History of Myanmar's labour movement (37/505)

This post presents page 37 of The History of the Myanmar Labour Movement by Thakin Lwin (Bagan Books, 1968).

Vocabulary

သာမန် ။ ordinary; normal; usual
ခြယ်လှယ် ။ manipulate; hold the reins (fig)
လွတ်မြောက် ။ escape; be emancipated; be liberated; be freed
အဆုံးစွန် ။ the last; the end; the final; utmost
အမှူးပြု ။ to act as leader
တုန့်ပြန် ။

Translation

[In that way], the [May Day] struggle for the standard 8-hour workday progressively escalated from being World Worker Day, to being World Worker Solidarity Day (May Day), and finally becoming Working Class Revolution Day, and nowadays the whole world participates in May Day with the ultimate goal being to establish the authority of a new socialist system for the working class which is completely emancipated from the exploited life of the manipulative and oppressive wage slavery system that is born out of the capitalist system.

Chapter 4

Myanmar and May Day

In Myanmar under British colonial rule, the people had no mutual contact with foreign countries. World Worker Day (May Day), which many countries had begun commemorating in 1890, was commemorated in Myanmar for the first time in 1931. It can be said that it was 48 years late. At that time, when oil field workers with the leadership of the Do-Bamar Asiayone were fighting back by striking against the major British imperialist capitalists led by the BOC [Burmah Oil Company], large May Day assemblies of the working masses began to be held starting on May 1st 1938 at the oil towns and the struggle of the oil field workers was able to connected with the international [labour movement]. Therefore, the start of May Day in Myanmar is acknowledged to have come from the oil fields.

After deciding at the fourth conference of the Do-Bamar Asiayone headquarters in Mawlamyine in 1939 to commemorate May Day annually on May 1st across the whole country and to demand that the government designate that day as a day when work is stopped, in the years 1939 and 1941, Do-Bamar Asiayone branches formed and in cities and regions where there were industrial workers people's assemblies were held to annually commemorate workers' May Day. At that time, Thakin Aung San became the general secretary of the Do-Bamar Asiayone central office.