The day of the privileged classes

"Investors of the world unite, you have nothing but profits to gain" said a headline, the catch line in an advertisement in a western business magazine when investment in the former Soviet Union was being heavily promoted in the west, as the chance for windfall profits.

Much earlier, in the days when the Soviet Union was celebrating its power after Yuri Gagarin's historic flight in space, it published a magazine named Sputnik, styled on the Readers' Digest and targeting western readers.

Its glossy back cover carried an ad for a brand of Russian vodka which described it as 'Reserved for the privileged glasses'. Both of these were smart twists from the Communist Manifesto, one parodying the unity of workers and the other the hated privileged classes.

Slogans

May Day is celebrated tommorow, April 30 in Sri Lanka, one day ahead of the traditional celebration, conceding that religious and cultural feeling in the country supersedes the spirit of the international solidarity of the working class.

There are many who think that far from remembering the militancy of the Haymarket Workers of the USA, and repeating heavily worn out slogans about working class solidarity, the working class in Sri Lanka would be much better served if it pays more attention to Pancha Seela and the teachings of the Buddha. No doubt an interesting thought.

When the red shirts and the long red skirts (a throwback in fashion to the days of my grandma) take to the streets, we will be treated to a feast or an abundance of full throated slogans, some rehearsed marching, and much aimless swaggering, and a whole lot of floats, that will no doubt seek to rival the creativity of the pandals that will be on display during the Vesak festival that follows.

Depiction of divisions

Ironically, while shouting loud about working class unity and solidarity, what we will see most is a depiction of divisions in among the working people, based entirely on the political party to which they pledge allegiance, with no consideration whatever as to how much such support translates into the betterment of lives of the working people.

And so it will be that the red banner of working class solidarity will give in to the blue flags of the 'Revolution of 1956' and the green flags of the Storm Troopers or the Jathika SS from Sri Kotha.

In a further manifestation of shifts in political parties affecting working class unity, this year we will see green flags mingling with the blues and reds of the ruling coalition, while JSS greens will not be loathe to have some red flags among their traditional hue to show that they too have a stake among the working classes.

As each May Day passes in Sri Lanka many of us who used to participate in the near ritual red shirted drill along the streets of Colombo, shouting with great feeling for the unity and solidarity of the working people, cannot help asking what all this is about today.

From those sad May Days when leftists shouted "Dudligey badey, masala wadey" and "Kawda Man", Thonda Man? we have seen all the stuff of May Day being lost in a surge of chauvinism, encouraged by politicians and pundits who have been glad to use a pliant working people to further their narrow communal agendas.

The departure from the heady slogans of international solidarity has been so well done that the working people have today become the bulwark of an all pervading communalism that masquerades in the name of nationalism and patriotism.

Raise a banner that quotes Lenin saying "Patriotism is the last refuse of the scoundrel" and you will most likely see red shirted activists seeing more than red in such blasphemy being even thought, apart from being stated.

A privileged class

The working classes in Sri Lanka lost May Day many years or decades ago. It is a new privileged class that have inherited the hoary traditions of May Day, and turned it into a carnival that celebrates everything other than working class solidarity and all those great socialist dreams that were associated with such thinking.

Like trade unionism in Sri Lanka that is bedevilled by the politics of division, and has emerged as a privileged class that wallows in it own privileges, May Day is another celebration of that special privilege of political patronage, whatever colour it may be.

So, let's forget such stuff and nonsense about international working class solidarity, and celebrate this Day of the new Privileged Classes. Did someone shout "workers of the world unite"? Remember you have nothing to lose but your privileges.

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