Chasing the dots Ex-Workers Day or May Day?
MAY Day celebrations originally had their source in my long ago ancestors, the Celts, when May 1 was the beginning of summer and a celebration of the fertility rights of the land, animals and, of course, the most fun, people.
It was a time of excessive drinking, dancing and gay abandon (old sense of the word!) and despite main credits seem to go to that perfidious island of Albion, had parallels across the northern european area.
Then in BC times when the Romans invaded and colonised Albion they saw a great festival and took it over, no doubt removing the exiting bits like sacrifice and massive drunken orgies! Although later they realised such times were fun and reinstated them.
Over the centuries, with minor periods of celebratory absence when puritans and the like banned it, the celebration continued although got tamed down with may poles, morris dancers and other quaint aberrations. But, even in my youth and even my rather conservative parents used to go out to the local village of our origin and climb into the fun. Happy days.
Now, of course, health and safety rules, interference by those not of druid origin and the UK police state has ruined much of the fun. Perhaps May Day sacrifices should be restored. But then a lot of the celebrations were overlapped by the rise of Socialist International and trades unions in, initially the USA and a little later in the UK.
The late 1850s saw such organisations, along with Marxist idealists arise from the abused of labour in the exploding industrial revolution.
Over the decades the US unions, having got a lot of what they wanted after a few decades became overrun by quasi industrialists, organised crime and financial opportunists, only to briefly resurrect themselves in the 1930s before dying again under extreme republicanism of the early 50s; this plus massive pay and disposable incomes collapsed the major trades union.
In this same period the UK, and increasingly northern Europe, showed massive growth in unionism as the post war cycle accelerated productive jobs and, indeed, started to make it difficult to find labour.
Unions prospered and delivered to their members; their power expanded into the political arena. Then started the problem as technology made production more efficient and needed less labour. In parallel transport and communications opened up the potential for outsourcing components from cheaper labour areas.
Such policies gave union members better wages and working conditions but ultimately began the death of the need for less skilled workers, lower membership and a need for union survival to be less cooperative and more aggressive.
Hence, ultimately the loss of manufacturing capacity and entry level jobs. Political influence created increasing difficulties for managements to manage and increased export of capacities.
The working class, who by then were quite wealthy, entered their death throws and became social dependants!
The Socialist International “Workers Day”, created in the 1880s, when unionism helped the workers, not the politicians, also began a slow death.
I wonder how many committed unionists celebrated their ideals publically yesterday?
Or, like the above, have our unionists all succumbed to entering the political space where Mercedes, farms and fishing quotas have corrupted the once good ideals of Swapo and our unions.
As a long time senior manager one learns to appreciate union members and representatives as a practical way of dealing with day to day problems through their close contact with their members. This form of communication is seriously damaged in Namibia as unionists, in general, fail their members to gain political position.
While I shall continue to celebrate my fertility rights on my pagan druids day of May 1, I shall feel sad for those who now celebrate Ex-Workers Day as a dead duck.
Balance has to be returned before our largely unemployed people can gain economic traction again and restart bottom up growth to a better future. Which is what Swapo promises but has yet to deliver.
Remember political space is finite. And then? Political sacrifice to be done?
csmith@mweb.com.na