Bangladesh along with the rest of the world is set to observe May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, today with demands for ensuring workers’ rights, including the rights to workplace safety and the rights to form and join trade unions.
This year the theme of the day in Bangladesh is ‘Sramik-Malik Garba Desh, Smart Hobe Bangladesh’ (workers and owners together will build a smart Bangladesh).
To observe the day, various labour bodies will hold rallies, bring out processions and organise discussions to press home their demands, including the national minimum wage of Tk 20,000 and workplace safety.
The day is a public holiday.
May Day marks the 1886 uprising of workers at Hay Market in Chicago in the United States for their rights, including an eight-hour working day.
Several workers were killed in police firing, for which the day was initially marked as a black day.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin and prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday issued separate messages on the eve of the historic day.
They extended their greetings to all the working people wishing success of all programmes on the occasion.
The labour and employment ministry will hold May Day discussions to mark the day at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre today on Wednesday.
Jatiya Sramik League will hold a workers rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in front of the party central office at 3:00pm today to mark the day in which Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader will speak.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s labour front Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal will hold a workers rally in front of its Naya Paltan central office at 3:00pm.
The Communist Party of Bangladesh will hold a rally in front of its central office at Purana Paltan at 8:30am.
The Bangladesh Garment Sramik Samhati will hold a rally at Ashulia in front of the Fantasy Kingdom at 9:00am where president of the organisation Taslima Akhter will speak.
It will also hold rallies in Gazipur, Narayanganj, Chattogram and other industrial belts on the day.
Garments Sramik Oikya Forum will hold a rally at Ulail in Savar at 4:00pm where its president Mushrefa Mishu will speak.
Imarat Nirman Sramik Union will hold a rally in front of Muktangan at 10:00am.
Socialist Labour Front will hold a rally in front of the National Press Club at 11:00am.
Jatiya Sramik Jote, labour front of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Jasod will hold a rally in front of its central office at Bangabanhu Avenue at 10:00am.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a statement said that many workers are facing starvation amid price hikes of the essential commodities, but the government ministers and leaders are busy in giving lip service.
May 1 was adopted as International Workers’ Day by socialist delegates in Paris in 1889. More than 400 delegates on the centenary of the French Revolution met in Paris at the Marxist International Socialist Congress, the founding meeting of the Second International.
The 1889 resolution called for a one-time demonstration but it became an annual event in course of time.
May Day was celebrated in Russia, Brazil and Ireland first in 1891.
