Denmark – The revolutionary and progressive organizations of Aalborg were united for May 1st 2025!

International Workers’ Day was successfully carried out this year in Aalborg with a strong all-day event and a powerful demonstration focusing on the antiimperialist struggle and solidarity with the heroic armed national liberation struggle of the Palestinian people. A number of revolutionary and progressive organizations, consisting of Antiimperialist Action, Socialist Youth Front and Palestine Committee Aalborg as well as activists from Cafe 1000FRYD, had joined forces to organize an “Anti-Capitalist May 1st” as a proletarian counter to the petty-bourgeois social democratic dominated ‘carnival’ in Kildeparken.

Germany – On 11 January, the Antiimperialist League was presented in Berlin.

Demonstration, attacks by union bureaucrats and confrontation with the police

At 11:30 the activists gathered for a demonstration. For this, a number of poster actions and two banner workshops had been carried out throughout April, which had prepared banners and flags. The plan was to start with a demonstration for the revolutionary and antiimperialist organizations of Aalborg, which would start at Cafe 1000Fryd and march to the starting point of the open and broad May 1st demonstration for the whole of Aalborg, organized by the Trade Union Crongress (FH). Before the demonstration started, an activist from Antiimperialist Action gave a speech that covered the history of the workers’ international day of struggle and clarified the necessity of transforming May 1st in Denmark from a day of lazy fun to a day of struggle. For several decades, the reactionary and bourgeois forces organized around the Social Democrats and its appendage parties on the parliamentary-reformist “left wing” have fought to liquidate May 1st ‘s strong historical anti-capitalist, internationalist, and antiimperialist basis. They have been able to enforce this, especially after the setbacks of the socialist and revolutionary forces in the period after 1989, by exploiting this temporary weakening of the working class organizations, to then fill the top positions of the trade unions with petty bourgeois and labor aristocratic “pampere”. They have transformed the demonstration into a “parade” and a revolutionary day of struggle into a day of numbing bench drinking. This has also served the revisionists in Denmark well, who thrive on wriggling and crawling behind the “pampere” in order to infiltrate a handful of comfortable soft positions in an almost Trotskyist manner and absorb themselves into the pacifying bribery systems of the trade unions. The struggle of the working class to recapture May 1st and restore its day of struggle requires organization, discipline and a will of steel, and with this May 1st the first step has been taken and the first blow struck towards this goal.

After the speech, the demonstrators began to walk, shouting pro-Palestinian, internationalist and antiimperialist slogans. Red flags and Palestinian flags were raised, and banners with the slogans “No green future under a black system”, “Capitalism is slaughtering our health care system”, “Women’s struggle = class struggle”, “Trump is the symptom – capitalism is the disease”, “All power to the people”, and at the forefront was a three-man banner with the slogans “The struggle against imperialism is international”, “Strengthen international solidarity”, “Forward in construction of the international League of antiimperialists, Antiimperialist League”.

When the demonstration reached the union square, the demonstration was confronted by one of the FH-Nordjylland board members. This opportunist demanded that the bloc remove its Palestine flags and take down all Palestine-related banners, because the FH had decided that “Solidarity with Palestine has nothing to do with the International Workers’ Day”. The revolutionary activists tried to explain that the Palestinians are also our working brothers and sisters, and deserve our greatest international solidarity, especially on the INTERNATIONAL Workers’ Day, in their fight against the cruel genocide that is trying to wipe out their people. To this, the FH-Nordjylland board member only replied that “I have no solidarity with the Palestinians.” Naturally, the revolutionary activists did not bow down, and even after a threat from the opportunist to call the police, the demonstrators refused to lower their Palestine flags and banners. When it became clear to the opportunist that the demonstrators would not bow down, she decided to call the police.

This opportunist and coward is named Tania Larsen Kvist and is a board member of FH-Nordjylland. Her opportunism should not come as a surprise. The trade unions in Denmark have worked together with the police and the intelligence services for several years, and have become an important tool for the imperialist bourgeoisie to pacify the working class and limit its struggles exclusively to small marginal wage negotiations. It is disgusting and incredibly class-traitorous that one, as a board member of an organization that claims to be a representative of the working class, can find it to mobilize the police against May 1st demonstrators, when everyone who knows the slightest bit about the history of the day of struggle knows that the International Workers’ Day of Struggle in Denmark was born from the blood of the workers sacrificed in the fight against the police sabres on May 5, 1872 in the Battle of Fælleden, and has ever since fought against the police attacks on demonstrators on this day of struggle.

In contempt of this opportunism on the part of the FH, the revolutionary bloc broke with the larger “carnival parade” and began to march towards Kildeparken. Other progressives who had gathered at the trade union square decided to join the revolutionary bloc instead of the FH’s, where Palestine solidarity had been banned and criminalized. It was a moment when a clear and distinct dividing line emerged between the revisionist organizations and the revolutionaries. The revisionist organizations should bow their heads in shame for bringing such great dishonor to the hammer and sickle symbol on their banners by carrying it in a demonstration where the organizers openly mobilize the repressive police forces of the imperialist state for the criminalization of solidarity with the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people.

After a few minutes, the police arrived and a police van slowly followed behind the demonstration, but did not dare to initiate any major confrontation with the demonstrators out in the open street.

Eventually, the demonstrators arrived at Kildeparken, where the police ended up confronting them. They asked the demonstrators to identify those responsible for the demonstration, but the demonstrators refused to identify the leaders. The police began to press for identification and demanded names, phone numbers, social security numbers and addresses, in an obvious attempt to register the identities of as many demonstrators as possible. The police withdrew when it became clear that they were not enough police officers to escalate the situation and secure their registrations.

Then activists handed out flyers in the Kildeparken for, among other things, the Friends of Palestine campaign against the North Jutland company MyDefence, which makes drones and drone technology for the Israeli military. Then the demonstration marched back towards 1000Fryd, where it passed by the FH demonstration. During the passing by, anti- social-democratic slogans were shouted and it was explained over the megaphone that the FH had called the police against the May 1st demonstrators because they dared to show international solidarity with the Palestinian people. In response to this, there was a mixture of, on the one hand, expressions of support and solidarity, and on the other hand, reactionary shouts and insults from the FH demonstration participants.

Fantastic concert in the spirit of anti-imperialism

Around 8 pm there was a warm-up concert with the always amazing local singer-songwriter Caitlyn (Skunk Mama), who set a really good mood for the night’s concert with a mix of songs with strong feminist themes and incredibly moving personal experiences.

At 9:00 PM, the American antiimperialist musician and political activist, David Rovics, took to the stage and performed a series of progressive and anti-imperialist songs, some about the struggling masses in Palestine and Yemen, anti-fascism and socialism, among other things. The audience was filled with enthusiasm and sang along in a large choir. Over 70 activists and guests attended the concert and helped to strengthen international solidarity through art and working class culture. Throughout the day’s event, around 110-120 people participated in the revolutionary anti-capitalist May 1st event at Cafe 1000FRYD, and the day must be seen as a huge success for the building of the antiimperialist front in Aalborg. During the day, many copies of the newspaper Arbejderposten were also distributed and the articles gave rise to many good discussions.