On May 1st, we congratulate all the workers, all those who take a stand against oppression and exploitation, those who continue to resist in the prisons, we salute the youth and women who rebel against domination and continue the historic struggle for freedom in the 21st century with courage and determination!
May 1st, International Workers’ Day, is a day of solidarity and unity of workers, peasants, oppressed peoples, struggling women and youth. Starting from the strikers of Haymarket, this day evolved from a struggle for workers’ rights to a symbol & holiday of the worker’s struggle all over the world and is for us the occasion to express our solidarity with all the oppressed, the working class & all those who hold the flag of socialism, humanity and unity in the winds of these stormy times. In a time of chaos, of continuous attacks on our humanity, on every form of social autonomy and self-organization, a time in which attempts are made to force us to take sides in the war between imperialist powers, we greet all those who present a third way. A path of solidarity & sisterhood of peoples, a path of internationalism and unity in diversity. Along the way, the struggle of the working class has made historic contributions in the fight against capitalist exploitation & oppression and represents a historic legacy to which we link ourselves to and whose fallen we commemorate on this day.
The ideals represented by May 1st have not lost their relevance today. In the face of deepening injustice and poverty, the enormous scale of environmental destruction and the inability of capitalist modernity to develop answers to the pressing problems of societies, it is up to us, the workers, the oppressed, the youth and women to make ourselves forces of solution for a future beyond the state, power and violence. Accordingly, it is important to celebrate this first of May with determination, to flood the streets and to intensify the effort for the realization of the values that May 1st embodies. The Apoist movement has made great efforts to develop solutions to the issues of freedom, democracy and self-determination since its early days in the wake of the Youth Revolution of 68. In Rojava today, the potential of the path developed by Abdullah Ocalan to a humanity that lives in harmony with nature, its own values and in dignity can be seen.
“Today, on May 1, the most important message we should give can be our confidence in living together in dignity and peace. Because the past and the past successes have shown us all that statism, elitist societies are a minority in this world, we should also show our majority with our words and deeds.” – Abdullah Ocalan (Letter for May 1st 2013).
We, as internationalists, have come to Rojava because the revolution in Kurdistan has awakened a hope in us. A hope that was lost to us in the capitalist metropolises. Here we realized how profound the change must be if we are to overcome the system of nation states, industrialism & commodification of every aspect of life. This change must first and foremost take place within ourselves and requires deep analysis on our part. To what extent are we shaped by the prevailing ideology, liberalism and nurtured egoism and individualism? How can we effectively defend ourselves against attacks on our humanity? For us it’s clear; we can only find an answer together, organized & with a contemporary understanding of internationalism. With steps in the here and now, with the building up of our own institutions, communal ways of living and militancy in the sense of acting in harmony with our values and oriented towards our goal: a democratic society, free from oppression and exploitation, based on shared values and the diversity that is our common treasure.
In this sense we greet the striking workers, the oppressed of all countries, the Guerrilla in the mountains of Kurdistan, the women’s revolution in Eastern Kurdistan and Iran, the Alliance for Labor and Freedom that stands up to AKP-MHP fascism in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan, the protesters in Peru, the youth on the streets of France, the resistance in Chiapas & all those who struggle with us in the 7 continents for a better world!
