May Day Memoirs
Adil Qayoom Mallah, Waseem Ahmad Bhat
In India, Labour Day is a public holiday every year, and is tied to the history of the land’s communist-socialist movements. The first May Day celebration in the country was organised in Madras (now Chennai) by the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan on 1 May 1923, under the leadership of trade union leader Singaravelu Chettiar. It was also the first occasion when the red flag was hoisted in India. This marked the beginning of May Day celebrations in India, which is now celebrated across the country yearly.
In Kashmir too, May Day is celebrated similarly. Last year, we had the golden opportunity to participate in celebrations organised by the Centre of Trade Unions (CITU) in collaboration with the state CPI(M). Attended by hundreds of workers like ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, laborers, daily wagers etc. who arrived from different parts of the erstwhile state to share their experience, the chief guest of the same was M Y Tarigami. A resolution was also passed by the Party that every year, May Day and the Zail Dagger martyrs will be commemorated together, as their sacrifices laid the foundation for the emancipation of the working class in this part of the world. M Y Tarigami raised the slogan, “Duniya bar ke mehnat kasho ek ho jao, ek ho jao!” (Workers of the world, unite).
For more than 130 years, ‘May Day’ has symbolised the common struggles of workers around the globe. All these years, with every passing day, the voices of the proletariat have become stronger and louder. Wherever busy folk are dredging under the yolk of capitalism, the organised working men and women demonstrate across the world, on the 1st of May, for social emancipation.
‘May Day’ or the International Workers’ Day is held in commemoration of four anarchists executed for struggling for 8 hour’s working day. In 1887, four Chicago anarchists were executed. The anarchists were trade unionists and the day has become one to remember their sacrifice. All of them were framed on false charges of hurling a bomb at the police and breaking up a strike in Chicago. A strike demanding an 8-hour working day, it consisted of around 400,000 workers and took place on May 1, 1886.
In 1889, the first Congress of the Second International in Paris, for the centennial of the French Revolution and the Exposition Universelle, following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne, called for international demonstrations to commemorate the anniversary of the Chicago protests. May Day was formally recognised as an annual event at the International’s Second Congress in 1891.
Current Crisis
Eleanor Marx, in her maiden May Day speech at Hyde Park, London on May 4, 1890 said, “we have not come to do the work of the political parties, but we have come here in the cause of labour, in its own defense, to demand its own rights. I can remember when we came in a handful of a few dozens to Hyde Park to demand an Eight Hours Bill, but the dozens have grown to hundreds and hundreds to thousands, until we have this magnificent demonstration that fills the park today”.
We are again confronting an entire system, now a more severe crisis than that which faced the authors of the May Day Manifesto in 1967.
As we step out this May Day and take a look at the world around us, we see similar priorities of power and money set against people. At a time when the world boasts about breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation – mass poverty and obscene inequality continue to exist as terrible scourges of the same time. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom and no future for the millions who are reeling under its burden.
The Indian Scenario
The paradox is startling. We have thousands without homes, overcrowded schools and health services breaking under prolonged strain. Unemployment levels have reached unprecedented heights and glaring inequalities are adding fuel to the fire.
Renowned economist Thomas Piketty had delivered a lecture at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in January 2016, where he drew attention towards growing inequalities in India. Piketty warned that if this problem is not solved by democracy, consequences may be disastrous.
Economists Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze in their book, An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, claimed that the bigger concern for India today should be the continuing deep disparities in society that are only widening with every percentage of growth in GDP. The authors add that India’s democracy has failed to rise up to the challenges faced by the country in its economic and social fields. Whether it is education, health care, female literacy, sanitation or nutrition – India fares only marginally better than countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Overcoming poverty and inequality will not be possible without challenging patriarchy, capitalism and the current model of development, which puts profit before public good, human security and welfare. The protection of people is a universal obligation of all states and international democratic institutions. However, growing militarism and rearmament reduce political space and public accountability of states, diverts development financing, and ultimately renders lasting peace unrealisable.
Truly, history has a lot to teach us about the roots of our radicalism. We understand that our current conditions cannot be taken for granted. The sacrifices of so many people cannot be forgotten or we will end up fighting for those same gains all over again. This is why we need to remember May Day.
There won’t be better line to end this write up than the one inscribed on the Haymarket Monument: “The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today”.
Adil Qayoom Mallah and Waseem Ahmad Bhat are Research Fellows at the Department of Political Science, University of Kashmir.
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