On declaring May 1 a holiday

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