Labour Day, on May 1st, commemorates workers’ historic struggles globally. Originating from socialist and unionist movements in 1889, May Day honours workers and commemorates the historical Haymarket Riot in Chicago in 1886. Similarly, Malaysia too has seen many important labour agitations. When we observe the history of labour in Malaysia, from its colonial to post-colonial periods, we can see how the vigour and might of workers have been pacified by reforms.
During the 1940s, the height of the Malayan workers’ labour movement, the fight for workers’ rights was seen as intrinsic to the anti-colonial movement. It was also a period when many working-class Tamils had been exploited for their labour on plantations and railways. At the same time, these proletariat Tamils had taken on numerous leadership positions in the labour movement, a great example of this is S. A. Ganapathy, who served as the President of the Pan-Malayan Federation of Trade Unions (PMFTU), which boasted up to 300,000 members.
In this day and age of rising inflation and even more worker exploitation under neoliberalism, the Malaysian people must be more conscious of the horrors of capitalism. Labour Day should not be seen as just another public holiday but instead be seen as a day to both commemorate the workers who had fought for our rights as well as build our politics to be progressive towards liberating the labouring masses.
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