April marked by disenfranchised workers and miners, is there reason to celebrate May Day

At the end of March, according to records, there were 530,370 unemployed persons in BiH, and the majority of those who are working are in an unfavorable position, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

April was marked by three events that clearly reflect the state of Bosnian society. The strike of miners at the Mramor mine, operating under RMU Kreka, who refused to come out of the pit due to unpaid wages and other benefits. The agony of more than 180 miners from two shifts lasted almost the entire day, and they were eventually promised regular payment.

The hunger strike of workers at Tuzla Kvarac lasted almost three weeks, and within the company premises, due to the revoked concession and the possibility of further work, they dug their own graves, which the Prime Minister of Tuzla Canton, Bego Gutić, called a performance. The strike ended dramatically only after four workers threatened suicide from a silo all day on Thursday. Negotiations with the relevant minister lasted for hours, and after a solution was found for another company to take over the debts of Tuzla Kvarac and enable further work, the exhausted, tired, and embittered workers came down from the silo and ended the strike.

The protests of war veterans held on April 25 in front of the Government of the Federation of BiH showed all the harshness of the reality we live in. The majority of former members of the Army of the Republic of BiH and the HVO, who together sought their rights, have been unemployed since 1995. While a few have managed to secure their own livelihood, the majority literally eke out an existence without income, without the right to a life worthy of a human being. They are mostly sick, and their rights to medical treatment are also threatened.

When large workers' protests were held in Chicago on May 1, 1886, where 40,000 workers demanded three eights: eight hours of work, eight hours of rest, and eight hours of cultural education, six workers were killed and about fifty were injured in a police intervention.

No one thought that the symbolism of May Day would be completely lost and that the days off would serve for celebration and rest, rather than for protests that should be a daily occurrence in Bosnian society.