Labor Day, done the right way.

Unlike in the U.S., May 1rst is known around the globe as Labor Day or International Workers Day. On this holiday, people and their labor unions commonly go out and take part in demonstrations celebrating or demanding improvements to their professional treatment and the ties to their unions.


"On May first, no parties or partying. Today is an international day of struggle. Dario Santillar Popular Front."


So, I expect you not to be surprised when I tell you that Labor Day is an extremely important holiday in Argentina due to the fact that the government, since the era of Perón, has had crucial ties to all the labor unions. I mean, Evita and General Perón, who are possibly the most iconic leaders in Argentina's history, credited most of their successes to their good relations with the labor parties and unions and to the fact the Evita, prior to her governmental status, was just a working class citizen.




The problem is that the pictures previously shown are from April 30th. Why? Well, here's the scoop: No matter how important Argentines believe their unions to be, they are still Argentine. I'll Elaborate. Labor Day is an international holiday, like Christmas or Bastille Day. There is no way you are gonna get a Latin person out of bed, early, on a holiday. Labor Unions are very aware that they probably won't get half as many people to their big event if they hold it on a holiday, so they do it the day before. This phenomenon, obviously, stunts productivity for the week. But the workers don't really have a choice. It's a very common practice for Union leaders to offer the workers some kind of compensation for their attendance to the big show instead of going to work. This "compensation" can consist of money (direct payment), salary raises, promotions or simply favors or promises, which are almost certain to be honored.







As you might have already figured out, holding national demonstrations on a regular work day can be extremely inconvenient to those of us who have no interest in participating; specially in a city as large as Buenos Aires where so much is going on at all times, in every area. On this day I had to attend my class at UBA (University of Buenos Aires). On the way I encountered 3 different union events and got stuck in the middle of a protest. Mind you, all the previous pictures taken on the large avenue took place about 5 blocks away from Andre's and my apartment.






Perhaps the biggest annoyance came when it was time to make my way back home. I realized that upon reaching the main avenue of 9 de Julio, the final stretch of my journey, it was extremely difficult to cross it because the traffic lights were off and different sections of the avenue were closed off. So basically, whatever traffic could pass was driving around in a rather rogue manner. The other thing was that the scene of the aftermath was not a pretty one. The workers partied, and they partied hard.