We commemorate Labor Day, in which we honor the historical struggle of workers to build their rights and unionism as the driving force of the left. This was born as a reminder to the martyrs of Chicago and in Mexico to those of Cananea and Río Blanco, but above all, it is the story of limiting the abuses of capital derived from the Industrial Revolution: precariousness, bad wages, child labor and long hours inhuman. The workers’ struggle, unionism and class consciousness continue to be the basis of current left-wing thought.
Work today is undergoing a profound transformation due to two things: the threat of exclusion derived from technological change such as Artificial Intelligence and industrial robotics, which could affect 60% of jobs in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund; and the second, the new forms of alienation and control through technologies, that is, surveillance capitalism; Technology should not be an instrument of domination, but rather of plenitude and development. Companies have also found new legal ways to evade labor law, including several specialists such as the economist Joseph Stiglitz, who maintain that coordinated global action is needed to defend decent work, fight against exclusion and avoid control of public affairs by the oligarchs and do not appropriate the agenda, but above all, do not dictate the conduct of the State.
Today, as in 1886 when Labor Day was instituted, the commemoration remains as valid as it is urgent and in Mexico much has been done to improve working conditions under the leadership of President López Obrador, with whom the minimum wage has been increased to levels historical records, vacation days have been doubled for all workers, job certainty has been given to thousands of Mexicans who have become basic and, most importantly, the lowest unemployment rate in the last 20 years has been achieved at 2.28% .
The left has to rethink itself based on the new role of work and as the main brake on exclusion and power, proposals such as those of Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum such as the right to a fair pension, housing for workers, decent salaries for teachers and police, the generation of jobs and the reduction of the wage gap, update the current legal labor framework, but it is necessary to complement these proposals with a deep understanding of the labor reality and the needs of the population, which Dr. Sheinbaum knows and seeks attend. Therefore, Labor Day should invite reflection and action. As Seneca wrote: “Work and struggle always call for the best”who will always, without a doubt, be on the left.
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