It seems that the proletarian revolution overturns everything,
even chronology. Thus, in Spain at least, May 1 comes after
May 2,°° whatever the calendar may say about it. Formerly the
Spanish workers used to celebrate May 2, today they celebrate the
1st of the same month.

From May 2 to May 1, we have made a good deal of progress.
What, in fact happened on May 2, 1808? The foreign invasion, on
the one hand, the people of Madrid on the other.” It all seems
simple. And yet the situation was very complicated. In order to
fight the foreign invasion and the tyranny of Napoleon, the
Spanish people also had to fight the French Revolution,” and to
regain its independence the same Spanish people was forced to
re-establish the despotic rule of the fanatical idiot Ferdinand VII,
supported by the nobles and the priests.

And it was the same in Italy and in Germany, even in France;
these two countries could only rid themselves of the Napoleonic
yoke by turning themselves over, to the monarchist, feudal and
clerical reactionaries.

Thus do wars between one people and another make apparently
the most simple and straightforward situations complex and
confused.

But it is a tremendous step forward from May the 2nd to May
the lst: May the lst denotes a clear and transparent situation; two

@ Crossed out in the manuscript is the following passage: “Behind the foreign
army, Napoleon, the self-styled representative of the bourgeois revolution, in actual
fact the domestic despot, the conqueror of neighbouring peoples. Behind the
people of Madrid,the royalty of the imbecilic Bourbons, the feudal nobility, the
priests. Strange confusion!”— Ed.

b The following is crossed out in the manuscript: “of which Napoleon was the
son”.— Ed.

To the Spanish Workers on May Day 1893 401

quite distinct camps opposing each other; on the one side the
international proletariat marching to victory beneath the red flag
of world liberation; on the other the property-owning classes and
reactionaries of all countries, united in the defence of their
privileges as exploiters. The struggle is in the open, the red flag is
unfurled, victory is certain— forwards!