The historic May Day is being observed in Bangladesh as elsewhere across the world today with due respect amid lockdown under the ongoing second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Every year the day is observed with a renewed pledge to build an exploitation-free society by establishing the rights of toiling masses and working class people. International Workers’ Day marks the 1886 uprising of workers at Hay Market in Chicago, USA for their legitimate rights, including eight-hour working day.
Amid the pandemic scenario this year, thousands of workers in formal and informal sectors have been suffering due to job cuts, dismissals and rights violations. In spite of this, workers have taken preparations to observe the day throughout the country by hoisting red flags atop trade union offices.
The day is a closed public holiday. Newspapers have published special supplements features or articles while the government and private-owned radio and television channels are airing special programmes highlighting the significance of the day.
The day’s importance lies in the dreadful times that workers in the United States saw in 1886 when they protested workers’ rights violations, straining work hours, poor working conditions and wages. We must thank the workers for their successful movement against injustice and many of the other rights that we now enjoy. But it is also to note that while most of these have been achieved in the more advanced economies of the world, our workers’ are yet to enjoy all these rights. Socialist delegates in Paris adopted May 1 as International Workers’ Day in 1889. The 1889 resolution called for a one-time demonstration but it became an annual event in course of time.
In separate messages, ruling Awami League, opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and other political parties and labour unions greeted the working class people and urged the affluent people to stand by the working class people at this time of the pandemic. They also urged for ensuring safe and healthy workplace, logical wages and decent life for workers. The spirit of May Day should be all about the need for reforms, claims about the need to intensify the process of helping the workers to be set free from controlling influence, better pay and health benefits.
