May Day Greetings
Here in China, May Day is celebrated with a five-day holiday. Schools, government organisations and large corporations shut down for a break. Many little shops and restaurants close too. People travel to their home town or have a holiday somewhere scenic or novel. The toll on highways vanishes to ease the cost as people take a rest from their labour and relax with family. In China, the contribution of workers to the nation is recognized and rewarded on this international day of workers.
Xi Jinping the general secretary of the Communist Party of China spoke at a Beijing celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
In his speech Xi recognized and honoured the role of the ACFTU and the working class’ “indelible contributions to the great causes of revolution, construction and reform. Thus writing glorious chapters of China’s workers movement’
Xi further noted that “the past 100 years have fully proven that the Chinese working class is the most solid reliable class basis for the CPC, the leading class of our socialist country. The representative of advanced productive forces and relations of production and the main force in upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics”
With the Communist Party at the helm and mass-based organisation of workers, China has moved into a new era of prosperity so evident in the cities and countryside with massive developments – factories, parks, high speed rail, schools, universities, hospitals and modern housing in towns and cities in every province.
There are lessons to be learnt from the Chinese experience. Australia has its own history and very different conditions. Unlike China, the yoke of imperialism lays heavily on the necks of the people as billionaires and their minions wield power in Australia. Our liberation and real progress is yet to be won.
