Left Horizons extends May Day greetings to all its readers, its supporters and the whole of the labour movement. Today there will be demonstrations, rallies and meetings across the globe in celebration of International Workers’ Day.
Tens of millions of workers, displaying tens of thousands of banners, placards and streamers, will be showing unmistakably today, not only that the organised labour movement is vibrant, alive and kicking, but that it has essentially the same features in every part of the world.
Even in those countries where the activities of workers’ organisations are suppressed or are banned outright, in places like Myanmar, Iran or Turkey, there will be attempts by workers at least to hold meetings and rallies independent of government coercion and control. In countries most notable in the news for their religious or sectarian traditions, like in Pakistan or parts of the Middle East, there will still be workers gathering to show red flags and celebrate May Day.
Many groups of workers will be demonstrating to focus on one or another particular aspect of their lives, something that draws attention to the interests of workers. Many rallies in Britain, for example, will be demonstrating against the bill going through parliament which is aimed to give police greater powers to prevent demonstrations. It is a bill designed to stifle some of those democratic freedoms that British workers have enjoyed for generations.
In Manchester, pride of place will be given to bus-drivers who through their own solidarity, and with the support of the wider labour movement, have crushed the attempt by their bosses to fire them all and re-hire them at lower rates of pay.
The common interests of workers everywhere
It is a tribute to the traditions of the international workers’ movement that tens of thousands of such events will take place today in all parts of the world. And it is a concrete vindication of the idea of Marxists, that the interests of workers are the same the world over, whatever the differences in race, language, culture and religious tradition.
Bus drivers in Delhi, London and New York have more in common with each other than any of them has with the occupant of the Bentley or Rolls Royce driving alongside them. Teachers in Tokyo, Mexico or Cape Town haves more in common with each other – and with their students – than any of them have with the rich and powerful elites that govern their countries.
The working class is the most powerful political force on the planet, were it only aware of its own power and potential. There is not a light bulb that turns on, not a bus that runs, not a shop that opens anywhere, but for the work being done by those who live only by the powers of their skills, knowledge and labour.
All of the democratic freedoms that workers enjoy and the social wage they receive in the form of education, health and welfare benefits – where these things are available – have been won over generations and as a by-product of the political and industrial struggles of the organised working class. Many of those gains are under threat today.
The press and mass media hesitate to talk in terms of “class”, and for obvious reasons. It is not in the interests of the ruling elites or their kept press, to draw attention to class as a social category.
We are the 99 per cent
But the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of the global population – well over 99 per cent – live by their labour, whether it is work on the land, in an office or in an industrial plant. Those who really own and control the levers of society – the rich and the super-rich – are a vanishingly small proportion of the population, below one tenth of one per cent. By their manipulation of the those below them on the ladder – those marginally better off than the majority – and above all by a veil of secrecy covering all their deeds and misdeeds, they maintain a tenuous grip on society.
May Day is a demonstration that there is a potential for a different society, one in which all the main structures of the economy and society are owned by everyone, and democratically planned and organised for the benefit of all. That is the future to which the labour movement must dedicate its great strength and its energy today more than ever.
We will try to carry short reports and pictures of some of these May Day meetings rallies and demonstrations from across the world, and therefore there will be a rolling amendment and development of this article. Please send any pictures or reports to editor@left-horizons.co.uk
