Opinion: Starling On International Worker’s Day
[Opinion column written by Jonathan Starling] May Day, also known as International Worker’s Day, is a public holiday in over 80 countries, and has been celebrated as such since 1891.
May Day, as International Worker’s Day, originated from the brutal police repression of workers striking for labour reforms in the late 19th Century, specifically for an eight hour work day. The particular incident, known as the Haymarket Massacre, saw police shoot dead several demonstrators.
The day remembers the sacrifices that were made in order to build a more just society in the face of oppression by the State and bosses.
While a handful of countries celebrate a ‘Labour Day’ on a different date, these usually commemorate an important event in the labour history of those countries. Bermuda instead follows the US model, officially celebrating Labour Day in September.
It is important to recognise that this September date was deliberately chosen by the US Government in an attempt to break with the origins of the date in the radical workers struggle for worker’s rights. By breaking with the May date, the State and the bosses hoped to negate the memory of struggle.
In the 1980s the then UBP Government followed the precedent set by the US Government and, in the face of a long campaign for a May Day holiday, ‘granted’ the people the September date in an attempt to break the link with worker’s struggles.
Despite this, the memory of the day the worker’s gave themselves, rather than the holiday granted from above, continues, and today hundreds of thousands of workers throughout the world will take part in demonstrations, many in the face of the same brutal repression workers faced in the 19th Century.
Taking Stock – Taking Action
May Day is not simply a day to remember the struggles of the past. It is also a day to reflect on the current situation and to start taking action to struggle for a better world.
Some six years into the ongoing global economic crisis, we are confronted with the stark reality that we are seeing universal failings of our economy, society, politics and environment.
Economically, far too many of our people have been plunged into despair, had mortgages called or income cut.
Socially we are seeing inequality increased, while the scourge of drugs continues to haunt our land and gun violence still shatters neighbourhoods.
Environmentally we see our green-space continually threatened, pollution increasing and the threat of irreversible human-induced climate change.
Politically we see a growing democratic deficit, continued racial divisions sustained, in part, by the two-party system, and the growth of a shallow and corrupted politics.
And it is the prioritisation of economic growth and economic values – market fundamentalism – that is at the root of the systemic failures and resulting crises that Bermuda is now in.
Before it’s too late, we need to shift our society to one where working life, the natural environment, our communities and the public sector are no longer sacrificed for the sake of GDP growth and where the false promises of continuous growth no longer provide an excuse for neglecting our festering problems.
While the 2008 crisis itself betrayed the bankruptcy of neo-liberal capitalism, and the fallacies of liberalisation of capital, privatisation, speculation and social service cut-backs [especially in the USA], the failure of a coherent alternative vision [so far] has led to a resurgence of the same problematic ideology that brought about the crisis in the first place.
Under this resurgence we are seeing that it is, as always, the poor and the vulnerable that are being made to carry the burden, with social welfare [already limited in Bermuda] being slashed, and progressive goals such as social and environmental sustainability sacrificed.
Transformative Action
We need to collectively challenge the status quo, envision an alternative, identify the steps needed to realise it and build the capacity to effect the changes needed.
Far too many subscribe to the mythology that GDP growth is an unalloyed good; that the poor are poor because they deserve to be; that our environmental problems are easily solved; or that our democracy is truly democratic.
This mythology needs to be challenged ruthlessly.
It is important to have an alternative vision, both to challenge the status quo with and to mobilise around. This must articulate what values our society is based around – profits or people.
To build capacity we need to identify key policies that will be needed to build this alternative vision for our island, and a new transformative politics and organisation based on a fusion of environmental and social justice and participatory democracy.
Immediate concerns of such a movement must be:
- A living minimum wage;
- An increase in legal aid funding;
- Subsidies of healthy foods and taxes on unhealthy foods;
- A clearly worked out national infrastructure plan;
- A phased independence from fossil-fuel based energy;
- A commitment to restorative justice;
- Treating drug abuse as a public health, and not a criminal, issue;
- Increased parental leave;
- A comprehensive and universal health plan, a living pension, rendering access to water, sanitation, food and healthcare universal human rights;
- A work equity initiative to address ongoing racial and gender inequalities in the workplace [in terms of wages and occupational distribution];
- Fixed-term elections;
- A shift to a voting system that includes proportional representation;
- The regulation of lobbying;
- Minimum and equal free media time/coverage for all parties [reducing the advantage of incumbency];
- A robust Public Access to Information;
- An end to the private financing of political campaigns, with public financing allowing clean and fair elections based on policies and not advertising power;
- The mandatory inclusion of environmental and equality impact assessments in all medium and major planning applications;
- The democratisation of the economy through participatory budgeting and a corporate shift from shareholder primacy to stakeholder primacy;
- A shift from GDP to accurate measures of social and environmental health and quality of life.
- Jonathan Starling
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- 2014 Media Articles | Vote Jonathan Starling | June 19, 2014
Piggybacking off labour history to spew your personal agenda, and promote yourself. Not saying that some of them aren’t worthy ideals, but they have nothing to do with labour.
Ps I’m glad you’ve decided to pay for it all. How much $$$$$ have you paid into the pot this year?
If only you worked as hard in your proper job as you do spewing s*** here, you might make something of yourself.
Congratulations Starling!! You have now widened the gap on Alvin Williams on who is the biggest socialist!!!
Jonathan what industries would we need in Bermuda to create the economic changes you have outlined? Would this mean us relying solely on tourism? As this would fit better with your suggested model.
Underwater mining of course. Now ask him what we will be mining.
jonathan, you are desperate for a job…. like the rest of you loosers…
Has Comrade Starling ever actually worked? You know, at a job that depends on providing goods or services to paying customers?
Mr. Starling, it would appear you have become an authority on most if not all subjects. My question to you is how did you become such an expert? Surely, if the OBA inherited a country that was deeply in debt, there was little to no opportunity for entrepreneurship or creating jobs to please the masses. What has a minimum wage to do with all of this? The current government is desperately trying to keep their heads above water by maintaining the civil service, which you well know is bloated with personnel. The majority of your recommendations are costs not revenue generators. Treat drug abuse as a public health issue and not a criminal one. Are you kidding me? Illicit drugs are illegal… and so the list goes on. It would be easy to go through each of your recommendations and give reasons of why this could and should never take place. You would better serve this country by developing feasible solutions and /or recommendations, instead of your consistent radical approach. There are countries out there that would hail your philosophies, that all brothers are equal.
By the way Jonathan. May Day has been celebrated in Europe for hundreds of years since the catholic calendar designated it as the Feast of St Joseph (Patron saint of workers).
Just another socialist jumping I.
Nothing to see. Move on.
Do yourself a favor and buy yourself warm coat and a one way ticket to Canada with your socialist ideas.
I want free this, free that, guaranteed this, guaranteed that, minimum this, minimum that, madatory this, mandatory that, subsidies for this, subsidies for that.
You missed a few things Jonathan. Equality for all, regardless of national or ethnic origin.
A question. When you take away shareholder’s ownership rights and those companies relocate to other jurisdictions, emptying office buildings and taking their employees with them, who will you tax?
One important thing to remember – nothing is “free”.
“Free” is just another way of saying “someone else is paying for it”.
This letter is creating alot of ignorant abuse. Frankly I think any society which doesn’t have a properly structured welfare state to meet the demands of its neediest isn’t very civilised (but hardly socialist).
However I am interested to see how many of Mr Starlings policies would work within a country which makes 80% of its wealth from being a tax haven. Clearly Bermuda would have to make money somewhere else?
Whenever an article penned by J. Starling makes its way to Bernews, the author gets derided immediately by certain persons. They’d be better served dissecting the topics raised themselves on their own merits.
Anyway, I think the topic of May 1st vs first week in September for the official holiday as a discussion point ought to be put on the back burner, as it’s nowhere as critical an issue as his summarized bullet points of minimum wages, legal aid funding, subsidized foodstuffs, etc.
And lord knows his last point about GDP is totally valid.
“It is important to recognise that this September date was deliberately chosen by the US Government in an attempt to break with the origins of the date in the radical workers struggle for worker’s rights.”
The usual anti-U.S. nonsense from Starling about Iraq (and more recently, Ukraine) is par for the course. But this is particularly disingenuous. What Starling leaves out of the summary is that the American government followed the lead of the CLU and the Knights of Labor, several state governments, and most U.S. labor unions which had already chose the first Monday in September as a local labor holiday.
Why would that be? Yes, the feds wanted to avoid any overt connection to the International May Day “celebrations.” But then so did most American labor groups, who took a dim view of the (frequently violent) radical groups which gathered on the 1st.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2004/09/why_do_we_get_labor_day_off.html
Jonathan, you are not a kid anymore, not even the lefty college variety. Time to grow up and get a real job before the years pass you by.
Wouln’t it be nice to be able towork internationally?…$eem$ everyone from every where can work here…they did at hospital…they did at national stadium…they did at court building…thak God for my customers…for there long standing loyalty and ongowing work…I wouldn’t have had work but for them…thing is…I can turn my hand to anything and know what I’m doing each time…hell I can tell you why it’s done the way it is done…each and every disipline…did you know (for instance), tha Danny Fugundo of D&J…actually came up with proper method and building code for slating flat roofs?…It was him…he did that!…and…he can instruct you how to do it in both portuguese and English…with an actual English accent…like an Englishman…he can say it in American too…abla espaniol?In the old days…he could look at you and…you would know how to do it!….He would just look at you….well you bettah know it…