Communists and socialists rallied Sunday in Lewiston at the Kennedy Park Bandstand to call for more government intervention in the economy to protect the working class and more pro-union laws.
To commemorate International Workers’ Day, known as May Day, about a dozen communists, socialists, and union organizers assembled in the park to give brief speeches.
Citing Federal Reserve policies and the looming crisis over the “debt ceiling,” the Party for Socialism and Liberation ripped the Biden administration for doing little to protect the working class.
“The Biden administration is sitting on its hands and letting the working class suffer,” the group said in fliers distributed for the event.
“It has not moved to freeze prices or provide any form of relief from the economic turmoil,” it said.
The group did not elaborate on which prices it wants frozen or how the federal government might accomplish this drastic intervention in the economy.
One specific law the rally attendees endorsed was the PRO Act.
The PRO Act is a series of reforms supported by the AFL-CIO and other major labor unions. If passed, the Act would strengthen unions ability to extract income from workers paychecks to finance union activities.
Under the PRO Act, collective bargaining agreements could require all employees represented by the bargaining unit to contribute fees to the labor organization for the cost of such representation, notwithstanding a state law to the contrary.
Also present for the May Day event were representatives from the Communist Party USA who distributed recruitment posters for an “Online National Marxist School.”
Those lucky enough to land a spot in the Communist educational program will experience lectures on “The Fight for Environmental Justice,” “Class Struggle and Feminism,” and a two part series on “Marist Economics.”