May Day and workers' rights
Photo: Munem Wasif / Driknews
Observance of May Day requires establishment of workers rights. Otherwise, it would be a hollow celebration of a day. The International Congress of Paris [ICP] adopted May 1 as the International Socialist holiday in 1889. Each year since then, in countries across the world, barring a handful, working people have been observing the day for better pay and better standard of living. Originally, the demands were for an eight-hour day and social legislation for equal labour rights and pay for men and women. In most countries, the May Day is celebrated as a workers' holiday. But many of the rights remain unrealised even today. Women are still demanding equal pay even in the developed countries. On this day, the class-conscious workingmen and women assert, if only for a day, for ending exploitation. The day symbolises international brotherhood of the working-class, fighting for ending exploitation. The observance of the day in Bangladesh is important for the workers as millions of them work for longer hours for a meagre pay. The day commemorates the movement by Chicago labourers, who took to the streets at Hay Market for an eight-hour working day exactly 122 years ago. Many of them had to die. But May Day is not observed in the US. For the Chicago labourers, it was not so easy to establish their rights. They had to come together to protest against the exploitation they had been subjected to. In Bangladesh, as it is going through industrialisation, the May Day assumes a new meaning. Under 'greedy' capitalism, international labour law is nothing more than a hollow slogan. But May Day rings around the world the timeless slogan for the universal cause of establishing the toiling people's rights. It is time for the government to ensure the labour rights to benefit both the workers and the employers and to help promote economic advancement of the country.
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