May and Labor Day

In our youth, we associated the month of May with three things – Santa Cruz de Mayo, Flores de Mayo and the annual visit to Antipolo. Now we are more conscious that the first of May is Labor Day. Most people are under the impression that we started celebrating Labor Day after the coming of the Americans. The truth is that May has been the month when we have traditionally honored our farmers and workers. May 1st is the Feast of St. Joseph the worker while May 15, the feast of San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of farmers.

Now by sheer coincidence, one of the very first demonstrations against the American colonizers happened on May 1, 1903 when the Union Obrera Democratico marched to Malacañang defiantly shouting, "Death to Imperialism." Again, on May 1, 1913, the First National Labor met in Manila to commemorate the first labor demonstration under the American regime. And on May 1, 1947, we celebrated the first Labor Day under a fully independent nation with Pres. Manuel Roxas exhorting the nation "that we do not simply replace one tyranny with another." He was referring to the tyranny of capital and the tyranny of labor. That is how he saw the communist threat at that time.

The ironic part is that for sometime now, Labor Day is an official holiday while the Feast of San Isidro Labrador is still regarded as a religious holy day, but not a national holiday.

Labor Day took another aspect on May 1, 2001, when sympathizers of deposed President Joseph Estrada gathered and tried to stage another EDSA. And now, the entire Metro Manila police force is going on full alert starting today till May 2, a day that President Macapagal Arroyo has proclaimed a non-working holiday because Labor Day this year fell on a Sunday. If these demonstrations materialize, then Labor Day will not be a holiday to pay tribute to labor’s contribution to the country, but a day that may end up with some terrorists simply taking advantage of the situation to sow fear and terror to the whole matter.

We ask all the mayors in Metro Manila not to issue any permits to demonstrate on Labor Day. They can do so after Labor Day, but not on the day itself. If they have a valid issue to demonstrate, it can wait till after Labor Day. But Labor Day activities should be limited to paying homage to Labor’s great contribution to national peace and progress.

We agree with Leo Tolstoy who said, "The happiness of men consists in life. And life is in labor." And Pope Pius XII defined labor as "A service of God, a gift of God. The vigor and fullness of human life, the gauge of eternal rest." Labor is unquestionably the most dignified thing in the life of a person. It is the golden track that brings us to God.