"மே தினம் / தொழிலாளர் தினம்" / "May Day"/ "International Workers' Day" [01/05/2024]

 

 

"May Day"/ "International Workers' Day"]

 

 

"O'er many a land they 'll see their monarch reign,

Whose fields are shaded by the waving grain."

 

"பலகுடை நீழலும் தங்குடைக்கீழ்க் காண்பர்

அலகுடை நீழ லவர்."[2000 years old,Kural:1034]

 

It says: Farmers enjoy providing food for all; hence they are capable of bringing all the citizens under a king, under their (farmers’) umbrellas. When hunter- gatherers first moved into the region between the Tigris and Euphrates [Sumeria],they found living pretty easy. There was wildlife to catch, fish in the rivers, and edible vegetation growing wild.  So they stayed. This transition from food gathering to food producing, allows for the development of permanent settlements in some areas, that allows the later development of first civilizations. The term "civilization" refers to a complex society that develops because of its food surplus that exists from the development of agriculture. The ancient civilizations developed in several river valleys around the world: the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley, the Nile River Valley, the Indus River Valley, the Huang He River Valley. So, If no farmers, there is no civilization. If, no civilization, We are not here now, If, we are not here, definitely no may day!. So the farmers are the most important worker among all category of workers and they are very cable to bring every one including king under their umbrellas.

 

For every man, He required work for earn enough wealth for his basic needs of foods, Clothing and shelter ,He needs enough Physical rest[or sleep] for repairs and rebuilds the body and mind and also he needs enough time for enjoyment with family & friends, which is an important element of relaxation. So, work, rest and leisure time for enjoyment is central to our understanding of happiness and well-being of human beings. But, from the earliest known recorded evidence in Sumeria to the medieval cultures, workers were generally treated as slaves, bonded labor, and forced labor.

 

For example, Sumerian mythology claims that, in the beginning, human- like gods ruled over Earth. When they came to the Earth, there was much work to be done and these gods toiled the soil, digging to make it habitable and mining its minerals. They had not minded this at first. But when the female gods were created, the male gods had to work even harder to keep them happy and enjoy with them. Then the gods had a great deal of trouble making enough bread to eat and enough clothes to wear. They become very angry at having to work so hard. Life on earth wasn't easy for these gods. As one tablet says:

 

"When the gods like men

Bore the work and suffered the toll

The toil of the gods was great,

The work was heavy, the distress was much."

 

The gods were not happy with their situation. They were prone to complaining, backstabbing, and rebellion against their leaders. this may be the first labour revolt or worker's uprising against authority. Anu, the god of gods, agreed that their labour was too  great.  So,  the council of the gods, decided to create humankind to free the gods from the need to work for their sustenance. Since then, workers worked long hours in the field & industries. Now men Bore the work and suffered the toll, The toil of the men was great, The work was heavy, the distress was much. For example,American workers worked on average slightly over 60 hours, even some 14- to 18- hours pay days, during a six-day work week. In October 1884, a convention held by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions unanimously set May 1,1886, as the date by which the eight- hour work day would become standard and the Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket massacre or Haymarket riot) was happened. Now let see the state of mind or feeling of a Sangam period worker through over 2000~2500 years old Natrinai 284;

 

"My heart is tied to my beloved

with dark hair hanging on her back

and pretty, kohl-rimmed eyes with

the color of attractive petals

of blue waterlily blossoms.

It tells me that I should go to her

and end her sorrow.

My intelligence tells me that I should

finish my business[or work], since it will bring

sorrow and shame to me if I do not

do so, and that I should not

veer from my work, even a little bit.

I am caught between my heart

and intelligence,

like a twisted old rope that is pulled

on both sides by young male elephants

with bright, lifted tusks.

Will my distressed body be ruined?"

 

''புறம் தாழ்பு இருண்ட கூந்தல், போதின்

நிறம் பெறும் ஈர் இதழ்ப் பொலிந்த உண்கண்,

உள்ளம் பிணிக்கொண்டோள்வயின்'', நெஞ்சம்,

''செல்லல் தீர்கம்; செல்வாம்'' என்னும்:

''செய்வினை முடியாது எவ்வம் செய்தல்

எய்யாமையோடு இளிவு தலைத்தரும்'' என,

உறுதி தூக்காத் தூங்கி, அறிவே,

''சிறிது நனி விரையல்'' என்னும்: ஆயிடை,

ஒளிறு ஏந்து மருப்பின் களிறு மாறு பற்றிய

தேய்புரிப் பழங் கயிறு போல,

வீவதுகொல் என் வருந்திய உடம்பே?

 

Here, The mind of the man who is going to earn wealth[or money],leaving his wife in residence is wavering, whether he would continue [or stay] in the work or return back to house early to enjoy with her wife, who has thick hair on her back dark in color and who is alluring him with her eyes like two buds of flowers. He advises his mind, If You wavering and postponing taking a good decision. If you do so for a long time, you will die as no money to by food and other necessities and to remove the poverty, as a damaged rope cut that tied an elephant in a peg. Take a good decision immediately.

 

The famous, Eight-Hour Day Song: "We want to feel the sunshine; we want to smell the flowers; We're sure that God has willed it, and we mean to have eight hours. We're summoning our forces from shipyard, shop and mill: Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for what we will."

 

written by I. G. Blanchard with music by Congregational minister Jesse Henry Jones (1836–1904), became the official song of the eight hours working day movement. The lyrics consider long working hours a violation of God's will, which requires that humans have time for personal reflection and communion with nature and also reflect the feeling of sangam period tamil man!

 

The earliest May Day celebrations are thought to be an ancient celebration with pagan roots. The 1st May is an ancient Northern Hemisphere festival, now known as ‘May Day’, which traditionally marked the return of spring. Later developments included the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. The Romans marked the occasion over two millennia ago with the Floralia, or Festival of Flora, a five-day ceremony to honour the Roman goddess of flowers. Maypole dancing is another tradition celebrated on May Day, and is seen as a way of saying farewell to winter. Even though summer does not begin until June, May Day is a celebration of things coming to life. It continues to be one of the most popular customs in Europe, where, Participants dance around a wooden Maypole, holding colourful ribbons that become decoratively intertwined. However, Many May Day celebrations were banned by the Church during more puritanical times, due to the pagan origins of the festival. Similarly, We find Sangam Tamils too celebrate the indira vizha on start of the Ilavenil season or summer. The detailed information on the celebration of  'Indra Vizha' festival can be seen in the Tamil epics, the 'Silappadikaram', 'Manimekhalai' and Kalithogai. For example, Kalithogai 35 says:

 

"My friend with a bright forehead! He promised to

return on the agreed time when I embraced and bid

him farewell, wishing him success in his work, with

continuous tears from my eyes, on an islet of the river,

when colorful bees were humming and eating the pollen

of fragrant mullai flowers on the shores of the endless

Vaiyai river with tall sand dunes where water flows.

isn’t it time for him to play with me in this festival of

Kaman ('Indra Vizha' ) with a bow,?" 

 

"மல்கிய துருத்தியுள் மகிழ் துணைப் புணர்ந்து அவர்

வில்லவன் விழவினுள் விளையாடும் பொழுது அன்றோ

வலன் ஆக வினை என்று வணங்கி நாம் விடுத்தக்கால்

ஒளி இழாய் நமக்கு அவர் வருதும் என்று உரைத்ததை"

 

Yet this has little to do with the reason that 1 st of May is celebrated in world today. Today, May Day is international workers day. For old-fashioned people, May Day means flowers, grass, picnics, children, clean frocks, but, for today's common people & workers, it means speech making, parading, demonstrate worker's solidarity and protest. This connotation dates back to May Day, 1886, when some 200,000 U. S. workmen engineered a nationwide strike for an eight-hour day.

 

"THERE WILL be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today."

 

Those were the last words of August Spies, one of four innocent men executed for an explosion at Chicago's Haymarket Square in May 1886. The real "crime" for which Spies and his comrades were condemned was being labor militants fighting for workers' rights and the eight-hour day. The national strike for the eight- hour day that they organized was called for May 1, 1886-- it was the first May Day!

 

The eight- hour demand spoke to workers frustrated with 14- to 18-hour work days amid high unemployment. Workers supported the demand by wearing "eight-hour shoes," smoking "eight-hour tobacco" and singing the "eight-hour song," Leading members of the anarchist International Working People's Association (IWPA) like Spies and Albert Parsons organized in Chicago, where the IWPA was the strongest nationally. They planned events that captured the angry mood of workers, organizing parades that would march on the Board of Trade or down Prairie Avenue where the wealthy lived, singing the "Marseillaise"(it was first sung in Paris by the battalion of Marseille) and carrying red flags.

 

However, They faced well-organized opposition from the employers, who were backed up by the media and the brutal Chicago cops. Newspaper articles decried the eight-hour day as "Communism, lurid and rampant" that would bring on "loafing and gambling, debauchery and drunkenness".

 

An editorial in the Chicago Mail singled out Parsons and Spies:

 

"There are two dangerous ruffians at large in this city; two skulking cowards who are trying to create trouble. One of them is named Parsons; the other is named Spies. Strike leaders called for a protest against police violence on may 03rd, the following evening. Some 3,000 workers gathered in Haymarket Square, the center of the meat packing   business. By  the end of the evening, the rally had dwindled to a few hundred because of rain--when about 200 armed police marched into the peaceful crowd. Someone-- whose identity is still unknown-- thrown a bomb into the ranks of the police. It killed one, fatally wounded six more and injured about seventy others. The press and the pulpit called for revenge, insisting the bomb was the work of socialists and anarchists. Meeting halls, union offices, printing works and private homes were raided. All known socialists and anarchists were rounded up. Eventually eight men stood trial for being "accessories to murder". They were Spies, Fielden, Parsons, and five other anarchists who were influential in the labour movement, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Michael Schwab, Louis Lingg and Oscar Neebe. The defence was not allowed to present evidence that the special bailiff had publicly claimed "I am managing this case and I know what I am about. These fellows are going to be hanged as certain as death". On August 19th seven of the defendants were sentenced to death, and Neebe to 15 years in prison. On November 11th 1887 Parsons, Engel, Spies and Fischer were hanged.

 

"If you think that by hanging us, you can stamp out the labor movement... the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in want and misery expect salvation-- if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but there and there, behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.", was the last words of Spies before he was executed.

 

May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International's second congress in 1891 and there after In many countries, the working classes sought to make May Day an official holiday and their efforts largely succeeded. What started as International Workers' Day in Chicago in May 1886 further spread to other parts of the world, India and Srilanka being no exception. In India, the very first Labour Day or May Day, was celebrated in 1923 in Chennai, The event was organised by the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan and Malayapuram Singaravelu Chettiar, who became one of the founders of the Communist Party of India. The party's leader, Singaravelu Chettiar,conducted 'May Day' celebrations in two places — one at a beach opposite Madras High court and the other at the Triplicane beach. He later presided over the meeting and a resolution declaring a holiday on the occasion was passed here and The Triumph Of Labour statue on Marina Beach in Chennai (then Madras) marks the country’s first May Day celebrations. Similarly, Sri Lanka celebrated its first May Day in 1927 under the leadership of Alexander Ekanayake Gunasinha (1 May 1891 – 1 August 1967). He was considered by many as a pioneering trade union leader and was often referred to as the “Father of the Labour Movement”.Gunasinha was the founder of the Ceylon Labour Party in 1931 which was the country’s first official leftist party. It was under Gunasinha that Ceylon founded its first ever trade union, the Ceylon Labour Union, in 1922.

 

 

lKandiah Thillaivinayagalingam,

Athiady, Jaffna]