A May Day tribute

A May Day tribute to working people by Indian poet, Musab Iqbal. May the struggles of sweatshop workers around the world inspire us in the historic task of socially transforming labor & ridding this beautiful planet of all exploitation. May these child workers of Dhaka lead the way in ending the abomination of child labor.

One day of the year
reminds you of my existence.
On the rest of the calendar days,you keep counting my meager salary
And decide to give half and not to give
what I deserve.

That German man living in England
asked us to unite,
But our unity was hijacked,
substituted by other forms of tyranny.
We remain what we were before the grand call.

Narrative after narrative, promise after promise
History after history and culture after culture
intellectuals kept masturbating about revolution.
And change, they promised from progressed towers.
Flags they gave us and they ran in the Mercedes

We remain trapped in mines, on towers
in ships, on bridges, in factories and mazes.
We continue the struggle to be content
with tears, sweat and promises from the sky.

One day when the soil will soak all our blood,
the thickness of the black cloud will be marked
by the tearful yearning of our miserable lives.
On that flat day we will return to make a new world!

- 30th April/ 1st May 2013


(Photo of garment workers strike in Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 2010, by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)