May Day 2021: Through 100 Years of Struggle, We Look to the Future!

YCL-LJC Central Executive Committee, 1 May 2021

This International Workers’ Day, the Young Communist League of Canada – Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada sends warm greetings to youth, students, and young workers across Canada. 

Over the past year, the crisis of capitalism has become even deeper than ever before. Conditions for workers, especially young workers, who increasingly find themselves on the frontlines of health, food, and other essential services, have deteriorated. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, youth unemployment has skyrocketed, and the safety of warehouses, hospitals, restaurants, retail stores, and other young peoples’ workplaces has been put in jeopardy by the capitalist class. Across Canada, the COVID-19 response has been overwhelmingly business-oriented: workers are bearing the brunt of the virus, and their demands for paid sick days, expanded healthcare, and safer working conditions have been neglected. The attacks of the past year against the working class has led not only to an increase of unemployment, but an increasing reliance on unstable or unsafe work, an increase in hate crimes, and millions left sick or dead.

As we see even more young people resisting attacks against the working class, we are reminded of the past 100 years of struggle in Canada. Since 1921, young workers have been demanding what is owed to them: that is, a decent life and safe working conditions. Whether this took the form of demanding adequate first aid and a 50-cent wage during the On-to-Ottawa Trek of the 1930s, youth strikes against the hiking of food prices in the post-WWII period, efforts for peace and solidarity with the international working class during the Cold War, or today’s calls for even the most basic of health and safety measures, the legacy of Canada’s young workers is vast. In May 2021, youth are once again putting their foot down: we say “enough!” to budgets and schemes which only serve to benefit business and militarism.

This May Day, the YCL-LJC demands a safer and healthier future for workers, including a federal standard of two weeks of employer-paid sick days, expansion of medicare to include mental health, dental, optometry, and other key areas of physical wellness, the public ownership and nationalization of pharmacare and long term care, and a real living wage. We honour the past decades of struggle — from Haymarket to today — and seek to build a future for young workers that is not only safe but fulfilling. 

Long live International Workers’ Day!