Thoughts for May Day
Dr Santosh Kumar Mohapatra
We express revolutionary greetings to all working class people of world on the occasion of May Day.
The purpose of celebrating May day is protecting the workers’ rights especially confining the working hours per day to eight hours.
But today situation is against working class with finance capital weakening the working class. Excessive use of capital and technology for the sake of profit is killing many jobs.
Workers’ rights to protest or bargaining power is declining due backsliding of democracy, rising despoticism, plutocracy, oligarchy, Kleptocracies around the world especially in India under present fascist and reactionary regime .There is attempt to increase working hours and curbs democratic right. Salary is important but freedom to express, right to bargaining, right to protest , right to a decent and qualitative life are equally important. But all are declining.
Democratic backsliding is a process of regime change toward autocracy that makes the exercise of political power by the public more arbitrary and repressive.This process typically restricts the space for public contestation and political participation in the process of government selection.
Democratic decline involves the weakening of democratic institutions, such as the peaceful transition of power or free and fair elections, or the violation of individual rights that underpin democracies, especially freedom of expression.
] Democratic backsliding is the opposite of democratization. or system ruled by people who use their power to steal their country’s resources.
“there are too many entrenched dictatorships and kleptocracies in the region”.Kleptocracies is the
government by people who use their power to steal their country’s resources.The ruling party is highly sensitive to allegations of corruption and kleptocracy by the public”
The recent ongoing election in India will decide whether working class people will enjoy the right to protest and the right to bargain including democratic right.. Working class people need to push back fascist and reactionary forces .