A DAY OF CONTRADICTION

Recently I had the misfortune of stumbling over a Statement [https://communismgr.blogspot.in/2017/04/pame-calls-greek-and-foreign-workers-to.html]issued by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME), Greece, where they have made a passionate plea to workers, both from Greece and foreign origins, to observe and honour the International Labour day in Greece. One cannot miss the anxiety and tension that form the core of that Statement which seemed to have risen straight out of a deep seated doubt to make the event a real success. The Statement has been bracketed characteristically by age-old rhetoric, such as "We will[sic] not be slaves in the 21 century;" "we are moving forward for ...the great cause of the liberation of the workers and the oppressed of the chains of exploitation;" and so on. However, watching thousands of kilometers away from the actual scene of action it appears that International Labour Day has become more of a ritual and an added holiday in the calendar rather than a platform for assertion of the Rights enshrined in the codes of International Labour Struggle. In fact, the unorganised labour sector in Greece, mostly formed by the Asians or to be more precise the Pakistanis and the Bangladeshis, are bound to fail to turn up for the show as they will toil their heart out in different places in Greece's cities and country side, such as Manolada [for instance] under inhuman working conditions. So the PAME plea is more an act of desperation of a ritualistic ceremony rather than a silent conviction as the communist organisers across the globe now know very well how they have failed the workers time and again. The unorganised sector now forms very much the centre rather than the periphery of the working community and one could hardly think of reaching a cosmos out of this reigning chaos. While no one is doubting the urgent need for the working class solidarity across the spectrum, it is the leadership's genuineness and sincerity that is under question. We must inspect closely and question the ritualistic patterns that have deadened our political senses of late and made it look like all too religious an order. 

Just think of what KKE and PAME did in 2016. Last year our Greek comrades had the "good sense" of postponing the MAY DAY Celebration to accommodate for the Easter Holidays that coincided with it. Well ! Comrades!! let us all know a little about the rationale behind such a wonderful way of appropriating and compromising International Labour Day at the alter of the eastern church.  Current call for a united struggle against Imperial forces sounds hollow as and when one think of how the same batch of people allowed religion to get the better of labour struggle. By the way our comrades in Greece have problems with a minister of the present government who "respectfully" carried the holy fire from Jerusalem.