On Saturday, May 2nd, revolutionary forces in the Grand Valley commemorated 135 years of International Worker’s Day with a class-independent, red rally following a call to action made by People’s Defense Grand Junction in its first public action. PDC-GJ is the local pre-chapter of the national People’s Defense Committee (PDC), a revolutionary mass organization centered on organizing the working class and its allies in the neighborhood sector. There were about 30 people in attendance over the course of the rally! The Federal Building activated the sprinklers in the middle of the event in an attempt to drive the rally out, but beyond a few soaked signs, we were undeterred. We moved from the lawn to the building’s front steps to finish out with poetry and speeches.
Through this rally, we confidently presented the class-conscious proletarian line. The class-collaborationist state unions and their capitulation to the ruling class are not sufficient for the liberation of the masses of working people. The workers have to be organized in class-conscious unions that actually build Power for the masses. This is the purpose of the New Labor Organizing Committee which aims to organize the working class in their workplaces to fight for their demands.
The significance of this event and of the PDC’s work was presented by a speaker at the rally:
“Just as we cannot rely on the Democrats or “pushing them left” to break our chains, we must break from the class collaborationism of the state union tail and the “rank and file” strategy. Only the working class, independently organized around a concrete understanding of what is to be done – only we can break our own chains!
Today, with this red rally for a militant, independent International Workers Day, we take a step forward in building working-class power. Not because a rally in front of the federal building is a meaningful challenge to capitalist Power, but because we have for the first time demarcated the bourgeois line in our movement!
We have achieved a higher degree of organization this May Day, and we must set off with a coherent understanding of what work lies ahead.
We must meet the objective conditions that the ultra-reactionary second administration of Donald Trump has given us. We must deepen the class struggle in each workplace and in each neighborhood. And we must abandon the cult of spontaneity in favor of a conscious, organized revolutionary movement!”
The People’s Defense Committee and its fraternal organizations are carrying out the work of building an organized class-conscious revolutionary movement. People’s Defense Grand Junction is proud to be working to build a chapter of the PDC, and to be carrying out this work right here in our community.
The next steps for People’s Defense Grand Junction involve deeper investigation into our local conditions and the needs of the working people. We will work to organize our community to address the issues that concern us all – the crisis of affordability and tenants’ rights, defending our neighbors from ICE, the flagrant state violence imposed on our unhoused neighbors, and more. If you wish to be involved in this work, please reach out to pdcgj@proton.me. You can also follow us on Instagram @peoplesdefensegj to stay updated on any future events. Anyone interested in the New Labor Organizing Committee should reach out to newlaboroc@proton.me.
Solidarity Forever!
The Revolutionist 