Monday, 6 May 2019

ATUC President's inspiring words for the May Day Rally

Sasha Brydon
Sasha Brydon, President of the Aberdeen Trades Union Council, chaired the May Day rally on Saturday 4th May in Aberdeen. He opened proceedings with the following words:

"Comrades,

There was an article in the May 1st edition of the Morning Star which read: “May Day is the day to restate the cause for justice.” This can be summed up simply as, justice for our class. Justice which must be fought for every day, not just on the 1st of May.

We must resolutely reject attacks on our very humanity by governments and capitalists both at home and abroad. At home we have seen the introduction of the disgraceful system of Universal Credit, we have seen further privatisation of our health service, and we have seen attacks on pay toward public sector workers who are doing more and more work with fewer resources. Especially in Aberdeen, as we have seen with the cutting of 329 full-time-equivalent staff from the local authority.

Internationally we have seen the governments of Viktor Orban in Hungary, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Donald Trump in the United States ruthlessly attack the rights of their working people and prop up reactionary regimes across the world.

We stand here, hand in hand with the working people of the world to reaffirm our rights against faceless reaction. We stand with those resisting imperialism wherever it can be found; be it Cuba, Korea, Venezuela, Syria or Palestine. Only the people of a country can determine the course of that country, no outside force can determine it for them.

I will conclude by calling upon you to challenge those who oppose progress. We must remind them with our collective voice that we could destroy the ivory towers they sit on. We have unmatched power; we must use it to change the world."