{"id":421,"date":"2014-05-05T16:17:03","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T16:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/2014\/05\/05\/still-waiting-for-the-initial-may-day-demand-terry-bell-2014\/"},"modified":"2014-05-05T16:17:03","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T16:17:03","slug":"still-waiting-for-the-initial-may-day-demand-terry-bell-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/2014\/05\/05\/still-waiting-for-the-initial-may-day-demand-terry-bell-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Still Waiting for the Initial May Day Demand – Terry Bell (2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nSTILL WAITING FOR THE INITIAL MAY DAY DEMAND
\nby Terry Bell<\/strong><\/em>
\nYet another May Day has come and gone, with all the usual fanfare, rallies and
\npledges of worker unity and solidarity. But it is 158 years since the first protest that
\ngave rise to May Day \u2014 and the basic demand that launched it has still not
\nuniversally been met.
\nThat demand was for an eight-hour working day \u2014 eight for work, eight for leisure
\nand eight for sleep \u2014 something we still have to achieve not just in South Africa, but
\nin many other countries as well. And the consequences of not agreeing and adhering
\nto this demand are all too often tragic, especially in the modern context.
\nWhen the first eight-hour day demand was made by organised workers it was in
\nAustralia in 1856 in the days before motorised transport, motorways, mass transit and
\ntrucking juggernauts. Exhausted workers often had accidents, but usually damaging
\nor killing only themselves.
\nMuch the same applied 30 years later in Chicago when a general strike was called by
\nworkers demanding, primarily, an eight-hour day. The powers that be drafted in a
\nstrong police presence to break the strike. The police opened fire, killing four strikers
\nand wounding an unknown number of others.
\nSo those early trade unionists called a protest meeting in the Haymarket Square in
\nChicago on May 4. The police baton charged and someone \u2014 until today nobody
\nknows who \u2014 the police said anarchists, the socialists and anarchists claimed it was
\nan agent provocateur, threw a bomb and a policeman died.
\nFive anarchists, including three who had been speakers\u2019 on the platform at the time,
\nwere arrested and charged with murder on a similar common purpose basis that has
\nseen 270 Marikana strikers charged with the murder of 34 miners shot dead by police
\nin 2012. One of the anarchists died in detention and the other four were hanged,
\npassing into labour movement history as the \u201cHaymarket martyrs\u201d.
\nThose deaths gave impetus to the establishment in 1890 of May 1 as a day of
\ninternational labour solidarity. And it was first celebrated in South Africa in 1904 by
\na group of immigrant workers from Europe. According to the records, a black worker
\nfirst addressed a May Day rally in 1917 \u2014 in Johannesburg.
\nLocally, there were many pressing issues other than an eight-hour day confronting
\nSouth African workers, so this demand became secondary. What those workers faced
\nin those days is well summed up by a newspaper report of a 1931 May Day march in
\nJohannesburg by an estimated 1 000 black and white workers.
\nThe report described the march as \u201c…a bedraggled procession in which dirty looking
\nnatives of the lowest class marched shoulder to shoulder with Europeans, many of
\nthem of obvious low mentality\u201d.
\nThose days are now past. May Day is a holiday. Labour laws exist that are on a par
\nwith some of the best anywhere. But the eight-hour day remains elusive for most
\nworkers.
\nAmong such workers are the drivers of taxis, trains, busses and juggernaut truck and
\ntrailer combinations who should work even lesser hours. And while conditions for
\ntrain drivers have improved over the past decade, the same does not apply to many
\nbus, truck and, especially, long distance taxi drivers.
\nAlthough little recognised, sleep deprivation has similar effects to being drunk or
\nhaving driving abilities impaired by a hefty dose of alcohol. Long or irregular hours
\nand split shifts can have a cumulative effect over weeks and months, resulting in
\ndrivers being almost permanently \u201cdrunk on the job\u201d.
\nFor example, to reach the blood\/alcohol level for a drunk driving conviction takes
\njust 17 sleepless hours. Anyone awake for 21 hours has the same impaired capacity
\nas someone with a blood\/alcohol level of 0.08 per cent, in other words, well beyond
\nthe level for a drunk driving conviction.
\nIt was an awareness that they could be a danger on the roads because of the split
\nshifts and irregular hours they were having to work, that lay behind the recent strike
\nby metro bus drivers. They, and some of the larger trucking and bus companies are
\nunionised and tend to have better records in this regard, but many pay no heed to this
\nproblem.
\nDrivers are often under incredible pressure to meet deadlines, often well outside
\nagreements struck within the official bargaining council. Unofficial bonuses are also
\npaid for the delivery of goods in less than the normal time stipulated.
\nSo perhaps the original May Day demand should again become a priority \u2014
\nespecially in an election year.
\nTerry Bell
\nwriting, editing, broadcasting
\nspecialising in:
\npolitical\/economic analysis and labour
\nP.O Box 373, Muizenberg 7950
\nSouth Africa
\nTel: +27 +(0)21 788 9699
\nSkype: belnews \u2022 Twitter: @telbelsa
\nBlog: terrybellwrites.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[61],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}