May Day is a Mile Stone in the fight against Exploitation. This article is an EYE OPENER.
MAY DAY
A call for Rededication
By V.J.K.Nair
Dedicating a Day for particular person or purpose and observing it annually many times with festivities is an age old practice. MAY DAY used to be celebrated in Europe since time immemorial as a spring festival. People used to assemble around what they call `Maypole’, sing and dance. They used to choose one among them as ` Queen of May Day’ as well. These festivities used to be part of the pagan culture. This tradition of May Day lost its charm after Christianity rose. However it used to be celebrated and it is found to be mentioned in English Literature.
May Day as a day of International Workers’ Day started only in the nineteenth century in Europe and America. It gained adherence across the globe as the working class movement grew in strength throughout 20th century and is gaining increasing number of people observing it as a day dedicated to working class. However the purpose for which it was observed for the first time, and the real objective i.e. to serve the cause of working class everywhere does seem to be forgotten. May Day has also fallen into such a trap and is on the way of it becoming a ritual, unless the working class movements rescue it. How and why we should save May Day for the purpose it was intended for we will examine in brief.
In India we have a practice of connecting every action with a story. The story of May Day spread among us is that it is on this day the Ref Flag was born on the streets of Chicago which got socked in blood. It is far from true. The Chicago Streets reverberated with slogans for Eight Hours Working Day by Demonstrators who held red flag in hundreds. The red flag was not born that day at Chicago. In 1871 the flag unfurled by Communards in Paris Commune was red. The flag of the Communist League of 1848 for which organization Marx & Engels wrote the Manifesto was Red. There is a symbolism related to color. White denotes peace/surrender, Black denotes sorrow, Green denotes prosperity, and Red denotes protest. Red was always used by `revolutionaries’ and it is not born in Chicago on May Day in 1886.
Moreover the Hay Market Incident of Chicago occurred on 4th of May 1886 and not on 1st of May, 1886. It is true that the streets of Chicago witnessed huge assembly of protesters demanding 8 hour working day on 1st of May 1886.[1] 40,000 workers were there in these demonstrations at Chicago on May 1st 1886. The Demonstrations were peaceful and not fired upon. The Strikes continued on 2nd and 3rd May as well. On 3rd at McCormick Farm Machinery Plant using the pretext of clashes between strikers and strike breakers police opened fire killing six workers. The Hay Market meeting was called on 4th May to protest against these killings. The meeting was peaceful, till police appeared towards the end. An unidentified person through a Bomb into the square killing one policeman and wounding five persons that day at the Hay Market. The State of Illinois where Chicago is located made use of this incident to suppress working class movement. Eight worker leaders of Chicago, seven of whom had left the meeting place before the bombing had been arrested and tried. Ultimately four leaders were hanged on Nov11, 1887. Their names are Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel, and Adolph Fischer. The words of spies ``There will come a time when our Silence will be more vocal than our Words” were prophetic as May Day become International and the voices became deafening. Thus were can note that the story spread in India of birth of the Red Flag in Chicago is not true. Not many lives were lost in the Hay Market on May 4th, mainly the loss of lives were of Policemen due to the Bomb burst by anarchists that day. And the four trade union leaders sentenced to death and executed at Chicago in connection with this incident were the real Martyrs. Partly it is in commemoration of these Chicago Martyrs a Resolution was passed in the first conference of Second International in 1889 at Paris on the centenary of French Revolution.
We can read about the purpose for which the call was given really in the articles published by Frederic Engels. It was to demonstrate that Working Class across the Globe has no Country and will put up their common demands such as continuing the demand for eight hour working day and for socialism on a single day. It was Marx’s understanding that the working class all over the World simultaneously act in unison wherever they may be located in the world direct their demands at the very government in their own country for common demands and the first such action he proposed was for a statutory limitation of working day. Thus was born the demand for eight hour working day. America, particularly the industrialized north had taken up this demand in right earnest. And Chicago was a centre of these actions It was aimed at ending the Abstract Exploitation by getting statutory limitation of working day to prevent elongation of the working day.
The call for May Day given by the Second International was first observed on either side of Atlantic i.e. Europe and America in 1890 and continued thereafter. It was Lenin who for the first and only time adopted the May Day for his concept of Revolution in one Country. Lenin’s Revolutionary activities towards the end of nineteenth century started with observation of May Day at the city of Rostock. Lenin assembled all the workers, listed their common demands and brought about a strike on May Day. Employers retaliated by dismissals and reprisals. Lenin organized solidarity of other workers and spread the strike and continued it till the demands were achieved. Thus the workers organized for their elementary rights were trained to combat politically and their consciousness and organizations were raised year after year May Day after May Day. The political organization of working class in other areas of Russia particularly of St.Petersburg where Lenin started League for Emancipation of Working Class ultimately led to the Great October Revolution.
After October Revolution May Day was first celebrated in 1918 in Moscow. It used to be celebrated every year there after. During these May Day celebrations the socialist governments used to display their achievements. May Day in this form is still celebrated in People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba. Many other leftist regimes all over the world also observe May Day every year.
May Day is observed throughout the world. In America the Labor Day is observed on first Monday of September every year. Yet May Day observations continue to take place there. In Europe, Asia, Australia also May Day observations are regular. In India it was in 1923 May Day was observed at Marina Beech, Madras by Chakkarai Chettiar, an AITUC leader. It is now spread all over. In Karnataka May Day has been made a holiday during Ramakrishna Hegde’s Regime. It has thus become an International Working Men’s Day observed all over the globe.
May Day 1945 saw the defeat of fascist regime and therefore acquired special significance. Victorious red army under the leadership of J.V. Stalin defeated the Nazis that day by the Red Army raising the red flag over Reichstag in Berlin. Thus May Day after 1945 took the shape of Anti-Fascist Day.
Later on Mayday 1975 Vietnam was fully liberated after three decades of War defeating the biggest military machine in the world i.e. of United States of America by the people of Vietnam.
Need for rededication
The year 2008 is very important for us Indians. We achieved `independence’ from the British Empire sixty one years ago in 1947. Independence came 90 years after the first war of independence in 1857, when India was incorporated into the British Empire. For all of us in Bangalore to see Queen Victoria stands regally at the Cubbon Park holding a globe in her hand. Just opposite that the half naked fakir named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi stands clutching his stick.
And the most prosperous among the people, calling themselves Indians considers all the values established by the Europeans here thus in practice they will stand along the Queen Victoria who incorporated India into the empire, but openly say that they are on the other side i.e. of the Mahatma, not even knowing what are the values for which the Mahatma stood for and gave his life. He was against this sort of Industrialization, opulent living, wealth for few, and above all the communal divide and oppression of the depressed classes.
The not so prosperous ones, the poor and depressed and those who are really concerned of the ill effects of globalization, liberalization and communalization all put up their tents openly on the side of the Mahatma sit on Dharna and protests blaring their horns.
And the endless flow of traffic by the most prosperous goes on uncared, and the traffic in the buses carrying the working peoples also goes unconcerned about the issues about which these two camps are divided. Considering the opposing ideas the west has spread and is still spreading and considering the opposition from the Gandhian angle which was said to be the line adopted by our rulers as we gained independence, we find that there is a dualism among the ruling parties and ruling classes.
The dualism is quite clear when the communalists who murdered Mahatma Gandhi themselves pay tribute to him even as they continue to plot murders of vast segments of the people, the minorities. These communalists’ displays the photo of Ambedkar wanting to attract the scheduled casts to them even as they the upper casts burn the Dalits makes them eat the human excreta etc. But such shows of dualism in the open also do not get them exposed.
And the ruling class party which went by the name of Mahatma Gandhi as India gained independence and carried on their three decades of unchallenged rule in India had been building a society which was directly opposed by the Father of the Nation. The Chachas of the Nation were never bothered of what the Father of the Nation wanted to do except displaying his images and for two to three decades wearing the khadi, which had become a symbol of ruling class. Even as they were wearing the khadi they were promoting the opposite of khadi the fine textiles and other imported products. Their dualism is not as open as of communalists in this case they advocated the interests of schedules casts and minorities, at least for building a vote bank.
The Dualism of the ruling parties is nothing other than the dualism of the ruling class the Bourgeoisie. The ruling class philosophy of pragmatism is following the scientific and rational principle when it relates to production and following superstition and falsehood when comes to the distribution of the produce. Thus they would always advocate the interests of collective in the name of Team Spirit etc when they organize work, but refuses to recognize the collective interests when it comes to collective bargaining, unionization etc and wants the individual interests alone to be promoted. Their dualism does not even recognize the fact that the collective interests are nothing but the summation of individual interests.
It is only the working class movement, whose philosophy is monistic and against dualism. They want collective interests in organizing production and ensuring distribution. The principle of socialism which is from EACH ACCORDING TO HIS CAPACITY TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS WORK only ensures the collective interest. Socialism alone is the answer to all the problems we are facing today. The working class has to be unified and fight to establish SOCIALISM and ensure democracy for all the people. Only this way we can cure the ills of dualism.
Let the Society be made to adopt the principle of socialism which is inscribed in the preamble of our constitution, even though it was done by a dualist during the period of emergency. Let the directive principles be a programme before the Nation. Let the people compel the rulers to adhere to the principles laid down in the directive principles of state policy to ensure all the social and human needs. Let them be stopped from searching for the answers to organize our society from the World Bank and IMF and instead depend on our parliament as Supreme. Let the electoral system be completely overhauled and the proportional representation system be adopted, where parties will put up a list and nominate from the list the best of the people in proportion to the votes polled by them to the parliament and all elective institutions. Let Right to Education and Right to Work become fundamental rights and thus there will be no need for caste based reservations. (Let it be noted that we want the reservations to continue till the right to education and right to work is made Fundamental and are ensured to all people who needs it).
It is time the working class adopts such a charter and declares it to be brought here and now. In the absence of it the social justice we have achieved in the past is on a reverse gear. The eight hour work is given up in several areas right from the IT Sector to factories and unorganized employment. A time has come to reverse our organizational methods so that we can reverse the reversal in the policies related to labor law and administration of social justice.
The process of liberalization and globalization has posed several challenges to the working class movement. Every such challenge can be converted to opportunities. If only we fight for a uniform minimum wages for all workers starting at SUSISTENCE PLUS level and simultaneously demand fair wages which shall base itself on a performance based payment system. In practice it can include incentives and profit sharing. We should simultaneously prepare the entire working people to start a movement demanding `IMPLEMENTATION OF LABOUR LAWS’ and protection and extension of civic and democratic rights. Thus as against the civil disobedience movement what is required now is to compel the ruling class to ABIDE BY THE LAWS OF THE COUNTRY, to protect its own people.
The working class shall close ranks end all divisions and fight for common demands than engage themselves in sectional and group activity. This rededication we can have for the MAY DAY movement. Even if we take an year to get this alien adopted by the working class movement throughout the country or at least get this adopted in our state and initiate a movement at least by MAY DAY 2009 it will go a long way in rescuing MAY DAY from being a day of remembrance and observance and ensure that it is real and meaningful. Otherwise we will also be rated as having followed the principle of DUALISM and not monism. We are monists because we have the conviction that all value is created by labor and it shall be appropriated by labor alone and not by capital. They are dualists because they know that value is created by labor but the labor will be provided only the minimum for subsistence and the profit is appropriated by CAPITAL. We are monists as we have the conviction that CAPITAL is social being accumulated labor and it shall be used only in the interests of SOCIETY and serve present and future labor.
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