At a time when the tycoons are organizing globally, when the world is dominated by a single superpower and workers who rebel against the oppression and exploitation are broken up by police forces - A time when most world economies are controlled by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, when Globalization leaves scarcely any state unaffected, creating everywhere a "free" economy whose core is the "freedom" to be poor, exploited, unemployed, and hungry - A time when we are repeatedly told that there is no alternative, that Capitalism has won, that to survive we must become beasts, that human society is nothing but a big jungle, that survival of the strongest is a natural law - is a time to raise the Red Flag on May Day, to speak out clearly and unequivocally. A time to say that none of this is natural law, that things can be otherwise, that it is possible to achieve quite a bit in the fight against Capitalism - local and global - provided that the fight is waged with unity and determination! At a time when the Arab population in Israel continues to suffer from discrimination, new confiscation of Arab land is announced, as well as new demolition orders for Arab houses, and the authorities' only response to justified Arab protests, inside and outside the university campuses, is the use of police clubs, tear gas and rubber bullets; at a time when the Arab communities are hit worse than anybody else by the economic crisis, poverty and unemployment - When, precisely at such a difficult time for the working class and for all employees in Israel, the Histadrut Trade Union Federation has altogether ceased marking May Day; when the Histadrut leadership has become an unholy alliance of interests and careers, in a coalition of all political parties represented in the Histadrutd. The Communists All over the world, it was the Communists who spearheaded the class struggle in defence of workers' rights and support for their struggles. As the Communists had been the first to oppose Imperialism, so they took the lead in confronting Globalization in all its manifestations: the economic and the political, the ideology underlying it and the wars to which it gives birth. The most brutal warlike aggression perpetrated by the powers that are enforcing Globalization upon the world, with the United States at their head, was the war conducted precisely a year ago against Yugoslavia. In that war, civilian targets were massively and systematically hit - including schools, hospitals, bridges and many residential buildings. Members of the Israeli Communist forum were nearly the only ones in Israel to hold protest demonstrations outside the U.S. Embassy in Tel-Aviv, from the very first day of that aggression - the kind of action undertaken by Communists and other progressive forces throughout the world (not, however, by the leaders of the CPI; they chose to attack mainly the victim of the aggression, rather than the perpetrator). Under the present global conditions, and considering the present situation of the workers in this country, it is more than ever important to point out that there is only one substantial solution to all the evils of global Capitalism. The solution is nothing less than the overthrow of the entire Capitalist regime, whose leaders are committed only to getting the maximum profits for the capitalists which they represent, and the creation of a Socialist regime in which the exploitation of one human being by another will be eliminated. The resources of each country will be placed at the disposal of all its inhabitants, no longer serving for the enrichment of a handful of billionaires at the expanse of the great majority of humanity. Long live May Day, the International Workers' Solidarity Day!
