The centenary of the first May Day, celebrated in Madras (now Chennai) in 1923 by trade union leader M. Singaravelu, comes at a time when the Tamil Nadu government made an abortive attempt to enable factories to increase the working hours beyond the eight-hour shift.
The backlash from political parties and trade unions was so strong that the government decided to put on hold the Factories (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2023, just days after the Assembly adopted it.
Though Madras was a hub of trade unionism, the earliest leader to espouse the cause of the revolutionary working-class movement was Singaravelu, who first raised the red flag in the country.
According to The Hindu Archives, writing about his objective in 1923, he said, “The Labour and Kishan Party of Hindustan will celebrate Labour Day, more commonly known as the May Day, on Tuesday, the 1st of May, in the Beach of Triplicane at 6 p.m. when the party’s creed, aim and programme will be explained to the workers.”
The Hindu reported the celebration in its edition on May 2, 1923. “The Labour Kisan Party introduced May Day celebrations in Madras. Comrade Singaravelar presided over the meeting. A resolution was passed, stating that the government should declare May Day as a holiday. The president of the party explained the non-violent principles of the party. There was a request for financial aid. It was emphasised that workers of the world must unite to achieve independence,” the newspaper reported.
D. Veeraraghavan, the author of The Making of the Madras Working Class, writes it was solely at Singaravelu’s initiative that Madras achieved the distinction of having celebrated the first- ever May Day in India.
His demands for workers marked a clear departure from the trade unionists and the unions before him and his far-sighted approach is explained by the manifesto released by him that day. CITU leader A.K. Padmanabhan said the manifesto raised the demands of the workers and peasants in the country, including the right to form a trade union, the right to go on strike, minimum wages on the basis of requirements of rice or wheat, clothes etc. “He also demanded housing, provident fund, leave facilities, 8 hours of work for men, 6 hours for miners and feeding women, and 4 hours for children, and maternity leave,” he added.
Born in a wealthy family at Mylapore, Singaravelu, a lawyer by training, was the president of the Madras District Congress Council and found a reference in Mahatma Gandhi’s collected works. He had worked closely with trade union leaders such as Thiru.Vi.Ka, Chakkarai Chettiyar, Selvapathy Chettiyar and Sriramulu Naidu. He is known by his title, ‘Sinthanai Sirpi’, and was the first communist of south India.
He had met communist leader S.A. Dange and had been in touch with M.N. Roy. He ran an English fortnightly, Labour Kisan Gazette, and a Tamil weekly, Thozhilalar (The Worker), to propagate the cause of communism.
“He was arrested in March 1924 and accused in the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy case, but the proceedings against him were dropped because of his prolonged illness,” writes Veeraraghavan. But his health condition did not keep him out of active politics. In December 1925, he presided over the first communist conference in Kanpur. “In 1927, he was active in the Bengal-Nagpur Railway Strike and in 1928, he led the historic South Indian Railway Strike. He was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in the conspiracy case foisted on the leaders of the South Indian Railway Strike. The sentence was subsequently reduced, and he was released in August 1930,” explains Veeraraghavan.
After meeting Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, Singaravelu regularly wrote for the periodicals of the Self-Respect Movement, including Kudiyarasu, Puratchi, and The Revolt, until 1936 when the differences between them widened.
Singaravelu’s demand became a reality when the communist government in Kerala declared a holiday for May Day. In Tamil Nadu, it was the DMK government that first declared a holiday for May Day in 1967. “In the 100 years since, the trade unions have come a long way, though the challenges they face today are equally enormous. Governments deny the hard-won rights of workers, including collective bargaining and the right to strike. Caste and communal organisations, masquerading as trade unions, also pose a threat to workers’ unity. We need to pledge to carry forward the struggle Singaravelu had begun,” Mr. Padmanabhan said.
