EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

Over the moon

So we saw another May Day yesterday.

The International Workers' Day is a celebration of the international labour movement and left-wing movements. It commonly sees organized street demonstrations and marches by working people and their labour unions throughout most of the world. May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries. It is also celebrated unofficially in many other countries. International Workers' Day is the commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago, when, after an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they dispersed a public meeting, Chicago police fired on workers during a general strike for the eight hour workday, killing several demonstrators and resulting in the deaths of several police officers, largely from friendly fire.

So much for the history of the Workers’ Day, but the definition of who the worker is remains disputable. The concept of worker (The world’s richest and many leading investors work harder than the salary men who lead a fragmented life of eight hour shifts anyway, that’s an aside)

But in general it has come to refer to “Workers” (Blue collar) whose pay is less or who figure at the bottom of the pay scale.

But the saddest part is that many a May Day today have been hijacked by the political parties to make a case for their survival rather than a Day which celebrates the hard work of the worker.

Yesterday again as usual the country saw May Day being hijacked by the major powers to demonstrate against a man called Ban Ki moon, who has knowingly or unknowingly solied his finger in the mire that is a country in the Indian ocean.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa meanwhile issuing a message on May Day stated  “after vanquishing the scourge of terrorism the government was in a speedy path to protect the rights of the working population. The introduction of a pension scheme for the private sector is another great victory achieved. He said that from this measure the contributory employees would get a better future.”

He had also expressed his gratitude for the working population for defeating terrorism (How?) which was the biggest challenge faced by this country.

The President said “that the hand that was raised by the working population of this country is being raised with much responsibility to safeguard the victory achieved.”

The United Nations and its Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was thus the focal point of attention of the May Day procession and rally in Colombo. 

Effigies, posters, cutouts and floats were taken in procession as part of rally. A few days after the UN report was handed over, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told his supporters to convert May Day into a show of strength against moves to slap war crimes charges on Sri Lanka.

One wonders how come Ban Ki moon affect a worker’s rights or his pay or standard of living.