Dear Editor,
I would like to thank Mr Mohamed Khan (former trade unionist) for his short but informative letter ‘This year’s May Day was a disgrace to the founder of the local movement’ (SN, 3.5.08). I didn’t see any of the May Day parade out of Linden, except for the footage that was shown on the NCN television newscast. No doubt the trade union movement over the years has lost its sting and has virtually become a paper tiger, with the workers having scant regard for and little confidence in it. How ironic it is that in spite of the rapid surge in the cost of living, the strangling effect of VAT and the incessant moan from the ordinary working man, May Day rallies still fail to attract large gatherings of struggling workers. A ten-dollar black plastic bag holds $10,000 worth of rations under little strain, while the average worker’s take-home wage is $6,000 per week. Where Linden is concerned, the movement appears to be in its dying stage and may soon become a thing of the past. For some time now with the increasing popularity of the Linden Town week which coincides with the Labour Day event, we have been witnessing an almost complete overshadowing of the latter with only the customary symbolic march and a few hackneyed speech/messages from brother/sister unions to the faithful, beaten and weary inattentive and uninspired few. It doesn’t even appear to be properly planned for. The Labour Day significance has dissipated.
But Mr Khan’s reminiscences and account of the history of May Day and other events, as well as the outstanding personalities that formed a nexus in the long struggle for a decent wage/salary and a better quality of life for the working class the world over was enlightening. I am indeed thankful to him for his information about the origin of May Day which has its roots in Chicago, USA, where a countrywide strike took place on May 1, 1886 that immobilized the industrial sector. Hundreds of thousands of workers took to the streets to demand more human working conditions and an eight-hour working day instead of 12 hours. Many of the peaceful protestors were slaughtered. Those protestors who were killed are today known as the ‘Haymarket Martyrs.’ How strange that workers in the USA in 1886 succeeded in getting the work hours reduced to eight and today in 2008 the average worker cannot cope without working a double shift, 12-16 hours.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
