Dr. Parveen Kumar, Dr. D. Namgyal
The workers all over the globe are rightly acknowledged as ‘warriors’ who lead from the front. They have proved their worth in testing times and whenever they are tried. They are the ones who work round the clock without caring for themselves and their families ultimately for the welfare of society. The present day Corona pandemic that has already taken so many lives has been contained in India only due to the efforts of these warriors. The health practitioners, the policemen and all other workers have been in the forefront in saving lives of others certainly deserve an applause. Some of them even died saving others. Workers today enjoy full rights and cannot be discriminated on any basis. Unfortunately the condition of workers was not the same. Working conditions were severe and it was quite common to work 10 to 16 hour days in unsafe conditions. Any shortening in the no. of hours was accompanied by the consequent cut in wages. Death and injury were commonplace at many work places. Such inhumane treatment given to the working class inspired many writers to write books. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Jack London’s The Iron Heel were the result of motivation the authors got from such treatment.
Today is International workers day
In the late nineteenth century, the working class was in constant struggle to have an eight hour working day. As early as the 1860’s, working people agitated to shorten the workday without a cut in pay, but it wasn’t until the late 1880’s that organized labour was able to garner enough strength to declare the 8-hour workday.
This proclamation was without consent of employers, yet demanded by many of the working class. At this time, socialism was a new and attractive idea to working people, many of whom were drawn to its ideology of working class control over the production and distribution of all goods and services. Workers had seen first-hand that Capitalism benefited only their bosses, trading workers’ lives for profit. Thousands of men, women and children were dying needlessly every year in the workplace, with life expectancy as low as their early twenties in some industries, and little hope but death rising out of their destitution.
Beginning in the late 19th century, as the trade union and labour movements grew, a variety of days were chosen by trade unionists as a day to celebrate labour. May 1 was chosen to be International Workers’ Day to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. In that year beginning on May 1, there was a general strike for the eight-hour workday. The 1904 Sixth Conference of the Second International, called on all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace. On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration in history. In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day agitators, 40,000 went out on strike with the anarchists in the forefront of the public’s eye. With their fiery speeches and revolutionary ideology of direct action, anarchists and anarchism became respected and embraced by the working people and despised by the capitalists. More and more workers continued to walk off their jobs until the numbers swelled to nearly 100,000, yet peace prevailed. It was not until two days later, May 3, 1886, that violence broke out at the McCormick Reaper Works between police and strikers. In 1887, Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday. By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty US states officially celebrated Labour Day. Thus by 1887 in North America, Labour Day was an established, official holiday but in September, not on 1 May. In 1889, a meeting in Paris was held by the first congress of the Second International, following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne that called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests. May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International’s second congress in 1891.
May Day has been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist and anarchist groups since the Second International. May Day is one of the most important holidays in communist countries such as the North Korea, Cuba and the former Soviet Union countries. May Day celebrations in these countries typically feature elaborate workforce parades, including displays of military hardware and soldiers. In 1955, the Catholic Church dedicated 1 May to ‘Saint Joseph the Worker’. Saint Joseph is the patron saint of workers and craftsmen, among others. Today we see tens of thousands of activists embracing the ideals of the Haymarket Martyrs and those who established May Day as an International Workers’ Day. May Day is an official holiday in 66 countries and unofficially celebrated in many more, but rarely is it recognized in this country where it began. Over one hundred years have passed since that first May Day. In the earlier part of the 20th century, the US Government tried to curb the celebration and further wipe it from the public’s memory by establishing ‘Law and Order Day’ on May 1. This day reminds us of our fundamental duty to protect the rights of the workers and our commitment to safeguard the interests of all such working class who are shaping the future of the country.
(The authors are Scientist and Head, KVK-Leh, SKUAST-K)
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