Workers’ Day and May Day merge
While normally associated with communist countries, Workers' Day actually commemorates an event in American history.
IT was just over a century since the United States had won its independence from Great Britain and a little less since the French Revolution had overturned the monarchy and established a republic.
The industrial revolution had brought mechanisation in just about every field, yet the working classes across the globe were still being exploited by unscrupulous employers. Their discontent came to boiling point in Chicago in 1886.
In 1884 the Federation of Organised Trades and Labor Unions, had called for May 1, 1886 to be the beginning of a nationwide movement for the eight-hour day. Illinois workers and federal employees were supposed to have been covered by an eight-hour day law since 1867, but the federal government failed to enforce its own law and employers forced workers to sign waivers of the law as condition of employment.
Two years later, when nothing had happened to ease their workload, workers embarked on what was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration. Then someone threw a bomb at the police, resulting in several deaths, and eight people were convicted of conspiracy on seemingly flimsy evidence. Although the ‘Haymarket Affair’ happened on May 4, it is said to be this incident that prompted an international congress in Paris in 1889 to call for May 1 to be celebrated annually.
Of course, May 1 was already a holiday in many northern hemisphere countries, marking the first day of summer and commemorating some of the rituals of an older, pagan tradition. This made it a convenient date to choose and maypoles and morris dancers share centre stage with workers’ rallies in many places.
While other pagan festivals, such as Hallowe’en, had been given Christian respectability early in the Christian era, May Day escaped the notice of the Roman Catholic Church until 1955, when it was declared to be the Feast of Saint Joseph, patron saint of workers.
Stangely enough, the United States does not recognise the May date for Workers’ Day but celebrates its own Labour Day in September.
