This May Day, working people turned out in force to denounce the rise of the global Far Right. In major cities across the world, unions and workers’ organizations took to the streets and rallied to condemn the policies of Donald Trump and other right-wing leaders including Javier Milei, and Germany’s incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz. Protesters also railed against global attacks on immigrants, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, low wages, inflation, police repression, militarism, and attacks on civil liberties and unions. In addition to demonstrations, workers in Argentina in particular, used the day to hold a mass assembly of thousands of representatives from workers’ organizations across the Buenos Aires region to organize a united front against the Milei regime’s attacks. All of this shows that working people everywhere are increasingly prepared to confront both the Far Right and the ongoing crisis of global capitalism and militarism with working class methods of struggle.
In the United States, where resistance to Trump’s Bonapartist regime is growing, more than a hundred thousand protesters turned out in demonstrations and marches around the country.
In New York leftist groups and unions marched on Wall Street chanting “Free Palestine,” “Fuck ICE,” and “Down with Trump/ Up with the workers!” In Chicago thousands of union members including teachers and healthcare workers turned out to denounce Trump and demand a $20 city-wide minimum wage, while in Los Angeles, where just a day before more than 55,000 SEIU members had been on strike and in the streets, dozens of other unions turned out to demand an end to the attacks on immigrants.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, protesters in Manila demonstrated against U.S. tariffs, clashed with police and destroyed effigies of Donald Trump; while in Seoul, South Korea, thousands of trade unionists rallied in the rain to demand labor reforms.
However, some of the biggest protests took place in Europe, where the Far Right has been on the rise.
In France, where May Day is a national holiday, offices, shops, and bakeries were closed as thousands of workers and union members marched through cities across the country. In Paris, more than 100,000 demonstrators, including hundreds of members of Left Voice’s sister organization, Revolution Permanente demonstrated against militarism, the Far Right, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Demonstrators railed against Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party and clashed with police throughout the day.
In Germany, tens of thousands also took to the streets with more than 25,000 marching in Berlin.
Protesters carried signs against militarism and chanted anti-fascist and pro-Palestine slogans. In fact, the annual Revolutionary May Day rally in the afternoon was probably the biggest Pro-Palestine rally in Berlin for 18 months. But there was also a fair amount of criticism of Donald Trump and the United States, including a series of mock rocket launches to send Musk, Milei, and Germany’s incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz to Mars. In Dortmund, protesters also clashed with members of the extreme right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in an attempt to stop them from marching.
In Geneva, Switzerland, unions also rallied with slogans and a program explicitly against right-wing extremism. The Swiss Trade Union Federation (SGB) said that “Right-wing extremists around the world are working hand in hand with billionaires, libertarians and fundamentalist circles against the working population.”
But in addition to marches and demonstrations, this May Day was also an opportunity to organize and build the power of the working class; and in Argentina, several thousand representatives of workers’ councils across the Buenos Aires region met to discuss and debate how to build the united front needed to defeat Milei and the IMF.
The mass assembly was led by the PTS, which is the sister party of Left Voice in Argentina and the largest organization of the international Trotskyist Fraction. The assembly began with speeches by several leaders of the movements for pensioners and students, who have stood side by side in recent protests, as well as elected representatives of the PTS, including Myriam Bregman, Nicolás del Caño, and Alejandro Vilca.
The members of the assembly then debated and discussed a series of proposals within committees organized around workplaces, occupations, and schools. Afterwards, the general proposals were voted on and approved by the entire assembly. These assemblies are at once a model for and the seeds of the kind of democratic processes and organizing necessary to build the kind of working class power we need not only to defeat Milei and the Far-Right, but all of our class enemies the world over.
All of this shows there is an appetite for resistance. To win, we must build on the momentum of these protests to create international class-independent political organizations to confront imperialism and capitalism everywhere.
