Politicians Hijacking Day Of ‘Saadukin Pelenawun’

by Dileesha Abeysundera

May Day is traditionally the day of workers. But today it has become a day of politicians and their parties who exploit this important day to propagate narrow political ideologies. The Sunday Leader talked to several leaders of main labour unions to ascertain their views on the exploitation of May Day by politicians for their own advantage.

A Display Of Political Power

Kesara Kottegoda, Executive Member, Ceylon Bank Employees Union

May Day is no more a day of workers. In Sri Lanka May Day has become entirely a political extravaganza. Sometimes, politicians use this day to display their political power. They deceive workers and get them to participate in their party rallies. Against this backdrop, certain labour unions such as the Ceylon Bank Employees Union, Ceylon Mercantile Employees Union and Lanka Postal Services Union have come together with the idea of  holding a separate May Day rally. If the proposals brought in at May Day rallies cannot be realised through the united mediation of labour unions and the working masses, those proposals become just customary. On May Day that is soaked with the blood of the working masses, if demands are not put forward to the rulers to carry out proposals beneficial to the working masses, there is no point of holding May Day rallies. This May Day comes as the rights of the working masses are being trampled to a great extent by enforcing laws on the working class without taking their views into account, and by unleashing heavy taxes on workers. The lack of unity among the working masses is a major issue. We want to initiate a series of labour campaigns in the future by bringing all the unions together.

Politicians Cling At Every Straw

Namal Karunaratne, National Organiser, All Island Farmers’ Federation

May Day belongs to the working masses. They won the honour of celebrating May Day by carrying out mass protests. The working masses had been working for 16 hours per day in the past. For the first time in the world history of labour struggles, they agitated in Chicago against this injustice and demanded that it be reduced to 8 hours. Today, politicians exploit May Day to strengthen their political power and come into power  one way or the other.

At present, all political parties in Sri Lanka are in conflict. Therefore, they cling at every straw available in order to increase the number of their supporters.

At this crucial juncture, we must not forget the major issues that the working class faces. They are scarcely able to live a month with their current salaries. Farmers are yet to receive fertilizer subsidies for the Yala season. The cost of taxes is unbearable.

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May Day Turned Into A Meaningless Exercise

Joseph Stalin, Convener, All Ceylon Teachers’ Union

May Day is not a day similar to World Habitat Day or Elders’ Day. The UN has nominated such days. The labourers themselves named May Day as their day to commemorate those who were killed in the struggle carried out in Chicago in 1886 against factory owners demanding that the working masses not be asked to work more than 8 hours a day.

May Day commemorators traditionally dress in red to signify the blood of those who sacrificed their lives in that Chicago struggle to win the basic rights of the working masses. Later in 1889 in Paris, a decision was taken to celebrate May Day, a day of laboures who fight for their rights.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, Maithiripala Sirisena, and Ranil Wickremesinghe have all exploited May Day to bring in people to their rallies to exhibit their political power. In that effort, they have turned May Day into a meaningless occasion for the working class. The media and everyone else is only interested in the political aspect and parties that bring in massive crowds for their rallies to prove who wields people’s power the most. So, the true situation of the working classes gets muddled up.

The reality is that on January 8 last year a new government came into power promising to carry out development but they have not honoured their promises. They came into power to take constructive steps in relation to media, democracy, good governance and to abolish corruption. Prior to January 8, the country was in an entirely different scenario. Today, the working masses want to rally round a separate May Day rally because those promises have not been fulfilled. The promise they made to abolish the Executive Presidency is yet to be fulfilled. The 19A they passed in parliament does not contain what they promised prior to the election. It lacks so many clauses they promised. The Constitutional Assembly also lacks features that were promised. Freedom given to the media is also questionable. The right of information act too lacks some of the major clauses they promised. Every sector is just talking about freedom but in reality, they lack the freedom that they yearned for with the January 8 change.

There is also a major issue with regard to the pension of government servants. They are going to convert the pension that we receive now into a new pension scheme. The public did not expect this from the government. We entirely oppose this new pension scheme. We also oppose the slave system that manpower employees undergo at present.

Even though they promised to provide 6 percent of the GDP to education, it is yet to happen. Instead, education is being overly politicised now by making political appointments. We are holding a May Day rally to win our demands and to oppose these bad developments. We invite the public to join us to protect and win our rights. The public may participate in these rallies that seek political power but not the rights of the working masses. We request them to raise their voice at these May Day rallies against every type of labour exploitation.

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Political Parties Cannot Own May Day

Saman Rathnapriya, President, Government Nursing Officers Association

May Day is the international day of the working classes. The history of May Day goes back to 1836 when labourers in Chicago launched massive protests demanding an 8-hour working day. But the authorities suppressed their protests via massive counter-attacks killing five union leaders and sentencing two leaders to life imprisonment as well as causing the death of a large number of labourers. Symbolising the Chicago bloodbath, the May Day is today celebrated in red. But today political parties have robbed the red colour as well as the day of the working classes.

Later, in 1889, Friedrich Engels, a German philosopher, brought forward a proposal to consider May Day as the international day of the working class. As a result, throughout the world, May Day is celebrated as the day of the working class.

In Sri Lanka, May Day was first celebrated in 1933 by a labour union formed by the late labour union leader A. E. Gunasinghe. In 1927 he carried out an unorganised labour protest, but that was not considered a May Day commemoration. May Day was declared a public holiday in 1956 by the then S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike government. Later, when J. R. Jayewardene came into power, he formed the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya and other political parties, too, followed him thereafter.

The working class commemorate May Day, which they won sacrificing many a life, for many reasons. While commemorating the fallen heroes on that historic day in Chicago, they also raise their voice against injustices that they currently undergo. They also discuss the rights that they are yet to win. They also take decisions and make proposals for the respective year on this day.

However, today’s issue is which May Day rally will attract the highest number of people. Capitalist political parties in Sri Lanka organise both these rallies. They only talk about the number of people they can attract and not about the real issues that plague the working masses. They manipulate and exploit the working class to secure power or gain the power that they lost last year. Instead, they must allow labour unions to celebrate their day freely. But the working masses are yet to receive that freedom.

Actually, May Day belongs to the working masses. The government or political parties cannot own it. In Sri Lanka, the public sector has 14 lakhs of employees and the private sector has 65 lakhs. May Day belongs to them. It does not belong to the President, the Prime Minister, Ministers, MPs or to the opposition.  Sri Lankan politicians visit Geneva from time to time and sign labour welfare agreements. But clause 87 and 98 of the international charter of labour rights protects the rights of the working masses. They say that any government should protect these rights. Instead, the Government of Sri Lanka unleashes repression against the working masses. During the Rajapaksa regime, protesters were jailed. Court orders were obtained to stop labour protests. They also tried to prohibit our 2008 Colombo May Day rally. But we held it at Slave Island.

Ruling parties in Sri Lanka have already signed the international labour charter so instead of voicing slogans and asking workers to come to Galle or Kirulapone, they must facilitate the working classes in celebrating their day freely.

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Masses Will Rise Up

Anton Marcus, General Secretary, Free Trade Zones And General Services Employees Union

Political parties in this country have completely defamed the meaning of May Day. It is celebrated throughout the world to commemorate the labourers who sacrificed their lives to win the 8-hour working day and other labour rights. Today while commemorating those heroes, the working class use May Day to show their strength in unity in order to solve the issues that they face today. However, today’s political parties exploit May Day to show their power and come into power somehow.

At present, May Day has become one of the most decisive days for the working class in our country because the government has even proposed extending the 8-hour working day. They attempted to introduce a five-day week to the working masses with the last budget to pave the way for abolishing the 8-hour working day. They had to retract the proposal because of the massive labour struggle launched against it. However, we are aware that employers are still trying to bring in this proposal somehow.

The government also attempted to de-establish the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), the only benefit that many of the private sector employees receive at the end of their working life. The government also made an attempt to take away the EPF from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. They have not stopped their attempts in this regard to date. In addition, the government has generalised the recruitment of manpower workers on temporary basis to the public permanent services. Today the job security of employees has been entirely threatened. Now employers recruit employees only from manpower companies and on a temporary basis. Likewise, employees are not entitled to work for their lifetimes now. Against this backdrop, employees should get together to protest against unfair proposals and activities that the authorities initiate against them on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, political parties use every single day of the year to do their kind of politics. The working masses have only May Day to raise their concerns. Now politicians have even taken over May Day to propagate their narrow political ideals. They deceive employees and take them away from their burning issues.

My view is that all the political parties in our country have no right to talk about issues of the working class, especially, the United Opposition has no right to talk of employees’ issues because they brought in the infamous pension scheme for the private sector employees in 2011. When protests by employees defeated that attempt, they used the police force to assault protesters and even killed one employee, Roshan Chanaka. What right do they have to talk about labour issues now? The UNP is also the same. They all know that they have no right to talk about issues of the working class. But deep in their hearts, they know that the masses will get together and rise against the political parties one day. They want to prevent that from happening. That is why they try to rally people behind their parties for May Day.

Against this backdrop, we join hands with five other labour unions to hold a separate May Day rally alienating from every other political party in Sri Lanka.