International Workers' Day

Wed. May first- International Workers' Day - is a celebration of the international labour movement. May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries and celebrated unofficially in many other countries. IWD is the commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago where the police opened fire on a public assembly during a general strike for the eight-hour workday, killing and injuring dozens of demonstrators. Although celebrations by worker's activists occur on May 1 around the world, in Canada, the government of Prime Minister John Sparrow David Thompson in 1894 declared the first Monday in September as Canada's official Labour Day.  May Day, however, remains an important day of trade-union and community group protest in the province of Quebec.

As people celebrate the achievements of May Day around the world, in Iran workers still demand their wages to be paid on time and the harassment to be stopped. Every year worker's condition deteriorates in Iran, and by more protests and strikes by workers are held, there are more arrests and suppression. This year the workers who are feeling the high prices of food and shelter and are facing more harsh times to come, protesting ahead of May Day and their activities are more noticeable then ever. Some may believe that the international sanctions are to blame for the deplorable economic situation in Iran. This is not the case. The Iranian regime spends most of the country's oil and other natural resources to fuel its oppression machine and its which has been running for the past 35 years not to mention its nuclear program which has crippled Iran's economy. Toppling the regime is the key to all of the miseries that the Iranian people are enduring. Freedom and democracy's the answer.

A clip by Radio Irava:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYIRlIu7JbQ