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[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear Radhikarajen,

You said, - "True colour red is inspiring of the sacrifices many made  
for the dignified life, job security and decent life, but with the  
modern lifestyles the very values which inspired are some what blurred."

I was a bit intrigued by this statement. The Chicago Haymarket  
Protestors, in whose memory we celebrate May Day, (as Asit reminded  
us) inspired the international working class movement of the late  
nineteenth century to observe, annually, on each May Day the  
celebration of a demand for an eight hour working day. This was done  
with a withdrawal of labour, with festivities, music, dancing and non- 
militaristic parades (the military parade that used to be held in  
front of the Kremlin, and the one that continues to be held in  
Beijing are both obscene perversions of the miltiant anti-militarist  
traditions of May Day). As a result of this, May Day is the only non  
secterian festival that can be celebrated by any working person,  
anywhere in the world. It signals an instant, but deep and enduring  
solidarity.

 From what I can see around me, people have to work much longer than  
eight hours these days, in order to get a decent wage. Real wages are  
falling, and all over the world, the hard won benefits of peace,  
health care, education, holidays, equal rights for women, freedom of  
speech & conscience and the liberty to live one's personal life as  
one chooses (especially, but not only, for gay and lesbian people)  
are under attack. All of these were won by working people, after  
miltiant battles,  all over the world. Not a single one of these was  
a sop offered by ruling powers. If all the precious liberties we have  
today are under attack, then I do not see how the 'very values which  
inspired them' become 'somewhat blurred'.

On the contrary, I think they get sharper and more acute. The world  
we are living in today is more riven by class conflict than any other  
time in history. We still have nothing to lose but our chains.

And as I said yesterday, only a world to win.

best

Shuddha


Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS