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At this time of peril for all the political rights that our fathers fought for at immense sacrifice, any attempt at harmonious international cooperation among workers raises legitimate hope of better times. I welcome this assembly all the more enthusiastically, as it is devoted to selfless mutual assistance. Through such a spirit of sacrifice, one can rectify or at least mitigate some wrongs that fascistic governments perpetrated on so many worthy people who set their political ideals higher than their own safety and even their lives. These victims of their convictions are the true heroes of history, not those who give up their lives or their health in the ultimately pointless butchery of war.
 But moreover, your broad endeavor also raises political hopes. For real progress in political conditions can only be achieved by the stimulation of genuine international solidarity. Stimulating such a mentality is an effective counterbalance to the threat of nationalistic indoctrination, which has put Europe into such a terrible situation. In the European development one sees with dread where the so-called realpolitik leads, when it has completely detached itself from the ideals of justice and of mutual respect and assistance. Only an international alliance of workers with clear and fair common goals can protect them from falling prey to the seductive nationalistic slogans which, behind the mask of patriotism, have so often deluded you already. 
Any blunt special interests policy necessarily leads to division and 
[TD. Corrections in pen.]


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weakness. Only disinterested service to common goals can endow the masses with that unity and power necessary to obtain secure economic conditions for every individual. This lofty goal must, however, be reached; for there is no other road to economic recovery in our age of virtually unlimited production potential.
In this sense I most heartily welcome your assembly and your noble mission.
	(Signed) A. Einstein
[Corrections in pen.]

Message for Labor-Chest May-Day Demonstration
May 1936

 [TD. Label.]