Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

On the first of May, International Workers’ Day, we salute the Palestinian homeland – the workers and peasants, men and women, youth and elders, everywhere they are, in Palestine or in diaspora and exile.

May 1 this year is a scene of struggle for the liberation of the Palestinian people, as we mark the struggle of the Palestinian national movement of prisoners who continue an open-ended hunger strike in defense of their rights, to stop the brutal racist abuses of the occupation authorities and its prisons against them. Our pioneering Palestinian working class is contributing the largest share in the national democratic and social struggle, standing with all of its strengh alongside the struggles of prisoners on hunger strike, in order to achieve their demands to end solitary confinement, isolation and the “Shalit law,” and the resumption of visits so as to maintain their human dignity, on the road to liberation from the occupation. The process of Palestinian liberation will never reach its national, democratic or social goals without the direct involvement and effective leadership of the Palestinian working class in the struggle for national liberation, for freedom and national self-determination.

The Palestinian working class in all political spheres is the basic driver for the social and democratic project of Palestinian national liberation, and we can only say that despite the long struggle ahead, the Palestinian left will build the power of hope and the will for change, for the struggle for liberation and return, and for our rights to liberty, justice, democracy and progress.

Our Palestinian working class is suffering desperately in the current conditions of the Palestinian people, reeling from the blows of occupation, siege, aggression and exploitation inside and outside Palestine. In the current conditions of the Arab peoples, it is critical to promote and develop trade union organizations, consciousness, and political unity of forces. The current moment of Arab street protests and uprisings against oppression in all forms and struggles for democracy requires a review of the role of the Arab left to promote the unity of the Arab peoples’ struggle against dependency, corruption, tyranny and foreign intervention, and for liberation, dignity, freedom, democracy, justice and social progress.

O, Palestinian workers, our heroic Palestinian people..

Our Palestinian working class in the occupied homeland are under geographical and political attack, bleeding from many wounds, but this does not prevent the voice of struggle of the Palestinian working class for improved working conditions and reducing unemployment which is approximately 50% in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and work to protect workers’ rights and serve workers’ interests.

Resisting the historical and continuing injustice against the Palestinian people requires us to raise the struggle of the working class and its historical perseverance as an avenue to raise its influence in national decision-making, something that would not be possible without the struggle of working class Palestinians for democracy and social rights.

On the first of May, we confirm that the first step is to end the current Palestinian division and political disintegration and put aside narrow factional interests in the interests of the unity of the people and their struggle. Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza are still suffering from aggression, siege, starvation, and crisis, and this means that unity must come first, and unity is the inalienable choice of the Palestinian people. At the same time building an economy of resistance and national steadfastness must be an economic priority before any other interest, to protect workers, economic and social rights, fight corruption, adopt the minimum wage and social protection in order to end the situation of work in the settlements and return instead to the cultivation of agriculture and protection and development of sectors, sources, and natural and productive resources, and salvation from dependence on the market and the occupation economy.

We salute the heroic prisoners who are splitting the sky to achieve their rights to dignity and freedom, and salute all progressive forces around the world who raise the banners of struggle and solidarity against the occupation and for freedom, justice, self-determination and sovereignty of the Palestinian people.

Salute to the Palestinian working class and the working class of the world on May 1

Political Bureau, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

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