The type of change that workers need can only be achieved in a socialist society: WPI

Workers Party of Ireland May Day Statement 2025

May Day is an important occasion in our calendar. On International Workers’ Day, the Workers Party of Ireland celebrates the resilience, determination and strength of the working class - the true architects of progress and revolutionary change. Today, we honour the struggles of our comrades from previous generations and those who presently fight for the rights of the working class at home and abroad. We remember that change is not given, it has to be won through workers’ unity, class solidarity and collective action.

The capitalist system is facing another crisis. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen, with economic and social inequality, wage stagnation, job insecurity, and the lack of affordable housing. There is a lack of access to quality healthcare, social care and education. The escalating impacts of climate change, fuelled by capitalism, threaten the world. Systemic racism, sectarianism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination remain rampant.

The general election in the Republic of Ireland has provided no solutions to the critical problems facing workers and their families. There is rising poverty, a crisis in housing, healthcare, childcare and education. In Northern Ireland the working class also faces the reality of a cost of living and housing crisis, people working long hours at minimum or low wages with precarious job security. Workers often lack the right to strike or are unable to access the protection of a trade union and are vulnerable to poverty, mental health problems and homelessness. Inequality, poverty and destitution are the reality of many workers’ lives.

In Britain, the election of a Labour government immediately revealed the callous opportunism of social democracy and its ongoing betrayal of the working class. Labour’s time in government has been marked by a series of broken promises and an attack on the poor, social welfare, environmental sustainability and workers’ and migrant rights, together with a collapsing NHS, the bankruptcy of local authorities, stagnant wages and a massive housing shortage. At the same time, Britian, under a “Labour” administration, remains committed to NATO and is embarking on a massive increase in military spending.

World military expenditure reached $2718 billion in 2024, an increase of 9.4 per cent in real terms from 2023. Military spending increased in all world regions, with particularly rapid growth in Europe and the Middle East. Increased militarization is being built on the backs of workers and the most vulnerable in our society.

Today, the European Union and its bourgeois member states are ramping up preparations for war. While budgets for social, health and welfare spending are cut, war spending increases and an ever-larger part of state budgets is allocated to militarism and war. Increasingly, the imperialist alliances, the monopolies and the military-industrial complex assume a decisive influence in the policy of the bourgeois states. This is an issue of life and death for the people; a disaster with immense adverse consequences being actively promoted, planned and prepared, and accompanied by heightened tensions, the creation of a war psychosis and rising state authoritarianism.

Europe is arming at an unprecedented pace. In March 2025, the European Commission unveiled the ReArm EU program, aiming to mobilize €800 billion for the machinery of war.

At the same time, the violation of workers’ rights across Europe is increasing. There are severe restrictions on the right to organise in trade unions. Trade unionists are faced with obstruction, victimisation and discrimination in their struggle to organise workers.

The continued malign influence of the European Union, which has championed deregulation, privatisation and the constant and steady erosion of workers’ rights, exists to guarantee undistorted competition in the market and involves dismantling the state sector and promoting the privatisation of industries and services, including essential services such as health, education and water.

The type of change that workers need can only be achieved in a socialist society. A government which offers only the bourgeois management of the economy in the interests of a social system based on expropriation and profit cannot meet the needs of working people.

The world is in danger. The ever-growing imperialist threat, the rise of the far-right, increasing militarisation and warmongering and continuing and growing capitalist exploitation and oppression pose great dangers for the future of the planet.

The expansion of imperialist blocs, imperialist aggression and growing militarisation represent real threats to peace and the peoples of the world. The inter-imperialist confrontation between the Euro-Atlantic powers (USA, NATO, EU) and Russia in Ukraine (a result of the fierce competition of the capitalist powers for the control of the markets, raw materials, and transport networks of the country) continues with the working class of Ukraine and Russia paying the price for the competition between imperialist blocs.