Being observed today in Pakistan, and elsewhere in the world, May Day tradition, though, will appear to have gradually lost its political bite in the wake of liquidation of the Soviet Union, which had come to be regarded as a nation ideally governed by the workers and peasants.
As that myth was dispelled, not only frustration was caused in many developing nations trying to catch up with the advanced countries but also in its constituent republics of the Soviet Union itself, which opted to go by the socioeconomic system of the US-led way of representative democracy and free enterprise. Needless to point out, many others, including Pakistan, in a bid to emulate the socialist economic pattern had started aspiring for a synthesis of the two directly opposed systems from a "mixed" thrust in order to make the best of both. While so doing, many of them, Pakistan and India too, looked for an "ideal" labour policy, that is, on the socialist pattern.
Small wonder, in Pakistan, the People's Party government that was thrown up by the Election 1970 lost no time in putting in place pro-labour laws, as demonstrated by the thrust of widespread nationalisation, besides declaring May Day as a closed holiday. Much has changed since the times when a number of Chicago workers were killed on May 3, 1886, while agitating for 8-hour work against ten to 12 hours they had to work till then, to whose memory May Day is devoted.
Of course, it meant a triumph for agitating American workers to their lasting benefit. It is, however, another matter that their triumph acquired political overtones following the Russian Revolution, which resulted in the creation of the Soviet Union, as the first workers' and peasants' State. With that model nowhere there now, except in the imagination of ideologues of mixed economy, the pattern of the day's celebrations has also undergone changes, differing from place to place.
It may be recalled that long before the Chicago event, May Day was marked for celebrations for different reasons. For it had been traditionally celebrated to mark the coming of spring in the West, often with dancing around a maypole, sports, and other festivities. However, with the creation of the former Soviet Union, a beginning was made of the May Day celebrations with demonstration of solidarity of workers.
It had also fired the imagination of trade unionists with political motivations all along the struggle for independence in the colonies of imperialist powers as also in various newly freed, and haphazardly industrialising countries, Pakistan included, in our part of the world. However, that kind of pursuit started waning, following the break-up of the former Soviet Union, an event that also witnessed a perceptible change in the dogma of Communism and the concept of rights of workers it championed.
In so far as workers in the developing nations are concerned, their plight largely still remains to be mitigated. Thus hoping against hope for better days to come from the ongoing thrust of globalisation, they would be inclined to endeavour for their legitimate rights, mostly through means other than politically motivated agitations and street clashes.
For as it is, the former socialist world is also now trying to catch up fast with the private enterprise system and all that goes with it. Needless to point out then, celebration of May Day in Pakistan, while marked with a holiday spirit, may also give vent to their resentment over the previous government's failure to frame an inspiring labour policy for nearly a decade. Now that a PPP-led political government is in power, the workers can legitimately look to a better deal.
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