History and significance of May Day

By Dr. Santosh Kumar Mohapatra*

May Day or Labour Day or International Workers’ Day is celebrated annually on May 1 to recognize and appreciate the invaluable contributions, and great work done by the labour class. May Day is synonymous with workers’ struggles and the subsequent empowerment in the late 19th century. The purpose of the day is to commemorMay Day or Labour Day or International Workers’ Day is celebrated annually on May 1 to recognize and appreciate the invaluable contributions, and sacrifice of workers to and for society. May Day is synonymous with workers’ struggles and the subsequent empowerment in the late 19th century. The purpose of the day is to commemorate the efforts and victories of the workers’ class and the labour movement. In addition to remembering the past, efforts are also made to empower the workers of today with the required knowledge of their rights and responsibilities.

Earlier the working condition of the labourer was very severe and working hours were 10 to 16 hour a day even in unsafe conditions. May Day is also celebrated to promote the requirement of the eight-hour workday. The day is set aside to revisit and acknowledge the historic struggles and the subsequent gains that have shaped the ideas of social justice and basic rights in workplaces across the world. On this day, people across the world observe the day by conducting protests and marches for the rights of workers and saving them from exploitation and encouraging them to be aware of their rights. Under no circumstances should workers be asked to work for more than 8 hours a day. Working hours may be extended, but the extra remuneration should be paid in addition to regular wages.

History of May Day

The actual origin of May Day or Labour Day is stated back to the time of industrialisation in the late nineteenth century and the tragic Chicago’s Haymarket Massacre that took place during the workers’ strike and many people lost their lives. Deaths, injuries, and other awful conditions of the workers were very common at the workplace during the 1860s and working people were very agitated throughout the workday until the 8-hour workday was declared.

At this time, socialism was a new and attractive idea to working people, many of whom were drawn to its ideology of working-class control over the production and distribution of all goods and services. Workers had seen first-hand that Capitalism benefited only their bosses, trading workers’ lives for profit. Thousands of men, women and children were dying needlessly every year in the workplace, with life expectancy as low as their early twenties in some industries, and little hope but death of rising out of their destitution. Socialism offered another option.

As early as the 1860’s, working people agitated to shorten the workday without a cut in pay, but it wasn’t until the late 1880’s that organized labour was able to garner enough strength to declare the 8-hour workday. This proclamation was without the consent of employers, yet demanded by many of the working class. The rising death of working-class people (men, women, and children) in many working industries, required them to raise their voices for the safety of the working group people by decreasing their working hours in the industries. In Chicago in 1884, the American Federation of Labour declared eight hours to be the legal working time for workers after many efforts made by workers and socialists.

The eight-hour day movement, which promoted a schedule of eight hours for labour, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest, is the main reason behind the start of Labour Day. On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration in history. The workers took to the streets across the USA to reduce the workday to eight-hour shifts. In Chicago, the epicentre for the 8-hour day agitators, 40,000 went out on strike with the revolutionaries in the forefront of the public’s eye. With their fiery speeches and revolutionary ideology of direct action, revolutionaries and revolution became respected and embraced by the working people and scorned by the capitalists.

The names of many – Albert Parsons, Johann Most, August Spies and Louis Lingg – became household words in Chicago and throughout the country. Parades, bands and tens of thousands of demonstrators in the streets exemplified the workers’ strength and unity, yet didn’t become violent as the newspapers and authorities predicted.

More and more workers continued to walk off their jobs until the numbers swelled to nearly 100,000, yet peace prevailed. It was not until two days later, on May 3, 1886, that violence broke out at the McCormick Reaper Works between police and strikers. On 3rd May 1986, a police contingent opened fire and killed at least two of the striking workers demanding an 8-hour work day instead of a gruelling 16-hour work day.

On the 4th of May 1886, to protest police cruelty and viciousness, labour leaders called a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square. That gathering was pronounced peaceful by Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison, who attended as an observer. After Harrison and most of the demonstrators departed, a contingent of police arrived and demanded that the crowd disperse.

At that point, a bomb was thrown by an individual never positively identified, and police responded with random gunfire. Though the exact number of civilians killed or wounded was never determined, an estimated seven or eight civilians died, and up to forty were wounded. One officer died immediately and another seven died in the following weeks.

Later evidence indicated that only one of the police deaths could be attributed to the bomb and that all the other police fatalities had or could have been due to their own indiscriminate gun fire. Aside from the bomb thrower, who was never identified, it was the police, not the revolutionaries, who perpetrated the violence. This is known as Haymarket Massacre, also called Haymarket Riot or Haymarket Affair, a violent confrontation between police and labour protesters in Chicago on May 4, 1886, became a symbol of the international struggle for workers’ rights

Eight anarchists/revolutionaries – Albert Parsons, August Spies, Samuel Fielden, Oscar Neebe, Michael Schwab, George Engel, Adolph Fischer and Louis Lingg – were arrested and convicted of murder, though only three were even present at Haymarket and those three were in full view of all when the bombing occurred. The jury in their trial was comprised of business leaders in a gross mockery of justice similar to the Sacco-Vanzetti case thirty years later, or the trials of AIM and Black Panther members in the seventies.

The entire world watched as these eight organizers were convicted, not for their actions, of which all were innocent, but for their political and social beliefs. On November 11, 1887, after many failed appeals, Parsons, Spies, Engel and Fisher were hung to death. Louis Lingg, in his final protest of the state’s claim of authority and punishment, took his own life the night before with an explosive device in his mouth.

The remaining organizers, Fielden, Neebe and Schwab, were pardoned six years later by Governor Altgeld, who publicly lambasted the judge on a travesty of justice. Immediately after the Haymarket Massacre, big business and government conducted what some say was the very first “Red Scare” in this country. Spun by mainstream media, anarchism became synonymous with bomb-throwing and socialism became un-American. The common image of an anarchist/ revolutionary became a bearded, eastern European immigrant with a bomb in one hand and a dagger in the other.

In 1889 an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as a day in support of workers, in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot in Chicago (1886). Five years later, U.S. Pres. Grover Cleveland, uneasy with the socialist origins of Workers’ Day, signed legislation to make Labour Day—already held in some states on the first Monday of September—the official U.S. holiday in honour of workers. Canada followed suit not long afterwards.

May Day was first celebrated on May 1, 1890, after it was declared by the first International Congress of Socialist Parties in Europe on July 14, 1889. It was declared for the workers in Paris to dedicate every year on May 1 as the ‘Workers Day of International Unity and Solidarity’.

However, in India, for the first time, May Day was celebrated in India on May 1, 1923, in Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu. The people started observing the day on 1 May 1923 after the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan was initiated and Comrade Singaravelar helmed the celebrations. Since then, May Day is observed annually.. This day is celebrated under different names across various Indian states, such as Sramika Divas ( Odia), Kamgar Din (Hindi), Karmikara Dinacharane (Kannada), Karmika Dinotsavam (Telugu), Kamgar Divas (Marathi), Uzhaipalar Dhinam (Tamil), Thozhilaali Dinam (Malayalam), and Shromik Dibosh (Bengali).

May Day – A Global Day

International Labour Day is a public holiday in many countries. It is basically a festival for workers across the globe and it respects them. It is also a traditional northern hemisphere spring festival. May Day is a countrywide holiday in a majority of European nations including Sweden, France, Poland, Finland, Norway, Spain, Germany, Italy, etc. Panama, Cuba, Mexico, Guyana, Peru, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and Chile also celebrate the day.

Labour Day is celebrated on a different date, often one with special significance for the labour movement in that country. May Day is celebrated in over 80 countries across the world on May 1. In the United States and Canada, a similar observance, known as Labour Day, occurs on the first Monday of September. May 1 in Europe has historically been linked with rural traditional farmers’ festivals but later May Day became associated with the modern labour movement.

The official commendation of the Soviet Union was given to May Day in the 20th century. In England, the celebrations consist of Morris dancing and dancing around a Maypole. In Germany, in 1933, Labour Day was declared as an official holiday. It is a holiday in India and is celebrated in many states.

Themes of the International Labour Day

The International Labour Organization also organizes a variety of events on this day. The theme of the Labour Day party celebration becomes cartoon characters, western culture shows, sports, TV shows, movies, holiday activities, crazy fun activities, and many more. Other Labour Day activities include a crossword puzzle, anagram puzzle, word search puzzle, code-cracker puzzle, word scramble puzzle, phrase matching game puzzle, etc.

Throughout the world, this celebration has gained historic significance, and labour unions all over the world celebrate it. There are many Themes provided by the Government to the people to focus on their Rights to be achieved in a better way and they are as follows:

The theme of International Labour Day of 2022 was “Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour”, For 2021 was “International Workers’ Memorial Day (IWMD)”, 2020 was “Maintaining Safety and Security at the Workplace”, for 2019 was “Uniting Workers for Social and Economic Advancement., for 2017 was “Preserve Our National Heritage., for 2016 “Celebrating the international labour movement”, for 2015, “Construct the Future of Cameroon in Peace, Solidarity and Decent Work”, for 2014, “Providing the Job with helping of the Capital by giving value the work”, for 2013 was “Let’s value work by providing the jobless with start-up capital support”, for 2012 was “Promote Employment by Supporting Prospective Entrepreneurs”.

World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2023

This year, on World Day for Safety and Health at Work, we can celebrate an important step towards this goal. The designation of a safe and healthy working environment is a fundamental principle and right at work. May Day celebrates the rights of labourers.

The International Labour Organisation conducts various events and programs to mark the day. A safe and healthy working environment is a fundamental principle and right at work. In June 2022, the International Labour Conference (ILC) decided to include “a safe and healthy working environment” in the ILO’s framework of fundamental principles and rights at work. On 28 April 2023, the ILO celebrated this decision, bringing together experts and constituents to discuss the implications it has for the world of work, as well as how to practically implement this right in the world of work.

In a statement to mark World Day for Safety and Health, the ILO Director-General, Gilbert F. Houngbo, outlines the critical importance of safe and healthy working environments. According to him, 10 years ago this month, more than eleven hundred workers died and thousands were injured when the Rana Plaza building collapsed.

He visited Bangladesh in the days after. He remembers the shock and pain of the victims and families. Dealing not just with bereavement, but with the loss of bread-winners, their security, incomes and futures. There could be no more brutal lesson about the importance of occupational safety and health. We have an essential responsibility to ensure that people go to work and come home alive, uninjured, and healthy.

 

 

The author is an Odisha-based eminent columnist/economist and social thinker. He can be reached through e-mail at [email protected]

 

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of Sambad English.