Restore traditional meaning of May Day

May Day is coming again soon. Originally and traditionally, May Day was the day every year working people spontaneously rallied and marched in the streets to display solidarity with one another as a class cutting across the boundaries of nationality, race, language, religion and gender and also to collectively demand for progressive reforms in the economy, society and politics. In Asia and Africa, May Day was also a day to remember the contribution and sacrifices of working people like Pak Rashid Maidin and his fellow tin-mining workers in the Kinta Valley in the long and winding struggle, both peaceful and armed, against colonialism, fascism and imperialism and for national independence.

Nowadays, it is just another holiday for mindless window-shopping. Isn't it time for the original and traditional meaning of May Day to be restored for the working classes to confront the challenges of the unbridled globalization of capital and its ideological hegemony?