Dirty campaigning on May Day

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza

May Day or International Workers’ Day or Labor Day or whatever it is called, they are one and the same. History tells us that this started in 1889 to commemorate the Haymarket general strike of workers in Chicago on May 1, 1886 for the eight-hour workday.

Three days later, the police dispersed a public assembly in support of the strike when an unidentified person threw a bomb. The police responded by firing on the workers. Seven police officers and at least four civilians were killed in the incident; 60 policemen and an unknown number of civilians were injured.

On the same day, hundreds of strike leaders and supporters were rounded-up and four were executed by hanging. A day later, the state police in Wisconsin fired on a crowd of strikers killing seven, including a schoolboy and a man feeding chickens in his yard.

In 1904, a labor conference attended by socialist and communist political parties and even revolutionary groups called on all Social Democratic Party organizations, trade and workers’ unions of all countries to hold street demonstrations on every first day of May for the demands of the working class and for universal peace.

In Manila, union members supported by students and the usual bystanders took to the streets on Labor Day demanding wage hikes, the implementation of the Expanded Maternity Leave Act, the junking of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law and calling for an end to contractualization.

After marching to Mendiola, the groups Sentro, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, Federation of Free Workers, and Trade Union Congress of the Philippines were joined by the left-leaning Kilusang Mayo Uno and proceeded to a political rally in support of Labor Win candidates seeking Senate seats in the elections on May 13.

The Labor Win coalition is composed of, Bukluran ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) head Leody de Guzman, Federation of Free Workers (FFW) president Sonny Matula, Kilusang Mayo Uno founder Ernesto Arellano, labor lawyer Allan Montaño and former Bayan Muna representative Neri Colmenares.

With the workers’ votes, will any of the Labor Win senatorial bets win? A big percentage of the Filipino population equivalent to 41 million Filipinos are composed of workers, enough to catapult anyone of them to the senate.

But, despite the backing of workers’ groups, senate bet De Guzman admitted that based on their estimates, active union members who would vote for senate bets are only around 4% of the number of employed Filipinos, or about 1.3 million.

Furthermore, workers and sympathy votes are not enough and street rallies sometimes give negative results. They should have resources to mount a nationwide campaign.

In addition, pre-election surveys tell us that none of the candidates landed in the Magic 12. This is due to the fact that even experts talk about a “dim chance” of winning because of “weak and non-existent” workers’ vote.

This means, evenwhile the senatoriables and their supporters rally for pro-worker policies, they still have to find a convincing reason why they should be elected; unless the truth is that they do not want to win.

Common sense should tell them that burning effigies and attacking government personalities have never been rewarding campaign strategies. This actions drive away voters. Dirty campaigning does not gather votes.

This is also true in the Cordillera. In just a little more than a week before elections, I see supporters of political tandems in Baguio and Benguet jumping over the other side of the fence.

Maybe in Benguet, they finally came to their senses or found out that what their bets were saying all along about their opponents were fake. I learned this late that the attacks were concocted by a lawyer who was promised a department at the capitol.

But I was also told that one of the candidates for a provincial post frequented the casino and that one time he lost quite a big fortune so he had to mortgage his Fortuner to win back his losses.

This begs the question “If the congressman and governor frequently hold sessions in the gambling casino, what could possibly happen to the provincial treasury?”