We students need a healthy, holistic appreciation of labor and labor force because it is precisely the endeavor and the sector we are preparing ourselves for. School is, culturally, a long-drawn training for work.
Work is an instinct. All men have the innate and irreducible tendency to exert mental and physical powers, skills and talents, in order to create, improve, and innovate. Work is more than a job, it is a means by which an individual fits into the world.
Productive work is an inevitable activity to preserve society and a civilized way of life. Our own Constitution recognizes “labor as a primary social economic force” (Sec. 18, Art. II, 1987 Constitution). But as the modern world overemphasizes productivity and financial success, it has overlooked the essence of work: human existence and human dignity.
Today is a time when workers are asserting their collective strengths in many resistances all over the world. Workers are at the forefront of struggles against widespread unemployment, inadequate wages, and dishonorable labor policies.
We students should find ourselves similarly drawn to their struggle for social emancipation. They offer us a timely lesson on understanding the world, and then changing it.
Join us on Sunday as we stand for wage and salary increases - P125 for private employees and P6000 for state workers - for economic reliefs, for political rights. We embrace these causes because the gains are ours to keep.
Ito ay pahayag ng mahigpit na pakikiisa sa mga manggagawa na lumilikha ng yaman ng mundo. Sa araw ng paggawa, sasama ang kabataan sa pag-giit ng mga karapatan sa nakabubuhay na sahod at trabaho.
Walang panahon sa pangingimi o pagkikibit-balikat. Ang paglahok sa mga pagkilos sa Mayo Uno ay isang paraan upang gawing mas makabuluhan ang pag-aaral, at higit sa lahat, bigyang buhay ang diwa ng proletaryanismo.
April