Today, the 140th Commemoration of May Day, I wonder where the Palestinian workers go: to bombed out offices and factories? What schools do their children attend; those transformed to ghost spaces by Israeli and US bombs? The Palestinian worker, where does he and his family retire to rest their bones at nightfall; open spaces that were once shelters? What more distress calls can Palestinian workers send out than to be rescued along with their families from trees where, like birds, they seek shelter, or from streets long bombed back to the Ice Age?
May Day! May Day!! May Day!!! The desperate calls from Chicago, United States workers in 1886, taken up by workers of the world, now sounds more desperate. But the world seems to have gone deaf with the May Day calls becoming almost inaudible. In fact, the US, the country from which May Day emanated, does not even allow such a call.
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It is one of a handful of countries around the world that ignore May Day commemoration. This is beyond a class position in which workers, like nearly all American citizens, are mere statistics or production machines for profit. The fact is that May Day is a silent witness to the brutality of the US establishment towards workers, especially after the Chicago Haymarket workers protests. These had led to the international adoption of a day of solidarity with American workers and, subsequently, of solidarity with workers across the world. Also, the US runs a culture in which humanity is absent.
Other notable entities that ignore May Day include Britain, the US mother country, and its biological children: Canada and Australia. Others include Japan, which 81 years after the Second World War is still trying to get out of the shadows of the US; Saudi Arabia, which knows so much religion but little humanity and, of course, Israel, the Apartheid enclave which bombs babies out of existence because they are ‘terrorists’ or there are terrorist “cells” under their colts.
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Today, the 140th Commemoration of May Day, I wonder where the Palestinian workers go: to bombed out offices and factories? What schools do their children attend; those transformed to ghost spaces by Israeli and US bombs? The Palestinian worker, where does he and his family retire to rest their bones at nightfall; open spaces that were once shelters? What more distress calls can Palestinian workers send out than to be rescued along with their families from trees where, like birds, they seek shelter, or from streets long bombed back to the Ice Age?
My mind also floats to Sudan, where workers once clocked into offices, and trade unions strut the streets proudly. My memories of the few occasions I have been received at airports like a visiting Head of State, include my visits to Sudan. Where are the dignified Sudanese workers; in refugee camps or fleeing towns and villages? I wonder where their former leader, Professor Ibrahim Ahmed Ghandour, an imposing figure who tried to ensure that workers have a place at the table, can be found. In burnt out Khartoum? What is the International Labour Organisation (ILO) doing about international labour leaders like Ghandour, who contributed so much to its development? How does humanity stop the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from continuing their senseless conflict, which has turned half the population into desperately hungry people?
Ukraine had proud workers who displayed the workers’ banner during May Day celebrations. Today, can they venture out into the streets with military drones overhead, and 12.7 million or 40 per cent of the population in need of assistance? Who shall unfurl the internationalist flag when the youths who should be in the factories are being sent to kill or be killed in a senseless war humanity is beginning to forget?
Where have the leaders of the courageous South African workers gone, allowing their country to be transformed into the international capital of xenophobia? I know labour leaders like Mark Shope passed on in the Apartheid era having lit the fires of freedom. But where are the Jay Naidos? Yes, I see Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa, once a leader of the mine workers. But how can he as president of post-Apartheid tolerate such a culture in which perception is reality and solidarity means nothing? Is this the type of society Joe Slovo and Ruth First, Nelson and Winnie Mandela, Walter and Albertina Sisulu fought for?
Haiti, for centuries burnt with oppression, now lit with insecurity, kidnapping, execution and violence. Where can its workers be found? How do they set out to work when large areas of the capital are carved out by rival gangs taking hostages? But having braved the gangs to clock in, how do they return home safely? What education can be going on in a country with over one thousand schools closed and teachers rendered jobless? How many people can practise their profession with doctors routinely killed, journalists murdered and professionals kidnapped?
How do the working people survive in Afghanistan, with less than 32 per cent employed, troubled by hyperinflation, and 22.9 million people in need of humanitarian assistance?
How can the working people thrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has been left to bleed since 1960 with seven million internally displaced persons?
Ukraine had proud workers who displayed the workers’ banner during May Day celebrations. Today, can they venture out into the streets with military drones overhead, and 12.7 million or 40 per cent of the population in need of assistance? Who shall unfurl the internationalist flag when the youths who should be in the factories are being sent to kill or be killed in a senseless war humanity is beginning to forget?
Syria was a tolerant country with a thriving middle class and a patriotic military. That was until powerful countries like Saudi Arabia, US and its European allies trained and funded terrorists to infiltrate the country. Today, 43-year-old international terrorist, Ahmed al-Sharaa, sits in the presidential palace. How can workers in Damascus wave the flag of the working class?
Yemen, known as “Happy Arabia” or “Fortunate Arabia”, was the first place coffee was commercially cultivated. It was the world capital of frankincense and myrrh. It was home to ancient kingdoms. Tragically today, it holds world records: worst humanitarian crises in the universe; the world’s worst hunger crises; and humanity’s worst displacement crises. Its workers, decimated by years of war, attacked by Saudis, Israelis, Emiratis and the US. Its workers are too feeble to even whisper, “May Day! May Day!! May Day!!! to an increasingly deaf world.
Somalia, a fragmented and failed state, is so sick that even humanitarian aid cannot be administered. Its civil war started 35 years ago, and since then it has been ruled by war lords, Islamic courts and terrorists. The working people have since taken cover as the country is being pulled apart by various forces.
Syria was a tolerant country with a thriving middle class and a patriotic military. That was until powerful countries like Saudi Arabia, US and its European allies trained and funded terrorists to infiltrate the country. Today, 43-year-old international terrorist, Ahmed al-Sharaa, sits in the presidential palace. How can workers in Damascus wave the flag of the working class?
South Sudan. A painful memory. The country had emerged from bruising wars with Sudan. It was small with rich oil fields. It was assumed that its people had emerged into prosperity. I was Secretary General of African Workers, and at our meeting in April, 2013 in Addis Ababa, I had met the South Sudanese workers, who invited me to visit their country and speak words of encouragement to the work force. I accepted. A few weeks later, when I called to give a definite date, the labour leader had fled, becoming a refugee in Nairobi, and many workers were on the run. It was the madness of President Salvar Kirr, militarily taking on Vice President Riek Machar. Today, 13 years later, the workers remain in disarray.
The best of the 2026 May Day to all.
Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.
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