KATHMANDU, May 1: Monday marks the 128th Labor Day. It is also known as International Workers' Day in some countries. It is a celebration of laborers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labor movement, socialists, communists or anarchists.
The date was chosen for International Workers' Day by the Second International, a pan-national organization of socialist and communist political parties, to commemorate the Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago on 4 May 1886. The 1904 International Socialist Conference in Amserdam, the Sixth Conference of the Second International, called on "all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace."
May Day is a national public holiday in Nepal since 2007 though it has been celebrated in Nepal since 1963. The date is currently celebrated specifically as "Labor Day" or "International Workers' Day" in the majority of countries, including those that didn't traditionally celebrate May Day. Some countries celebrate a Labor Day on other dates significant to them, such as the United States, which celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday of September.
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Meanwhile, President Bidya Devi Bhandari has expressed confidence that the International Labour Day would unite all the working class people across the country in a thread of unity to collectively raise voice for their rights and freedom.
In a message on the occasion of International Labor Day, President Bhandari has lauded the role of the working class people for their contribution to establish the federal democratic republic in the country and has wished that the working class people in the country would be benefitted in the context of constitutionally ensured provision of socialism-oriented economy.
Likewise, the President has wished for the better industrial relations with assurance of the labor rights and favorable labor environment, appropriate working hours and payments and social security for Nepali workers while working at home and abroad, adding that rights of all would be ensured and all would be accommodated in the democratic system.
Similarly, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has extended best wishes to the all Nepali at home and abroad on the occasion of International Workers' Day on Monday.
In a message of best wishes, the Prime Minister said the celebration of the Day is itself a commemoration of the glorious day when workers had achieved the victory to their struggle for the rights of eight hours of work, eight hours of rest and eight hour of entertainment.
He further stated that he personally and as the Head-of-the government felt happy to extend best wishes on the occasion of the 128th International Workers Day to the entire working community at home and abroad.
Nepal's constitution has defined rights to labor as the fundamental rights, he said, adding that the country's main law has guaranteed worker's rights to open a trade union and associate with it for the collective bargaining of their professional rights.
"To bring the constitutional arrangements into practice is the important factor of the hour," he said, underscoring that the government was committed to the workers' rights and statute of the International Labor Organization and the conventions ratified by Nepal.
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