The True Story of May Day
For most Americans, shutting down a laptop or crashing at the end of an eight-hour shift at a restaurant or construction site is the norm, plus or minus a half hour or so for lunch. And no matter how tiring the working day may be, it’s easy to forget that over a century ago, people died to give us the right to an eight-hour day.
Much of this country’s radical work traditions have been erased by our political leaders’ loyalty to big business and a reverence for markets and capitalism . But some of the rights still afforded to workers in 2021 belong to trade unionists, anarchists, and socialists of the 19th century, who were the first to challenge the capitalists who created the abhorrent working conditions of the industrial revolution.
One of the key moments in the history of organized labor came on May 1, 1886, when 300,000 workers across the country left work in an organized strike, leading to several days of protest and tragic violence that will cement the recognition of May Day, the day of international workers’ solidarity, in history.
What is May Day?
We tend to think of Labor Day as a day of remembrance for workers in this country, as it provides for a day of rest in the form of a holiday. While Labor Day did follow labor agitation – in particular after the deaths of 13 workers in the Pullman strike of 1894 – it is a more ennobled celebration of workers who are now more closely associated with sales in large retail chains than unions or radical reformers. … Labor Day was officially declared a national holiday by President Grover Cleveland in 1984, and it has since become believed that September is the only time the United States has officially recognized the contribution of the working class to the country’s history and social life.
It just isn’t true. May Day is the original Labor Day, and even if it is not recognized in any official capacity by the US government, it is clearly an American phenomenon, although it is now recognized annually around the world in dozens of countries.
How did May Day come?
So how did this International Day of Workers’ Solidarity come about? To answer that question, we must trace the origins of the black clouds of American industry back to the billowing chimneys of the 19th century, when children crawled through coal mines during the Second Industrial Revolution and dozens of workers die every year due to terrible working conditions. … Encouraged by a growing sense of collectivism and the emergence of a faction of high-profile trade unions such as the National Trade Union , formed in 1866, workers in the industrial centers of the United States began to demand their rights be respected.
A key moment in this endeavor came in 1884 with the emergence of the “Eight Hour Movement”, when the Federation of Organized Unions and Trade Unions held their national convention in Chicago , declaring that “eight hours constituted a legal working day from and after May 1, 1886.” This was a feeling that would later prove to be prophetic, but not without years of struggle and bloodshed.
Haymarket riot
Chicago has long been a hotbed of agitation and organization when the railroad strike in 1877 erupted into violence . Almost a decade later, an atmosphere of unease still reigned. As the May 1 deadline set by FOTLU approaches, “approximately a quarter of a million workers in the Chicago area have become directly involved in the crusade to implement the eight-hour day, including the Assembly of Trade Unions and Labor, the Socialist Labor Party and local WWII knights. Labor, “according to an archival synopsis published by Industrial Workers of the World in 1993.
The demonstration was relatively quiet at first, but that changed on May 3 when a demonstration at the McCormick Reaper Works ended in a violent clash between demonstrators and police, which ended in the death of several workers. The next day, an anti-murder rally was organized in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. At first, the hearings were calm, with even the mayor of Chicago, Carter Harrison, present.
The calm was replaced by violence again when someone threw explosives at the police; the person responsible for this was never identified, but during the speech of the activist and editor of the newspaper August Spice, the police fired an indiscriminate gun at the protesters.
As History explains, what followed became known as the Haymarket Riot and spawned a bloody legacy :
The police and possibly some members of the crowd opened fire and chaos ensued. On that day, the violence killed seven police officers and at least one civilian, and injured countless others.
From that point on, tensions between the US government and the labor movement continued, with several prominent organizers convicted and executed for alleged links to the Haymarket incident.
As IWW explains in more detail :
Eight anarchists – Albert Parsons, August Spice, Samuel Fielden, Oscar Niebe, Michael Schwab, George Engel, Adolph Fischer and Louis Lingg – were arrested and convicted of murder, although only three were even present at the Haymarket, and these three were in full view … everything when the bombing happened.
As the memory of Haymarket loomed in the memory of the labor movement and beyond, more and more unions clung to the idea of the eight-hour day as a necessity.
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt incorporated this policy into his presidential platform , paving the way for the idea to achieve widespread acceptance in society. It wasn’t until 1916 that Congress passed the Eight Hour Work Day Act , in the form of the Adamson Act , which empowered railroad workers . This was the first law of its kind specifically applied to employees of private companies.
However, it was only after the Great Depression and the enactment of the National Industrial Recovery Act (which was later superseded by the Wagner Act) that the right to maximum hours of work and minimum wages applies to workers at the federal level.
Without the legacy of Haymarket and the decisive action taken on May 1, 1886, it’s hard to see how this would have been possible. While there is no specific link between May Day and the final introduction of the eight-hour workday, at least as it is enshrined in law, it is undeniable that the efforts of these 19th century activists were instrumental in achieving the now standard concession.
May Day today
Today May Day is an important day of solidarity for everyone with class consciousness in the United States, but, oddly enough, it is actually not very much celebrated in the States. The Haymarket spirit, however, has been recognized in other countries, especially in Europe , where it is enshrined in the form of public holidays.
While we can thank Grover Cleveland for Labor Day, May Day was nearly struck off the American calendar in part due to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s promise to make May 1 “Day of Law ” – an ironic oath of allegiance to the so-called “Rule of Law” and the forces that proved to be paramount. opponents of the labor movement.
This does not mean that you cannot keep the spirit of the May Day holiday alive and watch it, not forgetting about its entire history. On May 1 of this year, think of the workers who sacrificed their lives to give you the right to organize your workplace and complete the workday in eight hours.