PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

This Day and May Day
by A. Wob Monday, Sep. 01, 2003 at 1:33 AM

Origins of May Day and Labor Day - non-pictoral version

CELEBRATE THIS DAY AND MAY DAY

Few workers in the United States know about the origins of Labor Day, which is generally viewed as one last vacation marking the end of summer. Millions of people throughout the world actually celebrate Labor Day on May 1st.

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is commonly known as America's tribute to working people and a well-deserved day off. However, the historical purpose of Labor Day is very different than what is typically assumed. Labor Day, though created by a poor New York trade unionist in the 19th century, was enacted nationally as a diversion from a far more important day in American history - May 1st, "May Day."

May 1st, International Labor Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the United States and Canada. This, despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880s in the United States, with the fight for an 8-hour work day, something the Bush administration is trying to abolish through the repeal of mandatory overtime compensation.

May 1st was not only well established in European traditions as a day of hope, but it was also in every 19th century industrial country the day on which workers were most likely to go on strike. Workers were usually paid at the end of the month, which made the beginning of the next month a time when they had both a little money to sustain them and could see just how little money they had for all their recent work.

In 1882, workers in New York had supported the idea of having a labor holiday in September to promote the idea of the 8-hour day. On September 5, 1882 the first Labor Day parade was held in New York City. Twenty thousand workers marched in a parade up Broadway. They carried banners that read "LABOR CREATES ALL WEALTH," and "EIGHT HOURS FOR WORK, EIGHT HOURS FOR REST, EIGHT HOURS FOR RECREATION!" The fight for better working conditions developed into workers demanding their employers agree to a shorter workday.

In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, a forerunner of the AFL, passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had already failed. With workers being forced to work ten to sixteen hours a day, rank-and-file support for the 8-hour movement grew rapidly. Thus, the struggle for better working conditions, which gained support in September, grew to full force in May.

Roughly 350,000 workers were involved in the May Day general strike. Workers were either given an eight-hour day by their bosses out of fear, or they struck to enforce their demand. Thirty-five thousand Chicago meatpackers won the 8-hour day with no loss of pay after that strike. Workers in New York, Baltimore, Washington, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and many other cities engaged in the strike. It is estimated that about half of the number of workers who struck on May 1st were successful, and where they did not secure the 8-hour day, others succeeded in appreciably reducing the hours of labor.

The May Day movement was based in Chicago, where it was organized in large part by members of the International Working People’s Association (founded in Pittsburgh in 1883). Besides championing workers' rights, the IWPA promoted an end to racism and the class system, gathering a following that included African Americans, immigrants and women.

Businesses and government were terrified by the movement. On May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four workers. Angry protesters called for a mass meeting in Haymarket Square the next day to protest the brutality.

The meeting proceeded without incident and was ending when 180 policemen marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.

Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to attack the entire labor movement. Many people suspected it was the work of an agent provocateur — someone working for the government or industry. Eight of Chicago's most active unionists were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and he was on the speakers' platform), and they were sentenced to die. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolf Fischer, and George Engel were hanged on November 11, 1887. Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison. The remaining three were finally pardoned in 1893.

In the year between the Haymarket incident and the executions, the worldwide labor movement came to the defense of the accused. The American Federation of Labor issued a public appeal for clemency. Outside the United States, workers in England, Holland, Russia, Italy, France and Spain rallied and donated funds for the defendants. The Haymarket incident placed the U.S. working class, especially the U.S. movement for the eight-hour day, at center stage of the world workers' movement. So when the AFL convention in 1888 announced that May 1, 1890, would be a day when labor would enforce the 8-hour day with strikes and demonstrations, the world was listening. On May 1, 1890, May Day demonstrations took place in the United States, Latin America, and most countries in Europe.

While May Day picked up momentum across the world, it lost steam in its country of origin, the United States. The AFL had begun a rightward turn as early as the aftermath of Haymarket. By 1905 it had disavowed May Day altogether, celebrating instead Labor Day on the first Monday of September sanctioned by the federal government in 1894. By placing Labor Day in September, the government avoids any association with the successful May 1st "direct action" by working class people to win shorter work days and better conditions.

By covering up the history of May Day, the state, business, some union bureaucrats, and the media, have covered up an entire legacy of dissent in this country. They are terrified of what a similarly militant and organized movement could accomplish today, and they suppress the seeds of such organization whenever and wherever they can. As workers, we must recognize and commemorate May Day not only for its historical significance, but also as a time to organize around issues of vital importance to working-class people today.



The information in this leaflet was compiled and published by members of the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Pittsburgh General Membership Branch
P.O. Box 162
Turtle Creek, PA 15145
pittsburghiww@yahoo.com


Sources: Andy McInerney, “May Day, The Workers’ Day…” Heather Harman, “May Day, The Real Labor Day,” David Montgomery, “Labor Day and May Day”; Howard Zinn, People’s History of the United States, Luther Gaylord/SLC IWW GMB “The Real Labor Day.”

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Diversion
by labor fakir Monday, Sep. 01, 2003 at 7:45 AM

Here is some more info. on Labor Day. That's right workers, forget about direct action. Put your energy into the ballot box -- "hocus pocus." Read about the Pullman strike.

From P-G 9/1/03

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Cleveland had signed an act declaring the first Monday in September a national holiday -- it had been unanimously passed by both houses of Congress -- on June 28, even as plans to crush the strike with federal troops were already made.

Like many politicians, he danced an uncomfortable two-step, declaring workers worthy of respect and attention, while treating strikes as unacceptable.

Many news accounts of the day mirrored that attitude: Parades are fine, strikes and socialism are not.

The New York Times on Sept. 4, 1894, reported that Labor Day participants were "well-dressed and well-behaved" and that the "chief feature of the parade was the excellent and military bearing of those who marched. There was not one inch of red ribbon to indicate sympathy with Anarchy."

The Pittsburgh Press wrote that the first National Labor Day was "befittingly observed," and added that "for the first time in their history, all the local labor organizations unified for a common purpose without squabbles or jealousies and did honor to the occasion."

The Press had expressed relief at the end of the Pullman strike in an editorial on Aug. 6, 1894, advising that "now that the A.R.U. has the strike off its hands, it may employ itself in a useful manner for its members in devoting its attention to politics, and try to help its members in the only sensible way -- through the ballot."

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