[Civsoc-mw] Why Labour Days Matters to Malawi

[Paliani]

THE HISTORY OF LABOUR (MAY) DAY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE TO MALAWI.

 

When we celebrate the 1st of May as the Labour day or May Day, we rarely reflect on why it is a public holiday in Malawi or elsewhere. 

 

Sian Byrne, Paliani Chinguwo, Warren McGregor, and Prof. Lucien van der Walt tell of the powerful struggles that lie behind its existence, and the organisations that created it and kept its meaning alive.

 

May Day, international workers day, started as a global general strike commemorating five anarchist labour organisers executed in 1887 in the USA. Mounting the scaffold, August Spies declared:

‘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 and live in want and misery – the wage slaves – expect salvation – if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but there, and there, and behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.’

Under the one-party state in Malawi, May Day was not a public holiday, nor could unions organise independent May Days.

So, the first May Day in independent Malawi was in 1994. Held at the Ryalls Hotel in Blantyre City just two weeks before the first multi-party general elections, and eleven months after a referendum in favour of elections, it was organised by the Hotels and Food Workers Union. Held, however, at a luxury hotel, without publicity and in the wake of state repression of dissidents and strikers, the event was poorly attended.

May Day became an official public holiday in 1995, under the newly-elected United Democratic Front (UDF) government – which included Chihana as Second Vice President.

That year, the Trade Union Congress of Malawi (TUCM) held a widely publicised series of May Day activities at Kamuzu Stadium, and a peaceful march. The new Minister of Labour, Ziliro Chibambo, was present, as were employer representatives.

For a full story, please visit:

http://www.aihnews.com/why-may-day-matters-to-malawi/

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://chambo3.sdnp.org.mw/pipermail/civsoc-mw/attachments/20180430/52e3b727/attachment.html>