May Day is Dead! Long Live May Day Reborn!
Long live May Day — the slogan whose sheen is long lost. May Day had once been a great inspiration for the working class throughout the world, for, struggle against capital and for the unity of workers — both nationally and internationally.
Long live May Day, the great slogan of the working class is long forgotten, literally. May Day no longer provokes hatred amongst the capitalists. Imperialists-capitalists have cunningly and silently usurped the weapon of unity and struggle from the workers, and have now been able by way of assimilation with the help of reformist-revisionists parties to convert the great May Day into a lifeless workers' day, in the same way as they thrust upon and champion several days like Children's Day, Teachers' Day, Women's Day, Environment Day etc.
May Day is there but it is not that May Day which was born out of bloody street battles in America and the great sacrifices of leading courageous workers for introduction of 8 hours' working day.
Not only May Day has been taken away, painfully, the right for eight hours' working day, which was earned through series of struggles of the workers all over the world, is being snatched away. Step by step and with rapidity a 12-hrs working day is being introduced in countries like ours and it has in the main started in industries that came up after the introduction of globalization-liberalization, where workers are recruited in contract/casual system — thanks to huge unemployment in the society.
May Day is virtually dead. It is to be born anew as a beacon of light and hope before the whole of working class. And it is the working class who will create a new May Day, a new history. They will do it by challenging the old, habitual subservience to the bourgeoisie-petty bourgeoisie parties and particularly the old communist parties which ruthlessly betrayed the allegiance of workers that once rested on these parties. They will usher in a new dawn by being organized independently with new leadership from amongst them for giving a serious fight against the capitalist attack.
They have started doing so. The scenario of passivity & frustration amongst workers and the long spell of disintegration since the defeat of the first offensive of world socialist movement are now changing. Old leaders have got rotten with their reformist-opportunist politics, but a new leadership is yet to be built up. So, with no one to lead them, workers, particularly the fighting workers are by their own, i.e., spontaneously summing up their past experience of betrayal of old parties. They are not only questioning the old leaders, some of them are moving ahead a further important step of forming their own independent union organizations, abandoning the old leaders. This is a new trend and their change from yesterdays, however small in the beginning at present, is no doubt greatly significant with respect to the future of class struggle.
The new trend is real and not a theoretical or wishful supposition as one may claim. It is no doubt, from the days the workers have started treading this new path in their union struggle, its members have been only few. Although back in 2002, about two and a half lakh of jute workers replied the betrayal of ?Federations' by spontaneously jumping into strike in respective mills, obviously defying the combined diktat of all shades of union leaders. Thereafter, at the mill-level spontaneous resistance against the black agreement continued for about 4-5 years, depending on the condition of the mills. But most significantly, the jute workers did not form any formal union organization. However, as we said, apart from the jute workers experience, in the initial stage new unions and their resistance struggles were really few in numbers. But that it is a trend is proven by the undeniable fact that the numbers are increasing, albeit slowly.
Maruti-Suzuki in Gurgaon is a clear example. It is not so simple an event and that in the overall retreating condition of working class since defeat, that the workers went for three consecutive strikes in a span of one year and thereby could establish their own independent union. On the pretext of an incident in the factory in July, 2012, the Maruti management with vengeance and in connivance with police-administration came down upon the workers with about 546 permanent and 1800 contract workers' dismissals and sending 149 workers, including all leader-workers to jail. No bail is granted as yet, obviously at the insistence of the police and the Maruti management. But the management, even by such fierce assault on the workers, has not been able to finally crush the workers organisation and their struggle. Significantly, a new leadership has emerged from the workers outside and they have been continuing their struggle for re-establishment of union and release of the jailed workers through series of programmes with the participation of good number of workers, of course with the help of some fighting organizations. Maruti workers, who had no previous experience of struggle and conducting union organization, did actually prove in real life what the workers can do. As one more feather in their cap, workers inside, emboldened by never-to-die continuing struggle of the workers outside could get the courage to defeat the management panel & electing their own panel of workers in recent successive Union elections in both the plants in Haryana, in spite of the reign of terror inside the factory.
Yes, the Maruti workers had to face the brutal onslaught of the management and government-administration with their singular strength. It was a lone battle. Gurgaon workers up to Dharuhera Bawal — more than 7 lakhs — were apparently silent. Industrialists in and around Gurgaon were jubilant. They thought that Maruti would be a good lesson for the workers in the surrounding area. Workers there for many more days in future would have to think twice before raising their voice in their respective units. But their jubilation did not last long, not even a year. Workers in several factories in Gurgaon-Manesar-Dharuhera industrial belt----Daikin, Autofit, Bajaj, Munjal Kiriu, Nopino ?. etc, after taking some time to assimilate their initial shock came out in open struggle in their respective workplaces with varied programmes of strike-demonstration and other ways. In fact, workers finally refused to take those lessons from Maruti as the capitalists and administration thought and wanted. Workers obviously took other lessons of Maruti, the lesson of undaunted spirit of Maruti workers and the way they faced the repression and raised their head again after being ruthlessly pushed back to the wall and mobilized themselves to fight back, thereby upholding the banner of true colours of workers as a contingent of working class. And so is the change occurring in the scenario in Gurgaon. Gurgaon workers have once again started breaking their apparent silence.
New trend, so to say the starting of new awakening is not there, isolated only in one end of Northern India. Indications are coming up to show that the South is also changing. The industrial zones of Bangalore is no more peaceful as it was. The Employers' organization of Karnataka has to raise alarm signals over ?labour unrest'. Workers of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Bombay Rayon Fashions, Stumpp Schuele & Somappa Springs Pvt. Ltd are in the path of struggle. The managements have to declare lock-out in these three factories including Toyota. Besides workers of Coca Cola, Fowler Westrup are in strike. Capitalists are concerned not only for the present which is just a beginning; they are more scared for the future inherent in the present.
Yes, working class has just started turning around after a long 30 years of retreat since the defeat of the first offensive of world socialist movement. They are taking the first important step by bringing themselves to the arena of struggle by way of plant level resistance to capitalist offensive, coming out of long passivity and frustration. It is the beginning, but no mistake, it introduces a distinct trend of escalation and development. That is the reason the capitalist class of our country is alarmed. They are more concerned over the above trend. They are preparing themselves at the moment by projecting their most coveted strongman BJP's Modi as the Prime Minister in the present parliamentary election to facilitate execution of their determined aggressive plan of reforms. They are hell-bent on inflicting heavy burden on the working class and the toiling people. And that is the reason they are up in arms to crush the beginning, i.e., the rising struggle of workers in its primary stage.
But they fail to understand — and they would inevitably fail — that the old scenario has already started changing. Workers have already started turning around. They fail to understand that their further fierce attack would eventually create the ground for escalation of class battle by pushing the workers to shed off their lingering passivity and then fight back. Moreover, it is to be further understood that it is a phenomenon not limited only to this part of the world. People had been on the streets for days in Egypt, Spain, Greece, Portugal & several Latin American countries in recent times. These were all spontaneous in nature and without any old leadership and the parties. Workers started organizing themselves in new Unions, predominantly seen in Egypt.
In this situation another May Day has arrived before us. It can only be observed in its true spirit and honour by the fighting workers. May Day is not for participating in the routine lifeless celebrations. The workers should refrain from joining such celebrations of May Day that are arranged by the old betrayer Parties & Unions through mere ceremonious hoisting of red flags and decoration of chain flags in factory gate. They should all come together on the first of May — whatever smaller numbers be it at this phase — and discuss about the globalised onslaught by the capitalist-imperialists, the problems of building a separate nationwide workers' own organization, so as to effectively fight back the onslaught and how the advanced fighting workers can become practically connected and brought together primarily in each of their own industrial areas for mutual benefit and help in respective of the plant level struggles. By such meetings and preserving and spreading its continuity the workers, as a matter of fact the working class can offer their real great salute to the May Day, to the heroes of May Day struggle in America and to those workers who had sacrificed their lives for changing the world, for emancipation of working class and the people. May Day has to be reborn through such assemblies of the fighting workers who are involved against all odds in leading their own factory level struggles at present.
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