The International Labour Day, widely known as May Day, was observed in Bangladesh on Sunday, as elsewhere around the world, with colourful processions and the voicing of the workers' demand for pay-hike to enable them to cope with continued inflation and price-spiral.
Apart from the government, various trade and labour unions, human rights organisations, professional bodies, socio-cultural organisations and political parties observed the day by staging rallies, holding seminars, discussions and cultural programmes in the capital and elsewhere in the country.
The day was a public holiday, and the entire city was full of programmes of the working class people carrying red banners and flags and chanting slogans for the workers' rights.
May 1 was adopted as the International Labour Day by socialist delegates in Paris in 1889. More than 400 of them met in Paris on the centenary of the French Revolution at the Marxist International Socialist Congress, the founding meeting of the Second International.
The Federation of Organised Trades and Labour Unions of the United States and Canada, in its convention in 1884, passed a resolution: 'Eights hours shall constitute a legal day's labour, from and after 1 May, 1886.'
Many of the strikes in 1886 were unsuccessful but on 3 May, 1886 one of the anarchists, August Spies, addressed a crowd of strikers at McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago, Illinois, where a force of 200 policemen attacked the crowd. At least one striker was killed. About half a dozen were seriously wounded.
The anarchists convened a meeting in the next evening in Haymarket Square in Chicago to protest against the police action. The police carried out a series of attacks on participants of the peaceful rally on May 4.
A bomb, thrown from the crowd into the ranks of the police, wounded sixty-six policemen, of whom seven died later. The police pulled out their guns and fired salvo after salvo at the workers, two hundred of whom were injured and several killed.
Labourer's organisations, socio-cultural bodies and political parties in the country held a number of programmes to mark the day.
The labour ministry brought out a procession and held a discussion and initiated a three-day fair in the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. The prime minister opened the government's May Day programmes.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party's workers wing, Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, brought out a procession from the party's central office in Naya Paltan at around 9:45am on Sunday.
The processionists carried colourful banners, festoons and flags and demanded that the minimum wage for workers in Dhaka city be fixed at Tk 5,000.
BNP's senior vice-president Abul Kashem Chowdhury, vice-president Mojibar Rahman Sarwar, secretary-general Jafrul Hasan, joint secretary-general Anwar Hossain, city unit leader Nurul Islam Nasim and other central leaders led the procession.
The BNP's chief, Khaleda Zia, addressed a workers' rally at Konabari in Gazipur.
Workers vandalised several restaurants on May Day in various parts of the capital because they had not been shut down for the holiday. Police said the vandalism started at 10am and lasted until noon in Karwanbazar, Gulistan and Hazaribagh and surrounding areas.
The Bangladesh Hotel Restaurant and Sweetmeat Federation's general secretary, Rafiqul Islam, said, 'A circular was issued to the owners asking them to keep their shops and restaurants closed on May 1, But some owners still went ahead, threatened their employees and kept their shops open.'
The National Garment Workers' Federation staged a workers' rally and brought out a procession carrying red flags from Purana Paltan crossing. The Bangladesh Garment Workers' Unity Council also staged a rally in Muktangan.
The Samajtantrik Sramik Front staged a rally in the Tejgaon Industrial Area and the Bangladesh Garment Sramik Sanghati staged a rally and screened a film in Pallabi.
The president, Zillur Rahman, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the opposition in the Parliament, Khaleda Zia, and leaders of various political parties and labour organisations issued separate messages to mark the day.
Source: New Age
