Hijacking May Day

May Day is for the workers, the labourers, the trade unionists, the working class heroes; or so they say. International Workers’ Day may not have a long history in Sri Lanka but it is a proud one – at least it used to be, when the rallies and marches would actually be conducted by the workers to celebrate their achievements and bring to light their grievances.

Unfortunately, Labour Day has endured a troubling change over the years, with the major political parties of the country hijacking the celebration to wallow in their delusions about political achievements and mock their rivals for their failures. Hordes of party loyalists are brought into the cities in their busloads from all around the country to stage these farcical demonstrations of political power, all while ignoring anything remotely associated with the celebration of the working classes. In fact, it does little but the opposite.

May Day is for the workers. Therefore, it is the best time to consider the hardships as well as duties that are the birthright, so to speak, of every worker. However, little to nothing is done by these political parties to change the socio-economic structures that have kept the political classes standing proudly on the shoulders of the working class. They opt out of empowering workers and choose to give them handouts in exchange for political support. As thousands flocked to various parts of country clad in blue, green or red, their leaders took to their stages to perform their usual pantomime.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe stated in his May Day speech that, based on the crowd that was present at the UNP rally, the party was ready for any election, while praising the Government for the economic progress it had made in spite of the crippling debt that it inherited.

Meanwhile, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa chose to taunt the current regime, stating that the Government wouldn’t dare hold an election at this point while claiming that it was selling the resources of the country with no regard for the people. He even claimed that the Joint Opposition was able to meet the challenge of the Government to fill Galle Face for its rally, pointing to the nonsensical competition amongst political parties to establish who had the biggest and loudest rally.

The President focused a large part of his May Day speech on how the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has never been as democratic as it is today while declaring the magnanimity of his decision to take over the party leadership. He also stated that trade union leaders had revealed to him that the working class of the country had received many benefits during the last two years adding that the SLFP always listened to the genuine demands of the workers.

However, more than raising banners and shouting at rallies, the more meaningful celebration of May Day would be to implement meaningful change in not just improving the lives of the workers in the short term for political mileage but to truly empower them. How can politicisation, especially of trade unions in the plantation sectors, be reduced? How can workers gain more skills? In short, how can they be broken out of this sense of entitlement and be made to understand that they must earn their security? These are some of the issues that need to be focused on this day and the reason why the working classes must reclaim this day from the politics that have clouded its true meaning.