2024-05-03 13:35:28
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman took a stand for all the exploited people of the world, ignoring the bloodshed of the imperialist states. On the occasion of the Great May Day, Bangabandhu Parishad President Professor Dr. AMS Arefin Siddique and General Secretary Professor ABM Farooq said this in a joint statement on Wednesday (May 1).
Paying tribute to the martyrs of the May Day movement, they also said in the statement, “On this day, we congratulate all the hardworking people of the world and stand in solidarity with them.” Earlier the laboring man had to work for at least 12 hours a day, where the remuneration in proportion to the work was very insignificant; In that situation, they had no other option but to live a non-human life with their children. In 1884, working people held a large rally in the city of Chicago in the United States and demanded that the employers reduce the working hours to 8 hours per day and give 1 day off per week. But neither the owner nor the government accepted this demand. The workers also started a death march. In May 1886, police fired on a large gathering of protesting workers in the Hay Market area of Chicago. The police repeatedly fired at the workers’ marches for several days. 6 labor leaders were hanged for the ‘crime’ of agitating. Some were sentenced to life imprisonment. A leader commits suicide in jail due to grief-humiliation-torture. In this way, this movement of workers was suppressed very brutally.
They said, but this logical humanitarian movement spread throughout the world over time and this demand became the common demand of oppressed people all over the world. In Paris in 1889, in the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, the working people proposed to the world to observe this day as ‘May Day’ or ‘International Workers’ Day’ from May 1, 1890, in memory of the Chicago workers’ sacrifice. In 1891, the proposal became international and since then the day has been celebrated as a holy day of struggle, gratitude and respect for working people all over the world.
“It is because of the Chicago and later movements that we today have the right to work no more than 8 hours a day and one day off, regardless of whether we are uneducated or educated workers (the so-called “blue collar” and “white collar” workers); Got the “rule” to treat hardworking people as “humans”.
The leaders said that this day has been celebrated in India since 1923. In Bangladesh, this day has been declared as a national holiday since the birth of the country. Not only that, the father of our nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, ignored the bloodshed of the imperialist states and took a stand for all the exploited people of the world. Due to Bangabandhu’s earnest initiative, Bangladesh became a member of the United Nations organization ‘International Labor Organization or ILO’ in 1972. The Bangabandhu government signed all the 6 basic principles and 29 charters of this organization to protect the interests of the workers. So far, only one-third of the world’s countries have signed these labor rights instruments.