Business Day
*May Day was a fierce battle won by the workers*** *Z Pallo Jordan, Business Day, Johannesburg, 2 May 2013*MAY Day, observed in South Africa and in many countries as International Workers' Day, has its origins in the pre-Christian religions of Europe. In the northern hemisphere, the first day of May was regarded as the start of summer. The day was associated with the fecundity of the earth and of humans. Freudians still have a field day identifying the sexual metaphors in a festival that features a phallic maypole for maidens to dance around.
The arrival of summer, after winters that required everyone to cover up against the cold, was also a time for courtship. In many parts of Europe, there was the tradition of the May basket, a basket of flowers and treats that an admirer anonymously placed at the door of the object of his affections. In England, it climaxed with the crowning of the queen of May who, in turn, chose a "gallant lad" as her king. No prizes for guessing what that symbolised. Between 1640 and 1680, the Puritans banned the celebration of May Day. The restoration of the Stuarts saw the festival revived under Charles II.
This pagan festival took on a new meaning after May 1886, when a worker demonstration, demanding an eight-hour day, at Haymarket Square, Chicago, was fired on by the police. At its first congress, held in 1889 to commemorate the French Revolution, the Second International (Socialist International) called on workers to mark the anniversary of the Haymarket Massacre with demonstrations the following year. In 1891, the Second International officially declared May Day a workers' holiday to be used in support of the demand for an eight-hour day.
The Catholic Church had recognised May Day as St Joseph's Day for centuries. By a fortunate coincidence, St Joseph was also regarded as the patron saint of workers. That association facilitated ready acceptance of May Day among many European workers. When the Second International called on all socialist parties, trade unions and other workers' organisations to make May Day a recognised public holiday in 1904, it was relatively easy to implement in countries where the day already had that special meaning.
In recognition of and to honour the role played by the organised working class in the struggle for freedom and democracy, May Day was officially recognised as Workers' Day in 1995. Before 1994, like many other repressive governments, the white minority regimes that misgoverned SA would not recognise May Day
It had been observed from 1909, when the South African Labour Party was established. The Labour Party was deeply racist, advocating the exclusion or otherwise rigid control over Africans in the urban areas; the reservation of all skilled work for whites, and the complete disenfranchisement of Africans. Given the Labour Party's peculiar profile, the occasion was always strictly segregated, with the white trade unions holding a street parade during the day, while black workers met at a sports stadium after work in the evening. After the National Party's (NP) unexpected victory in 1948, the Labour Party's influence among white workers fell dramatically. By 1950, its annual May Day parade had fallen into disuse.
Black workers experienced the NP's electoral victory as the intensification of oppression and repression. The amendments to the Natives Urban Areas Act of 1923 the NP introduced in 1949 were a taste of things to come. To protest the direction SA was moving in, the Council of Non-European Trade Unions, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Communist Party called the first stay-at-home strike for May Day 1950.
The stay-at-home strike tactic was devised to address two issues: evolving an effective method of nonviolent protest that galvanised the black working people in a manner expressive of their collective power; and avoiding confrontations with the police, who would invariably have been called out in response to manifestations on the streets. Despite these precautions, clashes with the police, in which six people were killed, ensued that evening in Alexandra township. The ANC convened a summit of antiracist organisations in response and called a one-day strike on June 26 1950, to protest against not only the shootings on May Day but also the growing repression. On that day, the second stay-at-home strike took place. For the following decades, the tactic would be intermittently employed with varying degrees of success.
The parsimony of South African employers has led to an unprecedented level of labour disputes over the past 18 months. As in the days of the Haymarket martyrs, the capitalist classes expect working people to report to work daily in a state of good health, to sustain their families and enjoy some leisure on a wage lower than what they spend on their dog.
May Day has been a public holiday since 1995. Its annual observance reminds us that the rights working people in many parts of the world take for granted did not come easily. The tenacity with which trade unionists defend them is an acknowledgment of the martyrs who purchased them with their blood.
* Jordan is a former arts and culture minister.*From: http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2013/05/02/may-day-was-a-fierce-battle-won-by-the-workers*
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