Support is growing for the International May Day Online Rally called by the International Committee of the Fourth International for Sunday, May 4. The rally will be held at 11:00 am US eastern time and broadcast simultaneously on the Internet throughout the world.

Participants from more than 35 countries and 6 continents have registered so far, including significant delegations from the United States, Britain, Germany, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, South Korea, Australia and other countries.

“The response has been extraordinary,” said Socialist Equality Party (US) National Secretary Joseph Kishore. “It is an expression of the absolutely unique character of this event: a worldwide meeting of workers and young people to oppose war, social inequality and dictatorship.”

To receive a url for the broadcast, participants must register at internationalmayday.org. Registration is free, but participants also have the option to donate to help meet promotional costs.

“We are campaigning very aggressively to make this event as widely known as possible,” Kishore added. “Anyone who is looking for a program and perspective to fight back against the disastrous policies of the corporate and financial elite should make plans to attend today.”

Many registrants submitted comments explaining why they were attending. “This is an opportunity for the international working class to get together and participate in the most important event in history so far,” wrote Kalyana from Sri Lanka.

Cynthia, from the US state of Minnesota, added, “It is definitely time to recover the heritage of May Day as an international workers holiday, and to forge links between workers, youth and students world-wide.”

“Justice and equality for all is a prerequisite for peace and progress,” Shazny from Singapore wrote. “These socialist ideals must be glorified!”

François from Canada explained why he registered. “That the ICFI takes up to organize a rally to celebrate May Day marks a renewal of the revolutionary character of May Day. In Québec, it has been transformed into a nationalist event, promoted by the Parti Québécois, the bourgeois nationalist party of big business, and the union bureaucrats. We need to take back May Day for the workers, as a celebration of the strength of the international working class as an independent social and political force.”

The online rally is being organized amidst an escalating crisis in Ukraine, set off by a right-wing coup backed by the United States government and its European allies. The major imperialist powers are using the crisis as an opportunity to escalate tensions against Russia and militarize Eastern Europe, posing the danger of a catastrophic world war.

In a perspective column explaining the purpose of the online rally, David North, chairman of the WSWS International Editorial Board and one of the planned speakers, wrote, “The confrontation with Russia over Ukraine marks a new and dangerous turn in the orientation of the imperialist powers. The Gods of Imperialist War are athirst! As in the years that preceded World War I and World War II, a new division of the world is being prepared…

“The International Committee of the Fourth International has called for this online celebration of May Day to sound the alarm and fight for the world-wide unity of the working class in the renewed struggle against imperialism.”

Other themes that will be addressed by speakers at the event include the worldwide growth of social inequality and the unprecedented assault on basic democratic rights. In the wake of the 2008 economic crisis, there has been a vast redistribution of wealth into the pockets of the rich. The richest 85 individuals in the world now control as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of the world’s population, or 3.5 billion people.

In preparation for social explosions and class conflict, the ruling class, led by the corporate and financial aristocracy in the United States, has erected the framework of a police state, including spying programs that target the communications of everyone on the planet.

There is mass opposition to war, inequality and dictatorship all over the world, but this opposition finds no expression in official politics. The May Day online rally is based on the perspective that the future of humanity depends upon the independent political mobilization of the working class on the basis of a socialist and internationalist perspective.

Register for the Online May Day Rally today! Visit internationalmayday.org .