On declaring May 1 a holiday

Like anywhere else in the world, Wednesday, May 1, was commemorated in Indonesia with tens of thousands of workers taking to the streets of the capital city and other towns. Most of them work in industrial enterprises controlled by foreign and domestic interests. They were demanding two things: a pay increase and benefits, and that the government declare May 1 a national holiday.

So far the government is reluctant to listen to their proposal in view of the already great number of public holidays. Some of these factory workers spent a number of nights in front of the manpower ministry building in an attempt to meet the labor minister, but he did not show up.

It has become a trend recently for workers or employees of foreign companies and state-owned enterprises to voice their dissatisfaction through noisy and sometimes violent demonstrations instead of channeling their grievances through political parties or through their labor unions.

It may well be said that labor unions have in recent times been tainted by leftist influences dominating their demands and tactics.

Observers have the impression that the labor movement is not entirely detached from political designs aimed at destabilizing the political coalition of the nationalist and the moderate religious groups.

That workers have become restless is also understandable since there are officially about 40 million unemployed at present. Among the demonstrators there must have been a great number of jobless people. The fact that they want to see May 1 declared a holiday makes it apparent that they want international sympathy for their cause.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta