Editorial

2nd May 1999

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Has May Day lost its meaning?

The workers of the world have probably woken up to the realisation that after all the hoopla of yesterday, their lot is not a whit better than when they started off the day before. What's most pertinent with May Day in retrospect is whether the workers of Sri Lanka unite or whether they divide, with each May Day that comes to pass? It's a modern workers' truism that May Day rallies are places where working class leaders use the platform to attack fellow workers of different political persuasions.

"Workers of the world unite" is an old hackneyed Marxian rallying cry, now threadbare with over-use.

Added to the irony this time was the fact that May Day , a celebration of work and working man's culture, was celebrated amidst a mood that seemed to glorify anything but work.

The past weeks had so many holidays that a cursory calculation would indicate to the curious that seven days ( a whole week) of the three weeks immediately past us, were non - working days.

It is also another hackneyed reminder that comes our way each passing first day of May, that May Day originally began in Chicago, in the heart of the capitalist American industry with a workers' strike. But though May Day may have begun in the industrialised world , it's interesting that the workers' day is celebrated now in the developed world quite differently from the way in which it is celebrated here in the Third World.

The workers of the developed world make use of workers day to get out of town and enjoy some rest and recreation, away from the tumult and grime of the cites. They believe generally that it is a better way of realising the potential of labour, relative to shouting slogans and creating a ruckus on the streets.

There is no gainsaying that workers of Sri Lanka have their own ethos that's a result of years of fighting the strong arm of capital; but nevertheless, it's worth remembering the unusually robust observation of J R Jayewardene that May Day rallies in this country "are a primitive exercise". That prompted the old Red, Bernard Soysa to retort that, "procreation is also a primitive exercise."

The intrepid capitalist in Jayewardene may have stubbornly believed in what he said, for it is remembered that he soon came to power and transformed May Day into a workers' tamasha replete with a musical evening and a few speeches thrown in for good measure, beforehand.

Though it may sound flippant on our part to remind the reader (and the worker) just when the dust has settled on May Day, of some of the assorted phenomena associated with the colourful history of May Days past, it's not in a heady mood that we say May Day means very little for workers in Sri Lanka apart from the fact that it's a platform for political rallies.

For the workers of Sri Lanka, never mind the workers of the world, May Day is probably a good diversion from other realties such as the fact that the Workers' Charter has been gathering dust in the past few years while the Charter's conceptualists were in pursuit of that elusive commodity known as "foreign investment".

Its also moot to the working classes that they work in a country which counts its workers among the most lucrative export industries.

Amidst the slogans therefore, it's worth wondering whether union bosses and party cheerleaders spared a thought for the fact that little or nothing has been done to uplift the lot of these foreign workers. Or for that matter, for the under-employed or those who lost their jobs in the North-East war, or as a result of terrorism, or due to the on-going economic slump... ?

Political Column

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