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The
Michigan Socialist | Features | History
Police riot and attack workers demonstrating for the
eight-hour day in Chicago, Ill.,
May 3, 1886. This was the
infamous Haymarket Tragedy -- and the first recognized
May
Day demonstration in the world.
Remembering May Day ... in
America
By JOE DeNEEN
The
Michigan Socialist
INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY, or May Day, is a
day of celebration, remembrance and solidarity.
On the first of May, workers throughout the
world demonstrate for better working conditions,
socio-economic equality, universal healthcare and education,
and the right to unionize and strike. But, to best understand
why workers in America should celebrate May Day, we need to
know its history.
The 19th century witnessed some of the worst
acts of barbarity in the workplace. Women, children and
immigrants were used as a source of cheap and obedient labor,
working conditions were outrageous, unions were small and
brutally repressed, and workers spent 10, 12 or 14 hours a day
making profit for the bosses.
It was capitalism at its
best.
In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades
and Labor Unions (FOTLU) passed a resolution demanding the
eight-hour workday, starting from and after May 1,
1886.
The resolution called for a general strike; by
April 1886, over 250,000 Americans had heeded the call. The
eight-hour movement was growing rapidly and radically,
especially in Chicago.
On May 3, 1886, following some successes,
strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory in Chicago
faced police batons and bullets. Four workers were killed and
many injured.
Immediately afterwards, a local group of
anarchists organized an anti-police brutality rally in
Haymarket Square. On May 4, thousands came out for the evening
rally without incident.
As the last speaker took to the platform the
rally had dwindled down to a couple hundred, and nearly 200
police officers moved in to disperse the crowd.
In the shuffle, a bomb was thrown among the
police, killing one and injuring dozens, resulting in police
gunfire, which killed or injured an unknown number of
workers.
This event became known as the Haymarket
Tragedy (or "Haymarket Riot," as some call it), and saw a
sharp increase in police repression of anarchists, socialists
and unionists.
Eight prominent Chicago anarchists -- August
Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Samuel
Fielden, Michael Schwab, Louis Lingg and Oscar Neebe -- were
arrested, tried and convicted of conspiracy in the Haymarket
bombing by a rigged jury and biased judge, with little
evidence and even though only one was actually at the rally
(and he was a speaker on the platform).
 |
One of
the monuments to the
Haymarket martyrs in
Chicago. |
Parsons, Spies, Fischer and Engel were hanged
on November 11, 1887; Louis Lingg committed suicide the day
before his execution on November 10, 1887; Illinois Governor
Altgeld pardoned Fielden, Schwab and Neebe on June 26,
1893.
In 1889, the founding congress of the Second
(Socialist) International met in Paris, France, on the
one-hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution, and called
for a worldwide demonstration for the eight-hour
day.
May 1, 1890, saw mass demonstrations
throughout Europe and the Americas. Frederick Engels, who
attended the first May Day demonstration in London on May 3,
wrote: "As I write these lines, the proletariat of Europe and
America is holding a review of its forces; it is mobilized for
the first time as one army, under one flag, and
fighting for one immediate aim: an eight-hour working
day."
In 1904, the Second (Socialist) International
declared May 1 an annual day of demonstration "for the legal
establishment of the eight-hour day, for the class demands of
the proletariat and for universal peace."
Unfortunately, May Day began to lose
importance in the United States, its place of
origin.
In 1894, the U.S. government declared the
first Monday in September as Labor Day, with the aim of
pulling the young American labor movement away from the
radical nature of May Day.
The American Federation of Labor (successor to
the FOTLU) was becoming one of the largest unions in America
and, by 1905, had gone with the government in supporting Labor
Day and disavowing May Day altogether.
To add insult to injury, the American Bar
Association declared May 1 a celebration of the principles and
practices of capitalist "law and order" -- Law Day.
Then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower established Law Day by
proclamation in 1958.
That such a day of international workers'
solidarity can be turned into a celebration of capitalist
"justice" is a disgrace to the women, men and children who
struggle under exploitive conditions, and the Haymarket
martyrs who lost their lives in the pursuit of justice
in America.
Today, International Workers' Day is
celebrated throughout the world and is recognized as the
official workers' holiday in almost very country, except the
United States.
Each year, millions of workers demonstrate,
wave flags and carry banners, sing and dance, educate,
organize and agitate for a better, peaceful
tomorrow.
As workers of the world, it is our duty to
remember our past and to use that strength to carry our class
into the future.
As the great socialist and unionist, Eugene V.
Debs, said in 1907, "This is the first and only International
Labor Day. It belongs to the working class and is dedicated to
the revolution."
Workers of the world,
unite! | 
