MAY DAY this year comes in a time of growing struggle — domestically and internationally. The ever-growing number of industrial disputes has seen a growth of union membership and activity in many areas as workers seek to deal with the ever-increasing cost of living alongside the growing crisis in public services. 

Government interference in those services with the backdrop of growing privatisation been disastrous as one failing Tory government has followed another. The massive support for different worker disputes shown across the country, with fellow trade unionists, trades councils and the public joining picket lines, has been marked.  

It has raised the need for the ability to take solidarity action, particularly for the strong to support the weak. The need to remove the  legal shackles on trade unions have been a focus for the trade union movement.

Internationally the situation has been deteriorating. The horrific images and news from Gaza have shocked the public across the world and revived the whole question of Palestine. The series of events going back to 1947 and beyond marked by a series on incidents and attacks shows the need to have a wider perspective than just the latest horror. 

The conflict going on between Ukraine and Russia threatens the possibility of widening to a larger crisis. There are conflicts in Africa and Asia. All this within the context of the threats to our environment with capitalist companies continuing to put profit before the future of the world.

Little covered in the mainstream media are the continuing battles in countries across the world as workers fight back against exploitation, both in the workplace and in their communities, including murderous attacks on worker activists. On May Day we stand in solidarity with workers across the world as all celebrate May Day. We are conscious in many countries they do so in the face of severe government attacks and repression.

We see the attempts to divide us with racist policies and the growth of right-wing movements. That is the importance of having the strong involvement of different migrant workers communities in the May Day march showing worker unity. It is why the Black Lives Matter demands must be constantly emphasised.
 
May Day is a day when we celebrate the fact that it is ordinary people carrying out the jobs that keep our country going. This was recognised during Covid when the public celebrated the health and emergency workers, transport, shop and public services workers by clapping in support. No-one was clapping hedge fund managers and bankers. That recognition of workers contribution to the country needs to be developed and marked in a proper way. That is why we have been campaigning for May 1 to be made a public holiday.

This demand grew strong in the 1960s and ’70s, with most unions and the TUC backing the call. Labour said they recognised this but when in power minister Michael Foot diluted everything by making the May bank holiday the first Monday in May. 

The fact that across the world May 1 is celebrated as International Workers’ Day as a symbol of international solidarity, standing in unity across community and national borders, was lost and the historic focus ignored. We regularly have new suggestions for holiday days, some worthy, some divisive but the oldest call should be top of the list and support for it reinvigorated. Unions need to be supporting the call.

May Day is unique. It is a day to celebrate workers’ achievements and demands, a day to show that solidarity between communities, between workers and with workers across the world.

Roger Sutton is organiser of the London May Day Organising Committee.