The Israeli Communist Forum congratulates the workers of Israel on the Day of International Workers' Solidarity - May Day.

We will mark May Day as a day of increasing momentum in the struggle for defence of the workers and of their rights, the struggle for ensured employment, for improving education and medical services, for a strengthened and guaranteed right of workers to organize and against the manpower companies which are being used to weaken the workers and erode their rights.

On May Day, we will strive to increase the struggle against the "National Unity" government. In recent weeks, that government has undertaken a series of military acts which threaten to plunge the region into all-out war, such as bombing the Syrian radar station in Lebanon, bombing and bombarding the West Bank and Gaza Strip from the ground, the air and from the sea as well, and repeated military incursions into area which, under the Oslo Agreements, should have been under exclusive Palestinian control (Area "A"). In only a single case of such an incursion did the United States choose to express its public displeasure - and in that particular case, it caused the incursion to be stopped immediately. This recent case once again proves that, had it wanted to, the US could have stopped all the other aggressive acts perpetrated by the present Government of Israel - which would have prevented the grave suffering these acts caused to the Arab Palestinian people.

We call for increased international solidarity with the Palestinian People; for an immediate end to the closures, blockades and cutting up of the Palestinian territories - acts which push the people to the edge of starvation; for an end to the destruction of Palestinian homes and vital infrastructure, the uprooting of trees and devastation of fields. The activities of the consistent peace forces must be increased and strengthened.

In Israel, as elsewhere, this year's May Day is marked by an increased struggle against "globalization", a term which implies global rule of the giant multinationals, via institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank which were created to further that rule. The multinationals' rule imposes worsening living conditions on the great majority of humankind. Countless millions suffer from the cumulative effects of hunger, pestilence, ignorance and want, while a handful of billionaires becomes increasingly wealthy at their expense. The "free economy" imposed by the IMF leaves to millions the "freedom" to be poor, exploited, unemployed and hungry.

With the military might of the US and the other NATO countries no longer counterbalanced by the Soviet Union and the Socialist countries of Europe, there is nothing to stop aggressive acts of crude intervention in the internal affairs of other countries, including by the barbaric use of military force. This also includes the imposition of strangling embargoes on countries which refuse to "toe the line" and to surrender to the dictates of American imperialism and its allies.

A conspicuous case in point is the cruel military aggression against Yugoslavia. With the passage of time, more details come to light on just how deadly were the means used during that aggression, causing severe damage not only to the civilian population but also to the soldiers of the very armies which used these weapons. This aggression is continued by the demand of the US and NATO to arrest and imprison those who had been Yugoslavia's leaders until recently, a demand shamefully complied with by the present government of Yugoslavia. We join the call for an end to the campaign of witch-hunt, detentions, show trials and firings against the leaders of the Yugoslav Socialist Party and against all other forces which stand in opposition to that country's present government.

On May Day we reiterate our solidarity with Socialist Cuba, which not only continues to face heroically the criminal American embargo but also makes new achievements, inside its own country and on the international arena.

On May Day, we express our solidarity with all the forces which confront the capitalist "New World Order". We call for increased and united struggle against that order - everywhere, on both the regional and the global levels.