May 1 Labor Day celebrations - working class has not increased the ranks of organized labor

Labour Day or Labor Day is an annual holiday celebrated all over the world. It is to commemorate the solidarity of the world wide labor union movement, and to celebrate the economic and social achievements by workers all over the world. The majority of countries celebrate Labor Day on May 1, and it is popularly known as May Day and International Workers’ Day, while some like the US celebrate it on the first Monday of September.

In Soviet times May 1 was celebrated in Russia as International Workers' Day and saw massive Communist Party rallies. In 1992, the name was changed to Spring and Labor Day but it still remains a national holiday. More than 2 million people are expected to take part in holiday events across the country, including demonstrations by the ruling United Russia party, the Communists and trade unions, the ultranationalist LDPR Party and the opposition Solidarity movement.

In China the People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's flagship newspaper, extolled the importance of workers in a changing economy and world. "Work diligently, work honestly, work more clever," read the editorial's headline. In Hong Kong, thousands took part in various marches even as the territory's first-ever minimum wage took effect. About 3,000 people took part in a Sunday morning protest while another 5,000 were expected at an afternoon rally.

Thousands of workers also marched in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines to vent their anger over the rising cost of living and growing disparities between the rich and poor.

Police in Seoul said about 50,000 people gathered in a park near the National Assembly, waving signs and chanting anti-government slogans. Some of the protesters marched toward the Assembly building after the rally but no violence erupted, police said. About 8,000 people held a separate rally near City Hall. "We want to put an end to the barbaric times of unlimited competition and winner-take-all systems," Kim Young-hoon, head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said in a speech at the rally, according to his office.

Two hundred thousand workers filled İstanbul's Taksim Square on Sunday morning demanding jobs and better work conditions on May Day, also known as Labor Day. Taksim Square carries a significant symbolic importance in May Day celebrations. On May 1, 1977, 34 people were killed during a Labor Day gathering at the same square when shots were fired into the crowd from a nearby building leading to an intervention by security forces and armored vehicles. Most of the casualties resulted from the panic caused by the intervention among hundreds of thousands of participants.

There are more workers today who work for wages than was the case 50 years ago. And yet, ironically, the increase in size of the working class has not increased the ranks of organized labor. Workers’ unions today have considerably less power over the conditions of production. Indeed, one can go further and say that countries like the Philippines have less control over the fate of their own economies than before. It is important to ask why as we go through the rituals of another Labor Day.

EU-Digest