Workers and young people in Britain spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about why they are attending the International Online May Day Rally being held by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) on Saturday, May 1. We urge all to attend this important event by registering here.

Bryan, a teacher from Merseyside in North West England, said, “I think it’s really important to be part of the International Workers Alliance of Rank and File Committees and to attend the May Day meeting on the World Socialist Web Site.

“Workers here in the UK as well as internationally have been let down by the main political parties and the union organisations, as they all work together to support the greed of the super-rich at the expense of the lives and health of workers and their families. We have been spun a web of lies by the corporate backed media, telling us that ‘everything is safe’ and we need to ‘learn to live with the virus.’

“Nobody, other than the WSWS, is consistently holding the murderous policies of the UK government, as well as others, to account. We need to work together to build a movement which opposes these policies and advances the needs of workers and I believe the online meeting on May Day can help us to achieve this.”

Dave is a senior health care assistant in the northwest of England. He said, “I'm attending the May Day rally because it's not only a significant historic celebration of international working class solidarity, but also this May Day, with the call for the building of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees, marks the start of the international working class fighting back against capitalism and the treachery of the leadership of social democracy, the trade unions and their petty-bourgeois cheerleaders.

“The ICFI is calling on, and organising, the international working class to go on the offensive against capitalist barbarism. What better way of celebrating May Day than to call for international unity and action against capitalism. Not just empty words, phrasemongering, but international co-ordinated action with the goal of ending capitalism.”

Jude Jackson, a supporter of the Socialist Equality Party (UK) and reader of the WSWS, said, “The May Day online rallies, held by WSWS for several years now, are always informative, intelligent events, analysing the global political situation, and putting forward a coherent program to respond to this situation.

“This year, with the COVID pandemic running rampant across the planet, it is more important than ever to take part, and especially to read the statement released on April 23, 2021 by the International Committee of the Fourth International: “Forward to the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees!" These are the most precipitous times that the human race has faced in recent history, and the working class must take on board the lessons and tasks that are its historical mission.”

Claude, a young unemployed worker from London who recently attended a meeting of the Education Rank-and-File Safety Committee in Britain, said, “I have been fighting for five years to bring to people’s attention the situation facing thousands of young people who confront homelessness and discrimination in education—especially those with neurodiversity and the importance of hidden disabilities being acknowledged.

“I support the setting up of the International Workers Alliance of Rank and File Committees and that’s why I’m attending the May Day meeting on Saturday.”

Ben, a software engineer from York, said, “Capitalism cannot survive the pandemic without perhaps tens of millions of Covid deaths. Covid-19 requires immense global coordination and resources to be ended humanely, and climate change a thousandfold more. Workers must take power to ensure this! Attend this May Day rally!”

Rachel, a support worker in a school, backs the International May Day Rally and said of the Socialist Equality Party’s recent meeting in support of establishing a network of rank and file committees, “I thought the network meeting was a good idea because workers and society in general need a voice. The British government has continually put profits before lives and continues to tell us their strategy means more lives will be lost against a backdrop of having already lost more lives per capita than any other country in the world. Their policy displays an abject focus on herd immunity, a theory that many researchers call a 'dangerous fallacy' and is likened to 'social murder'.

“It was only through parental pressure that school closures took place in the UK in January 2021 when the government was intent on opening to all pupils despite mass death and infection rates.

“A collaborative voice against such policy decisions is the only way voices will be heard against a government that is becoming ever more greedy and intent on forcing through policies that do not align with the needs of the general population without debate or due consideration of the impact it has on the lives and welfare of the population at large.”