A rejoinder to Bopage on Sri Lanka: May Day and workers’ rights

What happens in Sri Lanka is that majority of the unions are affiliated to the major political parties and they participate in May Day rallies organised by the parent political parties who make use of the May Day rallies to demonstrate their strengths – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

By T. Mallawatantri

I am bemused by what Lionel Bopage has written under the title ‘Sri Lanka: May Day and workers’ rights’ since he has knowingly or unknowingly included some distortions of certain facts. 

This I did not expect from a socialist of the calibre of Bopage, who is an alumni of Peradeniya and Charles Sturt University in Australia where he worked for the Federal Government in Melbourne. Before this of course, he was deeply involved in the JVP insurrection in 1971 and spent a jail term along with his colleagues in the movement.

He opens with the comment, “May Day was declared a holiday in Sri Lanka in 1956 for the Government sector, bank and mercantile sectors. May Day celebrations have never clashed with the interests of or activities conducted during Vesak celebrations.” 

This hardly needs mention because no workers worth their salt would ever want to have clashes with religious susceptibilities and obviously it had never happened in Sri Lanka or elsewhere in the world. 

He says, “Despite this situation and without consultation, the President has unilaterally decided to postpone May Day on the pretext that there will be a ‘Vesak Week’ this calendar year.”

A prudent decision

It was a prudent decision by the President to heed to the advice of Maha Sangha to postpone the May Day celebrations because there were events lined up in the days following Vesak Poya, like the exposition of sacred relics of the Buddha at two or three venues which attracted hundreds of devotees and Vesak decorations and pandals that drew large numbers of sightseers from the outstations to many locations in the city, travelling in all types of vehicles. 

If May Day rallies were also held in Colombo, it would have been a nightmarish task for the authorities, particularly the Police and emergency services, to cope. It therefore seems preposterous to say, “This is a crass political ploy of exploiting religious sentiment to inhibit protests of the working people by diverting their attention away from the burning issues of the day.”

The decision to postpone May Day celebrations therefore is a sensible and practical one considering the surrounding circumstances. How can this be a political ploy when an alternate holiday had been declared for the workers to march and rally to protest to their heart’s desire and highlight the issues that concern them? No worker had been deprived of his rights by rescheduling the May Day celebrations. 

May Day beginnings

The original cause that made the workers celebrate May Day was the ‘Haymarket Affair’ or ‘Haymarket Massacre,’ where thousands of workers were marching in Chicago for an eight-hour working day on Tuesday 4 May 1886, when due to Police shooting, several workers were killed and the next day, an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb to the protest march that followed, which resulted in the deaths of seven Police officers and at least four civilians, with scores of others wounded. 

The celebration of this event on 1 May is only symbolic since the raison d›être occurred on 4 May 1886, which happened to be a Tuesday. Traditionally, 1 May had been accepted by the working class as the Workers’ Day or Labour Day, which commemorated the first workers’ protest rally in Chicago.

As Bopage too has mentioned in his write up, in early Pagan history, 1 May was celebrated as the first day of summer and over the centuries, the day was associated with religious and cultural festivities and celebrations. This day was observed as a spring holiday in the northern hemisphere with varied cultural and religious activities. 

Bopage says, “For many millennia, May Day has been a day celebrating rebirth and fertility,” which signifies the fact that May Day means many things to many people and is not necessarily a day exclusive to workers. So other than the tradition to celebrate Workers’ Day on 1 May, there is no special reason to do so on 1 May itself and if you go by the significance of the incident that spurred the workers to unite, it should have been 4 May.

The socialist and communist movements as well as the anti-capitalist movement in England in the early 19th century chose 1 May as International Workers’ Day, which was later recognised by many governments and declared as a holiday. In England, 1 May is a holiday if it falls on a Monday and if not, the Monday in the following week is recognised as May Day holiday. This year, it is 7 May. 

In America, the Workers’ Day is celebrated on the first Monday in September. It is not correct to say that the 1 May holiday is a right of the workers but since it is enjoyed by the workers in many countries over the years, it is not wise to deprive them of this privilege unless it is for valid reasons. 

Show of political party strength

But what happens in Sri Lanka is that majority of the unions are affiliated to the major political parties and they participate in May Day rallies organised by the parent political parties who are making use of the May Day rallies to demonstrate their strengths. There is more disunity among workers than a coherent approach. As a result, it is not the issues that affect the workers that are highlighted on May Day but the slogans of the political parties. 

The May Day rallies of the so-called socialist countries too are farcical demonstrations which are used to make a public display of their economic and military might to the world and hardly any worker grievances are highlighted. Due to the shrouded nature of the worker conditions, the world hardly gets to know the plight of the workers in those countries because the Unions as well as media are state controlled.

Bopage in his article says, “In 1967, the UNP regime postponed May Day celebrations to 2 May. As quoted in news reports, the Communist Party (Peking Wing) opposed it and Maithripala Sirisena supported the Communist Party’s decision. Now he himself is displaying his opportunism by postponing May Day celebrations.”

Maithripala Sirisena cannot be faulted for changing his stance because most people including the Left leaders, Bopage’s former JVP colleagues, trade unions, Marxists and even Communist regimes such as Russia, China and Viet Nam that were idolised by the ilk of Bopage in yesteryears, have changed their stances and policies to meet the new challenges that they confront globally, particularly in the sphere of economics. 

He goes on to berate the Government by stating, “Meanwhile the regime is working on the advice and agenda of the IMF and the World Bank by stripping hard-earned workers’ rights, including the eight-hour working day.”

It is a favourite refrain of the Left-oriented persons to blame all ills in our country on America, IMF and the World Bank. It is however inevitable that Sri Lanka too should change its policies and practices to meet new global challenges, particularly in the economic context, lest we be left behind when many Asian countries are leaping forward in development. Blaming America, IMF or the World Bank for all world problems is an exercise of ‘card stacking’ and why not mention China’s influence in many impoverished states of Africa or Russia’s hegemony in certain satellite states in Europe and elsewhere?

Worker emancipation

I would like to quote a para from my article to the print media two weeks ago which went on to say, “Now one may wonder why the trade unions are irked by the decision to name 7 May as May Day. If the workers wish to highlight the issues that directly affect them or of concern to them, why cannot they rally on any holiday during May, if it is so intimate to them? The message will be effectively put across to the respective authorities if unity among workers is firmly displayed. There is more disunity among workers than a collective and coherent approach.”

May Day has come and gone but the worker celebration rallies are yet to come.

One cannot dispute Bopage’s assertion that “History teaches us that people fought for the rights and dignities we enjoy today. There is a lot more to fight for. The sacrifices so many people made cannot be forgotten. Otherwise, we will have to fight all over again to gain the very same rights our forbearers won. That is the historical lesson we need to learn when celebrating May Day, which is vital.”

It is, however, not fair to take umbrage on certain Government policies or actions without giving due recognition to surrounding circumstances or facts and merely criticise for the sake of doing so. I feel, in this instance, the President took the right decision.

Celebrating May Day on 1 May is not what will achieve the idealistic goal of worker emancipation, but unity among workers, rational concepts, and just struggles within a democratic framework will realise worker aspirations.