May Day: A meaningless anachronism

May Day: a gray area of cloud cuckoo land, a meaningless international day commemorating what, since 2000, has been rendered an insult to the working person. Instead of what is supposed to be a day of unity and solidarity, we witness an empty shell, a has-been and a perfect example of what our world has become.

Let us be honest about May Day: it has passed into the gray area of cloud cuckoo land, a meaningless "international day" commemorating a meaningful benchmark in bygone years which today, since 2000, has been rendered an insult to the working person. Instead of what is supposed to be a day of unity and solidarity, we witness an empty shell, a has-been and a perfect example of what our world has become.

The amazing victories scored by heroes over the years, guaranteeing workers' rights, guaranteeing women's rights, putting an end to slave labor, to child labor, implementing legislation to protect working families and provide public services have touched us all since the end of the Great Patriotic War (Second World War).

For around forty-five years, from 1945 to 1990, the Soviet Union and the COMECON bloc saw their controlled economic model providing a backdrop for public services mirrored by their western interlocutors whose gut reaction to economic and social policy was, at best, reactionary. Was, is and always has been.

So it comes as no surprise that the reactionary forces gradually chipped away at the gains made under the Welfare State. While the COMECON model continued to provide free and excellent education and healthcare, social mobility, a society based upon meritocracy, guaranteed job, free housing, subsidized or free public utilities, safety on the streets, security of the State, zero unemployment, zero homelessness, a buffer against western filth such as drug addiction, pornography and street crime... the western equivalent went further and further backwards to the Medieval era.

And come the voluntary transformation of the COMECON countries at the beginning of the 1990s (in the same wave of enthusiasm which saw the European Union being created at the same time... now look at what they have done...) the scourge of the west passed to the east.

And what a wonderful system they have created to substitute what we had. Education has become a business, students come out of secondary school unable to read, count or write, higher education is a business, post-Bologna students are considered inferior to pre-Bologna students in Europe, job security is a joke, full employment is a chimera, healthcare is another business, getting a home is a drama, keeping it is another...

Yes, let us all celebrate May Day and the wonderful victories it achieved for the working person. What is left? Working 19 hours a day to retain a job to pay the bank and eke out an existence to put bread on the table. Welcome to the Third Millennium.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru

 

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Author`s name Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
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