01/05/2025
139th May Day observed at Bhelakoop Community Hall (Longview Tea Garden, Darjeeling Hills) by Hill Plantations Employees Union (HPEU). The Union flag was made public today and hoisted to pay tribute to the May Day martyrs and all other warriors who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for the rights and emancipation of the working class.
At the very beginning of the meeting, a two-minute silence was observed in memory of Gokul Singh Thapa, the singer whose songs expressed the agonies of thousands of tea workers in the entire region and were sung by them in the struggles.
The various speakers from the union and different gardens spoke about their rights and deprivation, opposed the anomalies and exploitation by the management, and voiced their demands for minimum wage and parja patta.
HPEU (as a constituent of Centre for Struggling Trade Unions- CSTU) also expressed support for the ensuing strike on 20 May, demanding to scrap off the anti-worker labour codes.
The activists of HPEU also insisted upon the unity of the working class, as a heinous attempt is going on, in the name of caste-creed-religion, to divert the aims and objectives of the workers' movement. And, there is also a need to understand the question of working-class solidarities across borders.
Long Live May Day!