Reflections on May Day

May 1, 2024, International Labour Day, also known as May Day, is celebrated around the world on either the first Monday in May or on May 1, whatever day that turns out to be. It dates back to May 1, 1886, when a general strike culminated into what is known as the Haymarket Affair in Chicago on May 4, 1886. It had been usually celebrated here on the first Monday in May but had been changed by the Gonsalves government to the first of May. I had supported it on the ground that it might have created some awareness of the meaning and importance of the day at a time when the Labour Movement had been undergoing serious challenges. It didn’t turn out that way. Unless I missed it, I have not heard about any activities in support of the struggles of labour over the years. To us it is just another holiday. It is perhaps time to reverse that decision on the sheer ground of economic importance, while at the same time making efforts to highlight the historical significance of the day. The Grenadines used to benefit significantly when it was held on the first Monday in May, for visitors from nearby countries and even Vincentians on the mainland took advantage of the holiday weekend to visit one of the Grenadine islands bringing much needed revenue to that particular island.

I have had a long involvement with labour unions and the issues facing them. It started the year after I left school, when as a teacher and assistant secretary of the Secondary Schools Teachers Association, I participated in the decision to call for a strike over the transfer of Mrs Connell from the Girls High School. After a negative response from the authorities over our call to reverse that decision, I went along with general secretary, Oscar Allen to convey the news to the secondary schools that existed at that time and to call on them to live up to a decision we had taken at an earlier meeting. It is difficult to know how successful our call was because the students had then taken over with protests at Government House.

In 1981, I was part of a delegation that met with government officials at the Cabinet room which was then located upstairs the post office. This followed protests by workers and other Vincentians. I was guest speaker at May Day Rallies and at Union retreats. The movement was then very active. Today the story is different, although at least two unions and a labour organisation are trying to address and lead the struggles of their workers. In fact, the Court of Appeals yesterday began to hear an appeal by the government against the victory secured by those unions/organisations over the vaccine mandate where a number of public servants were dismissed from their jobs. It is my hope that by the time this paper reaches readers on Friday, the workers who had to withstand the hardships for so long could be richly rewarded with a victory. Surely the government will not go to the Privy Council to try to reverse that decision if it goes in favour of the workers.

One of the first marches by Vincentian workers was on August 3, 1936, when McIntosh’s Workingmen’s Association marched from the Market Square to the Victoria Park, singing the workers’ song “Toilers of the Nation.” The first May Day march was in 1951 when the newly formed United Workers Peasants and Ratepayers Union was supposed to have marched from the King George V Playing Field at Arnos Vale to Victoria Park. The Vincentian newspaper estimated the crowd to have been about 3,000. Those were glory days for the union, for soon after the union which decided to participate in the first election under Adult Suffrage won overwhelmingly at the polls.

Today the times are different with workers not being respected by the political elites. The decision to appeal a verdict handed down by the Courts which ruled in their favour speaks to that. The labour disturbances of the 1930s stimulated the move to the development of labour unions. McIntosh’s Workingmen’s Association spearheaded this movement. Two of its members, McIntosh, and St. Clair Bonadie represented St. Vincent at a conference in Barbados in 1945, that led to the formation of the Caribbean Labour Congress.

O W Forde’s warning to his fellow planters in 1951 that Trade Unions are here to stay remains true, but unions and union members have allowed shallow political talk to split their ranks. Some of their leaders have also played a major role in allowing things to be as they are today. But some Shake Up is needed. Workers need to become united. Only in this way would they be able to fight and win their battles.