|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 4 May 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Workers' Mass to advance Reign of Dharma by FACTOTUM Saffron robes blended well with the Red Standard of the Workers, the hammer and sickle - those symbols of the working class - imprinted alongside the Cross in the vestments of the Christian clergy made up a fitting tableau signifying the pluralism that underlies and underlines the annual May Day Workers' Mass organised by the Christian Workers' Fellowship (CWF) that took off and folded up early on Thursday enabling the participants including high profile politicos to pick their choice among the other political party and Trade Union rallies that attracted a mass of working people to the metropolis with Red the dominant colour of the working class flashed all over with one exception where black dominated, reflecting the mood of those strikers who have survived two decades to register their protest over the lack of any redress from successive regimes of different hues. There were conflicting reports on the change of venue of the CWF Mass. The change did not deter the organisers from according pride of place to the working class. In a climate which is seen to erode the hard won rights of the worker the accent was to alert the toiler to the current scenario of the prospect of further rolling back of safeguards and salutary working conditions. Excerpts of the statement read out at the Mass echoed the need for organised struggle to emancipate humanity from an oppressive social system. "At the May Day Workers Mass we affirm our faith in the social order as it should prevail in accordance with the workings of the Dharma of all faiths. The demonic forces of Mammon (oppressive rule and power of global capital) is reflected today in the debasement of human beings and all natural resources and their conversion into mass commodities. Consumerism, vice and corruption and the ever-widening gulf between rich and poor - are challenged at this Service with the vision of an alternative, just rational and truly human social order based on a global planned economy. For the Mass is basically an action about material wealth, food and the sharing of food. The anarchy of the capitalist global market is exposed and contrasted with the action at this Mass when Bread and Wine as symbols of God's earth and human labour are presented at the Altar to be blessed and shared by all in Holy Communion as the Body and Blood of Christ for the whole of humanity (not just Christians) is the family and mystical body of God. This sharing of food done sacramentally at this Service must be translated socially, economically and morally to help us build the sharing society which Jesus called the Kingdom of God/Dharma. The Mass is both the symbol and foretaste of that Reign of Dharma and thus becomes a powerful dynamic for social action to transform our society and the world. Let us then go from the Mass strengthened and resolved to do all we can in this critical period in the world to advance the Reign of Dharma through struggle for the emancipation of humanity from this unjust and oppressive social system." These sentiments to facilitate a common platform for all working people are valid in a situation where the working class is divided along political party lines wihch is in a way considered to be the bane of Trade Unionsim in our country. The workers' mass stands out as an apolitical attempt to highlight the need to relieve the working class of exploitation by the employer. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
