 71% and Musk to pull back from DOGE. Additionally, an estimated 3 million protestors have also taken part in at least 1,400 “Hands Off” mobilizations throughout all 50 states of the US.
This wide ranging political dissent from all classes and sectors of American society reveals a critical opportunity to build a broad front of oppressed and exploited people, united in fighting the common enemy of US imperialism and all its accomplices. We stand with those in the labor movement who have debunked Trump’s false claims of helping the working class with his protectionist tariffs that will never materialize into significant domestic production and job growth. To remind us of who he really serves, we must recall the plans of Project 2025, which lays bare that the target of his repressive policies and budget cuts has always been the working class, as well as the profit-driven history of his whole class of billionaires and capitalist bureaucrats.
As we honor all the workers who have fought for our collective rights against the ruling class before and with us today, we enjoin all those waging the struggles of the people to band together and elevate our collective struggle beyond what any of us can do alone, and ultimately grow and strengthen the mass movement. One of ILPS US' contributions to bringing together the range of struggles of working and oppressed people is waging campaigns like People Over Profit (POP) and Defend Our Communities! Defend Peoples’ Struggle (DPS) as a venue for linking up our different local struggles in common efforts to address the shared issues which plague the people.
Whether you are defending your community from fascist attacks or fighting corporate plunder, let us bridge the divides and show we are united nationally and with the people of the world to bring our common enemies down and to lift up our vision of a system and economy oriented towards people's needs and worker empowerment; one where housing, health, education, safety and the environment are priorities. Only then can we stop this imperialist war machine and truly promote peace built on a foundation of justice.
