Srinagar: As the world prepares to mark International Workers' Day on May 1, remembering the 1886 Haymarket protests in Chicago, not many people know that the first organised trade union movement in the world had taken place in the backyard of South Asia, in Kashmir.Long before Haymarket, on April 29, 1865, shawl weavers and workers rose against heavy taxation and harsh conditions imposed on them. What followed was brutal. At least 28 workers were killed, and hundreds were injured when the protest was crushed. This moment, often forgotten, stands as one of the earliest examples of collective labor resistance in the world.April 29 deserves to be remembered as a day of sacrifice and struggle - a reminder that the fight for workers' rights in our region began long before it found global recognition. I recall on this day, late Pran Nath Jalali used to arrange a small gathering at a corner in the Press Club of India in New Delhi, over a cup of tea, to remember the forgotten heroes of the world's first labour movement.